Reduce to Grow ... About life and Catholic schools
In the recent referendum, I voted to keep the 8th Amendment, which protected the lives of both mother and unborn child in pregnancy. (See my blog post before the vote here and after the vote here.)
Speaking as a Catholic, I noted that many who profess to be Catholic seemed to have voted ‘Yes’ to repeal the 8th and allow for legislation to come in for abortion. Such a decision is incompatible with Catholic faith and I feel many who profess to be Catholic don’t really understand what it really means.
I now feel there is a strengthening of the core of believers underway; even if such a strengthening means an actual reduction in size. I work in a kitchen. The image I got was of a sauce being reduced. As the fire burned under the pan, all the dilution was being evaporated away as the sauce itself became smaller in size, but also stronger and more potent, able to really be what it was supposed to be. Such a flavoursome ‘sauce’ may then attract and draw others with its authenticity, growing in size while retaining its potency and strength. I feel people are being invited and called to come closer to their faith and embrace its fullness, that there is no fence to sit on. It’s all or nothing.
Some who would consider themselves pro-life may have voted ‘Yes’ on the hard cases; some pro-life activists seemed to support exceptions too. Maybe the pro-life movement needs to also consolidate and really fight for all human life. The child conceived in rape is still a child with his or her own life; the child whose life may not be long still has a right to that life, to maybe receive a cuddle from their parents, a name and a decent burial. Doctors even get diagnoses wrong, and many who were expected to die early went on to live much longer! Fight the scientific use of human embryos and aborted foetal body parts. These are people whose lives were taken! Fight to protect the elderly and infirm who may, the way things are going, soon feel pressure, internally or externally, or in the name of 'care', 'compassion' and 'choice', (to use the buzzwords of the recent Yes campaign) to have their own lives prematurely taken. Protect life to its last breath, in all its suffering and in all its glory. Let the fire inside you burn, taking all the 'excess water' of compromise away with it.
This may also soon be the case with schools. I believe that a smaller amount of Catholic schools, left with the freedom to be authentically Catholic, can help Catholic parents in the promise they made at their marriage ceremony, to bring up their children according to the law of Christ and his Church. 'Watery' teaching needs to be evaporated away with the blazing fire of faith under it. Religious freedom is more than just freedom to go to Mass or prepare for the Sacraments. It is freedom to do the right thing, to practise both the faith and moral life. In Catholic life, faith and morals are two sides of a single coin. To reject Catholic moral teaching, for example, is not to be authentically Catholic. For a Catholic school to go against any Catholic teaching is to fail to help parents; it is actually to oppose them in their duty to raise their children as Catholic.
I began with abortion, and I seemed to ramble into schooling. Why? Well, for one thing, it has been in the news. Removal of religious influence from schools seems also to be a part of the liberal agenda. Maybe they don’t realise that what they seek to replace it with is also a set of beliefs and teachings about life. It is a worldview with its own ideas of right and wrong. If people want to remove schools from Catholic control, then leave enough schools for Catholic parents who want help to raise Catholic children with Catholic beliefs and teachings. If we remove Catholic teaching from schools in favour of liberal ideologies or moral relativism, we are responsible for such formation of the generations we bring forth. Let Catholic schools be free to be Catholic, even if smaller in number.
May we who are Catholic continue to fight for a system that at the very least does not oppose us in our duty to raise our children as Catholics. Have faith, have hope. Have life! Let the fire St. Patrick once symbolically lit burn brighter than ever, to reduce the ‘sauce’ of our lives and be full of flavour for the world. Life is beautiful! Catholic life is beautiful too. Embrace it as the Lord embraced the Cross out of love for us.
Speaking as a Catholic, I noted that many who profess to be Catholic seemed to have voted ‘Yes’ to repeal the 8th and allow for legislation to come in for abortion. Such a decision is incompatible with Catholic faith and I feel many who profess to be Catholic don’t really understand what it really means.
I now feel there is a strengthening of the core of believers underway; even if such a strengthening means an actual reduction in size. I work in a kitchen. The image I got was of a sauce being reduced. As the fire burned under the pan, all the dilution was being evaporated away as the sauce itself became smaller in size, but also stronger and more potent, able to really be what it was supposed to be. Such a flavoursome ‘sauce’ may then attract and draw others with its authenticity, growing in size while retaining its potency and strength. I feel people are being invited and called to come closer to their faith and embrace its fullness, that there is no fence to sit on. It’s all or nothing.
Some who would consider themselves pro-life may have voted ‘Yes’ on the hard cases; some pro-life activists seemed to support exceptions too. Maybe the pro-life movement needs to also consolidate and really fight for all human life. The child conceived in rape is still a child with his or her own life; the child whose life may not be long still has a right to that life, to maybe receive a cuddle from their parents, a name and a decent burial. Doctors even get diagnoses wrong, and many who were expected to die early went on to live much longer! Fight the scientific use of human embryos and aborted foetal body parts. These are people whose lives were taken! Fight to protect the elderly and infirm who may, the way things are going, soon feel pressure, internally or externally, or in the name of 'care', 'compassion' and 'choice', (to use the buzzwords of the recent Yes campaign) to have their own lives prematurely taken. Protect life to its last breath, in all its suffering and in all its glory. Let the fire inside you burn, taking all the 'excess water' of compromise away with it.
This may also soon be the case with schools. I believe that a smaller amount of Catholic schools, left with the freedom to be authentically Catholic, can help Catholic parents in the promise they made at their marriage ceremony, to bring up their children according to the law of Christ and his Church. 'Watery' teaching needs to be evaporated away with the blazing fire of faith under it. Religious freedom is more than just freedom to go to Mass or prepare for the Sacraments. It is freedom to do the right thing, to practise both the faith and moral life. In Catholic life, faith and morals are two sides of a single coin. To reject Catholic moral teaching, for example, is not to be authentically Catholic. For a Catholic school to go against any Catholic teaching is to fail to help parents; it is actually to oppose them in their duty to raise their children as Catholic.
I began with abortion, and I seemed to ramble into schooling. Why? Well, for one thing, it has been in the news. Removal of religious influence from schools seems also to be a part of the liberal agenda. Maybe they don’t realise that what they seek to replace it with is also a set of beliefs and teachings about life. It is a worldview with its own ideas of right and wrong. If people want to remove schools from Catholic control, then leave enough schools for Catholic parents who want help to raise Catholic children with Catholic beliefs and teachings. If we remove Catholic teaching from schools in favour of liberal ideologies or moral relativism, we are responsible for such formation of the generations we bring forth. Let Catholic schools be free to be Catholic, even if smaller in number.
May we who are Catholic continue to fight for a system that at the very least does not oppose us in our duty to raise our children as Catholics. Have faith, have hope. Have life! Let the fire St. Patrick once symbolically lit burn brighter than ever, to reduce the ‘sauce’ of our lives and be full of flavour for the world. Life is beautiful! Catholic life is beautiful too. Embrace it as the Lord embraced the Cross out of love for us.
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