{"id":3171,"date":"2016-12-19T19:34:27","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T00:34:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/?p=3171"},"modified":"2016-12-19T20:49:13","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T01:49:13","slug":"advent-catholic-church-rebellion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/12\/advent-catholic-church-rebellion\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent: The Catholic Church IS the Rebellion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Come,<\/a>
Come, join my revolution.
Photo by: Jonathan Ryan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A few days ago, I was talking about the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One (which I loved) when someone asked, rather sarcastically, if Jess and I see Sick Pilgrim as our own \u201clittle rebellion\u201d against the Catholic Church. I responded, without thinking too deeply about my answer, \u201cWhy would I want to rebel against the very thing I gave up everything, and I mean everything, to join three years ago? That would be insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, I thought about her question and I understood it a little better. She\u2019s a very respectable Catholic, married, two beautiful kids and active in her parish. This family would make the hall of fame for seemingly perfect Catholic families.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure they would never present themselves that way, but I couldn\u2019t help but feel the pointed sarcasm in her question. I guess she sees Sick Pilgrim as some kind of\u00a0gallery of disreputable malcontents\u2013the misfits, the angry, the agitators, the dissenters. Take me for example: I\u2019m divorced, and I talk openly about my struggles with my faith, and I wear my lumberjack flannel shirts and bushy goatee to Mass. Jess jokes that she\u2019s a \u2018Catholic witch\u201d and she writes openly about her struggle with depression, occult attractions, and the brokenness of her life.<\/p>\n

But the truth is,\u00a0we don\u2019t consider ourselves rebels. At least, we\u2019re not rebels against the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church is our only home, our true family. It\u2019s where we\u2019ve found our place. Indeed, our growing Sick Pilgrim community includes priests, nuns, artists, writers, professors, theologians, the happily married, the divorced and widowed, single moms, single dads, the grief-stricken, teenagers, farmers, farmers\u2019 mums, and everyone in between. There\u2019s no real template for what a Sick Pilgrim looks like\u2013other than one of the heart. True, it\u2019s usually a heart with a lot of open wounds or scar tissue. But none of us wants to remain in that wounded state. We are bound together on this journey by a deep, desperate desire to be healed, and the conviction (or suspicion) that this healing will come only through Jesus, present in the\u00a0Eucharist\u2013and in each other. So we lock arms and\u00a0seek him together, throughout the strange landscapes of our strange lives.<\/p>\n

If Sick Pilgrim wants to be anything at all, it\u2019s not a rebellion but a renewal, and we do pray, daily, that God will use us within the Church. He\u2019s done this before\u2013raised up ragtag groups of people and movements to remind His church of what He considers important. The Apostles are the most obvious example. Other movements transformed the church for centuries, like the monastic movement that rebelled against an empire, or like St. Francis calling the medieval church back to its better\u00a0self.\u00a0But there are others, lesser known but also deeply influential\u2013like our patron \u201csaints,\u201d Sheed and Ward and their publishing house and their writer, Houselander, and her own secret group \u201cThe Loaves and the Fishes.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Do we think Sick Pilgrim is any of the above? Frankly, probably not. Our self regard is not quite that high. But we do hope something good is coming out of what we do. And, that good, we hope, is that the misfits and outcasts and the people on the margins will begin to feel more at home in the Catholic Church that\u00a0truly is their home. Like we are fond of saying, it\u2019s \u201cOUR church too.\u201d \u00a0We don\u2019t want our own church. We don\u2019t just want a cool gang to hang with\u2013though our community is a lot of\u00a0fun. We don\u2019t even want our own apostolate. We want to be able practice our own distinct vocations, and encourage others to do so, whatever they may be, in the context of this 2000 year old church. To realize Catholics have always been straight up freaks\u2013and that the ones who look \u201cnormal\u201d and \u201cperfect\u201d are the outliers. Not us.<\/p>\n

Of course there are plenty of self-styled Catholic rebels\u00a0who\u00a0buck the Church at every turn. The take pride in their outsider status and want to remain there. Many\u00a0have legitimate wounds and problems with the church, but they end up shaking their own pharisaical fingers at those they dislike. Or they\u00a0are converts, still wrestling with the\u00a0deep wounds of conversion. Not to mention the sort of convert who is still so powered by the jet fuel of first love\u2013so in love with the Church they remain, for a while, as blind to its flaws\u00a0as they would be to any new lover\u2019s. What we want to say to all these folks is that the Catholic Church IS the rebellion. It\u2019s the revolution that was meant to change the world. Our Lord says this to St. Peter very plainly when he gives him his commission to lead his Church\u2013the gates of Hell will never overcome it. It will be the victor,\u00a0whatever Spirit of the Age happens to reign.<\/p>\n

And like all revolutions, it\u2019s a strange one\u2013full of strange people and strange practices. Rogue One\u00a0<\/em>might be a metaphor applicable to the whole church\u2013if not to little ol\u2019 Sick Pilgrim.\u00a0Take Advent, for example. It\u2019s not just\u00a0about remembering the First Coming of Jesus. It\u2019s\u00a0way more than that. It\u2019s also about the Second Coming, when evil is at last overcome by the true King. In the meantime, He has only this ragtag band of servants to be his hands and feet and to pour out his love on the others. That\u2019s the Catholic Church. And we ain\u2019t always pretty. We get it wrong. A lot. But we must continue to fight the good fight.<\/p>\n

Back in college, I discovered a band called The Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus. <\/a>They\u2019re enigmatic; no one really knows exactly who is in the band. For a long time, they stopped making music and then suddenly, two years ago, they released an album called \u201cBeauty Will Save the World.\u201d It\u2019s full of quiet, lush, striking, and often terrifying music. It\u2019s music for the revolution, indeed.<\/p>\n

And really, that\u2019s what we are here at Sick Pilgrim, quiet revolutionaries, not against the church, but against the Spirits of the Age, wherever they are found, especially when they seem to infiltrate God\u2019s church. These spirits and wolves can be tricky things, as they can hide as the most \u201corthodox,\u201d the most \u201ccorrect,\u201d the most \u201cCatholic.\u201d But if they lack the mercy and love of Christ, then their theology is wrong, and we have every right to\u00a0rebel against it.<\/p>\n

We oppose\u00a0it not by harsh words, engaging in internet debates, or with \u201cshocking\u201d memes. Rather, we oppose it by being agents of mercy, as Christ calls us to do. We oppose it by living out our personal vocations\u2013whether they be priestly, or artistically, or domestically\u2013in faith and in loving community.<\/p>\n

As one of our patron \u201csaints\u201d, Caryll Houselander once wrote, \u201cThe present agony of the world is ours; if we are Christians, we are bound to enter into it, to accept responsibility for it, to share to the full the work of defending, healing, saving, through hard work, through true contrition, through deep humility, through service.\u201d<\/p>\n

This, we think, is the work Christ has given to all of us. So, if we are rebels or revolutionaries, it\u2019s because we believe the heart of God is mercy and love, and that we\u2019re not required to get everything right in our doctrine or in our lives. That\u2019s what becoming saints is all about it. It\u2019s a process, a path, a walk\u2013a pilgrimage\u2013 and it will not end until our deaths. May they be good deaths, we pray, our houses in order at last.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what the Church is, in simplest terms, a\u00a0pilgrimage. And it is for the sick.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, I was talking about the new Star Wars movie, Rogue One (which I loved) when someone asked, rather sarcastically, if Jess and I see Sick Pilgrim as our own \u201clittle rebellion\u201d against the Catholic Church. 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