<\/div>\n
Sign me up as Orthodox. Not the Eastern variety, just one who tries to be faithful to the teachings of Holy Church in their fullness. This provides the bedrock for the life of faith. It provides a certain certainty.<\/p>\n
However, the walk of faith is full of uncertainty. We walk by faith, not by sight. The biggest contrast in the Church itself are those who say they are people of faith, but do not live by faith. Instead they get it all organized. They lay out their life. They have everything planned. They have their insurance policies in place. They have their retirement plan all organized. They have their career structured and their family all together and everything is just as they want it. Not only is this terrifcally boring, but it is boringly terrifying. It\u2019s dead. It\u2019s the life of the flesh, not the life of the Spirit.<\/p>\n
What troubles me therefore about some of my equally Orthodox brethren is that they seem to bring the same approach to their religion as well. So much time is spent defining and defending the doctrines and dogmas. So much time is spent dotting the \u2018i\u2019s\u2019 and crossing the \u2018t\u2019s\u2019 liturgically. So much effort is spent studying and applying canon law or liturgical rubrics or diocesan guidelines\u00a0or parish policies.
\nThis is one of the constant problems with religious people. We want certainty. We sincerely want to get it right. We want it all nailed down. We want it neat and tidy and all together. But it sometimes feels a bit, errm, obsessive compulsive doesn\u2019t it? What spooks me is that the more extreme of these folks never seem to have things just as they want. They\u2019re forever making new rules, new policies and coming up with new liturgical fine points. Furthermore, they don\u2019t seem like they\u2019re happy in Jesus. Where\u2019s the joy? Where\u2019s the sense of humor?<\/p>\n
We want it all organized and together, but life isn\u2019t like that. Life is messy. Love is messy. If we\u2019re going to walk by faith, not by sight, then we\u2019re going to have times when we\u2019re confused. We\u2019re going to mess up. We\u2019re going to stumble and fall. We\u2019re going to take wrong turnings and get lost in the woods. But this is the great adventure. This is the beautiful struggle.<\/p>\n
I remember when I went to England as a penniless student. I didn\u2019t know anyone in the whole country and I was following a dream of becoming an Anglican country parson. I was so poor I would buy one candy bar and cut it in three pieces and make it last all week. I worried about money. I didn\u2019t know if I would ever be ordained. I was leaving the secure faith world of fundamentalism and setting off into the unknown of Anglicanism (and ultimately) Catholicism. I was\u00a0confused. I made mistakes. I was afraid.\u00a0I fell into sin. I messed up big time. But I knew I was walking by faith. I was doing the big adventure, and looking back I can see it was all part of the plan.<\/p>\n
The beautiful thing about the Catholic faith is that we do have certain certainties, but we must always avoid the temptation to make the Catholic faith into some sort of legalistic, liturgical straightjacket. There\u2019s got to be room to mess up. There\u2019s got to be room to be different. There\u2019s got to be room to grow, there has to be room to engage our wills and take some risks.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not too hard to understand. The dogmas and disciplines, the doctrines and rubrics and rules are not an end in themselves. They\u2019re a means to an end. They\u2019re not the journey, they\u2019re the map. Of course going on\u00a0a journey without a map is the same thing as being lost. The map needs to be the best and most detailed map possible, but its still only a map.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the journey that matters, and think about the relationship of the journey to the map. The map is two dimensional, flat and printed on paper. The journey is life itself\u2013alive, colorful, dangerous, beautiful, risky and free.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sign me up as Orthodox. Not the Eastern variety, just one who tries to be faithful to the teachings of Holy Church in their fullness. This provides the bedrock for the life of faith. It provides a certain certainty. However, the walk of faith is full of uncertainty. We walk by faith, not by sight. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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