tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883829097236138163.post4017070266506999771..comments2023-10-21T06:29:15.456-04:00Comments on I think, therefore I blog.: Calvin on the PapacyJameson Graberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01295353443322403779noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883829097236138163.post-52937343597169955452010-09-20T08:55:20.805-04:002010-09-20T08:55:20.805-04:00Thanks for your thoughts, Art. I sympathize with y...Thanks for your thoughts, Art. I sympathize with your words:<br /><br />"One can imagine, perhaps, with great sadness the bridegroom saying, "I pleaded with her, but she turned away, I pursued her but she rebuffed me, and I love her too much to force myself upon her. I must let her go." One cannot imagine any caring husband-to-be speaking no word at all, as his affianced departed him."<br /><br />Keep in mind, however, that Calvin would have seen himself in a line of people who were precisely that voice you would hope from Christ. For him, those who faithfully expounded the Scriptures were instruments of God--essentially carrying out a prophetic task. Calvin probably would not have hesitated to say that Christ's words to the Catholic Church would be just these: "I pleaded with her, but she turned away, I pursued her but she rebuffed me."<br /><br />The Reformation is a fascinating part of history; it is still the defining moment for most of what we experience as Christians today (at least in the West).Jameson Graberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01295353443322403779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-883829097236138163.post-35472800457278614502010-09-19T23:44:03.321-04:002010-09-19T23:44:03.321-04:00I look forward to reading Part II on this subject:...I look forward to reading Part II on this subject: I'm certainly one of the alluded-to modern day Catholics who condemns in the strongest possible terms any corruption in the Church, most especially the disastrous laxity of the Renaissance which led in so many ways to the divisions within the Body of Christ. Yet the Church remains precisely that to me: the Body of Christ. His Bride for whose sake He laid down His life. Looking at the Church from that perspective gives me pause: what bridegroom, even amongst fallen human beings, would stand by and watch his beloved wander away from him? One can imagine, perhaps, with great sadness the bridegroom saying, "I pleaded with her, but she turned away, I pursued her but she rebuffed me, and I love her too much to force myself upon her. I must let her go." One cannot imagine any caring husband-to-be speaking no word at all, as his affianced departed him.<br /><br />How much less so, then, could the eternal and perfect Bridegroom suffer His Bride, purchased with His own life, to depart in such a fashion? Without word or look or sigh to remind her Who He truly Is, Who she turned away from? No: it seems to me that just as no one can stand before the Word made flesh and say "You abide in purity of light and spirit while I toiled in the mud of time. You never bore what I bore, you never lived as I had to", just as any who would thus cry falls silent before the Crucified, so too none of us can cry "Your Church abandoned us, no truth remained in her. Why did You not remain with us as you promised?" We cannot speak thus: men err, men fall away but God honors His promises. <br /><br />....I have no idea how I just came to write the way I just did. ADHD is a mad, mad condition. But I do believe that the message of the Gospels, the Good News of Christ cannot be made contingent on our human failings: can we presume that our sin, our corruption however great will prevent Him from being heard? And it seems to me that to center Truth on the line of tradition, the enduring faith and love of God reaching through time back to the days when a carpenter of Nazareth proclaimed the Kingdom is perhaps the only way to know, in each new-doubting generation, that this is what He taught.<br /><br />Then again, I'm Catholic and therefore conditioned to see that way. Also I should just blog about this myself (and read some of Calvin's work so I have some idea what I'm talking about).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com