The carnival is over

The carnival is over. I do hope cynicism wasn’t the dominant note struck by my blogs during World Youth Day week.

The so called “ecclesial movements” like the Neo Catechumenal Way, soon to be performing at a western or northern suburb near you, did an efficient job of cheerleading.

How many members of these cashed-up, highly trained motivated and deployed troops infiltrated WYD? There must have been thousands.

Good on them for managing to get the next WYD booked for Madrid, Spain. That’s the place where both they and Opus Dei were founded. So it’s off home to the land of extremes to confront the secular humanist state on its own inherited blood stained patch. Bone up on the history of the Iberian Peninsula and see what I mean.

As the WYD final weekend of finery unfolded, finishing with the latest Australian envoy to the Vatican, Tim Fisher, kissing the Pope’s hand, little catholic churches all around the world read the gospel of the “weeds and wheat”.

“Let both grow together”, said Jesus. “None of your business to become weed terminators.” Weeds and wheat share the same natural environment. The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. Catholics must become flesh and dwell amongst the general population. Jesus is really and truly present in the bread of the Sacrament. But He is also really and truly present in the minds and hearts of individual humans and collective humanity.

The commissioned pilgrims, hopefully, found what they came to find, the sacred in the secular. Now let them spend what’s left of their youth finding the sacred in their secular homelands, most of which are as blood stained as Spain, lest we forget.

I pray that each and every pilgrim will have stashed in his/her boogie board, the Aussie vaccine to the global virus of contaminated religion of whatever brand.

R.J.M.

Comments

[~]

I was told the vaccine was only available in China.
The Neo-Kat's para-military wing planned, to smuggle it out during the olympics.

Apparently this is part of the formula;

"Simplicity in conduct, in beliefs, and in environment brings an individual very close to the truth of reality. Individuals who practice simplicity cannot be used because they already have everything they need; they cannot be lied to because a lie merely reveals to them another aspect of reality. An attraction to simplicity is essentially an attraction to freedom - the highest expression of personal power. We are taught to think of freedom as something one has, but it is really the absence of things that brings freedom to the individual and meaning into life. To let go of things - unnecessary desires, superfluous possessions - is to have them. Lao Tzu believed that an individual life contains the whole universe, but when individuals develop fixations about certain parts of life they become narrow and shallow and uncentered. Fixations and desires create a crisis within the mind. As individuals let go of desires, feelings of freedom, security, independence, and power increase accordingly."
- R.L. Wing
The Tao of Power

[Br. Andrew]

I enjoyed visiting Australia during WYD. I would have loved to have met you during my visit. We Capuchins managed to get in the press while staying in Plumpton.... it was "an all time low".

[Catherine C]

Father Bob,

Sometimes I really admire you, and sometimes I really think your head is stuffed full of scrambled eggs. I was a Neo-Cat WYD pilgrim, and what we did was NO performance. We announced the love of Christ to people on the street, many of them homeless, drunk people, people who seemed like they were about to go throw themselves off a bridge.

And I have never seen such a joy in peoples' eyes. I have never seen a person's face light up as much as I saw that happen as we danced and praised God before, during and after WYD.

People who had no idea what on earth the Neo-Way was, from all other dioceses and countries, gladly joined in with us wherever we went. They thought what we were doing was fantastic. And in that, our dancing, whether you think of it as a performance or not, communion was created.

We do not aim to create the whole picture. We never did. But many people have been called back to God through the Neo-Way, their lives have been changed, and they are always free to leave afterwards, if they so wish.

But I do not think you have the right to tell people that such a thing is a mere performance, when, for example, two successive Popes have approved of this movement and agreed about the fantastic changes it can help bring about... and more.

Please note that I speak for myself here, but I do believe that many other people, whether Neocats or non, would agree with me.

Yours sincerely,

Catherine C.