By Dr. Marcellino
D'Ambrosio
The definitions of Liberal and conservative are seldom stated. Usually they are just presumed. Often
people call “conservative” those who like old-fashioned things and
“liberal” those who favor the latest ideas, trends, and values.
But for the Christian, the ultimate question is not
personal preferences of style, or whether something is old or
avant-garde. It is rather whether or not it fits into the Kingdom of God.
To discern what fits with the Kingdom, we need to
know what that Kingdom is all about. First of all, we know that God
is truth. So the Kingdom of God is where God’s truth reigns and His
commands are observed. As the Lord’s Prayer says, “Thy Kingdom come,
thy will be done.” To be a good “fit” with the Kingdom, things must
be in accord with God’s word expressed in Scripture and Tradition
and interpreted authoritatively by the Magisterium of the Catholic
Church.
We also know that God’s will is for our good. Jesus
said in the Gospel of John 10:10 “I came that they may have life,
and have it abundantly.” In John 15:12 Jesus says that He has come
“that your joy may be full.” The Kingdom of God then is where there
is intense life, freedom and joy because a loving Father is in
control.
In the early Church, there was a lot of debate about
whether Christians could eat certain things, particularly meat
sacrificed to pagan idols. Paul’s response was clear: “The kingdom
of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in
the
Holy Spirit
(Romans 14:17). If he were speaking today, he might instead say that
the Kingdom is not Latin or the vernacular, novenas or prayer
meetings, organ or guitar music.
The person who understands the Kingdom of God, says
the Lord Jesus, “is like the head of a household who can bring from
his store both the new and the old.” (Matthew 14:46).
Archbishop Fulton Sheen was a great example of this. He loved the
traditional faith and piety of the Church (old), but proclaimed it
by means of television (new). Another great example was
Pope John Paul II
who
was devoted to the rosary (old) but enriched it with the
luminous mysteries
(new). He defended the sexual morality of the Church (old) but
expressed that morality in a fresh and intriguing way through his “theology
of the body”
(new).
There are some old things that just can’t fit into
the Kngdom: polygamy, gladiators, emperor worship. There are also
some “new” things that can’t fit into the kingdom either: elective
abortion, human cloning, artificial contraception. The Kingdom is
the pearl of great price. If we recognize the value of it, it makes
sense to “sell” such things in order to purchase it.
But there are also many things both old and new that
are not incompatible with the Kingdom at all and actually can be
wonderful expressions of it in certain times and places: Gregorian
chant, the Papal tiara, the Tridentine liturgy on the old side,
exuberant Life Teen Masses and charismatic prayer meetings on the
new. If devotion to these expressions, based on personal preference,
causes strife and tension, there is something wrong. There is a
difference between the pearl of great price and its packaging. The
pearl always come in a wrapper. But if we love a particular wrapper
so much that in clutching it we let go of the pearl, it doesn’t
matter if we are liberal or conservative–we’re being just plain
foolish. Together with Solomon, let us pray for the wisdom needed in
every situation to correctly identify the Kingdom of God and hold
fast to it.
What we hold in our mind is a choice.
There are things and circumstances that
we can not change but we can change our attitude towards them.
|