Joshua 24:15
"If it is displeasing to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
How do you view the goldfish jumping out of the fishbowl? Is he leaving the multitude to strike out on his own because he sees something better for himself? Is the multitude left in the bowl followers of Jesus or are they the muck the fish is trying to escape? I don't believe there is an incorrect answer. It's up to each of us to determine. But it certainly can give us food for thought.
Unbridled. Free rein. Uncontrolled. Unchecked. Now, add the word 'affections' and many dangerous thoughts float around in my head. It reminds me of the times I was searching for happiness and peace, only to find that God, nothing on earth, could give me peace.
I had always strived for the big beautiful home, the luxury car, nice clothes and a huge savings account... thinking this would make me happy. Do you know people like that? I have a relative who is about as unhappy as she can be: a fantastic husband, 2 beautiful children and just moved into their dream house, which they built. Another relative, between he and his wife, makes a very nice salary, has the house, wife, children and things I once wanted. But, he's not happy. If you surmise they don't have God in their lives, you'd be correct. I should know, I raised them. (A third is as strong a Catholic as I can imagine. Her wisdom has taught me things.)
They are but a microcosm of today. The affections that people substitute for God is mind boggling. Some things haven't changed:
Wealth
House
Car
Clothes
Lust
But the new vices, good Lord:
Pornography
Sex change operations
Trans
Suicide/Assisted Euthanasia
Undermining the Deposit of Faith.
Like many today, they base their affections on earthly things. Earthly things have expiration dates. Earthly things can make one happy for moments but not forever.
Kempis:
He who is poor and humble of heart lives in a world of peace. An un-mortified man is quickly tempted and overcome in small, trifling evils; his spirit is weak, in a measure carnal and inclined to sensual things; he can hardly abstain from earthly desires. Hence it makes him sad to forego them; he is quick to anger if reproved. True peace of heart, then, is found in resisting passions, not in satisfying them. There is peace in the fervent and spiritual man. (my emphasis)
This was one of Kempis' shortest chapters, if not the shortest... but packs a punch. It is with sincerity that what he suggests is true. So what is true?
I know, when I write these posts, I'm "preaching to the choir." I believe anyone who, in some form or another, attaches themselves to CatholicismRocks already has a relationship with God. It can only get stronger. The TRUTH lies with God, and the Synod of SINodality is trying to change the Truth. I'm currently reading a book written by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre titled "Open Letter to Confused Catholics" he wrote, "Is this still true? Indeed it is! Truth cannot change—else it never was the truth." The synod is leading people to affections that are contrary to God's Word. But, it's been this way for a long time, slowly trying to destroy my Holy Mother Church, the Bride of Jesus Christ, from within.
I pick on the this year's synod, but this has been going on since Vatican II. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre made such claim, "Martin Luther understood very clearly that the Mass is the heart and soul of the Church. He (Luther) said: “Let us destroy the Mass and we shall destroy the Church.'"
I make the assertion that evil isn't spoken about and, in particular, the consequences. Another excerpt from Archbishop Lefebvre, "If we can no longer give an explanation of the problem of evil, there is no further point in preaching, saying Mass or hearing confessions. Who will listen to us?" Well, very few it seems. All one has to do is read or watch anything by the Jesuit priest Martin to know that, not only isn't evil spoken about, it's being promulgated as good.
Is the Catholic Church perfect? Yes and no! The Church Jesus Christ founded is perfect. The leadership... not so much. I cannot wrap my head around the fact that Mother Church leaders have developed these 'unbridled affections' of evil. Why? How did it happen? We know about the infiltration of the Freemasons, but that doesn't explain everything. (Did you know that in 1976 it was discovered that the man at the center of the liturgical reform (Vatican II), Msgr. Bugnini, was a Freemason?)
Recently Pope Francis chastised a young lady for trying to convert friends and family. That's certainly contradicts Holy Scripture considering our Lord said “Go, teach all nations and convert them.” He did not say “Hold dialogue with them but don’t try to convert them.”
In his book, Archbishop Lefebvre declares, "Christian common sense is offended in every way by this new religion. Catholics are exposed to desacralization on all sides; everything has been changed." Recall, he is referencing Vatican II, not this year's synod.
I can't imagine what words he might use to describe the atrocities of todays church. As I read the book, I'm not done yet, everything he writes seems as if he was writing about current events and the prevailing Pope. One last quote from him:
"The devil’s greatest victory is to have undertaken the destruction of the Church without making any martyrs."
Affections come in all sizes and colors, with bells and whistles attached. It is for each of us to know what is right in the eyes of God. In the long run, I know I don't need them. Continue to follow Jesus with humility and charity in our hearts. And pray the Rosary daily.
God Bless