A long-running battle between the so-called Catholic left and the so-called Catholic right concerns which political issues the Church should speak about and which ones she shouldn’t. One crucial distinction is that teaching the basic principles of Catholic social doctrine go to the heart of her charism, but she has no special expertise in prudential judgments about how to apply them.
Query:
Query:
Query
After reading the Bible, it seems that God has “receded” from us -- Martin Buber’s term -- relative to his level of interaction with people in the Old Testament. There must be a reason why He doesn’t just “come out of the closet,” appear to us in a cloud of light, speak to us, etc. But why?
Reply:
First Things 246 (2014)
“There is no humility in refraining from asking the questions; the humility consists in believing that there may be an answer.” -- Charles Williams, "John Milton"
On Monday we considered the strange fact that the people in the pews need to be evangelized even before other people do. On Tuesday and Wednesday we considered two kinds of obstacle: Those which lie in the listeners, and those which lie in the proclaimers.
But the final obstacle to evangelizing Christians lies in the condition of Christendom itself. We are divided. Christ’s Body is torn.
Yesterday we considered the obstacles to the evangelization of Christians which lie in the listeners. The next variety of obstacle lies in the proclaimers.
To pick up where we left off yesterday: Why is it so difficult to get Christians who have “heard” the Gospel in the mechanical sense to “hear” it in the spiritual sense? The first variety of obstacle to the evangelization of Christians lies in the listeners.
First Things (7 October 2014)