Thursday, May 17, 2012

The Big Tent


Do you believe it?  I hardly believe it!  Bishops run amok...  The meddling in politics.  The meddling in service organizations.  The meddling in speakers or thinkers at any RCC college or sisterhood or... The meddling in bedrooms.  The meddling.... 

Today's Vatican hierarchy looks like:  A bunch of busy-bodies!

The need for turning over of tables in the Temple has never been greater!  Due to RCC bishops' need to look under every table.  And inside Mother Church's every skirt!  Dictating.  Dictating.  
Dick - Tating!    (Yes... you read that right.)

Whatever happened to the Big Tent?  Christianity as whole.  The Big Tent.  With a simple rule of faith, its tenets functioning like tent posts.  Its boundary lines,  The creed

So I picture this Big Tent.  All of the baptized.  With the creed as our basic commonality for gathering under the Tent.  The Gospel as our guide.  And beyond that... REALLY, we should allow a flourishing!

And the tent is pitched in this wonderful pasture...  Why try and control the pasture???  Let the sheep graze!  Where they willCouple up with whom they will.  Live as they will.  Let them listen to the speakers they will.  Read/write as they will.  Think as they will!   
Follow the Gospel.  Without hindrance!   

I am so, so tired of busybodies...  men dressed in absurd feminine clothing - hectoring like so many schoolmarms run-amok!  It's getting old.  It's getting tiring.  And it looks not only silly - but ridiculous.  Bordering on insane!

Can we have some sanity now, please?

4 comments:

Grumbler said...

I don't think we can have sanity because Holy Mother the Church has stopped taking her meds and somehow the inmates have taken over running things. Your remember her meds, don't you. One was, "Happy are the poor." Well the inmates won't even talk about those happy ones until after the elections. And what was that Jesus had to say about what happens to adults who harm little children? No, they sashay around in their watered silk and lace and have prissing contests while Rome burns. "My train is full chapel length." Well my train is cathedral length and it's a brighter scarlet than yours." "Well my train was hand-made by cloistered nuns who eat only bread and water and it's basilica length."
I'm sorry. Whatever the RCC was, it no longer speaks Jesus to me. I'm afraid I've joined that Second-Largest Congregation we keep hearing about. At times I miss what I thought Holy Mother was. She's still interesting in a sick sort of way; but I can't live in the claustrophobic confines of her ever-narrowing walls and collapsing roof. And I don't care what the pope says, I'm voting Democratic.

TheraP said...

Brilliant, Grumbler! I love your definition of the Beatitudes - the equivalent of medicine for our Fullness of Life in Christ.

Blessings upon you for following your conscience!

Robert said...

I find this encouraging, even acfter the election. It is good to know there are people out there who have intellectual and spiritual sensibilities. It offsets a creeping sense of alienation.
I still love the songs used for guitar masses by the St. Louis Jesuits, using Scripture as the text. The enlightened figures of history-Julian of Norwich, Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Merton, et. al.
WE ARE MANY PARTS. COME TO THE WATER. IN EARTHEN VESSELS. Etc. and inter alia. Ibid. Ad Infinitum. What treasures the church had and still has, now seemingly locked in the basement of time, for the nonce.
What will save the church is (many things) humor, thinking Catholics unafraid to be real people, hope faith and love. The greatest of these is love.
I think the most important thing I learned in the church, believe it or not, (must be by the work of the Spirit) is that love is the most important thing in life, the love of God and the love of others for Christ's sake.
Love is the measure of salvation and the hope of glory. Love alone will be our judge on Judgement Day.
And perfect love casts out fear.
This is how I understand the present, the future, our past and the meaning of it all. If love be all, then all things are possible and the seemingly incomprehensible contradictions present in today's church may be seen in perspective.
One may see the parable of the wise and foolish virgins as a comedy, were it not for the fact that those poor souls shut out of the wedding feast may not be allowed in again, after all.
The true church is invisible, the visible but a shadow of things to come. It is good to be reminded of the possibility of humor as a saving grace, when the trap of excessive religiosity threatens to impose itself and turn one into a false self, an ureal phantom image of the real.
Oil for your lamp. Wisdom says the Kingdom is within, and so is the spply of oil for the journey. It will never fail to provide fuel for a light shining in the darkness providing it is lit with the divine spark of eternal hope, residing in the pure of heart.
A spontaneous reflection composed in a safe place where truth may find a refuge from the storms of life. Sela.

TheraP said...

Thank you for your lovely musings, Robert.

"The true church is invisible"... Yes, I so agree!

I shall ponder your words. With gratitude!