A few days ago, I complained about the tendency of Catholics to see the rules as the religion. An epigram in front of one chapter in “Miracles” by CS Lewis (which I don’t have at hand) says something like “Those who make religion their god, won’t have God in their religion.” It is frustrating, not because the rules are in themselves bad, or even wrong, but because their value is actually very limited, and merely following them in a rote manner has very little to do with attaining Salvation.
Simply put, you must arrive at the point where you pay no attention to the rules. This will sound shocking (though not to those who know me; I often disregard rules, though rarely for the right reason), but only until you understand what it means.
Quick: recite the Our Father!
That’s the sort of thing I mean. If you did what I said, you did it without thinking about the words. There was no method actor moment: “Our Father, who art in…LINE!” You uttered the words without regarding them. This is both good and bad. Good, because it shows you that you have so absorbed the Lord’s prayer that you need not dwell on it to say it, but bad, because the Lord’s prayer is a source of endless comfort and wisdom, and in 60-odd words conveys more wisdom than one lifetime can digest.
So it is with the rules. To “pay no attention” to them, in the sense I meant it above, is to have transcended them, literally. To become at one with them (that is, to atone) so completely that you are no longer worried about breaking this one or that one, or even particularly know the individual rules at all. I find it hardest to recite the Our Father when I am trying to teach it to my son, when the words are the focus, rather than the prayer.
I freely admit that this is no easy thing, and that few people in their lifetimes ever submit themselves so fully to the Divine Will that they achieve this. Heaven knows I am very, very far from achieving it myself. But as with all things in Christianity, failure to accede to the truth does not obviate it. (Once in a while, I overwrite in the style of the rules just because I am a difficult person.) Or, more intelligently put, we are all sinners, but the Law is still the Law.
The error of mistaking the rules for the Law, or for God, is significant. It is not enough to say “but following the rules is the best we can do.” Because the error lies in a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of religion and the nature of God, and opens the door to all sorts of errors, heresy, and apostasy. It must be quashed.
God is not a traffic cop, and the rules are not arbitrary constraints laid down by Him to trip people up. But that is precisely the only image allowed by a legalistic, Lidless Eye interpretation. I say again, that is the only possible understanding of God allowed by religious legalism.
For instance, I do not have to repent before God will forgive me, because God likes to see the two-legged creatures squirm. I have sinned because I have abused my free will. And to repent of that abuse of free will is not comfortable, anymore than quitting substance abuse is comfortable. In fact, the analogy is almost precise, almost ceases to be analogy at all. God has not said “This is My requirement for you,” and ordered the rule writers to make it so. Instead, he has said, “To undo what you have done will hurt, and it would be best if the rules acknowledged the truth of it, and led you to understand that getting clean involves painful scrubbing, where the stain is deepest.”
We are addicted to our sinful nature. The rules of the Church are mere descriptions of what it will take to overcome our addiction. It’s no good watching an alcoholic enter AA, and looking for him to trip up. Of course he will fail. He will, if statistics are to be believed, fail numerous times before achieving “clean and sober.” And even then, his chances of relapsing are high. The Lidless Eye types focus on the 12 steps: have you made enough amends? To the right people? Attended enough meetings? Not, Are you in danger of a relapse? Can I help prevent it?
But the purpose of the steps is not the steps themselves, anymore than the purpose of the ten commandments is the governance of a good society. What kind of a man watches an alcoholic solely for the purpose of seeing him relapse? What kind of a god would do so?
Simply put, you must arrive at the point where you pay no attention to the rules. This will sound shocking (though not to those who know me; I often disregard rules, though rarely for the right reason), but only until you understand what it means.
Quick: recite the Our Father!
That’s the sort of thing I mean. If you did what I said, you did it without thinking about the words. There was no method actor moment: “Our Father, who art in…LINE!” You uttered the words without regarding them. This is both good and bad. Good, because it shows you that you have so absorbed the Lord’s prayer that you need not dwell on it to say it, but bad, because the Lord’s prayer is a source of endless comfort and wisdom, and in 60-odd words conveys more wisdom than one lifetime can digest.
So it is with the rules. To “pay no attention” to them, in the sense I meant it above, is to have transcended them, literally. To become at one with them (that is, to atone) so completely that you are no longer worried about breaking this one or that one, or even particularly know the individual rules at all. I find it hardest to recite the Our Father when I am trying to teach it to my son, when the words are the focus, rather than the prayer.
I freely admit that this is no easy thing, and that few people in their lifetimes ever submit themselves so fully to the Divine Will that they achieve this. Heaven knows I am very, very far from achieving it myself. But as with all things in Christianity, failure to accede to the truth does not obviate it. (Once in a while, I overwrite in the style of the rules just because I am a difficult person.) Or, more intelligently put, we are all sinners, but the Law is still the Law.
The error of mistaking the rules for the Law, or for God, is significant. It is not enough to say “but following the rules is the best we can do.” Because the error lies in a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of religion and the nature of God, and opens the door to all sorts of errors, heresy, and apostasy. It must be quashed.
God is not a traffic cop, and the rules are not arbitrary constraints laid down by Him to trip people up. But that is precisely the only image allowed by a legalistic, Lidless Eye interpretation. I say again, that is the only possible understanding of God allowed by religious legalism.
For instance, I do not have to repent before God will forgive me, because God likes to see the two-legged creatures squirm. I have sinned because I have abused my free will. And to repent of that abuse of free will is not comfortable, anymore than quitting substance abuse is comfortable. In fact, the analogy is almost precise, almost ceases to be analogy at all. God has not said “This is My requirement for you,” and ordered the rule writers to make it so. Instead, he has said, “To undo what you have done will hurt, and it would be best if the rules acknowledged the truth of it, and led you to understand that getting clean involves painful scrubbing, where the stain is deepest.”
We are addicted to our sinful nature. The rules of the Church are mere descriptions of what it will take to overcome our addiction. It’s no good watching an alcoholic enter AA, and looking for him to trip up. Of course he will fail. He will, if statistics are to be believed, fail numerous times before achieving “clean and sober.” And even then, his chances of relapsing are high. The Lidless Eye types focus on the 12 steps: have you made enough amends? To the right people? Attended enough meetings? Not, Are you in danger of a relapse? Can I help prevent it?
But the purpose of the steps is not the steps themselves, anymore than the purpose of the ten commandments is the governance of a good society. What kind of a man watches an alcoholic solely for the purpose of seeing him relapse? What kind of a god would do so?
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