Rousing Her Radiance: Day 26
Author: Andrew Comiskey
November 05, 2023
Unconverted
Lives
‘Is
the price we are paying today with the collapse of the organized churches
anything else but an inevitable consequence of grace acquired too cheaply? We
poured out rivers of grace without end, but the call to rigorously follow
Christ was seldom heard. What happened to the insights of the ancient church,
which in the baptismal teaching watched so carefully over the boundary between
the church and the world, over costly grace? What happened to Luther’s warnings
against a proclamation of the gospel which made people secure in their godless
lives? Cheap grace was very unmerciful to our Protestant church.’ - Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship
There
are many who applaud the Catholic Church for ‘getting on the right side of
history’ related to embracing rainbow rights. They just aren’t Christians. Or
if they claim to be, their values reflect the world more than the Church. You
won’t see them at Mass or in prayer groups. They don’t particularly like the
Church.
Whatever
stops and starts Francis makes about accompanying LGBTQ+ers back to Church, these
observers aren’t following.
Whoopi Goldberg has no intention of becoming Catholic; she just wants the Church to reflect her values.
Marco
and I serve two different parishes, but we share similar experiences with zealous
non-believers in each. The truth is many ‘born that way’ Catholics pose no
threat to our common enemy in their unconverted lives. They just hate ‘Living
Waters.’ As soon as dormant members discover that we have left homosexuality
behind and want to help others (from any number of backgrounds) to advance in
chastity, they wake up and smear us as dangerous ‘conversion’ therapists.
Combatants
from both parishes went to their respective elders and insisted we posed a
threat to vulnerable youth. We discovered three things. One, they know nothing
about what Living Waters is. Two, they are protecting a loved one who is
out-and-proud (one accuser wrote an anonymous letter to the pastor that her ‘gay’-identified
son was ‘perfect’). And three, they are members in name only who participate
little in the life of the Church.
They
want a ‘gay’-friendly church but don’t want to go to Church themselves. That’s
the thing. Those who seek to broaden the ‘narrow Way that leads to life’ (Matt.
7:13-14) do so for no one. His life has yet to pierce theirs; they’ve no reason
(yet) to repent and linger at the altar.
The
truth remains. People come to Church to get saved: to know this Jesus who gave
all to gain them. His
total gift of love provokes us to refuse any lesser love that frustrates His
for us.
How
can we not seek solidarity with others in route to new life? We need the Church
more today than yesterday!
I
hope our witness invites zealous non-believers to get saved, to discover
something of costly grace. Bonhoeffer writes better than anyone of the tension
between cheap and costly grace—that tendency in each of us to admire the lovely
Cross adorned with flowers at Easter and to scorn the Bloody God of Good Friday.
We
who embrace our little crosses may well destabilize and provoke unconverted
church members. But let us also be radiant invitations of Jesus’ outstretched
arms! Let us gather afresh, joyfully enduring the scorn, as we grow into His
fullness.
‘Costly
grace is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world. Costly
grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of
forgiveness to the broken spirit and contrite heart. Blessed are they who in
this sense have become Christians, for whom the word of grace has been
merciful.’ - Bonhoeffer
‘Jesus,
thank You for the grace that calls us to lay aside all to follow you, one sin,
one idol, one deception at a time. You, the Word of truth, always fill us with
good things. Thank You too for the treasury of Your Church, the place of the
great exchange! May we reflect something radiantly clear about Bride and
Bridegroom amid ‘rainbow’ confusion.’
‘Father,
we thank You for Jesus who established the Church on a Rock against which hell
will not prevail (Matt 16:18). We pray for every Christian leader to build on
Her firm foundation of sexual clarity and integrity. Father, unmask the
deceiver and divider of Christians and unite us in one Spirit. As weak members
of Christ, we ask for truth to guide our pursuit of sexual wholeness, for grace
to sustain it, and for spiritual power to transform us. May we reflect the
chaste radiance of Jesus (2 Cor. 3:18) as we “shine like stars in the universe,
holding out the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-16) to a lost and hurting world.’
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