nasty little gods

in "A New Song for the Lord," (1996) Cardinal Ratzinger addresses the question of Jesus "Who do you say that I am?" the answer to this underlies all of today's problems, but in addressing this as it relates to things like drug addiction, he speaks of the promises the world holds out in contrast to the promise of Life the Lord holds;

Behind this (the flight into lies) is a false image of God, that is, the denial of God and the worship of an idol. Here one understands God as the rich man did, who could not hand over anything to Lazarus because he himself wanted to be a god; for this, however, the much he had was still too little. God is thus understood in the manner of Arius who thought that God cannot have any relationship outside of himself because only he is completely himself. Humans want to be such a god, one to whom everhting flows and who gives nothing himself. This is why the true God is the real enemy, the competitor of those who have become inwardly blind in such a way.

There is something that this hits upon, especially when dealing with addictions; that we are made in God's image for love, and because of this each of us will invariably attach to a love, only One of which we are meant for. The others will close us in on ourselves; the lesser loves which the world provides for our distraction.

Now to the one who wishes to be like the false image of God, sufficient unto themselves, belongs the one who does this not just in the material domain (like the rich man who would not aid Lazarus), but also the one who lives by the notion of sola scriptura, that the scriptures are all he needs to guide his life. The very fact that this person is blind to the difference between what it means to be authoritative and to have and wield authority. Yes the scriptures are authoritative, they are the rule, the measure; but the ruler must measure the wood, and no ruler has ever told a board that it is too long or too short; that judgement belongs to the one who wields the ruler. In denying that Jesus gave the wielding of the ruler to anyone, the sola scripturist wields it without acknowledging he does so, arrogating to himself what he denies to those who claim said authority. Is this reasonable? What has the sola-scripturist measured? If we look at their collected measurements, we see that the rule of scripture has been applied with wild abandon and there is no agreement; the board cannot be both too short and too long at the same time; something cannot be necessary and unnecessary at the same time, something cannot simultaneously be true and false; God is not the author of confusion, Truth is not both true and false at the same time. Yet, the sola scripturist is satisfied in his little world, self sufficient unto himself, passing judgement based on his understanding of the rule while denying at the same time that he does so, claiming that it is the rule itself doing the judgment, an absurdity, and a witness to absurdity which discredits God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who prayed that we would be one so that the world would know that He was sent by the Father.

This is why I have borrowed Belloc from Real Clear Religion and put it at the bottom of the sidebar. Methodist minister and talk show host Alan Hunt has entered the Catholic Church, you can't determine what is true by voting on it. It is the Lord work, that those who crucified him would later drink his blood; that Saul would join Stephen, that those who still would crucify the Lord, will join the company in heaven by being converted here and seeking Mercy while Mercy is to be had.




sorry if this is a little jumbled, mercy, ok?