Have I got this wrong?

I make no apologies for reposting these stanzas. Lawrence England's post today prompted me.


When Christ explained the Eucharist
Many followers fled.
The Truth was unacceptable
“Too hard! Too hard!” they said.
Our Clergy are of subtler stuff
They nuance things instead.

We once believed - I still believe -
That bread becomes our God
That wine becomes the Blood He shed
Is this so very odd?
Aquinas gave us words to clothe
Belief, but now we nod

Assent at clerics who recoil
From such crude credal vigour
And think they’d better water down
Aquinas’ divisive rigour
“Our Lord is present in a very
Special way,” they figure.

From fudge and nuance and half lies
And German exegesis
They sound-byte forth a statement that
Has as its central thesis
Whatever is acceptable
Whatever your belief is.

Like slippery salesmen they predict
The punter’s predilection.
Street cred is what it’s all about
Not Nicene Creed conviction.
“Our faiths are custom-made," they smirk
"Just choose from our selection.

"Don’t like Hell? Don’t fret, dear sir,
It’s a discontinued line.
No Purgatory? a wise choice,
Heaven ok? That’s fine!
And now, how would you like to pay,
Up front? Or down the line?"

A wonderful post from "The Bones"

If you don't read anything else today, please read this from The Bones.

Shipwreck Ahead! Insecure? Angry?

Lawrence England of That The Bones You Have Crushed May Thrill has posted here about what a certain Fr Brennan sees as the anger and insecurity of some Catholic bloggers and why they should not be read.

I am usually angry, and sometimes insecure.

So go ahead and don't read me.

In Lawrence's combox I have given my reasons, and I guess those of others, for my own anger, and I urge anyone who still sometimes reads this blog to do the same.

Imagine you are one of the crew of a ship at night. The ship's officers are in dispute as to how to read the compass, the charts are unclear, some members of the crew are mutinous, and there's a storm brewing.

Scared and angry?

I am.