From Rorate Caeli– The Catholic Faith: a Faith of Exclusivity

From Rorate Caeli, reading material for the parishioners of St. Cronan, and all other parishes in our Archdiocese:

It had been a while since many of us had paid attention to the wreckage which the Anglican “Communion” has become. The Anglo-Catholic move of the past few days has reminded some of the existence of this troubled community. What is most startling is how much hogwash is tolerated and preached by certain Anglican leaders in the name of a wicked “Gospel of Inclusivity”, a “Gospel” of various and wide ways – a “Gospel” repugnant to the One True Faith.

The Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis presented in a strong way the traditional concept of the exclusiveness of the Lord’s love – reflected in the Most Holy Sacrament, in priestly celibacy, in Holy Matrimony, in consecrated virginity:

While respecting the different practice and tradition of the Eastern Churches, there is a need to reaffirm the profound meaning of priestly celibacy, which is rightly considered a priceless treasure, and is also confirmed by the Eastern practice of choosing Bishops only from the ranks of the celibate. These Churches also greatly esteem the decision of many priests to embrace celibacy. This choice on the part of the priest expresses in a special way the dedication which conforms him to Christ and his exclusive offering of himself for the Kingdom of God. … . In continuity with the great ecclesial tradition, with the Second Vatican Council and with my predecessors in the papacy, I reaffirm the beauty and the importance of a priestly life lived in celibacy as a sign expressing total and exclusive devotion to Christ, to the Church and to the Kingdom of God, and I therefore confirm that it remains obligatory in the Latin tradition. Priestly celibacy lived with maturity, joy and dedication is an immense blessing for the Church and for society itself.

…
The indissoluble, exclusive and faithful bond uniting Christ and the Church, which finds sacramental expression in the Eucharist, corresponds to the basic anthropological fact that man is meant to be definitively united to one woman and vice versa.

…
I wish to reaffirm the importance of the witness of virginity, precisely in relation to the mystery of the Eucharist. In addition to its connection to priestly celibacy, the eucharistic mystery also has an intrinsic relationship to consecrated virginity, inasmuch as the latter is an expression of the Church’s exclusive devotion to Christ, whom she accepts as her Bridegroom with a radical and fruitful fidelity.

Indeed, recalling how love should “be experienced so that it can fully realize its human and divine promise”, and using the mystical words of the Canticle of Canticles as his source, Benedict XVI explains the true meaning of Christian love:

By contrast with an indeterminate, “searching” love, this word expresses the experience of a love which involves a real discovery of the other, moving beyond the selfish character that prevailed earlier. Love now becomes concern and care for the other. No longer is it self-seeking, a sinking in the intoxication of happiness; instead it seeks the good of the beloved: it becomes renunciation and it is ready, and even willing, for sacrifice. It is part of love’s growth towards higher levels and inward purification that it now seeks to become definitive, and it does so in a twofold sense: both in the sense of exclusivity (this particular person alone) and in the sense of being “for ever”.(Deus caritas est)

Which is why marriage, exclusive, indissoluble, between one man and one woman is the image of Christ’s love and renunciation for His Holy Church:

Adam is a seeker, who “abandons his mother and father” in order to find woman; only together do the two represent complete humanity and become “one flesh”…. From the standpoint of creation, eros directs man towards marriage, to a bond which is unique and definitive; thus, and only thus, does it fulfil its deepest purpose. Corresponding to the image of a monotheistic God is monogamous marriage. Marriage based on exclusive and definitive love becomes the icon of the relationship between God and his people and vice versa. God’s way of loving becomes the measure of human love.(Deus caritas est)

Nothing could be further from the Catholic faith, thus, than this false love which accepts all sin in the name of an inclusiveness of individual choices, instead of the exclusiveness of the unchanging and unchangeable Apostolic teaching of Christ’s Catholic Church: she is His and He is hers, exclusively (cf. Canticle, vi, 2; Matins for the Feast of the Visitation: Canticle, ii, 16). In fact, the

…individualistically chosen Jesus is an imaginary Jesus.

We cannot have Jesus without the reality he created and in which he communicates himself. Between the Son of God-made-flesh and his Church there is a profound, unbreakable and mysterious continuity by which Christ is present today in his people. He is always contemporary with us, he is always contemporary with the Church, built on the foundation of the Apostles and alive in the succession of the Apostles. (General Audience, 2006)

_____________________

Cf. Pope’s words on the Anglican crisis before arriving in Australia (“Contemporary Christianity must make present the entire message of Christ, and must give its contribution being faithful to this message.”).