the following of Christ is a social enterprise. We must go beyond the desire for our own sanctification to cooperate with Christ in propagating His doctrine among all men throughout the world.
Togetherness is of the essence of our faith. Equally basic is the corresponding fact that the evil spirit is active in his propagation of his doctrine and he has a doctrine among all men throughout the world. Remember the parable of the sower who sowed good seed during the day, and then sometime later weeds began to grow. Sown in the same field by an enemy.
There are two sowers sowing their seed in the hearts and minds of men, one sower is Jesus Christ, the other is Lucifer. And let me tell you, this is not pious rhetoric or mere devotion. This is bedrock Christianity. The focus of our concentration here is to compare the method used by Christ in organizing His followers with a corresponding and competitive method of Satan in mobilizing his agents.
Or as St. Ignatius calls them, the Two Standards are commonly associated with the Spiritual Exercises. They are really part of Divine Revelation and essential to every believer’s Christian spirituality. Not to know what I want to share with you, is to be sheer ignorant, blind, to what is going on in the world today.
Link (here) to read Fr. John Hardon, S.J. and his talk on the Two Standards
3 comments:
I honestly do not know how I would ever have survived without discovering Fr. Hardon SJ.
I liked the article, though it can be difficult to distinguish between Fr. Hardon’s interpretations of God’s will and God’s will. For example, is the devil always highly organized? Wouldn’t he be disorganized when it served his purpose?
Similarly, God’s existence and His work do not require that “…followers of Christ are correspondingly, deeply motivated, strongly organized and zealous, profoundly, heroically zealous,…”. If anything, humility would demand a different perspective.
As a result of so much intellectual inference, as opposed to divine revelation, Fr. Hardon’s efforts “…to compare the method used by Christ in organizing His followers with a corresponding and competitive method of Satan…” becomes a self-indulgent exercise.
I hope that this is not seen as critical of Fr. Hardon or the article. Though it could be seen, correctly, as critical of those who hear such things and believe they recognize God’s will. As Fr. Hardon says: “Proud people are no match for Lucifer.”
To restate my earlier comment: Fr. Hardon’s strategy, which involves recognizing demons or evil, is unrealistic.
That is because we don’t have the judgment to recognize evil. We keep mistaking good for evil and evil for good.
Consider the current situation in Japan. The leaders of Japan are saying that their society is not sufficiently selfless and willing to sacrifice. While those can be positive attributes, they are instead being used manipulate the people there. So the Japanese are in a situation that demands that they take actions that are selfish and without sacrifice.
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