The Future of the Church Lies in the Past
by Deacon J H Toner, Crisis Magazine:
Nuisance callers want the person called to talk, so they will often ask, “Can you hear me all right?” or “How are you today?” Television shows have “teasers” at the beginning of the show, trying to enlist the interest of viewers so they will stay with that show. Speakers often begin their talks in a familiar and even jocular way, attempting to engage their audience in the topics ahead. Even the Bible suggests the initial advantage of milk before meat (1 Corinthians 3:2, Hebrews 5:12).
Suppose, though, that callers have no interest in the call, or viewers in the show, or listeners in the speech. Suppose there is no “meat” after the “milk.” Then all the staging or preparation is worthless and to no avail. A shop with beautiful window dressing is worthless if there is nothing in the shop to examine or to buy. Texans have a great phrase for this: They speak of someone who is all hat (or big hat) and no cattle.
Let’s “Catholicize” that, shall we? How about a bishop or priest who is all vestments and no virtue? Or maybe all chasuble and no chastity? Or maybe all pizzaz and no piety?
How about style without substance? How about changing doctrines and dogmas; or guitar Masses and the like; or replaced and now flaccid moral standards; or silly and sophomoric preaching; or a garbled liturgical calendar; or the spineless toleration of the intolerable, such as idols in the Vatican, or the “synodal path,” or reception of Holy Communion by those who cannot and will not profess its divine significance?
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