On the Religion of the Day

 John Henry Newman often employed the phrase “the religion of the day”, referring to the sentiments of modern religion, its emphases, priorities and its decidedness in certain areas of the religious life, and its lethargy, quietness and its inactivity in others. In one of this sermons he relates to his flock-

“When its (religion’s) terrors disappear, then disappear also, in the creed of the day, those fearful images of Divine wrath with which the Scriptures abound. They are explained away. Every thing is bright and cheerful. Religion is pleasant and easy; benevolence is the chief virtue; intolerance, bigotry, excess of zeal, are the first of sins. Austerity is an absurdity; even firmness is looked on with an unfriendly, suspicious eye.” 

Newman seems to have caught this grave evil much before our time and warned his flock of it. But today the modern catholic is imbued and overrun with notions nearly identical to what Newman condemned one hundred and fifty years ago. Today there is an endless gush of friendliness and community from pulpits, cascades of kindness and pleasantness, even ejections on climate change, gun control, animal treatment. All these are normal Sunday fare for the modern catholic. But to him, hell, satan, eternal damnation, fasting, heresy, mortal sin, confession and all of this genus are foreign and taboo It is medieval nonsense that is no longer relevant but   “judgmental”, and to most speaking of these things is “unchristian”.

Presently there is an obsession with avoiding such topics; no one can talk about them, not the priest at the pulpit, nor any faithful Catholics. “Pope Francis would never say such things.” is the common jingle. But Newman testifies it is the Devil who has worked this modern religious idea that is contrary to the true faith.

“What is the world's religion now? It has taken the brighter side of the Gospel,—its tidings of comfort, its precepts of love; all darker, deeper views of man's condition and prospects being comparatively forgotten. This is the religion natural to a civilized age, and well has Satan dressed and completed it into an idol of the Truth.”

And here we are today one hundred and fifty years later, and still this false conception of Christianity not only looms, but has become so influential and so preeminent that it now flexes it power to excuse modern social evils that are clearly condemned by Scriptures and Church Tradition. And those who dare to stand up against these are rejected as bigots, extremists, and zealots unless they will so candy-coat the plain truth as to make it nearly unrecognizable from the crystal-clear teachings of our fathers in faith.

"Still, after all, here is an existing teaching, only partially evangelical, built upon worldly principle, yet pretending to be the Gospel, dropping one whole side of the Gospel, it's austere character, and considering it enough to be benevolent, courteous, candid, correct in conduct, delicate,-though it includes no true fear of God, no fervent zeal for His honor, no deep hatred of sin, no horror at the sight of sinners, no indignation and compassion at the blasphemies of heretics, no jealous adherence to doctrinal truth... no loyalty to the Holy Apostolic Church, of which the Creed speaks, no sense of the authority of religion as external to the mind: in a word, no seriousness."

The Catholics who have the faith to stand in the tradition of the Fathers and preach the entire faith, even its less appealing truths, are seen as unkind because they will not disguise the teaching of the church so exhaustively in pleasant phrases as to render them meaningless.  Others, who cannot swallow the admonitions and plainness of the fathers, look on and will rebuke, saying that modern religion has no place for “intolerance.” Unfortunately often it is firstly the clergy who level this claim against those who believe in all the truths of the faith.

They will even go so far as to twist saintly personages into fluffy characters. St. Anthony of Padua, once revered for his defense of the true faith was known as the Hammer of Heretics, now all he is known for is playing with Baby Jesus and finding keys. St. Francis of Assisi, known for his love of birds and hatred of fossil fuels once said “We should realize that no matter where or how a man dies, if he is in the state of mortal sin and does not repent, when he could have done so and did not, the devil tears his soul from his body with such anguish and distress that only a person who has experienced it can appreciate it.”

The Angelic Doctor St. Thomas Aquinas, who is held by Catholics as the foremost philosopher and theologian once exclaimed, "The worst wolves in sheep's clothing are the heretics and then bad prelates." But today his words are too strong, his hatred of heresy so antiquated that only his more neutral and mild writings, or at least those free from any of the divisive topics opposed to the religion of today are ever sited. All of these personages and many more have been twisted, their offensive writings and sermons ignored to fit the religion of this age.

"The worst kind of heretic is the one who, while teaching mostly true Catholic doctrine, adds a word of heresy, like a drop of poison in a cup of water."- Pope Leo XIII

There is a war between the truth and the “drop of poison” which has fallen into the Cup of the Holy Church, making the new drink so much smoother and more pleasant but at the same time stripping it of its purity, integrity, and holiness. So may this modern religion be despised as the work of the devil as Newman said, and may the zeal that Newman desires ever increase in the Church and Her members that the truth may be proclaimed ever more. Even in the face of every modern resistance, clerical, political, and all others, the truth must be proclaimed and the world must be converted. So may the religion of our day die a horrible death and may the Catholicism of our Fathers once again shine forth for the conversion of the world!