The relevance of camels while discussing gnats

In the aftermath of the EU referendum, I'm seeing a lot of judgments being made about the fitness of those who voted Leave (of whom I am one), and worry about what lies ahead.

We're a bunch of racist xenophobes, apparently. And even if many of us are not personally, we've enabled a bunch of racist xenophobes to usher in a Fascist state.

And people are very worried about that prospect. (I do not relish the idea either.)

But, what do we actually have today? What are we tolerating? What doesn't bother us too much? In fact, what do many actually support?

Well, if you point out that, while worrying about racism and xenophobia, we're tolerating the murder of unborn children, you'll be told that that is a separate issue, totally irrelevant, beside the point.

Now, let's go back to the Gospel and imagine an exchange between Our Lord and a Pharisee. The latter is criticising someone over a gnat-like matter. Our Lord points out that the Pharisee is actually swallowing a camel.

The Pharisee says, "We're not talking about that camel! This is about a gnat! Don't change the subject!"

Or, maybe the Pharisee is telling someone to address a mote that is in his eye. Our Lord comes along and says, "Erm, what about the beam that is in your own eye?"

The Pharisee says, "This is about that man's mote, not my beam! My beam has nothing to do with it!"

We live in a world where abortion is not merely tolerated. It is defended as a right. And we vote for politicians who support it. Even if we oppose abortion personally, we still hold politicians who support it in esteem.They are not beyond the pale. Why? Why is racism, or xenophobia, the only thing that would put them beyond the pale?

If we tolerate abortion, we are in no position to take exception to xenophobia.

To trust in God, by Pope Pius XII

What does it mean to trust in God?

Trust in God means the abandonment of oneself, with all the forces of the will sustained by grace and love, in spite of all the doubts suggested by appearances to the contrary, to the wisdom, the infinite love of God. It means believing that nothing in this world escapes His Providence, whether in the universal or in the particular order; that nothing great or small happens which is not foreseen, willed or permitted, directed always by Providence to its exalted ends, which in this world are always inspired by love for men.

It means believing that God can permit, at times here below, for some time, pre-eminence of atheism and of impiety, the lamentable obscuring of a sense of justice, the violation of law, the tormenting of innocent, peaceful, undefended, helpless men. It means believing that God at times thus lets trials befall individuals and peoples, trials of which the malice of men is the instrument in a design of justice directed towards the punishment of sin, towards purifying persons and peoples through the expiations of this present life and bringing them back by this way to Himself; but it means believing at the same time that this justice always remains here below the justice of a Father inspired and dominated by love.

However severe may seem the Hand of the Divine Surgeon when he cuts with the lancet into the live flesh, it is always an active love that guides and drives it in, and only the good of men and peoples makes Him intervene in such a painful way.

It means, finally, believing that the fierce intensity of the trial, like the triumph of evil, will endure here below for only a fixed time and not longer; that the hour of God will come, the hour of mercy, the hour of holy rejoicing, the hour of the new canticle of liberation, the hour of exultation and of joy, the hour in which, after having let the hurricane loose for a moment upon humanity, the all-powerful Hand of the Heavenly Father, with an imperceptible motion, will detain it and disperse it, and, by ways little known to the mind or to the hopes of men, justice, calm and peace will be restored to the nations.

We know well that the most serious difficulty for those who have not a correct sense of the Divine comes from seeing so many innocent victims involved in suffering by the same tempest which overwhelms sinners. Men never remain indifferent when the hurricane which tears up the great trees also cuts down the lowly little flowers which opened at their feet only to lavish the grace of their beauty and fragrance on the air around them. And yet these flowers and their perfumes are the work of God and of His wonderful designing. If he has allowed any of these flowers to be swept away in the storm, can He not, do you think, have assigned a goal unseen by the human eye for the sacrifice of that most unoffending creature in the general arrangement of the law by which He prevails over and governs nature? How much more, then, will His omnipotence and love direct the lot of pure and innocent human beings to good.

Through the languishing of faith in men's hearts, through the pleasure-seeking that moulds and captivates their lives, men are driven to judge as evil, and as unmixed evil, all the physical mishaps of this earth. They have forgotten that suffering stands at the threshold of life as the way that leads to the smiles of the cradle. They have forgotten that it is more often than not the shadow of the Cross of Calvary thrown on the path of the Resurrection; they have forgotten that the cross is frequently a gift of God, a gift which is needed in order to offer to the Divine Justice our share of expiation. They have forgotten that the only real evil is the sin that offends God. They have forgotten what the Apostle says: "The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that will be revealed in us", that we ought to look on "the Author and Finisher of Faith, Jesus, Who for the joy set before Him, endured a cross.".

Do you, too, dear children, look upon your sufferings thus, and you will find the strength not merely to accept them with resignation, but to love them, to glory in them as the Apostles and saints. . . .

Look upon your sufferings and difficulties in the light of the sufferings of the Crucified, in the light of the sufferings of the Blessed Virgin, the most innocent of creatures and the most intimate sharer in the Passion of Our Lord, and you will be able to understand that to be like the Exemplar, the Son of God, King of Sufferings, is the noblest and safest way to Heaven and victory.

Guide For Living, Radio address on "Divine Providence in Human Events", June 29, 1941

God is love; love isn't necessarily God - C S Lewis

St. John’s saying that God is love has long been balanced in my mind against the remark of a modern author (M. Denis de Rougement) that “love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a god”; which of course can be re-stated in the form “begins to be a demon the moment he begins to be a god.” This balance seems to me an indispensable safeguard. If we ignore it the truth that God is love may slyly come to mean for us the converse, that love is God. I suppose that everyone who has thought about the matter will see what M. de Rougemont meant. Every human love, at its height, has a tendency to claim for itself a divine authority. Its voice tends to sound as if it were the will of God Himself. It tells us not to count the cost, it demands of us a total commitment, it attempts to over-ride all other claims and insinuates that any action which is sincerely done “for love’s sake” is thereby lawful and even meritorious.

The Four Loves