St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, Illinois is pretty popular amongst trads. Perhaps if the trads will not listen to you, they will listen to Saint John Cantius himself:
Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause” - St. John Cantius
The Saint is talking about fighting error. Struggling against, seeking to put an end to the threat, defending divine and sublime truths from, using our virile might to oppose wicked lies, calumnies, heresies, doctrinal and theological errors, and all poisonous and life-threatening false ideas.
Why fight with good humor, patience, kindness, and love? Because the power to destroy error comes from God. The more we laugh at the human task of fighting error the more we shed light on the humbling truth that even with all our might and cleverness, in the end our ability to do so is small compared to the power of God to do so. Humor insures that when we fight error by engaging those who promote error, we keep our humility and keep open the channels of conversion of our opponents. We swing our weapons, that is true teaching and timeless wisdom, while hoping the other person in the end will not die but be converted. If we just scowl at them condemning not just their error and evil deeds, but their person, we help bring ruin to them and theirs, and in the end to ourselves.
That is what I take away from this Saint. Me I’m no saint. I’ve gotten unduly angry online before. And can testify it brings no peace of mind afterwards. What is the point of keeping the Faith and adherence to true doctrine if the purpose isn’t a state of peace, that is the peace of God.
Arguments to the contrary usually reference Christ getting angry turning over the tables at the temple of those sacriligeously selling goods in a holy place. But ask yourself how many times did Christ get irate in the Gospels. It has its time and place when holy things are immediately under attack. But look at how our Savior dealt with all those who opposed Him with false teaching. Was his habit snark, dark sarcasm, insults, sophistry? Christ fought error with patience and love. And when the opposing party wouldn’t change their pride, he simply dusted the feet from his sandals and moved on.
I don’t think any of this should scandalize my fellow traditional Catholic readers.
Anyhoo, yesterday was really relaxing by the waters of Blue Hole Springs as I blogged about yesterday. I can’t say this enough: Blue Hole is a hidden Oasis. But this morning I woke up to 9 out of 10 stabbingly sharp pain in my left toe, from gout, so I’m just lying here on the couch today semi-immobilized drinking a lot of water to flush out the uric acid crystals from my interphalangeal joint.
Incidents of gout started when I switched to a low carb, ketogenic way of eating, making the mistake of eating instead on occasion too much protein and not enough fat. Keto done right is really low carb-moderate protein-high fat. Toe is feeling better. Deo gracias.
Have a good week. Onward and upward.