{"id":30102,"date":"2017-05-26T14:56:57","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T18:56:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=30102"},"modified":"2019-06-03T07:23:10","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T13:23:10","slug":"rationalism-and-the-death-of-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/rationalism-and-the-death-of-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Rationalism, and the Death of Mystery","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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WHEN\u00a0<\/strong>one\u00a0approaches a haze in the distance, it may seem\u00a0as though you’re going to enter a thick fog. But when you “get there,” and then look behind you, suddenly you realize you’ve\u00a0been in it all\u00a0along. The haze is everywhere.<\/p>\n

So it is with the spirit of\u00a0rationalism\u2014<\/em>a mindset in our times that hangs like a pervasive haze. Rationalism holds that reason and knowledge alone should\u00a0guide our actions and opinions, as opposed to the intangible or emotion, and especially, religious beliefs. Rationalism is a product of the so-called Enlightenment period, when the “father of lies” began to sow one “ism<\/em>” after another over the span of four centuries\u2014deism, scientism, Darwinism,\u00a0Marxism, communism, radical feminism, relativism, etc.\u2014leading us to this hour, where atheism and individualism\u00a0have all but supplanted God in the secular realm.<\/p>\n

But even in the Church, rationalism’s toxic roots have taken hold. The past five decades, in particular, have seen this mindset tear away at the hem of\u00a0mystery,\u00a0<\/em>bringing all things miraculous, supernatural, and transcendent under a dubious\u00a0light. The poisonous fruit of this deceptive\u00a0tree infected\u00a0many pastors, theologians, and eventually lay people, to the extent that the Liturgy itself was drained of signs and symbols that pointed to the Beyond. In some places, church walls were literally white-washed, statues smashed, candles snuffed, incense doused, and icons, crosses, and relics closeted.<\/p>\n

Worse, far worse, has been the neutering of childlike faith in vast portions of the Church such that, often today, anyone who displays any kind of real zeal or passion for Christ in their parishes, who stands out\u00a0from\u00a0the status quo, is often cast as\u00a0suspect (if not cast out into the darkness). In some places, our parishes\u00a0have gone from the Acts of the Apostles to the Inaction of the Apostates\u2014we are limp, lukewarm, and devoid of mystery… a childlike faith.<\/p>\n

O God, save us from ourselves! Deliver us from the spirit of rationalism!<\/em><\/p>\n

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SEMINARIES… OR LABORATORIES?<\/p>\n

Priests have recounted to me how more\u00a0than one seminarian has had his faith shipwrecked in the seminary, where more often than not, the Scriptures were dissected like a lab rat, draining\u00a0the lifeblood of the Living Word as if it were a mere textbook. The spirituality of the saints was dismissed as emotional meandering; Christ’s miracles as tales; devotion to Mary as superstition; and the charisms of the Holy Spirit as fundamentalism.<\/p>\n

Thus, today, there are\u00a0some bishops who\u00a0frown on anyone in ministry without a Masters of Divinity, priests who\u00a0balk at anything\u00a0mystical, and laypeople who scoff at the evangelical. We\u00a0have become, especially in the West, like that band of\u00a0disciples who rebuked the little children when they tried to touch Jesus. But the Lord had something to say about that:<\/p>\n

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Let the children come to me and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it. (Luke 18:16-17)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Today, the mysteries of the Kingdom are being revealed, not so much to scholars burrowed in intellectual pride, but to the little ones who do theology on their knees. I see and hear God speaking in tradesmen, housewives, young adults, and quiet priests and nuns with a Bible in one hand and rosary beads in the other.<\/p>\n

So immersed are we in the fog of rationalism, that we can no longer see the horizon of reality in this generation. We seem incapable of receiving God’s supernatural\u00a0gifts, such as in those souls who receive the stigmata, or visions, locutions, or apparitions. We perceive them, not as possible signs and communications from Heaven, but as inconvenient interruptions to our tidy pastoral programs. And it seems that we regard the charisms of the Holy Spirit, less as a means to build the Church, and more so\u00a0as manifestations of mental instability.<\/p>\n

O God, save us from ourselves! Deliver us from the spirit of rationalism!<\/em><\/p>\n

A few examples come to mind…<\/p>\n

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RATIONALISM AT THIS HOUR<\/p>\n

Medjugorje<\/span><\/p>\n

As I wrote in\u00a0On Medjugorje<\/a>, <\/em>objectively,\u00a0we have in this single apparition site\u00a0one of the greatest sources of conversion in the Church since Pentecost;\u00a0hundreds of documented miracles, thousands of priestly vocations, and countless ministries throughout the world that are\u00a0a\u00a0direct\u00a0<\/em>result of Our Lady “allegedly” appearing there. Recently, it was made public that a\u00a0Vatican Commission appears to have accepted the apparitions, at least in their<\/span> early stages. And yet, many continue to dismiss this obvious gift\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0grace\u00a0<\/em>as a “work of the devil.”\u00a0If Jesus said\u00a0you shall know a tree by its fruit<\/em>, I can’t think of a more irrational statement. Like Martin Luther of old, we too seem to ignore those Scriptures that don’t suit our “rational” theological worldview\u2014despite the evidence.<\/p>\n

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These fruits are tangible, evident. And in our diocese and in many other places, I observe graces of conversion, graces of a life of supernatural faith, of vocations, of healings, of a rediscovering of the sacraments, of confession. These are all things which do not mislead. This is the reason why I can only say that it is these fruits which enable me, as bishop, to pass a moral judgment. And if as Jesus said, we must judge the tree by its fruits, I am obliged to say that the tree is good. <\/strong>\u2014Cardinal Sch\u00f6nborn, \u00a0Medjugorje Gebetsakion<\/em>, #50; Stella Maris<\/em>, #343, pp. 19, 20<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Someone wrote me today saying, “No true apparition would be happening every day for almost 40 years. Plus the messages are flaky, nothing profound.” This seems to me the height of religious rationalism\u2014the same kind of pride that Pharaoh possessed as he\u00a0rationalized away the miracles of Moses; the same doubts that dismissed the Resurrection; the same misguided reasoning that led many\u00a0who witnessed Jesus’ miracles to declare:<\/p>\n

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Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?…\u00a0So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there. (Matt 6:2-5)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Yes, God has a hard time working mighty deeds in hearts that are\u00a0not childlike.<\/p>\n

And then there is\u00a0Fr. Don Calloway. The son of a military man, he\u00a0was a drug addict and rebel, led out of Japan in chains for all the trouble he was causing. One day, he picked up a book of those “flaky and unprofound” messages of Medjugorje called The Queen of Peace Visits Medjugorje<\/em>. As he read them that night, he was overcome with something he had never experienced before.<\/p>\n

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Although I was in serious despair about my life, as I read the book, I felt as if my heart was being melted. I hung on to each word like it was transmitting life straight to me…\u00a0I have never ever heard anything so amazing and convincing and so needed in my life.<\/strong> \u2014testimony, from\u00a0Ministry Values<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The next morning, he ran to Mass, and\u00a0was infused with understanding and faith in what he was seeing unfold during the Consecration. Later that day, he began to pray, and as he did, a lifetime of tears poured from him. He heard Our Lady’s voice and had a profound experience of what he called “pure maternal love.” [1]<\/sup><\/a>cf.\u00a0Ministry Values<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/span>