{"id":38017,"date":"2019-11-14T13:59:31","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T19:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=38017"},"modified":"2019-11-28T14:19:28","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T20:19:28","slug":"the-new-paganism-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-new-paganism-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Paganism – Part I","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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WHAT<\/strong> kid doesn’t like candy? But let the same child loose in a candy store to gorge on whatever he wants… and pretty soon he’ll be craving vegetables.<\/p>\n

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THE GREAT VACUUM<\/p>\n

When Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia visited Canada a decade ago, he made a surprising admission:<\/p>\n

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\u2026there\u2019s no easy way to say it. The Church in the United States has done a poor job of forming the faith and conscience of Catholics for more than 40 years. And now we\u2019re harvesting the results\u2014in the public square, in our families and in the confusion of our personal lives.<\/strong> \u2014Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., Rendering Unto Caesar: The Catholic Political Vocation<\/em>, February 23rd, 2009, Toronto, Canada<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But it’s not just the United States:<\/p>\n

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The spiritual crisis involves the entire world. But its source is in Europe. People in the West are guilty of rejecting God\u2026 The spiritual collapse thus has a very Western character.<\/strong> \u2014Cardinal Robert Sarah, Catholic Herald<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>April 5th, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For many decades, much of the preaching and teaching from the pulpit, with exceptions to be certain, has been “candy”\u2014the empty calories of modernist novelties that have drained the richness of Sacred Tradition of all things mystical and supernatural. The miracles of Christ? They’re just stories. The apparitions of Our Lady? Pious hallucinations. The Eucharist? Just a symbol. The Mass? A celebration, not a Sacrifice. The charisms of the Holy Spirit? Emotional hype.<\/p>\n

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RELIGIOUS BY NATURE<\/p>\n

But man, by nature, is a spiritual being. We were made for the mystical and destined for the supernatural. \u201cYou have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in You,\u201d said Augustine. This is key<\/em> to understanding the near future of the Church and the world at the end of this era.<\/p>\n

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The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God… In many ways, throughout history down to the present day, men have given expression to their quest for God in their religious beliefs and behavior: in their prayers, sacrifices, rituals, meditations, and so forth. These forms of religious expression, despite the ambiguities they often bring with them, are so universal that one may well call man a <\/strong><\/span>religious being.<\/strong> <\/span>\u2014<\/i>Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/em>, n. 27-28<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’m always amazed at how people who aren’t church-goers are able to engage a spiritual conversation. Indeed, from the dawn of creation, man has searched for the transcendent: we want to see God.<\/p>\n

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THE FULFILLMENT<\/p>\n

\"\"The fulfillment of this desire came by way of the Incarnation and revelation of Jesus Christ. When the early Church exited the Upper Room, filled with the Holy Spirit, Christianity literally exploded overnight. Thousands converted from Judaism and paganism to Catholicism\u2014a religion of signs and wonders, of beautiful symbols and anointed songs, of sound philosophy and deep theology that ultimately transformed the Roman Empire. In the following centuries, this mystical reality became encased in sacred art, towering cathedrals, sublime hymns and holy liturgies that transported the soul through rising incense, blazing candles, and glorious sacred theatre. How many souls encountered the Divine Spark simply by entering a Catholic Church!<\/p>\n

But now, a Great Vacuum<\/em><\/a> has been created. The dry intellectualism and hyper-rationalism<\/a> of the Western Church has emptied Catholicism of the supernatural. Our love has grown cold; our devotion has smoldered<\/a>; the flame of faith is all but a flicker in many parts of the globe. Thus, what does the Church have to offer the world if she hardly knows It herself? Without the connection of the supernatural (ie. the living, flowing power of the Holy Spirit), even our finest cathedrals are becoming nothing more than museums.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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SATAN’S CANDY<\/p>\n

At the very same time, the “errors of Russia,” as Our Lady of Fatima called them, have been spreading throughout the world: atheism, Darwinism, materialism, Marxism, socialism, communism, relativism, radical feminism, \"\"etc. These are Satan’s candies\u2014sophistries that have titillated man’s pride and falsely promised the sweetness of a temporal utopia. Like the gleaming fruit on the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, that serpent has promised a bin full of irresistible goodies: “you will be like gods.”<\/em> [1]<\/sup><\/a>Gen 3:5<\/span><\/span>