Confessions IX (To ENGAGE the Tradition)

Dear Friends, Known and Unknown,

I have been testifying to nearly two decades of experience in a New Age cultural pattern, in which there was either utter ignorance or dismissal of the Catholic Tradition.

Then slowly, I began to approach the Catholic Church. And here I discovered an entirely different pattern for Sacred Culture – one wherein two thousand years of profound inspiration regarding the Christian Mystery was neither ignored, nor dismantled.

And where, as I shall explain, this was not merely honoured at an **intellectual** level – but far more **holistically**, appealing to body and soul.

I entered a pattern of culture, then, shaped on **every level** by Tradition. One where not only first-century Christian scripture was honoured, but also two millennia of further vision and genius. And one where the Sacraments of the Church were honoured in their original entirety.

This is to speak of a context then, in which there was not merely a ‘service with bread and wine’ as still happens in many Protestant Churches – but wherein the Real Presence of Christ was honoured.

And wherein this Real Presence was not limited to the Mass, but also acknowledged in six further Sacraments - for example, the Sacrament of Confession.

Here, we are not dealing with a psychological claim, such as ‘confession is good for the soul’. No, we are dealing with the Mystery of a Sacrament, with Transcendent Grace sanctifying the soul, as transmitted by a Priest.

And although the Transcendent Grace of Christic Absolution via the Priest is central here - I do not want to ignore the fact that the sincere practice of this Sacrament also TEACHES. And it is a teaching that is not merely imparted intellectually – but which is **experienced** on widely different levels.

At least, this is how it seems to me, as I approach a mere man and say: ‘Bless me father, for I have sinned’. Where, kneeling in confession, I acknowledge the reality of the Fall in the most personal, immediate way that I can – because I am acknowledging that my psyche is inextricably caught in it. And that the result of this, is that I inevitably bring real and continuing hurt to real and suffering beings.

Yes, the Reality of the Fall becomes present to me - and not as an abstract concept.

And then I consciously turn to the Reality of Christ, as the answer the God of Love has given to our Fallen Psyches in a Fallen World.

And all of this I do traditionally - kneeling - acknowledging in body, as well as in mind, that I must bow before the Grace of Christ.

And the Christic Absolution which I receive is not without an accompanying sensation. Time and again, there is a distinct sense, often palpable hours later, of what I have called a peculiar wholesomeness. There is also a joyous sense of being more deeply united to the Body of Christ. A small tearing or rupture with the Mystici Corporis feels as though it has been healed.

It is not easy to describe these subtle, yet for me, immensely meaningful sensations. Yet more and more, I feel that it is necessary that we Catholics try. Perhaps I should even mention briefly how on one occasion, the immediate aftermath of receiving Absolution was not this subtle joy - but astonishingly and viscerally profound. Yes, the Mystery of the Sacraments must not be hidden away.

Even if we are not consciously with the subtle sensations I try to capture here, I think it may be helpful to ask – what is it that keeps bringing us back to these Sacraments? Does it not involve a sense - not only of profound meaning, but also of a joy in being with the Mystical Body?

Though I rarely hear people utter such things, I am convinced I am not alone. Even with Catholics alienated from the Tradition, I often sense this mysterious sense of meaning, even joy. There are Catholics who have even come to hate the Church – but often they find the final break difficult indeed. Implicated here I suspect, is a peculiar experience of meaning and joy still buried in their hearts …

Whatever the truth of the matter may be, I testify that in entering the Catholic Church, I entered a world wherein the tradition was not only not dismantled, nor only imparted intellectually through sermons or study, but was a world in which I now live and experience the Tradition in varied manners. From kneeling in confession to receiving the presence of Christ on my tongue ...

And with all of this, I feel I enter ever more deeply into a Mystery, a two-thousand year Mystery that is progressively **humanising** me.

In the comments to these confessions, Sun Warrior has left testimony to the notion that there is a modern longing for a spiritual experience that the Tradition cannot supply.

I concur with his strongly felt sense for this modern hunger. And for years, I would have concurred that the reason lay in the insufficiency of the old traditions.

But now I can only say that the whole 26 years of my spiritual journey has pointed me to the opposite conclusion:
That it is not so much that the tradition is insufficient. It is that the tradition – the entire tradition - is not taken seriously enough. It is not sufficiently ENGAGED.

Now within approximately 70% of world Christianity – Orthodox and Catholic- there does exists a continued effort to take the entirety of the tradition seriously, including the Seven Sacraments.

But how often is this effort entirely obscured and unknown in those countries, dominated by a Protestant and now Secular heritage! Those countries, that is to say, which include the entire English-speaking world, save Ireland. Ireland ... beloved land, where I have had the joy of engaging the Tradition more deeply than ever before.

My experience at least, is that so many in the other Anglophone cultures, have no idea at all about the fullness of the Orthodox and Catholic engagement with the Tradition.

As I had no idea of that engagement, growing up in a Protestant and Secular America and England.

And I confess that I am increasingly disquieted by this ignorance concerning the other 70% of global Christianity, this sheer ignorance that I participated in **completely** for 34 years ...

And I find myself asking, how many thousands pay vast sums for New Age workshops, where for no sum at all the Orthodox and Catholic traditions make present the Reality of Christ, in countless churches throughout the world?

And what difference would it make, if only it were only more widely realised - in the Anglo-American sphere especially - what this 70% of Christanity is still standing for? That it is still standing for a fullness of Mystery in a world hungry for Mystery - as the New Age movement clearly testifies to.

Friends, such questions haunt my soul. And now that I have attempted to render a slightly fuller picture of my experience of two spiritual cultures, I hope to say more about the PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES which, it seems to me, spring from these two very different milieus, based on two very different ideas about the nature of Reality, which ideas are then embodied in very different spiritual practices ...

I regret to say though, that this will need to wait until next TUESDAY. Until then, I pray that Christ Jesus be with you all.