The Incurables

Preamble:

The Catholic job is to inform, not to convince those who glory in being unyielding to the truth... 

It is written:

  "Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us" (Ecclesiastes 1:10)

Someone to-day with an informed Catholic Common Sense and intent on defending the Catholic cause against the legions of Modernist agents and on instructing the poor victims of their apostate apostolate may be tempted to think that the feedback from his audience is peculiar to this generation. But, he is bound to experience a re-set of orientation should be take into consideration St. Augustine's viewpoint on the matter. What view point? His viewpoint on folly and pertinacity. 

Comes In St. Augustine.

Prefacing his Sixth book in "The City of God", St. Augustine expressed the hope that he had sufficiently refuted those who think that many gods are to be venerated and worshipped in the preceding Five Books. However, he was not under any illusions. He quickly underlined that: 

"...as everyone knows, neither my five Books nor any five hundred books are sufficient to silence folly and pertinacity. It is the glory of vain men never to yield to the truth. Such vainglory is a deadly passion for those it dominates. It is a decease that, in spite of every effort, is never cured - not because the doctor is inept, but because the patient is incurable". - St. Augustine, (The City of God, Bk. VI, Preface). 

So, even in the fifth century, folly and pertinacity was as incurable as they are to-day. That realization is a great asset to an intransigent Catholic to-day and could not be otherwise. 

The reference to-day:

Ordinarily, one would think that given the myriads of written defense of the Catholic cause and the corresponding unmasking of the Modernist great apostasy and imposture, many would readily recognize Vatican II as a robber council having the proscribed Modernism for it's spirit. 

It is indeed a fact that even to-day silencing folly and pertinacity remains a daunting task. It remains the glory of vain men not to yield to the truth. This vainglory remains a deadly passion, a decease incurable. 

The Catholic Attitude

Now, as long as there are errors in the world, the Catholic thing to do will always be to stand up tall for the truth against all odds. The Catholic thing is to "preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine" (2 Timothy 4:2). The Catholic job is to "inform" not to "convince" those who glory in being unyielding to evident truth.

Unmistakable Model

After our blessed Lord preached the doctrine of His flesh being "meat indeed", His blood "drink indeed" (John 6:56) "many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him" (John 6:67). Who would christen 'inept' Our Blessed Lord who is the Bishop and Doctor of souls? They believed not, and went their way. They were incurable of the darkness of error. And our Lord did not back down on the point of doctrine. No. He did not invite the disgruntled disciples for a dialogue on equal footings. No. 

Among other things, on the same point of doctrine, many today usurping the Christian name remain disgruntled, and Modernist impostors pretend to make all believe that the Catholic attitude is of compromise on the altar of ecumenism. How sad, thus far many of the victims of their hypocrisy prove to be incurable patients: glorying in their being unyielding to the Truth. 

A Catholic Hope:

Of our father in faith, Abraham, it is written that he "against hope believed in hope; that he might be made the father of many nations" (Romans 4:18). From this is derived the rhetorical question I am wont to resort to: "what is hope if it is not to hope against hope?!" 

Could we hope that those thus far "incurable", would, by some miracle of grace, become curable tomorrow? Of course what is hope if it is not to hope against hope! 

It is on account of that Catholic that daily we pray for the conversion of sinners, for the spread of the true Faith and confounding of errors. Because we live by faith and not by sight, in hope, we believe against hope that those who are incurables today could become our co-brothers in the household of the True Faith and and co-heirs to the kingdom awaiting all who persevere to the end. 

For the incurables to-day we pray: from the neglect of Thine Holy inspirations, deliver them Lord Jesus!