Superstition or Legitimate Church Practice?
I had an interesting question posed to me that I would like to respond to. The question is:
Can you help me understand the line between superstition and faith? Is it just humility and sincerity? Background: I share a home with my sister’s family...A friend suggested consecrating our home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for their conversion. I have read what that entails and all of what we would commit to is already true….it just seems a little manipulative and superstitious to go through a ceremony promising our devotion to Christ when I am otherwise living a devoted life to Him. I mean, I would love little more than my sister converting but could doing this have more power than my fasting and prayer?
My reply:
This is a really good question. I will say in full disclosure this is something that I did struggle with a bit when I was thinking about converting, and to a certain extent I still do and probably always will on some level with some things. I was a former Anglican priest, so having been trained in a tradition that was very much infused with rationalism and being skeptical by nature to begin with, there are some practices, beliefs, and piety in the Catholic tradition that I openly admit I do not understand.
Now, let me be clear, when I say these things, I was not someone who scoffed at the idea of the supernatural. In some ways, in fact, just the opposite. I also simultaneously come from a background that has a touch Native American in theology. In many of those traditions, there is a very rich and present belief in the holistic nature of the universe. Now, there is a lot floating around out there in pop culture that pretends to be Native American spirituality and belief that is totally what I call 60s New Age occultist bunk but just dressed up with feathers and sage. Traditionally speaking though, many Native American traditions have a healthy respect for the idea that the physical world and the spirit world are all seamlessly connected. Some of that does lead in itself to shamanism and things Christians ought not to be involved in. However, going back to our friend, Natural Law, there are things in that mode of thinking that God can use to bring people to Christ, which is why in at least some traditions, Native belief fused extremely well with Christianity when the two came into contact in a good way. Listen to the way the classic Christmas Carol called the Huron Carol beautifully retold the Nativity story in a motif that Native Americans could completely understand. Not all contact between Native Americans and Whites ended in acrimony and war, despite some historians belief to the contrary.
I went off into the weeds there, but my point is that I am sort of weird mixture of Anglican rationalism but also was extremely influenced by the idea that there is a Great Spirit (for lack of a better term) that is so infused and active within His creation that I have always had real problems even getting my mind around the atheist/agnostic mindsets. The wonders of the natural world from the time I was old enough to hear my Grandmother who was a tribal member tell stories about how God's fingerprints are in the rocks and the trees and in the wind and in the beauty of all creation. I really deep down do not understand how someone can look at the beauty of the circle of life and believe it all happened by random chance. I know people do, but it's an ongoing challenge for me to grasp how people can possibly be in that head space, so to speak.
To bring this back around to your question, I would make a very important point: this is why there is such a beauty and value to the concept of the Magisterium and Holy Tradition found in the community that we call the Church. If you have to discern all of these things like consecrated a home to the Sacred heart or devotion to Marian apparitions or what have you as a rogue individual trying to discern whether or not it is superstitious nonsense or an actual legitimate spiritual practice, it can be overwhelming. What makes this practice something from God and that practice just superstitious nonsense. Or, conversely, what makes this practice from God and that practice a bunch of gussied up '60s New Age crystal power hooey.
The answer is found in what has the Church over the centuries discerned about such-and-such a practice. Is it a practice that has been examined by theologian scholars and/or practiced by deep spiritual leaders within the Church to ascertain whether it bore the fruits of the Spirit or was it just some passing spiritual fad or even some practice that was upon the discernment of the whole Church to be something clearly grounded in some dark and evil that was created to lead well-meaning Catholics away from the light into some sort of spiritual darkness.
I can give you multiple examples of strange theological practices or beliefs that have arisen over the centuries that clearly were superstitious and not of God. There were certain apparitions that came, claiming to be Mary or whatever, and the Church investigated them and was pretty clearly were condemned as something that-maybe not evil but certainly not from God because you can discern things from God by their fruits. If such a practice or devotion is consistently leading people to go and rebel against their Bishop and form their own church somewhere or even to leave Christianity entirely...the discernment and investigation of the whole Church over time is a major way God reveals Himself in the practice and worship and sacramentals of the Church.
So, in my own case, I can give you a good example. I have never known what to do with things like devotions of relics of saints like when the blood of some saint like Januarius liquefies once a year. I don't know what to do with that. It's obviously meaningful for some people. I do not understand why God would choose to manifest His power in such a way. It seems random and for someone steeped in Anglican rationalism where God is Himself rational, that makes no sense to me. Now, I have never had any problem in believing God can and does do miracles. That's not my issue. Could God do such a thing? Sure. Does it make any sense to my individual rational mind? No, it does not.
If it was only up to me and my own determination, I would dismiss such an occurrence as at best weird and unexplainable and at worst some sort of hocus pocus charlatanism. But, it is not up to me. The Church has determined over the centuries that this is somehow an act of God. It has even occurred in the actual presence of Popes. Now, I still don't know what to do this occurrence. I pray for faith seeking understanding. I pray it brings some people to faith or accomplishes that for which God purposes it. I doubt this side of glory that I will ever quite understand it, but again, it's not up to me. I listen to the wisdom of the Church and pray that somehow God will open my eyes to understanding what all that is about. I am not there, clearly. I may never be on this side of the grave. What I do know is that God gives discernment to the whole Church and not me, and that God does things I do not and will not understand.
O God, your ocean is so large, and my boat is so small.
This is a really good question. I will say in full disclosure this is something that I did struggle with a bit when I was thinking about converting, and to a certain extent I still do and probably always will on some level with some things. I was a former Anglican priest, so having been trained in a tradition that was very much infused with rationalism and being skeptical by nature to begin with, there are some practices, beliefs, and piety in the Catholic tradition that I openly admit I do not understand.
Now, let me be clear, when I say these things, I was not someone who scoffed at the idea of the supernatural. In some ways, in fact, just the opposite. I also simultaneously come from a background that has a touch Native American in theology. In many of those traditions, there is a very rich and present belief in the holistic nature of the universe. Now, there is a lot floating around out there in pop culture that pretends to be Native American spirituality and belief that is totally what I call 60s New Age occultist bunk but just dressed up with feathers and sage. Traditionally speaking though, many Native American traditions have a healthy respect for the idea that the physical world and the spirit world are all seamlessly connected. Some of that does lead in itself to shamanism and things Christians ought not to be involved in. However, going back to our friend, Natural Law, there are things in that mode of thinking that God can use to bring people to Christ, which is why in at least some traditions, Native belief fused extremely well with Christianity when the two came into contact in a good way. Listen to the way the classic Christmas Carol called the Huron Carol beautifully retold the Nativity story in a motif that Native Americans could completely understand. Not all contact between Native Americans and Whites ended in acrimony and war, despite some historians belief to the contrary.
I went off into the weeds there, but my point is that I am sort of weird mixture of Anglican rationalism but also was extremely influenced by the idea that there is a Great Spirit (for lack of a better term) that is so infused and active within His creation that I have always had real problems even getting my mind around the atheist/agnostic mindsets. The wonders of the natural world from the time I was old enough to hear my Grandmother who was a tribal member tell stories about how God's fingerprints are in the rocks and the trees and in the wind and in the beauty of all creation. I really deep down do not understand how someone can look at the beauty of the circle of life and believe it all happened by random chance. I know people do, but it's an ongoing challenge for me to grasp how people can possibly be in that head space, so to speak.
To bring this back around to your question, I would make a very important point: this is why there is such a beauty and value to the concept of the Magisterium and Holy Tradition found in the community that we call the Church. If you have to discern all of these things like consecrated a home to the Sacred heart or devotion to Marian apparitions or what have you as a rogue individual trying to discern whether or not it is superstitious nonsense or an actual legitimate spiritual practice, it can be overwhelming. What makes this practice something from God and that practice just superstitious nonsense. Or, conversely, what makes this practice from God and that practice a bunch of gussied up '60s New Age crystal power hooey.
The answer is found in what has the Church over the centuries discerned about such-and-such a practice. Is it a practice that has been examined by theologian scholars and/or practiced by deep spiritual leaders within the Church to ascertain whether it bore the fruits of the Spirit or was it just some passing spiritual fad or even some practice that was upon the discernment of the whole Church to be something clearly grounded in some dark and evil that was created to lead well-meaning Catholics away from the light into some sort of spiritual darkness.
I can give you multiple examples of strange theological practices or beliefs that have arisen over the centuries that clearly were superstitious and not of God. There were certain apparitions that came, claiming to be Mary or whatever, and the Church investigated them and was pretty clearly were condemned as something that-maybe not evil but certainly not from God because you can discern things from God by their fruits. If such a practice or devotion is consistently leading people to go and rebel against their Bishop and form their own church somewhere or even to leave Christianity entirely...the discernment and investigation of the whole Church over time is a major way God reveals Himself in the practice and worship and sacramentals of the Church.
So, in my own case, I can give you a good example. I have never known what to do with things like devotions of relics of saints like when the blood of some saint like Januarius liquefies once a year. I don't know what to do with that. It's obviously meaningful for some people. I do not understand why God would choose to manifest His power in such a way. It seems random and for someone steeped in Anglican rationalism where God is Himself rational, that makes no sense to me. Now, I have never had any problem in believing God can and does do miracles. That's not my issue. Could God do such a thing? Sure. Does it make any sense to my individual rational mind? No, it does not.
If it was only up to me and my own determination, I would dismiss such an occurrence as at best weird and unexplainable and at worst some sort of hocus pocus charlatanism. But, it is not up to me. The Church has determined over the centuries that this is somehow an act of God. It has even occurred in the actual presence of Popes. Now, I still don't know what to do this occurrence. I pray for faith seeking understanding. I pray it brings some people to faith or accomplishes that for which God purposes it. I doubt this side of glory that I will ever quite understand it, but again, it's not up to me. I listen to the wisdom of the Church and pray that somehow God will open my eyes to understanding what all that is about. I am not there, clearly. I may never be on this side of the grave. What I do know is that God gives discernment to the whole Church and not me, and that God does things I do not and will not understand.
O God, your ocean is so large, and my boat is so small.
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