Sunday, May 4, 2014
Off-the-cuff Pope Watchers
Don't listen to them. They do not take the Church seriously - at least insofar as what you see written on their blogs. Insofar as that, they are immature and careless in their frivolity, revealing a shallow consideration. They take one thing seriously: themselves. They take themselves seriously to the point of practically denying the humanity and divinity of Jesus. Oh, they wouldn't deny these in a statement. But where it matters, in practice where it wouldn't earn them vanity points, it is quite clear: they are practical non-believers who believe in themselves.
Do not listen to people, lay or religious, who say that the Pope speaks off-the-cuff. The term "off-the-cuff" denotes something very specific: casual to the point of carelessness. The term "off-the-cuff" in relation to Pope Francis is a telltale sign, unwitting or not, of an ideology at work to slander and falsify his image, when in truth our Pope is working only to reveal one image: the image of Christ.
Pope Francis does not speak off-the-cuff. As Pope he never has. What Pope Francis does do is speak spontaneously. Spontaneity and "off-the-cuff" are two very different things. They have two very different foundations.
Just as these writers and their little off-the-cuff blog thoughts render the present into something de facto fake and empty, by way of their solemn, histrionic canonization of the past (thus, without the present in what it actually really is, which requires the prayerful comprehension of depth perception, they whitewash, revise and disassociate the past), likewise, for them, spontaneity can only ever be something careless in the worst sense of the word.
Pope Francis is diligent in what he says, not in some gloss-like manner of "being careful" (something which, when overemphasized, exists strictly as a horizontalism), but he is diligent in placing himself in the Word of God so to speak what God is speaking. Which is why, for him, he so often speaks spontaneously. His spontaneous style (not off-the-cuff) denotes a very, very firm foundation, and deep roots. That's why one can be spontaneous. Spontaneity is not frivolous.
But the off-the-cuff Pope-Watchers are floating every which way in an ether, declaring themselves to be the serious watchmen of the night - like Batman - and - that's right - more Catholic than the Pope.
They're building on sand.