Fr. Martin Ain’t No St. Paul

If Martin were to (*GASP*) become Catholic, I honestly think One Mad Mom would quit blogging!🤣

From One Mad Mom

You knew it was coming, the James Martin, SJ Twitter rant against Church teachings. Rather ironic that the person who points fingers towards everyone else is now so dismayed at a document he has even admitted Pope Francis approved. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good day for him and it shouldn’t be. It was a day of reckoning and, hopefully, one he will grasp with both hands because it was TRUTH. It must have been gut-wrenching to have a truth bomb dropped in the lap of someone who’s been doling out false hope  for so long.
 
The whole pathetic rant can be found here. I feel deeply sorry for his devotees because they seemed so caught off guard and dismayed. That’s on him. https://twitter.com/JamesMartinSJ/status/1371576048559751171

Dear friends: Today I received dozens of messages from #LGBTQ people, as well as their friends, families and allies, who told me they were disappointed, discouraged and disheartened by the Vatican’s latest pronouncement on barring the blessings of same-sex marriages…

First of all, there’s no such thing as same-sex marriages. That was a big point in the document. Of people were disappointed, discouraged and disheartened! You and your ilk have long been peddling lies and false hope about the ability of the Church’s teachings to change on this issue. You encouraged them to embrace a deadly behavior and now you should take responsibility for it.

For many of them, the document was profoundly discouraging, though it was perhaps not surprising, given the CDF’s longstanding position on this topic….

The sad thing is that it was still very surprising for some. Oh, and let’s not reduce this to a single congregation. This is the perennial stance of the Church. You don’t bless sin and you don’t lead people astray who are doing it. Shocker. I do realize it’s your thing and you cheer on those who do it all the time as you do below, but the Church didn’t rubberstamp your errors. Leading people astray is your darn hobby. 

Many people, encouraged by several German bishops, and other priests in the West who have ventured to give such blessings, were hoping that such blessings might represent a small way that the church might recognize what the CDF’s document called the “positive elements…”

Hah! Love your Pontius Pilate move. “It was the German bishops and others who will remain nameless who are to blame for the false hope, not me.” Nope. You’re every bit as guilty.

….of these couples, even if they could not be married within the church, in a sacramental union. Especially painful for many LGBTQ people who contacted me today was the statement that God “does not and cannot bless sin….”

We should be thanking God for constantly calling us to repentance and His mercy, and we should we embrace it. If people want meaning in their life, they should hold fast to God’s laws and do their best to turn away from sin. I can absolutely promise really good things if one does, instead of the let down that Fr. Martin’s followers are experiencing. At some point we all have to realize that embracing our Crosses is a very good thing and it’s ever so helpful at gaining everlasting life. It’s better than any malformed relationship we have here. We are all called to the same thing. Nobody’s crosses are any more special than anyone else’s, but you know what makes them better? The Body of Christ digging deep to carry them together. It’s certainly not jealousy or envy for those who have a cross we’d rather have. I can tell you this, someone almost always has a heavier one, and it’s amazing seeing some of those with the heaviest aided in carrying theirs by the Body of Christ. We could all be doing this for each other, but nope, you’d rather foster the envy and division.

First, I want to say to my LGBTQ friends that I am with you in prayer.

Let’s hear it. What are you praying for? An easing of their cross or acceptance of them? It really could be both but encouraging people to carry crosses has never been your thing.

Second, know that the journey of the church with LGBTQ people is a long one, and Christ is with us–LGBTQ people, families, friends and allies–and will never leave us. But it is a journey….

A few years ago, a young gay man told me that Howard Gray, SJ, a great Jesuit spiritual master, said to him, “God loves you and your church is learning to love you.” So we are pilgrim church, learning, changing and growing, even in the middle of what may seem to many people…

like disappointments and even heartbreaks. 

You just can’t help yourself, can you? A journey to what? “Gay marriage?” You’re going to continue to peddle the false hope. How do you know who’s going to leave whom? And what are they supposed to do if they are left? You’re basically just telling people to surround themselves with people who agree with them. What happens when they don’t? What happens when life doesn’t follow their script? You’re teaching people to have hope in a same-sex relationship rather than having hope in God. How about teaching them that “God loves you and he gave you an entire Church, the Body of Christ, to love you. They’re not here to boost your ego, rubberstamp your mistakes, they’re here for true love.” That’s so much better than what Fr. Martin is offering you.  

Third, remember that, as Psalmist says, “The Lord is near to the broken-hearted” (34:18). Don’t hesitate to pour yourself out to God in prayer and ask for God’s presence….

Typical for Fr. Martin, he left out a little:

Come, my children, listen to me;

 I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

12 Whoever of you loves life

  and desires to see many good days,

13 keep your tongue from evil

  and your lips from telling lies.

14 Turn from evil and do good;

  seek peace and pursue it.

 

15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

  and his ears are attentive to their cry;

16 but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from the earth.

 

17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;

  he delivers them from all their troubles.

18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted

  and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

There’s a wee bit of work on our end.

Most of all, never despair. That voice is not coming from God. The voice of hope is. After all, what are the dark 40 days of Lent other than a preparation for a light-filled Easter? On Easter Christ upended all expectations and reminded us that nothing is impossible with God…

Sadly, I think despair is where following Fr. Martin leads you, which is why I hope and I pray you will stop listening to him.  Listen to this guy instead:

Jesus said to me; ‘How many times would you have abandoned Me, my son, if I had not crucified you. Beneath the cross, one learns love, and I do not give this to everyone, but only to those souls who are dearest to Me. ~St Pio

Fr. Martin acts as if the Church has abandoned you. It is not true. Promising you that you can reject Her is Fr. Martin abandoning you to, well, yourself. Don’t let him do it.

Besides, what is the alternative? To lock ourselves behind closed doors like the disciples on Good Friday and Holy Saturday? To live in fear of the future that God has in store for us? To shrink in terror from the hard work that all disciples are called to do?…

What’s the alternative? Oh, I don’t know. How about to avail ourselves of God’s immeasurable mercy and to follow the doctrines of the Church which God gave us to guide us?

To doubt that Jesus is on the side of those who feel in any way marginalized? To leave the community into which Christ himself called us at our baptism?…

The question really isn’t “Is Jesus on our side?” That’s a given. The question is “Are we on His side?”

As Christians we live in hope and in the trust that Easter is always before us, not matter how cold the winter or how difficult the Lent.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

And there’s Martin’s usual deformed take. Lent is not a curse. Lent is not even a proverbial winter. The word Lent is actually derived from the Anglo-Saxon word “lencten” which means “Spring.” It’s a time for spiritual growth. It’s an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to empty ourselves of our pride, our sins, our attachments that keep us, or at best, distract us from Christ. It’s a mini version of what our whole life is about. It’s not something to be “survived” until we get what we want, as Fr. Martin seemingly suggests. It’s not a time to wallow. It’s not a time to be a victim and Fr. Martin to be the savior. It’s a time to overcome so that we may reap the reward of the harvest of Easter and everlasting life.

Instead of telling people they’re all martyrs and to be patient for the Church to bend her teachings around their will, it would have been really nice if Fr. Martin simply had everyone read Paul’s Letter to the Philippians. https://www.newadvent.org/bible/phi001.htm It’s a nice short letter and chock full of wisdom and encouragement for the Body of Christ to work together to ditch pride, worldly attachments and sin. Yup, I know that’s too much to expect from him. I imagine he especially wouldn’t like this part at all:

I have told you often, and now tell you again with tears, that there are many whose lives make them the enemies of Christ’s cross. Perdition is the end that awaits them, their own hungry bellies are the god they worship, their own shameful doings are their pride; their minds are set on the things of earth;  whereas we find our true home in heaven. It is to heaven that we look expectantly for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ to save us; he will form this humbled body of ours anew, moulding it into the image of his glorified body, so effective is his power to make all things obey him.

Nope. Fr. Martin will just continue on telling people to look for heaven on earth, to ditch their crosses, and that those encouraging them to do so and who are willing to walk with them are their enemies. Sad. We must step up those prayers!