TIA,

I used to be a strongly pious Catholic but how would people like you respond to the fact that the Bible, which Catholics and Christians, etc. follow, is full of contradicting facts, such as the Commandment saying to honor thy father and mother whilst in Luke 14:26-33, Jesus clearly states that anyone who does not hate his family cannot be his disciple even!

How can you believe God's word which is written in man's words? And I bet you won't even answer me at all.

Please help me regain my faith in the Lord. Its because of people like you that I cannot hold my faith strong.

     A.S.



TIA responds:

A.S.,

When we find some apparent contradictions in the Bible or in Catholic Doctrine, we should try to harmonize them rather than affirm that they - Scriptures and Doctrine - are wrong. In the example you mentioned, the harmonization is quite simple.

In the Fourth Commandment God told us to honor our parents. It is a divine precept that confirms Natural Law. Every society that follows God's Law must be based on the well-established family, which presupposes the practice of the Fourth Commandment. This is a universal rule.

However, when someone is invited to enter the religious life, he/she must renounce that legitimate form of love prescribed in the Fourth Commandment in order to reach a more perfect spiritual state. This renunciation does not mean that the person who enters religious life must hate his parents. Instead, he continues to love them spiritually, but leaves them to be part of a transcendent spiritual family. In many ways this person who leaves his parents does more for them than when he was living with them, because he prays more for them and his prayers are more agreeable to God.

This renunciation is a sacrifice that, by emphasizing the many good things the person has to abandon, makes the Fourth Commandment stronger rather than denies it. It is another case of an exception that confirms the rule.

In the text of St. Mark you mentioned, in the verse 14:26 the word hate is actually used, referring to the renunciation of one's parents. The meaning of that hate is found in verse 14:33, which corresponds perfectly to what we wrote above. To hate one's parents should be interpreted as to abandon them in order to live a more perfect spiritual life.

The word hate only applies in its proper meaning when a parent tries to induce his son/daughter not to follow his/her vocation, like the father of St. Thomas who hired a prostitute to corrupt him and to deviate him from his religious vocation. In such case a person must resist his parents, like St. Thomas, who hated his father when he chose to follow a life of virtue.

In conclusion, hate normally means abandon the parents, when they are good; hate only means hate when the parents are bad. These are the two meanings that harmonize the biblical text with the Fourth Commandment.

You can see that an apparent contradiction leads us to a more elevated understanding of reality. Likewise, to love God and the Catholic Church as we should, we need to abandon our revolutionary tendency to find contradictions in His Revelation and in His Church. In God and in the Catholic Church there is no contradiction. When two things appear to be contradictory, the problem is in our poor human understanding. We should be humble, pray and try to find the marvel that lies behind that appearance.

We hope this will help you return to be a good and militant Catholic.

     Cordially,

     TIA correspondence desk

P.S. We are sorry for not being able to answer you before. We have more than 700 questions to answer, and can only respond to a few of them every week.

Dear TIA,

Your cultural page is one of my favorite destinations on the Internet.

Thank you for all the thought and work that goes into them. I would like to suggest that you include a piece on floral arrangements for the sanctuary and side altars in a traditional church. I have not been able to find much on this topic.

     Respectfully,

     M.W.

Dear TIA

Thank you for displaying photographically the many forms in which false ecumenism and inculturation have infiltrated the modernist Church. It truly is shocking and I am sure, causes great distress among your readers.

I had no idea of the extent of the errors involved. The fundamental error here, is the belief that all religions and cultures are of equal merit. They patently are not! The Catholic Church is the One True Church and the civilization which she formed, Western Civilization, is therefore superior to all others. There is no argument involved here. All other religions and civilizations come from man, not from Almighty God.

That is not to deny that Western Civilization has, in some respects, now become decadent or to suggest that there is no merit in other cultures. Of course there is some merit in other cultures and religions, but the only religion with all the truth is the Catholic Faith. One can only be saved by following faithfully the teachings of the Catholic Church and submitting to her disciplines.

This was recognized by the traditional Church, as witnessed by the zeal of its missionary Priests, Brothers and Nuns. Assisted by the great colonial powers of the day they converted pagans in their millions. Whole populations in countries such as the Philippines were converted to the True Church as were whole continents, for example, Latin America. Indigenous pagan populations such as the native Indians were converted and civilized.

Sadly the French Revolution heralded an era of rebellion and disdain for authority. Colonization effectively ended within a century and a half and today, we see the chaos which prevails in many undeveloped countries. We see also that the Catholic Church seems unwilling to convert and has allowed her wonderful Liturgy to be infected by other, grossly inferior cultures.

We offer no favors to these pagans through our unwillingness to be honest. They are in great need of salvation. We as Catholics possess the means for our salvation. It is sad we deny so many, through a false political correctness, the means to save their soul also.

     Yours faithfully

     C.P., Ireland

Dear Tradition in Action,

Thank you for creating such a good collection of traditional Catholic articles. These articles do not just discuss what’s wrong with today’s Conciliar Church but also gives one hope, and guidelines on what one should do. I especially enjoy reading, studying, meditating and then practicing what you've written on Catholic manners and customs.

I've recently read your book review entitled: Sunday in Austria, Russia and the United States by Elaine Marie Jordan. Maria von Trapp came to my college and spoke around 1981; she was and still is a most inspiring Catholic woman to me. After seeing Maria von Trapp’s name I enthusiastically read your posting.

Ms. Jordan’s article made me realize what I've lost as a Catholic. I work and with my commute put in long hours and crash into the weekend completely worn out. Because of my schedule, I use Sunday not as “a time for rejoicing, for being happy,” or “of keeping Sunday holy and joyous, truly the Lord’s Day” as Ms. Jordan’s writes but catching up on my household chores, shopping, and mowing the lawn. I have “none of that serenity and peace” as described in the article.

Your article shows me I've allowed the pendulum to swing to the material side, and I will begin to make the pendulum swing truly to “the Lord’s Day side.”

Thanks so much for this article, and I truly repent of making Sunday just another day, I am determined to create and truly live a Catholic Sunday.

     Sincerely,

     R.T.

Follow us

  Pope Ratzinger in the Lutherans Temple

  Crisis in Ecumenism

  Styles Reflect the Moral Profiles

  Do Dress Your Children Well On Sunday

   Inculturation: Native Masses in the U.S.

  Card. Dias Burns Incense to a Hindu Deity