The Wandering Catholic

1 John 4:7-8   Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.   Whoever does not love does not know God. Powerful words. Frightful words. It is hard to love, for to love opens up our hearts to suffering, to pain, even to death. There is the joy and peace which makes it all worth it, but the Cross of Selfless Love we must all bear and share is just that, a torture device through which we find life and salvation instead of death. It is our hope and our burden. These words alone, however, could be explained away. I've heard it many times. 'We do love others, so therefore we love God.' 'I try to love, doesn't that count for something?' 'I'm a nice person, isn't that the same thing?' 'How can you love scum like rapists and murderers? That's not what God is talking about.' These are a twisting of the purity of the Gos...

Everyone has heard this. And everyone loves to quote it. We shouldn't judge one another. Are you without sin? Then who are you to judge my life, or my actions? And while they are right to an extent, we are not their Judge, we are called to discern. This is then our modern heresy of pseudo-love called Tolerance, the pinnacle of virtue in our culture today. Tolerance says that so long as an action, or way of life does not bring immediate harm to you, or to society, then we must not just accept it, but also support it. Love, however, lives by a higher calling. Love proclaims the Truth. Tolerance seeks to hide from the Truth behind feelings, and safe-spaces, relativism. And so I propose a way to live. Discern everything! Test everything! A judge is someone who discovers an evil deed, then proclaims a guilty verdict, and doles out a just sentence. We are only called to see evil and proclaim evil for what it is, evil. It is up to God to deem someone guilty or not, and how they will pay f...