Day 1 - Resolve Check

So far so good on my resolve in 2016 to not tag folks as belonging to one camp or another (liberal, conservative, traditionalist, et al.). That proposal has worked for these first few hours of 2016, but for the rest I seem to have started the New Year a bit absent minded, as I spent much time looking for two misplaced items this morning.

In one case, a friend came to the rescue and replaced the lost letter for me with his copy. In the other, I guess I will just have to do without a future footnote to a book review in the making. For the life of me, I cannot find the original recommendation which put me on the track of a book I never would have come across on my own. What to do? Be thankful for the hint, I guess, and when I've finished reading, own the thing myself without appealing to a higher authority? Time will tell.

In my search through tweets and timeline entries this morning looking for my book reference, I did come across some of those annoying adjuncts which Facebook automatically (?) generates and places on your timeline without any permission. The one headline took me back years to a favorite annoyance from the religion page of local Saturday newspapers at Mom's house. With a certain regularity, usually around the time of priesthood ordinations or major feast days like Easter, somebody would be out there criticizing the next generation of priests for being young, inexperienced and (horror of horrors) inflexible. The thing was thoroughly diabolical, as the articles proposed a model for young priests which would have found no backing in any college developmental psychology textbook referring to men in their late 20's. What 26 year old has a life behind him? Domestication for most males is still far off at age 28. The object of the newspaper column exercise had nothing to do with wishing the best for ministry in the Church, but rather with denying any place within the Church to real ministry by real men.

As I could see from the Facebook adjunct to my timeline this morning, the game plan continues with tagging and skewing a whole vision of the world. People out there are trying to sell the notion that being of a traditional mindset means being unthinking and rigid for lack of thought or insight. Getting "with it", whatever "it" might be in this 21st Century, would seem to be the only "thinking" thing to do. How sad! It would seem to be that the only noble option for life or ecclesiology would be the "STAR TREK" philosophy or trajectory of "daring to go where no man has gone before..."  

I guess all I want to say is that Day 1 has brought me new resolve not only for not pegging others, but for demanding critical thinking from those who belligerently insist upon going on their "STAR TREK journey" into a bright, beautiful future without anchor in the truth which comes from the God Who loves us and has saved us in Christ.

Yes, tagging is bad news; especially if it draws us off the course set by the Tradition for the joyful realization of God's plan for us His children, washed in the Blood of the Lamb.