Of Course

I read two words the other day in an article that were amazing: "of course". They were amazing for two different reasons. The first reason is obvious because of the context. A man was asked why there were so many people converting to the Catholic faith in a time when the Catholic Church has so many problems. His answer (essentially) was, "in times like these people long for what is stable and certain, so of course many will end up looking at the Catholic Church." Even people who hate the Catholic Church have to admit that she has been around longer than any other organization on Earth; through thick and thin, she is stable.

The second reason those words were amazing is because of their literal meaning. "Of course" means not just "yes it is so", but literally they mean "in the natural course of events". This is true of what we are experiencing right now. In the natural course of events, the Church compromises the faith, then the world degenerates into even more grave sin, then people seek stability and in looking they find out what the Catholic Church at the heart (even if she is not doing well at the time), and they seek that stability that Christ promises.

This answers the question of why people choose to convert to the Catholic faith in times like these: stability, solidity, historicity, and endurance through the ages. Sadly, when many people convert they end up finding out that the Catholic parish they joined is not really as "solid" and "stable" as they had thought it would be. They become disillusioned and often drift away from the faith. I am not as interested in how many people joined the parish last Easter as I am interested in how many of those will still be in the parish two years from now. People want the stability of the historic Catholic faith; unchanged, and unchanging.

Modernism does not provide that stability. Seeking constant change and newness does not provide that stability. Attempting to find new ideas to insert into the Mass does not provide that stability. Compromising the faith to make people feel "happy and clappy" does not provide that stability. Only the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, as she has always believed and practiced, will ever be able to provide that stability; and deep down everyone knows that.