By Judie Brown
The Catechism of Saint Pius X states: “Blasphemy is a horrible sin which consists in words or acts of contempt or malediction against God, the Blessed Virgin, the Saints, or sacred things.”
The latest example of this would be the shocking misrepresentation of the Last Supper portrayed by malevolent individuals during the Olympic games. This disgusting display reminds us of Saint Paul’s admonition to the Hebrews: “Take care, brothers, that none of you ever has a wicked heart, so unbelieving as to turn away from the living God.”
As though he were a prophet in our time, Bishop Athanasius Schneider wrote of heresy, and his words are incredibly relevant to this discussion. He said that within the Catholic Church today there exists the basic error of moral relativism, “which creates a state of mind of ambiguity and uncertainty regarding any religious truth.” Apparently this is the case with the Vatican itself, which has failed to make note, let alone express concern, over the debacle in Paris during the opening of the Olympic games.
This state of ambiguity and uncertainty permeates so many aspects of sound Catholic thinking these days, whether we are addressing contraception, abortion, in vitro fertilization, or euthanasia in its many forms. Is it any wonder that in the midst of such confusion human beings celebrate their disdain for Christ in the most despicable of acts?
While the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops itself made no official statement about the Opening Ceremony, there were individual bishops who did. Among them was Bishop Robert Barron, of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, who proclaimed when asked about this mockery, “It’s perfectly clear. . . . You have a very secularist, very materialist, post-modern culture that knows who their enemy is. The Christian churches stand as the great institutional opponents to this worldview. It’s a philosophical, cultural struggle, and they know who the enemy is, so when they have a chance, they mock the enemy.”
Bishop Barron has hit the nail on the proverbial head. After all, those who despise Christ, His Church, and His teachings not only take every opportunity to mock Him but do so with apparent impunity.
Public figures like the director of the events declare openly that there was no intent to offend anyone, but posts from those involved demonstrate otherwise! Contained in that statement alone is the kernel of what is wrong with the secular world today, which has, for all intents and purposes, worked consistently to erase the real existence of Christ from His rightful place as Lord and King of all.
That is, as we have said before, precisely what the religion of secular humanism holds as its number one tenet, for as The Humanist Manifesto states, “Traditional dogmatic or authoritarian religions that place revelation, God, ritual, or creed above human needs and experience do a disservice to the human species.”
Imagine what this means in terms of the demons of blasphemy and scandal. If, as the manifesto makes clear, there is no God other than the self, then whatever they deem appropriate or necessary in a given moment is precisely what will be spoken, acted upon, and imposed on everyone else.
We who strive to serve God rather than the world are constantly reminded of the reason why we are blessed to adore Christ, to receive Him in the Eucharist, and to take comfort in His loving embrace. Our constant plea for His peace is echoed beautifully by Father Thomas Weinandy, who reminds us:
If there ever was a time when, before the Blessed Sacrament, reparation needs to be made to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, this is such a time. Jesus’s heart was pierced out of love for all. From His heart flows out an abundance of mercy and forgiveness. All Christians need to call upon Jesus, as the Sacred Heart, to cast out all demons from Paris and the Olympics. All Christian groups need to pray that Jesus would fill everyone, especially the athletes, with the love of his Holy Spirit.
