Opening Prayer
Lord, I acknowledge the absurdity of private judgment when faced with your apostolic authority. I reject the desire to pick and choose among your teachings as if I were in a cafeteria, for to reject one part of the truth is to contradict the very notion of believing you at all.
Grant me the grace of implicit submission to the Church you have appointed as my teacher. Let me enter your presence not to argue or examine based on my own fancies, but to learn and accept the truth you have put before me.
Amen.
Matthew 5:27-32
27You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. 28But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell. 30And if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into hell. 31And it hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce. 32But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery.
Blessed John Henry Newman
Blessed John Henry Newman warns against being “cafeteria Catholics”. He explains that in the time of the Apostles, converts entered the Church to “learn”, not to “pick and choose”. Newman evaluates the “absurdity” of believing one part of the Faith and not another; the authority that makes one true makes all true. He reminds us that “the world had either to become Christian, or to let it alone”, just like how Maria became a Christian in the most absolute sense, leaving no room for “private tastes”.
Newman warns against the “cafeteria” approach to doctrine, noting that if the apostolic authority is from God, the entire message must be accepted as a cohesive whole. Faith requires an “implicit submission” to authority that transforms belief from a “project of the self” into a total surrender to a Divine architecture.
“The Church was their teacher; they did not come to argue, to examine, to pick and choose, but to accept whatever was put before them… There was no room for private tastes and fancies, no room for private judgment.”
— Blessed John Henry Newman
Mary and the Magisterium
The modern temptation toward “private judgment”—the “cafeteria Catholicism” that picks and chooses which dogmas to accept—is the antithesis of the Marian heart. Blessed John Henry Newman warns that to believe “more or less” is an absurdity; one must accept the authority of the Apostles entirely or not at all. Mary’s “implicit submission” is the standard for every member of the Church. She did not “examine” the Word to find fault or to suit her “private tastes and fancies”, but accepted the “living authority” of God’s word. Her integrated heart reminds the Church that faith is an all-or-nothing entrustment to the God who speaks through His messengers.
- Am I a "cafeteria Catholic", picking the virtues that are easy and rejecting those that are hard?
- Do I recognize the "living authority" of the Church as a gift to help me know the truth with certainty?
Closing Prayer
I commit myself to trust the definitive teaching of Thy Church, even when my own understanding fails.
Amen.
