One Bread, One Body

By Charlie Johnston

One of the devil’s most brilliant successes has been to embed the pharisaical instinct deeply into the human psyche. Few want the mundane honor of being God’s good servant, preferring the romantic drama of being God’s enforcer. The latter is the wide gate that leads to destruction while, as Christ said, the gate that leads to life is narrow, the path is hard, and few find it. (Matthew 7:14).

Catholics burned those found to be heretics. This was one of the more serious abuses rightly decried by the Protestant Reformation. It would have been more impressive to God if the new Protestants had not promptly followed up that complaint when they had taken power by burning over ten times as many people as witches in a couple of decades as Catholics had burned as heretics in their entire history.

In fact, English King Henry VIII’s break with the Catholic Church in the mid-1530’s kicked off a century and a half of bitter, murderous religious strife between Catholics and Protestants with each vying with the other to see which could be more vicious and bloodthirsty when they held the advantage. Eventually, the Protestants prevailed – and promptly began warring against fellow Protestant denominations they felt were too lax. It all came to a head with the ascendance of Oliver Cromwell, who had Anglican King Charles I (who was married to a Catholic) beheaded and himself declared Lord Protector of England. Cromwell was a Puritan, but not of the majority Presbyterian Puritans. The Presbyterian Puritans thought the country should be ruled by religious Presbyters of their choosing while Cromwell thought it should be ruled by Parliament. But both thought the people should be “purified,” whether by fire or other cruel devices for any infractions of their rules, which they claimed to be God’s rules.

Cromwell and his Puritan cohorts were so fanatical that they forbade the celebration of Christmas, insisting it was a sin to esteem any single day more than another. I suspect Cromwell would have had Christ, Himself, burned upon catching Him celebrating the Passover.  During the too-long period of the ascendance of the Puritans in England, even the most minor infractions were met with a penalty of death. It got to where if a couple was caught dead to rights in adultery, a jury would rarely convict them even on the most compelling of evidence, for the juries were not willing to put their neighbors to death for such an infraction. In his defense, as Cromwell aged, he became much more tolerant of other denominations of Protestants. Whether that was because of his distaste for the Presbyterian Puritans who wanted a good chance to “purify” him or because of a late-blooming largeness of spirit I do not venture to guess.

All of these determinedly murderous thugs claimed to do their depredations in the name of truth, justice, and Christ. I expect a lot of tunnel-visioned “followers” of Christ will be shocked when He tells them, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.” (Matthew 7:23)

The first thing to understand is that God, the Blessed Trinity is headed by the Father. In the fullness of time, He came in the Second Person as Brother. Which of you, seeing your beloved child or sibling walking a path of self-immolation would eagerly seek their destruction? With all your heart you would yearn for, work for, and pray for their reclamation that you might be joyfully reunited. Why, then, would anyone think they are imitating God by seeking the destruction of their brother? I guess the jealous, vengeful Cult of Cain has been with us from the beginning, inflamed by the satan’s malevolent glee.

I do not shrink from fights. If I think I must, I enter them with fortitude and resolve. I usually prevail – and from a human standpoint take much satisfaction in victory. But spiritually, I grieve because I know it is, at least, partial failure. My call is to reclaim people to the joy and freedom that is in Christ, to help free them from the bondage to sin and the corrosive power of resentment. When I stand before God in judgment, It will not be my triumphs over atheists or heretical thinking that I will offer up as my treasures, though there are plenty. It will be the time the National Spokesman for the American Atheists told me that I was making him rethink his atheism, not because of my clever arguments but because my affectionate regard for his conscience; or the time he asked me sincerely to baptize his baby daughter. There are a few handfuls of more episodes such as these, but they are the crown jewels of my meager harvest.

When I was yet a boy, I noted with growing resentment and wrath the hypocrisy of so many leaders in my family’s Pentecostal sect. Most strove for power in this little group, claiming their viciousness was pleasing to God. There is nothing the leaders so loved as finding someone to condemn, or something by which they could condemn otherwise kindly people. It was hideous. As I got a little older, I came to value the simple people who were sincerely trying to please God the best way they knew how, but without the viciousness. I knew many who struggled, fearing they were not holy because they lacked the predatory viciousness of their most prominent leaders. I tried to give them affectionate, encouraging words. It was a source of profound pride and satisfaction to me when my father become a Pentecostal Pastor whose little Church focused on building each other up rather than engaging in leadership battles involving tearing each other down. Of course, Dad was quite the contrarian. It tickled us both that when fellow pastors would venture a bout of Catholic-bashing, Dad would invariably tell them that, “If I weren’t Pentecostal I would be Catholic.”

Occasionally, because of my flair for disputation, some preachers would try to recruit me into their ranks. I had to tightly control my rage when a couple of them warmly assured me that becoming a revival preacher was a “great way to get girls.” Not that I had anything against getting girls; I was actually an enthusiast for it. But to use the things of God as leverage to obtain the things of man contrary to how God commands it be done seemed to me to be blasphemy of the most rank sort.

A quarter of a century ago there was a gay couple that I was friendly with. They would occasionally stop by my office to chat about this, that and the other. I have always worn my religion on my sleeve, but I like most folks. One day, one of the men looked at me and asked, “You think what we do is a sin, don’t you?” I nodded candidly that, yes, I did. He was quiet for a few moments and then said, “But you think you chasing women is a sin, too.” I agreed that, without benefit of marriage, I knew it was. He was quiet for a few moments and then said, “I can live with that.” Our conversation then went on. Somehow, I rank that among my treasures, as well.

One of my spiritual directors in the early days pushed hard that I needed to be more overtly evangelical. It’s just not my way. I couldn’t – and truth be told – wouldn’t, do it. It was one of the few areas where we seriously disagreed. At a religious event he attended, he later told me that he mentioned I was a friend of his. To his surprise, several people enthusiastically started telling him about the role I had played in their deeper conversion. He told me he believed in overt evangelization, but instructed me, particularly, to keep doing whatever it was I was doing – and that was the end of that.

Ah, but the urge to command rather to serve is visceral. Without care, it can ensnare any of us. On Easter of 2007, I had arrived just on time at a Parish I only occasionally visited. As you all know, if you arrive on time on Easter you are too late to get a seat and must take standing room. I dreaded it. My neurological injury makes standing still quickly very painful for me. But I gritted my teeth. To my surprise, there was a single vacancy right up front – and the usher took me right to it. The front row for me…I felt like Bob Uecker. It was one of the most sacrilegious Masses I have ever been to.

When the Priest began his homily, he spoke glowingly of the “Easter event.” If you don’t know the code, that almost always means the speaker does not actually believe in the resurrection, only that Jesus was, “raised in our hearts.” That red flag signaled the beginning of every humanist shibboleth you can imagine. Jesus was such a good moral teacher, don’t you know? My mood was dark and getting darker, subjected to this sacrilegious offense getting more sacrilegious by the moment. And on Easter, no less! When it was time for communion, people were receiving so close to me in the front row that I could have reached out and touched them without standing up.

I never saw so many offenses piled up all at once. The most memorable one came when the ponytailed dude came up. When the extraordinary minister held up the host and said, “The Body of Christ,” Mr. Cool Dude took it in one hand, gave a thumbs up with the other, and cheerily said, “Cool, Dude!” before popping it into his mouth and crunching it like a potato chip. I was livid, and seriously thinking of walking out, when the Lord appeared to me and said, sadly and sternly, “Behold my people, given into your care. Guard them well.” It was a gentle, but powerful, rebuke. My call was not to condemn people from communion with Him, but to work to reclaim them into deeper communion with Him.

Jesus condemns those who, while being exacting on every jot and tittle of the law, neglect the weightier matters – justice, mercy and faith. He describes them as, “…blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel.” (Matthew 23: 23,24).

The Lord is subtle, patient and precise. He constantly gives us chances to prove ourselves – and in doing so – refine ourselves, conforming ourselves ever closer to His image. That is the internal campaign which must be waged rigorously and pitilessly if we are to bear fruit worthy of the Master. Usually, attempts to be God’s Enforcer are efforts to avoid this internal campaign of pruning yourself that you may bear abundant fruit. Alas, you can bear no fruit at all if you do not engage seriously with it.

A few years ago I was proud to see so many Christians I admired resist the attempt to oppress and marginalize people of faith. Many did so with real courage and resolve. I have been shaken to see so many who I admired, once the pressure eased, eagerly setting themselves up as new enforcers. It was not so much that they were against coercing conscience in principle, but that they wanted to be in the command seat to coerce others’ consciences.

Now I see people I recently admired splitting more hairs than a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader on a humid day in their eager and almost desperate search to find things that will disqualify others from being accepted as real Christians.

Let me make it as simple and straightforward as I can right now.

1. God is Creator of all – and Father to those who will accept and follow Him.
2. All of us fall short of the glory of God. It is narcissistic tomfoolery to be obsessively fretting about who is the holiest of them all. The actual holiest of all created men falls far short of the glory of God.
3. Jesus founded a Church, not that He might drive men who fall short away from Him, but that He might draw men to Him in abundance. He gave doctrinal authority and governance of that visible Church to men, His apostles and their successors.
4. As St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:7, we hold this treasure in earthen vessels. We are the earthen vessels. Our Bishops are the earthen vessels. The Pope is an earthen vessel. Earthen vessels are wont to crack and break. Even so, this is how God chose to set it up.
5. The hierarchy of the Church is responsible to God for defending, protecting, extending, and proclaiming sound doctrine to all the world. As earthen vessels they will often stumble. This does NOT invalidate the covenant the Lord has set with them.
6. Our duty is to follow Him. Our call is to multiply His followers. We do that by following and submitting to His Apostles in their lawful authority. We are free, even obligated, to criticize, rebuke, and chastise bad doctrine when, inevitably, it makes appearances. We are not free to set ourselves up as a competing hierarchy even when real abuses are propounded by the actual hierarchy Christ sets up.
7. Faith means we do all in our power to do right and to set things right when they are wrong, without stepping into territory that has been forbidden to us by our station in life. Trust means that when we do all we can without trying to usurp authority not given to us, that God, Himself, will, in His own good time set things right and hold offenders to account – gentle account for those who honestly err, hard account for those who intentionally defy Him.

Of course, much of this meditation has been triggered by the SSPX defying the Pope and ordaining four new Bishops on July 1 in Econe, Switzerland. I sympathize with many of the doctrinal emphases of the SSPX. I also think some of their proclamations of doctrinal purity are the angry, superficial scrawl of a petulant child. I do not think them nearly as sophisticated as arbiters of faith and interpreters of doctrine as they think they are. That they claim the authority to defy the Pope’s legitimate governance on internal matters is an offense against Christ, Himself, even if the Pope were wrong in all his doctrinal opinions. That they claim it is “of necessity” and, so, they are not bound by the Pope’s authority is laughably ludicrous. If Tyler Robinson is convicted of the murder of Charlie Kirk and then says he must, “of necessity,” overrule the court, that would be as laughable an absurdity.

I do decry the reality that the Vatican, in recent years, has been tolerant of all manner of heterodox, worldly abuses while holding notably orthodox members to a viciously nitpicking standard. That homosexual unions, transgender ideology, and even abortion can get either a pass or just pro forma pushback while the Traditional Latin Mass is shut down, orthodox orders of nuns persecuted…well…it infuriates me. And I have written of it here many times, as is my right as a baptized Catholic. I consider the Vatican’s agreement with China to be one of the greatest scandals in the history of the Church and the most hideous betrayal since Judas betrayed Our Lord, Himself.

I publicly dispute with the hierarchs who enable these things. Privately, I pray for them and pity them. There will be a robust market for millstone futures if these prelates never repent of causing the little ones entrusted to their care to sin. I have no doubt that, though God allows sin to abound for a time, He calls all to account. The spiritual chains some prelates are forging for themselves will make that of Jacob Marley look like a mere bracelet.

But don’t you know that throughout salvation history, God has allowed abuses to endure for a time? “…it is necessary that offenses come, but woe to the man by whom the offense comes!” (Matthew 18:7). He allows offenses to prove our fidelity, though I cannot fathom all of the purposes for which He allows them to endure for His appointed time. And yet, groaning under the weight of such abuses, if we little ones succumb to the temptation to set up shop for ourselves and defy the doctrinal and governing authority of the Church, we become the source of such an offense by our disobedience.

Though those of you who read me regularly know this well, in case a new reader stumbles upon this, do not think that I am one of those pathetic fools who believes the Church has all authority over all things. Some things, very important things, are the primary prudential responsibility of the hierarchy and others are the primary prudential responsibility of the laity. If a Bishop or Pope tells me what kind and color of car I must buy, or what manner of water system I must set up for my community, or the details of the immigration system my country must adopt, I will ignore them and criticize them for trying to usurp the primary prudential responsibility of the laity. I am equally critical of the laity’s efforts to usurp the primary prudential responsibility of the hierarchy – or a subordinate branch of the hierarchy defying the supreme disciplinary and governing authority.

Many of the faith traditions I have tried to live or had dealing with have insisted that only their adherents can go to heaven. I hold such spiritual triumphalism in utter contempt. How then, do I firmly believe the doctrine of “Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus” (outside the Church there is no salvation)? I have always interpreted it not as a franchise to give out golden tickets to heaven, but as a heavy responsibility imposed by God upon the Church, a responsibility for all souls He has created. I believe that the fullness of the deposit of faith has been entrusted to the Church until the end of time, to safeguard and proclaim. I am not, however, going to disparage anyone who has what I believe to be part of the truth.

Years ago, a friend of mine who was Methodist confided in me that he was contemplating converting to the Catholic Church. I was enthused, because he was a very good man. A few months later, after many conversations, he just was not convinced. To his surprise, I told him that, in that case, he should stay where he was. He asked me why I didn’t try to push him over the edge. “You are a very good Methodist man,” I explained. “If you come into the Catholic Church without conviction, you will probably be a bad Catholic – and we have plenty of those already.”

My rule is simple. If a person is of good will, I assume God will move in him in His own time and for His own purposes – and my job is just to be a good friend, available to him, and enjoy his company. Wherever you are on the one road to salvation, if you are of good will, you are my friend and shall remain so, whatever errors I think you are prey to or whatever errors you think I am prey to. I have long said that there is nothing so easy to condemn as a sin you are not tempted by and nothing so easy to justify as a sin you are tempted by. Be charitable with others, rigorous with yourself, and you will come out okay at the end.

Beyond that, each of us is an integral union of body and soul. I have a fair, shrewd mind – supported by an old jalopy of a body. But they will not be separated until my death to this world. Even then, they will be reunited at the Resurrection – and then a glorified body, free from the physical defects of this life. So, too, is the Church a union of a spiritual reality with a visible Church. I weary of all the talk of an “invisible Church” by all who would defy Christ’s command to obedience to His visible Church, even when it fall on hard times because of the earthen vessels who are in charge of it. It is just the old Gnosticism in a new form.

This piece has been an intimate sharing of a slice of my interior life. I share it because, of late, I have been suspecting that it will be decades before the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart and the beginning of the Great Era of Peace. That suspicion has not been borne aloft by the assaults of enemies of the faith. For all their frothy, performative rage, their time is nearly done. I say it because of the growing hardness of so many of my own compatriots’ hearts. Break not the tender reed nor quench the flickering wick.

For any of you in authority or of influence tempted to spiritual triumphalism, I share again a rebuke I once got:

“Behold my people, given into your care. Guard them well.”

If communication goes out for any length of time, meet outside your local Church at 9 a.m. on Saturday mornings. Tell friends at Church now in case you can’t then. CORAC teams will be out looking for people to gather in and work with.

Find me on X at @JohnstonPilgrim

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