We have made of ourselves a very strange God!

The Christian moral life is designed to lead to something beyond itself. 

It is neither an idle or idol act but the first step toward union with God and Sacramental Transformation.

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; ²¹ for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools; ²³ and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Romans 1: 18-25

My emphasis here will certainly be on the second half of verse 25, "... and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen." I stand now at a cross road in this generations Catholic identity. I take here a position that is in response to the thoughtless answers floating around our media and pervasive in our catechesis. What are we? What is the Church? The Church is not Christ, this statement ... I would gladly die for. Furtheremore, the goal we have in Communion with one another through Christ clarifies the moral and sacramental position necessary for salvation:

¹ Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, ² and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Renounce Pagan Ways

³ But fornication and impurity of any kind, or greed, must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among Saints. ⁴ Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. ⁵ Be sure of this, that no fornicator or impure person, or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. ⁷ Therefore do not be associated with them. ⁸ For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light ...

Ephesains 5: 1-8

In Paul's First letter to the Corinthians and in his letter to the Romans his teaching on the Church as the "Body of Christ" was provoked by a scattering of the one true Church and an explanation about the Church's unity over a large geographical empire. Paul did not intend for his message to promote the self worship that today is advertised, indulged and promulgated throughout both the Protestant, and now sadly also the contemporary Catholic worldview. Our senses have been dulled to what the Church truly is. We have been indoctrinated by the most simple minded. We have been intoxicated with sobriety.

Though my sharpness on Scripture has been somewhat worked and worn, through use of the blade itself, I can guarantee you that for every one reference Paul makes to the Church as the "Body of Christ" there is easily half a dozen statements, teachings, and emphasis on the theological worldview of the material creation within Paul's teaching. What Paul teaches about the material world is found in over abundance. What the Canon of Scripture, as a whole, says about the Church as the "Body of Christ" is rare and useful for a limited explanation of the necessary and radical unity Christians must strive for. Besides this, it is not in our interest to create a contradiction but be brought to a higher understanding. Therefore, we must reconcile these words of Paul (the church as the body of Christ) with other words of Paul; specifically what we hear in Ephesians 5: the Church is to Christ as a wife is to her husband (a man cannot marry himself):

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, ²⁶ in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, ²⁷ so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. ²⁸ In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church,  

Even in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12, Paul first discusses the distinctions between creation and Creator before identifying the Church as a unified body. The significance of Paul's teaching on the material world reflects an ancient covenantal worldview that stands in opposition to pantheism and creaturely worship. As a Pharisee, the Apostle would have never promoted a view of the Church as something to be worshiped. Paul was clear, it is the Church that collectively and effectively worships God. The Church is not God. Christ is God. Paul never intended for the Church to worship itself, but then today unfortunately and sadly that is where the bulk of Protestant theology rests and the vacuum is now beginning to act on the teaching personalities of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. (From Catholic radio and television to its satellites and even many of the Church's theologians and catechists on both sides of the political divide). They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling their own superior self.

The Theology of the Material

The purpose of all material creation is to lead to God. This was certainly an emphasis in the Apostles teaching. All things point to God. The works of the day are a means to God. When a thing becomes a means to itself, and not some other ends that reveals the glory of God, that brings us to union with God and communion with one another through God, than that thing has been misused. For all is good and all reveals the hope we share in Christ (see Romans 8: 18-25). Digital technology and students can provide the best example. We see many educational institutions provide tablets and iPads to students. The principle is simple: tablets, in theory, can promote and lead to academic excellence; academic excellence can then lead to happiness and fulfillment in the students adult life (I would argue that true happiness is union with God - which technology can take a role in accomplishing). The point is that the tablet, in this scenario, is not a means unto itself but points away from itself toward a greater goal. This is the purpose of all material creation. When something we possess becomes a means unto itself, it becomes an idol, it is subject to our arbitrary worship, it becomes our God. Technology can help in bringing us to God, but can also take us away from God if it is a means unto itself.

For many the same is true for the Church they have made of themselves.

The worshiping of Morals and the Suicidal Church ... What should be a means to God has become a means unto itself. Creation worshiping itself.

The Mass is a great paradox. We go there to be sent away from it, this is as it should be because the Mass is not a means unto itself but a means to God! Recall the words of the Deacon at the end: "go forth ..." - and do for the world what was accomplished among us here: transform it, bring it into communion with God. Recall from your catechesis or ask your favorite priest what the word Mass itself is intended to mean in our Catholic context. The word does not point to itself but a greater goal.

The morals are the necessary first step, why then do so many take them as a means unto there-own-godhood and never see what is beyond that first step. Our goal as Christians is to be transformed as the Apostle states in his Second letter to the Corinthians, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!" This transformation is of course obtained with participation in the Sacraments and to participate, legitimately, in the Sacraments one must have a Christian Moral life. However, neither the morals nor the sacraments are means unto themselves but are a means to transformation in God.

They exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling their own morally superior self.

When we make of our Christian life a pursuit of pride in comparing ourselves to others we make the Church of morals and sacraments an object of our own worship. We turn inward and worship the community that promotes us, we deny the kenosis we owe ourselves and instead become inflated with idolatrous pride. Today, the greatest and most hidden of heresies lies right under our noses: the Church making an idol of its own moral character and indulging in the worship of itself. This Church commits suicide every moment it tries to exist. I pity them.

It is obvious that the Apostle did not promote the worldview of Pantheism. 

He was a highly trained pharisee.  He was zealous of what made the Covenant people distinct from other religions. The distinction between Creator and creation was an emphasis of his teaching, indeed a greater emphasis than the Church as the "Body of Christ;" which in First Corinthians elaborates and emphasizes the Oneness of the Church. This quality of the Church is charged and primed long before our fulfilling it as she is made in the Image of God and made whole in our communion with God.

The human-communal identity:

Christ tells us to be One with one another (John 17) just as Him and the Father are One. In Genesis 2 we see man and woman become "one flesh." The perfect love and unity of the Trinity can and should be imitated in human relationships (this certainly is the direction we should take Paul's teaching on the "Church as the Body of Christ"). The Trinitarian relationship between God's own-self is an expression of the divine and the perfect. Truly a model of what we can be (Christian perfection). This is a perfection that we can reach when our relationships are whole and transformative (when we involve the Holy Spirit our relationships can positively transform who and what we are). For humans the revelation of God as Trinity shows us what we are and what we can become: One.

This topic is summed up very well with the image above. What we must keep in mind is that the unity we seek does not subtract from or diminish our own individuality but fulfills who we are as unique individuals in communion with one another and all of creation through Christ. This is the transformation brought about by Sacrament.

The grand size of a new and living covenant

The Church is a continuation of Christ's identity but it has its own and distinct biological body. There was once a time that the Church did not exist. The Apostles Letter to the Romans is clear in this view. Not only do we have the above pericopes but also the famous mantra of Romans 8 showing creations role as distinct and meaningful to the process of our becoming whole. Therefore the Apostles language about the Church as the "Body of Christ" is more fully understood by this process:

Our genesis as a Church is dependent on every step witnessed throughout the Gospels, Acts of Apostles, Epistles and Book of Revelations: from Christ's ministry to His crucifixion, to His resurrection and ascension to the day of Pentecost and the first council of Jerusalem, and all else. We, the baptized faithful, were born from the womb of Christ's resurrection and as a cell that divides from its origin we have come forth from the Christ Event. We found ourselves in utero, in communion we take on His flesh and become whole but still part of this world. We are fulfilled through the Eucharistic communion. We are made by Communion with one another through Christ.

I emphasize all this to promote the Theology of St. Paul, yes, but first to promote proper worship of the One True God. It is truly right and just, it is our duty, our salvation. I do not take Paul to be the liar but us to be the fools. And, It is not my aim to subtract from the teaching of the Apostle regarding the Church as the "Body of Christ." However, I believe some clarification is needed. I can only offer a single flame of the faintest light. It is on others to provide more. I can narrow down the accusation to certain groups beginning with all Protestant denominations who long ago submitted to the worshiping of their own faith life. From the sixteenth century on, the downward spiral of self indulgence grew louder and louder. However, in these most recent days the Protestant ethic of scrupulosity has found clever ways of infiltrating the Catholic Church local throughout America. I write this entry as I prepare myself and my family for Sunday Mass, so it is not my aim to binge on hypocrisy but rather I believe a great discussion lies in the years ahead.