The Easter Bunny and other secular/pagan Easter practices

jqlogan said:

"I don't think God is pleased with us now when we adopt pagan practices and try to incorporate them into our worship services. Do you?"

jwmcmac comments:

I think that you are missing the point.

No one wants to incorporate pagan practices into our worship services. Do you? Of course not.

We don't either.

We point out to them the error of what they are doing wrong and then re-direct them toward the Truths of the Faith . . . thereby changing and making a correct practice from a wrong practice and wrong-minded understanding.

You, however, seem to imply that everything must be thrown out . . . and if so, then you are wrong.

Paul said it was okay to eat the meat that was formerly sacrificed to false gods . . . as long as everybody understood things correctly, that we do not worship those 'idols' . . . or . . . that there was no longer any sacrifice of this sort . . . and that eating this meat did not cause scandal amongst the Faithful.

It is like you are saying that we are we supposed to throw away cows and bulls because someone once upon a time 'worshipped' these, and even now some still falsely worshipping these . . . these 'falsely' thinking them to be gods . . . with of course this being what we Believe and not being what these others believe.

With your thinking . . . we would have to throw out all of creation because it has been so abused and mis-used by men.

No!

That is wrong thinking . . . and if you think just a little bit . . . you should be able to see this your mis-understanding of GOD's intent in re-newing the universe in and through CHRIST in us and us in CHRIST, HIS Body the Church.

Even the LORD 'changes' the usage or understanding of some things with each New Covenant . . . to some degree . . . and for HIS Own Reasons . . . each time bringing us closer to 'Perfection' in our understanding of HIS One only Truth. Now I know I'm not saying this well . . . but 'it is enough' . . . if we see this as CHRIST's transforming his fallen and corrupted creation . . . which was originally created as being 'good' . . . and through CHRIST . . . will be made 'Good' again . . . being 'perfected in Holiness.

I'm still saying this poorly.

CHRIST said . . . "I make all things New".

That is what the Church and Christianity has the Power to do in CHRIST.

All this said . . .

I believe many things are very much abused and mis-used even today . . . even inside Christianity . . . many practices inside Christianity are wrongly performed . . . or may be performed in some form of disobedience to legitimate authority . . . which is another reason we need a Church and we need 'obedience' to the Authority of the Church.

The final 'break' with the Church is often years in coming . . . the Faith being 'lost' or becoming in 'jeopardy' of being lost long before the actual historical event occurs.

Many practices of many Bishops and Priests, since Vatican II, were done with some degree of 'unauthorized' 'experimentation.

We may or may not 'lose' the Catholic Faith in our country. There has been a battle going on . . . with many 'liberal' Bishops and Priests having seemed to have lost their Faith and have incorporated many 'practices' of Faith which are not really in conformity with what has gone before in the Church.

Those with 'itching ears' or those with no real 'understanding' of the Faith . . . as the Church actually Teaches the Faith . . . may be ready to apostatize from the Faith . . . as has occurred in the past, during the Reformation.

Many former Catholics 'chose' to do their own thing in disobedience to the Church . . . King Henry the VIII making his own church of England with the help of wrong-minded Bishops and Priest who did not want to offend Henry and/or did not want to loose their heads.

Renewal requires 'Trusting' someone on this earth. We must Trust CHRIST. We must Trust each other. We must Trust the Church . . . not stupidly . . . but prayerfully and in the LOVE of CHRIST.

We must Trust that the HOLY SPIRIT is doing HIS Part to 'Prepare' the pagans to be Christianized.

But then . . . some 'do' leave the True Faith.

And then there are many who don't Trust anybody but themselves.

These go out and create new churches on their own in their own likeness.

Good luck with that.

We cannot blame . . . the Church

We cannot blame . . . others

We cannot blame . . . pagans or their culture

We can Blame . . . our own personal sins.

If we work on ridding ourselves of our personal sins we then have a chance to renew Culture and pagan practices and have a chance at 'making all things new in CHRIST'.

Here are some 'sins' today . . . that play into our wrong understandings about Church and Her practices . . . but we cannot blame the Church in this . . . so please do not be mis-understanding me on this point . . .

Many Catholics abuse the Sacraments . . . for instance . . . receiving the Eucharist while in the state of Mortal Sin. This is not the Church's fault . . . though I know many are tempted to 'blame' the Church for this occurring.

Yes, there are priests who neglect to Teach the Teachings of CHRIST given through HIS Church . . . for their own reasons . . . and these are part to blame . . . but that is them and this is not the Church's fault. It may not be any particular person's fault.

And whether it can be said to be someone's fault, it is not beneficial to 'lay the blame'.

If we want to do something helpful . . . pray for the priest . . . clean up our own personal sins . . . become a Saint . . . sacrificing ourselves for others and try 'obeying' the Teachings of the Church.

We are wrong again . . . if we should wrong-mindedly desire to blame the Church for the sinners that are in Her.

The Church 'instructs' and the Church 'prescribes' the right things to do . . . and then we each 'decide' to do or not do and to obey or to not obey.

The Church has always been and the Church will always be in confrontations with Culture . . . and how She goes about changing and transforming the Cultures into CHRIST . . . is always going to be a challenge . . . is always a challenge . . . even inside Her own communities.

Even though we need to make good and Holy practices in the Church . . . we should not blame the Church or anyone else . . . and don't blame 'culture' or 'pagan practices' which have been transformed by the Church in the Hope of Christianizing Culture . . . don't blame these for our personal sins . . . or don't blame these for our mis-use and mis-understanding of our Faith.

It is also possible to have all the correct 'practices' in our community and in our culture and still be 'evil' or 'wrong-minded about what we are doing with what we have . . . if we do it for wrong reasons . . . or if we abuse the pagans in the process of trying to convert them.

We know this to be True.

Just look at the Jews who Crucified their CHRIST . . . they had it all . . . and missed the time of the LORD's Visitation to them.

Many of their actions and practices were all for 'show' . . . pomp and ceremony . . . and wrong understanding.

Anyway, you have some good points . . . but mostly . . . I think you may be missing the point of what GOD and CHRIST and HIS Church do when they 'transform' pagan things and peoples . . .

. . . at least a little bit.

GOD Bless you and us all.