One concern I have regarding Mr. Bailie's explication of the Church's message of hope and freedom versus the world's pale parody is found in his understanding of the sacraments. His understanding seems to take a cerebral approach rather than that of ex opere operato. Like St. Augustine's neo-Platonism, it skirts very narrowly a sort of Gnosticism.
When he says a solution to the worldly, "progressive" approach to a dereliction of Christian hope is found in the "sacramental", one would do well to ask: Are you talking about the normal, Mass-attending Christian who receives the Blessed Sacrament frequently, or are you talking about one who has a depth of reading, a florilegia of quotations of spiritual and anthropological writers, and perhaps contributes to a great non-profit?
One should compare the great Chesterton's understanding of the ”mystical materialism” of the Faith to Bailie's "sacramentalism".
1 comment:
Dear Ath,
Could you elaborate more on this post and how Bailie's "sacramental" and Chesterton's "mystical materialsim" connect (or don't connect) and how we need to understand these things without "skirt(ing) very narrowly (into) a sort of Gnosticism."
In my prison Cursillo experience this past weekend the word sacrament was defined in a most simply way: a personal encounter with Christ at a special time in out life. And as Jesus acts through the Church, so He moves in our lives to help us on our journey through this life. How does this speak to Bailie's "sacramental" or Chesterton's "mystical materialism"?
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