AUTHORITY (cont'd)

The problem with giving your long-held sense of autonomy to the church is that you have to give everything. Reserving to yourself this doctrine or that discipline is like not giving over anything at all. This is why it is so dangerous to one's salvation to be a child of the 20th century. I had my one or two little issues that, like Gollum and the gold ring, I couldn't imagine giving up and living without.

It's easy to give authority to the Church when you find so much truth there that is, once explained properly, elegant, magnificent, transcendent, comforting and logical. Sure, no big deal there. It's when that 1% comes up that really hits you where you live; that's when you find out if you're serious or not.

As an example (completely hypothetical, mind you), take a Catholic man who has finally found the woman God meant for him. Problem is both parties had previously married someone God clearly didn't mean for them. Time has passed, wounds have healed, both the young man and his beloved want to be married. But, as divorced persons, they must now suffer through the tribunal process, waiting for the declaration of nullity that will allow them to marry sacramentally, and not commit adultery (as the saying goes) "in the eyes of the Church".

Here the young man finds out what kind of Catholic he is. He understands the annulment process, and the truth behind it. But he knows from the heart his first marriage was not sacramental (and the same goes for his beloved). Yet the wheels of the Church grind slow, and he could wait two years or more for a decision. Why not just get married? Wouldn't hurt anyone. There's adultery, then there's adultery, and everyone knows in this case it wouldn't be the same as a married man cheating on his wife. Right? So why not? You could even take the sacraments if you went to a parish where no one knows you! Why not?

Authority is why.I was more than happy to give the Church authority over the destiny of my soul and the path of my life on earth. Of course I was, I had spent my whole life making bad decisions. And fortunately, I had finally found the rightful and true Church after a long time looking. But I may have been rash in saying it was easy. It was an easy decision to make. Living it out is the challenge.