AN EVER-CHANGING WORLD

A REFLECTION FOR THE 19TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The Epistle today is all about changes.  We’re asked by St. Paul to put away lying and speak truth with our neighbor; to replace stealing with labor and the work of our hands; to put on the new man and be renewed in the spirit of our mind.  In short, we are reminded that whatever in our lives takes us further away from God must be replaced with something that takes us closer to him instead.

Change, then, is not always a bad thing.  There is always room for improvement, and this goes for the things around us as well as our own souls.  However, we would be wise to remember that there is always something bad about change.  The very idea of change implies that there was something wrong that needed to be made right, or something flawed that needed to be made more perfect.  Ad the problem with that, of course, is that it depends on the subjective interpretation of the individual as to what actually is right and wrong, what is better and worse.  So many people in this wicked world of ours are more likely to think that things that are perfectly all right need to be “improved on” and ultimately destroyed.

A good axiom to bear in mind is that “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”  And perhaps the best example we have these days would be the supposed “improvements” made to the Church by Vatican II.  We had a form of worship, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which had continued unchanged from the sixth century and which was as perfect as it was humanly possible to make it.  And then along came the Freemasons headed by Annibale Bugnini, introducing reform after reform until they had altered the Mass beyond recognition.  Progressives think that change is always a good thing, and are never satisfied with the changes they accomplish.  They always need to take it another step, as their projects descend further and further into the infernal pandemonium.

Change is an attack on the peace of stability.  It can give rise to a deep upheaval of the soul, causing psychological problems for the individual and division for the community.  While the Catholic Church was for the most part firmly united before Vatican II, there has been nothing but disunity and quarreling ever since.  Progressives fail to place the cause of today’s divisive atmosphere at the feet of the changes perpetrated by Vatican II.  Instead, they double down, insisting on further and more disturbing changes in an effort to correct the ineffectiveness of their previous attempts at improvement.  Take the ‘new improved Rosary’ of John Paul II, for example.  What a pity that so very few have the courage to admit that the blame lies with changes that should never have been made in the first place.

Again, while we accuse “change” as being the cause of much of the evil in today’s world, we must never become so cynical as to regard all change as evil. We are traditionalists, not reactionaries, and yes, some changes are good.  When?  When there is a proportionate cause for making the change.  If we are going to disturb the common good and the equilibrium of the status quo, we must have a good reason for doing so.  Changing our vices into virtues is the example St. Paul gives us today.  On a more mundane level, when is a good time to make changes to the living room?  Is it worth it to go through the upheaval of buying new furniture, planning color schemes, painting and spending countless weekends trying to get everything just right?  We must figure out if the current state of the living room is really so bad that it warrants such drastic modifications?  If it is, then fine, do it.  But if it’s just on a whim because you saw a house in a movie that you’d like to copy, then take a deep breath, think about other things, and forego the unnecessary turmoil.

In short, make changes when they need to made.  Otherwise, have the wisdom to leave things well alone.