Advocating Schism within the TAC

Just a short note to those so openly advocating schism and working against the good governance and effective spiritual leadership within the TAC (and by schism, I mean: the offense of causing or inciting division or disunion within the Church):

Canon 1364 § 1 of the Catholic Church (for the ‘pro-Catholics’ out there) states:

An apostate from the faith, a heretic or a schismatic incurs a latae sententiae excommunication…

Schism, like an act of apostasy or heresy, automatically brings the penalty of excommunication. That is standard procedure in most Churches. And do you know where this sin stems from? Pride. That primordial sin that lead Satan to rebel against God.

So if you are a TAC member, please stop. As a still serving member, you ought to be loyal, lest you make yourself guilty of one of the vilest devices of Satan - warned against in Scripture - the causing of divisions and strife in the Church:

Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

- (Rom 16:17-18)

(Cf. 2 Cor 2:11; 1 Cor 1:10; 3:1-3; 11:17-19; 2 Cor 11:20).

The peace and unity of the Church is a divine mandate of the highest priority (Ps 133:1-3; Mat 5:9; Rom 12:18-21; 1 Cor. 7:15; 2 Cor 13:11; Eph 4:1-6; 1 Thess 5:12-15).

Or if you cannot follow the Biblical mandate, then simply leave and go to there where it is you think that you will best be able to honour and obey Christ. If ‘Church-hopping’ is your thing (everyone just pause for a minute here, and look back over your own ecclesiastical landscape), then by all means. Continue and make the Church just another product in the broader marketplace of goods and services. Faithfulness to a specific theological or ecclesiastical tradition has in any event, long been replaced by the modern fad of ‘Church shopping’. Even Clergy seem to openly shop. And do it here, and you’ll do it there.

As for me, I’d rather be found faithful. I believe being faithful is a Christian virtue (Gal 5:22)? So when things are not what I believe they ought to be, then I work to make the change, within. Our culture has so little if any regard for commitment. Divorce is easy. And yet, the Good  Shepherd says:

I am the good shepherd.  The good shepherd lays down his life for the  sheep. The hired hand is not the  shepherd who owns the sheep.  So when he  sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters  it.  The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

- St John 10:11-13

Do that and who knows, you may even be able to grow your congregation? When people see in you a holiness, love, devotion and unwavering commitment to the Risen Lord, they will follow you. People need Jesus, and they need to be shown Jesus. How do you do that when you cannot get over yourself?

The path to unity will not be easy, but it can be done. So let us pray to that end.

 

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