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Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan and the false angels. |
I find this quote from Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria completely fascinating. He said: “Jesus Christ could have left this church in the hands of angels; there were enough in heaven to do the job. Instead, with his love and hope for humanity, he put the church in the hands of 12 ignorant men, who included simple fishermen and a tax collector...There are people to whom my message will never be credible, because they will never believe me because they don't believe in God.”In my occupation as a Catholic shop-keeper, I have found that people often come into my store, look around at the myriad pictures, statues, and medals of Jesus, Mary, and various Saints, and inevitably ask: Where are all the angels? While I love the heavenly angelic beings, they are no replacement for Christ, His Mother, or the glorious Saints. But what they often represent to people, misguided individuals, are a seemingly perfect image of benevolence; of an all-accepting neo-pagan fairy. Much of this has to do with the co-opting of angelic lore by the New Age movement. I saw this first-hand when I initially delved into the occult and found many books that supposedly detailed various interstellar locutions with angels. Shockingly, they were oftentimes obsessed with the sexual proclivities of disembodied spirits. I bought into the whole lie. Now, back to my store, people still long for these little imaginary talismans that do not speak: its a convenient way to include a very false religiosity into one's life. For Jesus, Mary and the Saints did have a lot to say about how we should live our lives. Including Our Lord Jesus Christ, they all had a human form, they were tangible, and therefore a reality to those who seek them out. Like the contemporary obsession with electronic media (in all its forms; including porn) many people do not want reality. They want a fake sort of scripted pseudo-real world that is embodied in the mind-numbing phenomena of “reality” television shows. It's a phantom that poses as consciousness. And, this takes me back to the wise words from the Cardinal: the Church is run by humans (through the Grace of God) and they are not going to be prettified winged specters that simply fly about and never intercede in the lives of Man. They will tell us things we don't want to hear, and sadly, sometimes fail to live up to the Words of God. But we, as human beings with a bodily form, are in the fight together.