More than once on-line and off but not so oddly mostly on-line I’ve run afoul of Catholics who are pro Marian apparition, one non approved, alleged Marian apparition in particular.
Why have I run afoul of them? Because, simply put, I have interest, especially in non approved, alleged Marian apparitions and especially in that one in particular. I don’t even have to say whether I am for or against, all I need to do is show little interest and explain why. Here’s why:
Throughout the ages, there have been so-called “private” revelations, some of which have been recognized by the authority of the Church. They do not belong, however, to the deposit of faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ’s definitive Revelation, but to help live more fully by it in a certain period of history. Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.
Christian faith cannot accept “revelations” that claim to surpass or correct the Revelation of which Christ is the fulfilment, as is the case in certain non Christian religions and also in certain recent sects which base themselves on such “revelations”. [CCC #65]
Those who rally in favour of the non approved apparition or private revelation are quick to note, where it is possible, that their favourite and perhaps even for them life-changing one hasn’t claimed to surpass or correct but often the subtleties are lost, clouded, and unsettled such that honestly the matter is not quite so easily declared. That’s another reason I have no interest in the unapproved, still-going-on apparitions and private revelation. Perhaps that sounds unkind or to the elect perhaps it even sounds unspiritual.
However, I find that I have not come close to plumbing the depths of actual and true Revelation, not in the form of sacred scripture nor in the form of authoritative Tradition, the living Magesterim nor indeed in the very Person of the revealed living Word of God, the Christ.
And then there is the highest prayer of the Church, the Mass and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and how about the graces of Christ given us in the Sacraments of the Church? I have not found all the healing, the wholeness, the purity, the wisdom, the strength for daily living, the preparation for eternity and so forth that there is in those definitive disclosures of the Divine.
Why, here I am reading and contemplating my way through the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I don’t have time to hope on a bus Gus and get myself gone to an alleged apparition or unapproved apparition and I’m not inclined to argue about it all one way or the other.
For the Catechism Project, this is your Artist + Illustrator + Occasional Catechist, owenswain of owenswain.com/blawg & Cross-posted here.
