The cult of pundits

  • I read this reflec­tion from St.. John of Kro­n­stadt a cou­ple days ago, but it was so per­ti­nent to our 21st cen­tury sit­u­a­tion that I re-read it again today. I need all the reminders can get not to be con­formed to the world. These days, that includes con­sid­er­ing the sources from which I derive wisdom:

    “After our own lusts shall they heap to them­selves teach­ers, hav­ing itch­ing ears.” (John 6:27) Is not this what men of the world and even many of the clergy are now doing? Do they not choose for them­selves teach­ers that flat­ter their hear­ing? They do not learn of the one Teacher — Christ — from His gospel and His Church, but they learn of worldly jour­nal­ists, nov­el­ists, poets, actors … and exclaim, “Ah, how inter­est­ing all this is! How instruc­tive it all is!” and say, if not in words, then by their deeds: “We have no need of either the Gospel or the Church, with its ser­vices, its sacra­ments and preach­ing of God’s Word. We have such good, such most moral teach­ers.” Lord Jesus! To what have we come? They have cast Thy words behind them.

    But then, because it’s easy to just crit­i­cize the world’s cul­ture, Fr. John addresses him­self and calls to mind our help from heaven:

    Do not be despon­dent and do not fall into despair when you feel within your soul the deadly breath and fer­ment of mal­ice and evil, impa­tience and blas­phemy, or any weak­ness from impure thoughts; but fight against them unremit­tingly and endure valiantly, call­ing with all your heart upon the Lord Jesus — the con­queror of hell. Hum­ble your­self deeply, deeply, acknowl­edg­ing your­self from the depths of your soul as the first of sin­ners, unwor­thy of human fel­low­ship, and the Lord, see­ing your humil­ity and your strug­gle, will help you. Call also to your help the speedy Medi­a­trix, the Most Holy Vir­gin, the Mother of God, say­ing, “Heal, most pure Lady, the many painful wounds of my soul, and strike the ene­mies con­stantly fight­ing against me.”

    – St. John of Kro­n­stadt, “My Life in Christ”


    Related posts:

    1. They see your heart
    2. Feel the truth
    3. “Pas­tor with 666 tat­too claims to be divine”
    4. The silence of Zacharias
    5. The wis­dom of birds

    November 17th, 2009 | Grace | 1 Comment |

One Response and Counting...

  • George Pat­sourakos 11.17.2009

    The fact is that man has become too sec­u­lar by spend­ing most of his time on his own self­ish inter­ests, and very lit­tle time with Christ.

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