Little Brudder Theological Moment

"I can make it on my own," is the motto of Homestarrunner.com's hyper-maudlin one-legged dog, Little Brudder. The quintessence of bathos, Little Brudder swears he will perform all sorts of deeds that are clearly impossible for his shattered frame--perpetually eliciting helpless tears from the rest of the Homestarrunner cast. He obviously can't make it on his own, but there is something cathartic in his delusional hopes that he can. He's the American dream gone too far--a belief in hoisting himself up on his own bootstraps that flies into the realms of absurdity. He quixotically clings to the impossible dream that really is impossible--there can be no happy ending for Little Brudder despite his indefatigable hope.

There's something about Little Brudder, though, that makes me think of the current state of religious vocations in the Church. I'm assuming we've all had that moment sitting in the pew thinking: "Who could really think that guy was being called by God?" or reading the news and thinking, "How could God let him become a bishop?" (Of course, we don't usually then ask the next obvious question: "Why would God let such a judgmental person like me attend Mass...")

Even as numbers are growing, we've still a dearth of religious vocations being followed here in the U.S., and between scandals of the newsworthy sort and just political (often liturgical) conflicts on a parish level, it can seem as though many of those who have pursued vocations aren't always making the best of it (friends and present readers excepted, of course, lest I get steely glares the next time we go out to dinner).

It seems as though the Twentieth-Century crippled the Church vocationally. Now she appears to hobble along like a one-legged dog trying to make it on its own.

And maybe that's precisely the point. The Church can't make it on its own. It survives solely by the grace of God.

If the Church was abounding in vocations, and if everyone who followed a vocation was a charming, attractive, saintly figure who always followed orthodox rubrics and gave sound advice, then the Church's success and survival would appear to be due to the charisma of its religious leaders. However, if vocations are filled by people who do not always live up to the high expectations of their offices, then the perpetuation of the Church depends solely on God's mercy.

Again, I'm not saying all of our religious are jerks. I personally know far more holy men and women in vocations than not. Really, I'm just reflecting on how often it seems I hear people complaining about local parish life or failures of bishops to take stronger stands or actual tragedies that strike us from within. In the larger scope of history, these times of weakness within the Church's members will only make God's protection of the Church appear all the more striking and miraculous.

Comments

[Akh Ari]

Lil Brudder theology == Pelagianism