Given The Adversary's standard operating procedure of corrupting the holy and mocking the sacred, it has recently occurred to me how modernity has adopted certain practices that seem to be blatant inversions of the sacraments.
Of course, the recent push to have homosexual "marriages" is pretty obvious.
Contraception seems to be the evil twin for baptism. In baptism, we rise to new life in Christ. Contraception blocks life from even beginning.
Abortion, as the sacrifice of an innocent in an act of utter selfishness that rips apart the union of mother and child, is a parody of the Eucharist, where the Sacred Victim gives up His own life in an act of pure love to bring about the union of God and man. One says, "This is my body and I'll do whatever the hell I want." The other says, "This is My Body, given up for you."
Euthanasia is the Culture of Death's version of Anointing of the Sick.
I think you can probably work in a comparison of Holy Orders and the current trend to view political figures as infallible. Whether it's the Founding Fathers or the current president, our secular leaders have taken on an iconic status (literally) for many.
For Penance, I'm going to go with the pervasiveness of social media inflating personal egos to the point where everyone thinks that their slightest random thought contains sufficient profundity to be broadcast to the universe. Contrast that sort of prideful blather with confession, which is a deliberate reflection upon one's faults and weaknesses that are admitted to the Almighty in the presence of a human spiritual superior who then commands behavior from the penitent commensurate with his/her failings. The former puffs people up, gives rise to scandal, and contributes to a general degrading of culture by flooding us with tripe. The latter humbles, forces us to consider our lowliness, and makes us holy so that we may assist in the sanctification of the world.
I'm at a loss for Confirmation, though. Anybody got any ideas?
What about those stupid sweet 16 parties on MTV where they spend ridiculous money on those birthday parties to welcome the "children" becoming adults similar to how confirmation is you becoming an adult in the church. It isn't as strong of an example as what you have listed but it was all I could come up with.
ReplyDeleteOr a bit later -- the ritual getting wasted at 21, when you can finally go off into the world (without anyone sending you) and do whatever you like.
ReplyDeleteConfirmation is harder because, in part, our understanding of the theology of confirmation has, well, gotten a little squishy.
ReplyDeleteI would say, though, that a parallel would be any "coming of age" experience valued by popular society, especially one that is necessarily evil.
I don't know that I really like that, though, because it seems to fit more with the contemporary age for confirmation than with the traditional practice of bestowing it on children at the age of reason.
A Turgonian sighting!
ReplyDeleteI think the latter two comments are pretty close to the mark. Of all the sacraments, I think Confirmation probably wins the prize for ignorance among the faithful. Even folks who disagree with what the Eucharist is at least know what the Church says it is.
Maybe Confirmation is almost its own anti-sacrament since so many have made it into something it isn't.