Lamed Vav Tzadikim

St Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us!

I'm a Judeophile.  Actually, I'm literally a Judeophile since my husband is Jewish.  But also, even before that I've always had a place in my heart for the Jewish people.  It probably stems from Fiddler on the Roof and Anne Frank's Diary and the many holocaust books I read as a teen.  I remember reading Exodus by Leon Uris as a teen and being totally caught up in it (the movie with Paul Newman is good too).  One book I read ages ago was called The Last of the Just.  It's a French holocaust book by Andre Schwarz-Bart.  I don't actually remember much of the plot of the book, only it deals with the deep despair and the feeling of abandonment by God that Jews suffered through during the Nazi attempt at exterminating them.  I remember it was powerful.  And I remember I learned about the legend of the Lamed Vav.  These are the 36 righteous men who because they exist keep God from destroying the world.  These men are not obvious, they are hidden, so it is easy in our despair to overlook them.  But they exist and God knows they exist and because He is just, He will not destroy us yet, because of His love for those few, hidden men who are righteous.

Rod Dreher, of the American Conservative, keeps writing about the McCarrick scandal.  He also wrote a book, which I have yet to read, entitled The Benedict Option.  He might be a voice crying in the wilderness.  He really sees a collapse of Christianity which will be part of the collapse of western civilization as we've known it.  He wrote this book after he became disillusioned with the Roman Catholic Church subsequent to the child sex abuse scandal back in 2002.  That crisis and his investigation of it as a reporter precipitated his leaving the Roman Catholic Church for Orthodoxy.

The commenters at the American Conservative are a step above the usually slop. (Actually, I only read Dreher's work, since I am not very politically conservative).   All comments are moderated and the people there seem to be smarter than your average bear.  But I've noticed a pattern.  There are the non-believers/non-Catholics, who honestly I'm finding annoying.  It's up to Catholics to clean house here and they are just interfering people who aren't contributing much except to be distractions.  They are officious.  And some of them are using this as an excuse to flame their own anti-Catholicism.  Then there are Catholics who already hate anything Vatican II, so this is their chance to beat that dead horse again.  Which they often do gleefully.  Then there are those who are caught up in the anguish of the scandal and don't know what to do.

I have a particular problem with those who reject Vatican II in that it is often tied up with antisemitism.   There just always seems to be that link there. It pops up all the time.  Vatican II did a very good job of doing some deep soul searching and clear thinking about Catholicism's debt to and relationship with Judaism.  We have a long, very sinful history of cruelty to Jews.  It is still haunting us.  Orthodoxy, as far as I can see, has not dealt with this in the same healing way.  I could be wrong, but I've been trying to hunt something up that shows remorse and a willingness to admit sinfulness on the part of the Orthodox Church and I'm coming up empty.

I feel I don't have recourse to the Orthodox church as an escape from the depravity of the Roman Catholic Church.  I, at times, become overwhelmed with feeling appalled, distressed and deeply angry at the sinfulness and betrayal of the bishops.  But then in calmer moments, I think, but in every age there is some evil.  There is always corruption because we can not be perfect this side of heaven.  We can't be.  Holiness is walking in paths of righteousness even as your enemies attack you.  One can understand the corroding influence of despair in times of betrayal and abandonment, but the strong ones, the faithful ones persevere.

I believe there are 36 righteous priests out there in the world.  There must be.  It's a matter of logic almost.  Not everyone can be corrupt.  Some priests were genuinely, authentically called to serve as Christ to the world.  And that is why I can't leave the Church.  I mean, I can't actually leave because like Peter, I see there is nowhere else to go.  But also, I don't even feel trapped into staying.  Because there are 36 righteous priests and they are enough. They are enough for God and they are enough for me.  I will be true to them.  I will hold steadfast for them.  I will help, in whatever little way I can, to clean up the mess, the vile mess, they must live in now.  They will be persecuted for their brothers' failures.  They will feel alone.

I pray that in some way I can be Christ to them, since they bring me the gift of Christ through the sacraments.

This is why I am praying about the St. Theobald Society.  I have no idea if it will take off.  But I will keep trying because I feel called to do something positive in this time of darkness.

St. Alphonsus Liguori's memorial is today, August 1st.  He was a bishop who was a moral theologian and is considered a doctor of the Church.  St Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us!