This series of four essays addresses as battle domains the four tenets of the prevailing cosmological thinking of our time: Moralistic Therapeutic Deist Universalism. Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 each designate a means that we must employ daily to allow God to stop these prevailing tenets. 

“Where are we going?”

The fourth battle domain is Modernist Universalism, which defines pervasive modern beliefs about Purpose, “Where are we going?” by responding that “Good people go to heaven.” But Christian Purpose identifies exactly two ultimate destinations, determined by our acceptance of the graces the Trinity provides. 

So, continuing the theme from Parts 1-3, like all effective heresies, Modernist Universalist thinking can pull enough of Christianity to authorize Modernists to pronounce themselves Christians; or, since Modernism is sufficiently ambiguous, to pronounce themselves members of other religions. But their Universalist Purpose delineates a god that lacks the unchanging, infinite justice of the Holy Trinity. For the Modernist Universalists, their all-forgiving god can dole out salvation as an entitlement, many believing this happens automatically because of the work already done by Christ’s Death and Resurrection. Human effort, other than keeping on the relativist, broad path of behavior vaguely defined in Modernistic Moralism, is largely irrelevant. This heresy springs from centuries-old Protestant heresies, like Sola Fide, where one-time declarations of faith save us. Universalism or near-Universalism results, allowing the heresy of forgetting forever the need to welcome and sustain holy graces at all. 

Given all this “strange doctrine” (Hebrews 13:9) now merged into Western culture and life, every Christian must recollect where the Holy Trinity actually wants them to spend eternity and how they get there. This is God’s work, but each Christian must initiate and show openness to this Truth through habit and prayer, which leads to further action. 

The Means to Battle Moralistic Purpose: The Holy Mass as Embodiment of God’s Graces 

In this fourth battle domain against Universalism, the specific means to resist this current-age thinking is the Holy Mass, which is the living template for the graces God provides, all day long. In this battle domain, one may expect three things:

(1) Human-derived benefits. Graces, whether received in prayer, Sacraments, or everyday life, by definition bear fruit. The benefits vary immensely in scope and frequency. A first typical benefit is an overflowing peace, which cannot help but happen, considering the divine source (IC 5.2). St. Catherine of Siena expresses this well: at her life’s end, she dictated a summary of her teachings, referring to Jesus: “Empty your heart of all other cares and thoughts, think only of Me and rest in Me (p. 23).” A second is simply an “enlarged” soul. St. Teresa of Avila compares it to the Psalmist’s experience in Psalm 118: “I have run the way of thy commandments, when thou didst enlarge my heart.” But one may perceive such value days or weeks later. “Our whole interior seems to be enlarging and dilating, and producing certain delights which cannot be expressed. Neither can the soul understand what this is which is here given to her (IC 4.2).”

(2) Trials as offerings. With benefits come trials, which one can offer to God, as done at Mass. The offerings stem from the purifications described in Part 3. The soul’s obstacles to union with God’s will clear away. But, at times, the results are frustratingly hidden. Also, over time, as habit-formed in Part 3, the soul’s desire for earthly things declines significantly. So, “she separates herself from them by little and little (IC 4.3).” Such withdrawals themselves bring trials, sometimes due to pining for the earthly things once loved, and sometimes due to loved ones’ misunderstanding of immense changes. 

3) Definitively God-given graces and their after-effects. Eventually, during the process of Contemplative Prayer or other times, direct experiences of God can occur, such that the soul does not doubt that God infused them. St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa relate many of their experiences, as have many saints. St. Teresa depicts them as feelings of God’s presence, majestic visions, and lifting or rushing-forward sensations (see, IC 6.5). Assuming the encounters conform to the Gospel, the soul knows with certainty they are holy, happening for a divine reason; they are not from dreams, the imagination, or demons (IC, 5.1). But one should not seek them. Such grand experiences may cause pain, especially since one cannot ever cause them to recur. Also, only God selects their time, conditions, and content: “we can never enter by our own diligence: His Majesty must bring us in, and enter Himself into the centre of our soul (IC 5.1).”

Given all this, God has now fully defined this Purpose battlefield. The day can become an awareness of the presence of God, the more we know He abides in our souls permanently, stemming from following the Eternal Law in love. This presence has expanded beyond silent prayer. As David Torkington relates, everyday life should become a continual offering and a praising, a cross borne, a Mass. Indeed, the day is analogous to a Mass, which embodies the graces God has given us, such as the Passion and Resurrection (re-presented), the opportunity to praise and offer one’s struggles and successes, forgiveness, insight, and the prayers of the saints. Thus, with that model, in as many everyday moments as possible, the soul seeks to cherish all that grace.

Guidelines

To allow God to thwart the Modernist Universalist tendencies we all form, given the culture that shapes us, and to help fulfill this means: 

1. Take delight in and recall the Holy Mass, as the physical and spiritual culmination of God’s graces, which you must embrace.
2. Recognize as much as possible in every moment the onslaught of graces the Trinity sends to enable you to love God back. God expects you to welcome these so that you can participate in the Beatific Vision; for example:
   • the forgiveness of sins
   • the intercessions of the saints
   • Scripture and Tradition and the enlightenment they supply
   • the Church, as the registry of authority on theology and morals
   • the Church, as the Body of believers, in Heaven, in Purgatory, and on earth
   • family, friends, other holy people, and material blessings
   • the beauty in the created world
   • opportunities to offer your suffering to Christ in reparation 
3. Pray throughout the day the simple words, “Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, and deliver us from evil.” Your goal here is to beat back the inherent Universalist tendency to believe in an entitled salvation, and to constantly request and welcome those graces that God mercifully provides you.
4. Memorize and pray this powerful Beatitude: “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.” Remember that you need a sanctified and holy soul to progress toward unity with God, circling through to each of these four battle domains, in the daily, constant desire for holiness. 

Note that we also can suggest to Protestants that they attend and observe the Holy Mass, to forward the notion of recurring and everyday grace, for their own efforts to reverse Modernism, as we work toward their ultimate conversion. 

In summary, as Torkington beautifully illustrates, the essential purpose of these four means is not that God demands them for salvation. Salvation requires not only that we use these means to defeat Modernism inside us, but first-and-foremost salvation requires the blessedness and purity of heart that each means produces. 

Image: Photo by Shalone Cason on Unsplash