Mr. Paul Williams admonishes me [“A Rebuke of a Rejoinder,” March 4] on the need for logical distinctions: when I pointed out his “always” as not fitting the historical record, I had not intuited that this “always” was figurative. My reading of his essay convinces me, in fact, that an unbiased reader would have little chance of discerning the figurative character of “always”: insert “figuratively” and his assertion becomes a) odd and b) pointless.
A logician would gasp at Mr. W’s own inattention to distinctions. For starters, he claims I said that “many Christians are presently staying away from Mass because the sacramental reforms inaugurated by Vatican II now prevent them from obtaining the ‘cheap grace’ they were once able to receive.” I did not. For one thing, I pointed out the great deal of cheap grace still available. For another, as I also said, serious adherence to the sacramental reforms flowing from Vatican II carries with it the potential of eliminating cheap grace.
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