Considering the news it is easy to lose hope. Lose sight of the fact that the Church is the eternal Bride of Christ and no amount of human failing can destroy her.
The Church is the Eternal Bride of Christ and no amount of human failing can destroy her.
I must remember those words. How do I know they’re true? Because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity said so. And if I do not trust His words than what am I about? Why am I here? If I do not trust His words I have bigger issues than a scandal in the Church.
The focus should not be that The Church is plagued by scandals, but rather that the scandals do not destroy her! They have not destroyed her! For 2000 years human failings have been unable to topple the Church that Christ Jesus founded. It is on His foundation that the Church forms her roots. The storms of human wickedness cannot rip her from that foundation. Why? Because She is not a Church made of human hands. She is not ours to destroy. We cannot do it. God promised.
But the unbelievable reality of what they did… What were those men thinking? The flippant answer is, ‘they weren’t’. Perhaps a better answer is, ‘they were thinking more than they were praying.’ The Church, in all Her wisdom, has asked her sons to observe certain daily prayers for a reason. Can a person commit the sins that they did while remaining faithful to the rigors of priestly life? The Divine Office? Daily Sacrifice of the Mass? Frequent Confession? Observing purity of heart and mind (remember that chastity is abandoned in the mind before it is abandoned in the flesh).
Perhaps this scandal is calling us to arms. We’re in a war that many stopped fighting a long time ago –or never started. I guess what I keep coming back to is the question of what my reaction to all this should be? Despair? Or action? I choose action. Priests need prayers. Real prayers. Sacrifices offered up for their holiness.