Yesterday I read the first letter in the Catholic Herald and realised, I wonder if the writer did, that the period of his priesthood has seen a decline in adherence to the institutional church never before witnessed. I also noticed that his claims for the welcoming table of fudgy forgiveness was tinged with, I suppose, an unconscious irony when contrasted with the clarity of Our Lord's words quoted by St Matthew in the Gospel of last Sunday.
Matthew 22:1-14
Jesus said to the chief priests and elders of the people, ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come. Next he sent some more servants. “Tell those who have been invited” he said “that I have my banquet all prepared, my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, everything is ready. Come to the wedding.” But they were not interested: one went off to his farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his servants, maltreated them and killed them. The king was furious. He despatched his troops, destroyed those murderers and burnt their town. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding.” So these servants went out on to the roads and collected together everyone they could find, bad and good alike; and the wedding hall was filled with guests. When the king came in to look at the guests he noticed one man who was not wearing a wedding garment, and said to him, “How did you get in here, my friend, without a wedding garment?” And the man was silent. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and throw him out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen.’
I wonder how many of us have been lost by the refusal on the part of many clergy to evidence a real belief in God and the revelations of the Gospel. Do we have this fudgy welcoming table in so many churches as a result of our pastors inability to bear witness to the reality of the sacrifice that is repeated through them by Our Lord on the altars of our churches. The fear of appearing "judgemental" paralyses the conscience which should be ruled by truth constantly reinforced by prayed for wisdom. God does guard our consciences.
Of course we are a church of sinners ( and Cardinal Nichols please note that we do not need members of the hierarchy to go around proving this to us ) and of course Our Lord welcomes us to his table; but miracles all need to be accompanied by going and sinning no more; if we do not recognise this we are doomed to repeat and repeat again until the permanent death that is, in the words of Our Lord, "weeping and grinding of teeth".
A new evangelisation needs to go to the gospels, the Church Fathers, the Saints, the founders of religious orders and recapture the daily perserverence and growth in faith that they witnessed. A daily discipline needs to be reimposed and the aberrations of Fransican "sweat baths" and and Dominicans scampering around the lecture circuit in praise of anything rather than the God of the gospels needs to be removed. The orders are rich and the poverty of their members is only titular; they largely live as rich men and would well remember Our Lord's words on this subject. Francis our Pope has spoken about air-port bishops; it would be interesting to see how much of the orders expenses is air-tickets for intercontinental travel. The wealth of the orders may be disputed or disbelieved. A quick check on the UK Charity Commissioners website immediately reveals the truth and for the skilful user also points to other funds that are not immediately obvious. Follow the trustees.
The Institutional Church has faced all these issues before, but is our present leadership and weakening congregations capable of facing up to and addressing them? Jesus' word's "I will be with you always even to the end of time" tells us that His Church is safeguarded but what strife believers are to face has yet to be revealed.
No comments:
Post a Comment