I have been a little out of touch with things lately, I have only just read the latest in the Cardinal O'Brien saga, I don't know if it is true but it has the smell of truth about it.
I don't know how the Papacy of Francis is going to pan out, 10 days is a bit short to judge. I was rather heartened by the words of one of my parishioners, "Pope Benedict taught us to think, Pope Francis might teach us to be good". I like that, I think we, especially the leaders of the Church have forgotten we must be good.
I think Pope Benedict really did teach us to think, to return to original sources, to the actual words, not just of the Council but of Scripture and the Fathers, but really of the Word Made Flesh, Francis I hope may well teach us how to live out the Gospel.
The dichotomy between the goodness of the Gospel and the sometimes wickedness of Christians is shameful. The secular media are right to pillory us for hypocrisy. The Gospel cannot be an abstract concept, Jesus cannot be vague ideas, the Gospel has to be about the Word being made flesh, Jesus has to be seen in his Church, and made visible in the darkness of the world.
The synoptic Gospels are full of imperatives, "do this", forgive, show mercy, even, "cut off your hand", "pluck out your eye" and the Gospel of John speaks so often of "works", "evidence", "witnesses". Jesus' teaching is backed up by solid examples of his own good works, of miracles, and his own death and resurrection.
The synoptic Gospels are full of imperatives, "do this", forgive, show mercy, even, "cut off your hand", "pluck out your eye" and the Gospel of John speaks so often of "works", "evidence", "witnesses". Jesus' teaching is backed up by solid examples of his own good works, of miracles, and his own death and resurrection.
The secular media's main complaint, and it should be taken seriously is that we, the Church, are not good, that we are hypocritical. We cannot blame the world if it simply does not see the Gospel lived in the lives of Christians, and as priests and bishops we cannot blame Christians if they do not see the Gospel lived in the lives of their leaders.
The real problem in the Church is our failure to lead effectively, and that isn't about management, it is simply about lack of commitment to the Gospel, the failure to even attempt to put it into practice. It is worth considering that leadership in the Church is ultimately about leading people to Jesus Christ. Pope Francis might well at times be a bit crass, his language might even be a bit more like a fisherman than a prince of the Church at times, he might even make liturgical blunders or even theological errors of judgement. As Archbishop he seems to have won over many and alienated a some but he seems genuinely to have tried to be authentic witness, a believable witness.
As a Church, and as Christians, we have nothing to offer except Jesus Christ, the world recoils from hypocrisy but it still wants to see the face of Christ. For the last 50 years the Church has been concerned about its own self, this has been disastrous both for itself and for the world, its fruit is the people outside of it no longer see Christ in it, and people inside it no longer believe in what Christ teaches. The result is we produce no fruit and as Jesus says. "By their fruits you shall know them". We can talk all we like about faith, but without works it is dead!
The real problem in the Church is our failure to lead effectively, and that isn't about management, it is simply about lack of commitment to the Gospel, the failure to even attempt to put it into practice. It is worth considering that leadership in the Church is ultimately about leading people to Jesus Christ. Pope Francis might well at times be a bit crass, his language might even be a bit more like a fisherman than a prince of the Church at times, he might even make liturgical blunders or even theological errors of judgement. As Archbishop he seems to have won over many and alienated a some but he seems genuinely to have tried to be authentic witness, a believable witness.
As a Church, and as Christians, we have nothing to offer except Jesus Christ, the world recoils from hypocrisy but it still wants to see the face of Christ. For the last 50 years the Church has been concerned about its own self, this has been disastrous both for itself and for the world, its fruit is the people outside of it no longer see Christ in it, and people inside it no longer believe in what Christ teaches. The result is we produce no fruit and as Jesus says. "By their fruits you shall know them". We can talk all we like about faith, but without works it is dead!
0 comments:
Post a Comment