The Church is suffering: she is trampled on, and her enemies are within. Let us not abandon her.

 

The mystery of Judas, the mystery of betrayal, is a subtle poison. The devil seeks to make us doubt the Church. He wants us to regard her as a human organization in crisis. However, she is so much more than that: she is the continuation of Christ. The devil drives us to division and schism. He wants us to believe that the Church has betrayed us. But the Church does not betray. The Church, full of sinners, is herself without sin! There will always be enough light in her for those who seek God. Do not be tempted by hatred, division, manipulation. It is not a matter of believing a party, of rising up against each other: “The Master warned us against these dangers to the point of reassuring the people, even with regard to the bad shepherds: one must not abandon the Church, that seat of truth, because of them . . . . Therefore let us not become lost in the evil of division because of those who are wicked”, Saint Augustine (Letter 105).

The Church is suffering: she is trampled on, and her enemies are within. Let us not abandon her. All pastors are sinful men, but they bear within themselves the mystery of Christ.

What is to be done, then? It is not a matter of organizing and implementing strategies. How could anyone think that we could improve things by ourselves? That would be to enter again into the illusion of Judas.

Given the surge of sins in the ranks of the Church, we are tempted to try to take things into our own hands. We are tempted to try to purify the Church by our own strength. That would be a mistake. What should we do? Form a party? A movement? That is the most serious temptation: the showy disguise of division. Under the pretext of of doing good, people become divided, they criticize each other, they tear each other apart. And the devil snickers. He has succeeded in tempting good people under the appearance of good. We do not reform the Church by division and hatred. We reform the Church when we start changing ourselves! Let us not hesitate, each one, in his place, to denounce sin, starting with our own.

I tremble at the thought that Christ’s seamless garment is in danger of being torn again. Jesus suffered agony when he saw in advance the divisions of Christians. Let us not crucify him again! His heart begs us: he thirsts for unity! The devil is afraid of being  called by his name. He likes to drape himself in the fog of ambiguity. Let us be clear about one thing: “To call things by the wrong name is to add to the world’s misfortune”,  Albert Camus said.

Robert Cardinal Sarah, The Day is Now Far Spent (pp. 14-5)