33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time The End Times I recently read of a leading Church person, who should have known better, stating that the Church has never been in a worse condition. He showed an extraordinary ignorance of Church history. He ignored the Arian heresy in the 4-5th centuries, the problems of the antipopes, and the terrible wars following the Reformation when Christian killed Christian to prove who was right. And so much more besides. The more one knows our Church history, the more one believes that Christ truly is with us – how else could we have survived given the terrible things members of the Church have done! Personally, aside from the parts of the world where the Church is being persecuted, I think the Church is faring quite well when one compares it to previous times. But what the above remark did reveal is a sense that we all have of being overwhelmed by our problems. We not only face difficulties in our own lives but we are also pained by the lives of those around us. Here, we wonder if we are in the middle of an epidemic of cancer, as so many that we know and love have been struck by this terrible disease. Jesus, in this Sunday’s Gospel, tells us to be at peace in the midst of this impending doom. He, who rose from the dead, who took sin and turned it into a place of grace, is quite capable of working all our troubles for our good. At times this is hard to believe. But that is the nature of belief – trusting that God can and does work through the disasters and sin for our good.
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Sr Kym Harris OSB |