Immersed in Christ: Friday: June 4, 2021

Thank God

Thank God our time is now, when wrong Comes up to face us everywhere, Never to leave us ’til we take The longest stride of soul man ever took. Affairs are now soul size. The enterprise is exploration into God.

Christopher Fry,”Sleep of Prisoners”

Thank God our time is now, when the sordid sexual sins of priests have been made public. When the incompetence of bishops is taken for granted. When corruption in the clergy on every level is no longer a surprise. When the lethargy of the laity is recognized as dereliction of duty. Thank God our time is now when wrong comes up to face us everywhere!

Why? Because these wrongs will never leave us ’til we take the longest stride of soul we ever took. We can no longer plead ignorance. Bishops can no longer sweep sins under the rug. Priests can no longer assume they are presumed to be good Catholics. The laity can no longer pass the buck. Thank God our time is now, never to leave us ’til we take the longest stride of soul the Church has taken since the Protestant Reformation.

Affairs are now soul size. Miniscule Catholicism is treason against the people of God. It is the betrayal of a sacred trust, of the mission every Christian has to bear witness to the world. We can no longer cower in the comfort of our cultural Catholicism. We can no longer say it is Christian to profess the creed, conform to the code, and plunk our bodies in the pews. Affairs are now soul size. The enterprise is exploration into God.

We have to seek deeper knowledge, more personal love, and a service of God that is the mystical experience of union with Christ the head as members of his body. In the Church of today, anyone who is not a mystic is a misfit. We must “think of ourselves in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries… It is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy” (1Corinthians 4:1). Anyone who doesn’t explore the deep meaning of the mysteries we receive at Baptism and celebrate at Mass is an unfaithful steward.

The enterprise is exploration into God. Anyone not moving forward is a deserter. Anyone resistant to change has denied the faith—like the Pharisees who rejected Jesus, like the bishops who left predator priests in place, like the laity who never spoke up. Wrong comes up to face us everywhere, never to leave us ’til we take the longest stride of soul we ever took. The enterprise is exploration into God. Only those who search will find (Matthew 7:7). Are we going to move or not?

A highway will be there, called the holy way. No one unclean may pass over it, nor fools…. It is for those with a journey to make… (Isaiah 35:8, Jerusalem Bible). If you don’t accept that you have a journey to make, Scripture says you are unclean. You are a fool. Harsh words. But they only echo the warning of God:

When you have had children and children’s children, and become complacent … you will soon utterly perish… Only a few of you will be left … In your distress, when all these things have happened to you… you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul (Deuteronomy 4:25)..

Thank God our time is now.

Thank God our time is now, when wrong Comes up to face us everywhere, Never to leave us ’til we take The longest stride of soul man ever took. Affairs are now soul size. The enterprise is exploration into God.