Where's the Church?

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says one sentence, five thousand people walk away. He does nothing to stop them. In fact, the next part of the drama is asking the apostles if they are leaving too. Peter responds with the reason why they stay. Jesus alone has the words to eternal life.

I read much consternation on the web over the SSPX schism. Why? They put conditions on their staying connected to the Church Christ founded. Any time any one put conditions on following Jesus, He refused them and moved on. We can believe it’s tragic they left, but it is on them.

Why do I write that way? Jeffrey Mead writes on his Substack of a group of teens beating up an old man. He asks where is the city and state leadership. I want to ask where is the Church?

Using an old homily form used in the older days, let me say this: “And when you stand before the judgement seat of God and Our Lord asks you, why you did not spread the message more and do more to lead people away from the road to perdition such as those young teens obviously on their way to lose their souls? You will say, “I was fighting for my church the way I wanted it.”

Many Catholics suffer terribly from fear of Hell because they missed a Mass seven weeks ago and fear they committed mortal sin. Every week they go through unnecessary trepidation wondering whether they received communion worthily. If they did not, then again, they live in fear they are their way to Hell. What kind of message of salvation do we believe if that is the fruit of our teaching? Meanwhile, who is speaking of sin, condemnation and repentance to those who commit such violent sins as those teenagers beating up the old man.

A wayward message that turns a blind eye against those teens and leaves good Catholic fearing for their salvation comes from a bourgeois Church. It is a Church protected from the world of the poor, the sinful and the suffering.

If this kind of crime is happening, then more is needed than simply more police. Like all the benefits in an Amazon or Netflix subscription users do not know about, Catholics have powerful tools at their disposal to fight such battles, they don't know about.

I remember a while ago, I crossed swords with a lawyer whose name I mentioned in a homily. He was not happy. I reminded him in our conversation that just because we didn't work for the other guy, does not mean we too are not in the ‘souls business’. My homily was one tool in the battle against “the other guy.”

Some say we need more police. Maybe, but we also we need more active Catholics getting involved in teaching the deeper truths to those who need to hear them. We need to live our faith in ways that draw teens such as those off the path of their violence and onto the path of life. We don't need practicing Catholics living in terror of going to Hell for simply being human. Nor do we need to care about the SSPX. Jesus did not try to bring back the five thousand who walked away. Neither do we need to wring any hands for those who did the same. There are too many souls at stake. We need to take our role seriously as the light of the world and the salt of the Earth and preach the Gospel how we live.

I can promise you that most of those young teenagers when they are separated from that group are not as bad as they are when they are with the group. One or two are the instigators and the rest go along. However, if there is no one to draw the rest away from the instigators, they are lost.

A police chief of a local Chelsea which had a high crime rate taught the people that many of those getting involved in crime are not hard heads. They can be changed. He said to church and social leaders to deal with those who are not hard heads and he will deal with the hard heads.

Actually, if they get arrested and end up in jail, that may be a grace but only if there is some action to change their way of thinking. Otherwise, they risk getting out of jail and continuing the same action. Then their souls are in even greater peril.

No one can help them if Catholics spend their energy on which language we speak at Mass and which way the priest faces. Over and over, I see these Catholic influencers pushing the Latin Mass and talk about the Hell bound over some human action. Recently one complained that in all his years he heard no homilies on Hell or sexual morality. Has he heard or read anything on the need too take action to bring people to know Christ, to teach people to develop a prayer life and to turn towards a deep relationship with Christ. Sexual sins are not the only ones. Beating up an old man is clearly a sin that will lead people to Hell. How many people speak of those issues?

We need to be a more active Church especially during these times when our politics are so divided. We don't need to fight the government, but we do need to intervene properly by living the Gospel. That includes an active prayer life which we bring to our daily life and work to live it.

Some will say that it is the role of the priests and the bishops to get involved. Many sisters, nuns and brothers take up that role regularly along with the laity. Priests can assist too. Bishops? Not so much. They are too busy with administration and far from the world around them. Just like any company executive, they are far from the ground floor of their organization. The laity, religious and yes, the priests who assist them can address these issues. More the laity because the dioceses want priests to keep away from risky situations for fear of lawsuits.

If our parishioners are wringing their hands over whether they receive communion worthily when they have committed simple human faults then something is wrong with the Church message. We know it will be a good message when people realize that beating up on an old man or any person has serious consequences some of which are unspeakable. Others reach out because they realize the issue here is not safety, it is the mission to save souls, a mission the Church needs to get back to completing. She also needs to stop fighting over the those who consider the Latin Mass to be the sole route to eternal life. It is not.

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He is the author of several books including: Christ in Your Humanity