Wednesday, 4/16/14
Recalling how one of his Apostles
betrayed Jesus on Wednesday of Holy Week, English-speaking Christians have
always referred to this as Spy Wednesday. The next evening, after Jesus was put
on trial, the Bible, speaking of the other Apostles, said, “They all fled.”
So, being truthful, we must face
up to the fact that as a church we have taken some wrong turns. However, just
as we stand by the families we grew up with, so, we see the Catholic Church as
our family, and we stand by it, even though we do not see all of her moves as
perfect.
We could take the French Jesuit
Henri de Lubac as our model in having the right attitude toward the Church.
Lubac wrote the first draft of some of Vatican II’s finest documents, and he
was later named a cardinal; but he did not always enjoy such approval. In 1950 the Holy Office, deeming
Lubac’s ideas too radical, removed his books from Catholic shelves, and banned
him from teaching in Catholic schools. On being asked if he had bitter feeling
toward the Catholic Church, he gave this reply.
“Although the shock
that assaulted me from without also troubled my soul to its depths, they are
still powerless against the great and essential things that make up every
moment of our lives. The Church is always there, in a motherly way, with her
Sacraments and her prayers, with the Gospel that she hands down to us intact,
with her Saints who surround us; in short, with Jesus Christ, present among us,
whom she gives us ever more fully at the moments when she allows us to suffer.”
Since I was made to retire seven
years ago I have been moderately busy writing. I wrote a book about the people
I have dealt with through eighty years of conscious Catholic life. With that
out of the way, I have been writing my take on the history of Christianity.
Doing my best to be honest, I sometimes have been critical of steps church
leaders have taken; but like Cardinal de Lubac, I have criticized lovingly.
I am now planning to use the
internet to print my "take" on Christianity to coincide with the fifty-two weeks
in the year.
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