We must be confident that this time of trial will bring a purification of the entire Catholic community, a purification that is urgently needed if the Church is to preach more effectively the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its liberating force. Now you must ensure that where sin increased, grace will all the more abound (cf. Romans 5:20). So much pain, so much sorrow must lead to a holier priesthood, a holier episcopate, and a holier Church" (Pope John Paul II, Homily, April 23, 2002).A new missionary age will arise [out of] a new springtime for the Church" (Pope John Paul II, Homily, May 11, 1991).
The troubling reports of Fr. Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries, and the even more disturbing silence from the heads of that uber-pious order, coupled with the numerous reports of the sexual abuse of minors at the hands of the ministers of Christ shows a Church in crisis.
The current economic crisis, spurred by the insatiable longings of greed, along with a newly-elected American President who is a proponent of infanticide, plus the deafening silence on infanticide among the wealthy nations, shows us that the world is in trouble.
We have Catholics abandoning their faith for more "freer" philosophies; we have even more Catholics dissenting from the Church's ancient teachings in droves; we have Bishops and Clergy refusing to address controversial issues for fear of arousing bitterness amongst the laity; and we have widespread confusion among the numerous agnostic Catholics who have neither a clue about what the Church teaches, nor a will to find out.
The many orthodox Catholics who love the Church and her wisdom are frustrated, some are turning to apocalyptic prophecies that signal a sudden end to all this, while others are silently seething as their world quickly comes undone. Some blame Vatican II, others blame the clergy and the world's religious, and still more blame modernity for our current plight.
In short, it looks bad.
Nonetheless, today, only a few days before Lent, we have this as the first reading:
"Behold, I am doing something new! Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? In the desert I make a way, in the wasteland, rivers ... I put water in the desert and rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink, the people whom I formed for myself, that they might announce my praise" (Isaiah 43:19-21).
Listen to those words: "Behold, I am doing something new!" Pope John Paul II, a man widely considered a prophet and one of history's greatest Popes, declared that we are on the verge of a new springtime in the Church. What we need to remember, however, is that we cannot get to the spring without first surviving the winter.
Blizzards Thaw
"When you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials ... for in fire gold is tested, and worthy men in the crucible of humiliation" (Sirach 2:1,5).
On May 25, 1999, Pope Leo XIII wrote Annum Sacrum and inaugurated a global consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He did this in response to the "abundance of evils which have now for a long time settled upon the world." Now, we see that further evils have "settled upon the world," and we are being called by the Church to enter into a holy period of fasting and penance, united with the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, in order to be more fully united with the power and glory of his Resurrection.
Now, we are being called to return to the Sacred Heart. We are being called to pass through the living flames of love that encircle the summit of the Heart and allow them to purify us like gold, in order to enter into a true and intimate dialogue with Jesus Christ. We are being called to enter this dialogue with our hearts pierced to allow rivers of living water to flow from our hearts (cf. John 7:37-39). We must be set ablaze with the fires of Pentecost if we expect to weather the current storms of dissent, disorder, and disgrace.
This Lent, through your acts of penance, ask the Lord to take your world apart. Ask him to show you how he will make all things new; ask him to fill you with the fire of the Holy Spirit; and ask him to make you a part of this new springtime, this new Pentecost, and this new evangelization which will transform humanity into a new dialogue with the crucified Redeemer.
"The only true dialogue is one between two crucified persons" (Servant of God, Catherine Doherty).
This is going to be my last post for a while, but I will take it up again after Lent. Pray for me, though, that this Lent might be a profound one. Pray for the Church, that this Lent may be a profound awakening, a sincere return to the Sacred Heart of Christ, and that our hearts may be pierced so that the living waters of Pentecost may flood the earth. Praised be Jesus Christ!
Accepimus Crucem!
