Crucifixion time again

Fr. Roy Cimagala .

WITH new scandals assailing parts of the Church today (mainly in the US), we are reminded that we are into another round of crucifixion time for our Mother, the Church. We should not be surprised anymore by this development. But we should be prepared to handle this predicament properly and learn some precious lessons.

The life of the Church cannot help but reflect the life, passion, death and resurrection of Christ, its founder and its body into which we, Christian believers, are incorporated. Yes, we cannot escape the curse of sin in our life as well as in the life of the Church as a whole.

Like Christ, the Church has to bear all the sins of men, including those committed by its temporal leaders. Christ did all he could to sanctify us. He preached, performed miracles, instituted the sacraments and founded the Church, etc. But in the end, due to our hard-headedness and all kinds of weaknesses, he just had to offer his life to save us. The Church cannot do no less. She has to suffer the same fate.

It is, of course, painful to experience all these scandals, but we should not overeact to the point of making things worse. These scandals, a consequence of human weaknesses that can afflict even our Church leaders, are actually a call for another conversion, which is something that is meant to be a continuing, life-long process for each one of us. Something very good can be derived from these scandals.

We just have to focus more on what we can gain from these scandals in terms of what can favor another conversion rather than on getting hooked on their purely negative aspects. Of course, there will be elements that will rub it in on us. Some sectors of the media will have a field day in this. But this should also be expected.

We just have to be ready to react to all this properly, as shown by Christ himself. And that is simply to suffer together with Christ—a suffering that is in accordance to the will of the Father. In a sense, the suffering caused by the scandals is another concrete way of identifying ourselves more intimately with Christ. In a way, it is a welcome development.

In the meantime, we have to do the continuing task of cleaning up our own selves and the Church as an institution. We cannot deny that weaknesses, temptations and sins will always hound us. We have to identify more clearly the deficiencies in Christian life that give rise to these scandals and come up with the appropriate measures to address them.

Offhand, we can take another review of how the formation of priests and seminarians is done. What improvement can be made in that department? How should priests be more effectively accompanied in their ministry so that their spiritual life would remain healthy as they carry out their heavy responsibilities?

And since transparency is also a goal to be pursued, how should this be done without compromising the basic human rights of all the parties involved? How should Church authorities handle cases where the legal rights of persons are involved? Justice, charity and mercy should go hand in hand.

These, I suppose, are some of the things that have to be looked into if only to minimize the cases of scandals that can unnecessarily disturb the people in general. It cannot be denied that the Church authorities have to install appropriate means and structures to be in step with the rightful expectations of the world.

It’s about time for the Church authorities to air out the hidden dirty closets. Transparency and accountability should be lived strictly. It certainly will be a very painful and unpleasant task, but it will definitely be for the common good, and will give due glory to God!

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We should never lose sight of the fact, a happy truth of our faith, that there is always hope for us despite the persistence of evil and our continual falls to sin. St. Paul has reassured us that where sin has abounded, God’s grace has abounded even more. (cfr. Rom 5,20)

God never tires of forgiving us and of giving us more grace to make us grow spiritually, that is, to grow more in love for God and others. What we can do with the reality of the persistence of evil is to take advantage of it to get closer to God and others.

Yes, we may be always hounded by evil, temptations and sin, but let’s learn the art of converting them into occasions to go to God more closely. And that’s when, with God, we can manage to derive good from evil.

On our part, we just have to be humble enough to accept this fact of life, and more, to go to God to ask for forgiveness and help every time we are feel the sting of evil. It is pure pride when we refuse to acknowledge this fact of life, and more so, when we refuse to go to God for forgiveness and help.

We cannot deny that evil, temptations and sin will always hound us. It might be good to recall what St. Paul said about this sad, unfortunate reality in our life. From his Letter to the Romans, we have this explanation:

“We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.

“For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

“So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work with me.

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

“So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.” (7,14-25)

It would be good that we always keep these Pauline words always in mind so that we do not overeact whenever evil, temptations and sin unavoidably come our way. We just have to learn to live in peace with this lifelong disturbing reality and never tire of going to God for forgiveness and help.

That is why it is always good that we develop the habit of examining our conscience regularly, making some resolutions after that, and of going to frequent confession, the sacrament that assures us of God’s mercy and grace.

There’s always hope despite the persistence of evil in our life. Conversion should be a continuing affair for us.