Do we get it?

Keep calm

The first line of Thomas Merton's essay, "The Christian in Diaspora" (1964), reads: "It is no secret that the Church finds herself in crisis, and the awareness of such a fact is 'pessimism' only in the eyes of those for whom all change is necessarily a tragedy."

He continues, "It would seem more realistic to follow the example of Pope John and to face courageously the challenges of an unknown future in which the Christian can find security not, perhaps, in the lasting strength of familiar human structures but certainly in the promises of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. After all, Christian hope itself would be meaningless if there were no risks to face and if the future were definitively mortgaged to an unchanging present."  

This comes from a National Catholic Reporter article by Daniel P Horan, enttiled "Thoms Merton's wisdom for a church in crisis" (23rd June, 2021).   

I am reflecting a lot on this theme lately thanks to a webinar scripture course and various articles.  What is a key learning for me is that this sense of crisis is not caused by the pandemic alone.  Crisis is obviously nothing new.  Rather the crisis was already here, with the pandemic exacerbating it.  

Basically, the crisis facing the Church today has no one source.  There are the scandals of sexual abuse, corruption and abuse of power eating away at the moral standing of the church in the world.  There are the cultural warriors in the church battling to keep everything as they judge it should be.  There are the growth pains of a church struggling with the realities of contemporary and changing societies.  There are the challenges from the strong leadership of Pope Francis for us to come to terms with being Church in today's world.  There is all this and along comes the pandemic and whammy!  The perfect storm!  

It is within our sitz im leben over 50 years later that Thomas Merton speaks to us yet again.  The basic challenge before us as a faith community is not to be distracted nor lulled into a false sense of security by the past but to face with confidence the reality of the present that opens us up to a future with all the risks and opportunities it holds.  Church as an institution and as lived is not an eternal given.  Rather, as Church, we remain at the beginning of the new dawn offered to us in faith through a God of love with us and a lasting hope based on the resurrection.   

As my friend, Nando, always says - Padre John, siempre avanti.