Fr. Salvatore Rosa

          Last week I had supper with a classmate of mine who is a pastor in Hartford. He is usually a happy person, but he seemed downcast and dejected. The reason why came out soon enough – “The newspapers, the TV talk shows, the newsmen – all they do is keep talking about the crisis in the Church, the crisis in the Church. Well, I’m sick of it. I am tired of hearing about it, and I just want it to go away. This is my Church, the church I love. It doesn’t deserve to be dragged through the mud like this.”

          I am sure we can all identify with his feelings. But the scandal in the Church is not going to go away anytime soon. It is causing a lot of anguish, shame, and suffering, for faithful Catholics everywhere. So we need to ask, how is God using this crisis? What is He accomplishing, what is He doing? What will He bring out of the pain and suffering His Church is going thru?

          Our first Pope, St Peter, focuses on those very questions for us in our second reading. The Church in his day was suffering intense, horrible persecution from the world around it. The national sport was to attack the Christians. But the Church also suffered because it had too much of the world inside of it. The vice, the sin, the corruption that was in the world, infected the Church as well. And God had to do something about it. So He used the persecution of the Church to purify the Church, to cleanse it, to make it holy and renew it.

          There were good people in the Church and bad, both saints and sinners. Saints who had been sinners at one time, and sinners who were not interested in being good or holy, but who wanted to keep on enjoying their sins. Well, the persecution that came upon the Church didn’t make any distinction between saint and sinner, innocent and guilty. Everybody suffered together, the good and the bad.

          But the innocent didn’t like it. They thought, “Hey, we have been good. So we shouldn’t have to suffer. Why should we have to pay for the wrong they have done? It’s not fair.” They were suffering because they were good, and although they were good. And, you know what, the pain and suffering they went through didn’t hurt less because they were good or innocent. If anything, it bothered them more, because it seemed so unfair. But fairness had nothing to do with it. It was a question of sharing in Christ’s Cross in order to purify His Church.

          The reading from St Paul begins with Chapter 4 verse 13. But we will start with verse 12. Peter says, “Do not be surprised, beloved, that a trial by fire is occurring in your midst. It is a test for you, but it should not catch you off guard.” They shouldn’t see the persecution and suffering as something strange or extraordinary. No need to be surprised, protest, or get angry. What should they do instead?

          “Rejoice”, Peter says, “To the extent that you share in the sufferings of Christ. “If they are innocent, their suffering is a way of sharing in Christ’s cross, small way of participating in what He went through to save mankind. So they should suffer joyfully. No moaning and groaning. No pity parties. “

          “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the spirit of glory, the spirit of God, rests upon you.” St Peter is thinking of Christ’s baptism. When Jesus came out of the Jordan river, the heavens opened and the Spirit in the form of a dove descended and rested upon Him. And the voice of the Father in heaven said “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The Spirit resting on the Son shows the Father’s approval and support for His Son. That same spirit shows God’s approval and support for us. “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God, rests upon you.” The Spirit takes us in our suffering, covers us with His presence, and makes of us a sacrificial offering to the Father.

          “But,” Peter continues, “let no one among you be made to suffer as murderer, a thief, an evil doer, or as an intriguer.” If you are suffering because you are innocent, that’s positive. That leads to glory to eternal life. But if you are suffering and are guilty, are entrapped by your sins, that’s negative. That’s going nowhere. That kind of suffering in our sins leads to our self-destruction, to the eternal death of hell.

          Every serious sin contains in it the seed of self-destruction. Sin is spiritual suicide. Sin means we erase God’s life from our souls. Our bodies could be walking around still, but our souls are dead, cut off from God. Every serious sin contains death in it, like a tiny little microbe contains a deadly virus that can ravage our whole body. When we sin, death is already in us, spreading and taking us over like a living cancer. Punishment is not something outside of sin that gets tacked on later. It is inside the sin, and has already begun. If physical death comes to us while we are in the grip of sin, we continue our separation from God, eternally in hell. That’s the great tragedy, for St. Peter. Not persecution, but damnation. That’s why he says – “Let no one among you be made to suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evil-doer, or as an intriguer.”

          “But whoever is made to suffer as a Christian, should not be ashamed, but glorify God because of the name.” Be proud to suffer because of your faith in Christ. Don’t be ashamed of your religion, or intimidated by the scorn and ridicule. Live your faith humbly and bravely in the face of persecution.

          God can use the media, the secular press, the attacks on the Church by the world, as His instrument to purify the Church and renew it.

          When will the scandal all be over? In God’s good time, when He has accomplished his work of purification. The Church is not going to die or disappear. We are only at the start of the third millennium. Remember, God has plenty of work for his Church to do still. So get in shape, folks. If you are elderly, take your vitamins and your geritol and stick around for a few more years. It will be exciting to see what God has in store for us.    

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