Sunny Days in Heaven
Spiritual/Political/Philosophical Blog on the Nature of Truth and Falsehood and Heaven


Tuesday, May 14, 2002  

How else shall Lord Jesus enter except through a broken heart?

Emily at Fool's Folly is beside herself over various outrages of priests going their own way.

I'm afraid I'm not helping much with my own private exchange with her which runs contrary to Roman claims.

When you have a beloved, grandiose organization and tradition that is the RCC (or anything similar) it is disconcerting for many members to see it undermined or subverted from within. Just the same as it is for those of us who do not like watching the nut cases protesting against America.

It seems so simple - if you don't agree with the RCC - go someplace else! Form your own church. Build your own cult. Stop hanging on the Church's coat and dragging her down while feeding out of its pockets. Fair's fair! As in America - love it or leave it.

The Church has always been a cafeteria, though, of heterogeneous groups and people. It is maddening, of course. You could almost say it is God's will that it be so. That he makes it a cross for the especially doctrinal and dogmatic; and perhaps, makes it ineffective for the self seeking and spiritually slovenly.

God means to break our hearts, and if we make the Church our treasure on earth rather than seeking our treasure in heaven, then it will hurt like hell and crush our spirits. I realize that we want a trusty bridge between heaven and earth, and that the Church seems most appropriate for that, but it will not bear such hopes as we tend to put on such things; no more than America can satisfy our desires for freedom, peace, and perfection.

It seems crazy that God should send so many into the Church only to dash their hopes of finding a real, humane, honest and sincere life in it - but that's the kind of crazy thing God does to people. He works with what is. He sends people to places where they can get the help he wants them to have; and when they've gotten what he wanted them to have he leads them out.

AA has a saying, "take what you need and leave the rest." God says the same thing to Christians and Catholics. The Church will never really work very well, but it will work well enough for God to use it as he uses just about everything to teach humans about himself.

posted by Mark Butterworth | 1:36 AM |

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