Remain Faithful

Remain Faithful

June 8, 2012

Friday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

In fact, all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But wicked people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But you, remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it, and that from infancy you have known the sacred Scriptures, which are capable of giving you wisdom for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:10-17)

O Lord, great peace have they who love your law. (Psalms 119:165a)

As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said: ‘The Lord said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand until I place your enemies under your feet.” David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?” [The] great crowd heard this with delight. (Mark 12-35-37)

Piety

Lord, I leave it to You to separate the wolves from the lambs. Help me to follow Your Word rather than a single human being.

Study

Same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever was, as Talking Heads wrote in “Once in a Lifetime.”

It was nearly two thousand years ago when Paul advised Timothy to “remain faithful to what you have learned and believed” in the face of wicked people and charlatans. Who are today’s wicked people and charlatans? The pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele? Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, his secretary of state? His private secretary, Monsignor Georg Ganswein? The pope himself? The media? President Obama? Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius? Leadership Conference of Women Religious President Sister Pat Farrell? Toledo Bishop Leonard Paul Blair, who oversaw the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s assessment of the LCWR?

Maybe all of them. Maybe some of them. Maybe none of them. They’re not the first to be involved in controversy surrounding the Catholic Church. The devil of excess was surely at work during hundreds of years of Catholic inquisitions in Europe, which changed the face of Christianity. There’s Vatican II—good idea or bad idea, depending on who you talk with. There are the cover-ups of pedophiles and the condemnation slow in coming for wickedness from the Mafia to Adolf Hitler. Same as it ever was. Imperfect Church, made up of by imperfect people in positions of power as well as in the pews. And, for the record, I doubt that would change if women could be priests or bishops or cardinals or popes. Power is an equal-opportunity corrupter.

At what point do corruption and obstinacy and intractability become so pervasive that we the faithful can no longer remain an active part of the Catholic Church? The answer is probably different for each of us. If you’re still here, you’ve weathered a few Catholic storms in your lifetime. For me, as someone who tried life without the Church for more than thirty years (not very successfully), it comes down to the basics.  I believe in the Creed, every word of it. I believe in our sacraments and the transcendent blessings and comfort and joy they bring us, even as we take our final breath on earth. I believe in the power of the Church as an institution, corrupt as it is at times, and the tireless good that is done by the Church in Christ’s name, every second of every minute of every hour of every day.

And to that, no matter what passing controversy colors the public perception of Catholicism and no matter what I think personally of the whole human mess, I will remain faithful. How about you?

Action

Talk with your spouse, best friend, or group reunion about why you follow Jesus as a Catholic.