A church which seeks its own survival, it would seem to me, is not living by it’s actual mission. Christ taught us that each follower of His must die unto ourselves, like a seed that dies. If evangelization becomes a violent effort to dominate a culture rather than to propose a relationship with God, it becomes more about the institution’s external operation (numbers, money, consequences of liability, etc.) rather than the Holy Spirit’s movement.
Sins like Sexual Abuse, the 215+ children of Residential Schools, silence on abortion, and the lack of repentance (which includes a lack of reasonable transparency), are all stains on the entire community. These are curses against the Body of Christ, which cannot allow it to bear fruit.
We have taught for so long that repentance is necessary for a fruitful absolution. But a self-motivated Church that is preoccupied with the survival of itself in the face of these scandals rather than a focus on those who did not survive the corruption of the same community is ironically the spiritual desolation of the Church herself. We must communally and ongoingly repent, not as a PR stunt, but as an actual interior movement, perhaps done in hidden and visible ways (which ever involve the most humble form of self-denial).
From within, we as a Church need to be the hands and feet of Christ. To receive His Body in the Eucharist is not enough, for its fruitful reception it must lead us as a community to seek the others good before our own. If growth in the Church is to happen, may it only be in this regard, for then the Church is truly the Body of Christ.
“When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh: “By decree of the king and his nobles, no man or beast, no cattle or sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water. Man and beast alike must be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; they all must turn from their evil way and from the violence of their hands. Who knows? God may again repent and turn from his blazing wrath, so that we will not perish.” When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.” (Jonah 3:6-10)
Photo: Greg Olsen, Public Domain
