Our institutional Church is struggling in a fierce storm of crises after crises
When we are sailing in the middle of a severe storm with fierce winds blowing us every which way, we need a safety rail to hold on to until such time as the storm abates, and the forces that cause it have diminished to the point of no longer having any undue influence on the path we wish to sail.
Our institutional Church is in a fierce storm of crises after crises. As believers we have to keep our nerve, hold on fast to our safety rail, which is our inherent belief. We must stay motivated and keep sailing straight ahead in the ship that is our faith. We Catholics need to remain resolute in these stormy times. Our belief in God should not be shaken by the evil actions of other human beings. Our belief in God, is inborn within us.
When Jesus asked Simon, “who do people say that I am?”, Simon replied “you are the son of the living God”, Jesus replied “Blessed are you, Simon, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in Heaven”.
Our belief in God does not come from others; He reveals Himself within us, and in all who seek Him, as He did with Simon. Our search for belief in God is part of our own journey. But guidance on that journey is brought to us by the Church, a guidance to help open ourselves and allow God to reveal Himself within. The authentic Church are the dedicated servants of God still manning the ramparts, resolutely leading us and reminding us of our need for God and His Mercy in our everyday lives.
We must separate our Church from the evil human beings that have entered the institution, possessed by Satanic evil with one purpose in mind, to bring the Church to its knees.
But on its knees is the right place to start again. It is prayer that we must all use to make our Church strong again. The prayers that Jesus gave us for that purpose. Jesus first act of Divine Mercy was when He appeared to the Apostles in the upper room as the victorious Christ, having defeated sin and death, in this way he gave the ultimate belief to His followers who became His Church on earth.
In our time, He has given us the same image that appeared to the Apostles, the ‘Divine Mercy Image’ to help us renew ourselves and our Church. Many have asked why we need another new devotion; well this is not a new devotion but the oldest devotion of all, devotion to the victorious Jesus, the Resurrected Jesus, which is the Image of Jesus Victorious, down from the Cross, asking us to appeal once again to the Father through the victory of His sacrifice on the Cross, for God’s Divine Mercy for the world.
This Image is our faith, and with God’s Divine Mercy which is visible in this Image, we can renew our faith and our Church.
It is the Church that brought us this Image through the person of Saint Maria Faustina, and Blessed Father Michael Sopocko. And there are much more of these good people in the Church than the handful of evil ones that have crept in, and which the media with evil intent keep putting in front of the world as an example today of the Catholic Church.
Belief in God is the only thing that makes life meaningful and worthwhile. It is the only thing that gives meaning and purpose to life. We, and all our families and descendants need the Church. It is the Church that keeps reminding us that God exists, guiding and directing us to His Divine Mercy. We need to seek His Divine Mercy every day of our lives and appeal for it to the Father, for the sins of our family and of the whole world. For this appeal to the Father He gave us special prayers, powerful prayers, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, the Novena, and others, in the message of Divine Mercy.
Armed with these prayers and total devotion to God’s Divine Mercy, we can take a stand against this evil that has invaded our Church and has worked its way in, seemingly to infestation level like the black plague. A plague does not only infect the sick but also rubs off on the well and leaves many afraid to even go near the area of the epidemic. But that epidemic was a sickness, and we must fight sickness if we wish to get well. The greatest epidemic in world history was the black plague, which was spread by vermin, but the good people did not walk away from it, but found a way of dealing with the vermin, and fought back against the plague with everything at their disposal, it was eradicated by good people finding a way to deal with it.
There is a strange opinion out there in the public arena that thinks because priests are unmarried this causes them to become predators or paedophiles, nothing could be farther from the truth. Paedophiles are that way by their nature, it is an abnormality in their genetic makeup. It is a psychiatric disorder and can also be a physiological condition in men, be they married or single.
To satisfy their evil they become devious people who work their way into a social position of privilege where they are allowed to work with children and are morally unquestioned. This may be why the priesthood was one of attraction to them, as also many other areas of society.
There is also history of paedophilia in many other areas of life, that have nothing to do with religion, child and youth organisations, such as sports, youth coaches, swimming coaches, scouting, etc.
In fact, any organisation where they can have unfettered access to children. Paedophilia is not just confined to institutions as we see in many cases coming before the courts, where there are married men who are Paedophiles abusing their own children.
The problem was in the past there was an innocence in society, and many institutions allowed access to children unrestricted, and this terrible crime we probably never heard of in our young lives, Paedophilia, suddenly became common place.
We were made aware of it by the innocent, who in these new times of social interaction with the young, felt in a position to speak out without fear of recriminations and ostracization.
Society today seems to have found a way of protecting the young but is it just a structural one. We as Christians must stay alert to the abuse of any human being in all areas of life. As far as the Church is concerned, it would seem to me, that God Himself has exposed all this evil in His Church, and wants in our time once and for all to cleanse His Church, and leave it in the hands of His dedicated servants, whose only motivation is to bring people to Jesus in all His Glory, the Victorious Christ, resurrected, down from the Cross, showing the blood that flowed from His side as rays of Love and Mercy, a continuous flowing fount of Mercy for all mankind. This is the Image of the Merciful Jesus that appeared to Saint Faustina as a message for the world.
Today prayer is more important than ever, it is our communion with God, through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross, begging mercy for a world in untold agony, to which there is no answer, but God.
The most important prayer today is the one that Jesus gave us in the message, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. A prayer that appeals to almighty God through the Image of Divine Mercy, which is the resurrected Jesus, to have mercy on us and on the whole world.