In today's gospel (Mark 9:30-37) the disciples are discovered to have been arguing about who was the greatest. In response, Jesus takes a child and declares it his ambassador, just as he is the emissary from the Father.
As startling as this must have been in its own context, to take a powerless child, a nobody in the world, and declare it one's representative, in my own prayer through this passage this morning I began to wonder if it might not have an even stronger meaning for us, and especially for us priests.
As happens frequently enough, I started to pray for those who have been abused by priests. Perhaps they, in a very particular and pointed way, are representatives of Christ in their crucified humanity. As a presbyter of the Catholic Church do I try to give myself the rotten and false consolation of telling myself that their crucifixion is someone else's fault? Or do I, as a priest of Jesus Christ and as one who at least desires to be a beloved disciple, seek ways to pray and weep at the foot of their crosses?
1 comment:
When it comes to the abuse scandal, I am profoundly saddened by the loss of awareness of evil we have suffered.
In scripture we read time and again about demons but in this age we have invited psychologists into the Church who explain away demons as simply a disordered thought for which we must have compassion.
While Jesus taught us to love our enemies, we see by example that he banished demons rather than embrace them. He did not exorcise the demons and then exclaim, "You're okay, I'm okay."
In the John Jay report and in other commentary we see the negative influence psychology had. We must recapture the faith from the invasion of atheistic psychology that began in the 60's and continues to this day.
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