Wednesday of the Twelfth Week of Ordinary Time

After what the Church has been through in the past eight years, with a story that first erupted in the mid-1980’s and has now spread even to Rome – that place known in the Acts of the Apostles as “the ends of the earth” – it would be hard to reflect on “Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing” without thinking of The Scandal.

This has been painful for everyone who cares about the Church. It is a hurt that begins with the traumatized victims and spreads to their families and friends. It passes through every rank of the hierarchical church from those in the pews to the ones behind the altar. It affects Protestant, Jewish, Muslim and irreligious friends of our faith. It reaches even those lost souls who were never abused but use the story as another reason not to sober up and return to the faith of their childhood.  

Some have considered the scandal as so great the Church has forever lost its credibility. I do not worry so much about our credibility as the victims who cannot bring themselves to experience the kindness, gentleness and pure goodness of our sacraments.

We pray daily and many times a day, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” We pray this because we fear there are situations that might hurt so badly, that might be so unbearably traumatic, that we will not be able to sustain our faith. We cannot imagine living with such pain. In the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, Jesus warns us there will be trials so severe as to try “even the elect.”

In fact, the Gospel of Saint Mark described Jesus’ last agony in that way. As he died he cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me.” And then, “Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.”

The scandal of the cross includes his last anguished cry, an inhuman howl of despair. We dare not ignore this horror. Jesus Christ suffered such pain and shock and grief in his crucifixion that he abandoned all hope as he surrendered to God.

Saint Paul reminded us the cross is blasphemy to Jews and absurd to Greeks; that is, a scandal to the pious; and to the reasonable, sheer madness.

Without an appreciation for that horror we will not see the Glory of the cross, which includes his resurrection. God heard his cry of despair and raised him up, giving him back to us as our Lord and Savior:

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Hebrews 5:7

  

We must be silent before Jesus’ passion and death, reserving judgment for we hardly know what this mystery means. And we must be silent before the trauma of children-now-adults who suffered at the hands of abusive priests. We cannot deny their stories nor minimize their pain but we can hope in the inexhaustible mercy of God. There is healing in his wings.