Memorial of Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest

Lectionary: 454

I asked, "Where are you going?"
He answered, "To measure Jerusalem,
to see how great is its width and how great its length."

Many people step on the bathroom scale daily, to check their weight. That is, to measure their progress or regress in the endless struggle for health. Like the angel's measuring line, they use the instrument to judge their bodies; and they might be satisfied, dissatisfied, or seriously disappointed. 

Periodically, the Lord must measure his Church to see if it is prepared for an influx of the nations, for a rebirth of wonder in the truth about Jesus Christ. 

Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day,

and they shall be his people and he will dwell among you.

The Church has been tested lately. First there was the trial of changes with the Second Vatican Council. The rituals, so familiar and comfortable, despite their indecipherable obscurity in a long dead language, were less familiar with the use of more familiar English words. Many Veterans of the Vietnam conflict and afflicted with terrible grief and profound confusion upon their return, looked forward to that moment when they might come back to that dear old, neighborhood church. What they found was something quite different, utterly strange, without meaning or significance. Many of them have never reentered another church.

Those changes were accompanied by an unexpected teaching about birth control. Suddenly the Church and the World had a profound disagreement about how husbands and wives should conduct their most personal transaction. That challenge led to thousands of women leaving the convent, and men leaving the religious life and the priesthood. Even bishops abandoned their dioceses. 

And then the pedophilia scandal, which seemed at the time entirely about priests, although its roots went much deeper into every organization that was supposed to form children into adults. 

Today, American Catholics find their families and churches deeply divided, even polarized, by partisan politics. And, very often, we're targeted by hate groups for our teachings and beliefs. 

But -- we're still here. We still love our Catholic Church; we still believe in the Most Blessed Sacrament and our dear Blessed Mother. We're being tested; and our tent is being stretched to include men and women of every race, nationality, and language. They will bring their confusion and ignorance along with their beliefs and convictions, and they will want to know what we believe even as they try to tell us what we should believe. And they will find around us an encircling wall of fire to purify them as they enter the holy city, a fire which cleanses us of the world's nonsense. 

But He is the glory in our midst, and we will sing and rejoice with Mary, and the saints and martyrs of every age. For His truth is marching on.