Ascension - Homily 4

Homily 4 - 2014

All three magnificent readings today are unanimous: the community of disciples, the Church, is Christ still at work in the world – the body of Christ. It all sounds great. Yet, over recent years, a number of people I know cannot buy that any more. The clerical sexual abuse crisis has rattled their faith in the Church – what priests and religious child-abusers did, but also how bishops, and even Rome, handled the whole situation. A lot no longer come near Church; and many of those who continue to come feel shamed, betrayed, torn and confused, hurting and angry. I have felt all of the above … with the exception, perhaps, that I no longer feel confused.

But I do feel sad that so many, in their anger, have walked away – sad, because the Church, that is, all of us, needs their anger. Anger can be destructive – and that is no help. But anger also provides the indispensable motivation and energy to work for and to insist on the cultural and structural changes that are so necessary and overdue. Without it the Church will do nothing beyond damage control and window dressing.

That many people feel confused can surprisingly be providential. Confusion can be the spur to reexamine what we have previously taken for granted. For better or for worse, only when we feel confused and no longer in control do we confront the inadequacy of where we are, lose faith in our previous convictions and let go of them. Only then are we motivated to look more deeply – and to mature. As long as we remain satisfied with business as usual, we never grow up.

What I have had to discover and to come to terms with over the years is the reality of sin in the Church and in myself. None of us in the Church, from the Pope to the bishops, to us priests and religious, to yourselves is free from sin. Our rank or role or ministry in the Church is no fail-proof indicator of whether we are saint or sinner. To believe or to expect otherwise is to set ourselves up to be disillusioned. At every Mass, Pope Francis, Bishop Paul, along with you and me, say quite clearly in the hearing of everyone, Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof. It is true.

That the Church is the Body of Christ does not mean that its members are sinless. The only worthwhile reason to be in the Church is because we are sinners. Hopefully, we are sinners on a journey of growth and ever-deepening conversion, enlightenment and liberation. But there is little likelihood that any one of us ever arrives.

Despite our indisputable sinfulness, we have been commissioned to tell the world that God loves the world, this sinful, cruel world that is constantly pulling itself apart. This God of Jesus looks at us always with compassion, fully aware of the aching holes and unhealed wounds buried deep in the psyches of us all that drive us to act destructively. God looks at us not to condemn but to set us free. Yet while commissioned to preach it, we struggle to believe it.

It would be such a better Church, such a better world … if we all stopped pretending and learnt to see ourselves and each other with the tender gaze of our compassionate God; … if we all stopped judging ourselves and each other and learnt instead to encourage and support each other in our struggles; … if we learnt to name sin as sin, in all its brutal destructiveness, yet know that every sin is forgivable. Forgiveness is a mystery that we never understand fully or achieve unaided.  Yet we can learn to open to the Spirit. We can hope to continue growing until we become free to receive the gift that is otherwise impossible for us – the mysterious exhilaration of whole-heartedly forgiving those who hurt us.

That is what the Spirit of Jesus wants to do in our world. The Spirit uses sinners to forgive sinners – simply because there is no one else whom the Spirit can use.