GOOD OUT OF EVIL

 

 

Our loving God permits evil but brings incredibly great good out of it.  And the good which follows upon evil is far, far greater than the evil itself. 

 

How often we see this verified in daily life.  Chronic illness becomes an opportunity for a deeper relationship with Jesus Crucified;  family arguments can lead to a greater appreciation of one another; a stunning loss on the stock market brings with it a re-evaluation of what is truly important in life, etc.

 

The Church in the United States has, these last several months. experienced great evil.  Even though it involves a tiny minority  of priests, the sin of sexual molestation of children has soiled if not torn the seamless garment which is Christ’s Church.  Bishops, even after it was widely known that pederasty  is a repetitive crime, transferred guilty clergy from one parish to another, shamefully multiplying the young victims.  The scandal has seriously upset not only Catholics but the entire nation.

 

But God draws good out of evil.  The members of the Church have  acknowledged their faults, asked for forgiveness and are recompensing the victims.  And more importantly, the Church in America is convinced that what is needed is far more: a profound renewal and reform of all dioceses which compose the Body of Christ in the United States.

 

We have repeatedly shown that the spirituality of Saint Louis de Montfort with its insistence on the renewal of baptismal promises and of evangelical devotion to the Mother of God and of the Church, has the power to bring about a radical centering on Jesus Christ.

 

However, it is not just the implementation of the content of the teaching of Saint Louis de Montfort that can bring about a reform.  How  these Gospel directives of the Father from Montfort are lived is also an essential element of his aim of renewing the face of the earth and reforming the Church (cf. Prayer for Missionaries, 17).

 

St Louis-Marie’s life summarizes the how.  He is the man of the absolute.  No half-way measures.  No tepid, nauseating sermons.  No fear of “what-will-others-say.”  No watering down.  No squirming out of the Gospel demands, no matter how radical they may be in contemporary society. No centering on the “social gospel” but on Jesus Christ the Lord.

 

Translated into contemporary times, Montfort tells us how this renewal of the Church must be brought about.  Space forbids us to go into detail but two points stand out:

 

1. The avoidance of slippery, slimy, political terminology, or better, code-language.  Only several weeks ago, an associate pastor in the Archdiocese of Detroit wrote of “freedom of choice” as an ideal  of a Christian.  After all, he stated, what we do should spring from our freedom.  But his words were a poor  cover-up in support of a gubernatorial candidate, a well-known parishioner, who happens to be unambiguously pro-abortion.  The contradictory dichotomy of what one claims to be in one’s heart and what flows from one’s lips was completely glossed over as was the prostitution of the term “pro-choice” to mean “pro-abortion.”  While loving the sinner, have we become so flabby that we are afraid to call a sin, sin? 

 

In the same category are terms like “fundamental option,” “let your conscience be your guide,”  “love one another … don’t upset anyone.”  These expressions are often used to camouflage the radical ill of contemporary society which is, in plain language:  do what you please, pick and choose from the “offerings” of the Gospel only what you “feel”  suits you the best.  

 

Evangelical boldness, so paramount in the life of St Louis de Montfort, is what the Church in the United States needs so badly today.  Straightforward talk, no betrayal of the Gospel by omission of the hard-sayings, no refusal  to listen to Peter whose divinely-given role it is “to confirm the brethren in the faith.”

 

2.  We would be betraying  the Gospel itself if we attempt to implement a reform and at the same time ignore Our Blessed Mother.  Yet, how many sermons have you heard which tell of the role of Mary in our redemption?  She is not only example of total centering on Christ her Son but also she is the powerful maternal influence on the Church to “do whatsoever He tells you.”  To paraphrase St Louis-Marie, it is only when the Church breathes Mary as the body breathes air, that we will attain a profound depth of union with Jesus the Lord.

 

She must be the atmosphere of the reform we all so ardently desire.  Satan must congratulate himself for his part in making so many people – including priests and bishops – think that devotion to Mary takes away from adoration of Christ.  Where it exists, that lie must be corrected.  Otherwise, the good that God wishes to bring out of the present evil will only be thwarted by our own refusal to follow His example:  He comes to us through the divinely willed Yes of Mary.  Who would dare say that he has found a better way of going to Him?