Jesus Prepares Us for Scandal in the Church

 

Every now and then people come across a counterfeit bill, but I never knew anyone who, because of it, argued that the United States currency was worthless. Astronomers have seen spots on the sun, but I have yet to hear of one who denied that the sun is the light of the world. But I know many who pick out the failings and sins of a few Catholics and then say: “But, my dear, they don’t tell you everything! The Church is really the work of the devil!”

This extreme point of view starts with a fact! There are scandals! For example, some Catholic husbands and wives are unfaithful; some Catholic politicians are more crooked than those who have no religion; some Catholic boys steal; some Catholic girls worship the same saints as pagan girls: movie heroes or band leaders; some Catholic industrialists are selfish and hard-hearted and totally indifferent to the rights of others; some Catholic labor leaders are more interested in keeping their leadership by annual strikes than in cooperating for social justice. Then in the Papacy, there is Alexander VI.

What does all this prove, but that Our Dear Lord has espoused humanity as it is, rather than as we would like it to be! He never expected His Mystical Body the Church to be without scandals because He Himself was the first scandal. It was a terrible scandal for those who knew Him to be God to see Him crucified and go down to seeming defeat at the moment his enemies challenged Him to prove His Divinity by coming down from the Cross. No wonder He had to beg His followers not to be scandalized by Him. If the human nature of Our Lord could suffer physical defeat and be a scandal, why should there not be scandals in Our Lord’s Mystical Body made up of poor mortals such as we? If He permitted thirst, pain and a death sentence to affect His Physical Body, why should He not permit mystical and moral weaknesses such as loss of faith, sin, scandals, heresies, schisms and sacrileges to affect His Mystical Body? When these things happen, it does not prove that the Mystical Body the Church is not Divine in its inmost nature, anymore than the crucifixion of Our Lord proved that He is not Divine. Because our hands are dirty, the whole body is not polluted. The scandals of the Mystical Body the Church no more destroy its substantial holiness than the crucifixion destroyed the substantial wholeness of Christ’s Physical Body. The Old Testament prophecy fulfilled on Calvary was that not a bone of His Body would be broken. His flesh would hang like purple rags about Him, wounds like poor dumb mouths would speak their pain with blood, pierced hands and feet would open up torrents of redemptive life - but His substance, His bones, they would be sound. So with His Mystical Body! Not a bone of it shall ever be broken; the substance of Her Doctrines will always be pure, though the flesh of some of her doctors fail; the substance of Her Discipline will always be sound, though the passions of some her disciples rebel; the substance of Her Faith will always be Divine though the flesh of some of her faithful will be so carnal. Her Wounds will never be mortal for Her Soul is Holy and Immortal, with Immortality of Love Divine that came to Her Body on the Day of Pentecost as tongues of living fire.

(excerpt from “The Rock Plunged into Eternity”)

Reflection on the Archbishop’s words:

The words of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen are certainly timely to the present crisis of scandal in the Church. The word, scandal, comes from a root word that means an obstacle that causes someone to stumble and fall. Applied morally, scandal refers to the bad example that some members of the Church give by their immoral behavior which causes others to weaken in their faith or think less of the Church. For some time now, the media has focused on the shortcomings of various members of the Church, primarily in the Hierarchy and the Priesthood. That there have been sinful and even criminal actions on the part of some members of the clergy, we cannot and must not deny. If physical or emotional harm has been done to anyone, we must acknowledge and condemn this. Even more so, if spiritual harm has been done because of the scandal given, we must admit this very honestly. But we must also keep in mind that those members of the clergy who have been convicted of wrongdoing represent only a very small percentage of the number of clergy in the Church

There are two important points that the Archbishop brings out that need to be acknowledged so that we can keep the scope of the scandal in some perspective. The first is that just as his example of a few counterfeit dollar bills does not destroy whole worth of the United States’ currency, so a small percentage of priests does not destroy the dignity of the Priesthood. There are many good and faithful priests laboring in the Church today. They are found in all kinds of social settings, many of which are very challenging. Some do mission work in hostile environments. Others work among the poor and disadvantaged to bring them the food that sustains their bodies as well as their souls. Some of them work for the dignity of life and uphold the traditional family and its values even when these are disregarded by a secular society. Still others teach the young, or tend the sick and elderly, or counsel those in confusion and distress in their lives. The list is endless. The good are not negated by those who do wrong. As the Archbishop put it, “Because our hands are dirty, the whole body is not polluted.”

The Archbishop’s second point follows here, namely, that the Church in her essential makeup as a divinely founded community of believers is not substantially destroyed in Her Holiness by the presence of sin. Again, to quote the Archbishop, “Our Dear Lord has espoused humanity as it is, rather than as we would like it to be!” As the bones of Jesus were not broken, though His body was torn and pierced by wounds, so the teachings of Christ and His Church are not rendered invalid or ineffective because some have chosen not to follow them faithfully! Just like the good that many ordinary citizens do every day does not make the front page in the local newspaper, but the crimes of a few steal the headlines, so we must not allow ourselves to be drawn away from our own fidelity by the infidelity of a few.

Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR
Vice-Postulator of the Cause