They all fall down!
How many times is Wall Street going to take a nose dive?
Years ago there used to be a certain respect for and loyalty to institutions. Large banks, investment houses, companies, government agencies, and the Church earned great allegiance because of the benefits that came from the institution: a sense of belonging, respect from valued people who held the institution in honor, a track record of doing good and attending to the people involved.
In our age of individualism more and more people are choosing to value their privacy and aloneness than, as in days of old, value the sense belonging and contributing to something grander than oneself. This drift away from institutions is exacerbated by so many institutional failures, be it in Wall Street, government, business, athletics, academia or the Church.
It’s popular today to say, “Oh, I believe in God but I don’t need the Church,” until some crisis hits when we do indeed need the Church! Maybe our present economic crisis will entice people to rethink such disdain for the Church. Our Catholic Church has lived through such times before, so we have some accumulated wisdom on how to survive in an anti-institutional era.
I suggest a bit of wisdom from Carlo Carretto, an Italian 20th century priest, mystic and writer, who articulates what, for many people today, will beautifully and honestly describe our love for the Church, especially in an age of crisis:
How much I must criticize you, my church, and yet how much I love you! You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe more to you than to anyone. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence. You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness. Never in this world have I seen anything more compromised, more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous or more beautiful. Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face - and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your sure arms! No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely with you. Then too - where would I go? To build another church? But I could not build one without the same defects, for they are my defects. And again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ's church. No, I am old enough, I know better. (Translation from Forgotten Among the Lilies – Learning To Love Beyond Our Fears, by Ronald Rolheiser)
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