Remember: Despair is a deadly sin!

I had the surprising joy today of receiving a visit from one of the readers of “Sentire Cum Ecclesia”. Really, the idea that I might actually have any fans out there in blog-world had never occurred to me!

My visitor admitted to having some doubts about the current state of the Church, especially in her local experience. Well, that’s not surprising. The important thing is not to despair or lose hope for the future (despair is a mortal sin, by the way, and hope is one of the three theological virtues!). Remember what Christ said about the gates of hell not prevailing over the Church.

We are all aware of the difficulties in which the Church currently finds herself throughout the world. But she has always suffered from such difficulties—both within and without. We should not fall into the trap of thinking “I’m the only one left”.

I reminded my visitor of the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19, how he told God he wanted to die because everyone had gone over to the new fashionable god, Baal. In reply, God took Elijah back to the bit of Rock on which it all began for the Israelites: Mt Horeb (Sinai). There he spoke to Elijah in a “still small voice” and assured him that he was not “the last one left”—in fact, there were 7000 in Israel who had not “bowed the knee” to Baal. Then God sent Elijah back to get on with the job, anointing a successor to the King of Israel and anointing a successor for Elijah himself.

You see, God had plans for the future. He still does. A new generation is on its way, when all this current silliness will be put to bed. Not without a fair bit of angst, and probably not without the Church returning to something of a “mustard seed” in size (I seem to remember Papa Benny saying something like that once). For an indication of where things are going, and for a bit of encouragement, you might like to check out this story about the new bishop in Kansas City.

And in the mean time, here’s a joke.

[Reader: I thought you promised you wouldn’t tell any more jokes after that last one about the Pope’s ears.
Schütz: I lied.]

I saw a card in St Peter’s Bookroom today. It had two dogs on the front. One was saying to the other:

“I used to have a blog site, but I’ve given it up. I’ve decided to go back to meaningless and incessant barking.”

Mmm.