Church under fire!

Right now, at this moment, any stick is good enough with which to beat the Church. The Catholic Church is really under fire.

Of course, "the Church" is not only John Paul II, the Cardinals, the Bishops, the priests, the nuns. The Catholic Church is the little army of the children of God, many of whom are heroic in their holiness. They are saints, in the streets of the city. Saints, in the market place. Honestly, I pray with all my heart to be worthy of the beautiful souls whom God sends to me. They are beautiful inside and out.

The ones who are under fire are the clergy, the Bishops, the priests. And that is good. For 2000 years the Fathers and Doctors of the Church have said that it is better to be humiliated than to live in honor.

Saint Ignatius Loyola, in his meditation on The Two Standards, says: "There are two flags in this world – the flag of Christ Our Lord and the flag of Satan. When God wants to bring you under his flag, he does it in three steps: First, he gives you poverty, as a gift. Poverty, in the Gospel, means to be stripped of what the world holds dear." ......... And a good name is certainly a thing that the world holds dear .......... "From poverty comes humiliations. From humiliations comes humility. And after that, all other virtues."

Poverty is the doorway to God. And the way to God is poverty, humiliations, humility. There is no other way. Either you go that way, or you don’t go.

Loyola goes on to say: "When the devil wants to draw you headlong, he does it in three steps: First he gives you riches. In the Gospel, riches are anything that the worlds holds dear." ......... A good name is a thing that the world holds dear........." From riches comes honor. From honor comes pride. And after pride all the other vices."

Graham Greene, who was a magnificent Catholic author, wrote a book called: "Labyrinthine Ways." It did not sell, because nobody knew what "Labyrinthine" meant. They changed the title to "The Power and the Glory." Then the book sold. When Hollywood made it into a movie, they called it: "The Fugitive." The first film featured Henry Fonda in the leading role. It was so successful that they did it again, starring Laurence Olivier.

It was the story of a young Catholic priest in Mexico, during the stormy days of religious persecution. The year that, in real life, Miguel Pro S.J. was shot and killed by a military firing squad. He died with his arms extended in the form of a cross, calling: "Viva Cristo Rey!" Miguel Pro was a fugitive, and so was the star, in this movie.

He had many faults, failures, weaknesses, sins. He was a mild alcoholic. He was the father of a little girl, born out of wedlock. He was not living with the mother. It happened in a moment of misery and loneliness. The mother of the little girl never called him anything else than "Father".

He was constantly running from the police, and from the military, in fear of execution. But he was devoted to the little flock he was supposed to serve. He was saying Mass, hearing confessions, anointing the sick and the dying, bringing God – as best he could – to every Catholic. A military officer, a Communist, knew that he was doing this, and was hunting for him. Finally the priest escaped from Mexico. He went over the border, into safe territory.

The Communist was played by George Scott, a strong actor. He knew that the priest would not refuse a request for the last sacraments, from a man who was dying. So he sent a miserable street vendor with a note for the priests, forged, as if it came from a dying man, asking for confession before he died. The priest went back across the border, with the street vendor, into the trap. There really was a man dying, who needed the sacraments. But after the priest gave him absolution and viaticum, the military closed in on him. He was tried, convicted, sentenced for execution.

In the area, there was a priest who had abandoned his priesthood, rather than be executed. The Fugitive priest, in his prison cell, wanted to go to confession himself. The Communist Officer had a secret admiration for this man who was about to die for his faith. He went to the fallen-away priest. But the man would not come, to give the sacraments. He thought it was a trap. So the Communist went back to the young priest, to tell him that the fallen-away priest would not come.

The priest was sitting on the floor of his cell, drinking. It was a little like anesthesia, to brace him for the execution. The Communist sat beside him, on the floor. And the priest said: "You know – it is strange. For Communism to succeed, they must have to work through good men – like you. But in the Catholic Church it is different. God can go on saving his children even through men who are no good. – like me."

The soldiers come to march him out to execution. The miserable street vendor, who has received a large sum of money for bringing the priest to the military, is stricken with remorse. He offers the money to the priest. The priest shakes his head and almost runs, in chinelas, to his execution. The vendor runs after him, stumbles and falls, and the coins scatter over the courtyard. He is a Judas figure.

The priest was humble, because of his own faults. But it made him a martyr. It made him a saint.

We have had many persecutions, in history. The Apostles were persecuted, and all of them were killed. The early Christians were burned alive, in the Roman arena. Under Henry VIII, in England, the Christians were hanged, drawn down before they were dead, and quartered – cut into four pieces with a saw. But all of those persecutions covered them with honor. Peter, crucified upside down; the glorious Christians in Rome, singing in the flames; Thomas More and Edmund Campion, smiling as they went to the block to be beheaded.

This persecution we are having now is better. It covers the Bishops and priests with a deep sense of shame. It keeps them humble. It will make them saints.

And they are in very good company! Christ Our Lord was not only persecuted. He was spat upon, scourged, crowned with thorns, crucified as a criminal. And the bad words about him came from the very beginning:

• Can any good come out of Nazareth?

• Why does your master eat with publicans and sinners?

• How can he say "Your sins are forgiven"? Only God can say that. It’s blasphemy!

• Answerest thou the High Priest so?

• This man is a trouble maker! Arousing the people, from Galilee to here!

• Away with him! Crucify him! Give us Barrabas!

• If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!

• He saved others. Himself he can not save!

It seems to be all agony – headlines, the hard words on radio, the sensational TV shows – but this persecution is the labyrinthine way of God. God draws straight, with crooked lines. The power and the glory of God still shines through the frail clay vessel that is the priest. The Bishops and priests can not save themselves, now. But they can go on saving the children of God.