We Will Win

Every day, every few hours it seems like, another story about the evil stirring amongst the people of the Church marches its way into my newsfeed. I’m still trying to catch up and slow my spinning head. There are so many stories, so many sides, so much confusion and hurt. How can this possibly be the Church that God became man to create?

This is not what we are made for. We are made for greatness.

I don’t want to write about who did what and who is to blame. I don’t have that information. What I do know is that the Church Christ started is perfect. The people who make up His Church are not. Unfortunately, we are in a very tumultuous time. But! The Catholic Church has faced seemingly insurmountable crises before, and we are still here. During the scariest times in our history, we have seen the greatest saints rise up from the ashes. The most precious gems come from being under the most suffocating pressure.

We’ve had abuse before. We’ve had blackmail, anti-popes, heresy, fights, fornication, sacrilege, and cowards throughout our history. The darkness can seem suffocating sometimes, but it cannot withstand the Light. Not for long. I keep coming back to one of my patron saints and a beautiful example of being God’s vessel to cast out darkness within the Church. Her name is St. Catherine of Siena. At first glance, she doesn’t seem like the kind of person to help save the Church, at least by the world’s standards. She was mostly illiterate, toward the back end of a long line of siblings, and refused marriage to become a nun. But by God’s grace, she gave the Church at her time a much needed kick in the butt and helped get Her back on course again. She’s bomb.

The Catholic Church has gone through a lot of crap. Our first pope denied Christ three times, for Pete’s sake (pun intended)! We are currently in the midst of a giant scandal; it would be incorrect to say otherwise. All of us, the people of the Church, are dirty and imperfect. Even when we fail in our lives, though, Christ picks us up and dusts us off so that we can move on and be better than we were before. He does the same thing with His Bride. When She gets drug through the mud, He is ready and waiting to clean Her up and kiss Her wounds. He loves Her. He loves us. He will not forsake his Lover. We will get through this. Victorious. Stronger. Our children and our children’s children will learn from this fight, and the Catholic Church will be stronger than ever before.

Our generation will bless the world with great saints from this time. Those of us who stay to fight for the Church will face many hardships, but the glory of God is worth it all. We are many parts, but all one Body. The Body of Christ. When one part hurts, we all hurt. Just like the human body when one part is broken, the rest of the body works overtime to make it whole again. That is what we are called to do right now. Evil might be able to overtake some people, but it can’t beat us all. If each of us puts on the armor of God every day to beat the devil, we will get through this time. If each part of the Body of Christ relies on the Lord, the Church will be healed. 

Life doesn’t make sense sometimes. Terrible things happen and it can seem like God isn’t there, but He is. I have a little sign on my desk at work that says, “don’t worry about tomorrow- God is already there.” When my patients get less than ideal diagnoses, God is there. When my sister got t-boned on a highway and we were by her bedside in the ER and the ICU, God was there. When the victims of abuse of all kinds (myself included) were in the midst of being violated, God was there. He is here today. He will be there tomorrow. We cannot be defeated because God is with us at all times. We will get through this because God is on our side. It is as simple as that. Press yourself close to the bosom of Christ; He will never fail you.