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| Image by Robert LeBlanc from blending Robert Cheaib's photo at Pixabay with the painting: Christ Crucified by Diego Velázquez |
Whenever I read about the deeply flawed hierarchy of the Church Militant, I mentally insert this from Hilaire Belloc:
“The Catholic Church is an institution I am bound to hold divine – but for unbelievers a proof of its divinity might be found in the fact that no merely human institution conducted with such knavish imbecility would have lasted a fortnight.”But of course the problem isn't merely the clergy. To borrow an anecdote about Chesterton: What's wrong with the Church? I am.
I think we all could do with a little liturgical catechesis. We first admit our wretchedness and need for help and healing: Christe eleison! Then we listen and absorb the Word within us (consuming Him!), so that united with Jesus Christ we may offer ourselves and our lives to the Father, all the while giving thanks for the transformation of our stony hearts into real hearts of flesh that we hope will beat in unison with our Savior. We really need to take the movement within the Mass very seriously, and then go forth out into the world: Ite Missa Est!
