In the Gospel, we hear Peter say to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” We live in a world that is very broken. Equally, we live in a Church that is broken. It always has been this way. This struck home hard all the more with the exposure of the massive abuse of children by priests, and the bishops complicit in covering up these crimes in the State of Pennsylvania. This report reopened, for me, the wounds caused by the history of sexual abuse of children by priests and its cover-up by bishops in our own Archdiocese.
In the introduction to the Sacrament of Penance it is written that the Church, as a human institution, is always in need of conversion. It matters not whether we are laity, professed religious, deacons, priests, bishops, cardinals, or even the Pope, we are all sinners and in need of conversion. One only has to study the history of the Church to see that it has never been the perfect society. From the time of the apostles to our present age, there has been conflict within the Church.
If the Church is so in need of conversion, where do we go to find “the words of eternal life?” People quit going to Church for many reasons, bad experiences with clergy, bishops, the closing of church sites, to name just a few. What do we mean by the word “Church”? The Church, from its very inception, has always been the community of faith, the sensus fidelium. Not one Pope, bishop, priest, deacon, professed religious, or physical church site has ever encompassed “the Church”. We ALL are the Church. As the physical, breathing Body of Christ on this Earth, we, collectively, must go to Jesus, the Head of the Church, to hear his words of eternal life. Jesus’ words of eternal life emerge from within our faith community in our prayer, song, and our reception of the sacraments at Mass. To cut ourselves off from the community of faith creates a state of deafness to God’s word in our lives.
The institutional Church will always be in need of conversion. Like the apostles, we have a choice to make. Do we walk away from the Church? Or do we do we say with Peter, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?”
