27 April 2020
Monday of the Third Week of Easter
In the hierarchical institution that is the Roman Catholic Church, we are trained how to put our trust in our institution. It is not so much that we trust every person in our institution to faithfully execute their part with wisdom, grace and charity. Far from it. It is rather that we trust God to use the institution he founded for his own purposes, and God calls us to be faithful members of his institution, not only in times of success but also in times of failure. God alone will judge the successes and the failures of his institution in this time of Coronavirus. In the meantime, many of us feel some anxiety about our Church, precisely as an institution. Are all the right decisions being made at every level? Will many other people want to join us? Will many of our own members want to abandon us?
For those of us who feel some anxiety about our institution, let us consider the words of Psalm 119:28: “My soul is depressed, lift me up according to your word.” If we want serenity to accept the things we cannot change, or courage to change the things we can, or wisdom to know the difference, we need to be lifted up according to God’s word. Otherwise we lack the proper perspective. Without God’s word we are immersed in worldly categories and calculations of success and failure, fame and ignominy, health and sickness, riches and poverty, etc. The cross and the empty tomb are the sources of the perspective that is true and ultimate. Without that perspective, we are depressed. May God lift us up, then, according to his word.