Safely home
For many of us these dark, winter mornings are the hardest times. We feel threatened by the attacks on the Church, although the church is not always in touch with reality of ordinary people.
Some feel safely home in the church,(see my painting above)where everything is as it was before Vatican II. Others feel that the principle of compassion is the basis of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions and of the relation between the hierarchy and the people of the church.
One said that we can recognise the ways we try to hide and avoid facing the truth about the weakness of the church and of ourselves; the way we come to distinguish the reality of our condition from the irrational scenario of alarm, of disgrace of the faults of the leaders, or of self-blame that we fearfully attach to it. “We can only be free if you look us in the face. When you see us as we really are, not as you think we are, you will be free to find your happiness again.”
So, even on the dark of winter mornings, it is possible to allow ourselves to emerge from the gloom of unhappiness about the failing church’s communities to be safely home in a warm and refreshing church.
During the Lenten time we may discover new horizons within our reach. Patrick Kavanagh wrote,” To be dead is to stop believing in the masterpieces we will begin tomorrow.”
Easter after all is the celebration of new light, of the mystery of NEW LIFE.
I wish you all a refreshing Lenten time.
John Heijnen
