ron77nyc:
Symux really hit the nail on the head. Power hungry leaders in the past abused that power and stole it from the true believers.
I do not agree with that statement one bit and can refute it but i am so tired and it is very late so I will leave the answer for tomorrow.
That statement is actually a dangerous statement with no merit in it whatsoever. But I will explain tomorrow.
Why do I think this statement is wrong?
This is precisely the kind of statement that led to the dismembering of the Body of Christ. As long as we have the thinking that the leaders are in error and we are in the right, then we are in a dangerous territory which the devil can easily manipulate to suit its own ends.
We cannot say that the other Catholics are the true believers. True, there is a lot of fervour among simple folk during this time, and much holiness in other quarters. However, the leaders, scoundrels though they may have become, were still members of the Body of Christ and true believers as well. Greed and power just got to their heads
But the one thing we must remember is that the Church is Christ’s. She is Christ’s Bride and He knows how to deal with her.
I very much admire the response of the saints during this time of crisis. Whereas Luther, et al attacked the Church, the saints’ responded by concentrating on prayer and self-sacrifice. St Teresa of Avila along with St John of the Cross reformed the Carmelite order. What could a nun holed up in her cloister do to renew the Church? An unbeliever would say absolutely nothing. And yet her life and her order were very much instrumental in invigorating the Church.
St Ignatius started the Jesuits and they were at the forefront of the Catholic reformation. St Ignatius was a soldier who gave up that life to follow Christ.
A quick perusal of the life of St Francis (300 years before) shows him changing his life to truly follow Christ but he did not in oppose the Church. Yet he was considered the reformer of the Church in his time. Pope Innocent III had a dream that a man will build up the crumbling Church and the man in his dream turned out to be St Francis.
St Catherine of Sienna did the same during her time.
When we start thinking that we can and should change the Church this way and that, we fall into the trap of the evil one.
Scott Hahn in his book the Lamb’s Supper said that if you want to be an activist and change the world, first go to Mass. That is our most powerful weapon of change.
Another issue I have with the statement is that the leaders STOLE the power from the true believers. There was no power to be stolen from the people. The Church was never meant to be a democracy and was always hierarchical. Christ willed it so. The leaders however, were only caretakers. The power was always God’s.
A dictum that would have been very wise for Luther and the rest to follow during this time was: if you want to change the Church, change yourself first.
I can’t remember who said this but this is so true “What is wrong with the world is me.”
**
**
). I picked it because it is one of my favourite prayers and one of the few in the Liturgy of the Hours the tune of which I remember.
