Reform Starts With Me |
What is Wrong with the Church?
When G. K. Chesterton was asked what he thought was wrong
with the world he answered simply, “I am”. This question has been
posed by many in the Catholic Church, and it has been addressed
with a variety of answers. Some people would like to see the laity
have more of a voice while others would insist that the clergy need
to take a more active role in the formation of the laity. Both views
have elements of truth but neither hits the mark of true reform.
True reform will only begin when I adopt Chesterton’s view as
my own. In fact, when I admit that I am the most sinful person I
know, healing in the Church can begin. Sin is communal and my
sins make the Church appear sinful. This is why Christ tells me to
remove the log from my own eye before I try to remove the splinter
from my brother’s eye. St. Paul says, “We are one body in Christ”,
therefore if I am a part of the body that has become sick I make
the entire body sick. Conversely, if I become well again I can help
the Church become well. Likewise, if I remove the sin from my own
eye I can help my brother with his sin.
Love One Another
Admitting my sinfulness, asking the Lord for forgiveness, and
conforming myself more fully to Christ is the first step in reforming
the Church. The next step is loving my neighbor as myself. One
neighbor I should strive to love is my priest. He is a man chosen by
God to administer grace via the sacraments so that I may enjoy
eternal life. My priest is my spiritual father and guide as well as
another Christ. As another Christ he is in a mystical sense a
husband of the Church. I, as part of the body of Christ, am the
bride, in a sense, of my priest in persona Christi.
Saint Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, states that wives are to be
submissive to their husbands. Christopher West in his book The
Good News about Sex and Marriage explains the verse this way.
“Sub” means to be under and “mission” means a goal or task that
one is commissioned to perform. The husband’s mission is to love
his wife as Christ loved the Church. Therefore the wife should be
more than willing to be submissive to her husband’s mission to love
her. Following this line of thinking can help with the reform of the
Church by encouraging the Church to love her priests and be
submissive to them. The following is a paraphrase of Saint Paul’s
letter to the Ephesians chapter five verses twenty-one through thirty
that may help illustrate this point.
Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ. Let the
church be subject to its priests, as to the Lord: Because the priest
is the head of the church, as Christ is the head of the Church. He
is the saviour of his body. Therefore as the Church is subject to
Christ, so also let the church be to its priests in all things. Priests,
love your church, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered
himself up for it: That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the
laver of water in the word of life: That he might present it to
himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish. So also
ought priests to love their church as their own bodies. He that
loveth his church, loveth himself. For no man ever hated his own
flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the
church: Because we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of
his bones.
This in no way promotes clericalism but rather the mutual self-
giving and sacrifices that mark a sanctifying marriage.
Love One into the Truth
Reform begins with admitting that I am what is wrong with the
Church. Reform continues to perfection by my being submissive to
my priest and my priest loving me as Christ loved the Church; giving
Himself up to death on a cross for Her. Let us therefore, as St.
Paul says, be subject to one another in the fear (reverence) of
Christ. Many may respond that their priest is teaching error and
again I defer to Saint Paul. For the unbelieving priest is sanctified
by the believing church; and the unbelieving church is sanctified
by the believing priest [1 Corinthians 7:14].
I am what is wrong with the Catholic Church and I want to help
with its reform so I say, “I confess to Almighty God, and to you, my
brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault in my
thoughts and my words, in what I have done, and in what I have
failed to do; and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and
saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord
our God.”
- James M. Hahn is the Director of Religious Education at St.
Michael Church in Worthington, OH. He is the founder of Real
Life Rosary and the author of Rosary Meditations for
Real Life available at www.realliferosary.com James lives in
Southeast Ohio with his wife and three children. He can be
contacted at webmaster@realliferosary.com.
When G. K. Chesterton was asked what he thought was wrong
with the world he answered simply, “I am”. This question has been
posed by many in the Catholic Church, and it has been addressed
with a variety of answers. Some people would like to see the laity
have more of a voice while others would insist that the clergy need
to take a more active role in the formation of the laity. Both views
have elements of truth but neither hits the mark of true reform.
True reform will only begin when I adopt Chesterton’s view as
my own. In fact, when I admit that I am the most sinful person I
know, healing in the Church can begin. Sin is communal and my
sins make the Church appear sinful. This is why Christ tells me to
remove the log from my own eye before I try to remove the splinter
from my brother’s eye. St. Paul says, “We are one body in Christ”,
therefore if I am a part of the body that has become sick I make
the entire body sick. Conversely, if I become well again I can help
the Church become well. Likewise, if I remove the sin from my own
eye I can help my brother with his sin.
Love One Another
Admitting my sinfulness, asking the Lord for forgiveness, and
conforming myself more fully to Christ is the first step in reforming
the Church. The next step is loving my neighbor as myself. One
neighbor I should strive to love is my priest. He is a man chosen by
God to administer grace via the sacraments so that I may enjoy
eternal life. My priest is my spiritual father and guide as well as
another Christ. As another Christ he is in a mystical sense a
husband of the Church. I, as part of the body of Christ, am the
bride, in a sense, of my priest in persona Christi.
Saint Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, states that wives are to be
submissive to their husbands. Christopher West in his book The
Good News about Sex and Marriage explains the verse this way.
“Sub” means to be under and “mission” means a goal or task that
one is commissioned to perform. The husband’s mission is to love
his wife as Christ loved the Church. Therefore the wife should be
more than willing to be submissive to her husband’s mission to love
her. Following this line of thinking can help with the reform of the
Church by encouraging the Church to love her priests and be
submissive to them. The following is a paraphrase of Saint Paul’s
letter to the Ephesians chapter five verses twenty-one through thirty
that may help illustrate this point.
Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ. Let the
church be subject to its priests, as to the Lord: Because the priest
is the head of the church, as Christ is the head of the Church. He
is the saviour of his body. Therefore as the Church is subject to
Christ, so also let the church be to its priests in all things. Priests,
love your church, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered
himself up for it: That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the
laver of water in the word of life: That he might present it to
himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish. So also
ought priests to love their church as their own bodies. He that
loveth his church, loveth himself. For no man ever hated his own
flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the
church: Because we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of
his bones.
This in no way promotes clericalism but rather the mutual self-
giving and sacrifices that mark a sanctifying marriage.
Love One into the Truth
Reform begins with admitting that I am what is wrong with the
Church. Reform continues to perfection by my being submissive to
my priest and my priest loving me as Christ loved the Church; giving
Himself up to death on a cross for Her. Let us therefore, as St.
Paul says, be subject to one another in the fear (reverence) of
Christ. Many may respond that their priest is teaching error and
again I defer to Saint Paul. For the unbelieving priest is sanctified
by the believing church; and the unbelieving church is sanctified
by the believing priest [1 Corinthians 7:14].
I am what is wrong with the Catholic Church and I want to help
with its reform so I say, “I confess to Almighty God, and to you, my
brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault in my
thoughts and my words, in what I have done, and in what I have
failed to do; and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and
saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord
our God.”
- James M. Hahn is the Director of Religious Education at St.
Michael Church in Worthington, OH. He is the founder of Real
Life Rosary and the author of Rosary Meditations for
Real Life available at www.realliferosary.com James lives in
Southeast Ohio with his wife and three children. He can be
contacted at webmaster@realliferosary.com.