This is some of the destruction in our neighborhood from the hurricane/blizzard. I am impressed that, in the midst of torn trees and broken branches, the red oak hangs onto its leaves.
Whenever things look impossible I often come across a passage like the following which helps me to hang in there. It is from Father Raymond Brown's 1988 booklet A Coming Christ in Advent.
"The genealogy (Matthew 1:1-17) has also taught us that God did not hesitate to entrust to a monarchical institution an essential role in the Story of His Son's origins--an authoritative institution (at times authoritarian) which He guaranteed with promises lest it fail but which was frequently led by corrupt, venal, stupid, and ineffective leaders, as well as sometimes by saints. He has not hesitated to entrust the continuation of the Story to a hierarchically structured church, guaranteed with promises, but not free from its own share of the corrupt, the venal, the stupid, and the ineffective. Those 'Chistians' who proclaim that they believe in and love Jesus but cannot accept the church or the institution because it is far from perfect and sometimes a scandal have not understood the beginning of the Story and consequently are not willing to face the challenge of its continuation."
No comments:
Post a Comment