Seventh Day within
the Octave of the Nativity of the Lord
(I John 2:18-21; John 1:1-18)
Remember the movies where the Anti-Christ was pictured as
a super-suave, very evil-intentioned man?
He was revealed by the numbers “666” branded somewhere on his
person. That’s Hollywood. In today’s first reading we find one of the
four times “antichrist” is found in the Bible.
The other three are also in the Letters of John. None describes a person of great evil. All refer to people who have left the author’s
community. The situation is similar to
what has happened throughout the two millennia of Christianity. There are examples of it taking place today
as well.
Many people are deeply offended by the way the bishops
have handled sexual abuse of minors. They
are appalled of the cover-ups and the reassigning of molesters to other
parishes. They certainly should expect behavior better than average by men who
preach the gospel. The fact that errant
priests were reassigned often with professional assurance that they were not
likely to commit the same crimes again should contribute to understanding how
such a scandal could have arisen. Fortunately,
it must be said now, the abuse and certainly reassignment are phenomena of the
past. A system of checks has been put into place to assure the protection of
minors.
Some, whose faith is shaky, may have found in clergy
abuse an excuse to leave the Church. Hopefully,
they will see the light and come back.
The light here is not some celestial luminary. It is Christ himself. He left the ongoing work of redemption in the
hands of imperfect men. Although by and
large the men and women working in the name of the Church have sacrificed
themselves for others, some have failed.
As we end one year and begin a new one, we pray that their sins may be
repented and forgiven. We also ask God’s
help that such crimes will never blemish the Church again.
