Repenting, Changing, and Continuing
May 30, 2010
John 16:12-15
Today is the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, and I would like to take this occasion to speak with you about the sexual abuse crisis that is surrounding the church presently, especially in Europe. Now you might say, “Why choose the Feast of the Trinity to talk about this crisis?” But there is a connection, actually a very strong connection, between this doctrine that we profess today and the issues with which the church is now dealing.
We believe in one God in three divine persons. This belief in the Trinity reveals to us that God is a perfect community of truth, love, and goodness. But the truth of the Trinity does not only tell us about God. It also reveals something about us. Each one of us has been made in the image of this perfect God. Therefore, the Trinity is a goal against which we measure ourselves. We are called to reflect as best as we can the goodness and truth of our perfect God. Having said that, it is obvious from the start that none of us will perfectly succeed in this mirroring. God is God, and we are not. Therefore, we will always fall short of reflecting the God who loves us and has made us. The Trinity, then, provides an occasion in which we can reflect about what we should do when we fall short.
The Trinity reveals the perfect image in which we have been made. At the same time it reminds us that we will never match God’s perfection and prepares us to deal with our shortcomings. In light of those shortcomings, then, the Trinity invites us to adopt a pattern by which we can address the imperfections of our lives. That pattern calls us to repent, to change, and to continue.
When we fall short from God’s image, when we have marred the perfection of God that is within us, the first thing we must do is repent. We must admit our fault. We must say that we have fallen short, that we have sinned. But repentance is not enough. We also must be willing to change, to see if there is anything that we can alter or adjust, so that the mistake will not be repeated again. Once we have repented and changed, then we are called to continue. Then we are free to go back to our responsibilities, to our vocation, to our mission. As imperfect as we are, we can nevertheless continue to reflect the image of God that is within us.
This, then, is the pattern: repent, change, continue. Parents know this pattern. Parents often fall short of the people their children need them to be. But they admit their faults. They look for things to change, so that those faults may not repeat endlessly. Then they continue. They go back to being the parents their children need them to be, because that is their vocation and mission. Spouses, friends, anyone in any relationship knows this pattern. When we have disappointed or hurt the people in our life, we first repent and admit our fault. Then we see if there are things that can change. Finally we continue in the relationships of the people that we care about.
The pattern of repenting, changing and continuing is the pattern of human life. Every person, every human institution must follow it, because no person and no human institution is a perfect reflection of our Triune God. Obviously, then, this applies to our church and the leadership of our church. Our church leaders are not immune from imperfection. They, like all of us, have to follow that same pattern in order to continue. The most recent copy of Time Magazine has a cover article on the sexual abuse crisis in the church. It is a very good article. The title of the article is, “Why Being Pope Means You Don’t Have to Say You’re Sorry.” The title, of course, is ironic, because the author of the article as well as anyone who reads it knows that the pope does need to say he is sorry. He is responsible for the church, for its guidance and governance. Our church has significantly fallen short in the area of sexual abuse. We know that hundreds of priests and nuns throughout the world have abused children who were entrusted to their care. Moreover, we know that all too often bishops who were in authority over these individuals chose to cover or hide their crimes rather than expose them. They, therefore, allowed the abuse to continue.
Now it is true that most of these abuses occurred in the past, but those sins remain as a scar on our church, a stain which we must seek to address and remove. In doing this, those who are responsible for the leadership of our church must follow the same pattern that each one of us must follow in our own lives. First they must admit the things that are wrong and ask for forgiveness. But forgiveness is not enough. The structures of our church need to change, because flawed structures allowed these abuses to happen in the first place. Our Holy Father has already admitted the need for forgiveness. He has spoken of the sins of the church. He further recognized that forgiveness does not replace justice, and that changes need to be made within our church institution. We must, then, as people of faith, follow his lead and support changes in our church so that our children will not be endangered in the future.
Now these decisions are not in my hands or your hands. They are in the hands of the pope and the bishops. So what can we do on a local level in light of this crisis? First of all, we can see that no child in our parish community is in any way threatened by abuse. The United States bishops have set in place excellent guidelines to prevent such possibilities. As your pastor I can assure you that those who are in charge of the care and education of our children in this parish have all passed background checks and have received education on the reality of sexual abuse. The other thing that we can do is pray for our pope and our bishops so that they will have the courage to follow the pattern which we know is part of the gospel. Let us pray that they will have the courage to admit that things were done that were wrong and sinful, and then the courage to change the structures which might allow sexual abuse again in the future.
We must really pray that those who speak for the church have the courage to follow this pattern. Because the church’s moral authority is on the line. If there is any attempt to cover over or hide sins and crimes of the past, the moral authority of our church will be terribly harmed. The way forward is clear. It is only by repenting and changing that we as a church will be able to continue to reflect the goodness and the love of our Triune God.
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