August 26th 2018 Bulletin Message, Fr. Floyd McKinney

How many times in my life have I wanted to ‘give up’ doing something when it was too hard for me to understand or too physical for me to endure. The news about the church in Pennsylvania last week was terrible. There are no excuses for allowing that kind of abuse to be tolerated or continued. And we know it isn’t just in Pennsylvania, but this is a disorder that has infected the Catholic Church across the country and around the world.

Some of us may decide, this is too hard. I’m going to leave this church. But if we look around at Mass, our church is right here. This group of people in our parish, this is our community. We are the Catholic Church. The Catholic traditions and sacraments are a way to deepen our relationship with God. We can’t let the horror that has been uncovered be our excuse to say, “This it too hard. I’m out of here.”

St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians: How great is the hope to which we are called! This is a time to be called to that hope because our church will be healed from this and our church will be changed for the better because of this. So, what can we do beyond staying committed, with hope? We can be part of a church committed to healing and to reaching out to those who have become disillusioned, and disgusted. It won’t be easy, but it will be blessed by the Spirit working among us so that we might be more of the church we are called to be.

In today’s gospel, Jesus looks around as disciples are drifting away, leaving, and says to his apostles, are you leaving, too? Peter answers for the twelve, and for us: To whom would we turn? You have the words of eternal life. I will not give up on God; as has been said by many, we come to church for God. I do not know how any of you were affected by the recent happenings, but know that the church has endured since the time of Christ and will continue with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, in spite of our humanness.