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Manila Bulletin devider devider Reform

Reform

Published Feb 21, 2019 12:05 am

VOICE FROM THE SOUTH

By FR. EMETERIO BARCELON, SJ

Fr. Emeterio Barcelon, SJ Fr. Emeterio Barcelon, SJ22

The Church as well as individuals needs reform all the time. The Church or the Body of Christ needs reform all along.  When Our Lord chose His special followers, one of His apostles betrayed Him to His enemies; another denied Him; another did not want to believe He had risen from the dead unless he put his fingers into his wounds; and all of them shooed away the children from Him. This just gives emphasis on the weakness of our human nature and the strength of the forces of evil that surround us.

From the time of the Savior over the two thousand years to our times, the Church as well as all individuals need reform all the time.  We can always be better at any time and we need to acknowledge that we can fall any time. Even with all the help of grace that comes to us all the time.  When we think we are strong, that is when we are weak. The recent scandals in the Church have taken front-page notice but this is not unusual since the Lord knew this all the time.  He made provisions for this weakness by instituting the sacrament of Penance. In the nineteen sixties or thereabouts, it was a common practice to go to weekly confession. Some religious went to confession every day. We can always be sorry for the sins of our past life and receive the grace of the Sacrament. Recently this practice has fallen in disuse. The minimum according to present Church ruling is to go to confession at least once a year. By ignoring the potential of receiving the grace of the Sacrament, we are ignoring or wasting the opportunity of receiving a lot of grace from the Lord. We should go back to the practice of going to the sacrament of Penance or confession, if possible at least once a month...

Sex abuse scandal is nothing new. It has always existed.  It ebbs and crests over time. Sex is a wonderful gift of God. But it has a very powerful attraction intended by God. Without this attraction, it would be difficult to compensate for the enormous obligations of marriage. We thank the Lord for this gift. It is a gift we thank the Lord and ask Him for help to enjoy it without abusing it.  Marriage has been attacked in a special way in our times.  It is true that those with unnatural tendencies have rights but they should not be allowed to vitiate true marriage.  The worst distortion of our times is abortion.  It is murder of innocents. This is an abomination.  And we ask the lord for pardon and help to get rid of it.

Scandals we will always have but that does not take off our obligation to prevent them. Sins against the sanctity of marriage and sex will always be around since it is mostly done in secret and has a great attraction. Therefore we need to help our fellow men by having norms of morality. There will always be some who will fall into sin but rules of modesty and morality will help minimize sin. Scandals denigrate the holiness of the Church. We need to protect the bride of Christ. The Protestant reformation of the fifteenth century is unfortunate. It divided Christianity but there are rumors or reconciliation at present. There was a cause for reformation but not the division that it created.  The one good effect of it was that we had many Christians who studied the Bible assiduously and are now coming back to the Church because of their study of the Early Fathers of the Church. The Lord writes straight with crooked lines.

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