Cardinal: Church is in need of purification

Homily by Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki: Eucharistic Celebration at the Spring Plenary Assembly of the German Bishops' Conference in Dresden

Dear Sisters, dear Brothers

Not everyone is born to be a penitent. Those who like to set themselves up as such are usually least of all. The Book of Jonah, from which we have heard readings today, shows that - conversely - such a calling by God can also meet with reluctance or even resistance. The prophet Jeremiah already knows why: "You have beguiled me, O LORD," he says, "and I have been beguiled; you have seized me and overwhelmed me. I have become a laughing stock all day long; everyone mocks me ... The word of the Lord brings me nothing but scorn and derision all day long ... I heard the slander of the many: Horror all around! Turn him in! We want to denounce him. My closest acquaintances are all waiting for me to fall: Perhaps he will be beguiled, that we may overpower him and take vengeance on him" (Jer 20:7-10). This is how Jeremiah laments his calling.

With such lamentation, it may not be surprising that the prophet Jonah also tries to escape this fate and to resist it by all means. Under no circumstances does he want to go to Nineveh to call for conversion and repentance. Each of us has known since childhood what follows his refusal: The ship in which he tries to flee in the opposite direction gets into trouble. During a storm he is thrown into the sea and left to die. But in the belly of the fish he is rescued by God and led to his prophetic mission. And Nineveh believes and converts.

The texts of today's reading as well as the Gospel speak so forcefully of the need for conversion and repentance that it seemed appropriate to me to devote some thoughts to this. Of course - I must confess - I felt quite uneasy when I read today's texts and saw this coming. I am definitely not like Jeremiah or Jonah, who grieved because their prophecies of disaster did not come to pass. Nor do I have revelations like these two. Rather, it is the presumable beam in my eye that warns me to be careful. "Why do you see the mote in your brother's eye, but do not notice the beam in your own eye?" (Mt 7:3), Jesus asks us all in Matthew's Gospel. And that resonates quite simply. Probably many of you will feel similarly in many ways.

But it is not only the liturgical texts of today that call us to repentance. The days of the Easter penitential season as a whole do this. They invite us to reflect anew on the Gospel and the will of God. But the signs of the times point even more to the need for repentance and conversion. And perhaps the problem lies in the unease about preaching the necessity of turning back to God and his will. Perhaps this is precisely what has not been done clearly enough for too long.

But the call to repentance is an essential part of preaching the kingdom of God. It requires an awareness such as that expressed in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church of the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium. Article 8 states: "Whereas Christ was holy, blameless, undefiled (Heb 7:26) and knew no sin (2 Cor 5:21), but came alone to atone for the sins of the people (cf. Heb 2:17), the Church embraces sinners in her own bosom. She is both holy and always in need of purification, always walking the path of repentance and renewal" (LG 8).

The Church is in need of purification. Always. And in her we must always walk the path of repentance and renewal. Not only today, but at all times. This means that the life of a Christian obviously always includes a penitential attitude. Just as it is to the life of the whole Church. What is needed is an attitude that constantly seeks to respond better and better to the will and purposes of God - even regardless of the terrible crimes of sexual and spiritual abuse that have occurred in our ranks.

It is not out of self-hatred that we seek to become conscious of our sins, but out of love for God, for our fellow human beings and for ourselves, because with conversion to God comes the promise of true and liberated joy. Essential to this attitude is a conversion of heart, that is: a contrite heart. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "This conversion of heart is accompanied by salutary pain and healing sadness, which the Fathers of the Church called 'animi cruciatus' (pain of the soul), 'compunctio cordis' (fidelity of the heart)" (CCC 1431). The pain, the shock, the bewilderment, sometimes also the indignation and rage that have gripped us all at the moment -.

Source

Cathcon: A better diagnosis than those hell-bent on the Synodal Path could ever give.

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