With the month of February upon us, we are still at the early stage of this New Year that God has given us. And Glory to God for this gift. I’m certain that many of us made New Year’s Resolutions a month ago. Hmmm. ..how are we doing with those? How many of us have promised ourselves to worship and pray regularly, to prepare ourselves and to receive the Lord’s Holy Body and Precious Blood in the Eucharist? How many of us have made a promise to live and learn our Holy Orthodox Faith, which will be unto the salvation of our souls, in the light of Jesus Christ, Who said, “I am the light of the world?” How many of us have promised ourselves to become stewards of the Lord’s Church…to support her work and to work in some of the ministries of our local parish? How many of the above promises have we kept since the start of the New Year, or are we already finding excuses for not sticking to these promises?
As a parish priest, I often heard from my dear parishioners, “Father, the Church has failed us, so it really doesn’t make any difference if we neglect or reject doing those things that the Lord and His Church want us to do.”
Those who would make this claim, usually say that the Church has failed in that there is still war, still poverty, still illness and suffering, still hatred, lying, cheating and all kinds of even more serious sins. By this same logic, one could say that soap has failed, because there is still dirt in the world; medicine and doctors have failed, because there is still serious illness and death; laws have failed, because there is still lawlessness in the world.
The purpose of the Church is not to do away with war, poverty, illness, pain, sickness, or suffering. Rather, her purpose, with Jesus Christ as the High Priest of the Church, is to mold us into Christians – zealous followers of our Lord. And our work, guided by Christ’s teachings, made manifest to us in our Church, will make the world better than what it is. The purpose of the Church is to bring us to Christ’s message of salvation and to let us convey that message to all who would receive it. That’s what the Church is called upon to do and what She is doing, even while at the same time, offering Christian ministry and Christian fellowship to the world around us.
If self-appointed critics would just stop and think and, I daresay, look at what the Church is and what She does, and what She accomplishes on a daily basis throughout the world, they would realize that Christ’s Church, our Holy Orthodox Church, never fails – She continues. Throughout the ages, She has accomplished much, even under the most dire of circumstances. Just imagine the millions who have been saved by Christ’s message heard in the Church!
No, the Church, by Herself, is not going to change the world over. But the Church, with Christ’s message being proclaimed there to people who will carry it, live it and share it, will be a formidable force for what will be “good and profitable” for the souls of people in the world. And that has the potential to make a difference in the world and to even change it.
The Church has not failed and never will, as long as there are followers of Jesus Christ who, taking what the Church teaches them, go out, in the Lord’s Name, to make this world a better place.
The Church has not failed. Yet, we often wonder…have we, God’s people, failed our Lord’s Holy Church?