The New Berchet Blog Addresses Evil

The New Berchet Blog shares a question one of our friends raised after the November 20th NYC CLC Community Day. Ken asks:

I can see that both they and we have the potential to be scandalized by this reality - that God chooses the a human reality to communicate Himself to us - a human reality full of limitations. However, there is one thing that we potentially experience in our encounter with the Church that the first disciples and apostles did not - evil. Christ never inflicted evil upon anyone, as we believe. Yet, we know that we can receive evil from another member of the Church. How are our experiences the same when you take into account that those of us today who encounter the church can encounter evil beings in it- cheats, murderers, liars, adulterers, etc. Yet, those who encountered Christ did not experience any of those things. Now, perhaps the things Christ did were perceived as evil by those encountering him (Pharisees), but that was because they were predisposed not to believe. And there may have been things that Christ said and did which offended at first, but anyone continuing the relationship with Him would have found out that everything He said and did was for their ultimate good, fulfillment and happiness (e.g.. Canaanite woman). If I receive evil from a church member, how can I be having the same experience as the first disciples?

Monsignor Albacete responds:

First of all, we must always remember that at all times we are encountering a Reality (the Mystery that fascinates our religious sense) that exceeds our capacity to grasp it totally, not only with the mind, but also with the heart...it is a matter of awakening in us a "loving knowledge." The first followers of Christ encountered this Mystery through his human presence. We encounter this very same human presence in our encounter with the human reality called the Church. We encounter His sinlessness through an encounter with sinners! Christ and the Church are not the same.What is exactly the same is the method of encountering the Mystery. Christ himself said that no one recognizes him or follows him "unless the Father" wills it so. To Peter he said it was the Father that had revealed to him the Mystery of his identity! Then as now it is the Father (through the Spirit) that is inviting and enabling our freedom to accept His presence, through a concrete human reality.

Ken's question pierces the heart of disciples. We've literally bet our temporal and eternal lives on Christ, and we're told we can find his presence among his believers. How do we reconcile that with our all-to-human experience of fallible believers? What are we to make of a Church that is both his mystical body and the occasion of scandal and sin?

We're to experience Christ in the fullness of his presence among us. That means we will also experience him crucified. When we suffer evil at the hands of other members of the Church, we participate in his crucifixion. We face the same opportunity and temptation that he did while dying on the cross: to forgive those that trespass against us or not. Jesus of Nazareth lived and died as the limited, human means through whom the disciples encountered the mystery of Christ. Not that there ever was any division between God and man in Christ Jesus; of course not! There was, instead, the paradox of an all-powerful Lord participating in life--and death--as a powerless man. The infinite God ultimately reveals himself through his own limited creation. The Church continues to serve the role that Christ himself inaugurated. In spite of the limitations of her members--including her most notorious sinners--the Church allows us to encounter Christ, the Mystery of God reconciling himself with his creation. Thus, we find that we haven't bet wrong, even when the sins of the Church's members rise like a furious Tsunami.

If we truly take Christ's incarnation seriously, then we'll recognize an important fact. We come to Christ through his cross, drawn by the Father in heaven who summons us. We can't face the Cross honestly without recognizing our own responsibility for it. Therefore, we can't authentically encounter Christ if we don't experience the fundamental humiliation that we're not God. We don't walk on water. We don't fashion our own morality. We sin against our neighbor even when we intend good for him. We allow our passions to distract us from our intentions. We are the terminal patients of the hospital that is the Church, awaiting the treatment of the only Physician that may heal us. Before we wonder whether or not Christ can truly be present in the Church when her members sin, we should count ourselves among those members that sin. Then, instead of bewilderment at the concept of a marred Bride of Christ mediating him to the world, we can praise God in gratitude for the Mercy he gives us so freely.