Fighting Apathy within the Church

One of the biggest problems in my beloved Catholic church today is apathy. I have been thinking about this lately. The culture of death has infiltrated itself so thoroughly within the church that apathy has been allowed to flourish.

It saddens me. It isn't just a problem in the church, but in the world at large as well.  It is like massive amounts of people have blinders on. Blinders that they chose to put on. So many important issues are being igored by otherwise good people. Did they put blinders on because there is just too much information coming at them, or life is just so overwhelmingly busy that they just have to shut some things out?  What is it?

I can give you the answer in a nutshell:  It is the evil one. He has deceived so many people. He has built a huge rift of mistrust between our clergy and their sheep. The apex of the sex abuse scandals is over, but the ramifications trickling through the church are many and are still very present. I feel bad for the good priests who are out there every day trying hard to make a difference, especially in the areas where the number of priests are low or where the church is being persecuted. I feel deeply betrayed by those few clergy who have been in short, stupid and reckless and in essence have been re-crucifying my sweet Jesus with their total disregard for the priesthood and who have been misusing their priesthood. I am very very angry with them.

Every day I pray for priests. I love the priesthood. It is such a huge gift from God. I guess that's why I get so angry when I see it misused by men who perhaps were once good, but chose bad, or perhaps they were bad to begin with and thought they could get away with their misdeeds by hiding under the cloak of the priesthood. 

Anyway, the other problem we have in regards to apathy is that the laity can betray Jesus and His Church just as poorly.  Now, I'm not saying that because I am some "holier than thou" person. Sin is sin after all and I am as much of a sinner as anyone else. I have experienced my share of apathy too. Over the last few years I have experienced the devil attacking me on so many levels to the point that I have felt some apathy and have had times when I wanted to walk away from it all. But thankfully, I am a sinner who prays and praying has helped a lot. It has helped me see that there is hope for all of us. There is HOPE to end the APATHY.

My heart aches on such a deep level for our Church - for our clergy and our lay people alike. It is like there is a heavy wet blanket over all of us and it falls heavier on some than on others. Those who have room to breathe under this wet blanket are shouting out "Don't quit!" " Stand tall!" "Fight the suffocation that is being thrust upon us!"  Sadly there are some who have been snuffed out altogether, crushed by the weight of the wet blanket. I imagine it to be a dark grey rough blanket - a blanket that smells.

I have a little breath left in me and I am shouting under the blanket of apathy - RISE UP PEOPLE ! DON'T LET THE DEVIL WIN ! HANG ON TO JESUS !

Many people do not see the storm ahead of us that we are going to have to walk through. The only way we will be successful is if we hang onto each other and Jesus. Priests and laity alike. Soon we will all have to choose what side we are on. Are we truly Catholic Christians who love Jesus and who would do all He asks of us or are we people who want to give up and die under the heavy wet blanket of apathy?

Apathy is a terrible disease ! It is a manifestation of evil and it must be stopped. I urge anyone who is reading this little blog to please take some time each day and pray for a powerful outpouring and indwelling of the Holy Spirit upon every last person in God's Church. Pray for protection for our good priests and pray yes, for healing for the bad priests who have been abusive, who have stolen, who have sold drugs, who have broken their vows, etc..., While they must be silenced and removed so that they can no longer be the agents of the devil and turn good people away from Jesus, they also must be sent away for healing and accountablity so that someday they may return to us.  God loves them as much as he loves the holiest of us and we must not discard them, but they must not be allowed to continue being wolves in sheep's clothing.

May the Holy Spirit empower those who seek to know Jesus better and walk in His ways. May the Holy Spirit fill all of us who go to Church with His power so that any apathy that is hanging around us will be obliterated for all eternity. Then we will be left to be, as St. Pauls says: "that we will shine like the stars in the sky".

My brothers and sisters - we must stand together. We must fight apathy with PRAYER.  Let's get busy then..... are ya with me?