Cleaning the Decks and Paintings the Riggings while the Ship is Sinking

I was at a diocesan meeting last night.  A speaker had been invited to give a talk on Trends for the Future in the Catholic Church.  I think perhaps it was the subject but I cannot say I came away hanging on to any threads or pearls of wisdom.    Deciding where the Church would be in 20 or 30 years time cannot be decided solely by human thought for we are a Divine Church not a Human One and the Holy Spirit has the power to change things overnight.    There was also a point made about a convergence of traditional and progressive ideas to make everyone interested but this was to admit that there were two different legitimate points of view - there are not.   You are either a Catholic faithful to the Church and its teachings or you are not.  If you are not, you are not committed to the Catholic Church.

As we discussed what model the Church should be for future 'evangelisation' one lay person did give the foundations of that 'model'.   He did not go back to the forties or fifties but rather to the time of St Augustine.   What attracted him to the Catholic Church?    He lived in the pagan society of the Roman Empire with sex and lust and all the sins present now in our own pagan society.   He looked at the Catholic Church and saw "a sign of contradiction".   Their young people led chaste lives in preparation for marriages which were faithful and lasting. It was living the life that its founder had wanted it to live.  Faithful to His love and his teachings.

I liked what was said.   Is the Church a sign of contradiction to the paganism of today?.   When those outside the Church look in, do they see people living lives that are any different from the society they live in?  When phrases like 'living in the real world'  are put forward as valid criticisms  and there are those ready to say "We can do nothing about this" then Christ has failed his Church.   His promise to be with her is just so much garbage.  "We cannot change the present situation. you just taught us ideals.    Yet the Church will carry on.  We will talk about evangelisation and 'loving communities of Faith but they will just be meaningless words.     The contradiction has gone and we are just a ship barely afloat and the crew are busy paining the riggings and cleaning the decks while below the ship is sinking from the waters of corruption and immorality.      

    

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