So says Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments. He writes in his latest book (*) that the Church is not a simple worldly organization in need of a “strategic plan”. It is a sacred institution, which needs a reformation!
But … how can we reform the Church? To reform the Church, we must first reform our own souls. And how do we reform our souls? By being in constant prayer, by doing God’s Will and by offering everything that we do for the glory of God.
Cardinal Sarah writes that although the Catholic Church “opened to the world”, during and after Vatican Council II, giving primary importance to the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, we must return to the Cross. The Cross must again be central in our lives. The Incarnation cannot be fully understood without the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord.
We do not have to live according to the world´s criteria. And neither do we have to
make the Church acceptable according to the world’s criteria. Instead we have to purify her (by trying to purify ourselves) so that she presents to the world the Cross in all its nakedness.
Out of pure Love the Father gave His only Son to be handed over for a death on the Cross. Christ was incarnate to freely accept death and expiate our sins. By accepting His Father’s Will and dying on the Cross, He showed us the way to salvation.
Our quest must then be a complete separation of our souls from the “idols” of sin and worldly attachments. God must be the central figure in our lives by seeking to be with Him and trying to fulfill His Will at all times…also accepting the Cross.
To accept the Cross in our lives is to shed those attachments of the world and “to lose our lives” (Mathew 16:24-25). Humanity’s natural tendency is to seek refuge in the adoration of “idols” that momentarily satisfy our needs. Shedding those attachments -and attaching ourselves to the Cross- would allow us to purify ourselves and to help reform the Church.
(*)“The Day is Now Far Spent”
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