![]() Unelected government agencies function, in effect, autonomously. Big corporations wield inordinate political power. Their grip on our popular entertainment, news content, and emerging technologies has dragged many millions of otherwise good people along with them. Elites in the developed world have been shedding Christianity like dead skin for decades. Or, to borrow a thought from Solzhenitsyn: For the things we can’t achieve, God has appointed others.but that doesn’t let you and me off the hook. God has an exquisite sense of irony in the end, the health of a fallen world is ensured by the “un-worldliness” of converted, individual hearts. And while the Church is the soul of the world and always holy, her fertility in any given age depends on “us all of us.” The holiness of her people translates into the fruitfulness of her mission. “Fixing the world,” or at least healing its worst wounds, is the mission of the Church. So if we want to reform the Church, we first need to reform ourselves. Holy means “different from” and “other than.” Christians are meant to be different from and other than the ways of the world. In its Hebrew root, “holy” doesn’t mean “good,” although holy people are always good. And the essence of conversion is a sea change in the way we think and live. No one really likes to change, because it’s hard. ![]() It’s that simple, and also that difficult. In a sense, the focus of real Church reform is always the same: you and me. Structures and policies are important, but people are decisive. ![]() ![]() Interviewer: In your opinion, what are the greatest areas of reform needed to renew the Church?įamiliar cleric: Us all of us. So the implications for each of us are worth noting, and they’re captured best by a familiar cleric in a recent interview: But of course that’s the one place that really does matter. In the vast stream of history, individuals rarely seem to matter.except in the eyes of God. I can’t fix the world, but I don’t need to. ![]() This would be sad if it weren’t also consoling. But my friends and colleagues, and others I admire, are just smarter than I am. ![]()
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