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Their Flock
BY Father Owen Kearns, LC
November 18-24, 2007 Issue |
Posted 11/13/07 at 1:25 PM
As I write this, America’s bishops have gathered together
for their annual meeting in Balitmore.
The bishops’ meeting gets a lot of attention from Catholics.
In a certain way, the widespread interest in bishops’ doings is a sign that one
of the core driving ideas of the Second Vatican Council — communio — has
permeated our life and attitudes. We’re interested in what our bishops say and
do because, well, it’s our Church and they are our bishops.
We are particularly called to live the theology and the
spirituality and the attitude of communio today. We are called to be one with
the Church — not some ideal Church, made in our own image, but the real Church,
made of sinners striving to be saints, in communion with the bishops in
communion with the Successor of Peter. We are called to build communio with the
bishops — not with the ones that we might wish to have, but with the ones we
actually do have.
Not all bishops are models of what the ideal bishop ought to
be. The same could be said of the bishops’ conference, which makes it tempting
to focus on the shortfalls, the failings, the disappointments, the betrayals.
Throughout history, some saints have been called to fulfill
this role. Today, not a few Catholics act as if that prophetic mantle has
fallen on their shoulders. In righteous anger, they speak the truth to power.
Those who set themselves up as judges over and above the bishops should beware
that what starts out in righteousness often follows a trajectory that ends in
self-righteousness. There’s a dynamism to speaking the truth in anger that’s
almost impossible to avoid. What the saints did was to speak the truth in
charity.
When you read this, the bishops will be finishing their
annual meeting. Let’s pray for our bishops that they will be better bishops.
The only way that will happen is through personal conversion, which is a grace.
And let’s pray that we will be a better flock to our bishops
That only happens through personal conversion, too. God
established this Church and gave us this bishop and this Pope. Let’s build
communion with him by building communion with them.
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