I am now entering into the second month of my tenure here at St. Peter’s. I am abundantly blessed to have this position and cannot deny the sheer providence of God that brought me to this beautiful community. I would be remiss if I could confidently tell you that I had a shred of an idea on what to write for this article. My first article, I stayed too close to the readings of the weekend, almost like I was writing a paper for school. Going over the weeks, months and years of Page 1 stories and instruction, life’s movements and murmurings about the daily readings, I have decided that some of the most successful articles I have read were stories from the life of those who wrote them. Relating them to the times we exist in, I find, are the most relatable.
It’s hard to deny the times we live in as Catholics. We seem to be easy to dislike and even harder to stomach. Being a Catholic in 2018 pulls at the very moral fiber and foundation that we live. Taking a pot shot at my faith is all around me, and it is, at times such as those we live in now, when we start to evangelize less; some shrink away from the faith and the Church all together. These times are right for the evil one to strike and pick up the spares ,as we find it easier to deny, like Peter, rather than be a martyr for our faith.
These are times when God needs his flock to be the strongest. Every 500 years or so, the Church goes through a fire, a burning of the faith to eradicate the weak and move forward in a new, stronger direction. Look at 500 years ago, during the appointment of Pope Leo X. Pope Leo X and his “pay-for-penance” scheme nearly bankrupted the church and drove Martin Luther to pen the “95 theses,” beginning the Protestant reformation and nearly tearing the Catholic faith apart.
Think of recent times; those that can remember pre-Vatican II and the aftermath. It drove many from the faith because of its radical ideas and an almost 180 degree turn from tradition. Those on the backside of Vatican II will look at this reformation as the saving of the faith and a rejuvenation that sparked tremendous growth in the Catholic population. Detractors persisted for years but grew accustomed to the new Church, the new Mass and new faith, which, in hindsight, never really changed in rubrics. . . just not as much Latin.
The idea is similar to those of the past. The Church goes through a fire, a cleansing, if you will. The faithful grow stronger and learn new ways to defend the body of Christ. We pull together to martyr for her and say that the one, true faith – the one true Church – is necessary in our world. We are going through that now. We are being shaken to our very foundation of what we believe and in whom we put our faith and our trust. My home parish in Northeast Minneapolis has not slipped by unscathed and has had me question things from my past, people I have known and the leadership of shepherds in which I have put my complete faith.
These times call for tremendous measures. I feel there could be no better time for me to be entering into my aspirancy year in the permanent Diaconate. Mother Church needs strong leadership. Locally, we could not have been blessed with a greater general in this faith fight than our own Archbishop Bernard Hebda. We could not have asked for a wiser, more sincere shepherd to lead our local flock and see this dark time to its hopefully peaceful ending. We can look at the beautiful and heartfelt homily from last weekend of our own faith-filled shepherd, Fr. Steven. . . its sentiments still ringing in my ears.
Strong leaders, like Archbishop Hebda, Bishop Cozzens and Fr. Steven are but a few in a growing number that will faithfully lead us out of our darkest times in recent memories. During this fight, we have to remember that without war, there are no heroes and without the Cross, there are no saints. The forgotten in all of this, behind the bureaucracy of this fight, are the helpless victims for whom we should pray daily. Their voice has been heard and will continue to resound; but it is their darkness that we should storm the heavens with prayer. Padre Pio once remarked that the rosary is the second strongest prayer, only second to the Mass in Heaven. Let us continue to fight through spiritual warfare, pull together during a daily rosary or in our prayer groups and prayer chains and never forget that the one, true faith and the one true Church is in us. As Fr. Steven said, “I stand and fight for my faith and defend my Church.”
Chris Seiple
Director of Parish Operations
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