When Scandal Strikes
It seems every few months the Church is rocked by one scandal or another. The personal failings of those in high profile leadership positions can be disturbing, frustrating, and disheartening. As Catholics we hold those priests, bishops, and cardinals to high standards, forgetting we are all held to the same high standard, Christ himself. Too easily caught up in the cult of personality and bombarded by constant temptation, one can see the persistent desire of the evil one to see good holy men succumb to sin.
How should we, as Christians, respond? Of course we should feel saddened and disappointed, but all too often, I've observed in the online world, there is an atmosphere of frenzied expectation, harsh judgement, and near giddy excitement over the news of the sinner. We all know, or should know, this is not how Christ responds. As followers of Christ we need to hit our knees and pray for the fallen and pray for those that will be lead astray, feel betrayed, or rejoice in the misconduct of those men so many follow and admire. We need to separate ourselves from the feeding frenzy of scandal and instead of indignant criticism and finger pointing we need to dig deep and feel compassion and pity for our disgraced brethren. Let us be reminded of the wisdom of one of Wingnut's favorite idioms: "There but for the grace of God, go I."
Comments
As a separated protestant heretic who has constantly found myself near the line of wrong behavior I think of the story about Jesus responding to the woman caught in adultery. There are always that group of people who love to stand looking for opportunities to throw rocks at the guilty. I find that they do so because they have their own guiltiness and instead of humbling their hearts and confessing their sins they would rather shift attention towards the "really bad" sinners. Jesus on the other hand was more than willing to dialogue with the woman, show her compassion and encourage her to change her was and sin no more. It is true that when leaders sin it usually has large ripple effects and there are innocent bystanders who get wounded. Those who do the sin are usually doing those things out of their own wounded souls and it is those wounds that we need to pray for as well.
Love ya Mau
YourBro