Why I Remain A Catholic

The question has come my way several times, in the past week: “how do you maintain your faith in light of news stories that bring light to the dark places that exist within your church?”

When have darkness and light been anything but co-existent? How do we recognize either without the other?

I remain within, and love, the Catholic church because it is a church that has lived and wrestled within the mystery of the shadow-lands ever since an innocent man was arrested, sentenced and crucified, while the keeper of “the keys” denied him, and his first priests ran away. Through 2000 imperfect — sometimes glorious, sometimes heinous — years, the church has contemplated and manifested the truth that dark and light, innocence and guilt, justice and injustice all share a kinship, one that waves back-and-forth, like wind-stirred wheat in a field, churning toward something — as yet — unknowable.

NPR asked me to write an essay for Good Friday, and this is it. You can read the rest here. NPR says don’t forget recommend it, and leave a comment!

Speaking of which, the comments at NPR are interesting and a little amusing, to me. Scorn is so incredibly simple and simplistic, and faith is so incredibly hard, and yet somehow the “world” thinks it’s the other way around – that my faith is simplistic and unthinking, but scornful kneejerkism is profound and deep.

The world is an interesting place, isn’t it? I am glad to be in it, doing my imperfect best as I try to move forward. I thank NPR for inviting me to write.

You might as well comment there, since comments are still closed here as we cultivating silence.

I’ve podcasted the essay here, for any who prefer that, today.

UPDATE:
Context matters

Deacon Greg: Good Friday:

From within the four walls of our brokenness, behind the barbed wires of sin, we look out and look up — and we see this “tree” that symbolizes our salvation. This is how we know we are saved. This is how we know how much God loves us.

This afternoon, the cross speaks to us. It speaks of the One who suffered and died upon it.

It speaks to us in consolation. And – yes — in hope.

And quietly, but persistently, it offers us the promise of something better, beyond the prison wall.

“I am here. I am here. I am life. I am Eternal life.”

Related:
Jimmy Akin: Evil Monster Update
John Allen: Is Middle Ground Possible on the Pope?
John Stephenson: A Lutheran Pastor’s Perspective on the Pope and the Dictatorship of Relativism
Peggy Noonan: Catastrophe
“Were you There?”
YIM: Because I am Usually Howling With the Mob
Whispers in the Loggia: Crucified!
Dominican Nuns of Summit: Holy Thursday
dotCommonweal: Christus Factus Est
Michael Sean Winters: The Other Scandal
Sisters of Mary: Sharing Holy Week
Michael Fumento: A Good Friday to Remember
American Papist: History & Shroud
Fr. Dwight: Cosmic Remembrance
“Scandal and the Cross
Divine Office
James Martin:Praying for the Church’s Rebirth
Mark Shea: GCK on Good Friday
YIM: Because the Prophecy of David is fulfilled
Danielle Bean: Marked by the Cross
John O’ Herron: The Death of JPII, from the Square
Fr. John Hardon: On Martyrdom and Suffering
Neoneocon: The Press and the Pope
Find more at New Advent