Grace is Dark Matter

The history of the Catholic Church is simply chockablock with people like Br. Rick Bunch, quietly and humbly laboring on behalf of the poorest and most defenseless people in the world. What’s amazing to me is how some people can seriously look at something like this and see nothing but evil. As Caesar begins to press harder to crush the Church here in the US, the astounding thing to me is that people don’t seem to realize that they are cutting off their noses to spite their faces when they pressure the Church out of works of mercy and try to replace it with the State. It’s like a man with an umbrella watering plants in a rainstorm. it’s a fine way for control freaks to corner the watering market, but a lousy way to water a garden. As priest friend of mine used to say, “I don’t worry that the Church will survive persecution in the US. I do doubt that the US will survive persecuting the Church.” A serious assault on the Church is a serious assault on what is, hands down, the greatest charitable organization on planet Earth. You may as well drain all the oil out of a car engine and expect it to run at 60 miles an hour as destroy the work of millions of volunteers who supply the vital lubrication that allows a society to function. Thanks be to God for the generosity of the millions of Br. Rick’s out there who do for love what Caesar and Mammon cannot do well for the sake of power or money. Like dark matter, the gracious work they do accounts for most of the mass of history, and nobody ever sees it or hears about it.