Rumors Of The Church’s Death

So why go to the trouble of defending it?

Because, while the Church cannot be killed, people can be. The loss of a single soul is a tragedy of cosmic proportions. Hopefully, of the thing the Scandal will result in is the abandonment of the lazy suburban notion that it’s automatic Heaven for all and we don’t need to concern ourselves with evangelization since everybody is bound to be saved anyway.

We are called to hope, not to despair or presumption. Both of those latter ways are the enemy of Hope because they claim to know the end of the story. We don’t know that. We live in a *drama*, not in a tragedy, nor in a manufacturing process with a certain outcome.

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

That’s still the mission. Those people out there aren’t going to convert themselves. We have to be faithful to our task as the Holy Spirit will be faithful to His.

But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. (Romans 10:14-17)

Rumors of the Church’s Death