I am going to be honest with you, embracing a vision of hope and a brighter future for our parishes is not going to be easy. Continuing to die a death by a thousand cuts seems to be easier in much the same way that an addict thinks that continuing to self-medicate is easier than beginning the road to recovery. Wherein does our road to recovery lie?
It involves letting go of an outdated ethnic Catholicism that had already stopped working well fifty years ago and embracing a call to be missionary disciples who seek constant spiritual growth and tirelessly seek to share our faith with others. About sixty percent of the population of Grant County is unchurched. This fact means that more that half of our county's population has not yet heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ shared with them in a persuasive way.
We see the symptoms of a world without Jesus all around us. Broken homes, drug addiction, child poverty and all the other physical forms of suffering are just external manifestations of souls who are writhing in pain from not knowing the love and mercy of God. Perhaps we too suffer. At times we may suffer more than we would like to admit. It can seem like the devil and his fallen angels are tightening their grip all around us. What are we to do?
The answer is simple: 1) Make an honest, searching examination of conscience, confess our sins. 2) Kindly and persistently invite the lost to join us in confessing their sins and turning to God for the healing that he alone can give. 3) Go back to step one and start again.
If we are willing to be 100% in God's will, I have no doubt that we can look forward to a future that is better than our best memories of the past.