Church = Hospital

It has been said that the Church is not a museum for saints, but rather a hospital for sinners. I have lately been chewing on this image in depth because I think there's more here than meets the eye.

What I find particularly interesting is just how fitting the image is for us today. Think about it. What if this Church which so many people in our world accuse of being an out of touch institution bent on controlling the masses and robbing them of freedom is something quite different entirely? What if She is actually our Mother and we are, in fact, mad with a fever that causes wild hallucinations that we are convinced are reality?

To return to the hospital imagery, what if we took a good look around today - who would we see? How about the patients running around like madmen, hiding from the nurses and doctors because they are convinced these lifesavers are trying to poison them?

Or how about the patients who are so sure that they don't need treatment that they don scrubs and other medical apparel so they can walk about the hospital as if doctors distributing "medicine" to the other patients?

Would we be scandalized to see some medical professionals, charged with the care of these desperate patients, instead setting aside their responsibilities and hoarding medicine for illegal sale or personal use?

And what of other patients who, in their right minds have been given the appropriate prescriptions but, for whatever reason, decide to only take 1/4 or 1/3 of the prescribed dosage? We would probably hear them say something like, "What does Dr. 'So-and-so' know, anyway? I know what's best for me!"

This hospital scene is the Church, isn't it? We don't have to look too far to see all of these patients around us. We quickly find our brothers and sisters who simply are convinced that the pope, bishops, priests, religious and lay faithful are dangerous, antiquated fools who are determined to poison peoples' minds.

We see the self-coronated "experts" and "theologians" who have, as a wise man I greatly respect has put it, educated themselves into insanity. They have traded a humble and lifelong  personal encounter with the God who is love for academic tenure and the trappings of pomp and circumstance. I'm reminded of the old joke about the theologian who died and was given the choice of either heaven or a lecture on heaven and chose the lecture. These friends of ours have convinced themselves that they're not sick - how dangerous indeed.

Then there is the sad reality of some of our leaders and shepherds who are discovered to be spending the treasury of grace on themselves and their confreres. These authority figures, charged with our spiritual care by Christ himself, face perhaps the strongest condemnation of all if they do not repent and start living the Gospel.

So too do we find those who have grown up in the bosom of the Church and yet, at some point, fall in love with "no." They cast off this teaching and that doctrine and this piece of revelation. Sooner or later the dominoes begin to fall as they grow more enamored of Satan's famous words, "Non serviam!"..."I will not serve!" These are our brothers and sisters who cannot wait to dive into all of the serious issues they have with countless Church teachings and, ironically, they are usually the ones who end up being interviewed by a media who dub them to be "faithful Catholics" - the Catholics who really "get it."

But what I wonder is why anyone should be so quick to judge the faith or the Church herself based on the opinions of this latter group who have, by their own admission, already refused whichever part of the faith they don't understand or that doesn't conform with their lifestyle? Since when does one judge a medicine's effectiveness by astutely analyzing someone who doesn't take it as directed? Formulating an "informed opinion" on the efficaciousness of the Catholic faith based on the experiences of those who don't practice it seems to me like hating chocolate ice cream because your second cousin doesn't like waffles.

The Church is filled with sinners - She's packed with them. She always has been and always will be until Her Groom returns. I pray so deeply that we may all, together as one, resist the temptation to condemn the entire hospital just because there are some really, really sick people inside. After all, I'm one of them... and so are you!