History

For we the Church to better proclaim the kingdom of heaven, we need to become better conscious of our history and development. I hope we can learn. I hope we can recover. I hope we can change, constantly.

I believe God is in control of history and is present in every moment of history. But God does not bless everything that happens in history.

Does God cause everything that happens in history? I believe with Julian of Norwich that God causes human freedom and in this sense causes human choice. I believe also that God endures with humans in the consequences of human choice. In this sense, and only in this sense, is sin, suffering, and evil part of God's plan for creation.

The kingdom of heaven is the destination of history. If the kingdom of heaven is among us, then where is the Church? And is it where it should be?

Jesus Christ is the beginning and the end. If Jesus Christ is the end of history, then when is the Church? And is it when it should be?

Jesus Christ is the reign of God in person. He proposes it, he proposes himself, to us. Who is the Church? If the bridegroom, then the Church must increase. If the best man, then the Church must decrease. If the bride, then the Church must get ready to do both.

I believe there are souls who fall on the wrong side of church history but are in truth no less obedient than the saints.

Let us look upon the sin of the Church in times long past and times present with sorrow and contrition, but without malice toward its multitudes of sinners, and with charity and justice for the many more multitudes, within and without the Church, who were sinned against and suffered. Let us try to understand, as we understand ourselves, all the souls who have gone before, whose thoughts, words, and deeds, though seeming ever so scrupulous to themselves, appear to us as unconscionable and are in truth unacceptable.