It is now kind of stylish to blame other people for our faults and failures. The kids blame the parents, the parents blame the grandparents, college students blame the system, etc. So when we look at the Church and what is happening within her, whom should we blame for this situation? If we follow the rule we should blame God but then it would be a contradiction because God is perfect.
So people are pointing out bishops, priests, leaders of the groups. Yes, we can always find somebody to blame for something. But when we look at the Church in our time and then look back 50 or 60 years we can see that there is something what comes upon us all.
Few years ago I made an argument that one of the worst expressions we have in English is "at least". This expression did amazing damage to the Church and our parishes. It made us to justify a sin in the name of doing something good, related to the faith. People were leaving together without the sacrament but they go for the Mass on Christmas, so we cannot say anything because "at least" they come once a year for the Mass. Sometimes I thing it wasn't even that they came for the Mass, it was rather that they gave something for a collection. In one of the previous blogs I said that the Church is in a fear of people instead to be in a fear of God. We do wonderful weddings and funerals, ceremonies like from a dream, because otherwise we could loose our parishioners. We do not think that we lost them already because of a sin. The reality of Heaven, Earth and Hell is not based on our privet justification, feelings and opinions. It is rooted in a very strong statement: Mt 7, 21-23 :"'It is not anyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," who will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven. When the day comes many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?" Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, all evil doers!". Yes, Christ doesn't say "at least" you know my name, you were doing something good. He rather says: I do not know you because you didn't follow the will of the Father but yours.
Today we can blame ourselves for things that are happening in the Church. For decades we created society of people that are just on a level of "at least". I would say Satan is in e better situation because he is not doing anything on a level of "at least", he really does the best job to bring an evil. In the name of of wrong justification we accept a sin as a part of the Church. No wonder that entire generation of people do not believe in God. In their eye everything is ok, because "at least" they are saving the planate, feeding the poor, make protests against injustice, etc. Unfortunately it doesn't work with God. He doesn't care about "at least" events. He knows human heart and he know the truth about us. So let's Balme ourselves and repent. "Blessed are pure of heart, because they shall see God".