Fr. Richard Ho Lung - Diary Of A Ghetto Priest A STRONG liberal wind has flown in the windows of the Church. Some for better, some for worse. It's been a wrenching time for the Church. Whilst an openness to change has brought about dialogue, acculturation and a new awareness of the masses and the suffering of the people, it is a door that swings both ways. The world has also blown into the Church unsupervised, not corrected and without clear and strong leadership. Today, we stand in no man's land. There is a moral and spiritual decline devoid of objectivity, devoid of truth and the demand that we stretch out on the cross in order to fulfil the rightness of things and cast aside the wrongness of things.
PERIOD OF FREEFALL
We have entered a period of freefall and there are no handrails to hold. That we will land on our feet is not yet known. The certitudes of the past, which the gospels and the Church preached, have received stunning blows not only from the world, but also from prominent persons within the Church. Therefore, like sheep without a shepherd, the laity and indeed the entire world is at a loss what to do.
Homosexuality, lesbianism, abortion, artificial birth control, genetic engineering, flexi-week are only part of the picture. Every profession is now economically driven in a world devoid of philosophy and clear objective thought. Lawyers, doctors, businesses, and even the pastorate have been polluted by the exigency of making big money. Nothing and no one seem to have as a priority service of others; rather, it has all become service of self. The by-products of materialism are war, violence, selfishness, competition, the destruction of family life, the destruction of community life, individualism, the loss of simplicity and the spirit of self-sacrifice and finally God.
The laws of God are written in the hearts of men. We know what is right and wrong. But for convenience sake, we take the path of least resistance.
While having the compassion for the sinner, we must articulate the truths of God which are meant for the good of mankind. We must recognise, for instance, that pre-marital sex is evil. We must recognise that homosexuality is wrong. These and much more are known to our consciences to be against natural law. Within nature, there is a law that tells us about the rightness or wrongness of our thoughts and actions. Our passions and feelings constantly crave for satisfaction.
Christ is the Truth. We must bear the burden of truth and genuine self-sacrificing love in all walks of life. When priorities get mixed up, we become confused and we confuse others. For instance, lawyers, doctors, pastors and priests must all seek the kingdom of God first and God will care for all other needs. If we pursue riches, pleasures and power first, all of us will become selfish and lost in a superficial world and vision that cannot last.
There are changes in the Church that are new and excellent: the concern for dialogue, the respect of the poor, ecumenism, a rejection of clericalism, the emergence of the laity and greater centredness on the word of God, new liturgical music that is indigenous, the recognition of the Holy Spirit in the churches.
HOW DO WE RESTORE UNITY?
Whereas I profess the Roman Catholic as the true Church founded by Christ and grounded in the Scripture as well as history; whereas the system in the Church as structure and the relationship between authority and people are true to God's will and also good for humanity, nevertheless the Church's humanity and sinfulness, as well as its great strengths and achievement cannot be denied. How do we restore unity and harmony in the Church and the world? The truth and objectivity devoid of sentimentality arrived at through the process of deep thought and insight and a clear understanding of what it is to be a child of God and through unemotional self-searching and self-confrontation. Structurally speaking, the Roman Catholic Church is organised by the Holy Spirit over the centuries to do just that. Despite its foibles, the Church will therefore endure through centuries of change.
Liberalism and conservatism are mentally convenient ways of labelling peoples and positions, whether in the Church or in the secular world. But what will prevail in the long run are the men and women committed to God, His mind and His will and His truth, which we know deep in our hearts. We must cut through the superficiality of our passing world and obtain without passion and emotional subjectivity God's truth and His will, not only for the individual but for all men. Only by a commitment to truth will we be able to reinstate peace, love and harmony in our world.
Fr. Richard Ho Lung is Founder and Leader of the Missionaries of the Poor.
