02 March 2018

I Love This Church




In the course of a half century, I have seen more Christian corruption than you have read of. I have tasted it. I have been reasonably corrupt myself.

And yet, I love this church, this living, pulsing, sinning people of God with a crucifying passion. Why?

For all the Christian hate, I experience here a community of love.

For all the institutional idiocy, I find here a tradition of reason.

For all the individual repressions, I breathe here an air of freedom.

For all the fear of sex, I discover here the redemption of my body.

In an age so inhuman, I touch here tears of compassion.

In a world so grim and humorless, I share here rich joy and earthy laughter.

In the midst of death, I hear an incomparable stress on life.

For all the apparent absence of God, I sense here the real presence of Christ.


Walter Burghardt, S.J.