We all have people that we look up to, admire, and trust. A good role model can help us to be a better person. When we find good and holy role models, they can help us grow closer to God. The sad part is when these role models let us down through sin of their own.
I had become very lukewarm in my faith throughout my college years and in early adulthood. One day, I was flipping through the channels and found a very fiery and dynamic priest preaching. His preaching really touched me and woke my soul up. I continued watching many of his talks and really grew in my faith. I returned to the sacrament of reconciliation for the first time in many years and even started going to daily Mass more often.
Just when everything was going great, this dynamic priest was accused of, among other things, having an affair with a woman. The last I heard is that he has also left the priesthood and is a speaker, but no longer wants to speak about the faith. My faith wasn’t shaken, but I felt very hurt and sad that this man who I thought was on the path to sainthood, could do what he was accused of. I could no longer watch any of his archived programs without getting a bad taste in my mouth.
The sex scandal in the Church has turned a lot of people away as well. We call priests father and when they let us down, it feels like our own father has let us down. If your gym instructor does something bad, you get a new instructor and continue on about your life, but when someone who is in a position of high trust does wrong, it can leave emotional and spiritual scars.
We need to understand that no one is perfect and people make mistakes – sometimes huge ones. Some of the best Saints have, at one time, lived terrible lives. Many Saints have proven that bad people can change their ways and become very good and holy people again. In last weeks Gospel, we are asked to try to bring the sinner back into communion with us and the community. In this weeks Gospel, Jesus tells us to forgive others as he forgives us.
Is it fair to condemn all police officers as racist based on the inappropriate actions of other officers? Is it right to condemn all priests as pedophiles based on the actions of other priests? There will always be good and bad people in every profession. We need to reward the good ones and admonish the bad ones.
We also need to start trusting in our fellow man again. Trusting opens us up to getting hurt, but it is a big part of loving someone. If a girlfriend doesn’t trust her boyfriend, then the relationship will not progress too far. If the soldier doesn’t trust his fellow soldiers, then their lives will be endangered.
Today we are seeing what happens in society when people don’t trust the police. We are seeing what happens when people don’t trust their priests and bishops. If someone commits an evil act against us and we retaliate with evil against that person or someone else, then that can lead to a never ending chain of violence and evil. Forgiveness is the solution to many of the worlds problems. Forgiveness breaks the endless chain of violence and evil.
I am thankful for that dynamic priest for coming in my life. I have forgiven him and look on him with love. Even though he ended up turning against the very message he was preaching, I can’t forget the beacon of light that he once was. I hope he can find his way back into communion with the Church and with God. I have the same wish for our country and for the world. May God send many beacons of light into our lives and allow us to show our light to others.
