Today Jesus continues to train his Apostles and at the same time, thanks to St Mark who wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he continues to train us. To my mind there are two extremes which Catholic can fall into at this time. The first is an inferiority complex which makes them afraid to identify publicly as Catholic. Believing the propaganda of the mainstream media, scandalized by the sex abuse crisis and drawn in by the slogan "I am spiritual but not religious" they withdraw into their shell. Second, there can be a sort of intellectual and cultural arrogance and superiority. Such Catholics are inclined to mock the hapless situation of non-Catholic Christians who struggle with contemporary moral and social issues. Smugly they revel in the richness of the papal magisterium as well as the artistic and cultural Catholic heritage as they look down on the banal emptiness of atheistic society. This begs the question - what is the Catholic Church for? It is a prolongation of the Incarnation as it mediates sacramental grace to a fallen world and continues the mission of the Master. Thus, the Church is called to serve after the model of its Founder: "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." (Mk 10: 45) At Vatican II the Church fathers taught: "The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and the hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ." (Gaudium et spes, 1)
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