"Pure Rome", "Immaculate Rome" -- this Rome, in fact, has never existed in the History of the Church in such form as imagined by many today, for the Bishop of Rome and his Curia are men, men touched by Original Sin and who have many personal defects. If Rome has fallen to heresy, then the promise of the Lord to the first Bishop of Rome, that "upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it", has failed -- and one can take from there the full consequences of a God whose most solemn promises do not turn out to be true.
If, however, Rome's infallibility is preserved, but its human circumstances are filled with difficulties and bad fruits, one sees nothing less than the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Lord. The Gospel for this Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (and last before the penitential season of Septuagesima this year) offers important lessons regarding the difficulties of the Church Militant:
If, however, Rome's infallibility is preserved, but its human circumstances are filled with difficulties and bad fruits, one sees nothing less than the fulfillment of the prophecy of the Lord. The Gospel for this Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany (and last before the penitential season of Septuagesima this year) offers important lessons regarding the difficulties of the Church Militant:
At that time Jesus spoke this parable to the multitudes: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat, and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. And the servants of the goodman of the house coming, said to him: Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it cockle? And he said to them: An enemy hath done this. And the servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go and gather it up? and he said: No, lest perhaps, gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it. Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn. (St. Matthew, xiii, 24-30)
Has the situation in Rome been better? Certainly. You will not read here any praises of the inexistent good fruits of the Council. However, even in the most unfavorable times, it would not be apt to confuse the severe human problems of the Church with a Rome which "must return to Tradition"; one does not return except to that which one has completely left... "The danger is present almost in the very veins and heart of the Church": this is what Pope Saint Pius X said -- not today, but one hundred years ago. Does this seem to describe the "Pure Rome" of "ancient" lore?
If one should wait for the Apostolic See to "return", unanimously and with no human problems whatsoever, to a mythical view of "Tradition", one would forget the lesson of today's Gospel: the enemy sows cockle (or tares, as it has entered English literature through the Authorized Version) throughout the field, even in the highest and most august settings. It is extremely difficult for the Apostolic See, at times, to "eliminate all bad principles" without the risk of eliminating good souls.
If at times there appears in the Church something that indicates the weakness of our human nature, it should not be attributed to her juridical constitution, but rather to that regrettable inclination to evil found in each individual, which its Divine Founder permits even at times in the most exalted members of His Mystical Body, for the purpose of testing the virtue of the Shepherds no less than of the flocks, and that all may increase the merit of their Christian faith. For, as We said above, Christ did not wish to exclude sinners from His Church; hence if some of her members are suffering from spiritual maladies, that is no reason why we should lessen our love for the Church, but rather a reason why we should increase our devotion to her members. (Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi)
Canon Léon Cristiani (famous for Evidence of Satan in the Modern World, his Brief History of Heresies, and for many hagiographies) offers simple yet powerful reflections on today's Gospel in one of his most popular books:
"The Kingdom of God in the world will never be perfect, and that should not surprise us. God allows it. The separation of the elements shall be done at the end of the harvest... God does not will to transform the earth in a kingdom in which his will governs unopposed. The earth is a place of struggle, a field of experimentation and combat, but not of permanent victory. The presence of the evil ones is useful for the development of the just. ... Goodness shall not be defeated on earth; in eternity, it will triumph forever." (in Jésus-Christ: Fils de Dieu, Sauveur. v. 1, 1934)
No serious Catholic may deny the enormous crisis faced by the Church today -- but no serious Catholic may reject the good efforts, even the most timid, of the wheat of a deeply hurt Rome filled with tares.
