The Heart of the Church
In the past few months I’ve been captivated by this passage from St. Thérèse of Lisieux in Story of a Soul:
“I understood that if the Church had a body composed of different members, the most necessary and most noble of all could not be lacking to it, and so I understood that the Church had a Heart, and that this Heart was burning with love.”
The Heart of the Church is love. This brought to mind the teachings of Jesus who said that the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord, your God, with all your heart” and “love your neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22:37-39). As Pope Francis has taught:
“In other words, amid the thicket of precepts and prescriptions, Jesus clears a way to seeing two faces, that of the Father and that of our brother. He does not give us two more formulas or two more commands. He gives us two faces, or better yet, one alone: the face of God reflected in so many other faces. For in every one of our brothers and sisters, especially the least, the most vulnerable, the defenceless and those in need, God’s very image is found” (Gaudete et Exsultate 61).
The Heart of the Church can be found wherever the most vulnerable and marginalized are being cared for.
Commenting on that passage from St. Thérèse, Pope Francis wrote, “This discovery of the heart of the Church is also a great source of light for us today” because it “preserves us from being scandalized by the limitations and weaknesses of the ecclesiastical institution.”
At first, the pope’s reflection here made me angry. I'm not sure how knowing that the Heart of the Church is self-sacrificial love preserves me from being scandalized by the sins and the crimes of the institution. Shouldn’t I feel more scandalized because of how far the institution is from that heart of love? And who does any bishop think he is telling Catholics how to feel about the abuse of power in the Church?
But then I realized that this feeling is actually healing, a purging away of where I thought the Heart of the Church was.
Over the past few years I’ve experienced more disappointment and betrayal—concrete betrayal that directly impacted my life—from the ecclesiastical institution than I ever expected I would. And as much as I can intellectually distinguish the Sacraments from the ecclesiastical institution, it’s not as easy to emotionally distinguish them when it’s clerical representatives of the institution ministering them.
But the Heart of the Church isn’t the ecclesiastical institution. The Heart of the Church isn’t the beautiful church building just a few blocks from my house. The Heart of the Church isn’t my pastor or bishop. The Heart of the Church isn’t the pope. The Heart of the Church is the vulnerable and marginalized and those who serve them.
Today we remember that God emptied himself, becoming poor, vulnerable, marginalized, and unwanted in order to rescue you, to rescue me. Christmas reminds us that God is always on the side of the vulnerable and marginalized. There is where his heart dwells.
In this past year, two organizations have been sources of consolation for me precisely because they serve the Heart of the Church. I want to encourage you to consider supporting them.
The first is Awake, a non-profit out of Milwaukee that supports and advocates for survivors of clerical abuse. Their mission “is to awaken our community to the full reality of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, work for transformation, and foster healing for all who have been wounded.”
Among other things, Awake provides support groups and retreats for survivors. They also host online events where survivors can share their stories and experts can educate about the reality of abuse in the Church.
You can financially support Awake here: https://awakemilwaukee.org/donate/
The second is a new a private association of religious sisters in Portland, Oregon, the Sisters of the Little Way of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness.
I’ve had a few conversations with Sr. Theresa Aletheia Noble, Sr. Maria Kim, and Sr. Danielle Victoria over the past few months. They deeply and genuinely understood my story without me having to explain or defend myself. Here is their mission:
“Called and consecrated within Christ’s Heart and in the heart of the Church, we joyfully live a mission of listening, healing outreach, spiritual reparation, and solidarity with people who are despairing, doubting, and hopeless, and people on the fringes or outside of the Church, especially those people who have been wounded, scandalized, or abused by members of the Church.”
You can financially support The Sisters of the Little Way here: https://www.sistersofthelittleway.com/p/support-our-mission
This Christmas season, please consider supporting these organizations who are consoling the Heart of Christ in the people who have been abused, neglected, betrayed, and abandoned by the ecclesiastical institution.