Have you ever found yourself identifying with Peter, the Apostle? He was stubborn, hard-headed, and often struggled to understand Jesus’ teachings. But when it mattered most, Peter got it right. It’s both remarkable and humbling to consider the people Jesus chose as his apostles. They grappled with anger and pride; one was even a tax collector—a profession despised by first-century Jews. They argued among themselves and were often bewildered by Jesus’ words. Yet, Jesus showed them immense patience and mercy. Despite their flaws, the Holy Spirit worked through their strengths to spread Christianity across the world. Through corrupt popes, wars, divisions, and human vices, the Church has endured.
The Church, created by God, is perfect in its essence. But it has always been filled with imperfect people. In fact, when the Church becomes too focused on perfection, it faltered. The recent sexual abuse scandal is a stark example. The larger issue wasn’t just a few deeply flawed priests; it was the pride and shame that led the Church hierarchy to cover up their crimes, paying off families and moving the priests around to continue their reprehensible behavior. Imagine how different things would have been if the Church had handled the situation openly, punishing the perpetrators severely and supporting the victims.
One might think the solution is to have perfect priests and perfect parishioners—where no one does anything wrong and every situation is handled flawlessly. Everyone would get along, and nobody would get hurt. Our society rewards perfection and achievement, so it’s natural to seek that in our Church. But if that were the case, where would someone like me fit in?
I am far from perfect. I often react out of fear, struggle to trust God, can be lazy, and my time management skills leave much to be desired. If you ask my kids, they could probably list even more flaws. How could my imperfect self fit into a Church of perfect people?
Maybe that’s why Jesus built the Church with people we can relate to. Any business led by such individuals would likely fail. Yet, the early Church miraculously grew and thrived—a group of imperfect, persecuted people united by the common goal of living their lives as closely to Jesus’ example as possible. Two thousand years later, the Church still stands, and we stand with it. While we may no longer live in community like the early Christians, we still form meaningful relationships within our parishes. We worship together, comfort one another, and serve our communities. We work on our own shortcomings and sinful tendencies while accepting and forgiving the flaws in others. Through these relationships, we find and grow in our relationship with Jesus. He wants to be in relationship with us, no matter where we are in our faith journey—our identity is in Him, not in what we achieve.
Reason two I will always be Catholic – our perfect imperfect Church. We move forward together, supporting, uplifting, and forgiving each other as we strive to be more like Jesus today than we were yesterday.
Marisa, your description of church composition is perfect. Fundamentally, it is the same reasoning that Louise once gave me: “I hope you DO find a perfect church, but when you do, DON’T join it as your presence will destroy it.” Only God is perfect. Man falls short of divine perfection. This humbling truth from my AWESOME mother-in-law gave me much to consider and ultimately brought me to the time and place that I would join the perfectly imperfect RCC. Of course, I also had other encouragement and excellent examples along the way: in community, among friends, and in family — and especially in you, my beautiful bride. You have again demonstrated mature wisdom in this wonderful post.