"Watch carefully how you live,

The second reading from today is right, calling these days evil. There are already articles and opinions galore on the horrific stomach-churning sex abuse crisis and scandals that have been revealed recently. (I haven't come close to reading most of them but here and here are two of the most compelling and worth reading, in my opinion.) Many of them are far better than I could ever do with my very limited time and energy right now anyway. So I don't feel called to add to any of that.

But what is on my heart is to share this reminder, though choppy and inadequate it may be, especially as I hear people share that they are struggling in faith as a result of what is going on:

Do not forget that His heart aches more than ours ever could over this evil.

Do not forget to call this what it is: evil, satanic, diabolical sin.

Do not abandon His body at the foot of the bleeding, hideous cross when He needs you most.

Do not let go of the piercing bloody excruciating wood that saves you.

Do not forsake Jesus because of Judas(es).

Do not let the evil one win another battle. Make no mistake, now that this evil has been brought into the light, he will not put up his hands in surrender and calmly retreat. In his demonic and cunning tactics, he will try to bring down as many people as he can with him. He will do it through temptations to pride, rage, envy, opportunism, violating more innocence, seeking vengeance, division, confusion, and heresy.

Do not be shocked when things get worse before they get better. Expect a deep and brutal purification. Prepare to sacrifice much.

Remain (or get) in a state of grace.

Get to Mass. Don't let this evil keep you away from the real encounter with His Body and Blood. Receive worthily.

Take guidance only from those who are faithful and know the real teachings of the Church well, especially regarding human sexuality. Steep yourself in the Catechism, the (real) Theology of the Body, and the (real) writings of the saints.

Cling tight to the Faith when the storm is raging, when everything in you wants to jump ship. This is what it means to be the faithful. Prove yourself worthy of the Faith with which you have been entrusted, a faith that places itself in Him not in men.

When you are tempted to despair, choose to hope in HIM. Everything and everyone else will fail.

Remember that there is no sin outside the realm of His mercy, as hideous it may be.

He is here in this wreckage. He is not leaving. Don't dare leave Him.

Pray hard. Fast hard. Become a saint for such a time as this.

"From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge — a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. It will be hard going for the Church, for the process of crystallization and clarification will cost her much valuable energy. It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek… But when the trial of this sifting is past, a great power will flow from a more spiritualized and simplified Church.”