Tired Warriors

"That is why Pope Francis can be readily said and rightfully considered as the gift of God to the Church and to the world. And this is neither but poetry nor illusion. The world is becoming worse. The Church is getting tired. This is why not only the Church but also the world needs an honest-to-goodness spiritual leader in order to energize the Christians, to inspire humanity. Both the Church and the world are in dire need of shepherding that leads the sheep to the right path, cares for them the right way, and protects them from evil and harm.". The quote is from Archbishop Emeritus Oscar V. Cruz in his blogpost Shepherd-in-Chief.

Surely, I can understand his admiration for Pope Francis. I may raise my eyebrows on the suceeding lines because the two predecessors were (to me) honest to goodness spiritual leaders who inspire the church and the world. So be it, to each his own opinion.

What struck me more was "the church is getting tired". What could he possibly mean? As Benedict XVI reminded us, "the church is Christ'", as sure hope his eminence is not referring to Jesus Christ. Jesus is patient and faithful even with the likes of me. Could he mean the bishops? Oh, many bishops around the world are obviously not tired of dissenting. And we just had an old priest in Syria who died because he didnot want to abandon the flock. Could he mean the laity which constitute the majority of the Church? Well, there are lots of nominal Catholics, dissenting Catholics, but there is a vibrant Catholic youth movement. And there is also what Benedict XVI called the "creative minority".

I think Archbishop Cruz is referring to himself. I think he had grown tired. He had been fighting the jueteng and many of the political maladies of our land.

I do get tired too and sometimes we just surrender and let things happen. We just face the consequences.

The popular anecdote, though, is a good reminder.

The old man walks into the seashore and found a young girl picking up the starfishes that had been washed ashore. She would head back to the sea and throw the starfishes back. The man talked to the young girl, "young lady, there are are just too many starfishes ashore. You can not possibly save them all." The young girl smiled and replied, "it doesn't matter to me if I can not bring them all back," Then picking up one starfish she said, "but for this ONE, it matters".