Why you shouldn’t leave the Church
This post originally appeared on Instagram on August 22, 2021.
I frequently get DMs from people who are so disheartened with the Church’s mishandling of the past 18 months that they have left or are considering doing so. They virtually all express a deep and persistent sense that they have been abandoned by their spiritual fathers.
My heart aches every time. I always encourage these people to pray, offer sacrifices, to turn to God Himself for consolation, to wrap themselves in the Blessed Mother’s mantle of love and affection. To have hope in God and put not their trust in worldly princes. TO STAY within the Church.
Why would they leave over these issues? Well, I believe they sense cognitive dissonance.
Our bodies are a fundamental, integral part of who we are. We believe that the body is an exquisite expression of God’s design for our lives.
Do you know what else is integral and God-given? Our intellect and our wills: our ability to perceive a situation, and the freedom to make decisions based on that understanding.
The ability to understand a medical need, to discern the best course of action, and to be free to act upon those things is a uniquely human act. It is something that directly demonstrates the imago Dei: bodies made in God’s image, with an intellect and a will to direct our actions.
And so, when people are faced with bishops and priests who promote mandates that remove the intellect/will piece, many who lack the full understanding of the Eucharist leave the Church.
Why stay when the Eucharist isn’t important enough to fight the government lockdowns for?
Why stay when the shepherds won’t stand in the way of the government forcibly injecting you with known neurotoxins and won’t speak up against abuse of the Eucharist or public mortal sins, but who use manipulation and spiritual coercion to make you feel guilty for something you were never meant to feel guilty for?
Most importantly, why stay when our precious Mother Church is hardly distinguishable from the secular authorities?
The answer, of course, is that we won’t heal our Mother the Church by abandoning her to feckless men. We stay because it is our birthright, our treasure, our surest hope for Heaven. We stay because Christ instituted her and left His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity to strengthen and sustain her members, and we stay because the Holy Spirit protects her doctrines and dogmas from error no matter how small she may become.
To all my hurting brother and sisters, I beg you: do not leave the Church. Do not add wounds to the Body of Christ by severing yourself from her. Stay and fight for her, as you have never fought for anything in your life. On your knees, Eucharistic grace on your tongue, rosary in your hand. Fight like your eternal soul depends on it.
Indeed, it does.
