Burghardt on Loving the Church

I LOVE THIS CHURCH

In the course of a half century,
I have seen more Christian corruption
than you have read of.

I have tasted it.
I have been reasonably corrupt myself.

And yet, I love this Church,
this living, pulsing, sinning people of God
with a crucifying passion.

Why?

For all the Christian hate,
I experience here a community of love.

For all the institutional idiocy,
I find here a tradition of reason.

For all the individual repressions,
I breathe here an air of freedom.

For all the fear of sex,
I discover here the redemption of my body.

In an age so inhuman,
I touch here tears of compassion.

In a world so grim and humorless,
I share here rich joy and earthy laughter.

In the midst of death,
I hear an incomparable stress on life.

For all the apparent absence of God,
I sense here the real presence of Christ.

-- Walter Burghardt, S.J.