Institutional Religion

Gospel: Luke 11: 42-46

Institutional religion has not changed much since the time of Jesus.  It has only changed names, places, and costumes, but the essential points of note in today's Gospel portion remain the same now as they were when penned.  We might protest that such is not the case, but our protest is rooted only in our own prejudice.  We are Christians after all.  We are not like those other people from whom we originated.  We bear no likeness to that!  Don't we?...

Clerics of today love to sit in the prominent places in church buildings, and they love being seen in public wearing their ecclesiastical finery.  They continue to lay heavy burdens - financial and otherwise - upon others while enjoying the comfortable lifestyle to which they have grown fond and accustomed.  And they will condemn others without fail for their sins of the flesh while finding every opportunity to excuse and cover up those of the clerical establishment.  

If we are looking for the causes of secularism and the decline of religion, we need not blame the devil or communists or liberals or freemasons or other nonsense.  We need only blame ourselves.  All that Jesus rejected in the desert we have gladly accepted in his name - the power, the wealth, the prestige - and we wield it without shame or mercy.  We are so blind with power and wealth and prestige that we cannot see the hypocrisy, or hear the voice of the Master calling us to repent.  Woe to us...