Question 4.64

4.64 Consequently, is it a crisis of the Church or a “crisis of God”?

Contrary to what we may think, the greatest difficulty of men is not in believing what the Church teaches at the moral level; the most difficult thing for the postmodern world is to believe in God and in his only Son.

This is why Benedict XVI defends the thesis of the “crisis of God”. The absence of God from our lives is more and more tragic. The Council’s intention-not the “spirit” of those who misinterpret it-was to give back to God all his primacy. This is why the Council Fathers wished for a deepening of the faith, which was losing its savor in the ever-changing society of the postwar era. In this sense, the problem of the Council remains entirely unsolved in some regions of the world where the absence of God has unceasingly widened.

I wonder sometimes whether even we clerics are really living in the presence of God. … Can we speak about the “Treason of the Intellectuals”? My reflection may seem severe, but I could mention many examples of priests who seem to forget that their life is centered solely on God. They devote only a little time to him during the day because they are swamped in what I would call the “heresy of activism”. How can we not be deeply moved, then, by the final message of Benedict XVI? Here is a pope who, like Jesus in the Garden of Olives, after praying for a long time and trying to discern God’s will, decides to renounce the “office and authority of Peter”. He retires into solitude, silent adoration, so as to pass the rest of his earthly life as a monk, in a permanent face-to-face meeting and intimate union with God. He stays close to the Cross, as he said during one of his last catecheses.

His decision reminds me of one by an eighty-year-old African prelate, Bishop Silas Silvius Njiru, Bishop Emeritus of Meru, in Kenya, who wanted to enter the Trappist Monastery of Tre Fontane in Rome. Because of his episcopal status, he could be accepted only as a permanent guest, yet with the privilege of sharing the same life and the rigors of the Rule of the Trappist brothers. He told me: “I spent my whole life speaking about God. Now I will spend the rest of my life speaking with God, doing penance for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.” The service of prayer that Benedict XVI is now performing is an exceptional example to the world. For his whole life he spoke about God; now he devotes his time to speaking with God and staying constantly before his face. It is not possible to believe the Church unless we fix our hearts on God.