Painfully, the Lord is demolishing our high towers and our clerical pretensions to glory and grandeur so that the church may be a place in which we may encounter God and each other more intimately. Jesus promises rest for our souls.

Often, we priests are consumed by a destructive activism in our service of the people. Indeed, this crisis of sexual abuse may aggravate the temptation to show that we at least are wonderful priests incessantly devoted to our work, always available on our mobile phones.

That is salvation by works and not by grace.

Thomas Merton believed that this hyperactivism is a collusion with the violence of our society: “The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence.”

If we let this implicit violence infect our lives, then it will come out somehow. It may overflow into violent words. We may do violence to ourselves through drink. We may fall into sexual violence, and be caught in the horror of abuse of the vulnerable.

But if we face this terrible crisis of sexual abuse and implicit violence with courage and faith, then it may precipitate a profound renewal of the church.

We can discover Jesus’ commandments, not as a heavy burden which crushes people but as the invitation to his friendship. We can be liberated from harmful ways of using power in the church, which are ultimately rooted in secularism, and become more like the Christ who was lowly and humble of heart – and we shall find rest for our souls.

London Tablet, 2nd January 2010