The three readings of our liturgy note three instances of sacrifice: the Apostles who suffered for the Gospel, the Lord who was slain as the Sacrificial Lamb, and the fish that was shared in the breakfast by the Lake. (Fish story...). The hunger for truth satisfied by the sacrifice of the Apostles, the desire for salvation and forgiveness by the Crucifixion of Jesus, and the fish that was killed for the sake to satisfy the hunger for breakfast after fishing all night. You may think the fish is not important, but it was certainly all that the fish could do... Forgiveness is costly, unless we are thinking of a mere pardon that doesn't really change anything, share anything, cost anything. We are accustomed to saying, “I'm sorry,” for just about anything that may inconvenience another. I thank God for the fish I ate, but I also needed to thank the fish for the gift the fish was given to be from God to me.
We can reflect on the way the Church's clergy have said they are sorry for the scandal of sexual abuse, most especially the sexual abuse of Children. Pope Benedict XVI has repeated frequently his “I'm sorry”, and it surely cost him emotionally to have to account for the clergy and religious who abused. You can find the web site if you are interested by searching on the Vatican web site. There are many documents listed there from the past 30 years or so.
There is something here far more important than recognizing what we clergy types have had to go through because of this scandal. The Hierarchy of the Church has asked forgiveness from the Lord as well as from the people it is supposed to bless, serve and guide. But that is truly only the smaller part of the story, the least significant cost of forgiveness. By far the greatest and most serious cost of forgiveness for the Church came and comes from those who stepped forward as the victims of clerical abuse. The Church is not changed so much by its Hierarchy asking for forgiveness as it has been deeply changed by the courage of those who came forward to name the clerics or religious who abused them. You will find this recognition in the responses of Benedict XVI, but I do not find it underlined nearly enough by the media or by clerical types like myself.
The people of God are all of us, not just the Hierarchy. From my conversations with people who have been abused, and everyone else in the Church other than the Hierarchy, they are the ones who have suffered the most. And it goes as unrecognized, I'm afraid, as the fish in the story of the Gospel.
Our Eucharist is our sharing in the self sacrificing Lord whose symbol is the sacrificial Lamb of God, as in the second reading, but also the self sacrificing fish in the breakfast scene of the Gospel. Notice now the further step here, lest you think being called a fish is unbecoming a Christian. The symbol and code word for the Lord was the shape of a fish. We who receive the Eucharist become what we eat, we are becoming the Lord who is risen: rising out of water in Baptism as the person who speaks the truth in the face of deceit, the person who loves in the face of greed, the person who has the courage to rise and name who has offended where offenders might have stayed hidden. Such is the cost of forgiveness. In just this way the Church achieves its stature when you and I receive such forgiveness and become ourselves the courageous credible presence of the Risen Lord. Call to task and to justice those who are responsible for the desperate and despairing victims of human trafficking.
Two practical ways to encourage people to come forward if abused when a child, what can you say to someone who trusts you enough to tell you they were abused as children:
No adult should assume adult responsibility for what happened when a child.
Those who were abused did not know enough to say no. We need to respond with all wisdom giving our children all they need to know to say “no”. Note, however, this does not give the power to say “no” to a child.
--G. Jerome Knies, O.S.A.