The Catholic Church is an organism which has, like her founder Jesus Christ, an intimately connected divine and human nature. However, unlike Jesus Christ, perfect not only in His Divinity, but also in His Humanity, the Church, Holy and Immaculate, is made up of men who are subject to sin. The Church is never the sinner, but within Her we find sinners alongside saints. There have been times in Her history when sanctity pervades Her and others when the defection of Her members cause Her to collapse into darkness, appearing almost as if the Divinity has abandoned Her. Yet this never happens. The Church never wanes: She will overcome the hardest of trials and advances invincible along the course of history, towards the Parousia – Her final triumph – on earth and in heaven, when She will be united definitively to Her Divine Spouse.
This theological vision was very clear to St. Peter Damien when he set about the writing of
Liber Gomorrhianus around 1049 and where he fearlessly lifts the veil on the ignominies of the churchmen of his time. A thousand years have passed since then and a thousand had passed since the death and Resurrection of Christ. Yet Peter Damien’s voice resounds today, as it did yesterday, with encouragement and comfort for those, like him, who have fought, suffered, cried and hoped, throughout the course of history. (
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