The financial crisis that we are suffering represents the crisis in confidence of this society. We can no longer be taken at our word because we ourselves do not believe our ourselves. It is us who do not believe that our word is our bond or that we are good for the money. Money is a series of promises: a proportion of these promises have to be kept, and when that proportion is too low, no one believes our promises. This society’s crisis in confidence in itself is the result of its result to believe that it is indeed good for its promises. It is a blue funk. The nation that is prepared to hear that it is loved, because all mankind is loved, by God, will not suffer any final crisis of self-belief. But the nation that does not want to hear the news of the fundamental covenant of God with man will find no other comfort. The unwillingness of this country to hear about any relationship with God results in this crisis that we have described variously as ecological, moral, social and economic.
One reason for this crisis is that that the Church has not clearly told this country that man is loved by God and that this country is also founded in that love and covenant. The Church has not passed on to the comfort of God, and so the Church has been unfaithful to the nation, and the nation is suffering as a result. The Church must repent. This is what Lent is. Now the Church will suffer. It must suffer for the sake of the world, and the Church here is going to suffer for this country. This country is going to undergo a great panic because it has no hope, and it back to find out that all its hopes are delusory. The Church will suffer the rage of a panicked and anguished nation.
During Lent those who are going to be received into the Church in baptism undergo a preparation and an unburdening, and the whole Church accompanies them in this. For the Church knows the joy of repentance, of honest speech, and unburdening ourselves. The Church can repent and beg for forgiveness. The Church can repent of having failed to be the intercessor and prophetic and priestly intermediary for the country.
