If one were to ask what are the greatest challenges facing Christians today, one of the answers would surely be an unprecedented crisis of faith. By this one does not mean faith in doctrine or in dogmas handed to us over the centuries. The malaise goes far deeper than that and is far more serious.

This is a crisis that goes at the heart of everything Christians have always believed in. Many of us Christians today have simply stopped believing  that the grace of God, if wholeheartedly embraced, enables us  to change our life and, despite frailties and sinfulness, to  live according to God’s plan for each and every one of us.

This certainly does not mean that we do not repeatedly resort to the sacrament of confession, tainted as we are by the consequences of original sin. Christians seem to have thrown in the towel and to have forgotten how much God, incredibly enough, trusts the creatures He has lovingly created.

Thus, misusing the concept of ‘mercy’ we have been led to believe that somehow the angel’s words to Mary that “nothing is impossible for God” have no relevance anymore. We indeed reason that there is really no possibility of radically changing our way of life even if the latter does not conform to God’s will.

What has been forgotten is that mercy without truth is simple sentimentality. This false concept of compassion has led, for example, many countries to introduce abortion following cases of rape and to provide for assisted suicide of the elderly and the terminally ill.

When Christ confronted sinners He did not, out of that ‘mercy’ preached by many today, leave people the way they were. He insisted that they should wholeheartedly change their lives, ‘sin no more’ and do so immediately. After Jesus’ call, Matthew stood up, abandoned everything and followed Him.

This refusal to present the Gospel in all its radicalism has led many sadly to feel comfortable or even justified in their way of life even if it is distant from God’s will for them. This is diametrically opposed to the way Christ acted and the manner in which His saints have behaved throughout the centuries.