structures ii

It is near the middle of May. Thinking about change I'm thinking about one of the last masses I attended as a devout Roman Catholic. It was full of drums and bells, a youth mass for those who had thought of entering "the vocational life." A bishop came every week to give a sermon and there were camp councilor sorts, university students who once had originality, who years ago had been like this group of young kids. Their elders told them how they were the bright future of the Catholic Church and they would be taught to be leaders. But what happened is they became junior models of the old worn out models until they were all half dead at twenty.

The leaders who arise in this generation will not be made by those of the last. Bill Gates founded a computer school and when someone asked him if the next Bill Gates would come from it he replied that the next Bill Gates wouldn't need it. Of course. The spiritual leaders who arise in the next age will not come out of the churches. They will have walked out of the churches. They will not be sane, well balanced, respectable and likable. They will be driven half mad with disgust for how things are. They may even be a little ugly. They will have a dark path to tread. But in the end, by grace, they will get their acts together. And help us to get out acts together too.