The operation of the Church is entirely set up for the sinner; which creates much misunderstanding among the smug.” (August 9, 1955)
Interpretation
The Church exists to help sinners, which can confuse those who feel morally superior.
Flannery O'Connor's quote highlights the fundamental purpose of the Church as a refuge and support system for sinners, suggesting that its operations are designed to address the needs of those who struggle with moral failings. This focus on helping the flawed can create a disconnect with individuals who view themselves as virtuous, leading to misconceptions about the Church's mission and its compassion for the imperfect.
In practice
In a sermon about acceptance and forgiveness, this quote could illustrate the Church's mission.
Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas.
What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.
There won't be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.
Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are
He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery.
The further on we go, the more meaning there is, but the less articulable. You live your life and the older you get- the more specifically you harvest- the more precious becomes every ounce and spasm. Your life and times don’t drain of meaning because they become more contradictory, ornamented by paradox, inexplicable. The less explicable, the more meaning. The less like a mathematics equation (a sum game); the more like music (significant secret).
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space.
Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it... You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.
Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?
Liberty will not descend to a people; a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.
Which brings me to my conclusion upon Free Will and Predestination, namely - let the reader mark it - that they are identical.
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