The World Is Our Testing Ground

At the Vatican Council, there was the discussion about the world.  I remember one of the bishops from Belgium arose and made the proper distinction between the two uses of the word 'world' in scripture.  The word 'world' can mean the theater of the redemption, and in that sense it is good:  'God so loved the world.'  But the world also means a spirit, an organization without God. So our Lord said, 'I have taken you out of the world. Therefore the world will hate you.' 'I pray not for the world,' he said. But there was a confusion.  And the result is that today we have lost many of our faithful and our priests and our sisters, not because of Christological heresy, nor because of persecution.  The Lord has been very good to us; the only test he gave us was: 'Will you become secular, will you leave?