The Church is in perpetual reforming mode complying with the will of God more completely and furthering the comprehension of his infinitely deep disclosures through creation, Christ, the inspired Canon, and the inspiring Spirit. The Reformation is a deep well from which to draw and its sources, the Sacred Word, the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and sanctified human wisdom, are our perpetual resources for familiarity with truth and faithfulness to God.

The cause of truth will always excite conflict. Our world, our race, natural religion in all its forms, is at implacable enmity with God. The word of God is militant toward evil and arouses an angry backlash. The meddling and mischief of the archenemy of the Lord, whose malice and violence, physical, mental, and spiritual is great, unrelenting, and furious, rendered the 16th and 17th centuries a time of turmoil and tempest.

You don't expect statues to sway your emotions (unless sculpted by Bernini), but I was deeply moved by the statue of William Wilberforce, at the entrance to St John's College Chapel. The figures of Francis Bacon, father of the scientific method, who believed that God had revealed himself through two books -- nature and Scripture -- surrounded by Isaac Barrow and Isaac Newton at the entrance to Trinity College Chapel, remain forever etched on my memory.

Few will subscribe in a hearty and full-blooded way to John Wycliffe's definition of the church, namely, "the whole number of the predestined". That is the truest description of the church and the elect of God mingle with and circulate among the vast crowd that considers itself to constitute the dubious phenomenon identified as Christendom for all sorts of reasons apart from the Gospel (historical, ethnic, political, cultural).