In Murder in the Cathedral T.S. Eliot is exploring the role of the church in modern society. In these reflections, Gil Bailie asks the question, “What is the church for?”

As a social institution acting in history the church is fallible and bears the same limitations as all social phenomena. It has served worldly interests, has soiled its hands, has passed off the temporal for the eternal. In this sense one may await and demand from the historic church repentance, the recognition of its sins and of its partial betrayal of Christ.   – Nicolai Berdyaev

Knowing that the church is a far cry from what it ought to be, is itself a far cry from knowing what it ought to be.