It is difficult to know where the genuine growth is. Sometimes we use the metaphor of the baby and the bath-water. Everything is not up for grabs, everything cannot be explained away. We stand under the word of God, and because we are followers of Christ we have to grapple with the truth of the teachings contained in today's gospel. Our Lord realised that religion has got to do two things apart from the fact that we do not reduce religion to morality.
Faith is an essential element.
Quite a number of adults, as I have often said, find it hard to believe that God can or would forgive them. That probably was Judas' biggest mistake. But faith means that we believe in God's forgiveness. It is one of the two biggest differences between us and people who have no faith. Of course Christian living, as has been implied by everything I have said, is just not a question of understanding.