Fun With Jack Chick As We Dunk "The Death Cookie:

warning - you are about to descend into the crazy anti-Catholic world of Jack Chick.
Reader discretion is advised.

Have you ever left mass on a beautiful bright Sunday morning and arriving at you car finding one of those cute little tracts from the poison pen of Mr. Jack Chick?  If you never have had the opportunity to review one of his little comic books you are really missing some of the best anti-Catholic pamphlets ever made.  Jack is totally anti-Catholic and never lets the truth get in his way to put the Church down. His pen is so evil and so radically nasty that even some Protestant book stores refuse to handle his merchandise.  But I degrees.  One of the most poison of his poison tracts is a little beauty with the name "The Death Cookie."  As you can imagine it is his view of the Eucharist.  We are going to go over this piece of ill-informed propaganda almost one panel at a time.  The piece can be found on his website so if you want to read it yourself, please google Jack Chick and you will easily find his website with great ease.   Under the copyright law's fair use provision I can make use of others materials for educational purposes.  All of the illustrations except the header of this post do not belong to me and I make use of them for criticism and educational purposes only. 

The first panel is setting the stage for what follows. A man is wondering how he can control the population. The devil says he knows how to do it.  So far pretty innocuous, it just shows an evil man doing what he does best and the devil assisting him. 

Now we are starting to descend into the world as Jack Chick sees it. We are told that this man is to pray a lot, look mysterious and "burn lots of candles."  This man is to become the pope.  Okay Jack, let's start here. The Pope is not an invention of man. The Church on earth must have a leader.  Jesus knew he was not going to be on earth forever so he appointed a leader. This leader was Peter.  He said to Peter that he was the rock on which Jesus was going to build His church.  So Peter was the first leader and when he died the Church appointed his successor. So it is not the devil that created the Papacy as Jack Chick would have you believe, but it was Jesus.

 Here Jack heaps ridicule on the Eucharist which is the point of this tract.  The Eucharist is the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ. It would seem that Jack is not very familiar with the Gospels.  We read about Jesus instituting the Sacrament of the Eucharist at the Last Supper. He said to His apostles that this bread was His Body, the wine was His Blood. He commanded His apostles to "Do this in memory of me."  The word "this" refers to the action he had just taken.  This was to be the new rite, this was to be how Jesus would remain with us until the end of time.  In the Gospel of John, Jesus says that we must eat His Body and drink His Blood if we are to have life within us.  The word eat refers to food, in the Greek it literally is translated as "chew" or "gnaw."  But Jack is blissfully unaware of this it appears. 

Now we descend even further into coco land as Jack explains that the Eucharist comes from ancient Egypt where they worshiped the sun and used wafers to worship the sun.  Well, maybe that is what the Egyptians did, I don't care what they did. Jack forgets that the Hebrews celebrated Passover using unleavened bread and wine.  The Eucharist is the new Passover and when Jesus said from the Cross, "It is finished!" He was stating that the Passover that began at the Last Supper had now ended on Calvary.  Jesus had drank the fourth cup of wine, the traditional last cup of the Passover feast when it was held up to Him on the Cross. 

Now Jack equates the prayers of consecration with magic. It amazes me because if you were to ask Jack how God created the world he would say in seven days out of nothing. Jack's God is powerful enough to create the world out of nothing, but unfortunately his God is too weak to change bread and wine into His Body and Blood as Jesus said He did in the Bible. The last picture in this series is hilarious.  He says that if the people read the Bible they will see that they have been lied to by the Church.  Well, Jack, hardly.  Again, read the Gospels, read St. Paul it is all there. Jesus was not kidding about the Eucharist.  When followers began to turn away He did not call them back, he did not say that he was only using a figure of speech. He rather confirmed what he said again.  Someone should point this out to Jack.  No, people, read the Bible, it will lead you to the Eucharist, not away from it. 

Now Jack gets into territory he is more familiar with. He says Catholics worship statues, crucifixes, Mary, the Pope and that priests are other forms of Jesus.  Then he explains what IHS means that he seems to think is imprinted on all hosts.  First of all it is not imprinted on all hosts but if it was it would mean "Jesus Christ." I would invite Jack to let Jesus into his heart some day.  About the pope which he says is a "type of Jesus" well that is complete and utter nonsense.  If the pope were another Jesus, to be worshiped, then it follows that he could not commit a sin, being God and all.  But the Holy Father goes to confession every week.  If he did not sin why would he confess?  So the pope being a type of Jesus is another thing dredged up from somewhere by Jack, but it has no basis in fact. 

Suddenly Jack shows that the peoples eyes are opened and they revolt against the Pope and the death cookie.  Jack says that worshiping bread as if it were God is idolatry and you know what I agree with Jack.  Worshiping my loaf of Wonder Bread would be very sinful but worshiping the Son of God, Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is right, is just, and is required and it is approved by God the Son otherwise why would have He given us this great gift.  Jack crosses the line into blasphemy when he calls the Eucharist demonic. I pity his poor soul and I pity the thousands of souls he has drawn away from Christ. 

We come to the end of this devilish piece of propaganda and Jack ends by calling the Bride of Christ, the Church, names such as the whore of Babylon and then he tells us to pray the sinners prayer.  Jack, if everything is in the Bible, can you tell me where it says to say the sinners prayer or even where I can read the sinners prayer, which book is it in Jack?  

The sad thing is that there are people out there that believe the tripe that Jack is selling as fillet. Catholics CAN be drawn away from the Church and from the Eucharist if they are not solidly grounded in their faith.  On his website, Jack says that he does not hate Catholics.  I believe him.  But I don't think he really knows what a Catholic is. When Luther in sinful pride broke the unity of the Church, the unity that Christ prayed that we would maintain, he started a process that will never end. One church became two.  Then when a disagreement came up in the Lutheran Church, they split, two churches became three, three became six, six became twelve, and so on.  So when Jack Chick and his gang of cartoonists try to slip one over on you, simply remember that Jesus prayed for unity. The Church that was split from and is the original Church founded by Christ is the Catholic Church.  Accept no imitation.  All denominations have some of the truth, some have more than others, but the Catholic Church is the only Church guaranteed to be protected by the Holy Spirit. 

I will be happy to answer any questions about the Catholic faith and invite you to submit them to michaeljspoula@outlook,com  

No question is too simple or to complex.  I will tackle them all. 

God Bless all of you and may His light shine brightly in your life today. 

I Want to See...

What is it you want Jesus asked --- the bling beggar said "I want to see."

I remember in June the sun would stay up until 8:30 PM and then after June 21, the longest day of the year, darkness started creeping in. Each day the sun lost out the darkness a minute or two earlier each day.  Now as we approach the end of October night comes earlier and the darkness is begging to hold sway for longer hours of our day. Eventually on December 21 it will be at its most powerful and the things around us will be in the darkness longer than on any night of the year. 

 In the world we live in there is much darkness and by this I mean of the spiritual kind.  I remember when I was a kid on Saturday afternoon there would be three priests hearing confessions and there would be a waiting line.  I am a happy member in a very vibrant, active, and spiritual parish. The people I've met are solid Christians. Our ministries that assist the poor are robustly supported by the parish in both time and treasure.  The parish is a good example of what a parish should be, caring, spiritual, and proud to practice the temporal works of mercy. 

All of this being said and believe me, I am not judging others, I am wondering if a type of spiritual darkness is creeping into the Church members. Today, one priest hears all of the confessions in one hour on Saturday afternoon. You just do not see people taking advantage of the sacrament of reconciliation as much as before. Is it people are not sinning?  I think it is more likely that we are loosing sight of what sin is and how it can creep into your life.  

The sacrament of reconciliation is a wonderful sacrament.  It gives you a chance to admit where you have "missed the mark" for that is what sin is, missing the mark.  You might say that you know you sin and you and Jesus are great friends and you confess directly to Him and he forgives you.  That is a great first step but that is not how Jesus set it up. We are told in the Bible to confess our sins and when Jesus institutes the sacrament of confession he tells the apostles "whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven, whose sins you hold bound, they are held bound."  How are the apostles supposed to decide which sins to forgive if they are not confessed to them?

The act of confessing is preceded by examining ones conscience.  Before you examine your conscience you need to ask the Holy Spirit to give you light to see your sins clearly for we all have some sorts of spiritual blindness.  But, I hear you say, my sins are small. Well, that may be true but look at whom you have sinned against, God Himself!  If you want to see just how serious God considers sin, just look at a crucifix and meditate on the pain and suffering that Jesus went through for you.

There is none so blind as one who will not see. Ask and you will receive, seek and you fill find, knock and the door shall be opened for you.  Don't be afraid to ask the Holy Spirit what your sins are. He already knows.  Don't be afraid to confess to a priest, he takes the place of Christ and reconciles you to God and to the Church. The priest has heard it all, you're not that much different than the person next in line. 

Thank you Matthew Kelly who has inspired me to write the above. His website is here:  http://dynamiccatholic.com/

I encourage you my friends to think carefully about the state of your soul as it relates to the absolute goodness of God.  I encourage you to go frequently to confession and receive not only forgiveness but grace to avoid sinning in the future.  Jesus has given us this great gift and we need to use it. 

If you are a non-Catholic and have any questions about the faith, I would be pleased to answer them for you.  I stress the word ANY because nothing is secret or hidden in the Church that was founded by Jesus Christ.  Send your email to michaeljspoula@outlook.com

Genuine questions will be answered, hate mail, attempts to "convert" me will be deleted.  I want to be a font of information for those who have questions about the Church, so so not be shy.  God Bless. 

An Early Saturday Morning Reflection

The End Can Be Beautiful

It is early Saturday morning. 

The October sun has not yet brightened the sky. 

I can see gray clouds and a breeze stirs the trees. 

Their leaves have lost their green color.

They are gold and red and shades of brown. 

They hang their awaiting their turn to fall to the ground. 

Their time of work is over and they are called home. 

They accumulate on the ground and turn to dust. 

The leaves provide nourishment for the next of their kind. 

And nature comes full circle again. 

More Thoughts about the End TImes

Tick Tick Tick 

There are only two kinds of people in the world today.  There are the believers and the non-believers.  It is much easier to be a non-believer, life is much less complicated for those that pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  A non-believer does not have to wrestle with something that appears all the rage among many of the subsets of believers today and that is they do not have to think about the end times, the time when this world stops.  As a believer I sometimes think about the end times. Someday, maybe today, maybe tomorrow maybe a thousand years from now the Lord will return to the earth.  That day will be both a day of great jubilation and a day of great fear and trepidation.  The just will welcome that Day of Days with open arms.  Those without belief will say to the mountains, "Cover us."  The choice of what we will do on that day is completely ours.  Each of us in our own way and in our own time will make a final choice of who we will serve.  We will take a step from which we cannot return, at least not by ourselves, the grace of God can do anything.  

What are some Catholic thoughts on these end times we are living in.  First of all, look at what our world has become. In this country our hands are stained with the blood of untold millions of babies killed in the womb.  In the United States abortion is a right.  No one has the right to take life except God.  By calling abortion a right we throw the blood of the children into the face of God.  If God thought like humans we would have passed into non-existence a long time ago.  In this country we gave taken the sacred act of marriage and have profaned it by allowing those of the same sex to join in "marriage."  In the United States we have decided to legislate God out of public life.  Christians, especially Catholics, are castigated when they remind others that we are not a law unto ourselves but are expected to follow the laws of the Lord.  These are just a couple of examples on how we have turned our backs on God and yet many of us get misty eyed when we sing "God Bless America."   These acts point to a great apostasy that is growing in our land.  Even Catholics, arguably the ones that should be leading the way, have members that call themselves "pro choice."  There are cafeteria Catholics that pick and choose what they will believe and what they won't based on

what is convenient to them.  These very Catholics are ones that see no need to go to Mass every week.  They have decided that they do not sin so what is the use of confession?  Some even do not believe that the Eucharist is the very Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus.  They go to communion not out of love of the Lord, but because if they stay back in the pew others may think that they have committed a sin. 

Our Protestant brothers and sisters are no better off.  First of all they have separated themselves from the unity of the Church.  They claim to believe in sola scriptura but they too embrace the pro choice :option", pay lip service to the Word of God, accept gay marriage and lots of other things too. 

So, I think we can cut short our discussion of the great apostasy of the church - our behavior, both Catholic and Protestant alike speaks for itself.  The truths we once held dear have in some measure given ground to the secular view of life. 

Next we have wars and rumors of wars.  Well, that is the human condition. If it were just wars we were speaking about I do not think that we could make much of it, where human beings are, war generally follows.  But, the type of war we are experiencing is different. The cowardly but bloodthirsty followers of ISIS are waging a campaign that is generating more martyrs in the Church than in the time of the Roman persecutions.  Christian communities in the east are being wiped out or being forced to immigrate to other countries.  Families who have peacefully lived  with Muslim neighbors for centuries are now seeing their churches being desecrated and are being

 told to convert to Islam or die.  In the meantime, the furious conquerors are exploiting the girls and young women of the area and making them into sex slaves.  These followers of the prophet and their so called holy book are a scourge and plague upon the land.  They not only kill and brutalize Christians, they kill other followers of the so called prophet as well. These people could be one of the four horsemen of the book of Revelation without a doubt. 

Further proof is offered in the form of earthquakes and storms in diverse placed.  In California drought is occurring, while on the east coast torrential rains are causing flooding.  The ring of fire in the Pacific is becoming more active.  So perhaps this is another sign that the return of Jesus is near. 

What about the Antichrist?    Has he happened on the scene yet?  I saw one documentary on You Tube where the Catholic Church is accused of being the Antichrist.  That of course is foolishness. The Catholic Church is the Church Jesus Himself began, placing Peter at the helm and promising that the Holy Spirit would protect her until the end of the age.  Calling the Church the whore of Babylon borders very closely to blasphemy because the Catholic Church is the Bride of Christ, Jesus is the bridegroom.

 Those looking to the Antichrist have nominated many men for the job, including various popes, Ronald Regan, and others but unfortunately none fill the bill.  But we have to remember that the winner of the 666 lottery was the emperor Nero and the end of the world forecast in the Book of Revelation has already taken place when Jerusalem was sacked, ending the temple which to the Jews was the world. 

So, with all that is happening in the world today what can we say about the return of Jesus?  What we can say for sure is that the time and place of His return is known only to the Father.  We must use this time to continue to be Jesus to people who do not know Him.  We should not waste time worrying about "the when" but we should trust in the Lord to keep His promise.  

Jesus loves you very much.  He wants desperately to be your friend and He wants us to Trust in Him.  If we trust in Jesus then the end of the world will hold no terrors for us. The only sin that cannot be forgiven is the sin against the Holy Spirit, which is our rejection of the love of God and His mercy at the time of our death.  So do not watch the skies, watch instead your neighbor and then to the needs of others.  The end of the age, the return of Jesus will be here before you know it.  May He find you with your hands busy and your mind lifted to Him.    

The Gay Priest

Okay, the picture has nothing to do with the post but I don't have any pictures of gay priests to share with you. In Rome a priest that admitted to having a relationship with another man "came out" in a loud and clumsy manner that was designed to embarrass the Church at the start of the synod on the family.  This priest was a member of the very powerful congregation charged with keeping the faith pure.  Much has been made of the fact that this man is homosexual.  Let's examine a few things about this case.

The man is a priest. He has taken a vow of chastity and by his own lips he has broken that vow.  It matters not if he broke it with a man, woman, or animal. He broke his vow.  Here in the Chicago area we have a very respected priest, pillar of the Latino community accused of the same sort of offense - he too was dismissed from his job because of his very inappropriate conduct.  In both cases the offenders were partnered with a man.  But their offenses would be no less grievous if  they had sinned with a woman.  A vow broken is a vow broken.   

A priest needs to be an example to others.  Neither of them could or would live up to what they had promised.  The priest in Rome is more guilty than the priest in Des Plaines Illinois.  Not because of what they did.  They both are equal in that respect, but rather the circumstances that they were in made a difference. 

The Church can be accused of being "homophobic" and you know what maybe it is!  I do not see anything wrong with that.  Gay people are welcome in the Church and there are probably many of them including priests, deacons, and maybe even bishops and cardinals who through no fault of their own are attracted to members of their own sex. The difference between them and the two priests we are speaking about here is that they do not engage in homosexual acts with other men, they honor their commitment to God and are a shining example of chaste behavior.  It is not easy for a man to remain chaste in this world today.  Only with much prayer and devotion to God can these men fulfill their commitment to the Lord. 

What about "forgiveness?"  Does the dismissal of these two priests from their jobs fly in the face of our duty to forgive?  No, not at all. In the case of the priest in Rome, he is not interested in forgiveness. His actions were calculated to explode on the scene at a time when it would do the most harm to the Church, the devil was busy at work in this man's soul.  The priest here in Des Plaines, I don't know if he is seeking forgiveness.  He wants his job back and his congregation wants him but the diocese has a zero tolerance policy where it comes to inappropriate sexual behavior by its employees so we will have to see what happens in this case. 

We will stop our discussion here and take it up again once we learn the fate of the miscreants.  

I will answer questions about the Catholic faith and Christianity in general. Hate mail will go unanswered.  Be safe and walk in the light of Christ this day, go with God.        

Amazing Grace - A further reflection....

Amazing Grace How Sweet The Sound...

I really wasn't thinking of doing a part two to my thoughts about the hymn Amazing Grace but something came to mind after I published part one that I wanted to share. 

So yesterday I gave my opinion that Amazing Grace as written taught concepts that were alien to the Catholic Church, such as the Protestant teachings of total depravity and grace.  There is one other aspect that may color Catholic thinking and make this song suitable for use by Catholics and that is that Amazing Grace is not a what but a who. 

"Amazing Grace" is the person of Jesus Christ and to a Catholic this makes all the difference in the world.  Jesus is the source of all of the things mentioned in the song.  It is the death of Jesus that made it possible to be saved, thus we can give Jesus a new title, Jesus IS Amazing Grace.  

The Catholic Church is centered in Christ for it is HIS Church and He is the author of all doctrine and the One who sent the Holy Spirit to keep His Church safe from the gates of hell.  So, I think that with this final adjustment, this ancient hymn can be safely used by Catholics.

Amazing Grace - Should A Catholic Sing the Hymn?

Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound 

That Saved A Wretch Like Me. 

I Once Was Lost, But Now am Found 

Was Blind But Now I See

This hymn, written by a Protestant, reformed slave trader, is a staple of Christian music that is sung in just about every Christian denomination and is also quite a popular hymn in the Catholic Church.  The question of the day is simple.  Is it appropriate for a Roman Catholic to sing this song as it is written?  Some critics of this song say that it teaches patently Protestant teachings.  In the very first line of this song we call ourselves "wretches."  The classical definition of a wretch is a person who is both unfortunate, unhappy, and base, mean and/or despicable. This, some say, is a very Martin Luther-ish and John Calvin-ish view of the human condition whereas we Catholics believe that humans are not totally depraved as the "reformers" taught, but rather, as taught in Genesis when God created man, He saw us humans not only as good as he had seen all of His other works of creation, he pronounced us "very good."   I think, and I may be wrong about this, that when we Catholics sing and call ourselves wretches we are calling ourselves poor sinners, going outside of the classical definition of what a wretch actually is.  Of course in some hymnals the words are changed to a more Catholic "that saved and set me free."  In either case I think that if we exclude the classical meaning of wretch and go with the thought of poor sinner, we are okay.  Quite honestly probably most of the people in the pews are not thinking so deeply about the meaning here anyway. 

What about the concept that the song teaches about when grace is received?  It says that it is received "the hour I first believed,"  If we did not have God's grace before we believed, we never would have come to believe!  Jesus Himself told Simon Peter that it was God that made it possible form Peter to know Jesus as the Messiah.  The same principle is evident at the Annunciation - The Angel Gabriel says, "Hail Mary, Full of Grace."  The fact that she was kept free from the taint of original sin through the grace of God made it possible for her to be completely open to God's will for her life.  The grace came before she accepted God's proposal.   Again here, the average Catholic is not going to be thinking like a Calvinist or Lutheran here. I believe that the pew dweller knows that God's grace has been with him/her self since Baptism and when singing this hymn that is what comes to mind. 

To my way of thinking the rest of the song is innocuous from the point of view of Catholic doctrine, although I would imagine that is only because I am educated less robustly than the experts. 

My favorite verse is the fifth verse, "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing His praise, then when we first begun."   This verse says a lot.  It speaks of the eternal love of God and how we as Christians will be transformed into what God has always wanted us to be and we will praise Him forever. 

So what is my final verdict on this hymn?  It is not a Catholic hymn. The author's intention was to make a song exhorting the principle of saved only by grace. However, the song as sung by Roman Catholics is understood by them in the light of their Catholic upbringing.  The song does have a place in Catholic liturgy as far as I am concerned because of the way Catholics have been trained to think about how salvation is gifted to us.  The Catholic hymnal would be complete without this song but its inclusion does not harm and many of the concepts are universal and those that are not are filtered by Catholic singers to fit Catholic thought properly. 

Blood Moon 2015 - This replaces the Aztec Calendar as your forecaster t for the End of The World.

Okay, I am not laughing at the folks that decided this fourth blood moon forecast the end of the world.  No, I am not laughing at them because one day they will be right.  Jesus told us as much in the Bible but He also taught us that no one knows the day or time when it will occur.  Every generation from the first century on thought

that they were going to be the generation that would witness the return of Jesus. Even the Apostles when Jesus ascended to heaven were standing around watching where He went to. Jesus knew this would happen so two men dressed in white were provided to tell the twelve that were chosen to build His Church to quit standing around and watching and to get moving. The early Church thought that the return of Jesus was imminent because didn't the Master say that some of those would not taste death before the end times?  Since the late 1800's we have had people that interpret the Book of Revelation as being a road map as to what will happen at the end of the world.  Unfortunately this interpretation does not take into account the fact that the end that is described by John has already happened when the temple, which was the Jewish world was destroyed in the first century by the Romans, and yes, some people who knew Jesus were still alive and saw it happen. But what are we to believe about the end of the world?  Jesus gave us several stories to help us.  First there is the story of the smart and dumb virgins waiting for the bridegroom.  The smart virgins made sure that their lamps were trimmed and filled with oil. The dumb ones ran out of oil and were told once they came back and knocked on the bridegroom's door that he did not know them.  The lesson: Be ready for the return of Jesus at any time.  A second parable was of the servants who had been given a sum of money to take care of while the master was away. Two industrious ones invested their money and when the master returned he rewarded them. The third just buried the money in the ground keeping it safe and he returned it to the master.  The master was not impressed and took his away and threw him out.  The lesson - use what you have been given to make things better for others. The third story is the story of the goats and sheep.  The sheep sent to heaven for displaying great love for those who were not fortunate and the goats to hell because although they believed, they did so only with their lips.  The lesson: Share your love and give yourself away.

I apologize for the length of that last paragraph, it probably was kind of hard on your eyes so I will keep this short.  No I refuse to laugh at the people who are waiting for the end times for they shall surely come.  When it comes Jesus will take those who have shown love to the downtrodden, the poor, the weak to heaven because when we serve, as the Son of Man served, we serve the Son of Man.  When we serve only ourselves we serve only our selfish wants while others go without. 

So, watch and wait for the end of the world. It is coming, even if it is only the day of your death, your personal end of the world.  Be a servant of God by helping those in need. You need not do great things but as Mother Teresa said, "Do small things with great love.

I am always ready to answer questions about the Catholic Church and Christianity in general. Hate mail will go unanswered.  May the light of Christ in your life light your way and help others to find their way to the Savior.   God Bless!