And Now For The News

Jesus said to his Apostles:
"Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves;    
so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.
But beware of men, 
for they will hand you over to courts
and scourge you in their synagogues,
and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake
as a witness before them and the pagans.
When they hand you over,
do not worry about how you are to speak
or what you are to say.
You will be given at that moment what you are to say.
For it will not be you who speak

Christians being persecuted for their faith in Jesus is nothing new. The founder of Christianity was Himself hung by nails on a cross and left to die.  Die he did.  The life forces that animated the body of Jesus of Nazareth left His body and he was truly as dead as could be. This was not some simple trick that a magician might pull, no, Jesus suffered the reality of death of His body, experiencing every ounce of pain in the cup he drank for us.  He, of course, used this very set back to achieve final victory when he defeated death itself and rose on the third day. 

In our reading today, Jesus warns us that He is sending us out into a world that will be hostile to us because of Him and because of His message. Throughout the centuries we have been persecuted and martyred for our faith. What Jesus said came to pass. 

Today we face a world that grows ever more intolerant of the Laws of God. We have been called hate mongers when we point out that God created man and women and marriage can only between people of the opposite sex.  We are hated when we point out that the murder of the unborn in the womb is just that, murder.  We are told that our antiquated beliefs have no place in the modern world and that our Church should reform our teachings to conform more exactly to what the majority of people believe.  Unfortunately for those that want this change, God's Kingdom is a kingdom and not a democracy.  Where other denominations once stood side by side with the Church on these issues, now, they, after convening a meeting and voting, have voted themselves on to the side of the pagans.  They in effect voted themselves out of God's kingdom and the word Protestant takes on a new and more sinister meaning. 

If we pick and choose the laws of God that we will obey and discard the ones that are inconvenient, then we no longer believe in God, we believe in ourselves.  I am so glad that I am a Catholic and that I can believe in the authority of the Church to guide me.  The day may come when I will have to stand and either acknowledge the authority of the Church in my life or accept the punishment of the mob that hates God and His Church.  I pray that when that time comes, I have the faith of our fathers and I can depend on the Holy Spirit to tell me what to say and to hold fast to my course no matter what the consequences shall be.    God Bless. 

Please pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, they cannot help themselves.