Wake Up...It is Time To Go To Work!

We instruct you, brothers and sisters,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to shun any brother
who walks in a disorderly way
and not according to the tradition they received from us.
For you know how one must imitate us.
For we did not act in a disorderly way among you,
nor did we eat food received free from anyone.
On the contrary, in toil and drudgery, night and day we worked,
so as not to burden any of you.
Not that we do not have the right.
Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for you,
so that you might imitate us.
In fact, when we were with you, we instructed you that
if anyone was unwilling to work, neither should that one eat.
May the Lord of peace himself
give you peace at all times and in every way.
The Lord be with all of you.
This greeting is in my own hand, Paul's.
This is the sign in every letter; this is how I write.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all of you.

Today is the memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist.  We all know that St. John was atypical in the way he lived his life. He lived in the desert, ate locusts and wild honey and adorned his body with hair shirts.  He did not fit in well with those that got their clothes from the silk traders and dye merchants.  The monied gentry, the leaders all viewed John with a respectful disdain.  They respected that he was a man of God and not afraid to call a king an adulterer but they knew that a close association with him would be bad for one's health.  John worked hard at preparing the kingdom for the arrival and work of the Messiah.  His labors went on without rest and without thought to his very survival.  He was following what Paul says in our reading today.  

Paul tells us that if we do not work, we should not eat.  He wrote this letter because he had heard of some of his converts who, believing that the time of Christ's return was imminent, they stopped working and once they did that they were apt to fall into sin.  

Vatican II gave us lay people a legacy that we need to claim. Our church is engaged in a monumental struggle right now. The sins of our collective past have come home to roost.  We can do one of two things.  We can say the heck with it all and abandon the Church and move to one of the fashionable "Church of What's Happening Now" churches and take up the cry against Christ's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church or we can claim our legacy and step forward and help our deacons, priests, bishops, and cardinals by assisting them in the work of the Church.  Today the vision of the people has been turned to the darkness that occurred in past decades.  As bad as that all is. what would be worse is if we stopped the good works of the Church just because of the bad actions of a few renegades.  If we don't work at the mission of the Church then thousands of people who are touched directly or indirectly by our work will go unsaved with no hope at all to attaining union with God. 

Wake Up from your slumber.  Abandon but do not forget the past, learn from it and move on.  The Church is Holy because Christ is Holy and when we do the work of Christ our unworthiness is transformed into holiness.  Away with the gangster priests that allowed their lusts to sully children, men, and women.  Away with those that protected them from the consequences of their actions. Let them be anathema.  Let us pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and work day and night for the Kingdom of God.  Our selfless acts of mercy, our generosity, and our kindness will repair what is broken and we, The People of God shall be stronger still!