The Huge Cost of Division

"Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste

and house will fall against house."

Take a single strand of dry spaghetti out of its box. It takes very little effort to break the piece of pasta into many fragments.  It is a bit harder when you take two pieces, harder still with four, but still possible to take what was whole and to fragment it into many disjointed pieces.  If, on the other hand, you take the whole pound out of the box and try to break it up that way it is much harder to do and depending on your strength may, in fact, be impossible for you to do. 

It is said by some that Martin Luther did not want to fall away from the Catholic Church. His behavior and actions and his pride all belie this statement.  Before the "great reformer" came onto the scene, there was for over fifteen hundred years one faith, one belief, and one kingdom. Marty did have a number of good points, not the least of which was the sale of indulgences which was never what indulgences were intended for.  But his prideful action and failure to look at himself as the least of all, has had a cost that is still owing and accumulating interest some five-hundred years since the schism was created.  But, it is not about Luther and his actions that I want to write about today, I want to talk about the cost of that which divides us.  The cost is huge and people are dying because of our divisions. 

Since the Protestant Revolt, God's church has been suffering from the disease of denominationalism.  Once Luther broke from the Church it was not long before another of the great "reformers" broke with Luther and set up his own community.  All over the world brother went against brother and father against son as the rust and rot of the reformation penetrated deeply into the Christian world.  Today there are approximately thirty and some say forty thousand different denominations, each claiming to own the truth, many of them condemning the Catholic Church as the whore of Babylon and consigning members of the Church to the deepest pit of hell.  They also disagree with the other sects out in the world and First Baptist would never think that they were related to First Presbyterian Church.  In reality, every denomination can be traced only as far back as Luther.  The church founded by Luther was founded by a man, the Catholic Church was founded by Jesus Christ, the Son of God and the present leader of the Church can trace his office back to Peter who was appointed as the prime minister of God's kingdom on earth. It is for this reason that I know I could never become a Protestant. 

But what about the cost of all of this division?  For many years mainstream Protestants stood side by side with Catholics on many issues.  But over the years, the Protestant denominations, very often by democratic vote, decided to water down their beliefs to make things more convenient for the believers.  For example, let's take abortion.  At one time Christians stood together on this subject, it was wrong, it was immoral, it was murder.  Then one by one, denominations voted at yearly meetings and abortion was taken off of the list of things that they stood against. Today, the Catholic Church is almost alone when it comes to the Right to Life issue.  Take for example as well marriage.  Marriage has traditionally been seen as to between one man and one woman.  This is how God wants it to be.  The Catholic Church, to this day, preaches this doctrine.  There can be no marriage between people of the same sex. One denomination after another is coming to the conclusion that marriage is marriage just so the two people love each other, it is okay if the couple is John and Jake or John and Jane just so there is love between the two people, their sexual identities should not be allowed to get in the way of their love.  Again, God's law is discounted and rewritten for the convenience of the people.  The denominations that allow same-sex marriage for the convenience of their congregations, are leading them into sinful behavior.  This is exactly opposite of what a church is supposed to do. 

So what?  So some Christians have gone off on another path if it makes them happy, life is short, why not?  True, Life is Short, but Eternity is Forever. One of the things we Christians are to do is to be a beacon, illuminating the way to the Kingdom of God.  Disjointed as we are, we are showing the world many different examples, many of them sinful, many of them unworthy of a person who calls themselves a Christian. These sinful examples are the ones that people like to see, they are the ones that they remember.  This is giving power to the pagans, the atheists, the LGBT community and even the satanists.  Our leaders in Washington (such as they are, God help us) are seeing that true Christian morals and values are becoming less and less important to the people of their communities and they are behaving in accordance with what they see!  So the cost of not being unified into one Church and one Kingdom are staggering.  The situation is costing lives.  Besides the millions of babies murdered in the abortion mills under the guise of woman's health, a right to die law allowing assisted suicide is on the books in some countries and even in some states.  Right now, the patient is the one who decides to end things but, I can see that there will come a day when a committee meets and decides for you the date and time when your life is no longer worth living and they, without your consent, will send you on your way by giving you a lethal injection right after you finish your hearty breakfast.  This has happened in other countries where "mercy killing" is permitted.  In one case, a man was put into the hospital for a mild case of depression.  The man's wife had to go on a trip.  When she came back just a week later she was handed her husbands ashes.  In his depression, the husband asked for assistance in ending his life and it was given to him.

We can thank Martin Luther and all of the other reformers that he spawned for where we are today.  Our Lord prayed that we be one as He and the Father are one. Due to human error and human pride, we have failed in this request.  What can be done about this sad situation we find ourselves in?  To hope for all the denominations to realize that they are in schism with the Church is too much to hope for on a human level.  We need to pray for one another and ask God to release the Holy Spirit because the job of bringing us all back together is too big to do without His help.  You know, Jesus did say that there would be one flock and one shepherd so maybe our prayer today will bring a unified, revived, strong, loving, and obedient Church back into reality tomorrow. 

Do you know somebody in Purgatory?  Please, pray for the poor souls today. They will remember those who help them and it pleases God when we share our spiritual wealth with those who need it most.  

   

Catholic vs Protestant ?

Before we start let me say that this entry is NOT going to be a tirade against Protestantism. I really consider, as my Church tells me to, my Protestant friends as brothers and sisters in the faith. But we have to admit that there are differences of course in what we believe and there is clearer marker of this fact if we look at the symbols that adorn our places of worship. The main symbol that separates us is the cross and the crucifix. For some reason we hold different beliefs on what is proper. Catholics show a representation of the Crucified Christ on their crosses in church while in most Protestant places of worship a simple cross, without the corpus, is used. I would imagine, and please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, that the Protestants feel that the representation of the corpus is a graven image and violates the first commandment. Well, the Catholic view on this is that we need to be reminded that Jesus went to the Cross for us, He hung in the burning sun, scorned, ridiculed, in deadly pain, bleeding, being set upon by flies and other bugs. We do not pray to the figure on the Crucifix, for we realize that it is but wood, or stone and is inanimate and has no power. We use it as we would use a picture of a loved one, a reminder or a prayer aid. This is how Catholics view all statues and other representations of Jesus, the Trinity, and the Saints. They are mere reminders and help us elevate our thoughts and prayers to God. No sane Catholic would ever think of praying to a statue or for that matter a cross or crucifix.

Our respective views of the Lord's Supper divide us as well. For many Protestants it is a ritual that is a simple memorial service that recalls the Last Supper. Some denominations believe that Christ is present in the bread and grape juice as long as the congregation is present but once the service is over the remnants can be fed to the birds and the juice can be dumped down the drain. For the Catholic believer the Holy Eucharist, the bread and wine are, through God's mysterious action, are transformed into the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Examination under the most powerful microscopes would show no change to the bread or wine that we could see with out senses. But we Catholics take the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John very seriously indeed. The power to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood was given to the Apostles at the Last Supper. 

The center of Catholic worship is the Holy Eucharist, the person of Christ that has been consecrated by the priest at Mass. Christ is NOT killed again and again, but rather, His sacrifice is re-presented to the Father at each Mass celebrated. At Catholic Mass we are fed with the Word of God in readings from Holy Scripture. At each Mass we hear a reading from the Old Testament, a reading from the Psalms and a reading from the Gospel. It is at this point that mist Protestant services conclude. Teaching from the Word is shared, songs of praise are sung and a sermon is preached. At Catholic Mass after we are fed from the bounty of God's Word we then are fed by Christ with His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the bread and wine. So, we Catholics are fortunate to be nourished by both word and Christ Himself. We Catholics believe that the Eucharist is an awesome gift that is given to us by God and the way he chooses to be with us until He comes back for us at the end of time. 

For most Protestants there is a theory of Once saved, always saved. In other words, once you commit yourself to Christ, usually by saying "the sinners prayer" you are forever marked as being bound for heaven. My questions would be first, where is the sinners prayer in the Bible? Secondly, personal responsibility for how you live your life, what happens to it if once saved always saved is true? Luther said "sin boldly" while Scripture counsels us; "...because it is written be ye holy for I am holy...1 Peter 1:16 KJV. For us Catholics we realize that the gift of salvation is just that, a gift that cannot be purchased or earned. It is available to all as a birth right of all Christians but as we see in the story of the prodigal son it can be squandered and thrown away. God is always there ready to welcome us back but using our free will we have cooperate with His grace and return to His house. He is always watching and waiting for us to return. Christ gave us Catholics a way to heal the hurt of sin and that is called the sacrament of reconciliation or confession. Christ gave this power to the Apostles when He told them that those sins that they forgive are forgiven and those that they held bound were held bound.  It stands to reason that in order to decide if a sin is to be forgiven it has to be verbalized.  We do this in confession and receive the forgiveness of Christ and his Church for no sin only affects the sinner, it affects the Church, the kingdom. Imagine a placid pool of water and a person throws a rock into the middle the water is disturbed and the effects of the rock is felt from the epicenter to the shore of the pool. 

There are other differences between Catholics and Protestants but that would be the subject for a book and not for a blog post. The things that divide us are not trivial but I think that we are closer that even Jack Chic, the most anti-Catholic person ever to draw breath would suspect.  We have in common Jesus Christ who uses each of us, each denomination through the action of the Holy Spirit to get the work of the Kingdom done. He will return one day and it may amaze us who he gathers to his right side and who are sent shamefully to the left. 

There is a great danger in the world today. The soil of the earth is being enriched by the blood of Christian martyrs, both Protestant and Catholic by the misguided followers of Islam that swear allegiance to ISIS. Closer to home we are attacked on all sides by a society that has been sinking down into moral depravity since Row v Wade became the law of the land and human life became cheaper.  We Christians, Catholics, Baptists, Anglicans, all of the thirty thousand plus denominations have to pray for unity. If a return to one church is not possible yet, then we must unite ourselves beneath the banner of Christ and cry out with loud voices when injustice appears. In our country it is not fashionable to be a Christian of any sort anymore. It is more fashionable to be a homosexual activist, an advocate for the murder of babies in the womb, a disciple of Jack Kevorkian demanding that life of the old, the diseased, be snuffed out because their life is no longer worth living. The age old question of life echos into our frail ears; "When the Son of Man comes will He find any faith on the earth?"

May God bless and keep you this day. Watch for opportunities to be Christ to people and burn with the fire of His love in your heart and show it by your life.   

Marriage

This week my wife and celebrated our Twenty-Third wedding anniversary.  We drove to southwestern Michigan to my father's house in a blizzard. The journey which normally took three hours took over six hours. The next day dawned clear, the sky was so very blue and the sun so very bright. We drove from my father's house to a the county seat, Paw Paw Michigan.  There Mary and I exchanged vows in front of a judge.  We were civilly married. Our marriage was blessed two years later when Mary's annulment came through and we reaffirmed our vows in front of God and His Church.  From day one I have taken my marriage vows very seriously as I not only promised them to my bride Mary, but also to God.  I believe God brought Mary and I together, it was His plan and I am bound to fully cooperate with it.  

Our marriage is a marriage between one man and one woman. This is how marriage has always been from the very start. Go back to the story of Adam and Eve. Adam did not find a partner from among any of the creatures of the earth. God therefore created a special being for him, a woman.  All through Bible history most of the people God chooses for special tasks are men that have but one wife. God considers the bond of marriage a sacred thing, not just an ordinary relationship but relationship where man and woman can cooperate together and bring new life into the world.  This is the reason why a man leaves his family and clings to his wife, to join God in the creation of new life.

Gay marriage is something that does not exist.  Our Supreme Court may say it does, our president may paint the gay rainbow in light on the White House, but that does not make gay marriage any more legitimate. Marriage is about the creation of life. Two men or two women engaged in a sexual act cannot consummate the act to join with God in creating a new human being.  You can scream all you want to about "equality under the law" but the spiritual nature of marriage and the marriage act itself makes such equality something that is impossible to achieve in the Congress or in the courts. 

But why is the Catholic Church so homophobic?  Homosexual action organizations trot out the homophobic label when they detect any disagreement with their positions. It therefore removes a persons right to disagree with their position by in effect saying that those that disagree with them are in some way irrational.   The Catholic Church do not see homosexual men or women as sinful people. The Church, however, does see the sexual acts between people of the same sex to be contrary to God's natural law.  The Church can never approve of these acts as they are not able to produce life.  On the other hand those who are afflicted with same sex attraction are welcome to be Catholics practicing and living their live in a chaste and celibate way.  Does this seem unfair?  Hardly, the Church calls all her children to be chaste and celibate and to make use of the physical act of love in the way God gave it to us, to be used to pro-create between one man and one woman.

The Church also sees a redefinition of marriage to include same sex unions to be a danger to society. Same sex marriages lack the solemnity of genuine marriages. Same sex marriages are based solely on the feeling one person for another. It does not have the same depth as a genuine marriage because no matter what the two men or women can never use their procreative powers in the way that God intended.  The feelings of love one has at the start of a relationship change through the years.  With man and woman love becomes less of a feeling and more of a way of life.  A homosexual union will go through the same sort of change, the original feelings of love will give way and the relationship will no longer meet the emotional needs of the partners and they will split and go their separate ways. 

Well, maybe two men cannot mate and procreate but they can certainly adopt can't they?  Unfortunately this is true. The children pay the price for having two mommies or two daddies. A child needs both male and female influences for them to grow up emotionally.  This balanced nurturing is required for healthy growth. 

Finally, the proponents of gay marriage are trying to change society to recognize homosexuality as a normal way of life.  They are trying to achieve acceptance of the straight community for no other reason but to silence the nagging doubt in the back of their conscience that something is wrong in their life.  Legal pronouncements will do nothing to assuage their conscience, it will remain standing in the way of a complete joyful life because they are looking for something that does not exist nor has it ever existed. 

Am I homophobic?  No, I am not.  I am a realist, I am a Catholic, and the reading and research I have done tells me that everything we do in life that goes against God's natural law leads to sadness, sin, death, and eternal loss of one's place with God.  I also because of my beliefs have to stand up and point out that homosexual actions are wrong, are against God's law and will lead to pain.  I have to stand up for what is right no matter what rabid gays thing and say.  I am a gentle person, I love life, I love people but I also must stand tall and speak my beliefs.  I have this right and duty.    

We slip again on the Slippery Slope - What is Wrong with "Gay Marriage?"

First let me begin by saying that I am not homophobic.  I do not judge those who identify themselves as being gay.  My God in the wonderful book He wrote called  "The Bible" tells me that whoever is without sin should cast the first stone.  Alas, I do not have the right to throw that stone. In the same book He tells me also to point out egregious violations of His law to my brothers and sisters. So I have to point out to those that practice homosexual acts appear to be acting contrary to the Law of God.  I heartily recommend that such practitioners reflect on their actions and decide for themselves if what they are doing conflicts with what is taught in the Bible.

As far as "gay marriage" goes, I am very sorry to say that there is no such thing as gay marriage.  there never has been nor will there every be.  True, as a matter of law there might be a statute that says it exists but that is on the books of law written by man and this law goes against the laws that God has set up for man to follow.

Some will say; "That's fine for you, but me, I am not a Christian, as a matter of fact I am an atheist and I do not believe in the fairy-tails in your Bible so why should I care about what you say?"  The fact of the matter is simple.  The fact that you do not believe the truth does not make it any less true.  If you stated you did not believe in the rule of gravity and stepped off the roof of a twenty story building since you reject gravity, does that mean you will float?  Certainly not!  The self operating rule will claim its power over you and you will have a few seconds before the sudden stop causes the life forces in your body to depart and you finally find out if there is a God or not.  So truth is unchangeable law and that type of law is written by the Creator.  He wrote the rules of science to keep the universe working at His pleasure.  He created a world for you and me.  He provided you with a mother and father so as to participate in His creation.

It is this procreation that makes gay marriage a farce.  Marriage was instituted by God because he knew that it was not good for man to live alone.  He created a woman for man and instilled in them the instinct to propagate the human race.  He told us to be fruitful and multiply.  The marriage act is the way man and woman participate in bringing life into the world.  Sexual activity between two people of the same sex cannot bring life into the world.  Some might say that every act of intercourse between man and woman does not result in conception and they would be right.  It is God's timing that counts.

So, gay marriage exists on paper but not in the reality of the spirit.  No matter how loving a relationship between two people of the same sex is, not matter how many legal papers are in their possession stating that the two have become one, that union is according to man and is not recognized by God.  This is a hard truth but it is truth none the less.