Would you know?

Our Blessed Lord Jesus, the only Living and True Second Person of the Holy Trinity, came to deliver mankind from sin. He does not allow us to be comfortable; he is not always allowing us to be in sorrow and pain, and he is often calling us to overcome our human understanding by learning and understanding God's Holy Will for our lives. We need to know that we may learn this Holy Will by learning through the means that Jesus established for us: namely, the Holy Catholic Church.

Certainly, many will object asking "how can this be since Jesus' Church with so many sinners in it?" And yet, when we understand that salvation from sin, each of our salvation, depends on our Freewill, then we can begin to realize how this makes sense. We each have the freewill to accept or reject the Truth, the only Truth, established by Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, that Truth is One, whole and complete. It is not dependent on the people who have been given stewardship of the Catholic Church. How do we know that? Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman once said, "To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant." In other words, when you look at the history of the Church, and every Catholic should, then we should see quite clearly that their have always been scandals, sinners, and Saints all wrapped up in Holy Mother Church. And yet, in spite of it all, Official Church teaching has never changed. It has never faltered on matters of belief and morals. Certainly, there have been some imprudent and sometimes scandalous policies enacted by Church leaders, and even the Popes. Nevertheless, the official body of teaching has never changed or been added to from what was understood and lived even in the earliest centuries.

Some of our unbelieving contemporaries would perhaps put this up to coincidence or iron-fisted popes or whatever. For us as believing Catholics, we must understand that this is through the promise of what Jesus himself noted when He Sent the Holy Spirit, with the Father, upon the Apostles in order to establish His Holy Church.

Last week at Mass we had a very shocking reading, in which Jesus taught us:

"See that you not be deceived,for many will come in my name, saying,'I am he,’ and 'The time has come.’ Do not follow them! "

Jesus understood well our human nature, after all he created it! Nevertheless, there are various people, even today, who continue to make the claim that they have become or are, the "Lord Jesus Christ" who has returned. Take for example this guy (its a half hour video, so you might keep reading then come back):



Sadly, this is not the only pretender out there. Consider this dude:

And finally, there is another dude who is now claiming "Jesus status", though it seems he has been doing so since "aliens" apparently came to visit him (back when he was known as "Rael?"). This man is named "Lord Rayel", and he is claiming the ability "judge the nations" and, of course, he must have an outrageous "british like accent". I won't give you a link beyond the one to his Youtube channel, as I find his claims too ridiculous. (Remember, we are told already in the bible that a Demon can appear as an Angel of light (see 2Cor 11:14)."

The point here is that many people have and are still making claims to have the power of God, and to even be our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, when he returns, the world of this age will close. Life will not be the same as we are living now, with its struggle with sin - AND YES THERE IS STILL SIN, JUST AS MUCH AS THERE IS STILL HELL! We must consider where do we put our personal faith. Can we believe, in spite of humanity's sinfulness, that Jesus would be faithful to never allow the "the gates of hell (Mt. 16:19)" to prevail against his Holy Catholic Church which he established and promised to be with until the end of time (see Mt 28:19-20). Or is any human's claim a reason to believe in his own claim. Even if his teaching "tickles one's ears," does that mean that man bears the Truth? Even St. Paul warned against this: "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach [to you] a gospel other than the one that we preached to you, let that one be accursed!"

As we come to the end of the Liturgical Year this week, remember that we celebrate the Solemn Feast of Christ the King. Why? Because God is not God of the dead, but of the Living. Jesus Christ, our King, reigns even now. We must allow him, by our spiritual choice and service, to undo what our first parents Adam & Eve did by disobeying God. Nevertheless, He will not force us in his Mercy & Love. Many will likely still come before the end of this world to claim by their humanity the divinity which they will not be able to stand before when the Just Judge finally reveals himself. As servants of Jesus Christ, the Only and True King not just of Israel, or the Church, but of the Universe, let each of us not lose hope, but stand firm, for our salvation is coming - whether in our lives or in the life of the world. May we wait joyfully and in hope for the True Return of Jesus Christ.

Which one is yours?

Consider this: Where is Notre Dame's? Where is your Faith?

Seriously... SERIOUSLY!?!?! Is this what we have forgotten...

There are a great many things wrong with the world. However, what is wrong in the world should not be in the Holy Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the Catholic Church is a divine institution entrusted to humanity. It is comprised of people who are fallible, though she herself is without defect because of the promise of the Holy Spirit. That being said, we as Catholics must be informed. "Informed?" you say, "About the sinfulness in the Church???" No!!! My point here is that we must be informed about why the Church is important in our lives. Only then can we understand the humanity in which the Church acts, and in which the Holy Spirit seeks to work - including you and I.

And, unfortunately, we must understand when men choose to work against the mission and teachings of the Church, and the destruction they cause in doing this. Only when we come to know how vital is the Catholic Church to the mission of Christ in the world, that all of his disciples "may be one, as [He] and the Father are one," then - and only then - will we have the love for God to help reform His Holy Bride. Faithful Catholics, it seems to me, are in one of two positions as the Bride of Christ - either 1) continuing to exercise and beautify ourselves for His return, or 2) making a destructive mess of ourselves (as a Church) so that we can fashion ourselves to be beautiful as we see beauty, and not as Christ has revealed how we can beautiful for him. Yes, humanity can be beautiful in the way we respond to God. But, at times, one wonders whether the "destroyers" within the Church even know what they are doing to the Mystical Body of Christ. Every baptized Christian is called to act in the Mercy and Mind of Christ. Yet, how can we come to reports like this:



This is very much along the lines of the report done by Michael Voris for Churchmilitant.TV about the CCHD, which can be found here. I am not one to leave the Church, nor to whine about such things (nor I hope are you, dear reader), rather, as this post aims to demonstrate, I hope to love the Church enough to help educate about the errors that go on, which ought not to.

It is love that compels us as Catholics, or at least it should. Nevertheless, there seems to be a rebellious and anti-catholic spirit that continues to manifest itself in various events and actions around the world. For example: sadly, one should be informed that, for one Diocese, public opinion seems to outweigh the need to Pray AND ACT for the Defense of Human Life:
For discussion's sake, can anyone else come to another conclusion?!? Read this document linked to that video and PLEASE inform me.

Jesus left two final tasks for the Church, well really four sub-tasks: 1) Go forth & Baptize all nations. 2) Teach them to observe all that i have commanded you. Notice, 1) Go, 2) Baptize, 3) Teach & 4) Observe. Inherent in the fourth sub-mission is to be faithful to both the Baptism we receive and, when we make that Apostolic Mission our own, AS WE SHOULD, to be observant of all that we have learned ourselves. This is where things like ignoring the Church's constant teaching on Hell, or Contraception, or Abortion, or the necessity of utilizing the Sacrament of Confession does not help to beautify the Church, but seeks to destroy the "veil" and "dress" which the Lord has left for us, as His bride. In my humble (yet educated) opinion, ignoring these teachings is tantamount to stomping on the ring which he has placed on the finger of the Church. Yes, it is that serious!

The point of this post is not to "destroy", but to inspire awareness that all is not well "Right here in River City!" We Catholics need to be informed of the things going wrong in the Church, and when we are, then the love we have for Him who has established this beautiful bride should encourage and challenge us to do our best to mend her "accoutrements" and her "actions" by what we do in our lives. We can not be those that destroy the faith and love of others for the Church. We must be the Saints that are the face of the Church in the world! As St Teresa of Avila pleaded for us to understand:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks with
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.

The question, then, that we are left with is: Will we allow ourselves not just to be placed in his service, but rather will we SEEK OUT how to help in EVERY way possible that we can?

Nevertheless, we can not utilize evil or deceptive means to make the Church more beautiful. And to demonstrate that, as well as for a little "entertaining deceptiveness" (which may arguably be the only place where it can be acceptable), I leave you with the Music Man (one of my favorite musicals):

Character.....its not as hard as it looks...

Its interesting in a world where Syria has almost blown up into war that many argue it began with our President's comments regarding what would happen if Syria used chemical weapons. He said this:

On the one hand, I think it is interesting that President Obama saw necessary to give an ultimatum to Asad and his opponents, which could and may draw America into the conflict. On the other hand, and since this is not meant to be a political post, I do find it interesting that President Obama was consistent in his comments once those weapons had been utilized.

If nothing else, and here is the point of my post, one can say that at least he was consistent in what he said. Often times in our world it is very easy to give up on being consistent with what one has said. I think that often as modern people we think, "Well, who cares, really?" Thankfully, there are some who continue to understand that our integrity as human beings is what makes us distinctly more human.

For us Christians, this is particularly what we call "virtue." In virtue, we become more real and more who we are supposed to be in God's grace. Of course, it is not always easy, but in love many things are possible. Which leads me to a new advertisement by Guinness - yes, Guinness the Brewery. In a new ad, they are extolling what used to be known as manhood. Today, for many modern men, sexual conquest or a pragmatic approach to people seems to be prevalent. We know this from the number of abortions that overflow in our world today. Something like 11 every hour in the world!? Thankfully, the human spirit yearns to find real humanity, to become what we are supposed to be in this life. And I think I, and you if you are fan and of age, can certainly enjoy a Guinness with more gusto knowing that they are also promoting men to become virtuous, even if inadvertently:

Is there realy a Crisis in the Church?

There is so much to discuss in this program. There are two hours of material, there is a very real consideration of the state of the Church in America that is worth the time, if you are a serious Catholic who loves and is concerned for the Church.

Discussion in the comments would be VERY VERY welcomed.

An Important Distinction!!!

I kind of expected it...

Sickness.  Its not all it is cracked up to be.

I know people who enjoy the time of being at home in bed... "languishing" under the covers while they recuperate.  I, unfortunately, have been numbered among such poor souls for the last few days... except that I have been at work here at the parish. I contracted some kind of low grade headache that has been hanging around for almost a week now. 

Not that I am complaining, mind you.  Especially when people are getting into head on car crashes in Missouri!  If you haven't heard that has been a big manhunt for a priest who mysteriously appeared "out of nowhere" to offer the Anointing of the Sick for a young lady who had been in a car accident.  Initial reports made it sound more mysterious than real:
Check it out the video here, because I couldn't get it to stop auto-playing on my page :(

But it turns out that this may have not have been as mysterious as some had hoped!  In fact, over at the National Catholic Register website, people were hoping it was a Saintly priest from heaven who appeared to reveal God's mercy (see the comments at this link).  It turns out, the answer is much move obvious than some had hoped, and that in fact it was an average ordinary priest of God. 

What i find so interesting, though, is that even in that article one finds a very strange reaction: 

While some had hoped for supernatural intervention, it seems an entirely human conclusion has come to fruition. Still, the faithful would argue that God’s hand was in this gesture, regardless of the channel that was used to help usher in calm at the scene.

Really?  An "entirely human conclusion"?  One the one hand they are right in their meaning of the channel of God's grace, but on the other GOD'S GRACE has come into the world!!!  It is quite interesting to me that the Catholic Church is so common place to people that no one thinks it is strange that a man walks around in black clothes and dabs people with oil!  REALLY??  There is a reason this human being has done this!  He is not merely imagining that he is doing good deeds.  In fact, the news reports noted that the young lady was strengthened when the Holy Oils were administered.  The Emergency responders also noted that they were more at peace. 

What I am getting at here is that if you are a Catholic, we SHOULD NOT be comfortable with God's grace which is so generously offered to world.  We can not be complacent at the amazing hands of a Priest, who though he is only a "channel" of God's grace, it is GOD'S GRACE that we want to remember is entering into the world.  A real and direct power and reminder of His Truth and Strength that we can receive in the Sacraments.  The world and the media are happy enough to have found the "mystery priest" but they completely ignore that the power of the priesthood of Jesus Christ has and continues to act in the world!  AND THAT IS STILL NEWS!!!