We must be obedient to God before men.

Today we continue in our celebration of Easter. One commentator recently said that, “the only reason why Christianity exists is the fact that Jesus Christ truly rose from the gave.”

We have to remember that the disciples never expected the resurrection. Their witness of the crucifixion and death of Jesus dashed all their hope. Jesus message and their hope were, at the same time, placed in the grave; He was dead-end of story. Even though they loved Jesus and saw His miracles, his death made it all seem for nothing. And now they face the awful prospect of their own impending arrest and even torture and death. At this point they really were frightened and pathetic figures. But, would we be any different?

But then the Resurrected Jesus appeared in their midst. Even as they saw Him standing before them in his body with the wounds of His passion it still seemed all too unbelievable; their psychic couldn’t handle it. Only very slowly could they begin comprehend the reality of it all. But yet He was truly there; He was truly Risen; He was truly alive before them in reality, in a physical resurrected body.

The reality of the Risen Christ was every bit as real as His crucifixion. And the reality of it confirmed that before them was the living God in the flesh, along with His invincible unfathomable unlimited and divine power. The resurrection confirmed everything that Jesus taught, all that He said and did; it confirmed that He was God; and so it also confirms all that His Catholic Church, teaches, all it says and does-It is His Church, She is guided by His Holy Spirit.

One bishop recently said, “There is no other explanation for Christianity. It should have died out and entirely disappeared when Christ died and was buried, except for the fact that Christ was truly risen, and that during the 40 days before the ascension, he interacted with his Apostles and disciples, and on one occasion even with hundreds of his followers.”

This realistic experience with the Christ in His resurrected body, once the Holy Spirit strengthened them, gave them the courage to go before magistrates unafraid, to face unbelievable persecution and even to die, but not before experiencing untold tortures in body, mind and soul, and to do so with great out of this world joy. They, and all true believers since, became bold witnesses to the truth Jesus came to give us, which is found and proclaimed only in its fullness in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church—no wonder She and her faithful ones are so persecuted. Jesus told us very clearly, they hated me, they will certainly hate you.

The early persecution and the continued persecution of the Church even to our own time show us that it has never been easy to be Christian! Christ Himself told us it would entail nothing less than a sharing in His own passion and crucifixion. Faithfulness to Christ, shown by faithfulness to His Church, lived by accepting and struggling to live the teachings of the Church which are the teachings of Christ, this is the steep, uphill, hard narrow, thorn-strewn, but joyful way to life. This is in stark contrast to unfaithfulness to the Church and her teachings, which is the easy, wide, smooth but slowly downhill despairing way that leads to eternal perdition.

Following Jesus fully by following His Catholic Church fully is hard; however, Jesus has promised us His yoke is easy and His burden light. Faith, hope and love in Him and His Church make even the seemingly impossible possible. Faith, hope and love in the Resurrected Jesus still in our midst through the sacraments of the Church, especially the Holy Eucharist is the source of the divine power of the Resurrection in our own lives, so we too can share in the victory of Christ over our own battle against the world, the flesh and the devil.

Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ victory also teaches us that our faith, when it is fully lived, is a fighting faith and a fearless faith. Grounded in the resurrection, in this power of the Sacraments, which is the power of the resurrection, there is nothing in this world and nothing in hell that can ultimately defeat the One, True, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

But the enemies of the Church throughout history have nevertheless in vain tried to destroy her. She survived those early intense persecutions of the Romans. She survived the great heresies that attacked her teachings as well. She survived invasion after invasion of the barbarians and the Jihads; She has survived the age of revolution and the great evils of Nazism and Communism.

And by the power of the Resurrected Christ truly present in Her, she will also survive the current attacks against her, attacks which are becoming more and more bold and aggressive. It appears in all certainty we are now again standing at the precipice of another major attack and persecution, one that has already begun in earnest.

One of our local bishops, Bishop Jenky of Peoria, last week gave a stunning homily in this regard. Bishop Jenky warned that with the Obama administration’s mandate for forcing religious employers to fund contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion-inducing drugs, America is now on the path leading to a state of past dictatorships when Christians were forced to “huddle and hide,” such as Bismark’s Kulturkampf, Hitler’s Nazis, and Stalin’s Communists.

The bishop said, “Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.” It was the same by the way, in Mexico when the Masonic Marxist lead revolution expelled all the religious turn the hospitals into soldier barracks and confiscated all church property. The bishop went on to say, “In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama-with his radical, pro-abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.”

Bishop Jenky acknowledged that Christians could lose the battle against Obama’s mandate, but insisted that, “before the awesome judgment seat of Almighty God, this is not a war where any believing Catholic may remain neutral.” His words echo today’s first reading in which the Apostles, having been drug before magistrates, declared, “We must be obedient to God before men!” Well with all do respect, Mr. President we Catholics today declare as well, we must be faithful to God before you and your minions.

As bishop Jenky said, “No Catholic ministry-and yes, Mr. President, for Catholics our schools and hospitals are ministries—can remain faithful to the Lordship of the Risen Christ and to his glorious Gospel of Life if they are forced to pay for abortions,”

Speaking to us Catholics the brave bishop went on to say, “The faithful can no longer be Catholics by accident, but instead must be Catholics by conviction. The days in which we live now require heroic Catholicism, not casual Catholicism. In our own families, in our parishes, where we live and where we work – like that very first apostolic generation – we must be bold witnesses to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We must be a fearless army of Catholic’s, ready to give everything we have for the Lord, who gave everything for our salvation.”

Let us pray to be more faithful to the Risen Lord. Yes, we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, but if we are truly followers of the Lord we must also stand up for what we believe and always be ready to fight for the Faith, for the rights of Our Holy Mother Church…if we do this we are on the winning side, God’s side and we are fighting against the tyranny of Satan.

“The power of the Resurrection will ensure the Church survives, as Bishop Jenky said, “the hatred of Hollywood, the malice of the media, and the mendacious wickedness of the abortion industry. The Church will survive the entrenched corruption and sheer incompetence of our Illinois state government, and even the calculated disdain of the President of the United States, his appointed bureaucrats in Health and Human Services, and the current majority of the federal Senate.”

Continuing in the words of Bishop Jenky, and I quote, “May God have mercy on the souls of those politicians who pretend to be Catholic in church, but in their public lives, rather like Judas Iscariot, betray Jesus Christ by how they vote and how they willingly cooperate with intrinsic evil.”

Every faithful soul is needed in this fight; no soul is insignificant in this battle or in the Eyes of the Lord. We need everyone to contact their elected officials and tell them that we are watching them, and we WILL vote against any of them that do not support us in this just fight for our religious rights as, not only Catholics and Christians and Americans, but as human persons made and created in the image and likeness of God Almighty Himself.

In the end, this is not a political fight; it is not about Democrat or Republican, nor conservative or liberal; we don't hate the President; For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Ephesians 6:12). But, nevertheless, WE MUST BE OBEDIENT TO GOD BEFORE MEN…AND SO WE MUST VOTE OBEDIENT TO GOD BEFORE MEN with regard to ANY ISSUE, INCLUDING THE ECONOMY OR IMMIGRATION!!!

Let us always remember that the roots of this current attack on our Faith are not in this current administration or any other power in this world, nor do they ultimately have their origin in Satan, but they come from our own infidelity to the Lord. Ultimately we are facing a crisis of faith, a crisis of saints. However we don’t need more Mother Theresa’s of Calcutta or Francis’ of Assisi; no, we need more St. You!

In the face of this current persecution let us imitate the first Christians and turn to intense prayer before the Risen One who is truly present in our midst, not only spiritually, but physically in His resurrected body in the Holy Eucharist; If we believe, adore, hope and love Him there and beg pardon for all of those who do not adore, hope and love Him there, this Eucharistic Lord will grant to each of us the victory of faith, which is a share in the victory of the Resurrection! God bless you all and may God bless the United States of America!

Immaculate Mary your praises we sing, we pray for the Church our true Mother on earth, and beg you to watch over the land of our birth. Ave Maria…totus tuus…totally yours!