Lord Jesus truly, physically present in the Holy Eucharist, we believe You are with us in the Blessed Sacrament. We believe You are inviting us to join with You in conquering the world in love for Your heavenly Father. But we are blind. Enlighten our minds. We are weak. Strengthen our hearts. Make us Apostles of the Eucharist in our day; make us Apostles of life through the Eucharist. Help us to understand the Eucharist now on earth by faith-as a prelude to seeing You, our Incarnate God, face to face, for all eternity. Amen. Holy Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, pray for us.

John 6;60-69, Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time. August 23rd, 2015.

Today we end our teachings on the Eucharist that Jesus gives us through St. John. For the past few weeks we have read from the same chapter, starting with the account of Jesus multiplying the loaves and fishes. Next, we read Jesus teaching his disciples about the meaning of the sign-the meaning of the multiplication- that he would do a greater miracle in giving us the bread of life from heaven. He explained that this bread would be his own flesh for the life of the world. This brought about some opposition, how could Jesus give us his own body and blood as food and drink? Jesus answered them by calling them to faith, that indeed he would give his own flesh as food. This would be done by his dying on the cross and resurrecting from the dead in His body. In the Holy Eucharist we receive His Resurrected Body which is no longer bound by space and time, which can longer suffer or be divided…we eat His flesh but do not tear it asunder…we drink His blood but can no longer kill Him.

Today, we read the last response of the vast majority of his disciples. They had enough. They must have thought something like this, “this Jesus giving us his own flesh as food is just too much.” They left. And even more of surprise, Jesus did nothing to try to get them to stay—He didn’t tell them that he meant it symbolically. The teaching was too hard for the majority of His disciples. Jesus had given them the gift of faith, but when the faith was tested, really believing and trusting in Jesus, in his words, in his divinity, they turned away (interestingly the verse is John 6;66—the Great Apostasy...Our Lady at Fatima and elsewhere warned about the great apostasy in our day).

In a sharp contrast to those who left, we read Peter’s profession of faith with the beautiful expression, "Master, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God." In other words, Peter was saying, I am not sure how you can give us your flesh and blood to eat, but we believe in you and trust your words because you are God who can neither deceive nor be deceived. Yes, Peter struggled with this truth but he opened himself to divine grace and allowed himself to be filled with the light of understanding by the Holy Spirit.

The two responses to Jesus’ teaching on the bread of life show an interesting contrast between Peter, who had faith and asked God to help him believe, and the other disciples, the majority, who did not believe, rejected grace and left, no longer following Jesus. But John gives us the response of another disciple at the end of this passage. In the very next verses, unfortunately which we did not read today, St. John gives us Jesus response to Peter’s act of faith when Jesus answers them, “Did I not choose you twelve? Yet is not one of you a devil?” He was referring to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot; it was he who would betray him, one of the Twelve.”

Many of the great saints have explained this passage by saying that St. John is revealing to us who Jesus meant when he said earlier in this gospel passage, “But there are some of you who do not believe. Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him.” It was Judas.

Judas’ betrayal actually began when he rejected Jesus’ teaching on the Holy Eucharist but stayed in the company of the apostles. While the other disciples of Jesus at least left when they didn’t believe, Judas hypocritically stays with Jesus. The betrayal of Judas was really a denial and a refusal to accept in faith Jesus teaching of the Holy Eucharist--that Jesus is the Holy Eucharist. Later on, St. John in chapter 13th tells us that Judas receives the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper and because he doesn’t believe, he receives a sacrileges communion and satan enters into Judas.

For us as well as for Peter and the Disciples of Christ, faith in the Eucharist is the barometer of our Catholic faith. To believe in the Holy Eucharist is to believe in Jesus. To accept his teaching is to accept Christ himself. Every major break in Christianity has been over the meaning of the Eucharist. The vast majority of those who call themselves Christian no longer believe in the real presence at all or believe it incorrectly. There are hundreds of interpretations by protestants and sadly by some Judases in the Catholic Church of those words of Jesus “My flesh is real food, my blood is will drink,” “This is my Body…This is my Blood.” “Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you will not have life you.” Only the Catholic Church in her infallible teachings understands these words correctly, that Jesus really meant what he said, because he is God who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

To believe in the Eucharist as a Who, that is, to believe that it is Jesus Christ, His whole person, physically, corporally, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity, truly present is to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. To deny the reality of the Eucharist is really to deny Jesus and His One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church. Why? Because the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Church. Without the Eucharist there is no Church. And as one holy Jesuit priest told us, “Because without the Eucharist as a reality, there is no priesthood instituted by Christ, there is no sacrament of Holy Orders. In a word, there is no visible Church which Christ founded on the Apostles whom He ordained at the Last Supper in order that they might consecrate bread and wine to become the living Jesus Christ on earth in the Holy Eucharist.”

At the root of the great crisis in our Catholic faith today is a crisis of true faith, a crisis of faith in the Eucharist. Fullness of faith in Jesus is one in which a person believes with one’s whole mind and will, with one’s whole being that the Eucharist is Jesus Christ. We do not make any qualifications. The Eucharist is the exact Jesus who was conceived at Nazareth, born in Bethlehem, died on Calvary, rose on Easter Sunday, and ascended into Heaven on Ascension Thursday. A person with the fullness of faith is one who believes that although Jesus is in heaven, he is also just as truly still on earth. He is truly in every tabernacle and on every altar of the world in which, through a validly ordained Catholic priest acting in the person of Christ offers Holy Mass. Jesus uses the body and voice of the priest. It is Jesus through the priest who says the words of consecration making truly present the whole Christ, with his Humanity and Divinity, with His eyes and lips and hands and feet and His Sacred Heart. A person with the fullness of faith believes that without the priest there is no Eucharist, there is no Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and hence there is no way, no way to reach Heaven. Without the Mass salvation ends. A full faith believes that Jesus Christ is now offering Himself in every Mass. He is on earth, with His human body and blood, and human will. A person with true faith believes that we receive Him in Holy Communion. That we receive Him no less than the Apostles did in the Last Supper. That He is now gloried. His body enters our body, His soul enters our soul. A person with the fullness of the true and living faith believes that this is no mere symbolism or metaphor. It is real, really, truly.

We need to take this information and what we have learned from these past weeks listening to the Sixth Chapter of St. John to prayer and study. Yes this is a “hard saying” so we must, like St. Peter, we must beg God to help us in our struggle to believe, in struggle to understand more deeply the mystery of the Eucharist. We must all personally become very devoted to the Holy Eucharist as the real, true present of Christ, as the Sacrifice of the Mass, that is his sacrifice on Calvary and to the Eucharist as Holy Communion-Christ coming intimately, and truly into our bodies and souls. We must come to realization that there is no solution to the problems of the world, to the problems of the Church or to the problems in our families except through the Holy Eucharist.

We must all do everything in our power to promote by word and example a deeper faith in the Eucharist as Real presence, Sacrifice of the Mass and Holy Communion. We must prayer for a deeper understanding of the Blessed Sacrament especially among priest. And we must live lives of reparation, begging God to pardon and enlighten those who neglect the Holy Eucharist by deserting Jesus, or by distorting the truth about His true presence in the Holy Eucharist. We must ask God to renew our reverence for the Eucharist and our reverence when we are in the sanctuary of the Church in front of the tabernacle. And finally, and I mean this literally, we must pray for the grace to be ready to pay any price, to suffer any pain for our belief in the Holy Eucharist and to suffer for those who don’t believe or who believe and don’t love the Holy Eucharist-Jesus Christ.

Today in our midst, Jesus Christ wants to work great miracles in our lives, in our families, in our Church and in the world, even greater miracles than we hear about in the gospels. He wants to accomplish this by increasing our own faith, hope and trust in Him and most importantly increasing our love for Him in the Holy Eucharist. Jesus desires to totally give us this very day, His Sacred Heart, His complete self in Holy Communion in order to leave with us the gift of the Holy Spirit so that we could become more and more united with Jesus, being transformed into His image and likeness. And so becoming His other selves, united with Him in the marriage that St. Paul speaks about in our second reading (Eph. 5; 21-220, Jesus desires to use us as His instruments of Love and mercy for our world, which so desperately needs Jesus. But before Jesus can do this we have to give Him our YES, we must believe in Him, adore him, trust in Him and love Him in the Holy Eucharist by offering unreservedly our hearts to Him in return.

Let us pray, Lord Jesus truly, physically present in the Holy Eucharist, we believe that You are with us in the Holy Eucharist the Most Blessed Sacrament of the altar—help our unbelief; increase our faith. We believe that You are personally inviting us to join with You in conquering the world by love for Your heavenly Father. But we are blind—enlighten our minds. We are weak—strengthen our hearts. Make us Apostles of the Eucharist in our day; make us Apostles of life through the Holy Eucharist. Help us by faith to understand the Eucharist now on earth, as a prelude to seeing You our Incarnate God, face to face, for all eternity—For Heaven truly is the Eucharist unveiled for those who believe. Amen. Holy Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, pray for us. Amen *This homily relies heavenly on a talk given by Fr. John Hardon).

Holy Mary Mother of the Holy Eucharist pray for us, lead us to a deeper love for Your Son, Jesus, in the Holy Eucharist…Use me as your little child to save souls and transform out world. Amen.

John 6; 51-58 Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. August 16th, 2015

As we continue on the teachings of Jesus in the bread of life discourse, today, we have Jesus speaking very plainly to his hearers (and to us) about what He means that He Himself is the Bread from Heaven. There is no other way to take His words but literally, (which is probably why the early Christians got accused of cannibalism). But before we come to what Jesus says, it is good to take a step back and see just how Jesus has prepared his hearers (and us) to hear this message today so that we can accept it fully in faith, with our whole heart, mind, and will.

From the beginning to the end of Chapter 6 of St. John’s Gospel, we discover Jesus taking it step by step in order to help us to accept and so believe His teaching on the Eucharist. It is as if Jesus is slowly preparing the soil of our mind to receive the seed, which is the disclosure of the Great Mystery of the Holy Eucharist.

The first step is that Jesus lets us know that He alone knows our true hunger and so he multiplies the bread and the fish. Second, Jesus by his miracles shows that He is God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity and as such, has power over nature itself; and so, along with the multiplication of the loaves, He walks on water in the midst of a storm. Finally, after preparing us with these two great miracles, Jesus at the synagogue at Capernaum, springs on us “THE MYSTERY OF FAITH” when He says, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

In all of this step by step teaching, Jesus demonstrates His desire to meet all of our needs- from the most basic—food to keep our bodies alive in this world, to our more important spiritual need—food for our eternal life. By the way, this is food not only to keep our souls alive forever, but also food to glorify our bodies so that they too, like the body of the Virgin Mary, might be with us in heaven as well. Yesterday was the feast of the Bodily Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary…We too, if we believe in the Eucharist, adore Jesus there, trust Him there and love Him there, we too will have a glorified body in heaven.

Jesus incredible teaching on the Holy Eucharist reminds us that our most profound need of all is to be loved by God-to be one with God. We are literally made for God, made for His love, made to love Him in return and serve Him in this life so that we can be happy in this life and in the next by becoming one with Him in a unending union of love. The Eucharist is the gift of the Love of God because it is truly the God who is Love in the flesh. This is the greatest of gifts of the Father to us, because it is the Gift of Jesus Himself. The Holy Eucharist is then the greatest Gift of Love-to us, who receive Him in faith. And we have to receive Him with faith!!! For Happy are those who are called to His supper and attend with faith!!!

As we penetrate the teaching of this Gospel, we discover that Jesus uses the power of His Divinity, not to scare us, but to actually manifest His divine infinite love for us. He wants to show us that nothing can block or inhibit this Love of His from reaching us in, through and with the Holy Eucharist—except if we chose not to believe. Unfortunately, the choice to not to believe, to not take Jesus-God at His Word, is shown by the people in our readings over the past few weeks. By their unbelief they failed to open their hearts and minds to Jesus and to the great gift of Himself offered to us in and through the Holy Eucharist. Last week they murmured, this week they complain by saying Jesus’ words were “Intolerable”.

Jesus today opens His heart of love and shares the great secret, the greatest of all secrets, that Jesus would give His very life for our salvation. He does this by giving us the gift of Himself, of His life in the Holy Eucharist. In John Chapter 6, Jesus foretells His self-offering and sacrifice of His flesh on the cross and at every Holy Mass in order to give it to us to eat for our salvation.

The Bread of Life is indeed His true flesh and blood, His complete self offering to us. His love for us has absolutely no limits. It is in the Holy Eucharist that we, living today, can receive personally Jesus’ gift of His life poured out for us. It is through the Holy Eucharist that we can not only be saved but become one with the entire Blessed Trinity in unending love.

The Holy Eucharist is a true miracle—It is the Miracles of all miracles…for the bread and wine at the words of Consecration are changed physically into the physical reality of Jesus Christ who is now bodily present-the bread no longer exists, only Jesus exists, whole and entire true God and true Man. With the Holy Eucharist, God not only personally has entered into the world, He is still here physically and He desires to enter into us so we might become one with Him-this is the greatest manifestation of God’s love for the world. Now, Love Himself has a direct and immediate, unfathomable intimacy and communion with our hearts…But we on our part have to believe and receive Him worthily by being in the state of grace, free from serious sin and in union with His Mystical Body on earth, the Catholic Church and Her teachings.

The Holy Eucharist is the only answer for our modern day troubles, It is the only answer to the deepest desires of our Heart, for it is not a It at all, but a Him, THE HIM, Jesus Christ our Lord and our God, who is the only savior of the world and so the only answer to the human condition. If we want to Change our world for the better we must adore the Holy Eucharist as the True and Living God physically among us in the flesh. “Without adoration there is no transformation (Cardinal Ratzinger).” In fact, our world is only transformed to the extent that we Catholics allow Jesus in the Holy Eucharist to transform us. And we can only be transformed to the extent that we offer our whole selves in response to the God who offers His whole to us in the Holy Eucharist. This is what the Holy Mass really is, the unique place for an exchange of Hearts…Where God offers anew His Sacred Heart to us and we in order to become one with Him offer our hearts to Him-the two hearts then can become One—the human with the Divine.

Let us end by always remembering that an age prospers or dwindles in proportion to its, faith in, hope in and love for to the Holy Eucharist.

O My God I believe in thee in the Holy Eucharist, I adore thee in the Holy Eucharist and I love thee in the Holy Eucharist. Please help my lack of believe, lack of adoration, lack of trust and lack of love as I beg pardon for those who do not believe, adore, hope and love thee in the Holy Eucharist. Amen…Holy Mary Mother of the Holy Eucharist pray for us, lead us to a deeper love for Your Son, Jesus, in the Holy Eucharist…Use me as your little child to save souls and transform out world. Amen.

Holy Mary, Mother of the Holy Eucharist, help us to love Jesus in the Holy Eucharist above all things and to offer our love, our hearts and our whole self to Him at this Holy Mass. Help those who are struggling with faith in the Holy Mass and the Holy Eucharist, obtain for them, for all us from Your Divine Son a deeper faith, complete and absolute trust and perfect love for our God for one another. Jesus I trust in Thee. Amen.

John 6:24-35 18th Sunday in Ordinary time. August 2nd, 2015.

In today’s Gospel we read the account of the people looking for food. We will continue to read from St. John, Chapter 6, for the next couple of weeks. If you recall, last week we read about the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. This week, we pick-up where we left off with this very enlightening passage where Jesus tries to teach the people that the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves and fishes is really a miracle to help them and lead them to faith in a much greater miracle, the Miracle of the Holy Eucharist. I think that the way Jesus teaches and leads the people is very instructive. So, let’s take a closer look and see what it might teach us.

First, the people question Jesus about how he had arrived in that place. Jesus doesn’t really seem to answer their question- he doesn’t say, “I crossed over here by land because you all wanted to take me off to Jerusalem and make me King.” Instead, Jesus responds with something unexpected. He looks into their hearts and sees their motives- they want only bread to eat. In other words, they mistakenly want only their earthly needs met; they want only a earthly messiah-a “bread king;” that is, a politician who would fulfill their earthly needs and desires and give them freedom; but not freedom in its truest since, the freedom to worship God by their holiness of lives, the freedom to live the truth, to choose the Good, the True and the Beautiful; but instead, they want freedom to do whatever they please.

And so, the people in today’s Gospel really want only a temporal leader, an earthly king-president that would only free them from the oppression of the Romans instead of freeing them from the worst oppression, the oppression to sin. You see, sin is the real oppressor, because it takes away true freedom, the freedom to love for the other’s sake alone, and instead imprisons one in disordered self-love.

And so, in the multiplication miracle, the people recognized merely a worldly sign. Could Jesus be the one to lead them to easy street and good times? They wanted Jesus to be a geo-political messiah that would bring bread, much like Moses had done in the O.T; and then lead them to the promise land flowing with milk and honey. But a “promise land” understood as only a land of economic peace and stability, instead of land of freedom to not only worship God privately, but to worship Him publicly, by living one’s faith publicly as a witness to the truth and beauty of the Gospel.

And so, the Divine Jesus reads their hearts, knowing they’re not understanding what the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves was really trying to teach them. He sees that they just want some free gourmet food to fill their bellies, but fail to understand that economic prosperity only comes from being a faithful and moral people, a people who are walking in the ways of God and in His Love. And so Jesus sees that they fail to see that their geo-economic problems, their oppression and slavery and terrible economic times, the evil in their day, were not the result of the Romans or any other enemy or worldly power, but were instead the result of their own infidelity to the Lord.

So, with great compassion, and understanding their true hunger, Jesus tells them to search for the Food that will give true life and freedom, the fullness of life here on earth ending in heavenly joy. Jesus tells them to search for heavenly food. With this food they would never be hungry again. Jesus wants to give them food to fulfill their deepest desire, food supernatural and eternal life- not merely temporal life.

Jesus was not the one to fulfill their earthly desire for a political leader, but he would go far beyond their earthly desires to the inner depths of man’s heart-to his deepest desire, which is to be loved, to be loved by Jesus the One who the Father has sent. Jesus wanted to be their King, but King of their hearts for He is the King of Love, the King who is Love, because He is the God who is love. In His Love, Jesus is the only One to fill all their desires earthly and heavenly.

Yet, the people respond with a question to continue to test Jesus, “How can we do the works of God? Well, for them the work of God meant very temporal or earthly realities; it meant to them merely being good people; that is doing the minimum in order that God wouldn’t get mad at them; it wasn’t a question of love, of giving of themselves totally to God and to neighbor without measure. So, Jesus confronts them and brings them back to Himself- the work of God is to believe in the One sent by the Father, which of course was Jesus himself; and then to live that faith out in love by doing the Will of the Father.

Again they continue, “but what sign can you give that we would have faith in you?” (Remember now that Jesus had just finished doing so many signs-miracles. He multiplied the loaves and fishes and cured many who were ill; he brought the dead back to life, walked on water, and yet they still did not believe, still did not trust, still did not love). They just would not give up their own ideas of who the Messiah should be. So they refer to Moses. After all they believed it was Moses who led them out of slavery and gave them bread to eat. They believed wrongly that the new messiah promised by Moses would merely lead them out of physical slavery and give them earthly bread. So it would be only this person, this earthly type of messiah, leader-president that the people would put their trust in.

Jesus cuts to the chase; HE counters and corrects them by saying it was not Moses who gave you food in the desert by my Father in heaven. It is my Father who gives you the real heavenly bread. God’s bread comes down from Heaven and gives life to the world.” They respond that they want this bread for the life of the world.

And this is where it seems, Jesus really goes too far- he tells them that He himself is the Bread of Life, and that, “the one who comes to me will never hunger and never thirst.” I do not think they could even begin to grasp what Jesus was saying to them, for they lacked faith. They just would not accept this teaching, in fact this is the only time in the Gospels were we are told, many of his disciples left and no longer believed in Him, “This is a hard saying who can believe it; that Jesus would give Himself, His true flesh and His true Blood as their True Food (cf. John 6;66…that’s right! 666!).

By looking more closely at the discourse in today’s Gospel we can discover that the more things change the more they stay the same. We too, even us who are followers of Christ, can too often look only for an earthly messiah and earthy leader as the only answer to our problems, as the only one who will fill our desires. Instead of looking to the Bread of Life, Jesus Christ truly present in the Holy Eucharist to fill the desires of our heart and to help us solve our problems, we instead turn to political leaders who promises to fill our desires by bringing about economic prosperity but yet political leaders who at the same time go against the Commandments and precepts of God.

However, as History proves over and over again, any leader who tries to build the kingdom of man without reference to the Kingdom of God, to God’s Laws and His Holy Church is following in the footsteps of other so-called earthly messiahs who promised the same-- nero; lenin, stalin, hitler; and Mao se tung... These false messiahs at first may have seemed to fixed the economy, but in the end destroyed it and the soul of their country; and in the process killed millions, born and unborn, while so many people looked the other way. Lured by the empty promises of their false messiah so many mistakenly put lesser issues before the non-negotiable issues of life, family, traditional marriage; and before, the freedom to worship God and freedom to follow their informed conscience, informed by God Truths-the teachings of His Holy Catholic Church and not their own opinions.

This is what is so extremely dangerous about our current situation. These are very troubling times, economically, politically, culturally. History shows that in tough times and in desperation, people will sadly too often turn to a charismatic leader for solutions, instead of God. And in the process, they end up losing their freedoms, many of them their lives, and even worse risk losing their soul and the soul of their country to follow this so-called “messiah.” And as a result, dignity of the human person is rejected and the most abhorrent crimes against humanity result…just look at the selling of baby parts by Planned Parenthood in our own day—grizzly on a level that at least is equal to, if not surpassing, the holocaust-the womb as become a killing field and a place of gruesome acts on the level of Joseph Mengele.

For us, deeper faith is the answer to all our problems; faith in Jesus, faith that Jesus is really, truly physically present in the Holy Eucharist and that He love us; the answer is deeper Faith in the Holy Mass as the source and summit of the graces we need to change and convert our country, our world, our families and ourselves. Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and through the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass wants to work miracles of grace in our world and our families; but He can only do so through the hearts of those who truly believe, through our faith, adoration, hope-trust and love in Him.

Faith is a gift we’ve been given but it needs to grow to maturity. It takes our personal effort to cooperate in Its growth. We need to work at it with all our heart and soul, mind and will, with all our strength, and not just on Sunday, but all week; 24/7/365, every day remaining of our live; Our Faith in Jesus and His true present in the Holy Eucharist needs to become our absolute priority. For Faith reminds us that this life is short and eternity is oh so long.

In the end, Faith grows by spending as much time as we can outside of Holy Mass with the One we love and who loves us, Jesus, the Bread of Life, truly present in the Holy Eucharist, kneeling before Him begging his mercy on us and on our whole world and the leaders of the world; and asking Him to increase our trust in Him and so our love in Him. Time in front of Jesus reveals to us who we really are, for better and for worse, so Faith grows as well by frequent reception of the Sacrament of Confession. And finally faith grows by desiring, studying and praying to know more about Jesus, about his teachings, which the Church gives us

Let us at this Holy Mass ask Jesus to strengthen our resolve and efforts to know our faith and to know and love the Holy Eucharist which is truly Jesus Christ. When we receive Him in the Holy Eucharist let us spend some time kneeling in our pew adoring and loving him, and asking him to help us to adore, love, trust and believe in him more. Let us spend some time with after Holy Mass, just a few minutes to thank Him for the great privilege of being able to not only attend Mass, but actually to receive Him, His Body, blood, Soul, into our body, blood and soul; His divinity into our humanity.

Holy Mary, Mother of the Holy Eucharist, help us to love Jesus in the Holy Eucharist above all things and to offer our love, our hearts and our whole self to Him at this Holy Mass. Help those who are struggling with faith in the Holy Mass and the Holy Eucharist, obtain for them, for all us from Your Divine Son a deeper faith, complete and absolute trust and perfect love for our God for one another. Jesus I trust in Thee. Amen..

An important Message!

John 6, 1-6; Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. July 26th, 2015

Dear Friends,

Again, sadly, we have had another deadly shooting at a movie theater, just three years from the deadly shooting that took place in Aurora Colorado. Shortly after that shooting, three years ago, I shared with you a very important message from Fr. Mitch Pacwa, a Jesuit priest who is a regular on E.W.T.N. I reread his important message from three years ago and know that it is even more true today. Please read it carefully and prayerfully. Included are the additional comments I made three years ago as well. God bless you and may God bless America by bringing us to our knees in repentance and conversion. Our Lady of the Americas pray for us...St. Joseph protect our families. Amen.

Father Lange

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This past week I heard a very powerful message from a holy priest who was speaking about the horrible massacre which took place at the movie theater in Aurora Colorado; this priest’s name by the way is Father Mitch Pacwa. I know that many of you know Him. I want to share this message with you today.
We are very shocked and concerned about this terrible tragedy and our hearts continue to go out to the families of the victims; and we continue to pray for those who were killed and injured. We also pray for all of the law enforcement and EMS personal who had to be greatly affected by such unspeakable horror.

I am sure we are going to hear plenty of people tell us what we need to do to prevent such a tragedy from occurring in the future. But I think, as did this good and holy priest that I listen too, that we have to keep something very important in mind as we struggle to come to grasp with such evil and seek a remedy for our society. I think we have to keep something very important in mind that has to do with the nature of our great country. And now, Fr. Pacwa:

"When the Constitution of these Unites States was written, the founding Fathers said they wanted to restrict the size and power of the federal Government. Remember when they came to America, they had just escaped from an oppressive government and did not want to form a new oppressive Government. So they focused on restricting the federal government and limiting its power and its reach.

But when you read some of the document of these first founders, especially Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and others, they emphasized that with such a government structure, that placed so much on individual responsibility, you depend on having a moral people, that the people themselves have to have firm moral characters. In other words, they knew that their vision would only work with a nation of Godly people. And so these same founders emphasized that this character is going to have to be fashioned by faith in the true God and His Ten Commandments and Teaching, that it has to be fashioned by their Religion. This is exactly why the founding Fathers knew the importance and necessity of religious freedom and so emphasized it in our founding documents. Without religious freedom the America experience dies from immorality.

When you look at all of history we discover, shockingly, that the last century has witnessed some of the most horrible mass murders ever seen. In fact, before 1890 we would be hard pressed to find such atrocities as we just witnessed in Colorado. Even though these unspeakable crimes begin around 1890, we see them begin in earnest in the early part of the century; but where you really see them increase is from 1965 forward. From 1965 on we can count about 60 or so serial killers and mass murders; who interestingly, use for the most part small caliber weapons in perpetrating their killing. Colorado was rare in its use of a large caliber weapon.

What’s interesting, and I think this points to the real problem at hand, it is interesting that about this time (1965 and on) we can see the beginning of a strong diabolical movement to get God and the truths of the Christian religion out of the public sphere, out of the public discussion, attempting to keep God away from this aspect of public life. We also see at this same time many corresponding societal revolutions shaking the foundation of our Judeo-Christian culture--the sexual revolution and the drug revolution.

And so in most of these mass murders, not in all but by far in most, the constant underlying theme has included something twisted on the sexual side and, drug use. And most especially, you see a hatred for God and the sacred things of God, including and especially His true Church on earth, the Holy Roman Catholic Church. It is as if, when God is kicked out of society a vacuum results which becomes filled in by pure evil.

And so, all of us as faithful Catholic Christians, as faithful Americans have to raise up, doing more of what we can to in righteousness to confront the people and organizations in our country that are trying to remove God from the public discourse. It is time for us to ever more start standing up to the forces of the media, some in the judicial system, and in organizations such ACLU, who are doing everything they can to squash religious freedom in order to keep God out and to keep Christians, especially Catholic Christians, out of public life and so silence the moral voice of the Catholic Church which is the audible voice of Jesus Christ Himself, the True and Living God incarnate.

And all Americans, beginning with us Catholic Christians have to, with God’s grace, repent more deeply in order to get back to ever more fully living a deeper moral life that is rooted in what God has taught us, rooted in the truth that comes from God and is proclaimed infallible by His Catholic Church and her teachings, all her teachings including those which are deemed unrealistic in today’s more modern age. To live this moral life is to live our life fully because we are living in Christ, through Christ—living life with Christ.

We, as a Country and as a people of God, have to get back to a morality that is base on what God has told us is the difference between right and wrong even when it is not politically or socially acceptable or even tolerated, even when it is politically incorrect. And even we are mocked and called names or accused of being judgmental, we have to stand up for what is right and stand against what is wrong. We as Catholic Americans are called by Jesus Himself to, in love for our all of our brethren, speak up and teach the truth about what is right and what is wrong, to teach the full unadulterated Gospel; and to do so, most especially, by how we live our lives. WE have to proclaim with our voices but most especially by our actions that right is right if no one is doing it and wrong is wrong even if every one is doing it.

And in confronting our current culture of death, we have to especially proclaim the Gospel of LIFE!!! Because what is universal in every single case of mass murder, serial murder and massacre is that none of the perpetrators have any sense of the dignity of other people; they have no concern for them being real persons. They treat their victims merely as objects; they have no concern whatever for human life; they are a product of our society that is doing the same with it’s culture of death, a society which discards the unborn as if they were non-person, kills the sick and elderly under the premise of so-called “mercy,” and rejects the sanctity of life by experimenting on it without any regard for Lord and Giver of Life; they are a product of a society which seeks to redefine that which God has defined to bring forth new human life into the world and nurture it, namely, marriage between one man and one women, the family itself.

And so we, you and I, all of us have a grace responsibility to teach that it is God who gives us our dignity as people. We have to proclaim without fear, that is God the Creator who give us our dignity as human persons as our own declaration of Independence makes clear; and that our inalienable rights come directly from the Creator, to each individual, no exceptions, from the moment of conception to natural death.

With all due respect, I know our president will talk about our inalienable rights but notice he refuses to talk about them as coming directly from the Creator; he refuses to acknowledge this truth, this reality; he always skips the part about the Creator when he quotes or mentions this part of the Declaration of Independence. But you can’t skip this truth; it is the Creator Who is the source of these rights, not the government, not any government and not any man or group of men.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we have to be the ones to remind everyone, including our elected officials, that God is the source of human dignity and rights, and that each human person must be seen as an individual endowed with these rights from God. And in light of this perennial truth, as the declaration also says, everyone of us will be answerable to God Himself for what we do or what we fail to do. By the way that’s also in the Declaration. A lot of people don’t pay attention to that part; but in the last paragraph it is there, that everyone is responsible before God for protecting the dignity and rights of the human person, especially the right to life and religious freedom. We have to remind people of this, we have to call people to that accountability to God, not to an accountability to the government, not to a priest, but to God our Lord the Almighty Creator and sustainer of heaven and earth.

One last point, this holy and wise priest made. In watching the news over the last few days what was impressive was the number of heroes…the number of people who gave their lives to protect others, men literally laid themselves on top of their girlfriends in order to be human body shields taking the bullets, giving their lives so they could live. These people are heroes, they are heroes because they did see the dignity of life, did see the dignity of the human person, so much so that they gave their life to protect this dignity which comes from the Creator, who is the Lord of Life. That’s why we celebrate them as heroes, for no greater love is there than this than that a man would lay down His life for his friend.

There were other heroes as well, those who praying for those who were injured, those who although injured themself still tried to come to the aid of others who were injured, those who even though bleeding themselves prayed for others; and all those other heroes who put them self in harms way, in grave and mortal danger in order to come to the aid of others…God has send us and our county a powerful message by the selfless actions of these heroes and we celebrate them."

Father Pacwa ending his powerful message by saying that in light of all this incredible heroism of so many to protect life, because of its dignity and worth which comes from the Creator, we should pray that we all can be heroes, like these heroes, in our society and call people to respect the God given dignity every human person, born or unborn, innocent or guilty, male or female, black or white, conscious or unconscious, rich or poor. And if it be God’s will to have the courage to sacrifice all we have and all, even our lives in order to save life, especially eternal life, the eternal life of souls.

It’s up to us, you and me, to do whatever we can with the help of God’s grace in order to convert our current culture of death into a culture of LIFE. We are all so weak and fearful; but let us not fear, our strength is in the LORD! He loves us so much. Let us fall on our knees in faith and love before out God Truly Present in the Holy Eucharist and cry out, “Jesus I trust in Thee! Jesus I trust in Thee! Jesus I trust in Thee! Have mercy on us and on our whole world, have mercy on our beloved country, the United States of America, convert her for in God, in You, we TRUST! O my Jesus forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially those who are in most need of Thy Mercy. Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of our Country pray for us, obtain the grace we need to faithful even to the foot of the cross. Amen.

In our day, the Blessed Mother is trying to gather up her faithful remnant to be used to bring others to Christ her Son and so give hope to a sick and dying world.

Mark 6;7-13. 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time. July 13th, 2015

In last week’s Gospel from St. Mark, we heard how Jesus encountered his mistrusting townsfolk in his hometown of Nazareth. They thought they knew Jesus well because they had lived with him for thirty years, but they didn’t really know him at all. They heard of the miracles Jesus performed in other places, but in their midst, Jesus could work no miracles because of their lack of faith.

And so, after giving us an example of unbelief in last weeks Gospel, immediately in today’s Gospel, St. Mark gives us an example of faith, the faith of the apostles. Remember St. Mark writes his Gospel in order to strengthen our faith. And so, in today’s Gospel, Jesus sees the faith of his apostles strengthening, and so sends them out in order that He can, through them, catch souls.

These first disciples were not unlike us. When they first met Jesus, the disciples where slow to understand, they usually just didn’t get it. They were weak and poor, but they had a quality deeper than their human frailty- they had hearts that were open to the working of God’s divine grace. This grace would produce in them a living faith, one that would slowly grow and deepen. Their trust in Jesus would become stronger and they eventually would fall on their knees in adoration before Jesus, as their true Lord and the true and living God, offering their lives totally to Him and witnessing to the true faith with their very lives.

In today’s gospel, Jesus sends these very weak souls out to preach his message of repentance and to heal the sick, which primarily means to heal and save souls from sin and its deadly effect—eternal death and separation from God and one another. Think about it, such unqualified men going out for such important work as the salvation of souls. (If it had been up to us, we would not have chosen such men as the apostles for such important work). And yet, not only does Jesus send this sorry bunch out to bring others to the true faith, He tells them to take hardly anything with them.

They are to take only a walking stick and sandals, but no food, no sack, no money, no change of clothes. Jesus here is trying to teach them an important lesson in the life of faith. The apostles would have to cut their dependence and trust in themselves and begin to rely on their faith and trust in Jesus alone. And so, Jesus sends them out without any extra provisions all in order that the apostles could learn to trust that God, in His divine providence, would provide for everything needed to support their life and their mission.

Just as He taught his first disciples, Jesus is also trying to teach us today as well. And so, we need to ask God to grant us the grace to imitate the faith and the trust of these disciples. We must live our faith by asking God to help us to trust Him more to provide what we are lacking, materially speaking and spiritually speaking; in other words, to trust in His divine Providence. This trust in God’s Divine Providence and care over us is first of all an interior attitude of faith.

In light of faith, the question for each of us today is, “Do we really believe Jesus is God and as God has the power not only to save us but also to do great things through us, to continue His work to heal and to save souls. Do we believe that this God is available to us by being truly present for us in His Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Hoy Eucharist physically present as the very source of our Faith, Hope and Love. And because of this faith in His Eucharistic Presence, do we truly Hope in God by entrusting everything, everything to Him. Faith in Holy Eucharist as the True and Living God, leads us to hope in God.

Hope as a theological virtue really means to have trust, or to have confidence in God. So do we hope in God to take care of us, even if everything we have, everything we depend upon on this earth was taken away from us? Do we have the hope we need so that even though the walls may fall around us and everything we have be taken from us, we will not despair, because we have a strong faith that our Heavenly Father loves us and will never, ever, abandon us? And do we have the hope and trust to completely offer ourselves, and everything we have and posses to Jesus with total love and total abandonment. Jesus I trust in You, help my lack of trust. Please help me to trust in you more!

In our day, the darkness and loss of hope in our world is not coming primarily from terrorism. It is coming from an illusionary ideal of self-dependency and the idea that we can build an earthly utopia and so save ourselves apart from God and His grace and help which come to us through His Catholic Church and her Incredible Sacraments. These Sacraments of the Church are the source of all grace and mercy for the world; especially the Blessed of all Sacraments, the Holy Eucharist, because is the source of all graces and mercy and the others Sacraments flow from it because the Holy Eucharist is
Jesus and His pierced heart the source of all mercy and grace for the world).

In the last 100 years or so, the Blessed Mother as been appearing all over the world telling us, her children, that we must turn back to God and His Holy Church and realize we are absolutely dependent on Him. She is reminding us that we are too much like little children who think they don’t need their parents help. She is warning us that we must turn back to God and trust Him for all we need. She is telling us that if we continue to trust in all of our possessions and our self-dependency, God will take these away from us, just like a good Father. And He will do this in order to teach us the truth…that we can’t take care of ourselves, that we absolutely need God and His Church for peace on this earth and in the life to come, for peace in our hearts. In our day, the Blessed Mother is trying to gather up her faithful remnant to be used to bring others to Christ her Son and so give hope to a sick and dying world.

And so through His Mother, Jesus wants to send us out into the world just has He did with His first disciples, order to take what we receive through our faith, adoration, trust and love of the Holy Eucharist, namely grace and mercy and to share it with the world. But first, we have to be willing to leave everything behind, that is our dependency on ourselves and the things of this world. We need to have a holy detachment from things, using them only as a means to become more attached to Jesus- as did the apostles; we need to use the things of this world, primarily to help us carry out our mission to lead others to Christ so they may be saved.

At this Holy Mass which makes present Jesus our hope in the Holy Eucharist and His once and for all Sacrifice on Calvary, let us ask the Holy Spirit, through the intercession of the Blessed Mother, for a holy detachment from things and a holy attachment to the Creator of things, God our heavenly Father. Let us ask her to help us place our total trust in His divine providence alone beginning at this Holy Mass, by offering ourselves, our whole heart, our whole being all that we have and are to the Father, through the Son in the Unity of the Holy Spirit. Let us make our offering to Jesus through Mary in union with St. Joseph. Totus Tuus! Amen.

I am not preaching at any parish this weekend. I have decided to reprint a homily from 2012 that I think is most appropriate for our current situation. Happy and blessed Fourth of July weekend. Let us pray for our beloved country.

Last week in my homily I spoke about our great commission that we Christians have been given by Jesus; we are called to speak the truth to all men and to do so with great love, better yet, with great Charity. We are to speak the truth in Charity.

Again, this is what is at stake with regards to our current struggle with religious freedom. It is so much more that freedom to worship. Again, the enemies of the truth will give us that, at least for the time being. It is even more than the freedom to not to betray our principles and our conscience, which are part of our human dignity. Religious freedom is freedom to engage society; the freedom to proclaim to all of the members of society out of love for them, the truth that sets men free, gives them true happiness and saves them; it freedom to call all men to repent of their sins and to accept the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who is God become man to save us through the forgiveness of sins, sins which are acts against the truth.

It is the freedom to speak out against all evil, yes, against the evil of homosexual acts, which are life-less acts; but also against the evils of artificial contraception which too are life-less, anti-family, and so oppress and degrade women and endangers their health and well-being; it is the freedom to defend life, to defend the life of the human person in all of its stages; to speak out in defense of the sacred dignity of every single human person born or unborn, rich or poor, sick or healthy, black or white, conscious or unconscious; to defend all human persons, especially those who cannot defend them selves.

Yes, we must speak the truth in Charity out of love for God who is the source of all truth, and then out of love for our brother and sister and concern for their eternal salvation. We want to bring them the truth so that they might be free, that is free to live life to the fullness by being free to choose all that which is True and Good, and ultimately free to choose He Who is Truth and Goodness Itself God. This is why Jesus came to earth, to reveal the truth about God and Man; and then to free man from the greatest slavery, the slavery of sin, in order that men could accept this truth with their intellect and live it with their lives and so become one with God through Jesus who is the Truth.

But if we are to speak the truth in Charity we must also live Charity in the truth. We can’t live charitable lives, lies of love without the truth, that is without Jesus who is the truth and without the truth that He came to bring to us from His Father in Heaven so that ultimately through living the truth we might become one with God.

This was the title and theme of the most recent Encyclical of our Holy Father, Pope Benedict entitled Caritas et Veritate…Charity in Truth. In the Encyclical He said our works of Charity must be done in the truth or they are not charity at all. Without the truth they can actually become unjust works which degrade man and lead to a loss of the freedom and liberty of man. They become acts which are done not for the common good, not for the good of all the members of the society, especially not for woman and the unborn.

Let me use an example. Let’s take for instance governments that send aid to third world countries but only on condition that these third world countries accept our own population control mandates. In other words they must force their people, all in the name of development, to limit their births and mandate laws that allow artificial birth control and even abortion before they receive that which their people are in great need of. Once the governments of these countries acquiesce to these unjust conditions, then and only then, will material aid be given. In fact, many times before any material aid arrives, first arrives the birth control and aborti-facient drugs first. This aid is not charity for it is not given with the truth, not given in the truth; it is unjust and does not promote the common good of the society.

Ultimately, charity done without the truth is not charity at all because the truth is really a Divine Person, Jesus Christ. Charity is really doing good works through Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ through Jesus Christ. Charity is doing good works for love of God and for the love of our brethren with the Love of God alive in our hearts, minds and souls. Any so-called works of charity that are done without the truth, are ultimately works done without God who is the source of all Charity. God is in fact, Charity Itself, for God is love, Deus Caritas est--God is Charity…! Interestingly the title of another of Pope Benedict’s encyclicals.

All of this brings up why we are against Obama care, and why all Christians and men of good will should oppose Obama Care…it is charity without the truth and so it is not Charity at all. Even though it is presented as a law for the common good, it actually goes against common good because it endangers our religious freedom and our freedom of conscience.

The truth is, is that this goes against the very dignity of the human person; it strips the person of the right to practice the truth, to proclaim the truth out side of the walls of the Church building. And even more, and most of all we oppose Obama Care because it is anti-life…and as such is anti-God who is the Creator and Lord of Human life.

Let us get it straight; we are not against the right to affordable health care for every human person. Our bishops promoted that ideal long before this current administration. In fact it was our religious orders that were the first to provide affordable health care and in fact many times free health care to the first citizens of this great country. The Church has been the savior to the sick and ill, not some politician.

These hospitals were founded for the love of Christ and to bring the healing and love of Christ to the sick and suffering, both physically and spiritually. In other words, Catholic Hospitals were founded in charity. Even to this day, many times when a patient has the inability to pay, the secular hospitals will send them to Catholic hospitals for care.

We know that our current health care system needs to be reformed. But we are against Obama Care because it is health care without the truth. And it is so, not only because denies Catholics and all men of good will religious freedom and freedom of conscience by mandating us to go against the truth of God; not only because, thanks to the supreme court ruling is now a tax on the public practice of religious by its imposition of a penalty for following the truth of our faith; but we are also against it because it is an Abortion expanding health care reform law and the most abortion expanding law since the Roe vs. Wade decision which legalize abortion in all nine months of pregnancy. It is charity without the truth, which means it is not charity at all.

And so, it will never work because it is an unjust law. It does not protect our liberties and it does not protect the most defenseless and most poor of all, the unborn…it is unjust because it is anti-woman; it oppresses women; it is a weapon in the true war against women in its attack against motherhood, treating women’s gift of fertility and bearing new children of God as if these things were diseases …it is a war against woman because it attacks and will kill in ever increasing numbers especially unborn women…and so it is anti-family; and all this funded by yours and mine tax dollars and insurance premiums; and our cooperation in this evil will be mandated, that is forced upon us Catholic Christians and upon all men and women of good will. In good conscience we must disobey this unjust law for as St. Augustine taught, “An unjust law is no law at all and must be opposed.”

St. John Paul II once directly addressed America saying, “(America) The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless ones. The best traditions of your land presume respect for those who cannot defend themselves. If you want equal justice for all, and true freedom and lasting peace, then, America, defend life.” John Paul II

Obama care is not charity because it is unjust; and it is unjust because, it ignores the truth that comes from God about the dignity of every single human person; and so it does not protect life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness…In fact, interestingly, immediately after the Supreme Court’s ruling, one of the first groups to come out in support of its decision was Planned Parenthood, the most anti-life organization in the world…They understand clearly that Obama care is not going to make abortion more accessible, nor will it make abortion causing pills more accessible and life preventing contraception more accessible, but it will force you and I to pay for these moral evils out our tax dollars and with our insurance premiums. And if we refuse to deny our consciences and not go along with this evil then we will be punished and force to submit by an even greater so-called tax. And after that, who knows what the punishment will be.

Even more than a health care overhaul, our dear country is in great need of a spiritual health care overhaul. It’s leaders, Catholic, Christian or otherwise are in need of spiritual and moral conversion; its Catholics, Christians or otherwise, including all of us, are in need of great spiritual and moral conversion and the healing of our sins. So, Let us not pray for the suffering to be taken away but that we may accept the Holy Will of God. Let us not pray to escape the cross but to be able to embrace the cross. Let us pray not to escape persecution but that we may be used as faithful instruments of God’s divine design, even if that means that we may be Martyrs (white or red) for Christ and for His Holy Catholic Church and for the salvation of souls and salvation of our Great Country.

“Eternal God, in whom mercy is endless, and the treasury of compassion inexhaustible, look kindly upon us, and increase Your mercy in us, that inn difficult moments, w might not despair, no become despondent, but with great confidence, submit ourselves to Your holy will, which is Love and Mercy Itself. Our Lady of Divine Mercy, Mother of the Americas, Pray for us. Amen.”

Our Lady of the Americas pray for us.

Tomorrow we will celebrate liturgically, the Solemnity of the great Saints Peter and Paul. Even though they did not die on the same day our Holy Mother Church celebrates their death, or their birth into eternal life, on the same day. The two were one because they were both called by the Lord to be apostles.

Peter and Paul were also one in the fact that they were to proclaim the truth that sets men truly free and gives men life, not only eternal life, but the fullness of life in this world as well. They were also one in that they shed their blood for their fidelity to this truth; and they did so out of love for Christ and for His Holy Church and her members; but also in love for all men.

Peter and Paul gave their lives for the Truth in love or better yet for the Truth in Charity. They did this in two ways; first by giving their lives to preach this truth to the world in order to convict it of its sins, so that it might repent and accept this truth both in mind and in will in order to have true freedom and life. And second, they consummated their preaching with the shedding of their blood; Peter shedding His blood on the cross representing Charity; and Paul shedding His blood on the sword representing the Truth. In this Peter and Paul’s martyrdoms are also one, one in Charity and in truth. For there is no love, no charity without the truth.

The Holy Church today and all her members, both religious and lay, must continue this mission given to it by Christ to Preach the Truth to all. If they do not, if we do not, then we don’t carry out God’s great commission to love our brothers as our selves. We must give the truth. But we must do it not with a club, not with self-righteousness, but with love-with Charity.

Take homosexual acts for instance. If we deny that these acts are intrinsically evil, deny the fact that they not only offend God but hurt those engaged in such acts, and hurt society in general; if we deny that these acts go against the very nature of man and the very nature of marriage as God has created man and marriage; if we deny this truth by not only accepting homosexual acts but condoning them as well, then we fail to proclaim the truth in love. We fail to love our brother and our sister who are engaged in these acts by refusing to tell them that truth that sets them free and gives them life.

I read an article a few days ago about this very thing. It was written by a Catholic man who in love speaks out about the destructiveness of homosexual acts and so-called Homosexual “marriages.” He said he is often confronted, as are all Christians who speak out against “gay marriage,” by those who say, what does it hurt you if the government makes law allowing homosexual marriage? He says he responds to this question by saying, “It will hurt me because it will destroy religious freedom and free speech rights. It means that those hostile to our beliefs will attempt to bend us to their will to force us to not only accept gay “marriage,” but to condone it as well. Once it is law then any person who speaks out about it will be going against the law. The Law will not just allow such an evil but will coerced all to not only put up with homosexual marriage but to condone it. And this is exactly what is happening for instance in Canada where you can now be arrested by law for a hate crime if you speak out against homosexual acts and homosexual marriage.

But if we love them we must speak the truth to them, even if we are shunned by the modern society, even if we are persecuted by the modern society. We Christians must come at it from an altruistic prospected, that is from a perspective of love, love for the sinner but hate for the sin—love in truth. We must tell them it is wrong because we love them and that their actions have eternal consequences.

I recently heard that a Christian was present at a T.V. talk show in Canada hosted by a famous anti-catholic, anti Christian- atheist. The show attacks religion in every way. After the show in which they were promoting homosexuality, promoting every anti-life idea you could image, including smashing Christianity to bits, this Christian came up to try to convert this anti Christian atheist. The atheist responded to the Christian’s efforts with a very interesting comment. He said:

“If you believe that there is a heaven and hell, and that people could be going to hell or not getting to eternal life or whatever, and you think that its not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward…-how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible , and not tell them that?”

Isn’t this the point, from this atheist…to tell them the truth in love, because of love, out of love for them and concern for their well-being, their physical well being (all of the many resulting diseases) their psychological well being (vastly higher depression and suicide rates), their emotional well being (incredibly higher rates of emotional and physical abuse); and most of all for their eternal well-being.

Our enemies are not flesh and blood…We tell them the truth, because we love them. And we want them to know the truth and come to the truth so that they might not be lost but might have life and have to the full. Again as I said at the beginning, not just eternal life…but the fullness of this life here on earth as well—living the fullness of life as a human person.

This is what is at stake with regards to our current struggle with religious freedom. It is so much more that freedom to worship. The enemies of the truth will give us that, at least for the time being. It is even more than the freedom to not to betray our principles and our conscience, which are part of our human dignity. Religious freedom is freedom to engage society; the freedom to proclaim to all of the members of society out of love for them, the truth that sets men free, gives them true happiness and saves them.

It is the freedom to, in Charity, speak out against all evil, yes, against the evil of homosexual acts, which are life-less acts; but also against the evils of artificial contraception which too are life-less and so oppress and degrade women and endangers their health and well-being; it is the freedom to, in love, defend life, to defend the life of the human person in all of its stages; to speak out in defense of the dignity of every single human person born or unborn, rich or poor, sick or healthy, black or white, conscious or unconscious; to defend all human persons, especially those who cannot defend them selves.

We must like St. Peter and Paul preach the truth with love, with our holiness of life; and even, God give us the grace, if necessary with our blood. The eternal destiny of millions of souls hangs in the balance, the survival of our nation and our civilization hangs in the balance.

Blessed John Paul II once said, “If you want peace work for justice, if you want justice defend life, if you want life, accept the truth, the truth that comes from God. This is what we must tell the world, not because we want to condemn but because we love it, we must tell the world…it is the truth that comes from God that gives true liberty, happiness and life.

The ruling of the Supreme Court upholding the Abortion expanding health care reform unjust law, known as Obama Care, has made many of us who have been fighting the mandate and the threats against religious liberty and fighting the anti-life forces in our country, this ruling has made many of us distraught and discouraged. The opposite needs to be the case.

Fr. Frank Pavone, head of “Priest for Life,” said the ruling must energize us. He reminded us of the Words of Sacred Scripture which tells us, “Do not fret at the triumph of the wicked: do not let yourself be deceived or disturbed, because their triumph is always fleeting, is always temporary.” The same needs to be said for our fight for religious liberty, the ruling needs to energize us, it should make us well up with righteous indignation.

Fr. Pravone said, “We go at it spiritually from that point of view to say Lord, you allow darkness, you allow us to fall into depths of evil, and yet you never take away the way out, you never close off the way back to salvation.”

We can take the advice of Fr. Pavone to turn our disappointment to concrete action, however small. ( Sign the petition in the back, writing our elected officials and voting our conscience this fall, praying before the Blessed Sacrament for the conversion of our Country).
Father also said, so it is not a matter of praying that things will be well, it’s about experiencing the presence of Christ in the midst of this. We ask ourselves: what concretely can I do today about this? What can I do to rally people to educate them? As soon as we put our energies into some concrete action, no matter how small it is, then it starts re-encouraging us.”

In a few days we will celebrate our freedom in this country. But let us make sure we are not celebrating a false freedom. That is the false idea that reduces freedom to individuals choosing whatever they want, from homosexual acts to so-called homosexual marriage, from contracepted acts, to abortion, so long as it’s a choice condoned by the government. As Archbishop Lori, recently said, “…when freedom is reduced to individuals choosing whatever they want, so long as it’s a choice condoned by the government, then religious liberty is severely limited. And If this false secular idea of freedom prevails, it is the strong—those who have money, power and influence—who end up imposing their views, their “truth” on others. This is what Pope Benedict calls the “dictatorship of relativism.”

And With regards to the Church Her freedom will become limited to worship, preaching, and teaching only behind the walls of the building of the Church only. She will not be able to carry out its commission to preach the truth in love, to being able to put her teaching into practice through her own institutions when they hire or serve people of other faiths or of no faith at all.

But let us instead celebrate true freedom; the freedom to choose the true, the good and the beautiful, which comes from God and is ultimately God. Let us celebrate true freedom, which allows us to proclaim the truth that comes from God to all men, the truth which reveals to all men the truth about God and the truth about man himself; the freedom which allows men to choose this Truth, to choose God Himself. This true notion of freedom is the one on which this great nation was built and which rests the dignity and the worth of every human person, born or unborn. Let us more than ever defend this true freedom, but even more importantly let us live it. Our Lady of the Americas pray for us.