Honor Thy Mother

On this Mothers Day as we honor our mothers and thank them for their sacrificial love of us their children, we should tightly hold on to the traditions that they passed on to us.  Namely, that to love and hope and raise one's children is the highest vocation.  Thank you Mom for being my mom and for showing me how to live and love The Lord.

And while we celebrate our mothers today, there are those in our culture who ridicule and disparage those traditions that our mothers held closely.  A mother who values human life and chooses family and children is laughed at as some religious fanatic who is out of date with the times.  Believing that a family is a mother and  a father and children is now considered by some to be hateful, religious fanaticism.  If so, then so was Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David.  And would you call Moses a hateful, religious fanatic for the Ten Commandments received from God.  Did he do a hateful deed when he told the just freed Israelites to follow the laws of God, one of which was 'to honor thy mother'.  But there are people today who would say, yes he was.  So what would you say?

Something to reflect on.

What's Happening

Reading the media reports or watching TV or going to the movies, you would conclude that modern secularism is winning the race over the Judeo-Christian ethos.  The God of Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus is being escorted out of the public square and people are cheering. What's happening here?  Is this a new phenomenon? 

The answer to these questions is simple:  Human beings do not want to be accountable for their actions to anybody, especially to God.  We humans rationalize that the horrid acts and crimes we commit are caused by events, circumstances, persecutions, everything else BUT our own will and desires and greed.  It's society's fault, not the fault of the individual.  We like that argument because it gets us off the hook, or so we think. We become very crafty when we are trying to get away with something, to escape the consequences of our individual actions and behaviors.  It's as old as the Garden of Eden, when Adam blamed Eve for his own disobedience,  "the woman you gave me, she gave me the fruit to eat".  It wasn't bad enough that Eve fell for the serpent's lie, Adam doubled down on the sin by adding another one on top of it by blaming his mate and not fessing up to his own disobedience. 

New names and places and events and millennia have passed, but the story is the same today as then.  We humans want to satisfy our own desires and pleasures more than we want to acknowledge that God exists and expects us to honor and obey Him.  We just would rather not.  The lie is the truth and the truth is the lie. Good is evil and evil is good.  it's all upside down and inside out.  It appears as if there is no hope.  

BUT that is not the case.  There is hope.  That hope is Jesus Christ.  He has not changed.  He offers us a new chance to change our ways and re-order our priorities away from ourselves and toward Him and His plan for us.  He knocks on the door of our heart all the time.  If we would only open the door He will come in and stay.  Now what could be better than that, but to have the creator of the universe living in your heart, all the time.

Come Lord Jesus, come.  Marantha!

Something to reflect on.

This Holy Week

Take time this Holy Week to thank Jesus for everything he has done, for his suffering and sacrifice, for emptying himself so that you might enjoy your life on this earth more, and enjoy life after death with Him in his kingdom.  While we should never forgot the painful suffering he endured during his passion and death, we should always remember WHY he did it.  He did it because he loved us more than his own physical life.  He unselfishly gave up his life to save us.  He once said this, "no greater love has a man than to give up his life for his friend".  He calls you and me to be his friends;  he died for you and me, his friends.  We ought always to remember this, especially during Holy Week.

Something to reflect on.

Soften Your Heart

A soft heart is caring and concerned about others, especially ones we love.  A soft heart that is paying attention to the needs of others is more likely to be generous and giving and selfless -- attributes that can bring you closer to God and more attentive to His plan for you. 

In contrast a hard heart is not so caring nor concerned about others, even the ones close.  A hard heart is not attentive to the needs of others and tends to be selfish -- behavior that can cut off communication with God.  

During this lenten season when we should be seeking to draw closer to God and be more attentive to His will for us,  it is the state of our heart that is the limiting factor in how close we get to Him.  A hard heart is a barrier to our Father in heaven.  A soft heart is an open link to Him, that will enable us to become more eager to do His will because our "self" is subordinated to His will and love.

Why not try and soften your heart to our Lord during Lent; and when Easter arrives see if you are a little closer to Him and He to you.

Something to reflect on.

Open Your Heart

If the God of the universe were to show you that He really does understand what you go through and endure, and knows what it is like to be a human who experiences temptation, pain, fear, hunger, cold, thirst, loneliness, persecution and ridicule, then would you begin to understand better that He loves you and can comfort you and be there with you when you need help?  

The good news is, that is exactly what He did when He sent Jesus Christ into the world.  All you have to do to experience His presence is open your heart a little and ask Him to stay.

Something to reflect on.

A Lesson from Our Past, Applicable for Today

A new year has just started and the clouds of darkness are still overhead.  We are not the first generation to live through difficult times, if that is of any comfort.  Others have lived through worse times suffering great loss and enduring much pain.  One of those times was pre-World War II Germany. Below is an excerpt from "MIT BRENNENDER SORGE", 
an encyclical written by POPE PIUS XI to the Bishops of Germany in 1937.  In it Pope Pius XI warns the leaders and people of the Church in Germany of the effects of compromising the tenets of the faith with the expectations of the state:

It is on faith in God, preserved pure and stainless, that man's morality is based. All efforts to remove from under morality and the moral order the granite foundation of faith and to substitute for it the shifting sands of human regulations, sooner or later lead these individuals or societies to moral degradation. The fool who has said in his heart "there is no God" goes straight to moral corruption (Psalms 13. 1), and the number of these fools who today are out to sever morality from religion, is legion. They either do not see or refuse to see that the banishment of confessional Christianity, i.e., the clear and precise notion of Christianity, from teaching and education, from the organization of social and political life, spells spiritual spoliation and degradation.

 This message and admonition applies to our current generation and circumstance. 

O Holy Mother of God, pray for us and for the Untied States of America.

Fighting God is a Losing Proposition

It's been nearly a year since the HHS mandate was promulgated by Secretary Sebelius and supported by the current Administration.  The HHS mandate is the directive that states that contraceptives and abortion causing drugs be made freely available within employer medical insurance plans under the Affordable Care law, known as "ObamaCare".  The Catholic Church Bishops and other religious organizations which do not believe that human life should be prevented or killed for any reason are expected to comply and obey, even if their religious beliefs are contrary to this law.  Those who are opposed to artificial contraception and abortion are being forced to choose between man-made law and God's law as they see it.  There has been objection and law suits have been filed in opposition to the 'mandate'.  

If you take a step back and look at what is going on and what may be lurking behind this directive, you can't help but think that the ones who are promoting and supporting the 'mandate' either think they can fight God and win, or they think that God is OK with killing the unborn and artificially preventing new human life, or that there is no God anyway and why all the fuss.  

You can forgive those who believe that God doesn't exist or if He does exist that this mandate is not a big deal.  They are misguided and 'know not what they do'.  But for those who think they can fight God and win, wait a minute.  To quote a colloquialism, "I don't think so".  Lots of others before have tried and failed:  Ramses, Herod, Nero, Diocletian, Henry VIII, Stalin, Mao, Hitler, and many, many others.  Lesson: you can't fight God and win.

Something to reflect on.