A CALL TO UNITY

 A SERMON FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

Today is the seventh day in the Chair of Unity Octave.  During this past week we have been praying for all those who are outside the Church that they may join or return to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.  Today, our prayers are for the conversion of our Jewish brethren.  These prayers for unity are based not on the lowest common denominator of what we have in common with our Jewish friends, but rather on the fact that there is one God, one faith, and one baptism, and that true unity cannot exist except through membership of the Mystical Body of Christ—the Church.  Ecumenism claims to want unity.  But it is not true unity they desire.  Ecumenists do not seek to convert others to the truth, to bring those outside the Church into the true fold.  The aim of ecumenism is a false, superficial unity, where we pretend to be united.  “We all believe in “a God”, so therefore we have something in common, and therefore we are all united.”  Deluding ourselves that this is true unity is to set ourselves directly against the commandment of our Lord to his apostles, to go forth and spread the truth of the Gospel, baptizing those outside the Church into the Church.  Those outside the Church, whether Jewish or Moslem, or Jehovah’s Witnesses must be baptized into the true Church of Christ before they are united with us, or with God.

The apostasy the Church has endured since Vatican II has a way of working its way into civil and political life.  This week, former Vice President Joe Biden swore on a Bible to uphold the Constitution of the United States of America and to defend us from all foes, foreign and domestic.  The first thing he said after this, according to the news media, was that “Democracy has prevailed.”  His first words as “president” were, appropriately enough, a lie.  Appropriate because his claim to be president has about as much truth as his claim to be Catholic.  And a lie because since the founding of this nation, there has never been such a resounding failure of democracy as the one we witnessed with this last election.  Even those gullible enough to believe that the election was not stolen must still admit that it was an exercise in failure, as a huge number of the population, probably tens of millions, still do not accept the legitimacy of its outcome.  So most certainly, democracy has not prevailed.

But what’s that, did I say?  That Biden isn’t Catholic?  Well, one of his first actions as he smugly sits in President Trump’s Oval Office, was to restore taxpayer funding to abortions performed overseas.  Biden, whom the new White House Press Secretary assures us is a “devout Catholic” just couldn’t wait to use his new power to murder more of our unborn babies.  Remember this, please, when you fill out your tax returns, and be aware of what your hard-earned dollars are paying for.

I mention this political fact to demonstrate how religious ecumenism has wiggled its way into the very life of our nation.  Because now the facts of what happened on November 3 of last year have been successfully hidden from the people, and instead of a nationwide cry of outrage, the only thing we hear is the shrieking chorus for “Unity!”  From every news anchor and magazine editor, from the US Catholic Bishops and the late-night comedians, we hear with one voice the clarion call to “Unite!”  At the end of the day, after all, we’re all Americans, we all have the same flag, the same Constitution, we pledge allegiance to the one nation, we’re all human beings, so let’s unite together and pledge our allegiance to the new “duly-elected” president…”  He’s “Catholic” and we’re Catholic.  We’re the same faith, the same religion.  We’re “one in the Spirit…” This is political ecumenism at its worst.  As traditional Catholics, we refuse to unite under an illegitimate pope, and as Americans faithful to the Constitution, we should apply the same principle where Caesar is involved.

Any desire for unity must be based on the will of God.  Peace and unity are pleasing to God, but it must not be at the expense of compromising sacred truths and our belief in them.  We can never unite good with evil.  Nor should we want to.  So with whom should we unite?  Who is good and who is evil?  We’re all sinners, after all.  The answer is simple.  The good are those who, having sinned, recognize they have offended God and have the good will to acknowledge their fault and make amends for it.  Evil people do not do that.  On the contrary, they attempt to justify their sins and even rejoice in them.  They boast about a “woman’s choice to do what she wants with her own body,” they fly rainbow flags to proclaim their pride in their vices.  This is how we distinguish the children of light from the children of darkness, the use of our free will to practice good will.  Peace and unity can only exist where there is good will.  “Glory to God in the highest,” sang the herald angels, “and peace to men of good will.”

We should always strive to unite with other men of good will.  This applies to our religious life and our civil life.  We are indeed all human beings, composed of body and soul, and inhabiting both the spiritual and physical domains.  The Church guides our religious beliefs and moral actions.  The State, meanwhile, has the responsibility for protecting and governing its citizens in the material domain.  But we are the same human beings who belong to both Church and State.  We cannot cut ourselves in half, and believe one thing when we go to Mass and the opposite when we go to work.  Only a twisted mind can think himself a good Catholic while at the same time proclaiming himself “pro-choice” and promoting laws that defy God’s commandments.  This is not the good will of which the herald angels sang on Christmas night, and there can be no peace with such people.  No unity!

The sad fact is, that in this world, there is chaff mixed in with the wheat.  Or to put it another way, there are sheep and goats all living together and trying to keep the peace.  That is acceptable to some extent, but we must never forget who we are.  Sheep and goats do not mix.  We sheep are not in union with the goats.  When the Day of Judgment arrives, the angels will separate the sheep from the goats once and for all.  There will certainly be no unity then.  We may be all mixed up together in this world, but not in the next.  On Judgment Day, sheep and goats will be sent on their separate ways, never to unite again. 

Love your neighbor.  Don’t judge him, but judge his actions and try to figure out who is of good will and who is not.  Let’s not make the mistake that just because our neighbor may hold the same US passport and pay taxes to the same IRS, they’re truly “one” with us.  I’ve seen Americans refusing to stand for the national anthem, burning the American flag in the streets, looting stores and tearing down statues of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  They may be Americans but there’s no uniting with these people.  Instead, treat them with the kind of love God expects of us.  St. Paul elaborates on how to do this in today’s Epistle to the Romans, “Recompense to no man evil for evil… if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink… Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”  In other words, don’t feel you have to go and stamp out these people.  Don’t hate them or use violence and hatred against them, no matter how strongly the anger and frustration may bubble up within us.  No, our anger is justified, but it must be controlled. 

But neither does it mean that we need to stand arm in arm with the enemies of our country, foreign or domestic, and be at one with them.  There are plenty of Americans who are our enemies, believe me.  Loving our neighbor has absolutely nothing to do with the kumbaya mentality of the ecumenists and folks screaming at us to “unite.”  Help our enemies when they need it, forgive them their trespasses, seek their salvation.  But don’t sit around the bonfire with them, toasting marshmallows and patting them on the back, assuring them what jolly good fellows they are. 

We need to remember—and practice—the words of the pagan centurion in today’s Gospel, when he said “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof.”  If we are to unite with anyone of good will, we must first unite with God, and the only way we can accomplish this union with God is through the sacrament he gave us, the Sacrament of Holy Communion.  Here we find true union with our Lord Jesus Christ, a union which extends to all others who are equally in union with him.  Here is real union, with our fellow members of his Mystical Body, the Church.

THY HAND, O GOD, HAS GUIDED

 A HYMN FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

By E.H. Plumptre, 1864

 

Thy hand, O God, has guided
Thy flock, from age to age;
The wondrous tale is written,
Full clear, on every page;
Our fathers owned thy goodness,
And we their deeds record;
And both of this bear witness:
One Church, one faith, one Lord.

 

Thy heralds brought glad tidings
To greatest, as to least;
They bade men rise, and hasten
To share the great King's feast;
And this was all their teaching,
In every deed and word,
To all alike proclaiming
One Church, one faith, one Lord.

 

Through many a day of darkness,
Through many a scene of strife,
The faithful few fought bravely,
To guard the nation's life.
Their Gospel of redemption,
Sin pardoned, man restored,
Was all in this enfolded:
One Church, one faith, one Lord.

 

And we, shall we be faithless?
Shall hearts fail, hands hang down?
Shall we evade the conflict,
And cast away our crown?
Not so: in God's deep counsels
Some better thing is stored;
We will maintain, unflinching,
One church, one faith, one Lord.

 

Thy mercy will not fail us,
Nor leave thy work undone;
With thy right hand to help us,
The victory shall be won;
And then, by men and angels,
Thy name shall be adored,
And this shall be their anthem:
One Church, one faith, one Lord.

ENTERING UNDER GOD'S ROOF

A REFLECTION FOR THE 3RD SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

It’s a sad by-product of the times we live in, but it seems that whenever we talk about converting the Jews, or anyone else for that matter, we feel a twinge of guilt as though we’re forcing our own will on other people.  We immediately fight the urge to blush, and remind ourselves that it’s not really our will at all, but God’s will that all people should benefit from the Redemption given them by his Son.  And yet, the nagging thought keeps coming back, often indeed reinforced by the vigorous protestations of those we would convert—that it’s just “our opinion” that the Catholic Church is the only true Church, and that they have just as much of an equal right to believe in their own religion.

 

After all, the freedom to worship God according to one’s own conscience is supposedly, according to our Constitution, one of those God-given rights with which all men are endowed.  There are times, you see, where God and the United States are not quite in agreement.  According to God, we do indeed have free will, but as we well know, that is not the equivalent of being free to do whatever we want.  It simply means that by being free, we may freely do God’s will.  Not our own will, but God’s.  We are physically able to choose to do evil, but we must never do so.  We can choose a false religion, but we must not.  And yet, how do we persuade those of another faith that this is so?

 

It all boils down to whether or not there is such a thing as objective truth.  Those who will not accept that objective truth exists are already lost, creating their own reality to fit their own lifestyle, their own prejudices, their own whims.  But moral truths are as airtight and solid as mathematical truths, and abortion, to cite just one example, is wrong just as much as one plus one equals two.  It’s wrong to take an innocent life, and there are no exceptions—not rape or incest, nor to save the life of the mother, never.  But even some Catholics have a hard time believing this simple truth.  And yet it is the truth.

 

God founded a church.  Why?  To teach us the Truth.  Truths about the nature of God, about the laws concerning moral behavior and divine worship, in short, everything we need for salvation.  So that there may be no hesitation on our part in believing her teachings, God sent the Church his Holy Spirit to guide her infallibly in all matters concerning faith and morals.  It is simply inconceivable that God would abandon us to interpret his revelations individually, without guidance.  The result would be—and is—chaos, with all religions other than the true one having no anchor in a solid objective reality.  No, we must never feel guilty about trying to bring people into the safe haven of the infallible truth.  “Speak the word only,” pleaded the pagan officer, “and my servant shall be healed.”

FILLING THE WATERPOTS

 A SERMON FOR THE 2ND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

I mentioned last week that we should know when it’s important to “heal on the Sabbath.”  What I meant by that was that there are times when we may break the law without incurring any moral censure, in other words, without offending God.  It’s a question of the spirit of the law rather than the letter of the law, and last week we learned, I hope, under what circumstances we may invoke this principle. 

When a civil law is being enforced even with great vigor by an unlawful authority, we may disregard it.  Last week, we learned that even if the authority is lawful, there are times when we may disobey it in order to obey a higher law.  Our Blessed Lord taught us this lesson by his example, when, as a young boy, he remained behind in the temple of Jerusalem “to be about his Father’s business.”  God’s business always comes first, and the 12-year-old Jesus held it in higher esteem even than his respect for our Blessed Lady and St. Joseph.

But after that, having made his point, he went with them to Nazareth “and was subject unto them.”  For how long?  Was it just until he became a teenager, or reached the age of 18?  Did he stop obeying his Blessed Mother once he was baptized in the River Jordan by St. John the Baptist?  Today, we’re given the answer to this question when our Lord accompanied his Mother to a wedding feast in Cana, a town less than four miles from where they lived in Nazareth.  Presumably, a friend of the family was getting married, and our Lord and his Mother had been invited to celebrate their marriage.  The Holy Family was not above enjoying a day of lawful festivity.

But when the poor newly-weds ran out of wine, our Lady was quick to save their wedding feast from disaster.  She merely mentioned to her Son that “they have no wine,” and he, foregoing his own divine plan, submitted to her wishes and performed his first miracle, creating wine out of ordinary drinking water.  It’s abundantly clear from this that the adult Jesus still honored his Mother and wished to fulfill her every request, even when it did not coincide with his own divine will.

Is it any different today?  No it is not.  Before we start whining that our Blessed Lord hasn’t answered all our prayers, let’s remember he still, even now, listens to his Mother’s pleas for us, and has been putting off his divine plan for many years now because of her.  At La Salette and Fatima, our blessed Lady has been warning us what would happen if we do not amend our ways.  But despite these admonitions, the world has become increasingly godless.  No need to give you the litany of awful things, or to remind you we’re living in the midst of a world that’s going completely mad.  But I will remind you that we were warned, and we heeded not those warnings.  Russia was never consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and sure enough, that once-communist nation has now spread her errors, her Marxist philosophy, wherever any upstart group of liberal-minded revolutionaries that has been ready to listen, not just in politics, but in the colleges and universities, in the big technology companies, even in the news and entertainment industries.  We no longer have to force ourselves to imagine Marxists overtaking the United States.  It’s no longer in the realm of imagination, we’re seeing it actually happen.  Many people are surprised that God hasn’t intervened already and wiped us all out.  Indeed, it’s quite likely he may already have done so, if it had not been for the Blessed Virgin Mary, pleading with him to withhold his righteous anger.

Can our Blessed Lady continue to intervene with God?  Can she persuade him to fix the mess we’re in?  At the wedding feast of Cana, when our Lady saw that they had no wine and she resolved to ask her Son to help out the embarrassed newly-weds, she asked but one thing of the stewards: “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.”  If he asks you to fill the waterpots with water, then do it.  If he tells you to then pour out this water into wine glasses and offer it to the honored guests as wine, then don’t question him, just obey.

We must do the same thing.  In these latter days, there have been many apparitions of the Mother of God.  Her message each time has been the same: Pray the Rosary, pray the Rosary, pray the Rosary.  She asks just this one thing.  It sounds like such a simple little task—fill the waterpots with water, pray the Rosary—so easy, and yet have we really taken it seriously?  Pray the Rosary so that you may avoid the terrible chastisement that my Son will otherwise inflict on this sinful world.  It’s not much to ask of us, especially as the consequences of not following her wishes are so severe and terrible.  But perhaps it is such a simple thing to ask, that we doubt its power.  After all, how are a few Hail Marys going to avert the destruction of the world?  They’re surely nothing but a drop in the bucket.  Just another drop of water being poured into the waterpots.  And yet, when our Rosary is complete, when all is said and done, what is poured forth from those waterpots of grace is so sublime, so beneficial, so miraculous, that none of us can ever comprehend the blessings we are given, never mind the evils we avoid.  We just have to take that extra leap of faith, and believe in our Rosaries, believe that God can miraculously change these little beads of water into wine.

We should have such faith!  Our Lord cannot refuse his Mother anything she asks of him.  He might be able to tell us “No!” but not his Mother.  And when we call upon her to intercede for us, he will not only grant her prayers, he will actually be delighted by the filial piety we show towards his Mother, our Mother.  Every time we utter those two simple words, “Hail, Mary!” our Lord is so happy that we are giving honor to his Mother that he pours a deluge of blessings upon us from those infinite waterpots of grace.  All we have to do is follow his Mother’s wishes and fill up those waterpots with our Hail Marys.  Have faith, and out of the evils that weigh so heavily upon us, God will draw such great good such as we cannot begin to imagine.

FOR MARY MOTHER OF OUR LORD

 A HYMN FOR THE 2ND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

By J.R. Peacey, 1896-1971

 

For Mary, Mother of our Lord,

God's holy name be praised;

she first the Son of God adored

as on her child she gazed.

 

Bravely, the Virgin pure believed

-though hard the task assigned-

and by the Holy Ghost conceived

the Saviour of mankind.

 

God's handmaid, she at once obeyed

by her 'Thy will be done';

the second Eve love's answer made

which our redemption won.

 

The busy world gave little space

and time for God on earth;

a cattle stable was the place

where Mary gave him birth.

 

She gave her body as God's shrine,

her heart to piercing pain;

she felt the cost of love divine

when Jesus Christ was slain.

 

Dear Mary, from your lowliness

and home in Galilee,

flow out a joy and holiness

to every family.

 

Hail Mary, thou art full of grace,

above all women blessed,

and blessed thy Son whom thou embrace,

in birth and death confessed.

WHO MADE ME?

 A REFLECTION FOR THE 2ND SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY

"Who made me?" It’s the first question in the catechism, the first thing we learn as a child about our holy religion.  The fact that without God, I wouldn’t even exist.  We go on to learn that while he created most things out of nothing, he made man out of the slime of the earth.  “Remember man, that thou art dust, and into dust thou shalt return.” We’ll be hearing that soon as the priest places ash on our foreheads to remind us of our true worth, at least in natural terms.  But of course, God also made man in his own image and likeness, a likeness that is chiefly in our soul.  And in supernatural terms, that tells us what we are worth in the eyes of God, who ultimate died for our salvation, so much does he love us.

 

Man is man.  He cannot become a chimpanzee, try as he will to act like one.  And a man cannot become a woman, no matter how much lipstick and makeup he puts on the outside, or what kind of plastic surgery and hormone implants he goes through on the inside.  We are what we are—"God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:27)

 

The point is, nature follows the rules that God has appointed.  One of those rules is that whatever a thing is, it stays what it is.  It either already is, or it is already potentially what it will become.  Thus an acorn, though it is is not already an oak tree, has the potential to become an oak tree if the normal rules of nature take their course.  Similarly, a fetus, although not yet a man or woman, has the potential to become one, if we allow nature to do its work.  It cannot become a rock, or a tree—it has the potential only to become one thing, just as a boy will grow up to be a man, or a girl to be a woman.

 

Water has its own rules.  It has the potential to become ice if it gets cold enough, or steam if we heat it up to the right temperature.  Water, ice and steam, though, all have the same chemical components, and are essentially the same thing.  Water cannot become something completely different.  It cannot become a rock or a tree.  Water cannot become wine.  It is physically impossible.

 

And yet it happened.  Today’s Gospel reveals how the Messiah, at the behest of his Mother, turned the physical matter of water into something essentially different—into wine.  This did not follow the rules of nature that God created.  It broke every scientific rule in the book.  But is that so amazing when we consider that it was God who created not just wine and water, but the rules of nature that govern them?  It was God who made those scientific rules, and so it is God alone who can override them.  When he does so, it is called a miracle.  Christ’s first miracle at Cana in Galilee showed to the world that he was God.

AND WAS SUBJECT UNTO THEM

A SERMON FOR THE HOLY FAMILY

Here’s a remarkable thing we see in today’s Gospel.  When the young boy Jesus returns to Nazareth with his Mother and foster-father, the Gospel tells us that “he was subject unto them.”  Now it’s not such a remarkable thing that a child should be subject to his parents.  What should fill us with wonder, however, is that the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, the divine Son of the Most High Almighty God should submit himself to two of his creatures.  This is an extraordinary act of humility with which our blessed Lord began his life on earth.  And it reveals also the astonishing degree to which he exalted his humble and meek Mother and foster-father.  For this reason alone, we too must revere and honor not only these two creatures of grace, St. Joseph and of course our Lord’s holy Mother, the Purest of Creatures, full of grace.

In doing so, our Lord sets us an example that is sometimes hard to follow.  An example of humility.  And an example that we must follow under pain of sin.  Basically, it’s the Fourth Commandment.  “Honor thy father and thy mother.”  Today, let’s look at this commandment to see how far it extends beyond that microcosm of society, the family.  Yes, children must respect their parents, but equally, we’re bound to honor and respect all those who hold legitimate authority over us.

In addition to our parents, those who hold such authority are, first of all, those who represent our mother and father by helping them do their work of parenting: other members of the family like grandparents, uncles and aunts; teachers; baby-sitters.  Then there are those in authority in the communities to which we belong: magistrates and those in law enforcement, for example.  And finally, we must honor and respect those who hold authority in the workplace, and even in the clubs to which we belong.  This last one is important because it includes especially the secular and religious authorities who govern us.

I want to focus in on this last category, these secular and religious authorities.  Those who hold these positions lawfully are God’s representatives in the domain of their respective offices, and as such must be obeyed and respected according to the precept of the Fourth Commandment.  We have no choice in the matter.  For those with spiritual authority over us, namely the legitimate Catholic popes, bishops and pastors of the Roman Catholic Church, we are duty bound to honor and love them as our spiritual fathers, to submit fully to their instructions, and depending on circumstances, to provide for their support.

Now this, of course, brings us to another point we must consider.  You see, we do not have the obligation to be obedient to any authority in every instance.  Only God is owed unconditional obedience.  The claim to obedience on the part of those with spiritual, or secular authority for that matter, is fundamentally limited.  Obedience is owed only to authority that is lawful.  For example, when a bishop publicly proclaims a heresy, he immediately loses his office; he need not, indeed, must not be obeyed.  Which is why we’re here and not at the local Novus Ordo church this morning.  But if you truly believe Jorge Bergoglio to be the Vicar of Christ, you are duty bound to obey him in all things not sinful.  The reason we need not obey him is that we do not consider him to be a legitimate Pope who has been given the power from God to exercise any authority.  We’ve had years and years to consider this problem, and are where we are today, because of this conclusion we’ve made after careful and diligent reasoning.

Today, we are forced to consider something new.  Because the same principles we apply in the spiritual domain must be applied now to the secular authorities who govern over us.   The conclusions we must come to are based on how we consider the legitimacy of the presidential election that took place last November.  I know that many are grappling with this dilemma, but it is not my job to pontificate about things political except insofar as it affects our moral behavior.  And depending on your conclusion about the legitimacy of a Biden presidency, your actions will be judged accordingly.  If you believe that Biden has been lawfully declared President-Elect by Congress, and that he will be legally sworn in on January 20, then you must respect him as the duly elected President of the United States, and submit to his laws.  If, however, you believe in your heart that the election was stolen, rigged, and in no way expressing the legitimate will of the people, that Congress failed to protect the Constitution this week, then you are morally perfectly free to disregard Mr. Biden’s laws and show him no respect whatsoever.  This is not being disrespectful to the office of the presidency, as you would believe, presumably, that he does not hold that office.  And there can be no such thing as sedition against him, because then it would be Mr. Biden who is in sedition, having betrayed the Constitution by accepting the results of a stolen election. 

So either he’s going to be the legitimate president or he isn’t.  It’s not my job here to tell you what to think, whether to believe that he is or he isn’t, or even to bother you with my own personal beliefs on the matter.  You must follow your own conscience and all I’m trying to do from this church pulpit is to provide some guidance as to what is, and what is not, morally acceptable behavior based on your conclusions.

Be careful though!  If you choose to reject the presidency of Mr. Biden, this doesn’t mean you can go out and do whatever you want.  It isn’t a license to become totally lawless.  Any law that follows the law of God is legitimate and must be obeyed, no matter what illegitimate authority is enforcing it.  So you can’t just go out and steal and kill, tear down statues and burn down the Capitol.  It just means you don’t owe an illegitimate government the usual duties we have towards them.  So let’s briefly examine what those duties are towards a rightful government, and see which ones we can legitimately disregard without offending God when the government is not rightful and legitimate. 

Normally, these duties are threefold: first, to show those who govern us respect, loyalty and obedience—we’ve covered that already, and would not need to show any such filial piety towards any illegitimate authority. 

Secondly, we are required to stand by our government in need and danger—not so much the persons who govern us, as the country they govern.  As far as their personal needs and dangers are concerned, they have plenty of Secret Service around them paid to take care of that.  Still, if the need and opportunity arises, we always have the duty to stand by our neighbor, love our neighbor, even if he’s a sinner or a tyrant.  But our duty to the nation itself continues, and we must still do everything within our power to protect the United States from her enemies, both foreign and domestic—and there are plenty of both.  Civil servants take an oath to do this, and it should really apply to all citizens.  The military must continue their work, and we would still be required to fight in case of war. If there’s civil war, who knows, our duty must be to defend the Constitution, and the same goes even when it’s attacked in peacetime.

Our third duty to our government is to pay taxes.  Our Lord himself made this quite clear, that we must render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.  So I’d be getting myself in a whole heap of trouble, both with God and the government, if I simply told you that you don’t need to pay your taxes.  In normal circumstances though, it’s morally incumbent on us only to pay our due taxes, namely, a reasonable contribution towards those things which the state must maintain for the common good, such as the maintenance of our infrastructure, the military, education, medical research, and hundreds of other national requirements on which our tax dollars are wisely spent.  That is only fair and proper, and indeed it would be immoral to refuse such contributions for these legitimate expenses.  However, it’s a different story if our tax dollars are being diverted to support Planned Parenthood, or tearing down the border wall, transgender experimentation, free education and welfare checks for illegal immigrants—the new “government” will have a never-ending wishlist of wasteful, and indeed sinful, expenses that they want to impose on the taxpayer.  Of course, if your taxes are simply taken out of your paycheck, there’s not much you can do about it, but to voluntarily give money for these purposes is not only a bad idea, it can amount to being actually complicit in the sins to which they lead.  So as far as paying your taxes is concerned, figure it out for yourselves.  Morally speaking, you may not owe the government as much as you think.

And one other point here before we leave the subject of taxes.  Everything I’ve said so far about tax applies to its imposition by legitimate governments.  But if Caesar isn’t really Caesar, do we need to render anything at all to him?  After all, this country was founded on the principle that there should be “no taxation without representation.”  If you think the real vote of the people was ignored and that our “representatives” in Congress and the White House are nothing more than usurpers who succeeded in a bloodless coup, then according to the American tradition, they have no right to tax you at all.  Indeed, you might consider that if enough citizens refuse to feed the beast that is hell-bent on devouring this country, this may indeed be the best way to defend our nation from its claws. 

To sum up our duties towards an illegitimate government, we must conclude that we must still obey all of the laws that are imposed upon us if they are God’s laws.  Whenever they go against the laws of God, they must be disregarded, and if necessary, disobeyed, and this we must do no matter what the consequences.  If, however, the law is disciplinary, we must assess whether or not it is being reasonably imposed.  In the case of paying our taxes, for example, then we must consider whether the taxes are inordinately high, or being used for spurious purposes, or simply being imposed by a government that does not represent us.  Depending on your conclusion, it is, morally speaking, your choice whether to comply with the tax law or not.  If you do not comply, however, you must be ready to face whatever civil consequences are then meted out to you.  If you are put in jail, you will not be a martyr, you’ll just be in jail.  So you decide what’s worth standing up for.  Pick your fights!  Again, my disclaimer here is that this is not advice on what to do, merely a summary of the Church’s teachings on a subject that is currently on people’s minds.

With all that having been said, it is the feast of the Holy Family today, so let’s turn our thoughts back to that happy home in Nazareth, where peace and harmony dwelled.  It dwelled there because there was no overturning of the natural ways of God—a Child is subject to his Mother and foster-father.  No matter how wonderful and almighty that Child was, he submitted himself to a legitimate earthly authority as an example of humility to us all.  We must always follow his example by honoring any authority that is legitimate, and which comes from God.  Our blessed Lord followed the law of Moses at all times, except when the higher law of charity prevailed.  We must do the same, and that means that in the current situation it is quite moral and lawful in the eyes of God to do whatever we can to “heal on the Sabbath.”  Interpret that wisely!  Be prudent!  Remember that our first submission must be according to the First Commandment, not the Fourth, and that the laws of God always come first.

O HOME OF NAZARETH, SO BLEST

 A HYMN FOR THE HOLY FAMILY

From the Office of Lauds

 

O Home of Nazareth so blest,

Thy sheltering hospitality

God's Church begat, made manifest

In thine own happy Family.

 

The sun, in coursing o'er the earth,

No happier spot hath lighted on,

Nor on a place of greater worth

Through all the ages hath he shone.

 

This house of God, how dread it is!

Here Angels came, and stood in line;

Heaven's courtiers waited here with bliss

Their turn to serve at virtue's shrine.

 

With diligence, in nothing loth,

There Jesus did good Joseph's will;

And Mary gladly served them both

As mother-wife, yet virgin still.

 

Her every care was Joseph's too,

Who toiled in love from dawn till night;

And so to them could grace accrue

From him who is the source of might;

 

For love of Jesus made these twain

In love conjugal e'en as one,

Whereby a great reward they gain,

Eternal love from him, their Son.

 

Like this, may Christian homes on earth

In holy charity increase;

Love sweeten pain, and give it worth,

And keep them all in God's sweet peace.

 

Praise God, who served, whilst here on earth,

Joseph, and her who gave him birth;

Whom with the Father, we adore,

And Holy Ghost, for evermore.  Amen.

LOST AND FOUND

 A REFLECTION FOR THE HOLY FAMILY

LOST AND FOUND

We’re painfully aware that when we commit a grave sin, we lose that sanctifying grace within us which alone can save our soul.  We banish from our soul the Holy Ghost, and yield instead to a false god, an idol, placing ourselves and our own interests and pleasures ahead of those of our Creator.  But what if we haven’t sinned quite so badly, but still feel that God is absent from us, and that we have lost him?

 

The fact is, at times like this, God is not lost.  It’s just that we have lost sight of him.  We become so distracted by the events of this world that we forget all about Divine Providence, God’s eternal plan for mankind, and the ultimate victory which belongs to him alone.  We look at the madness that surrounds us on every side, and once the anger and frustration subsides, we give in to a surreal depression, a hopeless feeling that we can do nothing to improve our lot, and that things can only get worse and never better.

 

“Behold,” says Psalm 120, “ he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.”  God sees what’s going on, he is quite aware of the sinful lunacy of those who find truth only in their own lies, and for whom the only good rests in their own evil ways.  He understands our pain, our dejection, our frustration.  And he allows it to happen only so that the final victory may be all the more glorious.

 

I believe that God deliberately hides himself from our sight at times like this.  When our Lady and St. Joseph lost their Child in Jerusalem, that Child was not really lost.  He wasn’t wandering the streets, crying for his parents.  He knew exactly where he was and what he was doing.  They had just lost sight of him, that’s all.  And so they sought him.  And that is what God expects of us too during this crisis in our nation’s life.  It isn’t enough to wail and lament as we continue our journey back to Nazareth or wherever it is we want to be.  No, like Christ’s Mother and foster-father we must turn back and actively seek God, knowing full well that only he can make sense of everything and restore peace and joy to our souls.

 

This is what God wants from us right now.  He may be hidden but he is not lost.  He wants us to look for him.  “Seek, and ye shall find!”  And when we find God in the midst of our tribulations, in him shall we find the way out of them.  This is the message the Holy Family gives us today, that we may never tire of seeking out our Blessed Lord, especially in our darkest hour, because he alone can make the hour brighter, he who is the Light of the World.

IT'S ALL IN THE PREP!

 A SERMON FOR THE NEW YEAR

It’s all in the prep!  That’s one of those axioms we learn from our mothers early on in life.  When we want to do something, we have to prepare for what we’re going to need when we do it.  If we go outside to build a snowman, we need to put our boots and gloves and winter coat on, take a carrot for the snowman’s nose, lumps of coal for his eyes, and a scarf to put round his neck.  As we get older, we apply the same principle to everything we do.  When we go on vacation, we know we need to apply for a passport, buy sunscreen, pack our bags, book our flight, and so on.  We can’t just get in the car and drive to the airport.  We have to prepare all the things we need.

It’s a principle that comes from no less than God himself.  Because before he created man on the Sixth Day, he spent five days preparing a place for him to live.  He first created light, then a planet on which we could live, a sun to give us heat and light, plants and animals for us to eat, in short, everything man would need in order to live naturally and have a suitable environment in which to save his soul.  And then, later on, he would prepare the world for the arrival of his Son, making sure that when the Messiah was born, man would have no excuse for not believing in him.  He himself announced to Adam and Eve that there would be a Woman who would crush the head of Satan, he sent prophets to tell us that the Saviour would be born in Bethlehem, to describe the events of his life in every way.  At his birth, he prepared a star in the heavens to lead kings from afar to Bethlehem, he sent his herald angels to proclaim the Messiah’s birth.  God carefully prepared the world for his Son, doing everything that was necessary to ensure we would have no excuse whatsoever for ignoring or rejecting him.

The Church follows the example of Almighty God, by giving us the four weeks of Advent to prepare our souls for the joys of Christmas.  Now the season is finally upon us, it is our turn to have no excuse to ignore its true meaning, or reject the lessons we learn from the Nativity of our Divine Saviour.  Now is the time for one such lesson.  A couple of days ago, on January the First, we learned the true meaning of Christmas—that, yes, Christ the Saviour is born, but that the emphasis is not so much on the “born” part, but on the word “Saviour”.  We learned how this tiny Christ Child would be our Saviour, how he would save us all from Satan’s power when we have gone astray.  By shedding his first few drops of blood—the Most Precious Blood that would re-open the gates of heaven, the Blood of the New and Everlasting Covenant between God and man. 

Today we commemorate the Holy Name of Jesus that he received at the same time of his Circumcision.  We revere and venerate that Holy Name because he shed those drops of Blood, and would do so again, this time to the very last drop at his Passion and Death.  He saved us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray.  And for this we bless the Holy Name of Jesus.

God never stops preparing us, and his Bride, the Church, is always anxious to help God with his preparations.  Do we think perhaps that it’s a coincidence that this first shedding of Christ’s Blood should take place on the first day of January, the first day of a New Year?  That the New and Everlasting Covenant and the New Year should fall on the same day?  The Feast of the Circumcision has to fall on the First of January because according to Jewish law, a male child is circumcised exactly eight days after his birth, and that was Friday, the Octave Day of Christmas.  That day, of course, was also New Year’s Day, and the threshold between the old year and the new year, the doorway between past and future, a new and everlasting future that will never end.  Sure, heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Word of God shall not pass away.  This little Christ Child, with the spilling of his Precious Blood, shall never pass away, and neither shall we, because he has brought to us the gift of eternity!  The promise of everlasting life, a promise or covenant that is truly a new and everlasting covenant.

Have we prepared for the New Year?  Or have we done what most of the world does?  Did we simply walk across that threshold and out into the new year on Thursday night with no preparation whatever, simply partying, drinking ourselves silly, celebrating the movement of a man-made ball a few feet downwards over Time Square in a faraway state?  Was that the extent of our preparation for the New Year?  Or have we made plans for what we need, as we go out that doorway and into the unknown?  Have we taken the time to figure out what we need to take with us?  Have we resolved to do what is necessary to receive the benefits of those first few drops of the Precious Blood spilled by our Saviour?  Have we made our New Year’s Resolutions?  Not the dieting and giving up smoking, not keeping our desk tidy or making sure we don’t have more than one English muffin for breakfast.  I mean real resolutions, ones that will bring us merit in the eyes of God and the blessings and graces that he will bestow upon us if we keep them.  It’s not too late.  We’re only a couple of days into the new year, and we still have that special opportunity for which we shall surely be judged on that dreadful day of reckoning.  Make the most of the opportunity, and prepare for the coming year, for a future which does not end when our earthly life passes away.  It’s all in the prep.