FOLLOWING IN HIS FOOTSTEPS

 A SERMON FOR PASSION SUNDAY

The world is spiraling out of control.  This is no longer a conspiracy theory, but a fact.  It’s a fact we can see for ourselves as we witness the daily disintegration of all our institutions, including the very Church herself.  Not only do we see everything falling part, but we are becoming ever more conscious of the fact that if we don’t join in this frenzy of destruction, we ourselves will be the next target.  If we aren’t “woke”, then prepared to be judged by the world as someone worthy only to be cancelled, to be eliminated from what they now recognize as “civilized” society.  For now, it just means getting kicked off Twitter for putting America first, or losing your job for not taking the vaccine.  How long though before our bank accounts are frozen, we’re not allowed to buy food, are forced to wear yellow armbands to identify us, and finally hunted down as racist transphobic anti-feminists and forced to forfeit everything we have including our very life?  Hopefully, it won’t go that far, but if it doesn’t, it will only be because the progressive left will have failed.  I only mention these dire predictions, because certainly, that is their ultimate goal.  Just remember though, in this torrent of dangerous drivel coming from the progressive elite, it is the world that is judging us for not being like them.  And the judgment of the world counts for nothing.  Let’s focus rather on the judgment of God, which we will all face sooner or later, and which counts far more highly as we are weighed in the balance and found worthy of heaven or hell.

The reason I mention these unpleasant things today is that we’re entering into the darkest and most unbearable period of the Church’s year, Passiontide.  We face the prospect of coming face to face again with the unspeakable torments our blessed Lord suffered for our sins.  We approach those days of darkness on which we are forced to come to terms with what we have done, and the consequences that our loving Saviour had to endure because of our manifold offences.  Psychologically this is not an easy time in our liturgical life, and this year it’s coupled with a whole new set of fears in even our own daily life.  Bleak times all round, and apparently there’s nowhere to turn for comfort.  Except God of course.  As we become embroiled in these fears for our own fate, we must remember that they did it all to our Lord first.  And if we are called upon to follow in his footsteps up Mount Calvary a little further than we had anticipated, then so be it.  We will follow.

This escalation of dire problems in the world is following a familiar pattern.  It starts with revolution against the sound moral values of a civilized society by a small minority who want to replace the laws of God and nature with, basically, nothing.  No laws.  No inhibitions.  Nothing to hold us back from doing whatever we want.  Welcome to the 1960s.  And half a century later, we’re left with the children and grandchildren of the hippy generation who are now all grown up and running our country and the world with increasingly outrageous spiritual and political ideas.  They are an ever growing minority, an ever growing cancer on our society, and there have been very few so far who have dared to lift a finger to cut this cancerous growth out. 

In the Middle Ages, they had the Inquisition for times like this.  That institution has acquired a very bad name in the world, but as Catholics, you should remember that again it is precisely this world that judges the Inquisition.  After all, four of the Grand Inquisitors are canonized saints: St. Peter the Martyr, St. John Capistran, St. Peter Arbues and Pope St. Pius V.  These were saints, not interested in hunting down those who didn’t agree with them, not concerned with punishing those who dared to deny the faith.  Their concern was solely with protecting the innocent from the wicked.  And today, if our own anger boils up against the wicked and the woke, we should follow their example and turn our anger into emotions of compassion for their victims rather than into hatred for their iniquity.

Unfortunately, the false Church of Vatican II has abolished the Office of the Inquisition, and has even apologized for the so-called “intolerance” of the past.  They have relaxed the moral laws and are currently exploring ways of relaxing even the natural law.  The result is that the innocent in society are no longer protected, and as a result have defected in droves from the moral values they once embraced.  It’s the path of the devil of course—"do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”  And that’s a very easy path to follow, once you change direction.

The events described in today’s Gospel are a microcosm of what is happening in the world today.  Take a look—many of the Jews have become sick and tired of Jesus and his teachings that placed the spirit of the law above the letter.  They’re so obsessed with their own interpretation of Scripture that when our Lord reprimands them for being “not of God,” they immediately seek to “cancel” him.  Their hatred spews forth and they accuse him, the Son of God no less, of having a devil.  Notice how calmly our Lord replies to the challenge, always offering his adversaries words of truth and charity. Any man of good will would react to his words by having an intelligent debate with our Lord, but these were not men of good will.  They showed their true colors by doubling down on their venomous attacks, “Now we know you have a devil.” They seek to use our Lord’s words to trick him into an admission that he is greater than Abraham so they would have an excuse for killing him for blasphemy against the holy patriarch.  Our Lord tells them instead that Abraham rejoiced to see this day, “he saw it, and was glad.”  Now the Jews mock Jesus for claiming to have known Abraham when he isn’t even fifty years old.  The conversation has gradually become more and more dangerous, but our Lord was not in the least disturbed by this.  He calmly announces what the evil men wanted to hear, “Before Abraham was, I am.”  And they rend their garments in horror at his words.  Despite all the truths he’d given them, all the opportunities to listen and understand the ways of God, they were hell-bent all along on their own agenda, which was to trap our Lord into blasphemy.  What they didn’t understand, and didn’t try to understand, was that the supposed blasphemy they heard was actually the simple and divine truth, the truth that here before them stood the Son of God himself.  They were too narrow-minded to contemplate his possibility.  And so then “they took up stones to cast at him.”

Have you noticed that whatever good things we say, or that other good people say, whether they’re conservative politicians or the few truthsayers left in the media, no matter what they say or how truthful or charitable it is, the progressive, woke crowd on the left will use their words to try and destroy them.  Just one example, if I may: when the CEO of Chick-Fil-A happened to mention a few years ago that he personally believes that marriage is between a man and a woman, the left went into a frenzy of hatred against his restaurants, banning Chick-Fil-A from their cities, boycotting their sandwiches, and basically trying to drive the whole company into bankruptcy.  The fact that it backfired, thanks to loyal conservative customers, only served to make them even more angry and hateful.  It’s just one example of how they operate, and unfortunately we’ve become so accustomed to this kind of destructive hate that we accept as being “normal.”

Our Lord warned us about this.  He said: “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”  It’s why, on this Passion Sunday, we try to come terms with not only the sufferings and death of our Saviour, but our own sorrows and tribulations also.  We call to mind that our Lord told the women of Jerusalem on the way to his crucifixion, “Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.”  We weep in our fear and in our pain, but at least we deserve it!  Like these holy women, we must follow our blessed Lord up that terrible hill that is Calvary, to whatever fate God permits us to suffer.  We are Christians, followers of Christ.  That sentiment is not meaningless.  We follow not just his teachings, we follow Him!  And where is he going?  To Golgotha, the place of the skull.  We know where he ended up in this life, and if we’re called upon to follow him there, then follow we must.  Listen to what he said: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what will it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

So don’t worry if you’re being suspended from Facebook, don’t worry if you have to choose between your job and your health, don’t worry even when the really nasty stuff starts happening.  “Fear not,” said our Lord, “fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.  Don’t worry about those other things, don’t sweat the small stuff.  Worry about falling into sin, worry about abandoning your Saviour and following the world to hell.  Keep your eyes on the prize: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”  If we follow Christ to Calvary, we will surely follow him to heaven.