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.
