Complacency

Hi.  Peace to all of you.

 

Today’s readings from the Companion are for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.  In Acts we read the story of how Peter, imprisoned for preaching is released from prison in the middle of the night by an angel.  The Gospel recounts the passage in Matthew in which Jesus asks the question,” Who do people say that I am?”  After being pressed for their own personal faith statement, Peter responds, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God.” 

 

In Fr. Mark’s reflection in Vision 2000 (www.v2000.org), he asks the questions “How complacent am I about the moral status of my personal life?  Of our nation?”

 

Although the two reflections come from different Scripture passages, they seem closely related to me.  The fundamental question here is, “How strong is our faith?”

 

If you and I are convinced of the reality of God, Jesus, Salvation, forgiveness for sin, then we live our lives with a sense of confidence and certainty.  Everything that we are tells people that we know the Truth.  We can tolerate difficulty, pain and suffering because at the end of this temporary existence there is Eternal Life and Eternal Happiness.  We proclaim the Good News by the fruits of our lives.

 

This does not mean that we do not sin.  We are imperfect and subject to temptation and to falling to temptation.  That is a fact and will be so until after we are dead.  We will never achieve perfection until we live in perfect union with our God.  The knowledge that our struggle is not in vain encourages us to continue the struggle and to grow in Faith.

 

But, it is easy for us to become insular and to try to shield ourselves and our children from the world around us, a world which we seem to have little chance to influence.  So, we accept that abortion is a woman’s individual right.  We accept that violent retaliation against other nations, or in the current situation “pre-emptive retaliation”, is acceptable to our Christian beliefs and the only logical response to worldwide violence.  We support capital punishment, desecration of our bodies thru tattooing, the abuse of alcohol and drugs.  We even stand back and allow school boards to approve the teaching of homosexual “marriage” as a legitimate option for living and for raising children.

 

It is easy to say, “Well, just don’t turn the television on.”  Or, “I know lots of nice homosexuals.”  Or, “A woman’s body is her own.”  But, this is skirting the moral issue.  As followers of Christ, we must speak out against this kind of immorality – recognizing in all humility that we have our own set of sins that we really don’t want or need to air in public. 

 

But, we must encourage society, our nation and the world, to venture onto road to perfection with us.  And, we must be merciful to ourselves and to others when we inevitably stumble along the way.

 

 

Please keep your prayers up for all of our regular intentions.  There are so many needs.

 

 

Let us pray together,

Father, God, we praise you and adore you.  We thank you for your countless blessings.  We lay our hearts bare and ask you to forgive us our sins and our laziness.  Send your Holy Spirit.  Encourage us and strengthen us so that we will give best Christian example to our neighbors, friends, and workmates.  Help us to build support to begin to steer our nation back to you and back to decent, moral living.  Help us as a people to witness to non-believers that they, too, might come to know the peace and solace of living in love for all peoples.  Dear God, we are in such need of your help.  Please answer this prayer which we lay before you through the intercession of your beloved son, Jesus.  Amen.

 

Be like Bartimaeus.  Pray!  Trust!  Expect!

 

In Him and always in His love,

Lou