Too bad they can't just dislike us a lot...

With the way modern TV has become (see above), I am quickly becoming very supportive of Michael Voris, executive producer of RealCatholicTV.com. He has had some brilliant commentary on the Obama at Notre Dame Debacle as I posted here a few days ago. But now he has come up with a very intensive reflection for our last week of Lent.

Unfortunately, many Catholics will blow this off. Some priests, deacons, and lay people alike may laugh off his position as being "extremist" or "overly traditional" or "being too Catholic." I, for one, think he couldn't be more right. If you read through the Letters of St. Paul he clearly said, "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as "refuse" [which in the original Greek really means "poop"] in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him (Phil 1:8-9)."

With relatively recent surveys that have up to 60% of Catholics, if not more, NOT believing in the Real Presence of Our Lord Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, one wonders what will become of Christ's Holy Catholic Church which we have been entrusted with to promote and to grow. If only more priests and deacons would preach on the fact that everyone in the parish is, whether they know it or not, part of the RCIA team at each and every Parish! Every one of us is already giving the witness of the importance and persistent practice of our Catholic Faith... or we aren't. The question we must ask ourselves is can we say everything else in our life, even our own earthly desires - including our desire to see the Church transformed the way we want to see it go, have been crucified with Christ, so that in Christ I meet God's way of living, God's way of thinking, because in our baptism we have already been made his adopted sons and daughters!!!

Let us be like the littlest children, and obey God with childlike love by means of the teachings of his Holy Catholic Church - though we may disagree with our priest or our deacons, never let us forget that they are not our Catholic Faith. Our Catholic Faith comes in the teachings of Holy Mother Church (which can be found summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church). We should never let a priest, deacon or lay person lead us astray or cause us to lose faith, though they are human they are still our brothers and sisters in Christ and we should obey Him who gave them pastoral authority over us (namely God our Father), as hard as it may be sometimes.

In fact, one of my students at the Biblical School asked me this morning if Paul really meant in Romans 13:1 "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of him who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute his wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God's wrath but for the sake of conscience. For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay all of them their dues, taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due (Rom 13:1-3)." The answer is YES, he did mean it! We must be faithful citizens, but to be faithful citizens means to honor Christ above all things, otherwise we aren't even faithful to being what we are!!!

The question, in the Notre Dame Scandal, is whether our President is due an honorary Doctorate by a Catholic Institution. The answer, demonstrably, is "No!" ON the one hand, we due owe respect to the office of President. On the other, if we are to serve Christ first above all things, even the President cannot be held in honor by a University claiming the glorious title "Catholic."

As I said, Michael Voris has a great point and each of us should also consider our own lives and whether each of us - priest, deacon, or lay person - are also worthy of having others consider our life and ascribe to us that same glorious title of being "Catholic." Even if people are annoyed by us, at least he has a point.