By the sweat of our brows...

If you are not aware of it, then you may have missed the chill put on by laypeople, by priests, and by unfortunately even a few bishops in the last 40 years. Since people began to not hear the teaching of Holy Mother Church and focusing on the so-called "Spirit of Vatican II" - read a spirit of rebellion or revolution - some of the older Catholics who fill the pews, unfortunately have allowed themselves to fall into disobedience. The Letter to the Hebrews is quite clear that we should keep ourselves from this sin of Adam. Rather, as with Adam & Eve, we should have the wisdom and faith to abandon and entrust ourselves to the Holy Catholic Faith. Why? Well, obviously because a bunch of old dudes got together and made it all up, right? Certainly, these merely human mythic old dudes could come up with something that would last for 2000 years, longer than any other institution on the face of the planet earth.

Or could it be that the Holy Spirit of God promised by Jesus has maintained the Sacred Tradition of the Church in handing on the Deposit of Faith in every generation.

Perhaps, as one gentleman who has published a heretical book from St. Jude has said, "the Church must change with the times." NO! Of course not!

Why do we humans have such an aversion to believing and then believing fully. Paul told his listeners in Hebrews, "For whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest [which God provides], that no one fall by the same sort of disobedience (Heb 4:10-11)." We so often want to tell God how things should be run, that we forget that the salvation and redemption wrought by Jesus on the Cross was a free gift!

This gift freely given, however, calls us to a new way of life. This is why Jesus told his disciples, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold I am with you always until the close of the age (Mt 28:19-20)." You are NEVER going to come up with the Catholic Faith by watching "Meet the Press" on Sunday Mornings, or watching "American Idol", or any other TV program or doing anything else. The Holy Catholic Faith is something that must be learned, and even to be studied. In short, the whole of the Holy Catholic Faith is a free gift to be received with great joy. As Jesus puts it, "Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will NEVER enter the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18:3)."

We have the ability as humans, by our freewill, to receive God or to reject God. Yet, what is best for us? As Paul again says in Hebrews, "About this [i.e. the mystery of Jesus] we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need some one to teach you again the first principles of God's word. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil (Heb 5:11-14)."

Unfortunately, in my experience so many of our elderly brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church today have NOT been taught the Holy Catholic Faith. They have been taught opinions and conjectures and lies. Is this not why Jesus called Satan the "Father of Lies" though? How else would he draw Christ's faithful away from Him who has said of Himself that He is "the truth, the way and the life (Jn 14:6)." Brothers and Sisters in Christ, whoever may read this humble post, flee to Christ! Read the Catechism of the Catholic Church! Ask questions of those who speak Christ's Truth: good solid Priests, Deacons and Catechists, and theologians who love Jesus and serve Jesus!

"How will I know them?" You might ask, Jesus already told us: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are revenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathed from thorns, or figs from thistles? So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will known them by their fruits (Mt 7:15-20)."

IF all of us can get "weaned" from Holy Mother Church, in order that we learn how to pick up our cross and follow after our Lord Jesus Christ, then Christ will finally have the means to change the face of the planet earth by first establishing his kingdom in us! We can only do this when we abandon ourselves fully to the Holy Spirit who gives us every grace to accomplish our tasks assigned to us by God. As St. Paul put it in Ephesians, "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them (Eph 2:10)." And could it be that some of our Catholic brothers and sisters are already awakening to the Holy Ghost from the slumber of faithlessness and doubt sown, largely, by ravenous wolves after Vatican II?

Micheal Voris puts this into perspective in his most recent commentary over at RealCatholicTV.com. I, for one, agree with him. Let us also awake, for our salvation draws near!!!