Apr 05 – Homily – Fr Elias: Net of Faith
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Homily #130405b (
10min) Play - Fr. Elias on the symbolism of the boat, the net, and the fish referred to in the Gospel which represent the Church and the many peoples that will become members of it. He relates this to how we need Faith to enter the Church and how this faith must be complete, an assent to the whole body of the Church's teaching.Ave Maria!
Mass: Friday of Easter Week - Wkdy - Form: OF
Readings:
1st: act 4:1-12
Resp: psa 118:1-2, 4, 22-24, 25-27
Gsp: joh 21:1-14
Audio (MP3)+++
It started with contraception, then sex outside of marriage, then divorce, then same sex unions/marriage, and finally the ugliest piece of rotten fruit to come from it all — abortion.
And I have to wholeheartedly agree with Father. Where are the priests and bishops and “Catholic” parents and school teachers? Where are the Catholic people who must assent to all, everything the Church holds as the unchangeable truth of Jesus Christ.
A parish priest may well want to preach the truth, to do his job, to teach the youth of his parish. But when the teachers in the school, or the parents at home, aren’t willing to hear it or live it, then it soon enough gets covered over with the ways of the world. After all, he wants the parishioners to respect him, to see him as a good, caring, and likeable man.
Cafeteria catholicism — we may condemn abortion and even birth control, and even same sex marriage — but then we turn around and ignore the Church’s teaching on divorce — which also is immoral, as Holy Mother Church teaches concerning the sanctity of marriage and family.
And so it goes. The slide begins. Soon enough avoiding the “near occasion of sin” becomes a silly, out of date “idea” that granny used to have, and we’re out in the clubs drinking and dancing, with all the usual sexual innuendo that goes along with today’s club culture.
And before you know it, the passions disordered win over. And the youth group okays it, because they don’t really know Jesus as their Lord and Master anyway.
He’s been made out to be a sort of overly-indulgent father who gives in to whatever folly we might care to pursue. Even perhaps, we might say, okays it.
If we are out of the net on any of these issues, as Father says, we are not His fish. We are something other than part of that catch. And if we are in the net and infecting it with our bad theology and practice,
then we are also poisoning the rest of the school.
There is, sadly, no voice from the clergy, on these issues, within hundreds or thousands of miles of most Canadian dioceses (I live in Canada). They may take a sort of posturing stand against abortion, very good! But then they do not take any type of strong position and teach against divorce, or same-sex activities. And they believe, it seems, that they need to be “pastoral” in regard to these issues. Which in the end means “soft”. And not understanding that these issues are all tied together, as the Church rightly knows.
If we are “soft” on any of these issues, as a priest, preacher, teacher, disciple, etc., we have simply opened the gate for Satan and all the demons that enter in then in order to poison the bodies, minds, and souls of any who might be struggling with temptations and disordered passions.
Where are the priests? That is truly an enormous question! Along with where are the Catholic parents, and where are the Catholic teachers and catechists, and where are the catholic chaplains of our schools and colleges and universities?
Well, it seems many, if not most of them, have become so “pastoral” and soft in their ways that they have been trampled on by the culture of death in one way or another. They have “given in” to death’s desires, and the disordered passions in their view just can’t be stopped!
So, while it’s convenient to say abortion is an awful thing, they will not say the same against all the other sins that lead to the horror of abortion.
The near occasion of sexual sins; divorce rate within the Church nearly as high as the culture of death’s; contraception practiced by many, many Catholics who also receive Communion, and on and on.
The Church has been slowly poisoned. Priest, religious, and laity alike. It has become very difficult in my area to find a priest to make a good complete confession to, as they may be well-meaning priests, but they too are infected with one or two of these “omissions” of truth. And do not always know true sin from whatever worldly interpretation of sin they may have adapted to please their parishioners.
They simply shrug off divorce within the church as inevitable, and find a scapegoat in one spouse or the other for the failure of the marriage. The vows of til death do us part, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, have become completely meaningless to them. So they focus on what might rightly be called the “straining out of gnats” while they swallow camel after camel.
The truth can not be imparted in this manner. And that is why we have a crisis of faith today in the Church. We have been unraveled by the wisdom of the world, which is foolishness to God, and by the culture of death’s sophistry, which never seems to be left without another angle to take when “tickling the ears” of our weak-minded, weak-willed leaders in the clergy as well as the laity. It seems whatever butters their buns at the time, is what they accept or promote. Occasionally they hit on the truth, but quite often they don’t.
We are churched according to our passions now, whatever is popular at the moment and looks good. We are churched on emotions and feelings and opinions. And the result has been disastrous.
The rock. We must live on the rock of truth. And in order to do so, we must be governed and churched by principles, not opinions and emotions. If we feel good about those principles, then fine, but it’s the principles, the unchangeable truths, that we must live by, whether we feel good about it at the time or not. Whether it makes us look good to others or not.
And those principles must be 100%, as Father refreshingly has taught us, in assent and in line with the *all* the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Church. So those principles, those unchangeable truths must be taught. Not feelings, and emotions, and appearances and opinions that make us likeable to those who wish to follow the disordered passions and selfish desires and falseness of this present culture of death.
We are still very “soft” (meaning very wishy-washy) on contraception and divorce within the Church. And this is the gate the devil uses today, to keep us in the dark on these issues of same-sex unions/marriage, and for some even on abortion.
And for every child’s soul that is poisoned by these errors, poisoned by divorce in church, poisoned by the acceptance of contraception in their catholic communities, poisoned by the acceptance of the world’s view of sexuality where skewed, mixed, and disordered passions are made out to be inevitable — then the more gain and ease with which the devil can seduce an destroy lives.
There is a reason the Holy Spirit teaches in the Church that divorce is immoral, contraception is immoral, sex outside of marriage is immoral. Homosexual activity is immoral.
There is a reason the Holy Spirit teaches in the Church that we need to be strengthened and avoid the near occasions of sin that work as temptations and seductions to destroy our souls.
But when we go to confession and the priest himself is unclear or not faithful in all these matters, for whatever reason, then it becomes so very difficult to be strong against all these temptations and seductions of the devil. They might be strongly against abortion, but wishy-washy concerning divorce. They may speak strongly against sexual sin, but wishy-washy on avoiding the near occasion of sin and temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
If it is culturally pleasing to go to nightclubs and drink and dance in the sexually tempting manner of the world, then they do not speak against these activities. They whitewash them, preferring not to seem out of touch with human “joy” and so forth. And of course, this leads to error, sooner or later.
We’re in a bad way, when 100% believers are being outcast in our very parish communities and dioceses. Money, pleasure, and status have long since been the main guides of our church in the 21st century. Whatever makes us look good in the eyes of the world, and the love of human respect and the pleasures of this life, are the main guiding lines for us now. We falsely label these things as “joy”, or “success” and go even as far as to call it “love”.
It’s an unholy mess. When evil is good and good is evil. And we’re neck deep in it in so many parishes and dioceses across the country. Good is evil and evil is good. Money and pleasure are gods and truth and faithfulness are secondary to the attaining of these worldly passions.
God save us.