Today’s (2/8/12) Scripture readings were “right on” to what we
Catholics are experiencing today in light of the HHS ruling against freedom of
conscience.
Just as Solomon (1 Kings 11:4-13) allowed himself to be seduced by
his culture (his many wives and their gods) we have allowed the secular culture
to dictate our lifestyle. We adopted the
view that contraception is acceptable and we can decide how and when we have
sex and if or if not we want children.
We know what God says through His Word and through what we have been
taught by our faith, but all these other people think it’s okay, so who are we
to disagree?
I fell into the same trap and am still paying the consequences for
my past contraceptive lifestyle. I was
duped by the secular world and allowed them to transform my thinking away from
what I learned in my Catholic Catechism.
I have to say it does make it easier for me to excuse my past sins
when I read that Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, did the exact same
thing.
But, the fact remains here I am now, with what I know now . . . . So where do I go from here?
God quickly answers me in the next Scripture reading from Psalm
106:36-39, 45-46
But
mingled with the nations
and
imitated their ways.
They
served their idols
and
were ensnared by them.
They
sacrificed to demons their own sons and daughters,
Shedding
innocent blood, the blood of their own sons and daughters,
Whom
they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,
desecrating the land with bloodshed.
They
defiled themselves by their actions,
became
adulterers by their conduct.
Still
God had regard for their affliction when he heard their wailing.
For
their sake he remembered his covenant
and
relented in his abundant mercy
Winning
for them compassion
from
all who held them captive.
Return to God, it’s that simple . . . and that difficult. But now that we know, we must act in a
righteous way. Fortunately, God never
stops showing us THE WAY or leaving us to ourselves. Since the beginning of
time, He has called, allowed us to choose our way, and called us back when we
screw it up again and again.
This is one of the times, Catholics, when we screwed it up.
Let’s return to our God in droves because we don’t want to allow
to happen to us what happened to Solomon:
Israel lost their country and ten of the twelve tribes disappeared.
Read the Gospel of John 17:15-26 and know that we are supposed to
be distinct and opposed to the world. But,
our Leader, Jesus Christ, is true and
just and never failing. He is always, He is consistent, He is unchanging, He
remembers His covenant. Thank God!
John 17:15-26
I do not ask that
you take them out of the world but
that you keep them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. You sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be
consecrated in truth. I pray not only for them, but also for those who will
believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father,
are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe
that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may
be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to
perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved
them even as you loved me. Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where
I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you
gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know
you, and they know that you sent me. Made known to them your name and I will
make it known, that the
love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”
Let us not forget that thanks to the Passion of Christ, we have
already won the war. It is only the
battle that remains.
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