We Have Been Robbed

When this world took over our soul's formation and guidance, we were robbed of the great grace of true faith.  Today I am hearing countless testimonies from historical figures like Bishop Sheen and modern day priests like Father Casey,, who teaches on EWTN these days,  reminding me of how much has been lost to this world's view of the faith and practice of the faith that used to be the standard of holiness and faith in my dear Catholic faith.

Bishop Sheen had said that truth is truth, even if no one believes it and he also said that the opposite is true, that what is false is still false, even if everyone believes it.  We have been peppered in this amoral world we now live in with countless excuses to turn away from true faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior, King and truely God.  That  Jesus was God, is God and will always be God, and will judge us based on our actual commitment to Him as Lord and Savior, and our actual belief in Him and our living out of that commitment, and not just the words we proclaim with our mouths is a fact.

Many have been sucked into the  vacuum, that has become a holding tank, between earth and Hell for souls that will never see God again, once they leave this life and pass through judgement into eternal damnation. That vacuum sucks  in those deceived by relativism, secularism, liberalism, the world's current lack of  an accurate moral compass and other heritical apostacies, with all this world's intellectual, convenient, and attractive excuses for believing in a dumbed down form of faith and the practice of that faith.

It's easy to see, when you look at the current world culture why Catholics, en mass are leaving the Catholic Church for other denominations or non denominational sects that require less of a commitment in faith to doctrines that, if we believe in them, change every aspect of our lives into one long prayer and sacrifice of self to God, in the manner of the saints.  We are all called to be saints.  We don't all answer the call.  I heard it recently said, by a priest, that "only saints go to Heaven".

There's another reason, other than a lesser commitment to holiness and a striving after sainthood that Catholics leave the faith. That is that the church itself has not uninformly remained committed to the true faith in doctrinal beliefs, and Biblical belief in Christ as God, in the miraculous nature of what He did. Some even depart from belief in such basic beliefs as the resurrection, from the dead, of Christ.

Personally, I have heard homilies done by priests so liberal and dummed down in their theology that I wanted to get up and walk out.  If I were not tied there by the desire to receive the Eucharist, I would have done so on many occassions.

 I've seen people walk out when the priest was stating things that, though doctrinally correct, and required for belief by Catholics, were not popular in this world's viewpoint.  But then, their liberalism,doesn't accept the real presence of Christ, in the Eucharist either, so it was easy to walk away, for them.

 I still know the Eucharist to be the body and blood of Christ, because Jesus said it was His body and blood,  and I believe what Jesus Christ said is the absolute truth, for all time.. He is actually God, who came to earth, born of Mary, a virgin, and of Holy Spirit, who overshadowed her. He did not lie to us, and could not, as He is Truth itself, as much as He is Love and is Wisdom and all other things that are good.

The Truth of the faith is Jesus Christ and the fruit of Holy Spirit, in our lives, will clearly be visible in how we live our lives  separate from anything fallen in the culture we inhabit.  We will go to our deaths, if need be, to proclaim the Gospel truth openly and publicly.  We will not be one of those of whom it is often said, that if they were put on trial for being a Christian could not be convicted of it, for lack of evidence.

I've got the Stations of the Cross on.  It just came to me that Jesus was beaten into a very unattractive state, at the end of His life among us.  His attractiveness as the babe in the manger, as the healer and wise teacher in his earthly ministry, now was no longer visible in His aspect.  He became the Jesus of suffering, rejection, sorrow and trial that is not so attractive.  We want the baby and the teacher, in this world, without the suffering and sacrifice.  We don't want to take up our crosses and follow Him into that part of what faith demands is unattractive from this world's viewpoint.

How can we follow Him into the Garden of His Agony and then fall asleep and then abandon Him and deny the now disfugered unattractive Him,  in our faith while He goes on to suffer and die.  Jesus Himself told us that He was the Way, Truth and Life.  In death to this world, we come to life in Him.  We need to take the whole journey, the one that goes through the cross, or we cannot reach the destination we truly desire. 

Now I am exorted by Him to follow Him into His suffering, and put to death those things that are not right in my life, all the more devotedly.  The Way, as it was once called, is not any easy, casual, worldly one.  It is an embracing of all that Jesus was, all that Jesus said and all that Jesus did, even to the point that we are, like Him, willing to die horribly.

It was said, today, that all you need do in this world to be considered intolerant, and predjudiced, is accurately quote the Bible passages that speak against the sin that is so prevalent and popular, in this present age.  We have been robbed of holiness.  Many of us, myself included, have opened the door for the thieves and let them into our lives, by things we have read, watched, listened to, and otherwise participated in, that we full well knew were sinful, by Biblical standards.

We are cautioned that, yes we can live by our conscience, but that conscience needs to be a well-formed conscience.  Without a well-formed conscience, someone may come along and rob you of eternal life.  That is the ultimate tragedy of this liberal culture, that so many are following ill-formed, under catechized consciences,  both thiers and others into Hell.  Even some of those trusted with the leading of the sheep, are leading those sheep along a path to spiritual destruction.

Dear God, help us all to know, love, follow, understand, hear, and obey You and not be lead astray by things that only pretend to be of You.  Even the demons believe.  Let us believe rightly, discern rightly and have mercy on us, when we come into your presence to be judged by You.  Keep our feet steady on that rough, rocky and narrow path, until that day.

I am on my way Home.  Home is where my heart is.  He has it.  Why would it be anywhere else?