March 12, 2023 † Third Sunday of Lent
father Tim's weekly homily
“Jesus said, ‘. . . You people worship what you do not understand; the Jews worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews’”.
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Many, if not most Christians today, have become so weak and watered down, almost to the point of not being recognizably Christian, that they are easily assimilated into the collective herd of the hillbillies. After all it’s fun and easy to be a hillbilly, no previous experience or cultural knowledge necessary. But we should not be deceived. Of these neo-pagans St. Paul would say: “Their god is their belly; their glory is in their ‘shame’. Their minds are occupied with earthly things. Their end is destruction.” [Philip 3:18]. The point of noting a distinction between ‘we’ and ‘they’ is, as St. Paul says: “Their end is destruction!”, while our end is eternal life with God. Do we really believe these words of St. Paul? Think about the story of the rich man and Lazarus in the Gospel [Lk 16:19]. The rich man goes to an eternal hell, not because he beat Lazarus, not because he killed Lazarus, neither did he even ridicule Lazarus, but simply because he ignored Lazarus! What do you think will happen then to those people who simply ignore God? It is said that the greatest deception the devil ever pulled was to make people think that he didn’t exist; the second greatest deception the devil ever pulled was getting people to believe that they must be completely as evil as Hitler to go to hell. All the while, all the devil has to do is make us tepid, lukewarm, for then The Holy Spirit rejects us. “Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth [Rev 3:15].”
So, the question – with eternal consequences – for each of us is: ‘Am I becoming a pagan hillbilly?’ Have I already become one? Do I act like one, choose like one, vote like one? When I am around those who don’t know God, morality, or true worship, do I start to be like them? Am I being assimilated by the secular culture around me? Simply: Do I prefer secular technology, society life, sports, recreation and convenience to the extent that I no longer have quality time to learn, to love, and to live, my life with God? i.e., keeping holy The Lord’s Day. The only alternative is to actively choose to follow the example of our Master, Jesus, Who respectfully disagreed with the “evil generation” [Mt 12:39] – as He Himself called it – in which He lived. There is a good choice to be made. The early Christian martyrs chose to “conquer” their pagan culture by knowing their faith, living their faith, and if necessary, dying for their faith. If ever we hope to take back our country, our culture, our people, and our family, we must start by living the truth about God as the martyrs did, by dying to self, and selfishness, and to pride, lust, anger, covetousness, envy, sloth, and greed. Martyr means ‘witness’; we must actively choose to give witness to our faith in public. How do we start? Begin with the basics. Begin with your Sunday obligation to worship God in Spirit and in Truth, as Jesus says we must. In other words, we can start witnessing by our personal participation and relationship with Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Also, speak up at Mass, say the responses out loud! Too many people come and whisper the responses, or don’t say anything throughout the entire Mass. How can you expect to act and speak up in public to give testimony to Christ, when you cannot speak out in your own Church? Think about your actions and responses at Mass. Why do you kneel? Are you kneeling to a piece of bread or a cup of wine? When I have a funeral or wedding with a mass, it is the pagans who do not kneel. They just sit there; AND they just sit there precisely because they DON’T KNOW what’s going on. More and more people don’t even know the Our Father! That’s why they’re pagan! But we are not pagan; we are Christians, and Christians of the very highest order – Catholics! We know the Truth, and the fullness thereof. The Holy Eucharist IS the worship of God in spirit and in truth precisely because Our Lord Himself has instituted it, and moreover, commanded (not suggested, commanded) us to fulfill the precept… “DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME!” This is where we can truly say that we know what we worship. The far-eastern religions do not have God Incarnate and His Divine Revelation among them. And of the Christian communities in the western world, only those who have the true Eucharist – the Catholics and the Orthodox Church Christians – really worship God in spirit and in truth, meaning the Holy Sacrifice of The Mass. In conclusion, we can see that, as the gospel today shows us, by standing apart – that is, by contradicting – Our Lord converted the woman of Samaria, and perhaps the whole village. In fact, that is how Jesus and his Apostles converted virtually the whole world. Archbishop Fulton Sheen said that that the cross of Christ is a sign of contradiction. It contradicts the secular world’s highest hopes and ideals, which are to have the perfection of heaven here on earth. But there is no heaven on earth, there is only heaven in heaven because that is where God is. Home is where the heart is; heaven is where God Is. Let us, therefore, follow Our Lord’s example as when He visited Samaria, and let us stand apart from the culture at large and worship God in Spirit and in Truth. We have no other viable alternative, for, “…indeed The Father seeks such people to worship Him. For “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth." |