You Can't Say You Haven't Been Warned

On Wednesday 13 August 2008 this was the 1st part of the 1st reading at Mass (Roman Rite):

The LORD cried loud for me to hear: Come, you scourges of the city!

With that I saw six men coming from the direction

of the upper gate which faces the north,

each with a destroying weapon in his hand.

In their midst was a man dressed in linen,

with a writer’s case at his waist.

They entered and stood beside the bronze altar.

Then he called to the man dressed in linen

with the writer’s case at his waist, saying to him:

Pass through the city, through Jerusalem,

and mark a “Thau” on the foreheads of those who moan and groan

over all the abominations that are practiced within it.

To the others I heard the LORD say:

Pass through the city after him and strike!

Do not look on them with pity nor show any mercy!

Old men, youths and maidens, women and children–wipe them out!

But do not touch any marked with the “Thau”; begin at my sanctuary.

So they began with the men, the elders, who were in front of the temple.

Defile the temple, he said to them, and fill the courts with the slain;

then go out and strike in the city. Ezekiel 9:1-7

Then last Sunday the 1st reading began thus:

Thus says the LORD:

Observe what is right, do what is just;

for my salvation is about to come,

my justice, about to be revealed. Isaiah 56:1

The 16 August 2008 reflection (YOUNG-STIR) on the day's Scripture Readings in 1 Bread, 1 Body said:

Do we hinder children from coming to Jesus? When we "celebrate" Mass in a listless way, our youth turn to rock concerts rather than to the Lord for excitement. When we compromise the gospel with fund-raising, drinking, or gambling, our young people see the contradiction and hypocrisy. They become turned off to Christianity. When we're ashamed of the gospel and keep our Christianity to ourselves, our youth are deceived by cults not as reluctant to promote their beliefs.
The Lord calls us to reach out to our young people. We should not abandon our children to the secularistic educational system, the sadistic teen culture, or the lying television set. Jesus, the Truth, wants to free our children. He will pray for them and lay His nail-scarred hands on them (Mt 19:13, 15). He is the One they are seeking. He is the Meaning of life (Phil 1:21).
Together with our young people, let's repent and let God make for us "a new heart and a new spirit" (Ez 18:31). Let the children come to Jesus.

The next day's reflection (SAVE THE CHILDREN)said:

Jesus delivered many people from demons. Sometimes He delivered children from demons (Mt 15:22, 28; Mk 9:17, 25ff). This raises the question: How can innocent children who could not have grievously sinned or been knowingly involved in the occult be possessed or troubled by demons?
Children suffer innocently for the sins of their parents and the world. This suffering seems to include even harassment from the evil one. Sin can cause a child to be troubled by a demon, but it might not necessarily be a result of the sins of the parents. Sins committed by any of us can result in the severest form of child abuse, exposing a child to demonic influence.
Why doesn't the Lord protect children from the effect of our sins? Why didn't He intervene and save the Holy Innocents martyred at Bethlehem? Why doesn't He spare the children victimized by abortion? The Lord allows us to accept the wages of our sins (Rm 6:23). He even lets us pass on a devastating inheritance to our children and to the children of the world (Ex 20:5). Our unrepented sins open the door for Satan to enter not only our lives, but also the lives of innocent children. Repent!

Then I would remind you of the article recently written by Fr. Corapi entitled Death Wish. In it he talks about our country's love of abortion & euthanasia. At 1 point he says: "From artificial contraception to abortion to partial-birth abortion, then on to infanticide we march toward the abyss of oblivion, a society marked for death. Is it any wonder we can rationalize the killing of the elderly or the sick through euthanasia? The tragic murder of Terri Schiavo is a logical extension of a morally numb society’s mad march toward its own suicidal death. She wasn’t sick. She wasn’t dying. They murdered her, starved her to death--one of the cruelest forms of death. She was innocent, yet subjected to a most cruel and unusual punishment. Why? Because she was helpless? Because she was too much trouble, too hard to look at?"

Later he says: "This death wish has marched toward its logical and inexorable conclusion with little opposition from leaders--political, legal, or religious. The world knows the Catholic Church and any self-respecting and faithful Christian roundly reject abortion and all of the other nails in the coffin of contemporary society, but the defense of life has been weak. Weak leadership, whether in society in general, or in the Church in particular, is punishment for sin. The Old Covenant has examples enough of the Chosen People being turned over to exile and their enemies because of infidelity. They lamented, “We have no priest, prophet, or king.” These were taken away because of infidelity. In recent times large numbers of Catholics and other Christians rejected Pope Paul VI’s landmark and prophetic encyclical Humanae Vitae, on Human Life. A majority of the bishops of Canada did so publicly, formally, and in writing with their infamous Winnipeg Statement.
The great Archbishop Fulton Sheen lamented bitterly in the 1970s that the prophetic spirit of Christ had all but been extinguished in the contemporary Church. Today thereare many CEOs, all too few Apostles."

He goes on to give this warning: "The clock is ticking. Midnight is approaching. Time is running out for our nation, a nation that once was great, and could be great again if enough of us wake up and renounce this curse of a death wish. Will God turn his friends over to His enemies as He has done multiple times in the past? Will radical Islam overrun us? Will the planet cook? Will one too many natural disasters grind us into dust? Will we collapse economically? All of the above? Perhaps these are all merely effects of the underlying cause—a death wish that chokes the life out of us."

Anyone noticing a pattern here?

Quite bluntly, I think God is warning us the time is short, very short. Soon it will be too late & we will have to face the music & reap the fruit of our actions & inactions.

Right now we are in a situation similar to that we read about in Amos 7. God is warning his people of a coming chastisement because of our sins esp that of abortion & the rest of those sins that feed the "culture of death". Like Amos when he was told God's plans many of us are saying: "Lord Yahweh, forgive, I beg you!" (vs 2) & so far God has relented. But for how much longer.

The situation is grave. There is 1 place where clear & unequivicable proclaimation of the truth should be happenning, the Catholic Church Sadly, in most dioceses it rarely happens. In fact it seems to be just the opposite. Priests & Bishops are silent of the Life issues. The refuse to clearly teach abortion is wrong etc. For a full treatment of this I refer you to a book I read & 1st recommended several months ago, Judie Brown's Saving Those Damn Catholics. Given what I have sen recently in the DBQ Archdiocese, there is plenty out there for her to write a sequel showing how little things have changed, only gotten worse.

Fr. Corapi's writing & the 1 Bread, 1 Body reflections talk about some of the ways we have failed to defend the very ones we most are responsible for protecting, the children, the unborn, the weak etc.

Going back to Amos' conversation with the Lord. God finally shows Amos a plumb line & then explains: "Behold, I will set a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel. I will not again pass by them any more. The high places of Isaac will be desolate, the sanctuaries of Israel will be laid waste; and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword." (vs 8-9)

I agree with Fr. Corapi's assessment that we seem to have a death wish. I firmly believe there is a coming day of chastisement. I also believe it is still not too late to stop ar at least mitigate some of the punishment. God is still calling out to us to "REPENT!!!!!" Some of us are listening. We fit the description of those in Ezekiel who "moan and groan over all the abominations that are practiced." But it is clear that there are many more of us who should be & aren't.

Any day now God may send out His angel to mark us who are reasponding so that He can bring about His chastisement. In the Hebrew alphabet Tau (thau, tav) is the last letter of the alphabet. An early version of it took the shape of a x-shaped cross. In other words, those of us in the Church who are truly living out our faith are those who are daily taking up our cross to follow Jesus.

When the chastisement comes, it will begin in the Church. I say that because throughout history that is exactly how God acts. Lets go back again to Ezekiel. After warning those appointed to bring about His judgement not to harm those marked with the "sign of the cross" He says: "begin at my sanctuary". We see that same scenario TIME AFTER TIME.

Why? The answer is simple. The Church is supposed to know the truth in its fullness. This puts a greater repsonsibility on us t live & act upon that truth. & when people inside the Church reject the truth they have a greater culpability for failing to obey God's call.

Right now we are living in a time of mercy. God is calling us to REPENT!!!!! However, it is clear that a time of justice is fast approaching. At that point God will allow us to reap thefruits of our sin & rebellion. The millions of unborn who have been murdered through abortion deserve justice. Their blood cries out like the blood of Abel. They will have justice.

Church, will you continue on the path you are on? Or will you join us who are repenting? Bishops, stop your silence, speak out the truth. Call those "Catholic" pro-choice politicians to repentance. As shepherds you must correct them. Exercise your teaching authority by proclaiming the truth. Shout out the message of Humanae vitae & The Theology of the Body. Speak out against Planned Parenthood & those who promote the "culture of death". Call "Catholic" colleges back to their mission. I could go on & on.

Priests, deacons religious & us laity also have our responsibilities. We all are called to proclaim the truth. & we share in the blame when we are silent. We are in a time of great moral crisis. We need to act now, before it is too late.

The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in time of great moral crises maintain their neutrality. Dante Alighieri