Tag Archives: disobedience

The Path of Obedience

24 Tuesday Mar 2015

Posted by in Free Will, God's Will, Sermons, Submission to God

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Sermon for the Fifth Sunday in Lent
March 22, 2015

On March 20, which was Friday of last week, I celebrated my fifth anniversary of ordination as a Catholic priest. And so I stand before you today, a priest, but not because I wanted to be, but because I was called by God to do so. You see, no one becomes a priest because they want to, but because they are called into it by God. Now, it is not that I don’t want to be a priest, I do, and I am very happy to be a Catholic priest serving here at Our Lady of the Atonement. (And may it please God to let me stay here for the rest of my life.) But this does not change the fact that I am here as a priest not because I decided to become one, but because God called me to do it – and I, in obedience, followed His calling. And it is this idea of obedience about which I want to speak with you today.

We tend to think of obedience as something negative – like it is an intrusion upon our freedom to do what we want to do. “Oh man, Mom told me to clean my room, so that means I can’t play video games.” This kind of thinking, though, betrays a wrong understanding of freedom. We tend to think in this country that we are free to do whatever we want, but that is not true, because to deliberately choose to do something that is wrong is to misuse our freedom. That is not the reason God gave us freedom. He gave us freedom in order to choose to do that which is good and morally right. In fact, it is necessary for us to be free in order to choose our ultimate good, which is God Himself. And it is in choosing God that obedience comes into play.

Before going on with our reflection on the positive nature of obedience, let us first reflect on its opposite: disobedience. It would be good for us to call to mind the first person that disobeyed God and that would be Lucifer. It was he who was the first to refuse to recognize God as his Creator. It was he who was first to refuse to return God’s love for him. It was he who was first to fail to be grateful to God for all the gifts he had been given. As a result, every act of disobedience thereafter is an emulation of Lucifer’s disobedience of God. And if his is the path that we choose by being disobedient to God in this life then God will let us have what we have chosen – eternal separation from Him as the only source of anything good.

In considering this hopefully obedience no longer sounds like such a bad thing. After all, the path of obedience is the path that Christ walked before us and it is the only path that leads us to Him. We are told today that Christ “learned obedience through what He suffered; and being made perfect He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” Christ was obedient to the will of His Father by accepting the Cross and dying for us. And we must follow His example if we want to obtain the salvation that He won for us. Emulating Christ’s obedience is the only way to be saved. And He tells us this plainly in the Gospel today, “If any one serves me, he must follow me.” There is no other path open to us if we want reach our ultimate Goal.

Now certainly, by being obedient, we will have to give up certain things that we desire because they are in fact bad for us. And that can be hard to do. But, shouldn’t we want to give up things that are bad for us? Is the momentary pleasure we receive from such things really worth the price of our eternal soul? If we think critically and honestly about that question then the only reasonable answer would be no. We know that God made us and that the happiness that He wants for us is more important than any other thing we could possibly want or desire. All too often, though, we settle for something much less.

But, if we want to reach that which we truly desire, then we must follow the path of obedience that Christ walked before us. Yes, we know that such a path will lead us to suffering on this earth, but it does not end there. Christ was abused, beaten, and killed but that is not the end of the story. It is through the suffering and death of Jesus that the Resurrection came about and that the gates of Heaven were opened to all who truly believe in Him.

And so, we have two paths that are set before us: the path of obedience and the path of disobedience. We know who established each of these paths and we know where each path leads. But there is one thing that no one knows except you and that is this: which path will you choose?

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The Call of Kultala

11 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by in Catholic Church, Dictatorship of Relativism, Politically Incorrect, Pro-Death 'Catholics'

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Fr. Z hits the nail on the head yet again. Read his article here to find out about the most recent pro-death 'Catholic', Kelly Kultala, that is running for political office.

Here's the first few sentences but you really should read the rest:

First, there is no such thing as a pro-choice Catholic.

Catholics are not free to choose what they are going to believe and what they are going to reject when the teachings are defined by the Church.

After reading the whole article I thought to myself – is it just a coincidence that this lady's name is so similar to Cthulhu?

Freedom and Happiness

06 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by in Eternal Life, Free Will, God's Will, Salvation, Sermons

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Sermon for the Third Sunday after Trinity

July 6, 2014

Two day ago we celebrated the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It was on that day 238 years ago that the founders of this country declared their independence from a tyrannical government that tried to choke the air of freedom out of the people of this land. The founders of this country understood that mankind must be free and so they broke away from that oppressive government at the risk of their own lives. But, in considering this freedom that they won for us and that we now enjoy, we come up against a very important question – what does this freedom give us the “freedom” to do?

The reason that we must ask this question is because our country now suffers from a very distorted view of what freedom is. For example, it is the rule of law in this land that women have the “freedom” to abort their children and it is increasingly becoming the law that people have the “freedom” to “marry” someone of the same gender. But are we ever really free to do such immoral acts, even it if is legal? Both of these wrong-headed notions of freedom – and others – come from the fact that the ‘idea of freedom’ in this country has become one of the freedom to do whatever we wish – that there are no universal moral standards by which to measure what we should or should not do. In other words, there is prevalent today a disordered way of thinking, which for many people is subconscious, that says there is no real way to determine right from wrong and that anyone who tries to do so is to be labeled a narrow-minded and archaic hate-monger. And it is this disordered thinking that leads even faithful churchgoers to say things like this, “Well, I do not believe that such and such is right; but if someone else wants to do it then who am I to say that they shouldn’t?” This attitude is – quite simply – wrong and, therefore, we must ask why this type of distorted thinking is so prevalent within our society?

To begin to answer this we must first acknowledge that mankind wants to be happy. And since I have made reference to the 4th of July we can of course remind ourselves that the Declaration of Independence says we have the right to pursue happiness. In addition, we should also remember that God Himself wants us to be happy. But, without a correct understanding of what will and what will not make us happy, many people fall into the trap of chasing this or that ‘thing’ thinking that it is the thing that will make them happy. It starts when we are children when we think to ourselves, “If only I could have that toy or that piece of candy, then I would be happy.” And then throughout the rest of our lives it really does not change that much. There are many adults that still pursue various things they think will make them happy – if only I could have that man or woman to be my spouse, if only I had that job, house, car, boat, home theater, vacation, etc., then I would be really and truly happy. But in the end none of these things can satisfy us because we were not created to pursue them as our ultimate goal. To be sure, God did create good things for us to enjoy but we can only really enjoy them if we are willing to be without them.

But why is it that these good things can make us so unhappy once we have obtained them? It is because we have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that we have been created by God and for God – He is our ultimate goal – and if we put anything He has created as the center and ultimate goal of our life then we can never be truly happy. To say it another way, we need to understand and live our lives in accordance with the fact that the primary reason for our existence is to know and love God. With this in mind we can now understand how it is that we should use the freedom that we enjoy in this country.

If it is God who has created us, then it is He who knows what is best for us. And He hasn’t left us without guidance in this matter. Our Lord Jesus Christ has revealed to us the Way to happiness with God. We heard Jesus say today, “no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” We, as Catholics, know and believe that Jesus is the revelation of all that we need to know in order to be truly happy. The freedom that God Himself has given to us and that we enjoy in this country can only rightly be used in the pursuit of our ultimate end: to know and to love God. True, God gave us free will and we can, if we wish, choose to do that which is wrong. But if we misuse our freedom in such a way then we will not, and in fact, we cannot be happy. Our freedom and our happiness rests in God alone. And until we – as individuals and as a nation – understand and accept that fact then we can never truly be happy or free.

Denial of Holy Communion for the Good of the Sinner and Society

06 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by in Canon Law, Catholic Obligations, God's Will, Morality, Pro-Family, Pro-Life, Salvation, St. John Paul II

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At lifesitenews.com I came across an address given by Cardinal Burke. It is titled The Perennial Newness of the Gospel of Life. I have not yet read the whole thing but did find the following part to be very important. To borrow from Fr. Z – my emphases and comments.

In this regard, involvement in political life is essential to the advancement of the cause of life. Already in his Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, Pope John Paul II had declared:

The social role of families is called upon to find expression also in the form of political intervention: families should be the first to take steps to see that the laws and institutions of the State not only do not offend but support and positively defend the rights and duties of the family. Along these lines, families should grow in awareness of being 'protagonists' of what is known as 'family politics' and assume responsibility for transforming society; otherwise families will be the first victims of the evils that they have done no more than note with indifference. (This is from St. John Paul II and he is telling us to get off our collective behinds and do something about the immoral nature of our society. If we just look at it and say, ‘Oh well, what can I do?’ then things will never improve.)

The Holy Father repeated the same exhortation to families in Evangelium Vitae. (EV, 507-508, n. 93)

In this context, I cannot fail to note the grave scandal caused by legislators, judges, and political leaders who profess to be Catholic and who present themselves to receive Holy Communion, while, at the same time, they uphold and even promote laws which violate the moral law in its most fundamental tenets. (To this I say loudly – Amen!) The Church’s discipline, from the time of Saint Paul, has admonished those who obstinately persevere in manifest grave sin not to present themselves for Holy Communion. (Here he is referring to canons 915 and 916. In 915 the clergy are charged with not admitting to Holy Communion those in such a state of sin and 916 deals with the sinner himself – that he should not present himself for Holy Commuion. Unfortunately, there are many times when members of the clergy ignore this canon law requirement and give Communion to these persons anyway. But to do so imperils not only the soul of the notorious sinner but also of the clergyman that knowingly distributes Holy Commuion to the notorious sinner.) The discipline is not a punishment but the recognition of the objective condition of the soul of the person involved in such sin. (And because of that objective condition of sinfulness they should not, at least for their own good, not receive the Blessed Sacrament.) It prevents them from committing sacrilege by violating the incomparable sanctity of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ, and safeguards the Christian community and the community at large from scandal, that is, from being led to believe that the violation of the moral law, for example in what pertains to the inviolable dignity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the family, and the freedom of conscience, is not sinful, does not gravely break communion with Our Lord. (This represents the biggest problem. These type of public sins that too often go uncorrected cause everyone that sees it to think that it is OK to act in such a way. The result being that people really do not understand what is right and what is wrong.)

The Rise of Aggressive Emotivism

20 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by in Dictatorship of Relativism, Morality, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis, Truth

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The quote below is from an article by Fr. Dwight Longenecker and can be found in its entirety here. The whole thing is worth reading.

Emotivists contend that words which suggest an objective morality like “good”, “bad”, “right”, “wrong”, “should”, “ought” have no basis in reality. They are merely the emotional expressions of the speaker and that he uses these words to bully someone else to do what he wants. It’s called “boo-hurrah” morality because the morality consists of nothing more than one person saying, “Hurrah! to this” or “Boo! to that.” Morality is thus reduced to “It’s right because I said so loudly” or “It’s wrong because I objected loudly.” Emotivism excludes social, historical, cultural, spiritual, and religious considerations from the discussion of morality.

Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent – March 9 a.d. 2014

09 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Salvation, Sermons, Transformation in Christ

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We have just heard the story of the fall of mankind into sin and death. At first thought we may say this sin committed by Adam and Eve was simply one of pride – because they tried to put themselves in God's place – but more specifically, it was a sin of disobedience. God had told them not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and they did it anyway. Seen in such terms we might wonder why God didn't just forgive them and say, “Don't worry about it. That's OK.” Why was the punishment so harsh: being expelled from paradise, destined to sin, prone to illness and in the end we all die? Did the punishment really fit the crime?

One reason we might think in such a way is because we no longer see disobedience as anything really that bad. We have become accustomed to an attitude of indifference to many rules with the thinking, “This or that rule doesn't apply to me.” But this is not true! The natural law, according to the Catechism, was “written in our hearts by the Creator” and is therefore a law we are all obligated to obey. Of course due to the fact that we are fallen and because of various circumstances in our lives, many people may be mistaken about what is right and what is wrong. But that doesn't change the fact that all people know that there is a right and a wrong way in which to behave. The problem is that many times we choose to ignore this.

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