Daily Mass Readings 05/20/2015 or I Always Seem to Get Carried Away when I Talk About Wolves...

"At Miletus, Paul spoke to the presbyters of the Church of Ephesus:
“Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock
of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers,
in which you tend the Church of God
that he acquired with his own Blood.
I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you,
and they will not spare the flock.
And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth
to draw the disciples away after them." -Acts 20:28-30

Daily Mass Readings 05/20/2015

There are a lot of wolves out there. There is a lot of evil. Just watch the news on any given day and you will hear about the evil in the world. Nine dead in a shootout between rival motorcycle gangs, a man overdosed on heroin and was found unconscious lying next to his four year old daughter, the Boston Marathon bomber is sentenced to death, and a man is accused of choking his girlfriend's three year old daughter. And these stories are all in the local news, all in one day! There is no doubt the wolves of evil are stalking every one of us, sadly, even the most innocent of us.

Paul warns us, as well, that some of the wolves will come from our own flock. From the Catholics insisting that the death penalty is acceptable under Church teaching (hint: check out John Paul II's writings on that) to an organization called Catholics for Choice (who I am sure will be the next to block me from their FB page). There are a lot of people perverting Jesus' teachings for their own interest, or at least their own consciences.

I'm not saying that in a civilized society we can't have a difference of opinion. Many people I love deeply disagree with me on a host of issues, but when you claim to be speaking the teachings of the Church that was founded by Christ and has survived despite persecution, despite speaking the unpopular truth and despite centuries of its own 'wolves in sheep's clothing'; when you claim in the name of your organization that you are Catholic, you should be sure that your opinion matches their truth. Otherwise, you are just another wolf, leading the lambs astray.

And don't even get me started about the wolves standing around with signs saying "God Hates (insert group here)" or "So and So is going to HELL" or those wolves that tell you if you pray hard enough, (and send me some 'seed money') Jesus will make you rich and make all your dreams come true! I don't have a theology degree, but I don't think Jesus died on the cross so that I could have a beach house and an SUV. He died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven and to give us an example of what real love looks like.

Compared to that, a beach house and an SUV is meaningless.

God Bless,
P.D.O.

P.S. If you're interested in the Church's real opinion of the death penalty

[Punishment] ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.

—John Paul II, The Gospel of Life (Evangelium Vitae), 1995

God Bless,

P.D.O.

Daily Mass Readings 05/19/2015 or Methuselah's Keys to Longevity!

"Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began." -Jn. 17:3-5

Daily Mass Readings 05/19/2015

This passage in today's Gospel reading struck me because Jesus is showing us how we too should glorify God by accomplishing the work he gave us to do. And he lets us know that we will also be glorified with Him and have eternal life in truly knowing God.

The catch here is.......what is the work that God gave you to do?

I think as men we often think of our 'work' as our jobs, but we forget that for most of us our job is not necessarily in sync with our vocation. Now I am not saying that our jobs contradict our true vocations, just that sometimes we need to see our jobs as simply a tool towards the accomplishment of our vocation. If we orient our work life that way, God is there and He will guide us towards whatever work helps us best to achieve our mission. (Even, as I have been known to do, if we are dragged kicking and screaming). Knowing that we are where He wants us to be and seeing what work He has put there for us can make those tough days seem better by focusing on how our role helps others and how God's love shines through us in our everyday work.

Paul's letter echoes this idea of doing what we are sent to accomplish. He is saying farewell to people he expects that he will never see again and he tells them flat out, 'you didn't always like what I had to say, but I did what I was sent to do and proclaimed the truth, so buzz off, you're on your own from here!' Well, that's not exactly what he says, but you get the idea. He basically says, I did what God sent me here to do, now I am ready with a peaceful heart, to move on to what He has planned for me next, whatever it is, even if it's death.

How great would it be, at the end of your days, when you know you will be moving on out of this world, to be able to say the same:

I have done what God sent me here to do, I have spoken the truth, I have loved, I have served, and I am ready, looking forward to moving on to the joy He has in store for me.

I pray that I may feel that expectant joy! I'm not expecting it for a long time, mind you. I am certain He has much more for me to accomplish and at the rate that I screw it up sometimes, I could live to be as old as Methuselah! Or to put it more eloquently, as the poem my father like to quote so often says, I have

.... miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

God Bless,

P.D.O.