This is a syndicated post from Daily Meditations with Fr. Alfonse. [Read the original article...]
Jesus said, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” So he was not able to perform any mighty deeds [in his native place], apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
They took offense at him. About six months ago, a young teenager told his mother that he no longer believed in God and that he no longer wanted to go to Church. The announcement shocked his mother and broke her heart.
A few days ago, the boy was rushed to the hospital. He was found in the middle of the night, in a coma, due to a drug overdose.
A couple of weeks ago, I was watching the “Military History Channel”. I turned it on right when the Nazi army was closing in on Moscow. I turns out that Joseph Stalin, an atheist, who had spent the last five years executing priests and destroying Churches to remove any semblance of religion in his country, suddenly ordered the Churches reopened and the priests to pray. Did he experience a change of heart? Of course not! It was an atheist’s cold calculated move to win support, appease the peasants and convert them into human shields against the advancing Nazi army. Ah, the things we can accomplish once we remove the burdens of faith and morals from our lives!
True to his “creed”, Stalin encouraged “his” people to sacrifice all they had (including their lives) for “the homeland”. While he insisted that no one (including children) evacuate the starving city, a train was made ready for him just in case his life was in danger. Ah, the things we can accomplish once we remove the burdens of faith and morals from our lives!
Which came first: the chicken or the egg, the human or the womb, man or God?
Man or God? Is man a figment of God’s imagination or is God a figment of man’s imagination? Is peacea figment of man’s imagination? Is equality a figment of man’s imagination? Is freedom and justice a figment of man’s imagination? Is sin and grace, good and evil, right and wrong, a figment of man’s imagination? Are man’s lawsa figment of a complex animal’s imagination? Well, by past experience (history), I would say that the answer you give will be strongly influenced by what you wish accomplish in your life.
What did Christ wish to accomplish in his short life? What was the Lord’s struggle? What exactly did the Lord die for? Was it for class revolution? Was it for race supremacy? Was it for equality and justice for all?
Was the Lord’s struggle a battle between Jewish supremacy and Roman rule? Was it a battle between the rich and the poor? Wasn’t it rich folk that made the world a more horrible place while poor people made it a more humble place!
Or was the Lord’s struggle a battle between the sexes. Maybe that’s the reason why He appeared to a group of women on resurrection day: to give women the right to vote and equal justice before the law.
But could it be that the Lord’s battle for mankind went well beyond all these struggles? And that his battle explains all battles and struggles combined? That all these symptoms are a manifestation of one ailment: sin?
Could it be that our struggle has nothing to do with race, sex, nationality, etc… but that these are the devil’s tools to prevent us from tackling the greatest threat to love and humanity? Are we being manipulated by another Joseph Stalin, who loved to manipulate things and confuse the peasants?
Is our greatest struggle, the struggle that explains all human struggles, a struggle with sin and sinners?
Yes, for we are all sinners. But not all of us know it, not yet at least. And not all of us are ready to accept it, not yet at least.
My dear friends, we should not be amazed by what a lack of faith can do. We should be amazed by what faith can do.
(117)
Posted in 
Tags: 
