"Never before has anyone spoken like this man”……So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?…Don’t be deceived!

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St John how the voices calling for Jesus death are getting louder…His passion is approaching and as it does, the crowd is divided…Some are convinced that this man is the Christ and others are not…..”Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, "This is truly the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?" So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.”…..Jesus very clearly said that he was the Way…the Truth…and the Life - So why would Jesus’s words and life’s example divide the crowd?….Many today would think and say this is impossible…How can the this be?…..Scripture gives us the answer……“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household”…When the Truth is spoken boldly and clearly, it always divides…..How many times have you heard stories when a priest gives an homily about abortion at a Sunday Mass, some of the laity in the pews write letters to the Bishop complaining….How can this be - But it happens……How many people leave the Catholic Church and go to different Protestant Churches, because they got divorced and then remarried outside the Catholic Church without exploring the annulment of their former marriage (which in many cases was not Sacramental in the first place)….To this day, the Truth divides….At the heart of the matter…What kind of Christ are you looking for?…..Have we created what I like to call “The Hippie Jesus”, who sings kumbaya and lets us “make up the rules” as we go along….Trust me when I tell you, that is not who Jesus is…..The Truth is not ours to change or alter….Nor are the words of Christ or the one Church he founded…That is why the Truth divides and this is why we must make a choice…..When the gospel message is “watered-down” both inside and outside the Catholic Church, the Holy Spirit is not empowered to penetrate the hearts of men…I can only speak for myself - “Tell me like it is” - I am not interested in “lukewarm” Catholicism and I got news for you, nor was Jesus Christ…But don’t take my words for is....This is what Jesus had to say on the matter, ”I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth”……Does that sound like the words of “Hippie Jesus”?…The Truth divides - Choose your side

“Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.”

Catholic saints point to Christ, they give us an example to follow…One of my hero’s of the faith is a bishop who was executed in El Salvador in 1980. His name is St Oscar Romero….I read a book about him entitled the The Violence of Love, which pulled from his many radio addresses and speeches to his nation, which at the time was going through a civl war….Oscar Romero was a lion!…..He spoke boldly and he spoke clearly…And this is why the Oligarchs killed him….This is one of the many things St Oscar Romero said about how the Church should live out its mandate to proclaim the Truth to a broken world….”A church that doesn't provoke any crisis, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed -- what gospel is that? Very nice, pious considerations that don't bother anyone, that's the way many would like preaching to be. Those preachers who avoid every thorny matter so as not to be harassed, so as not to have conflicts and difficulties, do not light up the world they live in.”…To live out this mandate is to follow the example of Jesus Christ himself, who as we all know was killed for doing exactly what St Oscar Romero said we must do!….This is the Church I am interested in…This is a “muscular” Church - This is the Church of Jesus Christ, who was the Lion of Judah!…..When the Gospel is “watered down” - The message of Christ is lost…….My office in New York City is near Fordham University and I go to daily Mass on my lunch hour…Recently, I went to Mass and a transgender male, believe it or not was sitting right in front of me…He was a man dressed as a woman, this reality was very clear to everyone….Interestingly enough, when it came time to received the Blessed Sacrament, this man got on the communion line and when he reached the priest, he did not receive the Eucharist, he simply asked for a blessing, which the priest rightly gave to him…..So here is the point I want to drive home to all who are right now reading this reflection…….How did this man (a transgender male) know enough that he could not receive the Blessed Sacrament outside the state of grace and some of the highest levels of Catholic clerics in the Church will tell you otherwise?…Some even preach this practice - I frankly do not know what is worse - Not accepting Church teaching or manipulating that teaching by “side stepping” it…For those who pay attention to Catholic Social Media, a divided as been created in recent years..Who goes to the Latin Mass and who goes to the Novus Ordo Mass…Speaking personally, I ignore these arguments on Social Media entirely because both forms of Mass are permitted by the Church…With that said…I “divide” the Church into two very different camps…And this “dividing line” is what I look for in clerics and where I attend Mass with my family…..Do you believe that in order to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament one must be in the state of grace?…This is an unchangeable teaching of the Church…And clerics who do not believe this or “side-step” this teaching, I stay far away from…Just like in the time of Jesus, the Truth once again divides!

The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man." So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?

St John today at Mass tells us something that remains true to this very day…The Truth divides - It always has and always will…..”Our truth” does not change “THE TRUTH”…..A friend of mine told me a story once…His teenage son had a curfew on the weekends….He had to be home by 11:00pm..So one night his son was late, so the kid devised a plan…He would turn back his watch 15 minutes and tell his Dad that he was “on time” and show him his wrist watch to prove it…So when he arrived home late his father was waiting for him….His dad approached him and ask, “Why are you late?”…The son pointed to his watch and said…”Dad, I am not late look at my watch - I am on time”…..His father looked at his son and replied…..”Look at my wrist watch son, it says you are late and the time on my watch is the only time that matters!”……When Jesus was born, time was divided (BC / AD)…And to this very day the message of Christ divides the world…"Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”……So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived?…Don’t be deceived!