One of the greatest revelations of my life was this - God is God and I am not…Once you get that down…..The rest is not as hard as you think

Today at Holy Mass in the Gospel of St Matthew, Jesus encounters a Roman soldier who believes that he is God…Keep this in mind - This was unprecedented!…..Not to mention the soldier had extraordinary faith - But here is the point I want to bring out in this reflection - The soldier recognized Jesus’ authority as God - Amazing!…So here is the question for the day - Do we recognize that authority?…..Why is that so important?……Because heaven is God’s house - We all want to “get in that house” right?….If we do, we need to recognize Christ's authority……"Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, with soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes; and to another, 'Come here,' and he comes; and to my slave, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Amen, I say to you, in no one in Israel have I found such faith”………No matter who you are…No matter how smart…No matter how physically strong…No matter how rich - We all die!….And when we do, we end up in one of two places - This is reality!…Now here is the part we conveniently “forget”…....We have NO AUTHORITY to determine which of the two places we end up in - God determines that…..Here is something else to consider - God is not impressed by what school you went too, where you work or how much money is in your bank account….He will ask us one thing - Did you recognize my authority by the way you lived out your life?…..To think otherwise as a Catholic is to not have a mature faith….Let’s take this discussion one step further….Before Jesus ascended to heaven, he gave authority to St Peter…..How do I know that? - Let’s look in the pages of Scripture……..”I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”….What does that mean?…..It means this - The Pope has authority - Like it or not - And WE do not!….In addition, based upon that statement from Christ, the one Church that he founded - The Catholic Church - Has authority as well……”Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” - What does that mean?…That means the Church determines “the rules” as to how or if we get into heaven…..Let me stop here because I KNOW I just “ruffled some feathers”….The Deposit of Faith does not change - As Catholics its our job to simply pass it on - We have no authority to change it……Now I “get it” - Modern man does not like to be told what to do - Sadly, even when what is told to mankind is in their best interest……Trust me - “I get it”….But as we say in New Jersey - “Get over it”!

“Come and save us, LORD our God; Let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.”

Many people know who Padre Pio is…..For those who don’t - He was an Italian Priest who lived in the 20th century who bore the wounds of Christ on his body….When people heard about how his hands would bleed when he presided over the Mass, crowds of people would come and sadly some would come for the wrong reasons…This caused trouble and some in the Church thought Padre Pio was a fake…..As a result, some within the Church wanted to investigate the wounds on Padre Pio’s body…..And while they did their investigation, he was not permitted to say Mass or hear confessions for his people - This hurt him deeply…And this went on for ten years!…Keep this in mind - Padre Pio did not do anything wrong - But - He accepted this order in deep humility....…For an Italian, that is a small miracle in and of itself! (I'm Italian and from New Jersey - Bear with me here!).........Why is this important?…..Because Padre Pio recognized the authority behind the order……And in time (God’s time), all those who doubted him were silenced!….And I am sure God used that time to make Padre Pio that much more holy….Why bring this story up?…I always think of this story when someone in the Church, someone with authority says something or does something that goes against the Deposit of the Faith…In time - God’s time - Their statements / actions will be corrected…Why? - How can I say that with such certainty?…Here is why…….”And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven”……..There is an old saying….."Man will have his hour but God will have his day”…….We as Catholics MUST understand that our Church does not belong to us - We are just members - It belongs to Christ himself……”His house - His rules” - Trying to fight against God is like trying to stop the ocean from crashing against the shore - Its impossible!.....Accept reality and accept God on his terms…This is how we find peace and this is how we will find eternal life as well

“For over all, the LORD's glory will be shelter and protection: shade from the parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain.”

Today at Mass we hear the words of a pagan soldier…His words are very famous - I know you are familiar with them and have heard them before……..”Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; only say the word and my servant will be healed”…This man understood who he truly was - I sinner!…He understood that he had no authority to save himself…That he had to rely solely upon the mercy of God….This man “got it” - He figured it out!…..How about us?….Do we think somehow we have the authority to “negotiate” with the creator of the Universe?……One of the greatest revelations of my life was this - God is God and I am not…Once you get that down…..The rest is not as hard as you think…………….JMJ

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