You worry about you and leave the rest to God…..”If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit”…Just make sure that “spirit” is the Holy Spirit!…And we do that by sticking to first principals

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the gospel of St Luke Jesus addressing the teachers of the law……”“Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God”…These men paid attention to detail…They knew all the right things to do and for the most part they did them very well…However, they forgot the most important thing…The love of people in the process…What became “god” to them was the doctrine and dogma itself forgetting why it was written in the first place…This is a trap people fall into today - You see it all over Catholic social media….All the teachings of the Church are to point us to the love of God and the love of neighbor…..The commandments protect us!…..The commandments make us free!…However, we can get lost in “the details”…Forgetting why the Church says what it says and teaches what it teaches…When that happens the teachings of the Church can become an idol replacing God….Also keep in mind our common humanity…People sin and fall short, always have and always will…That includes me and you!….We must be patient with each other….Giving good example…Loving God above all things and love our neighbor as our self…The teachings of the Church help us to do that…However, don’t get lost in the “weeds” and forget why the teachings were created in the first place!

“My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord; I know them, and they follow me”

Everything Jesus taught can be boiled down to the first two commandments…Love of God and love of neighbor…..There was a time when I would get so angry when Catholic Priests and the laity did not act and do what the Church taught for centuries especially during Mass….I would “bang my head against the wall” at Mass when priests did not say the Mass in a solemn manner or “left out teachings” during homilies because they were difficult for the people to hear…To be very honest with you I know longer feel that way…..And I am going to tell you how I arrived at the place I am at now…….Someone told me something a long time ago that I found very helpful…One day I was at Eucharistic Adoration…And the Church was full of noise…I was getting so aggravated…To make matters worse some crazy person literally began to dance in front of the Blessed Sacrament on the altar…Believe it or not…I thought I was going to “flip out”!…I told this story to a very holy friend of mine and they told me when you see things like that…Pray to Our Lady of Sorrows…No one can better understand behavior as I just described better than Our Lady…Remember, she stood at the foot of the cross as men gambled for her son’s cloths…Our Lady knew full well who Jesus was…Yet she remained prayerful and composed as "nonsense" was going on at the turning point in the history of mankind…....This is also what helped me overcome my anger and frustration at so much nonsense that goes on in the Catholic Church…Every Wednesday my wife and I fast vigorously for the Church…For all the clergy…For all the laity….This has given me such grace and miraculously I no longer get crazy when I see some of the nonsense…..So my advice to those who still get “crazy” at what they see…Channel your frustration into prayer and fasting…Not only will that bring you closer to the Lord, it will give you peace and the Lord can use your actions to bring about his Kingdom on earth

“Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, but delights in the law of the LORD and meditates on his law day and night”

Getting back to Jesus in the gospel of Luke today at Mass….Jesus was not a “slacker”…He knew what was in the law…However, he also knew that the law was written for one reason and one reason only…To teach people to love God and love their neighbor…When the law becomes "god"…We miss the mark…That is what Jesus was trying to teach the Pharisees today and this is what he is trying to teach us….All of us fall short and no one person is going to “save the world and the Church”…Jesus already did that…In the mean time..People are going to make mistakes…People are going to sin…And if you want to find fault with the people in the Catholic Church - You surely will find it - We can talk for hours!…However, if we stick to the basics, what I call “first principals”…Frequent Confessions, Receiving the Eucharist (daily if possible) in the state of grace, Praying the Rosary daily, Weekly fasting…These “first principles” will give you all the grace you need…In the process, we must be patient with others and most importantly be patient with yourself!….….Remember, God works in mysterious ways….. There is no one person, government or cultural shift that can “bring down the Church”….....Believe me, it has been tried over the course of 2000 years by so many and they all failed!…Also remember the words of Jesus himself in Scripture…”You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it”…So relax!…You worry about you and leave the rest to God…..”If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit”…Just make sure that “spirit” is the Holy Spirit!…And we do that by sticking to first principals