Today at Holy Mass St Luke tells the world something very important….Something the world to this day has not learned….Even people within the Church…Many do not “hear” these words of Christ….”Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away”…How easily we forget that Jesus is GOD!…..And nothing and no one can eliminate his words or his Church….Oh, how the world tries to this day!….How people inside and outside the Church try to “improve” on what can not change…..This is why I never fear, the Church of Jesus Christ will be the last thing standing on the face of this earth…Not because I said so, because Jesus himself said so..........…..”Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. 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. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”…..The world views the Catholic Church like it would any other power structure…And clearly because it is composed of men there is a political element to it…However, God’s hand is upon it…Trying to fight against it is like try to hold back the ocean…It simply cannot be done…Yet, the world keeps trying…It all comes down to one word - Authority….Jesus himself gave the Catholic Church authority…And sadly people hate this word…”Don’t tell me what to do”….Or…For the people who think they are “smart” both inside and outside the Church…”I know a better way to do this”…..Again, it all comes down to the word - Authority!…..Jesus has authority and “I” do not…..This is reality……We can not save ourself…We ALL die….We can not move what is immoveable.
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem”
In 1950 Roberto Rossellini directed a film called The Flowers of St. Francis…..The structure of the film is a series of short stories depicting the life of St Francis….There are many aspects of the film that are very powerful but allow me to tell you about one of them…..In the movie there was this very simple man who was one of the original followers of St Francis…Francis each day would send the brothers out into the world two by two to preach the Gospel but he never let this one simple minded brother go because he feared for his safety…...He was too innocent…But the simple brother would keep asking Francis to go…And finally Francis agrees….So this very simple man goes into this corrupt town and the people laugh at him, they abuse him…They will not accept anything he says…..As time goes on the city falls into disarray…The city literally in the film goes on fire and chaos ensues….As this happens everyone runs from the city in a panic….At the very end of this chaotic scene…The last man standing is the “simple” brother…..Everyone flees and everything is destroyed except him…….This short story masterfully told by Roberto Rossellini captures every period of world history since the beginning of time…Mankind “thinks” he has it all figured out……And in the end it is proven once again…Mankind had nothing figured out and once again mankind destroyed itself......”I warn everyone who hears the prophetic words in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words in this prophetic book, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city described in this book.”
“Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest in which she puts her young – Your altars, O LORD of hosts, my king and my God!”
Jesus is reminding us in the Gospel of St Luke today…Its impossible to destroy or manipulate what cannot be changed….I can hear it now….”That is what you think”……….”I’m smarter than you”….”The Catholic Church is behind the times”….”I figured it all out”……..For 2000 years powerful men and woman, brilliant minds, empires and even men inside the Catholic Church have said those very words…And history tells us…They all failed miserably……..So what should that tell us all today?……It all comes down to the word - Authority!…..Jesus has authority and “I” do not…..This is reality……We can not save ourself and we can not change what is impossible to change
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