What man can not do - God will do - May they all be one!

Today at Holy Mass we hear again in the first reading from the Book of Acts…We are told that the Church was unified…..”The community of believers was of one heart and mind”…….One of the greatest scandals in the entire history of Christendom has to be the divisions within the Christian family….How can we project to the world the saving message of Jesus Christ when we can not even agree with fellow believers?…..Even within the walls of the Catholic Church today, division and disunity is everywhere - How is this possible?!?….As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, everything is written down - Everything! - Yet, our people twist and “spin” words like politicians to suit agendas….This is a great scandal - One in which breaks the heart of Christ!…..If we are fortunate enough to enter heaven - God willing!!!!! - All people will be of one mind and one heart - Have you ever thought about that?….When we pray the only prayer Jesus gave to us - The Our Father - We say with our own words - “Thy Kingdom come - On earth as it is in heaven” - We actually say those words!!!!! - And yet division still exists - What a scandal!!!!!…..How do we expect to enter the Kingdom of God when we “hold on” to ideologies and agendas that contradict the Gospel of Jesus Christ and his Holy Catholic Church…….If we believe that the Catholic Church is divinely guided, which it is…If we believe that the Pope, who is a man, but a man chosen by God himself to guide the faithful…If we believe that the Catholic Church, the only Church founded by Jesus himself contains the fullness of Truth…And lastly - This is the tough part - If we bear patiently with those both inside and outside the Church that twist and spin the Truth, knowing God himself with “untwist” what man can not fix…..That for me is the toughest part - Do you agree? - Bearing patiently with others in charity!…..If we do “all those things” - God will bring about unity - In his time……..Once again - Let us look to the only prayer Jesus gave us - The Our Father - "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us"……Each of us is flawed and because of that we must bear with and forgive each other - Knowing that God is the “master builder”…..”A voice proclaims: In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill made low; The rugged land shall be a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken”…….Sometimes we must just “be still” and know that what man can not do - God will do - Christian unity will one day be achieved….Do your part in the meantime

"'You must be born from above.'The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Every Catholic should read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which was published by Pope John Paul II in 1992….In that book, which is very readable, contains everything that Church professes to be true….In addition to that book, every Catholic should also read the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which lays out the social teachings of what the Church professes to be true - This document was also published by Pope John Paul II……Once we read these two documents - We must then avail ourselves to God’s grace - Only through grace will we “bend our will” to what is contained in these two books….Everything the Catholic Church professes to be true is “do-able” - But only through grace…..No matter how gifted we are”think” we are - We can not self manufacture our will to comport with God’s will……”The cup must be made empty for milk to be poured into it”…..”The cup” is us! - In order for God’s Holy Spirit to animate our life, we must “make room” for it……Then what seems impossible will become possible……..In this day and age - How can a married couple not use contraception? - Children are expensive!!!!!…….On my wedding day, this was on my mind……So much so, I pulled the priest who concelebrated my wedding Mass to speak with him…He assured me that “God will provide”……And fast forward twelve years later - My wife and I have five children - We also lost three through mis-carriages…..And while life is not easy, as one could image with five children under eleven years old - Our family manages - God does provide!!!….We as Catholics must learn to trust….God’s plan is better than our plan!…..And Christian unity is found in God’s plan - Not “our plan”

“If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?”

Today we hear at Mass that the early Church “was of one heart and mind”…What a beautiful time it must have been to be Catholic - Today sadly, we face a different Church altogether - Between divisions within the Catholic Church itself, petty arguments, disobedience and lack of formation - Not to mention the thousands of Protestant denominations that exist all over the world - We sadly are very far from the unity that Jesus hoped for….What are we doing to improve this sad state of affairs?…First off - Do we know what the Church actually teaches and why it teaches it? - Secondly, when we see others depart from Church teaching - Are we charitable?….Ultimately we can not convince people of anything - Only the Holy Spirit can “convict” a soul of its errors…In the mean time, do we bear patiently with each other? - Do we offer a good and consistent example?……God will fix what man cannot fix - And at the “end of the day” - There will be one Church - One people with One heart and One mind…..For those of us who believe everything the Catholic Church teaches now - We have to leave the “heavy lifting to God” - We cannot “fix” what God can only fix!……..”Every mountain and hill will be made low; The rugged land shall be a plain, the rough country, a broad valley”……What man can not do - God will do - May they all be one!…..JMJ