Today at Holy Mass in the Gospel of St Matthew Jesus asks a question to the crowd that followed him….“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”…..He asks the same question today to us…..Jesus established one Church - The Catholic Church…This is an undeniable fact…The Catholic Church existed 400 years before there was even a Bible and when the Bible was put together, it was the Catholic Church who complied it…..But sadly, even within the Catholic Church today people ask the same question that Jesus raised today in the Gospel - “Who are my brothers?”….While everything that the Catholic Church teaches is written down - Very clearly I might add - People within the Church argue and bicker about what is authentic….Funny how the human mind works!…..For purposes of this reflection - I will try to answer this question - “Who are my brothers?”……The Catholic Church contains the fullness of Truth, which means as Catholics we MUST believe everything the Church teaches and live our life through the lens of those teachings…But that is not all - We must also strive to purify our hearts daily because a pure heart is a heart that is full of love of God and love of neighbor….That means if we profess to believe everything that the Church teaches to be the Truth but our hearts are not full of love - Sadly - We are NOT brothers of Jesus Christ…..The same goes if we distort the Truth taught by the Church in the name of “love” - Such an approach also falls short of the question asked by Jesus today - “Who are my brothers?”……..When the secular world witnesses authentic Catholicism - Trust me - Heads are turned and traffic stops!……How do I know this? - Because I have encountered holy people in my life - Specifically speaking, when I worked with Mother Teresa’s nuns actively for seven years in New York, Haiti and India - There I witnessed faith in action - A religious order who believes everything the Church teaches, lives those teachings with their lives and possess love in their heart for both God and neighbor….This is the witness the world needs and this witness addresses the questions asked by Jesus today - “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”....There is no Truth without love and so called “love” falls short if it lacks the fullness of Truth.
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him”
The Catholic Church teaches that in order to consume the Blessed Sacrament at Mass, we must be in the state of grace…This teaching is biblical as well as clearly documented in the Catechism…Yet - Somehow, this teaching has become unclear to some….Trying to “side-step” this teaching in the name of being “pastoral” or in the name of “accompaniment” falls short and does not bear fruit for the Kingdom of God - It is also objectively a sin…..We can not call such false practices, (even if they are well-intentioned) love either……If we love someone, we tell them the Truth…That does not mean we are mean-spirited when we tell them the Truth - But if we conveniently “leave parts of the Truth out” or we intentionally speak in ambiguous terms about the Truth - We can not honestly say we love that person….Jesus never did this and nor can we…The voice of the Catholic Church MUST be clear, but it also MUST come from a place of love…God sees the human heart - He knows our intentions…..When the secular world witnesses a Church that embraces the fullness of Truth in love - The world may not agree with us - But trust me - The world will take us seriously!….And in the process, many will experience a change of heart - Because authentic Catholicism sets the world on fire.
“As in the days when you came from the land of Egypt, show us wonderful signs. Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance”
Today Jesus challenges us….“Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?”…In our hearts I believe we all know the answer to those questions….The challenge comes more from living out the answers in real time….Such an authentic lifestyle requires grace, which produces courage….An authentic Catholic stands out from the crowd - No words are necessary to tell the world around us that we are Catholic when we are authentically living out our Catholic faith - The secular world knows this with one glance…This is the witness our world needs to see…Its not just a matter of “going to Church on Sunday” - Its what we do the rest of the week…Are all our choices, most especially how we spend our money and what we do in our bedroom - Are these choices guided by Church teaching?…Do we share our resources with the material poor? - Are we open to life from conception to natural death? - Do we use contraception in our marriages?……The answer to these questions tell us a lot - They also tell the world around us a lot…..Our world today will not be transformed by a form of “counterfeit Catholicism”…..People believe what they see….And when they see the “real deal” - They know it…….“Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother”…….These are the people who set the world on fire - And this is what we are called to do - Set the world on fire……..JMJ
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