“Jesus said to him: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets” Matthew 22:37-40
Brothers,
In Canada, there are two things which you are not allowed to talk about in public, namely, religion and politics. For this reason, the only thing left that is allowed to be discussed is the weather, and even then, if the topic relates to the causes of weather changes, you may still find yourself in trouble. You are of course, allowed to get really passionate about the cold in the winter, just don’t bring up our veterans being left in the cold. You may also bring up car traffic on the 401, but don’t dare bring attention to the child traffic happening on the 401. If you never speak of politics or religion, you’ll be allowed to enter polite society and become an inoffensive unoffender. The inoffensive unoffender is always well-liked. He always looks for comfort (Via Saborosa). He speaks of nothing. Does nothing. He never offends. Sometimes, he will even be called “nice”. Never hot, never cold, just comfortably lukewarm. And he makes Jesus vomit. (Rev 3:16)
Jesus’ two great commandments are to love God and love your neighbour. He was clear that these are not suggestions or recommendations, for He calls them “Commandments”. If religion is about how we love God, and politics how we love our neighbour, then ignoring or muting oneself in regards to these matters, would be an act of disobedience to our Lord. G.K. Chesterton once remarked, “The Bible tells us to love our neighbours, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people.” Good fences may make good neighbours, but sitting on the fence, is a recipe for disaster.
When Christ taught us the Our Father, He told us to pray “Thy Will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven”, which at least implies, He came to be with us here and now, and has an interest in what happens here and now, not just when we die. Despite knowing He was to become the Temple, He still took the effort to cleanse the Temple, and to do so with zeal (John 2:13-17). He became angry with people that would withhold from helping a neighbour because it was the Sabbath (Mark 2:4-5). St Paul later reminded us to “speak ye the truth every man with his neighbour” and “be angry but do not sin” (Ephesians 4:24-29). Jesus offended many people, especially Jewish clergy and Roman authorities, representing both the religion and politics of His time. This is not something that happened accidentally. He knew very well the consequences of His words and actions, warning His followers, “You will be hated by all because of my name” (Lk 21:17-19). So the next time someone spits at you at a March for Life, or yells at you at a school board meeting, remember that they hated Him first.
We often hear about freedom of religion. At first, this seems like an obvious good. The state should not coerce anyone into a particular religion, nor should a particular religion dictate the politics of a state. In theory, this is reasonable and in line with our Church teaching. In reality, it has led to extreme secularization and pushed religion to sidelines. This position assumes the state as being neutral, and makes all religions equal, which inevitably reduces them to simply a choice amongst many. The end result is a society that treats its politics as religion, and religion as politics. This happens to be the exact reverse order which Jesus commanded us to follow. First, love God, second, love your neighbour. If loving God is religion, then Church is first, while politics or the state, is secondary. Today however, we are asked to love the state first. Increasingly, we are no longer asked. Nearly 100 years ago, G.K. Chesterton warned that “Religious liberty might be supposed to mean that everybody is free to discuss religion. In practice, it means that hardly anybody is allowed to mention it.” If you don’t believe him, try it.
The world has its own religion. It is pagan and baptizes its citizens in the name of the mother, the sun, and the worldly spirit. It hates the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Throughout history, people generally came to the realization the world is not dumbly there or that it could somehow create itself. Whether a god or gods, or a force, or energy, something was required for our existence. This is why religion was a fact of life throughout history. Belief in a god or idea of a god is not unreasonable. But in comes Jesus, and the belief is now not only of a god, but God in the flesh… a Person! To know this Person, He must be revealed to us.
Numerous prophecies were made about a coming Messiah, but there four specific things He would do: 1) Gather the Tribes 2) Cleanse the Temple 3) Deal with the enemies of Israel 4) Reign as Lord of the nations. He came to unite the “tribes” in right praise and right worship. The tribes meant the divided tribes of Israel but also, Greeks, the Gentiles, Jews, slaves, the powerful, males, females, elders, children, rich, poor, uneducated, the educated, white, blacks, and so on. When we worship well, we worship together and we do it publicly. Through the Bread and Wine at the Last Supper, and His crucifixion on the Cross, He showed us how to praise and worship Him. This is the kingdom of God, His Church that will be a light to the nations with the help of the Holy Spirit.
The path then is threefold: from an unknown god to God the Father, to Jesus God made flesh, to His kingdom the Church. The West had the three at one point and the fruits of this society included universities, hospitals, cathedrals, flourishing of the arts whether in paintings, sculptures or music, literature, scientific discoveries, human rights, and more. In some parts, the people retained their love of God and Jesus, but began to separate into different churches (kingdoms). This love of Jesus is now also disappearing, as more dismiss Him as a mere guru of nice teachings, a philosophical master, perhaps the second greatest prophet, a revolutionary for the poor, but never Jesus as Lord. Once you lose Jesus, you lose everything, and it’s clear that the West is experiencing in real time, what this entails. An increasingly tribal society, divided by skin colour, gender, sexual preferences, wealth, religious and political affiliation, age and many more categories, that doesn’t get married, doesn’t want kids, massacres babies by the millions, kills the old, eliminates suffering by eliminating the sufferers, and so on, is a dying society that has lost its heart. A society that can’t tell the difference between man and woman, that believes the world just popped up out of nothing, that a baby in the womb is not a human, that 2+2=4 is racist, is a society that has lost its mind.
The situation doesn’t look good, but since the Fall, it never has. Jesus though, never gave up on us then, and is not giving up now. He has given us two commandments: love God and love your neighbour. This means not just going, but participating in the Mass and then go forth to live out the Gospel daily. It means voting and being involved in your local parish and local community affairs. It means praying to God and praying for our neighbours. We are the Church, we are Jesus to those that do not know Him yet. As men, some of us are also fathers. Do our kids see our Father in us? Some of us are also married. Do our spouses see us as the bridegroom (Jesus) of the Church? For those with parents still alive, do they see the Son in you? St Mother Teresa was once asked by someone what she would recommend to change the world? She said, “Go home and love your family”, and added, “Not all of us can do great things, but we can all do small things with great love.” Let us begin.
St Joseph, pray for us.
St Michael, pray for us.
Roberto Freire
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