“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”
Luke 8:5-8 NIV

We are approaching the anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. Vatican II as it is more commonly known. And there is a lot of confusion. There is what they actually said in the documents. Then there is this “Spirit of Vatican II” that brought about no end of grief with changes and a great deal of actual heresy into the Church. Some of that “Spirit” was the Spirit of God, but perhaps even more was Lucifer as an “Angel of Light”. I don’t mean to rehash the history here only to make a much more important observation.

Faithful Catholics will say that the Church was in good shape and growing before Vatican II. But it could not be so. Although members were coming in, how could heresy so easily sweep through the church in only a few years if the earlier catechism was effective? Most people believed what the priests and bishops told them. They could recite the rote memorization, but did they understand anything? It is one thing to say I believe in transubstantiation, and another to explain what it is and even more if they can demonstrate it from scripture. The church had the equivalent of “No Child Left Behind”. Where they could do well on tests or in polls but didn’t really learn their faith. It might have been better that the large numbers were in the church, but it was only a casual association, one not based on any fire or spiritual desire. It made a lot of demands to do pantomime, but not so much to actually undergo continual conversion. It had the spiritual riches, but much like a library where you would have to go there and look things up yourself.

It is getting better today as there is no social reason to belong to the Church – any church. You have to want to, and the only reason would be because you believe. Many went to Protestant churches and I say Praise God! as they are believers instead of either heretics or so lukewarm as to believe nothing.

There are still a lot of cultural Catholics, but my greatest fear is for my Protestant brethren. Too much has become political or personal. A
charismatic (and not in the sense of the Holy Spirit) pastor leads his flock, but the same way the priests could be swayed and then sway their congregations, how deep is the faith and love of Jesus? How did Franky Schaffer lose his faith? I see the same danger now – what happened to the Catholic church was an anti-awakening, and anti-revival. It was pretty but shallow. Dumbed down. A call to complacency and contentment. Not a call to transform ones-self to win the world. To address the symptoms and not through fasting and prayer but the ballot box. And even then not by looking for virtue, honor, or integrity, but by picking the lesser evil. And the pastors will give you a lot of hints who they think the lesser evil is. I can almost predict that at least one well known pastor will “endorse” (as much as the 501c3 status will allow) someone who is pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage, or at least is ambiguous or a flip-flopper because of foreign policy.  Others will make excuses or fudge. In 2004, it was two Masonic candidates – which flavor of “Skull and Bones” do you prefer?

That is politics. Yet that is important as we’ve abandoned the culture. It means the culture of life, but that extends to helping our neighbor. We don’t. The new parable is “When I was hungry you went to Rome to argue for more bread and less circuses”. People are suffering up and down your street. Have you armed yourself to bring the love of Jesus – as well as practical aid – to them? Some have, but all too few.

Jesus would leave the 99 to save the 1. And you don’t know that 1 you help today won’t be the seed which will yield the 100. How many people walked past John Corapi? When he was wealthy and needed to be warned? When he was homeless – and literally spit on? What did God do with him? And I suspect he is now learning some new tricks. God is never done with anyone. And we are to build each other up in Christ. Jesus said they will know we follow him because we love one another.

I think Franky Schaffer saw there was no love, no compassion, no pity in the conservative church, only politics and judgment. He could not see Jesus there.

We start by loving Jesus, and getting to know him and what he wants through his word. And we are transformed into him. We become facets of his love, but also his wisdom, compassion. So we can present Jesus just by living out our lives. But it does mean following him through his passion and death on a cross. We will win back everything only when we are willing to present in our own lives Jesus in all his gory as well as glory. The gory crucifixion was the victory over sin. Then the glory of the resurrection destroyed death. Yes it is the culture of death, but it is so because it is the culture of sin. And we are afraid of the cost of winning over sin.

“Because man is a sacred element of secular life,” Stafford remarked, “man should not be held to a supreme power of state, and a person’s life cannot ultimately be controlled by government.”

“For the next few years, Gethsemane will not be marginal. We will know that garden,” Stafford said, comparing America’s future with Obama as president to Jesus’ agony in the garden. “On November 4, 2008, America suffered a cultural earthquake.”

Cardinal Stafford said Catholics must deal with the “hot, angry tears of betrayal” by beginning a new sentiment where one is “with Jesus, sick because of love.”

***

Stafford also spoke about the decline of a respect for human life and the need for Catholics to return to the original values of marriage and human dignity.

“If 1968 was the year of America’s ‘suicide attempt,’ 2008 is the year of America’s exhaustion,” said Stafford, an American Cardinal and Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary for the Tribunal of the Holy See. “In the intervening 40 years since Humanae Vitae, the United States has been thrown upon ruins.”

This destruction and America’s decline is largely in part due to the Supreme Court’s decisions in the life-issue cases of 1973, specifically Roe v. Wade. Stafford asserted these cases undermined respect for human life in the United States.

“Its scrupulous meanness has had catastrophic effects upon the unity and integrity of the American republic,” said Stafford.

Humanae Vitae (“On Human Life”) reaffirms traditional Catholic teachings regarding abortion, contraception and other human life issues. Pope Benedict XVI said in May it is “so controversial, yet so crucial for humanity’s future…What was true yesterday is true also today.”

For all of the above article (in green) hit this hyperlink.

The good Cardinal sounds much like this great dissident (hit this link for the transfer to our series on a great Russian dissident) Here is another installment from that series. Click on great dissidents at the right and scroll down to read all fourteen installments on Alexander Solzhenitsyn — a truly prophetic voice. Like Cardinal Stafford!

Thank you, Jesus!

When the State assumes military powers inside its own borders it is called martial law.

When that State is apostate that martial law can quickly become a persecution of the Christian church.

Click here for a possible foreshadowing. (parental warning: links to profane language in comment section)

Click here for a more nuanced explanation of this seeming call for an internal military force. (It could be that Senator Obama did not intend to sound like a German Chancellor from the 1930′s.)

Even if the above example is not a good one, it remains true that when the Church refuses to obey its Lord, and instead chooses to obey Mammon, then the goose stepping soldiers are at the door.

Some have said, “Its the Economy, Stupid.”

Wrong!

Its the Culture, Pilgrims.

And if the culture goes bad, well then ….

Matthew 5:13

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

Wise words from one of the Founders of our Republic seem most appropriate in this dire hour …

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Thomas Jefferson

I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive.

Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

Thomas Jefferson

Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.
Thomas Jefferson

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

Thomas Jefferson
The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
Thomas Jefferson