The Happy Priest Reflects on the Moral Crisis of Our Times

9/10/2012

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and groaned, and said to him, 'Ephphata! - that is, 'Be opened!' - And immediately the man's ears were opened, his speech impediment was removed, and he spoke plainly" (Mark 7: 32-35).

In meditating on today's passage from the gospel, we might note the direct relationship between deafness and speech. Jesus first touches the man's ears and then he touches his tongue so that he may speak.

The lesson here is very clear.

Hearing the word of God is not enough; we must also proclaim the truth.

During his first pastoral visit to the United States, Blessed Pope John Paul II said: "And so, we will stand up every time that human life is threatened. When the sacredness of life before birth is attacked, we will stand up and proclaim that no one ever has the authority to destroy unborn life.

When a child is described as a burden or is looked upon only as a means to satisfy an emotional need, we will stand up and insist that every child is a unique and unrepeatable gift of God, with the right to a loving and united family.

When the institution of marriage is abandoned to human selfishness or terminated, we will stand up and affirm the indissolubility of the marriage bond.

When the value of the family is threatened because of social and economic pressures, we will stand up and reaffirm that the family is necessary not only for the private good of every person, but also for the common good of every society, nation and state.

When freedom is used to dominate the weak, to squander natural resources and energy, and to deny basic necessities to people, we will stand up and reaffirm the demands of justice and social love.

When the sick, the aged or the dying are abandoned in loneliness, we will stand up and proclaim that they are worthy of love, care and respect" (Mass at the Capitol Mall in Washington; October 7, 1979).

The solution to today's challenges really rests with each of us. Are we going to follow Jesus or are we going to continue down the path of self-destruction?

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Father James Farfaglia, is a contributing writer for Catholic Online and author of Get Serious! - A Survival Guide for Serious Catholics. You can visit him on the web at www.fatherjames.org.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: sunday homily, homily, catholic spirituality, father james farfaglia, humility, pride, humanae vita, pope benedict, pope john paul II

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1 - 6 of 6 Comments

Max Dowden
9 months ago
I agree we should be open to hearing God's Word in our lives. His Wisdom is greater than yours, however, and I expect his Word will be greater than yours as well. It is your sacred function to remind people to listen to God; it is beyond your human ability to predict what he will say.
DLL
9 months ago
Perfect reflection,thank God for Happy Priests. Our society has become an if you don't want it,a throw it away,society. Nothing seems made to last as most everything becomes completely outdated,even the Catholic Church and what it teaches. I have learned to hate the term progressive. To be progressive seems to be on a fast track to the hell of simply very poor decisions. Marriages don't last because people out grow each other and even their families and must move on to bigger and yet undefined,better things. Lousy media presentations infiltrate every device that is created to be devices actually necessary to be informative,educational and entertaining,especially in the form of the presentation of pornography,readily available to all age groups. Distraction of the age has made prayer and solitude almost impossible. People have grouped themselves together on what it is that they believe and those that do not agree are hateful,judgemental,un patriotic,fanatical and unreasonable if others disagree with them. Confirmation of each and every version of any professed truth,is what one can find in any agreeable source on the Internet. Catholic on line presents a user friendly Catholic perspective of what is truth. Go to the LA Times,Huffington Post among many others,read any religious article presenting a Catholic perspective and the Catholics and the Pope represent and outdated,moral perspectives that are hateful,judgemental,etc.to all who choose to disagree with it. Sense and nonsense combine to kill any sense of a common sense or even a moderate point of view. We are ultra-right or ultra-left. One hates the other and vice versa. Two heads used to be better than one but now it seems that no 2 can agree on much of anything at all without eventually becoming bitter enemies to one another. The end result? Silence! What happens? Turn on the news and there is another suicide bombing or a senseless mass murder,just action that leads to senseless reaction,the sounds of the breakdown of communication is always the shot heard around the world. Our God always gets the blame,how can these things happen? Jesus is our gentle giant,we know through Him,what God is truly like. God is our Happy Priest,of an everlasting,eternal Peace and Love. As for the shot heard around the world? Look to see if your big toe is still there because we do it to ourselves. God is reasonable and we are simply unreasonable as humankind. What is redemption? Learning to be reasonable the way Jesus is,the Word of God that was made flesh is Truth! Believe the good news! Rejoice!
Neil
9 months ago
Absolutely Father.
Thank you.
Kasoy
9 months ago
Decay of civilization and morality always go together. Election of morally corrupt leaders is a sign of impending crisis. (Read books of Samuel and Kings)
Rob
9 months ago
Great article father. I think we should also medidate on the fact that the people brought the deaf/mute man to Jesus. Too often in this world we find ourselves in, we are too quick to want to eject, condemn or otherwise seperate ourselves from those who are deaf, mute, sick etc. We need to make more of an effort of brining those lost souls to enounter Jesus.
jh
9 months ago
Stunning and accurate comments, Father.

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