Now is the Time – Evangelize, Catechize and Commission

Now is the Time – Evangelize, Catechize and Commission

People Drink the Sand Because They Don’t Know the Difference

So no doubt there has been a lot going with the HHS mandate, lawsuits and other legal action.  However this corrosive mandate which has only been made worse by the “compromise” put forth by the administration is an opportunity.  There is a great deal of division in our country right now, things are a royal mess.  Even though I am only 29, I look back in recent history and can’t find a time where our rights have been so impinged upon.

So when we look to the division in our nation, but we should also be looking into the division in our Church, not just the Catholic/Protestant divisive but within the Catholic Church itself.  There is the “Catholic Health Association”, and “Catholics United” who have come out in favor of this mandate with the Obama compromise.  My opinion and it is only my opinion is that they were probably for it even before the compromise but could not actually state that because of the massive outcry that there would have been.

The Catholic Church right now in the current moment has unprecedented unification amongst its bishop.  All 180 bishops have spoken out against this mandate and why is this?  Because they can see that this is fundamentally wrong, the morality of it notwithstanding, but the rule of law being violated is egregious.  This moment of unity should be used as a time of evangelization and catechesis on what the church actually teaches.  The threat is real and so should be the catechesis given by our bishops, priests and lay catechists.  That is not say that I am not extremely proud of what the US Bishops are doing, I just hope to see more done.  It seems the bishops not only have reacted to the mandate but heard the words of the Pope in his this address…

“…it is imperative that the entire Catholic community in the United States come to realize the grave threats to the Church’s public moral witness presented by a RADICAL SECULARISM which finds increasing expression in the political and cultural spheres. The seriousness of these threats needs to be clearly appreciated at EVERY LEVEL OF ECCLESIAL LIFE.” Benedict XVI, January 19, 2012

As many have said the sleeping giant that is the Catholic Church has been awakened, I would say though the giant has been startled and is waking up blinking his eyes and looking around.  The normal Catholic in the pew is looking around and seeing what is going on.  It could very easily if not pushed roll over and go back to sleep.  Thus the importance is shown of the necessity of catechesis and evangelization in the present environment on life issues.  Properly showing people why the church teaches what it does, seminars and catechetical events to educate and evangelize.  Secularism and Atheism has made major inroads in our culture and it is time that Catholics stand up and start to take back the culture because without the Catholic Church there wouldn’t be much of a culture to start with. 

So educate yourself, educated others, push your priests and bishops to hold educational seminars, teachings in homilies.  People are desperate for the truth and the as faithful Catholics we have a obligation to give it them. 

I would like to give you two quotes from the movie the American President which I think are exceedingly relevant right now:

 “America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the "land of the free"…We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, [Barak Obama] is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections.”

“[Lewis Rothschild] People want leadership…and in the absence of genuine leadership, they'll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand…[Andrew Shepherd] People don't drink the sand 'cause they're thirsty. They drink the sand 'cause they don't know the difference.”

People have been complacent, lazy, thinking that what we have in this country is easy.  People have been drinking the sand for way to long and it is time for us [the Catholic Church] to lead them to the water, the water that gives eternal life, the divine wellspring that is the Catholic Church started by Jesus Christ when he walked this earth and sealed with the promise of the Cross.  It’s time to stand up, to be counted as passionately Catholic, to live what we are called to live, the Gospel Message, the Good News.  The news we have doesn’t get any better and yet we have not been sharing that, now is the time to change that, now is the time to reach out, now is the time to make a difference.  Whether it is one person or a thousand, it is time to speak out and speak up because if not there might not be an opportunity to do so again.

“The Church exists in order to Evangelize” Evangelii Nuntiandi 41 (Pope Paul VI)

“I sense that the moment has come to commit all the Church’s energies to a new evangelization and to the mission ad gentes.  “No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty:
to proclaim Christ to all peoples.”  Redemptoris Missio 3 (Blessed John Paul the Great)

Now is the time, Now is the time