Often, non-Catholics will attempt to use scandal and corruption to discredit the Church. How should you respond?
It is a shame that grave sin seeps into the Catholic Church from time to time, and it hurts us all deeply, especially the vast majority of priests who are truly holy men of God. But, the Church has never claimed that those who have been entrusted to lead the flock will never sin. Our priests are fallible men. Even our popes are sinners who participate in the Sacrament of Confession just like the rest of us do. Some are great sinners and we have had throughout the years about ten evil Popes. (out of 265 Popes, that is not a bad record). But, this should come as no surprise. Jesus tells us in Scripture that there indeed will be weeds among the wheat
Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
"The owner's servants came to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?' 'An enemy did this,' he replied. The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' Matthew 13:24 Read more...
The other day I came across this statement on a Facebook page:
Standing in the garage will not make you a car anymore than going to Church will make you a Christian
It is true that many attend Mass and then offend God on a daily basis, but hypocrisy goes both ways. Some say we don't need Church to be Christian, and perhaps this is true, but the real question for all Catholics who profess belief in the real presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is, "Do we need 'Jesus' to be Christian?" If a Catholic like myself professes, through faith, to believe in and hold sacred, the complete and real presence of Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist and rejects Christ; Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, through denial of this sacrament, is that not hypocritical? For the Catholic, is this not an obvious offense against God? Then the question becomes, "How Christian is the self proclaimed and confirmed Catholic who rejects the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, a very real participation in the perpetual Cross of Christ?”
Is the Death Penalty Ever Justifiable?
One day not so long ago, I was on a theology website that I log onto from time, and a question was posed to all the subscribers: “Is it okay to hate?” As I reflected upon this question I remembered the book of Psalms. In the book of Psalms, the psalmist laments the suffering he endures at the hands of his enemies, but at the same time he praises God who destroys the wicked who inflict the suffering. The psalmist brings his hate to God and does not sugar coat his feelings. He gives to the Lord a very honest and shocking account of his feelings:
“Let their own table before them become a snare; let their sacrificial feasts be a trap. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see; and make their loins tremble continually. Pour out thy indignation upon them, and let thy burning anger over take them. May their camp be a desolation, let no one dwell in their tents.” Psalm 69:22-25.
It is hard for many Christians to understand how this verse and others like it belong in Holy Scripture. How do we reconcile such hate with the Lord’s command to love our enemies? However, I think the real question is: Are we being honest with God if we say that we have never experienced such hate or never wished for the demise of our enemies? After all, we do not have to go very far to find evil, and when we do we expect justice to be swift and harsh. Sometimes, we feel that the only appropriate punishment for the perpetrator of such evil is death.
I have felt just like the Psalmist pouring his heart out to God. It happened once about 16 years ago when I opened my newspaper to see a fireman tenderly cradling a dying baby in his arms. The baby looked to be about two years old and she was the victim of the Oklahoma City bombing. My youngest daughter was about the same age as this child and so it was difficult not to imagine my own baby in the arms of that fireman, the victim of a horrific crime. The feeling I had toward Timothy McVeigh was sheer hatred; there is just no other way to describe it. I yearned for justice to be swift and harsh and nothing less than death seemed right. I felt completely justified in my hatred, for I did not see Timothy McVeigh as a human being, but as the devil. It is not wrong to hate the devil and desire his demise. God gives us a conscience and an ability to hate evil so that we gravitate toward good. We, like the Psalmist in the book of Psalms, lament such evil and often beg God to answer our call for justice. Read more...
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