by Lawrence Fox
A Denver federal appeals court ruled July 14, 2015, against the Little Sisters of the Poor, demanding that they submit to Obamacare's birth control mandates. The sisters are praying about what they will do next.
“Just sign
this letter, and you will not be prosecuted,” the Obama Administration coaxed
the Little Sisters of the Poor, urging them to allow third party
insurance to provide contraception to their employees.
The Little
Sisters of the Poor are tasked with a 21st Century decision: obedience
to the Deposit of Faith or participation in the Culture of Death. They refused
to sign.
Up until six years
ago such a mandate imposed upon religious orders from the U.S. Government
seemed vaguely possible, but not necessarily likely. With the two-term election
of Barack Hussein Obama a cursed reality has blatantly “emerged out of the
earth.”
It seems that
most Americans have not even noticed the bullying tactics of the Obama Administration,
and perhaps a large part of American Catholics sympathize with the mandate. This is probably due to collective amnesia.
Disastrous Catholic education, catechesis, homiletics, and pastoral care in the
past 50 years have caused Americans to completely lose any sense of Catholic
identity or memory. The last 2,000 years of Catholic history no longer exists
in their minds.
The Little
Sisters of the Poor care for the aged poor and those unable to stay at home, and
their Catholic apostolate is gravely endangered. The God we once worshipped has
been shoved aside. Now Americans hunger for the state.
The Worship of the State
Christianity’s
missionary journey to the gentiles took place within an empire fashioned by the
“Cult of Caesar.” In most pagan
cultures, the person who ruled was divinely ordained and protected by the gods
of the land.
With the establishment
of the Roman Caesar, this divine ideology reached its logical conclusion. Caesar
was not simply ruling by divine authority but was “Dominus et Deus”, that is the
“Lord and God.” With the death of Julius
Caesar at the hands of Brutus, his adopted son Augustus forced the Roman Senate
to proclaim Julius to be divine. Augustus then was logically known and
proclaimed to be the “son of god.” Under Augustus Caesar, there was a period of
worldly peace. His decrees then became known as the “good news” to the citizens
of Rome.
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Coin with the Image of Julius Caesar,
who was divinized after his death |
Images of
Augustus Caesar and subsequent Caesars were erected within the Roman Empire.
Loyalty to the Empire was demonstrated by offering incense and sacrifices
before the image of Caesar. To do so was to preserve one’s virtue of
citizenship, livelihood, and understanding of peace and justice within the
Empire. The state was understood to be the primary
distributer of bread to the masses.
Within this
context, Jesus of Nazareth made it clear to all those who wanted to follow him,
“If you want to be my disciples, you must pick up your cross.” The cross was the Roman’s perfected
instrument of cruel death. The in-scripted
sign placed on the cross above the head of Jesus read, “Jesus of Nazareth, King
of the Jews.” The inscription was meant to mock the Sanhedrin (evil also turns
on evil) and to remind everyone, there was only one recognized emperor in the
Roman Empire. The state alone was to be
worshipped for the emperor was the state, and the emperor was the “son of god.” The Romans with the encouragement of the
Sanhedrin placed before Jesus’ apostles and disciples a stark choice. Either
“Jesus is Lord and God,” or the state is lord and god.
Peter’s faith
in Jesus -- “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” -- is the profession
that would bring about his death sentence. Thomas’ profession, “My Lord and my
God,” echoed throughout the Empire. Rome took notice time and again.
Paul addressed
his letter to the Church in Rome, “When a person believes in his heart and
proclaims with his lips that ‘Jesus is Lord,’ he shall be saved.” (Rom 10:9) Paul
was not inviting the Church to recite “the sinner’s prayer.” He was encouraging
them to embrace the death of Jesus Christ. Not only that, but he asked them to
embrace the possibility of losing their virtue of worldly citizenship, losing
their livelihood, and losing their worldly sense of peace and justice as
promulgated by the state. Paul was not
beheaded for possessing a religious sentiment; instead he was beheaded for
refusing to worship Caesar, for in fact professing “Jesus is Lord and God.” Peter was
crucified for steadfastly proclaiming Jesus to be “the Messiah, the Son of the
living God.” There was no comparison in the minds of these apostles between
Jesus and the Caesars, who were just dust and to dust they would return.
Image of the Beast (rational
man living as an irrational creature or animal) and His Puppet
In the Rev.
13:11-18, the author describes the persecution of the Church by a puppet (a
second beast like a lamb with two horns), which orders everyone to worship and
offer incense to an image of the first beast. Those who do not are killed.
This language
is literally contained in Pliny’s Letter to Emperor Trajan (113 AD). Pliny was
a Roman governor of Bithynia. In his letter, Pliny describes for Trajan the conditions
that existed in his territories. Christians were brought before him for trial
and judgment. Pliny would ask the accused several times if they were Christians.
If they responded, “Yes,” to each question, they were condemned to death.
In some cases,
those accused denied they were Christians or said that they were at one time
Christians and subsequently renounced their faith. To prove their rejection, Pliny required them
to offer incense and wine to the image of Emperor Trajan and then to curse Christ.
Pliny really had no firsthand knowledge of what Christians believed only what
they would not profess.
“Those who
renounced Jesus as Christ, declared to Pliny that the sum of their guilt or
error was simply to meet on an appointed day before daybreak (an indirect
reference to Sunday) and to recite a hymn antiphonally to Christ as to a god
and then bind themselves by an oath (sacramentum), not for commission of any
crime but to abstain from theft, robbery, adultery, breach of faith and to not
deny a deposit when it was claimed,” the letter said.
In one case, Pliny
was not certain of their account and like a good materialist and empiricist
tortured two deaconesses, “but (he) found in their testimony nothing but
depraved and extravagant superstition. And therefore he postponed his
examination.
Their depraved
testimony was only their baptismal profession of faith: “I believe in one God
the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth; in Jesus Christ, his only Son
our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,
crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered died and was buried; on the third day he
rose from the dead; ascended into heaven and will come again to judge the
living and the dead…”
Pliny notes
in his letter to Trajan that with the persecution of the Christians the pagan
temples were being visited again, the purchase of idols was increasing, and
sacrifices once abandoned were now coming back into vogue.
The Voice of the Good
Shepherd and the Voice of the Beast and His Puppet
Jesus said,
“I am the good shepherd...my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they
follow me.” (John 10:21)
I remember
participating in a retreat, which purposely placed side by side the words of
Jesus and the words of Satan as captured in Sacred Scripture. The intent was to
contrast their manner of delivery, the content of their messages, and the
logical conclusion of following the one voice versus the other. The voice and message of Jesus Christ was a
call to live in truth in order to experience freedom in which one’s intellect
and will governed -- through grace -- sinful nature. The voice and message of
Satan was to live a life of materialistic efficiency and expediency that flowed
from a small compromise of conscience in which one’s intellect and will served
sinful nature. Satan speaks through human agencies -- some very well
intentioned. The events surrounding the
martyrdom of Polycarp, the Bishop of Smyrna, and the Obama Administration’s
advice to the religious Little Sisters of the Poor offer almost identical
satanic voices.
A disciple of
John the Evangelist, Polycarp headed the diocese of Smyrna, one of the 7
churches identified in the Book of Revelation. As such, he was hunted down by
Roman soldiers and brought to Herod - the head of Roman security in the City - and
Nicetas, his father. They coaxed Polycarp, “Come now, where is the harm in just
saying, ‘Caesar is Lord’ and offering the incense and so forth when it will
save your life?” Polycarp responded, “No
I am not going to take your advice.”
Obama Administration: “If you only sign the letter
permitting a third party insurance company to provide contraception to your
employees, you will be in compliance with the HHS Mandate, and you will not be
prosecuted, fined, and eventually forced out of religious service.” The Little
Sisters refused to take the advice of the Administration.
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Martyrdom of St. Polycarp |
Eventually,
Polycarp was taken to the “Circus”-- the arena where the State staged cruel gladiator
bouts to appease the masses. Polycarp was brought before the Governor who
advised Polycarp, “Have some respect for your years…Swear an oath, ‘By the Luck
(fortune) of Caesar’…Save yourself and say you are wrong and say, ‘Down with
the infidels.’” Polycarp responded to a
different voice: “Polycarp be strong, be the man.” He refused the offers and
resisted the threats of the governor. So he was burned at the stake and
stabbed.
The Little
Sisters of the Poor also face a similar trial in U.S. courts, where Obama’s
cronies very well may decide their future.
What is at Stake?
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Kathleen Sebelius, excommunicated Catholic,
and U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services |
The Obama Administration
(beast) and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (puppet) are advising the
Little Sisters of the Poor to cooperate in their efforts to promote evil; to
compromise the principles of moral good; and to participate in diminishing the
dignity of human life. Consider the fact that one of the major benefactors of
the HHS mandate is Planned Parenthood, which happens to be the leading provider
of abortion the U.S. and an avid promoter of masturbation, promiscuity,
pornography, and homosexuality.
Tragically,
prior to 1930, almost all Christian denominations would have looked on in
horror at the tableau of the U.S. government demanding a Christian organization
pay for and subsidize contraception --
especially forms of abortifacients such as the morning after pill and
IUDs as well as sterilization. But times have changed. Elements of anti-Catholic prejudice both
within and without the Catholic Church have increased significantly. We are
living in what Blessed John Paul II identified as the “Culture of Death.”
“The fact
that legislation in many countries, perhaps even departing from basic
principles of their Constitutions, has determined not to punish these practices
against life (abortion, contraception, euthanasia), and even to make them
altogether legal, is both a disturbing symptom and a significant cause of grave
moral decline,” he said in the Gospel of Life. In fact, the promotion of moral
decline by so-called political and voting “Catholics” is most distressing.
Contrast
The Little
Sisters of the Poor is a religious order composed of women who have heard the
voice of the Good Shepherd, saying to them, “Leave all that you have and come
follow me.” (Matt. 19:21) They are women who have given up all things including
father, mother, family, wealth and even the goodness of married love in order
to embrace -- by God’s grace -- the beatitudes of Jesus Christ: Blessed are the
pure of heart, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who mourn and blessed
are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.
They are also
being called to embrace the more challenging beatitude, “"Blessed are you
when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of Me.” (Matt. 5:11)
They suffer
this while serving the least in the Kingdom of God. In their lives, they
fulfill the words of Jesus Christ: “Whatever you do to the least of my brethren
you did it for me. I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me
drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I was sick and you looked after
me.” (Matt 25:31) Theirs is a ministry that affirms the Gospels, the Glory of
God, and the dignity of human life.
The Battle Ground
I was asked
by a curious non-American, “What is the meaning of the good?” I explained in
the simplest of terms that an action by its very nature which promotes, preserves,
and protects the dignity of human life is good. Any action, which by its very
nature prevents, diminishes, destroys and denies the dignity of human life as intrinsically
good is evil.
The Catholic
Church drawing from the Deposit of Faith has consistently maintained that the promotion
of activities, which by their very nature are contrary to the dignity of human
life, such as contraception, abortion, sodomy, and euthanasia, are
intrinsically evil. “The acts of sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality,
impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy,
fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, schisms, and envy drunkenness,
orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before that those who live like this
will not inherit the kingdom of God.”(Ephesians 5:19-21)
The term sin
means to miss the mark. The causes of sin include ignorance, weakness of
intellect and will, and moral indifference. The Catechism of the Catholic
Church identifies sin as an offense against reason, truth, and right
conscience; it is a failure in genuine love of God and neighbor caused by a
perverse attachment to certain goods. Sin
is a personal act, moreover we have a responsibility for the sins committed by
others when we cooperate in them directly or voluntarily by ordering, advising,
praising or approving of them, by protecting those who do evil, and by not
disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so. This is
what the Obama Administration is doing.
“For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against
the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12) When immoral
people attain political power there is a one-to-one participation in evil. That
is, earthly rulers participate in the evil of the demonic rulers, and human authorities
participate in the evil of the demonic authorities. And yet Paul writes where sin abounds, grace
abounds all the more.
Jesus
does not promise that sin will diminish; in fact it will continue to grow until
the Second Coming. “But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on
the earth who have faith?" (Luke 18:8) But Jesus does promise that he has
overcome the world and that through grace, God’s adopted sons and daughter will
overcome the evil one and remain steadfast in the truth and enduring in faith
leading to life everlasting.