FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD: The Most Perfect Path to Holiness

Sermon by Rev. John Paul Shea

Saints Peter & Paul Parish, Tucson, AZ Oct. 26, 2014

Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever! In today’s Gospel passage, our Lord gives us the most perfect path to holiness.

We hear in today’s Gospel passage (Matt 22:34-40) that a Pharisee asks our Lord which is the greatest commandment.  Now, in the time of Jesus, the Jews held the tradition that there were 613 precepts or commands in their law as part of the Old Testament. And the Pharisees were considered the political masters of Jesus’ time in law and politics. They saw Jesus as a threat to their power. So, they wanted to use their skill to discredit him.

When the scholar of the law asks our Lord which commandment of God is the greatest, Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter. He states not one but two commandments which are central to the spiritual life. The first commandment is from the Book of Deuteronomy. The second is from the Book of Leviticus. Yet, our Lord puts these two commandments together in order to emphasize that true religion is not simply a matter of external observance,  but that true religion comes from the disposition of our hearts.

Our Lord is reminding the Pharisees and us that the commandments of God are not simply words etched on stone. They are not simply words that are written on pages in a Bible. No! They are alive. They are to become part of our very being!

When the scholar of the law asks our Lord which commandment of God is the greatest, our Lord teaches that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord, our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind. 

So, let us ask ourselves, what does it mean to love God with all our heart? I assume that everybody has seen the Wizard of Oz. You remember the Tin Man and how he had no heart?  When he met Dorothy and the Scarecrow he banged on his tin can chest, and it sounded hollow. It was empty. No heart. So he goes on a journey with the others in order to receive a new heart. As Christians, we too are on a journey to receive a new heart. However, our Christian life is not a fairy tale. It is real.

God wants us to love Him not with superficial love but with genuine love! He wants our commitment. He wants us to live for Him -- not for our own desires. He has given us the commandments and teachings, but if we do not strive to live these commandments, then we will not deepen our relationship with God. If we are not living our Christian life out of pure love for God alone, then we are not living authentic Christian lives. 

Love God
 with your whole heart and whole mind.
P.S . It takes courage. 

Our Lord next tells the Pharisees that we must love God with all our mind. Loving God with our entire mind means that we seek to know the truth. We seek to conform our minds to the mind of God! We strive to understand what is pure and holy!

Sin darkens our intellect. And when we continue to commit serious sin, then sin becomes unrecognizable. It becomes just another way of life.

So we must pray to the Lord each and every day for protection of our minds. We are to open our minds to God’s will so that He will give us understanding.

In his writings, Saint Paul says that we are to put on the mind of Christ. We are to strive to keep our minds holy, innocent, humble, wise, and intelligent. We are to think not as the world thinks, but as God thinks; and we must allow the Holy Spirit to purify our minds of all that is not of God.  

Our Lord next says that we must love God with all our soul. He is reminding us that our soul is eternal! It lives beyond this life. We can send our soul to eternal damnation, or we can allow God to raise our soul into His eternal love. When we sin deliberately, we separate ourselves from God! But when we allow God’s love in our hearts, then our souls become brighter with His light.  So, we must always strive to act as those destined for eternal life.

Our Lord calls each one of us to strive to love Him with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our soul. We are to offer our entire self to Him! We give Him everything! We are not to hold anything back!

It is when we truly strive to offer our lives to God that we are then able to live by the second commandment that our Lord gives us in today’s Gospel passage: To love our neighbor as our self.  In fact, our Lord connects this second part of the commandment with the first part because we show our love for God through our love for our neighbor. In fact, we can’t truly love God whom we do not see if we do not love our neighbor whom we do see. 

And we must realize too that we cannot truly love our neighbor as ourselves until we come to first recognize our own dignity, that we are created in God’s image.  If we believe that we are garbage, then we will treat others like garbage. But if we recognize that we are sacred vessels of the Lord, then we will seek to treat others with the dignity they deserve because the Holy Spirit will grow in our hearts.

So many men in our society treat women without true dignity because they do not truly love and respect themselves as men whom God has created in His Image. And so many women in today’s society have a lack of respect for their own persons because our society teaches women their purpose is to be used as objects of pleasure instead of respected as the gift that God has created them to be!

My brothers and sisters, God calls each one of us to an intimate relationship with Him. And He calls us to lead others into an intimate relationship with Him. 

We need to reflect on the words our Lord tells us in today’s Gospel at all times!  Our Lord gives us these words so that He can transform our lives!

Which is the greatest commandment?

"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 

 He gives us these words so that we can become all who He calls us to be! May each one of us truly strive to love God with our whole heart, with our whole mind, and with all our soul, and our neighbor as ourselves. 

This is the most perfect path to holiness. God bless you.

Did you enjoy this homily. Father Shea has others on this blog listed on the upper left hand corner. 
Here's a good one. There Can Be No Mercy Without The Fullness of Truth

LESSONS THAT LEAD TO GOD

Lessons

by Ann Gauger 

One rule, seven gifts, three blessed fruits 

Sure guides, companions sweet

Our nature made to suit

Silence

Blest school of saints, we plead

Teach stiff-necked not to trust

on human strength or need.

Piety

Without this gift we'd wander far

Not caring, blind and dumb

God's love becomes our star

Fear of the Lord

Not as it seems, but gift of awe

Creator's power and might

In reverence prostrate fall

Fortitude

Enduring to the end

Firm purpose, courage strong

Turn woes and trials to friend

Counsel

Surely, Lord, we've need of this

Teach stumbling feet the path

Sure guide to heaven's bliss

Knowledge

Light-filled gift teach us the way

To know our Father's will

keep true to it each day.

Understanding

Insight, Lord, into your heart

a glimpse of what you see 

Can turn us, help us start.

Wisdom

Hard-won gift twice blest O Lord

Hard lesson won from trials,

This gift its own reward.

Peace

Souls ensnared by bonds of sin

Gain this through letting go

of all that is not Him.

Joy

On mercy's seat all hate we cast 

And worries,  greed, conceit, 

Surrendering at last.

Love,

True longing, restless search, and thirst 

Reminder of Desire

The One who sought us first

Want to read more about the work of the Holy Spirit? Read: Baptism: Work of the Son and Holy Spirit

Synod on the Family: Treachery in the Vatican?

by Susan Fox

“Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.  There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.  What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs." (Luke 12: 1-5)

 It appears "Someone" in the Vatican single-handedly called into question the Church's  entire doctrine on homosexuality and whether Divorced/Remarried Catholics can receive Holy Communion, when they released the interim report on on the Synod on the Family on Monday, Oct. 13, 2014.

(This was ably exposed by The Church Militant's Michael Voris, who has done an excellent job of investigative journalism on this  matter. Document Gate: Misinformation from the Vatican Press Office)

"If spiritual communion is possible, why not allow them to partake in the sacrament?" the interim Relatio Document of the Synod stated, basically opening the door to Holy Communion for Divorced Catholics who have remarried without the Church's blessing. 

The document went on to say that our Catholic communities need to accept and value the "sexual orientation" of "homosexuals." The gentle and loving Bishop Edward J. Slattery, Diocese of Tulsa, felt impelled to correct the Relatio misperceptions on co-habitation and homosexuality in a You Tube statement. Bishop Slattery's Statement on the Relatio 

Bishop
Edward J Slattery

"Activity must never be confused with identity. The human person always remains greater than what he or she does or experiences. A person who is in a cohabiting relationship ought not to be identified by the irregularity of that union. A man or woman who experiences same sex attraction ought not to be identified by the experiences of these attractions," Bishop Slattery said. He is giving you authentic Catholic teaching. It is not an opinion.

The Church has always been open to each individual's giftedness, he said, but no individual should be identified by behaviors that are contrary to the Gospel. And all are called to chastity.

Cardinal Napier

Unfortunately, the Synod cardinals later admitted that they had not seen, nor had they approved the Relatio document before it was released to the world: "Just like you, I was surprised that it was published," Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, O.F.M., South Africa, told reporters. "You people got the document before we got it, so we couldn't have possibly agreed on it."

Many cardinals said it did not even represent what had been said in the Synod since it convened on Oct. 5. So that means devout Catholics can breathe easy. The Church has not changed its doctrine.

However, the world rejoiced because it perceived the Church was allowing divorced/remarried Catholics to receive Holy Communion, ennobling  same sex unions to a footing slightly less than marriage and encouraging people co-habitating outside marriage to feel their relationship has value just as it is. The whole document created the perception in the secular mind that the Church will eventually also approve the use of artificial contraception. 

This is nonsense. But Cardinal Napier recognized that the damage is irreparable. "We are now working from a position that is irredeemable. The message has gone out: this is what the Catholic Church is saying. No matter how much we try correcting that, once it's up there in the public light, there is no way of retrieving it."

Even the conservative and cautious National Catholic Register, owned by Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television  Network, agrees with conservative commentator Michael Voris: Evidence Emerges of an Engineered Synod

Father of Lies

My opinion is that this is indeed a catastrophe for the world because the prince of this world is leading many astray.  But yet we should have great hope. God always brings good out of evil.

The false sentiments in the heterodox document released Monday have been smoking around the Church for several decades. I have met many in authority in the Catholic Church who held these heterodox views. Their ideas have been hidden, but spreading like an un-diagnosed  cancer or a secret underground schism. These attitudes were even present in the Church during the pontificate of Pope Paul VI, who will be beatified this Sunday Oct. 19!

Pope Paul VI to be beautified
Sunday Oct. 19, 2014

Holding firm to the Deposit of Faith,  Pope Paul VI was forced to reject the opinion of the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control established by his predecessor, Pope Saint John XXIII. The Commission composed of theologians and laity recommended the Catholic Church allow married couples to use artificial contraception. Pope Paul VI heroically  said no to that in 1968 in his beautiful teaching  Humanae Vitae. He upheld the precious deposit of faith -- the unchanging Truth both oral and written which has been faithfully handed down to us from Christ's apostles. 

Lawrence and I practiced Humanae Vitae-approved Natural Family Planning in our 31-year marriage to both postpone and attempt conception. When we were young, we used to call its teachings "Human Vitamins." When we thought of doing something regarding intimacy in our marriage, we always said to one another, "What would Human Vitamins have us do?" Human Vitamins never failed us, and in fact I bet it is largely responsible for our happy marriage. Human Vitamins protected the chastity in our marriage.

We all want to be liked by other people, but sometimes it's necessary to remain a witness to the Truth. Pope Paul VI is a great saint, who suffered enormous persecution for his upholding the Church's stance against the use of artificial contraception. On the day he died, Aug. 6, 1978, I was permitted to hear  resounding joy and rejoicing in heaven when he arrived home. 

Once you separate the act of intimacy in marriage from procreation, the selfless act of marriage is despoiled in many different ways. Pope Saint John Paul II built on the foundation of Pope Paul VI's Humanae Vitae, when he gave a series of talks stating in 1980, which became, "Theology of the Body." With laser sharp vision, he taught us not to turn our spouse into an object for our own pleasure, but to remain open to life and life-long faithful love.  

I hear Protestant men, who still require their wives to use artificial contraception,  crying on the blogs that their wife is no longer interested in sexual intimacy.  No, of course not. Chemical contraception tricks a woman's body into thinking it is pregnant and therefore lowers her libido. Monkey Study May Help Explain Why Synthetic Hormones Affect Women's Libido  Thanks to Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, that doesn't happen in a marriage free of the slavery of chemical contraception. 

Human Vitamins warned that governments would force families to limit their family size if artificial contraception was allowed free reign. 

Look what happened in China with its one-child policy! All the little girls are murdered in the womb or abandoned after birth because the Chinese have a preference for boys, and now these boys have grown up and have no wives. No wives, no grandchildren. No grandchildren, no more Chinese!

No only that, but we have had to read the horror stories of babies taken from their weeping mothers' arms and drowned in rice paddies by arrogant officials, not to mention grieving Chinese women forced to have late term abortions. The suicide rate of Chinese women is 500 a day, and they kill themselves in rural areas by drinking pesticides, a method of death, they know is extremely painful. All this suffering could have been avoided if only the world had listened to our recent popes.

Now regarding contraception, the chickens have come home to roost. On the morning of Oct 6, 2014, many Americans woke up and discovered the U. S. Supreme Court has shoved legal same-sex "marriage" down our collective throats against the express will of the people in many states, including my own, Colorado. I sat down and voted tonight, and I voted most of the judges in Colorado off the bench. 

But the legality of same-sex unions and the misdirected way the Relatio spoke of these unions is a direct consequence of the world's ready acceptance of artificial contraception. Once you separate the joys of marriage from the responsibilities, then marriage itself ceases to exist and any relationship that brings pleasure is considered good. This is an amoral position, and part of the tyranny of relativism.

There are no short-cuts in this life. Those of us who have diabetes know. Every sugar substitute ever offered to us has horrible health consequences. The pink one, the blue one, the yellow one -- all deadly. We've yet to see what Stevia, the green one, will do. 

So almost on the eve of the beatification of the great prophet Pope Paul VI and a week before the official feast day of Pope Saint John Paul II, (Oct. 22) we have this  earthquake regarding the Church's position on marriage, contraception, and homosexuality.  Many Catholics are respectfully asking Pope Francis to clarify the matter as soon as possible. But Pope Francis already has.

Pope Francis

He is beatifying Pope Paul VI on Sunday. In doing that he is affirming the Catholic Church's long held prohibition against the use of artificial contraception, and upholding the dignity of the human person. He recently canonized Pope John Paul II, which means he is upholding the Catholic view of the human person, whose identity can never be reduced to mere sinful activity. Not only that, but he has said directly that the Church's position on Holy Communion for Divorced and Remarried Catholics cannot be changed. Anything else you think about Pope Francis is pure speculation -- smoke and mirrors.

Devout Catholics received the interim report with horror. The world received it with glee. But I look at this moment in time, and I think, well the heterodox viewpoints that have simmered underground in the Catholic Church for decades have been exposed to the Light! This usually happens in the Sacrament of Confession: we expose the weaknesses of our soul to the Light of Christ. And Christ protects our privacy. What we say to Him in His Tribunal of Mercy never leaves the confessional. 

But here look! Confusion is manifest in the interim document of the Synod on the Family. "Someone" hasn't converted. "Someone" hasn't repented. "Someone" hasn't been to

confession. The same thing happened in the priest sex abuse scandal. If we will not seek the private intimacy of the confessional, God is quite willing to allow our sins to flap in the wind like sheets on a clothesline.  

Now here is an opportunity for all of us to pray. The serpent is exposed. He lies wiggling and helpless, naked on the sidewalk for all to see in horror or glee. Let us pray to Our Lady, the Woman of Gen. 3:15, and ask her to crush the head of the serpent. Such is an official exorcism prayer of the Catholic Church.  

Let Our Lady be the surgeon. Once and for all, let the humble Virgin Mother of Christ come, remove this ugly cancer that has been smoking in the Catholic Church under the noses of all the recent pope saints -- John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II. 

Then let us all be at peace.

Life Site News had a good piece on the Reaction of Pro-Family Catholics to the original Relatio of the Synod. 
Pro-Family Catholics Reject Synod Mid-Way Report, calling it A Betrayal