On June 27, we Catholics celebrated the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. The first word used to describe the Sacred Heart is MOST. How proper. The definition of MOST is “greatest quantity, amount or degree”. Holy Mother Church is sure smart. How fitting a word to use to describe the LOVE in the Heart of Jesus, MOST. That is because this is what the day is all about, LOVE. And the LOVE in Jesus’ Heart is the MOST LOVE there can ever be anywhere, anyplace, anytime. If you could encapsulate all of the true love that exists in the world, it could never compare to the LOVE that exists in His MOST SACRED HEART. That is simply because GOD is LOVE.
The second reading of the Mass for the day was from 1 John 4: 7-16. I am just mentioning lines #9-12: “In this way the Love of God is revealed to us: God sent His only Son into the world so that we might have life through Him. In this is LOVE: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as expiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us and His love is brought to perfection in us.” Okay, please bear with me? Before getting to the point of all this I wish to quote lines #2-3 which are not included in the Mass reading. “This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world.”
Now we are in the year 2014. And yes, finally, I am going to get to the point. The point of all of this is to ask how do we as Catholic writers confront the War between LOVE and HATE. This war is rooted in the Bible, isn’t it? If God is LOVE what is HATE? It follows, SATAN is HATE. St. John has written, “– the spirit of the antichrist —is already in the world”. The cunning and devious method that Satan is using to do his HATE work is having those who have joined his minions proclaim that they are serving God in their evil work. For example, the abuse, torture and killing of men, women and children has been going on throughout recorded history and it continues, unabated, to this very day. How often are these atrocities committed in the name of God?
The 20th century alone has witnessed seven recorded and documented genocides that have taken uncounted millions of lives. How many of those people died because their religion or beliefs were contrary to the ones killing them. Killing out of hatred while using God as the reason is an abomination of all that is GOOD and pleasing to God. It is the ultimate hypocrisy committed by men and women who have chosen to allow the Minister of Hate to enter their very souls. People kill (not self-defense) due to pride, envy, anger, greed and lust, and it seems that ‘pride’ always leads the pack. Pride is the king of self-destruction and opens the primary portal for the evil that lurks, waiting to embrace each and every one of us. And what about all of our Catholic/Christian brothers and sisters who have taken their own road while still proclaiming their faith in Jesus. Well now, I pass judgement on no one because I do not know what is truly in their hearts. But I do NOT have to refrain from writing in defense of my faith out of fear of being called bigoted, fanatical, racist, and even hateful. I am none of those things.
My writing has taken a definite turn. I did not plan it nor did I see it coming. I just started to pen more and more about different topics that defile our faith, like the atrocities taking place against Catholic/Christians all over the world. I am also sick and tired of those in the atheist movement wanting to take our religious freedoms away under the guise of being “offended”. I think I have had enough of “cafeteria catholics” (especially the ones who hold political office) promoting their own agendas of “pro-choice”, “same-sex-marriage” , “married priests” etc. And it is done under the guise of virtue. Listen my friends, I am not intolerant if I am opposed to abortion. I am not “homophobic” and do not need sensitivity training if I oppose “gay marriage”. I am a traditional minded catholic man who loves his faith and resents seeing it vilified and spat upon by those who are only interested in their own agendas. Enough is enough. So I write to add an extra bit of protection, small as it may be, to that which we call Catholic.
I believe there is a self-centeredness and false pride that exists in all of us. It is the gateway for evil to enter into us. Many reject this evil. Many have too much love in their hearts to be influenced by such temptation. Many do not. Lucifer is alive and well and using these open gateways that are available to him all over the world. Quite often he is very successful at gaining entrance into these easily accessible souls. Lucifer was the greatest and brightest of all God’s angels. But his PRIDE made him him choose to challenge his Creator. He lost that battle and was cast out of heaven. He has been waging war with a vitriolic, all consuming hatred for God and Love ever since. I imagine he was screaming like a raving lunatic as we celebrated His MOST SACRED HEART. He was screaming and yelling because the MOST SACRED HEART is his reality check that tells him he can NEVER win.
LarryPeterson
Larry is a Catholic/Christian author and blogger and posts weekly commentary. His work has appeared in such publications as Zenit from Rome, Aleteia, New Evangelists, Top Catholic Blogs, Big Pulpit, Catholic365.com and others. His first children's picture book, "Slippery Willie's Stupid, Ugly Shoes" was published in 2011. In 2012, his full-length novel, "The Priest and the Peaches" was released. His second novel, "The Demons of Abadon", was released in the spring of 2016. Larry’s latest novel, “Horizon Homeless” was released in ebook format in May of 2017 and the paperback followed on July 27, 2017. Larry belongs to the Catholic Writer’s Guild, The Catholic Writer’s Society, The Knights of Columbus, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society. He has been an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion for over twenty years bringing communion to the homebound and hospitalized. He lives in Pinellas Park, Florida and his kids and six grandchildren all live within three miles of each other. His first wife died of cancer in 2003. He remarried four years later and became the primary caregiver for his wife, Martha who came down with Non-Hodgins Lymphoma in 2011. The cancer was in remission when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease in October of 2014. Sadly and unexpectedly, Martha passed away on March 27, 2017. The writer says, "God has me where he needs me and I try my best to make Him proud. Larry’s blog site is http://www.slipperywillie.blogspot.com You can find more at www.larrypeterson-author.com
Larry:
You are absolutely correct. This is the time for Catholics and especially Catholic writers to be timid. There is a hunger in souls for the Truth. Whenever we write, we must lovingly but unapologetically share that Truth. When we remain silent or are fearful to do so, those who seek to deceive and destroy souls will rush to fill that void.
Thanks for writing this piece.
Larry, I love this piece, because it gives us the key to evangelization–teaching about Christ. The figure of Christ, the life of Christ, His teachings, His words. Jesus Christ is unique among all figures of the world, he breaks all the models. He breaks through all the models. It’s about friendship with Christ, and people do respond to it (as opposed to all my economic and social arguments, of which there are many). People will fall in love again with Christ.
But then what? I think we must show them the way to put Christ’s teachings back in the center of our nation. ‘Religious freedom’ does not work. Eventually the ‘freedom’ of others to ‘believe’ they can kill an unborn child or an elderly person, to ‘believe’ they can ‘marry’ whomever (and whatever) they like, to ‘believe’ that economic competition is preferable to the economic cooperation of the Catholic state, these false beliefs inevitably come into conflict with Christ’s teachings, and we must (in our writing, for us writers) insist that religion is not a private experience (as promoted since the Council) and that there must be coherence between all the necessary organs of a state, the schools, the courts, the hospitals in order for us to live peacefully while we make our way to heaven. We must take up again the cross of the Restoration in order to save our families.