For what is of human esteem is an abomination in the sight of God.
It has become very popular in modern culture and modern society to dismiss sin as mistakes.
Often we hear it said, oh no, one has simply made a mistake, but what we really mean is they have committed a sin.
And indeed, even when we repent of our sins, we are often told you just made mistakes,
and that gives us the impression that what we did...
what we did is not a serious matter, but in today's gospel and indeed throughout the whole gospel message,
the Lord is instructing us that we are sinners and he is not,
and so we must truly try to divest ourselves of the modern understanding of the human person,
and we must not see sins as mistakes, although a person is certainly mistaken
when they choose the path of sin rather than the path of righteousness.
And so our Lord in today's gospel gives us a very important lesson,
for he tells us very clearly that love of mammon is contrary to the will of God,
and indeed in the old translation it called it the mammon of unrighteousness,
because one can be unrighteous in one of two ways.
Either one can be dishonest or deceitful, and that is the first form,
or one can be unrighteous when they put...
the wealth of this world ahead of the things of God,
and this is usually violated when riches are amassed through fraud,
through usury, and for love of oneself or love of one's ancestors.
Indeed, Saint Jerome had said that every rich man is either himself unrighteous
or else the heir of an unrighteous man,
and so we see very clearly that it was not intended by God for men to amass wealth,
for we are...
We are truly members of the human family, and we must understand what he means.
For often this word mammon is confused with the manna that came down from heaven.
They are not the same word.
Indeed, there is no real relation between the two.
Mammon is from the Hebrew word minmonah,
and it means to literally to exercise a force upon and then to hide and conceal,
and so it is connected with the father of lies,
and indeed, this is just how the Pharisees and the scribes
would have understood our Lord's message in today's gospel,
that it was just another way of our Lord reminding them
that they have chosen the path of the father of lies,
and so they have no inheritance with God their father
unless they repent, unless they do no longer conceal their sins,
but they confess them to God and receive his forgiveness,
and so if in this case...
we would see that it would be impossible for a rich man,
even if he were aware of the unrighteousness of his ancestors,
to know who to make restitution to,
he is bound, the Lord instructs us, to give alms to the poor,
and so we must be kind and charitable to the poor,
and so we must learn who the truly poor are,
and so the question must be always asked by every member of the mystical body,
who are the poorest,
and the most vulnerable in our society,
and the answer is very interesting,
for in regards to the poor, our Lord said,
the poor you will always have with you,
and so he seems to indicate that the poorest amongst us
are not those members of society who are found homeless in our city streets,
nor the indigent population of a native land,
but the true poor amongst us, the poorest of the poor,
are to be found first in the cribs of each and every home that is blessed with a child,
for is not a child the poorest of the poor,
a child is completely and totally dependent upon others for every good,
both of the temple and of the spiritual order,
the indigent population, the homeless in the street,
have the ability to do something for themselves,
a child has not,
for they are completely dependent,
they cannot even begin to carry themselves from one location to another,
unless they do so by the generous sacrifice of one man and one woman,
whom they will come to know as mother and father,
and so we must be on guard not to allow these poorest of the poor
to be scandalized in any way by our actions in all that we do,
and so we must not raise them according to the modern dictates,
that is,
raise them for success according to worldly standards,
or we risk dooming them to destruction,
as our Lord points out in today's gospel,
for he says,
the lot of those who pursue the mammon of unrighteousness
is none other than eternal damnation for all eternity,
and so how do we avoid this?
By concentrating on feeding our children according not to the mammon of the world,
but according to the sound doctrine,
the doctrine of Christ,
and so we ask this most important question,
what is it that we are to do for our children?
It is a very simple answer,
we are to feed them according to the doctrine of Christ,
they are to learn of the Lord and his most holy mother,
in whom alone their salvation lies,
and they are to be protected from the influences of the world,
we are not to excuse our children at any age,
or any stage,
when they come to the age of reason,
for what nature declares is inevitable in a child,
God has prevented,
often we have this mistake,
that certain things in the physical world are predetermined,
but it does not matter,
no matter how much our flesh may weigh on us,
has not the good king come to our rescue,
has he first not claimed us in baptism,
when we did nothing to merit it,
most of us,
but we were those helpless infants,
and so Christ first came to us,
when we were the poorest of the poor,
in the sacrament of baptism,
and then he begins to strengthen us,
through the sacramental life,
when we come to the age of reason,
first the Eucharist and then confirmation,
and that is the answer to the world,
that says certain things are predetermined in our children,
that they will fall into certain sins,
most especially against the sixth,
and ninth commandment,
because they are predetermined by nature,
but the savior has come,
and in the sacrament of confirmation,
he has relieved us of any excuse in the matter,
for we cannot say the weight of our flesh,
is too heavy to bear,
for the grace of God dwells in us,
to overcome even the strongest urges of the flesh,
and that is the reality of the situation,
and the matter,
and so we must truly have this high idea,
of our children,
that sin is not inevitable in them,
because God has strengthened them by his grace,
and then we must protect them,
from the false prophets of our modern world,
that is always and everywhere,
found in the poets of the land,
and most especially in our modern land,
for true men and true women,
gifted truly with the art of poetry,
but that poetry being used,
to pervert and to lead astray,
truly gifted souls,
but using those gifts not in the generous spirit,
of the followers of the son of God,
but in the cold spirit of the prince of this world,
and so if we are to not make light of our modern culture,
let us first turn to their own words,
by which they define themselves,
if we are to understand what their poetry means,
they most of them,
have defined themselves,
and these quotes are from one of the most popular poets,
in our modern world,
who has been called in by kings and presidents,
to advise them,
in matters of the education of our youth,
he has been called in,
to help this so-called push for a world economy,
to establish it,
he has headed so-called charitable concerts,
that ultimately justify,
what God condemned in Sodom and Gomorrah,
and so we will first let him define himself,
if we are to understand his poetry,
and then we can make the decision,
to continue the way of compromise,
thinking that our children can be involved with this culture,
and save their souls,
and so in an interview,
in one of the most popular magazines amongst our youth,
he declares,
I lie all the time,
I only tell the truth in my songs,
I lie all the time,
I only tell the truth in my songs,
he continues,
man is least himself,
when he talks in his own person,
give him a mask,
and he will tell you the truth,
and entertainment was always seen,
by the early church,
as a form of mask,
indeed Saint Augustine himself would declare,
that the gods of the pagans,
most especially in their plays,
are devils in human masks,
and so we have a clear definition,
of this leader of our modern culture,
who defines himself,
there is no judgment being made,
when one has explicitly said,
what motivates him,
and if those people are leading our children,
and indeed leading too many adults,
then we must be willing to go,
and lead them out of the morass of a modern culture,
and not letting it stain us and spot us,
and to do that we can only go in,
with the grace of God,
and we are called to go in to these places,
and so when one defines themselves,
we can begin to understand,
what their poetry means,
but we do not need to be geniuses,
because it itself,
is pretty self-explanatory,
and so in the song love rescues me,
they declare,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow,
yet I will not fear no evil,
I have cursed thy rod,
and thy staff,
they no longer comfort me,
I have cursed,
thy rod and thy staff,
what rod,
what staff,
the rod of the discipline of the Lord,
manifested to us in Jesus Christ,
and the staff of a shepherd,
who leads us out of the valley of darkness,
into the kingdom of light,
and they have declared,
that they have cursed,
this rod and this staff,
that is Christ,
they find no comfort in him,
and they have cursed.
Do we as members of the mystical body,
love such souls enough,
like the Lord loved them,
That is to give ourselves entirely,
to them,
not,
by indulging ourselves in their culture,
in their music,
or in anything,
that is of them,
but rather giving ourselves over,
in total dedication,
to prayerful sacrifice for their sake.
When a soul has got to this state,
which is a public blasphemy,
the worst sin that can be committed by a man
is public blasphemy.
Every other sin pales in comparison.
And when you pervert the scripture in this fashion,
you are involved in public blasphemy.
And so they continue in another perversion
of a passage from scripture.
Indeed, the title of the song takes itself from scripture.
Peace on earth from that passage of Luke
that continues to men of goodwill.
They declare, Jesus, sing a song.
You wrote the words, Jesus, sing a song.
You wrote the words are sticking in my throat.
Peace on earth.
Hear it every Christmas, every Christmas time.
But hope in history won't rhyme.
So what's it worth, this peace on earth?
So what's it worth, this peace on earth?
Who is peace on earth?
Christ and Mary.
And the answer to our modern world is,
what is it worth?
Why?
What is the point?
In their song, if God will send his angels,
they say, God has got his phone off the hook.
Babe, would he even pick it up if he could?
So where is the hope?
And where is the faith?
And where is the love?
Are they ignorant of the teachings of Christ?
No, because they understand very precisely
the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
And is it any wonder, when we hear these things,
is it any wonder why they still haven't found
what they're looking for?
And how many blindly go about muttering the same words
from the same prophets of doom and despair,
thereby not contributing to their conversion,
but to their destruction, and not only their destruction,
but our own destruction.
And primarily, the destruction of the poorest of the poor
amongst us, our children.
Our Lord was very clear
that he came to sacrifice himself for his children.
And all of humanity are his children.
And unless we are willing
to understand what it means,
this notion of sacrifice,
then we do not understand Christ,
and we have no part of his kingdom,
for we have gone looking elsewhere
because we haven't found what we were looking for.
We are not members of the body of Christ for ourselves.
We are members of his body for him.
He has found what he was looking for
because it was us.
And when we,
are unwilling to even defend our children
on the very basic doctrines
that even the child himself recognizes
are not good for them,
what hope have they?
What hope?
Where is faith?
Where is hope?
Where is love?
If this can be publicly proclaimed
from the pulpits of the Bible,
from the pulpits of the Bible,
from the pulpits of the modern cathedrals to Satan,
it is for one reason and one reason only,
our lack of faith,
our lack of hope,
our lack of charity,
because we have pursued the mammon of unrighteousness
and not the Lord of all goodness.
And so,
we must be willing
to show them what they're looking for.
And in order to do that,
we must go to them
while having nothing to do
with their expressions,
most especially
their blasphemous expressions,
so clearly contrary to the will of God.
And yet,
many Christians
and too often Catholics
have convinced themselves
that even the fact,
the fact
that they have defined themselves
not made up the fact,
their own words,
they're just having fun.
When you have fun with words like that,
you are in Satan's kingdom
because you're willing,
in the name of fun,
to risk the love of God.
But do we really believe
that they're just having fun
when they so clearly have expressed themselves?
And are we willing to believe
that to send our children off blindly
through their CD players
or their video blogs
or wherever they get it,
do we really believe
we're sending them to the Lord?
Do we really believe?
No.
But why are we so helpless?
Because St. John Christensen tells us
the slothful man is incapable of action.
Because when we have compromised
all too often
the diligence necessary
to remain followers of Christ,
we may see the wrong,
we may see the error,
but there is nothing we will do
because we have fallen into
that worst of all sins,
lukewarmness,
in which we are simply unwilling
because,
like the lobster thrown into the cold water,
we have been,
slowly brought to a broil
and we're at the point of almost sleeping.
And it is there
that our hope must burn most brightly
because when we are most asleep
it is then
that the Lord is most awake.
And it only takes an act of humility
to turn to Him
and beg Him desperately
for the grace to begin
to do what's right.
And can we even begin
by the slightest requirement
of all we have?
Members of the mystical body
to keep our children from them?
Is that so complicated?
It can't be
because Christ requires it
and Christ cannot require something
that is difficult and impossible for us.
It is not possible for Him to do that
because then He would be
none other than a deceiver.
So it is not Christ
that is at fault.
It is we.
Always us.
The weak members of His body.
And so we must truly
begin to understand
and not see the Lord
according to the modern interpretation
of scripture
as some guru
who just simply threw out a few truths
that if you want to follow you can.
Maybe, maybe not.
Take the ones that appeal to you, that's fine.
The ones we don't like, well don't worry about them.
After all,
God would never send you to hell.
He loves you too much.
Well the reality of the matter is
He will
if we are not faithful to Him.
That's the reality.
And there is no sin
that caught the ire of the Lord more
none
than those who were involved
directly in the perversion of children.
No sin.
No sin caught His ire more than that.
And when we allow
the youngest amongst us
to go in the filthy pornography
of our modern culture
in its musical expression,
in its video expressions,
in its books, its magazines,
everything,
what we are doing pales
in comparison to what the Pharisees
and scribes did.
Pales.
Pales.
The reality of the matter is
that
we are in the most depraved culture
in the history of mankind.
That is the reality of the situation
as Monsignor Eugene Caban,
a great catechist of happy memory
from this land,
would declare to every one of his students,
always be aware, he would instruct them,
of the reality of the situation.
And then know where your strength is
and where your strength lies.
All that other stuff,
is not a reason,
it's an excuse.
Whether it be the weight of the flesh
or the preponderance
of this decadence in the culture,
not reasons
for the members of the mystical body
to compromise, excuses.
And excuses are not mistakes,
they are sins.
And we have to be aware of that.
A mistake is something
a human being commits
through no fault,
or no fault of their own.
When we violate the natural law
or the revealed law,
that's not a mistake.
That's a willful conscious choice
to choose something
contrary to the will of God.
And when parents choose
to raise their children
according to values of clarification,
they have committed a sin.
That they need to repent of.
And then like all repentants,
sinners,
we need to turn to Him and to Her
who are our strength.
To prop us up in our weakness,
so that we can truly manifest,
not ourselves to the world,
but the only hope the world has.
No member of the mystical body
is called to manifest himself to the world.
They are called according to the gifts
that God has given them
to manifest two persons to the world.
Christ and Mary.
According to the gifts
they have been blessed with.
That is what they are to do.
To manifest the presence of our hope
to a world that is hopeless.
And we have to be consciously aware
that that type of philosophy
are souls without any hope.
There is nothing,
nothing,
nothing they can do
to deliver themselves
from the jaws of Satan.
All that can be done for them
is in the hands of Christ's body.
Will we allow that body
which we are members of
to be delivered up for their sakes
just as the Lord delivered up His body
for our sakes?
Or we will continue to use the excuses.
There was a time,
there was a time
and it has long passed
in this modern world
when every father who came home from work
no matter how tired he was
the first words out of his lips were not
get away from me,
I worked hard today
to his children.
But the first words through the door
were always addressed to his wife.
How did the children behave today?
Or some form of it.
And then no matter how fatigued or tired he was
according to the report he received from his wife
he would seek to establish order back in his home
if it was necessary
or to praise his children
if they did good
and reward them
whether it be a trip to the Dairy Queen
or to a ball game or anything.
To reward them for their good
and to punish them for their wickedness.
Why?
To teach them very clearly.
To do good means to be rewarded.
In other words,
they were driven by a supernatural understanding
of our calling.
And the ultimate good they wanted to instill
in the mind and hearts of children
was the eternal possession of God in heaven.
And that can only be done
when we are punished
for the wickedness we do.
Because then we begin to learn
a very hard lesson for some of us
most especially
boys
because there were often a lot of time
when they were unable to sit down
for a little while.
And scripture is clear about it
for our modern psychologists.
Spare the rod
spoil the child.
End of Freud
end of Jung
Maslow
or anyone else.
Christ
is the great psychologist.
And he's very clear on the matter.
And if you don't think
that that was to be meant literally
then read the commentaries
of the great doctors and fathers
of the early church.
When a young man is acting like a bull
it's only a prod
that can get him back on the right path.
We pray that it never gets to that point.
But the point of it is
that when men are imbued
with the supernatural understanding
of the destiny of the human family
then they do not count
their fatigue
or the weight
of what they do
because they understand
that's only something given to them by God
to provide for their family.
It's part of the protection
a father must give to his family.
He goes out as the sacrifice
in order to defend
the honor of his mother
of the mother of God.
Of the mother of his children
in her castle
so that she can do that extraordinary work
of raising citizens
not for this world
but for the world to come.
And no child
no child
no child
is a good citizen of his nation
if he is not first
a citizen of the kingdom of God.
And it is only then
that a nation can rise up
as God intended
because as charity dictates
we must love God above all things
and then our nation
as ourselves.
Because that ultimately is
what a nation is.
Neighbors
related to each other
but not by a bond of blood
except the blood of Christ.
We are bound by a supernatural reality
not a natural reality.
And we have got to understand that.
Because the transformation of the world
is not dependent upon minions
and minions and minions.
Satan has his minions
and he always did
and they were destroyed by one
Christ.
If we commit ourselves
to him
then the
then the defeat of the minions
is inevitable.
And the enthronement of the good king
will come.
And so
are we willing
because let us not be mistaken.
A king
a righteous king
a good king
who has had his throne usurped
by the evil forces of Satan
can only be reestablished
in that throne
if his followers
are willing to enter into combat.
To combat.
It's not a puffy
sentimental thing.
It takes an intense life
of sacrificing ourselves entirely
for him.
To die
on the battlefield of this world
for the sake of the good king.
To die
on the battlefield
of this world
for the sake of the good king.
It cannot be repeated enough.
To die
on the battlefield
of this world
for the sake of the good king
the only good king
and any king is good
only insofar
as they follow the Lord.
And so, will we continue, as it were, to curse his rod and his staff?
Or will we see just what it means?
And let us not mistaken, there is no aspect of the good shepherd that doesn't have sacrifice involved.
You know why the staff was hooked?
To catch the sheep who had fallen off the cliff and got stuck in the briars.
And when the shepherd got the staff on it and pulled the sheep back up, you know what he did?
He broke his legs so he could not run away again.
And that is what we must all do, be broken.
Broken.
Broken.
Broken by the love of Christ in order that in that brokenness we may build up his kingdom in this world.
And it will never begin when we have convinced ourselves that children make mistakes and don't commit sins.
It will never begin if we don't believe that what God has entrusted to us in a child is so precious to him.
That if we could understand the perversion forced upon one child, as God understands it, one, just one, that knowledge would instantly kill us.
Instantly.
According to Father John Hardin, that knowledge of just what one child being led astray by the perversion.
It would kill us.
And if it was revealed to all of humanity, he said instantly, dead.
One.
And so, there is a lot of work to do.
But if we are convinced it is not our work, and it is the work of Christ, then we can go forth in true joy.
Because a human being is most happy when he is fighting.
For a noble cause.
And the noble cause is not simply some philosophy.
The noble cause is Christ.
And his mother, the queen.
And if we believe that, then there is nothing Satan's kingdom can assail us with that will discourage us.
Because we understand death in this life for him is possession of eternal life with him forever.
If we don't, then death in him, the anti-Christ, the anti-king, is eternal condemnation forever.
Forever.
Christ or chaos.
Forever.
The choice is always ours.
And so, let us resolve to pray that while we have made the right choice,
we persevere in what that choice means.
And no longer try to compromise.
No longer argue or discuss over and over and over and over
what we really know in the depths of our heart to be true.
No kingdom of heaven without passing through Calvary.
You can't walk around it.
You have to walk through it.
You can't stay in the sideways.
You have to look it right in the eye.
And then, with the strength and grace of God, go for it.
And in going for Calvary, we are going for heaven.
In going for Calvary, we will be with him for all eternity.
And so, let us truly enter into this mystery.
Of what it means to be members of God's family.
Amen.