Praise be Jesus Christ.
Our Lord built his church on Peter the Rock when he said to him,
Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
We need to recognize the great gift that we have in our Holy Father,
Pope Benedict XVI.
In fact, recently one member of the International Theological Commission
said that he is perhaps the greatest theologian pope
in the entire history of the Church.
We need to remember that he is the vicar of Christ on earth.
When we hear him, we hear Christ.
It is he who conforms us in faith, is our sure guide to heaven,
and to peace and justice here on earth.
I just finished reading the encyclical Caritas in Veritate,
Charity and Truth.
In reading that encyclical, you just say to yourself,
it makes so much sense.
It is so reasonable.
If only the world would listen to our Holy Father.
And yet instead, what do we see?
We see that the global media is making every effort to discredit him
and to cast him in a bad light.
What foolishness.
What blindness.
In fact, it calls to mind the words of Psalm 81.
It says this,
Listen, my people, to my warning.
O Israel, if only you would heed.
But my people did not heed my voice,
and Israel would not obey.
So I left them in their stubbornness of heart
to follow their own designs.
O that my people would heed me,
that Israel would walk in my ways.
At once I would subdue their foes,
turn my hand against their enemies.
But my people did not heed my voice,
and Israel would not obey.
So I left them in their stubbornness of heart
to follow their own designs.
And so, because we're not heeding the voice of God
as it comes to us through
the Holy Spirit,
we are being left
in our stubbornness of heart
to follow our own designs.
Then in today's Gospel,
we read the words,
And whoever does not receive you
will listen to your words.
This is our Lord speaking to the Gospels
after, to the Gospels,
speaking to the Apostles
after they've gone to preach
to certain towns.
So if they don't receive you
or listen to your words,
go forth outside that house or town
and shake off the dust from your feet.
And then I say to you,
it will be more tolerable
for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah
in a day of judgment
than for that town.
Can we not apply those same words
not to just some town or some city,
but to the entire world
as it does not heed
the words of God.
The words of our Holy Father.
So let us continue to pray
for the conversion of the world
and also of our country.
In the name of the Father and the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.