PRAISE BE JESUS AND MARY
In the second reading today, St. Paul is chastising the people of Corinth for the divisions within their church.
He talks about how, you know, some say, I belong to Paul, some say I belong to Apollos, others say I belong to Jesus, and so on.
And he asks the question, is Christ divided?
We make up the mystical body of Christ.
There's only one Christ.
Therefore, if we're members of Christ, we must be united.
That's what St. Paul is telling the Corinthians.
They must be united in mind and in heart.
Now, we're told in the Gospel today that when Jesus taught, people were spellbound.
They were amazed by what he taught, because he didn't teach like the Pharisees and the scribes.
He taught with authority, and that's why his teaching was different.
He taught with authority, simply not just because it was divine,
you know, the scribes and the Pharisees, their teaching was divine from the Old Testament.
The difference was that Jesus was teaching the truth.
There are many who claim to follow Christ.
Yet, you know, if you look around at the various denominations, they call themselves Christians.
You know, we don't...
We don't seem to see that unity of mind and heart that St. Paul speaks of in today's reading,
because, you know, we don't believe in the same Christ.
The people who call themselves Mormons don't believe in the same Jesus that we do.
The people who call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses, they don't believe in the same Jesus.
That we do.
And some of those who would call themselves Christians and even Catholics,
they don't believe all of the teachings of Jesus.
We have to keep in mind, there's only one Christ, and there is only one truth.
Truth is not something which is relative.
That is...
You cannot believe one thing and I believe another, and then we're both right.
It's not possible when it comes to objective truth.
Jesus taught the truth. In fact, Jesus is the truth.
The truth just isn't something, it's someone.
And because Jesus is the truth, you know, if we're going to be followers of Christ,
we'll only be united when we're united in truth.
You know, once again, it's not enough to be able to say that we believe in Jesus.
You know, if we proclaim faith in Jesus Christ,
it must be true.
It must be true.
It must be a faith.
It must be faith in everything that Jesus taught and everything that his church teaches
because Jesus Christ and his bride, the church, are one.
You know, we celebrated the conversion of St. Paul yesterday.
And what did Jesus say to Paul on his way to Damascus?
You know, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute?
Why do you persecute me?
Paul, Saul never met Jesus.
He was persecuting these radical new, you know, followers of the new way.
But Jesus said, why do you persecute me?
He didn't say, why do you persecute my church?
The church and Jesus are one.
The church is the mystical body.
And there are people, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike,
that claim to believe in the church.
But it's not the same church that I believe in and that you believe in.
Now, you know, that may sound judgmental.
And American people don't like that very well.
But, what did Jesus do?
You know, we hear in the gospel, he actually called the Pharisees
and the scribes hypocrites and a brood of vipers.
And, you know, he condemned people for not following the truth.
He didn't preach any sort of relativism.
He preached the truth.
He preached the truth.
He preached the truth.
And many of his disciples didn't like what he preached.
Remember in the chapter 6 of St. John,
many of his disciples left.
He didn't water it down and make it easier for them to accept.
He let them walk away.
Then he looked at his 12 chosen apostles
and asked,
and asked them if they wanted to leave also.
And he didn't say, well, look, you know,
because this is a little too difficult for you,
let me make it easier.
Let me water down the gospel so you don't walk away from it.
No, you know, we're told through the prophet Isaiah
that we see the fulfillment of that prophecy in the gospel.
That a people who lived in darkness have seen
a great light and upon those who dwelt in a land
overshadowed by death, a light has shown, you know,
our land is overshadowed by death, a culture of death.
Our land, you know, where there are people who live
in darkness because they reject the truth.
They reject Jesus.
There's only one way that they're going to be saved
and that is through our lady's immaculate heart.
We've promised to be her servants.
We heard in today's gospel how Jesus called his apostles,
so James and John and Peter and his brother Andrew,
and they followed our Lord.
And our lady has called us.
And she wants to use us as her servants, her instruments,
her property, that's what we've promised or are preparing
to promise, and we need to let her use us to bring the light
of Christ out into the darkness of the world.
We need to bring the truth out into the world which is filled
with lies, you know, we cannot remain silent
when people are attacking the truth.
We need to shine in the darkness as the children of Mary
and as members of Jesus Christ.
But.
before that light can shine within us
we first need to be united
in truth. We first need
to be in union with Jesus and Mary
and we need to be in union
with one another.
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