The homily given by a visiting mission priest this week was great. I needed to hear him say, "If you live your faith, you will be mocked." After the week I'd had, wow! I needed that reminder.
I am not perfect, nor is my family perfect. We do try to live our Catholic faith, however. Why is it that when you tell some people that you pray, they assume you are condemning them to hell? Why is it when you refuse to participate in sinful behavior, people think you are condemning them to hell? I often tell people that I can curse like a sailor. I can. I didn't grow up on the Leave it to Beaver set and I was in the Army. I can string a few together. The difference is that I don't condone the sin and I don't consciously set out to curse. It happens sometimes. I slip.
This past week, I was attacked with such venom and vulgarity as I have never seen before. Not even when I went through basic training and Officer Candidate School in the Army. Again, my family life was rough, too. Brothers on drugs, in jail...... Eventually one brother committed suicide and one died of a drug overdose. The third one has done 3 different prison sentences in the state pen. I've heard curse words and been attacked before! This was BAD.
As I am an adult, I just removed friend's from Facebook. no problem, right? OH MY! This just increased the attacks. I'm still in shock that anyone would allow such vulgarity on their Facebook wall, condone it and then stick up for it! This even led to my being threatened with a lawsuit. All because I had the audacity to choose not to participate or see filth and vulgarity in my Facebook feed and chose not to have the temptation to go and read the nasty comments being written about me and to me. I had been threatened and much more.
I HAVE been praying for the parties involved and wondering why it was so crazy-making for them that I wanted no part of any of it. They attacked my Catholic faith..... One person said he wiped something with my faith and also said that he was glad I found comfort in my faith, much like some people found comfort in caries and leprechauns.
It was good to be reassured that we would be mocked if we try to live out faith. I have been praying for everyone involved. if we truly know the love of God and believe as the Bible tells us that our bodies are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, then we would behave accordingly.
In this culture of Death, it is increasingly hard to live our faith without being mocked. We are made fun of on TV and in other media outlets. We do not think we are perfect-- far from it. We are Christians who struggle to keep God's Commandments in a world that laughs at us for doing so. Jesus, himself, was mocked. If they mocked the Lord, we should expect the same!
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