Priest rails against pandemic of fear in powerful homily

name of the father the son and the holy spirit so humor me here humor me if i were the devil i know some prisoners think i'm the devil but [Laughter] if i were the devil and i wanted to wage war against the children of god first i would know that i'd have to be sly because if people catch on then they might realize that they're being fooled so nothing grandiose nothing too flashy nothing grotesque in terms of displays of power it has to be sly it has to work in the soul they have to believe that they are actually the ones who are responding and of course i would make sure that i manipulate good things so that they were actually less than good but people would still think that they were good devil is a trickster he lies one basic difference between god and the devil god doesn't lie loves us too much he's incapable of a lie the devil he lies so much he can't keep up with his own lies huh if i were the devil i wanted to weaken the children of god i would use fear fear i'd make sure it got all the way in there be afraid of your neighbor be afraid of your health be afraid of society be afraid be afraid be afraid this is a dark place there's no hope and if something happens you should lose your health or die this is it it's over it's all gone my goodness such power huh you could get anyone to do anything when they're afraid they will sacrifice every freedom they will degrade their own dignity they will assume any posture they will do whatever is said so long as they are under fear so i'd have to make sure they were afraid but then i'd have to make sure that all the things that might strengthen them or help them or give them some type of awareness or illumination i have to take those away so i'd have to strike at their food john the book of revelation tells us that when the antichrist comes he will deprive us of our food and the majority of the lord's disciples will abandon him because of their stomachs i told you the devil was tricky take away their food and watch how they flee from god the devil knew that the first temptation the first temptation turned this stone to food lord says i will not do that he reveals himself the devil it's all about food touch their food touch their supernatural fruit their supernatural food take away supernatural food and you start to act like fallen human beings our nature by itself has fallen it's fallen take away someone's supernatural food where they're no longer sustained or nourished and fallen human nature is left to its own device it scares me just thinking about it oh wait i'm supposed to be the devil i like that i'm sorry okay take away their supernatural food and the fear continues and then they indulge in pettiness and bitterness and self-pity and entitlement self-righteousness manners become morals and morals are dismissed so i strike at their supernatural fruit take it away make sure they're afraid to worship god god all good ever living all-powerful the alpha and the omega the mighty warrior and the prince of peace make them afraid of him of worshiping him of being in his house receiving holy communion with him or if i were the devil i want you afraid and i want to make sure that you had no access to that grace and even if you had access i want to make sure that you didn't avail yourself of it dear friends why is it that during lent we have so many people join us for daily mass and then suddenly in the easter season they stop would their work schedules drastically change all of a sudden perhaps for some but we do all the sacrifice of lent in order to celebrate the easter season we get to the easter season and everyone just stops that would be like an nfl player training for a big game getting to the game and then walking off the field what's the problem what's wrong with that guy but i make sure i used fear because fear is so irrational and i take away their supernatural food and then i make sure that other manners took over manners that protect morals dear friends do not confess for it is not a sin if you should choose not to wear a mask that is a manner that is not in the moral realm and yet how many would rather confess i didn't wear a mask when i was supposed to rather than being belligerent to their neighbor negligent by sins of omission to charity because they were afraid i wouldn't reach out to my neighbor because i was afraid i knew she was alone i knew they needed help but i was afraid so make sure they were afraid take away their supernatural food replace manners they're so passing and insignificant and then eventually i would make sure that there was enough in place to sustain the fear how is it that someone is fully vaccinated and they're still afraid i think it's important that we're careful but we have people who are literally fully vaccinated who are afraid to come to worship this led the cardinal archbishop of new york to cry out this past week for god's sake go to mass go to mass you realize what holy communion and that grace does to the soul the help it gives or do we really just see in these works of the evil one the true faithlessness of the people of god i don't really believe in eternal life because my goodness they cling so hard to this life they don't really believe in the power of the sacraments they can go three months six months a year without holy communion is that what we see where we really are in terms of our faith we are told that 70 percent of catholics do not believe in the real presence i guess we were just taken to the lab and shown the reality of that pew research because if you believed that this was the body and blood of the living god by which your soul is redeemed and you receive the virtues of heaven and the promise of immortality you wouldn't care what it took to be here i've said before and it's important that we understand this as westerners we are an embarrassment to the universal church we look at our beliefs in africa who've gone through so many pandemics and yet their one source of stability is their faith they have poverty disease pandemics corruption violence yet they humble us with their joy how can they be so happy because they don't believe that this world is supposed to make them happy their joy isn't god alone and they know that as long as they stay united to god all the fallenness of this world has no power over them but in the west we keep creating wanting to create heavens on earth there really hells on earth we keep thinking that this world is supposed to make us happy this world this is supposed to sustain us this world is supposed well in the end what's heaven all about dear friends you do realize this is a probation our early catechism used to call it a probation we changed the language because it made people uncomfortable our life in this world is a probation and a judgment day we will be told whether we pass or not we walk through this valley of tears it's not poetics we pray that at the end of every rosary as we walk through this valley of tears and we are supposed to walk through this valley of tears not hide from it not dodge it not avoid it not try to cancel it out but to walk through this valley of tears and i want to make sure that it's very clear what i'm saying and what i'm not saying i think it's very important that we are safe that we care for our bodies they are they are gifts from god we have to be attentive we have to be responsible absolutely yes but my goodness dear friends the devil has been working and he's so industrious we have so many who are so far from the sacraments our suicide rates are through the roof marriages are failing child abuse is on the rise drug abuse alcohol abuse humanity is imploding in large part not because of covert 19 but because the children of god have deprived themselves of the help of god's grace we have to be responsible we need the sacraments if we're going to live this life fulfill the commands given to us by our lord and live this life well so to share we can share eternity with him we need the help of the of that grace and there's so many who are so far there are even people who are grocery shopping going to restaurants doing everything else in society but then they say they don't feel safe coming to church to receive grace the devil has been working there's so many who are far from the grace of god and there are so many who are so afraid afraid dear friends when the lord was in the boat with his apostles and the winds began to blow and the water began to rise and the boat began to rock and they ran to him lord lord i love it that the gospel tells us he was resting on a pillow right it's great they put that detail in there you know like he's resting on a pillow right the lord is resting on a pillow they interrupted him they woke him up from a nap he stands up be quiet and the waters are silent the storm passes the apostles are like yeah yeah and he turns to them and says oh you of little faith you of little faith they were so afraid what could possibly have happened first of all the lord was with them in the boat they were safe even if the boat should have drowned they drowned with christ and they would rise and be with him forever what evil were they afraid of other than their own self-preservation their own desire to be in control other than the fact that they fell as a victim to fear assess your heart difference each of us assess simply because of the pandemic but perhaps in other areas as well where has fear ruled today what has the fear taken over when have we allowed the devil who's so cunning to use us as one of his toys he says to his demons watch watch watch when i do this watch what they do [Music] the devil says see i told you exactly what we wanted look at that his fear makes us fools we are the children of god well beloved by him he sent his son to die a torturous death and to rise in glory that we might understand the credibility of his love and he has us in the palm of his hands and he will protect us he knows every hair on our heads i can understand the fear of the unbeliever i cannot and i pray that i never can understand the fear that has so overtaken so many souls consecrated to jesus christ dear friends what we're going to do for the next for all these daily masses the next several weeks is we're going to pick up our walk through the mass starting tomorrow we're going to walk through all the different ceremonies of the mass why since you might understand the riches of the glory and that wherever fear might poke its head you'll send that fear back to hell and understand what we have received here for there is something greater than noah here there is great something greater than solomon here there's something greater than david here here at this altar the body and blood of the living god is offered to each of us and has no place for fear we celebrate this eucharist we ask god to banish fear from our hearts get it out do we might have that boldness of what it means to be a child of god the boldness of the resurrection they might hear what the lord is asking of us worship him truthfully and serve him generously

Channel: Alpha News

Views: 89,023

Keywords: Minnesota, Minnesota Politics, Alpha News, MN State Legislature

Id: dHaH9Uk9YPA

Length: 16min 14sec (974 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021