\u00a0<\/p>\n
A higher authority- the Apostles told the authorities that they owed their obedience to a higher authority.\u00a0 This, it seems to me is a really difficult teaching for us.\u00a0 Not so much on the surface of the matter but because in today’s society, our American system teaches all of us to question authority, and to do what we feel is right, letting our conscience be the guide.\u00a0 So, as a people, we have been trained to pick and choose which rules we will follow, and which rules the “higher authority” of our conscience overrides.\u00a0 The trouble is that the “Higher Authority” we are talking about this morning is God, not the spirit of independence and self-determination that seems to be the hallmark of American Society.\u00a0 There is a difference, a profound difference, between the two.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
As Jesus tells us in today’s Gospel, what comes from above, from God, is trustworthy.\u00a0 And whoever listens to that merits life. In today’s world, a very secular and pluralistic society, we find ourselves confronted with lots of tough issues- right to life; fertility issues; the efficacy of our tax laws; health care; the economic implications of runaway spending; and freedom of speech to name a few.\u00a0 There are laws that cover each of these areas to be sure.\u00a0 And there are interpretations of these laws by secular experts.\u00a0 But, as believing Catholics living in the 21st<\/sup> century,\u00a0 How should we vote?\u00a0 For what should we lobby?\u00a0 And when and how should we make our voices known?\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Our biggest problem is knowing what God has said, because there are so many issues to deal with.\u00a0 That’s why we have a Church Teaching authority.\u00a0 As Catholics, we need to educate ourselves on what God’s word and what God’s position is on these issues.\u00a0 It is not easy- but it is part of our responsibility as Catholics.\u00a0 I participated in Why Catholic this past Lent.\u00a0 It is a good start- because it uses the Catechism as a basis.\u00a0 But it was not very well attended.\u00a0 For those who are not otherwise involved, I urge you to think very seriously about joining one of these groups next time.\u00a0 We all need to listen to God.\u00a0 The ultimate Higher Authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 Thursday of the 2nd Week of Easter Acts 5: 27–33; John 3: 31-36 Dc. Larry Brockman A higher authority- the Apostles told the authorities that they owed their obedience to a higher authority.\u00a0 This, it seems to me is a really difficult teaching for us.\u00a0 Not so much on the surface of the matter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[43,44],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}