<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There are two stories about Kings of Israel this week and they both caught my eye. \u00a0<\/span>The one Tuesday from 2 Kings Chapter 19 was about King Hezekiah of Israel.\u00a0 <\/span>When Hezekiah learned of the plan of the Assyrians to attack and plunder Jerusalem he went to the temple and prayed fervently for help from the Lord.\u00a0 <\/span>And the prophet Isaiah reported back to him that his prayers were heard, and Jerusalem would be spared, which it was; it was saved by the protecting arm of the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not too many years later, the Israelis were faced with a similar threat.\u00a0 <\/span>And today, we hear quite a different story and outcome.\u00a0 <\/span>King Jehoiacin, and his Israeli people had grown complacent.\u00a0 <\/span>They were seemingly oblivious to the threat of the Babylonian invasion.\u00a0 <\/span>The Babylonians attacked, and Jehoiacin surrenders Jerusalem to the Babylonians who carry him away, ransack the temple, and begin the famous Babylonian exile of the Jewish people.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n What a contrast. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>And what is the difference?\u00a0 <\/span>The difference is prayer.\u00a0 <\/span>But not just any kind of prayer.\u00a0 <\/span>It has to be prayer followed by sincere action.\u00a0 <\/span>For as Jesus says, \u201cNot everyone who says to me \u2018Lord, Lord\u2019, will enter the Kingdom of God but only the one who does the will of my Father\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our Saint of the day, St. Irenaeus is a good example.\u00a0 <\/span>Irenaeus lived in the 200\u2019s, and he was a staunch defender of the faith.\u00a0 <\/span>He was the first to define what books should be in the New Testament, and he used those texts to defend the Church against two heresies.\u00a0 <\/span>His efforts were successful against both heresies and, even today, we use the Canon of the New Testament that he defined.\u00a0 <\/span>But ultimately, he was martyred for his Faith.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The defense of Israel against attacks from the outside seems too far and distant to us today; and a 3rd<\/sup> century Bishop defending Christianity against two heresies doesn\u2019t seem any more relevant.\u00a0 <\/span>So, we have problems relating to the stories I mentioned.\u00a0 <\/span>But are things really so different?\u00a0 <\/span>Our Church today is being attacked by massive forces of secularism, not the least of which is the Government\u2019s forced HHS Mandate that tells our Church and Church Institutions what they must pay for and include in health insurance.\u00a0 <\/span>But these are not the only issues the Church faces today.\u00a0 <\/span>There is the gay marriage issue, and managed health care for the elderly, or Euthanasia, for those who care to read the tea leaves.\u00a0 <\/span>And then there are the rights of Catholic Businessmen to dissent from the HHS Mandate.\u00a0 <\/span>These and other issues are right behind the Court Decision expected today on Obamacare,\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our leader now, Cardinal Dolan, and Faithful Catholics need to be firm in our faith and continue to defend our Faith until all of the issues are resolved.\u00a0 <\/span>We need to continue to pray and to follow that prayer with actions that fulfill the will of the Father.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Which one of the Israeli peoples will we be like in this struggle?\u00a0 <\/span>Hezekiah and his people, who prayed and reformed, or Jehoiacim and his people who forgot the zeal and faithfulness of their forefathers\u00a0 <\/span>and did, or tolerated, evil in the sight of the Lord\u00a0 <\/span>Because if we become like the later group, we too can end up with our people carried away into the slavery of oppression and our temples destroyed by the invaders.\u00a0 <\/span>The choice is yours.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thursday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time St. Irenaeus 2 Kgs 24: 8-17; Mt 7: 21-29 By Deacon Larry Brockman \u00a0 There are two stories about Kings of Israel this week and they both caught my eye. \u00a0The one Tuesday from 2 Kings Chapter 19 was about King Hezekiah of Israel.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[147],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225"}],"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=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":354,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}