<\/p>\n
My how things have changed in the last 40 years!\u00a0 I can remember when hand held audio and video communications were just a \u201cDick Tracy\u201d fantasy.\u00a0 But there were still school prayers and opening prayers at our public meetings.\u00a0 Recently I went to an Orange County School Board Meeting that was opened with a \u201cmoment of silence\u201d!\u00a0 Most of us lived in a conventional family.\u00a0 Our Dad\u2019s worked, but Mom stayed home, and everybody sat down together to a home cooked meal each night.\u00a0 A college education was the exception not the rule.\u00a0 Gay marriage was unheard of; and abortion was illegal.\u00a0 America was a very giving and Christian oriented country, with many people housing an older relative in their family.\u00a0 And we donated Millions- sending financial aid around the world.\u00a0 We were a net supplier of missionary priests and nuns.<\/p>\n
Today, we have become the World\u2019s technology leader and the richest country in the world.\u00a0 We have cell phones and I Pads and all kinds of technology that allow us to do things in the palm of our hands that a whole building full of electronics were needed to do in 1973.\u00a0 A college education is considered a must.\u00a0 More often than not, both Mom and Dad work, and everybody in the family has their own car.<\/p>\n
But despite all our technology and material advances, something dreadfully wrong with our society today, because school prayer and opening prayers are a thing of the past.\u00a0 We have to import priests from Africa and Asia.\u00a0 Over half of our families are families with a divorce.\u00a0 Only two thirds of our children live in a home with two parents; only a third of us eat together as a family, older people find themselves abandoned in institutions, and there are Government panels limiting their medical services.\u00a0 Gay marriage is fast becoming accepted, and one third of all pregnancies end up in abortion in this country every year- one third of them.\u00a0 Yes, that\u2019s 1.2 Million abortions a year in this country alone, and some 56 million abortions since Roe v Wade exactly 40 years ago Tuesday.<\/p>\n
What is happening to our country and our World?\u00a0 Why don\u2019t we publicly recognize God in our society?\u00a0 What happened to the sanctity of marriage and the family?\u00a0 Where is our sense of Christian self-sacrifice?\u00a0 Where is the value of human life in our society, especially for the very young and old?<\/p>\n
Now I could go on and on talking about the problems with where we are today compared to where we were as a society 40 years ago- about how the broken families of today, especially those without a father, produce children with drastically higher tendencies to have behavior disorders; much higher runaway and school dropout rates; and even have a much greater tendency to pathological anger, leading to murder and rape.\u00a0 We have all seen incidents of that recently, haven\u2019t we.<\/p>\n
And I could go on and on about how this breakdown of the family has led to a lack of vocations in the church, to single parent families living in poverty, and to a lack of morals and self-absorption in a significant portion of the younger generation.\u00a0 And how that has led to a tremendous increase in unwed mothers, by a factor of greater than 2 to one in the last 40 years.\u00a0 And how all this contributes to the abortion rate, euthanasia, and all the rest; and how it is an endless spiral downward.\u00a0 But I would be preaching to the choir, because this is the bedrock of Christian living, our parishes.\u00a0 These problems just don\u2019t happen here.<\/p>\n
Rather than the problems, it is time for us to focus on solutions.\u00a0 Even if most of us still believe and are faithful to the Church\u2019s teaching and our Christian values, we need to do something about all those others out there who have the problems.\u00a0 Because the problems affect our brothers and sisters, whom we are all called to love as much as ourselves no matter what they have done, especially in this year of Faith when we are called to evangelize.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d like to point out three things about today\u2019s scriptures that help us respond to this call.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 First, it truly is time, with all these problems in our society, for us to stand up and do something about them.\u00a0 You see, Isaiah\u2019s words are as true to us today as they were for people three thousands of years ago:\u00a0 \u201cFor Zion\u2019s sake I will not be silent, for Jerusalem\u2019s sake I will not be quiet, until her vindication shines forth like the dawn and her victory like a burning torch.\u201d\u00a0 You and I are being called not to be silent, not to be quiet; to respect life; to put God back in our society; to restore the sanctity of a Christian family to our society; and to instill in our children and grandchildren a spirit of self-sacrifice and commitment to God in their lives<\/p>\n
Second, we have the ideal example- the Gospel of Jesus.\u00a0 You see, up until today\u2019s bible story, Jesus led a quiet life as a Carpenter\u2019s son and apprentice for 90 percent of his life- the first 30 years.\u00a0 But after he was baptized, he went into the desert, discerned God\u2019s will for him, and then he went into public ministry doing his Father\u2019s will.\u00a0 That\u2019s the message today- a coming out for Jesus.<\/p>\n
How about you and I?\u00a0 What is our \u201ccoming out\u201d incident where we recognize that there are higher purposes to our lives and we get involved?<\/p>\n
And the third message today is that we all have been given the tools.\u00a0 God has given all of us unique talents.\u00a0 In Corinthians, Paul tells us:\u00a0 \u201cThere are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.\u00a0 To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.\u201d\u00a0 Then he names some of them: Wisdom; Knowledge, Faith, Mighty Deeds; Prophecy; Discernment, Languages, and so on.\u00a0 Yes, one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.\u00a0 But they are to be used for the common good, the building of the Kingdom of God.\u00a0 They are not to be used just for our own benefit, but for the benefit of all of God\u2019s people.\u00a0 And this is the right time for all of us to pool our resources together and work for that benefit.<\/p>\n
We live at a time in which, in the name of tolerance, society has been conned into accepting marriage by gay people.\u00a0 And many think a woman\u2019s right to \u201cchoose\u201d trumps an unborn child\u2019s right to life.\u00a0 Society has given up the majority\u2019s right to pray in public and as a group in deference to a small, vocal minority.\u00a0 States are actually passing laws allowing assisted suicide.\u00a0 And most Catholics are standing by and watching the Government take away our religious liberties by forcing businesses and individuals to pay for and support immoral elective procedures and capabilities.\u00a0 Yes, it is happening today.\u00a0 These things are wrong and we need to stand up, take a position, get involved, and change it all.\u00a0 It would be change we can all believe in!<\/p>\n
Yes, there are folks involved already.\u00a0 But you know something- it\u2019s the same people involved in everything- a small percentage of you. \u00a0Where are all the others?<\/p>\n
So, the question is how, how can a fire be lighted under more of our believers to make a difference?\u00a0 We\u2019re not talking about dropping a few bucks in the collection- although that helps.\u00a0 We are talking about getting involved.<\/p>\n
A good first step is prayer- like making a commitment to Perpetual Adoration, or just signing up for spiritual adoption which we will do in just a few minutes.\u00a0 Both of these require a simple commitment to regular prayer.\u00a0 But that\u2019s a good start, because it begins a change in heart.\u00a0 And there are plenty of other ways to get involved in the parish-\u00a0 Respect Life, St. Vincent de Paul, Ministry to the Sick, Faithful Citizenship, Knights of Columbus, and Helping Hands to name a few.\u00a0 There are social action programs and groups associated with the Diocese.\u00a0 And volunteer organizations like the JMJ Center and Coalition for the Homeless.\u00a0 If none of that appeals to you, follow your own passion to make a difference.\u00a0 But make a commitment to get involved.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is the year of Faith.\u00a0 Let\u2019s show we\u2019ve got faith by living it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Second Sunday of Ordinary Time Is 62: 1-5; 1 Cor 12: 4-11; John 2: 1-11 Dc. Larry Brockman My how things have changed in the last 40 years!\u00a0 I can remember when hand held audio and video communications were just a \u201cDick Tracy\u201d fantasy.\u00a0 But there were still school prayers and opening prayers at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[181,180],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269"}],"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=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}