{"id":776,"date":"2015-09-24T08:33:21","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T13:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=776"},"modified":"2015-10-29T10:36:11","modified_gmt":"2015-10-29T15:36:11","slug":"building-the-lords-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=776","title":{"rendered":"Building the Lord’s House"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 25th<\/sup> Week in Ordinary Time<\/h3>\n

Hag 1: 1-8; Luke 9: 7-9<\/h3>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h3>\n

\u201cBuild my house\u201d. That\u2019s what Haggai told the Israelis to do. Darius had restored the Israelis to their land after a long exile. They were living in paneled houses, drinking and eating lavishly, and having a great time of prosperity there. But if we read between the lines accurately, they were just not happy. That begs the question, \u201cwhy\u201d?<\/p>\n

Notice that they procrastinated in rebuilding the temple. They didn\u2019t have time for the Lord. They didn\u2019t have a decent place to worship, and that means it wasn\u2019t a priority to them. Could it be that they were not happy because they didn\u2019t really have God in their lives?<\/p>\n

Now building the Church sounds like something we just can\u2019t relate to with all the Churches we have today. I saw in the news the other day that Holy Trinity Church in downtown Syracuse had been sold to the Moslems who were going to convert it to a Mosque. Sad, but that sort of thing happens often now in the Northeast. Where did all the faithful go?<\/p>\n

You know, I visit a local Hospital twice a week. The chaplain gives me a long list of Catholics to see each time. I\u2019d say that while all of them identify themselves as Catholics, probably less than half are practicing Catholics of any description.<\/p>\n

This is what I hear from them: \u201cYears ago I went to see the priest about getting married to my live-in boyfriend, and he wouldn\u2019t marry us, so I haven\u2019t set foot inside a Church ever since.\u201d Or: \u201cWhenever I go to Church, all they ask for is money\u201d; or: \u201cI believe in Jesus, and it\u2019s just me and Jesus, that\u2019s what\u2019s important, I don\u2019t need the Church\u201d; or a whole flock of other reasons, excuses, and sob stories.<\/p>\n

What all that means is that it just isn\u2019t true. It isn\u2019t true that we don\u2019t need to build the Church. The fact is that many of us are living comfortably and in complacency, yet we don\u2019t see either the need or urgency of building the Church. But if we are honest about it, the erosion of the Church is clear because the flock is disappearing either out of disinterest, complacency, or disbelief. And deep down we cannot be happy about all the fallen away and lukewarm Catholics.<\/p>\n

So, that\u2019s where you and I come in. It isn\u2019t enough for us to believe and come here to worship. We are called to be evangelizers in word and in deed. We are called upon to \u201cbuild the Church,\u201d not so much with brick and mortar, but by bringing others into the Body of Christ.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, too many people are rudderless. They are like Herod in today\u2019s Gospel, seeking something but they know not what. Whereas this country was built on Judeo Christian values, it is now fast becoming a pagan nation of people seeking self-gratification; people who don\u2019t have God in their lives or who have a distorted idea of God. We are not here to coexist with them and let them do their own thing. We are here to convert them; to add them to the Body of Christ, the Church. So, this morning, it is as if Haggai were addressing each of us to get out there and \u201cBuild the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 25th Week in Ordinary Time Hag 1: 1-8; Luke 9: 7-9 Dc. Larry Brockman \u201cBuild my house\u201d. That\u2019s what Haggai told the Israelis to do. Darius had restored the Israelis to their land after a long exile. They were living in paneled houses, drinking and eating lavishly, and having a great time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[242,228],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776"}],"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=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}