{"id":797,"date":"2015-11-19T15:44:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T20:44:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=797"},"modified":"2015-12-11T16:04:20","modified_gmt":"2015-12-11T21:04:20","slug":"hanging-in-there-when-the-going-gets-tough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=797","title":{"rendered":"Hanging In There When the Going Get’s Tough"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 33rd<\/sup> Week in Ordinary Time<\/h2>\n

1 Mac 2: 15-29; Lk 19: 41-44<\/h2>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h2>\n

So, if things get tough will you hang in there? I mean, will you keep your faith if things get really tough? Or will you cave in like the \u201ccertain Jew\u201d in today\u2019s first reading. This man came forward and offered sacrifices to the pagan Greek gods, abandoning his faith and the faith of his ancestors, and desecrating the one true God\u2019s house. Why? Because the Greeks overran the country and imposed the law we just heard described. Most of the people caved in- giving up their faith and joining the King\u2019s followers to save their lives. While we might disapprove of Mattathias methods, his anger and the killings, you have to admire him for his zeal and for defending his faith.<\/p>\n

Now, you might say, that would never happen to any of us. We would never have our faith challenged like that here in the good old USA. But it\u2019s not so crazy that it would ever happen here, Because we are becoming a pluralistic secular country, one that tolerates all religions; and one that \u201crespects\u201d all kinds of moral codes; even those that run counter to our Church teaching. For example, we tolerate indecency and all forms of deviant life styles that are directly counter to our Faith in just about every public venue.<\/p>\n

Not only that, our toleration of the minorities and these deviant moral codes has already translated to a persecution of the majority. And so our public officials have already told us we can\u2019t pray in the schools anymore; we can\u2019t pray before or after sporting events, we can\u2019t put up Nativity scenes in public places; the ten commandments have to be removed from public places; and we shouldn\u2019t say Merry Christmas because it might be offensive.<\/p>\n

Not only that, pressure exists to recognize gay marriages and the \u201cright\u201d to choose abortion. The day will come, when a gay couple will come to this Church, demand to be married here; and then use the force of compliance with the \u201claw of the land\u201d and secular authority to pressure our Church. That will be just the beginning of explicit persecution that we will all feel.<\/p>\n

Will we be strong and keep our faith in the face of these secular pressures, not just our pastor and clergy, but all of us?<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Gospel tells us what happens if we don\u2019t stand strong. Jesus says this in the Gospel: \u201cFor the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides.\u201d Isn\u2019t that what is happening to Christians in this country right now? Maybe not a physical palisade, but a wall none the less, a barrier that keeps us from expressing our faith and evangelizing others, just by living our faith and being ourselves in public places.<\/p>\n

The fact is that all of us must recognize our day of visitation and act on it. Else we can expect the same prediction for our Church as Christ predicted for Jerusalem: \u201cThey will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, we all have been blessed with a \u201ctime of visitation\u201d. Jesus has been preached to each and every one of us. That is why we are all here. But what have we done with that. Have we done our part to evangelize those around us, and are we standing strong in the faith when it is attacked all around us?\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you, but I intend to do my part. It may be just a little early. But please pass it on. Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time 1 Mac 2: 15-29; Lk 19: 41-44 Dc. Larry Brockman So, if things get tough will you hang in there? I mean, will you keep your faith if things get really tough? Or will you cave in like the \u201ccertain Jew\u201d in today\u2019s first reading. This man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[380],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797"}],"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=797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":798,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797\/revisions\/798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}