Reviving the Church and Becoming Promotors of the Faith

Sometimes people refuse to change their old-fashioned position when it comes to accepting new ideas.  I once spoke with a priest friend who was given three parishes in a local community that were being blended into one.  In order to ease the transition he organized an evening of discussion for all to participate in the coming changes.  It didn’t take long for the criticisms to arise.

When one woman complained she didn’t like change, the priest asked her how she got to the meeting, on a horse?   

We know from experience, whether in the church or our communities, that people tend to take an opinionated stance when it comes to accepting or rejecting new proposals.  If you've ever had the opportunity to be in some sort of administrative role, you know that sometimes the forces of rejection can often cause sleepless nights and/or heartburn.

Old time religious advocates would set up tents to advertise the coming of the Lord.  They drew in crowds who would listen. They sang about “The coming of the Lord” and spent time proclaiming the end was near.

Teachers like Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and Arch-Bishop Fulton Sheen were among the greatest to proclaimed the need to follow Jesus Christ during a period of misguided people in need of reasons to listen, sing, and proclaim the need to wake up.

There still are ministers who speak of Christ Crucified and of the requirements that God constantly calls each of us to accept. And while there are some who are listening, far too many focus on other needs and do not need God in their lives. 

Who are the people that should stand in as promotors of faith? We can start with solicitors in the halls of government who are often more concerned with the next election than the needs of their constituents. 

Or the power brokers, who expound the desire to control subservients, unable to match the obvious influence these leaders have over the poor of the world. 

And of course, the educators who are able to submit one-sided ideas that lead our youth to philosophies that are anti-Christian or anti-God and planting ideologies that will destroy the path to goodness and freedom. Theirs has become the final opportunity to indoctrinate young children to the new way of rejecting God and our forefathers’ guidelines as written in the U.S. Constitution.  Attached to these premises is the Ten Commandments. 

We are the ones who can counter the negative attributes too many leaders and teachers are feeding the young and otherwise vulnerable easily away from the sacred freedom and rights that are God-given. 

But, our hands are tied until someone becomes a forceful speaker, a provocative evangelizing prophet sent by God. A person like that would create a revival, bringing our people back to the truth, encouraging us to follow the dictates that will bring all of us back to reality to place God ahead of all the nonsense that is overtaking our nation.

Leaders who are given irrefutable discretion may not wear the robes of politics and at times should not be trusted with the most vulnerable of our society; our children.  We are told that the most formative years for a child is from infancy to adolescence.  

As they grow and mature, each word they hear and every action they witness becomes imprinted on their minds. Every moment that passes forms the future of our society.  

Even in Catholic Universities, professors are implanting false doctrines. Is it any wonder why so many future leaders are presenting the Church, morality, and even a True God as something that it is not?

The success of expounding True Doctrines relies on our ability to pick and choose teachers, regardless of where they instruct, to present Truth as prescribed in the CCC:

“The information provided by the media is at the service of the common good.  Society has a right to information based on truth, freedom, justice , and solidarity.”  CCC 2494.

“By the very nature of their profession, journalists have an obligation to serve the truth and not offend against charity in disseminating information.  They should strive to respect, with equal care, the nature of the facts and the limits of critical judgment concerning individuals.  They should not stoop to defamation.”  CCC 2497

“Moral judgment must condemn the plague of totalitarian states which systematically falsify the truth, exercise political control of opinion through the media, manipulate defendants and witnesses at public trials, and imagine that they secure their tyranny by strangling and repressing everything they consider “thought crimes.”  CCC 2499

Let us commit to a Revival and refute the questionable attributes that plague our society; the attributes that teach students of all ages false doctrines, and that corrupt the freedoms we once fought for and still hold dear. The Absolute Truth! 

Ralph B. Hathaway, July 2021