A time of freedom is coming

A time of freedom is coming

Freedom is the one attribute we all look forward to but in too many instances reaching that blissful entity has become blocked by different obstacles.  Of course there are the physical actions from those among our nation's rulers that have successfully stopped the approach to a peaceful existence which can only come through freedom.  Almost daily we awaken to the continued killings from gunfire all over the country and the cry for help seems to have disappeared from the hearing of law enforcement protection.   This is the blind concern of the government for its citizens. 

However, there is another rampart that stands firmly in our path to freedom that is more spiritual than physical.  The unseen but real subject that saps our very effort to be at peace with God.  This entity has a name and we must be aware of its constant attack upon us.  God called him by name and St. Michael and the other angels fought to remove him from heaven.  It is Satan and he works diligently to capture our souls by subtle and compromising tactics to win our weakness by despising God.  

We are certain that with each passing day there is another type of pleasure that penetrates our well-being that is so attractive we fail to see it for what it is.  If he was to threaten our peacefulness by violent attacks we would stand our ground realizing what was happening.  He is too crafty to let his own guard down.  By using the very weakness each of us has, he is able to circumvent the very rampart we have, but the watchmen are sleeping and our guards are unable to stop the attack.

Of course, God has promised a time will come that all of these unnamed enemies will be destroyed and a peace will become our success after the parousia, the return of Christ at the final battle, Armageddon.  But until then our guard from the pillars of government exerting tyranny against us will continue and the need for faith and a return of the many who have left the Church must become our battle cry.  

Look at the attendance on Sundays when it certainly is easy to get a front seat at Mass, or even the seats in the back remain nearly empty.  Some may excuse this as just a way of fighting emotionally over the scandal from the pedophilia.  But I believe that is just a way of Satan using his suggestion to fight back at priests who are guilty, and condemn those who are not.  

Many priests are devastated that their brother priests fell from grace and used the temptation to satisfy some inert desire to hurt the young by committing such an atrocious sin.  They felt the pain even more than the rest of us because of being ordained at the same time they were.  I personally knew a number of disgraced clergy and cried when so many friends left the church over this.  In the stretch of 48 years as a deacon I saw numbers that fell to this sin. 

You must stay the course of faith and not condemn the total number of clergy who have also cried, and share the parishioners' loss and confusion.  God is still in charge.  

Ralph B. Hathaway