Apostasy: Taking hold as Sunday Sports keep children on the Field in lieu of Sunday Mass!

Apostasy: Taking hold as Sunday Sports keep children on the Fields in lieu of Sunday Mass!

Is it on the rise as we Churchgoers watch in horror while the pews empty out for football, baseball, and soccer?  Unfortunately, the answer is Yes with a capital Y.  There is no doubt that sports for young people are important as the youth of our nation get involved making them all-around citizens.  Learning how to balance sports, intellectual activities, and spiritual admonishment in the same calendar of a school year can be a challenge.  The authority that is seen as the controller happens to be the parents.   The problem here is too many parents, especially the fathers, are just as remiss in attending Mass when their hearts are already on the playing field and the prize their child will be on top at the end of the season.  We must be aware that this attitude will lead many into apostasy.

Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it.  “Heresy is the obstinate post-baptismal denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same;  apostasy is the total repudiation of the Chtristian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.”  (CCC 2089).

The current view of many Christian sects as to this adjective within the Church is the very same attitude that began many centuries earlier as God was sending Moses as one prophet among others that had to struggle with the soft-willed attitude of his people moving towards the promised land.  It became a toss-up of pleasure seeking attractions instead of following God.  

God made it very clear as he delivered the Ten Commandments to Moses; “You shall not have other gods besides me.”  (Ex 20: 3).  When the people became aware of Moses’ delay in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him; “Come, make us a god who will be our leader; as for Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.”  (Ex 22: 1).  

Already we see how quickly man can find an excuse to ignore the truth about God's love for us and choose what fancy pleasure that titilates their wandering mind.  Sunday football or baseball games seem to fit the bill of excuses for missing Mass.  It also makes the parents feel exonerated.  

Wounds to Unity:  In fact, “in this one and only Church of God from the beginnings there arose certain rifts, which the Apostle strongly censures as damnable.  But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church  - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame.”   The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ’s Body - here we must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism  - do not occur without human sin: (CCC 817). 

 Where there are sins, there are also divisions, schisms, heresies, and disputes.  Where there is virtue, however, there also are harmony and unity, from which arise the one heart  and the one soul of all believers.”   (footnote to CCC 817).

When one views members of their family falling away from the very promises as they stood for their child's baptism and  answered the questions regarding their Christian faith; “Do you believe in the Roman Catholic Church and God, and the resurrection of the dead, and do you stand against the evils of the devil?  Not in symmetry but the theory of belief we admit to is a vow we undertake; that is until the coach says; “everyone to the field for our game.”  

Fascinated, the whole world followed after the beast.  They worshipped the dragon because it gave its authority to the beast; that also worshiped the beast and said; “Who can compare with the beast or who can fight against it?”  (Rv 13: 3b - 4).  

Perhaps there will be some who will tell the rest of us that this book of Revelation was for a city (Rome) in ancient times but not the 21st century.  Not true, since the apostasy of the Church and its leaders keeping this from the people in the pews is to become the beginning of troubles for any believers who may still be here as the Tribulation begins before the return of Christ.  

Why, we must ask, is the education for our children regarding God and his Church, such a problem that CCD instructions have become a boring and useless entity we no longer accept?

This is apostasy in its final thrust against God, his Church, and our own acceptance of our redemption that is promoting a disbelief in what Christ sacrificed himself as his Passion sent Satan and his followers into the burning pit of hell for all eternity.

Ralph B. Hathaway