Is there a moment when man will not find a Church open?

Is there a moment when man will not find a Church open?

A time when man refuses a blessing, or when a priest will not bless those who have turned from God;  Is It Coming?

This may seem to be a nightmare that we might awake from wiping our brow to an obtuse event that cannot occur; but it could be on the horizon in spite of the faith of the ten possible just people in Sodom. That didn’t occur to save Gomorrah, will there be 10  here to keep the Church alive?

Is this another script that tends to upset people who pass over a warning that just will not become real to the passivists that believe only in their minds with blinders?  Over and over, we may read from the Old Testament books regarding God’s Justice and forgiveness in a future event of his Massiah to bring the lost sheep back from their wandering in sin.  

Imagine for a moment the possible sight of people gambling in church or setting up in groups to laugh and feel gratification while facing the Tabernacle still housing the Blessed Sacrament of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ.  Jesus overturned the tables in the Temple precinct where they should have had respect for God’s home.  “My house shall be a house of prayer but you are making it a den of thieves.”  (Mt 21: 13).  

We may hear people responding with scenarios that this could not happen in the Catholic Church since the parishioners know how sacred their Church is to God and his people.  There was a time when mothers became protective to their new-born babies they carried in their wombs.  With over 60 million abortions since 1973 that protection has flown away in place of freedom from caring for a crying baby.  Where has the sacredness of caring for offspring that even animals would not dare to let their own children be threatened by any adverse enemy.   Pope John Paul II said people have lost the respect of human life, found in his writing in “the Gospel of Life.”   

Life is the most precious entity we have since life is all we know about.  However, the adherence to taking care of this life, spiritually as well as physically, is not something we can take for granted.  As we may have heard before, to suffer is to find the same outcome that Jesus found that meant more for us than all the treasures we could ever accumulate.  He gave up his security of heaven, for a time, to show his love by becoming our sin.  We must show our love in return by suffering a little loss of greed and pleasure to find what this Cross scenario accomplished for us.

Ralph B. Hathaway