Watching the Spiritual world drift away by people we love

Watching the Spiritual world drift away by people we love

To those who have become our closest allies in life’s everyday encounters and see them ignore what the Baptism promises they made meant; not at their Baptism since they were infants, but at Confirmation when reaching the age of understanding of what and who Christ means in their lives?

As I watch, almost in horror, wondering what has occurred in my family, friends, and perhaps the general public who at one time were regular attendees at Holy Mass and seeking the presence of our Lord in some manner of acknowledgment.  Where did all the religious education they grew up with as young children into adolescence and adulthood go?

When I accepted the Sacrament of Holy Orders my belief was that those close to me would adhere to the fact that God had called me to Orders and that would make a difference for the rest.  However, as the years went by and the same scenario that has kept the priesthood facing so few candidates has also placed an apostasy attitude to the congregations that have diminished in many areas.  

Does the greeting of the seven churches described in Revelation (Rv 1: 4; -  3: 1 - 22) have any meaning to those who have slipped in their attention to Christ and his Church?  Behold, he is coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.  All the peoples of the earth will lament him.  Yes. Amen.  “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.”   (Rv 1: 7 - 8). 

It isn’t because I am a deacon that says they should return to Church; What it does tell them is if they have a cleric living with them that adheres to the Catholic Church some of that should remind them that there is more to life than making money and doing better than their neighbor.  The warnings that Christ wanted the seven churches to remember is that we all will be asked what the Kingdom of God really means to them; the Passion of Christ and the forgiveness of our sins leading to eternal life with God.

Without passing judgment on anyone, including myself, the time mentioned in Revelation and Daniel place a disheartening prediction of what is about to happen soon (without any element of actual dates) that the apostasy from so many is about to take place and for them it will be too late.   All we can do is keep our minds open to the needs that exist in those who have found other means of finding a spiritual release from anxiety and depression.  

Ralph B. Hathaway