Divine Mercy - God's Greatest Attribute

Technology comes with a cost, not necessarily monetary, but more importantly, a personal cost. 

Tom Brokaw wrote an excellent book, The Greatest Generation. Read it. In the 40s and 50s things were quite simple. God, Church, Family and friends all were a part of our way of life. Neighbors helping neighbors and friends sticking together no matter what. If we were poor, we never knew it.

A Catholic education was just that, Catholic. Catholic Nuns and Brothers, and sometimes Priests taught in our schools. Lay teachers, if they existed, were few and far between. Now, Nuns, Brothers and Priests are few and far between. What happened? The teachers wore the appropriate religious habit and they commanded respect. Today, one wouldn't generally know a religious if they fell over them. House dresses, hairdo's, jewelry, and all the wordly trimmings. 

Nuns in particular were wonderful; real angels and so very dedicated to what they did so well. Against many odds including overcrowded classrooms, leaking radiators, wooden floors, old equipment and a shortage of books, these Sisters imparted knowledge but mostly and very importantly, the respect for and love of God. Often, they taught more than one grade a day - two grades in one classroom.

These dear Sisters gave and gave and did it all as a vocation. If they were paid anything for their work, it was about three dollars a student. Three dollars a month. The parish provided a convent for them to live in and perhaps food and utilities. The rate of return for their investment to use modern day language was way off balance on the Sisters end. Yet, they never complained nor were seen without smiles for everyone. Dedicated women of God, Brides of Christ.

Today of course Sisters are a rare commodity and many simply have fallen into the new age trap and discarded not only the religious habit but much of the doctrines of Catholicism that have been time-proven. The same goes for Brothers and Priests of many religious orders. Not just elementary schools unfortunately, but high schools and colleges as well have been affected. Catholic education today is no longer synonymous with good education sound in Catholicism. Many facilities have gone the way of the world and bear only a Catholic name or wrapped affiliation without core Catholic beliefs.

It is no longer a secret that the Church is in a desperate situation - if not apostacy close to it. On the surface, she seems okay and to be operating well. Many of the Prelates and Religious Superiors present a front that everything is fine but Catholics in the pews know better. Things are not alright. From time-to-time, the media exposes additional coverups and problems. We are a church on edge.

Underneath is an undercurrent of disunity occasionally festering like a sore on the surface of the skin of the world. What was once a solid and lead ecclesiastical body has cracked and is decaying into a splintered gathering of individual agendas and personal communities outside the mainstream. The Church is greatly divided between Rome and the local levels. The American Church has gone its own way and even some Rome Prelates have commented about this situation. Look at the liturgies being celebrated in far too many parishes - they border on the blasphemous in some cases. The Holy Father is ignored.

We cannot say that this was unseen. The warning signs were everywhere and yet, ignored by the leadership - those charged to manage and protect the sheep. Surely, power, pride and politics lay at the core of the cracking of the Barque of Peter. It is worsening and will for some time to come. The scandals of a few years ago are but the tip of a much larger iceberg yet to fully surface.

As serious as they are, they are not the most serious problem the Church faces. The loss of souls through denigration of the Most Blessed Sacrament is the greater crime for He alone is the core of all that is Catholic. There are those within the key leadership positions who very systematically have been dismanteling the place of Our Divine Lord's Throne - His Tabernacle. First, under the guise of the spirit of Vatican II (which is a cover for doing whatever one wants locally especially in America), tabernacles were moved from front and center of the main altar of churches and chapels.

They were either placed in 'special rooms' or done away with altogether so that the community could 'celebrate themselves in the Eucharist.' Nonsense - Mass is not a celebration of community; it is a sacrifice to the Father by His Son. It is the re-presentation of Calvary although one is hard-pressed to get any sense of that in today's church liturgies.

One could argue many points here as to why these things were permitted to go unchecked. There is a plethora of websites by 'traditionalists, sedevacantists, and others professing to be Catholic, all over the internet. Why? Because there is a hunger and yearning for the return of the King of kings and Lord of lords to His rightful place - His throne in the Tabernacle in the center of the Main Altar.

The displacement of the Tabernacle and relocation of Our Divine Lord away from the center of the church or chapel was clearly a subliminal psychological message resulting in an attitude of 'out of sight, out of mind.' All attention has been directed to the now designated "Presider" not Celebrant of the Eucharist. He has become an entertainer striving to keep the attention of those watching from the pews.

What followed from de-throning Our Lord was Communion in the hand, Eucharistic Ministers of the non-ordained variety, and a general reduction in the handling of the Sacred Species. Hosts are dropped and fragments unaccounted for. Our Precious Lord has been found between the pages of missalettes, in the holy water fonts, on the floor under pews and elsewhere. Some people take Him home in their pocket while others deliberately take Him with them in their pocket for desecration later.

No wonder there is a current state of disbelief in the Real Presence. And Who is offended? Jesus Christ is and that should never be - never.  

Confession lines are short and communion lines long. Something is not right here. There is a loss of the Sacred and a loss of the sense and reality of sin. These are issues with eternal consequences to be sure. Who is responsible? Is it the faithful who do attend Mass and receive Communion regardless of the state of their soul? Is it the priests and bishops who fail to teach and preach about sin? What specifically is at play here?

It is a system, not a person. The system broke long ago and was allowed to continue uncorrected adding insult to injury. too many heads turned the other way; compromises were made; exceptions to established rubrics and rules. It is getting worse. No real attempts are made to correct the course of the wayward sheep, Deacons, Priests or shepherds. Oh, there are superficial attempts by way of letters, documents and even encyclicals but nothing stops the masses from their course of eternal destruction. The wages of sin is death period and that has not changed.

If Christ returns today, what would He find in the Church He founded over two-thousdand years ago? What would He say to "Peter?" What would He say to "Andrew, James, Matthew and the other Apostles'" successors? Would He correct them or rip down the cords from their handmade draperies in their mansions and lavish houses and whip them out of His Father's House? Would He enter His House and ask, no scream when He discovered He had been de-throned and replaced by a chair upon which one of His priests sits to preside over a liturgy bordering on the blasphemous?

Would Jesus find any substantial faith among His followers including those in fine robes and rings and flowing vestments? I suggest that He would not but He would look throughout the Church in search of the little old lady with the two mites to contribute from all she had. She would be the one in the back pew wearing a bandana, saying her Rosary with arthritic hands and perhaps the shaking of old age. She would be the one kneeling as best she could in front of a statue of her favorite saint and lighting one candle for a dime, perhaps her last dime, kissing the fingers of the Jesus of the Pieta, and patting the foot of the Blessed Virgin Mary in an act of deep motherly reverence.

Jesus would find faith among the few but these are the neglected, spiritually, by family and friends, and the Church at worst. This lady, like the lady in the Gospel, walks humbly to the altar to receive her Lord in Holy Communion, returns to her place head bowed low, and kneels as best she can in awe of the God now inside her very being. This sacred moment no mortal can take from her, not even the Church.

So search your hearts and look about you at your next Mass or other liturgy and see if it is sacred and Christ-centered. If it is, great; if it is not, do something about it. Believe you are powerless to change things Catholic? Don't be fooled, you have the power of the purse. Cut off the donations supporting these abhorant lifestyles and borderline worship centers, demand the Blessed Sacrament be returned to His rightful place and demand silence, a holy silence be returned to His House so all can worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.