Rather, God Have Mercy on U.S.!
JMJ
The culture of death. Many Americans, and rightfully so, point to abortion as the pinnacle of a culture of death, and they would be for the most part correct. We blame abortion for the beginning of woes that we are now facing and the even greater suffering yet to come. My brothers and sisters, be patient with me, I am here to tell you that abortion is not the beginning but only a logical conclusion of a culture that puts individualism, self-entitlement, money, possessions, and nation before all others. Abortion is a fruit of an “America First!” and “Looking Out for Number One!” attitude that has become the very spirit of our culture, our nation, our families and ultimately ourselves. Charity does not begin at home, charity begins outside for no home can be made without love. A child is formed in the womb by two people coming together and these two people are a meeting of two homes–two “outside the homes” coming together. This is the foundation of the Kingdom of God: People coming together into one home and only when we include all in our family (Who are my brothers, my sisters, my mother but they who do the will of God) will charity begin, at home.
Love One Another as I Have Loved You
One another–an other. Jesus always places love of other before Himself and calls upon us to do the same. “He who is first will be last, he who would be great among you will be servant to all, love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and love your neighbor (please note the order here) as yourself”–God-neighbor-self. What is it to love? Love, as we all know, is to will the good of the other. Not that other, or this other, but all other. Love is not something we do, it is what we become when we align our own will with the Will of God being filled with the Holy Spirit become the Mystical Body of Christ until , at last, there is no other, only the great “I AM” Creator of all that is visible and invisible, all that is seen and unseen.
In the Mystical Body, There are No Borders
No more political parties.
No more Republicans.
No more Democrats.
No more Americans.
Be God’s People.
Be Catholic.
Catholic means “universal.”
Make the Catholic Church Great Again!
You-me-we are the Church. Be universal.
For Whoever Does Not Love a Brother Whom He has Seen
Cannot Love God Whom He has Not Seen
If Catholics are to be truly followers of Jesus Christ, we must come to know our brothers and sisters at the border as “us,” we must not continue to label these siblings of ours as “them.” No longer “them,” they become “we.”
Let us cast our lot with the poor of the world. Perhaps this will make us poor–blessed are the poor. Perhaps this will make our futures less certain–be not afraid. Fiat. Let it be. Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum. Let it be done to me according to thy word. Trust in the Lord. Do not worry for the morrow, the evil of today is sufficient unto itself.
If we all become poor, hungry, insecure together will we not build a culture that cares for the poor, the hungry, the sick, and the naked? And caring for the least of these children of the Lord, ourselves being among them, who will be poor, sick, hungry or naked? Or true to capitalism, will we continue the vain pursuit of the unholy idols of wealth, money, and power? “Capitalism is not evil!” one might say. Perhaps not in concept, but capitalism is evil in practice. In capitalism people are reduced to commodities and a man’s value is measured in numbers and things, not his love.
America’s President talks (and rightfully so) about the evil human trafficking and drugs making their way across the border, but this is capitalism at its worst extreme. Alas, sorrowfully, infuriatingly, exasperatingly this would not be so if AMERICA DID NOT PROVIDE A MARKET. Every child sold into sexual slavery in America has an American buyer! This is the pinnacle of human civilization?! This is what the fore-father envisioned?! This is America!
Feel your stomach growl with hunger and your mouth water as dumpsters are filled with day old bread and vegetables that are still green. Let us become thin homeless, and cold and travel to the border to be among the women and children who have no resources, no rights, no protection and see then if we feel like scoffing at them, looking down our noses and accusing them of seeking luxuries such as a roof overhead, a little food, and a warm night’s sleep in relative safety. What is it we fear they will take from us? Our sixty-inch televisions sets and the latest Disney film?
Why should we fear the poor? Do we fear they will take something from us? Funny how the millionaires, billionaires, and villinaires, as they sit on golden thrones cushioned with hundred dollars bills, chomping on their turkey legs dripping grease from their lips will condescend to rise up and point with silk smooth hands at a poor man in rags who has absolutely nothing except his poverty and need and bellow out with indignation, “LOOK! DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHO HAS TAKEN YOUR MONEY AWAY? DO YOU WANT TO SEE WHY YOU MUST DRIVE A CHEVY RATHER THAN A MERCEDES OR CADILLAC! THERE! THERE! THAT MAN WHO HAS NOTHING OVER THERE! HE TOOK IT FROM YOU! THAT BEGGER IMMIGRANT HAS STOLEN ALL YOUR MONEY! . . . and we, astonishingly so, believe this.
Grab the rope,
Drag him to the tree,
How dare that man hope?
String up this refugee
and thus we Make America Great Again!
There will come a day when we, too, will stand at a wall and seek refuge in a place of promise. We, too, will fall on our knees and beg entry. And Jesus will answer us: Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison and you did not care for me.”
If we cannot see the humanity in each and every face of each and every person, if we do not recognize all human beings as our own, as our brothers and our sisters; as our mothers and our fathers; how do you suppose we will recognize our children, much less a child being in the womb at the border of the world, asking entry, needing food, shelter, protection, comfort, love? What will save this child from the knife? We have become a cold and indifferent people. We allow fear of want, need, and even loss of comfort to overtake us and thus we forsake our brothers, sisters, and yes, even our own children. Jesus has said of us, “They have their reward.” But I ask you, person to person, do you in your heart of heart where Jesus dwells, do you really think the way we live is just? Is righteous? Is loving? Is kind? in the face of the immense suffering and poverty in this world? Do you, like me, shrug your shoulders and ask “what can a person like me do?” and try your best to forget and not to see? Do you think that if Jesus came today, he would recognize us as his own? Or do you think we’d be making some sorry excuses for willfully blinding ourselves to the suffering of others and reminding Jesus that we have what we have because, after all, we are “the best and the brightest” and deserve a bigger piece of pie, and those who lack the circumstance or craft to get so much as a crumb should be forgotten? God help us all.
Let us pray:
O Lord, O God, O loving Father, have mercy on America. Have mercy on us.
Amen.
May almighty God bless you; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
(C) Copyright 3 February 2019
For Lourdes Sake 