Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Father James Gilhooley has collected some powerful details about Our Lord that are worth sharing. He acknowledges that few of the lines that follow are original and that the majority of these thoughts belong to those writers known as Author Unknown. Where possible, he identified the artist. He begins:
He was conceived and born contrary to all biological law. He grew up to be a very bothersome man. He told the truth and it cost Him His life. He could have avoided assassination by going fishing in Galilee for the weekend. He was often seen talking and laughing after His death. He remains forever a question mark with which people are never quite finished. Non-believers forever worry lest they might be wrong. The Church He founded is discussed daily on the first pages of the major newspapers of the world. What might He have accomplished had He lived to 50? As a babe, He terrified a king. As a youngster, He puzzled scholars. As a man, He intimidated a Roman governor. To borrow from GK Chesterton, He was constantly in hot water. He did not seem to mind. He felt it would keep Him clean. He had no training in psychiatry. Yet, He has cured more minds and spirits than anyone else in history. Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon established mighty empires by force. He began His with love and service. Theirs have disappeared. His remains. Statesmen have legislated on their turn. Artists and philosophers have reigned for a short period. Some have said they were more popular than He.
But their names are written in the sand. His is spoken with frequency by one billion followers. Each week millions assemble to salute Him in the Eucharist. He spoke that last night to a small band of illiterate men as though the memorial ceremony would continue down through the centuries. History has proved Him correct. He calls us to Liturgy both to remember Him and worship Him. The first food consumed on the moon was bread and wine consumed in His name. Those who discover they cannot believe in Him live with sorrow. Those who believe but lack the courage to resemble Him survive with regret. Though centuries separate us from Him, He is more vital than we. We will not even be memories in the next generation, but He will flourish. He no longer stands in the dock. He has nothing to prove. He has survived the test of time. It is we who are on trial in our reaction to Him. Unlike countless peoples who impacted society by jumping in front of it and going with the flow, He got in front of the parade to take it in the opposite direction. He presides over the world like a Colossus.
After almost a century in USSR gulags, He walks openly in Moscow, Kiev, and St Petersburg. No one seems surprised. No historian can portray humanity honestly without giving Him, in HG Wells' words, the foremost place. Millions utter His name upon rising. Other millions shout it throughout the day in anger or pain. For still other millions, it is the last name they whisper before they die and the first they expect to speak when they awaken in His presence. Robert Griffin says He is the hero you could never invent. Angels rush to Him. Devils flee from Him. He not only pushed the envelope. He broke through it. In a poor man's apparel, He pursues us always. To borrow Tennessee William's language, He is the long delayed but always expected something we live for. Ralph Waldo Emerson said His name is not so much written into the history of the world as plowed. Harry Emerson Fosdick says He changed BC into AD. Albert Nolan suggests He has no interest in people theorizing about Him but rather reproducing Him in their lives. Time magazine suggests that in His lifetime, He had no equal. It is the same today. It is not He who needs us. It is we who need Him.
God Bless,
Fr. Don Kline, Pastor
DE PARTE del PADRE KLINE:
Queridos hermanos y hermanas:
Dios nos llama a tener una relación con El. Como seguidores de Jesús (que es Dios), siempre estamos llamados en todo momento y en todo lugar a buscar al Señor, con nuestras palabras y con nuestras acciones, podemos demostrar a los demás lo que significa ser cristiano. em>
Seguir a Cristo puede ser difícil a veces. Estamos rodeados de tensiones y conflictos y podemos ver la falta de respeto por los seres humanos, sobre todo los no nacidos que son creados por Dios. Los jóvenes están preocupados por el futuro. Todos sabemos las tentaciones que enfrentan nuestros jóvenes... drogas, relaciones inapropiadas, la pornografía, y así sucesivamente.
Hay tantas personas en el mundo que a causa de su fe en Cristo, sufren la discriminación que lleva a la persecución Cristiana en todo el mundo, aquí en Phoenix somos acosados para renunciar a Nuestro Señor. Muchos en nuestra sociedad tienen miedo de enseñar los signos de Jesús y de su presencia en la vida pública ya que no se admiten. Se nos está pidiendo que ni siquiera se mencione su santo nombre. Un ejemplo que escuché hace poco tuvo que ver con una niña de 17 años de edad, quien fue suspendida de la escuela después de decirle a un compañero de estudios 'Dios te bendiga' después de que estornudó. Kendra Turner dice que un profesor en la Escuela Secundaria del Condado de Dyer en Tennessee le prohibio a ella y sus compañeros de clase " hacer referencia a la Iglesia" en el aula de clase.
Vivimos en una cultura “Del Relativismo”. Aparentemente la gente dirá: "Tú tienes tu opinión y yo tengo mi opinión, así que vamos a estar en desacuerdo." El problema es que las personas que han incorporado esto a su vida, también dicen: "No hay tal autoridad” mantendré a Dios fuera de mis decisiones." Estas mismas almas perdidas seguirán a los que son más fuertes. La propuesta de "matrimonio" gay es sólo un ejemplo de ciertas personas que imponen su punto de vista inmoral en el resto de nosotros.
Entonces, ¿qué se puede hacer? El Papa Benedicto XVI dijo: "Tenemos que hablar con valentía y humildad del significado universal de Cristo como el Salvador de la humanidad y la fuente de esperanza para nuestra vida." No podemos tener nunca miedo de hablar de la verdad con amor.
La forma en que vivimos como Cristianos trae esperanza a nuestra sociedad depravada e inmoral. Estamos llamados a ser centinelas: a ayudar a otros a su vez de la destrucción para que regresen hacia la única fuente de esperanza, Jesús el Salvador de la humanidad. Como el profeta Ezequiel nos dice: Si no disuadimos a un hombre impío de su camino, tambien seremos responsables de ello. Del mismo modo Jesús habla de la corrección fraterna.
Una vez un hombre fue a un restaurante y la camarera lo colocó en una mesa junto a tres personas que estaban hablando en voz alta expresandose con malas palabras. El hombre quería decirles algo, pero se mordió la lengua. Cuando su desayuno llegó, él inclinó la cabeza e hizo la señal de la cruz. Las palabras ofensivas dejaron de escucharse.
No necesitamos ir alrededor corrigiendo constantemente a los demás con nuestras palabras, pero sí debemos ser el ejemplo Católico a un mundo depravado y perverso que no conoce a Cristo. Nosotros de alguna manera seremos responsables si vemos a otros que caen en la destrucción y no hacemos nada.
Oremos para tener el valor de ser auténticos seguidores de Jesús.
Que Dios los bendiga
Fr. Don Kline,
Pastor