Fun times and an Announcement

So every Wednesday night, the Youth Group heads down Allan St. to a park to play some football, or soccer, or what-have-you. Football is by far the favourite game! Two Hand Touch, of course!

It's really been growing, which is tremendous! Last night, we had 15 people! And then, while we were playing, two guys who were visiting family, up from Georgia, also joined in the fun. Good times!

Wednesday night is about getting together as a group of Catholics, to just have fun, to realise that "being religious" is not the same thing as "being boring and serious". It's about living life to the full, enjoying our friendships, hanging out together, and ultimately giving glory to God!

But yeah, it's about the fun Wednesday night! Case in point, two of the girls that came brought silver hair spray, and decided to spray paint my head. I get enough grief from certain of the kids because they think I'm "old" at 25! (One asked me if I had colour tv when I was a kid!) Having silver hair yesterday didn't help my "image"! LOL

But hey, as the book of Proverbs says,

The silver-haired head is a crown of glory,
If it is found in the way of righteousness. (16:34, NKJV)

Announcement!!

Wednesday, August 10, the Youth Group is going to see the Toronto Blue Jays face off against the Detroit Tigers! Game's at 7:00pm. Gates open at 5:30pm. I'd love to be there by 6:00, get some autographs maybe...you know! We'll be meeting at the Church at 4:30 to go down.
I got 30 tickets (including mine and any other adult volunteers) so space is limited. They're out in left field, right above the Jays' bullpen. Level 100, rows 3, 4, and 5. The cost is $11.50! Yeah, you heard me, the low, low price of $11.50!

How can you pass that up?
Let me know ASAP if you want to go!
God bless!

Rematch!

Or More Spiritual Paintball!

A little while back, I gave a talk on the Armour of God ("Who We Are Instead" pt.4: History Makers). After going Paintballing last Thursday, that passage in Ephesians took on some new relevance for me, so I'm going to revisit the topic--thus the title, "Rematch"

Ephesians 6:10-18

Finally, grow strong in the Lord, with the strength of His power. Put on the full armour of God so as to be able to resist the devil's tactics. For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the principalities and the ruling forces who are masters of the darkness in this world, the spirits of evil in the heavens. That is why you must take up all God's armour, or you will not be able to put up any resistance on the evil day, or stand your ground even though you exert yourselves to the full.
So stand your ground, with truth a belt round your waist, and uprightness a breastplate, wearing for shoes on your feet the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace [Is 59:17;40:9] and always carrying around the shield of faith so that you can use it to quench the burning arrows of the Evil One. And then you must take salvation as your helmet and the sword of the Spirit, that is, the word of God.
In all your prayer and entreaty keep praying in the Spirit on every possible occasion. Never get tired of staying awake to pray for all God's holy people.

When we went paintballing, we were given equipment not unlike the armour that St. Paul writes about. They outfitted us with a helmet/mask, a gun, and a coloured pad that went around our neck and hung down in front and back, that distinguished what team we were on (and dulled considerably the impact of the paintball hitting our chest). They also warned us that we should be wearing adequate footgear, because the ground was slippery from paint all over.

Playing paintball, the rules were clear. If you weren't adequately suited up, if you took your helmet off, you were suspended for a game. If you did it again, you were kicked out! This is because of the absolute necessity for this equipment! You could be seriously injured, or even blinded, without your helmet!

Compare that to the Spiritual Life:
The armour that St. Paul is describing is probably that of the Roman soldiers that he saw every day as he sat in prison. Each piece has an important function, and so he attributed each piece to a part of Christian spirituality. He calls it "God's armour" because he didn't actually come up with the idea. About 500 years earlier, the prophet Isaiah used the same metaphor, describing God Himself suiting up for battle! The thing is, St. Paul says, is that the Armour that God Himself uses to wage war against the Devil, is the same armour He gives to each of us!

So what does God give us?
Truth a belt round your waist. In Roman armour, the belt was used to hold the armour in place, so that in battle, it wouldn't get moved around, leaving gaps and chinks that would leave the soldier vulnerable. This is why it's compared to Truth. The Truth is what keeps us grounded, focused, and sure. Many people today want to deny any such objective truth, preferring to say that whatever works for them is true for them, and we can't impose our morals and values on them...blahblahblah. What that gets you is a wishy-washy soup that in the end doesn't really mean anything. Jesus offers us stability and surety. And from that stability, we base the rest of our lives, our faith and our works.

Our belt holds our breastplate of uprightness in place. Many things in this world make our righteousness seem outdated, saying that morals need to change. Abortion, gay marriage, sex, drug use, and a host of other things in this world seem up for grabs, and we can be tempted to start thinking, "Oh well, it's not that bad!" But when our morals, our righteousness, is held in place by the Truth of Christ, we avoid that attitude!

This fact was demonstrated to me in Paintball. Of all the equipment they supply, a belt is not included. In one game, I was crouching, and getting shot at. The position I was in caused that breastplate-thing to shift to the right, leaving the left part of my chest exposed. One unfortunate paintball happened to nail me square in the nipple! As I recoiled from the pain, another shot hit me right in the thigh! Let me tell you, they hurt! A belt would have held the armour in place, and (while, according to the rules, I'd still be out) I wouldn't have the bruises I have still today!

After the breastplate, St. Paul mentions wearing for shoes on your feet the eagerness to spread the gospel of peace. Wearing the right shoes is very important--especially paintballing! With the greasy paint all over the walls and floor, it's incredibly easy to slip, leaving yourself vulnerable to attack, or worse, causing yourself injury as you tumble down stairs! One girl who came with us wore flip-flop sandals, and opted out of participating because the staff warned her of how unsafe they would be. I wore hiking boots and had a hard enough time staying stable and mobile! At one point I was running for cover, slipped, and took a shot to the top of my head!

Spiritually, we need to be eager to spread the good news of Jesus--but we also need to be prepared. While the NJB (quoted above) describes the shoes as the "eagerness" to spread the gospel, most other translations use the term "preparation" of the gospel. I think the two ideas have to go together. More, I think we need to be equipped with the right shoes for the right situation. You wouldn't try to reach out to a Muslim after boning up on your reasons why atheism is wrong! You wouldn't try to convert a Mormon by telling him why Hinduism is wrong! Many people train themselves to defend the faith against specific opponents. It makes them highly effective against them, perhaps, but not so much against some other belief system or ideology. Personally, I think it's better to be wearing CrossTrainers. Knowing your own faith, why it's true and real, is more effective than demonstrating why the other is false! Bankers are taught to recognise counterfeit bills not by researching counterfeiting techniques, but by studying the real thing! We should have the same mentality, and be prepared to share our faith with others.

But we should also be eager, not timid. The Gospel means "Good News"! Why are we gonna keep that to ourselves? Don't be discouraged or frightened. God is with you!

The shield of faith. Ohh how I wish I had one of those paintballing! The referees got them--the cool, clear riot gear kind! A shield is the first line of defence in the armour. Is it any wonder St. Paul equates it to faith? Our faith is our response to God's grace, and opens the door to our salvation! Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith, it is impossible to please God! With faith, we can hold firm to our beliefs, even in the face of challenges. The shield works jointly with the breastplate because you won't always be able to get the shield in front, and the breastplate can take those blows. But you won't stand under too many. Likewise, our faith has to be the motivation for our good works. Doing good works without faith as a motive leads to spiritual exhaustion and apathy. Having faith without those good works, and any shot that gets past faith will strike a killing blow!

Salvation as your helmet. Do not take your helmet off! In the spiritual life, it can be a little worse than sitting out for a game! Salvation equals life--that's why it has the illustrious position of helmet. Our head is arguably the most vital organ in our body, and is rather irreplaceable! So is God's Saving Grace! It keeps us in the game!

The Sword of the Spirit. Paintballing without a gun is really no fun at all. It's not much better with a gun but no ammo! You're kind of, well, ineffective to put it mildly. The Word of God is our weapon. We need to know the Word thoroughly, in order to use it effectively! That is why we must study the Bible, pay attention in Mass, and listen to the Church's teachings. These comprise the Word of God for us: Scripture, Tradition, and the Church. They reveal and interpret God's Truth to us. Remember that Belt? This is how we put it on! Knowing the Word is like being a sniper in paintballing. Targeting someone and shooting them across the room before they even know where you are! This is how Jesus used the Word in Matthew 4, when He was being tempted by the Devil. His knowledge of God's Word was so intimate that He could throw it out there to counter every attack and temptation of the Enemy until he had to leave in utter frustration! We need to come to know Jesus that intimately. We need to know His Word that thoroughly!

Finally, all your prayer is an effective weapon as well. God listens and answers, and fights on our behalf! "Never get[ting] tired of staying awake to pray for all God's holy people" is like laying down cover fire, driving back the Enemy so that others can move in and storm the gates! We are not alone in this fight, and all of us need to work together, as God's Church, to combat the spiritual forces in this world!

So suit up, step out, and wage war!
And fer cryin' out loud, Leave your armour on!

God bless!

Spiritual Paintball

So, Thursday the Youth Group went Paintballing, and we had a great time, getting shot--a lot. It was kinda painful, and not quite what I expected. Only a small few of us had ever been before, but we weren't alone. We didn't rent the facility, so there were others there, and those others obviously made paintballing a large part of their lives. You could tell when they walked in with a small case, opened it up, and screwed together a paintball gun that very closely resembled an M-16 Assault Rifle. Intimidating to say the least. But as I said, we had a lot of fun. I was thinking about the experience, and saw, as I tend to do, many parallels between paintballing and our Spiritual Life.

As I considered the night, I realised there was a very sharp and distinct line drawn between those that were really good, and those that...well, weren't. So I tried to discern what made an effective killing machi...er...paintball player, and concluded on three qualities:

1. Effective paintballers are the ones with the really big guns. Well, maybe not necessarily big guns, but they were the ones who owned their own gun. They knew it, what it felt like, how it worked, and most importantly, what it was capable of.

By contrast, most of us had never seen a paintball gun before, and had enough trouble figuring out how to switch the safety off so that we could actually shoot.

2. Effective paintballers are the ones who do it a lot. By that, I mean that some of them seemed to play professionally, or at least wish they could. They were experienced, knowing the strategies, surroundings, and techniques to be the most effective.

This was a stark contrast with the rest of us, shooting wildly without any target or goal.

3. Effective paintballers are the ones who would go all out. They were not hiding in fear, but boldly attacking. They knew their weapons, they knew their surroundings, and they knew their gameplan. And they just did it, not worrying about the paintballs whizzing past them.

Then there were us newbies, cowering in a corner screaming in fear!

Seeing those differences, who do you think woulda won?!

So as I reflected on these three qualities, I saw how they applied to our lives as Christians. St. John saw the same thing, in his Revelation. In Chapter 12, verses 10 and 11, he writes, "Then I heard a voice shout from heaven, 'Salvation and power and empire for eveer and ever have been won by our God, and all authority for His Christ, now that the accuser, who accused our brothers day and night before our God, has been brought down. They have overcome him by the blood of the Lamb, the word to which they bore witness, because even in the face of death they did not cling to life.'"

So how do the Saints overcome the Devil?

1. Effective Christians are the ones who own and use the Ultimate Weapon. The Blood of the Lamb is the mightiest weapon in the Christian arsenal. Through Christ's death on the Cross, our sins are forgiven, we are made completely new creatures, and Satan is defeated! But just like we had to continually monitor and reload ammo into our guns, we continually need to bring ourselves before the Altar, to appropriate Christ's Blood to our lives. In the Eucharist, we receive His Body and Blood, through Communion with Him. He gives us the Grace and the Strength to stand against the enemy!

2. Effective Christians are the ones who walk often and closely with God. By that, I mean we must live out the Relationship with God that Christ purchased for us on the Cross. Revelation 12:11 gives the second weapon as "the word to which they bore witness." In order to bear witness to something, you need to have experienced it. We need to stay close to Christ, to dwell in His Sacred Heart. When we know the Power of Christ in our lives, then we can be able to tell others. This is strategic in a number of ways: 1-We won't be sinning when we're with Him. 2-Others will hear about His wonderful love and hopefully believe. 3-The Devil is defeated as he loses more and more souls back to God! But we need to develop and walk in that Relationship, and we need to be willing to share it...no matter what!

3. Effective Christians are the ones who would go all out. The final part of the verse is that those saints who defeat Satan are the ones who are willing to suffer and even to die for Christ. We need to be willing to step out and stand up against the Big Bad. All over the world and throughout history, the Church that is strongest is the one that is suffering persecution. Looking at the world today we see it in China, in the Middle East, and more. In the Ancient Church, this principle was so evident that one church leader, Tertullian, remarked that "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Here and now, we aren't facing the same kind of persecution--though the way things are going in this country, I'm not sure it's too far off! But we need to be careful in our comfortable society, that we don't become fat, flabby couch-potato Christians! We need to be willing to play a reckless game of Spiritual Paintball! We need to be willing to step out in faith.

Jesus tells us, "If anyone wants to be a follower of Mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow Me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for My sake will find it." --Matthew 16:24-25

Being a Christian can hurt. But as the Gallino-meister said at paintball, "Hey, no pain, no gain, right?"

Jesus would agree.

Hypocrisy and Scandals

Funny story. Last week at YG, I asked what topics you guys wanted addressed for this week, and Andrew suggested hypocrisy and how we deal with it in the Church, especially when it drives friends and family away from the Church. So as I prepared for the talk, I selected the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (or Tares, or Darnel--depending on your translation). Turns out, this was the Gospel for this past Sunday! I thought, "Cool, confirmation!" Then, at the 10:30 Mass, Fr. Watters gives a homily that was nearly word-for-word the message I wanted to get across at YG! God was definitely talking this weekend!

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

He put another parable before them, 'The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, then the darnel appeared as well. the owner's labourers went to him and said, "Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does this darnel come from?" He said to them, "Some enemy has done this." And the labourers said, "Do you want us to go and weed it out?" But he said, "No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at the harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn."'
...
Then, leaving the crowds, He went to the house; and His disciples came to Him and said, 'Explain to us the parable about the darnel in the field.' He said to them in reply, 'The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the Kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the Evil One; the enemy who sowed it, the devil, the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send His angels and they will gather out of His Kingdom all causes of falling and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the upright will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Anyone who has ears should listen!'

In 1996, a Christian rock band called DC Talk put out a cd called Jesus Freak. One of the songs on the cd was called "What if I Stumble?" reflecting on the reality that as Christians, many people watch our lives, even in the minutest of details. Often, they wait for us to screw up so they can have an excuse to not believe. Unfortunately, too many Christians provide such people with ample excuses. The song begins with a soundbyte from Brennan Manning, who says, "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge He is with their lips, and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." And he's right. Unfortunately, our bad choices and our sins aren't just between us and God (as if that wasn't bad enough!) but they are seen and observed by others, and our entire faith, the truth of Jesus Christ and His salvation, is accepted or rejected based on you and on me, and how we live. As the saying goes, "Be careful how you live. You may be the only Bible somebody ever reads!"

So what do we do about the sinners and the hypocrites in the Church? It is tempting to tell people turned off by the hypocrites, to not listen to or look at their example, but to look at "true" Christians. The problem is, as Jesus points out in His parable, that the bad Christians can often look surprisingly and disturbingly like the good Christians. The darnel is a plant that when ripe looks identical to the wheat, but it never grows the grain in its head. Only at the harvest, when the grain weighs the stalks of wheat down and the darnel stands upright can the wheat truly be distinguished from the weeds. Right now, in our Church on earth, we have to suffer those weeds. But, thankfully, in God's world, weeds can change to wheat! But we ourselves must be careful, for as St. Augustine cautions, the wheat can also wither into chaff.

What is the solution, then, to the problem of hypocrisy in the Church? What do we say or do when people leave the Church, or refuse to come in, because of priest scandals, "Catholics" who go to Church regularly, but leave and live as if they'd never gone to Church, and others who tarnish the Church with their sin?

The most important advice I can give you, and the only real thing you can do, is Do not be yet another example of such hypocrisy! Rather, through staying close to Christ in the Word and the Sacraments, praying for the Church and the world, allow Him to love and live through you, so that rather than being a negative example, you can be a positive example--who shows the world what the Church truly is--ambassadors and representatives of Christ Himself!

Be an example like Blessed Mother Teresa, who, because of her profound love of Christ, gave everything she had and worked among the poorest of the poor in India. Because of her great love and commitment to Christ, agnostic, sceptical journalist Malcom Muggeridge converted to Catholicism within a week of meeting her!

Be an example like St. Maximillian Kolbe, who offered his life in exchange for a Jewish man sentenced to death in Auschwitz. That Jewish man later converted to Catholicism, and spoke up at the ceremony of Fr. Kolbe's canonisation!

Be an example in ways that only you can be, in the mundane, humdrum life you think you lead. As a Christian, your life is never humdrum, but everything you do, every word you say, when done for Christ, is an act of war on the Devil. When we faithfully live for Christ, we live heroic lives, and the world takes notice--even if we don't realise it.

If we allow ourselves to be discouraged by hypocrisy in the Church, and we leave it, we'll be leaving our source of Life--and the devil will score a victory--both over you, because he will have cut you off from Christ's body, and in the Church, because it will have one less true believer!

If, on the other hand, we stay close to Christ and His body, no matter what fury the devil throws your way, you will be safe in the secret place of the Most High (Psalm 91), and, through your heroic example, you could spark a revival!

I leave you with the words to Scandal by Critical Mass, which they wrote to reflect on the priest sex-abuse scandal.

Scandal

I had a dream last night
I was standing in a sea of white
The calm warmed my soul and made me feel whole

Then I saw a shadow
Flicker like a distant crow
It made a stain that spread like acid rain

Kyrie Eleison
Christe Eleison
Kyrie Eleison
Lord have mercy!

It made a welt so deep
That all I could do was weep
And before my eyes I saw a crowd arise

They saw a bluish scene
They saw none of what had been
I begged for them to stay but they faded to grey.

Kyrie Eleison
Christe Eleison
Kyrie Eleison
Lord have mercy!

Then the Holy One
Touched me and He was gone
The purity flowed through me and into the sea

Then others just like me
Restored the white back to the sea
The calm warmed my soul and made me feel whole

Kyrie Eleison
Christe Eleison
Kyrie Eleison
Lord have mercy!

The Greatest of Them...

Up until now, I've been quoting Scripture from the Revised Standard Version, by copy-pasting from http://www.blueletterbible.org/. But at the last Bible Study meeting (on hiatus for the summer), the people who came went in together to buy me a beautiful new New Jerusalem Bible. I've begun reading it, and I love the translation. So I'm going to cite it here from now on!

Matthew 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to put Him to the test, one of them put a further question, "Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?" Jesus said to him, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the prophets too."

Love is considered to be the greatest thing in this life, by people in our culture. And they're right. The problem is, no one seems to really know what exactly love is. When you read books or watch tv or listen to pop music, you get the impression that everyone is searching for this thing called "love", and for those who claim to have found it, it seems like some warm, fuzzy feelings that are only temporary, and when they're gone, they leave the lover feeling even more lost and confused about this great mysterious thing that he or she is looking for! How can the maxim, "Love conquers all," be true when our experience of love amounts to a temporary happy feeling?

This concept of love, as a mere feeling devoid of any sense of discipline, work, or commitment, is the main factor behind high divorce rates, low self-esteem, and a host of other societal ills. Love indeed conquers all, and without it...without True Love, we have a world of hatred, violence, selfishness, and despair. So what, then, is this fabled true love that heroines have longed for and heroes have searched for in bygone stories?

St. Paul gives us the answer in the most famous passage about love, without which no discussion on love would be complete, 1 Corinthians 13 (verses 1-8a,13):

Though I command languages both human and angelic--if I speak without love, I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains--if I am without love, I am nothing. Though I should give away to the poor all that I possess, and even give up my body to be burned--if I am without love, it will do me no good whatever.
Love is always patient and kind; love is never jealous; love is not boastful or conceited, it is never rude and never seeks its own advantage, it does not take offence or store up grievances. Love does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but finds its joy in the truth. It is always ready to make allowances, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
Love never comes to an end...
As it is, these remain: faith, hope and love, the three of them; and the greatest o them is love.

St. Paul tells us that, contrary to the world's assumptions, Love is not just a feeling. On the contrary, it must be something incredibly more! To live the ideal presented in this passage is something that goes beyond warm fuzzies! It takes a determined act of the will--a commitment to seek the good of another above your own! This love is the love that will conquer all. This is the love tha will fulfil. This is the Unconditional agapé love that Jesus demands of us--a love that He Himself has for us!

Above, I quoted the passage where Jesus tells us that the greatest law in the Old Testament was to love God with everything that we are, and to love each other as we love ourselves. But Jesus came to bring a New Covenant, a New Testament--and the Greatest Law in the New Covenant is this: "I give you a new commandment: love one another; you must love one another just as I have loved you" (John 13:34).

How does Jesus love us? In St. John's first letter, he tells us: "Love consists in this: it is not we who loved God, but God loved us and sent His Son to expiate our sins. My dear friends, if God loved us so much, we too should love one another" (1 John 4:10-11). In his Gospel, St. John quotes Jesus as saying that no person can possibly have any greater love than that--to lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). And yet, we see that God Himself has a greater love--an impossible Love!

So it is proof of God's own love for us, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners. How much more can we we be sure, therefore, that, now that we have been justified by His death, we shall be saved through Him from the retribution of God. For if, while we were still enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more can we be sure that, being now reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Did you catch that? Chrsit died for us while we were His enemies! That's the love of Christ, and let me tell you, that love was not based on pure emotional fuzzy feelings! This was raw, passionate commitment to you and to me! That's the love of God for us! And that's the kind of love that He expects from us, for Him, for each other, and for the world!

When you enter into relationships and dating, and, down the line, think about marrying someone, you need to start with this kind of love from the outset--otherwise you're just wasting your time and theirs, and the only result is heartache!

When you seek to help others who are less fortunate, to care for those in need, or to make a difference in this world, that's the kind of love you need, or you will quit when it gets too hard, or they reject your helping hand, or when you realise that helping people and making a difference takes *gasp!* work!

Only this kind of love will shake the world.

Only this kind of love can truly conquer all!

Announcements and Reminders

It's been a while since I've actually used this to announce stuff, so...

Starting Wednesday, July 6th, we're having a new regular meeting. That's tomorrow night if you weren't paying attention. It'll be a time to come and hang out, from 7 until 9, playing games or sports or doing pretty much anything you want and we can. Plus, there will be a brief talk (yes, Dez, brief. No longer than 15 minutes, guaranteed!), because otherwise I wouldn't feel like I was doing my job (lol).

Coming up in the summer, we've got paintballing on the 21st from 6-9, a Jays Game August 10th against the Tigers, a Catholic Youth Rally on August 28th at St. Joseph's on Bronte Road, and Canada's Wonderland on August 30th as our big end-of-summer bash. Other stuff may be happening as well, so stay tuned here, and come out Sundays from 2-4 and Wednesdays from 7-9 to learn more!

Come September, there will be some slight changes to the program. Pay attention:
The Wednesday Night Meeting will move to Tueday Night, and we'll be meeting at St. Vincent's school, in their gym!
The Sunday Afternoon Meeting will move to Friday Night from 7-9!

God bless, and make sure you don't miss the post beneath this! (Heck, if you're new, read all the back issues!)
Ciao!

Salt & Light

We just finished our series on the Beatitudes, ending on the note of the possibility of persecution--and in fact, the near necessity of it! Before we move on from that to pursue some other topics, I wanted to discuss the reason that Jesus gives us this high calling and high standard of a life to live:

Matthew 5:13-16

"You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

Our lives are to be an example of the love of Christ. St. Paul calls us the Body of Christ, and individually parts of it. We are literally to be Christ's hands extended to this world. This world is falling apart at the seems, it can seem sometimes. Recently, our country's government just decided that Gay Marriage is legal, and has the same standing as regular Marriage. Before that, it decided that embryonic stem cell research was okay (and indeed, receives government grants and funding!). Before that, abortion was legalised (and the University of Western Ontario recently gave high honours to Dr. Morgentaler, the guy who made that happen!).

All this from a Nation that was founded upon Christian principles! Oh sure, we still have some good points. Health care is government funded (so far). We're known as a peacekeeper nation, rather than a war-mongering one. We do take pretty decent care of the poor, for the most part (*coughcough!*).

But our country is suffering. It is lost. People need the light of Christ! And that light is you and me.

Why does Jesus call us salt? Not only does salt taste good, and add flavour to food, but in Jesus' day, it was also a preservative. To update Jesus' words, today He might have said, "You are the refrigerators of the world". Or He might not have. But that's part of our role as Christians--to stand up and hold fast to Jesus' Laws, and preserve them in our culture, so that our culture doesn't decay further.

Why does Jesus call us light? Because this world is a dark place. His light shines in us to be a light in the darkness, so those who are lost and despairing without Him, can find their Way home! Or, to quote Angel (that vampire guy with a soul from Buffy, who got his own show), "Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. It's harsh, and cruel, but that's why there's us. Champions. It doesn't matter where we come from, or what we've done, or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world were as it should be. To show it what it can be."

I love that quote. And yeah, substitute "Christians" for "Champions", and you get the idea!

I read an article the other day, on another blog, about the gay marriage issue. On this blog, a wise fellow gives a list of predictions of what this turn of events may mean for our nation. Personally, I think he's bang-on! Here's the link, check it out: Stream of Life: "Let me know if I'm a prophet"

St. Joseph, Foster Father of our Lord, and patron of the True North, strong and free, pray for us!
God keep our land!