FOLLOWING THE LEADER

“The Pharisees and the scribes of their party said to His disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and non-observers of the law?’ ” –Luke 5:30

Jesus dined with sinners. He healed on the Sabbath. He touched lepers and spoke to a Samaritan woman. He did not condemn even an adulterous woman, but he labeled the Pharisees “blind guides” and “whitened sepulchers” (see Mt 23:24, 27). What it all boils down to is that Jesus refused to be “politically correct.”

Are there ways in which you have bought into the anti-gospel values of the current political ideologies? Do you accept homosexual acts as part of an “alternative lifestyle” while rejecting the rights of pre-born babies in the womb? Do you see a need for embryonic stem cell research and human cloning, but fail to recognize your duty to protect the handicapped, sick or dying from euthanasia? (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2277) Do you think the Church needs to “get with it,” and accept contraception, divorce, and remarriage?

Impossible! The Church is the pillar and bulwark of truth! (1 Tm 3:15) She does not pander to political notions which violate the dignity of the human person. “The Lord brings to nought the plans of nations; He foils the designs of peoples. But the plan of the Lord stands forever; the design of His heart, through all generations” (Ps 33:10-11).

Until political policies follow the design of the Lord’s heart, the Church will refuse to be “politically correct.” After all, she follows her Leader.

PRAYER: Jesus, “though none go with me, still I will follow” You.
PROMISE: “I have not come to invite the self-righteous to a change of heart, but sinners.” –Lk 5:32
PRAISE: St. Casimir, prince of Poland, would often kneel for hours before the locked doors of churches regardless of the time or the weather