Last night at Night Prayer, Richard Bonomo mentioned that he saw the daughter of some former parishioners of ours, and she has left the Church. There are times I can't blame her! Every Sunday morning it is a struggle for me to go to Mass, but I do so because I truly believe Christ founded the Church, and that I, a sinner, desperately need the Eucharist. Right now because of the pandemic, there is a line for those who want to receive in the hands to avoid contagion, and we go in it, but I feel like people are judging us. Nobody has said anything directly, but people sure post about such things on social media! I was praying about this, and it felt like God was shaking His head. "The Last Supper wasn't on the tongue," He pointed out. "That isn't My rule. Humans always create their own strange rules and then judge others who don't follow them." But that is far from the only thing humans have FUBAR'd about religion. If you actually read the Gospels, Christianity is a very radical religion that says the poor are worth just as much as the rich and powerful. However, a lot of people at my church think Trump is some divinely-appointed emissary of God, and he sure seems to be all about keeping the rich and powerful on top. That's not the Good News that electrified the world; that's "same old, same old." Who would get excited about that? Who would say, "A religion that says the rich are good and should stay in power, and the poor are worthless and deserve to have even less than they do? Wow, that's worth living and dying for!" This is why our evangelical outreach is a complete failure - we're basically preaching the opposite of Jesus's message! If to be a member of this religion you have to vote for a political party that has shown over and over that it values the rights of the rich and powerful over the rights of the working people, many people would say, "No thanks, that's not a religion I am interested in joining." I really think we need to keep politics and religion separate, and that people of faith can vote their conscience, but boy, that is not a message you would get at some churches! I believe the family of the girl who left go to a parish outside of town that some refer to as "Tradistan," you know, with the old-school Latin Mass and a priest who is a devout member of the Republican "Catholic" Church. (Or, as a blogger I deeply respect calls them, Qatholics.) They follow Trump and his prophet Vigano over the Pope, so they have already become Protestants. Someday the rest of the Trump worshipers will follow them, and we can have the Catholicism back that I remember as a little girl, going to a Franciscan school, where I first heard the actual Good News and found it amazing.
Famous Hat
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