Monday June 25, 2018

I ask that you please pray for the Schmidt family.  Jim passed away suddenly on Saturday morning and leaves behind his beautiful wife and 3 young children.  We met Jim and his family while at Gateway Academy – he was brought in as the Athletic Director for the Upper School.  Jim was a great man and our families became close while they were still in St. Louis.  His wife’s job brought them to Tennessee and our daughter Grace remained in contact with them through Facebook.  Jim was a great, great man and will be missed.  May his soul, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

I haven’t posted the readings for the day for a few days now, but I was drawn to them in the light of the political hotbox going in our country today and that is the breaking up of the families being retained at the border.  I think all of us need to take a step back and think about what we “feel” needs to be said and try to work out what is best in these matters for all involved.  Here are today’s readings.

The first reading tells us what will happen as a Country should we choose to abandon God’s commandments which are primarily love of God and love of neighbor.  The people of Israel rejected God’s statutes and so had to face the JUST anger of God.  Was not our country founded on a religious ideal, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all?  As a country founded on religious ideals, would we not expect to face the JUST anger of God should we abandon those same commandments given to Israel so many years ago?

The Psalm (60) requests that God “Help us with your right hand, O Lord, and answer us”…You have rocked the country and split it open; repair the cracks in it, for it is tottering.  You have made your people feel hardships; you have given us stupefying wine.

And then the Gospel…Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye,
but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye?

So to those on the LEFT side of the political spectrum – it was not Trump’s fault that this whole matter started.  It was not Trump who passed the current law some 20 years ago.  It was Congress – many of whom are still members today – that passed that law…the very law the LEFT is crying about being enforced today.  It wasn’t Trump who put the children in a cage and cover them with blankets – that picture was from a different administration.  I find it hypocritical that the LEFT cries about how the current administration is breaking up these families but wholeheartedly supports the practice of abortions.  You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

And to those on the RIGHT, who are not only lashing out at the leaders on the LEFT side of the spectrum, they are also lashing out at the leaders of our Catholic church who are asking that the children not be separated from their families.  Bp. Barron, who spoke out recently about this very topic in support of the USCCB’s statement to keep the families at the borders together, was vilified through the social media by any number of people.  I will say to you the same thing I say to those on the LEFT, You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.  Can you tell me what is written on the base of the Statue of Liberty?  If you can’t, let me remind you…

Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

We, as Christians and as Americans, have to find a solution to this problem.  The point of this message is not take sides but to tell both sides they need to pull the plank out of their own eye first so you can see clearly and act in a just manner for all involved and affected by these decisions.  I have grown frustrated over the past several years at the hatred and division that our political system has become.  I do not have much faith in either the right or the left to do what is equitable and fair for this Country but rather, I’ve become cynical and believe that people only become involved in government for selfish and sometime sinful reasons.  Am I passing judgment now?  Do I have a plank that needs to be pulled from my eye?  Probably so, but I do know our readings today are clear about their purpose.  God commands us to love Him and as much as we love Him, we must love our neighbor.

Do something great for our Lord and our Country today – pray that we as a Country can find God, obey His commands and live in His love.

God’s will, not mine, be done.

Be not afraid.

Jesus, I trust in You.