This third way has usually been reserved for kings and popes and other powerful folk<\/strong>; people who bathed in and drank from the hubris cup morning and night. Henry VIII is one of history\u2019s most famous practitioners of this method of God betrayal. It isn\u2019t all that complicated intellectually. All it requires is an ego and sense of entitlement that will allow you to tell God that He\u2019s wrong and you\u2019re right, announce this to the whole wide world and stick with it right down to the gates of your own eternal damnation.<\/p>\nThis particular form of hubris-powered Jesus betrayal has been around since Christianity made its way out of the Catacombs and into the halls of power. What is different today is not the method or the thinking that goes into it, but how widespread and universal it has become.<\/p>\n
Telling God to sit down and do as He\u2019s told was once the province of powerful men made mad by over-privileged existences. Now, it appears that it\u2019s the chant and cant of millions. These people hold God and not themselves to task for human depravity. They claim that wretched sinfulness of every stripe is, in fact, a positive good. They feed their children and old people to the flames of their self-succor and then berate God when anyone tries to tell them this is wrong.<\/p>\n
Last, but certainly not least, are those who refuse to leave the Churches they despise, who will not walk away from the pretense of \u201cfollowing\u201d a God they say needs their tutelage. First among these are the Catholic politicians who attend mass, take communion and then go out and vote for, support and sponsor every new trend in killing, immorality and social unwinding around.<\/p>\n
Most people are blind to the \u201cnormal\u201d folks who flaunt God in their daily lives, but they zone in on these politicians. It outrages and enrages them to see photos of an elected official who is well-known to support abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, war and torture walk up to the head of the communion line and accept the host.<\/p>\n
They rail at the Church for not \u201cdoing something\u201d about it. It it very popular in certain circles to call for this or that politician to be summarily excommunicated for his or her support for things that are 180 degrees off Church teaching. In fact, one of the sorrier spectacles of every campaign season is various political groups pointing fingers at each other\u2019s \u201csins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many people get white-hot angry with the bishops because they don\u2019t drum these obvious miscreants out of the Church. They want them, if not burned at the stake, at least escorted to the church doors and told not to come back.<\/p>\n
There are days when I get worked up over some of the things I see and feel like joining them. But it never lasts long. The reason is simple. It isn\u2019t my job to kick people out of the Church. What\u2019s more, I don\u2019t want that job. I\u2019ve said it before, and I\u2019ll say it again: I\u2019m just grateful they let me in.<\/p>\n
The latest kerfluffle has been over Governor Cuomo of New York and his over-the-top legislative advocacy for abortion at all times, for any reason. This evidently follows quick on the heels of his support for gay marriage. In spite of all this, the governor continues to attend mass and take communion.<\/p>\n
My personal reaction is that he\u2019s a fraud and a phony every time he goes to mass. He appears to think that his personal moral understanding is superior to 2,000 years of Christian teaching and morality. My reaction to that is, fine on him. If he doesn\u2019t believe that the Catholic Church teaches Truth and he has no intention of even attempting to follow the teachings of the Gospels as interpreted by that Church, that\u2019s his call.<\/p>\n
But, if that\u2019s what he believes, I don\u2019t see any honesty at all in going to mass and taking communion.<\/p>\n
I have to be careful here, because my own sins are ever before me when I write things like this. Can I \u2014 can any of us \u2014 withstand the judgement I am meting out here? I sin. I do things I hope nobody ever finds out. I am not God\u2019s best work. I assume that everyone reading this falls into the same sinful basket.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why we need Jesus. It\u2019s why we need the Church. It\u2019s why our own understanding of right and wrong will always lead us down a destructive path if we adhere to it too closely. That is what, I think, has happened to Governor Cuomo. He\u2019s been following his own understanding, and that has led him to advocating terrible things.<\/p>\n
It always does, you know. Always. Every time. For each of us.<\/p>\n
The only way to follow Christ is to actually follow<\/em>\u00a0Christ. The single best way I know to do that is to simply stop all the yammering and just accept that the Catholic Church really is the <\/em>Church and that all you have to do is follow its teachings. When you fail in this \u2014 as you will \u2014 go to confession, get cleaned up and start over.<\/p>\nWe have quite a number of politicians out there who basically spit raspberries at Christ by defying serious moral teachings concerning the sanctity of human life and the sacrament of marriage (among other things) and then showing up at mass to take communion as if they were a bunch of nuns. We have an even larger number of Catholics who endanger their own souls by focusing on these sins of other people and letting their anger make them bitter and vicious.<\/p>\n
My personal solution for this one is really quite simple.<\/strong> I don\u2019t have to decide if these political birds will be excommunicated or not. In fact, I can\u2019t make that decision. It\u2019s just not my job. I don\u2019t have the power to keep them out of church. And I don\u2019t want that power. Do. Not. Want. It.<\/p>\nOn the other hand, as an American citizen, I have the power to work and vote to keep them out of office. <\/strong>Maybe that\u2019s where those of us in the laity should focus our energies. If I lived in New York, I think that working to help Governor Cuomo find a new vocation as a private citizen would be my focus; that, and praying for his soul.<\/p>\nWhat I wouldn\u2019t do is berate my bishop or cardinal. I\u2019d just let them do their jobs. After all, if they mess up, they\u2019ve got someone a lot more important than me that they have to answer to, and in the final analysis, they \u2014 along with Governor Cuomo and you and me \u2014 will do exactly that.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Historically and scripturally there have been two ways that most people betray Jesus: 1. The St Peter and all the apostles except John Way. This is the deny-Him-under-duress, run-away-from-threats-and-then-repent-later method of betrayal. I would wager that in some form or another every single one of us has done a bit of this. I know I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1144,10,40,134,819,1195,41,48,1],"tags":[18,2291,1220,601,2288,2289,214,2290,2292],"class_list":["post-8752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-america","category-calling-evil-good","category-catholic","category-christianity-2","category-clergy","category-conversion","category-euthansia","category-politics","category-pro-life","category-uncategorized","tag-abortion","tag-andrew-cuomo","tag-bishops","tag-cardinal-dolan","tag-cuomo","tag-ex-communicate","tag-gay-marriage","tag-governor-cuomo","tag-new-york"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2012\/09\/MP900424291.jpg\" "\\"Priest")
<\/a>Historically and scripturally there have been two ways that most people betray Jesus:<\/strong><\/p>\n