I was thinking about today’s Gospel where Jesus leaves the 99 to go to rescue the one lost sheep. His great love for us and how he goes out to rescue the lost. I love this parable as I identify with that lost sheep and later enjoying the view from his shoulders when being taken back to the flock.
I then saw this story which iterates once again that the majority of Catholics don’t go to Mass regularly and the ones who do go are mostly befuddled when it comes to basic doctrine.
Such a disastrous look at the Church in the U.S. should me that there would be an all-hands-on-deck effort towards evangelization. That this should be the number one priority the salus animarum (Salvation of souls). Yet I hardly see this as a priority when it comes to the hierarchy and various bishop conferences.
Still, thinking more about this that regardless of the times we live in that the salus animarum should always be the priority as evidenced by this Gospel reading. I would totally like to rant against the bishops and such, but then I ponder my own culpability in not making this more of a personal priority.
I also see some great efforts in evangelism predominantly from lay individuals and groups. Maybe that is as it should be since waiting for the hierarchy to lead us is often a fools dream. Certainly, there are exceptions in this regard, but they shouldn’t be just the exceptions. I do wish for a both/and in this regard that we all see the urgency to lead people to the Church and to help those already in the Church to grow in holiness.
I too often feel like we are just in maintenance mode as a Church in just trying to not lose more ground. That we don’t have the audacity of the total trust in God as evidenced by the great saints who also led many to Christ.
Plus to top it off, a bishop that understood this mission of evangelization and led many to Christ – got beatification kneecapped by some fellow bishops.
1 comment
For what it’s worth …
Jeff, in trying to summarize this post, I believe that “The Catholic Church” should restart from the basic understanding of what our founder “Jesus Christ” wanted for His Church and I believe at this time that we should start with “The example that Saint John Paul 2 when he kind of created The Five Luminous Mysteries which revealed The Light of Jesus starting with His Baptism to His Last Supper at about the age of 30 Jesus insisted that John The Baptist should baptize Him and after John finished his work, The Holy Spirit came down on Jesus as a dove and a voice was heard from the sky in so many words from GOD that Jesus was His Son… The Second Luminous mystery or Light of GOD, Jesus and some of His Apostles were invited to a family wedding and Mother Mary told Jesus that they were out of wine and Mary told the servants to do as Jesus Her Son requested and long story short, Jesus changed Water to Wine. The 3rd Luminous mystery occurred after Jesus continued to create many miracles and there were a LOT more miracles than any human could ever know and Jesus had no doubts that He was The Son of God and He told in many ways and words to many that “The Kingdom of GOD was at hand and we should all repent but just as it is today, the devil had politely con vinced the leaders in charge that they should not listen to this Jesus … It got so bad that Jesus chased some out of His Father’s House and when a leader of the church ask Jesus what gave him the right to chase the people away, Jesus told this 50 ONE 50 possessed by The Devil … Jesus replied by saying, Destroy this Temple and I’ll rebuild “IT” in “Three Day”… Long story short, many learned years later what the meaning was those words meant and not to go off on a tangent, I’ll simply say that there was a LOT more blood shed after The Crucifixion of Jesus Christ … until they learned that they should repent but nowadays souls are in danger. The 4th Luminous Mystery was because Jesus as Man knew that He was going to die and what man really wants to be crucified and He knew that on occasions His Father stepped in to help so Jesus took about 3 of His Apostles on a Holy Mountain and Jesus’ Body became as Bright as The Sun but His Apostles still could not take the hit because they were not ready yet … The 5th Luminous Light mystery was at GOD’s Last Supper where after Jesus washed His Apostle’s feet … He took Bread and gave Blessing to His Father and said in so many Words that “IT” was His Body given for all and then took Wine and in so many words, HE told His Apostles to Drink “IT” in the future do this in memory of me which we call “The Institution of The Holy Eucharist” … To be continued if The End has not yet come… It could take place in a couple of GOD’s Seconds and/or Billions of Human years from now cause a moment of GOD (Good Old Dad’ Time) is but an Infinite Thought …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fMjgS4vu4o&list=RD4M-zwE33zHA&index=12
TRUE or FALSE
In GOD’s Eyes, a sin will always be a sin but He would still leave 99 of His Sheep in order to save 1 lost sheep .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JS9P8d2iOc&list=RD4M-zwE33zHA&index=23
Until next time
God Bless you and yours