20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 14 August
14th August 2022
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 14 August
A reflection on today's readings by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"We are at the end of Christendom. Now not Christianity, not the Church. Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending - we’ve seen it die. Look at the symptoms: the breakup of the family, divorce, abortion, immorality, general dishonesty. We live in it from day to day, and we do not see the decline. We take it for granted - we get used to things, and almost accept them as the rule. The press that we read, the television that we see, is in no instance inspired by Christian principles. As a matter of fact, there is, on the part of many of us, the tendency to go down to meet the world - not to lift the world up. We are afraid of being unpopular - so we go with the mob.
"Our enemy today is the world - the spirit of the world. Today we have to conform to the world or we’re branded. Our Lord said, ‘I have taken you out of the world.’ We say, ‘No we have to win the world, and to win it you have to be one with it.’ Our Lord says, ‘I pray not for the world.’ He was praying for the spirit of the world. And this is the easiest kind of way to fall off the log - worldliness. It’s so simple, and it can be justified for a thousand reasons; namely, the Vatican Council said we have to go into the world - indeed, but not to be of the world, which is quite a different matter. So this is our attack today. This is one of the basic causes of our degeneration, of our death. We’re dying. What about it? What’s the answer?
"The answer is: these are great and wonderful days in which to be alive. I thank God that I can live in these days, because these are days of testing.
"Today the current is against us. And today the mood of the world is, ‘Go with the world, go with the spirit.’ Listen, dead bodies float downstream. Only live bodies resist the current. And so the Good Lord is testing us. And he is testing Western Christians with worldliness, and how many of us are falling?
"St. John says in his Epistle: ‘They did not love us really from the beginning. That is why they left us.’ And so the souls that are falling away have just failed to meet the test. It is very much like the test that the Jews had.
"What we are going to have in the Church is a minority report: a minority report of sisters, a minority report of priests, a minority report of laity - not the minority that is aggressive and troublemaking, but the minority that like Caleb and Joshua, trusts in God. So we are tested just as the Jews were tested.
"Not far after our time, and perhaps in the time of some, then will come the battles and the testing. Our Lord said, ‘Satan would sift you as wheat.’ And we are being sifted as wheat. So we can all thank God that we live in these days. Really, it’s beautiful. Now we can say, ‘aye’ or ‘nay,’ and we can bear up under assault, criticism and ridicule, because this is the lot of the Christian in the days of the spirit of the world. Therefore, live your lives in the full consciousness of this hour of testing, and rally close to the heart of Christ. Be the minority.
"And if there is anything that has to be restored in our day, I would say it would be violence. Violence! The kingdom of heaven is won by violence. And only the violent shall conquer it.
"We drop violence, discipline, commitment to the Cross, and the world picks it up. That’s why there’s no stopping the violence of this country. We just have to hire more police guards, build more hospitals for the addicts. Why? Because there’s no moral reason on the inside why they should stop.
Our Blessed Lord said, ‘I have come to bring the sword. Not peace!’ We are always talking about peace, peace, peace! Yes, because that war (World War II, Korean War, etc.) happened - but we aren’t making war in ourselves - and there’s not going to be any peace in the world until we make war. Our Lord said, ‘I came not to bring peace, but the sword!’ He never used the word ‘peace’ until after Easter.
"The Lord brought a sword. It’s not the sword that’s thrust outward against the enemy. It’s a sword that’s thrust against ourselves, cutting out the seven pallbearers of the soul: pride and covetousness and lust and anger, envy, gluttony and sloth. And we’ve given up the sword - someone else has taken it up, and we have to restore it! Then we’ll get peace! And peace is never corporate - it’s never social - until it’s first individual.
"Social peace, world peace, is the extension of individual peace in our hearts. When we are right with God, then we will be right with our fellow man. When we are not right with God, then we will be wrong with everyone else.
"Spend an hour before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament every day, not only for our own souls, but for the world, and to strengthen our minority.
"The Lord is keeping reserves. He is training us. And he is with us." (Life is Worth Living, TV broadcast 1974)
Prayer for Avoiding Sin
Heavenly Father, please hear the prayers I offer from a contrite heart. Have pity on me as I acknowledge my sins. Lead me back to the way of holiness. Protect me now and always from the wounds of sin. May I ever keep safe in all its fullness the gift Your love once gave me and Your mercy now restores.
Jesus, pour Your Precious Blood over me, my body, mind, soul, and spirit; my conscious and sub-conscious; my intellect and will; my feelings, thoughts, emotions and passions; my words and actions; my vocation, my relationships, family, friends and possessions. Protect with Your Precious Blood all other activities of my life. Lord, I dedicate all of these things to You, and I acknowledge You as Lord and Master of all.
Mary, Immaculate Conception, pure and holy Virgin Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, draw me under Your veil; guard me and shield me against all attacks and temptations that would violate the virtue of chastity.
Lord Jesus Christ, I beg You for the grace to remain guarded beneath the protective mantle of Mary, surrounded by the holy briar from which was taken the Holy Crown of Thorns, and saturated with Your Precious Blood in the power of the Holy Spirit, with our Guardian Angels for the greater glory of the Father. Amen. 🙏💖💐