Be Not Afraid, Focus on Christ
By Rev. Michael P. Orsi | (Screenshot)People often put the wrong emphasis on the Gospel story of Martha and Mary (the sisters of Lazarus, whom Jesus raised from the dead). We tend to immediately sympathize with Martha, buzzing about getting dinner for the honored guests, Jesus and his companions, while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet, listening to him teach.
“Lord,” Martha implores, “make my sister help me.”
The scene has special resonance for women, who often find themselves in similar circumstances, feeling unassisted and unappreciated.
But poignant as it is, Martha’s complaint about being left to prepare the meal alone isn’t really the point of the story. In his usual perceptive way, Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter.
“Martha, Martha,” he says, “you are anxious and worried about many things.”
That’s where we should really identify with Martha’s plight. Most of us spend our lives filled with anxiety.
Everyone has concerns, whether about money, health, work, family, or whatever — especially so in this post-pandemic time. We’ve been bombarded for two years with warnings about infection, and heard a progression of increasingly desperate appeals to be vaccinated.
Now, with the deterioration we’ve witnessed in the economy and the competence of government, we’re filled with fear. We worry about everything, sometimes to the point of depression and the need for chemical relief.
Whether you need anti-depressants is a topic for you and your doctor. I never make judgments about people’s medical requirements. If you need it, take the pill.
But, it can’t be denied that “Big Pharma” is getting bigger promoting these medications. According to some sources, at least 25 percent of people over the age of 18 are on some kind of prescription anti-depressant (this doesn’t count the unknown numbers of adults and children who obtain drugs outside the legal channels of distribution).
You can’t watch TV without seeing a stream of ads for the latest cleverly named remedy. And despite the upbeat scenes of happy people leading fulfilled lives, all those messages are designed to play on our fears.
Fear is crippling, and its effects are felt throughout our entire society. Once we’re crippled by fear, we are no longer free.
This raises questions about at least some current efforts to stir up of our fears — not just in the pharmaceutical field, but across a whole range of marketing and political agendas. In particular, we might question the role of the major media in keeping our fear level high.
When we’re crippled by fear, we’re afraid of everything. We’re afraid to go out of the house, lest we come into contact with some new and more virulent COVID strain.
Little children are indoctrinated in fear, still being forced to wear masks, and sit at desks separated from the kids next to them by Plexiglas partitions.
We’re afraid to express an opinion, lest we should contradict the latest set of trendy ideas, be doxed or cancelled online, and draw criticism from people who hold different viewpoints.
There are other topics that stir fear, most prominent among them the environment. I have no idea if the Earth is getting warmer, or if so, what’s causing the change. But there are many people who live in absolute dread of the polar ice caps melting, oceans rising, and cities like Miami being covered with water.
Children, and people who reside in coastal areas, are especially preoccupied with such frightening scenarios. Whatever your environmental views, this is not a good thing.
We’re even resurrecting the fears of bygone eras. As if there wasn’t enough disturbing program content on television, a public service ad currently running in New York City offers practical advice about what to do in case of a nuclear attack. Echoing the “duck and cover” drills which people my age remember from school days in the 1950s, the spot adds one more layer of paranoia to life in “The Big Apple.”
Who benefits from our anxieties? And what’s in it for those who do?
The answer to the first question is obvious: the pharmaceutical companies, big tech firms, the media (both legacy news organizations and social networks), and most of all, government.
The second answer is just as obvious: When people are fearful, they are easy prey for efforts to control them, because they want those who have power to step in and make problems go away — to remove the sources of their fear.
If you question this assessment, ask yourself why, within two years, we’ve gone from the most booming economy in our history to predictions of recession, even economic depression.
One of the best-remembered sayings of Jesus is “Do not be afraid.”
He wants us to not be slaves of fear, but rather to be free and fully alive. Because fear ruins our lives. It’s ruining society.
The solution is what he told Martha: “Mary has chosen the better part.” That is to say, she chose to focus on him.
Open your Bible. Read the scriptures. Focus on Jesus.
Don’t be afraid.
This essay is based on a homily delivered by Fr. Orsi. It can be viewed online at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=1Pc1FBYUqUI
Sen. Lummis: ‘No,’ Killing an Unborn Child is Not Moral
(CNS News) – Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) said that it is immoral to kill an unborn child, and that the issue of abortion should be returned to the states where legislatures can pass laws based on “the social mores and moral values of that state.”
At the U.S. Capitol on July 19, CNS News asked Senator Lummis, “The Women’s Health Protection Act would legalize abortion nationwide. Is killing an unborn child moral?”
Lummis responded, “No. ... I’m supportive of returning this issue [of abortion] to the states. Each state needs to legislate based on the social mores and moral values of that state as reflected in their state elected officials.”
Lummis’ comments come in the wake of last month’s Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and returned the issue of regulating abortion to the state legislatures.
On July 15, the Democrat-dominant House of Representatives passed (219-210) the Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA) of 2022, which seeks to prevent states from taking certain actions to restrict the provision of abortion. The bill was previously passed by the House last September, but it did not pass in the Senate, where a supermajority of 60 senators must agree to close debate on a bill before it can be voted on. The bill was reintroduced in the Senate in May.
If passed, the bill would stop states from restricting access to abortion pills and allow doctors to prescribe abortion services over the telephone. Abortion providers must also be allowed to “immediately provide abortion services when the provider determines a delay risks the patient's health,” reads the legislation.
The WHPA also preempts state attempts to make abortion services more difficult to access. The text says that state governments would not be allowed to require that abortion providers obtain special credentials or force abortion facilities to provide any services “connected to an abortion” in addition to the abortion itself. Such a service could be, for instance, an ultrasound.
There are an array of restrictions on abortion access that have been put in place by state legislatures. For example, most states require abortions to be performed by a licensed physician. Almost half of states require a waiting period between receiving mandatory counseling and having the abortion, and 36 states require parental involvement when a minor is making a choice about abortion.
According to data compiled by the Guttmacher Institute three states have a prohibition after six weeks of pregnancy, two states after 15 weeks, 10 after 22 weeks, and 18 states ban abortion after the point of fetal viability. Virginia bans abortion during the third trimester.
Seven states ban abortion from the moment of conception.
The Banner on Boston's Church of the Covenant and the Decline of Christianity
Whatever the Left touches it destroys.
On the front of one of the oldest and most beautiful churches in the country, the Church of the Covenant in Boston, hangs a large banner on which is written:
"And God said...
"Protect Abortion Access 4 All
"Ensure Black Lives Matter
"Honor Bodily Autonomy
"Defend LGBTQ+ Rights
"End Voter Suppression
"Turn Guns into Plows
"Abandon Fossil Fuels
"Provide Sanctuary
"Abolish Prisons
"Disarm Hate
"Speak Truth
"Breathe
"In other words...
"Love"
If you needed one example of how destructive leftism has been to mainstream Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, and to non-Orthodox Judaism, this banner would suffice.
God says, "Protect Abortion Access For All"? Where? Why? Terminating innocent life, that's God's will? Does this include abortions of viable babies undergone by healthy mothers? Is that, too, God's will?
"Ensure black lives matter"? Blacks, like every other racial, ethnic and national grouping of human beings are created in God's image. But if this banner implies support for the group Black Lives Matter, that is another matter. God abhors groups that affirm racism. Unlike the Left, the Bible knows that anyone, black or white, can be racist.
As regards LGBTQ+, the Bible goes out of its way to uphold divine distinctions such as good and evil, God and human, human and animal, and male and female. When God creates the human being, the Bible asserts this last distinction as clearly as possible: "Male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27).
"Turn guns into plows" is, of course, taken from the Prophet Isaiah's call to "Beat your swords into plows" (Isaiah 2:4). Unfortunately for the Church of the Covenant, another biblical prophet says the very opposite: "Beat your plows into swords... let the weak say, I am strong" (Joel 4:10). Unlike the Left, the Bible understands that while the ultimate dream is that human beings have no need for swords, until that messianic age, the weak must have swords.
As for abandoning fossil fuels, these ubiquitous sources of energy have been one of God's gifts to humanity. Without them, the modern world would not have been possible. No hospitals, no reliable heat in the winter (not to mention cold in the summer), no transportation beyond riding animals. No modern medicine. Nothing in the way of modern technology. Just a primitive life -- and a short and painful one at that. God would say before abandoning these fuels, make sure you have a reliable substitute. (We do: nuclear power.) Until then, thank God for His gift of fossil fuels.
As regards sanctuary, if the meaning is sanctuaries for illegal aliens, on the basis of what biblical idea does the Church of the Covenant infer that God wants America -- or any other country -- to have open borders?
"Abolishing prisons" alone is an idea that should alienate any rational and moral human being from the Left. Abolishing prisons means allowing an enormous number of innocent people to be murdered and beaten, of women to be raped, of shops to be looted, and of children to be molested. Nothing exemplifies the moral idiocy at the heart of leftism as well as "abolish prisons."
Perhaps some prominent conservative Christian church should put up a banner addressing the same subjects:
"God said...
"Protect The Life Of Mothers -- And Their Unborn Babies
"Human Worth Is Not Related To Race
"Honor Bodily Autonomy -- End Vaccine Mandates
"There Are Only Two Sexes: Male And Female
"Protect Voting Integrity
"Defend Yourself And Others -- Get A Gun
"I Have Blessed Mankind With Energy
"Protect Your Citizens by Protecting Your Borders
"Imprison the Guilty To Protect The Innocent
"If You Love Me, Hate Evil (Psalms 97:10)
"Speak Truth -- Because There is Only One Truth
"In other words...
"Love"
If a traditional church did put up such a banner, it would make national news and its leaders would be dismissed as right-wing religious zealots for putting words into God's mouth. Only left-wing churches and synagogues are allowed to speak for the Almighty.
Of all the Ten Commandments, only one states that its violation cannot be forgiven. It is the Third Commandment: "Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain because He will not forgive whoever takes His name in vain."
Nearly everyone familiar with the Commandment thinks the Commandment prohibits saying the word "God" outside of prayer or Bible study. But it cannot mean that. What kind of God would forgive a murderer but not someone who said, "God, did I have a tough day at work today"?
Clearly, the Third Commandment must mean something else. And it does. As I explain in my Bible commentary, "The Rational Bible," the Hebrew actually says, "Do not (SET ITAL) carry (END ITAL) the name of the Lord thy God in vain..."
"Carry," not "take."
Doing evil in God's name or attaching God's name to false or immoral ideas is the one sin God will not forgive.
And that is the sin of left-wing churches and synagogues. They carry God's name in vain. Indeed, they desecrate it.
What is happening to Christianity and Judaism provides yet another example of the most important principle of modern life: Whatever the Left touches it destroys.
The Biden administration and the new 'Intolerable Acts'
In 1774, the British imposed the Intolerable Acts on the American colonies. These acts, also called the Coercive Acts, were punishment for the Americans' disobedience to the crown, particularly as symbolized by the Boston Tea Party, a rebellion against a (relatively mild) increase in the tax on tea.
My fellow Americans, we have recently been subjected to a second set of Coercive Acts. Call them the Intolerable Acts 2.0.
These acts have been imposed on American citizens by their own supposedly representative government, the Biden administration, as punishment for disobedience to the Democrat party and the Deep State, as symbolized by the MAGA movement and the election of Donald Trump.
What are the new Intolerable Acts? I will list a number of them here for you now, many of them a result of executive fiat, not unlike those directed at the colonists by King George III.
– Rescinding the Keystone Pipeline permit, depriving his country's citizens of vast quantities of oil and canceling countless well-paying jobs at the same time.
– Withdrawing oil and gas leases across the nation and its coastal waters, depriving his country's citizens of vast quantities of oil and gas and canceling countless well-paying jobs at the same time.
– Dramatically restricting fracking and preventing all new extraction of oil or gas on federal lands, depriving his country's citizens of vast quantities of oil and canceling countless well-paying jobs at the same time.
– Proposing and fostering other policies guaranteed to dramatically worsen inflation, adversely affecting all Americans lives, especially those with lower incomes and less leverage and fewer opportunities.
– Refusing to close or even effectively monitor or police our southern border, condemning Americans to suffer significant increases in violent crime, drug overdoses, sex-trafficking, and the proliferation of diseases like COVID-19.
– Treating illegal aliens far better than citizens in fly-over country, in many cases putting them up in hotels and then granting them sanctuary status, driver's licenses and free education and health care...all paid for by taxpayers, including those dolts in fly-over country.
– Instituting policies guaranteed to worsen crime and supporting groups like Antifa and BLM that routinely burn and loot American cities — and sometimes kill innocent people and police officers.
– Jailing January 6 protesters, nearly all of whom were actually peaceful, in many cases indefinitely and without charging them, because, well, January 6 was, in some ways, the MAGA movement's Tea Party.
– Sending the FBI and/or DOJ after individual political opponents, raiding their houses in the wee hours with preposterously overwhelming force, dragging them out in their underclothes — and making a spectacle of them for the media.
– Targeting legal firearm owners and attempting to repeal the God-given right to self-defense, a right more important now than ever before...due to the very policies of so-called progressives like those in the Biden administration who want to strip you of this inalienable right.
– Attempting to repeal the First Amendment and strip all of us of our right to free speech, religion, and assembly. Labeling speech with which they disagree as "hate speech."
– Telling us that there is no way to definitively ascertain sex at birth...or any other time, for that matter.
– Attempting to force us to take an experimental gene therapy "vaccine" into our bodies, while simultaneously saying everyone should have the right to decide whether or not to kill their unborn babies because it's "your body, and therefore your choice."
There were five original Intolerable Acts. Those acts were the proximate cause of the First Continental Congress...and the American Revolution.
I have listed nearly three times that number of (what should effectively be considered to be) "intolerable Acts" the American government has imposed on its citizens in the past 18 months.
What say you, Americans?
Image via Picryl.
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