According to government statistics the unemployment rate at the end of April was 8.1%  This compares to 7.9% in January, 2009.  You may recall that in February, 2009 the current administration passed the so-called Economic Stimulus Plan at a cost of a cool $787 BILLION.  That’s a lot of money that we didn’t have.  But, we were promised a dramatic decrease in unemployment as this money was pumped into “shovel ready” projects.  As it turns out, the economy has actually lost over a million jobs since the stimulus was enacted.

The sad part of all this is that the “official” numbers are a lie.  When you take into account the people who have stopped looking for a job the unemployment is much higher than 8.1%, possibly as much as 20 points higher.  Then there are the underemployed.  Stories of college degreed management types working at Wal Mart abound.  The former six-figure manager working for minimum wage with no benefits at Wally World is considered to be employed by the government.

When I was “retired” by my employer of almost thirty years, I didn’t apply for unemployment.  Therefor I was never officially “unemployed”.  I had no job, but that didn’t matter.  Eventually I took a job working for the Church.  I make about 10% of what I made at my peak.  That’s a lot of money that doesn’t get recycled back into the economy.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love my job andSocial Security and investment income are enough to live a good lifestyle.  But we’re talking jobs here, and from a purely economic standpoint, I’m very much underemployed.

Here’s another example, not of someone in his twilight years, but at the beginning of his career.  This young man is 33 years old and has a master’s degree.  His full-time job is in retail which he doesn’t like but which provides him with health insurance.  His other job, the one he went to college for six plus years to earn is as an adjunct professor at the university where he obtained his degree.  The key word there is adjunct.  An adjunct works part-time, for part-time wages, and has no benefits and no tenure.  Universities love adjuncts for just that reason.  They are much less expensive and can be let go at the school’s whim.

You may wonder why this young man doesn’t just get a full-time teaching position somewhere else.  The answer is that most universities today demand that full time faculty have a PhD.  Why?  One, it’s a good excuse to not give a full time job to people like our young friend.  Two, you government, you know, the one that can’t keep track of how many people are out of work, that government has programs for funding higher education that make it virtually impossible for most schools to hire full time professors who only have a Master’s Degree.

Oh, and did I mention that this young man has thousands of dollars in student loans that he can’t pay off because he can’t land a full time job.  It’s no wonder that so many young people give up and end up wasting their education and defaulting on their loans.  Society made them a promise.  You spend thousands of dollars on an education and we’ll make sure you have a job using the knowledge that you gain in college.  Now society(and the banks and the government) are demanding that they pay up even though the jobs never materialized.

Another example is a young woman, age 26, who also has a Master’s Degree.  She’s been out of school for over a year and is working as a waitress.  She’s also buried under a mountain of debt.  She probably has slightly better odds of getting a job in her chosen field.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) she makes decent money as a waitress which helps her pay her student loans.  When she’s offered a job in her chosen field, how easy will it be for her to give up her waitressing gig?  That remains to be seen.

I read an article just the other day that said students graduating in 2012 will actually be better off than their older counterparts.  See, this class started school after the recession started.  They may be better prepared for the economy that’s facing them after graduation, because they knew it was coming.  No one changed the rules on them like they did to our two young friends above.  They knew going in that they would need different skills to survive in this economy.

I said I’d tie this into religion.  Here goes.  Just this past Sunday Jesus told us in our Gospel that we must love one another as He loves us and that greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends.  There are thousands (millions?) of people in America that need our help.  If you’re in a position to hire, don’t look at these kids as just numbers.  They’re human beings and they’re the future of our country.

If you’re not in a position to hire anyone, then think carefully before you vote.  You may have a nice job but you never know when it might be jerked out from under you (I didn’t).  What we’re doing now isn’t working.  Study the issues and vote accordingly.

If you’re in academia, use your influence to encourage your school to stop taking advantage of the very people who borrowed thousands of dollars for your product.  They deserve better than a part time position with no benefits.  What’s happening today is a disgrace!

Last, but certainly not least, pray for our neighbors who are either unemployed or underemployed.  I can’t imagine how they go on facing rejection after rejection; disappointment after disappointment.  Pray that God gives them the strength and the perseverance to go on.  Pray that the people responsible for managing the economy will actually do their jobs, or pray that in November they may all be looking for jobs.

Our generation has made a real mess of things but with God’s help, we can right the ship and help our sons and daughters have the life we want them to have.

I believe that today’s Gospel is a Cliff Notes summary of everything we need to know to be faithful Christians.  All Jesus’ talks, all His miracles, all His parables, come down to what Jesus tells us today.

“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.”  Think about that.  We know, through the doctrine of the trinity, that God and Jesus are one and the same; Father and Son.  They share an intimate and infinite love.  Here’s Jesus telling us that His love for us is the same.  God the Father and God the Son love us as much as they love one another, and themselves.

But, and this is important, If we want to remain in His love, we must keep His commandments.  In other words, we can lose His love if we don’t do what He tells us.  Then, rather than give us a laundry list of things we have to do, He says, “THIS is my commandment:  love one another as I love you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”

That’s it!  All we have to do is love one another.  But you and I both know that some people are more lovable than others.  Sometimes loving one another can be a HUGE challenge.  But this love that Jesus asks us to have for each other means a very specific thing.  In spite of what the 70’s movie said, love DOES NOT mean never having to say you’re sorry.  According to Father Robert Barron, love means willing good for the other person as another person.  In other words, love doesn’t mean hoping that you win the lottery so you can share your winnings with me.  Love means hoping you win the lottery only because I want you to be happy.  Love also means that I’m not jealous of your good fortune.

Today being Mother’s Day, it’s natural to compare God’s love to a mother’s love.  The mother’s love is unconditional, just like God’s love.  But there’s one thing missing.  On a purely physical level, a baby knows that she has an attachment to her mom.  But a baby doesn’t have the intellectual capacity to understand what that means.  Dogs and cats relate to their mothers just like we do.  Love between a mother and her offspring is a natural thing.  The difference between us and the animals is that as that human baby grows physically and emotionally, she begins to appreciate what this special connection means.  But, it’s a slow process.  It has it’s ups and downs.  I have four grandchildren.  Three of them from one set of parents.  Those three are two, four, and five years old.  Love means something very different to each one.  As they grow and mature, their ability to love will grow and mature.  (Until they get to be teenagers, then they’ll likely to hate their parents, but that’s just a phase.  They usually grow out of it.)  Unfortunately, for many of us, we don’t really appreciate our mom’s love entirely until they’re gone.

I think we approach God’s love in the same way.  When we’re little we know that God loves us.  How?  Because grownups tell us so.  I went to Grandparents’ Day Friday at my five-year-old granddaughter’s school.  One of the songs they sang was

“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart

Down in my heart to stay
And I’m so happy

So very happy

I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart

Down in my heart”

Five, six, and seven-year-olds know they love Jesus and that He loves them in a very basic, simple way.  As we grow older, we understand more of what that means.  Unfortunately, we also make it more complicated.  Remember, Jesus calls us to have a child-like faith.

Let’s get back to moms for a minute.  Jesus said that no one has greater love than to lay down their lives for their friends.  We see that in Jesus as He died on the cross to save us from our sins.  But mothers lay down their lives for their children every day.  All of you moms can testify that once you gave birth, your life was never the same again.  Some changes were small.  Some were huge.  But nothing is ever the same. 

There’s a reason why men don’t have babies.  We couldn’t handle it.  A mother’s love lets her do the impossible on a daily basis.

Today as we celebrate our moms, and all those women in our lives who fill the role of mothers, it’s good to reflect on what Jesus tells us today.  A mother’s love is the closest we humans can come to perfect love.  Our mothers’ love teaches us how to love as Jesus loves.

We are our mothers’ flesh and blood the same way we’re Jesus’ flesh and blood.  We’re about to celebrate Jesus’ love for us by receiving His actual Body and Blood in the Eucharist.  In a real way we celebrate His love and our mothers’ love with every breath we take.  When He said “love one another as I have loved you” He was telling us all we need to know.  “Honor you father AND your mother” is one of the Ten Comandments.

Jesus spoke these words just before He gave up His life for us.  They were some of His last words before the crucifixion.  The Gospel ends with Him saying, “This I command you: love one another.”  It’s not a suggestion.  It’s not something that would be nice for us to do.  It’s His commandment.  “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete.”

This monologue is the sum total of everything that Jesus taught in His earthly ministry.  This is the message that He wants us to remember.  Never forget that the whole point of His becoming a man was to teach us this one thing.  And, as we celebrate a day dedicated to our mothers, if we want an example of what that love looks like, all we have to do is think about our mothers’ example.  Remember, Jesus’ last act before He gave up His life on the cross was to give us His Mother, the most perfect example of a mother’s love in all human history.

Happy Mothers’ Day!

WASHINGTON—Cardinal Timothy Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), issued the following statement:

President Obama’s comments today in support of the redefinition of marriage are deeply saddening. As I stated in my public letter to the President on September 20, 2011, the Catholic Bishops stand ready to affirm every positive measure taken by the President and the Administration to strengthen marriage and the family. However, we cannot be silent in the face of words or actions that would undermine the institution of marriage, the very cornerstone of our society. The people of this country, especially our children, deserve better. Unfortunately, President Obama’s words today are not surprising since they follow upon various actions already taken by his Administration that erode or ignore the unique meaning of marriage. I pray for the President every day, and will continue to pray that he and his Administration act justly to uphold and protect marriage as the union of one man and one woman. May we all work to promote and protect marriage and by so doing serve the true good of all persons.

I present this without comment because I think the Cardinal said all that needs to be said.

As a minister, I get very frustrated when people refuse to participate.  My current assignment is Saint John Nepomuk Chapel in Saint Louis.  In 1896 the church was leveled by a tornado.  The schools (yes, they had two) and rectory were also damaged.  The next morning the parishioners gathered at their formerly beautiful church and began to rebuild.  I’m told that many of the men in the parish took off work for six months to help with the rebuilding.  School children helped out by removing the debris from the site.

Saturday evening Saint Louis was hit by some serious storms.  My wife and I were having dinner at a restaurant (The Gast Haus) which is just a few blocks from the church.  The owner had herded us all into the basement to ride out the storm.  As I was waiting for the storm to blow over, I wondered what would happen today if  the church were destroyed by this storm.  Would all the members turn out the next morning, ready to rebuild?  I don’t think so.  We’re having a hard time getting people to work for an hour at our church picnic.

I don’t mean for this to reflect badly on any individual.  I think it’s just our society.  According to author Matthew Kelly, we live in an age of

• Individualism
• Hedonism
• Minimalism.

None of these “isms” is compatible with Catholicism.  These attitudes are promoted by secular society, by Hollywood, and by the news media.  Briefly (You can get the whole story by reading Matthew’s book Rediscovering Catholicism, which you can get free by clicking the link in the right column.) society encourages us to ask “What’s in it for me?”  We’re encouraged that “If it feels good, do it!”  And we’re taught to ask “What’s the least I can do?”  It’s no wonder our pews are empty, our collections are down, and few people get excited when the government sets out to take away our religious freedom.

I believe that we, as a people of God, can turn these three “isms” in our favor.

“What’s in it for me?”  As I said above, God can never be outdone in generosity.  When I give back my time, talent, and treasure (which was never really mine in the first place) it will be returned to me many times over.

“If it feels good, do it!”  Guess what?  It does feel good to contribute.  It does feel good to help others.  It does feel good to participate.

“What’s the least I can do?”  We’re surrounded by people in need.  We could help each one.  But imagine how much time and money it would take to try to help each one of them.  The least you can do is to support the one organization that does help everyone, the Catholic Church.  We don’t have to personally feed the hungry.  The Church does that.  We don’t have to personally take care of the homeless.  The Church does that.  We don’t have to personally visit the prisons.  The Church does that.  The least we can do is to support our Church by giving back some of the time, talent, and treasure that has been generously given to us by God.

Actual Irish sheep taken by yours truly in 2008.

It’s been my experience that when people discuss a controversial issue concerning the Catholic Church, sooner or later, someone in opposition to the Church will argue that Catholic are “mindless sheep”.  We’re not capable of independent thought and we follow whatever the Church teaches without thinking it through for ourselves.  I’ve personally been called a “mindless sheep” more times than I can count.

This pseudo-argument puzzles me.  Many of these same people who will vote to reelect the current occupant of the White House because they’re still waiting for “hope and change” think I’m a sheep because I choose to believe the Son of God and the Church He created.

I’m curious.  At what point does a faithful follower cross the line into “sheephood?   Surely my belief in the Ten Commandments isn’t it.  Even people who have no religious faith at all are against murder.  (Unless the victim hasn’t been born yet, but that’s a topic for another day.)

I believe that Jesus became one of us, died, and was crucified to save us from our sins.  Billions of people share that belief.  Are we all mindless sheep?  I think even our moth ruthless detractors would give us that one.

So, when does one become a sheep?  I think a lot of haters believe that agreeing with the Church and disagreeing  with them qualifies us for sheepdom.  To pro-abortionists, the fact that we believe in the sacredness of ALL human life is sheeplike.  Despite the fact that our support of all life comes directly from the before-mentioned Commandments, somehow extending the prohibition against murder to our future citizens puts us into some brainless caste.

Here’s the thing.  I (and I hope you) believe what the Church teaches.  I don’t fall thoughtlessly in line with every word that comes out of the Vatican (or from my local ordinary) but I’m committed to learning everything I can about an issue.  When I do, the truth invariable comes down on the side of the Church.  How can this be?  Maybe it has something to do with Jesus’ statement to Peter and the other Apostles, “whoever hears you, hears me.”  Could it be that He wasn’t kidding?  Did He really mean it?

I believe that He did.  Does that make me mindless?  I don’t think so.  Not anymore mindless than anyone who chooses to put their faith in something outside themselves.

 I don’t think that anti-Catholics are mindless.  I just think they’re wrong.

Now, I’m not naive.  I realize that many Catholics use or have used artificial means to avoid pregnancy.  But the idea that only 2% don’t or haven’t seems absurd to me.  Where do these figures come from?  It seems like some source or other (in this case the White House blog) is always finding out that most Catholics don’t believe some Church teaching or other.

Father Robert Barron, one of the outstanding Catholic authors and speakers of our time says that the second biggest religious group in the United States is ex-Catholics.  I disagree.  I think the largest religious group in the country is nominal Catholics; Catholics in name only.  These are people who haven’t seen the inside of a Catholic church, or any other house of worship,  in years.  When a pollster calls and asks them their religious preference they say “Catholic” because they can’t think of anything else to say and they’re embarrassed to say that they have no religion at all.

The pollster proceeds to question them on one thing or another, often with slanted and/or confusing questions,  and invariably their answers go against Catholic teaching.  This is how you get bogus headlines like “ONLY 30% OF CATHOLICS BELIEVE IN THE REAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST IN THE EUCHARIST!!!”

Take a look at the people who surround you at mass.  Why would they be there if they didn’t believe what the Church teaches?  Here’s the story behind the 30% believing in the Real Presence.  In 1992 the Gallup organization took a poll of 516 “Catholics”.  It is unknown how they decided whether a person was Catholic or not.  They gave these people five choices for the definition of the Eucharist, only one of which was correct.  But, and this is the big thing, three of the other choices sounded very right.  The differences were beyond the understanding of most Catholics.

The fact is that only 30% of those polled understood the question.  92% believed something that sounded like the Real Presence.  This hardly means that only 30% of Catholics believe what the Church teaches.

Getting back to the claim that 98% of Catholic women have used artificial birth control, the claim comes from a study done by the Guttmacher Institute.  The most prominent supporter of the results of this study is the Obama White House.   The results are interesting.  According to Guttmacher, 89% of  young, never-married Catholic women are or have been sexually active.  It’s not very surprising that women who reject the Church’s teaching on sexual promiscuity also reject Her teaching on contraception.  It’s worth mentioning that 40% of the respondents attend mass less than once a month or never.

The women surveyed were given a choice of several religious groups and told to pick one.  One of the choices was “none”.  Surprisingly, 34% of those claiming no religious affiliation said they do attend church services.   Go figure.

The bottom line of all this is that the way the questions are asked makes a big difference in survey results.  Asking respondents to define their own religious affiliation is not the best way to learn the truth.  The fact that more than 3 out of 1o women who don’t go to church, actually do go to church tells us something about the accuracy of these polls.  People who haven’t been inside a Catholic church since they were in grade school still consider themselves Catholic.

A clever pollster can control the results of a survey to the point that the whole thing is suspect.  Do yourself a favor.  When you hear a statistic that doesn’t seem to make sense, take it with a very, very large grain of salt.

Don’t get me wrong.  The Church teaches that artificial birth control is a sin, then anything above 0% is a problem.  If Jesus told us that the bread and wine are His Body and Blood, then anyone who says they’re a Catholic and doesn’t believe this basic teaching has some serious issues.  We have a number of problems that we need to address, both as a Church and individually.  What we don’t need is distorted polls that make the problem appear more serious than it really is.

Not surprisingly, the editorial writer takes a dim view of the Bishops’ stand.

This editorial page has profound respect for the work of the Catholic Church and its individual members in health care, education and social justice. We do not take issue with church beliefs or internal operations, regardless of the church, as long as they do not enter the public square. The U.S. bishops, in their call for civil disobedience, have entered the square.

“What we ask is nothing more than that our God-given right to religious liberty be respected,” the bishops state.

That is entirely appropriate. So, too, is that bishops should respect the rights of those who do not share their beliefs. Some of them may work for church-affiliated institutions and may want access to the contraceptive services to which civil law says they are entitled.

The last two sentences are typical of the anti-Catholic view of this situation.  The Church is not disrespecting anyone’s rights.  Whatever evil non-Catholics choose to do with their own bodies, the Church is not trying to stop them.  What the Church is saying is that she has the right to refuse to pay for it.  Cheap and even free birth control is available from any number of sources.  Nothing the Catholic Church does is going to prevent anyone, even Catholics, from obtaining the pill, if they choose to do so.

It’s not easy to come up with an analogy that doesn’t trivialize this issue, but I’ll give it a shot.  Many of our non-Christian brethren have strict dietary laws.  For example, Jews and Muslims aren’t supposed to eat pork.  I’m no expert on this, but I don’t believe they have an objection to me eating pork.  But it would be a gross violation of the First Amendment if the government decided to mandate that all Jewish and Muslim institutions must serve bacon in their lunch rooms.  An even graver violation of their rights would be to demand that they provide BLTs at no charge.

The Post editorial also quotes a questionable study that declared that 98% of Catholic women have used artificial birth control.  Well guess what?  I’ve known a lot of Jewish people who have eaten pork.  I can’t quote statistics, but I know from personal observation that Jewish dietary laws are not followed 100%.  Does that mean that the government has a right to impose restrictions on an institution’s right to support those laws?  Of course not!

It’s remarkable that any member of the media, who will gladly go to jail rather than reveal a source, claiming the protection of the Constitution, would come out against another institution who is advocating its members do exactly the same thing.  You’d think the media would be falling all over itself to stand with us.

Over the centuries, Catholic men and women have made great sacrifices to retain their religious freedom.  From the very beginning of the Church there have been martyrs who went to their death rather than surrender their religious freedom.  No one is suggesting that we die over this.  (Although the Bishops’ document does contain the word “martyr”.)  The Bishops are asking us to take a stand.  Even if you are one of the alleged 98%, you still must respect your Church’s position on religious freedom.

There is much more at stake here than free birth control pills.

That was the early Church.  That was the Church that Jesus envisioned when He gave the keys to the kingdom to Saint Peter, the first Holy Father.  There’s no reason to think that He ever wanted that vision of His Church to change.  He wants all believers, that means you and me, to be of one heart and mind.  Luke tells us that the apostles had great power and that great favor was accorded to them.

But even with their great power, our Gospel story, finds the apostles locked in one room, “for fear of the Jews.” Even in the very beginning, the Church the Jesus’ Church suffered from persecution.  But the strength of the believers and the power of the Apostles, passed on to their successors, has always allowed the Church to survive.  As Jesus said, even the gates of hell would never stop His Church.

We know what the Church teaches and we believe in it because we’re all called on to be of one heart and one mind.  When the Holy Father speaks the world listens.  When the local bishop or archbishop speaks the members of his flock listen.  When the US Bishops speak American Catholics listen.

Lately the US Bishops together and individually have been speaking out against our government’s attempts to curtail our religious freedom.

This week the Bishops issued a statement called “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty—A Statement on Religious Liberty”.  It’s fairly long, thirteen pages, but it’s well worth your time to read.  Frankly, I don’t think most of us really understand how serious this attack on our religious freedom is.  I hope you’ll take the time to read it this document.

It begins, “We are Catholics.  We are Americans.  We are proud to be both, grateful for the gift of faith which is ours as Christian disciples, and grateful for the gift of liberty which is ours as American citizens.  To be Catholic and American should mean not having to choose one over the other.  Our allegiances are distinct, but they need not be contradictory, and should be complementary.”  That’s a key point.  It’s perfectly reasonable, in fact it’s guaranteed in our Constitution, that we can be Catholics and Americans at the same time.

Some may say that the Bishops are overreacting to this HHS mandate but the document points out that this isn’t the only government attack on our religious freedom.  It’s just the latest and most publicized.  In our neighboring state of Illinois, also in Boston, San Francisco, and in Washington DC, Catholic Charities have been driven out of the business of providing adoption and foster care services.  Why?  Because they won’t place children with homosexual couples or cohabitating couples as Church teaching requires.

Several states have recently enacted laws that forbid what the government calls “harboring” undocumented immigrants.  Don’t misunderstand.  Actually harboring law breakers should be a crime.  But what these new laws call harboring includes baptizing children of illegal immigrants; hearing their confessions;  and anointing the sick.  Administering any of the sacraments, counseling them in time of loss, even allowing them to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings held on church property are illegal.

At the University of California Hastings college of law, the Christian Legal Society has been denied the use of campus facilities because it requires members to be Christian and to abstain from sexual activity outside of marriage.  The CLS is the only group ever to have been denied access by the school.

This is my personal favorite.  Catholic Imigration and Refugee Services have aided thousands of legal immigrants.  The federal government has changed its policies to insist that abortion and birth control services must be provided.  In a bizarre ruling, a federal court in Massachusetts ruled that the government violates the First Amendment by allowing the Church to follow its religious beliefs.

There’s so much in this document that I could talk about it for a long time, but I know you don’t want that.  But there are a couple of key points here that I want you to think about and especially to pray about.  The Bishops quote Doctor Martin Luther King on the subject of “unjust laws”.  A just law is a manmade law that is in line with moral law or the law of God.  An unjust law violates natural law.

To quote the Bishops, “An unjust law cannot be obeyed.  In the face of an unjust law, an accommodation is not to be sought.”  They go on to say that Catholics, “in solidarity with our fellow citizens, must have the courage not to obey them.”  That’s called “civil disobedience”.  It was the foundation of the civil rights movement.

Please pay attention to this.  The Bishops aren’t telling Catholics that they MAY refuse to follow an unjust law.  They’re telling us we MUST refuse.  People, this is serious stuff.  They’re saying that Catholic institutions have to refuse to follow the HHS mandate.  They can stop providing health insurance, or they can continue to provide it, not following the HHS mandate, and pay the consequences.  Or, they can close their doors.

They’re telling us that we must speak out and do whatever we must to end religious persecution.  They’re telling Catholic clergy that we must do all we can to lead you in defending not just our faith, but people of all faiths whose freedom is being trampled.

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations issued a statement about the administration’s contraception and sterilization mandate.  They pointed out that it seems that if a religious entity reaches out to serve members of all faiths, then it loses its religious identity.  “This is deeply disappointing.”

This is not a Catholic issue.  This is not a Jewish issue.  This is not an Orthodox, Mormon, or Muslim issue.  It is an American issue.

Trust me, you’re going to be hearing much more about it in the coming weeks and months.  There’s a lot at stake here.  If we lose this fight, the door is open to unrestricted government interference with our religious freedoms.  You and I must remember what Saint Luke wrote in today’s 1^st reading.

“The community of believers was of one heart and mind.”

The question I’m asking myself now, am I a better Catholic today than I was on Ash Wednesday?  I’d like to answer in the affirmative.  I believe I can if only because some of the forty posts took a fair amount of research, so at least I know more now than I did on February 22.  I think that’s reasonable goal for everyone for the season of Lent.  Are you a better person, a better Catholic, or to paraphrase Matthew Kelly, a better version of yourself than you were at the end of Ordinary Time?

I also learned a lot from comments I received here on the blog, on Facebook and LinkedIn, and via email.  I learned that there are a lot of smart people who have somehow found their way here.  Many of the comments were positive and encouraging.  Thank you for that.  Some comments were negative and discouraging.  Thank you for that, too.  Some criticism was valid and I hope I’ve learned from it.  Some wasn’t valid and I learned from that, by justifying what I’d written in my own mind.  I takes thick skin to be a deacon.

What I did find a little discouraging was that some people will take any excuse to push their personal agenda.  Yes, I’m very pro-life.  Abortion and artificial birth control are very important issues.  But they don’t belong in the comments box under a post about a totally unrelated topic.  Are people’s attention spans that short?  Or, are they so wrapped up in their own particular issues that they’ll hijack any comment thread to get their thoughts out on the web?  My suggestion to those folks is, get your own blog!  People quickly lose interest in a blog’s comments when they go off-topic and never make their way back.

For now, I’ll continue to post here on a semi-regular basis.  If you would like to make a suggestion for another series, I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks again for reading/following my little dog and pony show.  Please keep us in your prayers as I do you.

But as I got older, especially when I joined the Catholic Church I began to realize that Jesus had to die.  His death on that fateful Friday afternoon was for me.  He died so that my sins could be forgiven.  Even so, if that had been the end of it, if He had just died, then I would still feel like it was a bad trade.  The death of the Son of God in exchange for my sins wouldn’t have been a very good trade.

Ironically, by dying Jesus defeated death.  Not because He died, but because He rose on the third day.  His glorious resurrection meant that it was ok for me to die because, with His grace and forgiveness, I can rise too.  I no longer have to fear death because the end of this life isn’t the end.  It’s actually the beginning.

Jesus died for my sins and for your sins.  Keep that in mind today as you fast and abstain from meat, a small price to pay for such a great gift.  Lent has ended.  We don’t celebrate mass today but we do gather to remember.  We receive the Blessed Body of Christ and we kiss the cross, recognizing that this ancient means of execution is now the means of our salvation.

Have a blessed day in preparation for the great celebration of His rising from the dead on Sunday.