The World is a Mess

If one looks at the news, one sees things in the world are not good.  The most obvious being the war between Israel, Iran, and the U.S.  It directly involves these three nations.  It also involves neighboring nations in the Middle East.  With the Strait of Hormuz being in Iranian waters, the war affects the whole world because twenty percent of the world’s oil is shipped through this strait.   

These are not the only nations involved in conflict.  There is Lebanon, Venezuela, Cuba, Ukraine, and Russia.  Then there is Africa with issues like the terrorist in Nigeria attacking Christians.  The list could go on. 

In our own nation, there are mass shootings, great divisions over the way immigrants are treated, and political divisions causing a budget crisis where some government workers are forced to work without knowing when they will get paid while Congress keeps getting paid. 

Please do not ask me to make sense of it.  There are some explanations for some of these things but these explanations are incomplete and/or fall short of justifying what is going on.  One group blames another. 

In secular terms, I would say relativism is a big part of the problem.  Relativism says there is no universal truth.  If there is no universal truth, then everyone is right and no one is right.  How can that be? 

When everyone thinks they are right, there is no unity.  When there is no unity, there is no peace (see my recent article, “Pray for Peace…What is Peace?”). 

Of course, secular answers are not my priority.  I look to God for the answers.  There lays part of the problem.  Try and find God in the news.  This weekend, on some news websites, I think the only thing having anything to do at all with religion was that Pope Leo just moved into the traditional papal apartment. 

The world has taken God, who is the creator of our world and all that is good, and tried to shove him into one little corner off to the side where He is kept silent.  Many of those who do have some faith make God just a small part of their lives.  The Old Testament has several passages calling the people to give the first fruits of the harvest to God.  Today, many people make other things their priority and only give God the leftovers.  For example, they go to Mass on Sunday only when they do not have anything else going on. 

This is the problem.  We take the one who has breathed life into us (Genesis 2:7) and has given us statutes and ordinances that are good for us (see Deuteronomy 4:1-8) and told him to be quiet.  We want to get into Heaven but we think we should be able to do it on our terms. 

I think the time that Paul describes to Timothy, “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine but, following their own desires and insatiable curiosity, will accumulate teachers and will stop listening to the truth and will be diverted to myths,” (2 Timothy 4:3-4) has come. 

Many claim that everyone must be free to choose what they want.  It is true that God gives us free will.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Man has the right to act in conscience and in freedom so as personally to make moral decisions. “He must not be forced to act contrary to his conscience. Nor must he be prevented from acting according to his conscience, especially in religious matters (DH 3.2)” (1782) but that is not all the Catechism says about conscience.  If we are to follow our conscience, we need to have a well-formed conscience (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1783-1784). 

There is a truth and it will set us free (see John 8:32).  Where do we find this truth?  Jesus gives us the answer when He says, “I am the way and truth and the life” (John 14:6).  Jesus does not just say He offers a truth or a way of life.  He offers the way and the truth.  When we silence Jesus, we are silencing the very one that we need to listen to.   

How many times in a lifetime does a Christian say the Lord’s Prayer?  More to the point, how many times does a Christian say “thy will be done” in the Lord’s Prayer and then go do what they want, i.e. their own will?   

Here I am afraid that we are thinking like St. Augustine did when he was starting his conversion.  He admitted he caught himself praying, “make me chaste but not yet.”  Are you ready to be chaste now?  Or is there some other commandment you are holding back on? 

Do you listen to God or do you listen to man?  Peter says, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).  Looking at the world today, we see what happens when we listen to humans.  It is time to return to listening to God. 

We need to stop being just lukewarm in our faith.  Our Lord makes it clear that being lukewarm is not enough in Revelation 3:16, “because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.” 

It is not easy.  As Jesus says, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 10:37-39).  If we want the world to become a better place, we need to put God first. 

The world wants instant answers.  I know I would like instant answers.  There are not always instant answers.  Sometimes we need to quiet ourselves and “Be still before the Lord; wait for him.  Do not be provoked by the prosperous, nor by malicious schemers” (Psalm 37:7).   

We need strength.  We need help.  Where do we find these?  We find this in the one who loved us enough to send his Son to die for us (see John 3:16-17), God.  We find this in the one who died for us, Jesus (see John 15:13).  They did this because they love us.  To our Lord, in the midst of our struggles, we can say, “I do belief, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24).  If you want the world to become a better place, we all need to give all our strength, heart, and being to God (see Deuteronomy 6:4-5). 

God gives us his best.  We should reciprocate by giving him our best. 

What I have written today is nothing new.  It has been said before.  Yet, I hope, I pray it has made you think.  I know God has a great plan for us (see Jeremiah 29:11).  My desire, my hope, is that I listen to what He says and then I do it.  I hope you do the same. 

It is your choice whether you listen to humanity or to God?  If you choose to listen to humanity, then you cannot blame God for the problems.” 

Peace, 

Fr. Jeff