Happy Labor Day. I've never been able to form a firm opinion about the value of "Labor Day," given certain socialist/communist influences of past labor movements this holiday is meant to celebrate. But I hope nonetheless you get a day of leisure like myself, including some outdoor and family time, and BBQ.
This being a kind of patriotic holiday, and patriotism being a kind of duty to one's country, and our own country being founded on principles of freedom, I'm reminded today of what makes us truly free, that is God and His moral law.
This in contrast to scandalous, indefensible statements recently made by Francis-Bergoglio in general audiences that we "are liberated from the Law," or that the Commandments "are not absolutes."
The Error of our times.
The other day I was walking our two dogs, one a 3 month old German shepherd puppy. When I turned the corner, there was a black guy and a hispanic woman making out in public, who stopped their fornication to ooh and awe over the puppy, like clowns. I just continued to walk, but the dogs had to stop to do their business in the grass by the curb maybe 20 feet past them, so I had to stop.
The black guy walked by me and gave me a sneer, then immediately turned to his girlfriend making pornographic gestures with his tongue. I just stood there looking intently at him in a sober silence, while the dogs relieved themselves, as he kept making sexually obscene gestures feet from me, then got in his car peeling away throwing his arms in the air at me...apparently for standing there looking at him in complete silence in response to his obscenities.
I was wearing a crucifix, so that may have also set him off. You know, because I had to let my dogs do their business, and I'm not going to tolerate like a spineless jelly fish public sexual acts, feet from me--that offend Our Lord Jesus Christ-- by looking the other direction like their acts were okay.
Yet I was the one in some kind of demented alternate reality, a hostile force, not them.
This is a daily occurrence for the orthodox Catholic, Christian in our culture, who doesn't just look the other way or stare at the ground in fear when confronted by grave evils.
The other week I was standing in line at Chipotle, a relatively healthy alternative to typical fast food. A young hispanic female customer getting ready to pay at the register was dressed extremely immodestly, voluptuous, cleavage and mid riff showing, with the requisite bleached blond hair and bling. Several people behind her in line, a young hispanic guy with bulging muscles, and a very tight polo and pants to show it off, being very well dressed and clean cut, suddenly ran up to the cashier and paid for the girl. She turned in apparent confusion, like Bambie, but smiling at the gesture. She showed no signs of needing money for her meal.
When he returned to his place in the line, several people, including men, all smiled saying "Wow, that's like so nice." As if he was doing a random act of niceness to a stranger, and it wasn't because he was flirting with her. No non-verbal signs of questioning the scene were observed, let alone disapproval. He responded loudly for all to hear "Well, God has really blessed me in life. You've got to pay it forward, right?"
After he paid for his meal, just for good measure, he turned and yelled out to the staff for us all to hear, pointing at them like a used car salesman "Hey thanks you guys, you are doing really great work. You made my day." For putting some rice and beans in a bowl, and oh yeah for giving nodding approval for his act of "charity" to the girl. Not one person reacted like I was thinking, that this guy was a narcissistic, charlatan trying to get his jollies flirting with a so-called "hot" girl, who was his obvious racial and sexual match.
And yes, he did pursue her afterwards in the restaurant parking lot. He did pay for her lunch, after all.
Such is the daily modern landscape, the norm. Not the strange exception, but typical behavior. Narcissistic self-deification--especially through sexual sin--made the central expression of what it means to be a "normal" member of society. To the point most people have lost their minds, like zombies.
We are pilgrims in a foreign land, this anti-Christian world we live in, bearing witness to the Truth. Bearing witness to sin around us, yet in turn bearing witness to God's moral law, His moral Truth in all things.
We are the one's who are really awake, mentally clear, rational, fair to others, and "normal," even though we by our Christian Faith and Morals are set apart from almost everyone.
That is, faithful, traditional, orthodox Catholic Christians, sinners yes, but living a Catholic life in today's secularist, anti-Catholic, anti-Christian, anti-Christ world.
"The Truth shall set you free." I think on this phrase often, from St. John the Apostle, the more committed I become to any particular Truth. Taking ever more concrete commitment to living out each particular Truth, whether that is the Truth about true Catholic worship and doctrine, the imperative to resist a global mandate of an Abortion-linked vaccine forced into our bodies, the necessity of a culture of sexual purity (and avoiding a cultural environment of impurity), whatever the critical issue, following the Truth brings about a certain inner freedom. For one, I sin less, or fall less into my own particular sins, or at least weaknesses. I grow in moral strength to carry out my daily duties, as a Catholic man. And I experience an inner peace and mental clarity, a deepened sobriety, the more I reject these errors, and embrace Truth, in practical, concrete ways, which is a daily quest.
Wishing you a restful holiday, and true freedom, in Truth.