By William Oddie of CatholicHerald.co.uk:

About a year ago, I wrote a blog entitled “Why Barack Obama has to be seen as an enemy of the Catholic Church”. This was picked up by quite a few American Catholic blogs, for example this one, which reproduced the piece in full; and it attracted much favourable attention: but some of the reactions, also from American Catholics – who presumably were from that shameful 54 per cent of Catholics who voted for Obama – were not favourable.

Well, if ever there was any doubt about whether or not I was right, it has now been removed – that is for Catholics who understand, unlike the late Cardinal Bernardin, with his “seamless garment” theology (according to which abortion, say, was just one of a whole raft of other issues like war and peace, opposition to the death penalty, welfare reform and civil liberties), that actually “life issues” are not like others, negotiable or – like the morality of war, for instance – subject to context and circumstance: who understand, in other words, that abortion and euthanasia are always and under all circumstances, just wrong.

Obama’s health secretary has now issued a ruling: that under his administration’s Health Care Act not only must any provider of health care be prepared to supply artificial contraception (including drugs which, though labelled contraceptive, are in fact abortifacient) but that that definitely includes Catholics (for the CNS story, see here):

(CNSNews.com) – Cardinal Donald Wuerl, head of the Catholic archdiocese of Washington, DC, issued a warning last week against the implementation of an Obamacare regulation that would place many Catholic employers in an “untenable position” by requiring all health care plans to cover sterilization and abortion-inducing contraceptives, in violation of religious liberty and particularly Catholic moral teaching.

His warning coincided with a full-page ad by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which said the regulation, set to start on Aug. 1, 2012, could “severely curtail” Catholic health care providers.

Catholic institutions account for 12.7 percent of the nation’s hospitals, according to the 2009 American Hospital Association Annual Survey, with more than 5.6 million patients admitted to Catholic hospitals in a one-year period. An additional 1,400 long-term care and other Catholic health facilities are present in all 50 states, according to the Catholic Health Association of the United States. Also, there are about 70 million Catholics in the United States.

So, American Catholics, you now know, if you didn’t know before: you cannot, if you are a faithful Catholic, vote for this man. He is an enemy of your Church and everything it stands for. But that prompts the question: how come so many Catholics voted for him last time? How come, while we are about it, that one of the first things that happened in his presidency was the conferring on him of an honorary degree by Notre Dame, that renowned “Catholic” University?

This is a long and murky story. It involves telling (which I don’t have time for here) all about the links between Notre Dame and certain clergy from the Archdiocese of Chicago (prop. the above-mentioned Cardinal Bernardin) and their connections with a legendary political radical, a Marxist atheist called Saul Alinsky, who despite his many attacks on the Church received vast funding from something called the Catholic Fund for Human Development (CHD), an agency of the USCCB which over the years has raised hundreds of millions from second collections taken up after Sunday Mass. The following are examples of some of the grants made by the CHD:

• 1985: $40,000 for Chicago’s Developing Communities Project, led by then lead organiser, Barack Obama
• 1986: $33,000 for Obama’s Developing Communities Project, which Obama continued to lead
• 1992: ACORN funding (see below) for Project Vote, a Chicago programme which Obama also led
• 1995: Cardinal Bernardin helped commit $116,000 from the national CHD fund to Chicago Metropolitan Sponsors, an Alinsky Industrial Areas Foundation organisation
• 2000 – 2008: $7m went to ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), an Alinsky-influenced, leftist network under criminal investigation in several states. ACORN supports radical, ‘in your face’ local and national causes as well as abortion. CHD funding stopped only in November 2008, well after every other American wondered when the bishops would halt the allocation of $1m to the group.
• Ongoing: $20,000 to $30,000 per community group across the country under the guise of ‘community organisation’
• Also ongoing: 4% to 5% of total CHD funds to the Gamaliel Foundation, a Marxist socio-political network of Alinsky-inspired organisations
• Still ongoing: Alinsky’s own Industrial Areas Foundation, which receives 16% of CHD funds annually!

No wonder that when Obama received his degree at Notre Dame, he spoke so warmly about Cardinal Bernardin: he was addressing an institution that had been deeply impregnated with the CHD mentality and with Cardinal Bernardin’s seamless garment theology. No wonder that when he later spoke to a small group of Catholic journalists, he more or less told them that Cardinal Bernardin had given him his (very Left-wing) start in politics:

“The president said he had fond memories of Cardinal Bernardin and that when he started his neighborhood projects, they were funded by the Catholic Campaign for Human Development,” he said. “After the first question, from the National Catholic Reporter‘s Joe Feuerherd, the president jokingly asked, ‘Was there really [a controversy at Notre Dame]?’
“The president spoke about how during Cardinal Bernardin’s time the US bishops spoke about the nuclear freeze, the sanctuary movement, immigration, and the poor, but that later a decided change took place,” added Fr Kearns. “He said that the responses to his administration mirror the tensions in the Church overall, but that Cardinal Bernardin was pro-life and never hesitated to make his views known, but he had a consistent ‘seamless garment’ approach that emphasized the other issues as well. The president said that that part of the Catholic tradition continues to inspire him. Those issues, he said, seemed to have gotten buried by the abortion debate.”

Well, Mr President, you’re wrong: there has indeed been something, perhaps not yet enough, of a “decided change” (though what about the CHD? I’d like to know, if anyone can tell me): but American Catholics still take issues to do with social justice seriously, of course they do. Notre Dame, however, is now very clearly seen as being an institution which is Catholic in name only. And that is a very definite advance: at least American Catholics know where they are. It might be fitting, indeed, to end with the letter Archbishop Nienstedt of Saint Paul and Minneapolis wrote to the President of Notre Dame about his now notorious invitation to Obama, a letter which spelled out the parting of the ways very clearly:

Dear Father Jenkins:

I have just learned that you, as President of the University of Notre Dame, have invited President Barack Obama to be the graduation commencement speaker at the University’s exercises on May 17, 2009. I was also informed that you will confer on the president an honorary doctor of laws degree, one of the highest honors bestowed by your institution.

I write to protest this egregious decision on your part. President Obama has been a pro-abortion legislator. He has indicated, especially since he took office, his deliberate disregard of the unborn by lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell research, by promoting the FOCA [Freedom of Choice Act] agenda and by his open support for gay rights throughout this country.

It is a travesty that the University of Notre Dame, considered by many to be a Catholic University, should give its public support to such an anti-Catholic politician.

I hope that you are able to reconsider this decision. If not, please do not expect me to support your University in the future.

Sincerely yours,

The Most Reverend John C. Nienstedt Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

That about says it all; and now Obama’s abortionist Health Care Act has put the matter beyond doubt. The question now is this: how will that 54 per cent of American Catholics (and that’s a lot of votes) who helped put him into the presidency, vote this time? And why is it that I have a sinking feeling about the answer to that question?

From Diocese of Pittsburgh:

By Bishop David A. Zubik

It is really hard to believe that it happened. It comes like a slap in the face. The Obama administration has just told the Catholics of the United States, “To Hell with you!” There is no other way to put it.

In early August, the Department for Health and Human Services in the Obama administration released guidelines as part of the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The guidelines mandated that by Summer 2012 all individual and group health insurance plans, including self-insured plans, cover all FDA-approved contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion.

A million things are wrong with this: equating pregnancy with disease;  mandating that every employer pay for contraception procedures including alleged contraceptives that are actually abortion-inducing drugs; forcing American citizens to chose between violating their consciences or providing health care services; mandating such coverage on every individual woman without allowing her to even choose not to have it; forcing every person to pay for that coverage no matter the dictates of their conscience.

Let’s be blunt. This whole process of mandating these guidelines undermines the democratic process itself.  In this instance, the mandate declares pregnancy a disease, forces a culture of contraception and abortion on society, all while completely bypassing the legislative process.

This is government by fiat that attacks the rights of everyone – not only Catholics; not only people of all religion.  At no other time in memory or history has there been such a governmental intrusion on freedom not only with regard to religion, but even across-the-board with all citizens. It forces every employer to subsidize an ideology or pay a penalty while searching for alternatives to heath care coverage. It undermines the whole concept and hope for health care reform by inextricably linking it to the zealotry of pro-abortion bureaucrats.

For our Church this mandate would apply in virtually every instance where the Catholic Church serves as an employer. The mandate would require the Catholic Church as an employer to violate its fundamental beliefs concerning human life and human dignity by forcing Catholic entities to provide contraceptive, sterilization coverage and even pharmaceuticals that result in abortion.

There was a so-called “religious exemption” to the mandate, but it was so narrowly drawn that, as critics charged, Jesus Christ and his Apostles would not fit the exemption. The so-called exemption would only apply to the vast array of Catholic institutions where the following applied:

• Only Catholics are employed;
• The primary purpose of the institution or service provided is the direct instruction in Catholic belief;
• The only persons served by the institution are those that share Catholic religious tenets. (Try to fit this in with our local Catholic Charities that serve 80,000 every year without discrimination according to faith. It would be impossible!)

Practically speaking under the proposed mandate there would be no “religious exemption” for Catholic hospitals universities, colleges, nursing homes and numerous Catholic social service agencies such as Catholic Charities. It could easily be determined that the “religious exemption” would not apply as well to Catholic high schools, elementary schools and Catholic parishes since many employ non-Catholics and serve both students and, through social outreach, many who do not share Catholic religious beliefs. Such a narrow “religious exemption” is simply unprecedented in federal law.

Last September I asked you to protest those guidelines to Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, and contact your political leadership in the federal government. I asked that you request that this flawed mandate be withdrawn because of its unprecedented interference in the religious liberty and freedom of conscience of the Catholic community, and our basic democratic process.

You did. And you were joined by Catholics throughout the country (and many others as well) who raised their voices against the mandate, raised their voices against a meaningless religious exemption.

On January 20, 2012, the Obama administration answered you and me. The response was very simple: “To Hell with You.”

Kathleen Sebelius announced that the mandate would not be withdrawn and the religious exemption would not be expanded. Instead, she stated that nonprofit groups – which include the Catholic Church – will get a year “to adapt to this new rule.” She simply dismissed Catholic concerns as standing in the way of allegedly respecting the health concerns and choices of women.

Could Catholics be insulted any more, suggesting that we have no concern for women’s health issues? The Catholic Church and the Catholic people have erected health care facilities that are recognized worldwide for their compassionate care for everyone regardless of their creed, their economic circumstances and, most certainly, their gender. In so many parts of the globe – the United States included – the Church is health care.

Kathleen Sebelius and through her, the Obama administration, have said “To Hell with You” to the Catholic faithful of the United States.

• To Hell with your religious beliefs,
• To Hell with your religious liberty,
• To Hell with your freedom of conscience.

We’ll give you a year, they are saying, and then you have to knuckle under. As Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops responded, “in effect, the president is saying that we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.”

As I wrote to you last September, with this mandate the democratic process is being ignored while we are being ordered to ignore our religious beliefs. And we are being told not only to violate our beliefs, but to pay directly for that violation; to subsidize the imposition of a contraceptive and abortion culture on every person in the United States.

It is time to go back to work. They have given us a year to adapt to this rule.  We can’t! We simply cannot!

Write to the president.

Write to Secretary Sebelius.

Write to our Senators.

Write to those in Congress.

Use the PA Catholic Advocacy Network to send an email message, too. 

I have included the addresses in a box accompanying this article. Here’s what you can write:

“Dear (Representative):

“In early August, the Department for Health and Human Services released guidelines that would force Catholic institutions to subsidize through their health care plans contraception, sterilization procedures and pharmaceuticals that even result in abortion.

“It was announced on January 20^thby Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services, that this mandate is affirmed and that non-profit institutions, including the Catholic Church, have one year to adapt to the mandate.

“This is a direct threat to the religious liberty of Catholics, freedom of conscience and the social service ministry of the Catholic Church. The so-called ‘religious exemption’ in the mandate is no exemption at all as it would require any Catholic institution (that serves non-Catholics or employs non-Catholics) to violate Catholic belief, discontinue to provide health care, or close its doors.

“I ask that you do all possible to rescind the ‘Preventive Service Mandate’ as an unprecedented federal interference in the right of Catholics to serve their community without violating their fundamental moral beliefs.”

This mandate can be changed by Congressional pressure. The only way that action will happen is if you and I take action.

Let them know that you and I will not allow ourselves to be pushed around (or worse yet) be dismissed because of our Catholic faith.

Let them know that you and I will not allow our religious freedom to be compromised.

Let them know that you and I will not allow our religious liberty to be rescinded.

Nobody, not even the president of the United States or anyone who represents him, has the right to say to you and to me as U.S. citizens, as Catholics, or as both: “To Hell with You.”

The president and our elected leaders need to hear from you and me and to listen to us NOW.

And if NOT now, HOW can we get the president to listen to us???

From USA Today:

We share with those who are down and out. We salute excellence and the honest effort to achieve it. And something in our character draws us to the underdog.

That’s why the new federal edict mandating sterilization and contraception coverage in all health care plans has set off alarm bells around the country. And for the record, the contraceptives mandated as “preventive services” will include abortifacients.

Critics charge that this is an attack on the cornerstone First Amendment freedom that is the very foundation of our democracy. It is. Others assert that it threatens a violation of conscience for millions of Americans. It does. And still others insist it will force an unprecedented choice for many employers to either subsidize what they believe to be immoral, or withdraw health care coverage for their own families and those of their employees. It will.

But the new Health and Human Services ruling is wrong for another reason.

It is egregiously unfair, and as such, it cuts against the grain of what it means to be American.

The great and historic 236-year American achievement has been built on a broadly accepted social understanding. Working Americans pay taxes on what they earn. In return, their government protects them from external dangers, and from threats to the rights that our Declaration of Independence held to be God-given.

In a word, Americans expect government to be fair in how it governs, with respect for the exercise of the liberties and rights guaranteed all citizens under the U.S. Constitution.

Indeed, this basic American notion of fairness, the principle of equality under the law, was the animating force behind the great Civil Rights movement and the expanded recognition of rights for women and minorities in this past century. Americans, when presented with all the facts, support what is fair.

Which is precisely why the Obama administration’s decision to force Catholic and other religious employers to violate their conscience will not stand. Americans will recognize it for the unconstitutional detour that it is, and urge their elected representatives to repeal it.

I believe the trigger for this will be a very simple question. Americans will ask themselves: If this, what next?

What other constitutionally protected freedoms might an increasingly powerful federal government revoke? What other mandated violations of conscience lie ahead for other groups of American citizens, in pursuit of what their government declares is in the common interest? For whom doth the bell toll next?

There are many reasons to decry this HHS mandate. But perhaps the most important reason is that it is simply un-American.

Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan is archbishop of New York City and president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

I write to you today, with regard to a very, very serious matter which I cannot allow to go unnoticed. It cannot go unnoticed or left to inaction by any of us, because it negatively impacts the Church in the United States directly, and strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all Americans, of any faith. The federal government, which claims to be “of, by, and for the people,” has just dealt a heavy blow to almost a quarter of those people—the Catholic population—and to the millions more who are served by the Catholic faithful.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced last week that almost all employers, including Catholic employers, will be forced to offer their employees’ health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs, and contraception. Despite several appeals to President Obama and his administration that the “religious exemption,” be extended to all Catholic institutions, they ruled otherwise, and Catholics in the United States are left betrayed. As Cardinal-Designate Dolan of New York said, in effect, the president has said to us, “you have a year to figure out how to violate your consciences.”

This cannot stand. We must stand for our First-Amendment rights to religious liberty, and we must stand for our rights of conscience.

And therefore, I would ask of you two things. First, please pray with me and offer sacrifices. As a community of faith we must commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored. Second, I would also recommend visiting www.usccb.org/conscience, to learn more about this severe assault on religious liberty, and how to contact Congress in support of legislation that would reverse the Administration’s decision.

Every bishop in the United States has, or will be, issuing similar messages to their communities, because this unconscionable decision affects us all. If we stand together as Christ’s Church, in prayer and fasting, we can effect change in such matters of injustice.

Praised be Jesus Christ!

Most Rev. Robert C. Morlino Bishop of Madison

From Creative Minority Report:

This is outrageous. HHS has issued its final ruling on exemptions from contraceptive coverage for health plans even in the face of religious obejctions. Too bad.

And in what passes for compromise for the lunatic secular left currently running the country, they will give religious groups an extra year to comply if you can PROVE you are really a religious group (which is difficult to impossible with these people), but comply you will.

This is outrageous. We must demand that the next President/Congress reverse this on day 1.

A statement by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

In August 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services issued an interim final rule that will require most health insurance plans to cover preventive services for women including recommended contraceptive services without charging a co-pay, co-insurance or a deductible. The rule allows certain non-profit religious employers that offer insurance to their employees the choice of whether or not to cover contraceptive services. Today the department is announcing that the final rule on preventive health services will ensure that women with health insurance coverage will have access to the full range of the Institute of Medicine’s recommended preventive services, including all FDA -approved forms of contraception. Women will not have to forego these services because of expensive co-pays or deductibles, or because an insurance plan doesn’t include contraceptive services. This rule is consistent with the laws in a majority of states which already require contraception coverage in health plans, and includes the exemption in the interim final rule allowing certain religious organizations not to provide contraception coverage. Beginning August 1, 2012, most new and renewed health plans will be required to cover these services without cost sharing for women across the country.

After evaluating comments, we have decided to add an additional element to the final rule. Nonprofit employers who, based on religious beliefs, do not currently provide contraceptive coverage in their insurance plan, will be provided an additional year, until August 1, 2013, to comply with the new law. Employers wishing to take advantage of the additional year must certify that they qualify for the delayed implementation. This additional year will allow these organizations more time and flexibility to adapt to this new rule. We intend to require employers that do not offer coverage of contraceptive services to provide notice to employees, which will also state that contraceptive services are available at sites such as community health centers, public clinics, and hospitals with income-based support. We will continue to work closely with religious groups during this transitional period to discuss their concerns.

Scientists have abundant evidence that birth control has significant health benefits for women and their families, it is documented to significantly reduce health costs, and is the most commonly taken drug in America by young and middle-aged women. This rule will provide women with greater access to contraception by requiring coverage and by prohibiting cost sharing.

This decision was made after very careful consideration, including the important concerns some have raised about religious liberty. I believe this proposal strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive services. The administration remains fully committed to its partnerships with faith-based organizations, which promote healthy communities and serve the common good. And this final rule will have no impact on the protections that existing conscience laws and regulations give to health care providers.

Religious liberty means do what we say in one year? These people are monsters!!

Update from Matt: hey, remember when Obama was honored at Notre Dame and said:

Let’s honor the conscience of those who disagree with abortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause, and make sure that all of our health care policies are grounded in clear ethics and sound science, as well as respect for the equality of women.”

I guess he wasn’t really telling the truth, huh? Looks like Notre Dame got played.

From Fr. Longnecker:

What’s all this “spiritual but not religious” claptrap? Saying you’re spiritual but not religious is like saying you love food, but hate cooking. Let’s take it further. You love food but hate cooking? That means you can’t be bothered to learn to cook. You can’t be bothered to study food and a meal and how it all fits together. You can’t be bothered to read cookbooks and learn how to make a recipe. You’re not willing to give it a try and burn something and be embarrassed. You’re not willing to burn your fingers, make a mess and have to clean it up. You’re not willing to invite friends, plan a dinner party, take a risk, spend some money and cook for them.

Why is that? Because you have known some bad cooks in your day? Because you were brought up on junk food? Because you have never had acordon bleu five course meal? Because a chef once offended you in some way? Because you tried cooking from a cook book once and you failed? Because your friends think good food is snobbish? Because how can you eat a fine meal when there are hungry children in the world? Because some people eat better than you do and they understand fine food, and it makes you look bad? All of these and many more reasons can be given.

“Spiritual but not Religious?” This just means the person is too lazy to look beyond their adolescent bias. They are too lazy to learn what it means to be truly religious. They are too smug and shallow and immature to ever regard anything greater than themselves as greater than themselves.

“Spiritual but not Religious”? They have dismissed religion before they have even seriously considered it or studied it, and even if they have had a chance to consider it, what kind of religion have they been offered to consider? The state of Christianity in the United States is so dire, I’m not surprised any kid with half a brain rejects it. The culture encourages passivity and being a spectator. No wonder they reject religion for religion requires commitment and hard work and wonder and fear and self sacrifice and guts.

“Spiritual without Religion” is subjective Protestantism taken to it’s logical end point. It’s where individuals in a Protestant culture will end up, and given the starting point it makes sense. Some time ago a Protestant woman came to see me about her teenaged son who was a pretty smart kid who stopped going to church. He said to his parents, “I can love Jesus without going to church. Church doesn’t matter.”

“What can we say to him!?” they wailed. In fact, they didn’t have an answer. The kid was right. If it is only about me and Jesus; if it is only about me and my “personal relationship with my Lord” what is the point of going to church?

We should be clear: “Spirituality without Religion” is not a product of atheism or agnosticism or secular humanism. It is the product of Protestantism, for that is subjective Protestantism’s logical conclusion.

Every argument is a theological argument. So what is the underlying theological problem? A distrust of the physical world. Manichaeism. The belief that the physical world is either evil or it doesn’t ultimately matter. Protestantism with its denial of the visible church and it’s emphasis on eternal security and salvation by faith alone (therefore what you do doesn’t matter) and it’s often otherworldly Puritanical denial of this world and all that is ‘worldly’ is Manichean, and it is no mistake that the historians of the Protestant movement see their pre cursors as the Bogomils, Paulicians and Cathars.

“Spiritual but not Religious” is therefore a denial of all that is real and physical in God’s interaction with the world. It is a denial of the importance of the physical world. It is a denial of the church, a denial of the sacraments, a denial of the incarnation, and is therefore a most noxious heresy.

No. Because the Lord Jesus Christ–the only begotten son of the Father–took human flesh he therefore sanctified the physical realm. Because he took human flesh; human flesh matters. Because he on physical matter; matter matters. My body matters for it is the temple of the Holy Spirit. My Church matters. The physical church building matters. The One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church–the Catholic Church with all her institutions and history and paperwork and bureacracy and canon law and dogma–all of it matters. The incense and the candles and the books and the bells. They all matter.

The saints and their suffering matters. My rosary and my books of theology and my Infant of Prague and my plaster St Therese and my Our Lady of Lourdes–soiled and with a hole in her head because a nun from the convent where I got her dropped her once–that matters, and so does my starving neighbor and my friend with a headache and my child who needs a hug and a listening ear. They matter.

And so does the Blessed Sacrament which is the focus of the presence of God in the physical.

…and because of this I kneel to adore.

(Part of the Church Militant Training Series. This follows from the post: Risking Spiritual Death)

Pope John Paul II said, “Real love is demanding. For it was Jesus – our Jesus himself – who said: ‘You are my friends if you do what I command you’ (John 15:14). Love demands effort and a personal commitment to the Will of God. It means discipline and sacrifice, but it also means joy and human fulfillment” (Pope John Paul II, Homily, October 1, 1979). Mother Teresa said of love: “Love to be real, it must cost—it must hurt—it must empty us of self.”

“We have a tendency to think only about self-protection, safety and avoidance of trouble. This tends to be our primary frame of reference. But God thinks relentlessly in terms of love, even when that love entails suffering. So, we ask ourselves what is our final frame of reference? Is it, ‘how do I avoid pain?’ or is it, ‘how do I love?’

So, if I wake up every morning and my basic question is ‘how am I going to avoid pain?’ then I am going to live my life in a certain way – ultimately, a selfish way. But if when I wake up in the morning I say, ‘How do I love today?’ then I will live the life of a saint” (Fr. Robert Barron, Sermon 555).

Jesus cautioned us to consider, “It profits man nothing to gain the whole world and lose his soul” (Matt. 16:26). St. Augustine said: “Two loves built two cities: the love of self even to contempt of God built the city of Babylon, that is, that of the world and of immorality; the love of God even to contempt of self built the city of God.”

“Walking the path of self-protection and self-promotion can, indeed, gain you the whole world, but the price is way too high. For it involves the compromising of the person God wants you to be; it compromises your soul. Your mission is to be a bearer of the Divine Love into the world, and this will always involve suffering, because it means the path of self-denial and because, in a world gone wrong, the Divine Love will typically be met with resistance.” (Fr. Robert Barron, Sermon 555).

(Church Militant Training Series continues with next post)

(Part of the Church Militant Training Series. This follows from the post: O.I.L. for Holy Spirit Fire)

Military discipline and effectiveness is built on the foundation of obedience to orders. Recruits are taught to obey, immediately and without question, orders from their superiors, right from day one of boot camp. Military members who fail to obey the lawful orders of their superiors risk serious consequences. Article 90 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice makes it a crime for a military member to willfully disobey a superior commissioned officer. In fact, under Article 90, during times of war, a military member who willfully disobeys a superior commissioned officer can be sentenced to death.

However, when we decide to ignore and neglect God and His will for our lives, like the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32), we are choosing to remove ourselves from His company. This is far more serious than disobedience found in the military, as this disobedience, this refusal to love, brings with it eternal consequences. This creates a spiritual death that cuts us off from the Divine Life of God, from our friendship with God, and from our heavenly inheritance.

And so, why did the Bridegroom say, “I do not know you” to the foolish virgins who did not bother to bring enough oil? They signify those who avoid the extra effort; the sacrifice that is vital in any love relationship. Instead, they neglect, take shortcuts or avoid altogether the greater demands of obedient love – it is that “Christian in name only”, lukewarm, “what-can-I-get-away-with?” association that has laid hold of souls at epidemic proportions in our times. Stuck in this spiritual sloth, there is no holy fear and, therefore, they are content to keep God as merely an acquaintance, at an impersonal, manageable distance, as they remain just a part of the crowd – a pew potato – a bench warmer who is content to be on the team, but avoids the effort of getting in the game. Theirs is a safe and empty religiosity that wallows in dull mediocrity, doing only what is minimally expected. They exclude themselves from joining the dance of life.

In the Book of Revelations, we can see the level of disdain God has for those who seek the easy way and avoid the demands of a face to face, Semper Fi, love relationship with Him: “I know your works: that you are neither cold, nor hot. I wish that you were either cold or hot. But because you are lukewarm and are neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit you out of my mouth” (Rev. 3:15-16). St. Jose Maria said, “How pathetic – a ‘man of God’ who has fallen away! But, how much more pathetic, a ‘man of God’ who is lukewarm and worldly!”

(Church Militant Training Series continues with next post)

(Part of the Church Militant Training Series. This follows from the post: God Strong)

Recall Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins (Matt. 25:1-12), five of who were wise and five who were foolish. When the time came to meet the Bridegroom, and go in to join the festivities, the foolish ones did not have enough oil for their lamps. They were forced to go get more oil, while everyone else went in to “join the dance.”

For those who have yielded to a deep, devoted love relationship with Jesus, there is a distinctive serenity and joy about them. There seems to be an extra spring in their step and twinkle in their eye. Far from the boredom and misery of sloth, they radiate a supernatural love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity and gentleness (Fruit of the Holy Spirit, Gal. 5:22-23). They seem to have found the way to “join the dance” of life. In the meantime, like the five foolish virgins, there are those who seem to be “on the outside looking in,” wondering what it takes to be invited to “the dance of life.”

Now, the Holy Spirit is often seen as fire. Jesus said, “I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled” (Luke 12:49). When Pentecost arrived, the Holy Spirit appeared as tongues of fire that came and rested on the disciples (Acts 2:3).

We know fire needs fuel to ignite, whether it’s kindling or, as in the story of the ten virgins, oil for a lamp. Spiritually speaking, the Holy Spirit will come to rest on those hearts that have provided the fuel for its fire.

So, what is the fuel we may offer for the Holy Spirit’s fire? Amazingly, the word “oil” provides a superb acronym to describe the necessary fuel for receiving the fire of the Holy Spirit: O.I.L. = Obedience In Love. St. Ignatius of Loyola said, “It is not hard to obey when we love the one whom we obey.” Blessed Charles de Foucauld called obedience the “yardstick of love.”  It’s a clear way we measure the fidelity and unselfishness of our hearts.

Recall Christ’s summons to Divine Life (or invitation to “join the dance” of life):

Abide in my love. If you obey my commands, you will abide in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and abide in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be fulfilled. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command (John 15:9-14).

Therefore, to be in a state of grace means to be in friendship with God. Sadly, far too many wrongly see God as an oppressive slave master, even after Jesus assures them “I no longer call you servants but, instead, I call you friends” (John 15:15). And so, this O.I.L. (Obedience In Love) is actually what Sacred Scripture refers to as Fear of the Lord, or Holy Fear. As distinct from servile fear (fear of punishment), Holy Fear is a fear of disappointing or being separated from the one we love (e.g., a son fears to disappoint his father or to damage the relationship in any way).

(Church Militant Training Series continues with next post)

(Part of the Church Militant Training Series. This follows from the post: One Thing Necessary)

The U.S. Army ran a very effective “Army Strong” ad campaign to recruit soldiers. The key message was: “There is strong, and then there is Army Strong.” The commercial goes onto say, “It is a strength like none other. It is a physical strength. It is an emotional strength. It is strength of character. It is strength of purpose. The strength to do good today, and the strength to do well tomorrow. The strength to obey, and the strength to command. The strength to build, and the strength to tear down. The strength to get yourself over, and the strength to get over yourself.”

These are warrior assets necessary to overcome the enemy. However, recall that our struggle is not against flesh and blood combatants, but against the much stronger and craftier spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm (Eph. 6:11). This means it is not enough for you to possess the power of a warrior. You must discover what it means to be supernaturally empowered by God. You are to become not just Army Strong, but “God Strong.” You must know what it means to be in a “state of grace.”

“St. Thomas Aquinas believed that man is more than a composite of body and soul, that his is nothing less than elevated to a supernatural order which participates, as far as a creature can, in the very nature of God. Accordingly a person in the state of grace, or divine friendship, possesses certain enduring powers, the infused virtues and gifts, that raise him to an orbit of existence as far above nature as heaven is above earth, and that give him abilities of thought and operation that are literally born, not of the will of flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (Fr. John Hardon).

Jesus told St. Faustina:

“The graces of My mercy are drawn by means of one vessel only, and that is – trust. 
The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive. Souls that trust boundlessly are a great comfort to Me, because I pour all the treasures of My graces into them. I rejoice that they ask for much, because it is my desire to give them much, very much. On the other hand, I am sad when souls ask for little, when they narrow their hearts.” (Diary, 1578).

This is amazing! Jesus is telling us that we can literally grow our spiritual hearts to be capable of more and more of His supernatural graces. Our spiritual heart is a vessel, Jesus tells us. It’s like a “trust bucket” that we bring to the well of God’s graces. The greater our trust, the larger is our bucket for receiving His amazing grace.

The unfortunate reality is that the modern campaign of secular propaganda has been so severe that only a remnant remains who believes or trusts in God’s supernatural power. As a result, the spiritual hearts (“trust buckets”) of many are reduced to the size of a thimble, only ready to receive a few meager drops, if any, of God’s supernatural graces.

The great philosopher, Dr. Alice von Hildebrand, put her finger on the place where the real battle lines are drawn:

“Now let us abolish the terms ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’, the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ which are secularistic. I suggest that we say from now on ‘those who have kept the sense of the supernatural and those who have lost it’. That is the great divide; that is the essence. Do you look at the Church and her teaching, whether dogmatic or moral, with a supernatural eye, or do you look at it with secular lenses? That is the divide. Left and right confuses the issue. Let us rediscover the greatness and the beauty of the supernatural and I claim that it is so difficult in the polluted world in which we live, that if we don’t pray for it every single day, we are going to be infected. It is the air that you breathe, the newspaper that you read, the television show that you see, time and again you will see this is a fight and attack on the supernatural.”

In speaking of the need for a New Evangelization, Pope Benedict XVI said, “the true problem of our times is the ‘Crisis of God’, the absence of God, disguised by an empty religiosity” … a kind of lukewarm; going through the motions of one’s faith, which ends up collapsing completely.

“A real concrete statistic around this is that 70% of the baptized faithful are staying away from Mass on a regular basis. And we’re doing well in comparison with the European countries. Vatican II said the Mass is the source and summit of the Christian life … everything leads to and flows from the Mass. The Eucharist is everything, and 70% could care less about it. Yes, there are many reasons around why some do not go to Mass, but I suspect that, for most, they are suffering from spiritual sloth; they could just care less” (Fr. Robert Barron, Seven Deadly Sins…).

Aristotle said, “No one can long remain in sadness without any joy.” So, depriving oneself of spiritual joy through neglect and sloth leaves one desperate to fill that void with inferior pleasures. It is no wonder why we see so many people frantically attempting to fill their lives with every kind of activity and distraction possible, desperately trying to avoid the gloom of emptiness. St. Augustine said, “You have made us for yourself, Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

In fact, busy-ness can often be a cover-up for sloth. You can be as busy and effervescent and active as you want, and all of that buzzing around, all of that activity can just be a cover up for spiritual sloth, that you just can’t rouse yourself spiritually to action. Therefore, like Martha (of Martha and Mary), even though our busy-ness may be noble deeds, we remain anxious and upset about many things. How, then, do we break free from this powerful modern epidemic of slavery to spiritual sloth?

(Church Militant Training Series continues with next post)