In the gospel reading at Mass for the
weekend of Sept 26th and 27th, Jesus issues this warning: “Whoever causes one
of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a
great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”
This means that those who cause others
to be separated from the Lord are in a heap o’ trouble. I don’t know about you,
but I get tired after treading water for only a few minutes. Trying to stay
afloat with a two-ton millstone around my neck would be, shall we say, rather
challenging.
In this present day and age, our
popular culture is working overtime to draw folks away from God. The
institutions that have the most influence on people—the news media, the public education
system, and the entertainment industry—have become downright hostile towards
religious faith. However, we shouldn’t be surprised since the majority of people
who run these institutions are thoroughly secular, so why should they want to
promote traditional Judeo-Christian values when they don’t hold those values themselves?
The real danger—and the people to whom
I think Jesus was referring—are those who claim to have religious faith and yet
push people away from the Lord and cause them to sin. You’d be surprised at the
number of people who say they believe in God, but who are convinced that they
have the authority to decide for themselves what’s right and what’s wrong.
How about the Bible? Nah, too old, too
weird. I’ll make up my own rules.
Church Tradition? Forget that. Haven’t
you heard? All tradition is bad.
The Teaching Magisterium of the bishops?
Are you kidding? A bunch of celibate old men? What do they know about real life?
The pope? Well, he seems like a cool
guy—at least when he’s promoting the things I like. But when he starts talking
about stuff I don’t like, I tune him out.
And so we have a multitude of people
who have embraced what Pope Benedict called the “dictatorship of relativism.” They
believe there are no firm truths or doctrines; everything is relative. It all
depends on the situation. Most of all, it all depends on what you feel.
Have you ever heard someone say, “If
it feels right for you, then it’s right”? Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? But
what if you’re Jeffrey Dahlmer? What if you’re that jerk who shot up the black
church in South Carolina this year? They were doing what they felt was right.
Does anyone really want to argue that if it felt right for them, then it really
was right?
People who embrace relativism actually
think the following statement is correct: “It is absolutely true that there are
no absolute truths.” Wait, what? That statement completely contradicts itself.
Many modern secular people would be
surprised to find that there really are absolute truths in our world. And not
just in the scientific realm, but also regarding morality and societal issues.
We know there are absolute truths
because the person who called Himself “the Way and the Truth and the Life” told
us so. And in this week’s gospel reading, He tells us that if we lead people
astray—for example, by promoting the idea that everyone should make up their
own personal definition of right and wrong—then we are in big, big, BIG
trouble. I used a couple extra “bigs” there because those millstones ain’t
small. If the Lord ties one around our neck and then tosses us over the side of
a boat, well, at that point it really won’t matter if we remembered to bring our
snorkel.
The true Truth of Jesus can be found
in those “old fashioned” things: the Bible, Church Tradition, the teachings of
the bishops and popes.
Embracing the truths taught by Jesus
surely will be a whole lot more comfortable than getting fitted with a size 17
millstone.
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