Loving the Brothers and Sisters in a time such as this
General Gathering: April 2nd, 2017
“Loving one another as brothers and sisters” is:
-At the heart of Christian life/holiness
-For a “time such as this”
A). At the heart of Christian life/holiness
The Lord has called us to join our lives together and to work together to develop “an environment of committed personal relationships in which the life given to us in Christ is taught, supported, honored and held up as the true meaning and fulfillment of our lives.” CCR Mission Statement
The first prophetic word we received in September of 1972:
“You will come to know me as your lives are given over to me and to one another. You will come to know me as you empty your lives out in love. I will join you together so that the world can see me in you.”
Forty-two years later, in 2014 the Lord said: “I have gathered you here and I will tell you what I am doing. I am knitting you together.. I am raising up a body for my son to inhabit and dwell in… I have called you together to be a people… Do not let the enemy lull you to sleep, for if he does he will steal your joy, your zeal for the life I’ve given to you your love for your brothers and sisters… do not get turned away by distractions – it is no accident that I have called you together in this time.”
“To draw near to God – and offer him acceptable worship” & then he goes on to exhort them to “let brotherly love continue – extend hospitality to one another – stand with one another in difficulty- trust in the Lord together as brothers and sisters who live a life of trust in and reliance upon the Lord. “ Hebrews 12.28-13.1-6
What does holiness look like? What an incarnational reality – “No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4.12 - holiness is loving these brothers and sisters – all walking on the long road of mercy together.
B). Signs of the times:
1). Moralistic, therapeutic deism: God exists, wants us to be nice to one another and be happy and successful.” His conclusion: “emerging adults are oblivious to spiritual truths and to service to the well being of others and they focus almost exclusively on materialistic consumption and financial security.”Christian Smith, Lost in Transition
2). In 2011 the Obama administration stripped funding from the US bishops Migrant and Refugee service because the bishops declined to provide abortion and contraceptives as part of their service. At the same time that administration was fighting to make abortion and contraceptive services a part of national health care – with no exemptions for religiously affiliated providers and organizations – one results of this was the lawsuit- federal government vs. Little Sisters of the Poor.
3). In 2015 the State of Indiana was working to get the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed – it provided a valid religious liberty defense for those sued for discrimination. Gay rights activists loudly protested, calling the law bigoted – and big business for the first time took sides - companies such as Apple and Wal-Mart threatened the state of Indiana with economic boycotts if they passed the bill. The bill was not passed.
4). In 2015 – Obergefell vs. Hodges – the US Supreme court ruled that “states must license same sex marriages and recognize similar marriages when lawfully performed out of state.” With a brush of the pen the court jettisoned the roles of husband and wife, mother and father. Marriage and family no longer precede and limit the state – now they mean whatever the state says they mean.
5). In recent polls by Harris nearly a third of young Americans see themselves as somewhere between heterosexual and homosexual. Facebook has 60 options for the user’s gender – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, pansexual, aromantic, asexual, gender queer, two spirit, gender fluid. There are more than 200 LGBTQ characters in cable TV and streaming series. There is a bill introduced in California to add a third gender to identification documents like a drivers license or birth certificate – male, female, non binary.
There’s a recent publishing boom in children’s books with transgender themes: “I have a girl brain but a boy body” says a young child in “I am Jazz”- who looks a typical girlie girl who likes to dance and play princess dress up with her friends – she is genetically male. An English author – Melanie Philips writes: “The enemy on this particular battlefield (of gender identity and fluidity) is anyone who maintains that there are men and there are women, and that the difference between them is fundamental. This binary distinction is accepted by the vast majority of the human race. No matter. It is now being categorized as a form of bigotry. Utterly bizarre? Scoff at your peril. It is fast becoming an enforceable orthodoxy with children and young people particularly in the frame for attitude adjustment… The intention is to break down children’s sense of what sex they are and also to wipe away from their minds any notion of gender norms.”
Planned Parenthood vs. Casey- 1992- Justice Arthur Kennedy writing for the pro choice majority: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe and of the mystery of human life.”
“If we do not for our consciences and the consciences of our children to be distinctively Christian and distinctively counter cultural – even if that means some degree of intentional separation from the main stream we are not going to survive. The primary focus of Christians in America should be cultural or rather counter cultural – building the institutions and habits that will carry the faith and the faithful through the next dark age.” Rod Dreher, First Things
How the changing culture impacts the Church –from “Strangers in a Strange Land” by Archbishop Charles Chaput:
-There’s an increasing decline in traditional religious faith – on moral issues such as divorce, cohabitation, sexual activity apart from marriage, it’s okay to cheat if it gets you ahead and doctrinal issues – divinity of Christ, the uniqueness and necessity of Christ, the resurrection, the need for the Church, - “I am spiritual but not religious”.
-Rapid technological and social shifts- social media: relating technologically rather than personally; being bombarded with information – sales- marketing- images- having our capacity to think formed and shaped by 30 second burst of words and images.
-Living in a culture of noise and distraction that drowns out the deeper realities and truths of life- the world of art, music and beauty becoming increasingly marginalized and replaced by ugliness and cacophony.
-The falling off of Church practices – Church attendance, Sunday as a holy day, the seasons of the liturgical year, the practice of confession, religious symbols in the home, etc.
-Aging and overbuilt infrastructure- using diminishing resources to keep the buildings open
-Increasing hostile legal and political environment
-Becoming increasingly more difficult to raise children as Christians and as Catholics
Archbishop Chaput goes on to make the following comments:
“We need to cultivate a better sense of what the Church is – a family of families – an intimate communion of Christian friendship with a shared vocation to sanctify the world…. The power of the Church resides not in her public statements or material resources her structure or social services – but in her ability to form and lead people… The Church is a communion of persons filled with the Holy Spirit who give themselves in love to each other and to God. Their communion when it is lived zealously and joyfully shows the world the living communion that exists in God himself. In this communion we’re called to help each other achieve holiness.”
“The answer in our time as so often in the past may depend on small communities that mirror to the world the light that came into the world, the light that has not and will never be extinguished.” Richard John Neuhaus, “Catholic Matters.”
The “Benedict Option”- for a “time such as this”
Some Prophetic words:
My people, you are a nation called to be a light to the pagan nations surrounding you. You are to be a light to them, a light of holiness and true belief in my, the only God.” (3-83)
“I tell you darkness is approaching you. The battle will be upon you. When darkness comes, when the battle intensifies, then you will see the need for all I have taught you. You will see the need for praise and worship; for submission and obedience and unity; the need for a common mind and a common purpose.” (9-86)
What I have called you to is bigger than you can understand. There is much to my call to you that you don’t yet see or understand. Be faithful to what you do see and to what you do understand. I will use that faithfulness to move my plan ahead.” (10-2000)
My people I would you understand more clearly the seriousness of the call I have for you. For it is not just for your sake that I have called you together; it’s not just for your sake that I have worked in your midst to gather you together as a people given over and dedicated to me. I have called you together for this time, that you would be a light to penetrate the darkness that is around you; to gather you together that you might be an ark in the midst of a tumultuous sea in which many are drowning; that others might board the ark and find salvation, light and hope. I would have you hear clearly that this call that I have for you is for you to open your hearts and minds and lives to me that I might gather these sons and daughters of Adam and Eve so that they might become my sons and daughters. So I say to you: trust me more deeply; give yourselves more deeply to me; yield your lives more deeply to me.” (11-04)
And so I tell you tonight to examine your hearts and your minds and your spirits to ensure that you are faithfully rooted in My Kingdom, that you are My people, that you are My sons and daughters, firmly rooted in My Truth. For I tell you as I’ve told you in the days past, that when the kingdoms of this age begin to totter, as they begin to collapse, people will be terrified and there will be great fear in the land. And they will turn to one another and say: ‘What then must we do?’ And I say to you: It is for that time that I have spoken to you. It is for that time that I have been at work in your lives to build you into a foundation upon which I can establish My Kingdom. So I say to you: Be of good heart; do not be anxious; do not be fearful; do not be concerned about the concerns of this age and this world’s kingdom. But be concerned about My Word; be concerned about holiness; be concerned about righteousness. For I tell you: When people of this age look around and say ‘What then must we do?’ I want you to be able to be a light that shines My Presence into their lives. So I say to you: Be sober and be alert and be watchful.”August, 2010
1