A Reading from 1 Pt 3:14-17
Beloved:
Even if you should suffer because of righteousness, blessed are you.
Do not be afraid or terrified with fear of them,
but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope,
but do it with gentleness and reverence,
keeping your conscience clear,
so that, when you are maligned,
those who defame your good conduct in Christ
may themselves be put to shame.
For it is better to suffer for doing good,
if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.
REFLECTION:
Even if you should suffer because of righteousness, blessed are you.
Do not be afraid or terrified with fear of them,
but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.
We live in strange times. There is some kind of peace here in the United States, but Christians are truly persecuted in the Middle East and other regions of the world.
Our suffering, and the suffering of many Christians here is because of other issues such as abortion without restriction, gay marriage, gender identity, critical race theory, etc.
Seems that issues that would have been considered madness 20 years ago, are now the norm. And those who seek to find the Truth are called mad, haters, bigots, etc.
How are we handling this environment? How are we handling opposition to Catholic teaching?
A few days ago a video surfaced in different social media outlets. In it, you can see an Asian woman riding the NYC metro.
The train had many ads depicting explicit sexual acts in pretty colors. The woman reacted by tearing these ads, and telling people that was wrong, especially since children were looking at these.
People in the train thanked her. However, she was the one with the courage to oppose this agenda of normalization of homosexual acts, especially their public depiction in front of children.
Many people in social media have called her biased. Conservatives have called her brave.
How would I/you have reacted if we'd seen ads like these? How do we react when we see our "Catholic" leaders (political or religious) support evil?
As concerned citizens we have the right to let our political leaders know our position. To our religious leaders, we can send respectful letters of concern for their acts.
In all cases, we must pray: for them, for our society, for us.
We must pray and bless them.
That is an important part of our PAPA Philosophy: Pray, Serve, Bless:
BLESS: No matter what happens, we choose to bless everything and everyone – whether they are good or ill. Bless them all.
~ PAPA Handbook pg. 22
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