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| Beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing. |
Christ “will deliver us from perverse and wicked people,” and why do we need to be delivered? Because as St. Paul reminds us; “not all have faith.” This may shock you or it may not, but there are some who claim to be Christian that are nothing more that wolves in sheep’s clothing. Some who claim to be Catholic and are faithless, lazy, lukewarm – good for nothing but burning to paraphrase Jesus and these people want nothing more than the demolition of the Christian community and destruction of the male sacramental priesthood of Jesus Christ.
This evil has become so widespread into today’s culture that it has even infused itself onto the Church. Even we priests, have to be on guard against our brother priests who have lost the faith and who have become so inculturated with society’s evils to the point that it is questionable if they Catholic anymore.
I remember being at a retreat for young women, and the Mother Superior of the Convent, pleading with these young ladies to be careful when they go home.
She said, “you will need to find a good, holy, prayerful priest – who has the faith – to talk too.”
She continued, “Don’t trust any priest, and any priest will not do because all priests aren’t good or holy or prayerful or even have the faith anymore – search for a good one when you get home.”
What great advice!! Advice we all need to start taking to heart!!
Times have changed and the Church has been infested by a whole host of sinful, corrupt, and evil clerics - be careful with the precious gift of your faith that God has given you – protect it, cherish it, and nourish it and don’t expose it to the evils of this world.
St. Paul instructed us that if we want to increase our faith, then we must “continue to love God and our neighbor and believe in the truth of the Gospel – then we need not fear anything – not even death because with Christ we can endure and overcome all things.” In the scriptures it says 365 times; “Do not be afraid.” Once for each day of the year – shouldn’t that give us courage to face each and every day regardless of the outcome.
With God’s grace – we can endure those people who hate us, we can endure those who want to kill us, even endure the painful search for what is real and true or endure the search for a good priest who still has the faith to leads us and can act like a fearless man of God.
Because God is the God of the living – He will watch over us, protect us, and leads us home to Himself as long as we are willing to remain faithful to Him even in the midst of persecution, suffering and even martyrdom.
We hear part of the story of seven wise, brave, young [Maccabes] brothers – who gave up their earthly lives to obtain a heavenly ones. May we too have the courage to be faithful – and in that courage – to truly live holy lives and to endure whatever God may send us for it is always for our greater good.
By: Fr. Daniel E. Doctor through Courageous Priest
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