Homily: September 9, 2024, Monday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time (Immoral Christians).

“It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among pagans.” 

Once, I came across this quote from Thomas Merton: “The greatest evil is found where the highest good has been corrupted.”

How true! And how sad…

There is probably no statistics to confirm this, but superficially, we can see how countries with majority Christians seemed to be more liberal in their views and practices which are opposing to Church teachings, while some countries with minority Christians, even with persecution of the faith, seem to be more in agreement with Church values.

St. Peter warned, “Your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” And the devil wants to devour the believer, because the non-believer is already on his side. And if we are not careful, or are complacent or weak, we are easy targets.

As I read somewhere, “the devil doesn’t come dressed in a red cape and pointy horns, he comes disguised as everything you have wished for.”

So, we need to be conscious of what we wish for. The temptation since the beginning of humanity has always been ‘independence from God’ or commonly known as ‘freedom’. 

To be free from rules that are life-giving, from values that discipline, from virtues that test our self-control, from God’s ways of denying self and loving others, from sacrifices and suffering that lead to purity of heart, mind and body.

Such is the freedom of the world. In all such temptations, we need to be careful and consider not what the world offers, but what we will lose. To be free and detached from God is to seek evil and be enslaved by sin.

We must really be very careful and discerning. We need wisdom to see beyond the guises, we must keep close to God’s ways and teachings.

When we, as Christians, fall away from the Lord, we can do more damage to the Church than a non-believer ever could. If our action is not Christ-like, it becomes anti-Christ, which is precisely what the devil wants.

As Padre Pio advocates, “love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today.”

Let us pray with Mother Mary for all Christ believers who are her children, that we may be graced to live according to the true spirit of Christianity, and to give authentic witness to the name we carry, the identity we bear.

Amen.