THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Her Doctrine and Morals

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost

20 August 2023

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The Sunday

Sermon

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Dear Friends,

The love of our neighbor encompasses care for his physical well-being, as Jesus shows us in today's Gospel reading (Saint Luke 10:23-37). However, true love does not stop with the mere care for the physical well-being of our neighbor. Our neighbors, like ourselves, are composed of body and soul. Because the soul is more important than the body, we should have even greater concern for our souls than our bodies. Likewise, we should have and express even greater concern for our neighbors' spiritual health than their physical health.

The robbers that injure and kill physical life are evil, but those that injure and kill the soul are much worse. The love we show for the physical life is good, but the love we show for the spiritual life is much better.

We may not frequently observe men who are physically injured and need material assistance and love, but we can hardly walk down the street without crossing the path of those who need spiritual help. We may never know what a kind and encouraging word does to heal the souls of many around us. If we can take the time and effort to comfort and pray for them, we will have helped them more than if we bandaged physical wounds.

The current fashion of the day seems to affirm and encourage people in their spiritual darkness and wanderings. "Affirmative care" of those suffering from "gender dysphoria" positively reinforces spiritual or mental disorders. This is not an expression of love but instead aiding and abetting the demonic spiritual robbers in not only robbing them of their human dignity, sexuality, and spirituality but even the eternal life of their souls.

To help our neighbors who have fallen in with these robbers, we need to love them, come to their aid, be kind and gentle, and be firm in showing them and leading them to truth and light. Pouring wine (alcohol) into an open wound hurts, but it is essential to disinfect the wound so that healing may begin. We should strive to do this spiritually as well. Pouring truth into the wounds of our souls hurts as well, but it, too, is necessary to cleanse and heal our souls. However, we note that the kind man poured in the wine and used oil to soothe, calm, comfort, and encourage healing.

The current fashions of "gender-affirming care" and social media are turning the most vulnerable of our neighbors over to demonic robbers. These robbers are destroying bodies and souls with the aid and encouragement of "society." It is not loving our neighbors to ignore this or look away. This is not something pleasant to consider, much less to observe. Society tells them they are fine as they are — spiritually bruised and beaten half to death. Love requires that we reach out to those suffering, especially if they cannot even recognize or accept what damage has been done to them.

It is a great illusion to believe we are well when seriously wounded. It is even easier to be deceived into believing that our souls are well when they are dead or dying in sin and darkness. What the world and the devils call light, health, life, and goodness is the opposite. It is darkness, sickness, death, and evil.

Our politicians, doctors, lawyers, judges, clergy, etc., have failed us. They have seen the harm done to our neighbors and have looked the other way. Some have even participated in the beating and bruising of these victims. The vice of indifference or of robbing and abusing the souls of others is being presented to us as a virtue. The virtue of loving concern and truth is presented to us as vice.

Our duty as true neighbors to the rest of humankind is to do what we can to shine a light into this darkness and call out the demonic robbers. Laws and policies should never be made to confirm or affirm evil. Where these exist, they need to be overturned. All those who obstinately promote these evils should be removed from every office or position of authority because they have abused the public trust given to them.

True neighborly love should never confuse the abusers with the victims. The unrepented abusers deserve the harshest punishments available (It would be better to have a millstone tied around their necks and drowned in the sea rather than continue to destroy souls.) It is much better that they be given a temporary punishment now, hoping to spare them an eternal sentence later. The victims need compassionate truth and aid. This, too, will cause pain, but it is a necessary pain that will aid in their spiritual (and often physical) life, health, and happiness.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspire, guide, and protect us!