The Unwelcome Obligation To Speak The Truth

Being a Catholic is not being called to a peaceful life. “The devil is going about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” We have to be constantly on guard. We have to constantly fight our own temptations and the cacophony of lies we are faced with in the world.

But more than that, like any good tactician we have to bring the fight to the devil, right here, right now. We have the examples in Scripture and the lives of the saints telling us exactly what that means, and it isn’t good news.

The time has come to gird your loins. The battle has begun

Written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

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When I was younger, actually at several periods of time, I had quite a few people working for me. You know, I had at least 10 or 15 who were directly responsible to me. Had someone walked into my office, and said, "I have this problem with your wife," and then told me something they didn't like about my wife, knowing me, my response would be: "I have one question. When we are cleaning out your office, where do you want me to send all of your personal belongings?" And then I would call someone and say, "Would you escort them out of the building." And that would have been the end of it.

We have, in our God... let's take it back to St. Monica earlier this week. You pray for your children especially. You pray for other people. You pray for yourself. But you pray constantly.

Now Robert, I'm going to suggest that you start sitting over there, because I don't pick on Michael nearly as much as I pick on you. I'm going to pick on Michael.

I've got a wayward son, Michael, sounds appropriate, and I pray for Michael all the time. And it doesn't work. Look at him! He keeps on doing the same thing. And I come up to Michael… I'm his father so I can do this… and I say, "Michael, you're a schmuck! You are doing this, this, this, this, and this. Stop doing it."

And Michael, being my son, says, "Will you tell mom that if she is interested in talking to me, give me a call. And if she is interested in visiting with me, I'll be glad to invite her into our house, but goodbye. I'll never see you again."

It's a human reaction.

Yet our God… and this Jeremiah is a great example. I love Jeremiah. God comes to Jeremiah and He goes, bing, "Jeremiah!" "Yeah, yeah!" "Jeremiah, I want you to do this!" "You want me to do what?! Do you know what's going to happen if I do that?!" "Don't worry about it, Jeremiah, go ahead and do it."

Later, God comes along. Bing! Jeremiah says, "Wait a minute, God. Remember, I told you what was going to happen if I did what you told me to do, and it's happening. God, I want you to zap him! They're being mean to me because I'm speaking your word!"

God says to Jeremiah, "Now Jeremiah, calm down. I'm not going to zap them. But I want you to go out and say something even more obnoxious."

You don't like your friends, do you, God?"

And God tells us, through the example of John the Baptist. Herod is a powerful man. He's got the power of life and death. And to be preaching in his face, John says, "Herod, you're wife's a whore. You need to divorce her because you have an invalid marriage and she's a terrible person."

And guess what. Herod goes, "I know. But I'll arrest you. That will make her happy... Herodius are you happy? I arrested John the Baptist." Just like with my wife, “Why didn’t you fire him?” “Why didn't you take care of it completely?” “No wait, I'll take care of it."

But we are called to pray constantly for Michael, following the example of St. Monica. But we are also called to follow the example of Jeremiah and John the Baptist: to speak the truth. To say it without regard to the consequences. To say the truth even if it gets us in trouble. To make it clear from the way that we live our lives and the way that we act.

The fact that they are not married and they're living together is wrong.

Daughter calls up and says, "Do you want to come over and have lunch with me and Steve over at our apartment?" "Oh yes, honey, we'd love to come on over there."

No, you wouldn't! "No! You are living in sin and I'm not going to do anything to encourage you." "You will never talk to me again for the rest of your life!"

God, why do you do this to me?

There are things that we are called to talk about. They are within our society. It is not correct, as a practicing Catholic, to be in favor of abortion. It's wrong! And I've had Catholics tell me, "Well, I just, that's a just minor issue. We shouldn't worry about it." No, it's not!

We have great cardinals. We actually have one from Dallas or he lived here temporarily in Dallas. Where are the persons within the Vatican, who are saying, "We have a problem. We cannot encourage and protect homosexual priests." And if you think this abuse of young men is not related to homosexuality, you're stupid!

And how many times is that cardinal ever going to be invited back to the Vatican? If you have questions on how long it's going to take, call Cardinal Burke, because that's what he did on the issues of life.

We are called in our lives... some of us have it easier: some of us are lawyers... but we are called in our lives to be the speakers of the truth. Which means, by the definition of the definition of the world, we are called to be obnoxious.

Mayve... and I can't even say anything... there's so many things wrong with Mayve because she's always sitting there and I'm always picking on her... you are doing something wrong because people don't like to be told they are doing something wrong.

And what if they come in and say, "Look, Margene, you stop telling me these things or I'm going to put you in jail! I'm going to make it so that you, Margene, because you don't believe that homosexuality is the most wonderful thing in the world, are an outcast. You are a closed-minded bigot and nobody wants to associate with you. And if you have any question in your mind, just watch television and you'll understand what a close-minded bigot you are.” And guess what, you are a Catholic! You are a close-minded bigot because you don't even have to say the truth. We know what you believe!"

We are called not only to pray like St. Monica, and she did this, we are called, like St. Monica, to go to tell her son, "You are living a life of sin and you're going to go to hell if you don't change it!"

That's the lesson of John the Baptist. That's the lesson of Jeremiah. And that's the lesson that God wants us to learn. That He is a speaker of the truth and we have the obligation to speak and live the truth.

August 22, 2019 2