Mgrs. James Lisante- A Classic on the Political Realm

Mgsr. James Lisante – A Classic on the Political Realm
Monday, December 17, 2007
The Monsignor gave this talk at the Medjugorje Peace Conference – 2000 in Irvine, Calif. He is host of national syndicated program titled, Personally Speaking on the Odyssey Chanel. Tape from Follow Me Communications, Inc.:
He has a quote for the program, “It is impossible to open wide the doors of Christ until we look fully into our sinful souls that will involve a radical call to honesty and humility.” The title of his talk is, “In this Jubilee Year bear witness to the wonders of your faith.” And that comes from Mary’s message to us, “Wake up from your sleep of unbelief and sin because this is a time of grace which God has given to you.”

“Thank you for having me back…. So hold on to your hats and here we go, “Is anybody there, does anybody care, does anybody see what I see?” Now if I was really an actor I can sing that the right way. But you get the idea. It is a song from 1776 and sung by John Adams. “Is anybody there, does anybody care, does anybody see what I see?” I sing that song by way of entrance into the concept of being a people of grace who now just don’t hold unto the grace but practice it in the lived order of daily life.

“And I come before you so impressed by 5.000 people; I felt that I heard all of the 5,000 of you in confession. But I heard a spiritual energy here that blew my New York socks off. But now I say to myself what do we do? How do we stop being people who compartmentalize? You know who pull out the drawer and in one section have the socks and the other sections underwear and undershirts and instead recognize that the spiritual power in this particular arena today means not so much unless it is mixed with the real order of real life.

“And I want to speak out one particular mention of real life that we as Catholic Christians and we as spiritual people tend to want to ignore because we see it as a dirty word. And I am going to suggest to you that to be fully human, to be fully alive and to be fully Catholic Christian means that you must also be deeply involved in the affairs of our time. And specifically, you must be a person of the political realm.

“And I know is saying that, that there are people who say No! No! No! The last time I was here several years ago, you know it doesn’t matter you have a 1,000 people saying you are doing a good job. You have one or two E-mail you and say Hey why are you bringing politics into the religious for. And right away you say maybe I should focus on that and more on religion.

“So I did and I prayed about it and I read those e-mails again and again and I thought to myself. But politics is where good can happen. It is where; it’s where the Lord’s work can be done.

“Let me give you an example of what I am talking about. You can look at something like Euthanasia and the Right to Die. And you can say well that is a spiritual and moral issue and you are right. But do you know what? It will be determined by politicians in terms of whether you and I live in a country where people are put to death simply because they are old, or they are sick or disabled.”
George H. Kubeck, Posted in the early mornings – www.cinopsbegone.blogspot.com/