L.A. ARCHBISHOP JOSE H. GOMEZ: OUR MISSION IS BIGGER THAN POLITICS

 L.A. ARCHBISHOP JOSE H. GOMEZ: OUR MISSION IS BIGGER THAN POLITICS

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - SUN. DEC 13,2020

October 28, 2020 - visit www.angelusnews.com 

   

As we are voting this year, I think we all recognize that there are some problems in our democracy.

 

    We see the obvious things - the polarization, the lack of charity and civility in how we talk about our differences, we see the struggle that our political leaders seem to have in working together & compromising for the common good.

    But the deeper but the deeper questions about our democracy begin in the human heart. Who are we and why?

    Unless we know what it means to be a human being, we cannot know how to create a society that will be good for human beings. We cannot know what justice is, what a good life is, what the best way is for us to live and work.

 

    Our society today tells us that we human beings are "expressive individuals." - that we have no necessary relationship with others; that our only obligation is to pursue our own desires. Because our society thinks about the human person in these terms, we often see messages and agendas in our culture that promote this idea that people must be totally free to define their own happiness, & that nothing stand in their way of how they want to live.

     But what society today is telling us is not what human life is all about. 

 

    Following this path does not make people happy. We see that in the wide-spread addictions and mental illnesses, in the epidemics of abuse and suicide. And much of the violence and injustice in our society can be traced to this self-seeking vision of the human person, which leads to an indifference towards the needs of others.

     The truth is that we do not create ourselves. To be human is to be a creature," to be created. We come into this world as male or female. We are born into families and communities, we have relatives and histories.

 

    We are not isolated individuals We have a basic need to be loved and to care for others. We are made to belong and to be in relationships - with other people, with the world we live in, & with our Creator. 

   Our creator has revealed to us that he is a Father, that made us in his image and likeness, that he gave us not only our bodies, but our souls. And our Creator made each of us for a reason. He has a plan, a loving destiny for each of our lives. 

 

    America was built on the foundation of these basic religious truths about the human person. Our founders insisted that democracy cannot be contained without religion and the virtues and values that religion brings, especially the virtues of personal discipline and the values of family and community.

    And we need to remember: This country's founding commitment to equality and human rights have no foundation apart from this belief in a Creator who endows men and women with inalienable rights. 

 

    That is why the indifference toward religion in American public life and the marginalizing of religious is so disturbing. And that is why even beyond this election our mission as the Church and our duty as Catholics remains bigger than politics. We are to serve God and bear witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and coming of his kingdom.

 

    We do that first by living faithfully as Jesus teaches us to live, even when his commandments and priorities for our lives are not popular or are opposed to our culture and society. ... Now is the time to build up our parishes, families and communities. We need to pray together, read the Bible together, find new ways to gather & support one another in living our faith.

 

    We need to see our lives & our world in the light of the Christian "story," in light of the Gospel and New Testament, in light of God's ongoing plan of love in history. Most important of all. we need to be deliberate & vigilant about passing on this story - our Catholic way of life - to the younger generation...

 George H. Kubeck