Let's raise our grandchildren to love Jesus on the cross! |
"Woe to them who call evil good and good evil." [Isaiah 5:20]
We hear a lot about tolerance today: tolerance for homosexuals and lesbians pretending to be married and playing house, tolerance for couples who fornicate freely and kill their babies, tolerance for every kind of sexual deviancy, tolerance for those who shove their sins in our faces and demand we approve them, etc. But there's one group that cannot be tolerated and must be shamed into changing their beliefs or gagged into utter silence:
Those who speak the truth about what is right and wrong using God's moral teachings as their rule book. Even the pope shames them with comments about their rigidity and lack of "mercy." The president shames them with comments about clinging to their bibles and their guns.
And if you're a kid, most of the authority figures in your life will be quick to condemn you for not appreciating the diversity of others. If these intolerant kids are in schools they are shamed by the administration and many of their teachers. "Take off that pro-life T-shirt!....Stop drawing that picture of the Nativity or the Crucifixion....Don't bring that bible to school....Don't say, 'God bless you!' if somebody sneezes." Even those home schooled are on sports teams and attend youth groups where their values are likely to be ridiculed and they will be shamed with names like homophobe, hater, and bigot.
No, there is no "safe zone" for those who won't bend to the cultural zeitgeist.
Pray for our kids and raise them to expect a white martyrdom. Help them to understand the value of suffering and how it can save souls. Teach them the prayers of Fatima especially to pray this when they are suffering:
"My Jesus, it is for love of you, for the conversion of sinners, and in atonement for sins against the Immaculate Heart of Mary." They can also add: ...and in particular for this intention.Encourage your children to develop a sense of the ridiculous, so they aren't crushed by the insanity taking place around us. But above all, help them to love the suffering Christ and desire to comfort Him. Teach them about little Francisco of Fatima who often reminded his sister and cousin, not to mind something difficult, but to offer it as a sacrifice to console Jesus "who is so sad."
I think the virtue most necessary in our culture today after love is hope. As Padre Pio said so often, "Pray, hope and don't worry."
And may God have mercy on those who scandalize and persecute us, especially our children and grandchildren.
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