Gospel Reflection For The 1st day of August in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Gospel
Matthew13:47-53
47 Again the kingdom of heaven is like to a net cast into the sea, and gathering together of all kind of fishes. 48 Which, when it was filled, they drew out, and sitting by the shore, they chose out the good into vessels, but the bad they cast forth. 49 So shall it be at the end of the world. The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just. 50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
51 Have ye understood all these things? They say to him: Yes. 52 He said unto them: Therefore every scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven, is like to a man that is a householder, who bringeth forth out of his treasure new things and old. 53 And it came to pass: when Jesus had finished these parables, he passed from thence.
Today's Mass Readings are an interesting contrast. The Gospel is seemingly about how the righteous and the just will be judged accordingly at the end of time. However, the first reading and the psalm are about how God judges nations. The prophet, Jeremiah is told by God to observe the potter. Each time the potter makes an item that does not satisfy him, he turns it back into a lump of clay and starts again. God warns that He can and will do the same to Israel if they are unfaithful. The Israeli people were a holy nation, chosen and blessed by God. It was unfathomable to them, as it is to many now, that their nation would be subjugated by Rome and entirely destroyed shortly after the crucifixion of our Lord. It is hard for many to understand today that modern Israel is a secular nation that is not even comprised of a majority of religious Jews. While modern Israel respects its holy sites and has a Jewish identity, those faithful to Judaism as a religion are almost as few as those faithful to Christianity are in America and western Europe. It is a sad state of affairs, but an obvious failing of humanity and not just one race or religion.
Sadly, America is no longer a nation in which the majority of its citizens are practicing, believing, church-going Christians. Recent surveys show that while most Americans do still believe in a higher power, they have no religious affiliation. Ironically, our founding fathers often wrote of America as the “New Jerusalem” and as having founded a covenant with God. Well, they were all Protestant except for my ancestor, Charles Carroll (the sole Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence) and most all were Freemasons. They very likely did not know that they had no authority to form a covenant with God. A covenant between God and man is formed by God, through His authority, as man has no power over God. They also likely did not realize that this idea of America being the New Jerusalem is somewhat blasphemous. The New Jerusalem is the Catholic Church, the “shining city set upon a hill”, the heart of the new religion founded by Jesus.
One of the more controversial statements I have made on my podcast is that America needs God, but God does not need America. God raised up and destroyed even Israel when they rejected Him. Patriotism is well and good, but we are all the family of God; all Christians in every nation are part of His body. God does not play favorites among nations. If America rejects God, He will reject America. He will give us the leaders we deserve, who will destroy our nation. Or, as it says in some of the most terrifying words of the Bible, “He gave them over unto their own devices”... and that, is the end.
Judson Carroll is the author of several books, including his newest, A Daily Catholic Devotional, Reflections on the Daily Mass Readings July-December, 2024 It is Available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3ZTXQB4
and
Confirmation, an Autobiography of Faith. It is also Available in paperback on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47Q1JNK
His new podcast is The Uncensored Catholic https://www.spreaker.com/show/the-uncensored-catholic
Excellent reflection Mr. Carrol
On September 11, 2001 I was a middle-aged college student at the university. I went into the cafeteria area where many students were watching the buildings go down in real time. Looking around I saw many of the young people intently watching the events unfold. There were others, though milling about ,smiling and having no sense of the immensity of this event.
I then thought to myself, “there doesn’t have to be an America”. There is no law from God that says we have to stay a nation.