The Evils of Blasphemy
Saturday, June 15th Readings Reflection: Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Today’s Gospel warns against taking the Name of God in vain: “But I say to you, do not swear at all…. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the Evil One.” Also known as blasphemy, taking God’s Name in vain is a serious sin, as both Jesus and Our Lady of La Salette have warned us.
On September 19, 1846, Our Lady appeared to two children near the village of La Salette in the French Alps. Our Lady asked the children to spread her message, in which she warned the world against continuing to disregard the Sabbath, to take God’s Name in vain, and to ignore the Church’s laws concerning abstinence from meat. Our Lady told the children that her Divine Son was angered at these sins and that His justice would swiftly fall upon mankind if they persisted in their sins.
Tragically, the world did persist in its evil ways, and sinfulness only increased. In America, blue laws have been abolished in nearly every state, and Mass attendance is at an all-time low. Nearly every form of modern secular media takes God’s Name in vain, and the laws of abstinence are often regarded as outdated and irrelevant. If Our Lord was angered over the world’s sins in 1846, how much more must He be over the world’s sins today.
As Catholics, we have a moral obligation to instruct the ignorant, both by our words and by our actions. Living an authentically Christian life in the modern world means being countercultural in many ways as we resist the sins that are so prevalent in our society. In a sermon, my priest once said that we Catholics should live out the Gospel so well that everyone who encounters us knows without any doubt that we are Catholic.
Living authentically Catholic lives is certainly not easy; after all, we are striving for the perfection of God Himself (cf. Mt 5:48). The reward for remaining faithful is eternal, just as the punishment for failing to repent is eternal. May the warning in today’s Gospel awaken a greater zeal within us to remain faithful to our merciful God and to resist the temptations all around us, knowing that the reward for our efforts will be eternal beatitude in His presence.
Our Lady of La Salette, ora pro nobis!
Amend, so true! And I think we should add persevere in prayers of love for others including those hardest to love.