Daily Retreat 06/13/06

2006 Jun 13 Tue: Anthony of Padua, p, r, dr M

1 Kgs 17: 7-16/ Ps 4: 2-3. 4-5. 7b-8/ Mt 5: 13-16

From today’s readings: "She was able to eat for a year, and Elijah and her son as well; the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry, as the LORD had foretold through Elijah.... When I call, answer me, O my just God, You who relieve me when I am in distress; Have pity on me, and hear my prayer!... You are the salt of the earth...."

 

 

One of the most insidious facets of modern secularism is its insistence that religion belongs only to the private sphere. Any country, communist or capitalist, dictatorship or democracy, will happily accommodate any anemic faith that quietly keeps to itself and doesn’t dare to challenge public policy.

 

But such a mindset cannot be called freedom of religion, because it essentially attempts to normalize freedom from religion! Authentic Christian faith simply cannot be short-circuited and confined to private matters. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains that His disciples are not to hypocritically divorce their private practices from their public positions, rather, "You are the salt of the earth.... You are the light of the world!"

 

The splendor of the truth, like a city on a mountain, cannot be hidden. But sadly, it can be ignored, avoided, and even contemptuously derided and denied, as secularism arrogantly tries to do. But if our Christian faith is worth anything to us, then it certainly is worth sharing with others, and bringing the light of this faith to scatter the darkness of modern doubt and confusion.

Fr. Rory Pitstick
Our Lady of the Valley Parish
2511 N. Elmway
Okanogan WA 98840 USA
(509) 422-5049

"Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui." John 3:30

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