VII Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, administrator of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org) 

Submission to the blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella for the VII Sunday in Ordinary Time by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas © All Rights Reserved © February 16, 2023 

Scripture readings for todays reflection can be found at Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In light of recent and credible press reports of suspicion and surveillance by the field office at Richmond, Virginia of the Federal Bureau of Investigation of “radical, traditionalist Catholics,” one should pray for the agents and officials of the Bureau in light of the Gospel reading today in the Ordinary Form, that is Mark 5:38-48. If these reports be true, then a breach is alarmingly present between the oath taken by certain American law enforcement agents and public officials to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” (cf. U.S. Code, Title 5, sec. 3331) and the God-given rights of the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly protected by the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of the same Constitution. Beyond the indication of what is thought of Catholics by the authors and those powers-that-be that commissioned the memorandum leaked into the public discourse, we Catholic Americans and especially we parishioners of Presentation-Sacred Heart Parish must not allow a vile caricature of Catholics to divide us or to have us look at certain brothers and sisters in the True Faith as “those” Catholics. Whether we worship in the Ordinary or the Extraordinary Forms, “take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.” Leviticus 19:18 (from today’s first reading in the Ordinary Form). Our parish is blessed to count on the harmony and solidarity of God-fearing parishioners who attend Mass and seek the sacraments in the Ordinary and Extraordinary Forms. Over the last nineteen months or so, truly we have blended to become one parish with two churches. Parishioners from both forms of the Mass collaborate in our councils, organizations, and our distinctive pro-life apostolate. It is evident that the continuation of our parish financially and logistically depends on the support of the faithful from both forms of Holy Mass. In light of Sacred Scripture, the enduring Apostolic Tradition, and the historic Magisterium, our parishioners and clerics strive towards a true understanding of infallibility in the moral and doctrinal teachings of the Church in contrast to the lazy, blind trust placed in the misjudgments of the “Southern Poverty Law Center,” a Woke outfit presenting itself as a civil rights group, by the leaked F.B.I. memo and by so many virtue signalers in corporate America and the public square. I am reminded of the words of Martin Niemöller, the German Lutheran minister (1892-1984): “First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.” From a poetic translation of Rev. Niemöller’s speech at the Confessing Church in Frankfurt, Germany on Jan. 6, 1946, per “First they came…”, Wikipedia, https://en.m.wikipedia.org, accessed Feb. 16, 2023. I write you, dear reader, to arrest any indifference to the recent news simply because you pray at Mass in the Ordinary Form instead of the Extraordinary Form. In light of the disregard shown to the needs and rights of Catholics across the board over the last few years by powerful people and organizations in the public and private sectors, our solidarity as Catholics both locally and across the land is indispensable. Although we may not incur sin in order to reprove our fellow citizen (cf. Leviticus 19:17), “let no one deceive himself.” (1 Cor 3:18, from our second reading in the Ordinary Form). In addition to the Biblical mandates to pray for those who wish us ill and to pray for our public officials (cf. 1 Tim 2:1-4), let us raise our voices in advocacy and protest of our God-given rights as well as our hands in intercessory prayer.