No one can read Today’s Catholic Bible Reading and not ask the obvious question: “What is keeping me from ‘Being Catholic!’?”
Today’s Reading begins by reminding us that the people of Jerusalem were captured by Babylonians in 587 BC. That duplicated the capture of the Ten Northern Tribes in Samaria 135 years earlier, in 722 BC.
All Twelve Tribes had been confused and looted by early religious profiteers who proudly proclaimed, “We know more than God and His Prophets about what is best for us!” The “Hidden Prophecy”? God punishes those who violate The First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.”
The results of vanity are clear in 2 Kings 24:8-17. “Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, himself arrived at the city while his servants were besieging it… took the king captive… and carried off all the treasures” they had been accumulating since Solomon was King in 931 BC, 344 years earlier.
Those who love themselves more than God and His Prophets are described in Today’s Psalm 79:1-5, 8 & 9:
“O God, the nations have come into Your inheritance; they have defiled Your Holy Temple, they have laid Jerusalem in ruins… Deliver us and pardon our sins for Your Name’s sake… For the Glory of Your Name, deliver us.”
That prayer was answered nearly a thousand years later. The “Prologue” of John lets us see that The Word of God, the fullness of The Creation Program, was written by The Loving Programmer over 13 trillion light-years ago. As His Prophets had predicted, The Word of God took human form and was born in Bethlehem to a Virgin of The House of David.
For 2,000 years, Catholics have been so grateful to God that we have guided our lives by The Church-Creating Word of God to His First Catholic Pope: “And I say unto you: ‘Thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I give you the keys to The Kingdom of Heaven.'”
Catholics are blessed to be often hated for being the only people on earth described by the “Hidden Prophecy” of John 14:22, “Whoever loves Me will keep My Word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him.”
He Who Fulfilled The Prophecies is The Word of God in Human Form. He told those who would be blessed exactly why we should “Be Catholic!” in Matthew 7:21-29: “Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter The Kingdom of Heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in Heaven”.
Catholics see the meaning of His Next Word to believers who are actually self-worshiping! “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your Name? Did we not drive out demons in Your Name? Did we not do mighty deeds in Your Name?'”
Catholics see the “Hidden Prophecy” that foretells the fate of those who pretend to be “believers” but who do not obey His Church-Creating Word:
“Everyone who listens to these Words of Mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. But, it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.” Only Catholics are blessed to most meaningfully connect that Word of Jesus to His Church-Creating Word to His First Catholic Pope, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock I build My Church… “!
Then, this “Hidden Prophecy” of denominational disobedience! “And everyone who listens to these Words of Mine but does not act on them will be like a fool who built his house on sand. The rains fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And, it collapsed and was completely ruined.”
That “Hidden Prophecy” correctly predicted thousands of vain denominations of Nicolaitans, Arians, and the countless denominational marketing plans invented by “Pastor Bobs”. They have been forming, “collapsing”, and “completely ruined” for the past 2,000 years.
Today’s Reading ends with another “Hidden Prophesy” foretelling why so many would choose to “Be Catholic!” “When Jesus finished these words, the crowds were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as One Having Authority, and not as their scribes.”
The most blessed people on earth are so impressed “with His Authority” that we do not allow our immortal souls to be kept from Heaven by self-serving “scribes” who want us to be among the donors they lead to reject the Seven Catholic Sacraments.
Self-serving people are easy to identify: All are too vain to take The Holy Vows of Obedience, Poverty, and Chastity.
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “We listen to Jesus and not to ‘scribes’. / Catholics shun self-serving bribes. / We are not raised / by human praise”
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