Father Paul Weinberger
Saint William the Confessor Catholic Church
Greenville, Texas
3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
January 21, 2007
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today there are many people in our country who still believe in God. No one can tell how many "we" are, but there are many. But there is a division that is quickly growing in our country. It is indeed increasing and I would call this other division a secularist religion for people who do not believe in God.
In the Dallas Morning News today, Elizabeth Fox Genovese, who used to be a Marxist feminist and is now a traditional Catholic, said that before she converted all of her friends took it as a matter of faith that God is dead. That is an interesting way of putting it. For them, as a matter of faith God is dead. They are dogmatic in their belief that God is dead.
Pope Benedict writes very beautifully about the faith. He says that faith is not a magic formula. We just began the Gospel of Luke and as we go through the Gospel of St. Luke in the weeks ahead we are going to get to Luke chapter 8 verse 50. Jesus says very directly to me and to you,
"Fear is useless. What is needed is faith."
So the next time you try to convince yourself that it is ok to be afraid those words should rise up and convict you.
Fear is useless. What is needed is faith.
Pope Benedict wrote that, faith is not a magic formula but it does give us the key to learning for ourselves; so that we can get answers and find out for ourselves who we are. It is always the case that a person first recognizes himself in others and through others. No one can arrive at knowledge of himself just by looking within himself, trying to build up his personality from what he finds there. Man as a being is so constructed for relationships that he grows in relation to others so that his own meaning, his task in life, his advancement in life, and his potential are locked in his meetings with others. It is a different way of saying that no man is an island.
Fear is useless. What is needed is faith.
That is what we believe as Catholics. The secularists would have you believe that faith is useless and what is needed is fear. Faith and fear both begin with “f”. It is like two sides of the same coin. If you choose not to believe in God the automatic default is fear because now you have to manage everything. So fear is taking a big load upon yourself that you will never finish. Further down, Pope Benedict says that faith is not just a system of knowledge. Faith is not just things we are told. At the heart of faith is a meeting with Jesus.
On the front of your bulletin is a meeting with Jesus; Saul is meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus. That is a come to Jesus moment.
Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?
Jesus said that to Saul who would go on to become St. Paul.
The pope wrote that,
Faith is not just a system of knowledge...At the heart of faith is a meeting with Jesus. This meeting with Jesus among all other meetings we have need of, is the truly decisive one. All the other meetings leave the ultimate goal unclear. At our meeting with Jesus the fundamental light dawns by which I can understand God, man, the world, mission and meaning and where all the other meetings fall into place.
So faith is fundamental. Faith is basic and fear is useless and what is needed is faith.
I am going to approach a very difficult topic but this has to be the refrain to which we return again and again; this aspect of faith or fear.
Yesterday the Dallas Morning News had a picture of a winter wonderland up in Oklahoma. The paper on Friday said that 63,000 people in Oklahoma are still without electricity. Do more people than that live in
Oklahoma? (Laughter) Anyway we need to pray for them during Mass. I know it seems like it is against our nature to pray for those in Oklahoma but again we are Christian. You know being Texan really goes to the
root of who you really are!
Last week I thought that we might get the ice storm and that we might be without power at the rectory and I needed to have a plan “b” because if you don't have electricity and you stay in a cold house you are just going to get colder and colder. I worry about these people but it would be better to pray for them. They are confined to a small area and it is getting colder and colder and more ice is on the way.
Right next to this article is one on a guy from 2003 who drove an eighteen-wheeler to the Desoto area. He parked it in the middle of the summer with 19 people inside who were being smuggled into the country. He got life in prison. This came out in the Friday paper. Confined to a little place but with the opposite, too much heat, they, the 19 people inside all died. Now, regardless of what you think about that whole immigration issue, those people did not deserve to die in that manner. They are human beings, right? Human beings do not deserve to die like that. Last week I heard that the case was resolved.
A man had a dog, a Labrador puppy. He put it into a washing machine and turned it on and the dog was terribly injured but it survived and had to be put down. The man now will spend one year in a very small space. One year in jail. I know people who have been caught drunk and driving under the influence and have only gotten probation. But the guy who didn't endanger motorists, just a dog gets one year in prison. He's going to get the idea of what it feels like to be in an enclosed space; it’s very small. What a terrible thing to do to ANY animal, but it will help to underline an anniversary, one that is a sad anniversary that comes tomorrow.
Tomorrow is the 34th anniversary of the years since Roe vs. Wade made it possible to be able to take the life of a child anytime during those nine months in this country. And you know why? Out of fear! Whenever you talk about this and try to approach this subject with friends, family, co-workers and they're for abortion it’s almost like talking to Lady McBeth,
ummm....well I'm afraid, I'm afraid of who's going to pay? What if children get sick?
When I was a kid you could turn on Walt Disney and watch anything and it would be ok. That's how old I am. (Laughter) One of the things I liked about Walt Disney was the Walt Disney Hour on Sunday nights. During
the commercials, you would see this kitchen sink and then BAM, the doors would fly open, and then a little chuck wagon, about this big (making a hand motion) with little bitty cowboys were saying
YA!! YA!! Giddy up!
And then the horses would come out and they would run over the dog food bowl. (Laughter) Then they would turn around and go right back from where they came. It's a good thing that lady wasn't washing dishes...woooo right?
Think about this, Purina Dog Chow sold a lot of dog chow on the Walt Disney show, right? Do you have any idea how long dog food as been around? Just about as long as I've been around. You know what we did? How did you feed dogs before dog food? Scrape...scrape.... scrape. (Laughter) Think about it, you know how much dog food costs? Well the people at the grocery store just give it away. (Laughter) No they don't; you put out big money. Oh you're out of dog food and now you have to get in the car, risk your life to go to the store in the ice, to get dog food. Well if we feed him that then we might be able to cut a month or two off of the dogs life and save hundreds of dollars a month or two..Ok.. Ummm.... scraps. Sorry I'm a man, I love dogs, but I like saving money.
What about those HG TV shows? On TV where they have the camera come in, there is a man and his wife and two or three dogs and they say,
Welcome...Welcome to our home...come right this way!!
Then they take you on this beautiful tour; these people are regular people they're not billionaires. The home is about a $900,000 home.
Now on the third floor, this is where I keep all my shoes and clothes and on the next floor my wife has the same thing for all her clothes and shoes.
Then you hear this conversation between the man and his wife.
Where's the money? Where's the money? I don't know where all the money is! I mean we couldn't possible afford children!
Speaking of money; people today are actually worried about Social Security. You know why? Because when FDR signed Social Security he had no idea that Roe vs. Wade would come along and that 50 million
Americans, who should be here, are not here. 50 million. They would be paying into Social Security. It's funny how the evening news never mentions that. Maybe somebody just forgot or maybe these are secularists, who adamantly believe that God is dead therefore we have to be the ones who are in charge of the world. It's all up to us since, in their opinion, God is dead.
Last week, as most of this country was in the grip of a cold front, I took a look at the Drudge Report. It said that people in Washington last week were getting legislation ready to do something about GLOBAL WARMING. Now listen, I only drink clean water and I want to breathe clean air. I like the environment clean. But talking about Global Warming when the freezing grip is upon 63,000 without power? There is money that is going to be spent on that!
This past September, Catholic World Report, a magazine that I sell, [Laughter] I mean I read, because it is an excellent Catholic Magazine, has a little baby on the cover but then it also has an outline of the same little baby as well on the cover and it says,
The Humane Holocaust, As Prenatal Screening Grows Disabled Children Disappear
(Father is pointing at the cover.)
So you have this kid here and all the other kids are disappearing. Inside it is talking about embryonic stem cell research. One of the ways that people make us disgusted with this whole discussion is they talk about all jumbled together. They mix adult stem cell research and embryonic stem cell research. You almost want to turn off the news about the issue. That is how they try and confuse us.
Embryonic Stem Cell Research is creating a human being, an embryo, and we can experiment on it and then destroy it. Father, pretending to be a moron, says,
"Well if it's going to help somebody live longer or whatever..."
How would you like your last act in this life to be flushing those embryos down the drain after they have been experimented on? The next sound you hear is when you meet God or for that to be the position one of your children is in. No sir-ee!
Now last week the cold went as far as California and I saw on the Drudge Report that the fruit and vegetable crops were damaged. God bless farmers; they have it tough enough. Now, with all of the damage to the crops where is the money going to come from to help? A few years ago California voted overwhelmingly to spend 6 billion to fund embryonic stem cell research. Now in the history of the world how many people so far have been helped or cured by embryonic stem cell research? Zero
Now did I hear last week that those voters in California told Arnold to give those 6 billion dollars to the farmers? No. But we hear about where the money is going to come from. It is spreading. Last week in New York, Legislators were beginning the same thing there with 1 billion dollars. If you want to get an idea of tomorrow's anniversary think about how you felt last week.
Closed into your little place and then the power goes off, isn't that what happens in an abortion? That is the first thing that happens. The power is cut and then the child suffers in terrible ways. I am not going to go into
that right now, but that is the truth. What that man did to that dog by putting it in a washing machine is nothing compared to what happens in an abortion. The man got one year in prison for dog abuse. Where is
the sanity? This is the same country.
Anyway, this morning I saw something…it must be near the end of the world. My heart attack has partially subsided. The cover story for the New York Times Magazine for January 21, 2007, in the second paragraph
quotes someone speaking of God in a favorable way! Of course, by the end of the article they will shoot that person down. But in the second paragraph they are quoting a woman who is doing work in Houston. She is 53 and often wears silver hoop earring and low cut black boots.
Father jokes that he is glad they mentioned that factoid because he was wondering what she was wearing,
NOT! [Laughter]
Again it is the New York Times Magazine. This woman has a weakness for edgy zingers. She started doing post abortion counseling 15 years ago after what she describes was a revelation from God.
I guess they had never read that second reading from St. Paul, how we are concerned most with the weakest members of the body. Those children are the weakest members.She decided that her own pain and unhappiness was due to the abortion she had in 1973 when she was 19. She said, "It was the year Roe vs. Wade was decided and I remember saying that no guy in Washington is going to tell me what to do with my body.
She said with a sharp laugh, "That after the procedure, (you notice she didn't say abortion), strange feelings washed over me. I remember having evil thoughts about hurting children. It was like I had done the worst thing that I could possibly do. A piece of evil had entered me.
Even though the magazine goes on to say different things about her I give them credit for placing the above in the second paragraph. The article is titled, "Is there a Post Abortion Syndrome?" You wonder where these people live. This woman in 2004 did a study in the prison that she worked in. Two-thirds of the women there reported depression relating to abortion. Thirty-two percent reported suicide attempts relating to abortion. Eighty-four percent reported substance/drug abuse due to their abortions. When the NY Times in their secularist model, which promotes that God is dead… yet somehow they are a people of faith. They say that if blaming it all on the abortions will help these women psychologically through their depression… you know they are just emotional. That is insulting to women in the extreme.
The New York Times refuses to admit that these abortions took the lives of children. There is a family in the parish that has lots of kids and they just found out that they are going to have another child. They say that
they have this many kids here on earth and six in Heaven. But when anybody who believes in abortion is talking to you about your miscarriage, there they are looking at you in the face and saying that what you lost was something like a tumor or an excised mole.
Now back to the article about the humane holocaust with embryonic stem cell research. The article refers Cardinal Lopez Trujillo. He is the president for the Pontifical Council for the Family. He said,
Canonical penalty of excommunication, which is applied to those involved in abortion, also applies to those involved in stem cell research. Deliberately destroying embryos for research is equivalent to
abortion. The same penalty would apply since it is the same action.
This is from the August/September 2006 Issue.
We have to look at this as it really is. Now if you will look at the back page of the bulletin please. There is a story that you can read later about a couple last year who had a baby and celebrated yesterday the one year
birthday of little Sofia, which means Wisdom. This couple has wisdom that a lot of the secularists don't have. Now if you look at their names you will see that they are not from here. You know I am speaking in
code. They are not our kind. Right?
”So this couple, they have a fourth grade education and they are going to come here and tell me ......”
In the fourth paragraph it says that she has an optometrist practice.
”Oh, so she is educated.”
Yes, post graduate. Look at the third paragraph.
Diagnosed with severe heart defects while still in the womb, Baby Sofia, was threatened with abortion when several doctors repeatedly urged her to end the pregnancy.
You know doctors have to be paid a lot because of the malpractice insurance. Do doctors get paid enough to participate in the deaths of babies? No salary would be great enough for me to do that.
The next paragraph shows that it wasn't just her doctors but even her colleagues, friends, and even her own patients who advised her to abort. Now look at what happened. She had the baby who was born with the heart
defect. She underwent surgery when she was just three days old. This picture right here,(Father is pointing at the Divine Mercy Image), is Divine Mercy. So many people will tell you and me that it is more merciful to have just...had an abortion. No I don't know that to be true. Isn't it strange that it is now more merciful to have an abortion? NO. Isn't it amazing how these two people cooperating with God brought a life into this world? They are a people of faith. It is not just a system of knowledge for them. God has given them this life and they are going to guard this life, this precious life, until God calls this life back to Him. For them faith is not just a mechanical thing. Sofia was born on the 33rd anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. Jesus was 33 when we killed Him. The baby was born at 3 P.M., the same time that Jesus died, the Hour of Great Mercy.
Now if you are hearing all of this and you are thinking that Father Paul and the Catholic Church are being mean in talking about this, you are wrong. You don't know me. Look now at page 8. That is a two-page story about a family whose daughter was murdered. That family goes to our parish. You can read that later as well. I don't want anyone going to hell. My intention is not to send you or anyone else to hell. It is not in my power, and I don't have the desire.
At the top of page 8 you see where Jesus is speaking to St. Faustina, a saint recently canonized by Pope John Paul II.
The greater the sinner the greater the right he has to My Mercy.
Jesus said that to St. Faustina. Catholic theology backs that up 100%. The couple that lost the daughter in the article I provided for you want to make sure that if the man is found guilty of the murder that he is not killed through Capital Punishment. They want him to get life in prison instead. The measure you use in this life in regards to mercy will be the measure that will be measured back to us.
Now if you flip over to page nine there is a story about a couple that just gave birth to a baby named Noah. Had the baby been a girl they would have named her Hannah Mae. Hannah means God has favored us, so
this is a believing company. When you get deeper into the article you see that this baby and their first child are in vitro fertilization babies. Now just to be very clear because this couple may not have known
what I am about to say and you may not even know what I am about to tell you about in vitro fertilization. The Catholic Church says NO! May God bless couples that find it difficult to have children but the children must not be gotten through in vitro fertilization. The Catholic Church says that the life giving must be attached to love giving. I do not have to draw you a picture.
If you look down about 10 lines from the bottom you see that their first baby's name is Witt. He is also an in vitro baby and his embryo was created at the same time as Noah's, but his was implanted immediately while the other five were frozen in case of marriage which is very common with in vitro fertilization. Fourteen hundred embryos were rescued during Hurricane Katrina. These are human beings in the embryo stage. Reading further we can see that the Markham’s aren't sure that they will have a third child.
But there aren't three left over. They have five others. Now what happens to them and the other 1400 human beings? Now, the mean Catholic Church, which people revile is not mean at all. The Church says no to purposely conceiving a child in a laboratory setting but if the embryo already exists, do you know what the Catholic Church says to people adopting? She says yes. YES! Why? Because the Catholic Church is consistent about life and that is a life waiting to develop and be born. These people in the article are evidently religious because they were going to name this baby Hannah had it been a girl, which means “God has favored us.”I thought three would be the ideal number..
In the first reading today when the prophet read out the law there were some people crying. Why do you think that was? Because they weren't living according to God's law and His laws have been revealed to us in Jesus Christ. The last line of the Gospel today says that the scripture has been fulfilled.
You know if you ever come to my office I have several large pictures. I got to shake hands with Governor George Wallace. I am so proud of these pictures. I got to shake hands with him and speak to him. I am so proud. He was a bigot! May God have mercy on his soul. He was a bigot. In his mind, some people were more equal than others.
Fr. Paul is joking in the paragraph above but is trying to make a point.
Last Monday with all of the storms, was Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Well he fought against such bigotry. Thanks be to God! I have got to say that archival material in relation to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shows that he was leaning in the direction of pro abortion. I pray that if his life hadn't been cut short that he would have straightened that out. Dr. King fought along with other that equal rights were given to every human being regardless of religion, race, or color. When is that going to happen with abortion?
It is going to happen when we stop worrying about money and start being a people of faith. Men, all men have the same reaction when they reach the moment and they look deep into a woman's heart and they are amazed at the ocean of love that exists there. It is amazing! Women are famous for saying,
” Oh come on and have dinner with us there is plenty here.”
Some how they stretch it even when there is not enough. There is so much love in the heart of women that it leaves men breathless. Gee Wiz! I know mothers that have to go to foreign countries to adopt children. I know a mother in this parish with two children, and the toddler has had lots of health problems. They have been practically living at Children's Hospital. She is now studying nursing and do you know why? So that she can be a foster mother for severely handicapped disabled children. There is so much love in her heart. She already knows the job. She takes care of one such child with severe medical problems and is willing to take care of another.
All of this stuff about abortion is a distraction. Stem Cell Research? No, it's Faith or Fear; that is what it comes down to, Faith or Fear. Jesus has come to set us free from fear but if you choose faith and are still afraid you won't have the faith, just the fear. You will have it in wave after wave after wave. You will worry about everything such as social security, gas prices, trench foot, bad breath, and underarm deodorant problems. You
will wonder about things that have nothing to do with you and it will eat you up.
Jesus said,
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
Now I have heard Hollywood stars, you would recognize the names, say that abortion is God's gift to us. Why would people object to me shaking hands with and taking pictures with Governor George Wallace when so many Catholics call pro abortion stars or politicians their friends? Now would they say the same thing about Hitler? The secularists always say that Hitler was a Catholic, right? Uh huh? Sure! But if you look at the truth you find that Hitler was a vegetarian and a dog lover. If only he loved human beings as much as he loved vegetables and dogs those millions of people wouldn't have be wiped out. But people seek the company of pro-abortion politicians and stars.
Can I take a picture? Can I have your autograph?
But you would object to me having....I wouldn't have a picture of George Wallace under my roof nor any pro abortion politician. I was watching a movie the other day and the hero in the story in real life is pro abortion. I wanted the bad guy in the story to just shoot him but that is not how the movie ended. (Laughter) When the songs of stars that are pro abortion come on the radio I break a leg getting over there to turn it off.
”Sorry Barb! (Barbara Streisand)
It is serious; fifty million lives and counting!
He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Transcribed by: LE