I remember hearing on a local documentary, a candidate who lost in a recent election say that the Catholic Church is so close minded about abortion.
She was referring of course to women’s rights over their body.
This is one hot issue among many others where the people of the world oppose Jesus and the Catholic Church.
The world wants to reduce the Catholic Church and all that is divinely revealed to her from the Father through Jesus to privately held opinions that can be made up as we go along.
This past week in several ways Jesus has made it clear in the gospel from St. John that what he has heard from the Father, he has told us.
Let us not be disheartened when others oppose us for our Catholic faith or try to keep our faith inside the church walls and this happens for two reasons.
Firstly, because it is a true sign that the life we live and proclaim in the world is the life of Jesus when we experience mistreatment, misunderstanding, and flat-out rejection.
“If you belong to the world the world would love its own. But I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hates you.”
Secondly, Jesus promised that they would do these things to us on account of his Name because they do not know the One who sent Him.
Let people oppose us all they want.
But know this, when we pray with passion for the people who oppose us and listen to them with a merciful outlook that does not condemn them, Jesus is planting a seed in their hearts and minds that will grow in its own time.
Remember Him telling the parable of the farmer who sown the seeds and how they sprout and become a plant, and no one knows how?
Our love for the Truth who is Jesus and our love for those who oppose us is that seed he plants in each one.
Praise God for all those moments of opposition that can lead to their conversion and his glory.
