Statue of Liberty

The Statue of Liberty + Aug. 18, 2019 + IC +XC                        ישוע
  • “Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened; I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon yourselves, and learn from me; I am gentle and humble of heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Mt 11:28-30). And here is a modern echo:
  • “Nor like the brazen giant of Greek fame…here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand / A mighty woman with a torch…and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon hand / Glows world-wide welcome…”Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” … “Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. / I lift my lamp above the golden door!” So wrote EMMA LAZARUS, poet, immigrant of immigrants, Jewess, and true prophet. Her poem: The New Colossus, ( i.e., The Statue of Liberty, 1883). NEW WONDER of the World.
  • The old Colossus of Rhodes is but a dream of dust.
  • Today’s WHITE HOUSE says to Emma: Your words are wretched refuse! Tuesday’s news, was bloodcurdling (8/13/19). It mongrelized the poem: Give me your healthy, rich, successful, and standing-on-two-feet kind  like me. It is the end of Truth in America. George Orwell’s “1984” in 2019, reminiscent of Russia’s “PRAVDA”, “The Truth” newspaper.  No, Jesus is the Burning Truth, A Burning Light for the world.  A watershed in our 243-year history has been reached.
  • The debased princes and false prophets of Judah protested in the first Reading (Jer 38:4-6), “Jeremiah must be put to death…he is not interested in the welfare of our people.”
  • Our “princes” today shout: Emma Lazarus to the guillotine! Lazarus, a New York-born, daughter of oppressed Sephardic-Portuguese-German Jews dismissed by two sons of Italian, Irish, Scott, and German immigrants.  Utterly ironic! This can’t be happening here and now in America! But it is! Even if you “thought” it, you’d be ashamed to say or Tweet it.
  • Hebrews (12:1-4), the second reading, says we are “surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us”. Emma Lazarus’s poem has come from this cloud of witnesses to condemn this age in America!
  • Jesus in today’s Gospel (Lk 12:49-53): “I have come to spread fire over the earth…Do you think I have come to bring peace on the earth?...No, believe me I have come to bring dissension.” Jesus was anointed by fire—the HOLY SPIRITT in the Jordan—and will spread this fire to all humanity!  Love to burn hatred in the world. Mercy is a FLAME.
  • But, not without shedding his blood. It will cost him immense suffering—a baptism of blood. It is the Father’s will…He will do it: THIS IS PEACE. He is Light of the World.
  • We want a comfortable peace…not HIS peace. Jesus does not inflame division; we cause it because of envy and jealousy. It’s my sin. Not another’s.  Living the Gospel breeds hostility.
  • For the sake of Jesus, they make a “prudential judgment”. E.g., as the Church moves completely away from capital punishment today, they’ll say: In the past, the Church’s view was: it’s morally good if deemed absolutely necessary by the State. How many lynchings of Black or Latin men (a few women too) took place at the nod of the State? How many “mistakes”?
  • This is viewing morality through the prism of politics instead of the prism of the Gospel.
  • The PRUDENTIAL JUDGMENT red herring is used to avoid the Catholic issue of solidarity with the needy and disadvantaged. With the plight of desperate refugees. E.g., Jimmy Alaoud, an Iraqi Christian sent back, visa expired, blah, blah, and dies for lack of insulin. But, it was AMERICA INVADING IRAQ in 2003 that made thousands of Christians flee from terror.
  • Just days ago, two U.S. Congresswomen, both Muslims, were banned by Israel’s Prime Minister on false charges of anti-Semitism. Red Herring again! He was lobbied by the U.S. President. Prophecies of Jesus are always fulfilled. Unprecedented dissension and division. “Let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin.” Christ is our purifying fire. Amen.