A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John. Of course, this is a continuation of our lord's discourse to his apostles and disciples at the last supper. We've been reading this for the last few mornings. Jesus said to his disciples in the upper room or wherever it was, peace is my farewell to you. My peace is my gift to you.
I do not give it to you as the world gives peace. Do not be distressed or fearful. You have heard me say, I go away for a while, and I come back to you. If you truly love me, you would rejoice to have me go to the father, for the father is greater than I. I tell you all of this now before it takes place so that when it does take place, you may believe.
I shall not go on speaking to you any longer. The prince of this world is at hand. He has no hold on me, but the world must know that I love the father and do as the father has commanded. And this is the gospel of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen. If you have been in attentively reading the acts of the apostles or listening to it read in its shattered form, you will have must have noticed, and I hope be astonished and brought to ask yourself some questions. Why were there so many converts right off the bat in the earliest day in the earliest possible days of the church when becoming a Christian could cost you your life, your reputation, your family, everything? Why did we have so many converts from Judaism into the new way, that's what it was called, when it was such a terrific danger, And yet we have thousands of them. We told in one instance, we say 5,000 men.
5,000. When did we have anything that like that in your time or my time? Why? And the point I wanna make isn't the numbers, that they became followers of the new way of the of this crucified man who died on the cross, completely rejected by everything that was good and availing to salvation of his day at the cost of everything. When today, it doesn't cost people anything to become a Catholic or a Christian.
And I I I mean, in in that sense, in in most parts of the world, let me hasten to add, it's very costly to be a Christian. As I told you, not long ago, it's a matter of just a few weeks, met a very fine young man who dropped his his Catholicism because he said it's too difficult to be one. Now, very recent, have you all heard or seen anything on the news about this group or an association within the Beni Beret, where you have this group of Jews who seem to be well healed, with money I mean. It's their purpose to try to discover Christians who befriended Jews and to see how they're doing today and to help them if they need help today, as you know I knew several times. Now the latest one I think was Sunday night.
Now remember, in Austria or in Poland or any of those countries, if most of these people were Catholics. That isn't always brought out. They call them Christians. But these are all Catholic Catholics. Don't forget it.
If a family was caught harboring a Jew from being an infant to a to a man in his senility, the family was strung up, hanged right out on their own balcony, including their kids, including their own children. That was the penalty you paid if they caught you harboring a Jew. And this mother and father that they had discovered over in this country and were in need of help. They were old and and they were in in need. Anyway, they took in this little three year old or something like that Jewish girl and passed the girl off as their own, and they got away with it.
And, this item I saw on the news some of you saw it I'm sure they knew who the girl was and she was now a woman of, well, pushing 50 I guess and they reunited her with her parents. It's the only parent she really knew. Now, I don't know why they did that but remember there were there was a good number who did it. I personally met one Italian woman who did it. She not only did it once but she had a kind of a railroad, what we used to call an underground railroad here in the slave days, from her villa.
But this Jewish group is is trying to find these people to tell them their gratitude, to give them the respect and and the acknowledgment for what they did because what they did was every they laid everything they had on the line, including the lives of their own children. And to have that acknowledged is terrific because, as you know, there's very little gratitude in this world. Never forget that. Let me tell you, one of the someone said the most infrequent word used in the English language is the word thanks, and that's that's no exaggeration. All you have to do is live long enough.
Now my point is this. I would like to think, Justice Maximilian Kolbe, when he stepped out and took the place of this completely unknown man to be starved to death, But if they did, that's what paid the price that they were willing to pay to be a Catholic Christian. This struck me very forcibly. Have we been called upon to do anything remotely like that? People tell you you who have never read the the Paul the sixth encyclical, have never read it, but who completely contradict and reject and scorn the Catholic church's view on contraception because they say it's so difficult.
As one man said to me not too long ago, Well, you're asking me before I get into bed with my wife to get down and say the rosary. Why not? Why not? It's not easy to be a practicing Catholic. You need the grace of God.
How do you get it? By prayer. One way. You'd say that you're you you have a very dull, black, cloudy, somber, sad, you know, any words you want, view of of being a Catholic. Oh, no.
I'm not. Every Catholic, if there if the I'm talking about a Catholic who is a Catholic, not in word only, who looks at the crucifix, they can't deny what I'm saying. Because I've said time and time again, the only the only test that our lord has given to be his follower is the cross, It's taking up the cross. And you're not talking about fun and games when you're talking about taking up a cross. Because the worst part of a cross is that the cross we get is, in most instances, the cross we don't want.
We tell ourselves, If only this was my cross, if only that were my cross. But this thing I'm asked to do Let me give you a very concrete example right in this area. I recently met a lady who has an 18 year old son who's autistic. I don't know whether you know what an autistic person is. I mean that you've seen one, you've been around one.
When she begins the day she doesn't know how that day is going to go. She can't make any plans. Here's an 18 year old boy who has to be diapered and he will be with her as long as she lives or as long as he lives. Every single day, every hour of every day. He can't feed himself.
He can't speak a single word. If he's hungry, he has to take his mother by the hand and lead her into the kitchen, And she has to go. If he's hungry at two a. M, he gets up and leads her into the kitchen. Now is that across or isn't it?
There's there's how many people even know about this anonymous lady? And there are plenty of people like this in this world. My point is is, do we recognize the cross? See, there's the whole difference. The difference between a a believing Catholic and an and another person who doesn't isn't carrying the cross.
Let me tell you that you don't live without it. I don't care what you call it. You can call it being clobbered. You can call it getting anything you want. The whole difference is is how you view that cross.
Do you see it as nothing but a crushing burden that for some reason you you you go along with because in many instances you can't do anything about it anyway? So we get there, you go through the psychiatrist, we get become optimists, you know, and all that stuff. It doesn't take it doesn't help. We still look many of us wind up in suicide. The difference is when the Catholic Christian sees the cross, they see Christ on the cross, on it.
Do you know of course, for years, non Catholics would have the cross, but they wouldn't put the body of Christ on it. Many Catholics now don't put the the body of Christ on. What good is the cross without Christ, I ask you? It's a hunk of wood. It's it's like an electric chair.
So don't miss the boat. Don't miss think any don't have any misapprehensions about what it costs to be a Catholic. Look at Saint Paul. They stoned him. They took him out of the city because they thought he was dead.
He revived. He goes back into the city. Can you imagine such dumbness? Fools. Not clowns.
Fools for Christ's sake. That's our vocation. In the name of the father, the son, and holy spirit. Amen.