What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? ~ Tertullian

God spoke to me yesterday through three different people in three different circumstances. His message could not have been more clear or timely! Jonathan spoke of his anger for the Catholic Church and its history of pedophilic priests. Tina spoke of her observations that these transgressions were not limited to the Catholic Church alone. And finally Joan spoke to me from the casket of her own funeral. On the memorial board that held her photographs, there was a piece of paper so small in the lower left hand corner, I am certain that few people even noticed it. I was drawn to it. It was her personal list of likes and dislikes…and her favorite song, End of the Innocence by Don Henley.

The war within the Church is simply the outward manifestation of the war within ourselves. The last official act of Pope Benedict XVI was to expose this war to the world, the details of which will be made fully known to the Conclave meeting in the next week or so…which is why I used the word timely above. This war is not about Catholic or Protestant, it is about man turning away from the light of God to the “enlightenment” of man, which Tertullian himself observed and lamented way back in the 2^nd century! And it is exactly this same turning away that Pastor/Rabbi Jonathan Cahn so vividly describes through his ministry and his fascinatingly powerful book, The Harbinger.

I cannot say that it is this church or that church, this temple or that temple, this synagogue or that mosque because I, thankfully, am not a politician. What I can say is that when man turns from God to man, then clergy and public servants become politicians. In other words, shepherd and sheep become wolves. This is simply the permanent fixture-flaw of human nature and precise reason for our birth as a Republic! A Republic we have since ceded!

But it is our turning away that invites the growing shadow of man’s inhumanity to man…exactly in proportion. Why do we come back here time and time again? How do we not see the pattern of our darker selves filling the void of our own creation time after time after time…and yet we continue to make Caesars out of men while reducing God to relic! And who suffers most? The most innocent among us…in and out of the womb!

While I say our turning is not a Catholic or Protestant calling, I will say that what drew me to the Catholic Church was my perception of the body of the Church, its stand on the Sacraments and in particular the sanctity of the Eucharist and the Transubstantiation of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

When you are serious about looking for God, just watch the direction of the Devil’s arrows! Is there a bigger or more popular target of Caesar’s forces today than the Holy Roman Church? What is fascinating to me is how many Disciples of Christ who had seen him raise the dead and turn water into wine were somehow unable to fathom the idea of his actual presence through the Eucharist. Were they the beginning of the turning away that led to the reason of Athens and eventual departure of Martin Luther? I cannot say…

I can only offer that we are all Catholics in Rome today as the children of God. And it is in our hearts to manifest what must flow through the heart of the entire Conclave to eventually appear as the puff of white smoke to mark a new era in the hope of mankind.

May God hear our prayers…

http://shutupnsing.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/the-war-within-ourselves/