Jesus did only what He saw the Father doing (Jn.5:19)
"Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" (Lk.2:49)
Jesus was a disciple of the Father
We must be disciples of Jesus:
"This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear Him" (Mt.17:5)
The disciples of Jesus follow Him because He is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Jn.14:6)
But they must accept the discipline of a disciple.
The Apostles were disciples of Jesus
We learn the discipline of the disciple through the Church
As when St. Paul says to us:
"Even as you have learned from us
how you ought to walk to please God-
as indeed you are walking-
we beseech and exhort you in the Lord Jesus
to make even greater progress" (1 Thess.4:1-1)
In the Church there was discipleship
In the Church there was discipline
With the Vatican II Revolution the discipline broke down
The restraint of centuries of Tradition was undone
Seminaries became frat-houses
Cassocks were exchanged for jeans and t-shirts
Nuns appeared in pantsuits and earrings
Priests threw away their collars and dressed like beggars
Friars and monks fled their cloisters and headed for bars and movie theaters
The 1970 seminary class produced the highest percentage of priest predators.
Friday abstinence disappeared
Lenten penance was abandoned
Sin was no longer preached
The straight and narrow path became the broad road leading to destruction.
The Holy Sanctuary became the gathering place of clowns
The people came to church to be entertained
They threw away their Missals and Rosaries
They dressed like street people
They lost their faith
Catechism became an education in religious indifference
Children developed nervous disorders
They became disobedient and headstrong
Their parents headed for the divorce courts
The children developed relationships
Of one kind or another.
God was ignored by mankind
Nations struggled for wealth and power
They developed weapons of mass destruction
They visited wasting diseases upon their citizens
Huge storms developed on the sun
Waves of deadly radiation headed towards earth
Meteors and comets were seen in the heavens
Their paths crossed earth's orbit.
No one paid attention
They reveled as in the days of Noah
As the sign of the Son of Man appeared in the sky
Jesus waits for His straying sheep
"When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith upon the earth?" (Lk.18:8)
Jesus weeps over the world as He wept over Jerusalem
Yet Jerusalem and the rest wail but hear Him not.
His Sacred Heart reaches out to the lost sinners:
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for your souls.
For My yoke is easy, and My burden light" (Mt.11: 28-30)
All is not lost if we learn from Him
All is not lost if we truly become His disciples
All is not lost if we accept the discipline of His yoke
"Who can tell if God will turn and forgive
And will turn away form his fierce anger;
And we shall not perish?" (Jonas 3:9)
"Everyone therefore who hears these My words and acts upon them,
shall be likened to a wise man who built his house on rock.
And the rain fell, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat against that house,
but it did not fall, because it was founded on rock" (Mt.7:24,25).
