"Looks Like a Duck, Sounds Like a Duck, but is it a Duck?"

"Looks Like a Duck, Sounds Like a Duck, but is it a Duck?"

   This blog tonight comes on the heals of the blog I posted on Friday, Message from My Bishop. In that message from the Bishop, He mentions about a “church” that calls themselves catholic but uses the terminology, prayers and practices of the Roman Catholic Faith, but is not associated or in line with the Roman Rite or Pope. So, some may say “What’s the big deal since they do say they are not inline or part of the Roman Catholic Faith?” Well, let me explain the danger and misleading practice of this. 

      There is a saying I would use all the time and I bet you have heard of it before. “ If it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, then it must be a duck.” Well, never again will I use that saying and that is because of this “church”. They copy what the Roman Catholic Faith has, yet does not share the same doctrine and values as the Roman Catholic Church. As I did say they do state in a line in their description that they are not part of the RC church but it is a line and one must go looking for it. They state that only after paragraphs of putting down the RC church. You would need to see this on their website, this disclaimer does not appear on the doors that enter into their church. Nor does a disclaimer appear under the “alter” as they perform their version of the mass. That is what scares me. It is the fact that they are preying on the person who may have some issue with the true Roman Catholic church and gives them a distorted version of the faith and practices. It is a false practice.

     When I first heard of this church I was shocked that I have not heard of the them before. I tend to be on top of such things that go directly against the Roman Catholic Church and this one slipped by. It is our duty as Roman Catholics to stand up against those who try and slander the church and also those who come off as a twisted version of the truth. They say “ Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” but in this case it is the sincerest form of deception. I pray that people see past this smoke screen of acceptance and falsehood and sees the wolves in sheep’s clothing waiting for them. 

     I understand that the Roman Catholic Church has had issues and some in the church are not welcoming and I apologize to anyone who have felt the church has not been there for them or are not welcoming. I ask if that was the case for you to come again. Speak to the Priests and see really who we are. Do not settle for imitations, come back to the true Catholic Faith. We are not imitation and we will satisfy your spiritual needs and you will never leave feeling that something is missing. 

     Please join me in prayers for anyone who is being deceived and those who are deceiving others. As it says in Matthew 18: 6 :

“Whoever causes one of these little ones^* who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

This states that we are responsible for others by our actions and what we cause them to do. Pray that those who are leading people astray that they see the truth and turn themselves back to the right path and bring those who they deceived back to the true church. 

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 252

Reading 1

NM 21:4-9

From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road,

to bypass the land of Edom.

But with their patience worn out by the journey,

the people complained against God and Moses,

“Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert,

where there is no food or water?

We are disgusted with this wretched food!”

In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents,

which bit the people so that many of them died.

Then the people came to Moses and said,

“We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you.

Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us.”

So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses,

“Make a saraph and mount it on a pole,

and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.”

Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole,

and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent 

looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21

R. (2) O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

O LORD, hear my prayer,

and let my cry come to you.

Hide not your face from me

in the day of my distress.

Incline your ear to me; 

in the day when I call, answer me speedily.

R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,

and all the kings of the earth your glory,

When the LORD has rebuilt Zion

and appeared in his glory;

When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,

and not despised their prayer.

R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

Let this be written for the generation to come,

and let his future creatures praise the LORD:

“The LORD looked down from his holy height,

from heaven he beheld the earth,

To hear the groaning of the prisoners,

to release those doomed to die.”

R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.

Verse Before The Gospel

The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;

all who come to him will live for ever.

Gospel

JN 8:21-30

Jesus said to the Pharisees:

“I am going away and you will look for me,

but you will die in your sin.

Where I am going you cannot come.”

So the Jews said,

“He is not going to kill himself, is he,

because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”

He said to them, “You belong to what is below,

I belong to what is above.

You belong to this world,

but I do not belong to this world.

That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.

For if you do not believe that I AM,

you will die in your sins.”

So they said to him, “Who are you?”

Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.

I have much to say about you in condemnation.

But the one who sent me is true,

and what I heard from him I tell the world.”

They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.

So Jesus said to them,

“When you lift up the Son of Man,

then you will realize that I AM,

and that I do nothing on my own,

but I say only what the Father taught me.

The one who sent me is with me. 

He has not left me alone,

because I always do what is pleasing to him.”

Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.