“They made her stand there in front of everyone.” She was filled with fear and trembled. They said to Jesus, “Master, what do you say of this case? What is your sentence?”

Jesus knew it was a trick. He did not say anything. He bent down and began writing on the ground with his finger. Some say he wrote the sins of the scribes and Pharisees. He stood up and said, “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.” But how could they? There were their sins written large on the ground in the soft soil. They felt frozen.

He bent down again and began to write. Was he now going to write their names beside the sins? They beat a hasty retreat.

When he stood up this time no one was there, only the young woman. Jesus said, “Has no one condemned you?” She, still shaking, replied, “No one, Lord.” She was sobbing quietly, for just a moment ago she was certain she was going to be stoned to death. Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go in peace and sin no more.” She ran off quickly.

Jesus did not say there is no sin, as some do today, trying to improve on the teachings of Christ. Sin exists. Christ made that abundantly clear many times; he died on the cross to save us from sin.

St. Paul in the epistle tells us of his weakness and that he is only saved by clinging to Christ. All is loss without Christ. “I have accounted all else rubbish so that Christ may be my wealth.” Alone we are helpless. Without Christ we can do nothing. Everything good we have comes from Christ, everything good we do comes from his graces. If we know Christ we have hope. Without him is despair.

The first reading tells how God does good things for us, protects us, provides for us. “In the desert I make a way,” God says. And to emphasize this the Responsorial Psalm proclaims the goodness of God and his mercy. This is our delight. “The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy.”

God, in truth, has done all things for us and they are great. He has given us the gift of life. How often do we thank him for this tremendous gift? Not only did he create us, giving us existence, bringing us out of nothingness, but he sustains us here and now and every moment of our lives. Every beat of our heart is a blessing from God.

But more, much more. In the beginning man in his pride told God he did not need him. Man would run things in the world. God gave humans free will; he would not interfere. But in his gracious kindness he said that when man needed help, he would help him. The goodness of God is beyond our comprehension. Here is man insulting God and God replies by promising to come to the assistance of this silly little creature.

The first rebuke and rejection of God is called Original Sin. This rejection of God by man left humans deprived, weakened in will and darkened in mind. It is as if your father had a million dollars, which, in time, would come to you. But no. He spends it foolishly, and there is no money left for you. You are deprived of the wealth of your father.

Man, weak and thoughtless, tried to run the world without God and went from disaster to disaster. And when man was all but drowning, going down for the third time, God, our heavenly Father in his goodness reached out and grabbed his hand and pulled him to safety. How can we ever thank him enough for rescuing us?

The bridge of friendship between Heaven and earth was destroyed by the foolishness of man. There is no fool thing that man can’t do. God sent a bridgebuilder, his Son. He came and redeemed us.

We, being free, can continue to sin. We can offend God in serious matters (mortal sin) or lesser matters (venial sin), but if we are sorry God forgives us, as Christ forgave the woman taken in adultery. Jesus in his wondrous mercy left us the Sacrament of Forgiveness, or Confession. It is the means whereby, in his Church, he forgives us. Thoughtless Catholics do not go to Confession. Thoughtful Catholics do.

So that we can avoid sins the saints tell us we must live close to Christ. We do this especially by prayer and penance. We must practice self-discipline. It is good for us, good for the soul, just as jogging is good for the body. The old philosophy professors said, “Don’t have all you want, and don’t want all you have.”

Jesus, our merciful Savior, gave us the greatest prayer, the Mass, the Liturgy of the Eucharist. At Mass we pray with Christ. What in all the world could be more wonderful than that?

Let us also read the lives of the saints. Please don’t say you don’t have time. The average person watches television four hours a day.

In knowing the lives and the thinking of the saints we draw closer to Christ. No one was more close to him than they were. They speak of him in a fresh and lively way. Get out of your rut. That is what is wrong with most of us. Our religion has become too routine. Without a new approach from time to time our prayers are tired and uncertain.

The saints were wise. They viewed our existence here on earth sanely. They thought with Christ. So much in our society is silly. If we follow Christ we have everything in proper perspective. It is so easy to get off the road.

Our silly society ignores the wise men and women, the saints, who spoke out vigorously against the folly of worldly ways. So many these days only follow their emotions, which lead them into the swamp. They will not listen to the wise words of the saints. They say the saints are old-fashioned and have nothing to tell us modern, up-to-date people, as if time has anything to do with wisdom. Our sick, weary world needs wisdom more than anything. But people ignore the saints. Most Catholics ignore them. They do not read their lives. They prefer, it would seem, to be confused. They are so comfortable they will not do anything to help their souls grow. And if the soul is not growing it is dying.

Hurried and harassed with days full of distractions moderns are either restless or half-asleep. They are restless because the boob tube tells them to go out and buy, buy, buy. Others are anesthetized by TV. Such individuals do not know Christ. Our society pulls us apart. Christ puts us back together, but he cannot do this unless we ask him, unless we pray.

A true Christian walks with Christ. His blessings keep us from sin. To be with him is a spiritual tonic, giving us a sense of well-being. In the haze and fog of life, it is easy to lose sight of one’s goal. There are so many distractions that lessen our faith and cut at the roots of our devotion. Our religion becomes lifeless, mechanical. We become spiritually flabby for lack of spiritual exercise.

Life can be so hectic. Pressures and tensions all but overcome us. Our lives become too fast-paced. We must slow down, we must pray so that we will have the strength that comes from Christ. Only then can we walk on the path that leads us to our heavenly home.

“Teach me, O Lord, to pray so that I may know your way and walk in your truth,” said an early Christian. “Direct my heart that I may be humble.”

You move with the crowd towards the city gate to the north and go out. People are lined up waving palms and shouting hosannas. On a donkey, Jesus is entering the city. Everyone is happy, rejoicing to see him. Although, as the procession enters the city, you can see here and there little gatherings of sneering Pharisees and Scribes. You knew they did not like Jesus because he preached; but he had not gone to their schools. And yet the people flocked to him, people who used to listen to them. They were green with jealousy, although they tried to make it out a religious matter. Formerly people had honored the Pharisees and Scribes and Sadducees, kissing their hands, and accepting their ponderous opinions. But now the people went to hear Jesus.

At first the Pharisees and the other teachers considered this Jesus an upstart, clever with words, but how could anyone have superior wisdom who came from rural Galilee and had not been to school? They tried trick questions to show him up before the people. But he was always able to turn them around and make the Pharisees look foolish. They hated him all the more. Never make proud people look foolish, they will somehow get back at you.

There was a rumor that they now wanted to get rid of Jesus, since they could not discredit him. But surely, you think, that cannot be true. See how the people love him. Even the Pharisees and their allies were smarter than to go against so many people.

The only others on their side were the merchants he had driven out of the temple. They wanted to return and sell things. So they were greatly opposed to him. When he first had seen them there he cried out, “My house is a house of prayer and you have made it a den of thieves.” He upset their tables and pushed them out the door as they grabbed their things and ran.

As you went to work the next few days you stopped at the temple to pray. He was there. Jesus was teaching the ways of God. How beautiful his words. You could have stood there and listened all morning. Unfortunately soon you had to break away and go to your job. Jesus did not give long and loquacious and involved discourses, with countless distinctions, like the Pharisees, constantly quoting ancient rabbis. His words were direct, clear, crisp, to the point. When he spoke of God it was almost as if he had seen him.

Now it was Friday. As you opened the door a man ran down the street yelling, “They are going to crucify Jesus.” You fell back. This could not be true, especially after the royal reception on Sunday. You did not believe it. You must go and see.

A crowd was in front of the governor’s palace. From what people were saying you pieced together the story. Jesus had been praying in the night in a grove outside the wall. The Pharisees had bribed one of his disciples to lead some temple guards to him in the night. They arrested Jesus. The disciples with him fled into the dark.

Then there was a trial before the Sanhedrin. They are all Pharisees so naturally they said he was deserving of death. To make it look right they brought in witnesses and paid them to accuse Jesus. But they lied and contradicted one another. The trial was in shambles. To save the situation the High Priest jumped up. He asked Jesus, “Are you the Holy One, the Son of God?”

Jesus said, “I am.”

The High Priest tore his garments and said this was blasphemy and he was deserving of death. All the Sanhedrin said the same.

They had to go to Pilate, the Roman governor, for approval. The Romans ruled the people of Palestine. But to Pilate the Pharisees changed their story. If they had said he blasphemed, Pilate, a pagan, would have said he was not interested in their petty religious squabbles and turn them away. So now they said Jesus wanted to start a rebellion against the Romans. The Pharisees and their cohorts must have almost gagged on these words they were so untrue. Jesus spoke of peace, not rebellion. He was a peacemaker. It was the Pharisees who with all their hearts wanted to throw the Romans out of their land.

The governor questioned Jesus and knew at once that he was innocent. But he was a politician and tried to pass the buck. He sent Jesus to Herod, king of Galilee, who was in the city. Herod was having a party at his palace; he was always having a party. He welcomed Jesus for he had heard he was a wonderworker. He would have him do some magic tricks to entertain his guests. Jesus stood there in silence. To save the day Herod had the soldiers dress him like a king and ridicule him, and he sent him back to Pilate.

Then it was brought to the governor’s attention that since it was a festival day he could release a prisoner. He offered them either Jesus or Barabbas, a brutal criminal. This was in the night. The good families of Jerusalem were home in bed. They did not know of these doings. The Pharisees had assembled a mob of drunks and ne’er-do-wells and paid them to shout whatever they were told. Now they shouted to release Barabbas. No sane citizen would want the terrible criminal back on the streets to harm people. This crowd did. And to prove they were half-drunk, when Pilate asked what he should do with Jesus, they screamed, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate asked why. They did not know. They only did what they were paid to do, shouting all the louder, “Crucify him, crucify him!”

Then Pilate decided if he had the soldiers badly beat up Jesus, the people would have pity on him. But when the wild mob saw the blood, they wanted more blood.

Pilate gave in, especially when the Pharisees said they would report him to Rome for not condemning this rebel. Pilate did not want to be reported to Rome, no petty politician did, and he knew how these men could lie. He theatrically pretended he was not guilty by washing his hands of the whole affair, and then he, the only person who could do so, assigned Jesus to the soldiers to be crucified.

St. Bonaventure wrote, “Look at Christ on the cross! Look at him, his head bent down as though he longed to stoop to kiss you! Look at him, his arms extended to take you up in his loving embrace! Look at his hands deeply pierced to pour out rich blessings upon you! Look at his sacred side opened wide to permit the great love of his heart to pour out! Look at him, his whole body extended to give himself entirely to you!

“Woe to you,” St. Bonaventure said, “thoughtless and heartless people who do not look at him. Woe to those people who after the shedding of his blood in such abundance and the payment of such a great price, still ignore him.”

Jesus complains, “See what I suffer for you, what grief, what bloodshed, what great pain. I, from the cross, appeal to you. Look at the suffering heaped upon me, the nails that dig my flesh. Think of my inner grief as I felt completely abandoned and yet knew, despite all this, many would disregard me. They would see my great agony and still be ungrateful.”

St. Teresa of Avila said, “It breaks my heart to see you, Lord, upon the cross.”

Their only encouragement was Mary. When they looked at her they gained courage. What faith, how calm, her eyes closed in deep-seated prayer.

Mary Magdalene and her companions went to the tomb. Shortly after they came running back breathless. They said strange things. They said the tomb was empty. Such nonsense.

Peter and John went to the tomb to prove the women wrong, to set them straight. But, they could hardly believe it; it was as they had said. The two were bewildered. What was this? What was happening? They rushed back and reported this to the other Apostles. All were now confused. No one knew what to think or what to do. They went around in a daze.

Two disciples were walking to the village of Emmaus. They were distraught. A stranger joined them. He asked why them seemed so despondent. They replied, “You must be the only one in Jerusalem who does not know what happened.” They told him how the soldiers killed Jesus.

The stranger began to talk to them. Quietly, calmly, he explained how the Scriptures said that the Messiah must die for the people. His words were so profound that when they arrived at the village, they did not want to let him go. They invited him in to the inn to have supper with them. And there in the breaking of the bread, they recognized him. It was Jesus. And he disappeared.

The two went rushing back to Jerusalem to tell the Apostles. They chided themselves saying, “Surely we should have known it was Jesus, for when he spoke to us of the Scriptures our hearts were on fire.”

In the upper room they started to speak but the Apostles all burst out joyfully, “We have seen the Lord.”

For Jesus had appeared to them. The door had been locked, since they greatly feared being arrested by the authorities, when suddenly he was there, standing in their midst. “Peace be to you,” he said. And he showed them his hands and side.

We must remember that the Risen Christ is still with us. “Behold, I am with you all days, even to the end of the world.” We are not alone. We are never alone. Jesus is with us, every hour of every day. We do not have to fight our battles by ourselves. He is at our side. Joy and beauty should radiate from our faces. Jesus is with us. The faces of the saints were aglow because they knew Christ was at their side. The saints accomplished impossible feats because they knew Jesus worked with them and through them. He used them as channels of grace.

In our sick society there is so much propaganda and prejudice. We live in a time of crass materialism. It is easy to forget spiritual things. We must, however, never forget that the Lord is beside us. Therefore Christians should be the happiest people in the world. Why do many Christ-followers have such sour faces? Why can’t Christ do remarkable things through us? He will if we have faith. Does our lack of prayer make him unable to use us to spread his love in the world? Is the fact that so many of us seem half-hearted Christians the reason we accomplish so little? Will we be known in history for our confusion and not for our deeds?

Rejoice with the Risen Christ. Pray that he will make you an instrument for his love in the world. Why do the materialists with their philosophy which goes nowhere prevail? They are near despair. We as Easter people must not be influenced by their fatuous decadence. It is time for Christians to stand up and speak out. “Shout it from the housetops.” Sing “Alleluia!” Proclaim that Christ is with us, he leads us. He shows us the high road to happiness.

Must we be so dense in our thinking and follow the crowd and buy, buy, buy? Must we believe TV and advertising that we can buy happiness? Catholics should have more sense. We should be leaders, not followers. We have the great spiritual wealth of Christ. The prevailing philosophy of materialism in our society will only destroy our nation. It denies the best part of humans — kindness, hope, courage, poetry, initiative, all that is good and beautiful.

This is contrary to everything that Christ taught. He gave us a healthy and wholesome outlook on life, not the morbidity of the materialists. Why do we half-believe the stupid moderns who say religion is irrelevant? Christ is life. “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

Materialism only contributes to moral anarchy, from which social dissolution and backsliding follow.

G. K. Chesterton tells us that religion is essential for a sane society. Many today are too dumb or too greedy to realize this. They are only out to make money and they are willing seemingly to destroy our country just so they can get rich. They are small boys playing with matches in an attic full of newspapers. This is not the Christian way.

Let us stand against the bogus experts of our day. Let us turn to Christ Jesus. Let us pray. Prayer enables us to know and do what Jesus wants. Look to the saints. They were people of prayer. That is why they never lost their balance or their common sense.

Let us this Easter resolve to learn, to read so that we will know our faith better, know Christ better. Read a life of Christ, read a life of a saint. You will know Jesus better than you have ever known him before.

Be confused or read the saints. They will take you to the feet of Christ. They knew the true road to heaven.

Christ-followers are optimists. A great pessimism prevails in our times just below the surface. Materialists feel life has no meaning. They are on the edge, asking the question, is life worth living?

But we believe in a happy ending. St. Jerome wrote, “We rise again by Christ’s burial.” His resurrection causes ours; it sets the pattern for us. The good who have conformed their lives to Christ are joyful at heart. For they have an inner peace. His example on Easter sets the example for newness of life by grace. He ascended into heaven, where he is enthroned. He prepares for our coming. He said, “I go to prepare a place for you.”

On the first Easter Christ shows us his power over death, giving us hope for eternal life. If this existence on earth is all there is, then we should, of course, with the materialists, despair. But there is another life, a greater life. St. Paul had a vision of it and could not describe it. He said, “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor can we begin to imagine the glory that awaits us.”

Walk with Christ, not with the world. Dante wrote, “In his will is our peace.” When we are with Christ, the Father, rich in mercy, plentiful in wisdom, blesses us with all tenderness.

St. Augustine wrote, “Pray until Christ is formed in you.” Man becomes himself by being Christlike. Christ preserves us from a vain and narrow spirit. He broadens our outlook, deepens our understanding, assists us in all things. Walk with Christ.

On Easter when Jesus appeared to the Apostles in the upper room, he gave this power to them. “Jesus came and stood before them. ‘Peace be to you,’ he said. He showed them his hands and his side. At the sight of the Lord the disciples rejoiced. He said, ‘As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ Then he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound.’”

This power was not given to the Apostles alone. It was given to the Church to exercise through the priesthood.

To show the thoughtlessness of many moderns, today the Sacrament of Forgiveness is neglected. Do we think we are so good we hardly ever need it? What pride. Please do not say that all Christians since the time of Christ have called themselves sinners, but we are not sinners. In previous generations sincere Catholics went to Confession in large numbers. But now not so. We are so egotistical we think we don’t need to go to Confession. We are either saints or stupid.

Our pride blinds us. We are very confused. How can we be so reasonable in business and science and so lacking good sense in religion? Too many in religion evidently go by their feelings and not their intellects. But anyone who thinks knows that feelings are often untrustworthy.

Because of our pride we do not read or know the saints. We do not know what they said. If someone tells us, we ignore it. Moderns, in their classic ignorance, think the saints are old-fashioned and have nothing to tell us up-to-date people.

The saints give us Christ’s map of life. Moderns feel, however, they are so smart they don’t need a map. They will go it on their own. They rush deeper and deeper into the swamp and don’t even realize it.

We are very unlike John the Apostle in today’s second reading who was exiled “because I proclaimed God’s word and bore witness to Jesus.” Many Christians through the ages bore witness to Christ, suffered persecution, were imprisoned and murdered, for the faith. The Holy Father recently canonized twenty-five Mexican martyrs, people, mostly priests, who were killed in the last century for Jesus.

But modern Catholics often appear to have no backbone. They will not stand up for the faith. They will not accept facts. They are sinners, like all humans, but they will not admit it. They pretend otherwise. They need to go to Confession but they seem to think that religion is for show. Are they sincere? Do they ever think? Moderns lie to themselves. If they were honest they would know how much they need the forgiveness of God. They would know they need the graces of Confession to escape from the slavery and corruption of sin. They need Christ and his blessings for they are in bondage to uncontrolled passions. They need to be freed so they can share in the glory of God’s children.

The English author Francis Bacon wrote long ago, “Men have withdrawn themselves too much from experience and they tumble up and down in their reason and conceits.” We are the same today. Human nature does not change. And so we today, even more so than in the past, pretend and will not face reality.

The truth is that in religion common sense has been lost by man. The wisdom of the saints is unknown to them. Books about the saints go unread. People, if they read religious books, read new gurus, who use many words and most often say little or nothing. They are kindergarten kids compared to the saints. But they make moderns feel good, even if they don’t give them the truth.

In our parents’ day common sense counted for more than bookish theories. Then people, with native wisdom, knew that God is not a constitutional monarch who must bow to the verdict of a theological electorate.

Because of our pride we do not have wisdom. Wisdom comes from prayer. We don’t have time for prayer. Why? Because in prayer a person is forced to see things as they are. Many today do not want that at all. Prayer is a humbling experience and the proud are too self-centered to be humble.

People today actually think they are smarter than the saints. They feel they are smarter than their parents, because they have more money, showing how little wisdom they have.

Lord, help us to be wise. Help us to pray so that we become wise. Today in Christianity we have the blind leading the blind. We need the wisdom of the saints to guide us. But it takes humility to follow and there is little humility around these days.

Christ, above all, was a man of prayer. Aren’t we supposed to imitate Christ? What is our excuse that we do not? Most people change the subject. They don’t want to talk about it. They think they are so bright but they will not face up to hard questions and talk about something else because they have no answers.

We don’t need more experts. We need more people who pray more, bowing down to God, begging his help. Here is wisdom. The proud, of course, will not do this, because prayer hurts too much — they discover their nothingness.

If in parishes we spent half the time in prayer that we do at meetings, great things would happen. Thomas Merton said, “We meet Jesus in prayer.” This is precisely the prescription for our sick society. We must turn to Christ. We must pray so that we will truly know him. Only then can we love him and follow him. Until we beg Jesus to help us we will never get out of the mess we are in, which gets worse every year.

When Jesus visited their home, Martha was all activity — like most American parishes now. But Mary sat at his feet and listened to him. Martha complained. Jesus said, in effect, “Please. I don’t care what we eat. I don’t care if we eat anything. Come here and sit beside Mary and listen to me.”

Is your parish a center of activity or a center of prayer? The answer will give you the reason for all our confusion.

Not only does the person who prays help himself, he helps others. Many a soul is saved, many a soul is released from Purgatory, because of the prayers for them.

Christ’s work is saving souls. That thought is so essential to our faith and so forgotten in our busy-ness that it should be painted in gold letters above the door of every Catholic church in the country. No doubt not a few Catholics would ask, “What does it mean?”

Those who pray know they are sinners. They live in the real world. They go to Confession because they are sinners. The proud who do not use this holy Sacrament evidently think Jesus made a mistake in leaving us this gift. We don’t need it.

Those who pray are close to Christ. They, after prayer, move on to action. They help the needy, while the proud only talk about it.

We believe that the Scriptures are the inspired word of God. Then we must believe that Peter, (and his successors), is the head of the Church founded by Jesus. And we must believe, from the words of Christ, that the forces of evil will never triumph over the Church. The only way evil could conquer the Church would be by having it teach falsehood in showing us the road to heaven. But Jesus said this would never happen. He is the Son of God. He can never deceive us. Thus we put our trust in the teachings of the Church concerning salvation. If Jesus could not keep his promise, Christianity is a fake. And we should give it up and forget all about it.

This is what reason tells us. Concerning religion, the most important thing in the world, feelings may tell us this and that; but the supreme court is reason. Reason must rule. It is our highest faculty and it must tell us how to live our lives.

We, if we reason, cannot escape what Scripture tells us. Religion is pleasing God, not pleasing ourselves. Christianity is following Christ. And Christ gave us the Church to guide us.

A wise writer wrote, “One of the first fatalities of a materialistic society is truth.” Reason is cast aside, in particular in religion. And chaos follows. So many lives are shipwrecked these days because people do not or will not think. They do not reason, they do not seek the truth, but let their emotions guide them. This is disaster.

For peace of soul we must walk with Jesus. Cardinal Newman prayed, “Make my heart beat with your heart, dear Jesus. Purify it of all that is earthly, proud and sensual, hard and cruel and perverse, of all disorder and deadness.” Even in crisis the saints had inner peace because with the psalmist they knew, “You are near, O Lord.”

His Church defends Christ against his enemies and their unreasonable pretensions. His Church defends the teachings of Christ against many popular writers today who make everything easy in religion. Ridiculous ideas are in the air these days. We must, for peace of mind, anchor our faith in Christ. We must cling to Christ. We must take refuge in the Church which he gave us, which faithfully, as he promised, preserves his priceless message.

Being reasonable, we make distinctions. If at times the Church has made mistakes they are on the human side. But the divine side of the Church, preserving the teachings of Christ without change, can never fail us. Jesus promised this.

Yes, there is a human side of the Church, since, of course, it is run by people. People can make mistakes, do evil, judge wrongly. Yes, the human side of the Church can be less than perfect, far less than perfect at times. But the truths of Christ, of which the Church is the divinely appointed custodian, cannot be less true because people, even prelates, sin.

We look to the Church as our lighthouse in life. The night is dark and we are bewildered. It leads us on our journey. It fortifies us with grace. It gives us hope. It keeps us from despair. It teaches as Christ taught.

The words of Jesus were jarringly anti-materialistic. This is why they are often ignored today. They do not fit in with our lifestyle of comfort and pleasure. Jesus boldly spoke out against pride. We as a people are filled with pride.

If we are wise we listen to the saints which the Church gives us. We tap into their heavenly wisdom. But the wise are few and far between now. We are proud. Many now say the saints were old-fashioned. That says nothing in regard to religion, but in our unwise day it is accepted as the all-inclusive put down.

We are proud because of our education. We are not wise enough to know “a little learning is a dangerous thing.” We turn away from the saints because most of them were unlearned in an academic sense. They were, in truth, unlearned in worldly ways but very wise in the things of God.

Jesus said, “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will acknowledge him before the angels of God.” The saints did this. They were close to Christ. The wise follow the saints. The fact that so few do these days shows how unwise we are. If we follow the saints, they show us Christ.

We live in an age of lukewarm Christ-followers. Our standard is mediocrity. We are so taken up with the world and frenzied activity we have put religion on the back burner. There is a hole in the souls of many, a place where Christ used to be. It is not that we have lost our faith, it is just that we are too busy entertaining ourselves to think much of Christ.

Writers these days, some even in religion, write in circles. Do not read them. Read our tried and true guides, the saints. Here we find clear thinking and true love; here we find greatness of souls.

The saints said without prayer and penance we do not know Christ. No wonder we cannot follow him well; we do not know him. Because a good number of modern Christians do not know Christ, they come up with all kinds of strange ideas. They think talk is a substitute for prayer. They think words are a substitute for deeds. If they say wonderful things, they don’t feel they have to do anything for Jesus. We have so many do-nothing Catholics, passive Catholics. God is supposed to load them with blessings, but they hardly raise a finger to help Him. Lacking wisdom, they do not know that religion is a two-way street. To paraphrase President Kennedy, “Ask not what Christ can do for you. Ask what you can do for Christ.” This was the way of the saints, which in our day many have lost. Our failure at real prayer and penance makes us ineffective. Without these we go nowhere.

We must pray for the light of Christ, which like the light of the sun, renews the earth.