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Tuesday June 28, 2005
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Canadian Bill C-38 Final Passage Eerily Coincides With Sodom and Gomorrah Readings at Catholic Masses
TORONTO, June 28, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The likely final passage this evening of Canada’s same-sex marriage bill C-38 was eerily highlighted by today’s daily Mass readings, encountered by Catholics who attended Mass across the nation. Today’s scripture readings, which are established years ahead according to an international liturgical calendar, contained passages that astonished many by their direct relevance to the disturbing culmination of the same-sex marriage legislation battle.
The first reading, from the book of Genesis Chapter 19, relates the infamous story of the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah as a result of its sexual and especially homosexual immorality. The second reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 8:23-27, in the New Testament, relates the story of the apostles’ terror while in a boat in the midst of a violent storm. When they ask Jesus to save them he responds “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”
LifeSiteNews.com interviewed bishop emeritus (retired) Pearce Lacey of Toronto about today’s phenomenon.
The bishop responded, “I like the Gospel in today’s Mass where the apostles were with the Lord and were scared stiff. The terrible violent storm was swamping the boat and they were in it and they cried out—which is normal, for all of us to cry out—‘Lord save us, we seem to be perishing, we are perishing!’ Many people feel almost a loss of hope and are very depressed that things have gone the way they have. But, that’s not the discipleship that we follow”.
“As in today’s Gospel” said Lacey, “the Lord is simply saying ‘Don’t be afraid. Don’t be of little faith. I am with you.”
The bishop, who gave an impassioned speech at the recent defense of marriage rally at Toronto’s Queen’s Park, said he was “deeply saddened” by the latest developments on C-38 and emphasized, although many say “'I’ve given it my best shot and look what’s happened’, obviously we haven’t given our best shot. We still have our work cut out for us.” He suggested that God is telling Christians to “be more intense in our prayer life, to be more sacrificial, the need for more penance” and that the intense prayer undertaken so far “has in all likelihood restrained the punishing hand of God” at a time “perhaps worse than any other time”. Bishop Lacey added, “how patient He (God) must be, how loving He must be and this is the God we trust.”
The bishop again encouraged defenders of marriage, “The one thing we shouldn’t do is lose hope. I mean, time moves by very quickly. The Paul Martins of this world will die, and they will have to face the God who gave them life, the same as each one of us. And he’s had his time in the sun, and he certainly hasn’t done a very good job.”
Referring again to the Catholic Prime Minister, Lacey stated, “some day the Paul Martins of this world will have to face up to a judgment that will be far, far more damaging and far more vigorous”. He further added, “I pity Paul Martin. I don’t wish evil on anybody. But Paul Martin has got a great judgment ahead of him, a judgment that I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes. Imagine, the leader of a country, who has the responsibility of really giving the kinds of strong direction and leadership to his people, and then to flunk, to literally fail is a very, very serious indictment on him.”
SJ
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