"How much did you steal?"

Judas the thief

One of the great mysteries of life is how so many liberal Catholics ignore the teachings of Holy Mother Church and, abandoning normal good and discerning taste, appear to enjoy banal presentations, acts and hymns as presented at many modern Masses.

I long ponder on this.

My conclusion is that there is an underlying cause; a hidden agenda that, even they, may be unaware of.

Guilt is an occupation of the conscience that may be either fully admitted or concealed in the sub consciousness of the mind.

And why should those liberal Catholics feel guilt?

Because, in many instances they have ditched the Faith of their fathers and mothers and elected to opt for a conscience driven belief subject to emotional responses rather than logic and revealed truths.

They practice contraception, they may be complicit in abortion and they often believe that homosexual acts are perfectly acceptable as 'love' is what they are all about.

They have not looked in their spiritual mirror for many, many years.

The late *Archbishop Fulton Sheen spoke of a young woman who begged him to meet with her brother who was a drug addict and whom had been diagnosed with some form of mental condition.

"If his problems are of the mind, I can do nothing for him, if his problems are spiritual, I will meet with him" Said the great man.

Archbishop Sheen met with the young man and invited him to talk about himself.

After 45 minutes, he stopped the youth and asked: "How much did you steal?"

"I haven't stolen anything" replied the young man.

"How much did you steal?" persisted the Archbishop.

"Nothing, I stole nothing" said the man.

"How much did you steal?" thundered Sheen.

"About three thousand dollars" said the young man.

Archbishop Sheen had discerned that the young man was not mentally ill per se but had a neurosis caused by some deed he had committed.

In this case the man had stolen the money from his local church and the essence of guilt had weighed him down so much that he had taken solace in drug taking and a dissolute lifestyle.

Now, I am not suggesting that liberal Catholics are all thieves in the same sense as the young man who took money from the Church but they are dishonest in their denial of Christ's teachings and in the resulting deeds that accompany disobedience.

That dishonesty is met with denial. "I stole nothing" they will cry.

And from that echoes the words of the apostles: "Not I Lord"

* This is a paraphrase of the story carried on one of ++ Sheen's CDs.