**Most Common False Belief

        We fear God because we think that we would lose our freedom if we enter God, not realizing that we've been enslaved by the world. Once you have completely crossed over to God's side, you find unlimited freedom in the Lord and that all your previous fears were absolutely groundless. You see, God never wants to control us – remember that he gave us the free will in the first place. He never intends to lord it over us – remember how he came as our greatest servant? And he never wants to instill fear in us – remember how he loved us so much that he died in our place. It's pure foolishness on our part to stay away from our God. I had those old fears before too, but now I feel I may very well be the freest person in the whole world!

**Most Tragic Reality

        Today's Response to Psalm 23 at Mass: Even though I walk in the dark valley, I fear no evil; for the Lord is at my side. The world is darker than ever. The more you have God with you, the more you feel sorry for the evildoers in the world. I want to shout out: What are you doing? Why are you hurting your God who loves you? Don't you know that you are condemning your own soul to eternal death? If they don't listen to Christ, I doubt they would pay any attention to me. I can only offer up my sorrow to the Lord. They have the dazzling brightest hope ever before them and they don't even know it. When one no longer cares about his own soul, it is a sign that the devil has already taken hold in that soul.

**Disgusting Cold Truth*

          The current pro-life movie "Unplanned," based upon the true story of Abby Johnson who was a clinic director of Planned Parenthood and one day turned into an anti-abortion activist, is doing quite well. See it if you can. Here is the latest pro-life video by An0maly worth watching. You can hear Abby Johnson speak in the last third of the video.   

**We Condemn Ourselves!

      First part of today's entrance antiphon, Psalm 43 1: Give me justice, O God, and plead my cause against a nation that is faithless. From the deceitful and cunning rescue me. This is how I feel about my own country right now. In today's Gospel reading from John 8, the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus, asking him whether she should be stoned according to the law of Moses. They did this to test Jesus, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. This made me think of the leftists today in this nation who are trying so hard to come up with some false charge against our duly elected President.

        The wonderful, astounding thing about Jesus was that he did not condemn the woman in the end at all. He simply asked her not to sin anymore. Yes, God does not condemn us. If we get condemned in the end, it would be due to our own doing, not the lack of God's mercy! A world which keeps rejecting God is one heading toward self-destruction.

**How to Serve God Right*

      Never consider how much you have done for God; care only about how faithful you are in following his every will.

***Falling Short of God's Expectations

        Many love God, but few are willing to go all the way. It's as if we want God to come close to us, but not too close. There's that last barrier to keep God at a distance. Most of the prayers we hear, read, or come across reflect this. We pray for God's mercy, favors, etc., which is right and just. And we pray that we will be more forgiving, loving, etc., which is also proper. But I have never heard us openly expressing our desire to surrender ourselves completely to God to allow him to do whatever he wishes with us. This is falling short of total abandonment to God and is our great shortcoming. 

*Why Truth Causes Division

        In today's Gospel reading from John 7, some in the crowd believed that Jesus was the Prophet, while others said that he was the Christ. Still others did not believe that the Christ could have come from Galilee. So a division occurred in the crowd. Of course, the chief priests and the Pharisees did not believe in Jesus at all and were intent on arresting him. Simply put, truth always causes division because the world is in sin.

**Fighting Evil

        Today's entrance antiphon from Psalm 18: The waves of death rose about me; the pains of the netherworld surrounded me. In my anguish I called to the Lord . . . . This is how I feel now when I hear about the insane, out-of-control, crazy liberals demanding the killing of our own children (see my post of yesterday "Today's Radical Evil"). Today's response to Psalm 7 provides the answer: O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge. We seek refuge in God not to escape from evil, but to find more courage and strength to fight it. 

Reciprocal Treatment

        If we are proud of Jesus, he will be proud of us. If are are ashamed of Jesus, he will be ashamed of us.

*Today's Radical Evil*

        How should we react when we face evil? For example, we now have crazy, insane radicals who want the mother to have the right to order her child killed even after birth! It's hard to believe that evil has taken hold of so many of us today. One extreme thought is to round them up and kill them all, but we know that would make us as evil as they. So the clear action to take is go the other extreme as Christ did when he came to save sinners. Since only God has the power to turn evil into good, we must pray extra hard asking the Lord to crush evil and at the same time make us holier than ever so that we might be more effective in fighting evil.