May 21
48th day of Easter
The Code of Silence
Father Rory Pitstick

“What do you tell people about God? Some people, I know, don’t talk much about God to anyone, treating Him like a taboo subject. Such people need a reminder: the word "gospel" literally means "good news" - if faith means anything in our lives, then we need to pass on those tidings of great joy of who God is, what He has done, and what He is doing, and what He has promised to do!

So, St. John, the beloved apostle, fervently preached about his beloved Lord and friend, Jesus, and the eyewitness evangelist carefully wrote down the facts about what Jesus had done and said, so that everyone of all times and places could share in the truth that "God is love," and thus come to know the real Jesus, and never be misled by charlatan fiction writers and tawdry sensationalists.

The Da Vinci Code and other demonic twists of gospel truth are the craze in our country because of an even more sinister code: the code of silence. When faint Christians stop telling other people about God, when we’re content to stand by while the Christmas tidings of great joy are drowned out by commercial jingles, when the word "Easter" makes us and our children think about bunnies and eggs instead of an empty tomb, when we’re too busy or too lazy to pray, when we stop listening to Peter and John and the apostolic successors, when we silently tolerate abortion and the unraveling of family life, when we stop reading the word of God, then any false prophet can hawk a slick package of lies and claim that it’s the truth, simply because a gullible public buys it.

But when zealous Christians read the Gospel and pray the Gospel and live the Gospel and share the Gospel, when we prove ourselves friends of Jesus because we do what He commanded, when we love one another in truth and in deed, when we stake our lives on the only joy that is complete, when we herald the tidings of great joy of who God truly is, what He has verily done, and what He is really doing, and what He has indeed promised to do, then the code will be broken, and the Good News will be the final word!”

Reflection
What's to keep this from happening today? crsr