As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming when your enemies will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
So many of our kids are spiritual; but in the wrong way. They live the virtues; but in isolation! For example, I am amazed at what young people will do to keep a friend, to keep a boyfriend (or girlfriend), to feel loved and to get noticed. I know…I should not be amazed. After all, I was once young too. But I find it so bizarre that teenagers would willingly carry a useless cross of vice rather than a cross of redemption; or willing shoulder the insults of their “friends” rather than the advice of loved ones. Yes, they are willing to be under the influence of drugs and alcohol rather than get a high from God and service! It surprises me how they allow themselves to be used as garbage rather than to be buried as treasure?
Oh, how sickening it is! How quickly we are willing to make alliances with our foes! Are we so afraid of being left alone? Have we become so impatient with virtue?
How quick some are in abandoning their faith, their Church and our wholesome traditions! And all in the name of this self-professed ideal called progress! Let me be honest with you when I tell you that if I didn’t hear this so-called progress propaganda every single day, and that we, as a society, are making progress (or are progressive) then I wouldn’t believe it! Is it not funny that on a daily basis we must be told that we are making progress? What bull! Progress should not require promotional material and propaganda. Progress should be obvious - self-evident!
What hinders progress is when we stray from the Truth. Friends can either make or break us! They can either succeed in selling us fool’s gold or they can force the best out of us.
Mattathias was no fool. He did not buy into the fool’s gold; into the king’s seductive ways. He did not fall head over heels into the arms of the crowd. He was not charmed by gold or silver. He did not hold hands with lies! He was a man of God, a man of convictions, a man of virtue. For this reason he won his peoples praise. He recognized the times that he was living. He recognized the time of the Lord’s visitation!
Just yesterday a dad came to speak to me about his son’s text messages. This father of four secretly receives copies of all outgoing text messages from his son. How ingenious! How marvelous! A dad that cares! A dad that has not abdicated his role to the sweeping winds of modernity and stupidity!
Well, after a few months of this, he told me that he was disappointed that his teenage boy sends his girlfriend text messages that are full of filth and vulgarity. But what really shocked him was how his girlfriend accepted all this abuse! I asked the dad if his son wrote like this to all the girls. The father told me, “No. Not at all! He would never write these text messages to this Emily or Samantha or to Amy. Those girls wouldn’t take that!”
I knew it! This boy’s girlfriend writes filth to her because she accepts it. To the other girls he writes like a decent young man! The moral of the story is this my dear young ladies: If you want a young man to respect you, then you must respect yourself! Otherwise, you will be used and abused by every single guy you meet. This is something that all parents should be teaching their daughters and sons.
Oh, what the young will do for attention and affection! Oh, what they will endure to get noticed or to be liked! How fleeting. How excruciating. How painfully nauseating! We may have been made out of dirt, but we are not dirt!
Scripture teaches truths that are infallible and that go beyond time, place and people. Be familiar with it. Embrace it and uphold it. It is important that you can recognize the time of your visitation!