Bravo, Mary Kochan!

Most people say very little when a sibling, child, best friend, etc announce that they are getting married, thinking that they have no right to do so. But one of the teachings of the Church is to admonish the sinner, and also to instruct the ignorant. These both fall under the Spiritual Works of Mercy, something many forget about today, when a false spirit of compassion and tolerance manifests itself in the world today, including a false interpretation of the familiar 'judge not lest ye be judged'.

MANY do very well with the Corporal Works of Mercy. But they are reluctant to step into the other Spiritual Works of Mercy aspect of the teaching. The first are to help people here, but the second's purpose is to help those same people get to Heaven!

These teachings are not called Works of MERCY for no reason. It is not merciful to watch someone fall into Grave or Mortal Sin and say nothing! It is not POPULAR to speak out, but it IS loving and Merciful to speak Truth to those in error. Divorce is defined in the Catechism as

2384 Divorce is a grave offense against the natural law. It claims to break the contract, to which the spouses freely consented, to live with each other till death. Divorce does injury to the covenant of salvation, of which sacramental marriage is the sign. Contracting a new union, even if it is recognized by civil law, adds to the gravity of the rupture: the remarried spouse is then in a situation of public and permanent adultery:
If a husband, separated from his wife, approaches another woman, he is an adulterer because he makes that woman commit adultery, and the woman who lives with him is an adulteress, because she has drawn another's husband to herself.

2385 Divorce is immoral also because it introduces disorder into the family and into society. This disorder brings grave harm to the deserted spouse, to children traumatized by the separation of their parents and often torn between them, and because of its contagious effect which makes it truly a plague on society.


2400 Adultery, divorce, polygamy, and free union are grave offenses against the dignity of marriage.

tp://www.stblase.org/christian_service/works_of_mercy.htm

The Word of the Lord:
Ezekiel 3:17-21
17: "Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me.
18: If I say to the wicked, `You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.
19: But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you will have saved your life.
20: Again, if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand.
21: Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you will have saved your life."


Can anyone explain to me how today's false spirit of 'compassion and tolerance' fits with the Spiritual Works of Mercy and Ezekiel 3's admonition?
Especially when one remembers the first time anyone used the excuse 'It's none of my business'..... a paraphrased version of "Am I my brother's keeper?"

We may not be guilty of actual murder, but are we , by silence, condoning, ignoring, or accepting Sin because 'it is none of my business' in a false spirit of compassion and tolerance contributing to the Eternal damnation of souls?

Or are we helping some to repent and turn away from sin?

"Right is still right if nobody is right,
and wrong is still wrong if everybody is wrong,"

Archbishop Fulton J Sheen author of The Life of Christ