What will it be a shepherd or a snake?
It happened in Boston, Mass. during the civil war that two Sisters of Charity were walking down the main street to the hospital when a coarse and crude red neck began mocking their habit and their chaste life style. Again and again he screamed out his scorn of the religious and their way of life. Later in the week that man was recruited into the Northern army and went to fight battles. In Missouri he met a bullet and was taken to the army hospital which was staffed by the same sisters he had mocked in Boston. The good sisters treated him so well that on the day prior to his death he asked a sister to hear him out. “If there is one thing that really sticks in my heart it is the time I mocked you sisters in Boston and if I could get down on my knees and beg forgiveness of that sister, I would.” After listening to the story the good sister said “You have already been forgiven. When you were brought in here I recognized you immediately by the scar on your forehead.” How could you forgive me? he asked. The good Sister held up the crucifix around her neck and said “As He forgives you so do I”. At that very moment the grace of conversion came to the man and he asked to see a priest for this is the religion that is true.
The gentleman chose the good Shepherd living in the heart of the holy sister of charity. Over and over again saint after saint presents us with the story of the Good Shepherd lived out in a variety of ways but always doing the same thing: laying down one’s life for the salvation of the other. Consider the little Vietnamese girl who witnessed her good shepherd being murdered while distributing Holy Communion and with the Blessed Sacrament on the chapel floor she devised a plan to receive a host a day in order to make reparation for the sin of these terrorists. On the last night after her tongue went to the floor to receive her Savior, the guard opened the door and saw the dark figure on the floor and opened fire. The girl was martyred. The guard lifted the girl in his arms and cried out over and over again “It must be true.” This reality of religion touches the heart because without the shedding of blood from the Good Shepherd we would be condemned in our sins. True religion is the resounding truth uttered by the Good Shepherd. “A good shepherd lays down his life for his flock.” Religion is the act of God re-bonding Himself to our sin soaked souls. Through His Crucifixion the Good Shepherd opens the door to eternal life.
Today the good shepherd is ignored and staurophobia (fear of the cross) has taken over the religious people and their leaders. No one takes a stand against the snake who has poisoned the waters of the world with Jewish souls that wish to lift up the snake and the pleasures of this world rather than accept the Good Shepherd and use this world for their salvation. Then we have another snakelike contingent in the Masons who have infiltrated the very depths of the Catholic Church leadership and transferred the faith of our faith to the cult of the snake. This snake infused the Communist with the hatred that is spreading throughout the world. Yes, we must choose between the Good Shepherd and the snake. The Good Shepherd will die for the souls of Gentile, Jew, mason and communist while the snake will seek only to lure souls into his trap of death.
It is clear that we are in the final battle and we can throw up our hands and yield to the snake and his contingents or we can lift up our hands in prayer and lay down our lives with the Good Shepherd for the salvation of every soul possible. Let us call all souls back to the fold of the Good Shepherd.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt, S.D.B.
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