Everyone is a believer and unbeliever, open and stubborn. We can believe Jesus and His Church and disbelieve Satan and the world, or we can do the opposite. We can be open to the Lord and stubbornly opposed to the lies of secular humanism, or vice versa.

When the world tells us to keep Jesus to ourselves, may we stubbornly respond: "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight for us to obey you rather than God. Surely we cannot help speaking of what we have heard and seen" (Acts 4:19-20). When the devil tempts us to sin, may we not believe a word he says. May we stubbornly insist on a fifty-day Easter, especially since the world says Easter is over.

Many people doubt God, His Church, and His word, while believing the fiction, fantasy, and manipulation in the media. Many are so naive and foolish that they believe what a politician or TV commercial says, while not even bothering to know the everlasting, time-tested truth of God's word. We need to repent of our rebellion against God's Church and lead a rebellion against the world, the flesh, and the devil. If we only would lose our faith in our own self-sufficiency! If we were only more stubborn against and disbelieving of what should be rejected and resisted! If we were only like putty in God's hand and like "a pillar of iron, a wall of brass" (Jer 1:18) against the strongholds, proud pretensions, and sophistries of the world! (2 Cor 10:4-5)

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Edward J. Gratsch, October 10, 1995

Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, October 13, 1995