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Views from the Choir Loft

Faith Is Obnoxious

Fr. David Friel · September 28, 2012

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who lives in California with his wife and kids. He was telling me about an experience he had a few weeks ago. It was a Friday night, and he was out with his family having dinner at a pizza shop. When the pizza came out, he went to lead his family in grace, so he made the Sign of the Cross. As they prayed grace together, he said he could hear people a few tables away laughing and mocking prayer as stupid.

Similar situations are far from uncommon, and they are the very embodiment of these words from Wisdom 2: “The wicked say: Let us beset the just one”—let’s weigh him down, oppress him—“because he is obnoxious to us.” Can you identify yourself with “the just one”? Have you ever been mistreated or ignored—even persecuted—simply because you stood up for what you thought was right?

That very thing happens all the time, and it’s not just in bad neighborhoods or third world countries or in California. There’s a loyal group of people in my parish who pray outside a nearby abortion clinic every Friday afternoon, and I can’t repeat many of the things that have been yelled at us there. If I were to take a walk through the mall near my church dressed as a priest, do you have any idea the reactions I would get?

We, as people of faith in America, find ourselves being marginalized more and more, and perhaps we’re too complacent about it. For sure, it’s one of the beauties of the framework of our country that the government cannot establish a state religion. But the new “religion” of secularism has no more right to be established than any other faith.

What began years ago as a movement to eliminate Nativity displays in public places at Christmas time has blossomed into campaigns against prayer in school. We are told now to believe that a person who helps another person to end his or her life can be called a “doctor” and that anyone’s love for anyone else can be called “marriage.” We are called “radical” for believing that the poor deserve special care, “crazy” for thinking that the prisoner should have rights, “extreme” for insisting that immigrants be respected. Most recently, as a result of the HHS Mandate that took effect in August, our own nation has said that our opinion as Catholics does not matter—that the Catholic conscience, which rejects, contraception is neither welcome nor respected. And, yet, it is we who stand for right over wrong and life over death who are called repulsive, intolerant, obnoxious.

“The wicked say: Let us beset the just one because he is obnoxious to us.” And why is the just one so vile? The chapter continues, explaining that it’s because “he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law.” In other words, it’s because the just person stands up to the wicked. The just person calls right right and wrong wrong. The just person isn’t afraid to confront a person who acts without justice or kindness. That is what the wicked person finds so insufferable about the just one.

There is good and there is evil, and we must distinguish between the two, both privately and publicly. Regardless of the reaction of the people around us, we must never be ashamed of our Catholic faith. Are we willing to be ostracized because someone think we’re “obnoxious”? Jesus was crucified because He was found “obnoxious” in the court of public opinion. We should be willing not only to make the Sign of the Cross in public, but willing to allow our entire lives to be molded in the image of the Cross.

Jesus assures us in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you falsely because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven” (Matthew 5:12).

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Fr. David Friel

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

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Can You Spare 33 Seconds?

Here’s an audio excerpt (33 seconds) of a setting for Kyrie VIII which was recorded live last Sunday at our parish in Los Angeles. The setting (“Missa de Angelis”) is by composer Richard Rice, and you can download the free PDF if you click here and scroll to the bottom. I think Richard’s composition is marvelous. I missed a few notes on the organ, but I’ll get them right next time.

—Jeff Ostrowski
5 April 2021 • When Girls Sing

Covid restrictions here in California are still extremely severe—switching “two weeks to flatten the curve” into “two years to flatten the curve.” Since 2020, we’ve had police breaking into our church to check if everyone is wearing a mask…even when only 5-6 people are present! But we were allowed to have a small percentage of our singers back on Easter Sunday, and here is their live recording of the ancient Catholic hymn for Eastertide: Ad Cenam Agni Providi. The girls were so very excited to sing again—you can hear it in their voices!

—Jeff Ostrowski
29 March 2021 • FEEDBACK

“E.S.” in North Dakota writes: “I just wanted to take a moment to say THANK YOU for all the hard work you have put—and continue to put—into your wonderful website. In the past two years, my parish has moved from a little house basement into a brand new church and gone from a few families receiving Low Masses twice a month to several families (and many individuals) receiving Mass every Sunday, two Saturdays a month, and every Holy Day. Our priest has been incorporating more and more High Masses and various ceremonies into our lives, which has made my job as a huge newbie choir master very trying and complicated. CCWatershed has been an invaluable resource in helping me get on my feet and know what to do!!! Thank you more than I can express! May God bless you abundantly and assist you in your work and daily lives!”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

On 12 March 1908, Feast of St. Gregory the Great, the complete publication of the “Graduale” was issued by the Vatican Press. That very day, Dom Pothier solemnly presented the first copy to the Holy Father. Pius X wished to be the first to see the new book; he opened it at random, at page 128 of the supplement “pro aliquibus locis”—the Introit of the new Feast of Our lady of Lourdes. The Pope sang it with perfect taste to the last note.

— A witness of the papal audience writing circa 1915

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