The picture you see here is that of the late Cardinal Lopez Trujillo. He was president of the Pontifical Council for the Family up until his death on Saturday, he was 72.Cardinal Trujillo is someone I remember as a 'real man'. He wasn't scared to say what he thought and fought ardently to remind people of the importance of family life and the sacredness of human life from conception, to it's natural end.
It was sad when I googled the Cardinal, simply to find a good image to give to you, that some of the articles that came up were 'Anti Gay crusade ends' and 'Vatican Hardliner dies' and others which I wont repeat here. Yet, I wonder why they said those things?
The Cardinal's motto was Veritas in Caritate, which literally means 'Truth in Charity' or could be translated as 'Truth in Love'. This is important for proposing Jesus Christ to the world.
Yes it's true the Cardinal did challenge a lot of what we generally accept as 'Kudos' today. He made people uncomfortable, he challenged our that human sexuality is not merely some crazed act of passion, it's a free act of Love given freely and a repeating the words of the Late great Holy Father John Paul II 'a language, a sign of God's own love for us'.
He said that Homosexuality wasn't OK, that it wasn't how God intended things to be. He challenged Catholics (Bishops and Priests not excluded) worldwide to live the truth and to not be scared in proclaiming the truth.
He challenged the notion that Abortion is a right, saying instead it can never be 'a right' to harm the unborn child in the womb.
Yet he never said 'don't love a homosexual' 'don't love a person outside the church', 'don't love a woman who has had an abortion'. He said instead to love them.
Proposing Jesus Christ to the world in a loving way might not make us loved or liked throughout the world; chances are we will get pelted with all sorts of abuse. But regardless of that, we still have a duty to be Jesus for others. We have a duty to enter into the world which might not like us, and to bring Jesus and the truth of His Gospel to the world.
As Catholics we live this truth only by the grace of God and for that we need the Eucharist; we need to have a true understanding of what it is to go to Mass and the power of the Holy Sacrifice itself. Because it is only through prayer, only through penance, only through sacrifice that we can hope to do anything in this world. The Mass is an act of Love, because it's the representation of the sacrifice of calvary. The most powerful act of Love, for a world who at times tells itself we would rather have not had it, has the power to change it. That is the only way we can live the truth in love.
Please pray for the repose of the Cardinals soul, but most of all pray that his work may penetrate the hardest of hearts, that God's love may transform their lives. Proposing Jesus Christ, is proposing the most incredible Love in the world. Proposing Jesus Christ is living that Love for others.
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