In yesterday’s post I talked about whether or not we need God in our lives. Obviously I think we do as the evidence of us pushing Him away becomes more and more evident with each passing day. With that, I have a confession to make…

I was part of the problem.

You see I grew up in a time of change in America, where many Catholics decided that we knew better than the Church did and we followed our own rules. If our rules didn’t agree with those of the Church, we “modified” them. Not that it is only Catholics who are to blame for this, many contributed. And the biggest change which came from all of this, at least in my opinion, was that we muddied the moral waters. What used to be simply black and white is now grey. “Always either right or wrong” has now become “Well its only wrong if…”.

Had we kept God present in the prominent place which He belongs, this would never have happened. But we didn’t. We took prayer out of our schools, we fight public displays of religion, we legalize murder, we promote a culture of sexual promiscuity which has led to the objectification of women, we promote a welfare society which has devastated families, and on and on. Basically we took God out of our lives and let Satan in.

And yes, as I said I was part of that culture. Of course, like I guess is the case with many others, we didn’t realize what was happening. We didn’t understand the consequences of our actions, after all “If it feels good do it” wasn’t a bad motto to have. Funny thing about Satan, he is really good at tempting us with sins which make us feel good. How many of us who were caught up in a world of easy sex, drugs and alcohol were going to actually take the time to read Pope Paul the Sixth’s warnings contained in “Gaudium Et Spes” or “Dignitatis Humanae” about what would happen to families with the spread of contraception and abortion, and what would happen if religious freedom was infringed upon. He was derided by many at the time, but he was right. Every thing he predicted came true.

I call myself “The Wayward Catholic”, a guy who strayed or ran away from the Church, someone who lost his way. Maybe a better title would be “The Waylaid Catholic” as this is more accurate to what happened to me. I was waylaid by the Evil One. He tempted me and I succumbed to those temptations which led me to sin upon sin.

Fortunately, God is very forgiving and if we confess our sins we will be forgiven. Even though many of us like to think so, God doesn’t want us to fail, and he won’t let us as long as we trust in Him.

Which leaves me with this, how do we turn things around? How can we bring God back into our lives? How can we get rid of the grey areas in our society and right the moral compass? But more importantly is there time to do this or is it too late? I pray we can.