There has never been a more divisive figure in all human history than Jesus Christ. He even said Himself, “I have not come to bring peace, but the sword ” — meaning division.
The desire on the part of a very cringing cowardly saccharine culture is to present Our Lord as a sweet nice guy is pathetic and speaks to only the hearts of wimps.
There was never a more virile insistent demanding man in all world history than Christ. Looking on Christ as some kind of nostalgic sentimentalist or itinerant hippy preacher is patently absurd.
He demanded we conform to our destinies... the destinies HE created for us... eternal life with Him. And he saw a man when he said it.
No mealy-mouthed don’t be offensive overt wimpiness with him. He called them as he saw them, and being God, he always sized them up correctly.
He called the Jewish leaders the children of Satan. He said their synagogue was the synagogue of Satan.
He said those who heard his words but did not practice them would be utterly destroyed... like the house built on sand when the storms come.
He flat out said the world will HATE... not just find offensive or mean... but HATE him and because of Him all his authentic followers as well.
Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen, in his awesome book The Life of Christ, says the following...
“If he is what he claimed to be, a savior, a redeemer, then we have a virile Christ and a leader M’orth following in these terrible times; One who will step into the breach of death, crushing sin, gloom and despair; a leader to whom we can make a totalitarian sacrifice without losing, but gaining freedom, and whom we can love even unto death.
“We need a Christ today will make cords and drive the buyers and the sellers from the temples; who will blast the unfruitful fig tree; who will talk of crosses and sacrifices and -whose voice will be like the voice of the raging sea.
“But he will not allow us to pick and choose among his words, discarding the hard ones and accepting the ones that please our fancy. We need a Christ who will restore moral indignation, Who -will make us hate evil with a passionate intensity, and live goodness to a point where we can drink death like water. ”
Catholicism without a Christ like this... who He really is, is not really Catholicism at all. Each and everyone of us is called to Become and BE like this... passionate, intense and a warrior for the faith.
And when the time comes to die... what can be best said of us is... we died fighting.
As St. Paul said as his death was approaching... “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. And now, a victor’s crown awaits me. ”
— Michael Voris