Blessed be God. Praise be to Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.
Come, Holy Spirit—fill us with joy, set our hearts ablaze with Your presence.
Today I want to begin not with scripture, but with something ordinary.
Something many of us know well: the internet.
Specifically… Facebook.
Like many of you, I’m known to the algorithms.
It knows I love a good recipe.
So it faithfully shows me food posts—safe, harmless, usually delightful.
But it also knows I’m a Christian. A Catholic.
And this… is where things get complicated.
Because sometimes, what it shows me as “Christian content”… makes me wince.
Why? Because the algorithm has no soul.
It sees labels, but it does not see truth.
Recently, it showed me a church whose theology was radically disconnected from the God we know.
They spoke of a “Great Mother.”
They prayed a “goddess rosary.”
One of their leaders even identified as a witch.
This church calls itself Christian. It is linked to a prominent denomination.
There is no cross, no crucifix. Instead, it is adorned with worldly and selfish offerings.
And beneath all this is the attitude:
“I’m saved by grace; so I live as I wish, and do whatever I want.”
And we wince.
We wince because we recognize distortion.
We wince because God’s covenant is being misnamed, misused, misrepresented.
Here is our reminder:
We cannot rely on the world’s definitions of what it means to be Christian.
The world—whether through social media feeds or cultural trends—will always try to make faith comfortable, palatable, undemanding.
But our faith calls us higher.
And here is the truth:
Salvation is not found in what we invent or imagine.
Salvation is found only in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who reveals the Father and sends us the Spirit.
To remain in God is to remain in Christ.
Scripture gives us a powerful contrast:
“Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven,
when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble.
But for you who fear my name,
the sun of justice will rise with healing rays.” (Malachi 3:19–20)
The Lord is not indifferent to disorder.
He will rule the earth with justice.
The fleeting compromises of the world will burn away like stubble.
And this hope—this promise—gives us strength to live differently today.
If the world offers a disordered faith,
our response must be ordered lives.
Lives of discipline.
Lives of humility.
Lives of faithfulness.
Lives that testify not to ourselves, but to Christ.
Saint Paul reminds us:
“We wanted to present ourselves as a model for you,
so that you might imitate us.
For we did not act in a disorderly way among you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:7–9)
And Jesus gives us a solemn heads-up:
“Before all this happens, they will seize and persecute you…
It will lead to your giving testimony.” (Luke 21:12–13)
The world will seize us.
It will challenge us.
It will try to define us.
Precisely because we refuse to conform.
But this challenge is not defeat.
It is opportunity.
Our persecution becomes our testimony.
And our testimony flows from union with Christ.
Remaining in Him, we cannot be shaken.
So let us lift our heads, brothers and sisters.
Let us stand erect.
Let us know that our redemption is at hand.
When the algorithm misnames us…
When the voices of the world distort God’s covenant…
We do not waste our time arguing with the noise.
Instead, we do two things:
We lift our heads to see His justice.
We fix our eyes on the coming rule of the Lord.
And we let our lives be the testimony.
Ordered. Humble. Radiant with hope.
Until the Sun of Justice rises… with healing in His wings.
Jesus tells us:
“Stand erect and raise your heads, because your redemption is at hand.” (Luke 21:28)
This is how we preach the Gospel:
By standing tall in hope.
By living lives of mercy.
By forgiving one another.
By loving one another.
The true Good News is not what the world imagines God to be.
The true Good News is Jesus Christ Himself—living, forgiving, loving through us.
To remain in Him is to remain in God.
Praise be to Jesus Christ, now and forever. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Lord, when the world misnames us,
when voices distort Your truth,
lift our heads to see Your justice.
Let our lives be a testimony—
ordered, humble, radiant with hope—
until the Sun of Justice rises
with healing in His wings.
Amen.
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