ESPRESSO SHOT: Fidelity to Christ First

as priests there's always a real temptation to soften Church teaching especially with the hard issues that face us today why well because we're all human beings and we all like to be liked we all want your affection and so we especially if something hard comes along be like ah we take it easy or we try to ignore it but we do you no such favors when we soften the Lord's teachings in fact if I did that to you I would be a very bad Shepherd even though I want your affection to be liked that's not why God calls us to be priests this is why the example today of this great Saint we remember St John chrysostom he's a fascinating fascinating the figure in church history born in the year 349 he would eventually rise and become one of the most important archbishops in the entire Empire he would be the Archbishop of Constantinople which would be a major major city would become because that would become the capital of the Empire the emperor Constantine had shifted it from Rome to that part of the world and what makes St John costum such an inspiring figure he didn't care if you like church teaching or not it is said that St John costum in some of his preaching when he would preach in Constantinople his homilies would go on for two hours so don't complain to me when your my homies go long huh I'll just point look at St Jer in two hours over there and I and I feel good right the empress would be sitting in her lofty spot in the cathedral she had a the empress at the time was an empress called Exodia she had a seat there and at that time period the church and the state were deeply intertwined because the Empire now was officially Catholic in the year 380 the whole empire becomes Catholic and so when you have rich people that are now Catholic what do they try to do to priests influence them but not St John crostone he would stand there on his Pulpit like I am now and the empress was doing bad things and as her Shepherd he would call her out in the middle of mass how do you think she took that St John chusum would be exiled and in the year 407 he would die he could have le led a lofty comfortable life oh when you have Rich patrons oh you can live lovingly and and eloquently but St John chasam knew that's not his role the same happens today oh it happens today priests and Bishops are easily cowered to obey the edicts of the Rich and Powerful but they are not good Shepherds if they do you know when I first got here I heard a story I won't say which previous pastor but one of your Pastors in the past was confronted by a parishioner the parishioner gave this previous Pastor an envelope full of money and the Pastor said oh what's this he says if you do this something that the parishioner wanted there was more money where this came from luckily this pastor refused this parishioner thought they could buy influence we are followers of Jesus Christ his teachings and his teaching alone we're not called to be liked or to be loved but to proclaim the beauty of the church's teachings St John castom reminds us Fidelity to Christ is first