Show I Weeks Week's Activities and Services of Salt Lake City j t Sermon for br Chis fit Dee I By MOST 1 REV DUANE E G G. G HUNT Bishop Salt Snit Lake Catholic Diocese e eOn On the first Palm Sunday as our Lord entered Jerusalem He was greeted with great joy and enthusiasm by the people They went out to meet Him they waved palm branches toward Him and carpeted His Ills path They shouted Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the then n Lord the King of Israel Blessed be the kingdom of our father David that cometh Hosanna in the highest 1 It was as entirely reasonable that the the Jewish Jewish people should R wish to have their own independent nation their own government government govern govern- ment and their own unchallenged sovereignty Held down as they were wert under the military heel lied of the Roman emperor they hoped and prayed for liberation They hoped and prayed for a king who would be great enough and powerful enough to lead them successfully against the hated oppressor It was on only 1 reasonable therefore when our Lord came among them a member of or the royal family that hat the they should immediately think of Him as a possible king His fame r t earned through His liz miracles 1 had swept over the country 11 arousing curiosity and arid drawing drawing drawing draw draw- ing people around Him j He had given sight to the blind hearing bearing to the deaf and speech to the mute He 4 had cleansed the lepers He had fed thousands of hungry i persons by miraculously L multiplying the loaves and andI 4 I fishes He had even raised the dead to life Was Vas it not evident therefore the people asked that God was with Him 3 Here then was an opportunity opportunity opportunity op op- that certainly would r I have appealed to other men t You can readily understand how attractive it was But ButI was it attractive to our Lord I Two courses were open to Him On the one hand He could choose the course of popularity He could follow the path of least resistance He could go with the crowd On the other hand He could choose the path of truth and bonorand honor bonor and duty To follow the crowd would have been pleasant at least for a time Our Our Lord could have ruled from the throne of David He could have surrounded Himself with all the trappings trappings trap trap- pings and luxury of royalty He could have had servants to wait on Him and officials to obey His every word He could have had an army He could have united the Jewish people and taken His place as a great national hero Path of Dut Duty Principle Truth All AU this was possible however only if He renounced His divine mission only if he became a false prophet only if He put self-interest self ahead of duty He could accept the earthly throne I of David only if He rejected His spiritual throne in heaven I For Him this was inconceivable He chose the path of unpopularity which was to end on Mt Calvary The lesson for each of us is clear We Ve are called upon each day to make some decision for the most part in unimportant unimportant I matters but occasionally in matters of great I tance Of course we cannot compare ourselves with Christ our Lord We Ve are only human In our limited spheres and r according to our status in life we are called upon to make I. I decisions Do we choose to go along with the crowd to gain momentary popularity to aspire to positions of fame and power Or do we choose the path of duty of principle of truth and of obedience to God even though it means unpopularity unpopularity larity and self-sacrifice self This question my friends is more important than taxes or cost of living or rent control It is more important than the crisis in China or the Atlantic pact It is more important than the handling of atomic bombs It is more important than all these because it underlies them all It concerns the principles by which all problems must be solved Dangerous Pull of Evil Forces It is surely evident that the American people are more and more inclined to choose the course of selfishness The I crowd is going that way and it is so easy to follow the crowd Examples arc are quickly found Crime is one form of selfishness And it has now reached proportions never before even imagined Three crimes are committed every minute of each 24 hours We Ve now have a criminal population of over It is similar with intemperance and gluttony It is similar with sex disorders with immorality and vice It is similar with divorces with birth control with abortions and with euthanasia Are you not aware of the downward rd pull of evil all around you Cant Can't you feel it every day Modern literature has become become become be be- come foul and salacious books are indecent Plays have degenerated degenerated degenerated de de- de- de generated to a new low The motion picture producers must be watched all the time or they will produce the vilest of films And only consider the influence of the motion picture stars those glamorous persons who are arc so widely publicized What kind of an example do they give Build Morality I of Religions Religion's Stones Stones Stones' How can this decline in morals be checked Not by natural and human efforts alone they are wholly inadequate p f We Ve must learn learn or perish that human nature is weak I that it has been weak since the sin and fall of the first parents The downward trend cannot be halted by legislation as we should know by this time Generally speaking there is no amount or kind of civil legislation that can compel morality among the people Neither is the answer to be found in education such as we have today A century ago the American people faced an making epoch-making and critical question Should religion be taught in our public schools We Ve chose the easy course which is always the wrong course We Ve separated religion from education We Ve are now paying the penalty What then can we do What must we do We Ve must return to first principles to our starting point We must build morality on the foundation of religion We Ve must regain respect for the Ten Commandments We must become afraid of sin We must return to the Apostles' Apostles Creed and the Lords Lord's Prayer Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven All this means a return to Christianity to the faith which converted the western world and which built up our civilization It means humble worship before Gods God's altar and the partaking 0 of the means of grace which He established It means forsaking man-made man philosophies and institutions it means accepting the leadership of the divine Lord It means prayer penance and self For some it means martyrdom martyrdom martyr martyr- dom dam as in eastern Europe today It is the wa way our Lord chas It is 15 the only way t |