Pharoah, Let My People Go

In 2010, when we were exiled to Nebraska and Iowa, I noticed something disturbing at all the Catholic Churches we visited.  It was a sign on all the doors to the church offices that said that if you needed financial help, or any help whatsoever, to call the 1-800 number listed to the local government.  The signs made it clear before you even went in, there was no help available here and call the government.  This was really disturbing to me, well actually it made me really angry.  We were very poor and stressed at the time, and so maybe that was why it hit me especially hard.  We were not looking for help from the Church, but it certainly made it clear there wasn't any help anyways.  I wondered how many people were actually desperate and looking for help, any help, and were confronted by that sign.  I saw it as the Church abdicating Her responsibility to help the poor, evangelize, and clothe the naked, to the government.  What I see as Pharaoh.  Why would the Catholic Church send people into captivity and slavery?  When you enter into the government welfare system, you essentially become a slave to the masters that are employed in that system.  Your loyalty is no longer to God, who loves you and has provided for you in your time of need through the Church.  Your loyalty and submissiveness is now to a cold government system that does not care for your soul, and in fact has the power to lead your soul to hell. You do their will, not God's.

We came back home to Michigan and saw it again.  This time at the Cathedral where we attended daily Mass.  It is in a poor area of the city, so there are many homeless and destitute.  There are also many programs to serve the poor in that area, thankfully.  I volunteered for a priest that worked at that Cathedral while we were trying to discern God's will and get back on our feet.  We were fairly desperate.  He began paying me for my work because he ran a non profit for a Dominican Republic program he started.  I was grateful because it was our only income at the time.  We were living in a hotel and eating peanut butter and jelly literally every day for two months.  My husband is an engineer and was looking diligently for work, but it was in 2011 and things were moving slow yet. The money Father paid me covered the hotel and the peanut butter and jelly each day.  The stress was unbelievable.  People, including me, do not realize what this sort of trial can do to one's mental, emotional, and spiritual state.  If you have issues with trust in God, they will certainly manifest during this time.  It can become a storm in itself.  Anyways, Father was actually quite fearful, and was projecting that fear to me.  I thought it strange given he was a priest that he appeared to have no faith.  One day, he was so distraught that he made me call the government number for emergency housing.  I didn't want to, and knew they would be no help, but I did it for his sake.  He was shocked to find out there wasn't a house just sitting somewhere for free that we could just move into.  He thought that was awful, it was "emergency housing" wasn't it?  The irony of this story is the rectory he was living in.  It was a very large rectory on a little lake.  He was in retirement, so that is where the Bishop placed him.  Downstairs, there was a very large apartment.  It had a kitchen, a living room, and a large bedroom with four beds in it.  Empty.  I would have to go downstairs sometimes and I would look at that, and be dumbfounded.  He said that the other priest liked to keep it empty in case family or friends wanted to visit.  In fact, his own niece and her husband had just visited and had a wonderful time.  Hopefully, you see what I am getting at here.  Sometimes I think of that time, and I still can't wrap my head around it.  There seems to be no wisdom in the faithful anymore.  Their first thought to any dilemma is sending people away to the government.  Why?  What has happened to charity, and taking care of one's own in the Church?  It literally has turned into every man for himself.  In order to be a part of the Catholic Church, you must be self sufficient and able to support them, and also go on welfare if you are in need.  My spirit tells me God is not pleased with this.  Not at all.
At this same Church, I did ask the man that ran the offices about what their procedure was for helping needy families.  There is a very high percentage of Hispanics in this church, so I was curious.  He said they hired a girl to vet people, and she was very good at it.  She was "sharp" and wasn't easily deceived.  They had a tight system. The main priest there, the rector, gave numerous homilies about the poor.  In one, he said the gospel does not say we have to give money to the poor.  Another, he said a needy person came in looking for help.  He was glad to report that due to our generosity, they were able to provide him with a one week bus pass.  This is a parish that takes in $12,000.00 per week.  The priests are from an order, so they are not on the diocese payroll.  Another time, he said we did the poor a disservice if we didn't offer to take them shopping instead of just handing them money to spend on booze and smokes.  Then, the next week told us we were not to make contact with any of the homeless because that was the advice of the city police department.  He felt it prudent to follow their advice. I challenged him after Mass regarding the Scriptures do tell us to give alms to the poor, and that even Pope Francis would have envelopes of money handed out to the poor.  He said with a red, angry face that he had never heard of that.  

Honestly.  I don't understand what has happened to the Church.  It has literally become a fearful business enterprise.  It is so disappointing. It would explain though the response of the Church during this current crisis.  They have so lost the spirit of Charity that I believe they don't know how to respond anymore.  They have become so used to receiving, that they have forgotten how to give.  This same church also began to funnel any donations like clothes, food, etc. to the Congregational Church down the street for them to distribute.  There was great pride in that, it was consuming too much time and this would free up that time for other things.  What other things?  This is just a small sampling of what the Lord led us through, what we witnessed, experienced, in the Church.  He said in prayer it was a "microcosm" of what was happening in the larger Catholic Church.   Which leads me to the following discernment of hearing "Pharaoh,let my people go!" the last month during prayer.

Although this current crisis is a terrible trial, the Lord desires to use it to purify His people, His Church.  He desires to lead them into the wilderness, or the desert, so that He can speak to their hearts and reconcile with them once more.  He desires to be "Father" and "God" to His people once again.  He desires repentance, trust, love and reverence of Him alone.  This will not happen, however, because the Church has sent His people into slavery.....to the government to provide for all their needs.  They turn to the secular government, rather than the Church, for consolation.  Can you imagine if Moses told the Israelite's to go back to Egypt if they wanted food or water?  Moses interceded for them, and God answered.  This apparently established a foundation for the way God desires to provide for His people.  It was meant to establish the relationship God desired to have with His people.  He was Provider. Nothing has changed with God, we have changed. God now desires that we learn Him once again.  Pharaoh, the government, will have to let His people go, but God's people also have to let go of Pharaoh.