DEAR FATHER BURNS (1967) by Helen Howell

January 20, 1967 : Regarding your article “A Sense of Humor“ 

Wanderer, January 19, 1967

Dear Father Burns, 

The success of the psychological warfare that is being used against the American people is built around their “sense of humor“. What is the usual fare on TV? Moral values debunked, indecencies, atrocities, murderers, All portrayed for a gullible public in comedy situations to make them palatable. 

It is the same strategy when we, who are deeply hurt with the abuses in the Church, are asked to view such with a sense of humor. If we can laugh at evil then we are not going to hate it very much, which is something apart from the ability to laugh at oneself. These are the semantics being used to demoralize a once Christian people. This levity is too common in articles that would expose the evil. Instead of a direct attack, there is amused indulgence or a false charity that hesitates to wound even known perpetrators - a far cry from the early defenders of the Faith and a Saint Paul who stressed the only weapons ever needed to route evil entirely: “Put on the armor of God and stand fast in the traditions which you have been taught! “

A Divine “sense of humor” is to “get the point “as God would view it which would hardly be in the light of a comedy of errors. Instead, we see our Lord rejected, mocked, and scourged again by His  own people with the irreverence that is now found in Catholic worship. The Mass today is the stark reenactment of the original Sacrifice on Calvary, and we can only follow sorrowfully as we witness again our Divine Lord being stripped of all His dignity and beauty in surroundings that are reminiscent of the regimentation then that was meant to discourage His loyal followers.

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” (Proverbs) Our Lord displayed righteous indignation  at those who were trying to destroy His works.  He drove out those were profaning His temple. He warned us of the extreme dangers and the astuteness of the enemy. He threatened to “spew out “the lukewarm “moderates”. He said that unless we bear witness to Him in defense of His Honor and Glory, He would not acknowledge us to His Father in heaven. These are serious lines in the great drama of life that could end in tragedy when we fail to distinguish what constitutes our greatest good, eternal salvation.

Sincerely in Christ, 

Helen Howell

cc:Wanderer