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He reminded us that our true lives and fulfillment lay elsewhere , beyond this world . It is after hearing yet another funeral homily that I find myself obliged to respond . Thus , again , we see the logic of speaking of conception as the beginning of a new human life , for starting with conception the drive to be alive , and as a human being , is clearly present . It is an inspiring story of a good and holy bishop who , at the end of his life , was confronted with the clear choice of remaining faithful to his Catholic faith and paying for it with his life , or of denying his faith and finding favor with a tyrant king . It was the sixth century B.C .; the Persian king , Cyrus the Great , had just issued an edict allowing the Jewish captives to return to the Holy Land and to their beloved city , Jerusalem . Among his many memorable works , we owe to him the beginning of the modern emphasis on the social teachings of the Church , especially in his most important social pronouncement , the encyclical Rerum Novarum of May 15 , 1891 . The instruction of Jesus directs the disciple to first confront in privacy the individual whom he believes to be guilty of serious sin or error . As mentioned in the beginning of this essay , single people are the only source of vocations of all kinds . Sadly , parallels exist between the state of the Church at the beginning of the 16th century and at the end of the 20th century .