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DAILY THOUGHTS FOR THE LENTEN SEASON
Holy Saturday in Holy Week, April 20th
Article 38
From Good Friday to "Lousy" Saturday?
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Article 38
From Good Friday to "Lousy" Saturday?
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Where's He Gone? They've Taken Him Away! No Mass, No Communion Today!
Yesterday, on Good Friday, there was no Sacrifice of the Mass offered anywhere. If you love your Mass, then that was not a good Good Friday feeling! However, every cloud has a silver lining―and the silver lining was that Holy Communion was still available in the Solemn Afternoon Liturgy! Today, however, could be termed “Lousy” Saturday―because, not only is there no Holy Sacrifice of the Mass available, but neither is Holy Communion available!
Jesus is Buried, But Cross Isn’t
On Holy Saturday—an incredibly ‘silent’ day in the Church’s Liturgy, apart from the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours—there is a sense of an absence of Christ. Walk into a church and what do you see? The tabernacle is open and empty. The altar is almost bare. All candles—especially the sanctuary light—are dead and extinguished. The statues buried beneath purple coverings. What can you see? There are some things that visible! What are they?
For one, there is the crucifix above the empty tabernacle—just as the cross of Christ remained on Calvary after Christ was taken away. Also, if you look around, you will still see the Stations of the Cross uncovered—as they have been throughout Lent, and also throughout Passiontide when the other statues and pictures were buried beneath purple ‘burial’ cloths, and they will remain uncovered throughout the whole year! The Cross of Christ and the Way or Stations of the Cross are not meant for Lent only, but it for the whole Liturgical Year and for every single day of our lives, in every circumstance of life. For without that Cross of Christ there is no salvation—hence the liturgy gives us phrases such as: “Ave Crux, spes unica!” (“Hail Cross, our sole hope!”) and “In cruce salus” (“In the cross is salvation”).
Don't Bury Your Cross!
You may not have the Sacrifice of the Mass and Holy Communion available to you because it has been "taken away"‘—but the cross is always available to you and always will be available to you until the day you die (whether you want that cross or not). If you bury’ your cross—like the man who buried his talent in the ground (Matthew 25:14-30)—and your salvation is dead and buried! Like that man who buried the talent, we risk hearing the words: “And his lord answering, said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed! Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents. For to everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:26-30). Our crosses are far more precious than any talents (money) that we have. We cannot buy our way into Heaven with money (except giving alms), but we can buy Heaven with the cross.
This is why Our Lord says emphatically: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23) … “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). There is absolutely no “wiggle-room” in those words—no loophole, no escape clause, no compromise—it is a “non-negotiable” fact. There is no salvation outside Christ and He is to be found on the cross—that is why we have the crucifix overlooking every altar and the Stations of the Cross peering down upon us from all sides—in season and out of season, during Lent and outside of Lent, before Good Friday, during Good Friday and after Good Friday! “Ave Crux, spes unica!” (“Hail Cross, our sole hope!”) and “In cruce salus” (“In the cross is salvation”).
Yesterday, on Good Friday, there was no Sacrifice of the Mass offered anywhere. If you love your Mass, then that was not a good Good Friday feeling! However, every cloud has a silver lining―and the silver lining was that Holy Communion was still available in the Solemn Afternoon Liturgy! Today, however, could be termed “Lousy” Saturday―because, not only is there no Holy Sacrifice of the Mass available, but neither is Holy Communion available!
Jesus is Buried, But Cross Isn’t
On Holy Saturday—an incredibly ‘silent’ day in the Church’s Liturgy, apart from the Divine Office or Liturgy of the Hours—there is a sense of an absence of Christ. Walk into a church and what do you see? The tabernacle is open and empty. The altar is almost bare. All candles—especially the sanctuary light—are dead and extinguished. The statues buried beneath purple coverings. What can you see? There are some things that visible! What are they?
For one, there is the crucifix above the empty tabernacle—just as the cross of Christ remained on Calvary after Christ was taken away. Also, if you look around, you will still see the Stations of the Cross uncovered—as they have been throughout Lent, and also throughout Passiontide when the other statues and pictures were buried beneath purple ‘burial’ cloths, and they will remain uncovered throughout the whole year! The Cross of Christ and the Way or Stations of the Cross are not meant for Lent only, but it for the whole Liturgical Year and for every single day of our lives, in every circumstance of life. For without that Cross of Christ there is no salvation—hence the liturgy gives us phrases such as: “Ave Crux, spes unica!” (“Hail Cross, our sole hope!”) and “In cruce salus” (“In the cross is salvation”).
Don't Bury Your Cross!
You may not have the Sacrifice of the Mass and Holy Communion available to you because it has been "taken away"‘—but the cross is always available to you and always will be available to you until the day you die (whether you want that cross or not). If you bury’ your cross—like the man who buried his talent in the ground (Matthew 25:14-30)—and your salvation is dead and buried! Like that man who buried the talent, we risk hearing the words: “And his lord answering, said to him: ‘Wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sow not, and gather where I have not strewed! Thou oughtest therefore to have committed my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received my own with usury. Take ye away therefore the talent from him, and give it to him that hath ten talents. For to everyone that hath shall be given, and he shall abound: but from him that hath not, that also which he seemeth to have shall be taken away. And the unprofitable servant cast ye out into the exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!’” (Matthew 25:26-30). Our crosses are far more precious than any talents (money) that we have. We cannot buy our way into Heaven with money (except giving alms), but we can buy Heaven with the cross.
This is why Our Lord says emphatically: “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23) … “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). There is absolutely no “wiggle-room” in those words—no loophole, no escape clause, no compromise—it is a “non-negotiable” fact. There is no salvation outside Christ and He is to be found on the cross—that is why we have the crucifix overlooking every altar and the Stations of the Cross peering down upon us from all sides—in season and out of season, during Lent and outside of Lent, before Good Friday, during Good Friday and after Good Friday! “Ave Crux, spes unica!” (“Hail Cross, our sole hope!”) and “In cruce salus” (“In the cross is salvation”).
Good Friday in Holy Week, April 19th
Article 37
Why Call a Day of Evil by the title "Good Friday"?
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Article 37
Why Call a Day of Evil by the title "Good Friday"?
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Love and Live; Sin and Die
Love and death! At first, they conjure up two different emotions: desire and dread; pleasant and unpleasant; magnificent and morbid; delightful and depressing; exhilarating and excruciating! Two irreconcilables! Or are they?
An initial glance at Scripture seems to show their irreconcilability: God, Who is Love itself, is linked to life: "God is charity" (1 John 4:8) and God, Who is good, loves us and seeks to bring eternal life to our souls; the devil, who is evil, does not love us, but hates us and seeks to bring eternal death to our souls. Christ, with His grace, brings eternal life to us; the devil, with sin, brings eternal death to us. Jesus says of Himself: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life ... I am come that they may havelife, and may have it more abundantly" (John 14:6; 10:10); whereas, speaking of the devil, Jesus says: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him” (John 8:44).
“By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). St. Paul tells us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and “the sting of death is sin” (1 Corinthians 14:56). God Himself tells us: “everyone shall die for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16).
A God of Extremes
Yet our God is not just a God of extreme justice; He is also a God of extreme mercy:“For God loveth mercy and truth: the Lord will give grace and glory” (Psalm 83:12).“The Lord is merciful and just, and our God showeth mercy” (Psalm 114:5). “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). But that mercy is not unconditional, nor is it free. To obtain that mercy, certain things have to be done.
“As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die? Yea, if I shall say to the just that he shall surely live, and he, trusting in his justice, commit iniquity: all his justices shall be forgotten, and in his iniquity, which he hath committed, in the same shall he die. And if I shall say to the wicked: ‘Thou shalt surely die!’ and he do penance for his sin, and do judgment and justice, and if that wicked man restore what he had robbed, and walk in the commandments of life, and do no unjust thing: he shall surely live, and shall not die. None of his sins, which he hath committed, shall be imputed to him: he hath done judgment and justice, he shall surely live...For when the just shall depart from his justice, and commit iniquities, he shall die in them. And when the wicked shall depart from his wickedness, and shall do judgments, and justice: he shall live in them” (Ezechiel 33:11-19).
Mercy Means Penance! What are the Means of Penance?
Sin must be paid for; our debt must be settled—otherwise we cannot enter Heaven. If we die in a state of unconfessed and unforgiven mortal sin, then the debt will be paid in Hell. If we neglect to pay for our confessed and forgiven sins in this life, then Purgatory awaits, and Jesus says: “thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26). The obvious solution is to pay now, rather than later. Now we can pay at a greatly 'discounted' price; after death, it will be payments with high interest added; “for the sin is great, and the fierce anger of the Lord hangeth over Israel” (2 Paralipomenon 28:13). What payment did we choose? What payment plans are there to choose from?
The Penance of Pain & The Penance of Love
Upon Calvary, alongside the dying Christ, we see two sinners: one dying in pain, the other 'dying' out of grief-stricken love. One is a man, the other a woman. The man is St. Dismas; the woman is St. Mary Magdalen. We may call them saints today, but at the time they were great sinners being transformed into saints. They were living proof that “the Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy ... and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9).
The Dismal Pain of Dismas
Dismas has led a dismal life; being a thief, robber, and consequently probably a murderer too, he was doing 'penance' for his sins and proving the truth of the statement that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). However, there is another thief suffering and dying with him; he has the same history, he has the same sufferings, but he does not have the same fate. His sufferings will be of no use to him, for he does not accept those sufferings as a just wage for his sins. He could have paid his debt there and then, like the Good Thief, Dismas, but he preferred (knowingly or unknowingly) to pay his debt in Hell.
Dismas would pay his debt alongside Jesus; or rather, he would co-pay with Jesus, for, of himself, he could not pay for any of his sins. Sin is an offense against God, even though we might sin against neighbor — “as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40). God is infinite, so any sin is consequently an infinite offense since it offends an infinite God. Therefore, it contracts an infinite debt, which finite man cannot hope to pay. It needs an infinite creature to be able to pay an infinite debt—Jesus is that infinite being, as an infinite God he can pay an infinite debt; as a human being He can pay the human debt for sin. Dismas merely co-pays, just as Our Lady co-redeems. We likewise have to co-pay—it is proof of our admission to guilt and proof of acceptance of responsibility and accountability.
Dismas pays primarily through his body: he is accepting of the pains and tortures of death as a just wage for his sins. It is not pain alone that saves him, it is pain processed and transformed by the soul into something above the natural, into something unnatural for him, into something supernatural. The pain breaks through into his soul and transforms him from a bad thief into a Good Thief who steals Heaven in the last lap of his life, with the last breath of his life. His was a payment plan of pain.
Yet, to say that Dismas died without love would be a grave misunderstanding and misrepresentation of what happened. He had to have some degree of love towards God in his heart for Christ to be able say to him: “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). A variety of things will have contributed to breaking down any hardness of heart that he may have had—we will look at those at later point during Lent—but the pain of suffering undoubtedly opened and softened his heart, and prepared the soil of the soul to receive the seed of divine love. So, in the end, both death and love united in his life, to bring about his salvation.
The Mournful Love of Mary
The other sinner that we spoke of was Mary Magdalen, the sister of Martha, who according the traditional teaching of the Western (Roman) Church is the woman who was caught in adultery, the woman possessed by seven devils and the woman at the banquet of Simon the Leper who was weeping tears over Jesus' feet, wiping them dry with her hair and anointing Jesus with precious alabaster. Like the thief, Dismas, she too was a great sinner.
However, her payment plan was of a different kind—she paid for her sins through love. Jesus Himself confirmed this, when at the banquet He said: "Why do you trouble this woman? Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much"(Matthew 26:10; Luke 7:47). Her payment plan was based upon the Old Testament quote of: "Charity covereth all sins" (Proverbs 10:12) and the same plan was carried over into the New Testament, as testified by St. Peter: "Charity covereth a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). This is merely a reflection or an echo of the charity that led Jesus to lay down His life for our sins: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). “In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Like Dismas, Mary experienced a blend of love and pain on Calvary. The more she loved Christ, the more she felt the pain of what was happening to Christ. We know this from personal experience: the more we treasure a person or an object, the more agitated, sorrowful and pained we become when suffering a separation or its loss.
Love and Death United
Love and Death, the two things that seemed contradictory and irreconcilable, now find themselves united on Calvary. The words of Christ perform a marriage, so to speak, between Love and Death: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Death proves Love; and Love leads to Death. Our Lord proves His love for us by dying for us; and that love of His had to go to the very extreme, to the point of death itself. He could not raise the stakes any higher than that.
Similarly, Mary Magdalen 'dies' on Calvary with Christ. In a vaguely analogous way, as Christ dies mystically in each Sacrifice of the Mass, Mary dies mystically in an unbloody manner at the Sacrifice on Calvary. Christ's heart is pierced, she feels the wound—since it is for her benefit and salvation that He undergoes all this, and it is her sins (ours too) that pierce that Sacred Heart. She knows that He is the 'scapegoat' for her sins. She knows that she should be in His place, sentenced to death and dying on the cross.
Just as Christ had spared her a painful physical death from being stoned to death for adultery, He now prevents her spiritual death by dying on the cross. Like a woman watching her child being slain (Massacre of the Innocents) and wishing that she could be slain in the place of her baby; Mary Magdalen must have wished that this Massacre of the Innocent One could have been prevented and that she could be slain in His place. She was grateful to Him when she escaped being stoned to death; she was grateful to Him again for His redeeming death—she died with Him out of love.
A Double Death
So on Calvary, the wage of sin was most certainly death for all involved—to the innocent and guilty alike. Some experienced the pains of death primarily in the body; others felt pain as though they were 'dying' in the soul. But regardless of which manner of death was being experienced, what mattered most was that which was taking place in the soul. Without the presence of a supernatural love, all and any death would be vain, useless and pointless. This is exactly what St. Paul was trying to tell us in the Epistle that the Church put before us on Quinquagesima Sunday: "If I should deliver my body to be burned (or crucified, or whatever form of death it may be), and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:3).
The Soul of Lent
This shows us the indispensable ingredient that should have been present in all our Lenten penances—charity, or a love God. If we perform our penances without that vital, life-giving ingredient, then our penances are mere lifeless corpses, to which we could apply the words of Our Lord and Isaias: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8). In other words, we will be performing penances in a lifeless manner, without putting our heart into them—and the heart we need to put into them is a contrite heart, a broken heart, a sorrowing heart, a repentant heart, a new heart, but above all a loving heart. For charity is the form or the soul of all virtues; it is the inspiration, motivation and elevation of all that we do, ensuring that we do for God, and God alone! That is why Holy Scripture says: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Thus we can apply the axiom about prayer, to our penances, sacrifices and mortifications also: "One Hail Mary said well, is better than hundreds said badly!" Then, one act of penance done with a loving, broken, repentant heart, will be worth hundreds of penances done on 'auto-pilot' or mechanically.
Never Too Late
Perhaps, up to this point, our Lent has been “loveless”―the penances have been there, but the soul of charity was missing from them. This is what Our Lord meant when He said: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Perhaps, like the Good Thief on the cross, Dismas, we find ourselves in this dismal, loveless, painful state of having labored through Lent with our loveless penances. Well, like Dismas, we could still “steal” a profitable Lent like he “stole” Heaven―even at the “eleventh hour” or the very of end of “Lenten Life”. Or like the workers in the vineyard, who only began work at the eleventh hour, after being idle all day. There is still time left to bring good out evil, to make good what was not so good. In these last moments of Lent, let us crucify ourselves spiritually, rip our flesh away from the seductive world, nail ourselves to the cross of a truly spiritual life, and die to our enemies of the devil, the world and our own concupiscences.
Love and death! At first, they conjure up two different emotions: desire and dread; pleasant and unpleasant; magnificent and morbid; delightful and depressing; exhilarating and excruciating! Two irreconcilables! Or are they?
An initial glance at Scripture seems to show their irreconcilability: God, Who is Love itself, is linked to life: "God is charity" (1 John 4:8) and God, Who is good, loves us and seeks to bring eternal life to our souls; the devil, who is evil, does not love us, but hates us and seeks to bring eternal death to our souls. Christ, with His grace, brings eternal life to us; the devil, with sin, brings eternal death to us. Jesus says of Himself: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life ... I am come that they may havelife, and may have it more abundantly" (John 14:6; 10:10); whereas, speaking of the devil, Jesus says: "He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him” (John 8:44).
“By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). St. Paul tells us that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) and “the sting of death is sin” (1 Corinthians 14:56). God Himself tells us: “everyone shall die for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16).
A God of Extremes
Yet our God is not just a God of extreme justice; He is also a God of extreme mercy:“For God loveth mercy and truth: the Lord will give grace and glory” (Psalm 83:12).“The Lord is merciful and just, and our God showeth mercy” (Psalm 114:5). “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9). But that mercy is not unconditional, nor is it free. To obtain that mercy, certain things have to be done.
“As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die? Yea, if I shall say to the just that he shall surely live, and he, trusting in his justice, commit iniquity: all his justices shall be forgotten, and in his iniquity, which he hath committed, in the same shall he die. And if I shall say to the wicked: ‘Thou shalt surely die!’ and he do penance for his sin, and do judgment and justice, and if that wicked man restore what he had robbed, and walk in the commandments of life, and do no unjust thing: he shall surely live, and shall not die. None of his sins, which he hath committed, shall be imputed to him: he hath done judgment and justice, he shall surely live...For when the just shall depart from his justice, and commit iniquities, he shall die in them. And when the wicked shall depart from his wickedness, and shall do judgments, and justice: he shall live in them” (Ezechiel 33:11-19).
Mercy Means Penance! What are the Means of Penance?
Sin must be paid for; our debt must be settled—otherwise we cannot enter Heaven. If we die in a state of unconfessed and unforgiven mortal sin, then the debt will be paid in Hell. If we neglect to pay for our confessed and forgiven sins in this life, then Purgatory awaits, and Jesus says: “thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26). The obvious solution is to pay now, rather than later. Now we can pay at a greatly 'discounted' price; after death, it will be payments with high interest added; “for the sin is great, and the fierce anger of the Lord hangeth over Israel” (2 Paralipomenon 28:13). What payment did we choose? What payment plans are there to choose from?
The Penance of Pain & The Penance of Love
Upon Calvary, alongside the dying Christ, we see two sinners: one dying in pain, the other 'dying' out of grief-stricken love. One is a man, the other a woman. The man is St. Dismas; the woman is St. Mary Magdalen. We may call them saints today, but at the time they were great sinners being transformed into saints. They were living proof that “the Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy ... and His tender mercies are over all His works” (Psalm 144:8-9).
The Dismal Pain of Dismas
Dismas has led a dismal life; being a thief, robber, and consequently probably a murderer too, he was doing 'penance' for his sins and proving the truth of the statement that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). However, there is another thief suffering and dying with him; he has the same history, he has the same sufferings, but he does not have the same fate. His sufferings will be of no use to him, for he does not accept those sufferings as a just wage for his sins. He could have paid his debt there and then, like the Good Thief, Dismas, but he preferred (knowingly or unknowingly) to pay his debt in Hell.
Dismas would pay his debt alongside Jesus; or rather, he would co-pay with Jesus, for, of himself, he could not pay for any of his sins. Sin is an offense against God, even though we might sin against neighbor — “as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40). God is infinite, so any sin is consequently an infinite offense since it offends an infinite God. Therefore, it contracts an infinite debt, which finite man cannot hope to pay. It needs an infinite creature to be able to pay an infinite debt—Jesus is that infinite being, as an infinite God he can pay an infinite debt; as a human being He can pay the human debt for sin. Dismas merely co-pays, just as Our Lady co-redeems. We likewise have to co-pay—it is proof of our admission to guilt and proof of acceptance of responsibility and accountability.
Dismas pays primarily through his body: he is accepting of the pains and tortures of death as a just wage for his sins. It is not pain alone that saves him, it is pain processed and transformed by the soul into something above the natural, into something unnatural for him, into something supernatural. The pain breaks through into his soul and transforms him from a bad thief into a Good Thief who steals Heaven in the last lap of his life, with the last breath of his life. His was a payment plan of pain.
Yet, to say that Dismas died without love would be a grave misunderstanding and misrepresentation of what happened. He had to have some degree of love towards God in his heart for Christ to be able say to him: “This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). A variety of things will have contributed to breaking down any hardness of heart that he may have had—we will look at those at later point during Lent—but the pain of suffering undoubtedly opened and softened his heart, and prepared the soil of the soul to receive the seed of divine love. So, in the end, both death and love united in his life, to bring about his salvation.
The Mournful Love of Mary
The other sinner that we spoke of was Mary Magdalen, the sister of Martha, who according the traditional teaching of the Western (Roman) Church is the woman who was caught in adultery, the woman possessed by seven devils and the woman at the banquet of Simon the Leper who was weeping tears over Jesus' feet, wiping them dry with her hair and anointing Jesus with precious alabaster. Like the thief, Dismas, she too was a great sinner.
However, her payment plan was of a different kind—she paid for her sins through love. Jesus Himself confirmed this, when at the banquet He said: "Why do you trouble this woman? Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much"(Matthew 26:10; Luke 7:47). Her payment plan was based upon the Old Testament quote of: "Charity covereth all sins" (Proverbs 10:12) and the same plan was carried over into the New Testament, as testified by St. Peter: "Charity covereth a multitude of sins" (1 Peter 4:8). This is merely a reflection or an echo of the charity that led Jesus to lay down His life for our sins: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). “In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Like Dismas, Mary experienced a blend of love and pain on Calvary. The more she loved Christ, the more she felt the pain of what was happening to Christ. We know this from personal experience: the more we treasure a person or an object, the more agitated, sorrowful and pained we become when suffering a separation or its loss.
Love and Death United
Love and Death, the two things that seemed contradictory and irreconcilable, now find themselves united on Calvary. The words of Christ perform a marriage, so to speak, between Love and Death: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Death proves Love; and Love leads to Death. Our Lord proves His love for us by dying for us; and that love of His had to go to the very extreme, to the point of death itself. He could not raise the stakes any higher than that.
Similarly, Mary Magdalen 'dies' on Calvary with Christ. In a vaguely analogous way, as Christ dies mystically in each Sacrifice of the Mass, Mary dies mystically in an unbloody manner at the Sacrifice on Calvary. Christ's heart is pierced, she feels the wound—since it is for her benefit and salvation that He undergoes all this, and it is her sins (ours too) that pierce that Sacred Heart. She knows that He is the 'scapegoat' for her sins. She knows that she should be in His place, sentenced to death and dying on the cross.
Just as Christ had spared her a painful physical death from being stoned to death for adultery, He now prevents her spiritual death by dying on the cross. Like a woman watching her child being slain (Massacre of the Innocents) and wishing that she could be slain in the place of her baby; Mary Magdalen must have wished that this Massacre of the Innocent One could have been prevented and that she could be slain in His place. She was grateful to Him when she escaped being stoned to death; she was grateful to Him again for His redeeming death—she died with Him out of love.
A Double Death
So on Calvary, the wage of sin was most certainly death for all involved—to the innocent and guilty alike. Some experienced the pains of death primarily in the body; others felt pain as though they were 'dying' in the soul. But regardless of which manner of death was being experienced, what mattered most was that which was taking place in the soul. Without the presence of a supernatural love, all and any death would be vain, useless and pointless. This is exactly what St. Paul was trying to tell us in the Epistle that the Church put before us on Quinquagesima Sunday: "If I should deliver my body to be burned (or crucified, or whatever form of death it may be), and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing" (1 Corinthians 13:3).
The Soul of Lent
This shows us the indispensable ingredient that should have been present in all our Lenten penances—charity, or a love God. If we perform our penances without that vital, life-giving ingredient, then our penances are mere lifeless corpses, to which we could apply the words of Our Lord and Isaias: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8). In other words, we will be performing penances in a lifeless manner, without putting our heart into them—and the heart we need to put into them is a contrite heart, a broken heart, a sorrowing heart, a repentant heart, a new heart, but above all a loving heart. For charity is the form or the soul of all virtues; it is the inspiration, motivation and elevation of all that we do, ensuring that we do for God, and God alone! That is why Holy Scripture says: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Thus we can apply the axiom about prayer, to our penances, sacrifices and mortifications also: "One Hail Mary said well, is better than hundreds said badly!" Then, one act of penance done with a loving, broken, repentant heart, will be worth hundreds of penances done on 'auto-pilot' or mechanically.
Never Too Late
Perhaps, up to this point, our Lent has been “loveless”―the penances have been there, but the soul of charity was missing from them. This is what Our Lord meant when He said: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Perhaps, like the Good Thief on the cross, Dismas, we find ourselves in this dismal, loveless, painful state of having labored through Lent with our loveless penances. Well, like Dismas, we could still “steal” a profitable Lent like he “stole” Heaven―even at the “eleventh hour” or the very of end of “Lenten Life”. Or like the workers in the vineyard, who only began work at the eleventh hour, after being idle all day. There is still time left to bring good out evil, to make good what was not so good. In these last moments of Lent, let us crucify ourselves spiritually, rip our flesh away from the seductive world, nail ourselves to the cross of a truly spiritual life, and die to our enemies of the devil, the world and our own concupiscences.
Thursday in Holy Week, April 18th
Article 36
Three Birthdays on the Same Day!
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Article 36
Three Birthdays on the Same Day!
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
The Problem With Sharing Birthdays!
A birthday should be a day when the focus is on the person whose birthday it is―they should be made to feel special on that day. However, there are such things as twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, sextuplets and more! Imagine being of six or seven siblings born on the same day―the attention given to the “birthday boy” (or girl) ends up being spread a little thin. Instead of being the sole focus of attention, you are merely one of six or seven or whatever getting only a morsel of attention from everyone else.
It Comes in Threes
Or look upon the phenomenon of “doing the rounds” of parties on Christmas Day―so as not shun or slight any parent or in-law, brother or sister. So you gallop around three or four parties, showing your face everywhere, but feeling as though belong nowhere! It is much the same with Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), which does not just celebrate one thing or one birthday―but it celebrates THREE BIRTHDAYS for THREE THINGS, which you could, in a manner of speaking, call HOLY TRIPLETS. These triplets are, in order of birth or logical order, (1) the Holy Priesthood, (2) the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and (3) the Holy Eucharist or Blessed Sacrament. They are logically in that order, because you must have a priest before you can have a Sacrifice of the Mass; and you cannot produce the Holy Eucharist without both the priest and the Mass.
Before we look at the three ‘birthdays’, there is another threesome aspect to Holy Thursday―or at least there used to be before destructive man started to destroy the beauty that God had created through His Church. That other “threesome” refers to the three different kinds of solemn Masses celebrated on Holy Thursday. The first was for the reconciliation of penitents, the second was for the creation and blessing of the Church’s Holy Oils, and the third was the solemn evening Mass commemorating the Last Supper, during which the other “threesome” were born―the Holy Priesthood, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Holy Eucharist.
The Mass of Reconciliation of Public Penitents (Public Sinners)
Dom Gueranger tells us that three solemn Masses were anciently celebrated on this day; and the first was preceded by the absolution of the public penitents, and their readmission into the Church. The following was the order of the service for the reconciliation of penitents. Firstly, they presented themselves at the church door, clad in penitential garb, and bare-footed. The hair of both head and beard had been allowed to grow from Ash Wednesday, the day on which they had received their penance, which had to be completed before Holy Thursday. In the sanctuary, the bishop recited the Seven Penitential Psalms, in which David expresses his sorrow for having offended God. These psalms were followed by
the litany of the saints. During these prayers the penitents were laying prostrate, flat on their faces, in the porch of the church, for entrance into the actual interior of the church was forbidden to them. Three times (that number three again!) during the litany, the bishop sent a member of the clergy to go and speak to them, in the bishop’s name, and bring them words of hope and consolation.
The first time, two subdeacons went to them and said: “As I live, saith the Lord, I will not the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live!”
The second time, two other subdeacons were sent, with this message: “Thus saith the Lord: ‘Do penance! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’”
Finally, a deacon was commissioned to go to them and say: “Lift up your heads! Behold! Your redemption is nigh!”
After these announcements of approaching pardon, the bishop left the sanctuary and went towards the penitents, as far as half way down the centre nave, where was prepared a seat, turned towards the door which led into the porch where the penitents were still lying prostrate. The pontiff being seated, the archdeacon addressed him in these words:
“Venerable pontiff! The acceptable time has come, the day of God's mercy and of man's salvation, when death was destroyed, and eternal life began. This is the time when, in the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth, new plants are to be set, and the detestableness of the old growth is to be pruned away. For though there is no period of time, which is not rich in the goodness and mercy of God, yet now indulgence a produces a more abundant remission of sins, and grace yields a more plentiful number of the regenerated. Those that are regenerated add to our ranks, those that return, increase our numbers. There is a laver of water; there is a laver of tears. From the one, there is joy because of the admittance of them that are called j from the other, there is gladness because of them that repent. Therefore it is that these thy suppliant servants-after having fallen into sundry kinds of sins, by the neglect of the divine commandments, and the transgression of the moral law-humbled and prostrate, cry out to the Lord in these words of the prophet: I We have sinned! We have done unjustly! We have committed iniquity! Have mercy on us, O LordI” It has not been in vain, that they have heard the words of the Gospel: Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted. As it is written, they have eaten the bread of 'sorrow; they have watered their couch with tears; they have afflicted their hearts with mourning, and their bodies with fasting, that thus they might recover the health of soul, which they had lost. The grace of penance, therefore, is one; but it profits each one that receives it, and gives help to all in common.”
The bishop then rose, and advanced towards the penitents. He spoke to them concerning the mercy of God, and how they should live for the time to come. After this exhortation, he thus addressed them: “Come, come, come, my children! I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” The choir then sang this antiphon, taken from Psalm 33: “Come ye to Him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be confounded!” Hereupon, the penitents rose up, and, coming to the bishop, threw themselves at his feet.
The archpriest then pleaded for them in these words: “Make good in them, O apostolic pontiff, all that has been
corrupted in them by the temptation of the devil. By the merit of thy prayers and intercession, and by the grace of
the divine reconciliation, bring these men nigh unto God. Thus they, who heretofore suffered by the sins they committed, may now be happy in the hope that, having overcome the author of their death, they may please the Lord
ia the land of the living.”
The bishop answered: “Knowest thou, if they be worthy of reconciliation?”
The archpriest replied: “I know and bear witness, that they are worthy.”
A deacon then ordered the penitents to rise. This done, the bishop took one of them by the hand, who did the same to his neighbor; and thus all, hand in hand, followed the bishop to the place prepared in the centre of the nave.
Meanwhile, the choir sang the following antiphons: “I say unto you, there is joy to the angels of God over one sinner doing penance. It behoveth thee, my son, to rejoice; for thy brother was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and is found.”
The bishop then offered up to God this prayer, which he sang to the solemn tone of the Preface.
“It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always and in all places give thanks to Thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, through Christ our Lord: Whom Thou, almighty Father, didst will to be born among us by an ineffable birth, that so He might pay to Thee, His eternal Father, the debt contracted by Adam, and put our death to death by His own, and bear our wounds in His own flesh, and cleanse away our stains by His Blood; hereby enabling us, who had fallen by the envy of the old enemy, to rise again by His mercy. Through Him, O Lord, we suppliantly beseech and pray Thee, that Thou graciously hear us making intercession for the sins of others, who are not worthy to plead for our own. Do Thou, O most merciful Lord, recall to Thyself, with Thy customary goodness, these Thy servants, who have separated themselves from Thee by their sins. For neither didst Thou reject the most wicked Achab when he humbled himself before Thee, but didst avert from him the punishment he had deserved. So, likewise, didst Thou graciously hear Peter, when he wept, and didst afterwards give to him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; and Thou didst promise the reward of that same Kingdom to the thief, when he trusted in Thee. Therefore, O most merciful Lord, mercifully welcome back these for whom we offer to Thee our prayers, and restore them to the bosom of the Church, that the enemy may not triumph over them, but that they may be reconciled unto Thee by Thy coequal Son, and by Him be cleansed from their guilt, and graciously admitted by Him to the banquet of Thy most holy Supper. May He in such wise refresh them by His Flesh and Blood, as to lead them, after this life's course is run, to the Kingdom of Heaven.”
After this prayer, all―both clergy and laity―prostrated themselves, together with the penitents, before the divine Majesty, and recited the three psalms which begin with the word “Miserere” (“Have mercy”), that is, psalms 50, 55 and 56. The bishop then stood up, and said over the penitent―who remained prostrate, as did also all the assistants―six long prayers, from which the following is but a short extract:
“Give ear, O Lord, to our supplications, and mercifully hear me, though I myself need mercy above all others. Thou hast chosen me to be the minister of this work, not from any merits Thou didst see in me, but by the pure gift of Thy grace. Grant me courage to fulfill my office, and do Thou work, by my ministry, the effects of Thine own mercy. It is Thou that didst bring back, on Thy shoulders, the lost sheep to the fold, and that didst mercifully hear the prayers of the publican; do Thou, also, restore to life these Thy servants, whom Thou wouldst not have die unto Thee. O Thou, Who abandonest not them that are gone astray, receive these who have returned to Thee. We beseech Thee, O Lord, let the tearful sighs of these Thy servants move Thee to clemency! Heal their wounds! Stretch out thy saving hand to them, and raise them up! Permit not Thy Church to be injured in any of her members; let not Thy flock suffer loss; let not the enemy exult over the destruction of any of Thy family, nor the second death lay hold of them that have been regenerated in the waters of salvation. Pardon, O Lord, these that confess their sins to Thee! Let them not fall into the punishments of the judgment to come! Let them never know the horrors of darkness, or the torments of the flames of Hell. They have returned from the way of error to the path of justice; let them not again be wounded, but maintain ever within themselves both what Thy grace hath conferred upon them, and what Thy mercy hath reformed within them.”
Having said these prayers, the bishop stretched forth his hands over the penitents, and pronounced the reconciliation, in this solemn formula:
“May our Lord Jesus Christ, who vouchsafed to take away the sins of the whole world, by delivering Himself up for us, and shedding His spotless Blood, Who also said unto His disciples: ‘Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth, shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth, shall be loosed also in Heaven!” and Who hath numbered me, though unworthy, among these His ministers: may He deign, by the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God, of the blessed Archangel Michael, of holy Peter the Apostle (to whom He gave the power of binding and loosing), and of all the saints, to absolve you, by the merits of His Blood, shed for the remission of sins, from all whatsoever you have negligently committed in thought, or word, or action; and, having loosed you from the bonds of sin, may He graciously lead you to the Kingdom of Heaven, Who, with God the Father, and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.”
The bishop then advanced towards the penitents, who were still lying prostrate: he sprinkled them with holy water, and incensed them with thurible (censer). Finally, he addressed them in these words of the Apostle: “Arise, ye that sleep! Arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you!” The penitents stood up; and, in order to express the joy they felt at being reconciled with their God, they immediately went and changed their penitential garb for one more in accordance with gladness, and with the Holy Communion they were now to receive, together with the rest of the faithful
.
You can see and sense that in those days, Catholics had not lost a sense of sin―as too sadly is the case today! One reason for that is that liturgical ceremonies, such as seen in the above extracts, were a marvelous means of instruction and influence on the spiritual and moral fiber of the members of the Church. As the famous axiom says: “Lex orandi, lex credendi”―meaning that they way we worship influences the way we think and what we believe. The banal, worldly, irreverent manner of worship today is a major factor in provoking, promoting and producing the lack of Faith that is increasingly evident amongst Catholics all throughout the world. We need those old ceremonies to restore our former awe, zeal, reverence and sense of sin.
The Blessing of the Holy Oils
The second Mass which used, formerly, to be said on Maundy Thursday, was that of the Blessing of the Holy Oils. This holy function, which takes place but once each year, requires a Bishop as the consecrator. For now many centuries, this great ceremony is celebrated at the single Mass, which is said, on this day, in commemoration of our Lord’s Supper. As this Blessing only takes place in Cathedral Churches, we will not enter into each detail; and yet we would not deprive our readers of what they ought to know with regard to the Holy Oils. Faith teaches us, that, as we are regenerated by water, so are we confirmed and fortified by oil; and that Oil is one of the chief elements chosen by the Divine Author of the Sacraments, whereby to signify and produce grace in our souls.
The reason of the Church’s selecting Maundy Thursday for the Blessing of the Holy Oils, was that It is incorrectly called a Blessing Urbi et Orbi, inasmuch as it is only given to the Faithful who are present at it they would be so much needed for the Baptism of the neophytes on Easter Eve. It behooves the Faithful to understand the mystery of those sacred elements. We will, therefore, briefly explain it to them, in order that we may excite their hearts to gratitude to our Blessed Lord, who has made material things the instruments of grace, and, by his Blood, has given them the sacramental power which resides within them.
The first of the Holy Oils, that is, the first that is blessed by the Bishop, is the one called the Oil of the Sick. It is the matter of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. It takes away, from the dying Christian, the remnants of sin; it strengthens him in his last combat; and, by the supernatural power it possesses, sometimes restores to him the health of the body. Formerly, it used to be blessed on any day of the year, as often as required: but, later on, its blessing was fixed for this day, that thus the three Oils might be blessed all together. The Faithful should assist with much devotion, at this ceremony; for the element that is thus sanctified, is one day to anoint and purify their bodies, sinking under sickness. Let them, as they see it being blessed, think upon their last hour, and praise the infinite goodness of their Savior, whose blood streams so plentifully through this precious fluid.
The noblest of the three Oils is the Chrism, and its consecration is more solemn, and fuller of mystery, than those of the other two. It is by the chrism that the Holy Ghost imprints his indelible seal on the Christian, that has already been made a member of Christ by Baptism. The Water gives us our spiritual birth; the Chrism gives us strength; and, until such time as we have received its holy anointing, we have not as yet the perfect character of a Christian.
Anointed with this holy Oil, the Faithful has a visible sign given him of his being a member of the Man-God, whose name of Christ signifies the unction He has received both as King and Pontiff. This consecration of a Christian by Chrism is so much in accordance with the spirit of our holy Religion, that, immediately after Baptism, the child receives upon its head an anointing (though it is not a sacramental one), of this Oil, to show that he is already a sharer of the kingly character of Jesus Christ.
In order to express, by an outward sign, the sacredness of Chrism, an Apostolic tradition requires the Bishop to mix Balm with it. This Balm represents what the Apostle calls the good odor of Christ, of whom it is written: “We will run after Thee, to the odor of Thy ointments.” The scarcity and high price of other perfumes has obliged the Latin Church to be content with Balm alone in the mixture of holy Chrism: but in the Eastern Church, where the climate is more favorable than ours, three and thirty species of precious perfumes are put into the Oil, and it thus becomes an ointment of exquisite fragrance.
The holy Chrism, besides its sacramental use in Confirmation, and its being put upon the head of the newly baptized, is also used by the Church in the consecration of her Bishops, in the consecration of Chalices and Altars, in the blessing of Bells, and in the Dedication of a Church, in which last most imposing ceremony, the Bishop pours out the Chrism on the twelve crosses, which are to attest to all succeeding ages, the glory of God’s House.
The third of the holy Oils is that which is called the Oil of Catechumens. Though it be not the matter of any Sacrament, it is, nevertheless, an Apostolic institution. Its blessing is less solemn than that of the Chrism, but more so than that of the Oil of the Sick. The Oil of Catechumens is used in the ceremonies of Baptism, for the anointing the breast and shoulders. It is also used for the anointing a Priest’s hands in Ordination, and for the coronation of a King or Queen.
These few words of explanation will give the Faithful some idea of the importance of the Blessing of the holy Oils. By this threefold Blessing, says St. Fortunatus (in the beautiful Hymn which is used during the ceremony), the Bishop acquits the debt he owes, and which none but he can pay.
The holy Church seldom employs such pomp as she does on this occasion. Twelve Priests, seven Deacons, and seven Subdeacons, are present. The Roman Pontifical tells us, that the twelve Priests assist as witnesses and co-operators of the holy Chrism. The Mass commences, and goes on as far as the Prayer of the Canon, which immediately precedes the Pater noster (the “Our Father”).
The Bishop then leaves the Altar, and goes to the place prepared for the Blessing. The first phial of Oil that is brought to him, is that which is intended for the sick. He prefaces the blessing, by pronouncing the words of exorcism over this oil, in order to drive from it the influence of the wicked spirits, who, out of hatred for man, are ever seeking to infest the creatures given to us for our use. This done, he blesses it in these words:
“We beseech Thee, O Lord, send forth from heaven Thy Holy Spirit the Paraclete upon this rich juice of the olive, which Thou hast graciously produced from the green wood, for the solace of both mind and body. By Thy holy blessing, may all they that are anointed with this ointment of heavenly virtue, receive help to mind and body; may it remove from them all pains, all infirmities, and all sickness of mind and body, for it was with oil that Thou didst anoint Thy Priests, Kings, Prophets, and Martyrs. May this, being blessed by Thee, O Lord, become unto us an ointment of perfection, and abide within our whole being. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
One of the seven Subdeacons then carries the phial back, and the Bishop returns to the Altar, and continues the Mass. As soon as he has given Holy Communion to the Clergy, he returns to the place prepared for the blessing of the Oils. The twelve Priests, the seven Deacons, and the seven Subdeacons, repair to the place where the other two phials have been put. One contains the oil, which is to become the Chrism of salvation; the other, the oil which is to be sanctified as the oil of Catechumens. The procession is soon seen returning towards the Pontiff. The two phials are carried by two Deacons; a Subdeacon carries the vase of Balm. The Bishop begins by blessing the Balm: he calls it the fragrant tear of dry bark—the oozing of a favored branch, that gives us the priestly unction.
Before proceeding to bless the oil of the Chrism, he thrice breathes upon it, in the form of a cross. The twelve Priests do the same. The Gospel tells us that our Blessed Savior used this same ceremony over his Apostles. It signifies the power of the Holy Ghost, and expresses his name, which is the Spirit. This Holy Spirit is about to make this oil become an instrument of his Divine power.
The Bishop first prepares it for the heavenly dignity, by exorcising it. He then celebrates the praises of the Chrism, by this magnificent Preface, which has been handed down to us from the earliest ages of our faith.
“It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always, and in all places, give thanks to Thee, O Holy Lord, Almighty Father, Eternal God: who, in the beginning, among the rest of Thy bounteous gifts, didst command the earth to yield fruit-bearing trees, among which should be the olive, which produces this most rich liquor, and whose fruit was to serve for the making holy Chrism. Hence it was, that David, foreknowing, by a prophetic spirit, the Sacraments of Thy grace, sang that our faces were to be made glad with oil: and when the sins of the world were expiated of old, by the deluge, a dove announced that peace was restored to the earth, by bearing an olive branch, the type of the gift to come, which has been manifested in these latter ages; for after the waters of Baptism have washed away the sins of men, this anointing of oil gave us joy and calm. Hence, too, Thou didst command Thy servant Moses to ordain his brother Aaron priest, by pouring oil upon him, after he had been cleansed with water. A greater honor still was, that when Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, bade John baptize him in the waters of the Jordan, Thou didst send upon him the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove; that thus by a voice that bore testimony, Thou mightest designate thine Only Begotten Son, in whom Thou wast well pleased, and mightest prove, beyond all doubt, that this was the fulfillment of what the Prophet David had foretold, when he sang, that he was to be anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.
“We, therefore, beseech Thee, Holy Lord, Almighty Father, Eternal God, through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, that Thou vouchsafe to sanctify, by Thy blessing, this Thy creature oil, and infuse into it the virtue of the Holy Ghost, through the co-operating power of Christ, Thy Son, from whose name it hath borrowed its own of Chrism, and wherewith Thou didst anoint the Priests, Kings, Prophets, and Martyrs. Raise this Chrism into a Sacrament of perfect salvation and life, to them that are to be renewed by the spiritual laver of Baptism. That thus, the corruption of their first birth being absorbed by the infusion of this holy anointing, they may become a holy temple, redolent with the fragrance of the innocence of holy living. According to what Thou hast appointed in this mystery, bestow upon them the honor of kings, priests, and prophets, by vesting them in the robe of incorruption. May this oil be to them, that are born again from water and the Holy Ghost, a Chrism of salvation, making them partakers of life everlasting, and co-heirs of heavenly glory.”
The Bishop then takes the Balm; and having mixed it, on a paten, with a little oil, he pours it into the Phial. The consecration of the Chrism thus completed, he salutes it with these words: Hail, Holy Chrism! This he does with the intention of honoring the Holy Ghost, who is to work by this sacramental oil. The same is done by each of the twelve Priests.
The Bishop then proceeds to bless the Oil of Catechumens. After having breathed upon it, and pronounced the exorcism, (as before, in the blessing of the holy Chrism,) he says this Prayer:
“O God, the rewarder of every spiritual increase and growth.! who strengthenest the beginnings of weakly souls by the power of the Holy Ghost: we beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thou vouchsafe to pour out Thy blessing upon this oil, and grant to them, that come to the laver of holy regeneration, the cleansing of soul and body, by the anointing they receive from this Thy creature; that so, if there should be any stains fixed upon them by their spiritual enemies, they may be effaced by the touch of this holy oil. May the wicked spirits find no room there; may the powers, that have been put to flight, have no further sway; may there be no lurking place left to insidious evil ones. May Thy servants that come to the faith, and are to be cleansed by the operation of Thy Holy Spirit, find in this anointing a preparation for that salvation, which they are to receive in the Sacrament of Baptism, by the Birth of a heavenly regeneration. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who is to come to judge the living, and the dead, and the world by fire. Amen.”
The Bishop then salutes the Oil, on which he has conferred these wonderful prerogatives, saying: “Hail, holy Oil!” The same act of reverence is repeated by each of the Priests. One of the deacons takes the Chrism, another deacon takes the Oil of Catechumens, and a procession is again formed for taking them to the place prepared for them. They are covered with veils of silk— the holy Chrism, with white silk, and the Oil of Catechumens, with purple silk.
A birthday should be a day when the focus is on the person whose birthday it is―they should be made to feel special on that day. However, there are such things as twins, triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, sextuplets and more! Imagine being of six or seven siblings born on the same day―the attention given to the “birthday boy” (or girl) ends up being spread a little thin. Instead of being the sole focus of attention, you are merely one of six or seven or whatever getting only a morsel of attention from everyone else.
It Comes in Threes
Or look upon the phenomenon of “doing the rounds” of parties on Christmas Day―so as not shun or slight any parent or in-law, brother or sister. So you gallop around three or four parties, showing your face everywhere, but feeling as though belong nowhere! It is much the same with Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday), which does not just celebrate one thing or one birthday―but it celebrates THREE BIRTHDAYS for THREE THINGS, which you could, in a manner of speaking, call HOLY TRIPLETS. These triplets are, in order of birth or logical order, (1) the Holy Priesthood, (2) the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and (3) the Holy Eucharist or Blessed Sacrament. They are logically in that order, because you must have a priest before you can have a Sacrifice of the Mass; and you cannot produce the Holy Eucharist without both the priest and the Mass.
Before we look at the three ‘birthdays’, there is another threesome aspect to Holy Thursday―or at least there used to be before destructive man started to destroy the beauty that God had created through His Church. That other “threesome” refers to the three different kinds of solemn Masses celebrated on Holy Thursday. The first was for the reconciliation of penitents, the second was for the creation and blessing of the Church’s Holy Oils, and the third was the solemn evening Mass commemorating the Last Supper, during which the other “threesome” were born―the Holy Priesthood, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Holy Eucharist.
The Mass of Reconciliation of Public Penitents (Public Sinners)
Dom Gueranger tells us that three solemn Masses were anciently celebrated on this day; and the first was preceded by the absolution of the public penitents, and their readmission into the Church. The following was the order of the service for the reconciliation of penitents. Firstly, they presented themselves at the church door, clad in penitential garb, and bare-footed. The hair of both head and beard had been allowed to grow from Ash Wednesday, the day on which they had received their penance, which had to be completed before Holy Thursday. In the sanctuary, the bishop recited the Seven Penitential Psalms, in which David expresses his sorrow for having offended God. These psalms were followed by
the litany of the saints. During these prayers the penitents were laying prostrate, flat on their faces, in the porch of the church, for entrance into the actual interior of the church was forbidden to them. Three times (that number three again!) during the litany, the bishop sent a member of the clergy to go and speak to them, in the bishop’s name, and bring them words of hope and consolation.
The first time, two subdeacons went to them and said: “As I live, saith the Lord, I will not the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live!”
The second time, two other subdeacons were sent, with this message: “Thus saith the Lord: ‘Do penance! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!’”
Finally, a deacon was commissioned to go to them and say: “Lift up your heads! Behold! Your redemption is nigh!”
After these announcements of approaching pardon, the bishop left the sanctuary and went towards the penitents, as far as half way down the centre nave, where was prepared a seat, turned towards the door which led into the porch where the penitents were still lying prostrate. The pontiff being seated, the archdeacon addressed him in these words:
“Venerable pontiff! The acceptable time has come, the day of God's mercy and of man's salvation, when death was destroyed, and eternal life began. This is the time when, in the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth, new plants are to be set, and the detestableness of the old growth is to be pruned away. For though there is no period of time, which is not rich in the goodness and mercy of God, yet now indulgence a produces a more abundant remission of sins, and grace yields a more plentiful number of the regenerated. Those that are regenerated add to our ranks, those that return, increase our numbers. There is a laver of water; there is a laver of tears. From the one, there is joy because of the admittance of them that are called j from the other, there is gladness because of them that repent. Therefore it is that these thy suppliant servants-after having fallen into sundry kinds of sins, by the neglect of the divine commandments, and the transgression of the moral law-humbled and prostrate, cry out to the Lord in these words of the prophet: I We have sinned! We have done unjustly! We have committed iniquity! Have mercy on us, O LordI” It has not been in vain, that they have heard the words of the Gospel: Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted. As it is written, they have eaten the bread of 'sorrow; they have watered their couch with tears; they have afflicted their hearts with mourning, and their bodies with fasting, that thus they might recover the health of soul, which they had lost. The grace of penance, therefore, is one; but it profits each one that receives it, and gives help to all in common.”
The bishop then rose, and advanced towards the penitents. He spoke to them concerning the mercy of God, and how they should live for the time to come. After this exhortation, he thus addressed them: “Come, come, come, my children! I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” The choir then sang this antiphon, taken from Psalm 33: “Come ye to Him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be confounded!” Hereupon, the penitents rose up, and, coming to the bishop, threw themselves at his feet.
The archpriest then pleaded for them in these words: “Make good in them, O apostolic pontiff, all that has been
corrupted in them by the temptation of the devil. By the merit of thy prayers and intercession, and by the grace of
the divine reconciliation, bring these men nigh unto God. Thus they, who heretofore suffered by the sins they committed, may now be happy in the hope that, having overcome the author of their death, they may please the Lord
ia the land of the living.”
The bishop answered: “Knowest thou, if they be worthy of reconciliation?”
The archpriest replied: “I know and bear witness, that they are worthy.”
A deacon then ordered the penitents to rise. This done, the bishop took one of them by the hand, who did the same to his neighbor; and thus all, hand in hand, followed the bishop to the place prepared in the centre of the nave.
Meanwhile, the choir sang the following antiphons: “I say unto you, there is joy to the angels of God over one sinner doing penance. It behoveth thee, my son, to rejoice; for thy brother was dead, and has come to life again; he was lost, and is found.”
The bishop then offered up to God this prayer, which he sang to the solemn tone of the Preface.
“It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always and in all places give thanks to Thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, through Christ our Lord: Whom Thou, almighty Father, didst will to be born among us by an ineffable birth, that so He might pay to Thee, His eternal Father, the debt contracted by Adam, and put our death to death by His own, and bear our wounds in His own flesh, and cleanse away our stains by His Blood; hereby enabling us, who had fallen by the envy of the old enemy, to rise again by His mercy. Through Him, O Lord, we suppliantly beseech and pray Thee, that Thou graciously hear us making intercession for the sins of others, who are not worthy to plead for our own. Do Thou, O most merciful Lord, recall to Thyself, with Thy customary goodness, these Thy servants, who have separated themselves from Thee by their sins. For neither didst Thou reject the most wicked Achab when he humbled himself before Thee, but didst avert from him the punishment he had deserved. So, likewise, didst Thou graciously hear Peter, when he wept, and didst afterwards give to him the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; and Thou didst promise the reward of that same Kingdom to the thief, when he trusted in Thee. Therefore, O most merciful Lord, mercifully welcome back these for whom we offer to Thee our prayers, and restore them to the bosom of the Church, that the enemy may not triumph over them, but that they may be reconciled unto Thee by Thy coequal Son, and by Him be cleansed from their guilt, and graciously admitted by Him to the banquet of Thy most holy Supper. May He in such wise refresh them by His Flesh and Blood, as to lead them, after this life's course is run, to the Kingdom of Heaven.”
After this prayer, all―both clergy and laity―prostrated themselves, together with the penitents, before the divine Majesty, and recited the three psalms which begin with the word “Miserere” (“Have mercy”), that is, psalms 50, 55 and 56. The bishop then stood up, and said over the penitent―who remained prostrate, as did also all the assistants―six long prayers, from which the following is but a short extract:
“Give ear, O Lord, to our supplications, and mercifully hear me, though I myself need mercy above all others. Thou hast chosen me to be the minister of this work, not from any merits Thou didst see in me, but by the pure gift of Thy grace. Grant me courage to fulfill my office, and do Thou work, by my ministry, the effects of Thine own mercy. It is Thou that didst bring back, on Thy shoulders, the lost sheep to the fold, and that didst mercifully hear the prayers of the publican; do Thou, also, restore to life these Thy servants, whom Thou wouldst not have die unto Thee. O Thou, Who abandonest not them that are gone astray, receive these who have returned to Thee. We beseech Thee, O Lord, let the tearful sighs of these Thy servants move Thee to clemency! Heal their wounds! Stretch out thy saving hand to them, and raise them up! Permit not Thy Church to be injured in any of her members; let not Thy flock suffer loss; let not the enemy exult over the destruction of any of Thy family, nor the second death lay hold of them that have been regenerated in the waters of salvation. Pardon, O Lord, these that confess their sins to Thee! Let them not fall into the punishments of the judgment to come! Let them never know the horrors of darkness, or the torments of the flames of Hell. They have returned from the way of error to the path of justice; let them not again be wounded, but maintain ever within themselves both what Thy grace hath conferred upon them, and what Thy mercy hath reformed within them.”
Having said these prayers, the bishop stretched forth his hands over the penitents, and pronounced the reconciliation, in this solemn formula:
“May our Lord Jesus Christ, who vouchsafed to take away the sins of the whole world, by delivering Himself up for us, and shedding His spotless Blood, Who also said unto His disciples: ‘Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth, shall be bound also in Heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth, shall be loosed also in Heaven!” and Who hath numbered me, though unworthy, among these His ministers: may He deign, by the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God, of the blessed Archangel Michael, of holy Peter the Apostle (to whom He gave the power of binding and loosing), and of all the saints, to absolve you, by the merits of His Blood, shed for the remission of sins, from all whatsoever you have negligently committed in thought, or word, or action; and, having loosed you from the bonds of sin, may He graciously lead you to the Kingdom of Heaven, Who, with God the Father, and the Holy Ghost, liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.”
The bishop then advanced towards the penitents, who were still lying prostrate: he sprinkled them with holy water, and incensed them with thurible (censer). Finally, he addressed them in these words of the Apostle: “Arise, ye that sleep! Arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten you!” The penitents stood up; and, in order to express the joy they felt at being reconciled with their God, they immediately went and changed their penitential garb for one more in accordance with gladness, and with the Holy Communion they were now to receive, together with the rest of the faithful
.
You can see and sense that in those days, Catholics had not lost a sense of sin―as too sadly is the case today! One reason for that is that liturgical ceremonies, such as seen in the above extracts, were a marvelous means of instruction and influence on the spiritual and moral fiber of the members of the Church. As the famous axiom says: “Lex orandi, lex credendi”―meaning that they way we worship influences the way we think and what we believe. The banal, worldly, irreverent manner of worship today is a major factor in provoking, promoting and producing the lack of Faith that is increasingly evident amongst Catholics all throughout the world. We need those old ceremonies to restore our former awe, zeal, reverence and sense of sin.
The Blessing of the Holy Oils
The second Mass which used, formerly, to be said on Maundy Thursday, was that of the Blessing of the Holy Oils. This holy function, which takes place but once each year, requires a Bishop as the consecrator. For now many centuries, this great ceremony is celebrated at the single Mass, which is said, on this day, in commemoration of our Lord’s Supper. As this Blessing only takes place in Cathedral Churches, we will not enter into each detail; and yet we would not deprive our readers of what they ought to know with regard to the Holy Oils. Faith teaches us, that, as we are regenerated by water, so are we confirmed and fortified by oil; and that Oil is one of the chief elements chosen by the Divine Author of the Sacraments, whereby to signify and produce grace in our souls.
The reason of the Church’s selecting Maundy Thursday for the Blessing of the Holy Oils, was that It is incorrectly called a Blessing Urbi et Orbi, inasmuch as it is only given to the Faithful who are present at it they would be so much needed for the Baptism of the neophytes on Easter Eve. It behooves the Faithful to understand the mystery of those sacred elements. We will, therefore, briefly explain it to them, in order that we may excite their hearts to gratitude to our Blessed Lord, who has made material things the instruments of grace, and, by his Blood, has given them the sacramental power which resides within them.
The first of the Holy Oils, that is, the first that is blessed by the Bishop, is the one called the Oil of the Sick. It is the matter of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. It takes away, from the dying Christian, the remnants of sin; it strengthens him in his last combat; and, by the supernatural power it possesses, sometimes restores to him the health of the body. Formerly, it used to be blessed on any day of the year, as often as required: but, later on, its blessing was fixed for this day, that thus the three Oils might be blessed all together. The Faithful should assist with much devotion, at this ceremony; for the element that is thus sanctified, is one day to anoint and purify their bodies, sinking under sickness. Let them, as they see it being blessed, think upon their last hour, and praise the infinite goodness of their Savior, whose blood streams so plentifully through this precious fluid.
The noblest of the three Oils is the Chrism, and its consecration is more solemn, and fuller of mystery, than those of the other two. It is by the chrism that the Holy Ghost imprints his indelible seal on the Christian, that has already been made a member of Christ by Baptism. The Water gives us our spiritual birth; the Chrism gives us strength; and, until such time as we have received its holy anointing, we have not as yet the perfect character of a Christian.
Anointed with this holy Oil, the Faithful has a visible sign given him of his being a member of the Man-God, whose name of Christ signifies the unction He has received both as King and Pontiff. This consecration of a Christian by Chrism is so much in accordance with the spirit of our holy Religion, that, immediately after Baptism, the child receives upon its head an anointing (though it is not a sacramental one), of this Oil, to show that he is already a sharer of the kingly character of Jesus Christ.
In order to express, by an outward sign, the sacredness of Chrism, an Apostolic tradition requires the Bishop to mix Balm with it. This Balm represents what the Apostle calls the good odor of Christ, of whom it is written: “We will run after Thee, to the odor of Thy ointments.” The scarcity and high price of other perfumes has obliged the Latin Church to be content with Balm alone in the mixture of holy Chrism: but in the Eastern Church, where the climate is more favorable than ours, three and thirty species of precious perfumes are put into the Oil, and it thus becomes an ointment of exquisite fragrance.
The holy Chrism, besides its sacramental use in Confirmation, and its being put upon the head of the newly baptized, is also used by the Church in the consecration of her Bishops, in the consecration of Chalices and Altars, in the blessing of Bells, and in the Dedication of a Church, in which last most imposing ceremony, the Bishop pours out the Chrism on the twelve crosses, which are to attest to all succeeding ages, the glory of God’s House.
The third of the holy Oils is that which is called the Oil of Catechumens. Though it be not the matter of any Sacrament, it is, nevertheless, an Apostolic institution. Its blessing is less solemn than that of the Chrism, but more so than that of the Oil of the Sick. The Oil of Catechumens is used in the ceremonies of Baptism, for the anointing the breast and shoulders. It is also used for the anointing a Priest’s hands in Ordination, and for the coronation of a King or Queen.
These few words of explanation will give the Faithful some idea of the importance of the Blessing of the holy Oils. By this threefold Blessing, says St. Fortunatus (in the beautiful Hymn which is used during the ceremony), the Bishop acquits the debt he owes, and which none but he can pay.
The holy Church seldom employs such pomp as she does on this occasion. Twelve Priests, seven Deacons, and seven Subdeacons, are present. The Roman Pontifical tells us, that the twelve Priests assist as witnesses and co-operators of the holy Chrism. The Mass commences, and goes on as far as the Prayer of the Canon, which immediately precedes the Pater noster (the “Our Father”).
The Bishop then leaves the Altar, and goes to the place prepared for the Blessing. The first phial of Oil that is brought to him, is that which is intended for the sick. He prefaces the blessing, by pronouncing the words of exorcism over this oil, in order to drive from it the influence of the wicked spirits, who, out of hatred for man, are ever seeking to infest the creatures given to us for our use. This done, he blesses it in these words:
“We beseech Thee, O Lord, send forth from heaven Thy Holy Spirit the Paraclete upon this rich juice of the olive, which Thou hast graciously produced from the green wood, for the solace of both mind and body. By Thy holy blessing, may all they that are anointed with this ointment of heavenly virtue, receive help to mind and body; may it remove from them all pains, all infirmities, and all sickness of mind and body, for it was with oil that Thou didst anoint Thy Priests, Kings, Prophets, and Martyrs. May this, being blessed by Thee, O Lord, become unto us an ointment of perfection, and abide within our whole being. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
One of the seven Subdeacons then carries the phial back, and the Bishop returns to the Altar, and continues the Mass. As soon as he has given Holy Communion to the Clergy, he returns to the place prepared for the blessing of the Oils. The twelve Priests, the seven Deacons, and the seven Subdeacons, repair to the place where the other two phials have been put. One contains the oil, which is to become the Chrism of salvation; the other, the oil which is to be sanctified as the oil of Catechumens. The procession is soon seen returning towards the Pontiff. The two phials are carried by two Deacons; a Subdeacon carries the vase of Balm. The Bishop begins by blessing the Balm: he calls it the fragrant tear of dry bark—the oozing of a favored branch, that gives us the priestly unction.
Before proceeding to bless the oil of the Chrism, he thrice breathes upon it, in the form of a cross. The twelve Priests do the same. The Gospel tells us that our Blessed Savior used this same ceremony over his Apostles. It signifies the power of the Holy Ghost, and expresses his name, which is the Spirit. This Holy Spirit is about to make this oil become an instrument of his Divine power.
The Bishop first prepares it for the heavenly dignity, by exorcising it. He then celebrates the praises of the Chrism, by this magnificent Preface, which has been handed down to us from the earliest ages of our faith.
“It is truly meet and just, right and available to salvation, that we should always, and in all places, give thanks to Thee, O Holy Lord, Almighty Father, Eternal God: who, in the beginning, among the rest of Thy bounteous gifts, didst command the earth to yield fruit-bearing trees, among which should be the olive, which produces this most rich liquor, and whose fruit was to serve for the making holy Chrism. Hence it was, that David, foreknowing, by a prophetic spirit, the Sacraments of Thy grace, sang that our faces were to be made glad with oil: and when the sins of the world were expiated of old, by the deluge, a dove announced that peace was restored to the earth, by bearing an olive branch, the type of the gift to come, which has been manifested in these latter ages; for after the waters of Baptism have washed away the sins of men, this anointing of oil gave us joy and calm. Hence, too, Thou didst command Thy servant Moses to ordain his brother Aaron priest, by pouring oil upon him, after he had been cleansed with water. A greater honor still was, that when Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, bade John baptize him in the waters of the Jordan, Thou didst send upon him the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove; that thus by a voice that bore testimony, Thou mightest designate thine Only Begotten Son, in whom Thou wast well pleased, and mightest prove, beyond all doubt, that this was the fulfillment of what the Prophet David had foretold, when he sang, that he was to be anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.
“We, therefore, beseech Thee, Holy Lord, Almighty Father, Eternal God, through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, that Thou vouchsafe to sanctify, by Thy blessing, this Thy creature oil, and infuse into it the virtue of the Holy Ghost, through the co-operating power of Christ, Thy Son, from whose name it hath borrowed its own of Chrism, and wherewith Thou didst anoint the Priests, Kings, Prophets, and Martyrs. Raise this Chrism into a Sacrament of perfect salvation and life, to them that are to be renewed by the spiritual laver of Baptism. That thus, the corruption of their first birth being absorbed by the infusion of this holy anointing, they may become a holy temple, redolent with the fragrance of the innocence of holy living. According to what Thou hast appointed in this mystery, bestow upon them the honor of kings, priests, and prophets, by vesting them in the robe of incorruption. May this oil be to them, that are born again from water and the Holy Ghost, a Chrism of salvation, making them partakers of life everlasting, and co-heirs of heavenly glory.”
The Bishop then takes the Balm; and having mixed it, on a paten, with a little oil, he pours it into the Phial. The consecration of the Chrism thus completed, he salutes it with these words: Hail, Holy Chrism! This he does with the intention of honoring the Holy Ghost, who is to work by this sacramental oil. The same is done by each of the twelve Priests.
The Bishop then proceeds to bless the Oil of Catechumens. After having breathed upon it, and pronounced the exorcism, (as before, in the blessing of the holy Chrism,) he says this Prayer:
“O God, the rewarder of every spiritual increase and growth.! who strengthenest the beginnings of weakly souls by the power of the Holy Ghost: we beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thou vouchsafe to pour out Thy blessing upon this oil, and grant to them, that come to the laver of holy regeneration, the cleansing of soul and body, by the anointing they receive from this Thy creature; that so, if there should be any stains fixed upon them by their spiritual enemies, they may be effaced by the touch of this holy oil. May the wicked spirits find no room there; may the powers, that have been put to flight, have no further sway; may there be no lurking place left to insidious evil ones. May Thy servants that come to the faith, and are to be cleansed by the operation of Thy Holy Spirit, find in this anointing a preparation for that salvation, which they are to receive in the Sacrament of Baptism, by the Birth of a heavenly regeneration. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who is to come to judge the living, and the dead, and the world by fire. Amen.”
The Bishop then salutes the Oil, on which he has conferred these wonderful prerogatives, saying: “Hail, holy Oil!” The same act of reverence is repeated by each of the Priests. One of the deacons takes the Chrism, another deacon takes the Oil of Catechumens, and a procession is again formed for taking them to the place prepared for them. They are covered with veils of silk— the holy Chrism, with white silk, and the Oil of Catechumens, with purple silk.
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Tuesday & Wednesday in Holy Week, April 16th & 17th
Article 35
Are Your For Me or Against Me?
Article 35
Are Your For Me or Against Me?
Whose Side Are You On?
The words of Our Lord are blunt and penetrating: “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth!” (Matthew 12:30). St. Luke also reports those same words: “He that is not with Me, is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth!” (Luke 11:23).
However, you may feel confused and tempted to ask: “What does He mean by not being with Him?” Elsewhere, on the occasion of the Last Supper, Our Lord expands upon this notion when He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If any one love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love … You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10; 15:14). Obedience and love go hand-in-hand.
Therefore, essentially, the more we listen to and obey and fulfill the words, advice and commands of God, the more we actually love Him. “He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words” (John 14:24). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
“Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father, Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’ Everyone therefore that heareth these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these My words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:21-27).
What’s Your Score?
We worry about school grades; credit scores or credit ratings. We worry about what other people think about us and how much they esteem us. We try to climb the social ladder, or clamber up higher upon the promotion ladder at work. Yet how much do we worry about what God thinks of us? How anxious are we over our ‘credit’ rating or score with God? How desperate are we in climbing the sanctity ladder? You can grade yourself on your standing with God by answering the following questions on the key elements of the Faith and the spiritual life―all of which directly or indirectly are concerned with keeping or ignoring the words of God. “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If any one love Me, he will keep My word … You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you” (John 14:15, 14:21-23; 15:14). “He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words” (John 14:24).
So let us embark on a test of our spiritual ‘credit’ rating with God by honestly answering the following questions, which will cover all the chief categories virtues and vices that make up our ‘credit’ rating: “Turn away from evil and do good!” (Psalm 33:15) … “Decline from evil and do good, and dwell for ever and ever” (Psalm 36:27). For it is better to search ourselves and our works now, rather than leave it unsearched until our Day of Judgment, when “Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’” (Matthew 7:22-23).
What is Your “Charity-Rating”?
Love of God comes before everything else―even before love of neighbor. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). “Jesus said to him: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment!’” (Matthew 22:37-38).“A certain lawyer stood up, tempting Him, and saying, ‘Master, what must I do to possess eternal life?’ But Jesus said to him: ‘What is written in the law? How readest thou?’ The lawyer answering, said: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbor as thyself.’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou hast answered right! This do, and thou shalt live!’” (Luke 10:25-28).
As Our Lord said, charity “is the greatest and the first commandment!” Which is why St. Paul writes: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Nobody doubts that you love God―but how much do you love God? Can you really, truly and honestly say that you love God with “with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind, and with your whole strength”? Is God really the main focus and most time consuming element of your daily life? Check the box you honestly think applies to you:
► IS GOD THE MAIN FOCUS AND MOST TIME CONSUMING ACTIVITY OF THE DAY (OUTSIDE OF YOUR OBLIGATORY WORKING HOURS)?
YES □ (10 out of 10) QUITE A LOT □ (7 out of 10) NOT AS MUCH AS I SHOULD □ (4 out of 10) VERY LITTLE □ (1 out of 10)
Charity Towards Neighbor?
After telling us that love of God is the first and greatest commandment, Our Lord says that love of neighbor comes right after it: “And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 7:31), because “because “as long as you did it to one of these, My least brethren, you did it to Me … and … as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me” (Matthew 25:40-45). To which St. John adds: “We are of God. Let us love one another, for charity is of God. And every one that loveth, is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God―for God is charity” (1 John 4:6-8). While St. Paul gives us a basic initial description of some of the chief elements of love of neighbor: “Charity is patient; is kind; Charity envieth not; dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious; seeketh not her own; is not provoked to anger; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things; believeth all things; hopeth all things; endureth all things. Charity never falleth away!” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Read that list CAREFULLY and then grade yourself. Do you love your neighbor by practicing all these recommendations all the time?
► DO YOU LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR BY PRACTICING THESE RECOMMENDATIONS ALL THE TIME AND TOWARDS ALL PEOPLE―BOTH FRIENDS AND FOES?
YES □ (10 out of 10) QUITE A LOT □ (7 out of 10) NOT AS MUCH AS I SHOULD □ (4 out of 10) VERY LITTLE □ (1 out of 10)
What's Your Score with Keeping the Commandments in General?
How well you keep to Commandments is an indication of how well you love God―it is the “Love Litmus Test” that has been given to us by Our Lord Himself, Who said at the Last Supper: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me. And he that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father” (John 14:15; 14:21).
Of course, everyone keeps some of the Commandments all of the time and all of the Commandments some of the time―but how well do you keep and are you getting better at it or worse at it. Are you becoming more sensitive to sin or are you becoming desensitized to sin? The lament of all the recent popes―traditional and modernist alike, from Pius XII to Francis―has been the fact that Catholics have lost or are losing the sense of sin. It is highly likely that your sensitivity to sin has declined over time, due to the social and cultural and permissive attitudes of the world that surrounds us―as they say: “You cannot leave clean clothes in a smoky room for long, without them taking on the smell of smoke!” We live in a world that has been set on fire by Hell―for the devil is the prince of this world, as Our Lord Himself say―and that smoke has penetrated all Catholic families―it is highly unlikely that yours is excluded. That smoke of Hell hides the gravity of sin behind its smokescreen of pleasure, fun and entertainment. Thus, like an acid that eats away at substance, does the world eat away at our Faith and Morals―with the result that Commandments are watered-down, tweaked for personal preferences, or even ignored or unknown, or at least known only superficially or partially. It is presumed that you know the Ten Commandments―even though you may be ignorant of all their subheadings and related sins. However, personal experience shows that even sincere and good Catholics have a sketchy memory of all of the Ten Commandments―knowing only some of them! How well do you know you Commandments? Just listing them or reeling them off does not necessarily mean that you KNOW and UNDERSTAND them! A parrot can be taught to reel off the Ten Commandments! Do you delve deeper into them and study their subheadings or “sub-sins”? Do you know their breadth and depth? Do you measure your daily life by them?
► HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND THE CHURCH―BEYOND MERELY "REELING THEM OFF" PARROT FASHION?
► VERY WELL □ (10 out of 10) QUITE WELL □ (7 out of 10) NOT AS WELL AS I SHOULD □ (4 out of 10) VERY LITTLE □ (1 out of 10)
What’s You Rating in Relation to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Holy Eucharist that comes from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, are the greatest treasures that we have on this Earth! St. Leonard of Pert Maurice, in his book, The Hidden Treasure of the Holy Mass, writes: “The principal excellence of the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass consists in being essentially, and in the very highest degree, identical with that which was offered on the Cross of Calvary: with this sole difference, that the Sacrifice on the Cross was bloody, and made once for all, and did on that one occasion satisfy fully for all the sins of the world; while the Sacrifice of the Altar is an unbloody sacrifice, which can be repeated an infinite number of times ... It may be said, with all truth, that in every Mass Our Redeemer returns mystically to die for us, without really dying … Now, tell me whether, when you enter church to hear Mass, you thoroughly well consider that you are going up as it were to Calvary, to be present at the death of the Redeemer. If so, would you go with behavior so unsubdued, with dress so flaunting? If the Magdalene had gone to Calvary, to the foot of the Cross, all dressed out, perfumed, and adorned, as when she associated with her lovers, what would have been said of her? What, then, shall be said of you who go to Holy Mass as if you were going to a ball? But what shall be said if you profane those functions of most dread sanctity with nods and becks, with tattle, with laughter, with the petty attentions of courtship, or with graver sacrileges of thought, word, or deed? Wickedness is hideous at any time, and in any place; but sins committed during the time of Mass, and before the altar, draw down after them the curse of God!” St. Padre Pio said of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: “If we only knew how God regards this Sacrifice, we would risk our lives to be present at a single Mass!” St. John Vianney, the Curê of Ars, said: “All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man.”
If the Holy Mass is so important, you would think that Catholics could never be satisfied in learning more and more about it! In reading one book after another on the Holy Mass? You would imagine that they would be always thinking about the Mass, talking about the Mass, and going to Mass at every opportunity! Yet, no! Just as we have lost the sense of sin, we have also lost the sense of the sacred―the sacred has been desacralized and demoted to the ordinary. We know next to nothing about the Mass and we care next to nothing about the Mass. Any free time we have, we give to worldly pursuits and ignore the chances to attend extra Masses throughout the week! How to relate to the Mass? Do you attend Mass at every opportunity or do you give it pass when the opportunity arises? How much do you know about the Mass? Its origins, its development, the symbolism of the actions, the symbolism of the things used at Mass, etc.?
► DO YOU ATTEND THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY YOU GET?
YES □ (10 out of 10) MOST TIMES □ (7 out of 10) NOT AS OFTEN AS I SHOULD □ (4 out of 10) VERY LITTLE □ (1 out of 10)
► HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS?
A LOT □ (10 out of 10) QUITE A LOT □ (7 out of 10) NOT AS MUCH AS I SHOULD □ (4 out of 10) VERY LITTLE □ (1 out of 10)
What’s You Rating in Relation to the Holy Eucharist?
St. Maximilian Kolbe wrote: “The culmination of the Mass is not the consecration, but Communion!” As Fr. Michael Muller, in his book, The Blessed Eucharist―Our Greatest Treasure, writes: “Who could believe that Jesus Christ is present in this Sacrament and fail in reverence towards it? What reverence did not the Jews pay to the Ark of the Covenant! No one dared to approach it―yet fifty thousand persons who, through curiosity, ventured to gaze thereat, were instantly struck dead as a punishment for their rash act! Yet, what did the Ark contain? Only the Ten Commandments of God. But in the Holy Eucharist, Faith tells us that God Himself is present, He Who made all things out of nothing and could destroy them in a moment. He Who at the last day will come on the clouds of Heaven to judge the living and the dead. Only let Catholics believe this with a lively Faith, and our churches will be filled with worshipers, whose deportment will correspond to their belief. The modest attire, the guarded eye, the bended knee, the meekly folded hands will bespeak the conviction of their hearts. Only let Catholics have a lively faith in this mystery, and Jesus Christ will seldom be left alone. At all hours, His children will come to present themselves before Him, as subjects before their prince, as slaves before their master, as sick men before their physician, as children before their father, in a word, as friends before their beloved friend.”
St. Francis de Sales wrote: “When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence.” Father Lessius (1554-1623), the eminent Jesuit theologian, was afflicted with more than one painful disease. In spite of his sufferings, he would prolong his thanksgiving a full hour after Mass. To those who pitied him he would reply: “Why should I complain? Mine is still the joy of receiving the Bread of angels!” St. Bernard tells us that the Lord will not lose His graces by giving them to the ungrateful. St. Alphonsus Liguori says: “Let us then remain, at least for half an hour, with Jesus Christ after Mass; or at least for a quarter. But, O good Lord! A quarter of an hour is too little!”
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION?
DAILY □ (10 out of 10) FEW TIMES A WEEK □ (7 out of 10) ONLY SUNDAYS □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN WEEKLY □ (1 out of 10)
► WHAT IS TOTAL TIME YOU SPEND ON BOTH YOUR PREPARATION AND THANKSGIVING BEFORE AND AFTER RECEIVING HOLY COMMUNION?
OVER 30 MINS □ (10 out of 10) 20 TO 30 MINS □ (7 out of 10) 10 TO 20 MINS □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN 10 MINS □ (1 out of 10)
► NOT INCLUDING SUNDAY, HOW OFTEN DO YOU MAKE A SPECIAL EXTRA VISIT TO A CHURCH TO VISIT OUR LORD IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT?
ALMOST DAILY □ (10 out of 10) FEW TIMES A MONTH □ (7 out of 10) FEW TIMES A YEAR □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
How Good is You Credit Rating With Regard to Prayer?
St. Augustine tells us that “As our body cannot live without nourishment, so our soul cannot spiritually be kept alive without prayer,” while St. John Chrysostom says “It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life.” St. Alphonsus Liguori says that “He who prays most receives most.” We sin so much because we pray so little—if we would only pray much more, we would sin much less. “When prayer is poured forth, sins are covered” says St. Ambrose. Holy Scripture confirms this: “My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more: but, for thy former sins, also pray that they may be forgiven thee” (Ecclesiasticus 21:1). St. John Climacus calls it “the bridge over temptations” and St. Ephraem points out that “Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy.” Which is why Our Lord said: “Watch ye, and pray that you enter not into temptation! The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak!” (Mark 14:38).
God expects far more prayer than we actually give Him. Our Lord Himself said we ought pray always and not to grow faint: “And Jesus spoke also a parable to them, that we ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). “I desire therefore that men pray in every place” (1 Timothy 2:8). “I will praise Thy Name continually” (Ecclesiasticus 51:15). “We will give ourselves continually to prayer” (Acts 6:4). “Prayer was made without ceasing” (Acts 12:5). “By all prayer and supplication praying at all times” (Ephesians 6:18).
► WHAT IS DAILY TOTAL TIME YOU SPEND IN PRAYER (NOT INCLUDING MEDITATION OR SPIRITUAL READING)?
OVER 2 HOURS □ (10 out of 10) 1 TO 2 HOURS □ (7 out of 10) 30 TO 60 MINS □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN 30 MINS □ (1 out of 10)
Apart from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Divine Office, the Rosary is the most powerful prayer that we have. It is also the prayer of our age―which has been repeatedly demanded by Our Lady at Lourdes, at Fatima and at Akita. “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you … Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and the end of the war … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary!” Concerning little 9-year old Francisco Marto at Fatima, Our Lady said that he would have to pray many Rosaries before he would be admitted into Heaven: ”He must say many Rosaries!” (Our Lady of Fatima, May 13th, 1917).
► HOW MAY 5-DECADE ROSARIES DO YOU USUALLY PRAY EVERY DAY?
OVER 3 ROSARIES □ (10 out of 10) 1 OR 2 ROSARIES □ (7 out of 10) 1 ROSARY □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN 1 ROSARY □ (1 out of 10)
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book, The Secret of the Rosary, writes: “It was because Our Lady wanted to help us in the great task of working out our salvation that she ordered Saint Dominic to teach the faithful to meditate upon the sacred mysteries … We must not only say the Rosary with our lips in honor of Jesus and Mary, but also meditate upon the sacred mysteries while we are saying it … A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary is very ungrateful to Our Lord and shows how little he cares for all that our divine Savior has suffered to save the world. This attitude seems to show that he knows little or nothing of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he has never taken the trouble to find out what He has done and what He went through in order to save us … It is a great mistake to think that only priests and religious, and those who have withdrawn from the turmoil of the world, are supposed to meditate upon the truths of our Faith and the mysteries of the life of Christ. If priests and religious have an obligation to meditate on the great truths of our holy religion, in order to live up to their vocation worthily, the same obligation is just as much incumbent on the laity, because of the fact that every day they meet with spiritual dangers which might cause them to lose their souls. Therefore they should arm themselves with the frequent meditation on the life, virtues, and sufferings of our Blessed Lord, which are presented to us in the fifteen mysteries of the Holy Rosary …
“You, who are people of prayer, learn from this the power, the value and the importance of this devotion of the Holy Rosary when it is said with meditation on the mysteries. Our Lady said to Blessed Alan, «I want you to know that, although there are numerous indulgences already attached to the recitation of my Rosary, I shall add many more to every five decades for those who, free from serious sin, say them with devotion, on their knees. And whosoever shall persevere in the devotion of the Holy Rosary, with its prayers and meditations, shall be rewarded for it; I shall obtain for him full remission of the penalty and the guilt of all his sins at the end of his life.» She also said to Blessed Alan de la Roche in a vision, «When people say 150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, for this meditation is the soul of this prayer.»”
► HOW MAY 5-DECADE ROSARIES DO YOU USUALLY MEDITATE AND PRAY EVERY DAY?
OVER 3 ROSARIES □ (10 out of 10) 1 OR 2 ROSARIES □ (7 out of 10) 1 ROSARY □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN 1 ROSARY □ (1 out of 10)
What’s You Rating in Relation to Studying Your Faith?
Our Lord says: “Learn of Me!” (Matthew 11:29). Elsewhere, He tells His Apostles and disciples: “Teach ye all nations … Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you!” (Matthew 28:19-20). “Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). “Continue in those things which thou hast learned, and which have been committed to thee!” (2 Timothy 3:14). “This is the victory which overcometh the world―our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). However, Our Lord lamented: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8)―which is really a rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is a question someone asks without expecting an answer. The question might not have an answer, or it might have an obvious answer. In this case, Our Lord is hinting at the obvious answer―there will be little Faith remaining on Earth at His Second Coming. If we do not ‘feed’ our Faith, then our Faith will gradually weaken and die. The level of Faith―or the knowledge of the Faith―is pretty abysmal in our day and age, where Catholic adults do not even remember their First Communion Catechism (a 7-year-old’s level), nor their Confirmation Catechism (an 11 year-old’s level). They also lack even the most basic “parrot-fashion” memorization of certain important religious facts―and don’t even imagine that they can enter into a serious religious conversation or debate or argument about deeper matters concerning Faith or Morals. They just don’t have that kind of equipment! Yet some are highly intelligent and highly knowledgeable about material things!
As Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange in his book, The Three Ages of the Spiritual Life, writes: “The interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.”
► WHAT IS YOUR DAILY TOTAL NON-WORK, NON-FAITH RELATED TIME ON YOUR SMARTPHONE, LAPTOP, TABLET, TV, VIDEO PLAYER, OR SOCIAL MEDIA ?
LESS THAN 1 HOUR □ (10 out of 10) 1 TO 2 HOURS □ (7 out of 10) 2 TO 3 HOURS □ (4 out of 10) MORE THAN 3 HOURS □ (1 out of 10)
► WHAT IS THE TOTAL TIME DEDICATED DAILY TO THE STUDY OF THE FAITH, WHETHER THROUGH BOOKS OR ELECTRONIC MEDIA?
MORE THAN 1 HOUR □ (10 out of 10) 30 TO 6O MINS □ (7 out of 10) 15 TO 30 MINS □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN 15 MINS □ (1 out of 10)
What’s Your Meditation Credit-Score Like?
Normally, when we pray, we like to speak a lot but we don't like or think to listen. Prayer, in itself, is as necessary for our spiritual life as breathing is necessary for our bodily life. Our spiritual life depends on God's grace, and he has, so to speak, given us the power to breathe it in prayer. Not to pray will have the same results, for the life of the soul, as not to breathe would have for the life of the body―that is sickness and death.
Prayer means to be with God and sometimes speak with him. The majority of people know only one kind of prayer called vocal prayer because we do it with our voices (i.e. standard prayers like Our Father, Hail Mary, or with words in the silences of our mind). These prayers are wonderful. We need to practice them. However they are not enough to nourish our soul. Sometimes, if we don't pay attention, we run the risk of merely saying prayers mechanically without really praying.
The majority of people like to speak to God, but very few speak with God. To speak with God implies that we also listen, not only speak. How can we listen to God? God speaks to us, first of all, through His Word which is found in Holy Scripture and the Tradition of the Church (which is the teachings of Christ, Apostles, writings of the Popes, of the Church Councils, of the Saints, etc.). God also speaks to us through the events of our lives, through the people that we meet, through the circumstances, through the inspirations that He sends to us. We need to be aware of these in order to listen more. It is very hard for us to listen and far easier to talk and make God listen. But, besides vocal prayer we also need mental prayer. This is our way of listening to God. Mental prayer is also called meditation.
Meditation is simply reflecting on God's word with the help of the Holy Spirit. It is a very simple process that involves your mind, your heart (emotions and affections), and your will. Meditation does not mean that we are looking for visions or extraordinary insights. It is no different than paying attention to someone you care for. Anyone can do it. In fact, you are definitely meditating on many secular things all day long―you just need to channel that absorption away from the secular and onto the religious. In other words, you already have the tools of meditation and have been using them for years―but on the wrong things! As St. Teresa points out, meditation consists not so much in thinking a great deal, but in loving a great deal. However, you cannot love what you do not know―and you will only love a little if you only know a little. Thus, meditation goes hand-in-hand with studying the Faith, the spiritual life, the Bible, etc. One important thing to note is that for meditation to be a REAL meditation, and not just spiritual reading or pious thinking, it has to end with a practical concrete resolution to put into practice. It might something exterior and visible, or it might be interior and invisible. It could be a positive thing, meaning DOING something, or it could be a negative thing, meaning NOT DOING something.
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU MAKE A MEDITATION?
ALMOST DAILY □ (10 out of 10) FEW TIMES A MONTH □ (7 out of 10) FEW TIMES A YEAR □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
How Would You Grade Your Daily-Examination of Conscience?
As already mentioned previously, all the popes since Pope Pius XII have complained about the loss of the sense of sin on the part of Catholics. Part of the problem, or one of the fundamental causes of the loss of a sense of sin, is a neglect in performing the daily examination of conscience at the end of each and every day, and then begging pardon from God for whatever sins we have committed throughout the course of that day. If you don’t use a tool, it gets rusty! If you don’t clean your conscience, it gets dirty and stays dirty.
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU MAKE A SERIOUS EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE?
ALMOST DAILY □ (10 out of 10) FEW TIMES A MONTH □ (7 out of 10) FEW TIMES A YEAR □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
What Scores is Your Mercy Getting?
Charity, of course, is the greatest of virtues―yet you can look at charity as being a mansion with many rooms. The best and most valuable room is the “Room of Mercy”―or could we say: “Room for Mercy.” Holy Scripture says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works” (Psalm 144:8-9). Our Lord Himself points out: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy … For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences” (Matthew 5:7; 6:14-15).
In the same Sermon on the Mount, Our Lord adds: “You have heard that it hath been said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!’ But I say to you not to resist evil―but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other! And if a man will contend with thee in judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him! And whosoever will force thee to go one mile, go with him another two! Give to him that asketh of thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away! You have heard that it hath been said: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy!’ But I say to you: Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you, so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who maketh His sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do more? Do not also the heathens do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:38-48).
“Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times. Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents (1 talent was 750 ounces of silver. At today’s silver prices, that would put the 10,000 talents at just over $112 million). And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
“But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence (the Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce. At today’s silver prices, a hundred pence would be just over $200): and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
“Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant! I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts!” (Matthew 18:23-35).
Pope St. Gregory the Great, in chapter 60 of his Dialogues, says that we ought to pardon other men their sins, that we may obtain remission of our own:
“We have also further to know, that he doth rightly and in good sort demand pardon for his own sin, who doth forgive that which hath been done against himself. For our gift is not received, if, before, we free not our soul from all discord and lack of charity: for our Savior said: ‘If thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift!’ (Matthew 5:23-24). Wherein we have to consider, that whereas all sin, is loosed by a gift, how grievous the sin of discord is, for which no gift is received. Therefore we ought, in soul and desire, to go unto our neighbor, though he be far off, and many miles distant from us, and there to humble ourselves before him, and to pacify him by humility and hearty good will, to the end that our Creator, beholding the desire of our mind, may forgive us our own sin, who receives a gift for sin. And our Savior Himself teaches us, how that servant, which did owe ten thousand talents, by penance obtained of his Lord the forgiveness of that debt: but yet because he would not forgive his fellow-servant an hundred pence, which were due to him, that was again exacted at his hands, which before was pardoned. (Matthew 18:27). Out of which sayings we learn, that if we do not from our heart forgive that which is committed against us, how that is again required at our hands, whereof before we were glad that by penance we had obtained pardon and remission. Wherefore, whiles time is given us, whiles our judge doth bear with us, whiles he that examines our sins doth expect our conversion and amendment: let us mollify with tears the hardness of our heart, and with sincere charity, love our neighbors: and then dare I speak it boldly, that we shall not have any need of the holy sacrifice after our death: if, before death, we offer up ourselves for a sacrifice unto almighty God.”
St Alphonsus Ligouri told the story of a certain religious brother whose life was not what it should have been. When he came to the end of his life he was asked if he feared the judgment of God. His reply was, “No, because I have always forgiven my enemies!”
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU FORGIVE WRONGS COMMITTED BY FAMILY, RELATIVES AND FRIENDS?
ALWAYS □ (10 out of 10) MOST TIMES □ (7 out of 10) LESS THAN HALF THE TIME □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU FORGIVE WRONGS COMMITTED BY WORK COLLEAGUES, NEIGHBORS, ACQUAINTANCES, STRANGERS, ENEMIES?
ALWAYS □ (10 out of 10) MOST TIMES □ (7 out of 10) LESS THAN HALF THE TIME □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU PRAY FOR YOUR ENEMIES OR FOR THE SERIOUS SINNERS IN THE WORLD, FOR EXAMPLE THE ONE'S WHO MAKE THE NEWS?
ALWAYS □ (10 out of 10) MOST TIMES □ (7 out of 10) LESS THAN HALF THE TIME □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
Run With the Ball Yourself
These are just the very basic, foundational elements that everyone needs to examine in their own lives. Following the above system, you could further add the following points for examination―time and length of article do not allow this to be covered in one single article. However, now that you are familiar with the lay-out or approach, you can easily do this yourself. The additional points―which are only some key points and by no means the only points―are:
● Spiritual Reading
● The Corporal Works of Mercy
● The Spiritual Works of Mercy
● The Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Covetousness, Gluttony, Anger, Lust, Envy and Sloth
● The Cadinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance
● Each of the Ten Commandments taken individually
● The chief virtues, especially humility and charity
● Gossip through calumny (lies) and detraction (revealing true faults)
● Etc., etc., etc., etc.
In the meantime, you can add up your current score, which, based upon the above questions, potentially gives you a maximum of 180 points and an absolute minimum of 18 points. Although all of this is purely arbitrary and subjective, you could obviously say that anything below 90 is most certainly a sign of lukewarmness. Anything below 50 … well, hmm?! A score of around 120 would show seriousness about the spiritual life, whereas anywhere near 180 means you can start polishing your halo, but don’t drop it through pride!
The words of Our Lord are blunt and penetrating: “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth!” (Matthew 12:30). St. Luke also reports those same words: “He that is not with Me, is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth!” (Luke 11:23).
However, you may feel confused and tempted to ask: “What does He mean by not being with Him?” Elsewhere, on the occasion of the Last Supper, Our Lord expands upon this notion when He says: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If any one love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love … You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10; 15:14). Obedience and love go hand-in-hand.
Therefore, essentially, the more we listen to and obey and fulfill the words, advice and commands of God, the more we actually love Him. “He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words” (John 14:24). “Why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
“Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father, Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’ Everyone therefore that heareth these My words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these My words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof!” (Matthew 7:21-27).
What’s Your Score?
We worry about school grades; credit scores or credit ratings. We worry about what other people think about us and how much they esteem us. We try to climb the social ladder, or clamber up higher upon the promotion ladder at work. Yet how much do we worry about what God thinks of us? How anxious are we over our ‘credit’ rating or score with God? How desperate are we in climbing the sanctity ladder? You can grade yourself on your standing with God by answering the following questions on the key elements of the Faith and the spiritual life―all of which directly or indirectly are concerned with keeping or ignoring the words of God. “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If any one love Me, he will keep My word … You are My friends, if you do the things that I command you” (John 14:15, 14:21-23; 15:14). “He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words” (John 14:24).
So let us embark on a test of our spiritual ‘credit’ rating with God by honestly answering the following questions, which will cover all the chief categories virtues and vices that make up our ‘credit’ rating: “Turn away from evil and do good!” (Psalm 33:15) … “Decline from evil and do good, and dwell for ever and ever” (Psalm 36:27). For it is better to search ourselves and our works now, rather than leave it unsearched until our Day of Judgment, when “Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’” (Matthew 7:22-23).
What is Your “Charity-Rating”?
Love of God comes before everything else―even before love of neighbor. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30). “Jesus said to him: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment!’” (Matthew 22:37-38).“A certain lawyer stood up, tempting Him, and saying, ‘Master, what must I do to possess eternal life?’ But Jesus said to him: ‘What is written in the law? How readest thou?’ The lawyer answering, said: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbor as thyself.’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou hast answered right! This do, and thou shalt live!’” (Luke 10:25-28).
As Our Lord said, charity “is the greatest and the first commandment!” Which is why St. Paul writes: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not Charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all Faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not Charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Nobody doubts that you love God―but how much do you love God? Can you really, truly and honestly say that you love God with “with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind, and with your whole strength”? Is God really the main focus and most time consuming element of your daily life? Check the box you honestly think applies to you:
► IS GOD THE MAIN FOCUS AND MOST TIME CONSUMING ACTIVITY OF THE DAY (OUTSIDE OF YOUR OBLIGATORY WORKING HOURS)?
YES □ (10 out of 10) QUITE A LOT □ (7 out of 10) NOT AS MUCH AS I SHOULD □ (4 out of 10) VERY LITTLE □ (1 out of 10)
Charity Towards Neighbor?
After telling us that love of God is the first and greatest commandment, Our Lord says that love of neighbor comes right after it: “And the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 7:31), because “because “as long as you did it to one of these, My least brethren, you did it to Me … and … as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me” (Matthew 25:40-45). To which St. John adds: “We are of God. Let us love one another, for charity is of God. And every one that loveth, is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God―for God is charity” (1 John 4:6-8). While St. Paul gives us a basic initial description of some of the chief elements of love of neighbor: “Charity is patient; is kind; Charity envieth not; dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious; seeketh not her own; is not provoked to anger; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things; believeth all things; hopeth all things; endureth all things. Charity never falleth away!” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Read that list CAREFULLY and then grade yourself. Do you love your neighbor by practicing all these recommendations all the time?
► DO YOU LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR BY PRACTICING THESE RECOMMENDATIONS ALL THE TIME AND TOWARDS ALL PEOPLE―BOTH FRIENDS AND FOES?
YES □ (10 out of 10) QUITE A LOT □ (7 out of 10) NOT AS MUCH AS I SHOULD □ (4 out of 10) VERY LITTLE □ (1 out of 10)
What's Your Score with Keeping the Commandments in General?
How well you keep to Commandments is an indication of how well you love God―it is the “Love Litmus Test” that has been given to us by Our Lord Himself, Who said at the Last Supper: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me. And he that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father” (John 14:15; 14:21).
Of course, everyone keeps some of the Commandments all of the time and all of the Commandments some of the time―but how well do you keep and are you getting better at it or worse at it. Are you becoming more sensitive to sin or are you becoming desensitized to sin? The lament of all the recent popes―traditional and modernist alike, from Pius XII to Francis―has been the fact that Catholics have lost or are losing the sense of sin. It is highly likely that your sensitivity to sin has declined over time, due to the social and cultural and permissive attitudes of the world that surrounds us―as they say: “You cannot leave clean clothes in a smoky room for long, without them taking on the smell of smoke!” We live in a world that has been set on fire by Hell―for the devil is the prince of this world, as Our Lord Himself say―and that smoke has penetrated all Catholic families―it is highly unlikely that yours is excluded. That smoke of Hell hides the gravity of sin behind its smokescreen of pleasure, fun and entertainment. Thus, like an acid that eats away at substance, does the world eat away at our Faith and Morals―with the result that Commandments are watered-down, tweaked for personal preferences, or even ignored or unknown, or at least known only superficially or partially. It is presumed that you know the Ten Commandments―even though you may be ignorant of all their subheadings and related sins. However, personal experience shows that even sincere and good Catholics have a sketchy memory of all of the Ten Commandments―knowing only some of them! How well do you know you Commandments? Just listing them or reeling them off does not necessarily mean that you KNOW and UNDERSTAND them! A parrot can be taught to reel off the Ten Commandments! Do you delve deeper into them and study their subheadings or “sub-sins”? Do you know their breadth and depth? Do you measure your daily life by them?
► HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND THE CHURCH―BEYOND MERELY "REELING THEM OFF" PARROT FASHION?
► VERY WELL □ (10 out of 10) QUITE WELL □ (7 out of 10) NOT AS WELL AS I SHOULD □ (4 out of 10) VERY LITTLE □ (1 out of 10)
What’s You Rating in Relation to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass?
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Holy Eucharist that comes from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, are the greatest treasures that we have on this Earth! St. Leonard of Pert Maurice, in his book, The Hidden Treasure of the Holy Mass, writes: “The principal excellence of the most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass consists in being essentially, and in the very highest degree, identical with that which was offered on the Cross of Calvary: with this sole difference, that the Sacrifice on the Cross was bloody, and made once for all, and did on that one occasion satisfy fully for all the sins of the world; while the Sacrifice of the Altar is an unbloody sacrifice, which can be repeated an infinite number of times ... It may be said, with all truth, that in every Mass Our Redeemer returns mystically to die for us, without really dying … Now, tell me whether, when you enter church to hear Mass, you thoroughly well consider that you are going up as it were to Calvary, to be present at the death of the Redeemer. If so, would you go with behavior so unsubdued, with dress so flaunting? If the Magdalene had gone to Calvary, to the foot of the Cross, all dressed out, perfumed, and adorned, as when she associated with her lovers, what would have been said of her? What, then, shall be said of you who go to Holy Mass as if you were going to a ball? But what shall be said if you profane those functions of most dread sanctity with nods and becks, with tattle, with laughter, with the petty attentions of courtship, or with graver sacrileges of thought, word, or deed? Wickedness is hideous at any time, and in any place; but sins committed during the time of Mass, and before the altar, draw down after them the curse of God!” St. Padre Pio said of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: “If we only knew how God regards this Sacrifice, we would risk our lives to be present at a single Mass!” St. John Vianney, the Curê of Ars, said: “All the good works in the world are not equal to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass because they are the works of men; but the Mass is the work of God. Martyrdom is nothing in comparison for it is but the sacrifice of man to God; but the Mass is the sacrifice of God for man.”
If the Holy Mass is so important, you would think that Catholics could never be satisfied in learning more and more about it! In reading one book after another on the Holy Mass? You would imagine that they would be always thinking about the Mass, talking about the Mass, and going to Mass at every opportunity! Yet, no! Just as we have lost the sense of sin, we have also lost the sense of the sacred―the sacred has been desacralized and demoted to the ordinary. We know next to nothing about the Mass and we care next to nothing about the Mass. Any free time we have, we give to worldly pursuits and ignore the chances to attend extra Masses throughout the week! How to relate to the Mass? Do you attend Mass at every opportunity or do you give it pass when the opportunity arises? How much do you know about the Mass? Its origins, its development, the symbolism of the actions, the symbolism of the things used at Mass, etc.?
► DO YOU ATTEND THE SACRIFICE OF THE MASS AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY YOU GET?
YES □ (10 out of 10) MOST TIMES □ (7 out of 10) NOT AS OFTEN AS I SHOULD □ (4 out of 10) VERY LITTLE □ (1 out of 10)
► HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MASS?
A LOT □ (10 out of 10) QUITE A LOT □ (7 out of 10) NOT AS MUCH AS I SHOULD □ (4 out of 10) VERY LITTLE □ (1 out of 10)
What’s You Rating in Relation to the Holy Eucharist?
St. Maximilian Kolbe wrote: “The culmination of the Mass is not the consecration, but Communion!” As Fr. Michael Muller, in his book, The Blessed Eucharist―Our Greatest Treasure, writes: “Who could believe that Jesus Christ is present in this Sacrament and fail in reverence towards it? What reverence did not the Jews pay to the Ark of the Covenant! No one dared to approach it―yet fifty thousand persons who, through curiosity, ventured to gaze thereat, were instantly struck dead as a punishment for their rash act! Yet, what did the Ark contain? Only the Ten Commandments of God. But in the Holy Eucharist, Faith tells us that God Himself is present, He Who made all things out of nothing and could destroy them in a moment. He Who at the last day will come on the clouds of Heaven to judge the living and the dead. Only let Catholics believe this with a lively Faith, and our churches will be filled with worshipers, whose deportment will correspond to their belief. The modest attire, the guarded eye, the bended knee, the meekly folded hands will bespeak the conviction of their hearts. Only let Catholics have a lively faith in this mystery, and Jesus Christ will seldom be left alone. At all hours, His children will come to present themselves before Him, as subjects before their prince, as slaves before their master, as sick men before their physician, as children before their father, in a word, as friends before their beloved friend.”
St. Francis de Sales wrote: “When you have received Him, stir up your heart to do Him homage; speak to Him about your spiritual life, gazing upon Him in your soul where He is present for your happiness; welcome Him as warmly as possible, and behave outwardly in such a way that your actions may give proof to all of His Presence.” Father Lessius (1554-1623), the eminent Jesuit theologian, was afflicted with more than one painful disease. In spite of his sufferings, he would prolong his thanksgiving a full hour after Mass. To those who pitied him he would reply: “Why should I complain? Mine is still the joy of receiving the Bread of angels!” St. Bernard tells us that the Lord will not lose His graces by giving them to the ungrateful. St. Alphonsus Liguori says: “Let us then remain, at least for half an hour, with Jesus Christ after Mass; or at least for a quarter. But, O good Lord! A quarter of an hour is too little!”
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU RECEIVE HOLY COMMUNION?
DAILY □ (10 out of 10) FEW TIMES A WEEK □ (7 out of 10) ONLY SUNDAYS □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN WEEKLY □ (1 out of 10)
► WHAT IS TOTAL TIME YOU SPEND ON BOTH YOUR PREPARATION AND THANKSGIVING BEFORE AND AFTER RECEIVING HOLY COMMUNION?
OVER 30 MINS □ (10 out of 10) 20 TO 30 MINS □ (7 out of 10) 10 TO 20 MINS □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN 10 MINS □ (1 out of 10)
► NOT INCLUDING SUNDAY, HOW OFTEN DO YOU MAKE A SPECIAL EXTRA VISIT TO A CHURCH TO VISIT OUR LORD IN THE BLESSED SACRAMENT?
ALMOST DAILY □ (10 out of 10) FEW TIMES A MONTH □ (7 out of 10) FEW TIMES A YEAR □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
How Good is You Credit Rating With Regard to Prayer?
St. Augustine tells us that “As our body cannot live without nourishment, so our soul cannot spiritually be kept alive without prayer,” while St. John Chrysostom says “It is simply impossible to lead, without the aid of prayer, a virtuous life.” St. Alphonsus Liguori says that “He who prays most receives most.” We sin so much because we pray so little—if we would only pray much more, we would sin much less. “When prayer is poured forth, sins are covered” says St. Ambrose. Holy Scripture confirms this: “My son, hast thou sinned? Do so no more: but, for thy former sins, also pray that they may be forgiven thee” (Ecclesiasticus 21:1). St. John Climacus calls it “the bridge over temptations” and St. Ephraem points out that “Prayer preserves temperance. Prayer suppresses anger. Prayer prevents emotions of pride and envy.” Which is why Our Lord said: “Watch ye, and pray that you enter not into temptation! The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak!” (Mark 14:38).
God expects far more prayer than we actually give Him. Our Lord Himself said we ought pray always and not to grow faint: “And Jesus spoke also a parable to them, that we ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). “I desire therefore that men pray in every place” (1 Timothy 2:8). “I will praise Thy Name continually” (Ecclesiasticus 51:15). “We will give ourselves continually to prayer” (Acts 6:4). “Prayer was made without ceasing” (Acts 12:5). “By all prayer and supplication praying at all times” (Ephesians 6:18).
► WHAT IS DAILY TOTAL TIME YOU SPEND IN PRAYER (NOT INCLUDING MEDITATION OR SPIRITUAL READING)?
OVER 2 HOURS □ (10 out of 10) 1 TO 2 HOURS □ (7 out of 10) 30 TO 60 MINS □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN 30 MINS □ (1 out of 10)
Apart from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Divine Office, the Rosary is the most powerful prayer that we have. It is also the prayer of our age―which has been repeatedly demanded by Our Lady at Lourdes, at Fatima and at Akita. “Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you … Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and the end of the war … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary!” Concerning little 9-year old Francisco Marto at Fatima, Our Lady said that he would have to pray many Rosaries before he would be admitted into Heaven: ”He must say many Rosaries!” (Our Lady of Fatima, May 13th, 1917).
► HOW MAY 5-DECADE ROSARIES DO YOU USUALLY PRAY EVERY DAY?
OVER 3 ROSARIES □ (10 out of 10) 1 OR 2 ROSARIES □ (7 out of 10) 1 ROSARY □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN 1 ROSARY □ (1 out of 10)
St. Louis de Montfort, in his book, The Secret of the Rosary, writes: “It was because Our Lady wanted to help us in the great task of working out our salvation that she ordered Saint Dominic to teach the faithful to meditate upon the sacred mysteries … We must not only say the Rosary with our lips in honor of Jesus and Mary, but also meditate upon the sacred mysteries while we are saying it … A Christian who does not meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary is very ungrateful to Our Lord and shows how little he cares for all that our divine Savior has suffered to save the world. This attitude seems to show that he knows little or nothing of the life of Jesus Christ, and that he has never taken the trouble to find out what He has done and what He went through in order to save us … It is a great mistake to think that only priests and religious, and those who have withdrawn from the turmoil of the world, are supposed to meditate upon the truths of our Faith and the mysteries of the life of Christ. If priests and religious have an obligation to meditate on the great truths of our holy religion, in order to live up to their vocation worthily, the same obligation is just as much incumbent on the laity, because of the fact that every day they meet with spiritual dangers which might cause them to lose their souls. Therefore they should arm themselves with the frequent meditation on the life, virtues, and sufferings of our Blessed Lord, which are presented to us in the fifteen mysteries of the Holy Rosary …
“You, who are people of prayer, learn from this the power, the value and the importance of this devotion of the Holy Rosary when it is said with meditation on the mysteries. Our Lady said to Blessed Alan, «I want you to know that, although there are numerous indulgences already attached to the recitation of my Rosary, I shall add many more to every five decades for those who, free from serious sin, say them with devotion, on their knees. And whosoever shall persevere in the devotion of the Holy Rosary, with its prayers and meditations, shall be rewarded for it; I shall obtain for him full remission of the penalty and the guilt of all his sins at the end of his life.» She also said to Blessed Alan de la Roche in a vision, «When people say 150 Hail Marys, that prayer is very helpful to them and a most pleasing tribute to me. But they will do better still and will please me more if they say these salutations while meditating on the life, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, for this meditation is the soul of this prayer.»”
► HOW MAY 5-DECADE ROSARIES DO YOU USUALLY MEDITATE AND PRAY EVERY DAY?
OVER 3 ROSARIES □ (10 out of 10) 1 OR 2 ROSARIES □ (7 out of 10) 1 ROSARY □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN 1 ROSARY □ (1 out of 10)
What’s You Rating in Relation to Studying Your Faith?
Our Lord says: “Learn of Me!” (Matthew 11:29). Elsewhere, He tells His Apostles and disciples: “Teach ye all nations … Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you!” (Matthew 28:19-20). “Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). “Continue in those things which thou hast learned, and which have been committed to thee!” (2 Timothy 3:14). “This is the victory which overcometh the world―our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). However, Our Lord lamented: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8)―which is really a rhetorical question. A rhetorical question is a question someone asks without expecting an answer. The question might not have an answer, or it might have an obvious answer. In this case, Our Lord is hinting at the obvious answer―there will be little Faith remaining on Earth at His Second Coming. If we do not ‘feed’ our Faith, then our Faith will gradually weaken and die. The level of Faith―or the knowledge of the Faith―is pretty abysmal in our day and age, where Catholic adults do not even remember their First Communion Catechism (a 7-year-old’s level), nor their Confirmation Catechism (an 11 year-old’s level). They also lack even the most basic “parrot-fashion” memorization of certain important religious facts―and don’t even imagine that they can enter into a serious religious conversation or debate or argument about deeper matters concerning Faith or Morals. They just don’t have that kind of equipment! Yet some are highly intelligent and highly knowledgeable about material things!
As Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange in his book, The Three Ages of the Spiritual Life, writes: “The interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.”
► WHAT IS YOUR DAILY TOTAL NON-WORK, NON-FAITH RELATED TIME ON YOUR SMARTPHONE, LAPTOP, TABLET, TV, VIDEO PLAYER, OR SOCIAL MEDIA ?
LESS THAN 1 HOUR □ (10 out of 10) 1 TO 2 HOURS □ (7 out of 10) 2 TO 3 HOURS □ (4 out of 10) MORE THAN 3 HOURS □ (1 out of 10)
► WHAT IS THE TOTAL TIME DEDICATED DAILY TO THE STUDY OF THE FAITH, WHETHER THROUGH BOOKS OR ELECTRONIC MEDIA?
MORE THAN 1 HOUR □ (10 out of 10) 30 TO 6O MINS □ (7 out of 10) 15 TO 30 MINS □ (4 out of 10) LESS THAN 15 MINS □ (1 out of 10)
What’s Your Meditation Credit-Score Like?
Normally, when we pray, we like to speak a lot but we don't like or think to listen. Prayer, in itself, is as necessary for our spiritual life as breathing is necessary for our bodily life. Our spiritual life depends on God's grace, and he has, so to speak, given us the power to breathe it in prayer. Not to pray will have the same results, for the life of the soul, as not to breathe would have for the life of the body―that is sickness and death.
Prayer means to be with God and sometimes speak with him. The majority of people know only one kind of prayer called vocal prayer because we do it with our voices (i.e. standard prayers like Our Father, Hail Mary, or with words in the silences of our mind). These prayers are wonderful. We need to practice them. However they are not enough to nourish our soul. Sometimes, if we don't pay attention, we run the risk of merely saying prayers mechanically without really praying.
The majority of people like to speak to God, but very few speak with God. To speak with God implies that we also listen, not only speak. How can we listen to God? God speaks to us, first of all, through His Word which is found in Holy Scripture and the Tradition of the Church (which is the teachings of Christ, Apostles, writings of the Popes, of the Church Councils, of the Saints, etc.). God also speaks to us through the events of our lives, through the people that we meet, through the circumstances, through the inspirations that He sends to us. We need to be aware of these in order to listen more. It is very hard for us to listen and far easier to talk and make God listen. But, besides vocal prayer we also need mental prayer. This is our way of listening to God. Mental prayer is also called meditation.
Meditation is simply reflecting on God's word with the help of the Holy Spirit. It is a very simple process that involves your mind, your heart (emotions and affections), and your will. Meditation does not mean that we are looking for visions or extraordinary insights. It is no different than paying attention to someone you care for. Anyone can do it. In fact, you are definitely meditating on many secular things all day long―you just need to channel that absorption away from the secular and onto the religious. In other words, you already have the tools of meditation and have been using them for years―but on the wrong things! As St. Teresa points out, meditation consists not so much in thinking a great deal, but in loving a great deal. However, you cannot love what you do not know―and you will only love a little if you only know a little. Thus, meditation goes hand-in-hand with studying the Faith, the spiritual life, the Bible, etc. One important thing to note is that for meditation to be a REAL meditation, and not just spiritual reading or pious thinking, it has to end with a practical concrete resolution to put into practice. It might something exterior and visible, or it might be interior and invisible. It could be a positive thing, meaning DOING something, or it could be a negative thing, meaning NOT DOING something.
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU MAKE A MEDITATION?
ALMOST DAILY □ (10 out of 10) FEW TIMES A MONTH □ (7 out of 10) FEW TIMES A YEAR □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
How Would You Grade Your Daily-Examination of Conscience?
As already mentioned previously, all the popes since Pope Pius XII have complained about the loss of the sense of sin on the part of Catholics. Part of the problem, or one of the fundamental causes of the loss of a sense of sin, is a neglect in performing the daily examination of conscience at the end of each and every day, and then begging pardon from God for whatever sins we have committed throughout the course of that day. If you don’t use a tool, it gets rusty! If you don’t clean your conscience, it gets dirty and stays dirty.
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU MAKE A SERIOUS EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE?
ALMOST DAILY □ (10 out of 10) FEW TIMES A MONTH □ (7 out of 10) FEW TIMES A YEAR □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
What Scores is Your Mercy Getting?
Charity, of course, is the greatest of virtues―yet you can look at charity as being a mansion with many rooms. The best and most valuable room is the “Room of Mercy”―or could we say: “Room for Mercy.” Holy Scripture says: “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. The Lord is sweet to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works” (Psalm 144:8-9). Our Lord Himself points out: “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy … For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will your Father forgive you your offences” (Matthew 5:7; 6:14-15).
In the same Sermon on the Mount, Our Lord adds: “You have heard that it hath been said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!’ But I say to you not to resist evil―but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other! And if a man will contend with thee in judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also unto him! And whosoever will force thee to go one mile, go with him another two! Give to him that asketh of thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not away! You have heard that it hath been said: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy!’ But I say to you: Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you, so that you may be the children of your Father Who is in Heaven, Who maketh His sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you do more? Do not also the heathens do this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:38-48).
“Then came Peter unto Him and said: ‘Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?’ Jesus said to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times. Therefore is the Kingdom of Heaven likened to a king, who would take an account of his servants. And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought to him, that owed him ten thousand talents (1 talent was 750 ounces of silver. At today’s silver prices, that would put the 10,000 talents at just over $112 million). And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. But that servant falling down, besought him, saying: Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him go and forgave him the debt.
“But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fellow servants that owed him an hundred pence (the Roman penny was the eighth part of an ounce. At today’s silver prices, a hundred pence would be just over $200): and laying hold of him, throttled him, saying: ‘Pay what thou owest!’ And his fellow servant falling down, besought him, saying: ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all!’ And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he paid the debt.
“Now his fellow servants seeing what was done, were very much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was done. Then his lord called him and said to him: ‘Thou wicked servant! I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest me! Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fellow servant, even as I had compassion on thee?’ And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers, until he paid all the debt. So also shall My heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not everyone his brother from your hearts!” (Matthew 18:23-35).
Pope St. Gregory the Great, in chapter 60 of his Dialogues, says that we ought to pardon other men their sins, that we may obtain remission of our own:
“We have also further to know, that he doth rightly and in good sort demand pardon for his own sin, who doth forgive that which hath been done against himself. For our gift is not received, if, before, we free not our soul from all discord and lack of charity: for our Savior said: ‘If thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift!’ (Matthew 5:23-24). Wherein we have to consider, that whereas all sin, is loosed by a gift, how grievous the sin of discord is, for which no gift is received. Therefore we ought, in soul and desire, to go unto our neighbor, though he be far off, and many miles distant from us, and there to humble ourselves before him, and to pacify him by humility and hearty good will, to the end that our Creator, beholding the desire of our mind, may forgive us our own sin, who receives a gift for sin. And our Savior Himself teaches us, how that servant, which did owe ten thousand talents, by penance obtained of his Lord the forgiveness of that debt: but yet because he would not forgive his fellow-servant an hundred pence, which were due to him, that was again exacted at his hands, which before was pardoned. (Matthew 18:27). Out of which sayings we learn, that if we do not from our heart forgive that which is committed against us, how that is again required at our hands, whereof before we were glad that by penance we had obtained pardon and remission. Wherefore, whiles time is given us, whiles our judge doth bear with us, whiles he that examines our sins doth expect our conversion and amendment: let us mollify with tears the hardness of our heart, and with sincere charity, love our neighbors: and then dare I speak it boldly, that we shall not have any need of the holy sacrifice after our death: if, before death, we offer up ourselves for a sacrifice unto almighty God.”
St Alphonsus Ligouri told the story of a certain religious brother whose life was not what it should have been. When he came to the end of his life he was asked if he feared the judgment of God. His reply was, “No, because I have always forgiven my enemies!”
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU FORGIVE WRONGS COMMITTED BY FAMILY, RELATIVES AND FRIENDS?
ALWAYS □ (10 out of 10) MOST TIMES □ (7 out of 10) LESS THAN HALF THE TIME □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU FORGIVE WRONGS COMMITTED BY WORK COLLEAGUES, NEIGHBORS, ACQUAINTANCES, STRANGERS, ENEMIES?
ALWAYS □ (10 out of 10) MOST TIMES □ (7 out of 10) LESS THAN HALF THE TIME □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
► HOW OFTEN DO YOU PRAY FOR YOUR ENEMIES OR FOR THE SERIOUS SINNERS IN THE WORLD, FOR EXAMPLE THE ONE'S WHO MAKE THE NEWS?
ALWAYS □ (10 out of 10) MOST TIMES □ (7 out of 10) LESS THAN HALF THE TIME □ (4 out of 10) RARELY OR NEVER □ (1 out of 10)
Run With the Ball Yourself
These are just the very basic, foundational elements that everyone needs to examine in their own lives. Following the above system, you could further add the following points for examination―time and length of article do not allow this to be covered in one single article. However, now that you are familiar with the lay-out or approach, you can easily do this yourself. The additional points―which are only some key points and by no means the only points―are:
● Spiritual Reading
● The Corporal Works of Mercy
● The Spiritual Works of Mercy
● The Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Covetousness, Gluttony, Anger, Lust, Envy and Sloth
● The Cadinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance
● Each of the Ten Commandments taken individually
● The chief virtues, especially humility and charity
● Gossip through calumny (lies) and detraction (revealing true faults)
● Etc., etc., etc., etc.
In the meantime, you can add up your current score, which, based upon the above questions, potentially gives you a maximum of 180 points and an absolute minimum of 18 points. Although all of this is purely arbitrary and subjective, you could obviously say that anything below 90 is most certainly a sign of lukewarmness. Anything below 50 … well, hmm?! A score of around 120 would show seriousness about the spiritual life, whereas anywhere near 180 means you can start polishing your halo, but don’t drop it through pride!
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Palm Sunday, April 14th & Monday in Holy Week, April 15th
Article 34
Reading Palms the Christian Way!
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Article 34
Reading Palms the Christian Way!
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
From Triumph to Tragedy to Triumph
Talk of a roller-coaster ride! In these 7 days, Our Lord, with His Apostles and Disciples, will experience a momentous and unimaginable “roller-coaster” ride of gargantuan proportions. Today―“Palm Sunday”―we start with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which quickly descends into days of altercation and dispute in the Temple between Jesus and the Jews and the plotted betrayal by Judas and the High Priest, only to reach new heights by Holy Thursday, the birthday of the Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood, which then immediately plummets down into the betrayal and arrest of Jesus leading into His Passion and Death; and then ends with His glorious Resurrection from death and seeming defeat.
Dom Gueranger, in the section on Palm Sunday, in his Liturgical Year, writes:
“Early in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethany. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive today in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosannas to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome’s emperor, and of the high priests and Pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.” (Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Year, Palm Sunday).
“The disciples spread their garments upon the colt; and our Savior, that the prophetic figure might be fulfilled, sits upon him (Mark 11:7, Luke 19:35), and advances towards Jerusalem. As soon as it is known that Jesus is near the city, the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those Jews, who have come from all parts to celebrate the feast of the Passover. They go out to meet Our Lord, holding palm branches in their hands, and loudly proclaiming Him to be King (Luke 19:38). They that have accompanied Jesus from Bethany, join the enthusiastic crowd. Whilst some spread their garments on the way, others cut down boughs from the palm-trees, and strew them along the road. “Hosanna” is the triumphant cry, proclaiming to the whole city that Jesus, the Son of David, has made His entrance as her King. Thus did God, in His power over men’s hearts, procure a triumph for His Son, and in the very city which, a few days later, was to clamor for His Blood. This day was one of glory to our Jesus, and the Holy Church would have us renew, each year, the memory of this triumph of the Man-God” (Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Year, Palm Sunday).
“Jesus begins His reign upon the Earth this very day; and though the first Israel is soon to disclaim His rule, a new Israel, formed from the faithful few of the old, shall rise up in every nation of the earth, and become the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom such as no mere earthly monarch ever coveted in his wildest fancies of ambition. This is the glorious mystery which ushers in the great week, the week of dolors. Holy Church would have us give this momentary consolation to our heart, and hail our Jesus as our King. She has so arranged the service of today, that it should express both joy and sorrow; joy, by uniting herself with the loyal hosannas of the city of David; and sorrow, by compassionating the Passion of her divine Spouse. The whole function is divided into three parts, which we will now proceed to explain.
Reading the Palms for the Significance
“The first is the blessing of the palms; and we may have an idea of its importance from the solemnity used by the Church in this sacred rite. One would suppose that the holy Sacrifice has begun, and is going to be offered up in honor of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Introit, Collect, Epistle, Gradual, Gospel, even a Preface, are said, as though we were, as usual, preparing for the immolation of the spotless Lamb; but―after the triple Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus!―the Church suspends these sacrificial formulas, and turns to the blessing of the palms. The prayers she uses for this blessing are eloquent and full of instruction; and, together with the sprinkling with holy water and the incensation, impart a virtue to these branches, which elevates them to the supernatural order, and makes them means for the sanctification of our souls and the protection of our persons and dwellings. The faithful should hold these palms in their hands during the procession, and during the reading of the Passion at Mass, and keep them in their homes as an outward expression of their faith, and as a pledge of God’s watchful love.
Then, Dom Gueranger proceeds to explain the significance of the palms by reading the prayers that constitute their blessing. Unless your local parish followed the so-called “Extraordinary Rite” (the old Latin Rite, which truly is extraordinary compared to its cheap and ordinary replacement in recent times), then you will have missed out of the tremendous riches and depth of symbolism, teaching and inspiration contained in that venerable Rite. If you are offended by that, then don’t be―for increasing numbers of priests and laity are expressing a preference for the “old-way of doing things” especially among younger ones, which surprises many. Besides, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich saw in her visions, a counterfeit church for our times, introducing new ways of doing things―which, when overthrown by Heaven, went back to the “old ways” with a worldwide restoration of the old rite by the pope. Here are the prayers that were used (and will be used again) in blessing the psalms.
The priest began by by giving two Scriptural allusions: the first is to Noe, who received an olive-branch, when the waters of the deluge had subsided; the second is to Moses, whose people, after quitting Egypt, encamped under the seventy palm-trees. The prayer of blessing was then said as follows:
► PRAYER OF BLESSING: “Increase, O God, the Faith of them that hope in Thee, and mercifully hear the prayers of Thy suppliants; let Thy manifold mercy come upon us, and let these branches of palm-trees, or olive-trees be blessed; and as in a figure of the Church Thou didst multiply Noe going out of the ark, and Moses going out of Egypt with the children of Israel, so let us, carrying palms and branches of olive-trees, go and meet Christ with good works, and enter, through Him, into eternal joys.”
The five prayers which follow, explain the mystery of the palms, and draw down the blessing of God both upon them and upon the faithful who receive and keep them with proper dispositions.
► FIRST PRAYER: “We beseech Thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, that Thou wouldst be pleased to bless and sanctify this creature of the olive tree, which Thou madest to shoot out of the substance of the wood, and which the dove, returning to the ark, brought in its bill; that whoever receiveth it, may find protection of soul and body, and that it may prove, O Lord, a saving remedy, and a sacred sign of Thy grace.”
► SECOND PRAYER: “O God, Who gatherest what is dispersed, and preservest what is gathered; who didst bless the people that carried boughs to meet Jesus; bless also these branches of the palm-tree and olive-tree, which Thy servants take with Faith in honor of Thy Name; that into whatever place they may be carried, the inhabitants of that place may obtain thy blessing, and Thy right hand may preserve from all adversity, and protect those that have been redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son.”
► THIRD PRAYER: “O God, Who by the wonderful order of Thy providence wouldst, even in insensible things, show us the manner of our salvation; grant, we beseech Thee, that the devout hearts of Thy faithful may understand to their benefit the mystical meaning of that ceremony, when the multitude, by direction from Heaven, going this day to meet our Redeemer, strewed under His feet palms and olive-branches. The palms represent His triumph over the prince of death: and the olive-branches proclaim, in some manner, the coming of a spiritual unction. For that pious multitude then knew, what was by them signified, that our Redeemer, compassionating the misery of mankind, was to fight, for the life of the whole world, with the prince of death; and to triumph over him by His own death. And, therefore, in that action they made use of such things, as might declare, both the triumph of his victory and the riches of His mercy. We also, with a firm Faith, retaining both the ceremony and its signification, humbly beseech Thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, through the same Lord Jesus Christ, that we, whom Thou hast made His members, gaining by Him, and in Him, a victory over the empire of death, may deserve to be partakers of His glorious resurrection.”
► FOURTH PRAYER: “O God, Who by an olive branch didst command the dove to proclaim peace to the world; sanctify, we beseech Thee, by Thy heavenly benediction, these branches of olives and other trees; that they may be serviceable to all Thy people unto salvation.”
► FIFTH PRAYER: “Bless, O Lord, we beseech Thee, these branches of the palm-tree, or olive-tree; and grant that what Thy people, this day, do corporally for Thy honor, they may perform the same spiritually with the greatest devotion, by gaining a victory over their enemy, and ardently loving the work of Thy mercy.”
The Palm is a Sign of Victory
The palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm (Phoenix) was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt the palm represented immortality.
In Judaism, the lulav―a closed frond of the date palm―is part of the Festival of Tabernacles, one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, on which the Israelites were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. As stated in the Book of Leviticus, it is also intended as a reminder of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt―for the Latin word tabernaculum literally means “tent” or “booth” in the sense of a temporary dwelling place. God commands: “And you shall take to you, on the first day, the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. And you shall keep the solemnity thereof seven days in the year. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in your generations. In the seventh month shall you celebrate this feast. And you shall dwell in bowers seven days: every one that is of the race of Israel, shall dwell in tabernacles [tents]. That your posterity may know, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in tabernacles [tents], when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 23:40-43).
A palm branch was awarded to victorious athletes in ancient Greece, and a palm frond or the tree itself is one of the most common attributes of Victory personified in ancient Rome. Since a victory signals an end to a conflict or competition, the palm developed into a symbol of peace.
Pick Your Palm!
There are approximately 2,600 species of palm. The most well-known ones are the date palm and the coconut tree. All palm trees are not actually trees. A palm tree is a type of grass. This is so because the yearly growth of the palm is not marked by rings, as it happens in other trees. Also, a palm tree does not have a bark. The inside and outside of the plant are essentially the same―which how Catholics should be, we should be on the inside what we are on the outside and not be hypocrites or pretenders.
Palm trees are of two types―palmate and pinnate. In the palmate varieties, the leaves grow at the end of the stem in a bunch, resembling a hand or a fan. In the pinnate variety, the leaves grow all along either side of the stem, resembling feathers. The pinnate leaves of the oil palm can easily be 10 to 15 feet long and palm trees shed these enormous leaves on a yearly basis and these dead leaves have a veritable variety of uses. The woody stem of the leaves is strong and is used as fuel or building material, the leaves themselves can be recycled in the palm plantation as mulch, or can be used as a base for weaving baskets, and sometimes the leaf as a whole is used in fences and temporary constructions.
Greasy, Oily Palms?
The use of palm oil is as old as 3000 B.C and archaeologists have located traces of palm oil in Egyptian tombs. Palm oil — also known as red palm oil — is a vegetable oil extracted from the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis). The oil palm yields two types of oil: One is extracted from the flesh of the fruit (palm oil), and the other from the seed, or kernel (palm kernel oil).
The oil is often found in products such as bread, ice cream, and other processed foods, as it is trans-fat free, as well as some cosmetics such as makeup and soap. In fact, half the packaged products in any supermarket contain palm oil, so the chances are high that you have a lot of palm oil products in your house.
Health in the Palm of Your (Oily) Hand
Unrefined palm oil is sometimes referred to as red palm oil because of its reddish-orange color. Similar to coconut oil, palm oil is resistant to heat compared to other vegetable oils. Red palm oil's reddish-orange pigment stems from antioxidants known as carotenoids, including beta-carotene, which your body can convert into vitamin A.
Palm Oil is packed with amazing health benefits that includes boosting energy, may prevent cancer, balancing cholesterol level, a rich source of antioxidants, a rich source of vitamin K, a rich source of Omega 3 fatty acids, supply the body with vitamin E for youthful appearance, support pregnancy, and supply the body with vitamin D for healthy joints and bone density. Applying palm oil directly to your skin is also beneficial. Injuries like bruises, sunburn, and cuts also heal faster when palm oil is applied.
Regarded as a sacred healing food by many civilizations, including the ancient Egyptians, crude or virgin red palm fruit oil should be regarded as one of the most nutritious edible oils in the world. It is not to be confused with palm kernel oil. Palm fruit oil is derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis) and is referred to as “red palm oil” because of its rich dark red color in its unprocessed natural state. Palm kernel oil is derived from the seed or the kernel.
● PALM FRUIT OIL contains mainly palmitic and oleic acids and is about 50% saturated, while palm kernel oil contains mainly lauric acid and is more than 89% saturated. The general assumption that kernel oil and palm fruit oil are one in the same, may have lead to one of the greatest oversights in modern nutrition. The stigma attached to the kernel has kept the fruit in the dark ― at least until now. Virgin organic sustainable red palm fruit oil is otherwise a bona fide food.
● PALM KERNEL OIL does not convey the same health benefits that red palm fruit oil does. The health benefits are only achieved due to the red color of the palm fruit oil that is attributed to its high content of carotenes, which include beta-carotene and lycopene. These powerhouse antioxidant nutrients are the same ones that give tomatoes and carrots and other fruits and vegetables their rich red and orange colors. What may shock you is that red palm fruit oil contains more that tomatoes or carrots. Red palm fruit oil is also densely packed with numerous tocotrienols ― a powerful form of vitamin E.
Palm Oil Can “Take the Heat”!
Like coconut oil, palm oil is semi-solid at room temperature. However, its melting point is 95°F (35°C), which is considerably higher than 76°F (24°C) for coconut oil. This is due to the different fatty acid compositions of the two oils. It is often used for sautéing or frying because it has a high smoke point of 450°F (232°C) and remains stable under high heat. That is how Catholics ought to be―able to take the heat, while remaining flexible, yet hard.
Your Palm Shows a Long Life!
Palm trees have ancient symbolical value. The Assyrians believed that the symbol of eternal life was a palm tree growing beside a stream. Palm trees live unusually live long. It takes about 5 years for a palm tree to grow a trunk. Palm tree trunks are absolutely amazing in their ability to bend and flex in hurricane force winds without breaking―which is how Catholics ought to be amid the storms and tempests and persecutions of the world. Within 15 years a palm tree can produce coconuts―that number reminds us of the 15 mysteries of the Rosary we should be producing daily. At about 70 years the tree stops producing coconuts. Though it can be difficult to estimate the age of a palm tree without rings, thankfully, scientists have found other ways to estimate age. One species was found to have lived for 740 years! That reminds us of the long years that Adam and his descendants used to live―before God shortened the life of man due to sin.
Palm trees are of two types―palmate and pinnate. In the palmate varieties, the leaves grow at the end of the stem in a bunch, resembling a hand or a fan. In the pinnate variety, the leaves grow all along either side of the stem, resembling feathers. The leaves of the palm tree are eaten by animals―likewise, the words and examples of Catholics ought to be “eaten” by those around us.
A Palm Roof Over Your Head
The leaves can also be used to make a thatch or roof. However, only the pinnate type of leaves (the hand-shaped or fan-shaped leaves) can be used. Some palm leaves make great roofs because of their size―the ones from coconut or royal palm in the feather or fan-leaf category. Some of the larger fan varieties like many of the “thatch palms” (that's why they call them that―because of the thatch roofs). The roofs made out of these giant leaves can last anywhere from 5-10 years, depending on the weather, of course.
Universal
Like the Catholic Church, you could say that the palm tree is universal―that is to say it is used an enormous amount and variety of products. Many palm trees are the source of wax, which is used to make scented candles. Many different leaves are also used in weaving everything from furniture, to decorations and place-mats. There are cultures that make sugar out of the sap of the sugar palm tree. It's collected very similar to the way we get sap for maple syrup from maple trees, but it is then fermented into the sugary drink called “toddy.”
Walking on Your Palms
Wood from coconut and palm trees is used for making flooring as the dried wood is harder than oak. After a coconut palm tree has gone beyond its productive years, the tree is chopped down. The wood from the palm tree can be made into some excellent flooring and siding. The wood is extremely hard once it is cured, or dried. Harder than oak, by far. There are also palms whose leaves are also used to produce oil, but a completely different kind. Other palm tree uses for leaves are, to produce a different kind of oil and wax from those produced from the fruit.
Talk of a roller-coaster ride! In these 7 days, Our Lord, with His Apostles and Disciples, will experience a momentous and unimaginable “roller-coaster” ride of gargantuan proportions. Today―“Palm Sunday”―we start with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which quickly descends into days of altercation and dispute in the Temple between Jesus and the Jews and the plotted betrayal by Judas and the High Priest, only to reach new heights by Holy Thursday, the birthday of the Holy Mass, the Holy Eucharist and the Priesthood, which then immediately plummets down into the betrayal and arrest of Jesus leading into His Passion and Death; and then ends with His glorious Resurrection from death and seeming defeat.
Dom Gueranger, in the section on Palm Sunday, in his Liturgical Year, writes:
“Early in the morning of this day, Jesus sets out for Jerusalem, leaving Mary His Mother, and the two sisters Martha and Mary Magdalene, and Lazarus, at Bethany. The Mother of sorrows trembles at seeing her Son thus expose Himself to danger, for His enemies are bent upon His destruction; but it is not death, it is triumph, that Jesus is to receive today in Jerusalem. The Messias, before being nailed to the cross, is to be proclaimed King by the people of the great city; the little children are to make her streets echo with their Hosannas to the Son of David; and this in presence of the soldiers of Rome’s emperor, and of the high priests and Pharisees: the first standing under the banner of their eagles; the second, dumb with rage.” (Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Year, Palm Sunday).
“The disciples spread their garments upon the colt; and our Savior, that the prophetic figure might be fulfilled, sits upon him (Mark 11:7, Luke 19:35), and advances towards Jerusalem. As soon as it is known that Jesus is near the city, the Holy Spirit works in the hearts of those Jews, who have come from all parts to celebrate the feast of the Passover. They go out to meet Our Lord, holding palm branches in their hands, and loudly proclaiming Him to be King (Luke 19:38). They that have accompanied Jesus from Bethany, join the enthusiastic crowd. Whilst some spread their garments on the way, others cut down boughs from the palm-trees, and strew them along the road. “Hosanna” is the triumphant cry, proclaiming to the whole city that Jesus, the Son of David, has made His entrance as her King. Thus did God, in His power over men’s hearts, procure a triumph for His Son, and in the very city which, a few days later, was to clamor for His Blood. This day was one of glory to our Jesus, and the Holy Church would have us renew, each year, the memory of this triumph of the Man-God” (Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Year, Palm Sunday).
“Jesus begins His reign upon the Earth this very day; and though the first Israel is soon to disclaim His rule, a new Israel, formed from the faithful few of the old, shall rise up in every nation of the earth, and become the kingdom of Christ, a kingdom such as no mere earthly monarch ever coveted in his wildest fancies of ambition. This is the glorious mystery which ushers in the great week, the week of dolors. Holy Church would have us give this momentary consolation to our heart, and hail our Jesus as our King. She has so arranged the service of today, that it should express both joy and sorrow; joy, by uniting herself with the loyal hosannas of the city of David; and sorrow, by compassionating the Passion of her divine Spouse. The whole function is divided into three parts, which we will now proceed to explain.
Reading the Palms for the Significance
“The first is the blessing of the palms; and we may have an idea of its importance from the solemnity used by the Church in this sacred rite. One would suppose that the holy Sacrifice has begun, and is going to be offered up in honor of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. Introit, Collect, Epistle, Gradual, Gospel, even a Preface, are said, as though we were, as usual, preparing for the immolation of the spotless Lamb; but―after the triple Sanctus! Sanctus! Sanctus!―the Church suspends these sacrificial formulas, and turns to the blessing of the palms. The prayers she uses for this blessing are eloquent and full of instruction; and, together with the sprinkling with holy water and the incensation, impart a virtue to these branches, which elevates them to the supernatural order, and makes them means for the sanctification of our souls and the protection of our persons and dwellings. The faithful should hold these palms in their hands during the procession, and during the reading of the Passion at Mass, and keep them in their homes as an outward expression of their faith, and as a pledge of God’s watchful love.
Then, Dom Gueranger proceeds to explain the significance of the palms by reading the prayers that constitute their blessing. Unless your local parish followed the so-called “Extraordinary Rite” (the old Latin Rite, which truly is extraordinary compared to its cheap and ordinary replacement in recent times), then you will have missed out of the tremendous riches and depth of symbolism, teaching and inspiration contained in that venerable Rite. If you are offended by that, then don’t be―for increasing numbers of priests and laity are expressing a preference for the “old-way of doing things” especially among younger ones, which surprises many. Besides, Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich saw in her visions, a counterfeit church for our times, introducing new ways of doing things―which, when overthrown by Heaven, went back to the “old ways” with a worldwide restoration of the old rite by the pope. Here are the prayers that were used (and will be used again) in blessing the psalms.
The priest began by by giving two Scriptural allusions: the first is to Noe, who received an olive-branch, when the waters of the deluge had subsided; the second is to Moses, whose people, after quitting Egypt, encamped under the seventy palm-trees. The prayer of blessing was then said as follows:
► PRAYER OF BLESSING: “Increase, O God, the Faith of them that hope in Thee, and mercifully hear the prayers of Thy suppliants; let Thy manifold mercy come upon us, and let these branches of palm-trees, or olive-trees be blessed; and as in a figure of the Church Thou didst multiply Noe going out of the ark, and Moses going out of Egypt with the children of Israel, so let us, carrying palms and branches of olive-trees, go and meet Christ with good works, and enter, through Him, into eternal joys.”
The five prayers which follow, explain the mystery of the palms, and draw down the blessing of God both upon them and upon the faithful who receive and keep them with proper dispositions.
► FIRST PRAYER: “We beseech Thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, that Thou wouldst be pleased to bless and sanctify this creature of the olive tree, which Thou madest to shoot out of the substance of the wood, and which the dove, returning to the ark, brought in its bill; that whoever receiveth it, may find protection of soul and body, and that it may prove, O Lord, a saving remedy, and a sacred sign of Thy grace.”
► SECOND PRAYER: “O God, Who gatherest what is dispersed, and preservest what is gathered; who didst bless the people that carried boughs to meet Jesus; bless also these branches of the palm-tree and olive-tree, which Thy servants take with Faith in honor of Thy Name; that into whatever place they may be carried, the inhabitants of that place may obtain thy blessing, and Thy right hand may preserve from all adversity, and protect those that have been redeemed by our Lord Jesus Christ Thy Son.”
► THIRD PRAYER: “O God, Who by the wonderful order of Thy providence wouldst, even in insensible things, show us the manner of our salvation; grant, we beseech Thee, that the devout hearts of Thy faithful may understand to their benefit the mystical meaning of that ceremony, when the multitude, by direction from Heaven, going this day to meet our Redeemer, strewed under His feet palms and olive-branches. The palms represent His triumph over the prince of death: and the olive-branches proclaim, in some manner, the coming of a spiritual unction. For that pious multitude then knew, what was by them signified, that our Redeemer, compassionating the misery of mankind, was to fight, for the life of the whole world, with the prince of death; and to triumph over him by His own death. And, therefore, in that action they made use of such things, as might declare, both the triumph of his victory and the riches of His mercy. We also, with a firm Faith, retaining both the ceremony and its signification, humbly beseech Thee, O holy Lord, almighty Father, eternal God, through the same Lord Jesus Christ, that we, whom Thou hast made His members, gaining by Him, and in Him, a victory over the empire of death, may deserve to be partakers of His glorious resurrection.”
► FOURTH PRAYER: “O God, Who by an olive branch didst command the dove to proclaim peace to the world; sanctify, we beseech Thee, by Thy heavenly benediction, these branches of olives and other trees; that they may be serviceable to all Thy people unto salvation.”
► FIFTH PRAYER: “Bless, O Lord, we beseech Thee, these branches of the palm-tree, or olive-tree; and grant that what Thy people, this day, do corporally for Thy honor, they may perform the same spiritually with the greatest devotion, by gaining a victory over their enemy, and ardently loving the work of Thy mercy.”
The Palm is a Sign of Victory
The palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life originating in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The palm (Phoenix) was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt the palm represented immortality.
In Judaism, the lulav―a closed frond of the date palm―is part of the Festival of Tabernacles, one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals, on which the Israelites were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem. As stated in the Book of Leviticus, it is also intended as a reminder of the type of fragile dwellings in which the Israelites dwelt during their 40 years of travel in the desert after the Exodus from slavery in Egypt―for the Latin word tabernaculum literally means “tent” or “booth” in the sense of a temporary dwelling place. God commands: “And you shall take to you, on the first day, the fruits of the fairest tree, and branches of palm trees, and boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God. And you shall keep the solemnity thereof seven days in the year. It shall be an everlasting ordinance in your generations. In the seventh month shall you celebrate this feast. And you shall dwell in bowers seven days: every one that is of the race of Israel, shall dwell in tabernacles [tents]. That your posterity may know, that I made the children of Israel to dwell in tabernacles [tents], when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 23:40-43).
A palm branch was awarded to victorious athletes in ancient Greece, and a palm frond or the tree itself is one of the most common attributes of Victory personified in ancient Rome. Since a victory signals an end to a conflict or competition, the palm developed into a symbol of peace.
Pick Your Palm!
There are approximately 2,600 species of palm. The most well-known ones are the date palm and the coconut tree. All palm trees are not actually trees. A palm tree is a type of grass. This is so because the yearly growth of the palm is not marked by rings, as it happens in other trees. Also, a palm tree does not have a bark. The inside and outside of the plant are essentially the same―which how Catholics should be, we should be on the inside what we are on the outside and not be hypocrites or pretenders.
Palm trees are of two types―palmate and pinnate. In the palmate varieties, the leaves grow at the end of the stem in a bunch, resembling a hand or a fan. In the pinnate variety, the leaves grow all along either side of the stem, resembling feathers. The pinnate leaves of the oil palm can easily be 10 to 15 feet long and palm trees shed these enormous leaves on a yearly basis and these dead leaves have a veritable variety of uses. The woody stem of the leaves is strong and is used as fuel or building material, the leaves themselves can be recycled in the palm plantation as mulch, or can be used as a base for weaving baskets, and sometimes the leaf as a whole is used in fences and temporary constructions.
Greasy, Oily Palms?
The use of palm oil is as old as 3000 B.C and archaeologists have located traces of palm oil in Egyptian tombs. Palm oil — also known as red palm oil — is a vegetable oil extracted from the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis). The oil palm yields two types of oil: One is extracted from the flesh of the fruit (palm oil), and the other from the seed, or kernel (palm kernel oil).
The oil is often found in products such as bread, ice cream, and other processed foods, as it is trans-fat free, as well as some cosmetics such as makeup and soap. In fact, half the packaged products in any supermarket contain palm oil, so the chances are high that you have a lot of palm oil products in your house.
Health in the Palm of Your (Oily) Hand
Unrefined palm oil is sometimes referred to as red palm oil because of its reddish-orange color. Similar to coconut oil, palm oil is resistant to heat compared to other vegetable oils. Red palm oil's reddish-orange pigment stems from antioxidants known as carotenoids, including beta-carotene, which your body can convert into vitamin A.
Palm Oil is packed with amazing health benefits that includes boosting energy, may prevent cancer, balancing cholesterol level, a rich source of antioxidants, a rich source of vitamin K, a rich source of Omega 3 fatty acids, supply the body with vitamin E for youthful appearance, support pregnancy, and supply the body with vitamin D for healthy joints and bone density. Applying palm oil directly to your skin is also beneficial. Injuries like bruises, sunburn, and cuts also heal faster when palm oil is applied.
Regarded as a sacred healing food by many civilizations, including the ancient Egyptians, crude or virgin red palm fruit oil should be regarded as one of the most nutritious edible oils in the world. It is not to be confused with palm kernel oil. Palm fruit oil is derived from the fruit of the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis) and is referred to as “red palm oil” because of its rich dark red color in its unprocessed natural state. Palm kernel oil is derived from the seed or the kernel.
● PALM FRUIT OIL contains mainly palmitic and oleic acids and is about 50% saturated, while palm kernel oil contains mainly lauric acid and is more than 89% saturated. The general assumption that kernel oil and palm fruit oil are one in the same, may have lead to one of the greatest oversights in modern nutrition. The stigma attached to the kernel has kept the fruit in the dark ― at least until now. Virgin organic sustainable red palm fruit oil is otherwise a bona fide food.
● PALM KERNEL OIL does not convey the same health benefits that red palm fruit oil does. The health benefits are only achieved due to the red color of the palm fruit oil that is attributed to its high content of carotenes, which include beta-carotene and lycopene. These powerhouse antioxidant nutrients are the same ones that give tomatoes and carrots and other fruits and vegetables their rich red and orange colors. What may shock you is that red palm fruit oil contains more that tomatoes or carrots. Red palm fruit oil is also densely packed with numerous tocotrienols ― a powerful form of vitamin E.
Palm Oil Can “Take the Heat”!
Like coconut oil, palm oil is semi-solid at room temperature. However, its melting point is 95°F (35°C), which is considerably higher than 76°F (24°C) for coconut oil. This is due to the different fatty acid compositions of the two oils. It is often used for sautéing or frying because it has a high smoke point of 450°F (232°C) and remains stable under high heat. That is how Catholics ought to be―able to take the heat, while remaining flexible, yet hard.
Your Palm Shows a Long Life!
Palm trees have ancient symbolical value. The Assyrians believed that the symbol of eternal life was a palm tree growing beside a stream. Palm trees live unusually live long. It takes about 5 years for a palm tree to grow a trunk. Palm tree trunks are absolutely amazing in their ability to bend and flex in hurricane force winds without breaking―which is how Catholics ought to be amid the storms and tempests and persecutions of the world. Within 15 years a palm tree can produce coconuts―that number reminds us of the 15 mysteries of the Rosary we should be producing daily. At about 70 years the tree stops producing coconuts. Though it can be difficult to estimate the age of a palm tree without rings, thankfully, scientists have found other ways to estimate age. One species was found to have lived for 740 years! That reminds us of the long years that Adam and his descendants used to live―before God shortened the life of man due to sin.
Palm trees are of two types―palmate and pinnate. In the palmate varieties, the leaves grow at the end of the stem in a bunch, resembling a hand or a fan. In the pinnate variety, the leaves grow all along either side of the stem, resembling feathers. The leaves of the palm tree are eaten by animals―likewise, the words and examples of Catholics ought to be “eaten” by those around us.
A Palm Roof Over Your Head
The leaves can also be used to make a thatch or roof. However, only the pinnate type of leaves (the hand-shaped or fan-shaped leaves) can be used. Some palm leaves make great roofs because of their size―the ones from coconut or royal palm in the feather or fan-leaf category. Some of the larger fan varieties like many of the “thatch palms” (that's why they call them that―because of the thatch roofs). The roofs made out of these giant leaves can last anywhere from 5-10 years, depending on the weather, of course.
Universal
Like the Catholic Church, you could say that the palm tree is universal―that is to say it is used an enormous amount and variety of products. Many palm trees are the source of wax, which is used to make scented candles. Many different leaves are also used in weaving everything from furniture, to decorations and place-mats. There are cultures that make sugar out of the sap of the sugar palm tree. It's collected very similar to the way we get sap for maple syrup from maple trees, but it is then fermented into the sugary drink called “toddy.”
Walking on Your Palms
Wood from coconut and palm trees is used for making flooring as the dried wood is harder than oak. After a coconut palm tree has gone beyond its productive years, the tree is chopped down. The wood from the palm tree can be made into some excellent flooring and siding. The wood is extremely hard once it is cured, or dried. Harder than oak, by far. There are also palms whose leaves are also used to produce oil, but a completely different kind. Other palm tree uses for leaves are, to produce a different kind of oil and wax from those produced from the fruit.
The Commemoration of the Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Friday, April 12th & Saturday April 13th in Passiontide
Article 34
The World Plays While Mary Mourns!
This article is STILL TO BE FINISHED. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Friday, April 12th & Saturday April 13th in Passiontide
Article 34
The World Plays While Mary Mourns!
This article is STILL TO BE FINISHED. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Time for What? What Time is It?
The Book of Ecclesiastes is not a bad a book for “telling-the-time”―in its third chapter, it says: “All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). What time is it in your house?
If, as Ecclesiastes says, “all things have their season”, then what season is it now? We can look at the current season in relation to one single year, and we can also look at the current season in relation to all time. Of course, the season of the current year is one of winter passing into spring (northern hemisphere), and liturgically we are in the season of Lent (a spiritual winter) that will soon pass into the season of Easter (a spiritual springtime).
From another perspective, we can look at our present age (season) in relation to all the ages that have passed and to those which are yet to come. In this sense, we also find ourselves in a winter―which is far from being finished―and before we can enter into a future springtime, some very heavy storms have to be weathered.
Weather Forecast
Talking of weather―putting aside the proverbial joke that when weather forecasters get their forecasts right, then it will be a sign that the end of world is fast approaching―we can look to a more reliable “weather forecast” than any earthly agency can provide. That “weather forecast” or “climate prediction” is not focused on natural weather conditions, but on the spiritual and moral climate of the world and the resulting “supernatural weather” that these will provoke. This “spiritual and moral weather forecast” comes, of course, from Heaven―and Our Lady is God’s chosen “weathercaster” or weather forecaster.
Usually, people do not plan on organizing a parish picnic on a day when tornados and torrential rain has been forecast. When a hurricane hits the east coast of America, the advice is to stay indoors or even leave the area―rather than be a fatal victim of the hurricane. When the winter snow storms bring multiple feet of snow, nobody ventures outdoors wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals. When it is multiple degrees below freezing and the biting winter winds are howling, we don’t go swimming in the back-yard swimming pool. When flood waters invade our house, we do not put on knee-high rubber boots and continue watching TV, or browsing the internet and munching on our snacks and sipping beer or wine. All of this is patently obvious and pure common sense. Yet, we fail to apply this earthly or worldly wisdom to our spiritual life! We act like a person who is insane when we are faced with some blatant spiritual realities and “weather forecasts”.
Mary is No Cheery Weathercaster
The TV channel weathercasters are usually upbeat, cheery and smiling. Our Lady is far from falling into that stereotype. When the weather is going to be extraordinarily severe, then the weather updates are very frequent. This is equally true of Our Lady’s “weather forecasts” for our age. Unless you have your head buried in the sand (or the screen of some electronic device), then you cannot fail to see that Our Lady’s forecast is one of an impending catastrophe―so much so, that you might well want to bury your head in something, and switch over to a state of denial.
At Quito, there is NO RECORD OF OUR LADY BEING CHEERY AND SMILING―if some evidence turns up, it is likely to be minimal, for the whole tone of Our Lady’s message is somber, sad and depressing.
At La Salette (1846), Our Lady NEVER SMILES, BUT WEEPS! One of the seers, Melanie, reports: “I saw a most beautiful Lady sitting on top of our Paradise, with her head in her hands. This beautiful Lady stood up, she calmly crossed her arms while watching us. When I was up close to the beautiful Lady, she began to speak and, from her beautiful eyes, tears also started to flow.”
At Lourdes (1858), though Our Lady smiles at times, it is merely to calm the suspicious and frightened Bernadette. Otherwise, we read that Our Lady looks off into the distance and shows signs of deep sorrow, saying: “Pray to God for sinners!” At the sight of her sadness, Bernadette cannot help shedding tears.
At Fatima (1917), Sr. Lucia of Fatima reveals: “The Blessed Virgin was very sad in all her apparitions. She never smiled at us. This anguish that we saw in her, caused by offenses to God and the chastisements that threaten sinners, penetrated our souls” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
At Akita in Japan (1973), the statue of Our Lady does not miraculously smile, but miraculously WEEPS, and it weeps tears of blood!
All of this sets the general tone of Our Lady’s appearance, emotions, and messages as being of a grave, tragic, sad and unhappy disposition―not a happy-go-lucky, cheerful, upbeat, smiling demeanour.
Mary's Frequent Weather Warnings
It may not seem that Our Lady’s forecasts are very frequent―if we are to take Quito in basically the first part of othe 1600s (1594-1635), La Salette (1846), Lourdes (1858), Fatima (1917) and Akita (1973) as being the main “weather updates”. Yet, it must be remembered that, with God, “a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8) and “a thousand years in Thy sight are as yesterday, which is past” (Psalm 89:4). Therefore, arguably and artificially, we could translate years into hours, and the dates of Our Lady’s apparitions at Quito (early 1660s), La Salette (1846), Lourdes (1858), Fatima (1917) and Akita (1973), as well as our present day―could all be looked at in the context of one single day. The year 1600 would become 16:00 hours; 1846 would become 18:46 hours; 18:58 would be 18:58 hours; 1917 would be 19:17 hours and 1973 (doesn’t quite work, for there are only 60 minutes in an hour) could be said to be almost 20:00 hours, while our present year, 2019, would translate into 20:19 hours. In this sense, following the principle that “a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”, we have Our Lady’s weather forecasts rapidly following one upon the other in one single “day”―as the darkness grows and night approaches―at 18:46 or 6:46 p.m., then at 18:58 or 6:58 p.m., again at 19:17 or 7:17 p.m. and again at 19:53(73) or 7:53 p.m. While now, in our present age and time, we have arrived at 20:19 or 8:19 p.m. Thus the weather warnings are flowing thick and fast between 4:00 p.m. and 8:19 p.m.
Our Lady is Sad and Sorrowful
What is our response? Ignore them and keep enjoying life! What is Our Lady’s response? The seer, Melanie, at La Salette reports: “I saw a most beautiful Lady sitting on top of our Paradise, with her head in her hands ... She began to speak and, from her beautiful eyes, tears also started to flow.” Bernadette at Lourdes reports that the Immaculate Lady looks off into the distance and shows signs of deep sorrow, saying: “Pray to God for sinners!” At the sight of her sadness, Bernadette cannot help shedding tears. Sister Lucia of Fatima puts it in a nutshell when she says: “Our Lady never smiled. She was always very sad … The Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one has paid attention to her Message, neither the good nor the bad. The good, because they continue on the road of virtue, goodness and personal apostolates, but without paying attention and uniting their lives to this Message. The bad―the sinners―keep following the road of evil”―so much so that in the 1950’s (nowhere near a sinful time as 2019), Our Lady said to Blessed Elena Aiello: “People are offending God too much! Were I to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief. These are grave times. The world is in total turmoil because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge! All is hanging on a slender thread. When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs. All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
Our Lady is so Sorrowful, She Sweats Blood and Weeps in Tears
Hence, in 1973, at Akita in Japan, at the time of Our Lady’s messages to Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa, her statue was seen to be ‘sweating’ tears of blood from her eyes on many occasions for over two months, as well as a having a stigmata miraculously appear on one of the statues hands. Sister Agnes also received the stigmata in one of her hands, that lasted for around one month―from June 28th to July 27th of 1973. Blood began to flow out of the statue's hand the very next day, from a stigmata wound that looked identical to Sister Agnes' wound. One of Sister Agnes’s fellow nuns, who observed the statue’s wound up close, stated: “It seemed to be truly cut into flesh. The edge of the cross had the aspect of human flesh and one even saw the grain of the skin like a fingerprint.” The statue sometimes bled simultaneously with Sister Agnes. A guardian angel told Sister Agnes: “The wounds of Mary are much deeper and more sorrowful than yours!” After that, the statue began to sweat beads of perspiration. More than a year later, on January 4th, 1975, the statue began to weep—crying three times on that first day. The weeping statue drew so much attention, that its crying was broadcast on national television throughout Japan, on December 8th, 1979―the feast of the Immaculate Conception. By the time the statue cried for the last time―which was on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (September 15th) in 1981—it was recorded that it had wept for a total of 101 times.
Blood, sweat and tears―all of which were combined in this miraculous occurrence―are invariably symbols of suffering, toil, agony and mourning. Samples of blood, sweat, and tears from the Akita statue were all scientifically tested by people who weren't told where the samples came from. The results: all of the fluids were identified as human. The blood was found to be Type B, the sweat Type AB, and the tears Type AB. Investigators came to the conclusion that a supernatural miracle had somehow caused a non-human object — the statue — to exude human bodily fluids because that would be impossible naturally.
To us, all these apparitions, all these words of Our Lady, all these solemn and grave warnings, are much like the proverbial “water flowing off the duck’s back”―we read them, we nod and then we file them away in our “been there, seen it, done it” folder―and then refocus once again on what really concerns us: our daily grind and the material preoccupations of our life. Somehow―we convince ourselves―these “weather advisories” or “storm warnings” do not apply to us, but to someone else, they are for some other part of the world, or for some future age.
Weather Psychologists Reveal Typical Human Reactions to Warnings
What is true on natural level, is often true on the spiritual level. Our reactions to severe weather alerts, storm warnings Our reactions to severe weather alerts, storm warnings and even evacuation orders are similar to the way we react to Heaven's storm warnings and chastisement alerts. Dr. Laura Myers, the director and senior research scientist at the Center for Advanced Public Safety, has researched how people react to warnings. She reveals that most folk stubbornly do not want to change their plans or their behavior on account of weather warnings, unless they are convinced that storm will really affect them. Dr. Myers pointed out that people become desensitized to alerts and warnings (like “water flowing off the duck’s back”), and after a while, not having seen disasters in their neighborhood, tend to ignore the warnings and alerts. She added: “When people hear what the weather impacts are, such as damage and destruction to well-built homes, they start to pay attention. When they are told they need to take shelter now because their location is going to take a direct impact, they usually act.” Dr. Myers explained that the moment in time, when a warning is issued to the public, can also produce various reactions and responses. Given too much advance notice, people can fall into a complacency, become tired of waiting and go back to their usual daily occupations. Regardless of the warning, some people wait until they see their life is in danger.
AccuWeather Meteorologist, Dan Kottlowski, revealed that “a lot of social media research was done and people said they have to see [a tornado] before they do something.” Mike Smith, Senior Vice President of AccuWeather, revealed several reasons why people wait to react to severe weather alerts: “There is considerable inertia in people. They are busy or their attention is on some project. There is also sociological evidence that people feel silly for taking shelter; that it somehow reflects poorly on their courage.” Mike Smith further added that for many people it sometimes takes a push-and-a-shove from someone they really trust and whose opinions they really value, to get them to take shelter or evacuate. He added that repeated warnings from various different sources can also tip the balance from inertia to action.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service analyzes forecasting performance and public response during the second deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history―the “Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak” of February, 2008, when 82 tornadoes raked nine states throughout the South, killing 57 people, injuring 350 others and causing $400 million in property damage. NOAA’s key area of concern was: “Why do some people take cover while others ride out severe weather?” In reviewing the public response, the research team found that two-thirds of the victims were in mobile homes, and 60 percent did not have access to safe shelter (i.e., a basement or storm cellar). Some indicated they thought the threat was minimal because February is not within traditional tornado season. Several of those interviewed said they spent time seeking confirmation and went to a safe location only after they saw a tornado. Many people minimized the threat of personal risk through “optimism bias,” the belief that such bad things only happen to other people.
Lots of varying reasons are behind the phenomenon of why some people don’t pay attention to severe weather evacuation notices—some think they can ride out the winds and surging waters; while others basically have nowhere to go and or have means by which to evacuate. Others recall or perhaps have experienced previous unnecessary evacuations that resulted from forecasts “not coming true” and so they now react to such forecasts with a “boy who cried ‘wolf’” mentality. Rebecca Morss of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, says: “Some people just don't perceive the risk to be that high.”
Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, says: “Following Hurricane Katrina, there is a level of awareness around the potential danger of large-scale coastal storms and hurricanes and it has been a wake-up call … Many, many people electively choose not to comply with official orders of mandatory evacuation and intend to stay in place no matter what the warnings are. Many of these people are putting themselves at an extreme level of risk … What we've found is that being hesitant about the communication messages, or using softer language doesn't work ... The message is being forcefully delivered in an attempt to absolutely minimize the number of people that stay behind … When a public official determines that the hardest possible language is going to be used, he or she is hoping that strongest message will get the most people to safety. On the other hand, there is the "crying wolf" phenomenon. They are taking a chance that if the conditions are not as dire as anticipated, that the next time there will be a great reluctance to heed those warnings …
“Theoretically, they could physically remove someone, especially if their remaining would endanger anyone else's safety and especially [the life of] first responders. But the strategy that officials may use, rather than arresting the recalcitrant citizen, is to make it very clear--absolutely clear—that rescue and response services may not be available. In essence, if you don't comply with evacuation orders, you are in effect waiving your right to get rescue and response if you need it … We just did a study on evacuations under scenarios of disasters without warnings. We are very concerned about disasters that occur without warning when we have to do evacuations in real-time—in essence, immediate—for example, an earthquake or a terrorist nuclear attack. We found about two thirds of people with children would not comply with official orders to evacuate, until and unless they were able to retrieve their children from school or day care. If we have two thirds of the population with children that would not comply, what we would have is evacuation chaos and an absolute breakdown of disaster response in circumstances that provided no warning.”
Research by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) unearthed several factors that lead people to ignore warnings of severe or devastating weather alerts. The most common factor is OPTIMISM, because as human beings we prefer to think that, for us, things will go right rather than wrong, and that we will be among the lucky ones to escape. The next most common factor is UNCERTAINTY―people are told to prepare and evacuate and many just do not know how to go about doing it. So you sit back and keep thinking and saying: “What should I do? What should I do?” and this makes you increasingly uncertain, with the result that most people, when uncertain, keep doing the things they were doing before. The third factor is HERD THINKING―whereby we are very influenced by what our friends and neighbors do, so we look to see what they are doing―and if they are not “stocking-up” or not evacuating, then we assume they know what they are doing and we do likewise, not realizing (or denying) that they are as uncertain as we are.
Typical Reactions to Heaven’s Warnings
You have no doubt heard the saying “Like father, like son; like mother, like daughter”―which actually can be traced to Holy Scripture: “Behold every one that useth a common proverb, shall use this against thee, saying: ‘As the mother was, so also is her daughter’” (Ezechiel 16:44). Similarly, we could say―“As we are naturally, so we shall be spiritually!” Our natural, physical, bodily, material, earthly habits and attitudes seep into our supernatural and spiritual habits and attitudes. If a person is lazy in work, they are more likely to also be lazy about spiritual duties. If they are careless about material things, they will tend to be careless about spiritual things. Hence the above quoted research on people ignoring severe weather advisories, alerts and warnings, is just as applicable to the reaction of people to Heaven’s severe climate or chastisement advisories, alerts and warnings.
Therefore, most Catholics view Our Lady’s dire warnings as a case of “The boy crying: ‘Wolf!’” when there is no wolf to be found! Their mentality is one of: “It doesn’t apply to me, so why bother?” They have heard the warnings time and time again―but nothing happens. So they “switch-off” their minds to the warnings and just go about their daily life as though nothing was wrong. Just as the above quoted recipients of severe weather warnings, their “knee-jerk” response is one of false OPTIMISM―based upon one of many differing complacent rationalizations. “I’m not such a bad person! I'm not like most people! I go to church! I say my Rosary!, etc.” Yet just as a natural storm makes no distinction between good people and bad people when it claims lives or inflicts serious injuries, likewise will Heaven do when it begins to chastise us for our sins and the sins of others―as Our Lady of Akita warned: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful.”
We are fools to ignore and do nothing about Our Lady's incessant and increasingly severe warnings: “Fools despise wisdom and instruction! … Fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves! … The eyes of fools are on the ends of the Earth … The prosperity of fools shall destroy them! … And the number of fools is infinite!” (Proverbs 1:7; 1:22; 17:24; 1:32; Ecclesiastes 1:15). Holy Mother Church puts the following words of Scripture into the mouth of Mary, as part of the readings for the Masses on the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (December 8th) and also the Immaculate Heart of Mary (August 22nd): “Now therefore, ye children, hear me! Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise―and refuse it not! Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors! He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord! But he that shall sin against me, shall hurt his own soul. All that hate me love death … He who obeys me will not be put to shame, they who serve me will never fail. They who explain me shall have life everlasting!” (Proverbs 8:32-36; Ecclesiasticus 34:30-31). In other words, listen to her “weather warnings and advisories”, take them to heart, obey the instructions and pass them on to others.
From Year to Hour
Coming back to the concept of “a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8), let us look at Our Lady’s “weather alerts” or spiritual storm advisories from the perspective of not being separated by hundreds of years―as in the case of Our Lady of Good Success giving her first warning in 1594, with the others following in the 379 years up to her messages at Akita in Japan in 1973―but look upon them as being given in one single day―by taking numbers of the year and making them into the numbers for the hours and minutes of the day. Thus the 1600s would become 16:00 hours or 4:00 p.m. and 1635 would become 16:35 p.m. or 4:35 p.m., etc. Thus Quito would translate to approximately 4:00 p.m. onwards; La Salette would translate to 6:46 p.m.; Lourdes would be 6:58 p.m.; Fatima would be 7:17 p.m. and Akita would be just before 8:00 p.m. So four major alerts, advisories and warnings in a ‘four hour’ period.
The Quito Weather Forecast (from 1594 to 1635)
Our Lady of Good Success appeared in Quito, Ecuador between 1594 and 1635. These centuries and years would translate to the period between 15:54(94) hours and 16:35 hours, on the 24-hour clock, or roughly between 3:54 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. In this “severe weather” 90-second warning, Our Lady says:
“At the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, various heresies will be propagated ... As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of morals. During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private. The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many of them will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings … From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! … During these unfortunate times, evil will invade childhood innocence … Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Without virginity, it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon those lands in order to purify them … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith … In this way, vocations to the priesthood will be lost, resulting in a true calamity. Many authentic vocations will perish!”
The La Salette Weather Forecast (1846)
The year 1846 would translate to 18:46 p.m. on the 24-hour clock, or 6:46 p.m. Here is the two-minute weather warning (it is a brief warning and takes 2 minutes to read):
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it. I have suffered all of the time for the rest of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually. And the rest of you think little of this. In vain you will pray, in vain you will act, you will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for the rest of you … Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! … Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other ... The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God … Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death. Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God …
“All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds … Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement … France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling … The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other even in their homes. Then, at the first blow of God’s thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy. The righteous will suffer greatly.”
The Lourdes Weather Forecast (1858)
The year 1858 would translate to 18:58 p.m. on the 24-hour clock, or 6:58 p.m. The spiritual climate at Lourdes could be described as sunny, but changing to overcast skies and threatening storm clouds.
At her first apparition at Lourdes, on February 11th, 1858, Our Lady appeared as a beautiful young woman, dressed in white and holding a Rosary, and smiling most graciously toward the frightened little visionary―which indicates she was not smiling beforehand.
At her third apparition, on February 14th, Bernadette, thinking perhaps all this might be trick of the devil, sprinkles Our Lady with holy water, asking her to remain if she came from God, otherwise go away. The Lady smiles―which again indicates she was not smiling beforehand.
At her second apparition, on February 18th, Our Lady seems to be a “kill-joy” because she tells Bernadette: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but only in the other!” But we want to be happy in this world as well as the other, don’t we? We want to keep our cake and we want to eat it!
At her sixth apparition on Sunday, February 21st, the Immaculate Lady looks off into the distance and shows signs of deep sorrow, saying: “Pray to God for sinners!” At the sight of her sadness, Bernadette cannot help shedding tears. Just as with Simeon’s prophecy, the Immaculate Heart of Mary seems to be pierced even now with the sword of sorrow caused by the sins of men, sins that crucify her Son, making Him a sign of contradiction.
The Book of Ecclesiastes is not a bad a book for “telling-the-time”―in its third chapter, it says: “All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill, and a time to heal. A time to destroy, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh. A time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew. A time to keep silence, and a time to speak. A time of love, and a time of hatred. A time of war, and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8). What time is it in your house?
If, as Ecclesiastes says, “all things have their season”, then what season is it now? We can look at the current season in relation to one single year, and we can also look at the current season in relation to all time. Of course, the season of the current year is one of winter passing into spring (northern hemisphere), and liturgically we are in the season of Lent (a spiritual winter) that will soon pass into the season of Easter (a spiritual springtime).
From another perspective, we can look at our present age (season) in relation to all the ages that have passed and to those which are yet to come. In this sense, we also find ourselves in a winter―which is far from being finished―and before we can enter into a future springtime, some very heavy storms have to be weathered.
Weather Forecast
Talking of weather―putting aside the proverbial joke that when weather forecasters get their forecasts right, then it will be a sign that the end of world is fast approaching―we can look to a more reliable “weather forecast” than any earthly agency can provide. That “weather forecast” or “climate prediction” is not focused on natural weather conditions, but on the spiritual and moral climate of the world and the resulting “supernatural weather” that these will provoke. This “spiritual and moral weather forecast” comes, of course, from Heaven―and Our Lady is God’s chosen “weathercaster” or weather forecaster.
Usually, people do not plan on organizing a parish picnic on a day when tornados and torrential rain has been forecast. When a hurricane hits the east coast of America, the advice is to stay indoors or even leave the area―rather than be a fatal victim of the hurricane. When the winter snow storms bring multiple feet of snow, nobody ventures outdoors wearing a t-shirt, shorts and sandals. When it is multiple degrees below freezing and the biting winter winds are howling, we don’t go swimming in the back-yard swimming pool. When flood waters invade our house, we do not put on knee-high rubber boots and continue watching TV, or browsing the internet and munching on our snacks and sipping beer or wine. All of this is patently obvious and pure common sense. Yet, we fail to apply this earthly or worldly wisdom to our spiritual life! We act like a person who is insane when we are faced with some blatant spiritual realities and “weather forecasts”.
Mary is No Cheery Weathercaster
The TV channel weathercasters are usually upbeat, cheery and smiling. Our Lady is far from falling into that stereotype. When the weather is going to be extraordinarily severe, then the weather updates are very frequent. This is equally true of Our Lady’s “weather forecasts” for our age. Unless you have your head buried in the sand (or the screen of some electronic device), then you cannot fail to see that Our Lady’s forecast is one of an impending catastrophe―so much so, that you might well want to bury your head in something, and switch over to a state of denial.
At Quito, there is NO RECORD OF OUR LADY BEING CHEERY AND SMILING―if some evidence turns up, it is likely to be minimal, for the whole tone of Our Lady’s message is somber, sad and depressing.
At La Salette (1846), Our Lady NEVER SMILES, BUT WEEPS! One of the seers, Melanie, reports: “I saw a most beautiful Lady sitting on top of our Paradise, with her head in her hands. This beautiful Lady stood up, she calmly crossed her arms while watching us. When I was up close to the beautiful Lady, she began to speak and, from her beautiful eyes, tears also started to flow.”
At Lourdes (1858), though Our Lady smiles at times, it is merely to calm the suspicious and frightened Bernadette. Otherwise, we read that Our Lady looks off into the distance and shows signs of deep sorrow, saying: “Pray to God for sinners!” At the sight of her sadness, Bernadette cannot help shedding tears.
At Fatima (1917), Sr. Lucia of Fatima reveals: “The Blessed Virgin was very sad in all her apparitions. She never smiled at us. This anguish that we saw in her, caused by offenses to God and the chastisements that threaten sinners, penetrated our souls” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima to Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
At Akita in Japan (1973), the statue of Our Lady does not miraculously smile, but miraculously WEEPS, and it weeps tears of blood!
All of this sets the general tone of Our Lady’s appearance, emotions, and messages as being of a grave, tragic, sad and unhappy disposition―not a happy-go-lucky, cheerful, upbeat, smiling demeanour.
Mary's Frequent Weather Warnings
It may not seem that Our Lady’s forecasts are very frequent―if we are to take Quito in basically the first part of othe 1600s (1594-1635), La Salette (1846), Lourdes (1858), Fatima (1917) and Akita (1973) as being the main “weather updates”. Yet, it must be remembered that, with God, “a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8) and “a thousand years in Thy sight are as yesterday, which is past” (Psalm 89:4). Therefore, arguably and artificially, we could translate years into hours, and the dates of Our Lady’s apparitions at Quito (early 1660s), La Salette (1846), Lourdes (1858), Fatima (1917) and Akita (1973), as well as our present day―could all be looked at in the context of one single day. The year 1600 would become 16:00 hours; 1846 would become 18:46 hours; 18:58 would be 18:58 hours; 1917 would be 19:17 hours and 1973 (doesn’t quite work, for there are only 60 minutes in an hour) could be said to be almost 20:00 hours, while our present year, 2019, would translate into 20:19 hours. In this sense, following the principle that “a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”, we have Our Lady’s weather forecasts rapidly following one upon the other in one single “day”―as the darkness grows and night approaches―at 18:46 or 6:46 p.m., then at 18:58 or 6:58 p.m., again at 19:17 or 7:17 p.m. and again at 19:53(73) or 7:53 p.m. While now, in our present age and time, we have arrived at 20:19 or 8:19 p.m. Thus the weather warnings are flowing thick and fast between 4:00 p.m. and 8:19 p.m.
Our Lady is Sad and Sorrowful
What is our response? Ignore them and keep enjoying life! What is Our Lady’s response? The seer, Melanie, at La Salette reports: “I saw a most beautiful Lady sitting on top of our Paradise, with her head in her hands ... She began to speak and, from her beautiful eyes, tears also started to flow.” Bernadette at Lourdes reports that the Immaculate Lady looks off into the distance and shows signs of deep sorrow, saying: “Pray to God for sinners!” At the sight of her sadness, Bernadette cannot help shedding tears. Sister Lucia of Fatima puts it in a nutshell when she says: “Our Lady never smiled. She was always very sad … The Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one has paid attention to her Message, neither the good nor the bad. The good, because they continue on the road of virtue, goodness and personal apostolates, but without paying attention and uniting their lives to this Message. The bad―the sinners―keep following the road of evil”―so much so that in the 1950’s (nowhere near a sinful time as 2019), Our Lady said to Blessed Elena Aiello: “People are offending God too much! Were I to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief. These are grave times. The world is in total turmoil because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge! All is hanging on a slender thread. When that thread shall snap, Divine Justice shall pounce upon the world and execute its dreadful, purging designs. All the nations shall be punished because sins, like a muddy river, are now covering all the Earth!”
Our Lady is so Sorrowful, She Sweats Blood and Weeps in Tears
Hence, in 1973, at Akita in Japan, at the time of Our Lady’s messages to Agnes Katsuko Sasagawa, her statue was seen to be ‘sweating’ tears of blood from her eyes on many occasions for over two months, as well as a having a stigmata miraculously appear on one of the statues hands. Sister Agnes also received the stigmata in one of her hands, that lasted for around one month―from June 28th to July 27th of 1973. Blood began to flow out of the statue's hand the very next day, from a stigmata wound that looked identical to Sister Agnes' wound. One of Sister Agnes’s fellow nuns, who observed the statue’s wound up close, stated: “It seemed to be truly cut into flesh. The edge of the cross had the aspect of human flesh and one even saw the grain of the skin like a fingerprint.” The statue sometimes bled simultaneously with Sister Agnes. A guardian angel told Sister Agnes: “The wounds of Mary are much deeper and more sorrowful than yours!” After that, the statue began to sweat beads of perspiration. More than a year later, on January 4th, 1975, the statue began to weep—crying three times on that first day. The weeping statue drew so much attention, that its crying was broadcast on national television throughout Japan, on December 8th, 1979―the feast of the Immaculate Conception. By the time the statue cried for the last time―which was on the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows (September 15th) in 1981—it was recorded that it had wept for a total of 101 times.
Blood, sweat and tears―all of which were combined in this miraculous occurrence―are invariably symbols of suffering, toil, agony and mourning. Samples of blood, sweat, and tears from the Akita statue were all scientifically tested by people who weren't told where the samples came from. The results: all of the fluids were identified as human. The blood was found to be Type B, the sweat Type AB, and the tears Type AB. Investigators came to the conclusion that a supernatural miracle had somehow caused a non-human object — the statue — to exude human bodily fluids because that would be impossible naturally.
To us, all these apparitions, all these words of Our Lady, all these solemn and grave warnings, are much like the proverbial “water flowing off the duck’s back”―we read them, we nod and then we file them away in our “been there, seen it, done it” folder―and then refocus once again on what really concerns us: our daily grind and the material preoccupations of our life. Somehow―we convince ourselves―these “weather advisories” or “storm warnings” do not apply to us, but to someone else, they are for some other part of the world, or for some future age.
Weather Psychologists Reveal Typical Human Reactions to Warnings
What is true on natural level, is often true on the spiritual level. Our reactions to severe weather alerts, storm warnings Our reactions to severe weather alerts, storm warnings and even evacuation orders are similar to the way we react to Heaven's storm warnings and chastisement alerts. Dr. Laura Myers, the director and senior research scientist at the Center for Advanced Public Safety, has researched how people react to warnings. She reveals that most folk stubbornly do not want to change their plans or their behavior on account of weather warnings, unless they are convinced that storm will really affect them. Dr. Myers pointed out that people become desensitized to alerts and warnings (like “water flowing off the duck’s back”), and after a while, not having seen disasters in their neighborhood, tend to ignore the warnings and alerts. She added: “When people hear what the weather impacts are, such as damage and destruction to well-built homes, they start to pay attention. When they are told they need to take shelter now because their location is going to take a direct impact, they usually act.” Dr. Myers explained that the moment in time, when a warning is issued to the public, can also produce various reactions and responses. Given too much advance notice, people can fall into a complacency, become tired of waiting and go back to their usual daily occupations. Regardless of the warning, some people wait until they see their life is in danger.
AccuWeather Meteorologist, Dan Kottlowski, revealed that “a lot of social media research was done and people said they have to see [a tornado] before they do something.” Mike Smith, Senior Vice President of AccuWeather, revealed several reasons why people wait to react to severe weather alerts: “There is considerable inertia in people. They are busy or their attention is on some project. There is also sociological evidence that people feel silly for taking shelter; that it somehow reflects poorly on their courage.” Mike Smith further added that for many people it sometimes takes a push-and-a-shove from someone they really trust and whose opinions they really value, to get them to take shelter or evacuate. He added that repeated warnings from various different sources can also tip the balance from inertia to action.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service analyzes forecasting performance and public response during the second deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history―the “Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak” of February, 2008, when 82 tornadoes raked nine states throughout the South, killing 57 people, injuring 350 others and causing $400 million in property damage. NOAA’s key area of concern was: “Why do some people take cover while others ride out severe weather?” In reviewing the public response, the research team found that two-thirds of the victims were in mobile homes, and 60 percent did not have access to safe shelter (i.e., a basement or storm cellar). Some indicated they thought the threat was minimal because February is not within traditional tornado season. Several of those interviewed said they spent time seeking confirmation and went to a safe location only after they saw a tornado. Many people minimized the threat of personal risk through “optimism bias,” the belief that such bad things only happen to other people.
Lots of varying reasons are behind the phenomenon of why some people don’t pay attention to severe weather evacuation notices—some think they can ride out the winds and surging waters; while others basically have nowhere to go and or have means by which to evacuate. Others recall or perhaps have experienced previous unnecessary evacuations that resulted from forecasts “not coming true” and so they now react to such forecasts with a “boy who cried ‘wolf’” mentality. Rebecca Morss of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, says: “Some people just don't perceive the risk to be that high.”
Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness, says: “Following Hurricane Katrina, there is a level of awareness around the potential danger of large-scale coastal storms and hurricanes and it has been a wake-up call … Many, many people electively choose not to comply with official orders of mandatory evacuation and intend to stay in place no matter what the warnings are. Many of these people are putting themselves at an extreme level of risk … What we've found is that being hesitant about the communication messages, or using softer language doesn't work ... The message is being forcefully delivered in an attempt to absolutely minimize the number of people that stay behind … When a public official determines that the hardest possible language is going to be used, he or she is hoping that strongest message will get the most people to safety. On the other hand, there is the "crying wolf" phenomenon. They are taking a chance that if the conditions are not as dire as anticipated, that the next time there will be a great reluctance to heed those warnings …
“Theoretically, they could physically remove someone, especially if their remaining would endanger anyone else's safety and especially [the life of] first responders. But the strategy that officials may use, rather than arresting the recalcitrant citizen, is to make it very clear--absolutely clear—that rescue and response services may not be available. In essence, if you don't comply with evacuation orders, you are in effect waiving your right to get rescue and response if you need it … We just did a study on evacuations under scenarios of disasters without warnings. We are very concerned about disasters that occur without warning when we have to do evacuations in real-time—in essence, immediate—for example, an earthquake or a terrorist nuclear attack. We found about two thirds of people with children would not comply with official orders to evacuate, until and unless they were able to retrieve their children from school or day care. If we have two thirds of the population with children that would not comply, what we would have is evacuation chaos and an absolute breakdown of disaster response in circumstances that provided no warning.”
Research by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) unearthed several factors that lead people to ignore warnings of severe or devastating weather alerts. The most common factor is OPTIMISM, because as human beings we prefer to think that, for us, things will go right rather than wrong, and that we will be among the lucky ones to escape. The next most common factor is UNCERTAINTY―people are told to prepare and evacuate and many just do not know how to go about doing it. So you sit back and keep thinking and saying: “What should I do? What should I do?” and this makes you increasingly uncertain, with the result that most people, when uncertain, keep doing the things they were doing before. The third factor is HERD THINKING―whereby we are very influenced by what our friends and neighbors do, so we look to see what they are doing―and if they are not “stocking-up” or not evacuating, then we assume they know what they are doing and we do likewise, not realizing (or denying) that they are as uncertain as we are.
Typical Reactions to Heaven’s Warnings
You have no doubt heard the saying “Like father, like son; like mother, like daughter”―which actually can be traced to Holy Scripture: “Behold every one that useth a common proverb, shall use this against thee, saying: ‘As the mother was, so also is her daughter’” (Ezechiel 16:44). Similarly, we could say―“As we are naturally, so we shall be spiritually!” Our natural, physical, bodily, material, earthly habits and attitudes seep into our supernatural and spiritual habits and attitudes. If a person is lazy in work, they are more likely to also be lazy about spiritual duties. If they are careless about material things, they will tend to be careless about spiritual things. Hence the above quoted research on people ignoring severe weather advisories, alerts and warnings, is just as applicable to the reaction of people to Heaven’s severe climate or chastisement advisories, alerts and warnings.
Therefore, most Catholics view Our Lady’s dire warnings as a case of “The boy crying: ‘Wolf!’” when there is no wolf to be found! Their mentality is one of: “It doesn’t apply to me, so why bother?” They have heard the warnings time and time again―but nothing happens. So they “switch-off” their minds to the warnings and just go about their daily life as though nothing was wrong. Just as the above quoted recipients of severe weather warnings, their “knee-jerk” response is one of false OPTIMISM―based upon one of many differing complacent rationalizations. “I’m not such a bad person! I'm not like most people! I go to church! I say my Rosary!, etc.” Yet just as a natural storm makes no distinction between good people and bad people when it claims lives or inflicts serious injuries, likewise will Heaven do when it begins to chastise us for our sins and the sins of others―as Our Lady of Akita warned: “If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be punishment greater than the deluge, such as one will never have seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful.”
We are fools to ignore and do nothing about Our Lady's incessant and increasingly severe warnings: “Fools despise wisdom and instruction! … Fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves! … The eyes of fools are on the ends of the Earth … The prosperity of fools shall destroy them! … And the number of fools is infinite!” (Proverbs 1:7; 1:22; 17:24; 1:32; Ecclesiastes 1:15). Holy Mother Church puts the following words of Scripture into the mouth of Mary, as part of the readings for the Masses on the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (December 8th) and also the Immaculate Heart of Mary (August 22nd): “Now therefore, ye children, hear me! Blessed are they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise―and refuse it not! Blessed is the man that heareth me, and that watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors! He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord! But he that shall sin against me, shall hurt his own soul. All that hate me love death … He who obeys me will not be put to shame, they who serve me will never fail. They who explain me shall have life everlasting!” (Proverbs 8:32-36; Ecclesiasticus 34:30-31). In other words, listen to her “weather warnings and advisories”, take them to heart, obey the instructions and pass them on to others.
From Year to Hour
Coming back to the concept of “a day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8), let us look at Our Lady’s “weather alerts” or spiritual storm advisories from the perspective of not being separated by hundreds of years―as in the case of Our Lady of Good Success giving her first warning in 1594, with the others following in the 379 years up to her messages at Akita in Japan in 1973―but look upon them as being given in one single day―by taking numbers of the year and making them into the numbers for the hours and minutes of the day. Thus the 1600s would become 16:00 hours or 4:00 p.m. and 1635 would become 16:35 p.m. or 4:35 p.m., etc. Thus Quito would translate to approximately 4:00 p.m. onwards; La Salette would translate to 6:46 p.m.; Lourdes would be 6:58 p.m.; Fatima would be 7:17 p.m. and Akita would be just before 8:00 p.m. So four major alerts, advisories and warnings in a ‘four hour’ period.
The Quito Weather Forecast (from 1594 to 1635)
Our Lady of Good Success appeared in Quito, Ecuador between 1594 and 1635. These centuries and years would translate to the period between 15:54(94) hours and 16:35 hours, on the 24-hour clock, or roughly between 3:54 p.m. and 4:35 p.m. In this “severe weather” 90-second warning, Our Lady says:
“At the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, various heresies will be propagated ... As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of morals. During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private. The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many of them will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings … From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! … During these unfortunate times, evil will invade childhood innocence … Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Without virginity, it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon those lands in order to purify them … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith … In this way, vocations to the priesthood will be lost, resulting in a true calamity. Many authentic vocations will perish!”
The La Salette Weather Forecast (1846)
The year 1846 would translate to 18:46 p.m. on the 24-hour clock, or 6:46 p.m. Here is the two-minute weather warning (it is a brief warning and takes 2 minutes to read):
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son. It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it. I have suffered all of the time for the rest of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually. And the rest of you think little of this. In vain you will pray, in vain you will act, you will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for the rest of you … Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! … Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other ... The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God … Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death. Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God …
“All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds … Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement … France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling … The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other even in their homes. Then, at the first blow of God’s thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of arms and blasphemy. The righteous will suffer greatly.”
The Lourdes Weather Forecast (1858)
The year 1858 would translate to 18:58 p.m. on the 24-hour clock, or 6:58 p.m. The spiritual climate at Lourdes could be described as sunny, but changing to overcast skies and threatening storm clouds.
At her first apparition at Lourdes, on February 11th, 1858, Our Lady appeared as a beautiful young woman, dressed in white and holding a Rosary, and smiling most graciously toward the frightened little visionary―which indicates she was not smiling beforehand.
At her third apparition, on February 14th, Bernadette, thinking perhaps all this might be trick of the devil, sprinkles Our Lady with holy water, asking her to remain if she came from God, otherwise go away. The Lady smiles―which again indicates she was not smiling beforehand.
At her second apparition, on February 18th, Our Lady seems to be a “kill-joy” because she tells Bernadette: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but only in the other!” But we want to be happy in this world as well as the other, don’t we? We want to keep our cake and we want to eat it!
At her sixth apparition on Sunday, February 21st, the Immaculate Lady looks off into the distance and shows signs of deep sorrow, saying: “Pray to God for sinners!” At the sight of her sadness, Bernadette cannot help shedding tears. Just as with Simeon’s prophecy, the Immaculate Heart of Mary seems to be pierced even now with the sword of sorrow caused by the sins of men, sins that crucify her Son, making Him a sign of contradiction.
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : First Wednesday & Thursday in Passiontide, April 10th & 11th
Article 33
Time to Get Serious!
Article 33
Time to Get Serious!
Superficial Piety of Our Times
As Dom Gueranger writes, in his magistral and scholarly work The Liturgical Year, in the section on Passiontide: “Let us, therefore, do our utmost to receive these strong impressions, too little known, alas, by the superficial piety of these times!” What Dom Gueranger is saying, in other words, is: “Let us stop being so superficial and shallow in our spiritual approach to Holy Week and Easter and let us get serious for once!”
Very few would disagree and argue with the statement that most of the world is superficial. Superficiality has almost become the DNA of the world. We see it in politics, in business, in social life, in the depth of knowledge, in the conveyance of feelings, in casual day-to-day conversation, even in home and family life. The obvious and inevitable offshoot of all this superficiality is that we become superficial in our religion, in our Faith, in our spiritual life, and with God.
Here is an interesting observation from a USA Catholic visiting the largest Catholic country in the world―Brazil: “An interesting choreography, of sorts, can be seen during rush hour, in front of the church Nossa Senhora da Paz, in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro. There, among the evening stream of pedestrians, cars, and buses, many people, both outside and inside vehicles, face the church when passing in front of it and do the sign of the cross in a perfectly timed and almost automatic movement. For an outsider, this would appear to be a natural occurrence in the world’s largest Catholic nation, but as some Brazilians will readily admit, such displays should not be considered signs of a devoted Catholic population, but superficial manifestations. ‘Everybody says they are Catholic, but nobody really is,’ a local friend told me. ‘Futebol (soccer) is more of a religion than Catholicism.’ … Should we take this as the modern pretense we see elsewhere? … Religious practices in the country, starting with Catholicism, have all incorporated, and even been created from, interactions with practices and traditions from all the others … It is true that many people who identify as Catholics are not practicing Catholics. But then, like my friend admitted, almost nobody really is.”
How often do we forget why we are attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and become concerned only over whether other people see how much we give in the offertory, or how well we sing hymns, or how seemingly devout we appear during Mass? For most persons, their mind and heart is not fully engaged in the Holy Sacrifice―the mind and heart wander and the Holy Sacrifice quickly becomes a superficial sacrifice. The same is often true for Holy Communion. The same is often true for our confessions. The same can be said of our prayers and (if we even make any) meditations. They are mechanical, routine, automatic, with little or no supernatural feelings or desires. They are more of a chore than an enthusiastic passion. Instead of passionately waiting for them to happen or begin, we passionately can’t wait until they are over and done with!
We see this superficiality manifested by rushed, inattentive, half-made genuflections before the Blessed Sacrament; or hasty, half-made Signs of the Cross; or rushed, distracted prayers and Rosaries; speedy, fast-track Masses; express-lane Communions; micro-waved vague confessions; soulless and heartless hymns―all of which is closer to being a “Catholic-Assembly-Line” that a true spiritual living of the Faith.
Nobody Cares
There are two psalms―almost identical in tone and content―that epitomize the mindset of most Catholics in this most holy and most serious season of Passiontide. Here are the relevant parts of those two psalms:
“The Lord hath looked down from Heaven, upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside! They are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good, no not one! They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways! There is none that doth good, no not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher! With their tongues they act deceitfully! The poison of asps is under their lips! Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness! Their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known! There is no fear of God before their eyes!” (Psalm 13:1-3).
“God looked down from Heaven, on the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God. All have gone aside! They are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good, no not one! They are corrupted and have become abominable in iniquities! There is none that doth good! They have not called upon God! There have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear! For God hath scattered the bones of them that please men! They have been confounded, because God hath despised them!” (Psalm 52:2-6).
To this may be added the tragic words that open the Gospel of St. John: “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not!” (John 1:1-14).
In a similar vein, Our Lady and her recent messages and warnings are not taken very seriously, they are largely unheeded, ignored or even despised by people who just will not listen and obey! At La Salette, Our Lady is not a happy Mother, but a sad Mother—she weeps! Why does she weep? She weeps because she wants and tries to obtain mercy for us—but, by our continuing and increasing sins, we block the avenues of mercy that could be opened to us. Our Lady laments our lack of knowledge and attention to what she is doing behind the scenes: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you! … There is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless Sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world ... Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement.”
Sr. Lucia of Fatima, in an interview with Fr. Fuentes, on December 26th, 1957, tells us the following: “Our Lady never smiled. She was always very sad … Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one has paid attention to her Message, neither the good nor the bad. The good, because they continue on the road of virtue, goodness and personal apostolates, but without paying attention and uniting their lives to this Message. The bad―the sinners―keep following the road of evil because of their sins, also ignoring the Message, and do not see God’s terrible chastisement about to befall them. The chastisement from Heaven is imminent. Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way. It will be very sad for everyone, and far from a happy thing if the world does not pray and do penance!”
Open Your Eyes and Mind!
If you cannot sense and see the importance of these last two weeks before Easter, which we have now entered, then you must be blind in sight and blind in mind! To you Holy Scripture addresses the following words: “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house―who have eyes to see, and see not: and ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a provoking house!” (Ezechiel 12:2). “Leave them alone! They are blind and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). “The heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut―lest, at any time, they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (Matthew 13:15). “Hear, O foolish people without understanding―who have eyes, and see not; and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “Having ears, hear you not? Neither do you remember?” (Mark 8:18).
Are our eyes and ears, minds and hearts oblivious to what is going on around us? Have we become so spiritually “zombie-like” that we fail to react to some major happenings within the church? Do we not see something that is not seen at other times of the year? They say “Familiarity breeds contempt” ― has the liturgy become so familiar, boring and dull that it has numbed our minds and hearts? Have the liturgical seasons become like nature’s seasons―they come and go, and each day is more or less like any other day―just that some are colder or warmer, shorter or longer, sunny or cloudy, rainy or dry.
In the aforementioned work by Dom Gueranger, speaking of Passiontide, he says: “Let us hope that the holy time, which we are now entering upon [Passiontide], will work such a happy change in us, that, on the day of judgment, we may confidently fix our eyes on Him we are now about to contemplate crucified by the hands of sinners.” But will it “work such a happy change in us”? Or will we be happy once this time of penance and fasting is all over and we can go back to eating our favorite foods in our desired quantities and indulging (or over-indulging) in our favorite activities? It all depends upon how seriously or superficially we take and live our Faith. As we sow, so shall we reap. You have no doubt heard the saying: “All work and no play―makes Jack a dull boy!” Yet, one could equally say: “All play and no pray―makes for a lost soul!” There is certainly no danger of most Catholics praying too much these days! It is more of a case of “All work and then play, forget the Faith and forget to pray!” There is a marked and dangerous lack of seriousness about the Faith, the spiritual life and salvation these days. It does take a “rocket-scientist” to calculate the outcome!
The Most Serious and Important Time of the Year
In case you are unaware of the fact―the Church is currently in the most important 14 days of the year. If you would like an analogy, then it is as though the Church, like a kettle of water, is coming to the boil. The start of the liturgical year―Advent―has seen water (Christ) put into the kettle (the world) and since that time it has been slowly heating, getting really hot during Lent and now coming to a boil during Passiontide, culminating with the loud shrill whistling that announces the boiling water (Good Friday). The steam (the prayer of Christ) rises increasingly in the air (Heaven) throughout the whole process and finally the water (Christ and His Blood) is poured-out to make a healthy beverage― “They shall not hunger, nor thirst … for He that is merciful to them, shall be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he shall give them drink!” Isaias 49:10). “For the Lamb … shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life!” Apocalypse 7:17).
It has been the custom of the Roman Church, at least in modern times (that is to say from the 17th Century forward), to veil the crosses and the images of the saints from the 5th Sunday of Lent until Easter. This has been, and ought to continue to be, one of the defining characteristics of the season of Passiontide – a season which, if after the postconciliar liturgical reforms lost in name, need not be lost in spirit.
Still in many churches throughout the West, crosses and statues are veiled now and will remain veiled for two full weeks. The Catholic Encyclopedia enlightens us on this custom by saying: “Before Vespers of Saturday preceding Passion Sunday [i.e. the 5th Sunday of Lent] the crosses, statues, and pictures of Our Lord and of the saints on the altar and throughout the church―with the sole exception of the crosses and pictures of the Way of the Cross―are to be covered with a violet veil, not translucent, nor in any way ornamented. The crosses remain covered until after the solemn denudation of the principal crucifix on Good Friday. The statues and pictures retain their covering, no matter what feast may occur, until the Gloria in Excelsis of Holy Saturday.” The statue of St. Joseph may remain uncovered, if outside the sanctuary―but only remains uncovered during the month of March, which is dedicated to his honor. Once March ends, St. Joseph is covered by a purple veil like all the other statues.
This practice is no longer obligatory, but is still allowable and permitted in the modern Church. But how many people even know the significance of covering the crucifixes, statutes and pictures with a purple veil? If you don’t understand the purpose, then what’s the point? Sadly, most people―and, if push comes to shove, perhaps most modern-day priests too―would be befuddled as to why things are covered in purple!
The Mystical Importance
Dom Gueranger presents a mystical interpretation of the Gospel which, in former times, was read on this Sunday―just as Christ hid Himself from the rage of the Jewish authorities as He prepared for His Passion(John 8:59), so now, by the veiling of the crucifix, He is hidden from the world in preparation for the mysteries of His Passion. Dom Gueranger writes: “The presentiment of that awful hour [of our Savior’s passion] leads the afflicted mother [the Church] to veil the image of her Jesus: the cross is hidden from the eyes of the faithful. The statues of the saints, too, are covered; for it is but just that, if the glory of the Master be eclipsed, the servant should not appear. The interpreters of the liturgy tell us that this ceremony of veiling the crucifix during Passiontide, expresses the humiliation to which our Savior subjected Himself, of hiding Himself when the Jews threatened to stone Him, as is related in the Gospel of Passion Sunday [John 8:46-59, They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple (John 8:59)]. The Church begins this solemn rite with the Vespers of the Saturday before Passion Sunday.”
The Spiritual Importance
Dom Gueranger then speaks of devotion for the Cross: “Twice during the course of the year, that is, on the feasts of its Invention and Exaltation, this sacred Wood will be offered to us that we may honor it as the trophy of our Jesus’ victory; but now, it speaks to us but of His sufferings, it brings with it no other idea but that of His humiliation.”
You may legitimately ask: “Okay, I understand why the statues and pictures of the saints are coverered―so that we can focus on the Passion of Christ. But if the Passion of Our Lord is meant to be our focus of attention during Lent, they why hide the images of the Cross by covering them in these days?” The answer is that during His Passion―as a result of his beatings, scourging and other tortures―the normal appearance of Christ, as everyone knew Him to be, was almost totally unrecognizable and hidden behind a bloody, mangled, torn exterior. In His passion, our Savior’s divinity was almost totally eclipsed, so great was his suffering. Likewise, even his humanity was hidden – so much so that he could say through his prophet: “I am a worm and no man” (Psalm 21:7). His face and whole body were so disfigured by the blows and scourges that our Jesus was scarcely recognizable! Through the bruises and wounds that were inflicted upon Him, both is divinity and his humanity were hidden behind a ‘veil’ of torture. For this reason we veil the crosses in these final days of Lent―hiding our Savior under the sorrowful yet regal purple cloth―symbolizing a king, a priest and a victim.
The Historical Importance
Fr. Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University (taken from Zenit) states:
“It probably derives from a custom, noted in Germany from the ninth century, of extending a large cloth before the altar from the beginning of Lent. This cloth, called the ‘Hungertuch’ (hunger cloth), hid the altar entirely from the faithful during Lent and was not removed until during the reading of the Passion on Holy Wednesday at the words ‘the veil of the temple was rent in two.’
“Some authors say there was a practical reason for this practice insofar as the often-illiterate faithful needed a way to know it was Lent. Others, however, maintain that it was a remnant of the ancient practice of public penance in which the penitents were ritually expelled from the church at the beginning of Lent. After the ritual of public penance fell into disuse — but the entire congregation symbolically entered the order of penitents by receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday — it was no longer possible to expel them from the church. Rather, the altar or ‘Holy of Holies’ was shielded from view until they were reconciled to God at Easter. For analogous motives, later on in the Middle Ages, the images of crosses and saints were also covered from the start of Lent. The rule of limiting this veiling to Passiontide came later and does not appear until the publication of the Bishops’ Ceremonial of the 17th century.”
Medieval Seriousness About Passiontide
Tudor and Medieval historians paint a very striking, serious and enthusiastic picture of how Tudor England (1485 and 1603) approached the solemn period of Passiontide. The manner in which great religious festivals were once kept throughout Europe is now almost entirely lost. Much like the Twelve days of Christmas, the season of Passiontide, beginning with Passion Sunday (the 5th Sunday in Lent), encompassing Holy Week all the way through to the Paschal Vigil at the end of Holy Saturday, were, for centuries, amongst the most important and most meaningful days of the year. Today, Holy week and Easter week are no longer clearly―with Holy Saturday often being called Easter Saturday, with Passion Sunday (now just an ordinary Sunday of Lent) and Palm Sunday and Passiontide and Holy Week and Easter week somewhat losing their relevance and importance. Even those attending the remaining fragments of those beautiful ceremonies of old, might mistakenly think nothing has changed much since medieval times, but, in actual fact, the liturgy and rituals known to Shakespeare’s audience have passed away entirely, or have taken on entirely new forms.
Even a child would notice the drastic differences that the liturgy would introduce on the first Sunday of Passiontide (Passion Sunday, the 5th Sunday of Lent). Here is an excerpt from a Irish-born Catholic English Tudor historian, who reminisces of the impressions that Passiontide had upon him as a little child.
“Amongst things lost in the mist of childhood is the wonder I felt on going to church on Passion Sunday. When I went into church for Mass, I saw all the statues, pictures and crucifixes covered in violet cloths. I remember asking mum why there were no flowers on the altars. Even the gilt crucifix over the tabernacle was covered in a cloth. The figure of Christ hanging on the giant cross suspended from the apse in front of the sanctuary was also covered. Mind you it was as wondrous in my small head that they could get up that high to put a cover over the figure of Christ as to the meaning of the figure being covered. It was a simple theatrical device. But I was awe struck and that meant it had achieved the desired effect.”
“The Introit of the fifth Sunday begins ‘Judica Me….’ (‘Judge me O God…’psalm 42,v1-2). This is known either as Judica Sunday or more usually since 1570 as Passion Sunday. The introit is the first prayer of the Mass – sung by the choir whilst the priest enters the church in procession. On Passion Sunday usual antiphon – Gloria Patri et Filio etc (Glory be to the Father, to the Son etc) is omitted throughout the Mass and in all the daily prayers (Vigils, Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None Vespers and Compline). In the papal chapel, at the Gospel reading from St John 8, 46-59, upon speaking the last verse: ‘And they took up stones to throw at him but Jesus hid himself and went out of the Temple’ … in Latin ‘Jesus autem abscondebat se’―the deacon covered the processional cross with a white linen cloth and then all the statues and crosses in the chapel were covered in white or violet cloth. The Mass was the occasion for the singing of the hymn (sequence) between the epistle and gospel ‘Pange Lingua Gloriosi Lauream Certaminis’ by composed by Fortunatus (not to be confused with the prayer Aquinas composed for the Mass of the feast of Corpus Christi). This hymn was then sung throughout Passiontide.”
Sadly, today, much of that has been lost, neglected, ignored, counted as being insignificant, cumbersome, irrelevant and useless. A master stroke of false propaganda by the devil and Hell, who always seeks to dilute, disperse, destroy and render defunct all the powerful liturgical prayers, customs, observances and blessings that the Church has (or had) for our spiritual strengthening and salvation.
The Devil is Serious! Why Are You Not Serious?
Speaking of the serious efforts that the devils make to secure our damnation, Our Lady says to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Consider as seriously as thou canst, whether anything deserves greater pity, than to see so many men misled into danger by demons and made forgetful of that danger! How some of them cast themselves into it on account of their lightheartedness, some of them for trivial reasons, others for a short and instantaneous pleasure, others through negligence, and yet others on account of their inordinate appetites, tearing themselves away from the places of refuge, in which the Almighty has placed them, to fall into the hands of such cruel and furious enemies; and not only to feel their fury for an hour, a day, a month, a year, but to suffer indescribable and unmeasured torments for all eternity. Be filled with fear and wonder to see such horrible and dreadful foolishness among the impenitent mortals and to see even the faithful, who have come to know and confess all this by Faith, lose their understanding so far as to allow themselves to be so insanely blinded by the devil, that they neither regard nor avoid this danger.
“Remember that this dragon knows thee and lurks about thee ever since the hour of thy creation and entrance into this world. Night and day he restlessly prowls about seeking some chance of capturing thee as a prize. He observes thy natural inclinations and also the gifts of the Lord, in order to combat thee with thy own weapons. He charges other demons with thy ruin and promises reward to those that are more diligent in securing it. They weigh thy actions carefully, watch thy footsteps, and work zealously to lay snares for thee in all thy undertakings. Meditate on these truths and the Lord will show thee where they lead; compare them afterwards with thy own experience and thou wilt understand, whether thou hast any occasion for sleep in the midst for such dangers. Do not doubt, that thou must live with great vigilance and caution. It suffices to remind thee of thy soft and yielding nature, which thy enemies will strive to make use of for thy destruction.”
“By divine enlightenment, thou hast received a deep understanding of the glorious triumph of my Son and Lord on the Cross over the demons, and of their rout and vanquishment. Thou art astonished to see, on the one hand, the power of my Son’s merits and of His Redemption, the ruin and weakness caused by the demons in men; and, on the other hand, to see the power of the devil lording it over the world in haughty presumption. It is certain, that when Hell came to the full knowledge of the mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption―and of the poverty, humility and lowliness of the birth of Jesus, of His life and miracles, ending in the mysterious Passion and Death, and of all the rest of His labors to draw men to Him―Lucifer and his demons were weakened and disabled; and they saw that they could not tempt the faithful in the same way as the rest of men and as they ceaselessly desire to do.
“In the primitive Church this terror and fear of the baptized, and of the followers of Christ our Lord, continued many years; for the divine virtues shone forth brightly in their imitation of Christ, in their zeal in confessing the Faith, in following the teachings of the Gospel, in practicing heroic virtues and most fervent love, humility, patience and contempt of the vanities and deceits of the world. Many shed their blood and gave their life for Christ the Lord; they performed many admirable and exalted deeds for the glory of His Name. This invincible fortitude resulted from their living at a time so near to the Passion and Death of their Redeemer and so close to the prodigious example of His patience and humility; but also because they were less tempted by the devils, who could not so soon rise from the crushing defeat brought upon them by the triumph of the crucified God.
“This close imitation and living reproduction of Christ, confronting the demons in the first children of the Church, they feared so much, that they dared not approach and they precipitously fled from the Apostles and the just ones imbued with the doctrines of my divine Son. In them were offered up to the Almighty the first fruits of grace, and of Redemption. What is seen in the saints and in perfect Christians in those times, would happen in the present times with all the Catholics if they would accept grace and work with it instead of permitting it to go to waste, and if they would seek the way of the Cross; for Lucifer fears it just as much now as in the times thou hast been writing of. But soon the charity, zeal and devotion in many of the faithful began to grow cold and they forgot the blessings of the Redemption; they yielded to their carnal inclinations and desires, they loved vanity and avarice, and permitted themselves to be fascinated and deceived by the false pretenses of Lucifer, obscuring the glory of their Savior and inveigling them into the meshes of their mortal enemies.
“This foul ingratitude has thrown the world into the present state and has encouraged the demons to rise up in their pride against God, audaciously presuming to possess themselves of all the children of Adam, on account of this forgetfulness and carelessness of Catholics. They presume to plot the destruction of the whole Church by the perversion of so many who have fallen away from it; and by inducing those who are in it, to think little of it, or by hindering them from producing the fruits of the blood and death of their Redeemer. The greatest misfortune is, that many Catholics fail to recognize this great damage and do not seriously think of a remedy, although they can presume that the times, of which Jesus forewarned the women of Jerusalem, have arrived; namely, those in which the sterile should be happy, and in which many would call upon the mountains and the hills to cover and fall upon them, in order not to see the devastation of wickedness cutting down the sons of perdition, the dried trees, barren of all the fruits of virtue. In these evil times dost thou live; and in order that thou mayest not be included in the perdition of so many souls, do thou bewail it in the bitterness of thy heart, never forgetting the mysteries of the Incarnation, Passion and Death of my Divine Son. I desire thee to give thanks, in compensation for the great number of those who forget it, and, I assure thee, that the mere memory and contemplation of these mysteries are terrible to Hell, torment and drive away the demons, and that they avoid and fly those who thankfully remember the life and passion of my divine Son.” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
As Dom Gueranger writes, in his magistral and scholarly work The Liturgical Year, in the section on Passiontide: “Let us, therefore, do our utmost to receive these strong impressions, too little known, alas, by the superficial piety of these times!” What Dom Gueranger is saying, in other words, is: “Let us stop being so superficial and shallow in our spiritual approach to Holy Week and Easter and let us get serious for once!”
Very few would disagree and argue with the statement that most of the world is superficial. Superficiality has almost become the DNA of the world. We see it in politics, in business, in social life, in the depth of knowledge, in the conveyance of feelings, in casual day-to-day conversation, even in home and family life. The obvious and inevitable offshoot of all this superficiality is that we become superficial in our religion, in our Faith, in our spiritual life, and with God.
Here is an interesting observation from a USA Catholic visiting the largest Catholic country in the world―Brazil: “An interesting choreography, of sorts, can be seen during rush hour, in front of the church Nossa Senhora da Paz, in Ipanema, Rio de Janeiro. There, among the evening stream of pedestrians, cars, and buses, many people, both outside and inside vehicles, face the church when passing in front of it and do the sign of the cross in a perfectly timed and almost automatic movement. For an outsider, this would appear to be a natural occurrence in the world’s largest Catholic nation, but as some Brazilians will readily admit, such displays should not be considered signs of a devoted Catholic population, but superficial manifestations. ‘Everybody says they are Catholic, but nobody really is,’ a local friend told me. ‘Futebol (soccer) is more of a religion than Catholicism.’ … Should we take this as the modern pretense we see elsewhere? … Religious practices in the country, starting with Catholicism, have all incorporated, and even been created from, interactions with practices and traditions from all the others … It is true that many people who identify as Catholics are not practicing Catholics. But then, like my friend admitted, almost nobody really is.”
How often do we forget why we are attending the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and become concerned only over whether other people see how much we give in the offertory, or how well we sing hymns, or how seemingly devout we appear during Mass? For most persons, their mind and heart is not fully engaged in the Holy Sacrifice―the mind and heart wander and the Holy Sacrifice quickly becomes a superficial sacrifice. The same is often true for Holy Communion. The same is often true for our confessions. The same can be said of our prayers and (if we even make any) meditations. They are mechanical, routine, automatic, with little or no supernatural feelings or desires. They are more of a chore than an enthusiastic passion. Instead of passionately waiting for them to happen or begin, we passionately can’t wait until they are over and done with!
We see this superficiality manifested by rushed, inattentive, half-made genuflections before the Blessed Sacrament; or hasty, half-made Signs of the Cross; or rushed, distracted prayers and Rosaries; speedy, fast-track Masses; express-lane Communions; micro-waved vague confessions; soulless and heartless hymns―all of which is closer to being a “Catholic-Assembly-Line” that a true spiritual living of the Faith.
Nobody Cares
There are two psalms―almost identical in tone and content―that epitomize the mindset of most Catholics in this most holy and most serious season of Passiontide. Here are the relevant parts of those two psalms:
“The Lord hath looked down from Heaven, upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside! They are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good, no not one! They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways! There is none that doth good, no not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher! With their tongues they act deceitfully! The poison of asps is under their lips! Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness! Their feet are swift to shed blood! Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known! There is no fear of God before their eyes!” (Psalm 13:1-3).
“God looked down from Heaven, on the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, or did seek God. All have gone aside! They are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good, no not one! They are corrupted and have become abominable in iniquities! There is none that doth good! They have not called upon God! There have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear! For God hath scattered the bones of them that please men! They have been confounded, because God hath despised them!” (Psalm 52:2-6).
To this may be added the tragic words that open the Gospel of St. John: “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not!” (John 1:1-14).
In a similar vein, Our Lady and her recent messages and warnings are not taken very seriously, they are largely unheeded, ignored or even despised by people who just will not listen and obey! At La Salette, Our Lady is not a happy Mother, but a sad Mother—she weeps! Why does she weep? She weeps because she wants and tries to obtain mercy for us—but, by our continuing and increasing sins, we block the avenues of mercy that could be opened to us. Our Lady laments our lack of knowledge and attention to what she is doing behind the scenes: “If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you! … There is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless Sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world ... Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement.”
Sr. Lucia of Fatima, in an interview with Fr. Fuentes, on December 26th, 1957, tells us the following: “Our Lady never smiled. She was always very sad … Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad because no one has paid attention to her Message, neither the good nor the bad. The good, because they continue on the road of virtue, goodness and personal apostolates, but without paying attention and uniting their lives to this Message. The bad―the sinners―keep following the road of evil because of their sins, also ignoring the Message, and do not see God’s terrible chastisement about to befall them. The chastisement from Heaven is imminent. Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a tremendous way. It will be very sad for everyone, and far from a happy thing if the world does not pray and do penance!”
Open Your Eyes and Mind!
If you cannot sense and see the importance of these last two weeks before Easter, which we have now entered, then you must be blind in sight and blind in mind! To you Holy Scripture addresses the following words: “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house―who have eyes to see, and see not: and ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a provoking house!” (Ezechiel 12:2). “Leave them alone! They are blind and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). “The heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut―lest, at any time, they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them!” (Matthew 13:15). “Hear, O foolish people without understanding―who have eyes, and see not; and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “Having ears, hear you not? Neither do you remember?” (Mark 8:18).
Are our eyes and ears, minds and hearts oblivious to what is going on around us? Have we become so spiritually “zombie-like” that we fail to react to some major happenings within the church? Do we not see something that is not seen at other times of the year? They say “Familiarity breeds contempt” ― has the liturgy become so familiar, boring and dull that it has numbed our minds and hearts? Have the liturgical seasons become like nature’s seasons―they come and go, and each day is more or less like any other day―just that some are colder or warmer, shorter or longer, sunny or cloudy, rainy or dry.
In the aforementioned work by Dom Gueranger, speaking of Passiontide, he says: “Let us hope that the holy time, which we are now entering upon [Passiontide], will work such a happy change in us, that, on the day of judgment, we may confidently fix our eyes on Him we are now about to contemplate crucified by the hands of sinners.” But will it “work such a happy change in us”? Or will we be happy once this time of penance and fasting is all over and we can go back to eating our favorite foods in our desired quantities and indulging (or over-indulging) in our favorite activities? It all depends upon how seriously or superficially we take and live our Faith. As we sow, so shall we reap. You have no doubt heard the saying: “All work and no play―makes Jack a dull boy!” Yet, one could equally say: “All play and no pray―makes for a lost soul!” There is certainly no danger of most Catholics praying too much these days! It is more of a case of “All work and then play, forget the Faith and forget to pray!” There is a marked and dangerous lack of seriousness about the Faith, the spiritual life and salvation these days. It does take a “rocket-scientist” to calculate the outcome!
The Most Serious and Important Time of the Year
In case you are unaware of the fact―the Church is currently in the most important 14 days of the year. If you would like an analogy, then it is as though the Church, like a kettle of water, is coming to the boil. The start of the liturgical year―Advent―has seen water (Christ) put into the kettle (the world) and since that time it has been slowly heating, getting really hot during Lent and now coming to a boil during Passiontide, culminating with the loud shrill whistling that announces the boiling water (Good Friday). The steam (the prayer of Christ) rises increasingly in the air (Heaven) throughout the whole process and finally the water (Christ and His Blood) is poured-out to make a healthy beverage― “They shall not hunger, nor thirst … for He that is merciful to them, shall be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he shall give them drink!” Isaias 49:10). “For the Lamb … shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life!” Apocalypse 7:17).
It has been the custom of the Roman Church, at least in modern times (that is to say from the 17th Century forward), to veil the crosses and the images of the saints from the 5th Sunday of Lent until Easter. This has been, and ought to continue to be, one of the defining characteristics of the season of Passiontide – a season which, if after the postconciliar liturgical reforms lost in name, need not be lost in spirit.
Still in many churches throughout the West, crosses and statues are veiled now and will remain veiled for two full weeks. The Catholic Encyclopedia enlightens us on this custom by saying: “Before Vespers of Saturday preceding Passion Sunday [i.e. the 5th Sunday of Lent] the crosses, statues, and pictures of Our Lord and of the saints on the altar and throughout the church―with the sole exception of the crosses and pictures of the Way of the Cross―are to be covered with a violet veil, not translucent, nor in any way ornamented. The crosses remain covered until after the solemn denudation of the principal crucifix on Good Friday. The statues and pictures retain their covering, no matter what feast may occur, until the Gloria in Excelsis of Holy Saturday.” The statue of St. Joseph may remain uncovered, if outside the sanctuary―but only remains uncovered during the month of March, which is dedicated to his honor. Once March ends, St. Joseph is covered by a purple veil like all the other statues.
This practice is no longer obligatory, but is still allowable and permitted in the modern Church. But how many people even know the significance of covering the crucifixes, statutes and pictures with a purple veil? If you don’t understand the purpose, then what’s the point? Sadly, most people―and, if push comes to shove, perhaps most modern-day priests too―would be befuddled as to why things are covered in purple!
The Mystical Importance
Dom Gueranger presents a mystical interpretation of the Gospel which, in former times, was read on this Sunday―just as Christ hid Himself from the rage of the Jewish authorities as He prepared for His Passion(John 8:59), so now, by the veiling of the crucifix, He is hidden from the world in preparation for the mysteries of His Passion. Dom Gueranger writes: “The presentiment of that awful hour [of our Savior’s passion] leads the afflicted mother [the Church] to veil the image of her Jesus: the cross is hidden from the eyes of the faithful. The statues of the saints, too, are covered; for it is but just that, if the glory of the Master be eclipsed, the servant should not appear. The interpreters of the liturgy tell us that this ceremony of veiling the crucifix during Passiontide, expresses the humiliation to which our Savior subjected Himself, of hiding Himself when the Jews threatened to stone Him, as is related in the Gospel of Passion Sunday [John 8:46-59, They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple (John 8:59)]. The Church begins this solemn rite with the Vespers of the Saturday before Passion Sunday.”
The Spiritual Importance
Dom Gueranger then speaks of devotion for the Cross: “Twice during the course of the year, that is, on the feasts of its Invention and Exaltation, this sacred Wood will be offered to us that we may honor it as the trophy of our Jesus’ victory; but now, it speaks to us but of His sufferings, it brings with it no other idea but that of His humiliation.”
You may legitimately ask: “Okay, I understand why the statues and pictures of the saints are coverered―so that we can focus on the Passion of Christ. But if the Passion of Our Lord is meant to be our focus of attention during Lent, they why hide the images of the Cross by covering them in these days?” The answer is that during His Passion―as a result of his beatings, scourging and other tortures―the normal appearance of Christ, as everyone knew Him to be, was almost totally unrecognizable and hidden behind a bloody, mangled, torn exterior. In His passion, our Savior’s divinity was almost totally eclipsed, so great was his suffering. Likewise, even his humanity was hidden – so much so that he could say through his prophet: “I am a worm and no man” (Psalm 21:7). His face and whole body were so disfigured by the blows and scourges that our Jesus was scarcely recognizable! Through the bruises and wounds that were inflicted upon Him, both is divinity and his humanity were hidden behind a ‘veil’ of torture. For this reason we veil the crosses in these final days of Lent―hiding our Savior under the sorrowful yet regal purple cloth―symbolizing a king, a priest and a victim.
The Historical Importance
Fr. Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University (taken from Zenit) states:
“It probably derives from a custom, noted in Germany from the ninth century, of extending a large cloth before the altar from the beginning of Lent. This cloth, called the ‘Hungertuch’ (hunger cloth), hid the altar entirely from the faithful during Lent and was not removed until during the reading of the Passion on Holy Wednesday at the words ‘the veil of the temple was rent in two.’
“Some authors say there was a practical reason for this practice insofar as the often-illiterate faithful needed a way to know it was Lent. Others, however, maintain that it was a remnant of the ancient practice of public penance in which the penitents were ritually expelled from the church at the beginning of Lent. After the ritual of public penance fell into disuse — but the entire congregation symbolically entered the order of penitents by receiving ashes on Ash Wednesday — it was no longer possible to expel them from the church. Rather, the altar or ‘Holy of Holies’ was shielded from view until they were reconciled to God at Easter. For analogous motives, later on in the Middle Ages, the images of crosses and saints were also covered from the start of Lent. The rule of limiting this veiling to Passiontide came later and does not appear until the publication of the Bishops’ Ceremonial of the 17th century.”
Medieval Seriousness About Passiontide
Tudor and Medieval historians paint a very striking, serious and enthusiastic picture of how Tudor England (1485 and 1603) approached the solemn period of Passiontide. The manner in which great religious festivals were once kept throughout Europe is now almost entirely lost. Much like the Twelve days of Christmas, the season of Passiontide, beginning with Passion Sunday (the 5th Sunday in Lent), encompassing Holy Week all the way through to the Paschal Vigil at the end of Holy Saturday, were, for centuries, amongst the most important and most meaningful days of the year. Today, Holy week and Easter week are no longer clearly―with Holy Saturday often being called Easter Saturday, with Passion Sunday (now just an ordinary Sunday of Lent) and Palm Sunday and Passiontide and Holy Week and Easter week somewhat losing their relevance and importance. Even those attending the remaining fragments of those beautiful ceremonies of old, might mistakenly think nothing has changed much since medieval times, but, in actual fact, the liturgy and rituals known to Shakespeare’s audience have passed away entirely, or have taken on entirely new forms.
Even a child would notice the drastic differences that the liturgy would introduce on the first Sunday of Passiontide (Passion Sunday, the 5th Sunday of Lent). Here is an excerpt from a Irish-born Catholic English Tudor historian, who reminisces of the impressions that Passiontide had upon him as a little child.
“Amongst things lost in the mist of childhood is the wonder I felt on going to church on Passion Sunday. When I went into church for Mass, I saw all the statues, pictures and crucifixes covered in violet cloths. I remember asking mum why there were no flowers on the altars. Even the gilt crucifix over the tabernacle was covered in a cloth. The figure of Christ hanging on the giant cross suspended from the apse in front of the sanctuary was also covered. Mind you it was as wondrous in my small head that they could get up that high to put a cover over the figure of Christ as to the meaning of the figure being covered. It was a simple theatrical device. But I was awe struck and that meant it had achieved the desired effect.”
“The Introit of the fifth Sunday begins ‘Judica Me….’ (‘Judge me O God…’psalm 42,v1-2). This is known either as Judica Sunday or more usually since 1570 as Passion Sunday. The introit is the first prayer of the Mass – sung by the choir whilst the priest enters the church in procession. On Passion Sunday usual antiphon – Gloria Patri et Filio etc (Glory be to the Father, to the Son etc) is omitted throughout the Mass and in all the daily prayers (Vigils, Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None Vespers and Compline). In the papal chapel, at the Gospel reading from St John 8, 46-59, upon speaking the last verse: ‘And they took up stones to throw at him but Jesus hid himself and went out of the Temple’ … in Latin ‘Jesus autem abscondebat se’―the deacon covered the processional cross with a white linen cloth and then all the statues and crosses in the chapel were covered in white or violet cloth. The Mass was the occasion for the singing of the hymn (sequence) between the epistle and gospel ‘Pange Lingua Gloriosi Lauream Certaminis’ by composed by Fortunatus (not to be confused with the prayer Aquinas composed for the Mass of the feast of Corpus Christi). This hymn was then sung throughout Passiontide.”
Sadly, today, much of that has been lost, neglected, ignored, counted as being insignificant, cumbersome, irrelevant and useless. A master stroke of false propaganda by the devil and Hell, who always seeks to dilute, disperse, destroy and render defunct all the powerful liturgical prayers, customs, observances and blessings that the Church has (or had) for our spiritual strengthening and salvation.
The Devil is Serious! Why Are You Not Serious?
Speaking of the serious efforts that the devils make to secure our damnation, Our Lady says to the Venerable Mary of Agreda: “Consider as seriously as thou canst, whether anything deserves greater pity, than to see so many men misled into danger by demons and made forgetful of that danger! How some of them cast themselves into it on account of their lightheartedness, some of them for trivial reasons, others for a short and instantaneous pleasure, others through negligence, and yet others on account of their inordinate appetites, tearing themselves away from the places of refuge, in which the Almighty has placed them, to fall into the hands of such cruel and furious enemies; and not only to feel their fury for an hour, a day, a month, a year, but to suffer indescribable and unmeasured torments for all eternity. Be filled with fear and wonder to see such horrible and dreadful foolishness among the impenitent mortals and to see even the faithful, who have come to know and confess all this by Faith, lose their understanding so far as to allow themselves to be so insanely blinded by the devil, that they neither regard nor avoid this danger.
“Remember that this dragon knows thee and lurks about thee ever since the hour of thy creation and entrance into this world. Night and day he restlessly prowls about seeking some chance of capturing thee as a prize. He observes thy natural inclinations and also the gifts of the Lord, in order to combat thee with thy own weapons. He charges other demons with thy ruin and promises reward to those that are more diligent in securing it. They weigh thy actions carefully, watch thy footsteps, and work zealously to lay snares for thee in all thy undertakings. Meditate on these truths and the Lord will show thee where they lead; compare them afterwards with thy own experience and thou wilt understand, whether thou hast any occasion for sleep in the midst for such dangers. Do not doubt, that thou must live with great vigilance and caution. It suffices to remind thee of thy soft and yielding nature, which thy enemies will strive to make use of for thy destruction.”
“By divine enlightenment, thou hast received a deep understanding of the glorious triumph of my Son and Lord on the Cross over the demons, and of their rout and vanquishment. Thou art astonished to see, on the one hand, the power of my Son’s merits and of His Redemption, the ruin and weakness caused by the demons in men; and, on the other hand, to see the power of the devil lording it over the world in haughty presumption. It is certain, that when Hell came to the full knowledge of the mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption―and of the poverty, humility and lowliness of the birth of Jesus, of His life and miracles, ending in the mysterious Passion and Death, and of all the rest of His labors to draw men to Him―Lucifer and his demons were weakened and disabled; and they saw that they could not tempt the faithful in the same way as the rest of men and as they ceaselessly desire to do.
“In the primitive Church this terror and fear of the baptized, and of the followers of Christ our Lord, continued many years; for the divine virtues shone forth brightly in their imitation of Christ, in their zeal in confessing the Faith, in following the teachings of the Gospel, in practicing heroic virtues and most fervent love, humility, patience and contempt of the vanities and deceits of the world. Many shed their blood and gave their life for Christ the Lord; they performed many admirable and exalted deeds for the glory of His Name. This invincible fortitude resulted from their living at a time so near to the Passion and Death of their Redeemer and so close to the prodigious example of His patience and humility; but also because they were less tempted by the devils, who could not so soon rise from the crushing defeat brought upon them by the triumph of the crucified God.
“This close imitation and living reproduction of Christ, confronting the demons in the first children of the Church, they feared so much, that they dared not approach and they precipitously fled from the Apostles and the just ones imbued with the doctrines of my divine Son. In them were offered up to the Almighty the first fruits of grace, and of Redemption. What is seen in the saints and in perfect Christians in those times, would happen in the present times with all the Catholics if they would accept grace and work with it instead of permitting it to go to waste, and if they would seek the way of the Cross; for Lucifer fears it just as much now as in the times thou hast been writing of. But soon the charity, zeal and devotion in many of the faithful began to grow cold and they forgot the blessings of the Redemption; they yielded to their carnal inclinations and desires, they loved vanity and avarice, and permitted themselves to be fascinated and deceived by the false pretenses of Lucifer, obscuring the glory of their Savior and inveigling them into the meshes of their mortal enemies.
“This foul ingratitude has thrown the world into the present state and has encouraged the demons to rise up in their pride against God, audaciously presuming to possess themselves of all the children of Adam, on account of this forgetfulness and carelessness of Catholics. They presume to plot the destruction of the whole Church by the perversion of so many who have fallen away from it; and by inducing those who are in it, to think little of it, or by hindering them from producing the fruits of the blood and death of their Redeemer. The greatest misfortune is, that many Catholics fail to recognize this great damage and do not seriously think of a remedy, although they can presume that the times, of which Jesus forewarned the women of Jerusalem, have arrived; namely, those in which the sterile should be happy, and in which many would call upon the mountains and the hills to cover and fall upon them, in order not to see the devastation of wickedness cutting down the sons of perdition, the dried trees, barren of all the fruits of virtue. In these evil times dost thou live; and in order that thou mayest not be included in the perdition of so many souls, do thou bewail it in the bitterness of thy heart, never forgetting the mysteries of the Incarnation, Passion and Death of my Divine Son. I desire thee to give thanks, in compensation for the great number of those who forget it, and, I assure thee, that the mere memory and contemplation of these mysteries are terrible to Hell, torment and drive away the demons, and that they avoid and fly those who thankfully remember the life and passion of my divine Son.” (Words of Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : First Monday & Tuesday in Passiontide April 8th & April 9th
Article 32
Take It or Leave It!
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Article 32
Take It or Leave It!
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
The High-Point of the Liturgical Year
As we enter the glorious season of Passiontide, it is well worth looking beyond the surface of what is the most important time of the entire liturgical year of Holy Mother Church. One of greatest liturgists of modern times, Dom Guéranger, states:
“After having proposed the forty-days’ fast of Jesus in the desert for the meditation of the faithful during the first four weeks of Lent, the Holy Church gives the two weeks, which still remain before Easter, to the commemoration of the Passion. She would not have her children come to that great day of the immolation of the Lamb, without having prepared for it by compassionating with Him in the sufferings He endured in their stead. The most ancient sacramentaries and antiphonaries of the several Churches attest, by the prayers, the lessons, and the whole liturgy of these two weeks, that the Passion of our Lord is now the one sole thought of the Christian world. During Passion-Week, a saint’s feast, if it occur, will be kept; but the holy images [traditionally covered by purple cloth] are not allowed to be uncovered. The severity of the Lenten fast is increased during these its last days; the whole energy of the spirit of penance is now brought out.”
What’s It All About?
The actual name “Passiontide” tells us what it is all about—it is about the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the focus of these last two weeks or the last two laps of the race which St. Paul spoke of at the start of Lent: “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain!” (1 Corinthians 9:24). For “not everyone that saith to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 7:21). And what is the will of the Father? “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3) … “You shall be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:46) … “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
And what is it that makes us perfect? It is self-denial and the Cross that makes us perfect—as Jesus said to the rich young man and others too: “Jesus saith to him: ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me!’” (Matthew 19:21) … “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23). Yet not many want to do this―for they, like most people, prefer the way of comfort to the Way of the Cross. Yet Our Lord warns: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24). It is the Cross that is the key to the gate of Heaven―that is why Our Lord says: “He that taketh not up his Cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). The door of Heaven is locked―as the foolish virgins in Our Lord’s parable found out―as they cried: “‘Lord! Lord! Open to us!’ But He answering said: ‘Amen I say to you, I know you not!’” (Matthew 25:11-12)―and it is only the Cross of Christ that will open it for us.
The Focus on the Cross
The pinnacle of joy―though most people wince at the thought―is to be able to suffer for God. Our Lord Himself tells us: “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake! Be glad and rejoice! For your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12) and on the eve of His own Passion and Death, He said at the Last Supper: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). All of this summed-up in one word—the “Cross.” The liturgy for Passiontide is clearly, unashamedly and unapologetically focused on the Cross. Here are just a few extracts from one of the liturgical hymns for Passiontide:
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle
Sing the last, the dread affray;
O’er the cross, the victor’s trophy,
Sound the high triumphal lay:
Tell how Christ, the world’s Redeemer,
As a victim won the day.
Thirty years among us dwelling,
His appointed time fulfilled,
Born for this, He meets His passion,
For that this He freely willed:
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted,
Where His life-blood shall be spilled.
He endured the nails, the spitting,
Vinegar, and spear, and reed;
From that holy body broken
Blood and water forth proceed:
Earth, and stars, and sky, and ocean,
By that flood from stain are freed.
Faithful cross! Above all other,
One and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peers may be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron!
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor,
That thy birth bestowed, suspend;
And the King of heavenly beauty
On thy bosom gently tend!
Thou alone wast counted worthy
This world’s Ransom to uphold;
For a shipwrecked race preparing
Harbor, like the ark of old;
With the sacred blood anointed
From the smitten Lamb that rolled.
Fourteen Days & Fourteen Stations
Beginning with this Passion Sunday, we have fourteen days to go before Easter Sunday. Since Passiontide is all about the Passion and Death of Jesus, in which the Cross receives the place of primacy, it is well for us to reflect upon the events that immediately lead up to Calvary and flow form Calvary. The fourteen Stations of the Cross can providentially fill those fourteen days of Passiontide for us. It is not for nothing that the Stations of the Cross are traditionally left uncovered during these fourteen days of Passiontide, whereas all other statues and images in the church are traditionally covered with a purple cloth. It is so that we can focus on the essential, and the essential is the Passion.
The Need for the Cross and Crucifixion
Of course we know the importance of the Cross and the Crucifixion in the life of Jesus―but do we do we acknowledge the importance of the cross and crucifixion in our own and for our own lives? Suffering is good of us! Ouch! Yes! Without sufferings and little crucifixions we would lose our souls. St. Padre Pio gives us these painful words of Jesus―spoken to Padre Pio, but equally applicable to all of us: “‘How often’, Jesus said to me just now, ‘would you have abandoned Me, My son, if I had not crucified you ... ?’” (Padre Pio, La croce sempre pronta, Città Nuova, 2002, p. 3).
Very rarely do Catholics respond and gallop along into sanctity based on the “sweet-talk” of Our Lord. It is usually the cross and the crucifixion that stings us into action and, like a Simon of Cyrene, FORCES us along the road to Calvary and Heaven. Padre Pio lived as one crucified from 1910 to 1968, carrying both his own cross and the crosses of those who turned to him. He himself wrote, in one of his letters to a Discalced Carmelite: “One day, when we are granted to see the full noon-day light, we will recognize and value, how great is the treasure, that we earned from our earthly sufferings for the homeland that will have no end. From generous souls and from those in love, God expects acts of heroism and fidelity so that, after the ascent of Calvary, they may reach Mount Tabor!” (Padre Pio, Letter of March 1948).
The Cross is a Focal Point
Just as the Calvary, the Cross and Crucifixion stands at the heart of our Faith―so too must it be found at the very heart of our lives. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass―which is a perpetuation of Christ’s crucifixion on the Cross on Calvary―is the greatest treasure the Church possesses here on Earth. The Holy Mass has the Consecration taking place at the very heart of the Mass―during the Canon of the Mass. In bygone days, the church building―which housed the Holy Eucharist and in which the Holy Sacrifice took place―was found at the heart of the town or village, it was at its center, it was its focal point, it stood higher than other buildings.
Today, all that has been forgotten―just as the Holy Mass and Holy Eucharist has been forgotten, neglected, ignored and even disliked. We might wear a cross as a piece of jewelry―but the real cross is far from being a jewel in our personal estimation. We might pay “big-money” to purchase a jeweled cross to wear around our necks, but we are prepared to pay even “bigger-money” to avoid the real cross in our daily lives! St. Padre Pio said: “To souls loved by God, tribulations are more precious than gold or rest!” He further adds: “If people knew the value of the Mass, there would be policemen at the door, to regulate the access to the church, every time that a Mass is celebrated!”
St. Padre Pio, in speaking of suffering, says: “The Christian’s motto is the cross. You will recognize God’s love by this sign―by the sufferings He sends you … Love Jesus, love Him very much―but to do this, be ready to love sacrifice more! … Don’t be daunted by the cross! The surest test of love consists in suffering for the loved one, and if God suffered so much for love, the pain we suffer for Him becomes as lovable as love itself … The more bitterness you experience, the more love you will receive … Bless Him in all that He makes you suffer on this Earth and rejoice in it, for each victory gained has a corresponding crown in paradise! … In this life Jesus does not ask you to carry the heavy cross with Him, but a small piece of His cross, a piece that consists of human suffering … Fear nothing! On the contrary, consider yourself very fortunate to have been made worthy to participate in the sufferings of the Man-God ... Remember, our suffering is brief but our reward is eternal!”
The Stigmata of Padre Pio
Here is an account of the event that would bring much pain and suffering into the life of St. Padre Pio―the reception of the stigmata, or the wounds of Christ in his own body. The following is found in a letter from Padre Pio to his spiritual director, Fr. Benedetto, describing how he received the stigmata:
“On the morning of the 20th of last month (October 1918), in the choir, after I had celebrated Mass, I yielded to a drowsiness similar to a sweet sleep. All the internal and external senses and even the very faculties of my soul were immersed in indescribable stillness. Absolute silence surrounded and invaded me. I was suddenly filled with great peace and abandonment which effaced everything else and caused a lull in the turmoil. All this happened in a flash.
“While this was taking place, I saw before me a mysterious person similar to the one I had seen on the evening of August 5th. The only difference was that his hands and feet and side were dripping blood. The sight terrified me and what I felt at that moment is indescribable. I thought I should die and really should have died if the Lord had not intervened and strengthened my heart which was about to burst out of my chest.
“The vision disappeared and I became aware that my hands, feet and side were dripping blood. Imagine the agony I experienced and continue to experience almost every day. The heart wound bleeds continually, especially from Thursday evening until Saturday. Dear Father, I am dying of pain because of the wounds and the resulting embarrassment I feel in my soul. I am afraid I shall bleed to death if the Lord does not hear my heartfelt supplication to relieve me of this condition―not the wound or the pain, which is impossible since I wish to be inebriated with pain, but these outward signs, which cause me such embarrassment and unbearable humiliation.”
In another letter he says, “I have no wish whatsoever to have my cross lightened, for it is a joy for me to suffer with Jesus,” and, “I should reproach myself if I sought to be without suffering for one single moment or, worse still, if others tried to take this privilege from me.”
Notice that St Padre Pio did not pray to have the pain removed, but only for the removal of the external signs of the pain. This shows that the cross was at the heart of his life and soul―he wished to suffer as much as could possibly endure for the conversion, the good and the salvation of souls. His letters always bear witness to that truth. In one letter to his spiritual advisors he writes: “The most certain proof of love is to suffer for the one we love and since the Son of God suffered so much for pure love, there can no longer be any doubt that the cross carried for him becomes lovable in proportion to our love.”
As we enter the glorious season of Passiontide, it is well worth looking beyond the surface of what is the most important time of the entire liturgical year of Holy Mother Church. One of greatest liturgists of modern times, Dom Guéranger, states:
“After having proposed the forty-days’ fast of Jesus in the desert for the meditation of the faithful during the first four weeks of Lent, the Holy Church gives the two weeks, which still remain before Easter, to the commemoration of the Passion. She would not have her children come to that great day of the immolation of the Lamb, without having prepared for it by compassionating with Him in the sufferings He endured in their stead. The most ancient sacramentaries and antiphonaries of the several Churches attest, by the prayers, the lessons, and the whole liturgy of these two weeks, that the Passion of our Lord is now the one sole thought of the Christian world. During Passion-Week, a saint’s feast, if it occur, will be kept; but the holy images [traditionally covered by purple cloth] are not allowed to be uncovered. The severity of the Lenten fast is increased during these its last days; the whole energy of the spirit of penance is now brought out.”
What’s It All About?
The actual name “Passiontide” tells us what it is all about—it is about the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the focus of these last two weeks or the last two laps of the race which St. Paul spoke of at the start of Lent: “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain!” (1 Corinthians 9:24). For “not everyone that saith to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 7:21). And what is the will of the Father? “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (1 Thessalonians 4:3) … “You shall be holy, because I am holy” (Leviticus 11:46) … “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
And what is it that makes us perfect? It is self-denial and the Cross that makes us perfect—as Jesus said to the rich young man and others too: “Jesus saith to him: ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come follow Me!’” (Matthew 19:21) … “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23). Yet not many want to do this―for they, like most people, prefer the way of comfort to the Way of the Cross. Yet Our Lord warns: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24). It is the Cross that is the key to the gate of Heaven―that is why Our Lord says: “He that taketh not up his Cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). The door of Heaven is locked―as the foolish virgins in Our Lord’s parable found out―as they cried: “‘Lord! Lord! Open to us!’ But He answering said: ‘Amen I say to you, I know you not!’” (Matthew 25:11-12)―and it is only the Cross of Christ that will open it for us.
The Focus on the Cross
The pinnacle of joy―though most people wince at the thought―is to be able to suffer for God. Our Lord Himself tells us: “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake! Be glad and rejoice! For your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12) and on the eve of His own Passion and Death, He said at the Last Supper: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). All of this summed-up in one word—the “Cross.” The liturgy for Passiontide is clearly, unashamedly and unapologetically focused on the Cross. Here are just a few extracts from one of the liturgical hymns for Passiontide:
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle
Sing the last, the dread affray;
O’er the cross, the victor’s trophy,
Sound the high triumphal lay:
Tell how Christ, the world’s Redeemer,
As a victim won the day.
Thirty years among us dwelling,
His appointed time fulfilled,
Born for this, He meets His passion,
For that this He freely willed:
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted,
Where His life-blood shall be spilled.
He endured the nails, the spitting,
Vinegar, and spear, and reed;
From that holy body broken
Blood and water forth proceed:
Earth, and stars, and sky, and ocean,
By that flood from stain are freed.
Faithful cross! Above all other,
One and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit thy peers may be;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron!
Sweetest weight is hung on thee.
Bend thy boughs, O tree of glory!
Thy relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor,
That thy birth bestowed, suspend;
And the King of heavenly beauty
On thy bosom gently tend!
Thou alone wast counted worthy
This world’s Ransom to uphold;
For a shipwrecked race preparing
Harbor, like the ark of old;
With the sacred blood anointed
From the smitten Lamb that rolled.
Fourteen Days & Fourteen Stations
Beginning with this Passion Sunday, we have fourteen days to go before Easter Sunday. Since Passiontide is all about the Passion and Death of Jesus, in which the Cross receives the place of primacy, it is well for us to reflect upon the events that immediately lead up to Calvary and flow form Calvary. The fourteen Stations of the Cross can providentially fill those fourteen days of Passiontide for us. It is not for nothing that the Stations of the Cross are traditionally left uncovered during these fourteen days of Passiontide, whereas all other statues and images in the church are traditionally covered with a purple cloth. It is so that we can focus on the essential, and the essential is the Passion.
The Need for the Cross and Crucifixion
Of course we know the importance of the Cross and the Crucifixion in the life of Jesus―but do we do we acknowledge the importance of the cross and crucifixion in our own and for our own lives? Suffering is good of us! Ouch! Yes! Without sufferings and little crucifixions we would lose our souls. St. Padre Pio gives us these painful words of Jesus―spoken to Padre Pio, but equally applicable to all of us: “‘How often’, Jesus said to me just now, ‘would you have abandoned Me, My son, if I had not crucified you ... ?’” (Padre Pio, La croce sempre pronta, Città Nuova, 2002, p. 3).
Very rarely do Catholics respond and gallop along into sanctity based on the “sweet-talk” of Our Lord. It is usually the cross and the crucifixion that stings us into action and, like a Simon of Cyrene, FORCES us along the road to Calvary and Heaven. Padre Pio lived as one crucified from 1910 to 1968, carrying both his own cross and the crosses of those who turned to him. He himself wrote, in one of his letters to a Discalced Carmelite: “One day, when we are granted to see the full noon-day light, we will recognize and value, how great is the treasure, that we earned from our earthly sufferings for the homeland that will have no end. From generous souls and from those in love, God expects acts of heroism and fidelity so that, after the ascent of Calvary, they may reach Mount Tabor!” (Padre Pio, Letter of March 1948).
The Cross is a Focal Point
Just as the Calvary, the Cross and Crucifixion stands at the heart of our Faith―so too must it be found at the very heart of our lives. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass―which is a perpetuation of Christ’s crucifixion on the Cross on Calvary―is the greatest treasure the Church possesses here on Earth. The Holy Mass has the Consecration taking place at the very heart of the Mass―during the Canon of the Mass. In bygone days, the church building―which housed the Holy Eucharist and in which the Holy Sacrifice took place―was found at the heart of the town or village, it was at its center, it was its focal point, it stood higher than other buildings.
Today, all that has been forgotten―just as the Holy Mass and Holy Eucharist has been forgotten, neglected, ignored and even disliked. We might wear a cross as a piece of jewelry―but the real cross is far from being a jewel in our personal estimation. We might pay “big-money” to purchase a jeweled cross to wear around our necks, but we are prepared to pay even “bigger-money” to avoid the real cross in our daily lives! St. Padre Pio said: “To souls loved by God, tribulations are more precious than gold or rest!” He further adds: “If people knew the value of the Mass, there would be policemen at the door, to regulate the access to the church, every time that a Mass is celebrated!”
St. Padre Pio, in speaking of suffering, says: “The Christian’s motto is the cross. You will recognize God’s love by this sign―by the sufferings He sends you … Love Jesus, love Him very much―but to do this, be ready to love sacrifice more! … Don’t be daunted by the cross! The surest test of love consists in suffering for the loved one, and if God suffered so much for love, the pain we suffer for Him becomes as lovable as love itself … The more bitterness you experience, the more love you will receive … Bless Him in all that He makes you suffer on this Earth and rejoice in it, for each victory gained has a corresponding crown in paradise! … In this life Jesus does not ask you to carry the heavy cross with Him, but a small piece of His cross, a piece that consists of human suffering … Fear nothing! On the contrary, consider yourself very fortunate to have been made worthy to participate in the sufferings of the Man-God ... Remember, our suffering is brief but our reward is eternal!”
The Stigmata of Padre Pio
Here is an account of the event that would bring much pain and suffering into the life of St. Padre Pio―the reception of the stigmata, or the wounds of Christ in his own body. The following is found in a letter from Padre Pio to his spiritual director, Fr. Benedetto, describing how he received the stigmata:
“On the morning of the 20th of last month (October 1918), in the choir, after I had celebrated Mass, I yielded to a drowsiness similar to a sweet sleep. All the internal and external senses and even the very faculties of my soul were immersed in indescribable stillness. Absolute silence surrounded and invaded me. I was suddenly filled with great peace and abandonment which effaced everything else and caused a lull in the turmoil. All this happened in a flash.
“While this was taking place, I saw before me a mysterious person similar to the one I had seen on the evening of August 5th. The only difference was that his hands and feet and side were dripping blood. The sight terrified me and what I felt at that moment is indescribable. I thought I should die and really should have died if the Lord had not intervened and strengthened my heart which was about to burst out of my chest.
“The vision disappeared and I became aware that my hands, feet and side were dripping blood. Imagine the agony I experienced and continue to experience almost every day. The heart wound bleeds continually, especially from Thursday evening until Saturday. Dear Father, I am dying of pain because of the wounds and the resulting embarrassment I feel in my soul. I am afraid I shall bleed to death if the Lord does not hear my heartfelt supplication to relieve me of this condition―not the wound or the pain, which is impossible since I wish to be inebriated with pain, but these outward signs, which cause me such embarrassment and unbearable humiliation.”
In another letter he says, “I have no wish whatsoever to have my cross lightened, for it is a joy for me to suffer with Jesus,” and, “I should reproach myself if I sought to be without suffering for one single moment or, worse still, if others tried to take this privilege from me.”
Notice that St Padre Pio did not pray to have the pain removed, but only for the removal of the external signs of the pain. This shows that the cross was at the heart of his life and soul―he wished to suffer as much as could possibly endure for the conversion, the good and the salvation of souls. His letters always bear witness to that truth. In one letter to his spiritual advisors he writes: “The most certain proof of love is to suffer for the one we love and since the Son of God suffered so much for pure love, there can no longer be any doubt that the cross carried for him becomes lovable in proportion to our love.”
Passion Sunday April 7th
Article 31
No "Passion-Fruit" Without a "Passion-Tree"!
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Article 31
No "Passion-Fruit" Without a "Passion-Tree"!
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Passiontide―A Time of Trees and Fruit
As we enter this wonderful season of Passiontide―a two-week stretch where the Church focuses on the Passion and Death of Our Lord―we do well to put all else aside and tend to our tree―the “Passion Tree”, or the Cross on which Our Lord died and bore fruit―the fruit of His Passion, His “passion-fruit”, so to speak. The Cross is, of course, a tree of suffering. Yet it is also a tree of life―supernatural life and eternal life. The liturgy of Passion Sunday sings of the Tree of the Cross on which our Savior will die for our sins―let us then treat of trees, for there is much fruit to be found in reflecting upon the various trees that God has made and spoken about.
Learning from Trees
What can we learn from trees? Trees play a major role with God and have a place of importance in Holy Scripture! Even the Bible is printed on paper that comes from trees!! The Bible begins with the words: “In the beginning…” and very soon after that beginning, God made plants and trees! “And God said: ‘Let the Earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the Earth.’ And it was so done. And the Earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit, having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:11-12).
Good Trees, Bad Trees
Speaking of that good and evil, Our Lord touches upon that in the New Testament—showing us that God had not lost interest in trees: “Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:17-20).
He adds elsewhere: “The axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). Obviously, He is not talking about horticulture, but is likening the tree to the human being by analogy. This is clearly shown later, when, in speaking with the Pharisees, He says: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good: or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil. For by the fruit the tree is known. O generation of vipers, how can you speak good things, whereas you are evil?” (Matthew 12:33-34).
Tree of Knowledge
There is much to learn from trees—even though God forbade Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil! “And the Lord God brought forth of the ground all manner of trees, fair to behold, and pleasant to eat of: the tree of life also in the midst of Paradise: and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” (Genesis 2:9). “And God commanded Adam, saying: ‘Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat! For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death!’” (Genesis 2:16-17).
Learning from Trees
Our Lord would use the tree to communicate many things and truths to His followers—by both word and His actions. He will speak of the fig tree, the mulberry tree, the vine, the mustard seed that grows into a tree: “And He spoke to them in a similitude. ‘See the fig tree, and all the trees…’” (Luke 21:29). “And from the fig tree learn a parable…” (Matthew 24:32).
Danger for Fruitless Trees
“He spoke also this parable: ‘A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: “Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none! Cut it done therefore! Why cumbereth it the ground?” But he answering, said to him: “Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it! And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down!”‘” (Luke 13:6-9).
“And the next day when they came out from Bethania, He was hungry. And when He had seen afar off a fig tree having leaves, He came if perhaps He might find anything on it. And when He was come to it, He found nothing but leaves. For it was not the time for figs. And answering He said to it: ‘May no man hereafter eat fruit of thee any more forever!’” (Mark 11:12-14). “And immediately the fig tree withered away. And the disciples seeing it wondered, saying: ‘How is it presently withered away?’ And Jesus answering, said to them: ‘Amen, I say to you, if you shall have Faith, and stagger not, not only this of the fig tree shall you do, but also if you shall say to this mountain, “Take up and cast thyself into the sea!” it shall be done. And in all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” (Matthew 21:20-22).
Tree of Faith
“And the Lord said: ‘If you had Faith like to a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this mulberry tree, “Be thou rooted up, and be thou transplanted into the sea!” and it would obey you” (Luke 17:6).
“Another parable he proposed unto them, saying: The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32).
Encounters around Trees
“Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him: and He saith of him: ‘Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile!’ Nathanael saith to Him: ‘Whence knowest Thou me?’ Jesus answered, and said to him: ‘Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee!’” (John 1:47-48).
“And entering in, he walked through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named Zacheus, who was the chief of the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who He was, and he could not for the crowd, because he was low of stature. And running before, he climbed up into a sycamore tree, that he might see Him; for He was to pass that way. And when Jesus was come to the place, looking up, He saw him, and said to him: Zacheus, make haste and come down; for this day I must abide in thy house” (Luke 19:1-5).
Farewell Among Trees
On the eve of His Passion and Death, Our Lord made His way to the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives, and would pray among the olive trees: “And when they had said a hymn, they went forth to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus saith to them: ‘You will all be scandalized in My regard this night; for it is written, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be dispersed”‘” (Mark 14:26-27). “And going out, He went, according to His custom, to the Mount of Olives. And His disciples also followed Him. And when He was come to the place, He said to them: ‘Pray, lest ye enter into temptation!’” (Luke 22:39-40).
Death on a Tree
St. Peter states that Jesus died upon a tree. When the Apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin and were forbidden to preach in Jesus’ Name, St. Peter retorted: “The God of our fathers hath raised up Jesus, Whom you put to death, hanging Him upon a tree.” (Acts 5:30). Later in Caesarea, Peter, speaking before the converted centurion Cornelius, again says: “We are witnesses of all things that Jesus did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, Whom they killed, hanging Him upon a tree!” (Acts 10:39). St. Paul says the same thing in Antioch: “For they that inhabited Jerusalem, and the rulers thereof, … judging Him … and finding no cause of death in Him, they desired of Pilate, that they might kill Him. And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of Him, taking Him down from the tree, they laid Him in a sepulcher” (Acts 13:27-29).
So what is there to Learn?
“For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Romans 1:20). As Our Lord said: “from the fig tree learn a parable…” (Matthew 24:32). So what can we learn? In fact, if we were to just take the time and delve into the things that were made by God—in this case, trees—then we would be amazed at what there is to find! One would suspect that, from merely looking at the preoccupation Holy Scripture has with trees.
Seek God First!
First things first! “Seek ye first … God!” (Luke 12:31). Well, in that case, let us look for God in the tree and see where He is to found! Now we know that God is a spirit, and spirit cannot be seen—so what is there about a tree that cannot be seen? Usually it is the roots. From the roots comes the trunk, which then divides into branches, and later twigs. It is the roots that furnish the tree with its life—much as God furnishes spiritual life through His grace. Hence, we could say that the sap is a symbol of the grace of God.
Tree of Calvary
If we look at the tree of the Cross, on which Jesus died, we can loosely compare it the three-leaf clover that St. Patrick would use to explain the Holy Trinity. The long base upright beam, that stems from the ground to the intersection with the horizontal beam, could be said to be the One God. The three sections of the cross that branch out north, east and west, after the intersection, could be said to be the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The tree of the Cross on Calvary is our Tree of Life—for Christ died on the dead wood of a tree, in order to bring us eternal life. “Unless the grain of wheat (the tree) falling into the ground (being chopped-down) die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25). The dead wood of the tree bore the fruit of eternal life—as we clearly see from the beautiful liturgy of Passiontide:
Liturgical Passion Tree With Passion Fruit
The mystery of the Cross shines out in glory,
The Cross on which Life suffered death,
And by that death gave life back to us.
The words of David’s prophetic song were fulfilled,
In which he announced to the nations:
“God has reigned from a tree.”
Tree of dazzling beauty,
Adorned with the purple of the King’s Blood,
And chosen from a stock worthy to bear Limbs so sacred!
How favored the tree, on whose branches hung the Ransom of the world;
It was made a balance on which His Body was weighed,
And bore away the prey that Hell had claimed.
The Redeemer had now completed thirty years
And had come to the end of His earthly life,
And then of His own free will, He gave Himself up to the Passion,
The Lamb was lifted up on to the tree of the Cross to be a sacrifice.
Faithful Cross, tree that is alone in its glory among all other trees;
No forest ever yielded its equal in leaf, flower and fruit.
Loving nails and loving wood bear a loving burden.
Soften your branches, noble tree;
Relax your taut fibers and let your natural hardness give way to yielding suppleness;
And so offer yourself as a gentle support for the Body of the King of Heaven.
You alone were worthy to bear the Victim of the world
And like the Ark, to give shelter to a shipwrecked world.
An Ark which the Sacred Blood, poured out from the Body of the Lamb, has annointed.
What a beautiful incorporation of the tree as an essential part of our salvation! These verses, extracted from the liturgy of Passiontide, are worth reading over and over again. They almost contain a fiery spark that is destined to enkindle our devotion.
Mary the Tree of Life
Taking this idea of Jesus on the tree a little further, we can say that Mary is the Tree of which Jesus is the Fruit: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus!” St. Louis de Montfort does not hesitate in calling Mary the Tree of Life. “He who wishes to have the fruit well-ripened and well-formed, must have the tree that produces it; he who wishes to have the Fruit of Life, Jesus Christ, must have the Tree of Life, which is Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §164).
“Jesus is everywhere and always the Fruit and the Son of Mary; and Mary is everywhere the veritable Tree who bears the Fruit of life, and the true Mother who produces it” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §44). “If Mary, who is the Tree of Life, is well-cultivated in our soul, by fidelity to the practices of this devotion, she will bear her fruit in her own time, and her Fruit is none other than Jesus Christ” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §218).
At Fatima, Our Lady essentially says the same thing: “Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it; these souls will be dear to God” (June 13, 1917).
Planting the Tree of Life in Ourselves
When we make the True Devotion Consecration to Mary, we plant a seed from this Tree of Life, that Mary is, in our own souls, so that Mary may reproduce her spirit in our soul. “O Holy Spirit, grant me all these graces. Plant in my soul the Tree of true Life, which is Mary; cultivate it and tend it so that it may grow and blossom and bring forth the fruit of life in abundance” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §67).
We are supposed to be the seed of Mary, for as God said to devil after he had made Adam and Eve fall: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Genesis 3:15). “As Mother of the living, gives to all her children splinters of the Tree of Life, which is the Cross of Jesus” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §22). Through the Cross, Our Lord crushed and defeated the devil.
St. Louis continues: “Have you understood with the help of the Holy Ghost what I have tried to explain? If so, be thankful to God. It is a secret of which very few people are aware. If you have discovered this treasure in the field of Mary, this pearl of great price (Matthew 13:44-46), you should sell all you have to purchase it. You must offer yourself to Mary, happily lose yourself in her, only to find God in her” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §70).
Necessity of Cultivating the Tree of Life
“If the Holy Ghost has planted in your soul the true Tree of Life, which is the devotion that I have just explained (True Devotion to Mary), you should see carefully to its cultivation, so that it will yield its fruit in due season. This devotion is like the mustard seed of the Gospel (Mark 4:31), which is indeed the smallest of all seeds, but nevertheless it grows into a big plant, shooting up so high that the birds of the air, that is, the elect, come and make their nest in its branches. They repose there, shaded from the heat of the sun, and safely hidden from beasts of prey” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §70).
How to Cultivate the Tree of Life
“Here is the best way, chosen soul, to cultivate it:
(1) This Tree, once planted in a docile heart, requires fresh air and no human support. Being of heavenly origin, it must be uninfluenced by any creature, since a creature might hinder it from rising up towards God Who created it. Hence you must not rely on your own endeavors or your natural talents or your personal standing or the guidance of men. You must resort to Mary, relying solely on her help. (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §71).
(2) The person in whose soul this Tree has taken root must, like a good gardener, watch over it and protect it. For this Tree, having life and capable of producing the fruit of life, should be raised and tended with enduring care and attention of soul. A soul that desires to be holy, will make this its chief aim and occupation. (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §72).
“Whatever is likely to choke the Tree or in the course of time prevent its yielding fruit, such as thorns and thistles, must be cut away and rooted-out. This means that by self-denial and self-discipline you must sedulously cut short and even give up all empty pleasures and useless dealings with other creatures. In other words, you must crucify the flesh, keep a guard over the tongue, and mortify the bodily senses” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §73).
(3) You must guard against grubs doing harm to the Tree. These parasites are love of self and love of comfort, and they eat away the green foliage of the Tree and frustrate the fair hope it offered of yielding good fruit; for love of self is incompatible with love of Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §74).
(4) You must not allow this Tree to be damaged by destructive animals, that is, by sins, for they may cause its death simply by their contact. They must not be allowed even to breathe upon the Tree, because their mere breath, that is, venial sins, which are most dangerous when we do not trouble ourselves about them” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §75).
(5) It is also necessary to water this Tree regularly with your Communions, Masses and other public and private prayers. Otherwise it will not continue bearing fruit” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §76).
(6) Yet you need not be alarmed when the winds blow and shake this Tree, for it must happen that the storm-winds of temptation will threaten to bring it down, and snow and frost tend to smother it. By this we mean that this devotion to our Blessed Lady will surely be called into question and attacked. But as long as we continue steadfastly in tending it, we have nothing to fear” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §77).
Its lasting fruit: Jesus Christ
“Chosen soul, provided you thus carefully cultivate the Tree of Life, which has been freshly planted in your soul by the Holy Ghost, I can assure you that in a short time it will grow so tall that the birds of the air will make their home in it. It will become such a good Tree, that it will yield in due season the sweet and adorable Fruit of honor and grace, which is Jesus, Who has always been, and will always be, the only fruit of Mary. Happy is that soul in which Mary, the Tree of Life, is planted. Happier still is the soul in which she has been able to grow and blossom. Happier again is the soul in which she brings forth her fruit. But happiest of all is the soul which savors the sweetness of Mary’s fruit and preserves it up till death, and then beyond, to all eternity” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §78).
Saintly Trees, Holy Trees
“It is Mary alone to whom God has given the keys of the cellars of divine love and the power to enter into the most sublime and secret ways of perfection, and the power likewise to make others enter in there also. It is Mary alone who has given to the miserable children of Eve, the faithless, entry into the terrestrial paradise; that they may walk there agreeably with God, hide there securely against their enemies, feed themselves there deliciously, without further fear of death, on the fruit of the Trees of Life and of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and drink, in long draughts, the heavenly waters of that fair fountain, which gushes forth there with abundance; or rather, since she is herself that terrestrial paradise, that virgin and blessed Earth, from which Adam and Eve, the sinners, have been driven, she gives no entry there except to those whom it is her pleasure to make saints” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §45).
“I have said that this would come to pass, particularly at the end of the world and indeed presently, because the Most High with His holy Mother has to form for Himself great saints who shall surpass most of the other saints in sanctity as much as the cedars of Lebanon outgrow the little shrubs. These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides; and they shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady, illuminated by her light, strengthened with her nourishment, led by her spirit, supported by her arm and sheltered under her protection” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §47-48).
As we enter this wonderful season of Passiontide―a two-week stretch where the Church focuses on the Passion and Death of Our Lord―we do well to put all else aside and tend to our tree―the “Passion Tree”, or the Cross on which Our Lord died and bore fruit―the fruit of His Passion, His “passion-fruit”, so to speak. The Cross is, of course, a tree of suffering. Yet it is also a tree of life―supernatural life and eternal life. The liturgy of Passion Sunday sings of the Tree of the Cross on which our Savior will die for our sins―let us then treat of trees, for there is much fruit to be found in reflecting upon the various trees that God has made and spoken about.
Learning from Trees
What can we learn from trees? Trees play a major role with God and have a place of importance in Holy Scripture! Even the Bible is printed on paper that comes from trees!! The Bible begins with the words: “In the beginning…” and very soon after that beginning, God made plants and trees! “And God said: ‘Let the Earth bring forth the green herb, and such as may seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, after its kind, which may have seed in itself upon the Earth.’ And it was so done. And the Earth brought forth the green herb, and such as yieldeth seed according to its kind, and the tree that beareth fruit, having seed each one according to its kind. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:11-12).
Good Trees, Bad Trees
Speaking of that good and evil, Our Lord touches upon that in the New Testament—showing us that God had not lost interest in trees: “Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:17-20).
He adds elsewhere: “The axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire” (Matthew 3:10). Obviously, He is not talking about horticulture, but is likening the tree to the human being by analogy. This is clearly shown later, when, in speaking with the Pharisees, He says: “Either make the tree good and its fruit good: or make the tree evil, and its fruit evil. For by the fruit the tree is known. O generation of vipers, how can you speak good things, whereas you are evil?” (Matthew 12:33-34).
Tree of Knowledge
There is much to learn from trees—even though God forbade Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil! “And the Lord God brought forth of the ground all manner of trees, fair to behold, and pleasant to eat of: the tree of life also in the midst of Paradise: and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil” (Genesis 2:9). “And God commanded Adam, saying: ‘Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: but of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shalt not eat! For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death!’” (Genesis 2:16-17).
Learning from Trees
Our Lord would use the tree to communicate many things and truths to His followers—by both word and His actions. He will speak of the fig tree, the mulberry tree, the vine, the mustard seed that grows into a tree: “And He spoke to them in a similitude. ‘See the fig tree, and all the trees…’” (Luke 21:29). “And from the fig tree learn a parable…” (Matthew 24:32).
Danger for Fruitless Trees
“He spoke also this parable: ‘A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: “Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none! Cut it done therefore! Why cumbereth it the ground?” But he answering, said to him: “Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it! And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down!”‘” (Luke 13:6-9).
“And the next day when they came out from Bethania, He was hungry. And when He had seen afar off a fig tree having leaves, He came if perhaps He might find anything on it. And when He was come to it, He found nothing but leaves. For it was not the time for figs. And answering He said to it: ‘May no man hereafter eat fruit of thee any more forever!’” (Mark 11:12-14). “And immediately the fig tree withered away. And the disciples seeing it wondered, saying: ‘How is it presently withered away?’ And Jesus answering, said to them: ‘Amen, I say to you, if you shall have Faith, and stagger not, not only this of the fig tree shall you do, but also if you shall say to this mountain, “Take up and cast thyself into the sea!” it shall be done. And in all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” (Matthew 21:20-22).
Tree of Faith
“And the Lord said: ‘If you had Faith like to a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this mulberry tree, “Be thou rooted up, and be thou transplanted into the sea!” and it would obey you” (Luke 17:6).
“Another parable he proposed unto them, saying: The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32).
Encounters around Trees
“Jesus saw Nathanael coming to Him: and He saith of him: ‘Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile!’ Nathanael saith to Him: ‘Whence knowest Thou me?’ Jesus answered, and said to him: ‘Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee!’” (John 1:47-48).
“And entering in, he walked through Jericho. And behold, there was a man named Zacheus, who was the chief of the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who He was, and he could not for the crowd, because he was low of stature. And running before, he climbed up into a sycamore tree, that he might see Him; for He was to pass that way. And when Jesus was come to the place, looking up, He saw him, and said to him: Zacheus, make haste and come down; for this day I must abide in thy house” (Luke 19:1-5).
Farewell Among Trees
On the eve of His Passion and Death, Our Lord made His way to the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives, and would pray among the olive trees: “And when they had said a hymn, they went forth to the Mount of Olives. And Jesus saith to them: ‘You will all be scandalized in My regard this night; for it is written, “I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be dispersed”‘” (Mark 14:26-27). “And going out, He went, according to His custom, to the Mount of Olives. And His disciples also followed Him. And when He was come to the place, He said to them: ‘Pray, lest ye enter into temptation!’” (Luke 22:39-40).
Death on a Tree
St. Peter states that Jesus died upon a tree. When the Apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin and were forbidden to preach in Jesus’ Name, St. Peter retorted: “The God of our fathers hath raised up Jesus, Whom you put to death, hanging Him upon a tree.” (Acts 5:30). Later in Caesarea, Peter, speaking before the converted centurion Cornelius, again says: “We are witnesses of all things that Jesus did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, Whom they killed, hanging Him upon a tree!” (Acts 10:39). St. Paul says the same thing in Antioch: “For they that inhabited Jerusalem, and the rulers thereof, … judging Him … and finding no cause of death in Him, they desired of Pilate, that they might kill Him. And when they had fulfilled all things that were written of Him, taking Him down from the tree, they laid Him in a sepulcher” (Acts 13:27-29).
So what is there to Learn?
“For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Romans 1:20). As Our Lord said: “from the fig tree learn a parable…” (Matthew 24:32). So what can we learn? In fact, if we were to just take the time and delve into the things that were made by God—in this case, trees—then we would be amazed at what there is to find! One would suspect that, from merely looking at the preoccupation Holy Scripture has with trees.
Seek God First!
First things first! “Seek ye first … God!” (Luke 12:31). Well, in that case, let us look for God in the tree and see where He is to found! Now we know that God is a spirit, and spirit cannot be seen—so what is there about a tree that cannot be seen? Usually it is the roots. From the roots comes the trunk, which then divides into branches, and later twigs. It is the roots that furnish the tree with its life—much as God furnishes spiritual life through His grace. Hence, we could say that the sap is a symbol of the grace of God.
Tree of Calvary
If we look at the tree of the Cross, on which Jesus died, we can loosely compare it the three-leaf clover that St. Patrick would use to explain the Holy Trinity. The long base upright beam, that stems from the ground to the intersection with the horizontal beam, could be said to be the One God. The three sections of the cross that branch out north, east and west, after the intersection, could be said to be the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity—Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
The tree of the Cross on Calvary is our Tree of Life—for Christ died on the dead wood of a tree, in order to bring us eternal life. “Unless the grain of wheat (the tree) falling into the ground (being chopped-down) die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25). The dead wood of the tree bore the fruit of eternal life—as we clearly see from the beautiful liturgy of Passiontide:
Liturgical Passion Tree With Passion Fruit
The mystery of the Cross shines out in glory,
The Cross on which Life suffered death,
And by that death gave life back to us.
The words of David’s prophetic song were fulfilled,
In which he announced to the nations:
“God has reigned from a tree.”
Tree of dazzling beauty,
Adorned with the purple of the King’s Blood,
And chosen from a stock worthy to bear Limbs so sacred!
How favored the tree, on whose branches hung the Ransom of the world;
It was made a balance on which His Body was weighed,
And bore away the prey that Hell had claimed.
The Redeemer had now completed thirty years
And had come to the end of His earthly life,
And then of His own free will, He gave Himself up to the Passion,
The Lamb was lifted up on to the tree of the Cross to be a sacrifice.
Faithful Cross, tree that is alone in its glory among all other trees;
No forest ever yielded its equal in leaf, flower and fruit.
Loving nails and loving wood bear a loving burden.
Soften your branches, noble tree;
Relax your taut fibers and let your natural hardness give way to yielding suppleness;
And so offer yourself as a gentle support for the Body of the King of Heaven.
You alone were worthy to bear the Victim of the world
And like the Ark, to give shelter to a shipwrecked world.
An Ark which the Sacred Blood, poured out from the Body of the Lamb, has annointed.
What a beautiful incorporation of the tree as an essential part of our salvation! These verses, extracted from the liturgy of Passiontide, are worth reading over and over again. They almost contain a fiery spark that is destined to enkindle our devotion.
Mary the Tree of Life
Taking this idea of Jesus on the tree a little further, we can say that Mary is the Tree of which Jesus is the Fruit: “Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus!” St. Louis de Montfort does not hesitate in calling Mary the Tree of Life. “He who wishes to have the fruit well-ripened and well-formed, must have the tree that produces it; he who wishes to have the Fruit of Life, Jesus Christ, must have the Tree of Life, which is Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §164).
“Jesus is everywhere and always the Fruit and the Son of Mary; and Mary is everywhere the veritable Tree who bears the Fruit of life, and the true Mother who produces it” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §44). “If Mary, who is the Tree of Life, is well-cultivated in our soul, by fidelity to the practices of this devotion, she will bear her fruit in her own time, and her Fruit is none other than Jesus Christ” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §218).
At Fatima, Our Lady essentially says the same thing: “Jesus wishes to establish the devotion to my Immaculate Heart throughout the world. I promise salvation to whoever embraces it; these souls will be dear to God” (June 13, 1917).
Planting the Tree of Life in Ourselves
When we make the True Devotion Consecration to Mary, we plant a seed from this Tree of Life, that Mary is, in our own souls, so that Mary may reproduce her spirit in our soul. “O Holy Spirit, grant me all these graces. Plant in my soul the Tree of true Life, which is Mary; cultivate it and tend it so that it may grow and blossom and bring forth the fruit of life in abundance” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §67).
We are supposed to be the seed of Mary, for as God said to devil after he had made Adam and Eve fall: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.” (Genesis 3:15). “As Mother of the living, gives to all her children splinters of the Tree of Life, which is the Cross of Jesus” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §22). Through the Cross, Our Lord crushed and defeated the devil.
St. Louis continues: “Have you understood with the help of the Holy Ghost what I have tried to explain? If so, be thankful to God. It is a secret of which very few people are aware. If you have discovered this treasure in the field of Mary, this pearl of great price (Matthew 13:44-46), you should sell all you have to purchase it. You must offer yourself to Mary, happily lose yourself in her, only to find God in her” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §70).
Necessity of Cultivating the Tree of Life
“If the Holy Ghost has planted in your soul the true Tree of Life, which is the devotion that I have just explained (True Devotion to Mary), you should see carefully to its cultivation, so that it will yield its fruit in due season. This devotion is like the mustard seed of the Gospel (Mark 4:31), which is indeed the smallest of all seeds, but nevertheless it grows into a big plant, shooting up so high that the birds of the air, that is, the elect, come and make their nest in its branches. They repose there, shaded from the heat of the sun, and safely hidden from beasts of prey” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §70).
How to Cultivate the Tree of Life
“Here is the best way, chosen soul, to cultivate it:
(1) This Tree, once planted in a docile heart, requires fresh air and no human support. Being of heavenly origin, it must be uninfluenced by any creature, since a creature might hinder it from rising up towards God Who created it. Hence you must not rely on your own endeavors or your natural talents or your personal standing or the guidance of men. You must resort to Mary, relying solely on her help. (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §71).
(2) The person in whose soul this Tree has taken root must, like a good gardener, watch over it and protect it. For this Tree, having life and capable of producing the fruit of life, should be raised and tended with enduring care and attention of soul. A soul that desires to be holy, will make this its chief aim and occupation. (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §72).
“Whatever is likely to choke the Tree or in the course of time prevent its yielding fruit, such as thorns and thistles, must be cut away and rooted-out. This means that by self-denial and self-discipline you must sedulously cut short and even give up all empty pleasures and useless dealings with other creatures. In other words, you must crucify the flesh, keep a guard over the tongue, and mortify the bodily senses” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §73).
(3) You must guard against grubs doing harm to the Tree. These parasites are love of self and love of comfort, and they eat away the green foliage of the Tree and frustrate the fair hope it offered of yielding good fruit; for love of self is incompatible with love of Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §74).
(4) You must not allow this Tree to be damaged by destructive animals, that is, by sins, for they may cause its death simply by their contact. They must not be allowed even to breathe upon the Tree, because their mere breath, that is, venial sins, which are most dangerous when we do not trouble ourselves about them” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §75).
(5) It is also necessary to water this Tree regularly with your Communions, Masses and other public and private prayers. Otherwise it will not continue bearing fruit” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §76).
(6) Yet you need not be alarmed when the winds blow and shake this Tree, for it must happen that the storm-winds of temptation will threaten to bring it down, and snow and frost tend to smother it. By this we mean that this devotion to our Blessed Lady will surely be called into question and attacked. But as long as we continue steadfastly in tending it, we have nothing to fear” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §77).
Its lasting fruit: Jesus Christ
“Chosen soul, provided you thus carefully cultivate the Tree of Life, which has been freshly planted in your soul by the Holy Ghost, I can assure you that in a short time it will grow so tall that the birds of the air will make their home in it. It will become such a good Tree, that it will yield in due season the sweet and adorable Fruit of honor and grace, which is Jesus, Who has always been, and will always be, the only fruit of Mary. Happy is that soul in which Mary, the Tree of Life, is planted. Happier still is the soul in which she has been able to grow and blossom. Happier again is the soul in which she brings forth her fruit. But happiest of all is the soul which savors the sweetness of Mary’s fruit and preserves it up till death, and then beyond, to all eternity” (St. Louis de Montfort, Secret of Mary, §78).
Saintly Trees, Holy Trees
“It is Mary alone to whom God has given the keys of the cellars of divine love and the power to enter into the most sublime and secret ways of perfection, and the power likewise to make others enter in there also. It is Mary alone who has given to the miserable children of Eve, the faithless, entry into the terrestrial paradise; that they may walk there agreeably with God, hide there securely against their enemies, feed themselves there deliciously, without further fear of death, on the fruit of the Trees of Life and of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and drink, in long draughts, the heavenly waters of that fair fountain, which gushes forth there with abundance; or rather, since she is herself that terrestrial paradise, that virgin and blessed Earth, from which Adam and Eve, the sinners, have been driven, she gives no entry there except to those whom it is her pleasure to make saints” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §45).
“I have said that this would come to pass, particularly at the end of the world and indeed presently, because the Most High with His holy Mother has to form for Himself great saints who shall surpass most of the other saints in sanctity as much as the cedars of Lebanon outgrow the little shrubs. These great souls, full of grace and zeal, shall be chosen to match themselves against the enemies of God, who shall rage on all sides; and they shall be singularly devout to our Blessed Lady, illuminated by her light, strengthened with her nourishment, led by her spirit, supported by her arm and sheltered under her protection” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §47-48).
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Friday April 5th & Saturday April 6th
Article 30
Terrible Titanic Tragedy & Calamitous Church Catastrophe!
This article is STILL being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Article 30
Terrible Titanic Tragedy & Calamitous Church Catastrophe!
This article is STILL being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Creepy ‘Coincidences’ & Ominous Omens
As the previous article said: History repeats itself and “What goes around, comes around!” If you do not know your history and learn from history, then you will be obliged to learn your history by the repeating the mistakes of history. A creepy coincidence is seen in a book written fourteen years before the Titanic sank. The novel, entitled Futility, by Morgan Robertson, was about the sinking of the Titan―the largest ship in the world. An extract from The Portland Press Herald described the plot of the book thus: “The largest ship ever built, billed as ‘unsinkable’ by its British owners and the press, strikes an iceberg one April and goes down. Due to a lack of lifeboats, more than half the passengers perish in the North Atlantic.”
The fictional Titan and the real-life Titanic were almost mirror images in many respects―in the fictional and in real life.
● both described as being the largest ships in the world and the greatest works ever seen;
● both had almost identical dimensions, the fictional Titan being 800 feet long, and the Titanic being 882 feet long;
● both were described as being “unsinkable”;
● both ships had triple screw propellers;
● both the Titan and the Titanic were made in Britain and had similar crew/passenger capacities totaling around 3,000;
● both struck icebergs in the North Atlantic at around the same spot―400 nautical miles (460 miles) from Newfoundland;
● both were sailing at similar speeds―25 knots for the Titan and 22½ knots for the Titanic;
● both had a similar number of persons on board―2,500 for the Titan and 2,200 for the Titanic;
● both the Titan and the Titanic lacked sufficient lifeboats and both lost well over half to three-quarters of the persons on board.
The creepy part or scary thing is that the book was written fourteen years BEFORE the sinking of the Titanic! Uncanny, huh? The fictional novel, Futility, has since been renamed The Wreck of the Titan. After the terrible Titanic tragedy, many persons thought that the author of the book, Futility, had the power of clairvoyance. Morgan Robertson dispelled this idea, claiming the uncanny similarities were simply put down to his deep knowledge of shipbuilding and the maritime trends of that time.
Speaking of Similarities!
Speaking of ships and actual or potential ship sinking―there comes to mind another incident involving a ship. This particular ship appeared in a dream or vision that St. John Bosco had, concerning the “Ark of the Church” or “Ship of the Church.” On May 30th, 1862, St. John Bosco, in his customary ‘Good Night’ talk to an assembly of priests and the young clerics he was training, as well as the boys of his school, told them about a dream he had dreamt a few nights previously. He actually described it as a parable or allegory. Strictly speaking a parable is a general story with a deeper meaning, but one in which the points of the story may not all be significant, while in an allegory every detail is important and meaningful. In the case of Don Bosco’s dream it is difficult to know just how significant each point is. After some preliminary remarks he went on to describe what he had seen:
“Try to picture yourselves with me on the seashore, or, better still, on an outlying cliff with no other land in sight. The vast expanse of water is covered with a formidable array of ships in battle formation, prows [the front of the ship] fitted with sharp spear-like beaks capable of breaking through any defense. All are heavily armed with cannons, incendiary bombs, and firearms of all sorts ― even books ― and are heading toward one stately ship, mightier than them all. As they try to close in, they try to ram it, set it afire, and cripple it as much as possible.
“This stately vessel is shielded by a flotilla escort. Winds and waves are with the enemy. In this midst of this endless sea, two solid columns, a short distance apart, soar high into the sky: one is surmounted by a statue of the Immaculate Virgin at whose feet a large inscription reads: Help of Christians; the other, far loftier and sturdier, supports a [Communion] Host of proportionate size and bears beneath it the inscription Salvation of believers.
“The flagship commander ― the Roman Pontiff [the Pope] ― seeing the enemy’s fury and his auxiliary ships very grave predicament, summons his captains to a conference. However, as they discuss their strategy, a furious storm breaks out and they must return to their ships. When the storm abates, the Pope again summons his captains as the flagship keeps on its course. But the storm rages again. Standing at the helm, the Pope strains every muscle to steer his ship between the two columns, from whose summits hang many anchors and strong hooks linked to chains.
“The entire enemy fleet closes in to intercept and sink the flagship at all costs. They bombard it with everything they have: books and pamphlets, incendiary bombs, firearms, cannons. The battle rages ever more furious. Beaked prows ram the flagship again and again, but to no avail, as, unscathed and undaunted, it keeps on its course. At times a formidable ram splinters a gaping hole into its hull, but, immediately, a breeze from the two columns instantly seals the gash.
“Meanwhile, enemy cannons blow up, firearms and beaks fall to pieces, ships crack up and sink to the bottom. In blind fury the enemy takes to hand-to-hand combat, cursing and blaspheming. Suddenly the Pope falls, seriously wounded. He is instantly helped up but, struck down a second time, dies. A shout of victory rises from the enemy and wild rejoicing sweeps their ships. But no sooner is the Pope dead than another takes his place. The captains of the auxiliary ships elected him so quickly that the news of the Pope’s death coincides with that of his successor’s election. The enemy’s self-assurance wanes.
“Breaking through all resistance, the new Pope steers his ship safely between the two columns and moors it to the two columns; first to the one surmounted by the Host, and then to the other, topped by the statue of the Virgin. At this point something unexpected happens. The enemy ships panic and disperse, colliding with and scuttling each other. Some auxiliary ships which had gallantly fought alongside their flagship are the first to tie up at the two columns.
“Many others, which had fearfully kept far away from the fight, stand still, cautiously waiting until the wrecked enemy ships vanish under the waves. Then, they too head for the two columns, tie up at the swinging hooks, and ride safe and tranquil beside their flagship. A great calm now covers the sea.”
At this point, Don Bosco asked one of the priests present for his views. He replied that he thought that the flagship symbolized the Church headed by the Pope, with the ships representing mankind and the sea as an image of the world. The ships defending the flagship he equated with the laity and the attackers with those trying to destroy the Church, while the two columns represented devotion to Mary and the Eucharist.
He did not mention the death of the Pope and neither did Don Bosco in his reply, in which he agreed with what the priest had said, while adding that the enemy ships symbolized persecutions:
“Very grave trials await the Church. What we have suffered so far is almost nothing compared to what is going to happen. The enemies of the Church are symbolized by the ships which strive their utmost to sink the flagship. Only two things can save us in such a grave hour: devotion to Mary and frequent Communion. Let us do our very best to use these two means and have others use them everywhere.”
Not surprisingly this contents of this dream amazed all those listening, and four of those present wrote down what they had heard. Two wrote the next day, May 31st, and two some time later, but all four narratives agree substantially. Such small differences as were found can be explained on the basis that it is impossible to get every detail when remembering and writing a spoken narrative.
One point that did cause some argument amongst those who had been present was over whether there had been two popes as commander of the flagship as in the above account, or, as some thought, three. This point was made clearer in 1886, when one of those who had heard the dream recounted in 1862, returned to the Oratory. At dinner with Don Bosco he began to narrate the dream and was quite certain that two popes had fallen, since he was sure that after the first was struck down the captains of the other ships had said: “Let’s hurry, We can quickly replace him!”; on the second occasion he maintained that they had said nothing. Don Bosco seemed to back up this version of events by calling attention to what was being said, and so it is probable that we are dealing with three popes in the account. Those who had written down the dream, were convinced that it was a genuine vision and prophecy, although Don Bosco’s immediate aim was probably to encourage his boys to pray more fervently for the Church and the Pope, as well as to indicate the importance of devotion to Mary and the Blessed Sacrament.
We may be living part way through Don Bosco’s vision, but as in all genuine prophecy before its fulfillment, there is quite a degree of uncertainty and ambiguity, and it would be foolish to attempt to come to definite conclusions at this stage. The important point is the way in which the end of the vision points to what would seem to be the world-wide triumph of the Church, a triumph which will be recognized by all, but one which is only gained after much suffering.
Was the Second Vatican Council the Church’s “Iceberg”?
Has the Ark of the Church hit its own calamitous “iceberg”? Today, there is most certainly chaos on board the Ark of the Church―which seems to be taking on the water of worldliness and is listing towards Liberalism and risks splitting into schism. Staying with St. John Bosco for a moment, in a well-known prophecy, made in 1862, exactly 100 years before the disastrous Second Vatican Council was convoked, St. John Bosco predicted the Second Vatican Council and its disastrous impact on the Church. The relevant portion of the prophecy is: “There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century, after which there will be chaos in the Church. Tranquility will not return until the Pope succeeds in anchoring the boat of Peter between the twin pillars of Eucharistic Devotion and Devotion to Our Lady.”
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) also spoke of a calamitous council. Describing one of her visions in the 1820s, she said: “Among the strangest things that I saw, was long processions of bishops. Their thoughts and utterances were made known to me through images issuing from their mouths. Their faults towards religion were shown by external deformities ... I saw what I believe to be nearly all the bishops of the world, but only a small number were perfectly sound … I saw many good pious Bishops; but they were weak and wavering, their cowardice often got the upper hand … I saw the ever-increasing tepidity of the clergy, the circle of darkness ever widening … The priests let things go their way and said Mass very irreverently; only a few of them were still a little intelligent and pious ... Most priests contributed to the work of destruction ... I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church … A concession was demanded from the clergy which could not be granted. I saw many older priests, especially one, who wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping. But others, and the lukewarm among them, readily did what was demanded. Religion is there so skillfully undermined and stifled that there are scarcely 100 faithful priests … It was as if people were splitting into two camps ... Near them I saw a horrible Beast coming up from the sea …... I saw the secret sect relentlessly undermining the great Church … They were building a great, strange, and extravagant Church. Everyone was to be admitted in it in order to be united and have equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics sects of every description. Such was to be the new Church …
“They built a large, singular, extravagant church which was to embrace all creeds with equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics, and all denominations, a true communion of the unholy with one shepherd and one flock. There was to be a Pope, a salaried Pope, without possessions. All was made ready, many things finished; but, in place of an altar, were only abomination and desolation. Such was the new church to be, and it was for it that he had set fire to the old one … I see the black counterfeit church gaining ground, I see its fatal influence on the public … I saw the fatal consequences of this counterfeit church: I saw it increase; I saw heretics of all kinds flocking to the city ... Then I saw that everything pertaining to Protestantism was gradually gaining the upper hand, and the Catholic religion fell into complete decadence ... When the time of the reign of Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known. The nearer the time of the end, the more the darkness of Satan will spread on Earth, the greater will be the number of the children of corruption, and the number of the just will correspondingly diminish … In those days, Faith will fall very low, and it will be preserved in some places only, in a few cottages and in a few families―which God has protected …
“When the Church had been for the most part destroyed by the secret sect, and when only the sanctuary and altar were still standing, I saw the wreckers enter the Church with the Beast. There they met a Woman of noble carriage who seemed to be with child because she walked slowly. At this sight, the enemies were terrorized, and the Beast could not take but another step forward. It projected its neck towards the Woman as if to devour her, but the Woman turned about and bowed down [towards the altar], her head touching the ground. Thereupon, I saw the Beast taking to flight towards the sea again, and the enemies were fleeing in the greatest confusion ….
As the previous article said: History repeats itself and “What goes around, comes around!” If you do not know your history and learn from history, then you will be obliged to learn your history by the repeating the mistakes of history. A creepy coincidence is seen in a book written fourteen years before the Titanic sank. The novel, entitled Futility, by Morgan Robertson, was about the sinking of the Titan―the largest ship in the world. An extract from The Portland Press Herald described the plot of the book thus: “The largest ship ever built, billed as ‘unsinkable’ by its British owners and the press, strikes an iceberg one April and goes down. Due to a lack of lifeboats, more than half the passengers perish in the North Atlantic.”
The fictional Titan and the real-life Titanic were almost mirror images in many respects―in the fictional and in real life.
● both described as being the largest ships in the world and the greatest works ever seen;
● both had almost identical dimensions, the fictional Titan being 800 feet long, and the Titanic being 882 feet long;
● both were described as being “unsinkable”;
● both ships had triple screw propellers;
● both the Titan and the Titanic were made in Britain and had similar crew/passenger capacities totaling around 3,000;
● both struck icebergs in the North Atlantic at around the same spot―400 nautical miles (460 miles) from Newfoundland;
● both were sailing at similar speeds―25 knots for the Titan and 22½ knots for the Titanic;
● both had a similar number of persons on board―2,500 for the Titan and 2,200 for the Titanic;
● both the Titan and the Titanic lacked sufficient lifeboats and both lost well over half to three-quarters of the persons on board.
The creepy part or scary thing is that the book was written fourteen years BEFORE the sinking of the Titanic! Uncanny, huh? The fictional novel, Futility, has since been renamed The Wreck of the Titan. After the terrible Titanic tragedy, many persons thought that the author of the book, Futility, had the power of clairvoyance. Morgan Robertson dispelled this idea, claiming the uncanny similarities were simply put down to his deep knowledge of shipbuilding and the maritime trends of that time.
Speaking of Similarities!
Speaking of ships and actual or potential ship sinking―there comes to mind another incident involving a ship. This particular ship appeared in a dream or vision that St. John Bosco had, concerning the “Ark of the Church” or “Ship of the Church.” On May 30th, 1862, St. John Bosco, in his customary ‘Good Night’ talk to an assembly of priests and the young clerics he was training, as well as the boys of his school, told them about a dream he had dreamt a few nights previously. He actually described it as a parable or allegory. Strictly speaking a parable is a general story with a deeper meaning, but one in which the points of the story may not all be significant, while in an allegory every detail is important and meaningful. In the case of Don Bosco’s dream it is difficult to know just how significant each point is. After some preliminary remarks he went on to describe what he had seen:
“Try to picture yourselves with me on the seashore, or, better still, on an outlying cliff with no other land in sight. The vast expanse of water is covered with a formidable array of ships in battle formation, prows [the front of the ship] fitted with sharp spear-like beaks capable of breaking through any defense. All are heavily armed with cannons, incendiary bombs, and firearms of all sorts ― even books ― and are heading toward one stately ship, mightier than them all. As they try to close in, they try to ram it, set it afire, and cripple it as much as possible.
“This stately vessel is shielded by a flotilla escort. Winds and waves are with the enemy. In this midst of this endless sea, two solid columns, a short distance apart, soar high into the sky: one is surmounted by a statue of the Immaculate Virgin at whose feet a large inscription reads: Help of Christians; the other, far loftier and sturdier, supports a [Communion] Host of proportionate size and bears beneath it the inscription Salvation of believers.
“The flagship commander ― the Roman Pontiff [the Pope] ― seeing the enemy’s fury and his auxiliary ships very grave predicament, summons his captains to a conference. However, as they discuss their strategy, a furious storm breaks out and they must return to their ships. When the storm abates, the Pope again summons his captains as the flagship keeps on its course. But the storm rages again. Standing at the helm, the Pope strains every muscle to steer his ship between the two columns, from whose summits hang many anchors and strong hooks linked to chains.
“The entire enemy fleet closes in to intercept and sink the flagship at all costs. They bombard it with everything they have: books and pamphlets, incendiary bombs, firearms, cannons. The battle rages ever more furious. Beaked prows ram the flagship again and again, but to no avail, as, unscathed and undaunted, it keeps on its course. At times a formidable ram splinters a gaping hole into its hull, but, immediately, a breeze from the two columns instantly seals the gash.
“Meanwhile, enemy cannons blow up, firearms and beaks fall to pieces, ships crack up and sink to the bottom. In blind fury the enemy takes to hand-to-hand combat, cursing and blaspheming. Suddenly the Pope falls, seriously wounded. He is instantly helped up but, struck down a second time, dies. A shout of victory rises from the enemy and wild rejoicing sweeps their ships. But no sooner is the Pope dead than another takes his place. The captains of the auxiliary ships elected him so quickly that the news of the Pope’s death coincides with that of his successor’s election. The enemy’s self-assurance wanes.
“Breaking through all resistance, the new Pope steers his ship safely between the two columns and moors it to the two columns; first to the one surmounted by the Host, and then to the other, topped by the statue of the Virgin. At this point something unexpected happens. The enemy ships panic and disperse, colliding with and scuttling each other. Some auxiliary ships which had gallantly fought alongside their flagship are the first to tie up at the two columns.
“Many others, which had fearfully kept far away from the fight, stand still, cautiously waiting until the wrecked enemy ships vanish under the waves. Then, they too head for the two columns, tie up at the swinging hooks, and ride safe and tranquil beside their flagship. A great calm now covers the sea.”
At this point, Don Bosco asked one of the priests present for his views. He replied that he thought that the flagship symbolized the Church headed by the Pope, with the ships representing mankind and the sea as an image of the world. The ships defending the flagship he equated with the laity and the attackers with those trying to destroy the Church, while the two columns represented devotion to Mary and the Eucharist.
He did not mention the death of the Pope and neither did Don Bosco in his reply, in which he agreed with what the priest had said, while adding that the enemy ships symbolized persecutions:
“Very grave trials await the Church. What we have suffered so far is almost nothing compared to what is going to happen. The enemies of the Church are symbolized by the ships which strive their utmost to sink the flagship. Only two things can save us in such a grave hour: devotion to Mary and frequent Communion. Let us do our very best to use these two means and have others use them everywhere.”
Not surprisingly this contents of this dream amazed all those listening, and four of those present wrote down what they had heard. Two wrote the next day, May 31st, and two some time later, but all four narratives agree substantially. Such small differences as were found can be explained on the basis that it is impossible to get every detail when remembering and writing a spoken narrative.
One point that did cause some argument amongst those who had been present was over whether there had been two popes as commander of the flagship as in the above account, or, as some thought, three. This point was made clearer in 1886, when one of those who had heard the dream recounted in 1862, returned to the Oratory. At dinner with Don Bosco he began to narrate the dream and was quite certain that two popes had fallen, since he was sure that after the first was struck down the captains of the other ships had said: “Let’s hurry, We can quickly replace him!”; on the second occasion he maintained that they had said nothing. Don Bosco seemed to back up this version of events by calling attention to what was being said, and so it is probable that we are dealing with three popes in the account. Those who had written down the dream, were convinced that it was a genuine vision and prophecy, although Don Bosco’s immediate aim was probably to encourage his boys to pray more fervently for the Church and the Pope, as well as to indicate the importance of devotion to Mary and the Blessed Sacrament.
We may be living part way through Don Bosco’s vision, but as in all genuine prophecy before its fulfillment, there is quite a degree of uncertainty and ambiguity, and it would be foolish to attempt to come to definite conclusions at this stage. The important point is the way in which the end of the vision points to what would seem to be the world-wide triumph of the Church, a triumph which will be recognized by all, but one which is only gained after much suffering.
Was the Second Vatican Council the Church’s “Iceberg”?
Has the Ark of the Church hit its own calamitous “iceberg”? Today, there is most certainly chaos on board the Ark of the Church―which seems to be taking on the water of worldliness and is listing towards Liberalism and risks splitting into schism. Staying with St. John Bosco for a moment, in a well-known prophecy, made in 1862, exactly 100 years before the disastrous Second Vatican Council was convoked, St. John Bosco predicted the Second Vatican Council and its disastrous impact on the Church. The relevant portion of the prophecy is: “There will be an Ecumenical Council in the next century, after which there will be chaos in the Church. Tranquility will not return until the Pope succeeds in anchoring the boat of Peter between the twin pillars of Eucharistic Devotion and Devotion to Our Lady.”
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich (1774-1824) also spoke of a calamitous council. Describing one of her visions in the 1820s, she said: “Among the strangest things that I saw, was long processions of bishops. Their thoughts and utterances were made known to me through images issuing from their mouths. Their faults towards religion were shown by external deformities ... I saw what I believe to be nearly all the bishops of the world, but only a small number were perfectly sound … I saw many good pious Bishops; but they were weak and wavering, their cowardice often got the upper hand … I saw the ever-increasing tepidity of the clergy, the circle of darkness ever widening … The priests let things go their way and said Mass very irreverently; only a few of them were still a little intelligent and pious ... Most priests contributed to the work of destruction ... I saw that many pastors allowed themselves to be taken up with ideas that were dangerous to the Church … A concession was demanded from the clergy which could not be granted. I saw many older priests, especially one, who wept bitterly. A few younger ones were also weeping. But others, and the lukewarm among them, readily did what was demanded. Religion is there so skillfully undermined and stifled that there are scarcely 100 faithful priests … It was as if people were splitting into two camps ... Near them I saw a horrible Beast coming up from the sea …... I saw the secret sect relentlessly undermining the great Church … They were building a great, strange, and extravagant Church. Everyone was to be admitted in it in order to be united and have equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics sects of every description. Such was to be the new Church …
“They built a large, singular, extravagant church which was to embrace all creeds with equal rights: Evangelicals, Catholics, and all denominations, a true communion of the unholy with one shepherd and one flock. There was to be a Pope, a salaried Pope, without possessions. All was made ready, many things finished; but, in place of an altar, were only abomination and desolation. Such was the new church to be, and it was for it that he had set fire to the old one … I see the black counterfeit church gaining ground, I see its fatal influence on the public … I saw the fatal consequences of this counterfeit church: I saw it increase; I saw heretics of all kinds flocking to the city ... Then I saw that everything pertaining to Protestantism was gradually gaining the upper hand, and the Catholic religion fell into complete decadence ... When the time of the reign of Antichrist is near, a false religion will appear which will be opposed to the unity of God and His Church. This will cause the greatest schism the world has ever known. The nearer the time of the end, the more the darkness of Satan will spread on Earth, the greater will be the number of the children of corruption, and the number of the just will correspondingly diminish … In those days, Faith will fall very low, and it will be preserved in some places only, in a few cottages and in a few families―which God has protected …
“When the Church had been for the most part destroyed by the secret sect, and when only the sanctuary and altar were still standing, I saw the wreckers enter the Church with the Beast. There they met a Woman of noble carriage who seemed to be with child because she walked slowly. At this sight, the enemies were terrorized, and the Beast could not take but another step forward. It projected its neck towards the Woman as if to devour her, but the Woman turned about and bowed down [towards the altar], her head touching the ground. Thereupon, I saw the Beast taking to flight towards the sea again, and the enemies were fleeing in the greatest confusion ….
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday April 3rd & Thursday April 4th
Article 29
The Sinking of the Titanic & The Sinking of the Church!
Article 29
The Sinking of the Titanic & The Sinking of the Church!
It’s That Time of the Year Again!
Years come and go, they change in number―but the months remain the same. No year repeats itself, but the months repeat themselves each year. They say that history repeats itself and they also say: “What goes around, comes around!”―meaning that if someone treats other people badly, then he or she will eventually be treated badly by someone else. They also say that if you do not know your history, then you will be obliged to learn your history by the repeating the mistakes of history. The origins of that last quote are disputed―though its truth is undisputed. We should learn from our own mistakes or the mistakes of others, so that we do not repeat them.
“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it!” Some attribute the quote to the writer and philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952), and they argue that in its original form, made in 1905, it was: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it!” Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) twice Prime Minister of England, paraphrased the original quote in 1948, in a speech to Parliament in the House of Commons, saying: “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it!”
It seems that most Catholics do not know their history very well and are on course for a collision with fate (or God’s Providence), much like crew on the famous English ship, the Titanic, refused to learn what was being told them from neighboring ships, and thus was on course for its collision with fate (or God’s providence) by hitting the fatal iceberg on the night of April 13th, 1912. It was around this time of the year―March 31st, 1912―that the Titanic was finally completed and fully fitted. It had taken around 3,000 workers around 3 years to build her. On April 2nd, 1912, the fully completed Titanic took to water for the first time in her life (baptized, so to speak) in order to undergo the obligatory “sea trials” before being passed as being “ship-shape” for active duty.
The Unsinkable Encounters the Unthinkable
In the lead-up to that fateful night of April 13th (the collision) and April 14th (the sinking), let us, by way of analogy or similitude, learn what we can from history and see how much of what we learn can be applied to the present plight of the ‘Titanic’ Catholic Church, which seems to have struck its own ‘iceberg’ or perhaps several ‘icebergs’ in its voyage through time hoping to take its passengers to Heaven.
What we learn can also be applied to the “Titanic” of your family, or even your own personal life―for there are many who think that they cannot possibly “sink” into Hell, just like many said that the Titanic was unsinkable! Had the owners and crew of the Titanic followed the rules and recommendations, then, not only would all the persons on-board have been saved, but the Titanic would never have hit the iceberg at full-speed ahead and consequently and tragically sunk.
There are many, today, sailing “full-speed-ahead”―but in what direction? The plush and comfortable Titanic sailed into the graveyard of death; the uncomfortable and harsh conditions of the lifeboats saved the lives of a few on the desert of the sea. Do we want the Titanic or its lifeboat? The city or the desert? Pleasure or penance? Fun or fasting?
“God Himself could not sink this ship!”
It is difficult to discover exactly where or when the term ‘unsinkable’ was first used. An extract from a White Star Line publicity brochure produced in 1910 for the twin ships Olympic and Titanic which states —“these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable.” On June 1st, 1911, the Irish News and the Belfast Morning News contained a report on the launching of Titanic’s hull. The article described the system of watertight compartments and electronic watertight doors and concluded that Titanic was practically unsinkable. In 1911, Shipbuilder magazine published an article on the White Star Line’s sister ships Titanic and Olympic. The article described the construction of the ship and concluded that Titanic was practically unsinkable. “God Himself could not sink this ship!” This quotation is reputed to have been the answer given by a deck-hand, when asked if Titanic was really unsinkable.
Whatever the origin of the belief, there is no doubt that people did believe Titanic to be unsinkable. Passenger Margaret Devaney said: “I took passage on the Titanic for I thought it would be a safe steamship and I had heard it could not sink.” Another passenger, the American Thomson Beattie, wrote home: “We are changing ships and coming home in a new unsinkable boat.” It was the beginning of the twentieth century and people had absolute Faith in new science and technology. They believed that science in the twentieth century could and would provide answers to solve all problems. The sinking of the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic shattered much confidence in science and made people more skeptical about such fantastic claims.
Noe’s Ark versus Titanic
The Titanic was bigger, heavier, stronger and far more comfortable than Noe’s Ark, but it sank anyway, while Noe’s Ark got the job done. One was designed by God, the other designed by man. Noe’s Ark was around 450 feet long (about 1½ lengths of a football field), while the Titanic was almost twice as long as Noe’s Ark, at 883 feet (almost 3 football fields). The Ark was around 75 feet wide, compared to the slightly wider Titanic at 92 feet wide. The height of the Ark was about 45 feet, compared to the 104 feet of the Titanic. The Ark was made of God created wood; the Titanic was constructed from man-made steel. In a certain way, you could say that the Titanic was a modern-day Tower of Babel, the pride of human endeavor!
A 1993 Korean study, headed by Dr. Seon Won Hong, found no fault with the Ark’s dimensions. Such a vessel would have been seaworthy and able to handle waves as high as 100 feet. God’s blueprints were more than adequate! Interestingly, the Hebrew word for Ark (tebah) is used only one other time in the Bible, as the name of the basket that carried baby Moses down the Nile. Some scholars think tebah is more accurately translated “lifeboat” or “life-saving boat.” The Ark was certainly the only lifeboat available to survive the judgment of the Flood. The authorities in charge of the Titanic are said to have refused to place the required number of lifeboats to cater for all passengers in the case of an emergency, because (1) they said that too many visible lifeboats would make the passengers feel uneasy and nervous, and (2) that the Titanic should sink was something unthinkable, for it was unsinkable!
False Sense of Security
Imagine the many different reactions on board the ill-fated Titanic. There was the bravado that idealistically and unrealistically thought that this ship could never sink—especially on this, the Titanic’s maiden voyage! Many survivors testified that they hoped against hope that somehow the ship would not go under. Some knew, or sensed, almost immediately that things would not fare well. Others refused to face reality and kept on enjoying themselves until the very last minutes, when the obvious became obvious. The ship’s captain, Edward Smith, was on record as having said that he could not “imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.”
It seems incredible to us today that anyone could believe that 70,000 tons of steel could be unsinkable, but that was exactly what people in 1912 believed. When the New York office of the White Star Line was informed that Titanic was in trouble, White Star Line Vice President P.A.S. Franklin announced “We place absolute confidence in the Titanic. We believe the boat is unsinkable.” By the time Franklin spoke those words Titanic was at the bottom of the ocean. It would seem that the White Star Line President was also influenced by the myth.
The Catholic’s False Sense of Security
We all know that Our Lord promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against the Catholic Church: “And I say to thee: ‘That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it!’” (Matthew 16:18). But this does not mean that most of Church could not “go under” and “sink.” In a sense, the Titanic was unsinkable, because its lifeboats—which were really and truly a part of the Titanic and not independent of it—still remained afloat, while the rest of the glorious ship sank disastrously beneath the waves. Perhaps one of those lifeboats, still a part of the Titanic, remains visible in some naval museum to this very day. The very words of Our Lord--“The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8)—show that only a remnant of the Faith, or Church, will remain.
This is compounded and reinforced with other quotes, such as: “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14) — as though He would say, “Wide is the ship, but narrow is the lifeboat, and few there are who find it!” St. Luke adds the question that provoked that answer: “A certain man said to him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!” (Luke 13:23-24). Are there few that will avoid going down with the Catholic Titanic? Our Lord gave the answer. “Many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16).
Is the Catholic Titanic Sinking?
You would look pretty silly frantically climbing into a ship’s lifeboat if there was no danger of the ship sinking, wouldn’t you? Isn’t it a bit silly to think that the Catholic Titanic, or Catholic Church, is sinking or could sink? Well, let’s answer that in stages. Is it silly having lifeboats on a ship if you think it is unlikely to sink? No. Is it silly paying insurance premiums just because you think you are a safe-driver; or paying health insurance, because you think you’re pretty healthy? No. Is it silly telling and warning your children about Hell just because you think your children won’t go there? No. Is it silly locking your car doors just because the odds of someone stealing your car or something from your car is fairly remote? No. In other words, there is nothing wrong in taking precautions in case something might happen. Are you silly for locking the doors of your house when you go away, or when you sleep at night? No. We all do these things on a regular basis, day-in day-out.
The Sinking of the Catholic Titanic is Not Just Imagination
As was noted above, Christ’s promise that His Church will not be destroyed, does not apply to each and every portion of the Church, nor does it apply to each and every member of the Church. History clearly shows this to be true. Heresies and schisms there have always been—and these two things mean that someone, who is part of the Church, does something that makes them no longer part of the Church. It is like a part of a ship that ‘falls-off’ or is destroyed, even though the whole ship is not destroyed. If the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, then, just like a human body, parts of the Mystical Body of the Church can become diseased and die — even be amputated — even though the body remains. A person could have their fingers, toes, arms, feet, legs, ears, nose amputated; they could have their tongue cut-out, their eyes gouged-out; even have some internal organs removed — and yet still remain living and be a person, though a severely crippled person.
Benedict XVI Speaks of the Sinking Church
Pope Benedict XVI, a few years ago, confessed that in all likelihood the Church, in the near future, will be a GREATLY reduced Church—having lost most of its members. “She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes ... she will lose many of her social privileges. . . As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members .... It will be hard-going for the Church … It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek ... The process will be long and wearisome … And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals.” (from his book Faith and the Future).
Our Lady Speaks of the Sinking Church
The above comments of Benedict XVI obviously refer to the apostasy from the Faith that Our Lady has alluded to on several occasions: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God” (Our Lady of La Salette). “The Church will be full of those who accept compromises” (Our Lady of Akita). “The demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord” (Our Lady of Akita). “Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops” (Our Lady of La Salette). “Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls” (Our Lady of La Salette). “The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … a false light [will] brighten the people” (Our Lady of La Salette). “Various heresies will be propagated. As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls” (Our Lady of Good Success). “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs” (Our Lady of Good Success). “The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom.” (Our Lady of Good Success). “Rome will lose the Faith” (Our Lady of La Salette). “However, in Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will be preserved” (Our Lady of Fatima).
Let’s Conduct an Inquiry!
Inquiries into the Titanic disaster were immediately held in the USA and in England, with crew and passengers, as well as crew of nearby ships, giving evidence. The two inquiries reached broadly similar conclusions; (1) the regulations on the number of lifeboats that ships had to carry were out of date and inadequate, (2) Captain Smith had failed to take proper heed of ice warnings, (3) the lifeboats had not been properly filled or crewed, (4) the lifeboat drills had not been carried out to prepare the passengers and crew for the possibility of the ship sinking, (5) there was a gross negligence on the part of Titanic’s wireless operators in their communication with other ships, (6) and the collision was the direct result of steaming into a dangerous area at too high a speed.
We could loosely make an analogous inquiry into why the Catholic Titanic is sinking, and the evidence shows that (1) the number of prayers and sacrifices (the ‘lifeboats’ of the Church) that we think we ought to carry (pray and do) are insufficient in number and in poor condition, (2) Catholic Captains—the clergy, parents and teachers—have failed to take proper heed of Our Lady’s icy warnings, (3) the prayers requests (lifeboats) of Our Lady have not been properly filled or instigated, (4) there has been a neglect in instructing souls in spiritual drills and exercises for the possibility of a sinking Church, (5) there has been a gross neglect, by those in authority—clergy, parents, teachers—in their communication with Heaven and communicating Heaven’s messages to those in their charge, (6) and the damage to the ship of the Church is the direct result steaming into the dangerous waters of the world, at high speed, without due care and attention.
Years come and go, they change in number―but the months remain the same. No year repeats itself, but the months repeat themselves each year. They say that history repeats itself and they also say: “What goes around, comes around!”―meaning that if someone treats other people badly, then he or she will eventually be treated badly by someone else. They also say that if you do not know your history, then you will be obliged to learn your history by the repeating the mistakes of history. The origins of that last quote are disputed―though its truth is undisputed. We should learn from our own mistakes or the mistakes of others, so that we do not repeat them.
“Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it!” Some attribute the quote to the writer and philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952), and they argue that in its original form, made in 1905, it was: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it!” Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965) twice Prime Minister of England, paraphrased the original quote in 1948, in a speech to Parliament in the House of Commons, saying: “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it!”
It seems that most Catholics do not know their history very well and are on course for a collision with fate (or God’s Providence), much like crew on the famous English ship, the Titanic, refused to learn what was being told them from neighboring ships, and thus was on course for its collision with fate (or God’s providence) by hitting the fatal iceberg on the night of April 13th, 1912. It was around this time of the year―March 31st, 1912―that the Titanic was finally completed and fully fitted. It had taken around 3,000 workers around 3 years to build her. On April 2nd, 1912, the fully completed Titanic took to water for the first time in her life (baptized, so to speak) in order to undergo the obligatory “sea trials” before being passed as being “ship-shape” for active duty.
The Unsinkable Encounters the Unthinkable
In the lead-up to that fateful night of April 13th (the collision) and April 14th (the sinking), let us, by way of analogy or similitude, learn what we can from history and see how much of what we learn can be applied to the present plight of the ‘Titanic’ Catholic Church, which seems to have struck its own ‘iceberg’ or perhaps several ‘icebergs’ in its voyage through time hoping to take its passengers to Heaven.
What we learn can also be applied to the “Titanic” of your family, or even your own personal life―for there are many who think that they cannot possibly “sink” into Hell, just like many said that the Titanic was unsinkable! Had the owners and crew of the Titanic followed the rules and recommendations, then, not only would all the persons on-board have been saved, but the Titanic would never have hit the iceberg at full-speed ahead and consequently and tragically sunk.
There are many, today, sailing “full-speed-ahead”―but in what direction? The plush and comfortable Titanic sailed into the graveyard of death; the uncomfortable and harsh conditions of the lifeboats saved the lives of a few on the desert of the sea. Do we want the Titanic or its lifeboat? The city or the desert? Pleasure or penance? Fun or fasting?
“God Himself could not sink this ship!”
It is difficult to discover exactly where or when the term ‘unsinkable’ was first used. An extract from a White Star Line publicity brochure produced in 1910 for the twin ships Olympic and Titanic which states —“these two wonderful vessels are designed to be unsinkable.” On June 1st, 1911, the Irish News and the Belfast Morning News contained a report on the launching of Titanic’s hull. The article described the system of watertight compartments and electronic watertight doors and concluded that Titanic was practically unsinkable. In 1911, Shipbuilder magazine published an article on the White Star Line’s sister ships Titanic and Olympic. The article described the construction of the ship and concluded that Titanic was practically unsinkable. “God Himself could not sink this ship!” This quotation is reputed to have been the answer given by a deck-hand, when asked if Titanic was really unsinkable.
Whatever the origin of the belief, there is no doubt that people did believe Titanic to be unsinkable. Passenger Margaret Devaney said: “I took passage on the Titanic for I thought it would be a safe steamship and I had heard it could not sink.” Another passenger, the American Thomson Beattie, wrote home: “We are changing ships and coming home in a new unsinkable boat.” It was the beginning of the twentieth century and people had absolute Faith in new science and technology. They believed that science in the twentieth century could and would provide answers to solve all problems. The sinking of the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic shattered much confidence in science and made people more skeptical about such fantastic claims.
Noe’s Ark versus Titanic
The Titanic was bigger, heavier, stronger and far more comfortable than Noe’s Ark, but it sank anyway, while Noe’s Ark got the job done. One was designed by God, the other designed by man. Noe’s Ark was around 450 feet long (about 1½ lengths of a football field), while the Titanic was almost twice as long as Noe’s Ark, at 883 feet (almost 3 football fields). The Ark was around 75 feet wide, compared to the slightly wider Titanic at 92 feet wide. The height of the Ark was about 45 feet, compared to the 104 feet of the Titanic. The Ark was made of God created wood; the Titanic was constructed from man-made steel. In a certain way, you could say that the Titanic was a modern-day Tower of Babel, the pride of human endeavor!
A 1993 Korean study, headed by Dr. Seon Won Hong, found no fault with the Ark’s dimensions. Such a vessel would have been seaworthy and able to handle waves as high as 100 feet. God’s blueprints were more than adequate! Interestingly, the Hebrew word for Ark (tebah) is used only one other time in the Bible, as the name of the basket that carried baby Moses down the Nile. Some scholars think tebah is more accurately translated “lifeboat” or “life-saving boat.” The Ark was certainly the only lifeboat available to survive the judgment of the Flood. The authorities in charge of the Titanic are said to have refused to place the required number of lifeboats to cater for all passengers in the case of an emergency, because (1) they said that too many visible lifeboats would make the passengers feel uneasy and nervous, and (2) that the Titanic should sink was something unthinkable, for it was unsinkable!
False Sense of Security
Imagine the many different reactions on board the ill-fated Titanic. There was the bravado that idealistically and unrealistically thought that this ship could never sink—especially on this, the Titanic’s maiden voyage! Many survivors testified that they hoped against hope that somehow the ship would not go under. Some knew, or sensed, almost immediately that things would not fare well. Others refused to face reality and kept on enjoying themselves until the very last minutes, when the obvious became obvious. The ship’s captain, Edward Smith, was on record as having said that he could not “imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that.”
It seems incredible to us today that anyone could believe that 70,000 tons of steel could be unsinkable, but that was exactly what people in 1912 believed. When the New York office of the White Star Line was informed that Titanic was in trouble, White Star Line Vice President P.A.S. Franklin announced “We place absolute confidence in the Titanic. We believe the boat is unsinkable.” By the time Franklin spoke those words Titanic was at the bottom of the ocean. It would seem that the White Star Line President was also influenced by the myth.
The Catholic’s False Sense of Security
We all know that Our Lord promised that the gates of Hell would not prevail against the Catholic Church: “And I say to thee: ‘That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it!’” (Matthew 16:18). But this does not mean that most of Church could not “go under” and “sink.” In a sense, the Titanic was unsinkable, because its lifeboats—which were really and truly a part of the Titanic and not independent of it—still remained afloat, while the rest of the glorious ship sank disastrously beneath the waves. Perhaps one of those lifeboats, still a part of the Titanic, remains visible in some naval museum to this very day. The very words of Our Lord--“The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8)—show that only a remnant of the Faith, or Church, will remain.
This is compounded and reinforced with other quotes, such as: “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14) — as though He would say, “Wide is the ship, but narrow is the lifeboat, and few there are who find it!” St. Luke adds the question that provoked that answer: “A certain man said to him: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!” (Luke 13:23-24). Are there few that will avoid going down with the Catholic Titanic? Our Lord gave the answer. “Many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16).
Is the Catholic Titanic Sinking?
You would look pretty silly frantically climbing into a ship’s lifeboat if there was no danger of the ship sinking, wouldn’t you? Isn’t it a bit silly to think that the Catholic Titanic, or Catholic Church, is sinking or could sink? Well, let’s answer that in stages. Is it silly having lifeboats on a ship if you think it is unlikely to sink? No. Is it silly paying insurance premiums just because you think you are a safe-driver; or paying health insurance, because you think you’re pretty healthy? No. Is it silly telling and warning your children about Hell just because you think your children won’t go there? No. Is it silly locking your car doors just because the odds of someone stealing your car or something from your car is fairly remote? No. In other words, there is nothing wrong in taking precautions in case something might happen. Are you silly for locking the doors of your house when you go away, or when you sleep at night? No. We all do these things on a regular basis, day-in day-out.
The Sinking of the Catholic Titanic is Not Just Imagination
As was noted above, Christ’s promise that His Church will not be destroyed, does not apply to each and every portion of the Church, nor does it apply to each and every member of the Church. History clearly shows this to be true. Heresies and schisms there have always been—and these two things mean that someone, who is part of the Church, does something that makes them no longer part of the Church. It is like a part of a ship that ‘falls-off’ or is destroyed, even though the whole ship is not destroyed. If the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ, then, just like a human body, parts of the Mystical Body of the Church can become diseased and die — even be amputated — even though the body remains. A person could have their fingers, toes, arms, feet, legs, ears, nose amputated; they could have their tongue cut-out, their eyes gouged-out; even have some internal organs removed — and yet still remain living and be a person, though a severely crippled person.
Benedict XVI Speaks of the Sinking Church
Pope Benedict XVI, a few years ago, confessed that in all likelihood the Church, in the near future, will be a GREATLY reduced Church—having lost most of its members. “She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes ... she will lose many of her social privileges. . . As a small society, [the Church] will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members .... It will be hard-going for the Church … It will make her poor and cause her to become the Church of the meek ... The process will be long and wearisome … And so it seems certain to me that the Church is facing very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely begun. We will have to count on terrific upheavals.” (from his book Faith and the Future).
Our Lady Speaks of the Sinking Church
The above comments of Benedict XVI obviously refer to the apostasy from the Faith that Our Lady has alluded to on several occasions: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith little by little, even in those dedicated to God” (Our Lady of La Salette). “The Church will be full of those who accept compromises” (Our Lady of Akita). “The demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord” (Our Lady of Akita). “Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops” (Our Lady of La Salette). “Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls” (Our Lady of La Salette). “The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … a false light [will] brighten the people” (Our Lady of La Salette). “Various heresies will be propagated. As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls” (Our Lady of Good Success). “The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of customs” (Our Lady of Good Success). “The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom.” (Our Lady of Good Success). “Rome will lose the Faith” (Our Lady of La Salette). “However, in Portugal, the dogma of the Faith will be preserved” (Our Lady of Fatima).
Let’s Conduct an Inquiry!
Inquiries into the Titanic disaster were immediately held in the USA and in England, with crew and passengers, as well as crew of nearby ships, giving evidence. The two inquiries reached broadly similar conclusions; (1) the regulations on the number of lifeboats that ships had to carry were out of date and inadequate, (2) Captain Smith had failed to take proper heed of ice warnings, (3) the lifeboats had not been properly filled or crewed, (4) the lifeboat drills had not been carried out to prepare the passengers and crew for the possibility of the ship sinking, (5) there was a gross negligence on the part of Titanic’s wireless operators in their communication with other ships, (6) and the collision was the direct result of steaming into a dangerous area at too high a speed.
We could loosely make an analogous inquiry into why the Catholic Titanic is sinking, and the evidence shows that (1) the number of prayers and sacrifices (the ‘lifeboats’ of the Church) that we think we ought to carry (pray and do) are insufficient in number and in poor condition, (2) Catholic Captains—the clergy, parents and teachers—have failed to take proper heed of Our Lady’s icy warnings, (3) the prayers requests (lifeboats) of Our Lady have not been properly filled or instigated, (4) there has been a neglect in instructing souls in spiritual drills and exercises for the possibility of a sinking Church, (5) there has been a gross neglect, by those in authority—clergy, parents, teachers—in their communication with Heaven and communicating Heaven’s messages to those in their charge, (6) and the damage to the ship of the Church is the direct result steaming into the dangerous waters of the world, at high speed, without due care and attention.
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Monday April 1st & Tuesday April 2nd
Article 28
Don't Be Intimidated!
Article 28
Don't Be Intimidated!
Intimidation is the Name of the Game
We live in an intimidating world! We are living in intimidating times! We are under constant threat from one side or another. As a whole, the world is in a financial crisis―businesses are closing down, jobs are being lost, prices are rising, continuing threats of Social Security payments being stopped, threats of epidemic diseases, a marked rise in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires, droughts and famine. Threats to ‘terrorist’ shootings on streets, in schools and public venues. Threats to privacy through computer and phone cameras and microphones filming, photographing and recording everything they want―to be stored in a gargantuan digital library. Hacking electronic devices and spying or stealing through them. Threats to freedom by subversive surveillance and tracking techniques through phones, computers, televisions, computerized car systems, closed circuit cameras in stores and on streets, and drones. ‘Big Brother’ is playing at being God and ‘Big Brother’ is watching you closely. Furthermore, we are part of a Church that is being intimidated! And things will only get worse! Our Lord and Our Lady have already foretold this state of affairs.
Intimidation of Our Lord
Our Lord, while He still walked this Earth, also suffered intimidation from the Jews―especially the Scribes and Pharisees―who conspired against Him: “And the Pharisees going out made a consultation against Him, how they might destroy Him” (Matthew 12:14). “And the Pharisees going out, immediately made a consultation with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him … And they watched Him whether He would heal on the Sabbath days; that they might accuse Him … The Chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might destroy Him. For they feared Him, because the whole multitude was in admiration at His doctrine … Now the feast of the Pasch and of the Azymes was after two days; and the Chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might by some wile lay hold on Him, and kill Him … And Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the Chief Priests, to betray Him to them. Who, at hearing it, were glad; and they promised him they would give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray Him” (Mark 3:6; 3:2; 11:18; 14:1; 14:10-11). “And the Chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might put Jesus to death: but they feared the people” (Luke 22:2). “The Chief Priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said: ‘What do we do, for this Man doth many miracles? If we so leave Him alone, all will believe in Him and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation! But one of them, named Caiphas, being the High Priest that year, said to them: ‘You know nothing! Neither do you realize that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, so that the whole nation perish not!’ And this he spoke, not of himself, but being the High Priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation. And not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God, that were dispersed. From that day therefore they devised to put Him to death. Wherefore, Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews; but He went into a country near the desert, unto a city that is called Ephrem, and there He abode with His disciples” (John 11:47-54).
If They Have Intimidated Me, They Will Also Intimidate You
Let us not be surprised at the ceaseless and growing intimidation and persecution that the Mystical Body of Christ has undergone, is undergoing and will undergo even more so in the future! Our Lord foretold it. Our Lady foretold. While He still walked this Earth, Our Lord warned us: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). Our Lord then goes on to paint a very intimidating picture of our times:
“You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. And when you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled and fear ye not. For such things must needs be and these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes in places. Now all these are the beginnings of sorrows. But look to yourselves. For they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony unto them. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death. The brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all nations and by all men for My Name’s sake. And then shall many be scandalized and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. And then if any man shall say to you, ‘Lo, here is Christ! Lo, He is here!’—do not believe! For there will rise up false Christs and false prophets, and they shall show signs and wonders, to seduce (if it were possible) even the elect. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. But he that shall persevere and endure to the end, he shall be saved. For in those days shall be such tribulations, as were not from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, neither shall be. And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect which He hath chosen, He hath shortened the days. Take you heed therefore; behold I have foretold you all things” (Combined version of Matthew 24:6-13 and Mark 13:7-23). It might be April 1st― “April Fools Day” ― but Our Lord is not fooling around, He is not joking! His message is intimidating!
Our Lady of Intimidation
Our Lady―nearly 2,000 years later―says nothing different to her Son. At Quito (as Our Lady of Good Success), at Fatima and Akita, her message is equally intimidating―or even more intimidating, since it goes into more detail: “
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this!
“I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! …
“The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people.
“During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family.
“The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised. ... The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God ... The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres … The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord ... The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them … These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good Pastors of the Church.
“As for the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and profaned in the fullest sense of the word. Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church ... The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world …
“Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent ... Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime. Tremble, Earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves! Tremble, for God will hand you over to His enemy, because the holy places are in a state of corruption. Many convents are no longer houses of God, but the grazing-grounds of Asmodeas [the devil of impurity] and his like.
“Many men in this world afflict the Lord … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness …
“Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will strike in an unprecedented way. God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God.
“France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy, because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes … The seasons will be altered, the Earth will produce nothing but bad fruit, the stars will lose their regular motion, the moon will only reflect a faint reddish glow. Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains, cities, etc...
“The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis ... Churches will be locked up or desecrated … and altars sacked … Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death. Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... as true Faith fades and false light will brighten the people … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin.
“The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! … The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings … Nations will be annihilated … Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy ... Blood will flow on all sides ... There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. People will believe that all is lost! … Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the length of the test?” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
Do Not Allow Yourself to be Intimidated
Yet despite that intimidating picture, Our Lord adds: “And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do!” (Luke 12:4). “Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul―but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell!” (Matthew 10:28). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12).
The Holy Ghost, in the Old Testament warns: “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Fear them not―for the Lord your God will fight for you! … Because the Lord your God is in the midst of you, and will fight for you against your enemies, to deliver you from danger … The Lord God, Who is your leader, Himself will fight for you, as He did in Egypt in the sight of all” (Deuteronomy 3:22; 20:4; 1:30). While in the New Testament He adds: “Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit―which is the word of God. By all prayer and supplication, praying at all times!” (Ephesians 6:11-17).
Our Lady Calls Us to the Intimidating Battle
“The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession ... Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you … Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and the end of the war … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests! … I desire souls to console and to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful … If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace … At the blood, the tears and prayers of the righteous, God will relent … This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration … This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss. Thus the Church will be finally free of his cruel tyranny ... In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph! … Those who place their confidence in me will be saved … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach! …
“God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven! I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men! I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit! Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends!
“And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ, and all those given over to sin, will perish and the Earth will become desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshiped and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the Holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious in Its poor but fervent imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in its Faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
The Power of Prayer―The Power of Monasteries and Convents
Everyone underestimates the power of prayer and everyone underestimates the power of monasteries and convents. Our Lady of Good Success says: “The exquisite aroma that perfumes the fortunate countries that possess monasteries and convents, purifies the air polluted by those in the world delivered over to the most shameful vices and passions ... Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils ... No one, on the face of the Earth, is aware from where comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
With Religious Vocations Falling―So Does the Church
Perhaps you are unaware―perhaps you don’t even care―but Catholic vocations to the priestly and religious life have fallen drastically over the last 50 years (since the end of Second Vatican Council in 1965). Most Catholics know little about their Faith, therefore they know even less about the statistics concerning their Faith―they are content to know “news headlines” and no more. Well, since 1965 the numbers of vocations to the priestly or religious life (monks, nuns, brothers, sisters) has plummeted.
► PRIESTS: The Catholic population has risen enormously since 1965―doubling from 653 million to 1,313 million by the end of 2018. Whereas the worldwide number of Catholic priests (combined total for both diocesan and religious priests) was over 420,000 in 1965 and was around 410,000 at the end of 2018. However, the average age of those priests has risen from around 35 years old in 1965 to over 65 years old in 2019―which means that soon, there will be massive collapse in the number of priests as the older ones die, for there are few younger ones to replace them. Although the Vatican report does not mention it, it is no secret that very large numbers of European and North American clergy are in the age range of late 70s to 90s, which explains why the official statistics for priests in Europe and North America have little to do with the actual (and much reduced) number of priests available for, or capable of, pastoral duties on the ground. In 1970, fewer than 10% of priests in the USA were over the age of 65. Now it is somewhere between 45% and 50%.
Not only that, but the rise in the Catholic population to 1,313 million, means that globally there are 3,200 persons per priest to care for―if each priest of those 410,000 were in active service (which they are not) and if all Catholics were practicing Catholics (which they are not). While globally there are 3,200 Catholics for every Catholic priest, in South America the average priest serves 7,203 Catholics, according to Vatican statistics. In the United States and Canada, for comparison, the Vatican estimates that there are 1,916 Catholics for every priest. As will be shown further below, a priest has only limited time daily to give to his flock of 2,000 to 3,200 souls―which, giving a priest a hypothetical 7 to 8 hours a day of potential “contact time”, that comes out to daily seeing 4 persons per minute (for 2,000 souls), or giving each of those 2,000 persons 1½ minutes per week, or 6 minutes a month. If the priest has 3,200 souls committed to is care, then he can see 400 people per hour, almost 7 persons per minute, or allocate each person 1 minute a day, or 4 minutes a week.
Most Catholics are oblivious to the impending disaster to the priesthood in the USA. After the USA number of priest skyrocketed from about 27,000 in 1930 to 58,000 in 1965, the number of priests in the United States fell to around 45,000 in 2002, to 38,000 in 2014. By 2020, there will be about 31,000 priests―and only 15,000 will be under the age of 70, according to a study conducted by Dr. James R. Lothian of Fordham University.
► NUNS & SISTERS: The fall in the numbers of religious vocations (monks, nuns, brothers, sisters) is of an appalling magnitude! Worldwide, in 1965, there were 1 million nuns and sisters―today that has fallen to 650,000, with most of those nuns and sisters being aged 70 and over. In the USA alone, female religious (nuns and sisters) have fallen from a total of over 180,000 in 1965 to having only 153,645 in 1970, and 92,107 in 1995, 68,634 in 2005, and 49,883 in 2014. The Vatican’s statistical yearbook, the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (the Annual Statistics of the Church) confirms that continual fall. Thus the USA female religious numbers fell by more than 70%. The USA is not alone. According to a 2000 study by Rodney Stark and Roger Finke, between 1965 and 1995 the number of nuns plummeted by 51% in the Netherlands, by 48% in Germany, by 46% in Canada, by 44% in France, and by 43% in the UK―statistics that are on par with the 49% fall in the USA over the same time frame. The current worldwide total of female religious, at the end of 2017, was 659,000, compared to over 1 million in 1965. The age status of European and North American women religious is the same as that of priests in Europe and North America, with the majority of nuns and sisters being extremely old― very aged, and when they die in the near future, the fall in overall numbers of nuns and sisters will be disastrous.
► MONKS & BROTHERS: The numbers of monks and brothers is even worse. Worldwide, the numbers of male religious (monks and brothers) fell from 79,408 in 1970, to 52,625 in 2016―which represents an average loss of 34% worldwide. The figures for the USA monks and brothers are even worse―they have fallen twice as much, from 12,271 in 1965, to 8,625 in 1975, to 7,544 in 1985, to 6,535 in 1995, to 4,119 in 2012, and to 4,007 in 2014―which is an overall fall of 67% from 1965 to 2014 in the USA.
As Our Lady of Good Success said: “Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils ... No one, on the face of the Earth, is aware from where comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
An Idiotic Attempt to Cover the Collapse
In a National Catholic Reporter article from 2008, it was reported that James Davidson, a Catholic sociologist of religion from Purdue University in Indiana, “believes it’s inaccurate to interpret the shrinking number of priests and a decrease in the number of men and women joining religious communities as a general decline in the Catholic Church. Instead, he said, rising numbers of deacons and lay ecclesial ministers point to a Catholic Church that is vibrant, though perhaps one that will be led in a different way in the future. ‘The Church is being transformed as the social context of the laity is being transformed … The strength and vitality of the Catholic Church is in its laity’ said Davidson.” (National Catholic Reporter, October 21st. 2008). This is as ridiculous argument as one that would say we are heading towards a vibrant health care system, because of an ever-increasing shortage of doctors and nurses, who are being replaced by well-meaning lay people. Or the country’s defense system is becoming more vibrant and secure, because trained soldiers are abandoning ing the military in unprecedented numbers, but they are being replaced by folks at home who are ready to pick up a gun in the event of a war.
What a load of baloney! What stupidity! What a bunch of blatant damage limitation waffle! What a waste of his university education! Since when does a “shrinking number of priests and a decrease in the number of men and women joining religious communities” … “point to a Catholic Church that is vibrant”? Is a massive loss of highly and specially trained priests, monks, a good thing? Davidson argues that “the Church is being transformed as … rising numbers of deacons and lay ecclesial ministers” are taking the place of priests and religious to create “a Catholic Church that is vibrant, though perhaps one that will be led in a different way in the future”―and perhaps led to a different final destination too!
A Day in the Life of Priest
► Daily Sleep = 7 hours
► Shower, Dress, Bathroom/Restroom throughout the day, etc. = 30 minutes
► Breakfast (15 minutes), Lunch (30 minutes), Dinner (15 minutes) = 1 hour total
► Obligation of offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (prayers before/after Mass; vest/unvest for Mass) = 1 hour
► Obligation of Praying the Divine Office (properly and not hurriedly) = 1 hour
► Obligation of Daily Meditation & Rosary & additional prayers = 1 hour
► Daily Religious Study (review of Faith, prepare sermons, conferences, classes) = 1 hour
► End of Day preparing for bed = 30 minutes
► Total for the day: 13 hours per day.
► Most of these estimates are extremely minimal and will frequently take longer than estimated above.
This total of 13 hours per day is minimal and will frequently take up much more time―which does not include the “dripping-faucet-of-time” activities that quickly fill up the day with additional minutes and hours. Walking or driving from one place to another―simply leaving one activity, such as studying and having to put things away and walking over the church to say Mass―that all takes minutes, and such “dripping-minutes” easily add up to an hour or more per day. Answering phone calls, answering the door, reading mail, writing letters, routine maintenance, parish meetings for various different groups, daily checking on local and world news both Catholic and secular, personal exercise or health care, etc. All of this can easily add one, two or three more hours to the day. In the end, the priest has around 8 hours to do other things.
There are simply too few priests to go around and cater for the larger numbers of Catholic laity―which has doubles since 1965, while the overall number of priests has declined―not forgetting that average age of the priest in 2018 is over 65 years of age, compared overall average of only 35 years of age back in 1965. Imagine being told to double your workload and output by 100% at your place of work and not being any extra time to do it in! Twice the work, in the same time constraint, with no additional help. This is one fundamental reason―and there are several others―for the decline in interest, knowledge and practice of the Catholic Faith, whereby numbers of regular Sunday church-goers have fallen from an average of 3 out 4 in the 1950s to less than 1 in 4 in 2018.
The Intimidation of Having “Gay” Priests
Using the term “gay” does not mean a cheerful, friendly, happy priest―it sadly means a homosexual priest. Apparently, according to various reports―from outside the Church and more importantly from within the Church―the number of homosexual priests is not a meager number! Only around 10 priests in the United States have publicly admitted to being homosexuals. But it is estimated that around 30% to 40% (3 to 4 out of 10) of the American Catholic clergy are probably homosexual, according to dozens of estimates from homosexual priests themselves and researchers. Some priests say the number is closer to 75% (15 out of 20). One priest in Wisconsin is on record as saying that he assumes every priest is homosexual, unless he knows for a fact he is not. Another priest in Florida said: “A third are gay, a third are straight and a third don’t know what the hell they are!”
The New York TImes recently interviewed 24 homosexual priests and seminarians from 13 different states in the USA, who shared details of their lives within the “the Catholic closet.” As The New York Times reports: “Almost all of them required strict confidentiality to speak without fear of retribution from their bishops or superiors. A few had been expressly forbidden to come out or even to speak about homosexuality. Most are in active ministry, and could lose more than their jobs if they are outed.” The New York Times article continued to explain that the livelihood of the priest is in the Church’s hands, for it “almost always controls a priest’s housing, health insurance and retirement pension. He could lose all three if his bishop finds his sexuality disqualifying, even if he is faithful to his vows of celibacy. The environment for gay priests has grown only more dangerous.” The article adds that the recent defrocking of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, due to his sexual abuse of boys and seminarians, has fanned-the-flames and poured more gasoline on the “accusations that homosexuality is to blame for the Church’s resurgent abuse crisis.” It further states that Pope Francis has become more critical than ever in recent months and has lamented that homosexuality is seemingly growing to be “fashionable.”
As Our Lady of La Salette warned: “The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people.”
We live in an intimidating world! We are living in intimidating times! We are under constant threat from one side or another. As a whole, the world is in a financial crisis―businesses are closing down, jobs are being lost, prices are rising, continuing threats of Social Security payments being stopped, threats of epidemic diseases, a marked rise in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires, droughts and famine. Threats to ‘terrorist’ shootings on streets, in schools and public venues. Threats to privacy through computer and phone cameras and microphones filming, photographing and recording everything they want―to be stored in a gargantuan digital library. Hacking electronic devices and spying or stealing through them. Threats to freedom by subversive surveillance and tracking techniques through phones, computers, televisions, computerized car systems, closed circuit cameras in stores and on streets, and drones. ‘Big Brother’ is playing at being God and ‘Big Brother’ is watching you closely. Furthermore, we are part of a Church that is being intimidated! And things will only get worse! Our Lord and Our Lady have already foretold this state of affairs.
Intimidation of Our Lord
Our Lord, while He still walked this Earth, also suffered intimidation from the Jews―especially the Scribes and Pharisees―who conspired against Him: “And the Pharisees going out made a consultation against Him, how they might destroy Him” (Matthew 12:14). “And the Pharisees going out, immediately made a consultation with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him … And they watched Him whether He would heal on the Sabbath days; that they might accuse Him … The Chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might destroy Him. For they feared Him, because the whole multitude was in admiration at His doctrine … Now the feast of the Pasch and of the Azymes was after two days; and the Chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might by some wile lay hold on Him, and kill Him … And Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the Chief Priests, to betray Him to them. Who, at hearing it, were glad; and they promised him they would give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray Him” (Mark 3:6; 3:2; 11:18; 14:1; 14:10-11). “And the Chief Priests and the Scribes sought how they might put Jesus to death: but they feared the people” (Luke 22:2). “The Chief Priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and said: ‘What do we do, for this Man doth many miracles? If we so leave Him alone, all will believe in Him and the Romans will come and take away our place and nation! But one of them, named Caiphas, being the High Priest that year, said to them: ‘You know nothing! Neither do you realize that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, so that the whole nation perish not!’ And this he spoke, not of himself, but being the High Priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation. And not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God, that were dispersed. From that day therefore they devised to put Him to death. Wherefore, Jesus walked no more openly among the Jews; but He went into a country near the desert, unto a city that is called Ephrem, and there He abode with His disciples” (John 11:47-54).
If They Have Intimidated Me, They Will Also Intimidate You
Let us not be surprised at the ceaseless and growing intimidation and persecution that the Mystical Body of Christ has undergone, is undergoing and will undergo even more so in the future! Our Lord foretold it. Our Lady foretold. While He still walked this Earth, Our Lord warned us: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). Our Lord then goes on to paint a very intimidating picture of our times:
“You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. And when you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, see that ye be not troubled and fear ye not. For such things must needs be and these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be pestilences, and famines, and earthquakes in places. Now all these are the beginnings of sorrows. But look to yourselves. For they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony unto them. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death. The brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all nations and by all men for My Name’s sake. And then shall many be scandalized and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall seduce many. And then if any man shall say to you, ‘Lo, here is Christ! Lo, He is here!’—do not believe! For there will rise up false Christs and false prophets, and they shall show signs and wonders, to seduce (if it were possible) even the elect. And because iniquity hath abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. But he that shall persevere and endure to the end, he shall be saved. For in those days shall be such tribulations, as were not from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, neither shall be. And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect which He hath chosen, He hath shortened the days. Take you heed therefore; behold I have foretold you all things” (Combined version of Matthew 24:6-13 and Mark 13:7-23). It might be April 1st― “April Fools Day” ― but Our Lord is not fooling around, He is not joking! His message is intimidating!
Our Lady of Intimidation
Our Lady―nearly 2,000 years later―says nothing different to her Son. At Quito (as Our Lady of Good Success), at Fatima and Akita, her message is equally intimidating―or even more intimidating, since it goes into more detail: “
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this!
“I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! …
“The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people.
“During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … These years, during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government, will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds ... They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family.
“The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised. ... The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God ... The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres … The Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord ... The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them … These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests. This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good Pastors of the Church.
“As for the Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and profaned in the fullest sense of the word. Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church ... The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world …
“Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent ... Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … Nature is asking for vengeance because of man, and she trembles, with dread, at what must happen to the Earth stained with crime. Tremble, Earth, and you who proclaim yourselves as serving Jesus Christ and who, on the inside, only adore yourselves! Tremble, for God will hand you over to His enemy, because the holy places are in a state of corruption. Many convents are no longer houses of God, but the grazing-grounds of Asmodeas [the devil of impurity] and his like.
“Many men in this world afflict the Lord … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness …
“Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will strike in an unprecedented way. God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God.
“France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy, because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes … The seasons will be altered, the Earth will produce nothing but bad fruit, the stars will lose their regular motion, the moon will only reflect a faint reddish glow. Water and fire will give the Earth’s globe convulsions and terrible earthquakes which will swallow up mountains, cities, etc...
“The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis ... Churches will be locked up or desecrated … and altars sacked … Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death. Several will abandon the Faith, and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God ... as true Faith fades and false light will brighten the people … The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin.
“The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay. How the Church will suffer during this dark night! … The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings … Nations will be annihilated … Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy ... Blood will flow on all sides ... There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. People will believe that all is lost! … Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the length of the test?” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
Do Not Allow Yourself to be Intimidated
Yet despite that intimidating picture, Our Lord adds: “And I say to you, my friends: Be not afraid of them who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do!” (Luke 12:4). “Fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul―but rather fear Him that can destroy both soul and body in Hell!” (Matthew 10:28). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12).
The Holy Ghost, in the Old Testament warns: “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Fear them not―for the Lord your God will fight for you! … Because the Lord your God is in the midst of you, and will fight for you against your enemies, to deliver you from danger … The Lord God, Who is your leader, Himself will fight for you, as He did in Egypt in the sight of all” (Deuteronomy 3:22; 20:4; 1:30). While in the New Testament He adds: “Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit―which is the word of God. By all prayer and supplication, praying at all times!” (Ephesians 6:11-17).
Our Lady Calls Us to the Intimidating Battle
“The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession ... Pray the Rosary every day in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary, in order to obtain peace for the world and the end of the war, because only she can help you … Say the Rosary every day, to bring peace to the world and the end of the war … The only weapons which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by my Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests … Pray very much the prayers of the Rosary! … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners … Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Pray very much for the Pope, Bishops, and Priests! … I desire souls to console and to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful … If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved and there will be peace … At the blood, the tears and prayers of the righteous, God will relent … This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration … This will mark the arrival of my hour, when I, in a marvelous way, will dethrone the proud and cursed Satan, trampling him under my feet and fettering him in the infernal abyss. Thus the Church will be finally free of his cruel tyranny ... In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph! … Those who place their confidence in me will be saved … I alone am able still to save you from the calamities which approach! …
“God will take care of His faithful servants and men of good will. I call on the true disciples of the living God who reigns in Heaven! I call on the true followers of Christ made man, the only true Savior of men! I call on my children, the true faithful, those who have given themselves to me, so that I may lead them to my divine Son, those whom I carry in my arms, so to speak, those who have lived on my spirit! Finally, I call on the Apostles of the Last Days, the faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, who have lived in scorn for the world and for themselves, in poverty and in humility, in scorn and in silence, in prayer and in mortification, in chastity and in union with God, in suffering and unknown to the world! It is time they came out and filled the world with light! Go and reveal yourselves to be my cherished children! I am at your side and within you, provided that your Faith is the light which shines upon you in these unhappy days! May your zeal make you famished for the glory and the honor of Jesus Christ! Fight, children of light, you, the few who can see! For now is the time of all times, the end of all ends!
“And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ, and all those given over to sin, will perish and the Earth will become desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshiped and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the Holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious in Its poor but fervent imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in its Faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God” (Our Lady of Good Success, at Quito in Ecuador, Our Lady of La Salette, France; Our Lady of Fatima, Portugal; Our Lady of Akita, Japan).
The Power of Prayer―The Power of Monasteries and Convents
Everyone underestimates the power of prayer and everyone underestimates the power of monasteries and convents. Our Lady of Good Success says: “The exquisite aroma that perfumes the fortunate countries that possess monasteries and convents, purifies the air polluted by those in the world delivered over to the most shameful vices and passions ... Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils ... No one, on the face of the Earth, is aware from where comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
With Religious Vocations Falling―So Does the Church
Perhaps you are unaware―perhaps you don’t even care―but Catholic vocations to the priestly and religious life have fallen drastically over the last 50 years (since the end of Second Vatican Council in 1965). Most Catholics know little about their Faith, therefore they know even less about the statistics concerning their Faith―they are content to know “news headlines” and no more. Well, since 1965 the numbers of vocations to the priestly or religious life (monks, nuns, brothers, sisters) has plummeted.
► PRIESTS: The Catholic population has risen enormously since 1965―doubling from 653 million to 1,313 million by the end of 2018. Whereas the worldwide number of Catholic priests (combined total for both diocesan and religious priests) was over 420,000 in 1965 and was around 410,000 at the end of 2018. However, the average age of those priests has risen from around 35 years old in 1965 to over 65 years old in 2019―which means that soon, there will be massive collapse in the number of priests as the older ones die, for there are few younger ones to replace them. Although the Vatican report does not mention it, it is no secret that very large numbers of European and North American clergy are in the age range of late 70s to 90s, which explains why the official statistics for priests in Europe and North America have little to do with the actual (and much reduced) number of priests available for, or capable of, pastoral duties on the ground. In 1970, fewer than 10% of priests in the USA were over the age of 65. Now it is somewhere between 45% and 50%.
Not only that, but the rise in the Catholic population to 1,313 million, means that globally there are 3,200 persons per priest to care for―if each priest of those 410,000 were in active service (which they are not) and if all Catholics were practicing Catholics (which they are not). While globally there are 3,200 Catholics for every Catholic priest, in South America the average priest serves 7,203 Catholics, according to Vatican statistics. In the United States and Canada, for comparison, the Vatican estimates that there are 1,916 Catholics for every priest. As will be shown further below, a priest has only limited time daily to give to his flock of 2,000 to 3,200 souls―which, giving a priest a hypothetical 7 to 8 hours a day of potential “contact time”, that comes out to daily seeing 4 persons per minute (for 2,000 souls), or giving each of those 2,000 persons 1½ minutes per week, or 6 minutes a month. If the priest has 3,200 souls committed to is care, then he can see 400 people per hour, almost 7 persons per minute, or allocate each person 1 minute a day, or 4 minutes a week.
Most Catholics are oblivious to the impending disaster to the priesthood in the USA. After the USA number of priest skyrocketed from about 27,000 in 1930 to 58,000 in 1965, the number of priests in the United States fell to around 45,000 in 2002, to 38,000 in 2014. By 2020, there will be about 31,000 priests―and only 15,000 will be under the age of 70, according to a study conducted by Dr. James R. Lothian of Fordham University.
► NUNS & SISTERS: The fall in the numbers of religious vocations (monks, nuns, brothers, sisters) is of an appalling magnitude! Worldwide, in 1965, there were 1 million nuns and sisters―today that has fallen to 650,000, with most of those nuns and sisters being aged 70 and over. In the USA alone, female religious (nuns and sisters) have fallen from a total of over 180,000 in 1965 to having only 153,645 in 1970, and 92,107 in 1995, 68,634 in 2005, and 49,883 in 2014. The Vatican’s statistical yearbook, the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae (the Annual Statistics of the Church) confirms that continual fall. Thus the USA female religious numbers fell by more than 70%. The USA is not alone. According to a 2000 study by Rodney Stark and Roger Finke, between 1965 and 1995 the number of nuns plummeted by 51% in the Netherlands, by 48% in Germany, by 46% in Canada, by 44% in France, and by 43% in the UK―statistics that are on par with the 49% fall in the USA over the same time frame. The current worldwide total of female religious, at the end of 2017, was 659,000, compared to over 1 million in 1965. The age status of European and North American women religious is the same as that of priests in Europe and North America, with the majority of nuns and sisters being extremely old― very aged, and when they die in the near future, the fall in overall numbers of nuns and sisters will be disastrous.
► MONKS & BROTHERS: The numbers of monks and brothers is even worse. Worldwide, the numbers of male religious (monks and brothers) fell from 79,408 in 1970, to 52,625 in 2016―which represents an average loss of 34% worldwide. The figures for the USA monks and brothers are even worse―they have fallen twice as much, from 12,271 in 1965, to 8,625 in 1975, to 7,544 in 1985, to 6,535 in 1995, to 4,119 in 2012, and to 4,007 in 2014―which is an overall fall of 67% from 1965 to 2014 in the USA.
As Our Lady of Good Success said: “Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils ... No one, on the face of the Earth, is aware from where comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
An Idiotic Attempt to Cover the Collapse
In a National Catholic Reporter article from 2008, it was reported that James Davidson, a Catholic sociologist of religion from Purdue University in Indiana, “believes it’s inaccurate to interpret the shrinking number of priests and a decrease in the number of men and women joining religious communities as a general decline in the Catholic Church. Instead, he said, rising numbers of deacons and lay ecclesial ministers point to a Catholic Church that is vibrant, though perhaps one that will be led in a different way in the future. ‘The Church is being transformed as the social context of the laity is being transformed … The strength and vitality of the Catholic Church is in its laity’ said Davidson.” (National Catholic Reporter, October 21st. 2008). This is as ridiculous argument as one that would say we are heading towards a vibrant health care system, because of an ever-increasing shortage of doctors and nurses, who are being replaced by well-meaning lay people. Or the country’s defense system is becoming more vibrant and secure, because trained soldiers are abandoning ing the military in unprecedented numbers, but they are being replaced by folks at home who are ready to pick up a gun in the event of a war.
What a load of baloney! What stupidity! What a bunch of blatant damage limitation waffle! What a waste of his university education! Since when does a “shrinking number of priests and a decrease in the number of men and women joining religious communities” … “point to a Catholic Church that is vibrant”? Is a massive loss of highly and specially trained priests, monks, a good thing? Davidson argues that “the Church is being transformed as … rising numbers of deacons and lay ecclesial ministers” are taking the place of priests and religious to create “a Catholic Church that is vibrant, though perhaps one that will be led in a different way in the future”―and perhaps led to a different final destination too!
A Day in the Life of Priest
► Daily Sleep = 7 hours
► Shower, Dress, Bathroom/Restroom throughout the day, etc. = 30 minutes
► Breakfast (15 minutes), Lunch (30 minutes), Dinner (15 minutes) = 1 hour total
► Obligation of offering the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (prayers before/after Mass; vest/unvest for Mass) = 1 hour
► Obligation of Praying the Divine Office (properly and not hurriedly) = 1 hour
► Obligation of Daily Meditation & Rosary & additional prayers = 1 hour
► Daily Religious Study (review of Faith, prepare sermons, conferences, classes) = 1 hour
► End of Day preparing for bed = 30 minutes
► Total for the day: 13 hours per day.
► Most of these estimates are extremely minimal and will frequently take longer than estimated above.
This total of 13 hours per day is minimal and will frequently take up much more time―which does not include the “dripping-faucet-of-time” activities that quickly fill up the day with additional minutes and hours. Walking or driving from one place to another―simply leaving one activity, such as studying and having to put things away and walking over the church to say Mass―that all takes minutes, and such “dripping-minutes” easily add up to an hour or more per day. Answering phone calls, answering the door, reading mail, writing letters, routine maintenance, parish meetings for various different groups, daily checking on local and world news both Catholic and secular, personal exercise or health care, etc. All of this can easily add one, two or three more hours to the day. In the end, the priest has around 8 hours to do other things.
There are simply too few priests to go around and cater for the larger numbers of Catholic laity―which has doubles since 1965, while the overall number of priests has declined―not forgetting that average age of the priest in 2018 is over 65 years of age, compared overall average of only 35 years of age back in 1965. Imagine being told to double your workload and output by 100% at your place of work and not being any extra time to do it in! Twice the work, in the same time constraint, with no additional help. This is one fundamental reason―and there are several others―for the decline in interest, knowledge and practice of the Catholic Faith, whereby numbers of regular Sunday church-goers have fallen from an average of 3 out 4 in the 1950s to less than 1 in 4 in 2018.
The Intimidation of Having “Gay” Priests
Using the term “gay” does not mean a cheerful, friendly, happy priest―it sadly means a homosexual priest. Apparently, according to various reports―from outside the Church and more importantly from within the Church―the number of homosexual priests is not a meager number! Only around 10 priests in the United States have publicly admitted to being homosexuals. But it is estimated that around 30% to 40% (3 to 4 out of 10) of the American Catholic clergy are probably homosexual, according to dozens of estimates from homosexual priests themselves and researchers. Some priests say the number is closer to 75% (15 out of 20). One priest in Wisconsin is on record as saying that he assumes every priest is homosexual, unless he knows for a fact he is not. Another priest in Florida said: “A third are gay, a third are straight and a third don’t know what the hell they are!”
The New York TImes recently interviewed 24 homosexual priests and seminarians from 13 different states in the USA, who shared details of their lives within the “the Catholic closet.” As The New York Times reports: “Almost all of them required strict confidentiality to speak without fear of retribution from their bishops or superiors. A few had been expressly forbidden to come out or even to speak about homosexuality. Most are in active ministry, and could lose more than their jobs if they are outed.” The New York Times article continued to explain that the livelihood of the priest is in the Church’s hands, for it “almost always controls a priest’s housing, health insurance and retirement pension. He could lose all three if his bishop finds his sexuality disqualifying, even if he is faithful to his vows of celibacy. The environment for gay priests has grown only more dangerous.” The article adds that the recent defrocking of Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick, due to his sexual abuse of boys and seminarians, has fanned-the-flames and poured more gasoline on the “accusations that homosexuality is to blame for the Church’s resurgent abuse crisis.” It further states that Pope Francis has become more critical than ever in recent months and has lamented that homosexuality is seemingly growing to be “fashionable.”
As Our Lady of La Salette warned: “The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people.”
Sunday March 31st
Article 27
Rejoice and Hope!
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Article 27
Rejoice and Hope!
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
“Laetare” Sunday
Today, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, is traditionally called “Laetare Sunday”—meaning “A Sunday to Rejoice.” This particular title owes its origins to the opening words of the Introit or Entrance Hymn for today’s Mass, which say: “Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and come together, all you who love her: rejoice with joy, you who have been in sorrow: that you may exult…”
Dom Guéranger, in his masterful multi-volume work, The Liturgical Year, states: “This Sunday, called, from the first word of the Introit, Laetare Sunday, is one of the most solemn of the year. The Church interrupts her Lenten mournfulness; the chants of the Mass speak of nothing but joy and consolation; the organ, which has been silent during the preceding three Sundays, now gives forth its melodious voice; the deacon resumes his dalmatic, and the subdeacon his tunic; and instead of purple, rose-colored vestments are allowed to be used.
“These same rites were practiced in Advent, on the third Sunday, called “Gaudete.” The Church’s motive for introducing this expression of joy into today’s liturgy is to encourage her children to persevere fervently to the end of this holy season. The real mid-Lent was last Thursday, but the Church, fearing lest the joy might lead to some infringement on the spirit of penance, has deferred her own notice of it to this Sunday, when she not only permits, but even bids, her children to rejoice!”
A Liturgical Oxymoron?
Eh? An “oxymoron” is a combination of contradictory or incongruous words as “cruel kindness”, or “laborious idleness.” It would, at first glance, seem oxymoronic to combine “penance” with “joy”, for it would be akin to combining “pain” with “laughter”, or “suffering” and “happiness.”
Yet, looked at from another perspective—and above all, a supernatural perspective—we can see how true and fitting is that combination. Our Lord Himself uses the combination of these two words—penance and joy—when He says: “I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance!” (Luke 15:7).
Joy Over A Sinner’s Return
We see a similar situation in the parable of the Prodigal Son—for the wayward, sinful son, after having wasted his father’s inheritance in debauchery, decides to return to his father, repentant and contrite, saying within himself: “I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: ‘Father! I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee! I am not worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants!’” (Luke 15:18-19).
This repentance and return brings joy to his father, who, rightfully, could be extremely indignant and would be within his rights in punishing him severely for the scandal and harm he had perpetrated.
Our Lord, in telling this parable, says: “And rising up he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck, and kissed him. And the son said to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son!’ And the father said to his servants: ‘Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet! And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry! Because this, my son, was dead, and is come to life again! Was lost, and is found!’ And they began to be merry” (Luke 15:20-24).
Wrong Kind of Joy
The world is the epitome of the wrong kind of joy. Whereas God loves the sinner and hates the sin, the world is merciless to the sinner and lenient to the sin. The world rejoices in what God condemns. Holy Scripture denounces this attitude: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20).
Our penances may be bitter, but they will lead to sweet things—hence, we can call them bittersweet.
Our Lord tells His Apostles, at the Last Supper: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you!” (John 16:20-22).
Rejoice with the World—Perish with the World
Let us not be sucked-into the damning whirlpool of the world—its fate is inevitable! Our Lord and the Apostles in particular, and Holy Scripture in general, repeatedly warn us against the false and fateful joys of the world: “You that rejoice in a thing of nought…” (Amos 6:14) … Rejoice not, O Israel, rejoice not as the nations do!” (Osee 9:1). “Rejoice not in ungodly children, neither be delighted in them, if the fear of God be not with them!” (Ecclesiasticus 16:1).
What Are We Rejoicing Over?
“Let the heart of them rejoice, that seek the Lord!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:10). “Serve ye the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto Him with trembling” (Psalm 2:11). Rejoice over the greatest gift of God! What is that greatest gift? “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Let your soul rejoice in His mercy!” (Ecclesiasticus 51:37). “I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation” (Psalm 12:6).
Rejoice Over Mercy!
What is it, above all things, that you will desire in your death throes and agony on your deathbed? It is mercy! Nothing else will matter. Nothing else will be worth anything if you fail to secure that mercy. All your future joy or misery will depend on one thing alone—whether or not you manage to secure the mercy of God. Our joy, on this day of rejoicing—Laetare Sunday—comes from the fact of God’s incredible mercy and pardon, which is to be used, but not abused.
Mercy—A Room in the Mansion of Charity
Lacking hope in that mercy and pardon, leads to despair. Being over-confident in that mercy and pardon, leads to presumption. Both despair and presumption are serious sins. We need to keep that balance between the two—for virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect—and joyfully do penance for our sins, hoping and trusting in the mercy and pardon of God, Whose “tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:9). This is because “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and mercy is one of the rooms in the divine mansion of charity.
God Does Not Hate His Creation
God cannot hate what He has created—for all that He creates is good. Yet God does hate some things that man has created—and the chief focal point of hatred is sin. As St. Thomas Aquinas says: “…the hatred of something does not befit God. For as love is to the good, so hatred is to evil; for to those we love we will good, and to those we hate, evil. If, then, the will of God cannot be inclined to evil, as has been shown, it is impossible that He should hate anything” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 1, chapter 96: “God Hates Nothing, and the Hatred of No Thing Befits Him”).
This is stated in slightly different terms by Holy Scripture: “All things were made by Him” (John 1:3). “The Lord has made all things for Himself” (Proverbs 16:4). Thus mankind was made for God and not for itself. Yet, God’s human creation—mankind—turned away from God through sin.
Nevertheless, God in His infinite mercy, sought a remedy to that rebelliousness, as explained by Our Lord Himself: “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him. He that believeth in Him is not judged. But he that doth not believe, is already judged: because he believeth not in the Name of the Only-begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18) … “Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin” (John 8:24). “For everyone that doth evil, hateth the light, and cometh not to the light” (John 3:20).
Came to Save All—But All Will Not Be Saved
St. Thomas writes: “The power of the divine Incarnation is equal to the salvation ‘of all men, but the fact that some are not saved, thereby comes from their indisposition: they are unwilling to take unto themselves the fruit of the Incarnation; they do not cleave to the incarnate God by Faith and Love. For men were not intended to lose that freedom of choice, by which they are able to cleave or not to cleave to the incarnate God, lest the good of man be produced by coercion” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 4, chapter 55: “Arguments Against the Suitability of the Incarnation”).
Thus we are free to choose—and, ultimately, we choose our own salvation or damnation. There will be no coercion from God in that matter.
Abuse of Mercy
Most souls fail to do so and are irrevocably lost—says Our Lord and most theologians of the Church. Yet every soul is capable of securing it. “Christ died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15). Yet everyone WILL NOT DO what it takes to be saved. “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Luke 13:23-24).
As St. Paul points out: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5). “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). So rejoice—mercy is yours if you choose to abide by it, use it and not abuse it! But woe to you if you abuse it!
Joy Though Pain
The joys of Heaven are not “freebies” but must be painfully earned on Earth or in Purgatory. Mercy, of course, brings joy—but mercy requires payment. This is something that mankind—especially modern man—fails to grasp. Modern man thinks the joys of Heaven are there for sinners, or the lukewarm, or the mediocre man.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange dispels this foolish thought: “There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity.
“There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Going Cheap…! Cheap Joys!
Most people put a cheap price on sin and cheap admission price to Heaven. How foolish and stupid we are! This stupidity is perhaps one of the chief reasons why so many souls are lost! It does not help matters to see almost everyone around us, living-out this insane sense of values.
These idiots—let us at least hope they are idiots, for idiocy might excuse them somewhat from sin—want joy on Earth and joy in Heaven! They want to neither suffer in this life, nor in the next! They, as the proverb goes, “want their cake and they want to eat it”! Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24)—“You can’t have your cake and eat it!”
Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?
This brings us to the way in which we can view a glass that contains 50% liquid and 50% air. Some see this glass as being half-full; others see it as being half-empty. The “half-full” people are being positive about it; the “half-empty” people are being negative about it.
The same applies to our Faith and religion. Some see the Faith and religion as being a foretaste of the fullness of joy we shall experience in Heaven. Others sees our Faith and religion as “cramping their style” and robbing of them of many joys they would like to experience here on Earth.
One group sees the Faith, and the practice of it, as being “half-full” and look forward to being fulfilled in Heaven. The other group sees the Faith, and practice of it, as being “half-emptied” of potential Earthly joys, and dread having to give up even more of them. Yet our soul—in which joy resides—was made by God and only God can truly fill it with true joy—“Who satisfieth thy desire with good things” (Psalms 102:5).
Cotton Candy Joys
To seek the joys of this world above the joys of Heaven; to seek material joys above spiritual joys—is like eating cotton-candy (candy-floss) in comparison to a highly nutritious and delicious seven course meal. The cotton-candy melts away in your mouth before you know it! On top of that, the high sugar content is the favorite nesting place for disease!
Our Lord puts it this way: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Different Ideas of Joy
You are, no doubt, familiar with the Scriptural quote: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). We could well paraphrase that into “My ideas of joy are not your ideas of joys: nor your joys My joys, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My joys exalted above your joys, and My ideas of joy above your ideas of joy!”
God is Joy Because God is Love
God is love and love is the cause of joy. For, we rejoice either because the object of our love is really present, or because we really find our own good existing, so to say, in the person, or in the object we love.
We rejoice because we find ourselves in the presence of one whom we cherish, or because we have good news from a friend or parent, separated from us by endless stretches of land, or by vast expanses of water; we find an unbounded joy when we know that son or brother called to serve his country’s cause, in the gory battlefields of the world, is well, far removed from harm, or has been honored for his bravery.
Furthermore, our joy is enhanced by our love for the person from whom we receive the news, and is in proportion to it. We feel, for instance, little or no delight in our hearts when we read that a commander of a hostile force has escaped unscathed from battle. Our love is the cause of our joy.
To Find Joy, We Must Find and Love God
But, charity, in its highest object and point, is love of God, Whose good is infinite, unchanging and unchangeable, and, Who, by the very fact that He is loved, dwells in the person who loves Him. “God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God and God in Him” (1 John 4:16). Hence joy is caused by love; hence, too, it follows charity.
What is this spiritual joy? It is not a virtue, separated from charity, spiritual joy is an action of the virtue charity, an effect, a result of charity. Joy of itself could not exist, it owes its very being to the virtue of charity, which is, for it, a fountainhead. Love is the first impulse of our will or heart, and from it proceed joy and desire. Thus joy is not a virtue distinct from charity, it is only an effect of charity, it is an action of charity.
Joy is that gratitude, that happy consciousness we have of the infinite goodness of God, the great object of our love, in Whom we live, move and have our being. Joy is the grand and consoling reward for the victories we have won in the battles with our passions.
A Religion of Joy
Since joy is a Fruit of the Holy Ghost, it follows that where the Holy Ghost is not, there is no joy. Now, the Divine Spirit is the vivifying principle of the Catholic Church and of her faithful. The Catholic Religion, is, then, essentially a religion of joy. Christ being the center of Christianity, there is no joy superior to that which He procures.
Down through the night of forgotten centuries and the fast highway of fleeting years, whatever holy joy was in the world was caused by Him. He was the unsurpassing joy of the patriarchs and prophets, of David, Isaias and Zachary, of Magdalene and John, of Peter and of Paul.
Faith itself is a joyous exposition of the truths that lead to Heaven; its precepts and commands are not merely a burden, but also a pleasure and a joy. Self-control in the service of the commandments makes us strong, and that is a source of joy. In sin we are downcast, and a load seems lifted from our hearts when grace, through the Sacrament of Penance, joy streams into our souls anew.
Once forgiven, we are children of God once again, perfect men and perfect Christians. Penance brings an entire Heaven of joy into our otherwise heavy hearts. “In thy salvation he shall rejoice exceedingly” (Psalm 20:2). “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into joy: Thou hast cut my sackcloth, and hast compassed me with gladness” (Psalm 29:12).
Purgatorial Joys
Penance brings joy to the souls in Purgatory, too! Even though they find themselves in the most unspeakably excruciating pains—which no tongue can describe nor imagination imagine—they are, nevertheless, also immersed in the most unspeakably great joys. They know that they are saved and that these horrendous pains are bringing Heaven and God closer with every excruciating moment. They are the perfect example of how the Catholic on Earth should find joy in suffering.
Those poor souls failed to learn how to suffer and do penance with joy on Earth, so now they have to learn that lesson in Purgatory. Yet their lesson is also a lesson for us—who, like the ill-fated Chosen People, are ever mumbling and grumbling, whining and whinging, moaning and groaning about the least suffering that we have to experience and suffer, by God’s Providence, here on Earth.
Worldly Joys Bring Sadness
At the Last Supper, Our Lord spoke of the two contrary lots that would befall His Apostles on the one hand, at the world on the other. He said: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). If we take this to the next stage—if the sorrow of His followers shall be turned to joy, then the joy of the world shall be turned to sorrow. This is proven to be the case by other passages in Holy Scripture that depict the rich and the poor.
We have the case of Our Lord’s parable about the beggar, Lazarus, and Rich Man: “There was a beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him. Moreover, the dogs came, and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in Hell” (Luke 16:20-22).
In a real-life incident, we have the case of the rich young man—who you would have thought would be happy and joyful with all his riches, but he becomes sad and sorrowful because of them: “And behold a certain man running up and kneeling before Him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou knowest the commandments—keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
“Then Jesus, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you: How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27).
God Does Bestow Riches, But…
God has enriched many a man as well the Israelites as a nation—but it was always contingent upon their placing God before all riches and wealth. Once those riches and wealth became a hindrance to their love of God and led them down paths of infidelity, lukewarmness, infidelity and sin—God not only brutally removed or destroyed those riches and that wealth, but He also was not averse to slaying some or most of the wayward ones.
The Old Testament history of the Chosen People is a perpetual saga of God’s benefits leading them to forget God, which led God to acting in a way towards them that they would never forget! But forget they did—and foolishly repeated the same behavior.
God has to come first—Our Lord commands in the New Testament what had already been commanded in the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30), which merely repeats the Old Testament command: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
This is what Job did in the Old Testament, and he was abundantly blessed by God. Yet, when God allowed all types of calamities to befall Job—losing his health, his children, his wealth and his properties and flocks—God never ceased to love and bless God, as much in calamity as in prosperity.
His famous quote—which we would well to take to heart—was: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither! The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away! As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done! Blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21). This eventual acceptance of the bitter with the sweet, led to God restoring all things to Job in an abundantly greater measure than he had possessed in the beginning: “And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10).
The Joys of Heaven
This doubling of Job’s possessions and wealth, after his tribulations at the hands of the devil, is symbolic of our tests and trials in this life, after which we shall be rewarded with Heaven—if we have been faithful.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “This vision will constitute eternal life. No one can express the joy and love that will be born in us of this vision. It will be so strong, so absolute a love of God, that, thenceforth, nothing will be able to destroy it, or even to diminish it. It will be a love by which we shall, above all, rejoice that God is God, infinitely holy, just, and merciful. We shall adore all the decrees of His providence in view of the manifestation of His goodness … We shall have entered into His beatitude, according to Christ’s own words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! Because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!’” (The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Today, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, is traditionally called “Laetare Sunday”—meaning “A Sunday to Rejoice.” This particular title owes its origins to the opening words of the Introit or Entrance Hymn for today’s Mass, which say: “Rejoice, O Jerusalem, and come together, all you who love her: rejoice with joy, you who have been in sorrow: that you may exult…”
Dom Guéranger, in his masterful multi-volume work, The Liturgical Year, states: “This Sunday, called, from the first word of the Introit, Laetare Sunday, is one of the most solemn of the year. The Church interrupts her Lenten mournfulness; the chants of the Mass speak of nothing but joy and consolation; the organ, which has been silent during the preceding three Sundays, now gives forth its melodious voice; the deacon resumes his dalmatic, and the subdeacon his tunic; and instead of purple, rose-colored vestments are allowed to be used.
“These same rites were practiced in Advent, on the third Sunday, called “Gaudete.” The Church’s motive for introducing this expression of joy into today’s liturgy is to encourage her children to persevere fervently to the end of this holy season. The real mid-Lent was last Thursday, but the Church, fearing lest the joy might lead to some infringement on the spirit of penance, has deferred her own notice of it to this Sunday, when she not only permits, but even bids, her children to rejoice!”
A Liturgical Oxymoron?
Eh? An “oxymoron” is a combination of contradictory or incongruous words as “cruel kindness”, or “laborious idleness.” It would, at first glance, seem oxymoronic to combine “penance” with “joy”, for it would be akin to combining “pain” with “laughter”, or “suffering” and “happiness.”
Yet, looked at from another perspective—and above all, a supernatural perspective—we can see how true and fitting is that combination. Our Lord Himself uses the combination of these two words—penance and joy—when He says: “I say to you, that even so there shall be joy in Heaven upon one sinner that doth penance, more than upon ninety-nine just who need not penance!” (Luke 15:7).
Joy Over A Sinner’s Return
We see a similar situation in the parable of the Prodigal Son—for the wayward, sinful son, after having wasted his father’s inheritance in debauchery, decides to return to his father, repentant and contrite, saying within himself: “I will arise, and will go to my father, and say to him: ‘Father! I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee! I am not worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants!’” (Luke 15:18-19).
This repentance and return brings joy to his father, who, rightfully, could be extremely indignant and would be within his rights in punishing him severely for the scandal and harm he had perpetrated.
Our Lord, in telling this parable, says: “And rising up he came to his father. And when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and running to him fell upon his neck, and kissed him. And the son said to him: ‘Father, I have sinned against Heaven, and before thee, I am not now worthy to be called thy son!’ And the father said to his servants: ‘Bring forth quickly the first robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet! And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry! Because this, my son, was dead, and is come to life again! Was lost, and is found!’ And they began to be merry” (Luke 15:20-24).
Wrong Kind of Joy
The world is the epitome of the wrong kind of joy. Whereas God loves the sinner and hates the sin, the world is merciless to the sinner and lenient to the sin. The world rejoices in what God condemns. Holy Scripture denounces this attitude: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaias 5:20).
Our penances may be bitter, but they will lead to sweet things—hence, we can call them bittersweet.
Our Lord tells His Apostles, at the Last Supper: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you!” (John 16:20-22).
Rejoice with the World—Perish with the World
Let us not be sucked-into the damning whirlpool of the world—its fate is inevitable! Our Lord and the Apostles in particular, and Holy Scripture in general, repeatedly warn us against the false and fateful joys of the world: “You that rejoice in a thing of nought…” (Amos 6:14) … Rejoice not, O Israel, rejoice not as the nations do!” (Osee 9:1). “Rejoice not in ungodly children, neither be delighted in them, if the fear of God be not with them!” (Ecclesiasticus 16:1).
What Are We Rejoicing Over?
“Let the heart of them rejoice, that seek the Lord!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:10). “Serve ye the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto Him with trembling” (Psalm 2:11). Rejoice over the greatest gift of God! What is that greatest gift? “The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. His tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). “Let your soul rejoice in His mercy!” (Ecclesiasticus 51:37). “I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation” (Psalm 12:6).
Rejoice Over Mercy!
What is it, above all things, that you will desire in your death throes and agony on your deathbed? It is mercy! Nothing else will matter. Nothing else will be worth anything if you fail to secure that mercy. All your future joy or misery will depend on one thing alone—whether or not you manage to secure the mercy of God. Our joy, on this day of rejoicing—Laetare Sunday—comes from the fact of God’s incredible mercy and pardon, which is to be used, but not abused.
Mercy—A Room in the Mansion of Charity
Lacking hope in that mercy and pardon, leads to despair. Being over-confident in that mercy and pardon, leads to presumption. Both despair and presumption are serious sins. We need to keep that balance between the two—for virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect—and joyfully do penance for our sins, hoping and trusting in the mercy and pardon of God, Whose “tender mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:9). This is because “God is charity” (1 John 4:8) and mercy is one of the rooms in the divine mansion of charity.
God Does Not Hate His Creation
God cannot hate what He has created—for all that He creates is good. Yet God does hate some things that man has created—and the chief focal point of hatred is sin. As St. Thomas Aquinas says: “…the hatred of something does not befit God. For as love is to the good, so hatred is to evil; for to those we love we will good, and to those we hate, evil. If, then, the will of God cannot be inclined to evil, as has been shown, it is impossible that He should hate anything” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 1, chapter 96: “God Hates Nothing, and the Hatred of No Thing Befits Him”).
This is stated in slightly different terms by Holy Scripture: “All things were made by Him” (John 1:3). “The Lord has made all things for Himself” (Proverbs 16:4). Thus mankind was made for God and not for itself. Yet, God’s human creation—mankind—turned away from God through sin.
Nevertheless, God in His infinite mercy, sought a remedy to that rebelliousness, as explained by Our Lord Himself: “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him. He that believeth in Him is not judged. But he that doth not believe, is already judged: because he believeth not in the Name of the Only-begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18) … “Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin” (John 8:24). “For everyone that doth evil, hateth the light, and cometh not to the light” (John 3:20).
Came to Save All—But All Will Not Be Saved
St. Thomas writes: “The power of the divine Incarnation is equal to the salvation ‘of all men, but the fact that some are not saved, thereby comes from their indisposition: they are unwilling to take unto themselves the fruit of the Incarnation; they do not cleave to the incarnate God by Faith and Love. For men were not intended to lose that freedom of choice, by which they are able to cleave or not to cleave to the incarnate God, lest the good of man be produced by coercion” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Contra Gentiles, Book 4, chapter 55: “Arguments Against the Suitability of the Incarnation”).
Thus we are free to choose—and, ultimately, we choose our own salvation or damnation. There will be no coercion from God in that matter.
Abuse of Mercy
Most souls fail to do so and are irrevocably lost—says Our Lord and most theologians of the Church. Yet every soul is capable of securing it. “Christ died for all” (2 Corinthians 5:15). Yet everyone WILL NOT DO what it takes to be saved. “And a certain man said to Jesus: ‘Lord, are they few that are saved?’ But Jesus said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!’” (Luke 13:23-24).
As St. Paul points out: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5). “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). So rejoice—mercy is yours if you choose to abide by it, use it and not abuse it! But woe to you if you abuse it!
Joy Though Pain
The joys of Heaven are not “freebies” but must be painfully earned on Earth or in Purgatory. Mercy, of course, brings joy—but mercy requires payment. This is something that mankind—especially modern man—fails to grasp. Modern man thinks the joys of Heaven are there for sinners, or the lukewarm, or the mediocre man.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange dispels this foolish thought: “There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity.
“There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin, though it should be venial, must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God, see Him as He sees Himself, and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Going Cheap…! Cheap Joys!
Most people put a cheap price on sin and cheap admission price to Heaven. How foolish and stupid we are! This stupidity is perhaps one of the chief reasons why so many souls are lost! It does not help matters to see almost everyone around us, living-out this insane sense of values.
These idiots—let us at least hope they are idiots, for idiocy might excuse them somewhat from sin—want joy on Earth and joy in Heaven! They want to neither suffer in this life, nor in the next! They, as the proverb goes, “want their cake and they want to eat it”! Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24)—“You can’t have your cake and eat it!”
Glass Half-Full or Half-Empty?
This brings us to the way in which we can view a glass that contains 50% liquid and 50% air. Some see this glass as being half-full; others see it as being half-empty. The “half-full” people are being positive about it; the “half-empty” people are being negative about it.
The same applies to our Faith and religion. Some see the Faith and religion as being a foretaste of the fullness of joy we shall experience in Heaven. Others sees our Faith and religion as “cramping their style” and robbing of them of many joys they would like to experience here on Earth.
One group sees the Faith, and the practice of it, as being “half-full” and look forward to being fulfilled in Heaven. The other group sees the Faith, and practice of it, as being “half-emptied” of potential Earthly joys, and dread having to give up even more of them. Yet our soul—in which joy resides—was made by God and only God can truly fill it with true joy—“Who satisfieth thy desire with good things” (Psalms 102:5).
Cotton Candy Joys
To seek the joys of this world above the joys of Heaven; to seek material joys above spiritual joys—is like eating cotton-candy (candy-floss) in comparison to a highly nutritious and delicious seven course meal. The cotton-candy melts away in your mouth before you know it! On top of that, the high sugar content is the favorite nesting place for disease!
Our Lord puts it this way: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Different Ideas of Joy
You are, no doubt, familiar with the Scriptural quote: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). We could well paraphrase that into “My ideas of joy are not your ideas of joys: nor your joys My joys, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My joys exalted above your joys, and My ideas of joy above your ideas of joy!”
God is Joy Because God is Love
God is love and love is the cause of joy. For, we rejoice either because the object of our love is really present, or because we really find our own good existing, so to say, in the person, or in the object we love.
We rejoice because we find ourselves in the presence of one whom we cherish, or because we have good news from a friend or parent, separated from us by endless stretches of land, or by vast expanses of water; we find an unbounded joy when we know that son or brother called to serve his country’s cause, in the gory battlefields of the world, is well, far removed from harm, or has been honored for his bravery.
Furthermore, our joy is enhanced by our love for the person from whom we receive the news, and is in proportion to it. We feel, for instance, little or no delight in our hearts when we read that a commander of a hostile force has escaped unscathed from battle. Our love is the cause of our joy.
To Find Joy, We Must Find and Love God
But, charity, in its highest object and point, is love of God, Whose good is infinite, unchanging and unchangeable, and, Who, by the very fact that He is loved, dwells in the person who loves Him. “God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God and God in Him” (1 John 4:16). Hence joy is caused by love; hence, too, it follows charity.
What is this spiritual joy? It is not a virtue, separated from charity, spiritual joy is an action of the virtue charity, an effect, a result of charity. Joy of itself could not exist, it owes its very being to the virtue of charity, which is, for it, a fountainhead. Love is the first impulse of our will or heart, and from it proceed joy and desire. Thus joy is not a virtue distinct from charity, it is only an effect of charity, it is an action of charity.
Joy is that gratitude, that happy consciousness we have of the infinite goodness of God, the great object of our love, in Whom we live, move and have our being. Joy is the grand and consoling reward for the victories we have won in the battles with our passions.
A Religion of Joy
Since joy is a Fruit of the Holy Ghost, it follows that where the Holy Ghost is not, there is no joy. Now, the Divine Spirit is the vivifying principle of the Catholic Church and of her faithful. The Catholic Religion, is, then, essentially a religion of joy. Christ being the center of Christianity, there is no joy superior to that which He procures.
Down through the night of forgotten centuries and the fast highway of fleeting years, whatever holy joy was in the world was caused by Him. He was the unsurpassing joy of the patriarchs and prophets, of David, Isaias and Zachary, of Magdalene and John, of Peter and of Paul.
Faith itself is a joyous exposition of the truths that lead to Heaven; its precepts and commands are not merely a burden, but also a pleasure and a joy. Self-control in the service of the commandments makes us strong, and that is a source of joy. In sin we are downcast, and a load seems lifted from our hearts when grace, through the Sacrament of Penance, joy streams into our souls anew.
Once forgiven, we are children of God once again, perfect men and perfect Christians. Penance brings an entire Heaven of joy into our otherwise heavy hearts. “In thy salvation he shall rejoice exceedingly” (Psalm 20:2). “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into joy: Thou hast cut my sackcloth, and hast compassed me with gladness” (Psalm 29:12).
Purgatorial Joys
Penance brings joy to the souls in Purgatory, too! Even though they find themselves in the most unspeakably excruciating pains—which no tongue can describe nor imagination imagine—they are, nevertheless, also immersed in the most unspeakably great joys. They know that they are saved and that these horrendous pains are bringing Heaven and God closer with every excruciating moment. They are the perfect example of how the Catholic on Earth should find joy in suffering.
Those poor souls failed to learn how to suffer and do penance with joy on Earth, so now they have to learn that lesson in Purgatory. Yet their lesson is also a lesson for us—who, like the ill-fated Chosen People, are ever mumbling and grumbling, whining and whinging, moaning and groaning about the least suffering that we have to experience and suffer, by God’s Providence, here on Earth.
Worldly Joys Bring Sadness
At the Last Supper, Our Lord spoke of the two contrary lots that would befall His Apostles on the one hand, at the world on the other. He said: “Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy” (John 16:20). If we take this to the next stage—if the sorrow of His followers shall be turned to joy, then the joy of the world shall be turned to sorrow. This is proven to be the case by other passages in Holy Scripture that depict the rich and the poor.
We have the case of Our Lord’s parable about the beggar, Lazarus, and Rich Man: “There was a beggar, named Lazarus, who lay at his gate, full of sores, desiring to be filled with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table, and no one did give him. Moreover, the dogs came, and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. And the rich man also died: and he was buried in Hell” (Luke 16:20-22).
In a real-life incident, we have the case of the rich young man—who you would have thought would be happy and joyful with all his riches, but he becomes sad and sorrowful because of them: “And behold a certain man running up and kneeling before Him: ‘Good Master, what good shall I do that I may have life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Thou knowest the commandments—keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Jesus: ‘All these I have kept from my youth, what is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee: go, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven; and come, follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
“Then Jesus, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you: How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the Kingdom of God!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:16-26; Mark 10:17-27).
God Does Bestow Riches, But…
God has enriched many a man as well the Israelites as a nation—but it was always contingent upon their placing God before all riches and wealth. Once those riches and wealth became a hindrance to their love of God and led them down paths of infidelity, lukewarmness, infidelity and sin—God not only brutally removed or destroyed those riches and that wealth, but He also was not averse to slaying some or most of the wayward ones.
The Old Testament history of the Chosen People is a perpetual saga of God’s benefits leading them to forget God, which led God to acting in a way towards them that they would never forget! But forget they did—and foolishly repeated the same behavior.
God has to come first—Our Lord commands in the New Testament what had already been commanded in the Old Testament: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment” (Mark 12:30), which merely repeats the Old Testament command: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5).
This is what Job did in the Old Testament, and he was abundantly blessed by God. Yet, when God allowed all types of calamities to befall Job—losing his health, his children, his wealth and his properties and flocks—God never ceased to love and bless God, as much in calamity as in prosperity.
His famous quote—which we would well to take to heart—was: “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither! The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away! As it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done! Blessed be the name of the Lord!” (Job 1:21). This eventual acceptance of the bitter with the sweet, led to God restoring all things to Job in an abundantly greater measure than he had possessed in the beginning: “And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10).
The Joys of Heaven
This doubling of Job’s possessions and wealth, after his tribulations at the hands of the devil, is symbolic of our tests and trials in this life, after which we shall be rewarded with Heaven—if we have been faithful.
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “This vision will constitute eternal life. No one can express the joy and love that will be born in us of this vision. It will be so strong, so absolute a love of God, that, thenceforth, nothing will be able to destroy it, or even to diminish it. It will be a love by which we shall, above all, rejoice that God is God, infinitely holy, just, and merciful. We shall adore all the decrees of His providence in view of the manifestation of His goodness … We shall have entered into His beatitude, according to Christ’s own words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! Because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things! Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!’” (The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Friday March 29th & Saturday March 30th
Article 26
Look Who's Doing the Accusing!
This article is still being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Article 26
Look Who's Doing the Accusing!
This article is still being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Know Thyself―Know Thy Enemy!
The ancient Greek philosopher would often say: “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his famous Spiritual Excercises, also stresses the important to know thyself: “To ask account of our soul … to know our sins and cast them out.” St. Louis de Montfort follows suit in his 33-Day Preparation for Consecration to Jesus through Mary, dedicated a whole week to the task of knowing thyself. Our Lord implies the same thing when He says: “And why seest thou the speck that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the plank that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the speck out of thy eye!’ ― and behold a plank is in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite! Cast out first the plank in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the speck out of thy brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:3-5).
Knowing self is of paramount importance―but so too is knowing your enemy. As the saying goes: “Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t know!”―meaning that it is more advantageous to see your enemy than not to see your enemy. Sun Tzu, a 6th century BC Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher, wrote: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
A Divided Church and Families―Attacked From Without and Within
Attacked from the outside―attacked from the inside! Accused from the outside―accused from within! That is plight and the fight that the Church has to currently endure―or, in fact, has been increasingly enduring for nearly 300 years―like the plight of a cancer patient having to fight the cancer within himself/herself as well as having to fight external incursions of viruses and bacteria with a now much reduced, greatly depleted and less efficient immune system. Sin is a cancer that grows from venial sin to mortal sin and depletes our spiritual strength. Sin attacks from the inside and the outside. It attacks individuals and it attacks bodies, like the Church, the family, the nation, etc.
This two-pronged attack―from without and within, external and internal―seems to be fatal, for, as Our Lord says: “Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand” (Matthew 12:25). Worryingly, He adds elsewhere: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household!” (Matthew 10:34-36). Who is the enemy―or who is the real enemy? Scripture tells us of a triple enemy: the devil, the world and our own flesh: “That old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, seduceth the whole world!” (Apocalypse 12:9).
The ancient Greek philosopher would often say: “To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.” St. Ignatius of Loyola, in his famous Spiritual Excercises, also stresses the important to know thyself: “To ask account of our soul … to know our sins and cast them out.” St. Louis de Montfort follows suit in his 33-Day Preparation for Consecration to Jesus through Mary, dedicated a whole week to the task of knowing thyself. Our Lord implies the same thing when He says: “And why seest thou the speck that is in thy brother’s eye; and seest not the plank that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the speck out of thy eye!’ ― and behold a plank is in thy own eye? Thou hypocrite! Cast out first the plank in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the speck out of thy brother’s eye!” (Matthew 7:3-5).
Knowing self is of paramount importance―but so too is knowing your enemy. As the saying goes: “Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t know!”―meaning that it is more advantageous to see your enemy than not to see your enemy. Sun Tzu, a 6th century BC Chinese general, military strategist, and philosopher, wrote: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
A Divided Church and Families―Attacked From Without and Within
Attacked from the outside―attacked from the inside! Accused from the outside―accused from within! That is plight and the fight that the Church has to currently endure―or, in fact, has been increasingly enduring for nearly 300 years―like the plight of a cancer patient having to fight the cancer within himself/herself as well as having to fight external incursions of viruses and bacteria with a now much reduced, greatly depleted and less efficient immune system. Sin is a cancer that grows from venial sin to mortal sin and depletes our spiritual strength. Sin attacks from the inside and the outside. It attacks individuals and it attacks bodies, like the Church, the family, the nation, etc.
This two-pronged attack―from without and within, external and internal―seems to be fatal, for, as Our Lord says: “Every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate: and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand” (Matthew 12:25). Worryingly, He adds elsewhere: “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household!” (Matthew 10:34-36). Who is the enemy―or who is the real enemy? Scripture tells us of a triple enemy: the devil, the world and our own flesh: “That old serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, seduceth the whole world!” (Apocalypse 12:9).
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday March 27th & Thursday March 28th
Article 25
Pointing the Finger! Throwing the Stone!
Article 25
Pointing the Finger! Throwing the Stone!
For or Against? With God or With Satan?
With each passing year, the world becomes more Satanic and less Christian. Huh? Are you serious? A little over the top, no? No, nowhere near being over the top! The bottom line of life is this: (1) You are either on God’s side, or (2) you are on Satan’s side―there is no middle ground, there are no spectators. If anyone protests that they are indifferent, and are on neither one side or the other, then God answers: “I know thy works―that thou art neither cold, nor hot! I would thou wert cold, or hot! But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-16). God speaks of being on one side or the other―hot or cold―but the indifferent, the in-between, the non-committed―He cannot tolerate and says He will vomit them out of His mouth.
Our Lord says something similar on several occasions: “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth!” (Matthew 12:30). “Everyone therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven. Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth―I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it! And he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it!” (Matthew 10:32-39).
Our Lord Speaks of Two Sides
Elsewhere, Our Lord points out that the world is in opposition to God and that He Himself wants nothing to do with the world, except to try and save souls from this world and its prince―Satan. “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything … The prince of this world is already judged ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). “My kingdom is not of this world!” (John 18:36). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, and because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “He that loveth his life [in this world] shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal!” (John 12:25).
In addition to this, Our Lord speaks of the terrible influence the world has upon the effectiveness of the Word of God. In the parable about the Sower of the Seed―in which Our Lord explains that the seed represents the Word of God―He says: “He that received the seed [the Words of God] among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless” (Matthew 13:22). “And that which fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit” (Luke 8:14).
The Apostles Speak of Two Sides
Following the lead of Our Lord’s truths, the Apostles write in Holy Scripture (which itself is Word of God and not just the word of the Apostles) that the world is our enemy and that, apart from living in it, we should have nothing to do with the world, its worldliness and spirit:
“Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32) ... “If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20) ... “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) ... “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:16-17). “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47). “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world” (Galatians 1:4). Therefore, the world is NOT GOOD, but in need of reform and in need of rescuing and saving! It is, as Holy Scripture say, a “wicked world” that is at enmity with God.
“Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
“Be sober and watch: because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in Faith!” (1 Peter 5:8-9). “In all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one!” (Ephesians 6:16).
Who is Satan?
The word “Satan” is derived from the Hebrew verb “satan”, which means “to oppose” and so from it comes the general meaning of “adversary.” The word devil comes from the way the wicked spirit goes about his work. It comes from the Greek verb “diaballo” meaning “to twist, accuse and calumniate.” Since the devil is the prince of this world, he leaves his influence, or fingerprints or DNA upon this world―creating a spirit of opposition, accusation, defamation, calumniation and a twisting of truth, facts and motives.
Children of Satan
What Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees, can equally be said of the world―along the principle of “like father, like son―like mother like daughter” which comes from Scripture: “Behold everyone that useth a common proverb, shall use this against thee, saying: ‘As the mother was, so also is her daughter’” (Ezechiel 16:44)―so too can these words of Our Lord’s be also applied to the world in general and not just the Scribes and Pharisees: “You [the world] are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.” (John 8:44).
With the word “Satan” coming from the Hebrew verb “satan”, which means “to oppose” and the word “devil” coming from the Greek verb “diaballo” meaning “to twist, accuse and calumniate”―Satan lives up his billing as an opponent and adversary to Christ and His Church, who loves to lie, twist things, accuse and calumniate. Since he does not do those things directly himself, he has to have his instruments who will do his work for him. Our Lord even addresses some of the Jews, the Scribes and Pharisees as being instruments of the devil, when He says: “You are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you will do!” (John 8:44).
In the same encounter between the Jews and Jesus, the Jews, showed the fingerprints and footprints of the devil (adversary, opponent, twister, accuser and calumniator) by accusing Jesus of being possessed by a devil. In that encounter, Jesus indirectly repeats what He had said earlier about them having the devil for their ‘father’ and says to them: “He that is of God, heareth the words of God! Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God!’ The Jews therefore answered, and said to Him: ‘Do not we say well that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?’ Jesus answered: ‘I have not a devil―but I honor My Father, and you have dishonored Me! But I seek not My own glory! There is One that seeketh and judgeth!” (John 8:47-50).
Thus God says in Holy Scripture: “Thou art blasphemed by them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan! … Behold, I will bring of the synagogue of Satan―who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie―behold, I will make them to come and adore before Thy feet. And they shall know that I have loved Thee!” (Apocalypse 2:9; 3:9).
Children or Instruments of Satan Today
Like any family, over centuries, the clan or extent of the family grows to enormous proportions―the same is true for the ‘family’ of the devil, his instruments―some witting, some unwitting―which has grown to enormous proportions today.
If we take the ‘measuring-stick’ of Our Lord―“He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth!” (Matthew 12:30)―then the vast majority of the 7 billion people walking this planet right now, are more aligned with the devil than they are aligned with Christ. Catholics are a mere 13% of the world―and most Catholics are most likely at enmity with God by living in a state of mortal sin, which further reduces that 13% down to anywhere―your guess is as good as anyone’s―to perhaps 2% or 1 in 50 people. With odds like that―50 to 1―there are not going to be many brave enough and willing enough to stand up for Christ and His Law and confess Him (witness to Him) before the remaining horde of mortal sinners, pagans, and atheists. Yet, Our Lord did warn: “Everyone therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 10:32-33).
Our Lady Points the Finger at the Instruments of Satan
It was at Quito, in Ecuador, in the late 16th and early 17th century, that Our Lady of Good Success revealed, to Sister Marianna de Jesus Torress, a glimpse of the future 19th and 20th centuries and the appalling times that awaited the Church due to our lukewarmness and indifference to God and our love for luxury and pleasure instead.
“I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects ... This epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. These years — during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government — will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised ... The life-giving Sacrament of Penance will be forgotten and even scorned by ungrateful men. In their foolish madness, they do not realize that it is the only sure means of salvation after one has lost his baptismal innocence. What is most grievious, is that even the ministers of my Most Holy Son do not give to this Sacrament the value that they should. Many view with cold indifference this valuable and precious treasure, which has been placed in their hands for the restoration of souls redeemed by the Blood of the Redeemer. There are those who consider hearing confession as a loss of time and a futile thing ... The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests ... Against them, the impious will rage a cruel war, overwhelming them with vituperations, calumnies and vexations, in order to stop them from fulfilling their ministry … The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good Pastors of the Church ... Making use of persons in positions of authority, the devil will assiduously try to destroy the Sacrament of Confession ... The same will happen with Holy Communion. Often during this epoch, the enemies of Jesus Christ, instigated by the demon, will steal consecrated hosts from the churches, so that they might profane the Eucharistic Species … The Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and profaned in the fullest sense of the word. Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament. This will make it easy for everyone to live in sin and will encourage the procreation of illegitimate children born without being incorporated into the Church ... Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent … The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom ... A spirit of impurity will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils... No one on the face of the Earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents. Oh, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall … Commiserate with and weep for your imprudent brethren sinners, beseeching your God and Redeemer to send to their souls many special and efficacious graces, powerful enough to draw them out of the dark abyss in which they lie” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Our Lord Also Points the Finger
Our Lord added: “This punishment will be for the 20th century … I shall punish heresy, blasphemy and impurity … “Know, moreover, that Divine Justice releases terrible chastisements on entire nations, not only for the sins of the people, but for those of priests and religious persons. For the latter are called, by the perfection of their state, to be the salt of the Earth, the masters of truth, and the deflectors of Divine Wrath. Straying from their divine mission, they degrade themselves in such a way that, before the eyes of God they quicken the rigor of the punishments.” The ingratitude and betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Him “to let My Justice fall upon My beloved cloisters ― and even over cities ― when those so near to Me who belong to Me reject My spirit, abandoning Me alone in Tabernacles, rarely remembering that I live there especially for love of them, even more than for the rest of the faithful … Such communities can only be preserved ― while they exist ― at the cost of much penance, humiliations and daily and solid practice of the religious who are good. Woe to these corrupt members during those times of calamity! Weep for them, beloved spouse, and implore that the time of so much suffering will be shortened.”
Popes Point the Finger of Accusation
After the formation of modern Masonry in London in 1717, the Church reacted shortly afterwards, in 1738, by forbidding Catholics from joining Masonic organizations and other secret societies. In the years that have followed, at least eleven popes have ruled that Catholic doctrines and Freemasonry are incompatible. Until 1983, Catholics who publicly associated with, or publicly supported, Masonic organizations were automatically excommunication―without the need for any court trial or decree of excommunication.
However, in view of the progressive infiltration of the Church by its enemies―Freemasons, Communists and others―once these infiltrators reached positions of power, they were able to weaken the Church’s stance against her enemies―with the result that, by the time of the Second Vatican Council, the “finger was not longer pointed” at Freemasons and Communists. Vatican II was asked, by over 400 bishops present at the Council, to condemn Freemasonry and Communism―and it did neither. Since 1983, a mere prohibition (no longer an automatic excommunication) on Masonic membership exists. The Church still prohibits membership in Freemasonry, but now only goes so far as to say, in an official Declaration, that “faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.” This is seen as a massive success by the Freemasonic invaders of the clergy and laity and led to a great increase in Masonic membership (mortal sin) on the part of many Catholic clergy and laity. Today, in the Vatican alone, there are at least 4 Masonic Lodges for the higher clergy. Even the Modernist and Liberal Pope Francis has frequently spoken of his grave concern over the Masonic infiltration of the Church’s Curia and other Catholic organizations. Yet, strangely, Pope Francis is constantly praised and cheered by Freemasons all over the world, and has even been made an honorary member of the Lodge, and has invited Rotarian Masons to celebrate their jubilee in the Vatican.
In his 1884 encyclical, Humanum Genus, Pope Leo XIII stated that the human race is “separated into two diverse and opposite parts, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other of those things which are contrary to virtue and to truth. The one is the kingdom of God on Earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ … The other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose possession and control are all whosoever follow the fatal example of their leader and of our first parents, those who refuse to obey the divine and eternal law, and who have many aims of their own in contempt of God, and many aims also against God.”
“At every period of time each has been in conflict with the other, with a variety and multiplicity of weapons, and of warfare, although not always with equal ardor and assault. At this period, however, the partisans of evil seem to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons ... No longer making any secret of their purposes, they are now boldly rising up against God Himself. They are planning the destruction of holy Church publicly and openly, and this with the set purpose of utterly despoiling the nations of Christendom, if it were possible, of the blessings obtained for us through Jesus Christ our Savior … In this insane and wicked endeavor we may almost see the implacable hatred and spirit of revenge with which Satan himself is inflamed against Jesus Christ. The studious endeavor of the Freemasons, to destroy the chief foundations of justice and honesty, and to cooperate with those who would wish, as if they were mere animals, to do what they please, tends only to the ignominious and disgraceful ruin of the human race.”
“The first warning of the danger was given by Clement XII in the year 1738, and his constitution was confirmed and renewed by Benedict XIV; Pius VII followed the same path; and Leo XII put together the acts and decrees of former Pontiffs on this subject, and ratified and confirmed them forever. In the same sense spoke Pius VIII, Gregory XVI, and, many times over, Pius IX ... The Church forbade anyone to enter the society, under the penalties which the Church is wont to inflict upon exceptionally guilty persons [excommunication]. The sectaries [adherents to Freemasonry], indignant at this, thinking to elude or to weaken the force of these decrees―partly by contempt of them, and partly by calumny―accused the sovereign Pontiffs, who had passed them, either of exceeding the bounds of moderation in their decrees, or of decreeing what was not just … Let no one be deceived by a pretense of honesty. It may seem to some that Freemasons demand nothing that is openly contrary to religion and morality; but, as the whole principle and object of the sect lies in what is vicious and criminal, to join with these men or in any way to help them cannot be lawful.”
“From the[ir] disturbing errors, the greatest dangers to States are to be feared. For, the fear of God and reverence for divine laws being taken away, the authority of rulers despised, sedition permitted and approved, and the popular passions urged on to lawlessness, with no restraint save that of punishment, a change and overthrow of all things will necessarily follow [which is what we are now seeing in most countries multiplied ten or a hundred times over]. This change and overthrow is deliberately planned and put forward by many associations of Communists and Socialists; and to their undertakings the sect of Freemasons is not hostile, but greatly favors their designs, and holds in common with them their chief opinions.”
In 1890, Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical on Freemasonry, entitled Dall'Alto Dell'Apostolico Seggio which condemned Masonic sects, wrote: “They are already judged! Their ends, their means, their doctrines, and their action, are all known with indisputable certainty. Possessed by the spirit of Satan, whose instrument they are, they burn like him with a deadly and implacable hatred of Jesus Christ and of His work; and they endeavor by every means to overthrow and fetter it.”
Then he goes on to outline the chief insidious Masonic goals:
● Replacing religious schools with state-run, atheistic schools
● Creating laws that separate civil society from the Church’s influence
● Suppressing religious organizations and corporations
● Seeking to control all Church property
● Excluding Catholic influence from public administration, academia, charitable works and hospitals
The Masons laid out even more insidious plans to directly attack the Church in their document Alta Vendita. It's been called a Masonic blueprint for destroying the Catholic Church by plotting to capture the papacy. Their plans fell into the hands of Pope Gregory XVI and were subsequently published under the authority of both Pope Pius IX and Pope Leo XIII. The Alta Vendita states: “Our final end is that of Voltaire and of the French Revolution, the destruction forever of Catholicism and even of the Christian idea, which, if left standing on the ruins of Rome, would be the resuscitation of Christianity later on.” The Alta Vendita calls for corrupting the young clergy and religious by indoctrinating them with secular humanist doctrines of Freemasonry. This doctrinally corrupted clergy would then make revolutionary changes in the Church and choose ill-formed leaders to further spread these errors.
There are many well-researched, detailed and reputable articles and books that show the inherent ties of Freemasonry with Satan. Since Satan is the prince of this world―according to words of Our Lord Himself―then Satan uses many tools in this world in his vain attempt to destroy the Church of Christ―among the most numerous ones are Freemasonry and Communism, though they are merely the “Indians” who are under the control of even higher placed “chiefs”. Marx’s Communist League and The Communist Manifesto did not pop-up out of nowhere. Communism came about after several centuries of agitation, theorizing and propaganda within secret societies. Regarding Freemasonry and the rise of Communism/Socialism―it is neither accidental nor coincidental that the revolutionary reformers Garibaldi, Mazzini, Charles Bradlaugh and Karl Marx were all Freemasons. Fr. Chad Ripperger, a current exorcist, flatly and bluntly says that the Masons are the property of the devil. The same could be said of Communists―and anyone else who plots against the Church, or merely lacks the state of sanctifying grace in the soul.
Pointing the Finger at Communism and Socialism
If you are still one of those persons who is blessed with still being able to use your mind to see beyond the façade of the superficial cosmetic phony projection of the world, and are not yet drugged by the media, the internet, the social media and dumbed-down rhetoric of shallow politicians, personalities and self-taught experts in theology, psychology, politics or some other subject in which they have a PhD (phony-degree) from the University of Google or Forum College, then you most probably realize that the world increasingly finds itself in the stranglehold of Communism and Freemasonry in all the key positions of life―Church, politics, finance, judiciary, military, science and medicine.
Dr. Bella Visono Dodd (1904–1969) was a member of the Communist Party of America in the 1930s and 1940s, who later became a vocal anti-Communist. After her defection from the Communist Party in 1949, she testified that one of her jobs, as a Communist agent, was to encourage young radical Communists to enter Roman Catholic Seminaries. In her public affidavit, among other things, Dr. Bella V. Dodd stated:
“In the late 1920s and 1930s, directives were sent from Moscow to all Communist Party organizations. In order to destroy the Catholic Church from within, party members were to be planted in seminaries and within diocesan organizations... I, myself, put some 1,200 men in Catholic seminaries … In the 1930s we put 1,100 men into the priesthood, in order to destroy the Church from within. The idea was for these men to be ordained, and then climb the ladder of influence and authority as Monsignors and Bishops”
A dozen years before the Second Vatican Council, she stated that: “Right now they are in the highest places in the Church” — where they were working to bring about change in order to weaken the Church’s effectiveness against Communism. She also said that these changes would be so drastic that “you will not recognize the Catholic Church”--which is true, for if you are old enough to remember the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church, then you have to admit that things have been changed drastically. A large part of the fault has to be placed at the lack of a truly practiced Faith on the part of the good priests and the good faithful. Our Lady’s statement at La Salette, that “People will think of nothing but amusement” … and the priests with “their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures” came to be true, as this attitude sapped any and all spiritual strength from the fun loving laity and ambitious clergy.
Weakened in this way, it was easy for the Communists (and all those other enemies of the Church who were and are fueled by the Communists—in finance and armament) to breach the walls of the Church—especially after their masterpiece conquests during Vatican II, when all the infiltrators “won the day” and carried away so many captive and ignorant souls!
Dodd gave voluminous testimony on communist infiltration of Church and state before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in the 1950s. In a lecture at Fordham University during that time, Dodd unveiled what would seem to be an uncanny prophecy of future chaos in the Church. The lecture was attended by a monk whose account of the talk is presented in Christian Order:
“I listened to that woman for four hours and she had my hair standing on end. Everything she said has been fulfilled to the letter. You would think she was the world's greatest prophet, but she was no prophet. She was merely exposing the step-by-step battle plan of Communist subversion of the Catholic Church. She explained that of all the world's religions, the Catholic Church was the only one feared by the Communists, for it was its only effective opponent. The whole idea was to destroy, not the institution of the Church, but rather the Faith of the people, and even use the institution of the Church, if possible, to destroy the Faith through the promotion of a pseudo-religion: something that resembled Catholicism, but was not the real thing. Once the Faith was destroyed, she explained that there would be a guilt complex introduced into the Church…. to label the ‘Church of the past’ as being oppressive, authoritarian, full of prejudices, arrogant in claiming to be the sole possessor of truth, and responsible for the divisions of religious bodies throughout the centuries. This would be necessary in order to shame Church leaders into an ‘openness to the world,’ and to a more flexible attitude toward all religions and philosophies. The Communists would then exploit this openness in order to undermine the Church.”
Does any of this sound familiar? Just like a perfect interrogation technique. Confront the church with alleged or real crimes. Brainwash the Church with the “themes” you want to introduce to get the Church to confess to Her real or imagined wrongdoings. Unless you have been comatose since Vatican II, you would be aware that Bella Dodd was describing the state of the Catholic Church today. Today, post-conciliar churchmen wallow in guilt over the Church’s "intolerant" past, make public apologies for the sins of dead Catholics (but not their own sins against the living faithful, including the victims of the homo-priest cover-up), and extol the virtues of other religions, thereby de facto abandoning the defined dogma that there is no salvation outside the Church.
Bella Dodd was no prophet. She merely told us what the infiltrators of the Church were planning to do. And lo, they have done it.
With each passing year, the world becomes more Satanic and less Christian. Huh? Are you serious? A little over the top, no? No, nowhere near being over the top! The bottom line of life is this: (1) You are either on God’s side, or (2) you are on Satan’s side―there is no middle ground, there are no spectators. If anyone protests that they are indifferent, and are on neither one side or the other, then God answers: “I know thy works―that thou art neither cold, nor hot! I would thou wert cold, or hot! But because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold, nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth!” (Apocalypse 3:15-16). God speaks of being on one side or the other―hot or cold―but the indifferent, the in-between, the non-committed―He cannot tolerate and says He will vomit them out of His mouth.
Our Lord says something similar on several occasions: “He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth!” (Matthew 12:30). “Everyone therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven. Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth―I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it! And he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it!” (Matthew 10:32-39).
Our Lord Speaks of Two Sides
Elsewhere, Our Lord points out that the world is in opposition to God and that He Himself wants nothing to do with the world, except to try and save souls from this world and its prince―Satan. “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything … The prince of this world is already judged ... Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!” (John 12:31; 16:11; 14:30). “My kingdom is not of this world!” (John 18:36). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, and because I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:19-24). “He that loveth his life [in this world] shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal!” (John 12:25).
In addition to this, Our Lord speaks of the terrible influence the world has upon the effectiveness of the Word of God. In the parable about the Sower of the Seed―in which Our Lord explains that the seed represents the Word of God―He says: “He that received the seed [the Words of God] among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless” (Matthew 13:22). “And that which fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit” (Luke 8:14).
The Apostles Speak of Two Sides
Following the lead of Our Lord’s truths, the Apostles write in Holy Scripture (which itself is Word of God and not just the word of the Apostles) that the world is our enemy and that, apart from living in it, we should have nothing to do with the world, its worldliness and spirit:
“Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32) ... “If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20) ... “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ... “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31) ... “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) ... “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “God sent not His Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:16-17). “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47). “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world” (Galatians 1:4). Therefore, the world is NOT GOOD, but in need of reform and in need of rescuing and saving! It is, as Holy Scripture say, a “wicked world” that is at enmity with God.
“Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
“Be sober and watch: because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in Faith!” (1 Peter 5:8-9). “In all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one!” (Ephesians 6:16).
Who is Satan?
The word “Satan” is derived from the Hebrew verb “satan”, which means “to oppose” and so from it comes the general meaning of “adversary.” The word devil comes from the way the wicked spirit goes about his work. It comes from the Greek verb “diaballo” meaning “to twist, accuse and calumniate.” Since the devil is the prince of this world, he leaves his influence, or fingerprints or DNA upon this world―creating a spirit of opposition, accusation, defamation, calumniation and a twisting of truth, facts and motives.
Children of Satan
What Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees, can equally be said of the world―along the principle of “like father, like son―like mother like daughter” which comes from Scripture: “Behold everyone that useth a common proverb, shall use this against thee, saying: ‘As the mother was, so also is her daughter’” (Ezechiel 16:44)―so too can these words of Our Lord’s be also applied to the world in general and not just the Scribes and Pharisees: “You [the world] are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof.” (John 8:44).
With the word “Satan” coming from the Hebrew verb “satan”, which means “to oppose” and the word “devil” coming from the Greek verb “diaballo” meaning “to twist, accuse and calumniate”―Satan lives up his billing as an opponent and adversary to Christ and His Church, who loves to lie, twist things, accuse and calumniate. Since he does not do those things directly himself, he has to have his instruments who will do his work for him. Our Lord even addresses some of the Jews, the Scribes and Pharisees as being instruments of the devil, when He says: “You are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you will do!” (John 8:44).
In the same encounter between the Jews and Jesus, the Jews, showed the fingerprints and footprints of the devil (adversary, opponent, twister, accuser and calumniator) by accusing Jesus of being possessed by a devil. In that encounter, Jesus indirectly repeats what He had said earlier about them having the devil for their ‘father’ and says to them: “He that is of God, heareth the words of God! Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God!’ The Jews therefore answered, and said to Him: ‘Do not we say well that Thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?’ Jesus answered: ‘I have not a devil―but I honor My Father, and you have dishonored Me! But I seek not My own glory! There is One that seeketh and judgeth!” (John 8:47-50).
Thus God says in Holy Scripture: “Thou art blasphemed by them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan! … Behold, I will bring of the synagogue of Satan―who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie―behold, I will make them to come and adore before Thy feet. And they shall know that I have loved Thee!” (Apocalypse 2:9; 3:9).
Children or Instruments of Satan Today
Like any family, over centuries, the clan or extent of the family grows to enormous proportions―the same is true for the ‘family’ of the devil, his instruments―some witting, some unwitting―which has grown to enormous proportions today.
If we take the ‘measuring-stick’ of Our Lord―“He that is not with Me, is against Me: and he that gathereth not with Me, scattereth!” (Matthew 12:30)―then the vast majority of the 7 billion people walking this planet right now, are more aligned with the devil than they are aligned with Christ. Catholics are a mere 13% of the world―and most Catholics are most likely at enmity with God by living in a state of mortal sin, which further reduces that 13% down to anywhere―your guess is as good as anyone’s―to perhaps 2% or 1 in 50 people. With odds like that―50 to 1―there are not going to be many brave enough and willing enough to stand up for Christ and His Law and confess Him (witness to Him) before the remaining horde of mortal sinners, pagans, and atheists. Yet, Our Lord did warn: “Everyone therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 10:32-33).
Our Lady Points the Finger at the Instruments of Satan
It was at Quito, in Ecuador, in the late 16th and early 17th century, that Our Lady of Good Success revealed, to Sister Marianna de Jesus Torress, a glimpse of the future 19th and 20th centuries and the appalling times that awaited the Church due to our lukewarmness and indifference to God and our love for luxury and pleasure instead.
“I make it known to you that from the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects ... This epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect … They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. These years — during which the evil sect of Masonry will take control of the civil government — will see a cruel persecution of all religious communities … The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised ... The life-giving Sacrament of Penance will be forgotten and even scorned by ungrateful men. In their foolish madness, they do not realize that it is the only sure means of salvation after one has lost his baptismal innocence. What is most grievious, is that even the ministers of my Most Holy Son do not give to this Sacrament the value that they should. Many view with cold indifference this valuable and precious treasure, which has been placed in their hands for the restoration of souls redeemed by the Blood of the Redeemer. There are those who consider hearing confession as a loss of time and a futile thing ... The demon will try to persecute the Ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests ... Against them, the impious will rage a cruel war, overwhelming them with vituperations, calumnies and vexations, in order to stop them from fulfilling their ministry … The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties. Lacking the divine compass, they will stray from the road traced by God for the priestly ministry, and they will become attached to wealth and riches, which they will unduly strive to obtain. How the Church will suffer during this dark night!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good Pastors of the Church ... Making use of persons in positions of authority, the devil will assiduously try to destroy the Sacrament of Confession ... The same will happen with Holy Communion. Often during this epoch, the enemies of Jesus Christ, instigated by the demon, will steal consecrated hosts from the churches, so that they might profane the Eucharistic Species … The Sacrament of Matrimony, which symbolizes the union of Christ with His Church, it will be attacked and profaned in the fullest sense of the word. Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament. This will make it easy for everyone to live in sin and will encourage the procreation of illegitimate children born without being incorporated into the Church ... Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women, and in this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent … The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom ... A spirit of impurity will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils... No one on the face of the Earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents. Oh, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall … Commiserate with and weep for your imprudent brethren sinners, beseeching your God and Redeemer to send to their souls many special and efficacious graces, powerful enough to draw them out of the dark abyss in which they lie” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Our Lord Also Points the Finger
Our Lord added: “This punishment will be for the 20th century … I shall punish heresy, blasphemy and impurity … “Know, moreover, that Divine Justice releases terrible chastisements on entire nations, not only for the sins of the people, but for those of priests and religious persons. For the latter are called, by the perfection of their state, to be the salt of the Earth, the masters of truth, and the deflectors of Divine Wrath. Straying from their divine mission, they degrade themselves in such a way that, before the eyes of God they quicken the rigor of the punishments.” The ingratitude and betrayal of religious souls, so dear to His Heart, would compel Him “to let My Justice fall upon My beloved cloisters ― and even over cities ― when those so near to Me who belong to Me reject My spirit, abandoning Me alone in Tabernacles, rarely remembering that I live there especially for love of them, even more than for the rest of the faithful … Such communities can only be preserved ― while they exist ― at the cost of much penance, humiliations and daily and solid practice of the religious who are good. Woe to these corrupt members during those times of calamity! Weep for them, beloved spouse, and implore that the time of so much suffering will be shortened.”
Popes Point the Finger of Accusation
After the formation of modern Masonry in London in 1717, the Church reacted shortly afterwards, in 1738, by forbidding Catholics from joining Masonic organizations and other secret societies. In the years that have followed, at least eleven popes have ruled that Catholic doctrines and Freemasonry are incompatible. Until 1983, Catholics who publicly associated with, or publicly supported, Masonic organizations were automatically excommunication―without the need for any court trial or decree of excommunication.
However, in view of the progressive infiltration of the Church by its enemies―Freemasons, Communists and others―once these infiltrators reached positions of power, they were able to weaken the Church’s stance against her enemies―with the result that, by the time of the Second Vatican Council, the “finger was not longer pointed” at Freemasons and Communists. Vatican II was asked, by over 400 bishops present at the Council, to condemn Freemasonry and Communism―and it did neither. Since 1983, a mere prohibition (no longer an automatic excommunication) on Masonic membership exists. The Church still prohibits membership in Freemasonry, but now only goes so far as to say, in an official Declaration, that “faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.” This is seen as a massive success by the Freemasonic invaders of the clergy and laity and led to a great increase in Masonic membership (mortal sin) on the part of many Catholic clergy and laity. Today, in the Vatican alone, there are at least 4 Masonic Lodges for the higher clergy. Even the Modernist and Liberal Pope Francis has frequently spoken of his grave concern over the Masonic infiltration of the Church’s Curia and other Catholic organizations. Yet, strangely, Pope Francis is constantly praised and cheered by Freemasons all over the world, and has even been made an honorary member of the Lodge, and has invited Rotarian Masons to celebrate their jubilee in the Vatican.
In his 1884 encyclical, Humanum Genus, Pope Leo XIII stated that the human race is “separated into two diverse and opposite parts, of which the one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue, the other of those things which are contrary to virtue and to truth. The one is the kingdom of God on Earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ … The other is the kingdom of Satan, in whose possession and control are all whosoever follow the fatal example of their leader and of our first parents, those who refuse to obey the divine and eternal law, and who have many aims of their own in contempt of God, and many aims also against God.”
“At every period of time each has been in conflict with the other, with a variety and multiplicity of weapons, and of warfare, although not always with equal ardor and assault. At this period, however, the partisans of evil seem to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons ... No longer making any secret of their purposes, they are now boldly rising up against God Himself. They are planning the destruction of holy Church publicly and openly, and this with the set purpose of utterly despoiling the nations of Christendom, if it were possible, of the blessings obtained for us through Jesus Christ our Savior … In this insane and wicked endeavor we may almost see the implacable hatred and spirit of revenge with which Satan himself is inflamed against Jesus Christ. The studious endeavor of the Freemasons, to destroy the chief foundations of justice and honesty, and to cooperate with those who would wish, as if they were mere animals, to do what they please, tends only to the ignominious and disgraceful ruin of the human race.”
“The first warning of the danger was given by Clement XII in the year 1738, and his constitution was confirmed and renewed by Benedict XIV; Pius VII followed the same path; and Leo XII put together the acts and decrees of former Pontiffs on this subject, and ratified and confirmed them forever. In the same sense spoke Pius VIII, Gregory XVI, and, many times over, Pius IX ... The Church forbade anyone to enter the society, under the penalties which the Church is wont to inflict upon exceptionally guilty persons [excommunication]. The sectaries [adherents to Freemasonry], indignant at this, thinking to elude or to weaken the force of these decrees―partly by contempt of them, and partly by calumny―accused the sovereign Pontiffs, who had passed them, either of exceeding the bounds of moderation in their decrees, or of decreeing what was not just … Let no one be deceived by a pretense of honesty. It may seem to some that Freemasons demand nothing that is openly contrary to religion and morality; but, as the whole principle and object of the sect lies in what is vicious and criminal, to join with these men or in any way to help them cannot be lawful.”
“From the[ir] disturbing errors, the greatest dangers to States are to be feared. For, the fear of God and reverence for divine laws being taken away, the authority of rulers despised, sedition permitted and approved, and the popular passions urged on to lawlessness, with no restraint save that of punishment, a change and overthrow of all things will necessarily follow [which is what we are now seeing in most countries multiplied ten or a hundred times over]. This change and overthrow is deliberately planned and put forward by many associations of Communists and Socialists; and to their undertakings the sect of Freemasons is not hostile, but greatly favors their designs, and holds in common with them their chief opinions.”
In 1890, Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical on Freemasonry, entitled Dall'Alto Dell'Apostolico Seggio which condemned Masonic sects, wrote: “They are already judged! Their ends, their means, their doctrines, and their action, are all known with indisputable certainty. Possessed by the spirit of Satan, whose instrument they are, they burn like him with a deadly and implacable hatred of Jesus Christ and of His work; and they endeavor by every means to overthrow and fetter it.”
Then he goes on to outline the chief insidious Masonic goals:
● Replacing religious schools with state-run, atheistic schools
● Creating laws that separate civil society from the Church’s influence
● Suppressing religious organizations and corporations
● Seeking to control all Church property
● Excluding Catholic influence from public administration, academia, charitable works and hospitals
The Masons laid out even more insidious plans to directly attack the Church in their document Alta Vendita. It's been called a Masonic blueprint for destroying the Catholic Church by plotting to capture the papacy. Their plans fell into the hands of Pope Gregory XVI and were subsequently published under the authority of both Pope Pius IX and Pope Leo XIII. The Alta Vendita states: “Our final end is that of Voltaire and of the French Revolution, the destruction forever of Catholicism and even of the Christian idea, which, if left standing on the ruins of Rome, would be the resuscitation of Christianity later on.” The Alta Vendita calls for corrupting the young clergy and religious by indoctrinating them with secular humanist doctrines of Freemasonry. This doctrinally corrupted clergy would then make revolutionary changes in the Church and choose ill-formed leaders to further spread these errors.
There are many well-researched, detailed and reputable articles and books that show the inherent ties of Freemasonry with Satan. Since Satan is the prince of this world―according to words of Our Lord Himself―then Satan uses many tools in this world in his vain attempt to destroy the Church of Christ―among the most numerous ones are Freemasonry and Communism, though they are merely the “Indians” who are under the control of even higher placed “chiefs”. Marx’s Communist League and The Communist Manifesto did not pop-up out of nowhere. Communism came about after several centuries of agitation, theorizing and propaganda within secret societies. Regarding Freemasonry and the rise of Communism/Socialism―it is neither accidental nor coincidental that the revolutionary reformers Garibaldi, Mazzini, Charles Bradlaugh and Karl Marx were all Freemasons. Fr. Chad Ripperger, a current exorcist, flatly and bluntly says that the Masons are the property of the devil. The same could be said of Communists―and anyone else who plots against the Church, or merely lacks the state of sanctifying grace in the soul.
Pointing the Finger at Communism and Socialism
If you are still one of those persons who is blessed with still being able to use your mind to see beyond the façade of the superficial cosmetic phony projection of the world, and are not yet drugged by the media, the internet, the social media and dumbed-down rhetoric of shallow politicians, personalities and self-taught experts in theology, psychology, politics or some other subject in which they have a PhD (phony-degree) from the University of Google or Forum College, then you most probably realize that the world increasingly finds itself in the stranglehold of Communism and Freemasonry in all the key positions of life―Church, politics, finance, judiciary, military, science and medicine.
Dr. Bella Visono Dodd (1904–1969) was a member of the Communist Party of America in the 1930s and 1940s, who later became a vocal anti-Communist. After her defection from the Communist Party in 1949, she testified that one of her jobs, as a Communist agent, was to encourage young radical Communists to enter Roman Catholic Seminaries. In her public affidavit, among other things, Dr. Bella V. Dodd stated:
“In the late 1920s and 1930s, directives were sent from Moscow to all Communist Party organizations. In order to destroy the Catholic Church from within, party members were to be planted in seminaries and within diocesan organizations... I, myself, put some 1,200 men in Catholic seminaries … In the 1930s we put 1,100 men into the priesthood, in order to destroy the Church from within. The idea was for these men to be ordained, and then climb the ladder of influence and authority as Monsignors and Bishops”
A dozen years before the Second Vatican Council, she stated that: “Right now they are in the highest places in the Church” — where they were working to bring about change in order to weaken the Church’s effectiveness against Communism. She also said that these changes would be so drastic that “you will not recognize the Catholic Church”--which is true, for if you are old enough to remember the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church, then you have to admit that things have been changed drastically. A large part of the fault has to be placed at the lack of a truly practiced Faith on the part of the good priests and the good faithful. Our Lady’s statement at La Salette, that “People will think of nothing but amusement” … and the priests with “their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures” came to be true, as this attitude sapped any and all spiritual strength from the fun loving laity and ambitious clergy.
Weakened in this way, it was easy for the Communists (and all those other enemies of the Church who were and are fueled by the Communists—in finance and armament) to breach the walls of the Church—especially after their masterpiece conquests during Vatican II, when all the infiltrators “won the day” and carried away so many captive and ignorant souls!
Dodd gave voluminous testimony on communist infiltration of Church and state before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee in the 1950s. In a lecture at Fordham University during that time, Dodd unveiled what would seem to be an uncanny prophecy of future chaos in the Church. The lecture was attended by a monk whose account of the talk is presented in Christian Order:
“I listened to that woman for four hours and she had my hair standing on end. Everything she said has been fulfilled to the letter. You would think she was the world's greatest prophet, but she was no prophet. She was merely exposing the step-by-step battle plan of Communist subversion of the Catholic Church. She explained that of all the world's religions, the Catholic Church was the only one feared by the Communists, for it was its only effective opponent. The whole idea was to destroy, not the institution of the Church, but rather the Faith of the people, and even use the institution of the Church, if possible, to destroy the Faith through the promotion of a pseudo-religion: something that resembled Catholicism, but was not the real thing. Once the Faith was destroyed, she explained that there would be a guilt complex introduced into the Church…. to label the ‘Church of the past’ as being oppressive, authoritarian, full of prejudices, arrogant in claiming to be the sole possessor of truth, and responsible for the divisions of religious bodies throughout the centuries. This would be necessary in order to shame Church leaders into an ‘openness to the world,’ and to a more flexible attitude toward all religions and philosophies. The Communists would then exploit this openness in order to undermine the Church.”
Does any of this sound familiar? Just like a perfect interrogation technique. Confront the church with alleged or real crimes. Brainwash the Church with the “themes” you want to introduce to get the Church to confess to Her real or imagined wrongdoings. Unless you have been comatose since Vatican II, you would be aware that Bella Dodd was describing the state of the Catholic Church today. Today, post-conciliar churchmen wallow in guilt over the Church’s "intolerant" past, make public apologies for the sins of dead Catholics (but not their own sins against the living faithful, including the victims of the homo-priest cover-up), and extol the virtues of other religions, thereby de facto abandoning the defined dogma that there is no salvation outside the Church.
Bella Dodd was no prophet. She merely told us what the infiltrators of the Church were planning to do. And lo, they have done it.
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Monday March 25th & Tuesday March 26th
Article 24
Annunciation or Denunciation
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Article 24
Annunciation or Denunciation
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
What’s in a Word? The Word of God!
We glibly use words without fully adverting to what they mean and without knowing much about their origins. To us, words are like “Birds Eye” ready-made-meals in a package, just take off the shelf, open, add water, mix together and use. You don’t need to know how to make a meal―it’s already made for you―just use it and eat it! We could compare these “Birds-Eye Meals” to “Words-I-Use”―words that have already been invented, packaged and are on the shelf, we don’t fully understand them, we just mix them together and, instead of putting them into our mouths, these words come out of our mouths! Yet sometimes, after having “made a meal” of what we say, we are made to “eat our own words” with some “humble-pie”!
As surveys show, most young Catholics today―especially of the modern Church―are clueless as to what the Annunciation is all about. Some even confuse the Immaculate Conception with the Annunciation, thinking that the Immaculate Conception is all about Mary conceiving Jesus in her womb while still remaining a virgin! On that point, some young Catholics cannot even tell you who the members of the Holy Trinity are! Nor do they know who the Evangelists were, nor the names of the Apostles, nor the Ten Commandments, nor what the essential conditions are for a mortal sin, etc. That is a situation that calls for an annunciation of a denunciation!
Anyway, before we proceed further, let us look at the meaning of the words “annunciation” and “denunciation” and then take those “Birds-Eye” words off the shelf, unpack them, add the water of some thoughts and mix them all together to see what comes out of the oven.
Annunciation & Denunciation
The English word “annunciation” originates from Middle English, which in turn takes the word from Old French “annunciation”, which, going further back in time, comes from late Latin “annuntiatio(n-)”, which has its origins in the ancient Latin verb “annuntiare” or the prefix “an-” plus “nuntiare” ― meaning “an act or instance of announcing something; a proclamation; the brining of news.” Thus, the word “annunciation” essentially means “to bring news, the making of an announcement, making a proclamation.” Related word, or synonyms, of “annunciation” are “edict, notice, publication, communication, declaration, pronouncement, advertisement, proclamation, bulletin, notification.”
The English word “denunciation” comes from the 15th century, and traces its roots, like “annunciation” through Old French, Late Latin to ancient Latin. It has the same root as “annunciation”―that is to say, the Latin verb “nuntiare” which is prefixed with “de-” which means taking from something, as in detract; or going away from something, as in depart; or going down, as in demote; whereas the “an-” prefix, which is a derivative of “ad-“ means “adding to something, going towards something.” The Latin meaning of “denuntiare” is “to announce [negatively], proclaim [negatively]; bring bad news, denounce, menace; a charge, a solemn or formal declaration accompanied by a menace.” Hence today’s definition of “a strong, public criticism; the act of accusing someone in public of something bad; an act or instance of denouncing; public censure or condemnation; an accusation of crime before a public prosecutor or tribunal.” Related word, or synonyms, of “denunciation” are “denouncement, censure, accusation, condemnation, rebuke, reprimand, reproach, reproof, indictment, castigation, reprehension, reprobation, blame, charge, incrimination, vilification, stigmatization.”
The Annunciation
In Christianity, the capitalized word “Annunciation” means the announcement of GOOD NEWS by the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she would conceive a Son by the power of the Holy Ghost, Who would be the Son of God and was to be called Jesus (Luke 1:26–38).
“And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel, being come in, said unto her: ‘Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women!’ Who, having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: ‘Fear not, Mary! For thou hast found grace with God! Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High! And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father! And He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever! And of His Kingdom there shall be no end!’ And Mary said to the angel: ‘How shall this be done, because I know not man?’ And the angel answering, said to her: ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee! And therefore also the Holy, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren―because no word shall be impossible with God!’ And Mary said: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord! Be it done to me according to thy word!’ And the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:26-38).
The Denunciation
This miraculous conception within Mary, by the power of God, brought about a great consternation within St. Joseph, to whom Mary was espoused. Very soon he noticed her pregnancy and was bewildered as to how this could have happened. Jewish Law demanded that any adulterous actions be denounced and that the guilty parties be stoned to death. Joseph could not bring himself to believe that Mary would commit adultery, nor could he bear the thought of denouncing her. So he decided to quietly withdraw from the scene, leave Mary, and go live somewhere else.
“When, as His mother, Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with Child, of the Holy Ghost. Whereupon Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately. But, while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: ‘Joseph, son of David! Fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife! For that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call His Name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins!’ Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: ‘Behold a virgin shall be with Child, and bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel!’―which being interpreted is, ‘God with us.’ And Joseph, rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife. And he knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn Son: and he called His Name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:17-25).
Combining the Annunciations to Mary and Joseph
Mixing together the ingredients of the two packages of ‘Annunciations’ made by Angels―instead of “Birds-Eye” packages you could call then “Angel-Mouth” messages―you get the following GOOD NEWS: “ ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee, and thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son … And therefore the Holy, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. And thou shalt call His name Jesus [which means “Savior”]. For He shall save His people from their sins! And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father! And He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever! And of His Kingdom there shall be no end!’ Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: ‘Behold a virgin shall be with Child, and bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel!’―which being interpreted is, ‘God with us.’”
The Annunciation of Jesus
When Jesus reached manhood and began His public ministry, He would make His own annunciation and announce the very same thing the angels had announced to Mary and Joseph:
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47)―thus confirming that “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent His Son into the world, NOT to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:16-17). “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Galatians 1:4). Yet though He came into this world, He was not of this world: “My kingdom is not of this world!” (John 18:36). “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything!” (John 14:30). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18).
The Denunciation of the World by Jesus
But if the world will not receive Him―“He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:10-11)―then He WILL judge the world and they will die in their sins rather than being saved from their sins: “For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). “I cannot of Myself do anything. As I hear, so I judge and My judgment is just; because I seek not My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 5:30). “You judge according to the flesh … Judge not according to the appearance, but judge just judgment … I judge not any man. And if I do judge, My judgment is true: because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent Me … I go, and you shall seek Me, and you shall die in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come! … You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin … Many things I have to speak and to judge of you. But He that sent Me, is true―and the things I have heard of Him, these same I speak in the world!” (John7:24; 8:15-16; 8:21-26). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7).
Our Lord goes on to announce: “The spirit of truth, the world cannot receive” (John 14:17). “I have manifested Thy Name, Father, to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world ... Thine they were, and to Me Thou gavest them … I am not of the world, and these are in the world … I pray for them … I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me … I have given them Thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world” (John 17:6-14). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).
The Denunciation of Christ and the Laws of Christ by the World
The world denounces Christ/God both directly and indirectly, totally or partially. It all depends on the ruling regime and the culture and religion of each country. Nevertheless, it should be clear even to the most myopic mind and most optimistic observer, that the world is stacked against Christ, His Church and His Laws. In some countries, the persecution is open, brutal and widespread; in other countries it is more indirect, hidden, subversive and subtle. Some countries physically persecute and kill Catholics, other countries persecute and kill them through laws and finance. It is not for nothing that Holy Scripture says in both the Old and New Testaments: “The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes assembled together against the Lord and His Christ!” Psalm 2:2; Acts 4:26).
President Barack Obama’s administration’s January 2014 directive to religious institutions to pay for employees’ contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs is one example of the modern-day “rack” or torture on which the Catholic Church has been placed. It is the modern compromise that imitates the early Christian dilemma of having to sacrifice to false gods or being put to death. Likewise the “hate crimes” of not accepting and speaking out against homosexual relationships, divorce, abortion, contraception and abortion provoking contraceptives, fornication and cohabitation outside of marriage, etc. Then the more subtle pressure of having to accept “freedom of religion” which, as has been witnessed, leads to freedom to worship Satan in the public domain―in the military, in schools, and in society at large. All of this is a disguised hatred of Christ, Christ’s teachings and Christ’s one true Church. Make no mistake about it―for the most part, the world hates Christ and Christ’s laws, either totally or partially, explicitly or implicitly. The teachings of Christ are denounced, ridiculed, ignored, rejected and forbidden. The world, as a whole, hates Christ whether it admits it or not, and we somehow still love the world!
Denouncing a Right to Life by the World
Let us put some objectivity into our vigilante moralizing today! There is no question that child abuse―whether physical abuse or sexual abuse―is a grave sin, one which merits Hell, unless sincerely confessed and paid for by penance. Yet let us not use that grave sin to whitewash or hide an even greater sin of child abuse―which is the even greater sin of abortion, which also merits Hell, unless sincerely confessed and paid for by penance. All things being equal―the person asking for an abortion or performing an abortion, will find themselves in far greater torments in Hell than the person who has abused a child physically or sexually. Murder is a far greater crime than abuse! With regard to abortion (the ultimate “child abuse” crime―since it is child murder), abortion laws vary widely by country. Only three countries in Latin America (the tiny countries Dominican Republic―population 10 million, El Salvador―population 6 million, and Nicaragua with a population 6 million) and two in Europe: the tiny island of Malta with a population of half-a-million and the Holy See or Vatican City with a population of 1,000―have banned abortions entirely, but life-saving abortions are nevertheless allowed in Malta in practice. Therefore, a total of less than 23 million people from those five tiny countries, out of the world’s population of 7,000 million, live in an area where abortion is forbidden―which means that approximately 1/300th or 0.003% of the world forbids abortion. According to World Health Organization, whose numbers will always be on the low side, every year in the world there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions. This corresponds to approximately 125,000 abortions per day. That is murder, that is child abuse of highest degree―yet the world condones it, accepts it, legalizes it! God says: “Thou shalt not kill!” and they don’t give a damn! That is a hatred of God and His Law.
As regards contraception―which is working against God’s providence and denying a child its right to life―in developing countries, more than half of all women of reproductive age want to avoid pregnancy. 214 million women are not using an effective method of contraception, leading to 88 million unintended pregnancies (but God intended pregnancies) in developing countries each year. In developed countries, contraception practice percentages, according to the United Nations statistics department, are as follows: Norway 88%; Czechia 86%; Canada 85%; Finland 85%; China 84%; UK 84%; Argentina 81%; Brazil 80%; Ecuador 80%; Uruguay 79%; France 78%; Greece 76%; Denmark 76%; Chile 76%; Colombia 75%; Netherlands 73%; USA 72%; Switzerland 69%; Germany 68%; Israel 68%; Sweden 64%; Spain 69%; Russia 68%; Portugal 67%; Mexico 67%; Belgium 66%; Australia 66%; Italy 65%; Austria 65%; Ireland 64%; Ukraine 64%; Hungary 61%; Poland 41%; Japan 39%; Pakistan 35%; United Arab Emirates 27%; Saudi Arabia 25%; Afghanistan 22%; Nigeria 13%; Sudan 12%; Gambia 9%; South Sudan 4%. These are just some of the chief countries of the total of 197 countries listed. If you are interested the worldwide average comes to rounded-off figure of 52% women of reproductive age practicing contraception.
The World Denounces God’s Rules on Marriage and Morality
Marriage is a creation of God’s and not a creation of man! Just as man cannot tinker with God’s physical laws in nature, neither can tinker with God’s moral laws concerning marriage and relationships. Sister Lucia of Fatima said that the focal point of the devil’s ‘final battle’ would be the family. This is patently and blatantly obvious to all who want to see! Marriage has been attacked on all fronts―firstly on the level of being a non-dissoluble institution, which has now been broken by universal acceptance of legalized divorced; and now on the level of marriage being a union between one man and one woman, with the almost universal acceptance of same sex marriages, which, obviously, therefore condone same sex sexual relationships. All of this flies in the face of God’s clear and unambiguous moral code, which can readily be found in Holy Scripture―which lays down the law that marriage is to be between one man and one woman; that marriage is monogamous (having only one spouse and not several spouses); that marriage is indissoluble (that it is a “until death do us part” marriage); and that marriage forbids adultery, contraception and abortion.
What is there about the following words of Holy Scripture―the word and law of God―that cannot be understood?
“And the Lord God said: ‘It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself!’ … for Adam there was not found a helper like himself. Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam: and when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it. And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam. And Adam said: ‘This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man!’ Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh. And God created man to His own image―to the image of God He created him: male and female He created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the Earth” (Genesis 1:27-28; 2:18-24).
The only way you can “increase and multiply” is in a male-female marriage, not a male-male or female-female union: “And Adam knew Eve his wife: who conceived and brought forth Cain, saying: I have gotten a man through God. And again she brought forth his brother Abel … In the day that God created man, he made him to the likeness of God. [2] He created them male and female; and blessed them … And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son to his own image and likeness, and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam, after he begot Seth, were eight hundred years: and he begot sons and daughters. And all the time that Adam lived came to nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. Seth begot begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died.” (Genesis 3:1-2). If God would have intended some other option to male-female procreation, He would most certainly have built that possibility into human nature―but He didn’t. Why? God explains His thoughts elsewhere in Holy Scripture:
“Thou shalt not lie with man as with woman, because it is an abomination. Thou shalt not copulate with any beast, neither shalt thou be defiled with it. A woman shall not lie down to a beast, nor copulate with it―because it is a heinous crime. Defile not yourselves with any of these things with which all the nations have been defiled, and with which the land is defiled―the abominations of which I will visit―that it may vomit out its inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:22-25).
When St. Paul discusses the activity of sodomites, he does not say it is “just another sin”. Rather, he presents it as an example of extreme abomination, coming at the end of a long path of progressive debauchery. Many sins are not against nature, but are simply good things done in the wrong way or at the wrong time. But homosexual sex is such a perversion that it is a sin against nature itself. There is no context in which it can ever be holy. It is debased and unfruitful by definition. When it comes to heinous sins, sodomy is near the end of the road, just before final judgment.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and injustice … They became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools … Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature, rather than the Creator … For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men, working that which is filthy!” (Romans 1:18-27).
Homosexuality is Severely Punished by God
Holy Scripture shows, on numerous occasions, God’s disgust with homosexuality. First of all he warns against it, threatening severe punishments: “Thou shalt not lie with man as with woman, because it is an abomination. Thou shalt not copulate with any beast, neither shalt thou be defiled with it. A woman shall not lie down to a beast, nor copulate with it―because it is a heinous crime. Defile not yourselves with any of these things with which all the nations have been defiled, and with which the land is defiled―the abominations of which I will visit―that it may vomit out its inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:22-25). “If any one lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination! Let them be put to death―their blood be upon them!” (Leviticus 20:13).
Then, whenever homosexuality breaks out, we see God’s heavy hand of punishment chastising it, as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrha (Genesis 19:1-29), Canaan (Leviticus 18:22-25) and Gabaa (Judges 19:22-25). Fire and brimstone rain down from Heaven and destroy Sodom, Gomorrha and all surrounding land and cities:
“And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of the city … And they [the angels] said to Lot: ‘Hast thou here any of thine? Son-in-law, or sons, or daughters, all that are thine bring them out of this city! For we will destroy this place, because their cry is grown loud before the Lord, who hath sent us to destroy them!’ … And when it was morning, the angels pressed Lot, saying: ‘Arise! Take thy wife and the two daughters, which thou hast! Lest thou also perish in the wickedness of the city!’ … And they brought him forth, and set him outside the city … And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country round about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth … And Abraham got up early in the morning and, in the place where he had stood before with the Lord, he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrha, and the whole land of that country, and he saw the ashes rise up from the earth as the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis 19:1-29).
So what has changed? Has God changed His mind about homosexuality? Is what once was evil now acceptable? Times change―don’t they? Holy Scripture trashes such a thought, saying that God is “the Father of lights, with Whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration!” (James 1:17) and “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil―that put darkness for light, and light for darkness―that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20). Today’s modern world and legal system had better get ready to take God to court and sentence Him for being guilty of a “hate crime”! They may well be “proud” of the sin today, but after Judgment Day, there will no longer be any “Pride Days” in Hell. They can threaten and blaspheme God as much as they want―God is not going to change, God does not cave in to pressure and intimidation.
When St. Paul discusses the activity of sodomites, he does not say it is “just another sin”. Rather, he presents it as an example of extreme abomination, coming at the end of a long path of progressive debauchery. Many sins are not against nature, but are simply good things done in the wrong way or at the wrong time. But homosexual sex is such a perversion that it is a sin against nature itself. There is no context in which it can ever be holy. It is debased and unfruitful by definition. When it comes to heinous sins, sodomy is near the end of the road, just before final judgment.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and injustice … They became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools … Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshiped and served the creature, rather than the Creator … For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men, working that which is filthy!” (Romans 1:18-27).
“Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err! Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor men who sleep with men (Latin: masculorum concubitoribus, in other words, homosexuals), nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor speakers of evil (Latin: maledici), nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10) and “the law is not made for the just man, but for the unjust and disobedient, for the ungodly, and for sinners, for the wicked and defiled, for murderers of fathers, and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for homosexuals (masculorum concubitoribus), … and whatever other thing is contrary to sound doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:9-10).
The bishops and priests of today, who are practicing homosexuals―which apparently seems to be many―are, as Our Lady of La Salette says, about to bring down from Heaven a terrible chastisement: “The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the king of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth. The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless Sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
Let us not imagine that this scourge of homosexuality simply exists among the clergy―they don’t become homosexual after priestly ordination―it is rampant everywhere even before they hit the seminaries, monasteries and convents. It is not only the homosexual clergy that will attract the wrath of God, but also the countless homosexuals that now infest society at large. In his 1948 book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Alfred Kinsey shocked the world by announcing that 10% of the male population was homosexual. A 1993 Janus Report estimated that 9% of men and 5% of women had more than “occasional” homosexual relationships―these percentages only count practicing homosexuals. In August 2002, a Gallup poll asked Americans, in an open-ended format, to estimate the percentage of American men and the percentage of American women who are homosexual. The average estimates were that 21% of men are homosexual and 22% of women are lesbians. In fact, roughly a quarter of the public thinks more than 25% of men and 25% of women are homosexual―given that many or most homosexuals, lesbians or transgenders are still shy of “coming out” and admitting their sexual deviation. They are fools, foolishly playing―not just with each other―but with their very salvation and eternal damnation. This sin, which God calls an abomination, cries out to Heaven for Divine retribution: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, because it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22). “If any one lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination! Let them be put to death―their blood be upon them!” (Leviticus 20:13).
What is to be said of the enablers of homosexuality? What is to be said of those who praise and fight for freedom to be granted to homosexuality; who promote homosexuality in schools and organizations; those who pass laws allowing and legalizing homosexuality, lesbianism and transgenderism? In moral theology, the provoker is often more guilty than the perpetrator, in instigator more than the malefactor, the seducer more than the seduced. The words that Our Lord spoke to the Pharisees―for much lesser transgressions―are thus even more applicable to these people: “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut the Kingdom of Heaven against men―for you yourselves do not enter in―and those that are going in, you suffer not to enter! … Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you go round about the sea and the land to make one convert; and when he is made, you make him the child of Hell twofold more than yourselves!” (Matthew 23:13-15). “He that shall scandalize one of these little ones, that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea!” (Matthew 18:6).
God’s Denunciation of Fornication and Adultery
So you are not homosexual or lesbian! Okay! God, however, does not just condemn homosexuality! He also condemns fornication (sexual relations or desires among single people) and adultery (sexual relations or desires where one or both persons is married).
“The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body!” (1 Corinthians 6:13). “For fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband!” (1 Corinthians 7:2-3). “Flee fornication! Every sin that a man does, is without the body; but he that commits fornication, sins against his own body. Or know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God; and you are not your own? For you are bought with a great price! Glorify and bear God in your body!” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20). “Mortify, therefore, your members, which are upon the earth from fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence … For which things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of unbelief, among whom you also walked at some time, when you lived in them. But now put away all filthy speech … stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man, him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of Him that created him!” (Colossians 3:5-10). “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication! That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor! Not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles that know not God!” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5). “Walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit: and the spirit against the flesh … Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, … and such like. Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God!” (Galatians 5:16-21).
Remember, too, that fornication is not just committed by physical actions, but also by mental thoughts! If the following verse is true of adultery, then it is also true of fornication: “Whosoever shall look on a woman, to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart!” (Matthew 5:28). Today, the world has made it easy for mental fornication and mental adultery to be committed―the media is a literal tsunami of constant sexual and immodest bombardment. Turn wherever you will―TV, internet, advertizing, magazine covers, book covers, fashions, everyday clothing, people on the street―immodesty at best and impurity at worst is flowing onto you from all sides.
It is not for nothing that Our Lady of Good Success spoke of this: “Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church … The passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals ... In these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world!”
Woe to those people who are enablers and promoters of this “filthy ocean” of “the spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times” allowing it to “run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty.” As was said before, the provoker is often more guilty than the perpetrator, in instigator more than the malefactor, the seducer more than the seduced. Why do the governments not legislate against such immodesty, impurity, perversion and pornography? They have it in their power to do so! Yet they refuse to do so! Yet they will sentence a man to jail who gives drugs to his children, or even drugs to fellow adults―yet they allow immodesty, impurity, perversion and pornography to freely circulate on the various media outlets, thus creating the tinder-wood or kindling-wood for the fire of fornication and adultery in both mind and body! “He that shall scandalize one of these little ones, that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea!” (Matthew 18:6). What does it mean to “scandalize”? The word comes from the Latin noun, “scandalum”, which means a stumbling-block or something that you trip over. That is exactly what the governments, media outlets, fashion outlets and everyday folk on the street are doing―they are placing stumbling-blocks of immodesty, impurity, perversion and pornography in the path of others to trip them up so that they fall into sin!
The very same applies to adultery, which is basically fornication by married people―or where at least one person is married―with someone who is not their spouse. Just as with fornication, adultery can be mental or physical. Our Lord is pretty clear on the matter, not giving leeway for loopholes:
“You have heard that it was said to them of old: ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery!’ But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman, to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart! And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee! For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into Hell! And if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into Hell! And it hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery!” (Matthew 5:27-32).
God’s Denunciation of Divorce
Marriage is intended to be permanent, since it was established by God. “And there came to Jesus the Pharisees tempting Him, and saying: ‘Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?’ Jesus, answering, said to them: ‘Have ye not read, that He [God] Who made man from the beginning, made them male and female?’ And Jesus said [quoting Genesis 2:24]: ‘For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder!’ They said to Him: ‘Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away?’ Jesus said to them: ‘Because Moses, by reason of the hardness of your heart, permitted you to put away your wives! But from the beginning it was not so! And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery! And he that shall marry her, that is put away, committeth adultery!” (Matthew 19:3-9).
St. Mark paints an almost identical scene: “The Pharisees, coming to Jesus, tempting Him, asked Him: ‘Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?’ But Jesus, answering, said to them: ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said: ‘Moses permitted to write a bill of divorce, and to put her away!’ To whom Jesus, answering, said: ‘Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you that precept! But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother; and shall cleave to his wife. And they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder!’ And in the house, again His disciples asked Him concerning the same thing. And He said to them: ‘Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her! And if the wife shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery!’” (Mark 10:2-12).
Those who have created, pushed for, and passed legislation permitting divorce will have one hell of a judgment when they die and find themselves divorced from God and eternally married to the devil! God help them! The same for those who promote divorce on the media, via television shows and movies, which desensitize us to the sin of divorce and even glamorize and glorify divorce. Marriage and divorce has become like a fast-food express lane check-out! Quickie-Marriage followed by a Quickie-Divorce, followed by a not-so-Quickie payment in Hell or Purgatory. But what the hell! As one pope after another has said―the greatest sin of our modern age is that man has lost the sense of sin! And losing the sense of sin is just one step away from losing your soul!
We glibly use words without fully adverting to what they mean and without knowing much about their origins. To us, words are like “Birds Eye” ready-made-meals in a package, just take off the shelf, open, add water, mix together and use. You don’t need to know how to make a meal―it’s already made for you―just use it and eat it! We could compare these “Birds-Eye Meals” to “Words-I-Use”―words that have already been invented, packaged and are on the shelf, we don’t fully understand them, we just mix them together and, instead of putting them into our mouths, these words come out of our mouths! Yet sometimes, after having “made a meal” of what we say, we are made to “eat our own words” with some “humble-pie”!
As surveys show, most young Catholics today―especially of the modern Church―are clueless as to what the Annunciation is all about. Some even confuse the Immaculate Conception with the Annunciation, thinking that the Immaculate Conception is all about Mary conceiving Jesus in her womb while still remaining a virgin! On that point, some young Catholics cannot even tell you who the members of the Holy Trinity are! Nor do they know who the Evangelists were, nor the names of the Apostles, nor the Ten Commandments, nor what the essential conditions are for a mortal sin, etc. That is a situation that calls for an annunciation of a denunciation!
Anyway, before we proceed further, let us look at the meaning of the words “annunciation” and “denunciation” and then take those “Birds-Eye” words off the shelf, unpack them, add the water of some thoughts and mix them all together to see what comes out of the oven.
Annunciation & Denunciation
The English word “annunciation” originates from Middle English, which in turn takes the word from Old French “annunciation”, which, going further back in time, comes from late Latin “annuntiatio(n-)”, which has its origins in the ancient Latin verb “annuntiare” or the prefix “an-” plus “nuntiare” ― meaning “an act or instance of announcing something; a proclamation; the brining of news.” Thus, the word “annunciation” essentially means “to bring news, the making of an announcement, making a proclamation.” Related word, or synonyms, of “annunciation” are “edict, notice, publication, communication, declaration, pronouncement, advertisement, proclamation, bulletin, notification.”
The English word “denunciation” comes from the 15th century, and traces its roots, like “annunciation” through Old French, Late Latin to ancient Latin. It has the same root as “annunciation”―that is to say, the Latin verb “nuntiare” which is prefixed with “de-” which means taking from something, as in detract; or going away from something, as in depart; or going down, as in demote; whereas the “an-” prefix, which is a derivative of “ad-“ means “adding to something, going towards something.” The Latin meaning of “denuntiare” is “to announce [negatively], proclaim [negatively]; bring bad news, denounce, menace; a charge, a solemn or formal declaration accompanied by a menace.” Hence today’s definition of “a strong, public criticism; the act of accusing someone in public of something bad; an act or instance of denouncing; public censure or condemnation; an accusation of crime before a public prosecutor or tribunal.” Related word, or synonyms, of “denunciation” are “denouncement, censure, accusation, condemnation, rebuke, reprimand, reproach, reproof, indictment, castigation, reprehension, reprobation, blame, charge, incrimination, vilification, stigmatization.”
The Annunciation
In Christianity, the capitalized word “Annunciation” means the announcement of GOOD NEWS by the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she would conceive a Son by the power of the Holy Ghost, Who would be the Son of God and was to be called Jesus (Luke 1:26–38).
“And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel, being come in, said unto her: ‘Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee! Blessed art thou among women!’ Who, having heard, was troubled at his saying, and thought with herself what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said to her: ‘Fear not, Mary! For thou hast found grace with God! Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call His name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High! And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father! And He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever! And of His Kingdom there shall be no end!’ And Mary said to the angel: ‘How shall this be done, because I know not man?’ And the angel answering, said to her: ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee! And therefore also the Holy, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. And behold thy cousin Elizabeth, she also hath conceived a son in her old age; and this is the sixth month with her that is called barren―because no word shall be impossible with God!’ And Mary said: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord! Be it done to me according to thy word!’ And the angel departed from her” (Luke 1:26-38).
The Denunciation
This miraculous conception within Mary, by the power of God, brought about a great consternation within St. Joseph, to whom Mary was espoused. Very soon he noticed her pregnancy and was bewildered as to how this could have happened. Jewish Law demanded that any adulterous actions be denounced and that the guilty parties be stoned to death. Joseph could not bring himself to believe that Mary would commit adultery, nor could he bear the thought of denouncing her. So he decided to quietly withdraw from the scene, leave Mary, and go live somewhere else.
“When, as His mother, Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with Child, of the Holy Ghost. Whereupon Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately. But, while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep, saying: ‘Joseph, son of David! Fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife! For that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call His Name Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins!’ Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: ‘Behold a virgin shall be with Child, and bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel!’―which being interpreted is, ‘God with us.’ And Joseph, rising up from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him, and took unto him his wife. And he knew her not till she brought forth her firstborn Son: and he called His Name Jesus.” (Matthew 1:17-25).
Combining the Annunciations to Mary and Joseph
Mixing together the ingredients of the two packages of ‘Annunciations’ made by Angels―instead of “Birds-Eye” packages you could call then “Angel-Mouth” messages―you get the following GOOD NEWS: “ ‘The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee, and thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son … And therefore the Holy, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. And thou shalt call His name Jesus [which means “Savior”]. For He shall save His people from their sins! And the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father! And He shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever! And of His Kingdom there shall be no end!’ Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: ‘Behold a virgin shall be with Child, and bring forth a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel!’―which being interpreted is, ‘God with us.’”
The Annunciation of Jesus
When Jesus reached manhood and began His public ministry, He would make His own annunciation and announce the very same thing the angels had announced to Mary and Joseph:
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John 12:47)―thus confirming that “God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting. For God sent His Son into the world, NOT to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by Him” (John 3:16-17). “Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world, according to the will of God and our Father” (Galatians 1:4). Yet though He came into this world, He was not of this world: “My kingdom is not of this world!” (John 18:36). “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything!” (John 14:30). To the worldlings He says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18).
The Denunciation of the World by Jesus
But if the world will not receive Him―“He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not” (John 1:10-11)―then He WILL judge the world and they will die in their sins rather than being saved from their sins: “For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). “I cannot of Myself do anything. As I hear, so I judge and My judgment is just; because I seek not My own will, but the will of Him that sent Me” (John 5:30). “You judge according to the flesh … Judge not according to the appearance, but judge just judgment … I judge not any man. And if I do judge, My judgment is true: because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent Me … I go, and you shall seek Me, and you shall die in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come! … You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin … Many things I have to speak and to judge of you. But He that sent Me, is true―and the things I have heard of Him, these same I speak in the world!” (John7:24; 8:15-16; 8:21-26). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7).
Our Lord goes on to announce: “The spirit of truth, the world cannot receive” (John 14:17). “I have manifested Thy Name, Father, to the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world ... Thine they were, and to Me Thou gavest them … I am not of the world, and these are in the world … I pray for them … I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me … I have given them Thy word, and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world; as I also am not of the world” (John 17:6-14). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you … If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19).
The Denunciation of Christ and the Laws of Christ by the World
The world denounces Christ/God both directly and indirectly, totally or partially. It all depends on the ruling regime and the culture and religion of each country. Nevertheless, it should be clear even to the most myopic mind and most optimistic observer, that the world is stacked against Christ, His Church and His Laws. In some countries, the persecution is open, brutal and widespread; in other countries it is more indirect, hidden, subversive and subtle. Some countries physically persecute and kill Catholics, other countries persecute and kill them through laws and finance. It is not for nothing that Holy Scripture says in both the Old and New Testaments: “The kings of the Earth stood up, and the princes assembled together against the Lord and His Christ!” Psalm 2:2; Acts 4:26).
President Barack Obama’s administration’s January 2014 directive to religious institutions to pay for employees’ contraceptives, sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs is one example of the modern-day “rack” or torture on which the Catholic Church has been placed. It is the modern compromise that imitates the early Christian dilemma of having to sacrifice to false gods or being put to death. Likewise the “hate crimes” of not accepting and speaking out against homosexual relationships, divorce, abortion, contraception and abortion provoking contraceptives, fornication and cohabitation outside of marriage, etc. Then the more subtle pressure of having to accept “freedom of religion” which, as has been witnessed, leads to freedom to worship Satan in the public domain―in the military, in schools, and in society at large. All of this is a disguised hatred of Christ, Christ’s teachings and Christ’s one true Church. Make no mistake about it―for the most part, the world hates Christ and Christ’s laws, either totally or partially, explicitly or implicitly. The teachings of Christ are denounced, ridiculed, ignored, rejected and forbidden. The world, as a whole, hates Christ whether it admits it or not, and we somehow still love the world!
Denouncing a Right to Life by the World
Let us put some objectivity into our vigilante moralizing today! There is no question that child abuse―whether physical abuse or sexual abuse―is a grave sin, one which merits Hell, unless sincerely confessed and paid for by penance. Yet let us not use that grave sin to whitewash or hide an even greater sin of child abuse―which is the even greater sin of abortion, which also merits Hell, unless sincerely confessed and paid for by penance. All things being equal―the person asking for an abortion or performing an abortion, will find themselves in far greater torments in Hell than the person who has abused a child physically or sexually. Murder is a far greater crime than abuse! With regard to abortion (the ultimate “child abuse” crime―since it is child murder), abortion laws vary widely by country. Only three countries in Latin America (the tiny countries Dominican Republic―population 10 million, El Salvador―population 6 million, and Nicaragua with a population 6 million) and two in Europe: the tiny island of Malta with a population of half-a-million and the Holy See or Vatican City with a population of 1,000―have banned abortions entirely, but life-saving abortions are nevertheless allowed in Malta in practice. Therefore, a total of less than 23 million people from those five tiny countries, out of the world’s population of 7,000 million, live in an area where abortion is forbidden―which means that approximately 1/300th or 0.003% of the world forbids abortion. According to World Health Organization, whose numbers will always be on the low side, every year in the world there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions. This corresponds to approximately 125,000 abortions per day. That is murder, that is child abuse of highest degree―yet the world condones it, accepts it, legalizes it! God says: “Thou shalt not kill!” and they don’t give a damn! That is a hatred of God and His Law.
As regards contraception―which is working against God’s providence and denying a child its right to life―in developing countries, more than half of all women of reproductive age want to avoid pregnancy. 214 million women are not using an effective method of contraception, leading to 88 million unintended pregnancies (but God intended pregnancies) in developing countries each year. In developed countries, contraception practice percentages, according to the United Nations statistics department, are as follows: Norway 88%; Czechia 86%; Canada 85%; Finland 85%; China 84%; UK 84%; Argentina 81%; Brazil 80%; Ecuador 80%; Uruguay 79%; France 78%; Greece 76%; Denmark 76%; Chile 76%; Colombia 75%; Netherlands 73%; USA 72%; Switzerland 69%; Germany 68%; Israel 68%; Sweden 64%; Spain 69%; Russia 68%; Portugal 67%; Mexico 67%; Belgium 66%; Australia 66%; Italy 65%; Austria 65%; Ireland 64%; Ukraine 64%; Hungary 61%; Poland 41%; Japan 39%; Pakistan 35%; United Arab Emirates 27%; Saudi Arabia 25%; Afghanistan 22%; Nigeria 13%; Sudan 12%; Gambia 9%; South Sudan 4%. These are just some of the chief countries of the total of 197 countries listed. If you are interested the worldwide average comes to rounded-off figure of 52% women of reproductive age practicing contraception.
The World Denounces God’s Rules on Marriage and Morality
Marriage is a creation of God’s and not a creation of man! Just as man cannot tinker with God’s physical laws in nature, neither can tinker with God’s moral laws concerning marriage and relationships. Sister Lucia of Fatima said that the focal point of the devil’s ‘final battle’ would be the family. This is patently and blatantly obvious to all who want to see! Marriage has been attacked on all fronts―firstly on the level of being a non-dissoluble institution, which has now been broken by universal acceptance of legalized divorced; and now on the level of marriage being a union between one man and one woman, with the almost universal acceptance of same sex marriages, which, obviously, therefore condone same sex sexual relationships. All of this flies in the face of God’s clear and unambiguous moral code, which can readily be found in Holy Scripture―which lays down the law that marriage is to be between one man and one woman; that marriage is monogamous (having only one spouse and not several spouses); that marriage is indissoluble (that it is a “until death do us part” marriage); and that marriage forbids adultery, contraception and abortion.
What is there about the following words of Holy Scripture―the word and law of God―that cannot be understood?
“And the Lord God said: ‘It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself!’ … for Adam there was not found a helper like himself. Then the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon Adam: and when he was fast asleep, he took one of his ribs, and filled up flesh for it. And the Lord God built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman: and brought her to Adam. And Adam said: ‘This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man!’ Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh. And God created man to His own image―to the image of God He created him: male and female He created them. And God blessed them, saying: Increase and multiply, and fill the Earth” (Genesis 1:27-28; 2:18-24).
The only way you can “increase and multiply” is in a male-female marriage, not a male-male or female-female union: “And Adam knew Eve his wife: who conceived and brought forth Cain, saying: I have gotten a man through God. And again she brought forth his brother Abel … In the day that God created man, he made him to the likeness of God. [2] He created them male and female; and blessed them … And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son to his own image and likeness, and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam, after he begot Seth, were eight hundred years: and he begot sons and daughters. And all the time that Adam lived came to nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. Seth begot begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died.” (Genesis 3:1-2). If God would have intended some other option to male-female procreation, He would most certainly have built that possibility into human nature―but He didn’t. Why? God explains His thoughts elsewhere in Holy Scripture:
“Thou shalt not lie with man as with woman, because it is an abomination. Thou shalt not copulate with any beast, neither shalt thou be defiled with it. A woman shall not lie down to a beast, nor copulate with it―because it is a heinous crime. Defile not yourselves with any of these things with which all the nations have been defiled, and with which the land is defiled―the abominations of which I will visit―that it may vomit out its inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:22-25).
When St. Paul discusses the activity of sodomites, he does not say it is “just another sin”. Rather, he presents it as an example of extreme abomination, coming at the end of a long path of progressive debauchery. Many sins are not against nature, but are simply good things done in the wrong way or at the wrong time. But homosexual sex is such a perversion that it is a sin against nature itself. There is no context in which it can ever be holy. It is debased and unfruitful by definition. When it comes to heinous sins, sodomy is near the end of the road, just before final judgment.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and injustice … They became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools … Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshipped and served the creature, rather than the Creator … For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men, working that which is filthy!” (Romans 1:18-27).
Homosexuality is Severely Punished by God
Holy Scripture shows, on numerous occasions, God’s disgust with homosexuality. First of all he warns against it, threatening severe punishments: “Thou shalt not lie with man as with woman, because it is an abomination. Thou shalt not copulate with any beast, neither shalt thou be defiled with it. A woman shall not lie down to a beast, nor copulate with it―because it is a heinous crime. Defile not yourselves with any of these things with which all the nations have been defiled, and with which the land is defiled―the abominations of which I will visit―that it may vomit out its inhabitants” (Leviticus 18:22-25). “If any one lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination! Let them be put to death―their blood be upon them!” (Leviticus 20:13).
Then, whenever homosexuality breaks out, we see God’s heavy hand of punishment chastising it, as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrha (Genesis 19:1-29), Canaan (Leviticus 18:22-25) and Gabaa (Judges 19:22-25). Fire and brimstone rain down from Heaven and destroy Sodom, Gomorrha and all surrounding land and cities:
“And the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of the city … And they [the angels] said to Lot: ‘Hast thou here any of thine? Son-in-law, or sons, or daughters, all that are thine bring them out of this city! For we will destroy this place, because their cry is grown loud before the Lord, who hath sent us to destroy them!’ … And when it was morning, the angels pressed Lot, saying: ‘Arise! Take thy wife and the two daughters, which thou hast! Lest thou also perish in the wickedness of the city!’ … And they brought him forth, and set him outside the city … And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country round about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the earth … And Abraham got up early in the morning and, in the place where he had stood before with the Lord, he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrha, and the whole land of that country, and he saw the ashes rise up from the earth as the smoke of a furnace” (Genesis 19:1-29).
So what has changed? Has God changed His mind about homosexuality? Is what once was evil now acceptable? Times change―don’t they? Holy Scripture trashes such a thought, saying that God is “the Father of lights, with Whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration!” (James 1:17) and “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil―that put darkness for light, and light for darkness―that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20). Today’s modern world and legal system had better get ready to take God to court and sentence Him for being guilty of a “hate crime”! They may well be “proud” of the sin today, but after Judgment Day, there will no longer be any “Pride Days” in Hell. They can threaten and blaspheme God as much as they want―God is not going to change, God does not cave in to pressure and intimidation.
When St. Paul discusses the activity of sodomites, he does not say it is “just another sin”. Rather, he presents it as an example of extreme abomination, coming at the end of a long path of progressive debauchery. Many sins are not against nature, but are simply good things done in the wrong way or at the wrong time. But homosexual sex is such a perversion that it is a sin against nature itself. There is no context in which it can ever be holy. It is debased and unfruitful by definition. When it comes to heinous sins, sodomy is near the end of the road, just before final judgment.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and injustice … They became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools … Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, unto uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves. Who changed the truth of God into a lie; and worshiped and served the creature, rather than the Creator … For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that use which is against nature. And, in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men, working that which is filthy!” (Romans 1:18-27).
“Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err! Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor men who sleep with men (Latin: masculorum concubitoribus, in other words, homosexuals), nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor speakers of evil (Latin: maledici), nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10) and “the law is not made for the just man, but for the unjust and disobedient, for the ungodly, and for sinners, for the wicked and defiled, for murderers of fathers, and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for homosexuals (masculorum concubitoribus), … and whatever other thing is contrary to sound doctrine” (1 Timothy 1:9-10).
The bishops and priests of today, who are practicing homosexuals―which apparently seems to be many―are, as Our Lady of La Salette says, about to bring down from Heaven a terrible chastisement: “The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the king of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth. The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless Sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. People will think of nothing but amusement. The wicked will give themselves over to all kinds of sin. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God! Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
Let us not imagine that this scourge of homosexuality simply exists among the clergy―they don’t become homosexual after priestly ordination―it is rampant everywhere even before they hit the seminaries, monasteries and convents. It is not only the homosexual clergy that will attract the wrath of God, but also the countless homosexuals that now infest society at large. In his 1948 book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, Alfred Kinsey shocked the world by announcing that 10% of the male population was homosexual. A 1993 Janus Report estimated that 9% of men and 5% of women had more than “occasional” homosexual relationships―these percentages only count practicing homosexuals. In August 2002, a Gallup poll asked Americans, in an open-ended format, to estimate the percentage of American men and the percentage of American women who are homosexual. The average estimates were that 21% of men are homosexual and 22% of women are lesbians. In fact, roughly a quarter of the public thinks more than 25% of men and 25% of women are homosexual―given that many or most homosexuals, lesbians or transgenders are still shy of “coming out” and admitting their sexual deviation. They are fools, foolishly playing―not just with each other―but with their very salvation and eternal damnation. This sin, which God calls an abomination, cries out to Heaven for Divine retribution: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, because it is an abomination” (Leviticus 18:22). “If any one lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination! Let them be put to death―their blood be upon them!” (Leviticus 20:13).
What is to be said of the enablers of homosexuality? What is to be said of those who praise and fight for freedom to be granted to homosexuality; who promote homosexuality in schools and organizations; those who pass laws allowing and legalizing homosexuality, lesbianism and transgenderism? In moral theology, the provoker is often more guilty than the perpetrator, in instigator more than the malefactor, the seducer more than the seduced. The words that Our Lord spoke to the Pharisees―for much lesser transgressions―are thus even more applicable to these people: “Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you shut the Kingdom of Heaven against men―for you yourselves do not enter in―and those that are going in, you suffer not to enter! … Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you go round about the sea and the land to make one convert; and when he is made, you make him the child of Hell twofold more than yourselves!” (Matthew 23:13-15). “He that shall scandalize one of these little ones, that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea!” (Matthew 18:6).
God’s Denunciation of Fornication and Adultery
So you are not homosexual or lesbian! Okay! God, however, does not just condemn homosexuality! He also condemns fornication (sexual relations or desires among single people) and adultery (sexual relations or desires where one or both persons is married).
“The body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body!” (1 Corinthians 6:13). “For fear of fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband!” (1 Corinthians 7:2-3). “Flee fornication! Every sin that a man does, is without the body; but he that commits fornication, sins against his own body. Or know you not, that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, Who is in you, Whom you have from God; and you are not your own? For you are bought with a great price! Glorify and bear God in your body!” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20). “Mortify, therefore, your members, which are upon the earth from fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence … For which things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of unbelief, among whom you also walked at some time, when you lived in them. But now put away all filthy speech … stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new man, him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of Him that created him!” (Colossians 3:5-10). “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication! That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor! Not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles that know not God!” (1 Thessalonians 4:3-5). “Walk in the spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit: and the spirit against the flesh … Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, … and such like. Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God!” (Galatians 5:16-21).
Remember, too, that fornication is not just committed by physical actions, but also by mental thoughts! If the following verse is true of adultery, then it is also true of fornication: “Whosoever shall look on a woman, to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart!” (Matthew 5:28). Today, the world has made it easy for mental fornication and mental adultery to be committed―the media is a literal tsunami of constant sexual and immodest bombardment. Turn wherever you will―TV, internet, advertizing, magazine covers, book covers, fashions, everyday clothing, people on the street―immodesty at best and impurity at worst is flowing onto you from all sides.
It is not for nothing that Our Lady of Good Success spoke of this: “Masonry, which will then be in power, will enact iniquitous laws with the objective of doing away with this Sacrament, making it easy for everyone to live in sin, encouraging the procreation of illegitimate children born without the blessing of the Church … The passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals ... In these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world!”
Woe to those people who are enablers and promoters of this “filthy ocean” of “the spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times” allowing it to “run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty.” As was said before, the provoker is often more guilty than the perpetrator, in instigator more than the malefactor, the seducer more than the seduced. Why do the governments not legislate against such immodesty, impurity, perversion and pornography? They have it in their power to do so! Yet they refuse to do so! Yet they will sentence a man to jail who gives drugs to his children, or even drugs to fellow adults―yet they allow immodesty, impurity, perversion and pornography to freely circulate on the various media outlets, thus creating the tinder-wood or kindling-wood for the fire of fornication and adultery in both mind and body! “He that shall scandalize one of these little ones, that believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea!” (Matthew 18:6). What does it mean to “scandalize”? The word comes from the Latin noun, “scandalum”, which means a stumbling-block or something that you trip over. That is exactly what the governments, media outlets, fashion outlets and everyday folk on the street are doing―they are placing stumbling-blocks of immodesty, impurity, perversion and pornography in the path of others to trip them up so that they fall into sin!
The very same applies to adultery, which is basically fornication by married people―or where at least one person is married―with someone who is not their spouse. Just as with fornication, adultery can be mental or physical. Our Lord is pretty clear on the matter, not giving leeway for loopholes:
“You have heard that it was said to them of old: ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery!’ But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman, to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart! And if thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee! For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into Hell! And if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into Hell! And it hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit adultery: and he that shall marry her that is put away, committeth adultery!” (Matthew 5:27-32).
God’s Denunciation of Divorce
Marriage is intended to be permanent, since it was established by God. “And there came to Jesus the Pharisees tempting Him, and saying: ‘Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?’ Jesus, answering, said to them: ‘Have ye not read, that He [God] Who made man from the beginning, made them male and female?’ And Jesus said [quoting Genesis 2:24]: ‘For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder!’ They said to Him: ‘Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put away?’ Jesus said to them: ‘Because Moses, by reason of the hardness of your heart, permitted you to put away your wives! But from the beginning it was not so! And I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery! And he that shall marry her, that is put away, committeth adultery!” (Matthew 19:3-9).
St. Mark paints an almost identical scene: “The Pharisees, coming to Jesus, tempting Him, asked Him: ‘Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?’ But Jesus, answering, said to them: ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said: ‘Moses permitted to write a bill of divorce, and to put her away!’ To whom Jesus, answering, said: ‘Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you that precept! But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother; and shall cleave to his wife. And they two shall be in one flesh. Therefore now they are not two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder!’ And in the house, again His disciples asked Him concerning the same thing. And He said to them: ‘Whosoever shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery against her! And if the wife shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery!’” (Mark 10:2-12).
Those who have created, pushed for, and passed legislation permitting divorce will have one hell of a judgment when they die and find themselves divorced from God and eternally married to the devil! God help them! The same for those who promote divorce on the media, via television shows and movies, which desensitize us to the sin of divorce and even glamorize and glorify divorce. Marriage and divorce has become like a fast-food express lane check-out! Quickie-Marriage followed by a Quickie-Divorce, followed by a not-so-Quickie payment in Hell or Purgatory. But what the hell! As one pope after another has said―the greatest sin of our modern age is that man has lost the sense of sin! And losing the sense of sin is just one step away from losing your soul!
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Saturday March 23rd & Sunday March 24th
Article 23
Growing-Up to Heaven―Not Going-Down to Hell
Undoing the Damages and Ravages of Immaturity
Article 23
Growing-Up to Heaven―Not Going-Down to Hell
Undoing the Damages and Ravages of Immaturity
Mature, Wise & Saved vs. Immature, Foolish and Damned
You have to be fool to want to go to Hell! Arguably, you could say only fools go to Hell―but then you have to limit that “foolishness” to the domain of spiritual foolishness, because there must be a lot “wise-guys” in Hell who were very clever in their chosen fields―bishops, priests, religious, politicians, doctors, lawyers, professors, teachers, financiers, bankers, entrepreneurs, businessmen, etc. They were clever in their field, but fools in the field of Faith. “For the wisdom of the flesh is death; but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace!” (Romans 8:6). You could say that Hell is an unqualified success in attracting qualified people without even seeking their qualifications―in other words, Hell has no “entrance exam”, it requires no “university degree” or “business diploma” yet it attracts the most qualified people on the planet (as well as the unqualified folk). Do you need any qualifications to “get in”? Hell, no! Just jump right in! Who jumps in? Only fools jump in! How many fools are there? “The number of fools is infinite!” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). “The fool hath said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways―there is none that doth good, no not one!” (Psalm 13:1). “My foolish people have not known Me! They are foolish and senseless children! They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge!” (Jeremias 4:22). “A fool will laugh at sin” (Proverbs 14:9). “O children! How long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves, and the unwise hate knowledge?” (Proverbs 1:22). “Understand, ye senseless among the people: and, you fools, be wise at last!” (Psalms 93:8).
Is This a Picture of You?
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his book The Three Ages of the Interior Life, speaks of the foolishness of the “clever” ones of this world, who foolishly put their worldly interests and careers above their ‘spiritual careers:
“The interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social life or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not!” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
“Since the commission of Original Sin, man’s intellect is wounded. This wound is called that of ‘ignorance’― because of it, the intellect, instead of inclining spontaneously toward the true, and especially toward supreme Truth, has difficulty in attaining it and tends to become absorbed in the consideration of earthly things, without rising to their cause [their cause or creator is God]. It is inclined with curiosity toward passing, short-lived things and, on the other hand, it is negligent and slothful in the search for our true last end and the means leading to it. Consequently, the intellect easily falls into error, and lets itself be darkened by the prejudices which come from inordinate passions [meaning desires, whims, attractions, loves, interests that are out of control]. It may finally reach the state that is called spiritual blindness” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Just Asking You Out of Curiosity: “Are You a Curious Person?”
“Despite wounding our intellect, Original Sin did not make our intellect incapable of knowing the truth … This wound of ignorance, the consequence of Original Sin, is in the process of healing from the time of Baptism, which regenerates us by giving us sanctifying grace. This wound may, however, reopen by reason of our personal sins, especially by reason of curiosity and intellectual pride, of which we must speak here [Today, curiosity is a modern day plague of epidemic proportions]. Curiosity is a defect of our mind, says St. Thomas, which inclines us with eagerness and precipitation toward the consideration and study of less useful subjects, thus making us neglect the things of God and of our salvation. This curiosity, says St. Thomas, is born of spiritual sloth in respect to divine things, and makes us lose precious time. Whereas people who have little learning, but are nourished with the Gospel, possess great rectitude of judgment, there are others who, far from nourishing themselves profoundly with the great Christian truths, spend a great part of their time carefully storing up useless, or at least only slightly useful knowledge, which does not at all train or form the judgment. They are afflicted with almost a mania for collecting. Theirs is an accumulation of knowledge, mechanically arranged and unorganized, somewhat as if it were in a dictionary. This type of work, instead of training the mind, smothers it, as too much wood smothers a fire. Under this jumble of accumulated knowledge, they can no longer see the light of the first principles, which alone could bring order out of all this material and lift up their souls even to God, the Beginning and End of all things. As St. John of the Cross says, this heavy and stupid intellectual curiosity is in this sense the inverse or opposite of contemplation, which judges all thing’s by the Supreme Cause [contemplating and seeing things as God sees them]. Such curiosity could lead to spiritual folly [spiritual immaturity and spiritual foolishness in knowledge, thought, word and action] of which St. Paul often speaks, to the folly which judges all, even the highest things, by what is lowest and at times most contemptible, by the satisfactions of our concupiscence or of our pride” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Some of the passages that Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange refers to―“of which St. Paul often speaks”― are as follows:
“Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; so that we may know the things that are given us from God. Which things also we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom; but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the sensual man [the worldly man, the seeker of earthly knowledge, things and pleasures] perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined” (1 Corinthians 2:12-14). “We preach Christ crucified, which is unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness! But unto them that are called, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:23-25)―that is to say, what appears foolish to the world in the ways of God, is indeed most wise; and what appears weak in the ways of God, is indeed above all the strength and comprehension of man.
What’s Your Eyesight Like?
How do you see things? Do you see things supernaturally or naturally? Do you judge supernaturally or naturally? “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). “Nor do I judge according to the look of man! For man seeth only those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart!” (1 Kings 16:7). Do you see other people, things, circumstances and events as God sees them? Or do you see them according to fashions, attitudes, viewpoints of the world? Remember that the world is an enemy of God! “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15).
If you cannot see that the world is an enemy of God, as well as an enemy to your soul and your soul’s salvation, then, sadly, your eyesight is not good―it might even be so bad as categorize you as being spiritually blind! “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Son of man! Thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house! Who have eyes to see, and see not: and ears to hear, and hear not! For they are a provoking house!” (Ezechiel 12:1-2).“They have mouths and speak not: they have eyes and see not” (Psalms 113:13). “They have not known, nor understood: for their eyes are covered that they may not see, and that they may not understand with their heart” (Isaias 44:18). “God hath given them the spirit of insensibility; eyes that they should not see; and ears that they should not hear, until this present day” (Romans 11:8). “Having eyes, see you not? And having ears, hear you not? Neither do you remember!” [the teachings of the Faith] (Mark 8:18). “Hear, O foolish [immature] people, and without understanding [whose understanding had not matured]―who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not! Will not you then fear Me, saith the Lord, and will you not repent at My presence?” (Jeremias 5:21-22). “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
God (Christ) Wants Mature Fruit
Taking a start from the parable of the Sower of Seed―in which Our Lord explains that the seed is the Word of God―we cannot deny that we have all had the seed of the Word of God planted in our souls. But what fruit has that seed produced? Has that seed of the Word of God been taken away by the birds of the air―which we call the air-waves of internet routers, which bring in the ‘birds’ of super-fast broadband connection to your home, laptop, tablet, mobile, etc. and takes your mind away on a super-fast broadroad to distraction from God and an eventual reboot in Hell. The seed of the Word of God doesn’t even get a “look in” due to having to compete with all the glitzy, snazzy, hi-tech pages which are the seed of the word of the world. The seed of the Word of God cannot take root because it is not in the mind for long enough to sprout and grow. It is choked by cares, riches, pleasures and lusts of worldly things. These “are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit” Luke 8:14). It never reaches maturity. It never ripens. The soul produces no fruit. God waits patiently, but nothing happens.
This brings us to another parable about the fruitless fig tree. “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: ‘Behold! For these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none! Cut it down therefore! Why cumbereth it the ground?’ But he answering, said to him: ‘Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down!’” (Luke 13:6-9).
We see this Godly impatience in an encounter that Jesus had with a fruitless fig tree―“And in the morning, returning into the city, Jesus was hungry. And seeing a certain fig tree by the wayside, He came to it, and found nothing on it, but leaves only, and He said to it: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:18-19). “And when Jesus had seen, afar off, a fig tree having leaves, He came if perhaps He might find anything on it. And when He was come to it, he found nothing but leaves. For it was not the time for figs. And answering, He said to it: ‘May no man hereafter eat fruit of thee any more for ever!’ … And when evening was come, He went forth out of the city. And when, they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter remembering, said to Him: ‘Rabbi, behold the fig tree, which thou didst curse, is withered away!’” (Mark 11:13-14; 19-21). The immature fig tree did not produce the expected fruit and Christ cursed it.
The very basic fruit we should be producing in the fruit of penance―for we are all sinners with debt for sin: “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3) ... “Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of penance!” (Matthew 3:8) … “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire!” (Matthew 3:10) … “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire!” (Matthew 7:16-19) … “I am the true vine; and My Father is the farmer. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away! And every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit! Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you the branches―he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth!” (John 15:1-6).
Adam and Eve Eat the Wrong Fruit
There is a massive lesson to learnt from Adam and Eve’s Original Sin, whereby they ate fruit that they should not have eaten. Let us first remind ourselves of the details and then draw some salutary lessons from the incident.
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the Earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: ‘Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?’ And the woman answered him, saying: ‘Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat! But of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat! And that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die!’ And the serpent said to the woman: ‘No! You shall not die the death! For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil!’
“And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened! And when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: ‘Where art thou?’ And he said: ‘I heard Thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself!’
“And the Lord God said to him: ‘And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?’ And Adam said: ‘The woman, whom Thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat!’ And the Lord God said to the woman: ‘Why hast thou done this?’ And she answered: ‘The serpent deceived me, and I did eat!’ And the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the Earth! Upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed―she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’
“To the woman also He said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over thee!’ And to Adam He said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.
“And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife, garments of skins, and clothed them. And He said: ‘Behold Adam is become as one of Us, knowing good and evil! Now, therefore, lest perhaps he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever!’ And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken. And he cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:1-24).
Today’s Adam and Eve Digital Sin
If we were to transpose Adam and Eve’s Original Sin to our present day, we could call that Original Sin a “Digital Sin”―meaning, of course, technological sin. St. Padre Pio, in speaking of the television, used to say: “The devil is in it!” and consequently Padre Pio refused to watch television. What would Padre Pio say today―with all the immense technological ‘advances’ that have been made, whereby the television seems almost a “stone-age” invention in comparison to the “fruits” of technology we can now lay our hands on!
If Holy Scripture warns us against loving the world―“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15) … Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ― then what would Holy Scripture say of the TV shows, the internet websites, social media, etc., which is 95% worldly, and the vehicles that bring that worldliness to us―television sets, computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, electronic assistants, etc.? If you have brain that still works, then the answer is as obvious as the nose on the front of your face! Yet very few people are focused on their noses, for we are looking way beyond our nose―which, at best, is blurred object that others can see far better than you yourself can see your own nose. That’s how it is with our worldliness―others can see our worldliness and lack of spirituality far better than we can. Or, as the Latin legal axiom says: “Nemo judex in causa sua” (or “nemo judex in sua causa”) literally meaning, “no-one is a judge in his own case.” It is a principle of natural justice that no person can judge a case in which they have an interest.
Without a doubt, we could say that modern technology has become “the forbidden fruit”―but, regardless of its dangers, we imitate Eve, who “saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened!” Today almost everyone thinks that “modern technology” is good to consume, fair to behold and delightful to use―and it opens eyes to the whole wide world (www=worldwideweb) and almost makes us like gods, knowing almost everything that is going at the click of a mouse or tapping a few keys! There is hardly anyone who can clearly see the terrible dangers infesting modern technology and few care anyway! But most souls are lost anyway! Is there a connection? You work it out! How can God be pleased with its constant use and distraction from Him, when He has said: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) … “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1) … “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength!” (Mark 12:30). Is modern technology allowing that to happen? The hell it is! And it is to Hell that it leads most souls!
Immature Addiction
Sure, you can argue that, of itself, technology is neither good nor evil. But what is the most common effect of technology? It leads souls away from prayer, away from meditation and away from learning about the Faith, and ultimately away from God. They waste their time on secondary and mostly worldly things―which, as stated above, make them enemies of God. Even persons from what you would call “Conservative” or “Traditional” families are sold on and addicted to many of the modern media gadgets―smartphone, laptop, tablet, etc. They are not spending all their hours on religious sites and browsing the Bible! Far from it! And far from God too! They may, like the Israelites of the Old Testament, look upon themselves as the “Chosen People”―but do not forget God’s opinion of His “Chosen People”― “with most of them God was not well pleased―for they were overthrown in the desert!” (1 Corinthians 10:5), and most of today’s “Chosen People” are overthrown in the spiritual desert of material technology. Hardly anybody thinks like that anymore, but, there again, hardly anybody goes to Heaven anymore! “He that loveth danger shall perish in it” (Ecclesiasticus 3:27).
When God’s promised chastisement for our age finally comes―which Our Lady of Akita says will be even worse than the Great Flood in the days of Noe, and during which Our Lady of Fatima says that many nations will be annihilated―we can be sure that much of technology will be annihilated also. If it was so wonderful, God would keep it―but somehow St. Padre Pio’s opinion of “The devil is in it!” somehow seems to be more likely and true than a mistaken flimsy opinion that “God is in it!” Without a doubt, modern technology is an idol, a demi-god, that is adored and worshiped by old and young all over the world―a god that they cannot imagine living without! It has become their “golden-calf” and it will end like the golden-calf in the time of Moses ended―crushed, ground to dust and destroyed, with many people perishing with it. It is our modern day idolatry that is bring this forthcoming chastisement upon us―yet we care little, or worry little, or do little about it. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).
We will certainly become mature and wise overnight, once that chastisement hits! The prophecies say that the few who remain alive on Earth, will live so holily as never before seen in the history of mankind! And they will achieve that holiness without modern-day technology! It will be a bygone-day mature spirituality that will have replaced this immature modern day technology. In the meantime, like babies, everyone will continue to play with their "technological toys" which have anesthetized and drugged their minds to the point where they can see spiritual truths and consequences no longer. That spiritual blindness is a punishment from God because they have preferred to spend more time and money on their technological toys rather than spend time with God.
Undoing the Evil Will Be Seen As an Evil
For those with the good sense and courage to fight against this technological tsunami, they will face a storm of ridicule, insults, alienation and persecution. Yet, there is no other way, for as Our Lord says: “He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth! … Everyone, therefore, that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven! But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 12:30; 10:32-33) … “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it! He that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 10:34-39; Luke 12:51-53, Mark 13:12-13).
You have to be fool to want to go to Hell! Arguably, you could say only fools go to Hell―but then you have to limit that “foolishness” to the domain of spiritual foolishness, because there must be a lot “wise-guys” in Hell who were very clever in their chosen fields―bishops, priests, religious, politicians, doctors, lawyers, professors, teachers, financiers, bankers, entrepreneurs, businessmen, etc. They were clever in their field, but fools in the field of Faith. “For the wisdom of the flesh is death; but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace!” (Romans 8:6). You could say that Hell is an unqualified success in attracting qualified people without even seeking their qualifications―in other words, Hell has no “entrance exam”, it requires no “university degree” or “business diploma” yet it attracts the most qualified people on the planet (as well as the unqualified folk). Do you need any qualifications to “get in”? Hell, no! Just jump right in! Who jumps in? Only fools jump in! How many fools are there? “The number of fools is infinite!” (Ecclesiastes 1:15). “The fool hath said in his heart: ‘There is no God!’ They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways―there is none that doth good, no not one!” (Psalm 13:1). “My foolish people have not known Me! They are foolish and senseless children! They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge!” (Jeremias 4:22). “A fool will laugh at sin” (Proverbs 14:9). “O children! How long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves, and the unwise hate knowledge?” (Proverbs 1:22). “Understand, ye senseless among the people: and, you fools, be wise at last!” (Psalms 93:8).
Is This a Picture of You?
Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, in his book The Three Ages of the Interior Life, speaks of the foolishness of the “clever” ones of this world, who foolishly put their worldly interests and careers above their ‘spiritual careers:
“The interior life is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life, or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social life or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not!” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
“Since the commission of Original Sin, man’s intellect is wounded. This wound is called that of ‘ignorance’― because of it, the intellect, instead of inclining spontaneously toward the true, and especially toward supreme Truth, has difficulty in attaining it and tends to become absorbed in the consideration of earthly things, without rising to their cause [their cause or creator is God]. It is inclined with curiosity toward passing, short-lived things and, on the other hand, it is negligent and slothful in the search for our true last end and the means leading to it. Consequently, the intellect easily falls into error, and lets itself be darkened by the prejudices which come from inordinate passions [meaning desires, whims, attractions, loves, interests that are out of control]. It may finally reach the state that is called spiritual blindness” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Just Asking You Out of Curiosity: “Are You a Curious Person?”
“Despite wounding our intellect, Original Sin did not make our intellect incapable of knowing the truth … This wound of ignorance, the consequence of Original Sin, is in the process of healing from the time of Baptism, which regenerates us by giving us sanctifying grace. This wound may, however, reopen by reason of our personal sins, especially by reason of curiosity and intellectual pride, of which we must speak here [Today, curiosity is a modern day plague of epidemic proportions]. Curiosity is a defect of our mind, says St. Thomas, which inclines us with eagerness and precipitation toward the consideration and study of less useful subjects, thus making us neglect the things of God and of our salvation. This curiosity, says St. Thomas, is born of spiritual sloth in respect to divine things, and makes us lose precious time. Whereas people who have little learning, but are nourished with the Gospel, possess great rectitude of judgment, there are others who, far from nourishing themselves profoundly with the great Christian truths, spend a great part of their time carefully storing up useless, or at least only slightly useful knowledge, which does not at all train or form the judgment. They are afflicted with almost a mania for collecting. Theirs is an accumulation of knowledge, mechanically arranged and unorganized, somewhat as if it were in a dictionary. This type of work, instead of training the mind, smothers it, as too much wood smothers a fire. Under this jumble of accumulated knowledge, they can no longer see the light of the first principles, which alone could bring order out of all this material and lift up their souls even to God, the Beginning and End of all things. As St. John of the Cross says, this heavy and stupid intellectual curiosity is in this sense the inverse or opposite of contemplation, which judges all thing’s by the Supreme Cause [contemplating and seeing things as God sees them]. Such curiosity could lead to spiritual folly [spiritual immaturity and spiritual foolishness in knowledge, thought, word and action] of which St. Paul often speaks, to the folly which judges all, even the highest things, by what is lowest and at times most contemptible, by the satisfactions of our concupiscence or of our pride” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Some of the passages that Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange refers to―“of which St. Paul often speaks”― are as follows:
“Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; so that we may know the things that are given us from God. Which things also we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom; but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the sensual man [the worldly man, the seeker of earthly knowledge, things and pleasures] perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined” (1 Corinthians 2:12-14). “We preach Christ crucified, which is unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness! But unto them that are called, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:23-25)―that is to say, what appears foolish to the world in the ways of God, is indeed most wise; and what appears weak in the ways of God, is indeed above all the strength and comprehension of man.
What’s Your Eyesight Like?
How do you see things? Do you see things supernaturally or naturally? Do you judge supernaturally or naturally? “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). “Nor do I judge according to the look of man! For man seeth only those things that appear, but the Lord beholdeth the heart!” (1 Kings 16:7). Do you see other people, things, circumstances and events as God sees them? Or do you see them according to fashions, attitudes, viewpoints of the world? Remember that the world is an enemy of God! “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15).
If you cannot see that the world is an enemy of God, as well as an enemy to your soul and your soul’s salvation, then, sadly, your eyesight is not good―it might even be so bad as categorize you as being spiritually blind! “And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Son of man! Thou dwellest in the midst of a provoking house! Who have eyes to see, and see not: and ears to hear, and hear not! For they are a provoking house!” (Ezechiel 12:1-2).“They have mouths and speak not: they have eyes and see not” (Psalms 113:13). “They have not known, nor understood: for their eyes are covered that they may not see, and that they may not understand with their heart” (Isaias 44:18). “God hath given them the spirit of insensibility; eyes that they should not see; and ears that they should not hear, until this present day” (Romans 11:8). “Having eyes, see you not? And having ears, hear you not? Neither do you remember!” [the teachings of the Faith] (Mark 8:18). “Hear, O foolish [immature] people, and without understanding [whose understanding had not matured]―who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not! Will not you then fear Me, saith the Lord, and will you not repent at My presence?” (Jeremias 5:21-22). “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
God (Christ) Wants Mature Fruit
Taking a start from the parable of the Sower of Seed―in which Our Lord explains that the seed is the Word of God―we cannot deny that we have all had the seed of the Word of God planted in our souls. But what fruit has that seed produced? Has that seed of the Word of God been taken away by the birds of the air―which we call the air-waves of internet routers, which bring in the ‘birds’ of super-fast broadband connection to your home, laptop, tablet, mobile, etc. and takes your mind away on a super-fast broadroad to distraction from God and an eventual reboot in Hell. The seed of the Word of God doesn’t even get a “look in” due to having to compete with all the glitzy, snazzy, hi-tech pages which are the seed of the word of the world. The seed of the Word of God cannot take root because it is not in the mind for long enough to sprout and grow. It is choked by cares, riches, pleasures and lusts of worldly things. These “are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit” Luke 8:14). It never reaches maturity. It never ripens. The soul produces no fruit. God waits patiently, but nothing happens.
This brings us to another parable about the fruitless fig tree. “A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: ‘Behold! For these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none! Cut it down therefore! Why cumbereth it the ground?’ But he answering, said to him: ‘Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down!’” (Luke 13:6-9).
We see this Godly impatience in an encounter that Jesus had with a fruitless fig tree―“And in the morning, returning into the city, Jesus was hungry. And seeing a certain fig tree by the wayside, He came to it, and found nothing on it, but leaves only, and He said to it: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:18-19). “And when Jesus had seen, afar off, a fig tree having leaves, He came if perhaps He might find anything on it. And when He was come to it, he found nothing but leaves. For it was not the time for figs. And answering, He said to it: ‘May no man hereafter eat fruit of thee any more for ever!’ … And when evening was come, He went forth out of the city. And when, they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter remembering, said to Him: ‘Rabbi, behold the fig tree, which thou didst curse, is withered away!’” (Mark 11:13-14; 19-21). The immature fig tree did not produce the expected fruit and Christ cursed it.
The very basic fruit we should be producing in the fruit of penance―for we are all sinners with debt for sin: “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3) ... “Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of penance!” (Matthew 3:8) … “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire!” (Matthew 3:10) … “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire!” (Matthew 7:16-19) … “I am the true vine; and My Father is the farmer. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away! And every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit! Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you the branches―he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth!” (John 15:1-6).
Adam and Eve Eat the Wrong Fruit
There is a massive lesson to learnt from Adam and Eve’s Original Sin, whereby they ate fruit that they should not have eaten. Let us first remind ourselves of the details and then draw some salutary lessons from the incident.
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any of the beasts of the Earth which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman: ‘Why hath God commanded you, that you should not eat of every tree of paradise?’ And the woman answered him, saying: ‘Of the fruit of the trees that are in paradise we do eat! But of the fruit of the tree, which is in the midst of paradise, God hath commanded us that we should not eat! And that we should not touch it, lest perhaps we die!’ And the serpent said to the woman: ‘No! You shall not die the death! For God doth know that in what day soever you shall eat thereof, your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil!’
“And the woman saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened! And when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons. And when they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in paradise at the afternoon air, Adam and his wife hid themselves from the face of the Lord God, amidst the trees of paradise. And the Lord God called Adam, and said to him: ‘Where art thou?’ And he said: ‘I heard Thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself!’
“And the Lord God said to him: ‘And who hath told thee that thou wast naked, but that thou hast eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?’ And Adam said: ‘The woman, whom Thou gavest me to be my companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat!’ And the Lord God said to the woman: ‘Why hast thou done this?’ And she answered: ‘The serpent deceived me, and I did eat!’ And the Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because thou hast done this thing, thou art cursed among all cattle, and beasts of the Earth! Upon thy breast shalt thou go, and earth shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed―she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel!’
“To the woman also He said: I will multiply thy sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and thou shalt be under thy husband’s power, and he shall have dominion over thee!’ And to Adam He said: Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work; with labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.
“And Adam called the name of his wife Eve: because she was the mother of all the living. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife, garments of skins, and clothed them. And He said: ‘Behold Adam is become as one of Us, knowing good and evil! Now, therefore, lest perhaps he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever!’ And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken. And he cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Genesis 3:1-24).
Today’s Adam and Eve Digital Sin
If we were to transpose Adam and Eve’s Original Sin to our present day, we could call that Original Sin a “Digital Sin”―meaning, of course, technological sin. St. Padre Pio, in speaking of the television, used to say: “The devil is in it!” and consequently Padre Pio refused to watch television. What would Padre Pio say today―with all the immense technological ‘advances’ that have been made, whereby the television seems almost a “stone-age” invention in comparison to the “fruits” of technology we can now lay our hands on!
If Holy Scripture warns us against loving the world―“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15) … Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4) ― then what would Holy Scripture say of the TV shows, the internet websites, social media, etc., which is 95% worldly, and the vehicles that bring that worldliness to us―television sets, computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, electronic assistants, etc.? If you have brain that still works, then the answer is as obvious as the nose on the front of your face! Yet very few people are focused on their noses, for we are looking way beyond our nose―which, at best, is blurred object that others can see far better than you yourself can see your own nose. That’s how it is with our worldliness―others can see our worldliness and lack of spirituality far better than we can. Or, as the Latin legal axiom says: “Nemo judex in causa sua” (or “nemo judex in sua causa”) literally meaning, “no-one is a judge in his own case.” It is a principle of natural justice that no person can judge a case in which they have an interest.
Without a doubt, we could say that modern technology has become “the forbidden fruit”―but, regardless of its dangers, we imitate Eve, who “saw that the tree was good to eat, and fair to the eyes, and delightful to behold: and she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave to her husband who did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened!” Today almost everyone thinks that “modern technology” is good to consume, fair to behold and delightful to use―and it opens eyes to the whole wide world (www=worldwideweb) and almost makes us like gods, knowing almost everything that is going at the click of a mouse or tapping a few keys! There is hardly anyone who can clearly see the terrible dangers infesting modern technology and few care anyway! But most souls are lost anyway! Is there a connection? You work it out! How can God be pleased with its constant use and distraction from Him, when He has said: “Pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) … “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1) … “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength!” (Mark 12:30). Is modern technology allowing that to happen? The hell it is! And it is to Hell that it leads most souls!
Immature Addiction
Sure, you can argue that, of itself, technology is neither good nor evil. But what is the most common effect of technology? It leads souls away from prayer, away from meditation and away from learning about the Faith, and ultimately away from God. They waste their time on secondary and mostly worldly things―which, as stated above, make them enemies of God. Even persons from what you would call “Conservative” or “Traditional” families are sold on and addicted to many of the modern media gadgets―smartphone, laptop, tablet, etc. They are not spending all their hours on religious sites and browsing the Bible! Far from it! And far from God too! They may, like the Israelites of the Old Testament, look upon themselves as the “Chosen People”―but do not forget God’s opinion of His “Chosen People”― “with most of them God was not well pleased―for they were overthrown in the desert!” (1 Corinthians 10:5), and most of today’s “Chosen People” are overthrown in the spiritual desert of material technology. Hardly anybody thinks like that anymore, but, there again, hardly anybody goes to Heaven anymore! “He that loveth danger shall perish in it” (Ecclesiasticus 3:27).
When God’s promised chastisement for our age finally comes―which Our Lady of Akita says will be even worse than the Great Flood in the days of Noe, and during which Our Lady of Fatima says that many nations will be annihilated―we can be sure that much of technology will be annihilated also. If it was so wonderful, God would keep it―but somehow St. Padre Pio’s opinion of “The devil is in it!” somehow seems to be more likely and true than a mistaken flimsy opinion that “God is in it!” Without a doubt, modern technology is an idol, a demi-god, that is adored and worshiped by old and young all over the world―a god that they cannot imagine living without! It has become their “golden-calf” and it will end like the golden-calf in the time of Moses ended―crushed, ground to dust and destroyed, with many people perishing with it. It is our modern day idolatry that is bring this forthcoming chastisement upon us―yet we care little, or worry little, or do little about it. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).
We will certainly become mature and wise overnight, once that chastisement hits! The prophecies say that the few who remain alive on Earth, will live so holily as never before seen in the history of mankind! And they will achieve that holiness without modern-day technology! It will be a bygone-day mature spirituality that will have replaced this immature modern day technology. In the meantime, like babies, everyone will continue to play with their "technological toys" which have anesthetized and drugged their minds to the point where they can see spiritual truths and consequences no longer. That spiritual blindness is a punishment from God because they have preferred to spend more time and money on their technological toys rather than spend time with God.
Undoing the Evil Will Be Seen As an Evil
For those with the good sense and courage to fight against this technological tsunami, they will face a storm of ridicule, insults, alienation and persecution. Yet, there is no other way, for as Our Lord says: “He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth! … Everyone, therefore, that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven! But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven!” (Matthew 12:30; 10:32-33) … “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law! And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it! He that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved” (Matthew 10:34-39; Luke 12:51-53, Mark 13:12-13).
TRIPLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday March 20th & Thursday March 21st & Friday March 22nd
Article 22
Are There Any "Grown-Ups" Anymore?
The Damage Caused by Immature Clergy & Immature Laity
Article 22
Are There Any "Grown-Ups" Anymore?
The Damage Caused by Immature Clergy & Immature Laity
Regressing into Immaturity?
Today’s psychologist, scientist and sociologists―not to mention priests, parents and teachers―are increasingly of the opinion that we are regressing (going backwards) as regards our maturity. Is this true? What is maturity anyway? The dictionary will define “maturity” as “the quality or state of being mature, especially as in full development; when something reaches its full level of development or potential; the state of being completely grown; the state of being mentally and emotionally well-developed, and therefore responsible; a very advanced or developed form or state.” In psychology, maturity is the ability to respond to the environment in an appropriate manner. Maturity also encompasses being aware of the correct time and location to behave and knowing when to act, according to the circumstances and the culture of the society one lives in.
As regards “immaturity”―it is defined as “not fully grown or developed; lacking complete growth or development; not having attained the potential capacity to a definitive form or state; lacking wisdom, insight, emotional stability, emotionally undeveloped; juvenile; childish.”
In a recent BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) news article, March 19th 2019, it was stated that “People don’t become fully “adult” until they’re in their 30s, according to brain scientists. Currently the UK law says you become a mature adult when you reach the age of 18. Scientists who study the brain and nervous system say the age at which you become an adult is different for everyone. Research suggests people aged 18 are still going through changes in the brain which can affect behavior and make them more likely to develop mental health disorders. Professor Peter Jones, from Cambridge University, said: What we’re really saying is that to have a definition of when you move from childhood to adulthood looks increasingly absurd. It’s a much more nuanced transition that takes place over three decades. I guess systems like the education system, the health system and the legal system make it convenient for themselves by having definitions. When you reach 18, you can vote, buy alcohol, get a mortgage and are also treated as an adult if you get in trouble with the police.”
In another BBC article, “At What Age Do You Feel You Have Reached Adulthood?”, published on April 27th, 2017, it was stated that “Many of the current generation of recent over-18s do not feel like an adult, according to a survey by building society Nationwide, and those commenting on the BBC News Facebook page seem to agree. Nationwide’s study, of 2,000 over-18s, found more than one in 10 did not think of themselves as fully fledged grown-ups until they reached the age of 27. Of those 2,000 people asked did feel they were adults, the transition happened for half in their 20s, while a fifth said it happened in their 30s. One in 20 respondents felt they had not grown up until their 40s.”
Young Woman's Perspective
Is it just UK ‘adults’ who are still wearing diapers, or is it the same in America and elsewhere? It seems as though everything is not rosy in the Big Apple! Here is an anecdotal testimony of a young woman about her male friend―somehow you are tempted to think that she has hit the nail on the head and that this is no isolated case!
“People today are getting degrees at an alarming rate, but are completely useless individuals at life. The higher the degree, the more useless. I am girl with a degree, but fortunately not useless. My friend, however, is in University and I cringe at how useless he is. He moved out to attend school very far away. I originally told him that the apartment, which his mom chose for him, was too expensive, but he took it anyway. His mom should have known better―given her life experiences. But not all parents learn from their mistakes and consequently pass on their mis-education to their children. Ten months later, he had to move out, because he could not afford this apartment. He panicked, because he had 3 weeks to find someone to move into his current apartment and to find a new apartment. I was completely baffled at how stressed he was. To me it was not complicated and not a big deal―but he worried and worried. He had no coping skills.
“I told him he needed proceed methodically and cautiously and make an informed decision, or he would find himself in the same financial predicament and would have to move again. I told him his next apartment needed to stay below a certain rent amount, in order to minimize financial trouble. I made him an excel sheet with his expenses and showed him what would happen if he repeated the same mistakes. Armed with this sheet he began his hunt. This time he listened to most of my advice ... at least the crucial parts. Everything worked out. Moving time came―he had no driver’s license, so I offered to rent a van and he paid for it. Another part of independence is getting a driver’s license, so you can help yourself. But fine―not everyone can drive. Next, I helped him put up his curtains, build his Ikea bed etc. He had absolutely no life-skills. He was good at school and video games and that was it.
“This is happening everywhere―young adults with no life skills. He is a grown man, but knows nothing. I blame him for not wanting to learn, and his parents for not teaching him and his siblings, the basic things I learned: Street smarts, spotting toxic people, price comparison shopping, cooking, sewing, reading ingredients on food, price comparison shopping for apartments, putting up shelves, using my hands, tricks to unclog a toilet, ability to wash clothing by hand, handling my money, credit cards and debt and avoiding service fees at banks. These are the basics that everyone needs to learn. People go out into to the world expect to live as comfortably as did when they were at home―and fail miserably and move back in. They are ill-informed, unprepared and living above their means when they leave the home.
“Firstly, I think Western society has it backwards with its promotion of moving out of home at 17 or 18. I think people should stay home as long as possible while finishing school and then working. This allows you to save money. I believe you should still contribute financially, and otherwise, to your parents’ household. This will still be cheaper than moving out. You should help out with cooking, cleaning and all the things you would do if you were living alone. Obviously some children take advantage of their parents generosity and they will most likely be the ones with the most difficulty when they leave the nest. So, they don't realize they are hurting themselves in the long run. Parents can set down the law and make sure their kids are contributing. This needs to begin when a child is young, so, as adults, it will be natural for them to want to help their parents. Secondly, I noticed that the very parents who want their kids out of home, in turn, find that their kids put them in nursing homes when they get older. This is not a pattern seen in non-western societies, where more than one generation lives in the same roof.
“To conclude, I think on some level parents are to blame for raising people who have no live skills and sometimes no ambition. Some kids have life too easy and never struggle and thus never learn copping skills because life is too easy. If you are a wealthy parent you are doing your child a disservice by giving your kids everything the ask for. Hardship builds character. If you work hard for something, you are more likely to take care of it. A lot of kids feel entitled because parents have allowed them to think they are entitled. Of course some parents don't know how to be a parent, or are children themselves, with a very little skill set to pass on.
“The most frustrating about watching this friend of mine is that he is pretty lazy and has no interest in really acquiring any life skills. He could very easily learn what he missed out on―it isn't too late. I cringe at the thought that, when he becomes a parent, he will have nothing significant to teach his kids (if he continues this way), except a love for video games, school and processed foods. He may get an awesome job because of his degree but when the s - - - hits the fan, I hope he has someone by his side to pick up the pieces.”
It would be a fairly educated guess to say that the female is predominantly of a choleric temperament and that the male is predominantly melancholic. Nevertheless, like a good choleric, she proverbially hits (or hammers) the nail on the head.
Older Man’s Perspective
Here is the opinion of an older American―a Protestant, retired, reads 100 books a year. He places a large part of the blame for immaturity on technology:
“Instant gratification. And it all picked up speed in MY generation ― the boomers [he means “baby-boomers” which is a term for those born in the years following the Second World War]. How? Television. Television probably was the first technology which became actually invasive in family life. Unlike radio, TV required little imagination because the viewer was given both sight and sound. Radio, the predecessor medium, still required imagination to visualize what one heard. I was one of the lucky ones. My TV diet of cartoons and sappy little dramas for kids was satisfied only on Saturday mornings. TV time was limited―after the Saturday morning ‘transfusion’, I, and every other kid in the neighborhood, was ejected from our homes and told to go out and play. But in succeeding years, TV became more and more a kind of baby sitter. Especially as “house wives” became “working mothers” and many kids became “latch key” kids. I think you see where I am headed, with this, so I will just skip ahead to more recent generations, whose youth constituency is bribed or placated with instant satisfaction of their needs. To the extent that the fulfillment of needs is accomplished with portable devices.
“At the same time, the appearance of technology in schools has replaced the need of mental discipline to absorb the most basic skills. A friend of mine has a child of 15 who cannot do basic multiplication in his head. Asked to count the number of equal size boxes in a case, the poor guy actually pointed to each box, in turn, “One, two, three…”. This kid did not only NOT KNOW how to take the units on vertical and multiply by units on horizontal, he didn’t even have a CONCEPT of what that was all about. Why? Because his cell phone had a calculator.
“Which brings us to the landslide of internet “do it for me” questions, which is truly stunning, and where perceptions of reality appear to emerge from playing video games. And this is so widespread that people actually ask―with sincerity―such questions as, “My girlfriend gave me a funny look. What does it mean?” We have done an outstanding job of actually making entire generations as stupid and as self-serving as possible.
“Oh, sure, the parents will proudly say how little Throckmorton [imaginary name for a boy―you could just as well say “Little Johnny”] has a grasp of technology ― see how he uses his smart phone and computer? Well, bad news! Throckmorton has no more a grasp of technology than I do of composing a symphony. No, what Throckmorton has learned is how to push buttons for a reward. He is no different than a caged monkey who pushes a button to get a pellet of monkey food. No different! He has no clue what’s going on inside his “smart” whatever. He is as stupid as a table. And why? So people can have what they want, when they want it. The concept of delayed reward has been vaporized. We are left, instead, with a moaning, pathetic population of people approaching adulthood, who have not advanced beyond the crib. Dreadful!”
Our Lord's Perspective
What would Our Lord say? After all, it is His opinion that really counts! What does Holy Scripture―the Word of God par excellence―say on this matter? There are some who would be tempted to ‘canonize’ their immaturity by quoting the following incident with Our Lord: “And Jesus, calling unto Him a little child, set him in the midst of them, and said: ‘Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 18:2-3). You will say: “There you have it! Jesus wants us to be immature like children!”
Well, not quite! Though it is true that Jesus said those words, we must look and understand in what context He said them. In fact, Jesus said those things in order to stop the immature, childish, immature bickering that was taking place among His Apostles. Here are the accounts, combined together, that place His words in their full and true context―they are reported by St. Matthew and St. Mark: “And they came to Capharnaum. And when they were in the house, Jesus asked them: ‘What did you talk of on the way?’ But they held their peace, for, on the way, they had disputed among themselves, which of them should be the greatest [thus behaving just like immature children]. Then the disciples came to Jesus, saying: ‘Who, thinkest Thou, is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven?’ And sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve, and said to them: ‘If any man desire to be first, he shall be the last of all, and the minister of all!’ And Jesus calling unto Him a little child, and taking the child, He set him in the midst of them, and, when He had embraced him, He said to them: ‘Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 18:1-5; Mark 9:32-36). Thus, rather than ‘canonizing’ immaturity, Jesus in actually condemning the immaturity of the disciples.
The Old Testament severely condemns immaturity on several occasions: God, gives Moses the following command: “If a man have a stubborn and unruly son [an example of immaturity], who will not hear the commandments of his father or mother, and being corrected, slighteth obedience―then they shall take him and bring him to the ancients of his city, and to the gate of judgment, and shall say to them: ‘This our son is rebellious and stubborn, he slighteth hearing our admonitions, he giveth himself to reveling, and to debauchery and banqueting!’ The people of the city shall stone him and he shall die, so that you may take away the evil out of the midst of you, and all Israel, hearing of it, may be afraid!” (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).
“[The prophet of the Lord] Eliseus went up to Bethel. And, as he was going up by the way, little boys [immature] came out of the city and mocked him, saying: ‘Go up, thou bald head! Go up, thou bald head!’ And looking back, Eliseus saw them, and cursed them in the Name of the Lord―and there came forth two bears, out of the forest, and tore of them two and forty boys” (4 Kings 2:23-24). “Cast out the scoffer [the immature], and contention shall go out with him, and quarrels and reproaches shall cease! … Folly [immaturity] is bound up in the heart of a child, and the rod of correction shall drive it away!” (Proverbs 22:10, 15).
The Dangers of Immaturity
When we fail to correct the emotional immaturity in our lives, we end up merely going through the motions of Christian disciplines, activities, and behaviors, but deeply rooted behavioral patterns from our pasts continue to hinder us from an authentic life of maturity in Christ. We kneel, we join our hands in prayer, we bow, we genuflect, we make signs of the cross, we carry Rosaries, we wear scapulars, we say prayers, we go to Mass, we receive Holy Communion, etc. ― but all of these things are mere externals, ecclesiastical etiquette, but these actions are merely like feathers without a bird underneath them. There is little thought and little understanding of the purpose, significance, symbolism and spirituality of these things―they are mere externals that smugly satisfy our superficial Faith. A five-year-old child is taught to make a sign of the cross, to say a certain prayer, to use holy water, to answer a catechism question―such as “What is God? God is a spirit!”―without really knowing or understanding all that these things mean, represent, symbolize and effect. For a five-year-old child, this is fine, it is only a beginning―but we should not remain in the childish state of knowledge and understanding―it is only skin deep, superficial. It is of such a superficiality and immaturity that Our Lord speaks, when He says: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Most Catholics today are “lip-service” Catholics living in a spiritual “express-lane” in their prayer life, and using the “fast-check-out-lane” after Holy Communion and Mass.
That is classic immaturity―to perform the externals (looking to be mature), while interiorly we are distracted, disconnected, disorientated like an immature child, who is told to apologize and begrudgingly spits out the words “I’m sorry!!!” when it is clear that those words come only from the lips and not the heart. Part of maturity is acceptance of responsibility―immature people are always making excuses, “passing-the-buck”, pointing the finger at others and blaming someone or something else other than themselves. In confession, they will ‘confess’ or tell the sins of others as much (or even more than) their own sins―all of this comes from a lack of maturity or lack of an ability to accept responsibility.
The Superficiality of Immaturity
We often neglect to dig deeper, to think more, to reflect on what is going on inside us and around us (emotional health) and are too busy to slow down to be with God (contemplative spirituality). As a result, we run the high risk of remaining stuck as spiritual infants, failing to develop into spiritually/emotionally mature adults in Christ. As St. Paul writes: “Brethren, do not become children in sense: but in malice be children, and in sense be perfect” (1 Corinthians 14:20). In other words, St. Paul is saying: “Do not think like mere children, but if you are going to imitate children, then imitate their lack of maliciousness that comes from their thoughtlessness―but in your own thoughts, be mature and not childish!”
Elsewhere St. Paul adds: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child” (1 Corinthians 13:11). Nowadays, adults still act like children, want to play like children, react to disappointments like children and make excuses like children.
St. Paul, in speaking of spiritual immaturity, writes: “For whereas for the time you ought to be masters, you have need to be taught again what are the first elements of the words of God [in other words: you should be spiritual masters by now, but I am still having to teach you basic elementary Christianity]: and you are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat [in other words, mature spiritual ideas and teachings are beyond your immature understanding]. For every one that is a partaker of milk, is unskillful in the word of justice: for he is a little child [in other words: babies who are being nursed on milk are pretty helpless and useless, and so are you with the Word of God]. But strong meat is for the perfect; for them who by custom have their senses exercised to the discerning of good and evil [in other words: meaty theology is for the spiritual mature, who have long since passed by and left behind their milk of ‘baby theology’].” (Hebrews 5:12-14). “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. As unto little ones in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not meat; for you were not able as yet [in other words: because of your spiritual immaturity, I have to speak to you in spiritual baby language, because you cannot grasp nor understand anything above that level]. But neither, indeed, are you now able; for you are yet carnal [in other words: you have not changed, you are still the same, still spiritual babies in adult bodies]. For, whereas there is among you envying and contention, are you not carnal, and walk according to man? [in other words: that is why you are so carnal, worldly, earthly-minded and unspiritual, which makes to live more of a worldly life than a spiritual life]” (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).
The immature find mature things overwhelming. Our milk teeth need to give way to teeth for meat. Our infantile spiritual knowledge needs to give way to a far deeper, stronger, meatier spiritual and theological knowledge. Or, as parent or spouse might say: “Hey! You’re no longer a baby! Act you age! Act like a grown-up!”
Immaturity is Now Officially a Disease!
Immaturity now is officially an ailment. Listed in the World Health Organization’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision, the condition is akin to other impulse control disorders. Call it a disease, call it a disorder, call it a problem, call it malfunction or a dysfunction―we all have it in one form or another, in one area or another, at one time or another. The danger of immaturity is that it is hereditary―as in “like father, like son; like mother, like daughter”―in that immature behavior and immature language begets more immature behavior and language by example. As the philosophical axiom so rightly says: “You cannot give what you have not got!” and “The greater cannot proceed from the lesser!” Therefore, if you cannot speak Italian, or Spanish, or French―then you are incapable of teaching those languages. A dog (being lesser) cannot give birth to human being (that is greater). An immature parent or teacher will not raise a mature child―that maturity will have to come from elsewhere. The problem is that with each passing generation―due to the viral impact of immaturity and rapidly expanding technological outlets (or incubators) of immaturity being put into more and more hands at ever younger ages―the world, as a consequence, sees this World Health Organization categorized disease of immaturity spreading to epidemic proportions.
How Do You Measure Maturity?
Good question! Tough question! It is almost like asking: “How do you measure love?” God measures maturity and love and everything else, objectively, correctly, perfectly and incontestably. For mere humans, measuring such things is not flawless, but subjective and prejudiced. Is there a model of maturity alongside which we can stand and compare ourselves to in order to see how mature we are? Of course not. Besides, maturity (or immaturity) is some that is always progressing, regressing, and varying from one situation to another. It also depends on what your personal mature/immature level is, as to how you will judge. An immature 5-year old will judge a less immature 9 year old as being mature; whereas the immature 9 year old looks upon the immature 14 year old as being mature; and the immature 14 year old looks upon the immature 18 year old as being mature, etc. etc. The ‘mature’ college student of today, would be judged to be grossly immature by college students of 100 years ago.
Similarly, different cultures and countries have different criteria for what constitutes maturity. Furthermore, a person can very mature in one area of their life, but totally immature in another area. They might be mature in how they behave at work, but immature at home, or vice-versa. They might be mature in their behavior, but immature in their thoughts, or vice-versa. They could be mature in dealing with people, but immature in dealing with money, or vice-versa. This is merely a general observation and statement―a particular detailed assessment would be almost endless.
The bottom-line is that maturity in one area does not guarantee maturity in all things, nor does immaturity in one area mean that the person is immature in everything. In fact, it is much like sin―which, ultimately, is an immature act―we are all sinners, but we sin in different ways, in different areas and with varying frequencies. Likewise, we are all immature in one or more areas―just as we are Liberals in one or more areas―the problem or question is: “Are we becoming more and more mature; or are we becoming increasingly immature?” There is no standing still, or “treading water”, you are either becoming more mature, or if not, you are falling behind the level where you should be. In which areas are you maturing and in which areas are you still immature? As all the “giants” of philosophy, theology, psychology and business―such as Socrates, Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas, Abelard, St. Ignatius Loyola and others, tell us: “Know thyself!”
The Chief Domains of Immaturity
St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of three differing levels of difficult work. The easiest work of all, says St. Thomas, is physical work. Then comes a more difficult form of work―intellectual work. Finally, there is the most difficult of all works―spiritual work. It is not coincidental to see the work that is least tackled, and least well done is spiritual work. Most people prefer physical work, some will rise to intellectual work, but very few take on serious spiritual work―and this matches the fact that few souls are saved! There is a thought that should make us a little less immature! Let us then include these three domains in the following assessment of areas where a person can be immature.
(1) PHYSICAL IMMATURITY―When a person is still a baby, it has to have everything done for it―it has to be fed, nursed, clothed, have it diaper changed, be carried around, paid attention to, have its tantrums tolerated, be entertained, etc. All of that is fine and dandy and necessary. Yet, many a person does not change much as they grow older―and, when they reach what is called ‘adulthood’ (or you could call it “big-kid-hood”), they still carry many of those baby traits and needs with them. Throughout their childhood and adolescence, they have refused (or have not be taught and made to) acquire certain physical skills that one expected in an adult throughout the earlier centuries. They do not know how to cook (men must cook too); understand the nutritional aspects of foods (most disease stems from a bad diet); master basic health and first-aid principles; plan and budget things; trouble-shoot or problem solve; build, maintain and repair things; sew and stitch; plant and grow things; even fishing, hunting and dressing the kill, etc., etc. As a child grows older, it is to be expected that the child acquires more and more of these physical skills. A lack of fruit in these areas makes the person almost totally reliant upon others for meal preparation, health care, fixing and repairing items, short of ideas and needing constant advice and shepherding. In other words, they are immature―physically immature.
(2) EMOTIONAL IMMATURITY―Before passing on to intellectual immaturity, we need to look at emotional immaturity, which is, so to speak, a half-way point between body and mind. By emotions we mean passions―that more mystifying and less comprehensible word. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains thus: “By passions we are to understand here motions of the sensitive appetite in man, which tend towards the attainment of some real or apparent [imagined] good, or the avoidance of some evil. The more intensely the object is desired or abhorred, the more vehement is the passion.” St. Thomas Aquinas explains passions [emotions] thus: “The word passion means an ‘undergoing’. When sensitive appetite operates, the body undergoes some modification, some change. Sometimes such change is manifested outwardly, as, for instance, in the bright eye and animated manner of a person speaking of what he loves; or in the flushed face and stammering tongue of a man who is very angry. Passion is a kind of recoil or kick-back of the operation of sentient appetite [our sensitivity or feelings]; it is what a sentient [feeling] being undergoes because of the functioning of such appetite. There are two kinds of passions … the concupiscible passions [emotions] and the irascible passions [emotions]… The concupiscible passions [emotions] are: love and hatred; desire and aversion; joy or delight, and sorrow or grief or pain. The irascible passions are: hope and despair; fear (timidity) and courage (daring), and anger” (Msgr. Glenn, Tour of the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas).
The main characteristic of emotional maturity is the ability to see life clearly and accurately and to be able to deal with life’s ups and downs in a healthy way. Emotionally mature people are able to control their emotions and take full responsibility for their life and actions along with being able to handle their anger, resentments, insecurities, disappointments, fears, jealousies, guilt, and a lot of other emotions including grief.
Those who are emotionally immature are unable to get past their negative emotions, the way they act and react to situations is based far more on their feelings than on mature reasoning. They fail to make sense of situations, or defend themselves in an appropriate way. Those who are emotionally immature may have been discouraged by their parents to talk about feelings, seek help and support, deal with conflicts and problems and if they may have not been allowed to express feelings of anger and sadness. By nature our emotions want to and need to be guided by reason, but that reason serves the heart, or the emotional life―not the other way around.
Some Common Traits of Emotional Immaturity Are…
● They are more “Reactive” (passively accepting that life happens to me) than “Active” (trying to make things happen).
● They are governed more by feelings than by cold, clear logic. Like an infant, they can create an imaginary world.
● They act out those emotions―either aggressively by weeping, shouting, threatening, etc. or passively by pouting, moody silence, etc.
● They are governed by habits and lack the force of will to make effective, long-lasting changes.
● They are slaves to a “Have to” motivation―or a OCD “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”, where they feel they must do certain things.
● They are self-centered, either aggressively or slyly.
● They seek security and self-protection.
● They are quick to lie or at least exaggerate to hide their responsibility and accountability.
● They are quick to blame other persons or things for their mistakes or failures.
● They avoid anything that risks leading to failure, rejection, discomfort.
● They have a tendency to separation/alienation from others.
● They are always living in the past or the future, but refuse to really face the present square-on.
(3) IGNORANT OR INTELLECTUAL IMMATURITY―The immature, especially as regards children, have a lack of knowledge, but this will come in due time, as they grown older and learn more. However, there are adults that also have a lack of knowledge that will not come with time! That knowledge should have been there a long time ago, but they couldn’t have cared less. Their lack of knowledge is deliberate―based on laziness, or selfishness, wrong priorities or lack of interest. The ignorant child has an excuse, the ignorant adult has no excuse. To put it another way, if the adult cannot do basic math, cannot read beyond a 5th to 8th grade level, cannot spell correctly, cannot write grammatically, does not know the basic Catechism, etc. then they are lacking knowledge and intellectual skills that SHOULD BE THERE. Thus, they have not matured―they are immature on an educational and intellectual level.
(4) MORAL IMMATURITY―Based upon the previous point (#1), moral maturity usually comes forth from intellectual maturity. As the philosophical axiom states: “You cannot love what you do not know!” Our Lord tells us: “If you love Me, keep my commandments!” (John 15:5). If you do not know the commandments, then you cannot keep them, and if you do not know them and do not keep them, then, according to Our Lord’s measuring stick, you do not love Him. Take it as a Gospel truth based on personal experience―most Catholics, even Traditional and Conservative Catholics, will have trouble listing all the Ten Commandments of God, and even more difficulty listing the (how many?) chief Commandments of the Church! Yes, it is six chief Commandments―but what are they? This is basic First Holy Communion Catechism material, for children who are around 7 or 8 years old! Yet most adults are clueless! They should have progressed way beyond that level and should be mastering the finer points of moral theology―but this is like meat to them and they only want milk! Thus they commit sin after sin without really knowing if it is a sin, or whether it is a venial or mortal sin. Their moral knowledge has not matured with time. They are immature on a moral level.
(5) DISCIPLINARY IMMATURITY―Discipline shows that a person is in control of his or her passions, whims, impulses, habits, feelings, emotions, actions and reactions. Such a person is said to be a mature person. It is the immaturity of infancy, childhood and adolescence that caves-in and collapses under passions, whims, impulses, habits, feelings, emotions and this is clearly broadcast by their actions and reactions. We often associate discipline with a strong will―which is true and correct. What most people forget―or never bothered to learn in the first place―is that the will, whether it is strong or weak, is a BLIND faculty of the soul. The will, like a blind person, needs a “guide-dog”. That “guide-dog” is HUMAN REASON, or the mind, or the intellect―or call it what you want. The mind, or reason, or intellect, guides the will, telling it what needs to be done. If your mind is badly informed, then your mind’s ability to guide yourself and others will also be poor. Lack of intelligence often leads to a lack of will. Lack of intelligence leads to a lack of a true sense of values―with the important becoming unimportant and the trivial becoming important, or everything is placed more or less on the same level of importance. Chaos is just waiting to take over.
Once the will has received its marching orders, the will then summons courage and commands “all hands on deck” to get the job accomplished and to sail in the direction that the mind / reason / intellect told it to sail. There are a lot of people with a strong will, sailing full-steam-ahead, or running strongly, but in the wrong direction. It all depends on how you mind is programmed. Today, it is mainly the world―and not God―that has programmed the minds of people, and part of that programming is to give free rein to your passions, whims, impulses, habits, feelings, emotions, actions and reactions. In other words, do what you want―don’t let anyone else tell you what to do! This is what is occurring everywhere today. This is immaturity on a disciplinary level.
(6) IMMATURITY IN RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY―Most people do not want to be held accountable. Not only does that trait begin in our infancy―for example, show anger towards an infant because they have done something wrong, and they will begin to sob, cry or even shout and shake their head―but it stretches way back beyond infancy to Adam and Eve and their Original Sin. They had done something wrong―and both of them refused to accept responsibility and accountability. Adam says that Eve made him do it! Eve says the devil made her do it! This tendency to reject responsibility and accountability, while pointing the finger at others, seems to come to us with the “DNA” of Original Sin with which were born. We want to do things without being responsible. It is never my fault. There is always someone to blame in the “blame game”. Like a child or adolescent who is confronted and corrected, we tend to give the same kind of replies: “You just don’t understand!” or “Why are you so judgmental?” or “You’re not perfect!” or “It’s my life and I can do what I want with it!” etc., etc.
We very conveniently sweep under the carpet any contrary Scriptural quotes―though knowledge if Scripture is very low: see IGNORANT IMMATURITY above―such as: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8) ... “The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels: and then will He render to every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:27) … “I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to his works!” (Apocalypse 22:12). Instead, for the immature who refuse responsibility and accountability, the favorite quote is: “Judge not, that you may not be judged! For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged! And with what measure you mete out, it shall be measured to you again! And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the mote out of thy eye!’ ―and behold a beam is in thy own eye?” (Matthew 7:1-4)―which is true and good, but this quote also includes personal accountability―don’t just see the beam in your own eye, DEAL WITH IT, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! “Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye!” (Matthew 7:5). That is why, in the same Sermon on the Mount, speaking indirectly of responsibility and accountability, Our Lord adds: “If thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee [because it has to be held responsible and accountable]. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into Hell. And if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into Hell!” (Matthew 5:29-30).
(7) SPIRITUAL IMMATURITY―This leads us to spiritual immaturity, which really is nothing other than taking all the above immature baggage into your spiritual life, or your relationship with God, His Church and other members of the Church and world on a spiritual or religious level.
The Chief Symptoms of Spiritual Immaturity
● Superficial and Insufficient Knowledge of the Faith and the Spiritual Life―They could be said to be “Masters of the Table of Contents”, while being terribly ignorant of the rest of the contents of a book. They know too little and talk too much. They make a mountain out of the molehill of knowledge that they actually possess.
● Disordered Sense of Spiritual Values―Their lack of depth in knowledge, concerning matters of the Faith, leads them to have a disordered and superficial sense of religious values. They will often make a big deal out of what is relatively unimportant and make serious matters seem trivial.
● Using God for Selfish Purposes―Prayers are usually about God doing our will, and so much about surrendering ourselves to His will.
● Praying More With Lips Than Heart―There is a certain lack of sincerity in our prayers, especially if we are always asking God for things and giving Him nothing in return, not even a “Thank You!” This recalls Our Lord’s complaint that only one leper of the ten that Jesus cured, returned to give thanks. Prayers become more of a chore of the lips than a work of love from the heart.
● Covering over our sins, weaknesses and failures―We find it uncomfortable and hard to confess our sins and admit to our weaknesses and failures. We cannot resist blaming others―at least in part, if not fully.
● Judging Others―At the same time, while hiding or avoiding our own faults, we are only too ready to focus on the sins, weaknesses and failures of others―either silently in our minds, or speaking out openly.
● Holding Grudges or Resentment Towards Others―Their high sensitivity and desire for esteem, leads them to harbor grudges or at least resentment against those who hurt their sensitive feelings or damage their esteem.
● Anxiety Over How Others See Us Spiritually―Another immature tendency is to worry about how we “come across” spiritually in the eyes of others. This can lead to hypocrisy and “faking” spirituality, trying to pass ourselves for what we are not. We will pretend to know a great deal about things we really know very little about. We seek to guide others, whereas we ourselves are in great need of guidance.
● Self-Protective, Defensive, Over-Sensitive―This exaggerated worry or concern about self leads to spirit of self-protectiveness, defensiveness, vulnerability, and stand-offishness.
● Remodeling the Faith to Our Tastes―We gradually start to tweak and twist our Faith into a slightly different version, that suits our immaturity. Most people have created their own “tailor-made” version of the Faith―without actually going into heresy.
Pretty scary and pretty uncomfortable, huh? If you are squirming a little, then that is a good sign―it is a sign that your conscience is not yet dead and there is a spark of truth left in you somewhere! If you are in denial, then you need to worry! For everyone―especially today―is immature in one area or another, to one degree or another, and not infrequently. If you deny you immaturity, then the logical thing would be to deny being a sinner―for immorality (sin of any kind) is a consequence of immaturity, or a weed that can only grow in the soil of immaturity. If you see yourself as immature, then welcome to the club! If you deny you are immature―then it is time to “grow up” and face the truth. In the next article, we shall look at how to “grow up”―both in the natural and supernatural realms.
Today’s psychologist, scientist and sociologists―not to mention priests, parents and teachers―are increasingly of the opinion that we are regressing (going backwards) as regards our maturity. Is this true? What is maturity anyway? The dictionary will define “maturity” as “the quality or state of being mature, especially as in full development; when something reaches its full level of development or potential; the state of being completely grown; the state of being mentally and emotionally well-developed, and therefore responsible; a very advanced or developed form or state.” In psychology, maturity is the ability to respond to the environment in an appropriate manner. Maturity also encompasses being aware of the correct time and location to behave and knowing when to act, according to the circumstances and the culture of the society one lives in.
As regards “immaturity”―it is defined as “not fully grown or developed; lacking complete growth or development; not having attained the potential capacity to a definitive form or state; lacking wisdom, insight, emotional stability, emotionally undeveloped; juvenile; childish.”
In a recent BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) news article, March 19th 2019, it was stated that “People don’t become fully “adult” until they’re in their 30s, according to brain scientists. Currently the UK law says you become a mature adult when you reach the age of 18. Scientists who study the brain and nervous system say the age at which you become an adult is different for everyone. Research suggests people aged 18 are still going through changes in the brain which can affect behavior and make them more likely to develop mental health disorders. Professor Peter Jones, from Cambridge University, said: What we’re really saying is that to have a definition of when you move from childhood to adulthood looks increasingly absurd. It’s a much more nuanced transition that takes place over three decades. I guess systems like the education system, the health system and the legal system make it convenient for themselves by having definitions. When you reach 18, you can vote, buy alcohol, get a mortgage and are also treated as an adult if you get in trouble with the police.”
In another BBC article, “At What Age Do You Feel You Have Reached Adulthood?”, published on April 27th, 2017, it was stated that “Many of the current generation of recent over-18s do not feel like an adult, according to a survey by building society Nationwide, and those commenting on the BBC News Facebook page seem to agree. Nationwide’s study, of 2,000 over-18s, found more than one in 10 did not think of themselves as fully fledged grown-ups until they reached the age of 27. Of those 2,000 people asked did feel they were adults, the transition happened for half in their 20s, while a fifth said it happened in their 30s. One in 20 respondents felt they had not grown up until their 40s.”
Young Woman's Perspective
Is it just UK ‘adults’ who are still wearing diapers, or is it the same in America and elsewhere? It seems as though everything is not rosy in the Big Apple! Here is an anecdotal testimony of a young woman about her male friend―somehow you are tempted to think that she has hit the nail on the head and that this is no isolated case!
“People today are getting degrees at an alarming rate, but are completely useless individuals at life. The higher the degree, the more useless. I am girl with a degree, but fortunately not useless. My friend, however, is in University and I cringe at how useless he is. He moved out to attend school very far away. I originally told him that the apartment, which his mom chose for him, was too expensive, but he took it anyway. His mom should have known better―given her life experiences. But not all parents learn from their mistakes and consequently pass on their mis-education to their children. Ten months later, he had to move out, because he could not afford this apartment. He panicked, because he had 3 weeks to find someone to move into his current apartment and to find a new apartment. I was completely baffled at how stressed he was. To me it was not complicated and not a big deal―but he worried and worried. He had no coping skills.
“I told him he needed proceed methodically and cautiously and make an informed decision, or he would find himself in the same financial predicament and would have to move again. I told him his next apartment needed to stay below a certain rent amount, in order to minimize financial trouble. I made him an excel sheet with his expenses and showed him what would happen if he repeated the same mistakes. Armed with this sheet he began his hunt. This time he listened to most of my advice ... at least the crucial parts. Everything worked out. Moving time came―he had no driver’s license, so I offered to rent a van and he paid for it. Another part of independence is getting a driver’s license, so you can help yourself. But fine―not everyone can drive. Next, I helped him put up his curtains, build his Ikea bed etc. He had absolutely no life-skills. He was good at school and video games and that was it.
“This is happening everywhere―young adults with no life skills. He is a grown man, but knows nothing. I blame him for not wanting to learn, and his parents for not teaching him and his siblings, the basic things I learned: Street smarts, spotting toxic people, price comparison shopping, cooking, sewing, reading ingredients on food, price comparison shopping for apartments, putting up shelves, using my hands, tricks to unclog a toilet, ability to wash clothing by hand, handling my money, credit cards and debt and avoiding service fees at banks. These are the basics that everyone needs to learn. People go out into to the world expect to live as comfortably as did when they were at home―and fail miserably and move back in. They are ill-informed, unprepared and living above their means when they leave the home.
“Firstly, I think Western society has it backwards with its promotion of moving out of home at 17 or 18. I think people should stay home as long as possible while finishing school and then working. This allows you to save money. I believe you should still contribute financially, and otherwise, to your parents’ household. This will still be cheaper than moving out. You should help out with cooking, cleaning and all the things you would do if you were living alone. Obviously some children take advantage of their parents generosity and they will most likely be the ones with the most difficulty when they leave the nest. So, they don't realize they are hurting themselves in the long run. Parents can set down the law and make sure their kids are contributing. This needs to begin when a child is young, so, as adults, it will be natural for them to want to help their parents. Secondly, I noticed that the very parents who want their kids out of home, in turn, find that their kids put them in nursing homes when they get older. This is not a pattern seen in non-western societies, where more than one generation lives in the same roof.
“To conclude, I think on some level parents are to blame for raising people who have no live skills and sometimes no ambition. Some kids have life too easy and never struggle and thus never learn copping skills because life is too easy. If you are a wealthy parent you are doing your child a disservice by giving your kids everything the ask for. Hardship builds character. If you work hard for something, you are more likely to take care of it. A lot of kids feel entitled because parents have allowed them to think they are entitled. Of course some parents don't know how to be a parent, or are children themselves, with a very little skill set to pass on.
“The most frustrating about watching this friend of mine is that he is pretty lazy and has no interest in really acquiring any life skills. He could very easily learn what he missed out on―it isn't too late. I cringe at the thought that, when he becomes a parent, he will have nothing significant to teach his kids (if he continues this way), except a love for video games, school and processed foods. He may get an awesome job because of his degree but when the s - - - hits the fan, I hope he has someone by his side to pick up the pieces.”
It would be a fairly educated guess to say that the female is predominantly of a choleric temperament and that the male is predominantly melancholic. Nevertheless, like a good choleric, she proverbially hits (or hammers) the nail on the head.
Older Man’s Perspective
Here is the opinion of an older American―a Protestant, retired, reads 100 books a year. He places a large part of the blame for immaturity on technology:
“Instant gratification. And it all picked up speed in MY generation ― the boomers [he means “baby-boomers” which is a term for those born in the years following the Second World War]. How? Television. Television probably was the first technology which became actually invasive in family life. Unlike radio, TV required little imagination because the viewer was given both sight and sound. Radio, the predecessor medium, still required imagination to visualize what one heard. I was one of the lucky ones. My TV diet of cartoons and sappy little dramas for kids was satisfied only on Saturday mornings. TV time was limited―after the Saturday morning ‘transfusion’, I, and every other kid in the neighborhood, was ejected from our homes and told to go out and play. But in succeeding years, TV became more and more a kind of baby sitter. Especially as “house wives” became “working mothers” and many kids became “latch key” kids. I think you see where I am headed, with this, so I will just skip ahead to more recent generations, whose youth constituency is bribed or placated with instant satisfaction of their needs. To the extent that the fulfillment of needs is accomplished with portable devices.
“At the same time, the appearance of technology in schools has replaced the need of mental discipline to absorb the most basic skills. A friend of mine has a child of 15 who cannot do basic multiplication in his head. Asked to count the number of equal size boxes in a case, the poor guy actually pointed to each box, in turn, “One, two, three…”. This kid did not only NOT KNOW how to take the units on vertical and multiply by units on horizontal, he didn’t even have a CONCEPT of what that was all about. Why? Because his cell phone had a calculator.
“Which brings us to the landslide of internet “do it for me” questions, which is truly stunning, and where perceptions of reality appear to emerge from playing video games. And this is so widespread that people actually ask―with sincerity―such questions as, “My girlfriend gave me a funny look. What does it mean?” We have done an outstanding job of actually making entire generations as stupid and as self-serving as possible.
“Oh, sure, the parents will proudly say how little Throckmorton [imaginary name for a boy―you could just as well say “Little Johnny”] has a grasp of technology ― see how he uses his smart phone and computer? Well, bad news! Throckmorton has no more a grasp of technology than I do of composing a symphony. No, what Throckmorton has learned is how to push buttons for a reward. He is no different than a caged monkey who pushes a button to get a pellet of monkey food. No different! He has no clue what’s going on inside his “smart” whatever. He is as stupid as a table. And why? So people can have what they want, when they want it. The concept of delayed reward has been vaporized. We are left, instead, with a moaning, pathetic population of people approaching adulthood, who have not advanced beyond the crib. Dreadful!”
Our Lord's Perspective
What would Our Lord say? After all, it is His opinion that really counts! What does Holy Scripture―the Word of God par excellence―say on this matter? There are some who would be tempted to ‘canonize’ their immaturity by quoting the following incident with Our Lord: “And Jesus, calling unto Him a little child, set him in the midst of them, and said: ‘Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (Matthew 18:2-3). You will say: “There you have it! Jesus wants us to be immature like children!”
Well, not quite! Though it is true that Jesus said those words, we must look and understand in what context He said them. In fact, Jesus said those things in order to stop the immature, childish, immature bickering that was taking place among His Apostles. Here are the accounts, combined together, that place His words in their full and true context―they are reported by St. Matthew and St. Mark: “And they came to Capharnaum. And when they were in the house, Jesus asked them: ‘What did you talk of on the way?’ But they held their peace, for, on the way, they had disputed among themselves, which of them should be the greatest [thus behaving just like immature children]. Then the disciples came to Jesus, saying: ‘Who, thinkest Thou, is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven?’ And sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve, and said to them: ‘If any man desire to be first, he shall be the last of all, and the minister of all!’ And Jesus calling unto Him a little child, and taking the child, He set him in the midst of them, and, when He had embraced him, He said to them: ‘Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 18:1-5; Mark 9:32-36). Thus, rather than ‘canonizing’ immaturity, Jesus in actually condemning the immaturity of the disciples.
The Old Testament severely condemns immaturity on several occasions: God, gives Moses the following command: “If a man have a stubborn and unruly son [an example of immaturity], who will not hear the commandments of his father or mother, and being corrected, slighteth obedience―then they shall take him and bring him to the ancients of his city, and to the gate of judgment, and shall say to them: ‘This our son is rebellious and stubborn, he slighteth hearing our admonitions, he giveth himself to reveling, and to debauchery and banqueting!’ The people of the city shall stone him and he shall die, so that you may take away the evil out of the midst of you, and all Israel, hearing of it, may be afraid!” (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).
“[The prophet of the Lord] Eliseus went up to Bethel. And, as he was going up by the way, little boys [immature] came out of the city and mocked him, saying: ‘Go up, thou bald head! Go up, thou bald head!’ And looking back, Eliseus saw them, and cursed them in the Name of the Lord―and there came forth two bears, out of the forest, and tore of them two and forty boys” (4 Kings 2:23-24). “Cast out the scoffer [the immature], and contention shall go out with him, and quarrels and reproaches shall cease! … Folly [immaturity] is bound up in the heart of a child, and the rod of correction shall drive it away!” (Proverbs 22:10, 15).
The Dangers of Immaturity
When we fail to correct the emotional immaturity in our lives, we end up merely going through the motions of Christian disciplines, activities, and behaviors, but deeply rooted behavioral patterns from our pasts continue to hinder us from an authentic life of maturity in Christ. We kneel, we join our hands in prayer, we bow, we genuflect, we make signs of the cross, we carry Rosaries, we wear scapulars, we say prayers, we go to Mass, we receive Holy Communion, etc. ― but all of these things are mere externals, ecclesiastical etiquette, but these actions are merely like feathers without a bird underneath them. There is little thought and little understanding of the purpose, significance, symbolism and spirituality of these things―they are mere externals that smugly satisfy our superficial Faith. A five-year-old child is taught to make a sign of the cross, to say a certain prayer, to use holy water, to answer a catechism question―such as “What is God? God is a spirit!”―without really knowing or understanding all that these things mean, represent, symbolize and effect. For a five-year-old child, this is fine, it is only a beginning―but we should not remain in the childish state of knowledge and understanding―it is only skin deep, superficial. It is of such a superficiality and immaturity that Our Lord speaks, when He says: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!’” (Mark 7:6). Most Catholics today are “lip-service” Catholics living in a spiritual “express-lane” in their prayer life, and using the “fast-check-out-lane” after Holy Communion and Mass.
That is classic immaturity―to perform the externals (looking to be mature), while interiorly we are distracted, disconnected, disorientated like an immature child, who is told to apologize and begrudgingly spits out the words “I’m sorry!!!” when it is clear that those words come only from the lips and not the heart. Part of maturity is acceptance of responsibility―immature people are always making excuses, “passing-the-buck”, pointing the finger at others and blaming someone or something else other than themselves. In confession, they will ‘confess’ or tell the sins of others as much (or even more than) their own sins―all of this comes from a lack of maturity or lack of an ability to accept responsibility.
The Superficiality of Immaturity
We often neglect to dig deeper, to think more, to reflect on what is going on inside us and around us (emotional health) and are too busy to slow down to be with God (contemplative spirituality). As a result, we run the high risk of remaining stuck as spiritual infants, failing to develop into spiritually/emotionally mature adults in Christ. As St. Paul writes: “Brethren, do not become children in sense: but in malice be children, and in sense be perfect” (1 Corinthians 14:20). In other words, St. Paul is saying: “Do not think like mere children, but if you are going to imitate children, then imitate their lack of maliciousness that comes from their thoughtlessness―but in your own thoughts, be mature and not childish!”
Elsewhere St. Paul adds: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child” (1 Corinthians 13:11). Nowadays, adults still act like children, want to play like children, react to disappointments like children and make excuses like children.
St. Paul, in speaking of spiritual immaturity, writes: “For whereas for the time you ought to be masters, you have need to be taught again what are the first elements of the words of God [in other words: you should be spiritual masters by now, but I am still having to teach you basic elementary Christianity]: and you are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat [in other words, mature spiritual ideas and teachings are beyond your immature understanding]. For every one that is a partaker of milk, is unskillful in the word of justice: for he is a little child [in other words: babies who are being nursed on milk are pretty helpless and useless, and so are you with the Word of God]. But strong meat is for the perfect; for them who by custom have their senses exercised to the discerning of good and evil [in other words: meaty theology is for the spiritual mature, who have long since passed by and left behind their milk of ‘baby theology’].” (Hebrews 5:12-14). “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. As unto little ones in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not meat; for you were not able as yet [in other words: because of your spiritual immaturity, I have to speak to you in spiritual baby language, because you cannot grasp nor understand anything above that level]. But neither, indeed, are you now able; for you are yet carnal [in other words: you have not changed, you are still the same, still spiritual babies in adult bodies]. For, whereas there is among you envying and contention, are you not carnal, and walk according to man? [in other words: that is why you are so carnal, worldly, earthly-minded and unspiritual, which makes to live more of a worldly life than a spiritual life]” (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).
The immature find mature things overwhelming. Our milk teeth need to give way to teeth for meat. Our infantile spiritual knowledge needs to give way to a far deeper, stronger, meatier spiritual and theological knowledge. Or, as parent or spouse might say: “Hey! You’re no longer a baby! Act you age! Act like a grown-up!”
Immaturity is Now Officially a Disease!
Immaturity now is officially an ailment. Listed in the World Health Organization’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision, the condition is akin to other impulse control disorders. Call it a disease, call it a disorder, call it a problem, call it malfunction or a dysfunction―we all have it in one form or another, in one area or another, at one time or another. The danger of immaturity is that it is hereditary―as in “like father, like son; like mother, like daughter”―in that immature behavior and immature language begets more immature behavior and language by example. As the philosophical axiom so rightly says: “You cannot give what you have not got!” and “The greater cannot proceed from the lesser!” Therefore, if you cannot speak Italian, or Spanish, or French―then you are incapable of teaching those languages. A dog (being lesser) cannot give birth to human being (that is greater). An immature parent or teacher will not raise a mature child―that maturity will have to come from elsewhere. The problem is that with each passing generation―due to the viral impact of immaturity and rapidly expanding technological outlets (or incubators) of immaturity being put into more and more hands at ever younger ages―the world, as a consequence, sees this World Health Organization categorized disease of immaturity spreading to epidemic proportions.
How Do You Measure Maturity?
Good question! Tough question! It is almost like asking: “How do you measure love?” God measures maturity and love and everything else, objectively, correctly, perfectly and incontestably. For mere humans, measuring such things is not flawless, but subjective and prejudiced. Is there a model of maturity alongside which we can stand and compare ourselves to in order to see how mature we are? Of course not. Besides, maturity (or immaturity) is some that is always progressing, regressing, and varying from one situation to another. It also depends on what your personal mature/immature level is, as to how you will judge. An immature 5-year old will judge a less immature 9 year old as being mature; whereas the immature 9 year old looks upon the immature 14 year old as being mature; and the immature 14 year old looks upon the immature 18 year old as being mature, etc. etc. The ‘mature’ college student of today, would be judged to be grossly immature by college students of 100 years ago.
Similarly, different cultures and countries have different criteria for what constitutes maturity. Furthermore, a person can very mature in one area of their life, but totally immature in another area. They might be mature in how they behave at work, but immature at home, or vice-versa. They might be mature in their behavior, but immature in their thoughts, or vice-versa. They could be mature in dealing with people, but immature in dealing with money, or vice-versa. This is merely a general observation and statement―a particular detailed assessment would be almost endless.
The bottom-line is that maturity in one area does not guarantee maturity in all things, nor does immaturity in one area mean that the person is immature in everything. In fact, it is much like sin―which, ultimately, is an immature act―we are all sinners, but we sin in different ways, in different areas and with varying frequencies. Likewise, we are all immature in one or more areas―just as we are Liberals in one or more areas―the problem or question is: “Are we becoming more and more mature; or are we becoming increasingly immature?” There is no standing still, or “treading water”, you are either becoming more mature, or if not, you are falling behind the level where you should be. In which areas are you maturing and in which areas are you still immature? As all the “giants” of philosophy, theology, psychology and business―such as Socrates, Plato, St. Thomas Aquinas, Abelard, St. Ignatius Loyola and others, tell us: “Know thyself!”
The Chief Domains of Immaturity
St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of three differing levels of difficult work. The easiest work of all, says St. Thomas, is physical work. Then comes a more difficult form of work―intellectual work. Finally, there is the most difficult of all works―spiritual work. It is not coincidental to see the work that is least tackled, and least well done is spiritual work. Most people prefer physical work, some will rise to intellectual work, but very few take on serious spiritual work―and this matches the fact that few souls are saved! There is a thought that should make us a little less immature! Let us then include these three domains in the following assessment of areas where a person can be immature.
(1) PHYSICAL IMMATURITY―When a person is still a baby, it has to have everything done for it―it has to be fed, nursed, clothed, have it diaper changed, be carried around, paid attention to, have its tantrums tolerated, be entertained, etc. All of that is fine and dandy and necessary. Yet, many a person does not change much as they grow older―and, when they reach what is called ‘adulthood’ (or you could call it “big-kid-hood”), they still carry many of those baby traits and needs with them. Throughout their childhood and adolescence, they have refused (or have not be taught and made to) acquire certain physical skills that one expected in an adult throughout the earlier centuries. They do not know how to cook (men must cook too); understand the nutritional aspects of foods (most disease stems from a bad diet); master basic health and first-aid principles; plan and budget things; trouble-shoot or problem solve; build, maintain and repair things; sew and stitch; plant and grow things; even fishing, hunting and dressing the kill, etc., etc. As a child grows older, it is to be expected that the child acquires more and more of these physical skills. A lack of fruit in these areas makes the person almost totally reliant upon others for meal preparation, health care, fixing and repairing items, short of ideas and needing constant advice and shepherding. In other words, they are immature―physically immature.
(2) EMOTIONAL IMMATURITY―Before passing on to intellectual immaturity, we need to look at emotional immaturity, which is, so to speak, a half-way point between body and mind. By emotions we mean passions―that more mystifying and less comprehensible word. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains thus: “By passions we are to understand here motions of the sensitive appetite in man, which tend towards the attainment of some real or apparent [imagined] good, or the avoidance of some evil. The more intensely the object is desired or abhorred, the more vehement is the passion.” St. Thomas Aquinas explains passions [emotions] thus: “The word passion means an ‘undergoing’. When sensitive appetite operates, the body undergoes some modification, some change. Sometimes such change is manifested outwardly, as, for instance, in the bright eye and animated manner of a person speaking of what he loves; or in the flushed face and stammering tongue of a man who is very angry. Passion is a kind of recoil or kick-back of the operation of sentient appetite [our sensitivity or feelings]; it is what a sentient [feeling] being undergoes because of the functioning of such appetite. There are two kinds of passions … the concupiscible passions [emotions] and the irascible passions [emotions]… The concupiscible passions [emotions] are: love and hatred; desire and aversion; joy or delight, and sorrow or grief or pain. The irascible passions are: hope and despair; fear (timidity) and courage (daring), and anger” (Msgr. Glenn, Tour of the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas).
The main characteristic of emotional maturity is the ability to see life clearly and accurately and to be able to deal with life’s ups and downs in a healthy way. Emotionally mature people are able to control their emotions and take full responsibility for their life and actions along with being able to handle their anger, resentments, insecurities, disappointments, fears, jealousies, guilt, and a lot of other emotions including grief.
Those who are emotionally immature are unable to get past their negative emotions, the way they act and react to situations is based far more on their feelings than on mature reasoning. They fail to make sense of situations, or defend themselves in an appropriate way. Those who are emotionally immature may have been discouraged by their parents to talk about feelings, seek help and support, deal with conflicts and problems and if they may have not been allowed to express feelings of anger and sadness. By nature our emotions want to and need to be guided by reason, but that reason serves the heart, or the emotional life―not the other way around.
Some Common Traits of Emotional Immaturity Are…
● They are more “Reactive” (passively accepting that life happens to me) than “Active” (trying to make things happen).
● They are governed more by feelings than by cold, clear logic. Like an infant, they can create an imaginary world.
● They act out those emotions―either aggressively by weeping, shouting, threatening, etc. or passively by pouting, moody silence, etc.
● They are governed by habits and lack the force of will to make effective, long-lasting changes.
● They are slaves to a “Have to” motivation―or a OCD “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder”, where they feel they must do certain things.
● They are self-centered, either aggressively or slyly.
● They seek security and self-protection.
● They are quick to lie or at least exaggerate to hide their responsibility and accountability.
● They are quick to blame other persons or things for their mistakes or failures.
● They avoid anything that risks leading to failure, rejection, discomfort.
● They have a tendency to separation/alienation from others.
● They are always living in the past or the future, but refuse to really face the present square-on.
(3) IGNORANT OR INTELLECTUAL IMMATURITY―The immature, especially as regards children, have a lack of knowledge, but this will come in due time, as they grown older and learn more. However, there are adults that also have a lack of knowledge that will not come with time! That knowledge should have been there a long time ago, but they couldn’t have cared less. Their lack of knowledge is deliberate―based on laziness, or selfishness, wrong priorities or lack of interest. The ignorant child has an excuse, the ignorant adult has no excuse. To put it another way, if the adult cannot do basic math, cannot read beyond a 5th to 8th grade level, cannot spell correctly, cannot write grammatically, does not know the basic Catechism, etc. then they are lacking knowledge and intellectual skills that SHOULD BE THERE. Thus, they have not matured―they are immature on an educational and intellectual level.
(4) MORAL IMMATURITY―Based upon the previous point (#1), moral maturity usually comes forth from intellectual maturity. As the philosophical axiom states: “You cannot love what you do not know!” Our Lord tells us: “If you love Me, keep my commandments!” (John 15:5). If you do not know the commandments, then you cannot keep them, and if you do not know them and do not keep them, then, according to Our Lord’s measuring stick, you do not love Him. Take it as a Gospel truth based on personal experience―most Catholics, even Traditional and Conservative Catholics, will have trouble listing all the Ten Commandments of God, and even more difficulty listing the (how many?) chief Commandments of the Church! Yes, it is six chief Commandments―but what are they? This is basic First Holy Communion Catechism material, for children who are around 7 or 8 years old! Yet most adults are clueless! They should have progressed way beyond that level and should be mastering the finer points of moral theology―but this is like meat to them and they only want milk! Thus they commit sin after sin without really knowing if it is a sin, or whether it is a venial or mortal sin. Their moral knowledge has not matured with time. They are immature on a moral level.
(5) DISCIPLINARY IMMATURITY―Discipline shows that a person is in control of his or her passions, whims, impulses, habits, feelings, emotions, actions and reactions. Such a person is said to be a mature person. It is the immaturity of infancy, childhood and adolescence that caves-in and collapses under passions, whims, impulses, habits, feelings, emotions and this is clearly broadcast by their actions and reactions. We often associate discipline with a strong will―which is true and correct. What most people forget―or never bothered to learn in the first place―is that the will, whether it is strong or weak, is a BLIND faculty of the soul. The will, like a blind person, needs a “guide-dog”. That “guide-dog” is HUMAN REASON, or the mind, or the intellect―or call it what you want. The mind, or reason, or intellect, guides the will, telling it what needs to be done. If your mind is badly informed, then your mind’s ability to guide yourself and others will also be poor. Lack of intelligence often leads to a lack of will. Lack of intelligence leads to a lack of a true sense of values―with the important becoming unimportant and the trivial becoming important, or everything is placed more or less on the same level of importance. Chaos is just waiting to take over.
Once the will has received its marching orders, the will then summons courage and commands “all hands on deck” to get the job accomplished and to sail in the direction that the mind / reason / intellect told it to sail. There are a lot of people with a strong will, sailing full-steam-ahead, or running strongly, but in the wrong direction. It all depends on how you mind is programmed. Today, it is mainly the world―and not God―that has programmed the minds of people, and part of that programming is to give free rein to your passions, whims, impulses, habits, feelings, emotions, actions and reactions. In other words, do what you want―don’t let anyone else tell you what to do! This is what is occurring everywhere today. This is immaturity on a disciplinary level.
(6) IMMATURITY IN RESPONSIBILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY―Most people do not want to be held accountable. Not only does that trait begin in our infancy―for example, show anger towards an infant because they have done something wrong, and they will begin to sob, cry or even shout and shake their head―but it stretches way back beyond infancy to Adam and Eve and their Original Sin. They had done something wrong―and both of them refused to accept responsibility and accountability. Adam says that Eve made him do it! Eve says the devil made her do it! This tendency to reject responsibility and accountability, while pointing the finger at others, seems to come to us with the “DNA” of Original Sin with which were born. We want to do things without being responsible. It is never my fault. There is always someone to blame in the “blame game”. Like a child or adolescent who is confronted and corrected, we tend to give the same kind of replies: “You just don’t understand!” or “Why are you so judgmental?” or “You’re not perfect!” or “It’s my life and I can do what I want with it!” etc., etc.
We very conveniently sweep under the carpet any contrary Scriptural quotes―though knowledge if Scripture is very low: see IGNORANT IMMATURITY above―such as: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8) ... “The Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels: and then will He render to every man according to his works” (Matthew 16:27) … “I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to his works!” (Apocalypse 22:12). Instead, for the immature who refuse responsibility and accountability, the favorite quote is: “Judge not, that you may not be judged! For with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged! And with what measure you mete out, it shall be measured to you again! And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye; and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye? Or how sayest thou to thy brother: ‘Let me cast the mote out of thy eye!’ ―and behold a beam is in thy own eye?” (Matthew 7:1-4)―which is true and good, but this quote also includes personal accountability―don’t just see the beam in your own eye, DEAL WITH IT, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT! “Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam in thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye!” (Matthew 7:5). That is why, in the same Sermon on the Mount, speaking indirectly of responsibility and accountability, Our Lord adds: “If thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee [because it has to be held responsible and accountable]. For it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into Hell. And if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body be cast into Hell!” (Matthew 5:29-30).
(7) SPIRITUAL IMMATURITY―This leads us to spiritual immaturity, which really is nothing other than taking all the above immature baggage into your spiritual life, or your relationship with God, His Church and other members of the Church and world on a spiritual or religious level.
The Chief Symptoms of Spiritual Immaturity
● Superficial and Insufficient Knowledge of the Faith and the Spiritual Life―They could be said to be “Masters of the Table of Contents”, while being terribly ignorant of the rest of the contents of a book. They know too little and talk too much. They make a mountain out of the molehill of knowledge that they actually possess.
● Disordered Sense of Spiritual Values―Their lack of depth in knowledge, concerning matters of the Faith, leads them to have a disordered and superficial sense of religious values. They will often make a big deal out of what is relatively unimportant and make serious matters seem trivial.
● Using God for Selfish Purposes―Prayers are usually about God doing our will, and so much about surrendering ourselves to His will.
● Praying More With Lips Than Heart―There is a certain lack of sincerity in our prayers, especially if we are always asking God for things and giving Him nothing in return, not even a “Thank You!” This recalls Our Lord’s complaint that only one leper of the ten that Jesus cured, returned to give thanks. Prayers become more of a chore of the lips than a work of love from the heart.
● Covering over our sins, weaknesses and failures―We find it uncomfortable and hard to confess our sins and admit to our weaknesses and failures. We cannot resist blaming others―at least in part, if not fully.
● Judging Others―At the same time, while hiding or avoiding our own faults, we are only too ready to focus on the sins, weaknesses and failures of others―either silently in our minds, or speaking out openly.
● Holding Grudges or Resentment Towards Others―Their high sensitivity and desire for esteem, leads them to harbor grudges or at least resentment against those who hurt their sensitive feelings or damage their esteem.
● Anxiety Over How Others See Us Spiritually―Another immature tendency is to worry about how we “come across” spiritually in the eyes of others. This can lead to hypocrisy and “faking” spirituality, trying to pass ourselves for what we are not. We will pretend to know a great deal about things we really know very little about. We seek to guide others, whereas we ourselves are in great need of guidance.
● Self-Protective, Defensive, Over-Sensitive―This exaggerated worry or concern about self leads to spirit of self-protectiveness, defensiveness, vulnerability, and stand-offishness.
● Remodeling the Faith to Our Tastes―We gradually start to tweak and twist our Faith into a slightly different version, that suits our immaturity. Most people have created their own “tailor-made” version of the Faith―without actually going into heresy.
Pretty scary and pretty uncomfortable, huh? If you are squirming a little, then that is a good sign―it is a sign that your conscience is not yet dead and there is a spark of truth left in you somewhere! If you are in denial, then you need to worry! For everyone―especially today―is immature in one area or another, to one degree or another, and not infrequently. If you deny you immaturity, then the logical thing would be to deny being a sinner―for immorality (sin of any kind) is a consequence of immaturity, or a weed that can only grow in the soil of immaturity. If you see yourself as immature, then welcome to the club! If you deny you are immature―then it is time to “grow up” and face the truth. In the next article, we shall look at how to “grow up”―both in the natural and supernatural realms.
Tuesday March 19th & Wednesday March 20th
Article 21
Joseph, the "Anti-Hero" Hero
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Article 21
Joseph, the "Anti-Hero" Hero
This article is currently being written. Sections will be posted as they are completed. Please check back later.
Modern-Day Heroes
Since modern man is increasingly losing touch with God and thinks less and less like God would think with each passing day-week-month-year, it is only logical that modern-man’s idea of what a hero is would differ from God’s idea of what a hero is. Furthermore, it is the increasingly godless gospel of Hollywood that is the protagonist (chief player) in configuring our minds and attitudes to what is and what is not acceptable in our ‘heroes’―and Hollywood has increasingly moved towards glorifying “anti-heroes” rather than traditional heroes.
What is an “Anti-Hero”?
We will often use words without really knowing what they mean or without explaining what they mean―so let us define what is meant by the term “anti-hero”. Is it someone who fights against heroes? Is it someone who doesn’t want to be a hero? Is it someone who is humble and doesn’t want to be called a hero? Actually, in the current general acceptance of the word, it is none of these definitions.
What the world at large understands (if it even understands at all) by the word “anti-hero” is a main character in a story who lacks one or several conventional heroic qualities and attributes―such as idealism, courage, skill, morality, etc. Other definitions of an “anti-hero” describe him or her as a flawed hero, with some or several character defects, which may or may not be immoral and sinful. Sometimes the anti-heroes may perform actions that are morally correct, but it is not always for the right reasons, often acting primarily out of self-interest, or in ways that defy conventional ethical codes. Thus the anti-hero is someone who is a protagonist (main character), but is lacking traditional heroic qualities. Usually, the anti-hero might be chaotic, unconventional, rebellious, reckless, cruel, harsh, inconsiderate, proud, boastful, who will achieve their goals within lawful boundaries or at times without regard for authority or law. Though, on more rare occasions, the anti-hero can simply be an unlikely hero―who does not “fit the bill” of what we think a hero should be like.
St. Joseph―Hero or Anti-Hero?
Since we are celebrating St. Joseph at this time of the year (March 19th), and since he is regarded as one the greatest saints to have lived, it is well worth looking at what St. Joseph offers by way of a model. All saints are heroes in our eyes―though in God’s eyes, He must see them all as being merely “average”―par for the course, so to speak―for a hero is one among thousands, but everyone in Heaven has to be and is a saint. So, in that sense, being a saint is pretty average for Heaven’s family―because everyone is a saint.
Nobody in Heaven, of course, is an “anti-hero” in the sense that they became saints by going against the law, or disobeying God’s will―that kind of “anti-hero” only exists in Hell. However, there are many “unconventional” saints in Heaven, who go against our notions of what being a saint has to be. Some saints are spectacular saints, having performed incredible deeds or miracles. Yet some saints are “anti-saints” or “anti-heroes” in the sense that we see nothing in their lives that, in our personal opinion, merits the name or title of “saint”. St. Thérèse of Lisieux was one such saint, of whom, when her investigative canonical process on her holiness began, elicited comments from her fellow sisters, such as: “Thérèse? What did she ever do?” Some may, perhaps, be tempted to think of St. Joseph in that light―especially when you compare him to persons such Moses, Elias, David, Samuel, St. Paul, and a whole string of glorious, spectacular, heroic, miracle working saints from the time of Christ onwards.
As always, we have to remind ourselves of God words: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9).
Heaven’s Surprise
I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven’s door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.
But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp―
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash!
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money―twice!
Next to him was my old neighbor,
Who never said anything nice!
Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in Hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well!
I nudged Jesus, “What’s the deal?
“I would love to hear your take!
“How’d all these sinners get up here?
“God must’ve made a mistake!”
“And why’s everyone so quiet, so somber?
“Give me a clue!”
“My Friend,” He said, “They’re all in shock!
“They never thought they’d be seeing you!”
As St. Augustine says: “The Church is not a museum of saints, but a hospital of sinners … There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future” (St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church—sinners need a good doctor!).
Saints can seem remote and distant, close to God, but far from people. But they’re more like us than we give them credit for. Their lives were like ours, full of dilemmas and struggles, with bad choices as well as good. But their goodness won out in the end, as ours can. Interest in angels is quite popular at the moment, but it is the saints who are really like us in both their strengths and frailties.
As Dom Hubert Van Zeller writes, in his book Holiness―A Guide For Beginners, sanctity is often humdrum and unexciting:
“If personal holiness is thought of as being a name at the top of a list, it is understood wrong. If it is thought of as something that merits a feast in the Church’s calendar, it is understood wrong. If it is thought of as something to which is attached the power of working miracles, it is understood wrong … The way to think of sanctity is as something that, by being generous and faithful to grace, gives back to God the love He has given to the soul. So it is for God’s sake, more than for our own, that we should want to be saints. We work away at holiness, not because we are ambitious and want to be experts in a particular kind of lofty career, but because God wants us to be saints and is praised by our striving after sanctity. Anyone can be holy, or rather act holy, so long as others are saying, “There’s a saint for you,” but sooner or later this sort of holiness wears off. Either the person sees the trap, becomes humble, and goes ahead toward real holiness, or keeping up the act becomes too much of a strain and there’s a swing toward worldliness and perhaps to a lasting unholiness. The whole secret of sanctity is that it is a thing of grace, and so cannot be switched on as a part to be played.”
“This means that however determined you are to be a saint, you will not become one if you rely on your own strength of mind. The only thing that can get you to sanctity is God’s grace. You will need all the strength of mind you have just to work together with God’s grace, but if you imagine that making good, strong resolutions will carry you the whole way, you are wrong. About the first thing to happen will be that God lets you break some of those good, strong resolutions before you get properly started. This will be to put you in your place, and show you that you can do nothing without Him. Once you are decently humbled, knowing that left to yourself you cannot even carry out the things that you very much want to carry out, you are getting ready to be used. You are being softened up like a steak. When all the toughness and pride and glamorized ideas of holiness have been beaten out of you by the down-to-earth action of truth, then God has got something there on which He can work. Without false notions and fancy plans, you can now begin to fall in with the true notions of holiness and with the plan God has in mind for you. It stands to reason. God is not going to reward anyone else’s work but His own. You cannot expect Him to recognize a holiness that He has done nothing to bring about. When you get right down to it, there is only one real goodness, one perfection, one sanctity, and that is God’s. When man invents a holiness of his own, God lets him look for it but does not help him find it, because a holiness of one’s own does not exist, and it is a waste of time searching for it. It is as if someone were to look for moonlight without the moon. Once you admit that all moonlight is bound to come from one particular place, and that it is a thing you cannot make yourself, you have learned something.
“Another thing to notice right at the beginning about holiness is that there is no cut-and-dried pattern about it. It is what God wants out of you, and because you are not exactly the same as anyone else, the holiness that is to be yours will not be exactly like anyone else’s. The model of all holiness is Our Lord, and unless you grow to be like Him, you will never get anywhere in holiness, but this does not mean that all, who follow Him, will end up exactly alike. Our Lord appeals to us in His way, and we answer Him in our way. If twenty artists are told to paint a picture of the Crucifixion, they will all show the same thing, but in twenty different ways. There will be twenty quite separate pictures, no two alike. This is how God wants our response to be: each one his own. Now, just as it would show a weakness in one of those twenty artists to copy as closely as possible the painting of the artist next to him, so it would be a weakness for one follower of Our Lord to copy as closely as possible the particular holiness of another follower. He should make it his first job to follow Our Lord. The ways by which others have followed Our Lord can be a tremendous help, just as the ways other people paint can be a tremendous help to painting, but Our Lord, who is Himself “the way, the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6), wants something out of you that is your own to give and is not just a copy. The saints produce masterpieces because of each one’s likeness to Our Lord, not because of each one’s likeness to another. By all means, let us imitate the way in which the saints went about it, but by no means let us copy the results. God wants an original reproduction of Himself, not a forgery.
“All right then, what is it that the saints do that makes them into saints? The answer is that they do two things: on the one side they keep clear of anything that they think is going to get in the way of grace, and on the other they head directly for Our Lord. The only thing to be added to this is that they do it for the glory of God and not for what they can get out of it. They are the ones who “seek first the kingdom of God,” and for the King’s sake rather than for their own, and who are ready to wait as long as God likes for the day when “all these things” shall be added to them (Mathew 6:33). So it is not that the saints do particularly “saintly” things (like fierce penances, whole nights spent on their knees, miracles, prophecies, or raptures in prayer); it is more that they do all things in a particularly saintly way, in exactly the way that they feel God wants. To them the only thing in the world that matters is God’s will. They know that by doing God’s will as perfectly as they can, they are imitating Our Lord, they are expressing Charity, and they are being true to the best that is in them. All this should be a great encouragement to us because it shows that our service of God does not depend upon how we feel about it, but upon how God looks at it; not upon acts that are seen to be heroic, but upon how ready we are to let God draw heroism out of us; not upon battling our way to a certain point that will give us the title of “saint,” but upon following blindly the course that is set by God’s will.”
Since modern man is increasingly losing touch with God and thinks less and less like God would think with each passing day-week-month-year, it is only logical that modern-man’s idea of what a hero is would differ from God’s idea of what a hero is. Furthermore, it is the increasingly godless gospel of Hollywood that is the protagonist (chief player) in configuring our minds and attitudes to what is and what is not acceptable in our ‘heroes’―and Hollywood has increasingly moved towards glorifying “anti-heroes” rather than traditional heroes.
What is an “Anti-Hero”?
We will often use words without really knowing what they mean or without explaining what they mean―so let us define what is meant by the term “anti-hero”. Is it someone who fights against heroes? Is it someone who doesn’t want to be a hero? Is it someone who is humble and doesn’t want to be called a hero? Actually, in the current general acceptance of the word, it is none of these definitions.
What the world at large understands (if it even understands at all) by the word “anti-hero” is a main character in a story who lacks one or several conventional heroic qualities and attributes―such as idealism, courage, skill, morality, etc. Other definitions of an “anti-hero” describe him or her as a flawed hero, with some or several character defects, which may or may not be immoral and sinful. Sometimes the anti-heroes may perform actions that are morally correct, but it is not always for the right reasons, often acting primarily out of self-interest, or in ways that defy conventional ethical codes. Thus the anti-hero is someone who is a protagonist (main character), but is lacking traditional heroic qualities. Usually, the anti-hero might be chaotic, unconventional, rebellious, reckless, cruel, harsh, inconsiderate, proud, boastful, who will achieve their goals within lawful boundaries or at times without regard for authority or law. Though, on more rare occasions, the anti-hero can simply be an unlikely hero―who does not “fit the bill” of what we think a hero should be like.
St. Joseph―Hero or Anti-Hero?
Since we are celebrating St. Joseph at this time of the year (March 19th), and since he is regarded as one the greatest saints to have lived, it is well worth looking at what St. Joseph offers by way of a model. All saints are heroes in our eyes―though in God’s eyes, He must see them all as being merely “average”―par for the course, so to speak―for a hero is one among thousands, but everyone in Heaven has to be and is a saint. So, in that sense, being a saint is pretty average for Heaven’s family―because everyone is a saint.
Nobody in Heaven, of course, is an “anti-hero” in the sense that they became saints by going against the law, or disobeying God’s will―that kind of “anti-hero” only exists in Hell. However, there are many “unconventional” saints in Heaven, who go against our notions of what being a saint has to be. Some saints are spectacular saints, having performed incredible deeds or miracles. Yet some saints are “anti-saints” or “anti-heroes” in the sense that we see nothing in their lives that, in our personal opinion, merits the name or title of “saint”. St. Thérèse of Lisieux was one such saint, of whom, when her investigative canonical process on her holiness began, elicited comments from her fellow sisters, such as: “Thérèse? What did she ever do?” Some may, perhaps, be tempted to think of St. Joseph in that light―especially when you compare him to persons such Moses, Elias, David, Samuel, St. Paul, and a whole string of glorious, spectacular, heroic, miracle working saints from the time of Christ onwards.
As always, we have to remind ourselves of God words: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9).
Heaven’s Surprise
I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven’s door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.
But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp―
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash!
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money―twice!
Next to him was my old neighbor,
Who never said anything nice!
Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in Hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well!
I nudged Jesus, “What’s the deal?
“I would love to hear your take!
“How’d all these sinners get up here?
“God must’ve made a mistake!”
“And why’s everyone so quiet, so somber?
“Give me a clue!”
“My Friend,” He said, “They’re all in shock!
“They never thought they’d be seeing you!”
As St. Augustine says: “The Church is not a museum of saints, but a hospital of sinners … There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future” (St. Augustine of Hippo, Doctor of the Church—sinners need a good doctor!).
Saints can seem remote and distant, close to God, but far from people. But they’re more like us than we give them credit for. Their lives were like ours, full of dilemmas and struggles, with bad choices as well as good. But their goodness won out in the end, as ours can. Interest in angels is quite popular at the moment, but it is the saints who are really like us in both their strengths and frailties.
As Dom Hubert Van Zeller writes, in his book Holiness―A Guide For Beginners, sanctity is often humdrum and unexciting:
“If personal holiness is thought of as being a name at the top of a list, it is understood wrong. If it is thought of as something that merits a feast in the Church’s calendar, it is understood wrong. If it is thought of as something to which is attached the power of working miracles, it is understood wrong … The way to think of sanctity is as something that, by being generous and faithful to grace, gives back to God the love He has given to the soul. So it is for God’s sake, more than for our own, that we should want to be saints. We work away at holiness, not because we are ambitious and want to be experts in a particular kind of lofty career, but because God wants us to be saints and is praised by our striving after sanctity. Anyone can be holy, or rather act holy, so long as others are saying, “There’s a saint for you,” but sooner or later this sort of holiness wears off. Either the person sees the trap, becomes humble, and goes ahead toward real holiness, or keeping up the act becomes too much of a strain and there’s a swing toward worldliness and perhaps to a lasting unholiness. The whole secret of sanctity is that it is a thing of grace, and so cannot be switched on as a part to be played.”
“This means that however determined you are to be a saint, you will not become one if you rely on your own strength of mind. The only thing that can get you to sanctity is God’s grace. You will need all the strength of mind you have just to work together with God’s grace, but if you imagine that making good, strong resolutions will carry you the whole way, you are wrong. About the first thing to happen will be that God lets you break some of those good, strong resolutions before you get properly started. This will be to put you in your place, and show you that you can do nothing without Him. Once you are decently humbled, knowing that left to yourself you cannot even carry out the things that you very much want to carry out, you are getting ready to be used. You are being softened up like a steak. When all the toughness and pride and glamorized ideas of holiness have been beaten out of you by the down-to-earth action of truth, then God has got something there on which He can work. Without false notions and fancy plans, you can now begin to fall in with the true notions of holiness and with the plan God has in mind for you. It stands to reason. God is not going to reward anyone else’s work but His own. You cannot expect Him to recognize a holiness that He has done nothing to bring about. When you get right down to it, there is only one real goodness, one perfection, one sanctity, and that is God’s. When man invents a holiness of his own, God lets him look for it but does not help him find it, because a holiness of one’s own does not exist, and it is a waste of time searching for it. It is as if someone were to look for moonlight without the moon. Once you admit that all moonlight is bound to come from one particular place, and that it is a thing you cannot make yourself, you have learned something.
“Another thing to notice right at the beginning about holiness is that there is no cut-and-dried pattern about it. It is what God wants out of you, and because you are not exactly the same as anyone else, the holiness that is to be yours will not be exactly like anyone else’s. The model of all holiness is Our Lord, and unless you grow to be like Him, you will never get anywhere in holiness, but this does not mean that all, who follow Him, will end up exactly alike. Our Lord appeals to us in His way, and we answer Him in our way. If twenty artists are told to paint a picture of the Crucifixion, they will all show the same thing, but in twenty different ways. There will be twenty quite separate pictures, no two alike. This is how God wants our response to be: each one his own. Now, just as it would show a weakness in one of those twenty artists to copy as closely as possible the painting of the artist next to him, so it would be a weakness for one follower of Our Lord to copy as closely as possible the particular holiness of another follower. He should make it his first job to follow Our Lord. The ways by which others have followed Our Lord can be a tremendous help, just as the ways other people paint can be a tremendous help to painting, but Our Lord, who is Himself “the way, the truth, and the life,” (John 14:6), wants something out of you that is your own to give and is not just a copy. The saints produce masterpieces because of each one’s likeness to Our Lord, not because of each one’s likeness to another. By all means, let us imitate the way in which the saints went about it, but by no means let us copy the results. God wants an original reproduction of Himself, not a forgery.
“All right then, what is it that the saints do that makes them into saints? The answer is that they do two things: on the one side they keep clear of anything that they think is going to get in the way of grace, and on the other they head directly for Our Lord. The only thing to be added to this is that they do it for the glory of God and not for what they can get out of it. They are the ones who “seek first the kingdom of God,” and for the King’s sake rather than for their own, and who are ready to wait as long as God likes for the day when “all these things” shall be added to them (Mathew 6:33). So it is not that the saints do particularly “saintly” things (like fierce penances, whole nights spent on their knees, miracles, prophecies, or raptures in prayer); it is more that they do all things in a particularly saintly way, in exactly the way that they feel God wants. To them the only thing in the world that matters is God’s will. They know that by doing God’s will as perfectly as they can, they are imitating Our Lord, they are expressing Charity, and they are being true to the best that is in them. All this should be a great encouragement to us because it shows that our service of God does not depend upon how we feel about it, but upon how God looks at it; not upon acts that are seen to be heroic, but upon how ready we are to let God draw heroism out of us; not upon battling our way to a certain point that will give us the title of “saint,” but upon following blindly the course that is set by God’s will.”
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Sunday March 17th & Monday March 18th
Article 20
Figure Out Your Transfiguration Configuration
Article 20
Figure Out Your Transfiguration Configuration
Strange “Goings-On” in the Liturgy!
In the Extraordinary (Traditional Latin) Rite of the Church, an extraordinary situation arises. What is that? It is the fact that the Gospel of Transfiguration arises three times during the year. Not only that―but, right now, you have the same Transfiguration Gospel occurring two days in a row! On Ember Saturday (which, this year, 2019, was on Saturday March 16th) and on the Second Sunday of Lent (this year, March 17th)―in addition to its appearance on the feast of the Transfiguration, which always occurs on August 6th. In the modern Liturgy―which has trashed the Ember Days―it still appears twice―on August 6th and the Second Sunday of Lent. Either someone made a big, big mistake and failed to notice that repetition when the Liturgy of the Church was being arranged, or it is a sign that the Transfiguration is something very important! Figure that one out if you can! The Transfiguration is given a feast day of its own and then is repeated on two other occasions, which, furthermore, are one day immediately after the other―as though some forgot to change to reading for the next day!
Trans What?
Transfiguration? What on earth is that? Can’t figure that out? No! You might say: “Who cares anyway? Are there not more important things to think and talk about than some obscure feast with a name that merely cause confusion? What on earth has the Transfiguration got to do with my salvation? It doesn’t seem to be important at all―it is ranked nowhere near the other important feasts such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, etc. So why bother? Let’s pass on that and move on!”
It Comes in Threes
No! We won’t pass on that and move on―because Holy Mother Church rubs our noses in it THREE TIMES every year, and TWO DAYS IN SUCCESSION on Ember Saturday and the following day, the Second Sunday of Lent. If someone tells you something three times―then it has to be important. It is a case of: “Hey! Read or do this!” … “I’m telling you again―read or do this!” … “Look! For a third time I’m telling you―read or do this!” Or, “Hey! If I told you once, I’ve told you twice, I’ve told you three times! I am serious!”
Additionally, all three Synoptic Evangelists― Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke―as well as St. Peter in his epistle, write about the Transfiguration. The Transfiguration narrative appears in Matthew 17:1-18; in Mark 9:2-8; and in Luke 9:28-36. The Transfiguration is also mentioned in 2 Peter 1:16-18. It is a curious thing that Saint John is the only Evangelist who does not record the event of the Transfiguration, especially so since he was actually there, but we have at least an implicit allusion to the event in the very first words of the opening chapter of St. John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world … And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only Begotten of the Father!” (John 1:1-14).
For those of you who may wonder why the Gospels of Saints Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical wording. They stand in contrast to St. John’s Gospel, whose content is comparatively different and was the last of the four Gospels to be written―many years after the other three. It is generally believed that Matthew was written before 70 A.D. and as early as 50 A.D. St. Mark’s Gospel is thought to have been written between 55 A.D. to 70 A.D. St. Luke’s Gospel was written before 62 A.D. Whereas St. John’s Gospel appears to have been written in the 80s to 90s A.D.
The Meaning of “Transfiguration”
The English word “Transfiguration” comes from the Latin word “transfigurare” (pronounced tranz-fig-gu-rah-ray). The first part of the Latin word, “trans” means “change”; and the Latin word “figura” (pronounced fig-goo-ra) means “figure” or “appearance.” These words combine to describe what happened to Jesus at His transfiguration― Jesus’ appearance (figure) changed. The Greek text uses the word “metamorphosis” (pronounced met-ta-mor-foe-sis, meaning “to change form, shape, or appearance”) to describe the change or transformation that occurred in Our Lord at this momentous occasion.
You Would Think That If Our Lord …
Isn’t it strange and anomalous that most people know very little about something that Our Lord and the Apostles “made a great deal of”! How would you feel if you did something “out of this world” and nobody paid any attention to it? You would think that if Our Lord did something as striking and mind-boggling as seen by His Transfiguration, then we would at least make a bit of a fuss over it! But no! Who the heck cares? There are far more exciting things waiting for me on my smartphone / tablet / laptop / TV set―which are just as “mind-boggling”―so let’s “pass” on that. Just not interested and can’t be bothered to look deeper into it! Sorry, but that’s how it is! Thanks, but no thanks! This kind of “stuff” just puts me to sleep, just like all spiritual things. Besides, it even says that Peter James and John fell as;leep during the Transfiguration ― “Peter and they that were with Him were heavy with sleep” (Luke 9:32)―so if could them to sleep, it certainly puts me to sleep! Tell me when another article appears ― something that’s more interesting or shocking, saucy or salacious―like the scandals in the Church, or the latest shocking comment from the Pope. Now that’s the kind of stuff I like and can get my teeth into, and happily read all day long! Besides―didn’t Our Lord say after His Transfiguration that nobody should mention it or talk about it? “He charged them not to tell any man what things they had seen!” (Mark 9:8) … “Tell the vision to no man!” (Matthew 17:9) … “And they kept the word to themselves” (Mark 9:9) … “And they held their peace, and told no man any of these things which they had seen” (Luke 9:36). So why are we talking about it?
Sure, Our Lord did command Peter, James and John not to speak about ― but the prohibition only applied to the period BEFORE His death and resurrection! Otherwise why did they write about it? Because it was no longer forbidden to speak of the Transfiguration. In fact, it is even more important to speak about it today, because we have lost all notions of the supernatural by becoming too natural, and lost our taste for the spiritual by having become gluttons for the material.
Drawing Back the Curtains on the Transfiguration
The Transfiguration of Christ draws back the curtains to the culminating point of His public life, as His Baptism is its starting point, and His Ascension its end. The Transfiguration occurred shortly before the Passion and Death of Our Lord―hence its inclusion (on the Second Sunday of Lent) among the various readings during Lent, which also culminates with the Passion and Death of Our Lord during “Holy Week”.
If we are about to speak of the Transfiguration, then we should refer to the very source of our knowledge on the matter―which is, of course, Holy Scripture. Here is a combination of the three accounts of by Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke, with the additions of the allusions made by St. Peter and St. John. This should give us a clear platform and factual representation of what we will be talking about.
“Jesus taketh with Him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain, apart by themselves, to pray. But Peter, and they that were with Him, were heavy with sleep. And, whilst He prayed, He was transfigured before them. The shape of His countenance was altered, and His face did shine as the sun. And His garments became white and glittering, shining and exceedingly white as snow, so as no fuller [cloth-maker] upon Earth can make white. And waking, they saw his glory and majesty, and the two men that stood with Him and were talking with Him. They were Moses and Elias and they were talking with Jesus of His decease that He should accomplish in Jerusalem. And it came to pass, that as they were departing from Him, Peter said to Jesus: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here! If Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles [tents], one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias!’― not knowing what he said, for they were struck with fear. And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them, and they were afraid when they entered into the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying: ‘This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased! Hear ye Him!’ And whilst the voice was uttered, Jesus was found alone. And the disciples, hearing the voice, fell upon their faces, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came, touched them and said to them: ‘Arise, and fear not!’ And immediately lifting up their eyes and looking about, they saw no man any more, but only Jesus with them. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them not to tell any man what things they had seen, till the Son of man shall be risen again from the dead, saying: ‘Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead!’ And they held their peace, and told no man in those days any of these things which they had seen. They kept the word to themselves, questioning together what that should mean― ‘when He shall be risen from the dead.’” St. Peter would later write: “We have not by following artificial fables, made known to you the power, and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we were eyewitnesses of His greatness. For He received from God the Father, honor and glory―this voice coming down to Him from the excellent glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased! Hear ye Him!’ And this voice we heard brought from Heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mount!” (Matthew 17:1-18; Mark 9:1-9; Luke 9:28-36; John 1:1-14; 2 Peter 1:16-18).
The Church Needs a Transfiguration―So Do We!
God’s creation is loaded with the “positive-negative” syndrome in both the supernatural-spiritual, as well as the natural-material realms. We have Heaven (positive) and Hell (negative); virtue (positive) and sin (negative); good angels (positive) and bad angels (negative); salvation (positive) and damnation (negative); saints (positive) and sinners (negative), etc. In that natural-material world we have day (positive) and night (negative), heat and cold, life and death, health and sickness; being awake and being asleep; riches and poverty; joy and sadness; love and hatred; peace and war; success and failure; ups and downs, etc., etc., etc.
We also see these positive and negative “ups and downs” in Holy Scripture, in the life of the Chosen People, in the life of Christ and in the life of the Church. The pleasant wedding miracle at Cana is soon followed by the violent cleansing of the Temple, just as the Transfiguration on the mountain leads to a wild encounter at the foot of the mountain with an epileptic. A Russian proverb holds that when the Lord builds a church somewhere, Satan pitches a tent across the street. The endless agony of Lucifer the lightbearer―which is what the word “Lucifer” means―without the Light, is that he cannot get far enough away from the eternal brightness, and yet he is helplessly drawn to it, like an ugly moth is drawn to a lovely flame. There is some of that same satanic tension in those who talk ceaselessly about why they will have nothing to do with the Church. A Christ who does not inspire, will nevertheless seem to haunt―He will simply not go away!
The Church Militant on Earth is headed in one of two directions―Heaven (positive) or Hell (negative). We call it the Church Militant because it is meant to be fighting―it is meant to fight the devil and the world, or it will end up being condemned with the devil and world. “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
The Church Militant, which in its weakest moments, may seem like a scattered and tattered regiment of the Church Triumphant, has supernatural guarantees that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Yet our hope has to be in Heaven and based upon Christ’s power and help―as He Himself said: “I am the vine―you [are merely] the branches! He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).
Any reformation of the Church that is not a transfiguration by the light of that confidence, becomes a deformation of the Church. The Church must rely on God and not on the talents of its human members. St. Paul expands upon this, by saying that worldly wisdom, human skills and a too naturalistic approach to things will not bear fruit and is unacceptable to God: “The justification of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For they that are according to the flesh, mind the things that are of the flesh; but they that are according to the Spirit, mind the things that are of the Spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh is death; but the wisdom of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh, cannot please God! But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:4-9).
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, reveling [partying], and such like. Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the Kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, continency and chastity” (Galatians 5:19-23).
The Transfiguration of Holiness
Pushing aside all the leaves and branches that obscure a clear view of the trunk of the tree of the Church, we see that the chief purposes of the Church are:
(1) to give glory to God―which is commanded numerous times in Scripture: “Give glory to God!” (Josue 7:19; Jeremias 13:16; 1 Kings 6:5; Tobias 12:6; 13:12; Psalms 67:35; 135;26; Ecclesiasticus 35:10; 50:22; Luke 2:14; 17:18; John 9:24; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Apocalypse 4:11 and many more references), and the other chief purpose of the Church is …
(2) to make its members holy, for only saints get to go to Heaven: “And thou shalt sanctify all, and they shall be most holy!” (Exodus 30:29). “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31) … “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, because I am the Lord your God! … For I am the Lord your God―be holy because I am holy! … You shall be holy, because I am holy! … You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:7; 11:44-46; 20:26) … “And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, My holy mountain, and Jerusalem shall be holy and strangers [the worldly] shall pass through it no more!” (Joel 3:17) … “As He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight!” (Ephesians 1:4) … “Because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16). “The Lord will raise thee up to be a holy people to Himself, as He swore to thee―if thou keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways!” (Deuteronomy 28:9). “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). “The disciple is not above his master―but everyone shall be perfect!” (Luke 6:40).
Let us, for a moment, go back to that mystifying word “transfiguration.” The English word “Transfiguration” comes from the Latin word “transfigurare.” The first part of the Latin word, “trans” means “change”; and the Latin word “figura” means “figure” or “appearance.” Christ changed His appearance during His transfiguration―not only to manifest the glory and sanctity that was always ‘hiding’ below the surface―but also to show us that we must change from being mainly humanistic, materialistic and worldly in our thoughts, words and actions, into being supernatural, spiritual and holy in our thoughts, words and actions. For if are members of the Mystical Body of Christ, of which Christ is the Head, then the body should be united to the Head and follow the head into that glory of holiness, which should be ‘hidden’ yet active within each member of the Mystical Body of Christ.
Are we in need of a spiritual transfiguration? Do we need a transfiguration of holiness? You bet we do! Scripture says that we have all sinned and that we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10). We are also reminded: “Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God?” (1 Corinthians 6:9). “There shall not enter into it anything defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie…” etc. (Apocalypse 21:27). “Follow holiness―without which no man shall see God!” (Hebrews 12:14). Just as an athlete can be “out of shape” physically, we can also be “out of shape” spiritually. In fact, just as an athlete can always increase his or her physical fitness and performance, likewise, we can always increase our spiritual fitness and performance―which is precisely why St. Paul writes what we read at Mass on Septuagesima Sunday, as we prepared for Lent:
“Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And everyone that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty, I so fight, not as one beating the air―but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
Out of Shape Church
Today, the Catholic Church is totally out of shape! Yes, totally―not partially as some would like to think! Even those who are still clinging on to the Faith, are way below par for what a Catholic should be. We have become so dumbed-down and so weakened in our Faith, morals and spiritual levels, that even a weakling looks like a superman by comparison to everyone else. It is much like your child running home from school shouting with glee that they came top of the class in the test. You ask: “What did you score?” Your child replies: “Five out of a hundred!”
Everyone is below par―even the intelligent ones are nowhere near as intelligent as what they could and should be. A bishop―now deceased―once told his seminarians words to the effect of: “You think you’re special, don’t you? Your think―I’m a seminarian and will soon be a priest!―Well let me point some things out to you seminarians-soon-to-be-priests! When I was in your shoes, I had already studied theology in high school! I could read, write and speak Latin before going to the seminary! I had already learnt a good deal of Greek and some Hebrew. Most of you don’t even know your catechism very well! The priests of old were far superior in their levels to what they are today!”
What is true of today’s priests and seminarians, is even more true of today’s faithful who are not so full of faith as the faithful should be! If there was ever an age when the following words of Holy Scripture are perfectly suited, then it has to be our present age: “There is none that doth good, no not one! The Lord hath looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together―there is none that doth good, no not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher―with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes!” (Psalm 13:1-3).
Wearing Business Suits With Spiritual Diapers
The modern world―with the advent of easy worldwide trade and technological advances―has become much more materialistic and much less spiritual. Though there have been many major advances in technology and business, there have been no advances spiritually. You could compare it to a child growing into adolescence and adulthood in the materialistic, technological, and worldly level―but on a spiritual level, the baby never grows up, remaining forever in spiritual diapers.
Most Catholics today―even some ‘good’ Catholics―are wearing spiritual diapers. They know a lot about the world, what is going on in the world, the scandals in the world, the crimes in the world, the corruption in the world, or even the everyday things of the world, such as found in science, technology, mechanics, electricity, plumbing, building, etc. ― but they are clueless as to how fine-tune their soul, how to recharge their soul, how to fix their soul, how to de-clog their soul, how to build their soul into the temple that God expects the soul to be! All of this brings to mind the words of Our Lord: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)―modern man is searching for the wrong kind of “profits” these days, which may profit his pocket, but not his soul―for Our Lord adds: “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:23-26).
This should also remind us the following passage from Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange’s book, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, in which he speaks, in a sense, of the aforementioned souls in business suits and spiritual diapers:
“The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of, to Martha and Mary (Luke 10:41), consists in hearing the word of God and living by it. The interior life thus conceived is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called ‘the one thing necessary’, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. This last must not be too widely separated from progressive sanctification, for it is the very way of salvation. There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin—though it should be venial—must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God; see Him as He sees Himself; and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.
“The interior life of a just man who tends toward God and who already lives by Him is indeed the one thing necessary. To be a saint, neither intellectual culture nor great exterior activity is a requisite; it suffices that we live profoundly by God. This truth is evident in the saints of the early Church; several of those saints were poor people, even slaves. It is evident also in St. Francis, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, in the Curé of Ars, and many others. They all had a deep understanding of these words of our Savior: ‘For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?’ (Matthew 16:26). If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? Ought not man to love his soul more than his body? ‘Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?’ Our Lord adds in Matthew 16:26. ‘One thing is necessary,’ He tells us in Luke 10:41.
“ ‘Jesus entered into a certain town and a certain woman, named Martha, received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who, sitting also at the Lord’s feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy with much serving. Who stood and said: “Lord! Hast Thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? Speak to her, therefore, that she help me!” And the Lord answering, said to her: “Martha! Martha! Thou art careful and art troubled about many things! But one thing is necessary! Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!” (Luke 10:38-42).’
“To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary―to hear the word of God and to live by it. Therein lies the best part, which will not be taken away from a faithful soul, even though it should lose everything else” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Is Angelic Intelligence Promoting Artificial Intelligence?
Those words of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange were written before the technological explosion that came in the 1990’s with the advent of the internet, which was a launch-pad for a series of technological enterprises and breakthroughs never ever imagined in bygone years. Though today’s technological “junkies” and addicts may squirm at the thought, it is very likely that St. Padre Pio was not very far off the mark when he said of television: “The devil is in it!” It is highly likely that the current massive, unstoppable, escalating and worldwide addiction to one or more branches of technology (TV, smartphone, tablet, laptop, Artificial Intelligence, virtual reality, etc.) is more than a little to do with the smartness of the devil and his angelic intelligence creating artificial intelligence as a devil-made substitute for God. As one present-day exorcist is on record as saying, the devil, even though he cannot make some people disbelieve in God, will nevertheless be satisfied if he can distract souls away from loving God by making them do things that are less important. Today, if you are honest, that is true of almost everyone in the world―they may or may not believe in God, but the one thing in common between both groups is that they are addicted to things that give them no time for God.
Configured to the World and not God
In this sense, they are “configured” to the world and not “configured” to God. In case you were not quite sure of the meaning of the word “configure”, it means “to arrange or put together in a particular form or shape; to arrange something, or change the controls on a computer, or other device, so that it can be used in a particular way.” The word “configure” comes from the Middle English “configuren” (as past participle “configured”) meaning “to model on, conform to,” and is borrowed from Middle French and Latin from “con-“ meaning “with, together” + “figūrāre” meaning “to shape, form, make a likeness of one thing to another thing.”
Under heavy pressure from the world and its media, most people have configured themselves, or conformed themselves, to the world rather than God. What this means in simple brutal terms is that they have sided with the enemies of God. Now most Catholics would huff-and-puff, scream and squirm, decry and deny such a statement―but it is, nevertheless, true―unless, of course, you want to call God and Holy Scripture a liar! For here is what God and Holy Scripture says―you will find these words under the carpet or rug, under which they have been conveniently swept, or maybe they are in the back of the closet, or some corner of the basement under a pile of boxes:
“Christ gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world!” (Galatians 1:4). “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of unbelievers, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should not shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Our Lord says: “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything!” (John 14:30). “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). To the worldlings Our Lord says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). Which is why His followers, the Apostles, write: “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) ... “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
Speaking of the word of God as being a seed, Jesus says in the parable about the Sower of the Seed: “He that received the seed [word of God] among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless!” (Matthew 13:22). “The devil took Jesus up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and said to Him: ‘All these will I give Thee, if falling down Thou wilt adore me!’ Then Jesus saith to him: ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written, “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve!”’ Then the devil left Him; and behold angels came and ministered to Him” (Matthew 4:8-11).
We have be “offered the world and the glory of it” and we have accepted it willingly, gladly, with open arms and wallets. We love the world and what it offers us, don’t we? O yes we do―regardless of the politically correct (or religiously correct) things we might say! We love the world and we guzzle and gurgle at its fountains every day―the TV, the movies, the music, the internet, the social media, the videos, the news channels, the gossip channels, the blogs and forums and listen to their gospels on our smartphones, tablets, laptops, computers, screens and headsets. We are most certainly “configured” (conformed and shaped) to the world far, far, far more than we are configured (conformed and shaped) to God. That is why we need a spiritual “transfiguration”.
Transfigured and Configured to God
Though we are sinners and thus lost, God nevertheless loves us and wants to save us (“transfigure” us from the world and worldliness and “configure” us to Him). In the Old Testament we see God speak of this “transfiguration” from worldliness and “configuration” to holiness when He says: “And thou shalt sanctify (“transfigure” and “configure”) all, and they shall be most holy (“transfigured” and “configured”)!” (Exodus 30:29). “You shall be holy men (“transfigured” and “configured”) to Me!” (Exodus 22:31) … “Sanctify (“transfigure” and “configure”) yourselves, and be ye holy, because I am the Lord your God! … You shall be holy (“transfigured” and “configured”) unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated (“transfigured” and “configured”) you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:7; 11:44-46; 20:26) … “As He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted (“transfigured” and “configured”) in His sight!” (Ephesians 1:4) … “Because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16). “The Lord will (“transfigure” and “configure”) raise thee up to be a holy people to Himself!” (Deuteronomy 28:9). “Be you therefore perfect (“transfigured” and “configured”), as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). “The disciple is not above his master―but everyone shall be perfect (“transfigured” and “configured”)!” (Luke 6:40).
Rich Young Man Not Configured to God
We see Our Lord attempt this “transfiguration” and “configuration” of a rich, well-meaning, young man: “And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).
What eventually happened to the soul of that rich young man we do not know―but the words of Our Lord are an ominous warning: “How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” Today, most people are probably richer than the young man of this encounter. Most of us are in a dire need of a spiritual transfiguration so as to avoid a potential eternal damnation, where souls are transfigured from being Christians and configured into being demons. Let the words Holy Scripture bite hard and penetrate deep: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “For the Lord saith: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation! … Knowing that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed! Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” (2 Corinthians 6:2; Romans 13:11-12)―in other words, let us be “transfigured” from the world and worldliness and “configured” to God and godliness.
That’s the Theory! But What About the Practice? How to Make it Happen?
As they say: “Talk is cheap!” Hell is full of cheap talkers. Does that mean that talk is useless? No, talk we must―but we must talk about the right things, talk in the right way, and know what we are talking about! There are many who talk without knowing much about what they talk about. Nevertheless, talking is merely a “middle-man” between “ideas and thoughts” on the ones side, and “action or deeds” on the other side. That is true for most Catholics when it comes to matters of the Faith and the spiritual life―they have no gas in the tank (knowledge in the mind) and run only on gas fumes or “two-bit-phrases” and clever-sounding clichés that hide their real ignorance. Talk is necessary but it must be based on sound knowledge. We must know our Faith, talk-up our Faith and walk the Faith―as they say: “Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk!” St. James says the same thing, but in different words, when he says: “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves! … Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: ‘Thou hast Faith, and I have works!”―show me thy faith without works and I will show thee, by works, my Faith. Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well―but the devils also believe and tremble! But wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only? … For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 1:22; 2:17-26).
Transfiguration and Configuration Require Detoxification and Meditation
The philosophical axiom “Nature abhors a vacuum” could equally be applied to the spiritual life by being rephrased as “The supernatural abhors a vacuum”―in the sense that our soul cannot be empty, our thoughts cannot be empty, there is no spiritual limbo where nothing is happening, where we are spiritually “treading water” and waiting for something. As the spiritual writers tell us, there is no standing still in the spiritual life. Heaven is somewhere upstream and you have to either swim or row your boat against the downstream flowing current of the world. If you stop rowing, you do not stay where you are, but in a very, very short time you are rapidly carried downstream by the current of world, and you lose, in a very short time, all the painstaking and time-taking efforts you had made in swimming just a little more upstream and nearer the mountain lake of Heaven.
If you refuse to detoxify yourself of the world, the world will toxify you and destroy your chances of Heaven. Most souls refused to swim upstream and were, sooner or later, washed away downstream into the fires of Hell. Salvation is serious and the effort required is great. If you look under the carpet or rug―where all the other unpleasant words of Our Lord have swept―then you will find these: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal [and carry you downstream]. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon! [you cannot swim in two directions at the same time]” (Matthew 6:19-24). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away! … But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 11:12; 10:22).
Time For a Rethink! Time to Transfigure and Reconfigure Our Thoughts
The first area of detoxification (or transfiguration) is your thought pattern. Are you happy with your thoughts? Are your thoughts happy thoughts? Are your thoughts positively happy thoughts or negatively unhappy thoughts? Your words and your actions (as well as your health―physical, mental and spiritual) will follow your thoughts. The statement―“You are what you think”―is not just cheap talk, but reality, as some find out to their expense! You need to think well and think positively―without trashing the negative. Everything that God has created has a positive-negative reality or existence―it has to be that way―but the positive should be in the ascendancy and should be our goal, the negative is like a safety net for a circus trapeze act―it is not what they plan on using, but it is there in case they fall.
If you want to see God Himself use the positive-negative routine, then read chapter 26 of the Book of Leviticus, where the first third (33%) of the chapter sees God being super-positive, and the remaining two-thirds (66%) sees Him being super-negative―it is basically using the carrot and the stick. If you are looking for a basic, foundational, reality-check, bottom-line meditation that lays the foundations for all else that God has done, is doing or will do, then that chapter has it all. It shows the two sides of God―which are unchangeable―and you can press which buttons you want, knowing that God can and will give you what you request and deserve. If ever the expression― “It’s my way or the highway!” ― ever applied to anyone, then it applies to God, as chapter 26 of Leviticus clearly shows, to which Jesus adds, in His own gentle way, “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!” (Luke 13:24). “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! … Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father, Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:13-14, 21).
If you think like the many―the majority―then your fate is that of the many. “For many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). You must think like the few in order to be saved with the few. St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church, writes: “If thou wouldst be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few … Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, that they may attain everlasting blessedness!” St. Alphonsus Liguori re-echoes those sentiments: “The saints are few, but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few. O God, too few indeed they are; yet among those few I wish to be!”
You are what you think and your thoughts could lead you to where you never thought you’d end up! Spiritual meditation, or spiritual reflection, spiritual thinking, spiritual reading is of the utmost importance to “transfigure” your worldly way of thinking into a spiritual way of looking at things. It is not for nothing that God said: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). “And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel! Is it My way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse?” (Ezechiel 18:25).
If people can spend hour upon hour, switching their minds and thoughts from smartphone, to tablet, to laptop to TV screen, to headset―all of which transfigures and configures their minds from God to the world, then they void and annul any possible excuse of not having enough time to spend reading, thinking, reflecting and meditating upon God! Furthermore, they dig their own grave and prepare their own pit by giving so much of their time and enjoyment over to what Holy Scripture calls an enemy of God―“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
In the Extraordinary (Traditional Latin) Rite of the Church, an extraordinary situation arises. What is that? It is the fact that the Gospel of Transfiguration arises three times during the year. Not only that―but, right now, you have the same Transfiguration Gospel occurring two days in a row! On Ember Saturday (which, this year, 2019, was on Saturday March 16th) and on the Second Sunday of Lent (this year, March 17th)―in addition to its appearance on the feast of the Transfiguration, which always occurs on August 6th. In the modern Liturgy―which has trashed the Ember Days―it still appears twice―on August 6th and the Second Sunday of Lent. Either someone made a big, big mistake and failed to notice that repetition when the Liturgy of the Church was being arranged, or it is a sign that the Transfiguration is something very important! Figure that one out if you can! The Transfiguration is given a feast day of its own and then is repeated on two other occasions, which, furthermore, are one day immediately after the other―as though some forgot to change to reading for the next day!
Trans What?
Transfiguration? What on earth is that? Can’t figure that out? No! You might say: “Who cares anyway? Are there not more important things to think and talk about than some obscure feast with a name that merely cause confusion? What on earth has the Transfiguration got to do with my salvation? It doesn’t seem to be important at all―it is ranked nowhere near the other important feasts such as Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, etc. So why bother? Let’s pass on that and move on!”
It Comes in Threes
No! We won’t pass on that and move on―because Holy Mother Church rubs our noses in it THREE TIMES every year, and TWO DAYS IN SUCCESSION on Ember Saturday and the following day, the Second Sunday of Lent. If someone tells you something three times―then it has to be important. It is a case of: “Hey! Read or do this!” … “I’m telling you again―read or do this!” … “Look! For a third time I’m telling you―read or do this!” Or, “Hey! If I told you once, I’ve told you twice, I’ve told you three times! I am serious!”
Additionally, all three Synoptic Evangelists― Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke―as well as St. Peter in his epistle, write about the Transfiguration. The Transfiguration narrative appears in Matthew 17:1-18; in Mark 9:2-8; and in Luke 9:28-36. The Transfiguration is also mentioned in 2 Peter 1:16-18. It is a curious thing that Saint John is the only Evangelist who does not record the event of the Transfiguration, especially so since he was actually there, but we have at least an implicit allusion to the event in the very first words of the opening chapter of St. John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … That was the true Light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world … And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only Begotten of the Father!” (John 1:1-14).
For those of you who may wonder why the Gospels of Saints Matthew, Mark, and Luke are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical wording. They stand in contrast to St. John’s Gospel, whose content is comparatively different and was the last of the four Gospels to be written―many years after the other three. It is generally believed that Matthew was written before 70 A.D. and as early as 50 A.D. St. Mark’s Gospel is thought to have been written between 55 A.D. to 70 A.D. St. Luke’s Gospel was written before 62 A.D. Whereas St. John’s Gospel appears to have been written in the 80s to 90s A.D.
The Meaning of “Transfiguration”
The English word “Transfiguration” comes from the Latin word “transfigurare” (pronounced tranz-fig-gu-rah-ray). The first part of the Latin word, “trans” means “change”; and the Latin word “figura” (pronounced fig-goo-ra) means “figure” or “appearance.” These words combine to describe what happened to Jesus at His transfiguration― Jesus’ appearance (figure) changed. The Greek text uses the word “metamorphosis” (pronounced met-ta-mor-foe-sis, meaning “to change form, shape, or appearance”) to describe the change or transformation that occurred in Our Lord at this momentous occasion.
You Would Think That If Our Lord …
Isn’t it strange and anomalous that most people know very little about something that Our Lord and the Apostles “made a great deal of”! How would you feel if you did something “out of this world” and nobody paid any attention to it? You would think that if Our Lord did something as striking and mind-boggling as seen by His Transfiguration, then we would at least make a bit of a fuss over it! But no! Who the heck cares? There are far more exciting things waiting for me on my smartphone / tablet / laptop / TV set―which are just as “mind-boggling”―so let’s “pass” on that. Just not interested and can’t be bothered to look deeper into it! Sorry, but that’s how it is! Thanks, but no thanks! This kind of “stuff” just puts me to sleep, just like all spiritual things. Besides, it even says that Peter James and John fell as;leep during the Transfiguration ― “Peter and they that were with Him were heavy with sleep” (Luke 9:32)―so if could them to sleep, it certainly puts me to sleep! Tell me when another article appears ― something that’s more interesting or shocking, saucy or salacious―like the scandals in the Church, or the latest shocking comment from the Pope. Now that’s the kind of stuff I like and can get my teeth into, and happily read all day long! Besides―didn’t Our Lord say after His Transfiguration that nobody should mention it or talk about it? “He charged them not to tell any man what things they had seen!” (Mark 9:8) … “Tell the vision to no man!” (Matthew 17:9) … “And they kept the word to themselves” (Mark 9:9) … “And they held their peace, and told no man any of these things which they had seen” (Luke 9:36). So why are we talking about it?
Sure, Our Lord did command Peter, James and John not to speak about ― but the prohibition only applied to the period BEFORE His death and resurrection! Otherwise why did they write about it? Because it was no longer forbidden to speak of the Transfiguration. In fact, it is even more important to speak about it today, because we have lost all notions of the supernatural by becoming too natural, and lost our taste for the spiritual by having become gluttons for the material.
Drawing Back the Curtains on the Transfiguration
The Transfiguration of Christ draws back the curtains to the culminating point of His public life, as His Baptism is its starting point, and His Ascension its end. The Transfiguration occurred shortly before the Passion and Death of Our Lord―hence its inclusion (on the Second Sunday of Lent) among the various readings during Lent, which also culminates with the Passion and Death of Our Lord during “Holy Week”.
If we are about to speak of the Transfiguration, then we should refer to the very source of our knowledge on the matter―which is, of course, Holy Scripture. Here is a combination of the three accounts of by Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke, with the additions of the allusions made by St. Peter and St. John. This should give us a clear platform and factual representation of what we will be talking about.
“Jesus taketh with Him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain, apart by themselves, to pray. But Peter, and they that were with Him, were heavy with sleep. And, whilst He prayed, He was transfigured before them. The shape of His countenance was altered, and His face did shine as the sun. And His garments became white and glittering, shining and exceedingly white as snow, so as no fuller [cloth-maker] upon Earth can make white. And waking, they saw his glory and majesty, and the two men that stood with Him and were talking with Him. They were Moses and Elias and they were talking with Jesus of His decease that He should accomplish in Jerusalem. And it came to pass, that as they were departing from Him, Peter said to Jesus: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here! If Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles [tents], one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias!’― not knowing what he said, for they were struck with fear. And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them, and they were afraid when they entered into the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying: ‘This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased! Hear ye Him!’ And whilst the voice was uttered, Jesus was found alone. And the disciples, hearing the voice, fell upon their faces, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came, touched them and said to them: ‘Arise, and fear not!’ And immediately lifting up their eyes and looking about, they saw no man any more, but only Jesus with them. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them not to tell any man what things they had seen, till the Son of man shall be risen again from the dead, saying: ‘Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead!’ And they held their peace, and told no man in those days any of these things which they had seen. They kept the word to themselves, questioning together what that should mean― ‘when He shall be risen from the dead.’” St. Peter would later write: “We have not by following artificial fables, made known to you the power, and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; but we were eyewitnesses of His greatness. For He received from God the Father, honor and glory―this voice coming down to Him from the excellent glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased! Hear ye Him!’ And this voice we heard brought from Heaven, when we were with Him on the holy mount!” (Matthew 17:1-18; Mark 9:1-9; Luke 9:28-36; John 1:1-14; 2 Peter 1:16-18).
The Church Needs a Transfiguration―So Do We!
God’s creation is loaded with the “positive-negative” syndrome in both the supernatural-spiritual, as well as the natural-material realms. We have Heaven (positive) and Hell (negative); virtue (positive) and sin (negative); good angels (positive) and bad angels (negative); salvation (positive) and damnation (negative); saints (positive) and sinners (negative), etc. In that natural-material world we have day (positive) and night (negative), heat and cold, life and death, health and sickness; being awake and being asleep; riches and poverty; joy and sadness; love and hatred; peace and war; success and failure; ups and downs, etc., etc., etc.
We also see these positive and negative “ups and downs” in Holy Scripture, in the life of the Chosen People, in the life of Christ and in the life of the Church. The pleasant wedding miracle at Cana is soon followed by the violent cleansing of the Temple, just as the Transfiguration on the mountain leads to a wild encounter at the foot of the mountain with an epileptic. A Russian proverb holds that when the Lord builds a church somewhere, Satan pitches a tent across the street. The endless agony of Lucifer the lightbearer―which is what the word “Lucifer” means―without the Light, is that he cannot get far enough away from the eternal brightness, and yet he is helplessly drawn to it, like an ugly moth is drawn to a lovely flame. There is some of that same satanic tension in those who talk ceaselessly about why they will have nothing to do with the Church. A Christ who does not inspire, will nevertheless seem to haunt―He will simply not go away!
The Church Militant on Earth is headed in one of two directions―Heaven (positive) or Hell (negative). We call it the Church Militant because it is meant to be fighting―it is meant to fight the devil and the world, or it will end up being condemned with the devil and world. “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32).
The Church Militant, which in its weakest moments, may seem like a scattered and tattered regiment of the Church Triumphant, has supernatural guarantees that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. Yet our hope has to be in Heaven and based upon Christ’s power and help―as He Himself said: “I am the vine―you [are merely] the branches! He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit―for without Me you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17).
Any reformation of the Church that is not a transfiguration by the light of that confidence, becomes a deformation of the Church. The Church must rely on God and not on the talents of its human members. St. Paul expands upon this, by saying that worldly wisdom, human skills and a too naturalistic approach to things will not bear fruit and is unacceptable to God: “The justification of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For they that are according to the flesh, mind the things that are of the flesh; but they that are according to the Spirit, mind the things that are of the Spirit. For the wisdom of the flesh is death; but the wisdom of the Spirit is life and peace. Because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither can it be. And they who are in the flesh, cannot please God! But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (Romans 8:4-9).
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury, idolatry, witchcrafts, enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkenness, reveling [partying], and such like. Of the which I foretell you, as I have foretold to you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the Kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, long-suffering, mildness, faith, modesty, continency and chastity” (Galatians 5:19-23).
The Transfiguration of Holiness
Pushing aside all the leaves and branches that obscure a clear view of the trunk of the tree of the Church, we see that the chief purposes of the Church are:
(1) to give glory to God―which is commanded numerous times in Scripture: “Give glory to God!” (Josue 7:19; Jeremias 13:16; 1 Kings 6:5; Tobias 12:6; 13:12; Psalms 67:35; 135;26; Ecclesiasticus 35:10; 50:22; Luke 2:14; 17:18; John 9:24; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Apocalypse 4:11 and many more references), and the other chief purpose of the Church is …
(2) to make its members holy, for only saints get to go to Heaven: “And thou shalt sanctify all, and they shall be most holy!” (Exodus 30:29). “You shall be holy men to Me!” (Exodus 22:31) … “Sanctify yourselves, and be ye holy, because I am the Lord your God! … For I am the Lord your God―be holy because I am holy! … You shall be holy, because I am holy! … You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:7; 11:44-46; 20:26) … “And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, My holy mountain, and Jerusalem shall be holy and strangers [the worldly] shall pass through it no more!” (Joel 3:17) … “As He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in His sight!” (Ephesians 1:4) … “Because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16). “The Lord will raise thee up to be a holy people to Himself, as He swore to thee―if thou keep the commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways!” (Deuteronomy 28:9). “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). “The disciple is not above his master―but everyone shall be perfect!” (Luke 6:40).
Let us, for a moment, go back to that mystifying word “transfiguration.” The English word “Transfiguration” comes from the Latin word “transfigurare.” The first part of the Latin word, “trans” means “change”; and the Latin word “figura” means “figure” or “appearance.” Christ changed His appearance during His transfiguration―not only to manifest the glory and sanctity that was always ‘hiding’ below the surface―but also to show us that we must change from being mainly humanistic, materialistic and worldly in our thoughts, words and actions, into being supernatural, spiritual and holy in our thoughts, words and actions. For if are members of the Mystical Body of Christ, of which Christ is the Head, then the body should be united to the Head and follow the head into that glory of holiness, which should be ‘hidden’ yet active within each member of the Mystical Body of Christ.
Are we in need of a spiritual transfiguration? Do we need a transfiguration of holiness? You bet we do! Scripture says that we have all sinned and that we all fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10). We are also reminded: “Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God?” (1 Corinthians 6:9). “There shall not enter into it anything defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie…” etc. (Apocalypse 21:27). “Follow holiness―without which no man shall see God!” (Hebrews 12:14). Just as an athlete can be “out of shape” physically, we can also be “out of shape” spiritually. In fact, just as an athlete can always increase his or her physical fitness and performance, likewise, we can always increase our spiritual fitness and performance―which is precisely why St. Paul writes what we read at Mass on Septuagesima Sunday, as we prepared for Lent:
“Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And everyone that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty, I so fight, not as one beating the air―but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
Out of Shape Church
Today, the Catholic Church is totally out of shape! Yes, totally―not partially as some would like to think! Even those who are still clinging on to the Faith, are way below par for what a Catholic should be. We have become so dumbed-down and so weakened in our Faith, morals and spiritual levels, that even a weakling looks like a superman by comparison to everyone else. It is much like your child running home from school shouting with glee that they came top of the class in the test. You ask: “What did you score?” Your child replies: “Five out of a hundred!”
Everyone is below par―even the intelligent ones are nowhere near as intelligent as what they could and should be. A bishop―now deceased―once told his seminarians words to the effect of: “You think you’re special, don’t you? Your think―I’m a seminarian and will soon be a priest!―Well let me point some things out to you seminarians-soon-to-be-priests! When I was in your shoes, I had already studied theology in high school! I could read, write and speak Latin before going to the seminary! I had already learnt a good deal of Greek and some Hebrew. Most of you don’t even know your catechism very well! The priests of old were far superior in their levels to what they are today!”
What is true of today’s priests and seminarians, is even more true of today’s faithful who are not so full of faith as the faithful should be! If there was ever an age when the following words of Holy Scripture are perfectly suited, then it has to be our present age: “There is none that doth good, no not one! The Lord hath looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together―there is none that doth good, no not one! Their throat is an open sepulcher―with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes!” (Psalm 13:1-3).
Wearing Business Suits With Spiritual Diapers
The modern world―with the advent of easy worldwide trade and technological advances―has become much more materialistic and much less spiritual. Though there have been many major advances in technology and business, there have been no advances spiritually. You could compare it to a child growing into adolescence and adulthood in the materialistic, technological, and worldly level―but on a spiritual level, the baby never grows up, remaining forever in spiritual diapers.
Most Catholics today―even some ‘good’ Catholics―are wearing spiritual diapers. They know a lot about the world, what is going on in the world, the scandals in the world, the crimes in the world, the corruption in the world, or even the everyday things of the world, such as found in science, technology, mechanics, electricity, plumbing, building, etc. ― but they are clueless as to how fine-tune their soul, how to recharge their soul, how to fix their soul, how to de-clog their soul, how to build their soul into the temple that God expects the soul to be! All of this brings to mind the words of Our Lord: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26)―modern man is searching for the wrong kind of “profits” these days, which may profit his pocket, but not his soul―for Our Lord adds: “Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven! And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:23-26).
This should also remind us the following passage from Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange’s book, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, in which he speaks, in a sense, of the aforementioned souls in business suits and spiritual diapers:
“The one thing necessary which Jesus spoke of, to Martha and Mary (Luke 10:41), consists in hearing the word of God and living by it. The interior life thus conceived is something far more profound and more necessary in us than intellectual life or the cultivation of the sciences, than artistic or literary life, than social or political life. Unfortunately, some great scholars, mathematicians, physicists, and astronomers have no interior life, so to speak, but devote themselves to the study of their science as if God did not exist. In their moments of solitude they have no intimate conversation with Him. Their life appears to be, in certain respects, the search for the true and the good, in a more or less definite and restricted domain, but it is so tainted with self-love and intellectual pride, that we may legitimately question whether it will bear fruit for eternity. Many artists, literary men, and statesmen never rise above this level of purely human activity which is, in short, quite exterior. Do the depths of their souls live by God? It would seem not.
“This shows that the interior life, or the life of the soul with God, well deserves to be called ‘the one thing necessary’, since by it we tend to our last end and assure our salvation. This last must not be too widely separated from progressive sanctification, for it is the very way of salvation. There are those who seem to think that it is sufficient to be saved and that it is not necessary to be a saint. It is clearly not necessary to be a saint who performs miracles and whose sanctity is officially recognized by the Church. To be saved, we must take the way of salvation, which is identical with that of sanctity. There will be only saints in Heaven, whether they enter there immediately after death, or after purification in Purgatory. No one enters Heaven unless he has that sanctity which consists in perfect purity of soul. Every sin—though it should be venial—must be effaced, and the punishment due to sin must be borne or remitted, in order that a soul may enjoy forever the vision of God; see Him as He sees Himself; and love Him as He loves Himself. Should a soul enter Heaven before the total remission of its sins, it could not remain there and it would cast itself into Purgatory to be purified.
“The interior life of a just man who tends toward God and who already lives by Him is indeed the one thing necessary. To be a saint, neither intellectual culture nor great exterior activity is a requisite; it suffices that we live profoundly by God. This truth is evident in the saints of the early Church; several of those saints were poor people, even slaves. It is evident also in St. Francis, St. Benedict Joseph Labre, in the Curé of Ars, and many others. They all had a deep understanding of these words of our Savior: ‘For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?’ (Matthew 16:26). If people sacrifice so many things to save the life of the body, which must ultimately die, what should we not sacrifice to save the life of our soul, which is to last forever? Ought not man to love his soul more than his body? ‘Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?’ Our Lord adds in Matthew 16:26. ‘One thing is necessary,’ He tells us in Luke 10:41.
“ ‘Jesus entered into a certain town and a certain woman, named Martha, received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who, sitting also at the Lord’s feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy with much serving. Who stood and said: “Lord! Hast Thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? Speak to her, therefore, that she help me!” And the Lord answering, said to her: “Martha! Martha! Thou art careful and art troubled about many things! But one thing is necessary! Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!” (Luke 10:38-42).’
“To save our soul, one thing alone is necessary―to hear the word of God and to live by it. Therein lies the best part, which will not be taken away from a faithful soul, even though it should lose everything else” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Is Angelic Intelligence Promoting Artificial Intelligence?
Those words of Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange were written before the technological explosion that came in the 1990’s with the advent of the internet, which was a launch-pad for a series of technological enterprises and breakthroughs never ever imagined in bygone years. Though today’s technological “junkies” and addicts may squirm at the thought, it is very likely that St. Padre Pio was not very far off the mark when he said of television: “The devil is in it!” It is highly likely that the current massive, unstoppable, escalating and worldwide addiction to one or more branches of technology (TV, smartphone, tablet, laptop, Artificial Intelligence, virtual reality, etc.) is more than a little to do with the smartness of the devil and his angelic intelligence creating artificial intelligence as a devil-made substitute for God. As one present-day exorcist is on record as saying, the devil, even though he cannot make some people disbelieve in God, will nevertheless be satisfied if he can distract souls away from loving God by making them do things that are less important. Today, if you are honest, that is true of almost everyone in the world―they may or may not believe in God, but the one thing in common between both groups is that they are addicted to things that give them no time for God.
Configured to the World and not God
In this sense, they are “configured” to the world and not “configured” to God. In case you were not quite sure of the meaning of the word “configure”, it means “to arrange or put together in a particular form or shape; to arrange something, or change the controls on a computer, or other device, so that it can be used in a particular way.” The word “configure” comes from the Middle English “configuren” (as past participle “configured”) meaning “to model on, conform to,” and is borrowed from Middle French and Latin from “con-“ meaning “with, together” + “figūrāre” meaning “to shape, form, make a likeness of one thing to another thing.”
Under heavy pressure from the world and its media, most people have configured themselves, or conformed themselves, to the world rather than God. What this means in simple brutal terms is that they have sided with the enemies of God. Now most Catholics would huff-and-puff, scream and squirm, decry and deny such a statement―but it is, nevertheless, true―unless, of course, you want to call God and Holy Scripture a liar! For here is what God and Holy Scripture says―you will find these words under the carpet or rug, under which they have been conveniently swept, or maybe they are in the back of the closet, or some corner of the basement under a pile of boxes:
“Christ gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world!” (Galatians 1:4). “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of unbelievers, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should not shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4). Our Lord says: “The prince of this world [the devil] cometh, and in Me he hath not anything!” (John 14:30). “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now My kingdom is not from hence!” (John 18:36). To the worldlings Our Lord says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). Which is why His followers, the Apostles, write: “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27) ... “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
Speaking of the word of God as being a seed, Jesus says in the parable about the Sower of the Seed: “He that received the seed [word of God] among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless!” (Matthew 13:22). “The devil took Jesus up into a very high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, and said to Him: ‘All these will I give Thee, if falling down Thou wilt adore me!’ Then Jesus saith to him: ‘Begone, Satan! For it is written, “The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and Him only shalt thou serve!”’ Then the devil left Him; and behold angels came and ministered to Him” (Matthew 4:8-11).
We have be “offered the world and the glory of it” and we have accepted it willingly, gladly, with open arms and wallets. We love the world and what it offers us, don’t we? O yes we do―regardless of the politically correct (or religiously correct) things we might say! We love the world and we guzzle and gurgle at its fountains every day―the TV, the movies, the music, the internet, the social media, the videos, the news channels, the gossip channels, the blogs and forums and listen to their gospels on our smartphones, tablets, laptops, computers, screens and headsets. We are most certainly “configured” (conformed and shaped) to the world far, far, far more than we are configured (conformed and shaped) to God. That is why we need a spiritual “transfiguration”.
Transfigured and Configured to God
Though we are sinners and thus lost, God nevertheless loves us and wants to save us (“transfigure” us from the world and worldliness and “configure” us to Him). In the Old Testament we see God speak of this “transfiguration” from worldliness and “configuration” to holiness when He says: “And thou shalt sanctify (“transfigure” and “configure”) all, and they shall be most holy (“transfigured” and “configured”)!” (Exodus 30:29). “You shall be holy men (“transfigured” and “configured”) to Me!” (Exodus 22:31) … “Sanctify (“transfigure” and “configure”) yourselves, and be ye holy, because I am the Lord your God! … You shall be holy (“transfigured” and “configured”) unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated (“transfigured” and “configured”) you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:7; 11:44-46; 20:26) … “As He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted (“transfigured” and “configured”) in His sight!” (Ephesians 1:4) … “Because it is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16). “The Lord will (“transfigure” and “configure”) raise thee up to be a holy people to Himself!” (Deuteronomy 28:9). “Be you therefore perfect (“transfigured” and “configured”), as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). “The disciple is not above his master―but everyone shall be perfect (“transfigured” and “configured”)!” (Luke 6:40).
Rich Young Man Not Configured to God
We see Our Lord attempt this “transfiguration” and “configuration” of a rich, well-meaning, young man: “And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).
What eventually happened to the soul of that rich young man we do not know―but the words of Our Lord are an ominous warning: “How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” Today, most people are probably richer than the young man of this encounter. Most of us are in a dire need of a spiritual transfiguration so as to avoid a potential eternal damnation, where souls are transfigured from being Christians and configured into being demons. Let the words Holy Scripture bite hard and penetrate deep: “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “For the Lord saith: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation! … Knowing that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed! Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light” (2 Corinthians 6:2; Romans 13:11-12)―in other words, let us be “transfigured” from the world and worldliness and “configured” to God and godliness.
That’s the Theory! But What About the Practice? How to Make it Happen?
As they say: “Talk is cheap!” Hell is full of cheap talkers. Does that mean that talk is useless? No, talk we must―but we must talk about the right things, talk in the right way, and know what we are talking about! There are many who talk without knowing much about what they talk about. Nevertheless, talking is merely a “middle-man” between “ideas and thoughts” on the ones side, and “action or deeds” on the other side. That is true for most Catholics when it comes to matters of the Faith and the spiritual life―they have no gas in the tank (knowledge in the mind) and run only on gas fumes or “two-bit-phrases” and clever-sounding clichés that hide their real ignorance. Talk is necessary but it must be based on sound knowledge. We must know our Faith, talk-up our Faith and walk the Faith―as they say: “Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk!” St. James says the same thing, but in different words, when he says: “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves! … Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: ‘Thou hast Faith, and I have works!”―show me thy faith without works and I will show thee, by works, my Faith. Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well―but the devils also believe and tremble! But wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only? … For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 1:22; 2:17-26).
Transfiguration and Configuration Require Detoxification and Meditation
The philosophical axiom “Nature abhors a vacuum” could equally be applied to the spiritual life by being rephrased as “The supernatural abhors a vacuum”―in the sense that our soul cannot be empty, our thoughts cannot be empty, there is no spiritual limbo where nothing is happening, where we are spiritually “treading water” and waiting for something. As the spiritual writers tell us, there is no standing still in the spiritual life. Heaven is somewhere upstream and you have to either swim or row your boat against the downstream flowing current of the world. If you stop rowing, you do not stay where you are, but in a very, very short time you are rapidly carried downstream by the current of world, and you lose, in a very short time, all the painstaking and time-taking efforts you had made in swimming just a little more upstream and nearer the mountain lake of Heaven.
If you refuse to detoxify yourself of the world, the world will toxify you and destroy your chances of Heaven. Most souls refused to swim upstream and were, sooner or later, washed away downstream into the fires of Hell. Salvation is serious and the effort required is great. If you look under the carpet or rug―where all the other unpleasant words of Our Lord have swept―then you will find these: “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal [and carry you downstream]. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon! [you cannot swim in two directions at the same time]” (Matthew 6:19-24). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away! … But he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 11:12; 10:22).
Time For a Rethink! Time to Transfigure and Reconfigure Our Thoughts
The first area of detoxification (or transfiguration) is your thought pattern. Are you happy with your thoughts? Are your thoughts happy thoughts? Are your thoughts positively happy thoughts or negatively unhappy thoughts? Your words and your actions (as well as your health―physical, mental and spiritual) will follow your thoughts. The statement―“You are what you think”―is not just cheap talk, but reality, as some find out to their expense! You need to think well and think positively―without trashing the negative. Everything that God has created has a positive-negative reality or existence―it has to be that way―but the positive should be in the ascendancy and should be our goal, the negative is like a safety net for a circus trapeze act―it is not what they plan on using, but it is there in case they fall.
If you want to see God Himself use the positive-negative routine, then read chapter 26 of the Book of Leviticus, where the first third (33%) of the chapter sees God being super-positive, and the remaining two-thirds (66%) sees Him being super-negative―it is basically using the carrot and the stick. If you are looking for a basic, foundational, reality-check, bottom-line meditation that lays the foundations for all else that God has done, is doing or will do, then that chapter has it all. It shows the two sides of God―which are unchangeable―and you can press which buttons you want, knowing that God can and will give you what you request and deserve. If ever the expression― “It’s my way or the highway!” ― ever applied to anyone, then it applies to God, as chapter 26 of Leviticus clearly shows, to which Jesus adds, in His own gentle way, “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!” (Luke 13:24). “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! … Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father, Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!” (Matthew 7:13-14, 21).
If you think like the many―the majority―then your fate is that of the many. “For many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16). You must think like the few in order to be saved with the few. St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church, writes: “If thou wouldst be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few … Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, that they may attain everlasting blessedness!” St. Alphonsus Liguori re-echoes those sentiments: “The saints are few, but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few. O God, too few indeed they are; yet among those few I wish to be!”
You are what you think and your thoughts could lead you to where you never thought you’d end up! Spiritual meditation, or spiritual reflection, spiritual thinking, spiritual reading is of the utmost importance to “transfigure” your worldly way of thinking into a spiritual way of looking at things. It is not for nothing that God said: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9). “And you have said: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel! Is it My way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse?” (Ezechiel 18:25).
If people can spend hour upon hour, switching their minds and thoughts from smartphone, to tablet, to laptop to TV screen, to headset―all of which transfigures and configures their minds from God to the world, then they void and annul any possible excuse of not having enough time to spend reading, thinking, reflecting and meditating upon God! Furthermore, they dig their own grave and prepare their own pit by giving so much of their time and enjoyment over to what Holy Scripture calls an enemy of God―“Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4).
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Friday March 15th & Saturday March 16th
Article 19
Why Waste Your Time?
Article 19
Why Waste Your Time?
Time is Precious! Time is More Than Money!
Our present modern-day age is worships the idols of “time-saving”―or could you, with tongue in cheek, call it “time-salvation” instead of “time-saving”? We are surrounded by “time-savers” or should call them “time-saviors”? We have technological marvels — computers, smartphones, tablets, artificial intelligence, robots — that do many things for us. We are sold on express-lanes, fast-tracking, self-service check-outs, overnight deliveries, two-day deliveries, etc. We must have our power tools, electronic kitchen appliances, dishwashers, laundry washers and dryers, lawn mowers with leaf vacuum attachments, leaf blowers, electric chain-saws, etc. We read books on time management techniques, we use time management tools and software, and we eat at fast food restaurants or prepare “instant” meals and dishes so that we don’t waste long hours in the kitchen. It has become a veritable cult or quasi-religion of “saving time” more so than “saving our soul”!
Minute-Millionaires or Time-Trillionaires
However, once we have gained or earned those “precious extra minutes”, like an overindulgent, self-indulgent, wanton, lavish and splurging millionaire, we waste most of these hard-earned minutes―our precious savings of time―on many a mindless and trivial activity, like scrolling through social media, or browsing worldly websites on our smartphones / tablets / laptops, or staring fruitlessly at the television, or in other activities that do nothing in bringing us closer to God or our loved ones.
Some of the saints have left us some wise advice on the use of time, that we do well to heed―especially in this time of Lent, when any time saved should be spent in saving our soul! For that is exactly what St. Paul tells us: “Knowing the season that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed! The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy! But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences!” (Romans 13:11-14).
“Rise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall enlighten thee! See therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly! Not as unwise, but as wise―redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God! And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury; but be ye filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord!” (Ephesians 5:14-19).
Time to Listen to the Saints on Time
Here are some short (time-saving) quotes from some of our famous saints on the importance of time and its good use:
St. John of Cross: “At the hour reckoning, you will regret that you didn’t sacrifice time to serve God―so why don’t you use your time now as you would want to have done at the time of death?”
St. Basil the Great: “How many times people waste the present time, only to regret it when it’s gone forever!”
St. Isidore of Seville: “Learn as if you were immortal; but live as though you were to die tomorrow!”
St. Alphonsus Liguori: “Worldly people most desire time at the moment of their death―but they will not get it!”
St. Bernard of Clairvaux: “There isn’t anything more precious than time, but there is also nothing less respected and more disregarded than time.”
St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina: “When you waste time, you disregard God’s gifts that He entrusts to you love and generosity! Time spent for the glory of God and the health of the soul, is never wasted.”
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity: “If I had to start my life again, how I would like not to waste any moment of my time!”
Our Lord Himself complained about the lack of time given to Him, when He rebuked His three favorite Apostles during His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” (Matthew 26:40).
Time Passes―How Do You Pass Your Time?
Our Lord uses the words “watch” and “hour”―we have watches that we use continually to check the hour. We wear watches on our wrists, we have watches (clocks) on our phones, watches on our tablets, watches on our laptops and computers, watches on our walls, watches in our cars, watches on our ovens, watches on our thermostats, watches on our streets and in our stores and offices and schools―and we are watching them many times a day! This obsession with time could be because we think “time means money”. Time is, of course, precious―but it precious in a way more than meaning a time to make money, or lose money. Though we could look upon time as being an invisible form of money (the hours being dollars, and the minutes being cents), which God has put into our “time bank account”―some people getting more time than others―but, at the end of the day, God permits us to withdraw and spend only 24 hours of time each day. We can spend that time (“money”) wisely or foolishly―the choice is ours to make and the consequences are ours to take!
We speak of “pastimes” as meaning things we like to do, which are not our official work or duty of state, but which we do to pass whatever free-time we have at our disposal. “Hobby” or “hobbies” is often used in the same sense. Pastimes are part-time hobbies. This leads to the next point. Is God a hobby and a pastime for you? Is God a part-time pastime? For most people, the answer is “Yes!” They have little time for God and, at best, God becomes a part-time pastime, a hobby, and church on Sunday is merely a “hobby lobby”―a lobby in both senses of the word. A “lobby” can be an outer room, vestibule, reception area, or waiting room providing a space out of which one or more other rooms or corridors lead, typically one near the entrance of a public building―and in this sense, church is a room at the entrance of the Faith, which leads to other rooms: Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. The word “lobby” can also mean a group of people, a pressure group, seeking to influence politicians or public officials on a particular issue―and in this sense, Catholics are a “lobby” trying to influence God by coming to church, praying and telling Him what to do and what they want from Him.
Time? What is Time? What Time is It?
As Pontius Pilate disdainfully and sarcastically said to Jesus: “What is truth?”―in the sense of “Does truth really matter?”―we can be tempted to say dismissively: “What is time?”―in the sense of “Does time really matter?” Is time really that important? Well, if you think about our modern obsession with time-saving, then it seems to be very important! Yet even more important is the question: “What do we do with our time? How do we spend the time we have saved? Are we wasting our preciously earned minutes? Or are we spending them wisely?
Your eternity―in which there is no such thing as time―depends upon how you use time in this world. If Our Lord says that every idle word will be looked at and judged at our Final Judgment―“But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment!” (Matthew 12:36)―then He might as well have said: “But I say unto you, that for every second of their lives, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment!”―for it amounts to the same thing. Time is merely the capsule for the idle word. We will be judged on how we spent every second of our lives―time is precious, too precious to waste or squander. You could even take the parable about The Talents and relate it to time:
“A man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his goods [TIME]. And to one he gave five talents [units of time], and to another two [units of time], and to another one [unit of time], to everyone according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey. And he that had received the five talents [units of time], went his way and traded with the same, and gained other five [he used his time well]. And in like manner he that had received the two, gained other two [he also used his time well]. But he that had received the one, going his way digged into the earth, and hid his lord’s money [he wasted the time given to him].” (Matthew 25:14-18).
God is Timeless―Are You Timeless, or Out of Time?
Holy Scripture says: “One day, with the Lord, is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). God is timeless, or atemporal. The word “atemporal” is really another word for “timeless” or outside of time, away from time. From the Greek prefix “a-” meaning “no” or “not” . Add the Latin word “tempus”―which means time―and you get “atemporal” which gives it its meaning of being “timeless”. The difference between “atemporal” and “temporal” is that “atemporal” has the quality of being uninfluenced, unaffected, ungoverned or unchanged by time; it is timeless; permanent or unchanging, while the word “temporal” is linked to, dependent upon, or relating to time and changes with time, or adapts to time and its fashions, attitudes, mannerisms and ways of acting.
Thus, in saying God is “timeless” or “atemporal”, indicates that not only is God eternal, but God is outside of time, He is not governed by time, He does not depend upon time, He does not change with time. There is no “time” in Heaven―there is no “past” and no “future”, but everything is seen in the present. Time is not eternal. God created time when He created the universe. To “create” is to make things out of nothing, with no material at all being used. We cannot ask―“Why did God wait so long before creating the world?”―because before creation, there is no “time”. Time is a measure of change on a scale of “before” and “after” something (Aristotle, Physics, 4:11). Therefore, when―in speaking of eternity--there was no change, there was no time. Time began to be when changing creatures came into being. Time is a restless continuous set of changes. Ahead is a moment we call “future”―which quickly changes into the “present”―which then quickly changes into the “past”. God sees everything as if it were in the present, without any relation to the past and the future. Our Lady and the saints see things the same way―that is why Our Lady of Good Success, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Akita can speak of world affairs as if she is actually seeing them happening right before her eyes, for everything is in the present, and not in the past and the future. In a sense, when you die, your whole life will flash before you as though it is in the present moment and not in the past.
Let us take time to consider and reflect upon a few timeless yet timely words of St. Augustine of Hippo, Father and Doctor of the Church, on the subject of time. Your time will not be wasted because only two paragraphs of quotes will be used―but if you have the time and the inclination, you will find St. Augustine spend much more time on the matter in his Confessions, Book Eleven, chapters 12 to 28:
St. Augustine writes: You, God Almighty, and All-creating, and All-sustaining, the Architect of Heaven and Earth … You are the Creator of all times … Nor did You precede time by any time; because then You would not precede all times. But in the excellence of an ever-present eternity, You precede all times past, and survive all future times, because they are future, and when they have come they will be past; but “You are the same, and Your years shall have no end.” Your years neither go nor come; but ours both go and come, that all may come. . . . You have made all time; and before all times You are, nor in any time was there not time ... because You made time itself.
Augustine then continues and explains all things as being in the present: But what now is manifest and clear is, that neither are there future nor past things. Nor is it right to say, “There are three times―past, present and future.” But it might be right to say, “There are three times; (1) a present of things past, (2) a present of things present, and (3) a present of things future.” For these three times do somehow exist in the soul. Otherwise I would not see them: (1) present of things past, memory; (2) present of things present, sight; (3) present of things future, expectation. If of these things we are permitted to speak, I see three times, and I grant there are three. It may also be said, “There are three times, past, present and future,” as usage falsely has it. (Confessions, Book Eleven, chapters 12 to 26).
If you prefer the “lingo” of more modern times to St. Augustine’s old-time “lingo”, then here is what a humble High School Science Teacher says on time:
“The Bible teaches that God created the Universe and all its dimensions. That being the case, Heaven is not restricted by the dimensions of our universe, and that includes time. Of course, Heaven may have its own set of dimensions and some of those might well be spatial and temporal, but they are not the same as those in our universe and they are not connected in any way. This means that God―and whoever else is in Heaven―would not experience space and time the way we would, if at all. There may be space and time in Heaven, but it would have no relationship to our universe. One part of Heaven would be no “closer” than another, nor would time move forward, or backward, in the same fashion as in our universe. The idea of “before” and “after” might have no meaning in Heaven. It could all be the eternal “now”. It could be quite easy for God to be anywhere in our universe at any time, or everywhere at all times. This is true because there would be no relationship between the space-time of Heaven and the space-time of our universe. In fact, that would be true for any being that could transcend the “barrier” between Heaven and our universe. It’s kind of like standing in front of a bookshelf that contains history books. You can open any book and read about pre-historic or modern history, or anything in between, simply by picking up the desired book. Or like being in front of a map of the Earth where you can point to any place on the Earth as easily as any other. The only difference is that God has the ability to enter into history “real time” and interact with any part of the Universe at any time. Such “transcendence” is quite powerful.”
God Made Time―You Can Make Time Too!
As St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas say, God made time when He began to create the world and creatures. In a sense, you could say God made time for you! He doesn’t need time―He is eternal. In this world, you need time and God has given that time. If God made time, you, in your own little way, can make time too―by making time for God!
In fact, all the time that you have been given, comes from God! He wants all that time returning to Him! “The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof―the world, and all they that dwell therein” (Psalm 23:1). “All things that are under Heaven are Mine!” (Job 41:2). “All the Earth is Mine!” (Exodus 19:5). “The world is Mine, and the fullness thereof!” (Psalm 49:12). “The land also is Mine!” Leviticus 25:23). “The river is Mine, for I made it!” (Ezechiel 29:9). “‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine!’ saith the Lord of hosts” (Aggeus 2:9). “Behold all souls are Mine―as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine!” (Ezechiel 18:4). “I entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest Mine!” (Ezechiel 16:8). “I have redeemed thee―thou art Mine!” (Isaias 43:1). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26). “Thine, O Lord, is magnificence, and power, and glory, and victory: and to Thee is praise! For all that is in Heaven, and in Earth, is Thine! Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art above all princes! Thine are riches, and Thine is glory, thou hast dominion over all! In Thy hand is power and might! In Thy hand greatness and the empire of all things!” (1 Paralipomenon 29:11-12).
Why else would Our Lord and Holy Scripture, things like: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind! [which translates to all the time]. This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-38). Elsewhere Jesus says: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times” (Luke 21:36). “ALL whatsoever you do in word or in work, do ALL in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Colossians 3:17). “Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in Heaven which faileth not! … Every one of you that doth not renounce ALL that he possesseth, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 12:33; 14:33). “Simon Peter and also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners … having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed Him” (Luke 5:8-11)―thus giving all their time to Christ.
We also see Our Lord ask that the rich young man give up ALL his possessions by selling them and giving up ALL the money from the proceeds as an alms to the poor, and then give up ALL his time and come and follow Jesus, saying that he would gain a great treasure in Heaven: “And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’
“And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’
“And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!’ Who wondered the more, saying among themselves: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said: ‘With men it is impossible; but not with God! For all things are possible with God!’”
“Then Peter answering, began to say unto Him: ‘Behold we have left ALL things, and have followed Thee! What therefore shall we have?’ And Jesus answering, said to them: ‘Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of His majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel! And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My Name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and, in the world to come, shall possess life everlasting!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).
Two Kinds of Timeless Catholics
There are two meanings for the word “timeless”―one old and one new; one bad and one good. God is timeless―not that he is short on time, but in the sense of the word “timeless” as we understand it today. In our present time―or should we say, since the early 17th Century, if you describe something as being “timeless”, you mean that it is so good or beautiful that it cannot be affected by changes in society or fashion―which is something that every Catholic should be. The dictionary will define “timeless” along the lines of: “not restricted to a particular time or date; having no beginning or end; lasting forever; never showing the effects of aging; not affected by time.” Something that is timeless does not change as the years pass, it is always applicable, always relevant, always beautiful, etc. As synonyms (a word that means the same, or almost the same) for “timeless”, the dictionary will give you something akin to: “abiding, endless, ageless, enduring, immortal, always, constant, continual, deathless, everlasting, forever, immemorial, indefinite, infinite, lasting, never-ending, perennial, permanent, perpetual, persistent, etc.”
There is also an archaic or obsolete meaning of the word “timeless” that is no longer used today―but it is still important in our understand of time and timelessness. The general meaning of “timeless” as being “eternal” (and similar definitions), only arose in the 1620s, from compounding the noun “time” with the adjective “less”. Before this new meaning introduced in the 1620s, “timeless” meant “ill-timed” or “untimely” (as we see recorded in the 1550s and earlier). You can describe something as untimely if it happens at an unsuitable time; not occurring at a suitable time or season; something that is ill-timed or inopportune. If you describe an event as untimely, you mean that it happened earlier than it should, or sooner than you expected, or not in an appropriate place or setting. Obviously, this old, archaic, obsolete sense of the word “timeless, cannot and does not apply to God―but it can apply to us if we do things when we should not be doing them, or we do things that are inappropriate for the place or situation in which we find ourselves, or we try to “run ahead of time” by skipping things we should not be skipping, etc.
No Time For Prayer = Time for Disaster
The math is simple! Without prayer there will be no change in the worldliness levels of ourselves or our families, relatives and friends. Without prayer there will no stopping the horrors that are heading our way. Our Lord said that without Him, we can nothing, and it is through prayer that we enlist His help. Our Lady said that at this moment in time, only she can help us, and she said that the help will only come if we pray and show devotion to her.
Time spent is prayer is time that is lost—at least that is the attitude of the world and of souls who are worldly. We have all heard of the modern-day expression: “Time means money!” Obviously, the meaning behind this is that if we lose time or waste time, then we will lose money or waste money. The worldly person could well substitute any other thing or activity for the word “money”: “Time is having fun!” “Time is playing games!” “Time is surfing the internet!” “Time is TV or videos!” “Time is music!” “Time is being with friends!” “Time is food, drink and parties!” Or even slightly more noble things: “Time is family!” “Time is my work!” “Time is my hobby!” “Time is working-out!” And the more time we have for these things, the happier we are! Yet for many, prayer (and all the spiritual exercises like going to Mass, Confession, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, going on retreat, spiritual reading, meditation, etc.) gets in the way of whatever we want to make time for! This is another litmus test for our own worldliness.
Consequently, the world thinks it can get on without prayer (and all the other spiritual exercises) or at least it relegates them to last or near last place in its “Time is....” ladder of values. Instead of seeking first the kingdom of God, His kingdom becomes an afterthought, a kind of a “we’ll get round to it when we have some time” attitude.
Yet we forget that without God we can do nothing, as Jesus clearly said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” Not only that, but Jesus also had a few words to say about time for prayer: “He spoke also a parable to them, that we ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). Which is why St. Paul says: “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
Time is Too Precious to Waste
We have all experienced the frustration of having wasted our time, or having our time wasted. We dislike people who waste our time. We have heard of the expression—“A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work.” Yet the employer hates “time-wasters” who refuse to work properly and do not give “a fair day’s effort for a fair day’s pay.”
The world also has the expression: “Time is money!” or “Time means money!” In other words, if you waste time, you end up wasting or losing money—or at least you will not earn the money you could have earned, had you not wasted time.
A teacher dislikes students who waste time in class by distracting themselves or others. Many a poor grade or failure in school is down to the fact that the student in question wasted too much time at school on things other than study.
The same holds true for the spiritual life. God does not like us to waste our time. This is seen both directly and indirectly in Holy Scripture. St. Paul tells the Ephesians not to waste time, but to seek and find out what the will of God is for them (Ephesians 5:16).
Our Lord tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard, where the idle ones (time wasters) are rebuked for standing around. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place idle. And he said to them: ‘Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: ’Why stand you here all the day idle?’ They say to him: ‘Because no man hath hired us!’ He saith to them: ‘Go you also into my vineyard!’” (Matthew 20:1-7).
Time Savers and Time Wasters
Fr. Tanquerey, in The Spiritual Life, states: “Time is limited and should not be wasted” (§550) and that we should have a set of spiritual rules for our life, that we follow carefully, for “He that lives without a rule inevitably wastes a great deal of time” (§559). He goes on to say:
“Now, a rule of life wisely made with the help of our spiritual director secures for us this threefold advantage. It enables us to make a better use of our time. Let us actually compare the life of a person that follows a rule with that of another that does not.
He that lives without a rule inevitably wastes a great deal of time:
(1) He hesitates as to what is the best thing to do. Time is spent in deliberation,, in weighing the reasons for and against, and, as in many cases there are no decisive reasons on either side, he is liable to remain inactive; then, natural inclinations gain the upper hand and he runs the risk of being led by curiosity, pleasure or vanity.
(2) He neglects a certain number of duties, for haying neither foreseen nor determined the acceptable time and place for their fulfilment, he no longer finds time to perform them all.
(3) These negligences engender inconstancy. At times he makes vigorous efforts to steady himself, while at other times he surrenders to his native indolence, and this, just because he has no fixed rule that would act as a corrective to the fickleness of his nature.
The man who holds to a well-defined rule of life saves considerable time:
(1) He wastes no time in hesitation. He knows exactly what he is to do, and when he is to do it. Even if his schedule is not mathematically detailed, at least it sets off time-periods and lays down principles with regard to religious exercises, recreation, work, etc.
(2) There is little or nothing unforeseen for even should the unusual occur, he has already provided for it by determining beforehand exercises that may be shortened and the manner of making up for them. At all events, as soon as these exceptional circumstances cease to exist, he immediately comes back to his rule.
(3) Inconstancy likewise vanishes. The rule urges him to do always what is prescribed, and that every day and at every hour of the day. Thus habits are formed that give continuity to his life and assure his perseverance; his days are full days, teeming with good works and merit” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §559-§560).
Busy Time Wasters
There are some persons who are very, very busy—who seem not to waste any time, but are always running out of time with all the many things that they do! Yet some of these poor souls are actually wasting their time by being busy about the wrong things! A case in point is the famous incident between Jesus, Martha and Mary:
“Now it came to pass as they went, that Jesus entered into a certain town, and a certain woman, named Martha, received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who, sitting also at the Lord’s feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Who stood and said: ‘Lord! Hast Thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? Speak to her therefore, that she help me!’ And the Lord answering, said to her: ‘Martha! Martha! Thou art careful, and art troubled about many things! But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!’” (Luke 10:38-42).
It is not that Martha was totally wasting her time in busying herself with the material things around the house, but Jesus said that Mary was making BETTER use of her time in busying herself with the spiritual matters that Jesus was talking about. As the saying goes-—“First things first!”—and the spiritual comes before the material. Our Lord said that the first commandment was to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. If we would do this, then God would look after many of our material needs: “O ye of little faith! Seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink! For all these things do the nations of the world seek. But your Father knoweth that you have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Luke 12:28-31).
Wasting Time by Doing Your Own Thing!
Pride and imprudent zeal often leads to a waste of time. This happens when we follow our own opinions without consulting wiser heads or authorities. Fr. Tanquerey explains: “Not a few beginners, full of good will, apply themselves too eagerly and too anxiously to the work of their perfection and end by fatiguing and exhausting themselves in futile efforts. The chief cause of this defect is the substitution of one’s own activity for that of God. Instead of reflecting before acting, of asking light from the Holy Ghost and following it, such beginners’ thrust themselves headlong into action. Instead of taking counsel with their spiritual director, they act first, and afterwards confront him with the accomplished fact. Hence, numerous imprudences and many wasted efforts. Often presumption enters into the case. They would like to emerge hastily from the discipline of penance and promptly arrive at the desired union with God. But alas! Many an unforeseen obstacle appears; they then lose heart, retrace their steps and at times fall into grievous faults” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §931-§932).
Wasting Time in Idle Thoughts and Words
“The two interior senses to be mortified are the imagination and the memory … Otherwise, left to themselves, they literally crowd the soul with a host of memories and images that distract the spirit, waste, its energies, cause it to lose priceless time while at prayer and work, and constitute the source of a thousand temptations against purity, charity, humility and other virtues … We should take heed to provide against idle thoughts, by mortifying ourselves as regards useless fancies, which constitute a waste of time and pave the way to others of an even more perilous nature. ‘Mortifying idle thoughts’, the Saints tell us, ‘is dealing death to evil ones’” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §779-§781).
As for idle words, Our Lord warns: “I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the Day of Judgment” (Matthew 12:36). How much damage has been caused by an idle word here and there, which, like a spark, has kindled an enormous forest fire and laid waste to many a tree! St. James writes: “The tongue is indeed a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is placed among our members, which defileth the whole body, and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by Hell. For every nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of the rest, is tamed, and hath been tamed, by the nature of man: but the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be!” (James 3:5-10).
The Wasted Time in Mortal Sin
We are pretty useless when in the state of Mortal Sin! Our prayers and sacrifices can help nobody else but ourselves—by bringing us to our knees and conversion. We cannot receive the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist—for to do so would be a great sacrilege! Any good actions we do are without merit! As Fr. Tanquerey writes: “Moreover, whilst we remain in the state of mortal sin, we can acquire no merits for Heaven. What a waste of the supernatural! … If, unfortunately, the sinner remains obdurate to the end in his resistance to grace, then follows Hell with all its horrors!” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §720-§721). What a waste of time and a waste of a life!
Wasting God’s Time
God made us for great things, yet, for one reason or another, we fail or refuse to live up to those expectations, thus, in a sense, wasting God’s time in not doing those things for which He has made us. We are reminded of this by Our Lord’s parable of the Unfruitful Vine:
“A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: ‘Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it done therefore! Why encumbereth it the ground?’ But he answering, said to him: ‘Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down” (Luke 13:6-9).
A similar point was made in a real-life setting by Our Lord, in the case of the fruitless fig tree: “Jesus was hungry. And seeing a certain fig tree by the way side, Jesus came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only, and he saith to it: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:18-19).
Fr. Tanquerey writes: “Magnanimity, which is also called greatness of soul, or nobility of character, is the noble and generous disposition to undertake great things for God and for our neighbor. It is not the same as ambition, which is essentially egotistical and goads us on to surpass others by wielding authority, or receiving honors. The characteristic of magnanimity is disinterested service. This virtue therefore presupposes a noble soul, possessed of high ideals and unselfish thoughts, a valiant spirit that does not hesitate to make its life accord with its convictions. It is brought out not only by noble sentiments, but also by noble acts, and this in every sphere of action: in the army by brilliant exploits; in civil life by great reform movements, or great industrial commercial, economic enterprises; in the realm of the supernatural, by the pursuit of a high ideal of perfection, by generous efforts to conquer self and to rise ever higher, by striving to acquire solid virtue and to exercise zeal in its various forms. All this is done without fear of risking fortune, health, reputation and life itself. The contrary defect is which, through an excessive fear of failure, makes one hesitate and remain inactive. Seeking to avoid blunders the pusillanimous (the cowardly or fearful) fall into the greatest mistakes; they do nothing, or almost nothing, and thus waste their lives. Evidently, it is better to risk making mistakes than to do nothing” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §1083-§1084).
Wasting Our Lady’s Time
A similar effect to that of pusillanimity (fearfulness or cowardliness) is brought about by the indifference of souls to Our Lady’s message—which is tantamount to making her waste her time. Sr. Lucia of Fatima laments this indifference of the vast majority of Catholics, saying: “The Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them” (Sr. Lucia to Fr. Fuentes, December 1957).
Wasting Time By Doing Things Badly
We have all experienced the teacher or parent who told us go back and do something all over again—because it had been badly done in the first place! How much more often have we done things badly or insufficiently in our spiritual life? Wasted graces by a distracted assistance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! Wasted Holy Communions—by not asking for things, or not asking enough! Wasted Rosaries that were hurriedly and distractedly said, rather than prayed with attention and devotion! Masses, Communions and prayers that had no intentions—we just plodded through them without offering them for anyone or anything! Wasted actions that could have been offered to God, but instead were performed in a naturalistic manner and for naturalistic motives, and not supernaturally.
St. Paul tells us that if we do things without the motive of charity (which is a love of God), then those actions are worthless—no matter how great they might be: even if they were miracles. “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal! And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing! And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Wasting Time On Trifles
We are easily caught up with trifles—things that have little or no bearing upon our eternal salvation—and amazingly pass over things that can have serious and eternal spiritual repercussions. Our Lord rebuked the Pharisees for a similar attitude, when He said: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you tithe mint, and anise, and cumin, and have left the weightier things of the law—such as judgment, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone! Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:23-24).
We get angry about various kinds of trifles like a messy kitchen or room, or delays in traffic, or poor service from others, but we will not complain and correct family, or others who are under our charge, if they pray hurriedly, make short thanksgivings after Mass, use God’s Name in vain, complain about some religious matter, etc. We are more upset about offenses given to us than we are about offenses to God.
“We have only one life, and it is short; it must not be wasted in trifles” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Time to Spend Time Well
These are only some of the chief or most common ways in which we waste time—many more exist and each person has their own personal repertoire of time wasting mannerisms. Let this upcoming Lenten season be a time where we waste less time and give God more time, before God “calls time” on our life and deems it time to judge us! If we have improved our use of time before that Day of Dread, we will spend less time in Purgatory for having spent time well on Earth! As the opening of the Lenten season will say: “In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Now is the acceptable time to improve how we spend our time!
Our present modern-day age is worships the idols of “time-saving”―or could you, with tongue in cheek, call it “time-salvation” instead of “time-saving”? We are surrounded by “time-savers” or should call them “time-saviors”? We have technological marvels — computers, smartphones, tablets, artificial intelligence, robots — that do many things for us. We are sold on express-lanes, fast-tracking, self-service check-outs, overnight deliveries, two-day deliveries, etc. We must have our power tools, electronic kitchen appliances, dishwashers, laundry washers and dryers, lawn mowers with leaf vacuum attachments, leaf blowers, electric chain-saws, etc. We read books on time management techniques, we use time management tools and software, and we eat at fast food restaurants or prepare “instant” meals and dishes so that we don’t waste long hours in the kitchen. It has become a veritable cult or quasi-religion of “saving time” more so than “saving our soul”!
Minute-Millionaires or Time-Trillionaires
However, once we have gained or earned those “precious extra minutes”, like an overindulgent, self-indulgent, wanton, lavish and splurging millionaire, we waste most of these hard-earned minutes―our precious savings of time―on many a mindless and trivial activity, like scrolling through social media, or browsing worldly websites on our smartphones / tablets / laptops, or staring fruitlessly at the television, or in other activities that do nothing in bringing us closer to God or our loved ones.
Some of the saints have left us some wise advice on the use of time, that we do well to heed―especially in this time of Lent, when any time saved should be spent in saving our soul! For that is exactly what St. Paul tells us: “Knowing the season that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed! The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day: not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy! But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences!” (Romans 13:11-14).
“Rise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall enlighten thee! See therefore, brethren, how you walk circumspectly! Not as unwise, but as wise―redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God! And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury; but be ye filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord!” (Ephesians 5:14-19).
Time to Listen to the Saints on Time
Here are some short (time-saving) quotes from some of our famous saints on the importance of time and its good use:
St. John of Cross: “At the hour reckoning, you will regret that you didn’t sacrifice time to serve God―so why don’t you use your time now as you would want to have done at the time of death?”
St. Basil the Great: “How many times people waste the present time, only to regret it when it’s gone forever!”
St. Isidore of Seville: “Learn as if you were immortal; but live as though you were to die tomorrow!”
St. Alphonsus Liguori: “Worldly people most desire time at the moment of their death―but they will not get it!”
St. Bernard of Clairvaux: “There isn’t anything more precious than time, but there is also nothing less respected and more disregarded than time.”
St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina: “When you waste time, you disregard God’s gifts that He entrusts to you love and generosity! Time spent for the glory of God and the health of the soul, is never wasted.”
St. Elizabeth of the Trinity: “If I had to start my life again, how I would like not to waste any moment of my time!”
Our Lord Himself complained about the lack of time given to Him, when He rebuked His three favorite Apostles during His agony in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” (Matthew 26:40).
Time Passes―How Do You Pass Your Time?
Our Lord uses the words “watch” and “hour”―we have watches that we use continually to check the hour. We wear watches on our wrists, we have watches (clocks) on our phones, watches on our tablets, watches on our laptops and computers, watches on our walls, watches in our cars, watches on our ovens, watches on our thermostats, watches on our streets and in our stores and offices and schools―and we are watching them many times a day! This obsession with time could be because we think “time means money”. Time is, of course, precious―but it precious in a way more than meaning a time to make money, or lose money. Though we could look upon time as being an invisible form of money (the hours being dollars, and the minutes being cents), which God has put into our “time bank account”―some people getting more time than others―but, at the end of the day, God permits us to withdraw and spend only 24 hours of time each day. We can spend that time (“money”) wisely or foolishly―the choice is ours to make and the consequences are ours to take!
We speak of “pastimes” as meaning things we like to do, which are not our official work or duty of state, but which we do to pass whatever free-time we have at our disposal. “Hobby” or “hobbies” is often used in the same sense. Pastimes are part-time hobbies. This leads to the next point. Is God a hobby and a pastime for you? Is God a part-time pastime? For most people, the answer is “Yes!” They have little time for God and, at best, God becomes a part-time pastime, a hobby, and church on Sunday is merely a “hobby lobby”―a lobby in both senses of the word. A “lobby” can be an outer room, vestibule, reception area, or waiting room providing a space out of which one or more other rooms or corridors lead, typically one near the entrance of a public building―and in this sense, church is a room at the entrance of the Faith, which leads to other rooms: Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. The word “lobby” can also mean a group of people, a pressure group, seeking to influence politicians or public officials on a particular issue―and in this sense, Catholics are a “lobby” trying to influence God by coming to church, praying and telling Him what to do and what they want from Him.
Time? What is Time? What Time is It?
As Pontius Pilate disdainfully and sarcastically said to Jesus: “What is truth?”―in the sense of “Does truth really matter?”―we can be tempted to say dismissively: “What is time?”―in the sense of “Does time really matter?” Is time really that important? Well, if you think about our modern obsession with time-saving, then it seems to be very important! Yet even more important is the question: “What do we do with our time? How do we spend the time we have saved? Are we wasting our preciously earned minutes? Or are we spending them wisely?
Your eternity―in which there is no such thing as time―depends upon how you use time in this world. If Our Lord says that every idle word will be looked at and judged at our Final Judgment―“But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment!” (Matthew 12:36)―then He might as well have said: “But I say unto you, that for every second of their lives, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment!”―for it amounts to the same thing. Time is merely the capsule for the idle word. We will be judged on how we spent every second of our lives―time is precious, too precious to waste or squander. You could even take the parable about The Talents and relate it to time:
“A man going into a far country, called his servants, and delivered to them his goods [TIME]. And to one he gave five talents [units of time], and to another two [units of time], and to another one [unit of time], to everyone according to his proper ability: and immediately he took his journey. And he that had received the five talents [units of time], went his way and traded with the same, and gained other five [he used his time well]. And in like manner he that had received the two, gained other two [he also used his time well]. But he that had received the one, going his way digged into the earth, and hid his lord’s money [he wasted the time given to him].” (Matthew 25:14-18).
God is Timeless―Are You Timeless, or Out of Time?
Holy Scripture says: “One day, with the Lord, is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8). God is timeless, or atemporal. The word “atemporal” is really another word for “timeless” or outside of time, away from time. From the Greek prefix “a-” meaning “no” or “not” . Add the Latin word “tempus”―which means time―and you get “atemporal” which gives it its meaning of being “timeless”. The difference between “atemporal” and “temporal” is that “atemporal” has the quality of being uninfluenced, unaffected, ungoverned or unchanged by time; it is timeless; permanent or unchanging, while the word “temporal” is linked to, dependent upon, or relating to time and changes with time, or adapts to time and its fashions, attitudes, mannerisms and ways of acting.
Thus, in saying God is “timeless” or “atemporal”, indicates that not only is God eternal, but God is outside of time, He is not governed by time, He does not depend upon time, He does not change with time. There is no “time” in Heaven―there is no “past” and no “future”, but everything is seen in the present. Time is not eternal. God created time when He created the universe. To “create” is to make things out of nothing, with no material at all being used. We cannot ask―“Why did God wait so long before creating the world?”―because before creation, there is no “time”. Time is a measure of change on a scale of “before” and “after” something (Aristotle, Physics, 4:11). Therefore, when―in speaking of eternity--there was no change, there was no time. Time began to be when changing creatures came into being. Time is a restless continuous set of changes. Ahead is a moment we call “future”―which quickly changes into the “present”―which then quickly changes into the “past”. God sees everything as if it were in the present, without any relation to the past and the future. Our Lady and the saints see things the same way―that is why Our Lady of Good Success, Our Lady of La Salette, Our Lady of Fatima and Our Lady of Akita can speak of world affairs as if she is actually seeing them happening right before her eyes, for everything is in the present, and not in the past and the future. In a sense, when you die, your whole life will flash before you as though it is in the present moment and not in the past.
Let us take time to consider and reflect upon a few timeless yet timely words of St. Augustine of Hippo, Father and Doctor of the Church, on the subject of time. Your time will not be wasted because only two paragraphs of quotes will be used―but if you have the time and the inclination, you will find St. Augustine spend much more time on the matter in his Confessions, Book Eleven, chapters 12 to 28:
St. Augustine writes: You, God Almighty, and All-creating, and All-sustaining, the Architect of Heaven and Earth … You are the Creator of all times … Nor did You precede time by any time; because then You would not precede all times. But in the excellence of an ever-present eternity, You precede all times past, and survive all future times, because they are future, and when they have come they will be past; but “You are the same, and Your years shall have no end.” Your years neither go nor come; but ours both go and come, that all may come. . . . You have made all time; and before all times You are, nor in any time was there not time ... because You made time itself.
Augustine then continues and explains all things as being in the present: But what now is manifest and clear is, that neither are there future nor past things. Nor is it right to say, “There are three times―past, present and future.” But it might be right to say, “There are three times; (1) a present of things past, (2) a present of things present, and (3) a present of things future.” For these three times do somehow exist in the soul. Otherwise I would not see them: (1) present of things past, memory; (2) present of things present, sight; (3) present of things future, expectation. If of these things we are permitted to speak, I see three times, and I grant there are three. It may also be said, “There are three times, past, present and future,” as usage falsely has it. (Confessions, Book Eleven, chapters 12 to 26).
If you prefer the “lingo” of more modern times to St. Augustine’s old-time “lingo”, then here is what a humble High School Science Teacher says on time:
“The Bible teaches that God created the Universe and all its dimensions. That being the case, Heaven is not restricted by the dimensions of our universe, and that includes time. Of course, Heaven may have its own set of dimensions and some of those might well be spatial and temporal, but they are not the same as those in our universe and they are not connected in any way. This means that God―and whoever else is in Heaven―would not experience space and time the way we would, if at all. There may be space and time in Heaven, but it would have no relationship to our universe. One part of Heaven would be no “closer” than another, nor would time move forward, or backward, in the same fashion as in our universe. The idea of “before” and “after” might have no meaning in Heaven. It could all be the eternal “now”. It could be quite easy for God to be anywhere in our universe at any time, or everywhere at all times. This is true because there would be no relationship between the space-time of Heaven and the space-time of our universe. In fact, that would be true for any being that could transcend the “barrier” between Heaven and our universe. It’s kind of like standing in front of a bookshelf that contains history books. You can open any book and read about pre-historic or modern history, or anything in between, simply by picking up the desired book. Or like being in front of a map of the Earth where you can point to any place on the Earth as easily as any other. The only difference is that God has the ability to enter into history “real time” and interact with any part of the Universe at any time. Such “transcendence” is quite powerful.”
God Made Time―You Can Make Time Too!
As St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas say, God made time when He began to create the world and creatures. In a sense, you could say God made time for you! He doesn’t need time―He is eternal. In this world, you need time and God has given that time. If God made time, you, in your own little way, can make time too―by making time for God!
In fact, all the time that you have been given, comes from God! He wants all that time returning to Him! “The Earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof―the world, and all they that dwell therein” (Psalm 23:1). “All things that are under Heaven are Mine!” (Job 41:2). “All the Earth is Mine!” (Exodus 19:5). “The world is Mine, and the fullness thereof!” (Psalm 49:12). “The land also is Mine!” Leviticus 25:23). “The river is Mine, for I made it!” (Ezechiel 29:9). “‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine!’ saith the Lord of hosts” (Aggeus 2:9). “Behold all souls are Mine―as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine!” (Ezechiel 18:4). “I entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest Mine!” (Ezechiel 16:8). “I have redeemed thee―thou art Mine!” (Isaias 43:1). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26). “Thine, O Lord, is magnificence, and power, and glory, and victory: and to Thee is praise! For all that is in Heaven, and in Earth, is Thine! Thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and Thou art above all princes! Thine are riches, and Thine is glory, thou hast dominion over all! In Thy hand is power and might! In Thy hand greatness and the empire of all things!” (1 Paralipomenon 29:11-12).
Why else would Our Lord and Holy Scripture, things like: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind! [which translates to all the time]. This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-38). Elsewhere Jesus says: “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times” (Luke 21:36). “ALL whatsoever you do in word or in work, do ALL in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Colossians 3:17). “Sell what you possess and give alms. Make to yourselves bags which grow not old, a treasure in Heaven which faileth not! … Every one of you that doth not renounce ALL that he possesseth, cannot be My disciple!” (Luke 12:33; 14:33). “Simon Peter and also James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon’s partners … having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed Him” (Luke 5:8-11)―thus giving all their time to Christ.
We also see Our Lord ask that the rich young man give up ALL his possessions by selling them and giving up ALL the money from the proceeds as an alms to the poor, and then give up ALL his time and come and follow Jesus, saying that he would gain a great treasure in Heaven: “And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’
“And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’
“And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!’ Who wondered the more, saying among themselves: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said: ‘With men it is impossible; but not with God! For all things are possible with God!’”
“Then Peter answering, began to say unto Him: ‘Behold we have left ALL things, and have followed Thee! What therefore shall we have?’ And Jesus answering, said to them: ‘Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed me, in the regeneration, when the Son of man shall sit on the seat of His majesty, you also shall sit on twelve seats judging the twelve tribes of Israel! And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My Name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and, in the world to come, shall possess life everlasting!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).
Two Kinds of Timeless Catholics
There are two meanings for the word “timeless”―one old and one new; one bad and one good. God is timeless―not that he is short on time, but in the sense of the word “timeless” as we understand it today. In our present time―or should we say, since the early 17th Century, if you describe something as being “timeless”, you mean that it is so good or beautiful that it cannot be affected by changes in society or fashion―which is something that every Catholic should be. The dictionary will define “timeless” along the lines of: “not restricted to a particular time or date; having no beginning or end; lasting forever; never showing the effects of aging; not affected by time.” Something that is timeless does not change as the years pass, it is always applicable, always relevant, always beautiful, etc. As synonyms (a word that means the same, or almost the same) for “timeless”, the dictionary will give you something akin to: “abiding, endless, ageless, enduring, immortal, always, constant, continual, deathless, everlasting, forever, immemorial, indefinite, infinite, lasting, never-ending, perennial, permanent, perpetual, persistent, etc.”
There is also an archaic or obsolete meaning of the word “timeless” that is no longer used today―but it is still important in our understand of time and timelessness. The general meaning of “timeless” as being “eternal” (and similar definitions), only arose in the 1620s, from compounding the noun “time” with the adjective “less”. Before this new meaning introduced in the 1620s, “timeless” meant “ill-timed” or “untimely” (as we see recorded in the 1550s and earlier). You can describe something as untimely if it happens at an unsuitable time; not occurring at a suitable time or season; something that is ill-timed or inopportune. If you describe an event as untimely, you mean that it happened earlier than it should, or sooner than you expected, or not in an appropriate place or setting. Obviously, this old, archaic, obsolete sense of the word “timeless, cannot and does not apply to God―but it can apply to us if we do things when we should not be doing them, or we do things that are inappropriate for the place or situation in which we find ourselves, or we try to “run ahead of time” by skipping things we should not be skipping, etc.
No Time For Prayer = Time for Disaster
The math is simple! Without prayer there will be no change in the worldliness levels of ourselves or our families, relatives and friends. Without prayer there will no stopping the horrors that are heading our way. Our Lord said that without Him, we can nothing, and it is through prayer that we enlist His help. Our Lady said that at this moment in time, only she can help us, and she said that the help will only come if we pray and show devotion to her.
Time spent is prayer is time that is lost—at least that is the attitude of the world and of souls who are worldly. We have all heard of the modern-day expression: “Time means money!” Obviously, the meaning behind this is that if we lose time or waste time, then we will lose money or waste money. The worldly person could well substitute any other thing or activity for the word “money”: “Time is having fun!” “Time is playing games!” “Time is surfing the internet!” “Time is TV or videos!” “Time is music!” “Time is being with friends!” “Time is food, drink and parties!” Or even slightly more noble things: “Time is family!” “Time is my work!” “Time is my hobby!” “Time is working-out!” And the more time we have for these things, the happier we are! Yet for many, prayer (and all the spiritual exercises like going to Mass, Confession, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, going on retreat, spiritual reading, meditation, etc.) gets in the way of whatever we want to make time for! This is another litmus test for our own worldliness.
Consequently, the world thinks it can get on without prayer (and all the other spiritual exercises) or at least it relegates them to last or near last place in its “Time is....” ladder of values. Instead of seeking first the kingdom of God, His kingdom becomes an afterthought, a kind of a “we’ll get round to it when we have some time” attitude.
Yet we forget that without God we can do nothing, as Jesus clearly said: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” Not only that, but Jesus also had a few words to say about time for prayer: “He spoke also a parable to them, that we ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). Which is why St. Paul says: “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
Time is Too Precious to Waste
We have all experienced the frustration of having wasted our time, or having our time wasted. We dislike people who waste our time. We have heard of the expression—“A fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work.” Yet the employer hates “time-wasters” who refuse to work properly and do not give “a fair day’s effort for a fair day’s pay.”
The world also has the expression: “Time is money!” or “Time means money!” In other words, if you waste time, you end up wasting or losing money—or at least you will not earn the money you could have earned, had you not wasted time.
A teacher dislikes students who waste time in class by distracting themselves or others. Many a poor grade or failure in school is down to the fact that the student in question wasted too much time at school on things other than study.
The same holds true for the spiritual life. God does not like us to waste our time. This is seen both directly and indirectly in Holy Scripture. St. Paul tells the Ephesians not to waste time, but to seek and find out what the will of God is for them (Ephesians 5:16).
Our Lord tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard, where the idle ones (time wasters) are rebuked for standing around. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a householder, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And having agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place idle. And he said to them: ‘Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just. And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: ’Why stand you here all the day idle?’ They say to him: ‘Because no man hath hired us!’ He saith to them: ‘Go you also into my vineyard!’” (Matthew 20:1-7).
Time Savers and Time Wasters
Fr. Tanquerey, in The Spiritual Life, states: “Time is limited and should not be wasted” (§550) and that we should have a set of spiritual rules for our life, that we follow carefully, for “He that lives without a rule inevitably wastes a great deal of time” (§559). He goes on to say:
“Now, a rule of life wisely made with the help of our spiritual director secures for us this threefold advantage. It enables us to make a better use of our time. Let us actually compare the life of a person that follows a rule with that of another that does not.
He that lives without a rule inevitably wastes a great deal of time:
(1) He hesitates as to what is the best thing to do. Time is spent in deliberation,, in weighing the reasons for and against, and, as in many cases there are no decisive reasons on either side, he is liable to remain inactive; then, natural inclinations gain the upper hand and he runs the risk of being led by curiosity, pleasure or vanity.
(2) He neglects a certain number of duties, for haying neither foreseen nor determined the acceptable time and place for their fulfilment, he no longer finds time to perform them all.
(3) These negligences engender inconstancy. At times he makes vigorous efforts to steady himself, while at other times he surrenders to his native indolence, and this, just because he has no fixed rule that would act as a corrective to the fickleness of his nature.
The man who holds to a well-defined rule of life saves considerable time:
(1) He wastes no time in hesitation. He knows exactly what he is to do, and when he is to do it. Even if his schedule is not mathematically detailed, at least it sets off time-periods and lays down principles with regard to religious exercises, recreation, work, etc.
(2) There is little or nothing unforeseen for even should the unusual occur, he has already provided for it by determining beforehand exercises that may be shortened and the manner of making up for them. At all events, as soon as these exceptional circumstances cease to exist, he immediately comes back to his rule.
(3) Inconstancy likewise vanishes. The rule urges him to do always what is prescribed, and that every day and at every hour of the day. Thus habits are formed that give continuity to his life and assure his perseverance; his days are full days, teeming with good works and merit” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §559-§560).
Busy Time Wasters
There are some persons who are very, very busy—who seem not to waste any time, but are always running out of time with all the many things that they do! Yet some of these poor souls are actually wasting their time by being busy about the wrong things! A case in point is the famous incident between Jesus, Martha and Mary:
“Now it came to pass as they went, that Jesus entered into a certain town, and a certain woman, named Martha, received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who, sitting also at the Lord’s feet, heard His word. But Martha was busy about much serving. Who stood and said: ‘Lord! Hast Thou no care that my sister hath left me alone to serve? Speak to her therefore, that she help me!’ And the Lord answering, said to her: ‘Martha! Martha! Thou art careful, and art troubled about many things! But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her!’” (Luke 10:38-42).
It is not that Martha was totally wasting her time in busying herself with the material things around the house, but Jesus said that Mary was making BETTER use of her time in busying herself with the spiritual matters that Jesus was talking about. As the saying goes-—“First things first!”—and the spiritual comes before the material. Our Lord said that the first commandment was to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. If we would do this, then God would look after many of our material needs: “O ye of little faith! Seek not you what you shall eat, or what you shall drink! For all these things do the nations of the world seek. But your Father knoweth that you have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you!” (Luke 12:28-31).
Wasting Time by Doing Your Own Thing!
Pride and imprudent zeal often leads to a waste of time. This happens when we follow our own opinions without consulting wiser heads or authorities. Fr. Tanquerey explains: “Not a few beginners, full of good will, apply themselves too eagerly and too anxiously to the work of their perfection and end by fatiguing and exhausting themselves in futile efforts. The chief cause of this defect is the substitution of one’s own activity for that of God. Instead of reflecting before acting, of asking light from the Holy Ghost and following it, such beginners’ thrust themselves headlong into action. Instead of taking counsel with their spiritual director, they act first, and afterwards confront him with the accomplished fact. Hence, numerous imprudences and many wasted efforts. Often presumption enters into the case. They would like to emerge hastily from the discipline of penance and promptly arrive at the desired union with God. But alas! Many an unforeseen obstacle appears; they then lose heart, retrace their steps and at times fall into grievous faults” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §931-§932).
Wasting Time in Idle Thoughts and Words
“The two interior senses to be mortified are the imagination and the memory … Otherwise, left to themselves, they literally crowd the soul with a host of memories and images that distract the spirit, waste, its energies, cause it to lose priceless time while at prayer and work, and constitute the source of a thousand temptations against purity, charity, humility and other virtues … We should take heed to provide against idle thoughts, by mortifying ourselves as regards useless fancies, which constitute a waste of time and pave the way to others of an even more perilous nature. ‘Mortifying idle thoughts’, the Saints tell us, ‘is dealing death to evil ones’” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §779-§781).
As for idle words, Our Lord warns: “I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the Day of Judgment” (Matthew 12:36). How much damage has been caused by an idle word here and there, which, like a spark, has kindled an enormous forest fire and laid waste to many a tree! St. James writes: “The tongue is indeed a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how small a fire kindleth a great wood. And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is placed among our members, which defileth the whole body, and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, being set on fire by Hell. For every nature of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of the rest, is tamed, and hath been tamed, by the nature of man: but the tongue no man can tame, an unquiet evil, full of deadly poison. By it we bless God and the Father: and by it we curse men, who are made after the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be!” (James 3:5-10).
The Wasted Time in Mortal Sin
We are pretty useless when in the state of Mortal Sin! Our prayers and sacrifices can help nobody else but ourselves—by bringing us to our knees and conversion. We cannot receive the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist—for to do so would be a great sacrilege! Any good actions we do are without merit! As Fr. Tanquerey writes: “Moreover, whilst we remain in the state of mortal sin, we can acquire no merits for Heaven. What a waste of the supernatural! … If, unfortunately, the sinner remains obdurate to the end in his resistance to grace, then follows Hell with all its horrors!” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §720-§721). What a waste of time and a waste of a life!
Wasting God’s Time
God made us for great things, yet, for one reason or another, we fail or refuse to live up to those expectations, thus, in a sense, wasting God’s time in not doing those things for which He has made us. We are reminded of this by Our Lord’s parable of the Unfruitful Vine:
“A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: ‘Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it done therefore! Why encumbereth it the ground?’ But he answering, said to him: ‘Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down” (Luke 13:6-9).
A similar point was made in a real-life setting by Our Lord, in the case of the fruitless fig tree: “Jesus was hungry. And seeing a certain fig tree by the way side, Jesus came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only, and he saith to it: ‘May no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever!’ And immediately the fig tree withered away” (Matthew 21:18-19).
Fr. Tanquerey writes: “Magnanimity, which is also called greatness of soul, or nobility of character, is the noble and generous disposition to undertake great things for God and for our neighbor. It is not the same as ambition, which is essentially egotistical and goads us on to surpass others by wielding authority, or receiving honors. The characteristic of magnanimity is disinterested service. This virtue therefore presupposes a noble soul, possessed of high ideals and unselfish thoughts, a valiant spirit that does not hesitate to make its life accord with its convictions. It is brought out not only by noble sentiments, but also by noble acts, and this in every sphere of action: in the army by brilliant exploits; in civil life by great reform movements, or great industrial commercial, economic enterprises; in the realm of the supernatural, by the pursuit of a high ideal of perfection, by generous efforts to conquer self and to rise ever higher, by striving to acquire solid virtue and to exercise zeal in its various forms. All this is done without fear of risking fortune, health, reputation and life itself. The contrary defect is which, through an excessive fear of failure, makes one hesitate and remain inactive. Seeking to avoid blunders the pusillanimous (the cowardly or fearful) fall into the greatest mistakes; they do nothing, or almost nothing, and thus waste their lives. Evidently, it is better to risk making mistakes than to do nothing” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §1083-§1084).
Wasting Our Lady’s Time
A similar effect to that of pusillanimity (fearfulness or cowardliness) is brought about by the indifference of souls to Our Lady’s message—which is tantamount to making her waste her time. Sr. Lucia of Fatima laments this indifference of the vast majority of Catholics, saying: “The Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one heeds her message; neither the good nor the bad. The good continue on with their life of virtue and apostolate, but they do not unite their lives to the message of Fatima. Sinners keep following the road of evil because they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them” (Sr. Lucia to Fr. Fuentes, December 1957).
Wasting Time By Doing Things Badly
We have all experienced the teacher or parent who told us go back and do something all over again—because it had been badly done in the first place! How much more often have we done things badly or insufficiently in our spiritual life? Wasted graces by a distracted assistance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass! Wasted Holy Communions—by not asking for things, or not asking enough! Wasted Rosaries that were hurriedly and distractedly said, rather than prayed with attention and devotion! Masses, Communions and prayers that had no intentions—we just plodded through them without offering them for anyone or anything! Wasted actions that could have been offered to God, but instead were performed in a naturalistic manner and for naturalistic motives, and not supernaturally.
St. Paul tells us that if we do things without the motive of charity (which is a love of God), then those actions are worthless—no matter how great they might be: even if they were miracles. “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal! And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing! And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Wasting Time On Trifles
We are easily caught up with trifles—things that have little or no bearing upon our eternal salvation—and amazingly pass over things that can have serious and eternal spiritual repercussions. Our Lord rebuked the Pharisees for a similar attitude, when He said: “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you tithe mint, and anise, and cumin, and have left the weightier things of the law—such as judgment, and mercy, and faith. These things you ought to have done, and not to leave those undone! Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel!” (Matthew 23:23-24).
We get angry about various kinds of trifles like a messy kitchen or room, or delays in traffic, or poor service from others, but we will not complain and correct family, or others who are under our charge, if they pray hurriedly, make short thanksgivings after Mass, use God’s Name in vain, complain about some religious matter, etc. We are more upset about offenses given to us than we are about offenses to God.
“We have only one life, and it is short; it must not be wasted in trifles” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life).
Time to Spend Time Well
These are only some of the chief or most common ways in which we waste time—many more exist and each person has their own personal repertoire of time wasting mannerisms. Let this upcoming Lenten season be a time where we waste less time and give God more time, before God “calls time” on our life and deems it time to judge us! If we have improved our use of time before that Day of Dread, we will spend less time in Purgatory for having spent time well on Earth! As the opening of the Lenten season will say: “In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Now is the acceptable time to improve how we spend our time!
Thursday March 14th
Article 18
Our Lord's TLC is not Our TLC
Article 18
Our Lord's TLC is not Our TLC
TLC?
TLC is an acronym― which is an abbreviation of several words by using the first letter(s) of each word―as in USCCB meaning United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; BBC meaning British Broadcasting Corporation; NASA meaning National Aeronautics and Space Administration, CNN meaning Cable News Network, etc.
With the advent of the cell-phone texting―with its limited number of characters that can be used per message―we have begun to live in a world of acronyms―so that as much as possible can be texted in the limited character parameters currently imposed by cell-phones. Thus you have text message acronyms such as:
BCNU ― Be Seeing You; CU2moro ― See You Tomorrow; CU2nite ― See You Tonight; BRB ― Be Right Back; BTW ― By The Way; B4N ― Bye For Now; DBEYR ― Don't Believe Everything You Read; W2WO4― What To Watch Out For; FWIW ― For What It's Worth; IMHO ― In My Humble Opinion; J/K ― Just Kidding; RBTL ― Read Between The Lines; LOL― Laughing Out Loud; ROTFL ― Rolling On The Floor Laughing , etc.
So what does the acronym “TLC” stand for? It could stand for a lot of things―even Christian things, such as “To love Christ” … “To love Christianity” … “To live charitably” … “To love church” … “To love confession” … “To love Communion” …etc. “TLC” could also stand for negative things, such as “Terrible Lukewarm Catholics” … “The Liberal Catholic” … “The Lazy Catholic” … “The Lip-service Catholic” … “The Lapsed Catholic”, etc. The enemies of Christ might substitute the word “love” with “loathe” in regard to Christ and Christianity and the Church. Loathe is a verb and means “to detest or dislike.” Loath is an adjective and means “reluctant or unwilling.” Therefore “loathe” and “loath” are not the same, even though they are pronounced in the same way. “Loathe” is much more aggressive (to detest) than “loath” (be unwilling or reluctant).
Nevertheless, that does not answer the question of what “TLC” really means. However, you most probably know the answer anyway! “TLC” is commonly held to mean “Tender Loving Care” and is used in expressions like “People work better if they get a bit of TLC” or “Give them some TLC and everything will improve and get better!”
God is Love! Does God Give TLC?
Holy Scripture tells us that “God is charity” (1 John 4:8). “In this is charity―not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins!” (1 John 4:10). “God, Who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins” (Ephesians 2:4-5). “For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “The Lord is gracious and merciful―patient and plenteous in mercy! The Lord is sweet to all―and His tender (TLC?) mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). “For Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild: and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Thee” (Psalm 85:5). That sounds great―sounds like a lot of TLC on the part of God towards us sinners!
The bottom line is getting on the right side of God. “As it is written: ‘That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him!’” (1 Corinthians 2:9). “God will redeem my soul from the hand of Hell” (Psalm 48:16) … “The Lord thy God will bring thee into a good land” (Deuteronomy 8:7) ... “God will defend thee” (Judith 5:25) … “The Lord your God will fight for you” (Deuteronomy 3:22) … “God will overthrow thy enemies for thee” (Ecclesiasticus 4:33) ... “God will give a blessing” (Ecclesiasticus 4:14) ... “God will keep him, and deliver him from evils” (Ecclesiasticus 33:1). And the list of good things and blessings goes on and on throughout Scripture. The key to activating God’s miracle muscles is a love of God—the greater the love, the greater the intervention. “Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us!” (1 John 4:19). “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness” (Ephesians 5:2).
God Does Not Always Show TLC
There are some today―you could call them “fools” and, as Scripture says: “the number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:15)―who see God as being nothing but love! Once these “fools” plant this foolish idea in their minds, it grows into a tree of foolish love. To them, God tolerates everything and punishes nothing. They reduce God to doting impotent grandpa, who just smiles through everything and corrects nothing.
It is said that God can be known and understood through the things that He has created― “All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who, by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is, neither by attending to the works, have acknowledged Who was the workman” (Wisdom 13:1). God has created everything with what we could call a “positive” and a “negative”.
We have the North Pole and South Pole. For the Earth the north pole has a negative polarity and the south pole a positive polarity. Every magnet has both a North and a South pole―that is what the plus sign and the minus sign on every battery signifies. A magnetic field flows from the North to the South Pole in the same way that electric fields flow from positive to negative charges. Magnetism and electricity are not the same current BUT they are both comprised of the same “stuff”. Electricity is to magnetism, what North Pole current is to South Pole current, or positive to negative. They're opposites.
We have the opposites of day (positive with light) and night (negative of light). Our bodies are at times healthy (positive) and sick (negative). Our seasons pass from the heat of summer (positive) to the bitter cold of winter (negative). Plants grow (positive) and plants die (negative). We are awake and energized during the day (positive) and we sleep, rest and recharge during the night (negative). We are times happy (positive) and at times we are sad (negative). You could through all that God has created and find the same phenomenon in all things―positive and negative aspects. This has to teach us something about God. Are there positive and negative sides to God?
If we look upon the word “negative” as lacking something―then, no, God is not negative, for God lacks nothing since He is all perfect. However, if we look at the word “negative” as meaning the opposite of something, then, yes, God has those opposites, inasmuch as justice is the opposite of mercy, hatred is the opposite of love, anger is the opposite of meekness, etc. For Holy Scripture uses those opposite terms when speaking of God.
“To the Lord our God belongeth justice” (Baruch 1:15), “They think they can escape the justice of God, Who seeth all things!” (Esther 16:4) and “The Lord is gracious and merciful―patient and plenteous in mercy!” (Psalm 144:8). “God loveth mercy and truth” (Psalm 83:12). “God hateth iniquity” (Judith 5:21). “Learn of Me, for I am meek!” (Matthew 11:29). “Because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief” (Ephesians 5:6).
In one place, Holy Scripture gives us a list of “positives” and “negatives”:
“All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to destroy and a time to build. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend and a time to sew. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time of love and a time of hatred. A time of war and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).
No Unconditional TLC From God
God’s sweetness, kindness, tenderness, mildness and mercy are not unconditional!—here are a few quotes that prove this truth―that God does not love us unconditionally: “How good is God to them that are of a right heart!” (Psalm 72:1). It is common sense―God will not reward evil, it is not to be rewarded but punished: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Thou art not a God that willest iniquity. Neither shall the wicked dwell near Thee: nor shall the unjust abide before Thy eyes. Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:5-7).
Yet, at the same time, Holy Scripture says: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool!” (Isaias 1:18) … “Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace: that we may obtain mercy and find grace!” (Hebrews 4:16). “Who is a God like to Thee, Who takest away iniquity, and passest by the sin of the remnant of Thy inheritance? He will send His fury in no more, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, and have mercy on us! He will put away our iniquities, and He will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea!” (Micheas 7:18-19).
Speaking of the “sea”, which is water, grace removes the stains of sin from the soul, like water remove stains of dirt from clothes―it is not for nothing that the Church often speaks of water as a symbol grace. We know that water is H2O―meaning two parts Hydrogen to one part Oxygen. Similarly, in the ‘water’ of God’s grace there are two elements―Love and Fear. We can be sorry for our sins out of a love of God (which is called “contrition”) or sorry out of a fear of God’s punishments (which is called “attrition”). It depends upon how much we love as to how much punishment is removed―“Charity covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). As Jesus said of Mary Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much. But to whom less is forgiven, he loveth less” (Luke 7:47)―which can just as easily and truthfully be stated as: “Many sins are forgiven to those who love much. But to those who love less, then less is forgiven!” There must always be a fear of God present―the only difference being what kind of fear―(1) a fear of offending a loving God whom we love very much, which is contrition, or (2) a fear of offending an angry God whose punishments we fear very much. Fear there must always be―but one kind is better than the other―the first kind of fear (contrition) reduces or wipes away more temporal punishment (here below or in Purgatory) than the other kind of fear (attrition).
Coming back to the analogy between Water and Grace―the chemical formula for water, ice or steam is H20, which consists of two atoms of Hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen. The three varying states of H20 are ice, water and steam. Similarly, we can be in a state of grace, which requires love and fear (let’s call it L2F―two parts love and one part fear), but in varying states L2F―cold towards God (ice), lukewarm towards God (water), or very much in love with God (steam). Only steam rises upwards! Is it not time to “chill-out”, “defrost” our relationship with God, and start boiling?
From Ice to Steam
Fr. Tanquerey, in his book, The Spiritual Life, speaks of these three stages of growth―which by analogy have been called ice, water and steam in the above paragraph. It could be said that ice represents Beginners in the Spiritual Life; that water represents those who are more Proficient in the Spiritual Life; and that steam represents those who are reaching Perfection in the Spiritual Life. We will also see this “threesome” immediately afterwards, in Our Lord’s treatment of the Canaanite woman―at first He is “icy-cold” and gives her the “frosty-stare” and “silent-treatment”. Then, in a sense, He throws water at her by saying she is of the wrong religion. Thirdly, he starts “steaming” and “boiling” and calls her a dog! But before we get to that, let us look at the first “threesome” of Beginners, Proficients, and the Perfect as explained by Fr. Tanquerey:
“(1) The chief care of beginners is that of preserving charity. Their efforts, then, are directed toward the avoidance of sin, above all, mortal sin, and toward the conquest of evil inclinations, of the passions, and of all that could make them lose the love of God. This is the purgative way, the end of which is the purification of the soul.
(2) The chief concern of those already advanced, the ‘proficientes’, is progress in the positive exercise of the virtues and growth in charity. The heart, already purified, is all the more open to divine light and to the love of God. The soul wishes to follow Jesus and to imitate His virtues, and since by following Him one walks in the Light, this is called the illuminative way. Here the soul strives to avoid not only mortal, but even venial sin.
(3) Perfect souls have but one concern to cling to God and to take their delight in Him. Ever seeking to unite themselves to God, they are in the unitive way. Sin fills them with horror, for they fear to displease God and to offend Him. The virtues that most attract them are the theological virtues, which unite them to God. Hence, the Earth seems to them an exile, and, like St. Paul, they long to die to be joined to Christ” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §341-§343).
The Two Sides of God Work Together
God is not moody, God is not temperamental, God is not emotional, God does not have “ups and downs”, God is not “two-faced”, God does not act upon whims―everything that God says or does is perfectly calculated and wisely executed. It might not look so―to us superficial and ignorant creatures―but everything is perfectly pondered, planned and performed. This might involve God doing some “acting” to “throw us off the scent” of what He is planning, but no blame can be attached to God for anything. We see this “acting” come into play in the Lenten Gospel reading of the Canaanite woman―who, being Canaanite was a pagan, but, paradoxically, a pagan with great “faith” in Christ―that is to say, great “confidence” in Christ, even though she was not of the Jewish religion.
The Canaanite woman’s daughter was possessed by a devil and she came to Christ full of confidence (“faith”) that He could, should and would help her! Yet, Our Lord―who professed Himself to have “come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10)―didn’t seem to care much for this pagan soul and her possessed daughter. In other words, He was not prepared to show any TLC in her regard, but actually rebuffs and rejects her―not just once, but three times! You could say that “TLC” here means “Tough Loving Christ”! Here is the “shocking” account:
TLC or Tough Loving Christ
“A woman of Canaan, who came out of those coasts, crying out, said to Him: ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David! My daughter is grieviously troubled by the devil! Jesus answered her not a word [1st refusal]. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying: ‘Send her away, for she crieth after us!’ [in other words, “She has been bothering us all day!’] And He answering, said [to her]: ‘I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel. [2nd refusal, in other words, “You are not an Israelite, so get lost!”]. But she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord, help me!’ Jesus answering, said: ‘It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs!’ [3rd refusal, in other words, “You’re a dog! Leave! Now!]. But she said: ‘Yea, Lord; but even the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters!’ Then Jesus answering, said to her: ‘O woman, great [intense] is thy Faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt!’ And her daughter was cured from that hour” (Matthew 15:22-28).
This woman had been trying to get to Our Lord for quite some time, but had been continually rebuffed by His Apostles. When she finally breaks through the ‘protective cordon’ or ‘security ring’ surrounding Our Lord, she manages to speak to Jesus Himself and begs Him, with great hope, for her desired miracle. Yet she meets the same fate at the hands of Jesus—He says nothing and refuses to talk to her. Our Lord ‘stonewalls’ her with His silence. When the Apostles ― perhaps flustered that she had managed to slip past them and get to Jesus Himself ― complain to Jesus about this ‘pest’ of a pesky woman, she undeterred, continues to beg for help—this time Our Lord tells her that she is not of the right religion. Thus, once again He rebukes and rejects the woman’s pleas for help―but this time, not just by politely remaining silent, He actually speaks out and tells her He will not help her because she is of the wrong religion: “And Jesus answering, said: ‘I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel!’” Still she comes at Him—only to have Him call her a dog! “But she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord, help me!’ Who answering, said: ‘It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs!’” This latest in a series of setbacks, rejections and failures does not deter the woman, nor dampen her belief, hope and confidence—she humbly acknowledges that she is a dog, but then says that even dogs get crumbs from the master’s table: “But she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord, help me!’ Who answering, said: ‘It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs!’”
At this point Our Lord relents—He had tested her pagan faith, hope, confidence and trust. He had publicly humiliated her and she came through with flying colors. Not only great was her Faith, but great was her courage and devotion. She was repeatedly turned back and refused by the Apostles. It seems she has been ‘trying all day’ to get close to Jesus, to be able to beg of Him this miracle—yet the Apostles have been successful in keeping her away. She must have been pretty persistent in her efforts, for the Apostles complained to Our Lord about her continuous harassment. Our Lord Himself, refused her three times. She pressed on regardless. Jesus gives her the “cold-shoulder”, the “silent-treatment”, the “frosty-stare” and refuses to answer her; then He says makes what we today would term as a ‘racist’ comment, saying she is of the wrong race and wrong religion and so cannot be helped, thus “pouring water” on her fervent hopes; after that, things “come to boil” and start “steaming” when He calls her a dog! That would be enough to turn away the staunchest of persons! “But she said: ‘Yea, Lord; for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters!’” She humbles herself and says that, yes, she is a dog—but that even dogs are given crumbs by their masters! “Then Jesus answering, said to her: ‘O woman, great is thy Faith! Be it done to thee as thou wilt!’ And her daughter was cured from that hour” (Matthew 15:22-28). Humility and perseverance will go a long way to getting our prayers answered. In this incident with the Canaanite woman, we can see symbolized that three states or stages or levels of the spiritual life that we MUST pass through before getting our desire for admittance to Heaven finally answered.
Devotion to something means that we stick with it, through ‘thick-and-thin’, taking the ‘rough with the smooth’, persevering in adversity. How would we respond if Jesus insinuated that we were dogs? It is easier to call oneself a sinner or even a dog, than to be called such by others—and it must be supremely hard to take when it comes from the mouth of Jesus Himself!
God’s TLC to Those That Love Him
The entire twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus proves the truth of this:
“I am the Lord your God: If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear.
“I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
“I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. I am the Lord your God: who have brought you out of the land of the Egyptians, that you should not serve them, and I have broken the chains on your necks, that you might go upright.” (Leviticus 26:1-13). Who wouldn’t want this? No shortage of food! Perfect seasons of the year! Peace in the land, with no threats from anywhere! If enemies arise, a guarantee of God’s help and protection—even if we are outnumbered! Guarantee of victory over all enemies! At peace with God! Wow! Extreme kindness!
But… Brace Yourself! God Throws TLC Out of the Window!
“But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant: I also will do these things to you: I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you.
“But if you will not yet for all this obey Me: I will chastise you seven times more for your sins, and I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass: your labour shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit. If you walk contrary to Me, and will not hearken to Me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins: and I will send in upon you the beasts of the field, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate.
“And if even so you will not amend, but will walk contrary to Me: I also will walk contrary to you, and will strike you seven times for your sins. And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies, after I shall have broken the staff of your bread: so that ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and give it out by weight: and you shall eat, and shall not be filled.
“But if you will not for all this hearken to Me, but will walk against Me: I will also go against you with opposite fury, and I will chastise you with seven plagues for your sins, so that you shall eat the flesh of your sons and of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. And I will destroy your land, and your enemies shall be astonished at it, when they shall be the inhabitants thereof. And I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed.
“And as to them that shall remain of you I will send fear in their hearts in the countries of their enemies, the sound of a flying leaf shall terrify them, and they shall flee as it were from the sword: they shall fall, when no man pursueth them, And they shall every one fall upon their brethren as fleeing from wars, none of you shall dare to resist your enemies. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own: until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed me, and walked contrary unto Me.
“Therefore I also will bring them into their enemies’ land: then shall they pray for their sins. And I will remember My covenant, that I made with Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham. But they shall pray for their sins, because they rejected My judgments, and despised My laws. And yet, for all that, when they were in the land of their enemies, I did not cast them off altogether, neither did I so despise them that they should be quite consumed, and I should make void My covenant with them. For I am the Lord their God. And I will remember My former covenant, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, in the sight of the Gentiles, to be their God. I am the Lord. These are the judgments, and precepts, and laws, which the Lord gave between Him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses” (Leviticus 26:14-45).
A real TLC education there! A “Tough Love Class” by God Who can also show the other kind of TLC or “Tender Loving Care”―it all depends on us and how much we love God or loathe God, on how much we obey or disobey His commandments, on how much we respect or disrespect God―“Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “With the holy one Thou wilt be holy: and with the valiant perfect. With the elect Thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse Thou wilt be perverted. And the poor people Thou wilt save: and with Thy eyes Thou wilt humble the haughty” (2 Kings 2:26-28). Echoed again in the Book of Psalms: “The Lord will reward me according to my justice; and according to the cleanness of my hands before His eyes. With the holy, Thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man Thou wilt be innocent. And with the elect Thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse Thou wilt be perverted. For Thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down the eyes of the proud” (Psalm 17:25-28).
Our Lady Continues the TLC Class
The above words and example―which are found in Holy Scripture, which is infallible Divine Public Revelation―are also echoed and reinforced by Our Lady in Divine Private Revelation. She also reveals the “two sides” of God, which depend upon whether or not we obey Him, whether or not we sin against Him. She speaks just as ‘brutally’ and ‘terrifyingly’ as God speaks in chapter 26 of Leviticus:
“Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils... No one on the face of the Earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents. Oh, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“Oh, if only human beings and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God, how differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness, while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which … destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of virtues and fraternal charity and child-like simplicity” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“Cursed human respect, which makes one ask: ‘What will others say about this?’ … Many hearts consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will fall into lukewarmness. This, then, will be the cause of the cursed demon taking possession and he will achieve his victories by means of foreign and faithless people, so numerous that, like a black cloud, with these people, every type of vice will enter, calling down in turn every type of chastisement, such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls so dear to Jesus Christ and to me ... There will be a formidable and frightful war, in which both native and foreign blood will flow, including that of secular and regular priests as well as that of other religious. This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“Woe to the Princes of the Church who think only of piling riches upon riches, to protect their authority and dominate with pride. The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless Sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Everywhere, as true Faith has faded, a false light brightens the people … The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis. The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten, each individual will want to be independent and be superior to others” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family. There will be desecration of holy places. In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the king of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy, because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes. At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession … And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ, and all those given over to sin, will perish and the Earth will become desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshiped and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the Holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious in Its poor but fervent imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in its Faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God” (Our Lady of La Salette).
Our Lady of Akita essentially gives the same grim warning and prophecy―which, if we are honest, is unfolding before our very own eyes today: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord ... In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness! If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!” (Our Lady of Akita).
Holy Scripture, Leviticus and Our Lady All Give The Same Message
Turn where you want, ask who you want―Scripture, God, Our Lady or the Saints―the message and warnings are the same: Love God, keep His commandments, avoid sin―and you will have positive and pleasant relationship with God. If you choose not to love God, to be indifferent and neglectful of Him, not keeping His commandments, but indulging in sin―then you will have a very nasty and negative relationship with Him. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).
The problem is that we have become so accustomed to the world, that we greatly underestimate how bad sin and how bad the world really are―we have become desensitized to evil. We have created our own version of the Catholic Faith where sin has little or no real consequence―we sin, we go to confession, we sin, we go to confession, we sin, we go to confession―and we are confessing the same sins over and over again. Where is the “FIRM purpose of amendment” and the implementation of means that will help us to avoid those sins? They are absent! Yet they are essential components for a GOOD confession―the absence of which renders our confession invalid and mere “lip-service” or “lip-sorrow” and not real sorrow from the heart. Confession is merely a revolving door or a weekly car-wash, where we IMAGINE we are being cleaned-up for Holy Communion―but it might be that we are not being cleaned because of defective intentions! We presume on God’s mercy―the sin of presumption―but we will not do what it takes to really obtain God’s mercy. Our sins increase in frequency and gravity and our resolutions to change decrease in intensity―thus we fall into the category of which Our Lady of Akita spoke: “If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!”
God is willing to forgive, BUT, as infallible Holy Scripture warns: “Jesus findeth the cured paralytic in the temple, and saith to him: ‘Behold thou art made whole! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!’” (John 5:14). When the Scribes and Pharisees presented Jesus with the woman caught in adultery, whom they were ready to stone to death, Jesus, showed both sides of His love―tender and tough―and said to them: “‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her!’ But they hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest. And Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus said to her: ‘Woman! Where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee?’ Who said: ‘No man, Lord!’ And Jesus said: ‘Neither will I condemn thee! Go, and now sin no more!’” (John 8:7-11). “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer! … Therefore let no sin reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof!” (Romans 6:6, 12). “Be not without fear about forgiven sin, and add not sin upon sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5).
Two TLC’s―One Positive, One Negative
God has two kinds of TLC―we can choose to experience His “Tender Love Care” or His “Tough Love Cauldron”―the choice is ours. However, we must not expect God’s “Tender Loving Care” to be without pain―for love is tested and proved by suffering: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13) and laying down your life―whether physically by death, or morally by suffering, is painful, but that is the test of love that a loving God will impose on everyone. “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel, shall save it!” (Mark 8:35). “Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise! Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:19). “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth!” (Hebrews 12:6).
TLC is an acronym― which is an abbreviation of several words by using the first letter(s) of each word―as in USCCB meaning United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; BBC meaning British Broadcasting Corporation; NASA meaning National Aeronautics and Space Administration, CNN meaning Cable News Network, etc.
With the advent of the cell-phone texting―with its limited number of characters that can be used per message―we have begun to live in a world of acronyms―so that as much as possible can be texted in the limited character parameters currently imposed by cell-phones. Thus you have text message acronyms such as:
BCNU ― Be Seeing You; CU2moro ― See You Tomorrow; CU2nite ― See You Tonight; BRB ― Be Right Back; BTW ― By The Way; B4N ― Bye For Now; DBEYR ― Don't Believe Everything You Read; W2WO4― What To Watch Out For; FWIW ― For What It's Worth; IMHO ― In My Humble Opinion; J/K ― Just Kidding; RBTL ― Read Between The Lines; LOL― Laughing Out Loud; ROTFL ― Rolling On The Floor Laughing , etc.
So what does the acronym “TLC” stand for? It could stand for a lot of things―even Christian things, such as “To love Christ” … “To love Christianity” … “To live charitably” … “To love church” … “To love confession” … “To love Communion” …etc. “TLC” could also stand for negative things, such as “Terrible Lukewarm Catholics” … “The Liberal Catholic” … “The Lazy Catholic” … “The Lip-service Catholic” … “The Lapsed Catholic”, etc. The enemies of Christ might substitute the word “love” with “loathe” in regard to Christ and Christianity and the Church. Loathe is a verb and means “to detest or dislike.” Loath is an adjective and means “reluctant or unwilling.” Therefore “loathe” and “loath” are not the same, even though they are pronounced in the same way. “Loathe” is much more aggressive (to detest) than “loath” (be unwilling or reluctant).
Nevertheless, that does not answer the question of what “TLC” really means. However, you most probably know the answer anyway! “TLC” is commonly held to mean “Tender Loving Care” and is used in expressions like “People work better if they get a bit of TLC” or “Give them some TLC and everything will improve and get better!”
God is Love! Does God Give TLC?
Holy Scripture tells us that “God is charity” (1 John 4:8). “In this is charity―not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us, and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins!” (1 John 4:10). “God, Who is rich in mercy, for His exceeding charity wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins” (Ephesians 2:4-5). “For God so loved the world, as to give His only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3:16). “The Lord is gracious and merciful―patient and plenteous in mercy! The Lord is sweet to all―and His tender (TLC?) mercies are over all His works!” (Psalm 144:8-9). “For Thou, O Lord, art sweet and mild: and plenteous in mercy to all that call upon Thee” (Psalm 85:5). That sounds great―sounds like a lot of TLC on the part of God towards us sinners!
The bottom line is getting on the right side of God. “As it is written: ‘That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him!’” (1 Corinthians 2:9). “God will redeem my soul from the hand of Hell” (Psalm 48:16) … “The Lord thy God will bring thee into a good land” (Deuteronomy 8:7) ... “God will defend thee” (Judith 5:25) … “The Lord your God will fight for you” (Deuteronomy 3:22) … “God will overthrow thy enemies for thee” (Ecclesiasticus 4:33) ... “God will give a blessing” (Ecclesiasticus 4:14) ... “God will keep him, and deliver him from evils” (Ecclesiasticus 33:1). And the list of good things and blessings goes on and on throughout Scripture. The key to activating God’s miracle muscles is a love of God—the greater the love, the greater the intervention. “Let us therefore love God, because God first hath loved us!” (1 John 4:19). “Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered Himself for us, an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness” (Ephesians 5:2).
God Does Not Always Show TLC
There are some today―you could call them “fools” and, as Scripture says: “the number of fools is infinite” (Ecclesiastes 1:15)―who see God as being nothing but love! Once these “fools” plant this foolish idea in their minds, it grows into a tree of foolish love. To them, God tolerates everything and punishes nothing. They reduce God to doting impotent grandpa, who just smiles through everything and corrects nothing.
It is said that God can be known and understood through the things that He has created― “All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who, by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is, neither by attending to the works, have acknowledged Who was the workman” (Wisdom 13:1). God has created everything with what we could call a “positive” and a “negative”.
We have the North Pole and South Pole. For the Earth the north pole has a negative polarity and the south pole a positive polarity. Every magnet has both a North and a South pole―that is what the plus sign and the minus sign on every battery signifies. A magnetic field flows from the North to the South Pole in the same way that electric fields flow from positive to negative charges. Magnetism and electricity are not the same current BUT they are both comprised of the same “stuff”. Electricity is to magnetism, what North Pole current is to South Pole current, or positive to negative. They're opposites.
We have the opposites of day (positive with light) and night (negative of light). Our bodies are at times healthy (positive) and sick (negative). Our seasons pass from the heat of summer (positive) to the bitter cold of winter (negative). Plants grow (positive) and plants die (negative). We are awake and energized during the day (positive) and we sleep, rest and recharge during the night (negative). We are times happy (positive) and at times we are sad (negative). You could through all that God has created and find the same phenomenon in all things―positive and negative aspects. This has to teach us something about God. Are there positive and negative sides to God?
If we look upon the word “negative” as lacking something―then, no, God is not negative, for God lacks nothing since He is all perfect. However, if we look at the word “negative” as meaning the opposite of something, then, yes, God has those opposites, inasmuch as justice is the opposite of mercy, hatred is the opposite of love, anger is the opposite of meekness, etc. For Holy Scripture uses those opposite terms when speaking of God.
“To the Lord our God belongeth justice” (Baruch 1:15), “They think they can escape the justice of God, Who seeth all things!” (Esther 16:4) and “The Lord is gracious and merciful―patient and plenteous in mercy!” (Psalm 144:8). “God loveth mercy and truth” (Psalm 83:12). “God hateth iniquity” (Judith 5:21). “Learn of Me, for I am meek!” (Matthew 11:29). “Because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief” (Ephesians 5:6).
In one place, Holy Scripture gives us a list of “positives” and “negatives”:
“All things have their season, and in their times all things pass under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to destroy and a time to build. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones and a time to gather. A time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to get, and a time to lose. A time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend and a time to sew. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time of love and a time of hatred. A time of war and a time of peace” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).
No Unconditional TLC From God
God’s sweetness, kindness, tenderness, mildness and mercy are not unconditional!—here are a few quotes that prove this truth―that God does not love us unconditionally: “How good is God to them that are of a right heart!” (Psalm 72:1). It is common sense―God will not reward evil, it is not to be rewarded but punished: “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Thou art not a God that willest iniquity. Neither shall the wicked dwell near Thee: nor shall the unjust abide before Thy eyes. Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity” (Psalm 5:5-7).
Yet, at the same time, Holy Scripture says: “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool!” (Isaias 1:18) … “Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace: that we may obtain mercy and find grace!” (Hebrews 4:16). “Who is a God like to Thee, Who takest away iniquity, and passest by the sin of the remnant of Thy inheritance? He will send His fury in no more, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, and have mercy on us! He will put away our iniquities, and He will cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea!” (Micheas 7:18-19).
Speaking of the “sea”, which is water, grace removes the stains of sin from the soul, like water remove stains of dirt from clothes―it is not for nothing that the Church often speaks of water as a symbol grace. We know that water is H2O―meaning two parts Hydrogen to one part Oxygen. Similarly, in the ‘water’ of God’s grace there are two elements―Love and Fear. We can be sorry for our sins out of a love of God (which is called “contrition”) or sorry out of a fear of God’s punishments (which is called “attrition”). It depends upon how much we love as to how much punishment is removed―“Charity covereth all sins” (Proverbs 10:12). “Charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). As Jesus said of Mary Magdalen: “Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much. But to whom less is forgiven, he loveth less” (Luke 7:47)―which can just as easily and truthfully be stated as: “Many sins are forgiven to those who love much. But to those who love less, then less is forgiven!” There must always be a fear of God present―the only difference being what kind of fear―(1) a fear of offending a loving God whom we love very much, which is contrition, or (2) a fear of offending an angry God whose punishments we fear very much. Fear there must always be―but one kind is better than the other―the first kind of fear (contrition) reduces or wipes away more temporal punishment (here below or in Purgatory) than the other kind of fear (attrition).
Coming back to the analogy between Water and Grace―the chemical formula for water, ice or steam is H20, which consists of two atoms of Hydrogen and one atom of Oxygen. The three varying states of H20 are ice, water and steam. Similarly, we can be in a state of grace, which requires love and fear (let’s call it L2F―two parts love and one part fear), but in varying states L2F―cold towards God (ice), lukewarm towards God (water), or very much in love with God (steam). Only steam rises upwards! Is it not time to “chill-out”, “defrost” our relationship with God, and start boiling?
From Ice to Steam
Fr. Tanquerey, in his book, The Spiritual Life, speaks of these three stages of growth―which by analogy have been called ice, water and steam in the above paragraph. It could be said that ice represents Beginners in the Spiritual Life; that water represents those who are more Proficient in the Spiritual Life; and that steam represents those who are reaching Perfection in the Spiritual Life. We will also see this “threesome” immediately afterwards, in Our Lord’s treatment of the Canaanite woman―at first He is “icy-cold” and gives her the “frosty-stare” and “silent-treatment”. Then, in a sense, He throws water at her by saying she is of the wrong religion. Thirdly, he starts “steaming” and “boiling” and calls her a dog! But before we get to that, let us look at the first “threesome” of Beginners, Proficients, and the Perfect as explained by Fr. Tanquerey:
“(1) The chief care of beginners is that of preserving charity. Their efforts, then, are directed toward the avoidance of sin, above all, mortal sin, and toward the conquest of evil inclinations, of the passions, and of all that could make them lose the love of God. This is the purgative way, the end of which is the purification of the soul.
(2) The chief concern of those already advanced, the ‘proficientes’, is progress in the positive exercise of the virtues and growth in charity. The heart, already purified, is all the more open to divine light and to the love of God. The soul wishes to follow Jesus and to imitate His virtues, and since by following Him one walks in the Light, this is called the illuminative way. Here the soul strives to avoid not only mortal, but even venial sin.
(3) Perfect souls have but one concern to cling to God and to take their delight in Him. Ever seeking to unite themselves to God, they are in the unitive way. Sin fills them with horror, for they fear to displease God and to offend Him. The virtues that most attract them are the theological virtues, which unite them to God. Hence, the Earth seems to them an exile, and, like St. Paul, they long to die to be joined to Christ” (Fr. Tanquerey, The Spiritual Life, §341-§343).
The Two Sides of God Work Together
God is not moody, God is not temperamental, God is not emotional, God does not have “ups and downs”, God is not “two-faced”, God does not act upon whims―everything that God says or does is perfectly calculated and wisely executed. It might not look so―to us superficial and ignorant creatures―but everything is perfectly pondered, planned and performed. This might involve God doing some “acting” to “throw us off the scent” of what He is planning, but no blame can be attached to God for anything. We see this “acting” come into play in the Lenten Gospel reading of the Canaanite woman―who, being Canaanite was a pagan, but, paradoxically, a pagan with great “faith” in Christ―that is to say, great “confidence” in Christ, even though she was not of the Jewish religion.
The Canaanite woman’s daughter was possessed by a devil and she came to Christ full of confidence (“faith”) that He could, should and would help her! Yet, Our Lord―who professed Himself to have “come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10)―didn’t seem to care much for this pagan soul and her possessed daughter. In other words, He was not prepared to show any TLC in her regard, but actually rebuffs and rejects her―not just once, but three times! You could say that “TLC” here means “Tough Loving Christ”! Here is the “shocking” account:
TLC or Tough Loving Christ
“A woman of Canaan, who came out of those coasts, crying out, said to Him: ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou Son of David! My daughter is grieviously troubled by the devil! Jesus answered her not a word [1st refusal]. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying: ‘Send her away, for she crieth after us!’ [in other words, “She has been bothering us all day!’] And He answering, said [to her]: ‘I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel. [2nd refusal, in other words, “You are not an Israelite, so get lost!”]. But she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord, help me!’ Jesus answering, said: ‘It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs!’ [3rd refusal, in other words, “You’re a dog! Leave! Now!]. But she said: ‘Yea, Lord; but even the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters!’ Then Jesus answering, said to her: ‘O woman, great [intense] is thy Faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt!’ And her daughter was cured from that hour” (Matthew 15:22-28).
This woman had been trying to get to Our Lord for quite some time, but had been continually rebuffed by His Apostles. When she finally breaks through the ‘protective cordon’ or ‘security ring’ surrounding Our Lord, she manages to speak to Jesus Himself and begs Him, with great hope, for her desired miracle. Yet she meets the same fate at the hands of Jesus—He says nothing and refuses to talk to her. Our Lord ‘stonewalls’ her with His silence. When the Apostles ― perhaps flustered that she had managed to slip past them and get to Jesus Himself ― complain to Jesus about this ‘pest’ of a pesky woman, she undeterred, continues to beg for help—this time Our Lord tells her that she is not of the right religion. Thus, once again He rebukes and rejects the woman’s pleas for help―but this time, not just by politely remaining silent, He actually speaks out and tells her He will not help her because she is of the wrong religion: “And Jesus answering, said: ‘I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel!’” Still she comes at Him—only to have Him call her a dog! “But she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord, help me!’ Who answering, said: ‘It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs!’” This latest in a series of setbacks, rejections and failures does not deter the woman, nor dampen her belief, hope and confidence—she humbly acknowledges that she is a dog, but then says that even dogs get crumbs from the master’s table: “But she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord, help me!’ Who answering, said: ‘It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs!’”
At this point Our Lord relents—He had tested her pagan faith, hope, confidence and trust. He had publicly humiliated her and she came through with flying colors. Not only great was her Faith, but great was her courage and devotion. She was repeatedly turned back and refused by the Apostles. It seems she has been ‘trying all day’ to get close to Jesus, to be able to beg of Him this miracle—yet the Apostles have been successful in keeping her away. She must have been pretty persistent in her efforts, for the Apostles complained to Our Lord about her continuous harassment. Our Lord Himself, refused her three times. She pressed on regardless. Jesus gives her the “cold-shoulder”, the “silent-treatment”, the “frosty-stare” and refuses to answer her; then He says makes what we today would term as a ‘racist’ comment, saying she is of the wrong race and wrong religion and so cannot be helped, thus “pouring water” on her fervent hopes; after that, things “come to boil” and start “steaming” when He calls her a dog! That would be enough to turn away the staunchest of persons! “But she said: ‘Yea, Lord; for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters!’” She humbles herself and says that, yes, she is a dog—but that even dogs are given crumbs by their masters! “Then Jesus answering, said to her: ‘O woman, great is thy Faith! Be it done to thee as thou wilt!’ And her daughter was cured from that hour” (Matthew 15:22-28). Humility and perseverance will go a long way to getting our prayers answered. In this incident with the Canaanite woman, we can see symbolized that three states or stages or levels of the spiritual life that we MUST pass through before getting our desire for admittance to Heaven finally answered.
Devotion to something means that we stick with it, through ‘thick-and-thin’, taking the ‘rough with the smooth’, persevering in adversity. How would we respond if Jesus insinuated that we were dogs? It is easier to call oneself a sinner or even a dog, than to be called such by others—and it must be supremely hard to take when it comes from the mouth of Jesus Himself!
God’s TLC to Those That Love Him
The entire twenty-sixth chapter of Leviticus proves the truth of this:
“I am the Lord your God: If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear.
“I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
“I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. I am the Lord your God: who have brought you out of the land of the Egyptians, that you should not serve them, and I have broken the chains on your necks, that you might go upright.” (Leviticus 26:1-13). Who wouldn’t want this? No shortage of food! Perfect seasons of the year! Peace in the land, with no threats from anywhere! If enemies arise, a guarantee of God’s help and protection—even if we are outnumbered! Guarantee of victory over all enemies! At peace with God! Wow! Extreme kindness!
But… Brace Yourself! God Throws TLC Out of the Window!
“But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant: I also will do these things to you: I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you.
“But if you will not yet for all this obey Me: I will chastise you seven times more for your sins, and I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass: your labour shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit. If you walk contrary to Me, and will not hearken to Me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins: and I will send in upon you the beasts of the field, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate.
“And if even so you will not amend, but will walk contrary to Me: I also will walk contrary to you, and will strike you seven times for your sins. And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies, after I shall have broken the staff of your bread: so that ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and give it out by weight: and you shall eat, and shall not be filled.
“But if you will not for all this hearken to Me, but will walk against Me: I will also go against you with opposite fury, and I will chastise you with seven plagues for your sins, so that you shall eat the flesh of your sons and of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. And I will destroy your land, and your enemies shall be astonished at it, when they shall be the inhabitants thereof. And I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed.
“And as to them that shall remain of you I will send fear in their hearts in the countries of their enemies, the sound of a flying leaf shall terrify them, and they shall flee as it were from the sword: they shall fall, when no man pursueth them, And they shall every one fall upon their brethren as fleeing from wars, none of you shall dare to resist your enemies. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own: until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed me, and walked contrary unto Me.
“Therefore I also will bring them into their enemies’ land: then shall they pray for their sins. And I will remember My covenant, that I made with Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham. But they shall pray for their sins, because they rejected My judgments, and despised My laws. And yet, for all that, when they were in the land of their enemies, I did not cast them off altogether, neither did I so despise them that they should be quite consumed, and I should make void My covenant with them. For I am the Lord their God. And I will remember My former covenant, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, in the sight of the Gentiles, to be their God. I am the Lord. These are the judgments, and precepts, and laws, which the Lord gave between Him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses” (Leviticus 26:14-45).
A real TLC education there! A “Tough Love Class” by God Who can also show the other kind of TLC or “Tender Loving Care”―it all depends on us and how much we love God or loathe God, on how much we obey or disobey His commandments, on how much we respect or disrespect God―“Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “With the holy one Thou wilt be holy: and with the valiant perfect. With the elect Thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse Thou wilt be perverted. And the poor people Thou wilt save: and with Thy eyes Thou wilt humble the haughty” (2 Kings 2:26-28). Echoed again in the Book of Psalms: “The Lord will reward me according to my justice; and according to the cleanness of my hands before His eyes. With the holy, Thou wilt be holy; and with the innocent man Thou wilt be innocent. And with the elect Thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse Thou wilt be perverted. For Thou wilt save the humble people; but wilt bring down the eyes of the proud” (Psalm 17:25-28).
Our Lady Continues the TLC Class
The above words and example―which are found in Holy Scripture, which is infallible Divine Public Revelation―are also echoed and reinforced by Our Lady in Divine Private Revelation. She also reveals the “two sides” of God, which depend upon whether or not we obey Him, whether or not we sin against Him. She speaks just as ‘brutally’ and ‘terrifyingly’ as God speaks in chapter 26 of Leviticus:
“Woe to the world should it lack monasteries and convents! Men do not comprehend their importance, for, if they understood, they would do all in their power to multiply them, because in them can be found the remedy for all physical and moral evils... No one on the face of the Earth is aware whence comes the salvation of souls, the conversion of great sinners, the end of great scourges, the fertility of the land, the end of pestilence and wars, and the harmony between nations. All this is due to the prayers that rise up from monasteries and convents. Oh, if mortals only understood how to appreciate the time given to them, and would take advantage of each moment of their lives, how different the world would be! And a considerable number of souls would not fall to their eternal perdition! But this contempt is the fundamental cause for their downfall!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“Oh, if only human beings and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God, how differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness, while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which … destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of virtues and fraternal charity and child-like simplicity” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“Cursed human respect, which makes one ask: ‘What will others say about this?’ … Many hearts consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will fall into lukewarmness. This, then, will be the cause of the cursed demon taking possession and he will achieve his victories by means of foreign and faithless people, so numerous that, like a black cloud, with these people, every type of vice will enter, calling down in turn every type of chastisement, such as plagues, famines, internal fighting and external disputes with other nations, and apostasy, the cause of the perdition of so many souls so dear to Jesus Christ and to me ... There will be a formidable and frightful war, in which both native and foreign blood will flow, including that of secular and regular priests as well as that of other religious. This night will be most horrible, for, humanly speaking, evil will seem to triumph!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“Woe to the Princes of the Church who think only of piling riches upon riches, to protect their authority and dominate with pride. The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless Sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Everywhere, as true Faith has faded, a false light brightens the people … The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis. The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten, each individual will want to be independent and be superior to others” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family. There will be desecration of holy places. In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the king of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy, because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes. At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession … And then Jesus Christ, in an act of His justice and His great mercy, will command His Angels to have all His enemies put to death. Suddenly, the persecutors of the Church of Jesus Christ, and all those given over to sin, will perish and the Earth will become desert-like. And then peace will be made, and man will be reconciled with God. Jesus Christ will be served, worshiped and glorified. Charity will flourish everywhere. The new kings will be the right arm of the Holy Church, which will be strong, humble, pious in Its poor but fervent imitation of the virtues of Jesus Christ. The Gospel will be preached everywhere and mankind will make great progress in its Faith, for there will be unity among the workers of Jesus Christ and man will live in fear of God” (Our Lady of La Salette).
Our Lady of Akita essentially gives the same grim warning and prophecy―which, if we are honest, is unfolding before our very own eyes today: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord ... In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead … The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness! If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!” (Our Lady of Akita).
Holy Scripture, Leviticus and Our Lady All Give The Same Message
Turn where you want, ask who you want―Scripture, God, Our Lady or the Saints―the message and warnings are the same: Love God, keep His commandments, avoid sin―and you will have positive and pleasant relationship with God. If you choose not to love God, to be indifferent and neglectful of Him, not keeping His commandments, but indulging in sin―then you will have a very nasty and negative relationship with Him. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).
The problem is that we have become so accustomed to the world, that we greatly underestimate how bad sin and how bad the world really are―we have become desensitized to evil. We have created our own version of the Catholic Faith where sin has little or no real consequence―we sin, we go to confession, we sin, we go to confession, we sin, we go to confession―and we are confessing the same sins over and over again. Where is the “FIRM purpose of amendment” and the implementation of means that will help us to avoid those sins? They are absent! Yet they are essential components for a GOOD confession―the absence of which renders our confession invalid and mere “lip-service” or “lip-sorrow” and not real sorrow from the heart. Confession is merely a revolving door or a weekly car-wash, where we IMAGINE we are being cleaned-up for Holy Communion―but it might be that we are not being cleaned because of defective intentions! We presume on God’s mercy―the sin of presumption―but we will not do what it takes to really obtain God’s mercy. Our sins increase in frequency and gravity and our resolutions to change decrease in intensity―thus we fall into the category of which Our Lady of Akita spoke: “If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!”
God is willing to forgive, BUT, as infallible Holy Scripture warns: “Jesus findeth the cured paralytic in the temple, and saith to him: ‘Behold thou art made whole! Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!’” (John 5:14). When the Scribes and Pharisees presented Jesus with the woman caught in adultery, whom they were ready to stone to death, Jesus, showed both sides of His love―tender and tough―and said to them: “‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her!’ But they hearing this, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest. And Jesus alone remained, and the woman standing in the midst. Then Jesus said to her: ‘Woman! Where are they that accused thee? Hath no man condemned thee?’ Who said: ‘No man, Lord!’ And Jesus said: ‘Neither will I condemn thee! Go, and now sin no more!’” (John 8:7-11). “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Christ, that the body of sin may be destroyed, to the end that we may serve sin no longer! … Therefore let no sin reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof!” (Romans 6:6, 12). “Be not without fear about forgiven sin, and add not sin upon sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5).
Two TLC’s―One Positive, One Negative
God has two kinds of TLC―we can choose to experience His “Tender Love Care” or His “Tough Love Cauldron”―the choice is ours. However, we must not expect God’s “Tender Loving Care” to be without pain―for love is tested and proved by suffering: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends!” (John 15:13) and laying down your life―whether physically by death, or morally by suffering, is painful, but that is the test of love that a loving God will impose on everyone. “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel, shall save it!” (Mark 8:35). “Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise! Be zealous therefore, and do penance!” (Apocalypse 3:19). “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth!” (Hebrews 12:6).
Ember Wednesday March 13th
Article 17
The Ember Days of Lent & The Embers of the Church
Article 17
The Ember Days of Lent & The Embers of the Church
Remember Ember?
Ember what? Ember who? Ember days, huh? Ask most modern-day Catholics what an “Ember Day” is and they will probably say something like: “An ember day is the day after a barbecue or bonfire!” Or a more intelligent guess might be: “Ember Day is another name for Ash Wednesday!” What about you? What do you know about Ember Days? Could you give an satisfying explanation to an inquirer? Hmm! Isn’t it funny (or embarrassing) that we know more about many pagan and worldly things than we know about our Faith! You would think that if our Faith is as important as they say it is, then we could and should be showing an interest in it―especially in researching and finding out things about terms and aspects of the Faith that we know that we are ignorant about or have insufficient knowledge upon. Thank heavens for Google―which can be used for good or for evil! Here is a modification and expansion of the article you would find in the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia.
Resurrecting Knowledge from the Ashes Concerning Ember Days
The title “Ember Days” comes from the Latin “quatuor anni tempora” (the "four seasons of the year"), or formerly as the “jejunia quatuor temporum” (meaning “fasts of the four seasons”). This was abbreviated with time to “Quatuor Tempora.’ Quatuor Tempora literally means “four times” and thus Quatuor Tempora or Ember Days, in the Church’s intended meaning, are the days at the beginning of the four seasons ordered by the Church as days of fast and abstinence. The Latin name has remained in modern languages. In French and Italian the term is the same; in Spanish and Portuguese they are simply Temporas. The German converts them into Quatember (with “ember” being a corruption of “Tempora” where tEMPORa become EMBER, and thence, by the easy corruption of dropping the first syllable, a corruption which also takes place in some other words, we get the English “Ember”.
Although they were observed and practiced locally in Rome and some other areas since the 3rd Century, it was only in 11th Century that they were definitely arranged in a fixed order and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after December 13th (feast of St. Lucia), after Ash Wednesday (the feast varies its date from year to year), after Whit Sunday or Pentecost (which also varies its date, since it is the 50th day after Easter), and after September 14th (feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross).
Poetically Remember the Ember
There is even a catchy Latin and English phrase to remember when Ember Days take place, based on the feast days that occur during these four times of the year.
Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia
Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.
Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost,
are when the quarter holidays follow.
For non-Latinists, it might be easier to just remember L-A-D-C or “Lucy, Ashes, Dove, and Cross.”
Or another rhyme would be:
Lucy December, the Cross in September
After the Ashes in Lent and after the Dove was sent.
Reasons For The Seasons
The purpose of their introduction―besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting―was to thank God for the gifts of nature; to teach men to make use of them in moderation; and to assist the needy. These seasonal occasions of honoring of pagan gods were long the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods belonged to the same class. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting, the Romans performed religious ceremonies to implore the help of their pagan gods―in June for a bountiful harvest; in September for a rich vintage; and in December for the seeding―hence their feriae sementivae (meaning “days of seeding”), feriae messis (“days of harvest”), and feri vindimiales (“days of vintage”).
The Church, when converting heathen nations, has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose. At first the Church in Rome had fasts in June, September, and December; the exact days were not fixed but were announced by the priests. The Liber Pontificalis ascribes to Pope Callistus (217-222) a law ordering the fast, but probably it is older. Pope Leo the Great (440-461) considers it an Apostolic institution. When the fourth season was added cannot be ascertained, but Pope Gelasius (492-496) speaks of all four. This pope also permitted the conferring of priesthood and diaconate (ordaining priests and deacons) on the Saturdays of Ember Week―these were formerly given only at Easter. Before Pope Gelasius’s time, the Ember Days were known only in Rome, but after his time their observance spread.
From Rome the Ember days gradually spread unevenly through the whole of Western Christendom. They were brought into England by St. Augustine of Canterbury, in 597 AD, said to be acting under the direct authority of Pope Gregory the Great. In Gaul (modern day France), they do not seem to have been generally recognized much before the 8th century. They were introduced into Germany by the Carlovingians. Spain adopted them with the Roman Liturgy in the 11th Century. They were introduced by St. Charles Borromeo into Milan in the 16th century. The Eastern Church never practiced them. The traditional Roman Missal, in the formulary for the Ember days, retains in part the old practice of lessons read from Scripture in addition to the ordinary two readings: for the Wednesdays three readings, for the Saturdays six readings, and seven readings for the Saturday in December. Some of these lessons contain promises of a bountiful harvest for those that serve God. Fasting and complete abstinence from meat were obligatory on the Ember Days.
Embers Reduced to Embers
The Ember Days disappeared off the scene with the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)―you could say that the Ember Days were reduced to embers or ashes!
In 1969, the Sacred Congregation of Divine Worship came out with its General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar and gave local bishops the authority to adapt this custom to their region, saying:
“On Rogation and Ember Days the practice of the Church is to offer prayers to the Lord for the needs of all people, especially for the productivity of the earth and for human labor, and to give him public thanks. In order to adapt the Rogation and Ember Days to various regions … the conferences of bishops should arrange the time and plan for their celebration.”
The USCCB (Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops) decided to revise the celebration and removed the obligation to fast as well as their place on the calendar, with this following ruling:
“Vigils and Ember Days, as most now know, no longer oblige to fast and abstinence. However, the liturgical renewal and the deeper appreciation of the joy of the holy days of the Christian year will, we hope, result in a renewed appreciation as to why our forefathers spoke of “a fast before a feast.” We impose no fast before any feast-day, but we suggest that the devout will find greater Christian joy in the feasts of the liturgical calendar, if they freely bind themselves, for their own motives and in their own spirit of piety, to prepare for each Church festival by a day of particular self-denial, penitential prayer and fasting.”
Let’s face it―when you change an obligation into a mere suggestion, then you have sounded the death knell for the practice, or placed into ‘hospice’! At a time when sin is increasing, the bishops of the world ensure that penance is decreasing! The logic behind that is shocking! A patient becomes increasingly sick and you keep decreasing all the medications and medical interventions. A doctor would be sued for such behavior!
Embers Glow and Can Re-Ignite a Fire
However, it is interesting to note that some modern Catholic sources still mention them and even suggest their practice―such as this little quote from the UK Catholic Herald in December of 2017: “While the obligation for fasting on Ember Days is no longer imposed by Canon Law, they are a particularly ancient and rich part of the Church’s liturgical patrimony. They give us today an opportunity to enter more deeply the spirit of the liturgical seasons, the observance of which is a key part of a Catholic’s formation.”
The National Catholic Register goes even further, and in an article on Ember Days (March12th, 2019), strongly recommends their practice! Pope Paul VI must be tossing and turning in his grave―having reduced the Lenten fast by 95% in 1966! The National Catholic Register article states in an addendum:
“In the wake of the crisis in the Church, Ember Days are making a comeback. These were days of fast and abstinence observed at the turn of the season … These days of penance were introduced to thank the Lord for the gifts of nature, to teach us the importance of moderation and to provide for the needy. This was indeed a wonderful way to take the pagan celebrations and sanctify them into the Faith. Fasting for the reparation of the sins of the clergy during Ember Days is an easy way to reintroduce this most valuable spiritual discipline. Three days each season in addition to Ash Wednesday and Good Friday add up to only 14 days of fast. Only 14 days, but what a difference that will make in our lives and in the Church. If the laity took up this spiritual burden and offered up their sufferings, the invisible hold of evil will start shaking. After all, Satan’s temptation of Christ came after His 40-day fast in the desert. He was strong when He was supposed to be weak. Daniel received a revelation from the Lord only after fasting for three weeks.
“Performing penance, including fasting, is an imitation of Christ. Communal acts of reparation not only declare that Christ’s Church is one body, but also acknowledge that the cause of the problem is sin. Fasting and praying show us how sinful and weak our own hearts are, and how without the gift of Christ, no one can break free from the slavery of sin. We fast and pray and do penance so that the sinner — including us — can be moved to conversion and will desire to seek out the sacraments … We cannot only tame our sinful appetites and keep evil at bay, but also carve a true Catholic community out of this secular culture through the communal act of fasting. The more you fast, the easier it gets. Expect it to be hard at first, but that hardship is part of the sacrifice.”
It is consoling to see some modern-day Catholics who have not yet been totally brainwashed by the rampant Liberalism and Modernism that has reached epidemic proportions and infected the Church for over 50 years. Hopefully that initiative leads them back to accepting many more of the dumped and trashed traditions of a wise Holy Mother Church!
Right! So now you know and are no longer a “know not”! See how easy that was! We can use the internet to build up our Faith or we can use it to weaken our Faith! As you sow (know), so shall you reap! It must please God to see us taking an active interest in our Faith, just as it must offend God to see our indifference to the Faith and our deliberate ignorance in matters of the Faith.
Sense of Sin Reduced to Embers and Ashes
Every effect has a cause. Every child has parents. Every tree came from a seed. Every actions stems from prior thoughts. This is pretty obvious besides also being philosophically true. So what is the cause―or causes―of this increasing and deepening sinfulness that has a stranglehold on, not only the world at large, but also the Catholic world? Well, philosophically, they speak of “remote causes” and “proximate causes”―alternatively, you could call them “distant causes” and “immediate causes.” Sin is rarely that simple that it can be reduced to one cause, where there is only one culprit. Usually, there is a gang of causes that work together to lead us into sin. It is of the utmost importance to see, understand and fight against that―especially since most souls are being lost because they fail to do that, whether through culpable ignorance, indifference, lukewarmness, bad sense of values or whatever else may affect them. You need to “fight the good fight” against these causes, for “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” Matthew 11:12). If you won’t fight to get to Heaven, you won’t get there! Most souls never really entered the fight―but made a false and fatal peace with the enemy!
Pope after Pope, since Pope Pius XII, has lamented the general loss of the sense of sin―not only by non-Catholics, but also by Catholics themselves. “The greatest sin today is that men have lost the sense of sin,” said Pope Pius XII in the years following the Second World War―and John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis have all repeated it. It is now common to think along the lines of: “How can something be a sin if doesn’t hurt anybody?” Or: “How can it be a sin if it is done in the privacy of my own home?” Or: “Everybody is doing it!” So, instead of admitting our sins—that have damaged or killed our relationship with God and others—and then confessing them and reconciling ourselves with God, people now-a-days go to therapy instead. A therapist can be good to help heal emotional wounds and reactions—especially those produced by trauma, such as uncontrollable anger, fear of commitment, etc.—but we can also use this as a therapeutic crutch to escape the personal responsibility for our actions. We may also look to science to excuse our behavior: if there is any evidence of a genetic component to alcoholism, homosexuality, or even violent crime, then a person wouldn’t be responsible for decisions he makes that are detrimental to his family or to others… so they think: How can there be any sin where biology has predetermined our fate? These ways of thinking change our way of speaking about sin.
If such is the attitude to blatant sin―what about the attitude to the proximate causes of sin? That attitude is even more lax!
Remote or Distant Causes of Sin
Of course, one of the “remote causes” or, if you like, the “distant causes” of all sin is what we know as “Original Sin”―the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. The ‘wounds’ or ‘scars’ of their sin have been passed down to every human being―unless there is divine intervention preventing that from happening, as in the case of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception, whereby she was conceived without Original Sin having any effect on her, because God totally preserved her from the ‘stain’ of Original Sin.
This handicap, or inherent weakness, that we are conceived and born with, brings with it what St. Thomas Aquinas calls the “fomes peccati”―an inclination or tendency to sin. He says “there belongs to the very nature of the “fomes” of sin an inclination of the sensual appetite to what is contrary to reason. And hence it is plain that the more perfect the virtues are in any man, the weaker the “fomes” of sin becomes in him.” (Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 15, article 2).
St. Paul speaks of the same thing when he writes: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I work, I understand not. For I do not that good which I will [=desire]; but the evil which I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I will not, I consent to the law, that it is good. Now, then, it is no more I that do it, but sin [=Original Sin and its tendencies to sin] that dwelleth in me. For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to will [=desire something good], is present with me; but to accomplish that which is good, I find not. For the good which I will [=want to do], I do not; but the evil which I will not [=do not want to do], that I do. Now if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that do it, but sin [=Original Sin and its tendencies to sin] that dwelleth in me. I find then a law [=“fomes peccati”―the inclination or tendency to sin], that when I have a desire to do good, evil is present with me. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man―but I see another law [=“fomes peccati”―the inclination or tendency to sin] in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members!” (Roman 7:14-23).
Heaven is Tough! Grace is Indispensible!
St. Paul then asks how on earth can he get out of this dilemma or mess in which he finds himself―and he replies by saying that only the grace of God can help him: “Unhappy man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Roman 7:24-25). This truth is cemented by Our Lord Himself, when He says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). This also means that He WILL NOT DO EVERYTHING for us―He means that we have to work with Him and under Him if we are to save our souls. Thinking that we know better, or can do better without Him, or disregarding His rules, demands, commands, advice and suggestions, will only lead to Hell, or Purgatory if we are lucky. Unfortunately, today, there are fewer and fewer souls willing to “Fight the good fight of Faith and lay hold on eternal life” (1 Timothy 6:12). Most people refuse to accept that “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” Matthew 11:12).
Heaven is no Free Handout
They want Heaven to be a cake-walk or a social-security handout with no strings attached. They do not want to and refuse to make the necessary sacrifices and changes in their lives that would secure Heaven for them―it is too much hard work, it means not having the fun that others in the world enjoy, it means sticking-out like a sore-thumb, it means constantly hearing complaints from children or other family members and relatives about being a religious fanatic, it means having to face-up to the truth of Our Lord’s words: ““Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:51-53). “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:34-37).
We must realize and accept the fact that we are born inherently weak, we come into this life with a handicap, we are all born imperfect―and the work of our life is to strengthen our weaknesses, to overcome our handicap and to become perfect. Like it or not, agree with it or not, want it or not―that’s how it is! “For I am the Lord your God! Be holy because I am holy! Defile not your souls by any thing upon the Earth! You shall be holy, because I am holy! … You shall be holy unto me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 11:44-46; 20:26). St. Peter echoes this: “It is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16). Our Lord Himself adds: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). Lip service is not enough for Him: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me, teaching doctrines and precepts of men!’” (Mark 7:6-7). “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “And why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12).
Unpopular But True!
Of course, in today’s modern environment of ease, comfort, convenience, entertainment and fun, such talk is far from being popular―even in Our Lord’s day it wasn’t popular, as we see in the following reaction of the Jews towards the teachings of Jesus: “These things Jesus said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum. Many, therefore, of His disciples, hearing it, said: ‘This saying is hard! And who can hear it?’ But Jesus, knowing in Himself, that His disciples murmured at this, said to them: ‘Doth this scandalize you?... The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life!’ … After this many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Then Jesus said to the Twelve: ‘Will you also go away?’” (John 6:60-64).
Our day was foreseen and foretold in Holy Scripture: “Know this first, that in the Last Days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts” (2 Peter 3:3). “In the Last Times there will come mockers, walking according to their own desires in ungodliness. These are they, who are sensual men, who separate themselves, having not the Spirit” (Jude 1:18-19). “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God. Having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4).
Unfortunately, most will not “preach the word in season and out of season”―for as Our Lady of Good Success foretold: “In this time of depraved desolation, those who should speak out will be silent!” (Our Lady of Good Success). We, or those in our family, or among relatives and friends, may have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. But that does not excuse our and their personal responsibility to avoid situations with alcohol if they would lead to drunkenness and physical or verbal abuse of a spouse, children, or others. We make a choice when we walk down that street with the bar on the corner―although the ability to choose quickly weakens and disappears once we walk in the door. Our choices impact our relationships and thus have moral implications. So, just because all one’s peers are having sex, doing drugs, using birth control, or have had an abortion―doesn’t mean that these things are okay, acceptable and not sins. Such thoughts may ease or deaden our feelings of guilt, but they do not take away our moral responsibility for the choices we have made. We will have to answer to God for them. Therefore, our consciences need to recover the “sense of sin” so that we can take responsibility for our moral decisions, seeking God’s mercy now in the confessional rather than having to face His justice before the Judgment Seat.
Better Be a “Broken Record” than a “Lost Soul”
When a child or a student or employee does not do what they are told to do, you either surrender to their perverse and stubborn will, or you tell them again, and again, and again, and finally you punish them. It is no different with God. Even the Mother of Mercy takes the same strict line. At La Salette, in 1846, the Mother of Mercy shows some “Tough Love” when she says:
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God ... Blood will flow on all sides. Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death ... All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family … Blood will flow in the streets … Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes. At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy. The righteous will suffer greatly.”
Our Lady, the sweet Mother of Mercy, ended her prophetic warning with the words: “AND SO, MY CHILDREN, YOU WILL PASS THIS ON TO ALL MY PEOPLE!” Sadly, what she said earlier, as Our Lady of Good Success, has come to pass: “THOSE THAT SHOULD SPEAK OUT WILL REMAIN SILENT!”
Was Our Lady of La Salette just “having a bad day at the office” the day she revealed all this? Not really―it has been more or less the same message whenever she has appeared in modern times. At Fatima, she must have had another “bad day at the office”―for she said that “many nations will be annihilated!” Sister Lucia of Fatima later revealed that that Our Blessed Mother had told herself (Lucia), Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times!” (Frère François, Tragedy and Triumph, p. 27).
Akita, in 1973, must have been yet another “bad day at the office” for Our Lady, the sweet Mother of Mercy, for it was there that she added: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!”
Once again, such thoughts are not “comfy”, “cosy”, “sweet” and “sugary”―but they are realistically uncomfortable and frighteningly true! It is the neglect of these things that causes the vast majority of mankind to be lost―another scary thought, but uncomfortably true! Not that God wishes to damn anyone―“Is it My will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23)―but “be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). In this same context, God says: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil―that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20). Sadly, that is the case today―where sin is thought to be good and the condemnation of sin is thought to be evil. Where same-sex unions are thought to be ‘good’ and the condemnation of them is thought to be an evil “hate crime”! Where abortion is thought to be ‘good’ and condemnation of abortion is another “hate crime”! Where contraception, cohabitation, fornication, drug use, alcoholism, pornography, and a whole host of other sins are thought to be ‘good’ and the condemnation of them is evil.
What Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette predicted is now coming true before our very eyes: “Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth ... because of the corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education … People will think of nothing but amusement … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent! (Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette). The sad thing being, we are no longer shocked, we no longer really care, we do not pray against it, we do no sacrifices to stem the tide and change things―we know it is there, we might not like it, but we say and do nothing.
Our Lady of La Salette told the children, with regard to her “not so sweet message”, “AND SO, MY CHILDREN, YOU WILL PASS THIS ON TO ALL MY PEOPLE!” Do we do that? Or are we guilty by neglect as condemned by Our Lady of Good Success: “THOSE THAT SHOULD SPEAK OUT WILL REMAIN SILENT!” Are you silent in your family? Have you lost the sense of sin, or are you in the process of losing your sense of sin? Have you capitulated to thinking of the world? Do the words of Sister Lucia of Fatima, where she repeats the thoughts of Our Lady, apply to you too?
In an interview with Fr. Fuentes on December 26th, 1957, Sr. Lucia told him: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one has paid attention to her message―neither the good nor the bad. The good, because they continue on the road of goodness, but without paying mind to this message. The bad, because of their sins, do not see God’s chastisement already presently falling on them―they also continue on their path of badness, ignoring the message. But, Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a terrible way― they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them! The chastisement from Heaven is imminent. It will be very sad for everyone, and far from a happy thing if the world does not pray and do penance before then! I cannot give more details, because it is still a secret!”
The Price of Silence
The words spoken by God to the prophet Ezechiel are equally applicable to all true Catholics today―even more so if Our Lady of La Salette and Our Lady of Fatima commanded little children to pass on her messages and prophecies to everyone! Here are those words, which we also should take to heart as a warning for ourselves:
“And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say to them: “When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man, one of their meanest, and make him a watchman over them: and he see the sword coming upon the land, and sound the trumpet and tell the people, then he that heareth the sound of the trumpet, whosoever he be, and doth not look to himself, if the sword come and cut him off―then his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not look to himself, his blood shall be upon him―but if he look to himself, he shall save his life. And if the watchman see the sword coming and sound not the trumpet, and the people look not to themselves, and the sword come and cut off a soul from among them, he indeed is taken away in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at the hand of the watchman. So thou, O son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel! Therefore thou shalt hear the word from My mouth, and shalt tell it them from Me. When I say to the wicked: “O wicked man, thou shalt surely die!”―if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked man from his way, then that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand. But if thou tell the wicked man, so that he may be converted from his ways, and he be not converted from his way: then he shall die in his iniquity―but thou hast delivered thy own soul. Thou, therefore, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: “Thus you have spoken, saying: ‘Our iniquities, and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them: how then can we live?’ Say to them: ‘As I live,’ saith the Lord God, ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezechiel 33:1-11).
Unfortunately, we, the watchmen fail to see and as watchdogs, we fail to bark! “His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant―dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams!” (Isaias 56:10).
Same Old Message! Same Old Reaction! Same Old Result! O Hell!
Holy Scripture is actually not very popular! Why? Because of its inescapable, clear, hard-hitting, simple truths. Scripture leaves no hiding places―unless, like Protestants, you quote it selectively, leaving the “hard-to-take” truths aside or stuffing them in the closet or under a stone. The truth and logic of Holy Scripture leaves little or no room for arguing or debating―it is what it is, and, being at times so simple, its truth and its meaning cannot be misinterpreted. Like God, the truths of Scripture will not change and they are the yardstick by which we have to measure what we believe and what we say. On the point of sin and penance (payment for sin), there is no wiggle-room, as the following quotes show. The message is the same all throughout the Old and New Testaments. It is message that we need to take on board and communicate to those who surround―even those above us, if necessary, just as the children at La Salette and Fatima were told to communicate Our Lady’s message to everyone.
First of all, both the Old and New Testaments lay down the basic law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength!” (Deuteronomy 6:5) … “What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but that thou fear the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways, and love Him, and serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12) … “Jesus said to him: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment! And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.’” (Matthew 22:37-40).
Secondly, how do show our love for God? “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If anyone love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10). “And all the days of thy life have God in thy mind: and take heed thou never consent to sin, nor transgress the commandments of the Lord our God!” (Tobias 4:6). If we keep the commandments of God, we show that we love Him―if we break the commandments of God, then we commit sin.
Thirdly, “Sin, when it is completed, begetteth death!” (James 1:15) … “The soul that sinneth, the same shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:20). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) … “By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
Fourthly, God gives the sinner a chance: “Is it My will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? If the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all My commandments, and do judgment and justice―then living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done! In his justice, which he hath wrought, he shall live!” (Ezechiel 18:21-23). “Let him do penance for his sin” (Leviticus 5:5). “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride!” (Job 24:23). “There is none that doth penance for his sin!” (Jeremias 8:6). “Hear, I beseech you, My words, and do penance!” (Job 21:2). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
The Stupidity of Man
Most souls perish! Why? Because they have not truly repented of their grave sins, confessed them and done penance for them. Simple! Clear! Logical! Frightening! Why do they not repent? Why do they not confess? Why do they fail to do penance? Because they have lost the sense of sin! They have been fooled, hoodwinked, brainwashed and blinded by the gospel of world, which they have been happily drinking , despite the warnings of God not to mix with the world, not to listen to the world, not to follow the world and not to love the world―for the world is an enemy of God. If you fail to see that, fail to understand that, fail to believe that, fail to act on that―then there is nothing that God can do for you, except to allow you to blindly follow your own blind will until, following the blind world, you fall into the pit. Once again, Holy Scripture shows this clearly, simply and without any possible misinterpretation of its words:
“In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the charity of God, that we keep His commandments―and His commandments are not heavy. For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our Faith!” (1 John 5:2-4). “The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, choke up the word of God, and the word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit” (Matthew 13:3-8, 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-15). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of unbelievers, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should not shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
To the worldlings Our Lord says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). “He that loveth his life [in this world] shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal!” (John 12:25).
“If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “For we brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out!” (1 Timothy 6:7). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15).
“Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
What Can You Not Understand?
What is there that is so hard to understand about those simple, clear, logical words of God from Holy Scripture? Yet many do not want to hear them! They do not want to understand them! They do not want to believe them! They do not want to follow them! “O foolish people without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “They have not known, nor understood: for their eyes are covered that they may not see, and that they may not understand with their heart” (Isaias 44:18). “Let them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
The only thing modern-man wants to see, look at, listen to and do―is spend hours watching TV, hours on the smartphone or tablet or laptop, browsing the world, reading, listening to and watching the gospel of world unfold on social media, Youtube, worldly websites, gossipy forums, salacious slander, accusatory articles, worldly trivial news, etc., etc., etc. Rather than believe Our Lord’s words that we cannot serve God and mammon, today mammon is on par with God―in some cases even way ahead of God, judging by the time given to mammon instead of God!
The Ember Days and the Season of Lent should be the time of a much needed reality check―not virtual reality, but real reality! How do we really stand with God? Remember that even with His Chosen People, “with most of them God was not well pleased!” (1 Corinthians 10:5). It would be amiss to review the whole passage from which that quote comes―especially so since it was the reading at Mass for Septuagesima Sunday:
“For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea! And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased―for they were overthrown in the desert! Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’ Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur: as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-12).
The above passage perfectly describes the modern Catholic world! Except that today we have far more idols than they had―and our “desert” is a “spiritual desert” located in the oasis of the materialistic malls and stores of the world. With most of us, God is not well pleased―which Our Lady has made abundantly clear in her many modern day apparitions. Use this Lent as a springboard to the rest of your life, to detach yourself―and your nearest and dearest―from the enemy of God (the world and all it offers) and start to pay back by penance for the worldly love and addictions of the past, and begin to learn how to love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, whole mind, whole soul and whole strength! “For charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) and “He must know that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
Ember what? Ember who? Ember days, huh? Ask most modern-day Catholics what an “Ember Day” is and they will probably say something like: “An ember day is the day after a barbecue or bonfire!” Or a more intelligent guess might be: “Ember Day is another name for Ash Wednesday!” What about you? What do you know about Ember Days? Could you give an satisfying explanation to an inquirer? Hmm! Isn’t it funny (or embarrassing) that we know more about many pagan and worldly things than we know about our Faith! You would think that if our Faith is as important as they say it is, then we could and should be showing an interest in it―especially in researching and finding out things about terms and aspects of the Faith that we know that we are ignorant about or have insufficient knowledge upon. Thank heavens for Google―which can be used for good or for evil! Here is a modification and expansion of the article you would find in the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia.
Resurrecting Knowledge from the Ashes Concerning Ember Days
The title “Ember Days” comes from the Latin “quatuor anni tempora” (the "four seasons of the year"), or formerly as the “jejunia quatuor temporum” (meaning “fasts of the four seasons”). This was abbreviated with time to “Quatuor Tempora.’ Quatuor Tempora literally means “four times” and thus Quatuor Tempora or Ember Days, in the Church’s intended meaning, are the days at the beginning of the four seasons ordered by the Church as days of fast and abstinence. The Latin name has remained in modern languages. In French and Italian the term is the same; in Spanish and Portuguese they are simply Temporas. The German converts them into Quatember (with “ember” being a corruption of “Tempora” where tEMPORa become EMBER, and thence, by the easy corruption of dropping the first syllable, a corruption which also takes place in some other words, we get the English “Ember”.
Although they were observed and practiced locally in Rome and some other areas since the 3rd Century, it was only in 11th Century that they were definitely arranged in a fixed order and prescribed for the entire Church by Pope Gregory VII (1073-1085) for the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday after December 13th (feast of St. Lucia), after Ash Wednesday (the feast varies its date from year to year), after Whit Sunday or Pentecost (which also varies its date, since it is the 50th day after Easter), and after September 14th (feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross).
Poetically Remember the Ember
There is even a catchy Latin and English phrase to remember when Ember Days take place, based on the feast days that occur during these four times of the year.
Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia
Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.
Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost,
are when the quarter holidays follow.
For non-Latinists, it might be easier to just remember L-A-D-C or “Lucy, Ashes, Dove, and Cross.”
Or another rhyme would be:
Lucy December, the Cross in September
After the Ashes in Lent and after the Dove was sent.
Reasons For The Seasons
The purpose of their introduction―besides the general one intended by all prayer and fasting―was to thank God for the gifts of nature; to teach men to make use of them in moderation; and to assist the needy. These seasonal occasions of honoring of pagan gods were long the practice of the heathens of Rome. The Romans were originally given to agriculture, and their native gods belonged to the same class. At the beginning of the time for seeding and harvesting, the Romans performed religious ceremonies to implore the help of their pagan gods―in June for a bountiful harvest; in September for a rich vintage; and in December for the seeding―hence their feriae sementivae (meaning “days of seeding”), feriae messis (“days of harvest”), and feri vindimiales (“days of vintage”).
The Church, when converting heathen nations, has always tried to sanctify any practices which could be utilized for a good purpose. At first the Church in Rome had fasts in June, September, and December; the exact days were not fixed but were announced by the priests. The Liber Pontificalis ascribes to Pope Callistus (217-222) a law ordering the fast, but probably it is older. Pope Leo the Great (440-461) considers it an Apostolic institution. When the fourth season was added cannot be ascertained, but Pope Gelasius (492-496) speaks of all four. This pope also permitted the conferring of priesthood and diaconate (ordaining priests and deacons) on the Saturdays of Ember Week―these were formerly given only at Easter. Before Pope Gelasius’s time, the Ember Days were known only in Rome, but after his time their observance spread.
From Rome the Ember days gradually spread unevenly through the whole of Western Christendom. They were brought into England by St. Augustine of Canterbury, in 597 AD, said to be acting under the direct authority of Pope Gregory the Great. In Gaul (modern day France), they do not seem to have been generally recognized much before the 8th century. They were introduced into Germany by the Carlovingians. Spain adopted them with the Roman Liturgy in the 11th Century. They were introduced by St. Charles Borromeo into Milan in the 16th century. The Eastern Church never practiced them. The traditional Roman Missal, in the formulary for the Ember days, retains in part the old practice of lessons read from Scripture in addition to the ordinary two readings: for the Wednesdays three readings, for the Saturdays six readings, and seven readings for the Saturday in December. Some of these lessons contain promises of a bountiful harvest for those that serve God. Fasting and complete abstinence from meat were obligatory on the Ember Days.
Embers Reduced to Embers
The Ember Days disappeared off the scene with the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965)―you could say that the Ember Days were reduced to embers or ashes!
In 1969, the Sacred Congregation of Divine Worship came out with its General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar and gave local bishops the authority to adapt this custom to their region, saying:
“On Rogation and Ember Days the practice of the Church is to offer prayers to the Lord for the needs of all people, especially for the productivity of the earth and for human labor, and to give him public thanks. In order to adapt the Rogation and Ember Days to various regions … the conferences of bishops should arrange the time and plan for their celebration.”
The USCCB (Unites States Conference of Catholic Bishops) decided to revise the celebration and removed the obligation to fast as well as their place on the calendar, with this following ruling:
“Vigils and Ember Days, as most now know, no longer oblige to fast and abstinence. However, the liturgical renewal and the deeper appreciation of the joy of the holy days of the Christian year will, we hope, result in a renewed appreciation as to why our forefathers spoke of “a fast before a feast.” We impose no fast before any feast-day, but we suggest that the devout will find greater Christian joy in the feasts of the liturgical calendar, if they freely bind themselves, for their own motives and in their own spirit of piety, to prepare for each Church festival by a day of particular self-denial, penitential prayer and fasting.”
Let’s face it―when you change an obligation into a mere suggestion, then you have sounded the death knell for the practice, or placed into ‘hospice’! At a time when sin is increasing, the bishops of the world ensure that penance is decreasing! The logic behind that is shocking! A patient becomes increasingly sick and you keep decreasing all the medications and medical interventions. A doctor would be sued for such behavior!
Embers Glow and Can Re-Ignite a Fire
However, it is interesting to note that some modern Catholic sources still mention them and even suggest their practice―such as this little quote from the UK Catholic Herald in December of 2017: “While the obligation for fasting on Ember Days is no longer imposed by Canon Law, they are a particularly ancient and rich part of the Church’s liturgical patrimony. They give us today an opportunity to enter more deeply the spirit of the liturgical seasons, the observance of which is a key part of a Catholic’s formation.”
The National Catholic Register goes even further, and in an article on Ember Days (March12th, 2019), strongly recommends their practice! Pope Paul VI must be tossing and turning in his grave―having reduced the Lenten fast by 95% in 1966! The National Catholic Register article states in an addendum:
“In the wake of the crisis in the Church, Ember Days are making a comeback. These were days of fast and abstinence observed at the turn of the season … These days of penance were introduced to thank the Lord for the gifts of nature, to teach us the importance of moderation and to provide for the needy. This was indeed a wonderful way to take the pagan celebrations and sanctify them into the Faith. Fasting for the reparation of the sins of the clergy during Ember Days is an easy way to reintroduce this most valuable spiritual discipline. Three days each season in addition to Ash Wednesday and Good Friday add up to only 14 days of fast. Only 14 days, but what a difference that will make in our lives and in the Church. If the laity took up this spiritual burden and offered up their sufferings, the invisible hold of evil will start shaking. After all, Satan’s temptation of Christ came after His 40-day fast in the desert. He was strong when He was supposed to be weak. Daniel received a revelation from the Lord only after fasting for three weeks.
“Performing penance, including fasting, is an imitation of Christ. Communal acts of reparation not only declare that Christ’s Church is one body, but also acknowledge that the cause of the problem is sin. Fasting and praying show us how sinful and weak our own hearts are, and how without the gift of Christ, no one can break free from the slavery of sin. We fast and pray and do penance so that the sinner — including us — can be moved to conversion and will desire to seek out the sacraments … We cannot only tame our sinful appetites and keep evil at bay, but also carve a true Catholic community out of this secular culture through the communal act of fasting. The more you fast, the easier it gets. Expect it to be hard at first, but that hardship is part of the sacrifice.”
It is consoling to see some modern-day Catholics who have not yet been totally brainwashed by the rampant Liberalism and Modernism that has reached epidemic proportions and infected the Church for over 50 years. Hopefully that initiative leads them back to accepting many more of the dumped and trashed traditions of a wise Holy Mother Church!
Right! So now you know and are no longer a “know not”! See how easy that was! We can use the internet to build up our Faith or we can use it to weaken our Faith! As you sow (know), so shall you reap! It must please God to see us taking an active interest in our Faith, just as it must offend God to see our indifference to the Faith and our deliberate ignorance in matters of the Faith.
Sense of Sin Reduced to Embers and Ashes
Every effect has a cause. Every child has parents. Every tree came from a seed. Every actions stems from prior thoughts. This is pretty obvious besides also being philosophically true. So what is the cause―or causes―of this increasing and deepening sinfulness that has a stranglehold on, not only the world at large, but also the Catholic world? Well, philosophically, they speak of “remote causes” and “proximate causes”―alternatively, you could call them “distant causes” and “immediate causes.” Sin is rarely that simple that it can be reduced to one cause, where there is only one culprit. Usually, there is a gang of causes that work together to lead us into sin. It is of the utmost importance to see, understand and fight against that―especially since most souls are being lost because they fail to do that, whether through culpable ignorance, indifference, lukewarmness, bad sense of values or whatever else may affect them. You need to “fight the good fight” against these causes, for “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” Matthew 11:12). If you won’t fight to get to Heaven, you won’t get there! Most souls never really entered the fight―but made a false and fatal peace with the enemy!
Pope after Pope, since Pope Pius XII, has lamented the general loss of the sense of sin―not only by non-Catholics, but also by Catholics themselves. “The greatest sin today is that men have lost the sense of sin,” said Pope Pius XII in the years following the Second World War―and John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis have all repeated it. It is now common to think along the lines of: “How can something be a sin if doesn’t hurt anybody?” Or: “How can it be a sin if it is done in the privacy of my own home?” Or: “Everybody is doing it!” So, instead of admitting our sins—that have damaged or killed our relationship with God and others—and then confessing them and reconciling ourselves with God, people now-a-days go to therapy instead. A therapist can be good to help heal emotional wounds and reactions—especially those produced by trauma, such as uncontrollable anger, fear of commitment, etc.—but we can also use this as a therapeutic crutch to escape the personal responsibility for our actions. We may also look to science to excuse our behavior: if there is any evidence of a genetic component to alcoholism, homosexuality, or even violent crime, then a person wouldn’t be responsible for decisions he makes that are detrimental to his family or to others… so they think: How can there be any sin where biology has predetermined our fate? These ways of thinking change our way of speaking about sin.
If such is the attitude to blatant sin―what about the attitude to the proximate causes of sin? That attitude is even more lax!
Remote or Distant Causes of Sin
Of course, one of the “remote causes” or, if you like, the “distant causes” of all sin is what we know as “Original Sin”―the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. The ‘wounds’ or ‘scars’ of their sin have been passed down to every human being―unless there is divine intervention preventing that from happening, as in the case of Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception, whereby she was conceived without Original Sin having any effect on her, because God totally preserved her from the ‘stain’ of Original Sin.
This handicap, or inherent weakness, that we are conceived and born with, brings with it what St. Thomas Aquinas calls the “fomes peccati”―an inclination or tendency to sin. He says “there belongs to the very nature of the “fomes” of sin an inclination of the sensual appetite to what is contrary to reason. And hence it is plain that the more perfect the virtues are in any man, the weaker the “fomes” of sin becomes in him.” (Summa Theologica, IIIa, q. 15, article 2).
St. Paul speaks of the same thing when he writes: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I work, I understand not. For I do not that good which I will [=desire]; but the evil which I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I will not, I consent to the law, that it is good. Now, then, it is no more I that do it, but sin [=Original Sin and its tendencies to sin] that dwelleth in me. For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to will [=desire something good], is present with me; but to accomplish that which is good, I find not. For the good which I will [=want to do], I do not; but the evil which I will not [=do not want to do], that I do. Now if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that do it, but sin [=Original Sin and its tendencies to sin] that dwelleth in me. I find then a law [=“fomes peccati”―the inclination or tendency to sin], that when I have a desire to do good, evil is present with me. For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man―but I see another law [=“fomes peccati”―the inclination or tendency to sin] in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members!” (Roman 7:14-23).
Heaven is Tough! Grace is Indispensible!
St. Paul then asks how on earth can he get out of this dilemma or mess in which he finds himself―and he replies by saying that only the grace of God can help him: “Unhappy man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Roman 7:24-25). This truth is cemented by Our Lord Himself, when He says: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). This also means that He WILL NOT DO EVERYTHING for us―He means that we have to work with Him and under Him if we are to save our souls. Thinking that we know better, or can do better without Him, or disregarding His rules, demands, commands, advice and suggestions, will only lead to Hell, or Purgatory if we are lucky. Unfortunately, today, there are fewer and fewer souls willing to “Fight the good fight of Faith and lay hold on eternal life” (1 Timothy 6:12). Most people refuse to accept that “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” Matthew 11:12).
Heaven is no Free Handout
They want Heaven to be a cake-walk or a social-security handout with no strings attached. They do not want to and refuse to make the necessary sacrifices and changes in their lives that would secure Heaven for them―it is too much hard work, it means not having the fun that others in the world enjoy, it means sticking-out like a sore-thumb, it means constantly hearing complaints from children or other family members and relatives about being a religious fanatic, it means having to face-up to the truth of Our Lord’s words: ““Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation! For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:51-53). “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:34-37).
We must realize and accept the fact that we are born inherently weak, we come into this life with a handicap, we are all born imperfect―and the work of our life is to strengthen our weaknesses, to overcome our handicap and to become perfect. Like it or not, agree with it or not, want it or not―that’s how it is! “For I am the Lord your God! Be holy because I am holy! Defile not your souls by any thing upon the Earth! You shall be holy, because I am holy! … You shall be holy unto me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 11:44-46; 20:26). St. Peter echoes this: “It is written: ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy!’” (1 Peter 1:16). Our Lord Himself adds: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). Lip service is not enough for Him: “Well did Isaias prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain do they worship Me, teaching doctrines and precepts of men!’” (Mark 7:6-7). “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “And why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12).
Unpopular But True!
Of course, in today’s modern environment of ease, comfort, convenience, entertainment and fun, such talk is far from being popular―even in Our Lord’s day it wasn’t popular, as we see in the following reaction of the Jews towards the teachings of Jesus: “These things Jesus said, teaching in the synagogue, in Capharnaum. Many, therefore, of His disciples, hearing it, said: ‘This saying is hard! And who can hear it?’ But Jesus, knowing in Himself, that His disciples murmured at this, said to them: ‘Doth this scandalize you?... The words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and life!’ … After this many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. Then Jesus said to the Twelve: ‘Will you also go away?’” (John 6:60-64).
Our day was foreseen and foretold in Holy Scripture: “Know this first, that in the Last Days there shall come deceitful scoffers, walking after their own lusts” (2 Peter 3:3). “In the Last Times there will come mockers, walking according to their own desires in ungodliness. These are they, who are sensual men, who separate themselves, having not the Spirit” (Jude 1:18-19). “Know also this, that, in the last days, shall come dangerous times. Men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God. Having an appearance indeed of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Now these avoid!” (2 Timothy 3:1-5). “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:2-4).
Unfortunately, most will not “preach the word in season and out of season”―for as Our Lady of Good Success foretold: “In this time of depraved desolation, those who should speak out will be silent!” (Our Lady of Good Success). We, or those in our family, or among relatives and friends, may have a genetic predisposition to alcoholism. But that does not excuse our and their personal responsibility to avoid situations with alcohol if they would lead to drunkenness and physical or verbal abuse of a spouse, children, or others. We make a choice when we walk down that street with the bar on the corner―although the ability to choose quickly weakens and disappears once we walk in the door. Our choices impact our relationships and thus have moral implications. So, just because all one’s peers are having sex, doing drugs, using birth control, or have had an abortion―doesn’t mean that these things are okay, acceptable and not sins. Such thoughts may ease or deaden our feelings of guilt, but they do not take away our moral responsibility for the choices we have made. We will have to answer to God for them. Therefore, our consciences need to recover the “sense of sin” so that we can take responsibility for our moral decisions, seeking God’s mercy now in the confessional rather than having to face His justice before the Judgment Seat.
Better Be a “Broken Record” than a “Lost Soul”
When a child or a student or employee does not do what they are told to do, you either surrender to their perverse and stubborn will, or you tell them again, and again, and again, and finally you punish them. It is no different with God. Even the Mother of Mercy takes the same strict line. At La Salette, in 1846, the Mother of Mercy shows some “Tough Love” when she says:
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you! … Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together … Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other … The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God ... Blood will flow on all sides. Churches will be locked up or desecrated. Priests and religious orders will be hunted down, and made to die a cruel death ... All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family … Blood will flow in the streets … Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes. At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy. The righteous will suffer greatly.”
Our Lady, the sweet Mother of Mercy, ended her prophetic warning with the words: “AND SO, MY CHILDREN, YOU WILL PASS THIS ON TO ALL MY PEOPLE!” Sadly, what she said earlier, as Our Lady of Good Success, has come to pass: “THOSE THAT SHOULD SPEAK OUT WILL REMAIN SILENT!”
Was Our Lady of La Salette just “having a bad day at the office” the day she revealed all this? Not really―it has been more or less the same message whenever she has appeared in modern times. At Fatima, she must have had another “bad day at the office”―for she said that “many nations will be annihilated!” Sister Lucia of Fatima later revealed that that Our Blessed Mother had told herself (Lucia), Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times!” (Frère François, Tragedy and Triumph, p. 27).
Akita, in 1973, must have been yet another “bad day at the office” for Our Lady, the sweet Mother of Mercy, for it was there that she added: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead … If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!”
Once again, such thoughts are not “comfy”, “cosy”, “sweet” and “sugary”―but they are realistically uncomfortable and frighteningly true! It is the neglect of these things that causes the vast majority of mankind to be lost―another scary thought, but uncomfortably true! Not that God wishes to damn anyone―“Is it My will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?” (Ezechiel 18:23)―but “be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). In this same context, God says: “Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil―that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaias 5:20). Sadly, that is the case today―where sin is thought to be good and the condemnation of sin is thought to be evil. Where same-sex unions are thought to be ‘good’ and the condemnation of them is thought to be an evil “hate crime”! Where abortion is thought to be ‘good’ and condemnation of abortion is another “hate crime”! Where contraception, cohabitation, fornication, drug use, alcoholism, pornography, and a whole host of other sins are thought to be ‘good’ and the condemnation of them is evil.
What Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette predicted is now coming true before our very eyes: “Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth ... because of the corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education … People will think of nothing but amusement … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent! (Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette). The sad thing being, we are no longer shocked, we no longer really care, we do not pray against it, we do no sacrifices to stem the tide and change things―we know it is there, we might not like it, but we say and do nothing.
Our Lady of La Salette told the children, with regard to her “not so sweet message”, “AND SO, MY CHILDREN, YOU WILL PASS THIS ON TO ALL MY PEOPLE!” Do we do that? Or are we guilty by neglect as condemned by Our Lady of Good Success: “THOSE THAT SHOULD SPEAK OUT WILL REMAIN SILENT!” Are you silent in your family? Have you lost the sense of sin, or are you in the process of losing your sense of sin? Have you capitulated to thinking of the world? Do the words of Sister Lucia of Fatima, where she repeats the thoughts of Our Lady, apply to you too?
In an interview with Fr. Fuentes on December 26th, 1957, Sr. Lucia told him: “Father, the Blessed Virgin is very sad, because no one has paid attention to her message―neither the good nor the bad. The good, because they continue on the road of goodness, but without paying mind to this message. The bad, because of their sins, do not see God’s chastisement already presently falling on them―they also continue on their path of badness, ignoring the message. But, Father, you must believe me that God is going to punish the world and chastise it in a terrible way― they do not see the terrible chastisement about to befall them! The chastisement from Heaven is imminent. It will be very sad for everyone, and far from a happy thing if the world does not pray and do penance before then! I cannot give more details, because it is still a secret!”
The Price of Silence
The words spoken by God to the prophet Ezechiel are equally applicable to all true Catholics today―even more so if Our Lady of La Salette and Our Lady of Fatima commanded little children to pass on her messages and prophecies to everyone! Here are those words, which we also should take to heart as a warning for ourselves:
“And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ‘Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say to them: “When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man, one of their meanest, and make him a watchman over them: and he see the sword coming upon the land, and sound the trumpet and tell the people, then he that heareth the sound of the trumpet, whosoever he be, and doth not look to himself, if the sword come and cut him off―then his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not look to himself, his blood shall be upon him―but if he look to himself, he shall save his life. And if the watchman see the sword coming and sound not the trumpet, and the people look not to themselves, and the sword come and cut off a soul from among them, he indeed is taken away in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at the hand of the watchman. So thou, O son of man, I have made thee a watchman to the house of Israel! Therefore thou shalt hear the word from My mouth, and shalt tell it them from Me. When I say to the wicked: “O wicked man, thou shalt surely die!”―if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked man from his way, then that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but I will require his blood at thy hand. But if thou tell the wicked man, so that he may be converted from his ways, and he be not converted from his way: then he shall die in his iniquity―but thou hast delivered thy own soul. Thou, therefore, O son of man, say to the house of Israel: “Thus you have spoken, saying: ‘Our iniquities, and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them: how then can we live?’ Say to them: ‘As I live,’ saith the Lord God, ‘I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die, O house of Israel?’” (Ezechiel 33:1-11).
Unfortunately, we, the watchmen fail to see and as watchdogs, we fail to bark! “His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant―dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams!” (Isaias 56:10).
Same Old Message! Same Old Reaction! Same Old Result! O Hell!
Holy Scripture is actually not very popular! Why? Because of its inescapable, clear, hard-hitting, simple truths. Scripture leaves no hiding places―unless, like Protestants, you quote it selectively, leaving the “hard-to-take” truths aside or stuffing them in the closet or under a stone. The truth and logic of Holy Scripture leaves little or no room for arguing or debating―it is what it is, and, being at times so simple, its truth and its meaning cannot be misinterpreted. Like God, the truths of Scripture will not change and they are the yardstick by which we have to measure what we believe and what we say. On the point of sin and penance (payment for sin), there is no wiggle-room, as the following quotes show. The message is the same all throughout the Old and New Testaments. It is message that we need to take on board and communicate to those who surround―even those above us, if necessary, just as the children at La Salette and Fatima were told to communicate Our Lady’s message to everyone.
First of all, both the Old and New Testaments lay down the basic law: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole strength!” (Deuteronomy 6:5) … “What doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but that thou fear the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways, and love Him, and serve the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul” (Deuteronomy 10:12) … “Jesus said to him: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment! And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets.’” (Matthew 22:37-40).
Secondly, how do show our love for God? “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If anyone love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10). “And all the days of thy life have God in thy mind: and take heed thou never consent to sin, nor transgress the commandments of the Lord our God!” (Tobias 4:6). If we keep the commandments of God, we show that we love Him―if we break the commandments of God, then we commit sin.
Thirdly, “Sin, when it is completed, begetteth death!” (James 1:15) … “The soul that sinneth, the same shall die!” (Ezechiel 18:20). “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23) … “By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
Fourthly, God gives the sinner a chance: “Is it My will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? If the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all My commandments, and do judgment and justice―then living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done! In his justice, which he hath wrought, he shall live!” (Ezechiel 18:21-23). “Let him do penance for his sin” (Leviticus 5:5). “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride!” (Job 24:23). “There is none that doth penance for his sin!” (Jeremias 8:6). “Hear, I beseech you, My words, and do penance!” (Job 21:2). “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
The Stupidity of Man
Most souls perish! Why? Because they have not truly repented of their grave sins, confessed them and done penance for them. Simple! Clear! Logical! Frightening! Why do they not repent? Why do they not confess? Why do they fail to do penance? Because they have lost the sense of sin! They have been fooled, hoodwinked, brainwashed and blinded by the gospel of world, which they have been happily drinking , despite the warnings of God not to mix with the world, not to listen to the world, not to follow the world and not to love the world―for the world is an enemy of God. If you fail to see that, fail to understand that, fail to believe that, fail to act on that―then there is nothing that God can do for you, except to allow you to blindly follow your own blind will until, following the blind world, you fall into the pit. Once again, Holy Scripture shows this clearly, simply and without any possible misinterpretation of its words:
“In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the charity of God, that we keep His commandments―and His commandments are not heavy. For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our Faith!” (1 John 5:2-4). “The cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, choke up the word of God, and the word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit” (Matthew 13:3-8, 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-15). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of unbelievers, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, Who is the image of God, should not shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).
To the worldlings Our Lord says: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To His followers He says: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you!” (John 15:18). “The world hateth Me because I give testimony of it, that the works thereof are evil!” (John 7:7). “He that loveth his life [in this world] shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal!” (John 12:25).
“If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “For we brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out!” (1 Timothy 6:7). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15).
“Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
What Can You Not Understand?
What is there that is so hard to understand about those simple, clear, logical words of God from Holy Scripture? Yet many do not want to hear them! They do not want to understand them! They do not want to believe them! They do not want to follow them! “O foolish people without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not!” (Jeremias 5:21). “They have not known, nor understood: for their eyes are covered that they may not see, and that they may not understand with their heart” (Isaias 44:18). “Let them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
The only thing modern-man wants to see, look at, listen to and do―is spend hours watching TV, hours on the smartphone or tablet or laptop, browsing the world, reading, listening to and watching the gospel of world unfold on social media, Youtube, worldly websites, gossipy forums, salacious slander, accusatory articles, worldly trivial news, etc., etc., etc. Rather than believe Our Lord’s words that we cannot serve God and mammon, today mammon is on par with God―in some cases even way ahead of God, judging by the time given to mammon instead of God!
The Ember Days and the Season of Lent should be the time of a much needed reality check―not virtual reality, but real reality! How do we really stand with God? Remember that even with His Chosen People, “with most of them God was not well pleased!” (1 Corinthians 10:5). It would be amiss to review the whole passage from which that quote comes―especially so since it was the reading at Mass for Septuagesima Sunday:
“For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea! And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased―for they were overthrown in the desert! Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’ Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur: as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-12).
The above passage perfectly describes the modern Catholic world! Except that today we have far more idols than they had―and our “desert” is a “spiritual desert” located in the oasis of the materialistic malls and stores of the world. With most of us, God is not well pleased―which Our Lady has made abundantly clear in her many modern day apparitions. Use this Lent as a springboard to the rest of your life, to detach yourself―and your nearest and dearest―from the enemy of God (the world and all it offers) and start to pay back by penance for the worldly love and addictions of the past, and begin to learn how to love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, whole mind, whole soul and whole strength! “For charity covereth a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8) and “He must know that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).
Tuesday March 12th
Article 16
The Thoughts and Ways of the Lord Are Not Our Thoughts and Ways!
Article 16
The Thoughts and Ways of the Lord Are Not Our Thoughts and Ways!
So You Know Better Than God, Huh?
There is a quote from God that everyone should engrave in their minds and in their hearts―but not tattoo on their bodies (for that would be sinful, to deface the body). The quote in question, which cannot be questioned, is: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:1-9). Those are potentially soul-saving words, which, if taken to heart and committed to mind, should lead to the next stage, of which Holy Scripture speaks: “And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints” (Romans 8:28).
What is Good for the Goose is Not Good Enough for Us
The problem is that we do not always see God’s thoughts and ways as being “good” for us. The way we often think and act―even though we might not admit it or even be aware of it―indicates or implies that we know better than God as to what should be happening and that our plan is better than God’s plan. Do you agree, or are you in a state of denial? Okay, let us look at this another way (since God’s ways are not our ways)―we rejoice when things turn out to our profit and we are saddened when things work out badly. Unfortunately, we value “short-term” goods and successes more than we value “long-term” goods and successes. In other words, we look for a false happiness in this world in place of a true happiness in the next world. Of course, we would prefer to “have our cake and eat it”―but Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24), and He tells us “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21). Even Our Lady echoes the same message when speaking to St. Bernadette at Lourdes: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next!” Which is why Our Lord warned: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Bland Bread of Life versus the Chocolate Cream Cake of the World
Yet many happily exchange their eternal happiness for earthly happiness and are happy enough with that until they die and find out what real happiness is and what they have missed-out on for eternity. We have all done it, some are still doing it! We want our cake and we want to it―we give God lip service and serve the world with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. We receive the plain, bland-tasting, unattractive Bread of Life on Sunday and we greedily gobble the sugary, multi-layered, fruit filled, chocolate studded, ice-cream topped cake of the world for the rest of the week―which the devil and the world is only too pleased to give away at cheap, discounted prices or even for free!
We seek wealth and riches―or at least a comfortable way of life―but this does not seem to be according to God’s “thought” or God’s way! For a start, Our Lord chose to come and live in relative poverty―even though He wasn’t the poorest man in the world, He was extremely far from being rich and wealthy―from the little that was given to Him during the three years of His public ministry, Our Lord gave a lot it away, which rankled and irritated the money greedy petty thief who held Our Lord’s purse strings―Judas.
Our Lord put the world and its possessions in opposition to the Kingdom of Heaven, when He said: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). To confirm this preference for poverty over riches, Our Lord said to the sincere, good, but rich young man who desired perfection and eternal life:
“Jesus saith to him: ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions [Today, many people must have far more possessions than that rich young man had in his day!]. . Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’
“And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible. Then Peter answering, said to Him: ‘Behold we have left all things, and have followed Thee! What therefore shall we have?’ And Jesus said to them: ‘Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed Me, and every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My Name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting!” (Matthew 19:16-29).
Don’t Waste Time and Money on What Fails to Satisfy!
The quote, about God’s thoughts and ways, can be seen here in its full context. When God spoke through His prophet Isaias, saying: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:1-9), these were said during the captivity and exile of the Jews in Babylon, but at the time of Babylon’s fall to the invading and conquering Persians. Rumors began to circulate that the Jews would be allowed to return home. Isaias is referring to this possibility of a return to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon and his words find a skeptical audience. He tells them that their liberation was an invitation to celebrate; that their time of exile had come to an end; that their “prison sentence” was over. Even the morally questionable were invited to the celebration. The people would be as one again. And they would be with their God again. Thus God said:
“All you that thirst, come to the waters! And you, that have no money, make haste, buy, and eat! Come ye, buy wine and milk, without money and without any price! Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doth not satisfy you? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat that which is good, and your soul shall be delighted in fatness. Incline your ear and come to Me! … Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found! Call upon Him, while He is near! Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God: for He is bountiful to forgive. For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:1-9).
Yet, sadly, after 70 years of captivity―where several new generations had been born and raised away from Jerusalem and were accustomed to living in the worldly Babylon―the news of a possible return to the remains of a destroyed Jerusalem, was greeted with as much enthusiasm as the news of an approaching Lent is greeted by Catholics today―who have grown so accustomed to comfortable and worldly lifestyle that a spiritual good (fasting) is seen as an evil which saddens. We pine for the ‘bread’ of the world, and eschew or spit-out the less tasty Bread of the Word of God, of which Jesus said, when tempted by devil in the desert: “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God!” (Matthew 4:4).
Unfortunately, today most Catholics live on the ‘bread’ of the world, following the ‘ways and thoughts’ of the world, rather than the thoughts, words and ways of God. Of such, Holy Scripture says: “Many walk, of whom I have told you often―and now tell you weeping―that they are enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things!” (Philippians 3:18-19). When you care for earthly things, worldly pleasures, comfort and ease, fun and entertainment, then you instinctively develop a dislike for the cross and suffering, or even a detestation for the cross and suffering. The “thoughts and ways of the Lord” become abhorrent, unfair, too difficult, too demanding―to the point that we are tempted to cry out with the Chosen People of old: “The way of the Lord is not right!” (Ezechiel 18:25)―to which God answers: “Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel! Is it My way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse?”
Rejecting the Ways of God
Both Catholics and Protestants have increasingly rejected the words of God. Both nations and families have increasingly abandoned God’s ways and care little for His thoughts. The Catholic Church―once a bastion of truth and morality―has become a bastard of lies and immorality by copulating with the world. The priesthood and religious orders are increasingly fulfilling Our Lady of La Salette’s prediction: “The priests have become cesspools of impurity … In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the king of all hearts.” Catholic families increasingly cease practicing their Faith and no longer regularly attend Sunday Mass, because, as Our Lady foretold, “[Only a] small number of souls, who are hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue … Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth ... because of the corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education … People will think of nothing but amusement … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent! (Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette).
Catholic Who Reject, Risk Being Rejected
How can you really profess or pretend to be a serious, true, committed Catholic when you mix into your Faith the poisons of the world? TV, certain kinds of music, visiting certain internet sites (meaning the worldly ones, not just the filthy ones), permitting certain fashions to your children, allowing unrestricted and addictive use of social media, the internet and other media? Such Catholics are Catholics in name only―but are not true Catholics. They form part of the “blizzard” of damned souls, or the “goats” on Our Lord’s left hand that are condemned. For God clearly makes known His THOUGHTS and His WAYS when He says (as Christ): “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24) and “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Most Catholics treasure their TV, their smartphone, their tablet or laptop, their worldly internet sites, their ‘music box’ of one kind or another, their social media, their parties, socials, barbecues, dances, sports and fashions, etc. They treasure these more than they treasure God―they have no intention of relinquishing those worldly preoccupations (that have become addictions), but intend to serve God and mammon for the rest of their lives. Their ways are not God’s way, their thoughts are not God’s thoughts, and little do they think or realize that they are on the broad wide road that leads to damnation: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “And why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Stop Pretending! Stop Two-Timing God!
In other words, why do you profess yourself to be a Catholic, but ignore the thoughts and ways of the Lord? Why are you not progressively and increasingly detaching yourself from the world and its thoughts and ways―for the world is an enemy of God: “Our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world!” (Galatians 1:3-4). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31).
“If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20). “For we brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out!” (1 Timothy 6:7). “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
True Catholicism Demands True Bravery
True Catholicism requires that we fight against the world and not that we make peace with this world! “For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16). We are called to fight against the world: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). Therefore we must “Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12) and not fight to cling onto the world and its thoughts and ways. Heaven is not for the half-hearted, but for the fighters, as the following words of Our Lord prove:
“The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth―I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household!” (Matthew 10:34-36). “For they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony unto them … And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Mark 13:9-13). “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). It is not for nothing that elsewhere Holy Scripture says: “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1).
God’s Thoughts and Ways of Fighting is Not Our Thoughts and Way of Fighting
Yet God’s way of fighting―even though He has used extreme violence at times, not only by destroying the Egyptian army, as well many of the pagans that threatened the existence of His Chosen People, but even destroying some of His Chosen People, delivering them over to many decades of exile and oppression as in the Babylonian Captivity, and destroying Jerusalem in 70 AD, etc.―usually God fights in a way that scandalizes us. Our Lord allows Himself to be betrayed, tortured and put to death―thereby practicing what He preached about our fate at the hands of the world. He says to us to be content and happy when persecuted, maligned and suffering violence: “You have heard that it hath been said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!’ But I say to you not to resist evil―but if anyone strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other! … Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice! For your reward is very great in Heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:38-39; 5:10-12). We were not made “soldiers of Christ” in the Sacrament of Confirmation for nothing and for no reason or purpose! A soldier must fight! Fight whom? Fight the triple enemy―the devil, the world and our own passions and concupiscence: “Overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof!” (1 John 2:14-17).
God’s Idea of Weaponry Are Not Our Idea of Weaponry
When we think of a war or fighting, we think of punches, kicks, blows, stabbing, shooting, bombing, killing, annihilating. We imagine guns, artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, planes, missiles, etc. The weaponry that God has in mind is not what we have in mind―His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts. Rather than kill the enemy, God wants us to convert the enemy. Rather than shoot them down with bullets or kill them with bombs and missiles, God want us to shoot them with the truth and kill their errors with the ‘bombs’ and ‘missiles’ of the Word of God.
“They shall come upon thee well appointed with chariot and wheel, a multitude of people: they shall be armed against thee on every side with breastplate, and buckler [a small round shield], and helmet” (Ezechiel 23:24). “Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect! Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice! And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace! In all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17). “From His mouth came out a sharp two-edged sword” (Apocalypse 1:16). “And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp two edged sword; that with it He may strike the nations!” (Apocalypse 19:15). “For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart!” (Hebrews 4:12). “Every word of God is fire tried!” (Proverbs 30:5). “The word of the Lord is tried by fire! He is the shield of all that trust in Him!” (2 Kings 22:31). “All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Notice that it doesn’t say: “Therefore take unto you the armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day! Stand, therefore, in front of your TV set or computer screen, having your mind girt with latest posts on the internet, and having on the breastplate of social media, and your remote control in your left hand and your smartphone in your right hand, with the helmet of the virtual-reality before your eyes, and the headphones of music on your head, and your feet shod with the latest designer sneakers, trainers or basketball shoes, and yourself clothed with robes of the latest fashions.” Those are the weapons and armor of the enemy―the world. We should be weaning ourselves off those things and taking unto ourselves the true armor and weapons of God―less glamorous, but more effective and profitable.
The Spoils of War and the Fruits of Faith
When we speak of “the spoils of war” we mean the profits obtained as the result of winning a war or other military activity. These “spoils of war” are further categorized as “prizes of war” which are regarded as legitimate or lawful, and “war looting” which is regarded as illegitimate or unlawful.
It is the role of every Catholic―since they are soldiers of Christ by virtue of the Sacrament of Confirmation―to fight against the devil, the world their own flesh with its passions and concupiscence. The armor, as a whole and in general terms, is the Faith: “For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world―and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). Yet many have thrown this ‘armor’ of Faith away―so much so that we are seeing the relevance of Our Lord’s prophecy when He said: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8).
We know, of course, that He won’t find much Faith left―as Our Lady has foretold. She speaks of a general falling away from the Faith among both clergy, religious and laity: “As heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God … People will think of nothing but amusement. The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls … A great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … [Only a] small number of souls, who are hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith” (Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette).
Our Lord will look to see what fruits of the Faith can be found, and, like the fruitless fig tree, the Church will have no noticeable fruit to be found. It is not that everyone will have lost the Faith in the strict sense―though many will have apostatized from the Faith―there will some who still ‘believe’, but they will also ‘believe’ the false gospel of the devil and the world. Believing alone is not enough―as Hoy Scripture says: “Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well―but the devils also believe and tremble!” (James 2:19). That is why Scripture adds: “Faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself … But some man will say: ‘Thou hast faith, and I have works!’ Show me thy Faith without works; and I will show thee, by works, my Faith! Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only? … For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:17-26). Just as a tree produces fruits, so must the Faith produce fruits, which we call the works of Faith―or, in day modern parlance, we say: “Actions (Faith with works) speak louder than words” (Faith without works).
St. Bede on Fruits and Works
In the Breviary or Divine Office readings from Matins of Tuesday after the First Sunday of Lent, Holy Mother Church presents us with a homily of St. Bede on the subject of Our Lord searching for our fruits or works of Faith. Here is what St. Bede writes in his Eleventh Homily for Lent, Volume 7:
“The same thing which the Lord showed in a figure by cursing the barren fig-tree, He afterwards more plainly put before us by casting the desecrators out of the Temple [in Jerusalem]. The tree herself had not sinned by bearing no fruit, when the Lord was hungry, for the time of figs was not yet come, but those priests had sinned who were carrying on worldly business in the Lord’s house, and who neglected to bring forth that fruit of godliness which they owed, and which the Lord was hungry to find in them. The Lord made the fig-tree to wither away under His curse, that all men who saw it, and all men who hear of it, might know that they will be condemned by the judgment of God, if they content themselves with the talk of godliness, without the solid fruit of good works, even as that barren fig tree was clothed only with a rustling garb of green leaves. (Faith without works is dead―be not hearers of the word, but doers also).
“But because the buyers and sellers understood not the parable of the barren fig-tree, the Lord brought upon them the stroke of the punishment that they had deserved, and cast out the traffickers in earthly things, from that house, wherein it had been commanded that nothing should be done save the work of God, sacrifices and prayers offered up to Him, and His word read, taught, and sung. And yet it may be believed that nothing was being sold or bought in the Temple save such things as were needful for the service thereof, as we read in another place (John 2:14), that when Jesus went into the Temple, He found those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and all these things were, without doubt, there for no other end but to be offered to God in His holy House, and were sold by the natives to those worshipers who came from a distance, to be so used. (Those oxen, sheep doves―TVs, smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc., and any and all other worldly things that distract us from God and hinder our worship of God).
“If, therefore, the Lord would not have to be sold in the temple, even such things as He willed should be offered therein―(on account, that is, of the greed or dishonesty which is often the stain of such transactions)―with what anger, suppose ye, would He visit such as He might find laughing or gossiping there, or yielding to any other sin. If the Lord suffer not to be carried on, in His house, such worldly business as may be freely done elsewhere, how much more shall such things as ought never to be done anywhere, draw down the anger of God if they be done in His own holy House.” (St. Bede the Venerable, Doctor of the Church, as quoted in the Breviary for Matins of the Tuesday after the 1st Sunday of Lent).
Not Everyone Produces Fruit from Faith
Fruits have to be cultivated and protected from the pests of the world―the same is true for the “Fruits of the Faith.” Fruits come from trees and trees come from seeds. Our Lord says as much in the parable about the Sower of the Seed. He explains that the “seed” that is sown is the “word of God”―but not all of the seed that is sown ends up becoming a tree or a plant that bears fruit. “The sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And other some fell upon a rock: and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And other some fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with it, choked it. And other some fell upon good ground; and being sprung up, yielded fruit a hundredfold. The seed is the word of God. And they by the way side are they that hear; then the devil cometh, and taketh the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be saved. Now they upon the rock, are they who when they hear, receive the word with joy: and these have no roots; for they believe for a while, and in time of temptation, they fall away. And that which fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit. But that on the good ground, are they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience” (Luke 8:5-15).
The “No Nots”, the “Know Nots”, the “Know Knots” and the “No Knots”
As the philosophical axiom states: “Something cannot give what it has not got.” Our Lord basically says this is His parable: The seed withered away and could give no fruit because it had no moisture. Other seed could not give fruit because it had no roots. This is true of our Faith and what we do with it. We receive the seed of Faith in baptism, but it is received in SEED FORM. This seed of Faith has to watered, nourished and cultivated and protected from weeds and thorns, the “birds of the air” and other pests.
Those who are “NO NOTS” are those who say: “No! I will not water, nourish and cultivate and protect my seed of Faith from weeds and thorns, the birds of the air and other pests!”
The “KNOW NOTS” are those who want the Faith, but know not the Faith, or know very little about the Faith. Hence they give their seed of Faith too little moisture and too little nourishment. They do not nourish their Faith on the word of God through reading Holy Scripture and other spiritual books; they do not produce deep roots by meditation; they do not water the Faith with grace obtained by much prayer. They do something, but it is too little.
The “KNOW KNOTS” are those whose Faith is tangled knots by their imprudence in trying serve the world as well as God. They have sown many seeds of the world around their Faith, which, as they grow, choke and starve the Faith by stealing its nourishment and moisture―by taking up our time with unimportant or secondary materialistic, worldly or earthly matters. Time (nourishment) and love (moisture) that could and should be given to God―“thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength” (Mark 12:30)―that time and love is given to other things instead. Thus, like an embryo in its mother’s womb, their Faith gets all tangled and knotted and they strangle their Faith like the baby strangles on the umbilical cord―thus producing, not fruit, but dead fruit or a spiritual miscarriage.
The “NO KNOTS” are those who are not entangled at all with the things of the world and in whom there are no knots to be found to choke and strangle them. They are what Our Lord calls “the good ground, they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience.”
Not Fruit By Magic, But By Hard Work
Of course we should be trying to know the thoughts and follow the ways of God―as taught and lived-out by Our Lord. The first Christians found this difficult. Every generation since then has found this difficult. But, as Jesus said: “With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:26). “The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God!” (Luke 18:27). However, God is not going to “wave a magic wand” and make us effortlessly attain our salvation. He will, however, help us by His grace and inspirations to carry our cross to our salvation. “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23). “And he that taketh not up his cross and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). The cross is the “good tree” that Jesus looks for in our lives―and the pains, sacrifices, mortifications and sufferings of the cross are the fruits that Jesus wants to find on that “good tree” of the cross. If you like, you could call those “fruits” of the “good tree” by another name―the “spoils of war” or the “legitimate prizes of war.”
In the reading from today’s Mass―Tuesday after the First Sunday of Lent―God stated: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts. And as the rain and the snow come down from Heaven, and return no more there, but soak the Earth and water it, and make it to spring, and give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater―so shall My word be, which shall go forth from My mouth. It shall not return to Me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please, and shall prosper in the things for which I sent it!” (Isaias 55:8-11). Is the word of God watering, seeding, growing and prospering in your soul? Are you doing what God sent you to do in this world? Or is your Faith returning to God void of any fruits―like the barren fig-tree, which Our Lord cursed because He found no fruit on its branches? As the reading in the Epistle from the First Sunday of Lent said: “Receive not the grace of God in vain. For He saith: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).
There is a quote from God that everyone should engrave in their minds and in their hearts―but not tattoo on their bodies (for that would be sinful, to deface the body). The quote in question, which cannot be questioned, is: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:1-9). Those are potentially soul-saving words, which, if taken to heart and committed to mind, should lead to the next stage, of which Holy Scripture speaks: “And we know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints” (Romans 8:28).
What is Good for the Goose is Not Good Enough for Us
The problem is that we do not always see God’s thoughts and ways as being “good” for us. The way we often think and act―even though we might not admit it or even be aware of it―indicates or implies that we know better than God as to what should be happening and that our plan is better than God’s plan. Do you agree, or are you in a state of denial? Okay, let us look at this another way (since God’s ways are not our ways)―we rejoice when things turn out to our profit and we are saddened when things work out badly. Unfortunately, we value “short-term” goods and successes more than we value “long-term” goods and successes. In other words, we look for a false happiness in this world in place of a true happiness in the next world. Of course, we would prefer to “have our cake and eat it”―but Our Lord says: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24), and He tells us “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21). Even Our Lady echoes the same message when speaking to St. Bernadette at Lourdes: “I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next!” Which is why Our Lord warned: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26).
Bland Bread of Life versus the Chocolate Cream Cake of the World
Yet many happily exchange their eternal happiness for earthly happiness and are happy enough with that until they die and find out what real happiness is and what they have missed-out on for eternity. We have all done it, some are still doing it! We want our cake and we want to it―we give God lip service and serve the world with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength. We receive the plain, bland-tasting, unattractive Bread of Life on Sunday and we greedily gobble the sugary, multi-layered, fruit filled, chocolate studded, ice-cream topped cake of the world for the rest of the week―which the devil and the world is only too pleased to give away at cheap, discounted prices or even for free!
We seek wealth and riches―or at least a comfortable way of life―but this does not seem to be according to God’s “thought” or God’s way! For a start, Our Lord chose to come and live in relative poverty―even though He wasn’t the poorest man in the world, He was extremely far from being rich and wealthy―from the little that was given to Him during the three years of His public ministry, Our Lord gave a lot it away, which rankled and irritated the money greedy petty thief who held Our Lord’s purse strings―Judas.
Our Lord put the world and its possessions in opposition to the Kingdom of Heaven, when He said: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). To confirm this preference for poverty over riches, Our Lord said to the sincere, good, but rich young man who desired perfection and eternal life:
“Jesus saith to him: ‘If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, he went away sad: for he had great possessions [Today, many people must have far more possessions than that rich young man had in his day!]. . Then Jesus said to His disciples: ‘Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’
“And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible. Then Peter answering, said to Him: ‘Behold we have left all things, and have followed Thee! What therefore shall we have?’ And Jesus said to them: ‘Amen, I say to you, that you, who have followed Me, and every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My Name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting!” (Matthew 19:16-29).
Don’t Waste Time and Money on What Fails to Satisfy!
The quote, about God’s thoughts and ways, can be seen here in its full context. When God spoke through His prophet Isaias, saying: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:1-9), these were said during the captivity and exile of the Jews in Babylon, but at the time of Babylon’s fall to the invading and conquering Persians. Rumors began to circulate that the Jews would be allowed to return home. Isaias is referring to this possibility of a return to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon and his words find a skeptical audience. He tells them that their liberation was an invitation to celebrate; that their time of exile had come to an end; that their “prison sentence” was over. Even the morally questionable were invited to the celebration. The people would be as one again. And they would be with their God again. Thus God said:
“All you that thirst, come to the waters! And you, that have no money, make haste, buy, and eat! Come ye, buy wine and milk, without money and without any price! Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doth not satisfy you? Hearken diligently to Me, and eat that which is good, and your soul shall be delighted in fatness. Incline your ear and come to Me! … Seek ye the Lord, while He may be found! Call upon Him, while He is near! Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God: for He is bountiful to forgive. For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:1-9).
Yet, sadly, after 70 years of captivity―where several new generations had been born and raised away from Jerusalem and were accustomed to living in the worldly Babylon―the news of a possible return to the remains of a destroyed Jerusalem, was greeted with as much enthusiasm as the news of an approaching Lent is greeted by Catholics today―who have grown so accustomed to comfortable and worldly lifestyle that a spiritual good (fasting) is seen as an evil which saddens. We pine for the ‘bread’ of the world, and eschew or spit-out the less tasty Bread of the Word of God, of which Jesus said, when tempted by devil in the desert: “Not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God!” (Matthew 4:4).
Unfortunately, today most Catholics live on the ‘bread’ of the world, following the ‘ways and thoughts’ of the world, rather than the thoughts, words and ways of God. Of such, Holy Scripture says: “Many walk, of whom I have told you often―and now tell you weeping―that they are enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things!” (Philippians 3:18-19). When you care for earthly things, worldly pleasures, comfort and ease, fun and entertainment, then you instinctively develop a dislike for the cross and suffering, or even a detestation for the cross and suffering. The “thoughts and ways of the Lord” become abhorrent, unfair, too difficult, too demanding―to the point that we are tempted to cry out with the Chosen People of old: “The way of the Lord is not right!” (Ezechiel 18:25)―to which God answers: “Hear ye, therefore, O house of Israel! Is it My way that is not right, and are not rather your ways perverse?”
Rejecting the Ways of God
Both Catholics and Protestants have increasingly rejected the words of God. Both nations and families have increasingly abandoned God’s ways and care little for His thoughts. The Catholic Church―once a bastion of truth and morality―has become a bastard of lies and immorality by copulating with the world. The priesthood and religious orders are increasingly fulfilling Our Lady of La Salette’s prediction: “The priests have become cesspools of impurity … In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the king of all hearts.” Catholic families increasingly cease practicing their Faith and no longer regularly attend Sunday Mass, because, as Our Lady foretold, “[Only a] small number of souls, who are hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue … Disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth ... because of the corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education … People will think of nothing but amusement … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women. In this supreme moment of need of the Church, those who should speak will fall silent! (Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette).
Catholic Who Reject, Risk Being Rejected
How can you really profess or pretend to be a serious, true, committed Catholic when you mix into your Faith the poisons of the world? TV, certain kinds of music, visiting certain internet sites (meaning the worldly ones, not just the filthy ones), permitting certain fashions to your children, allowing unrestricted and addictive use of social media, the internet and other media? Such Catholics are Catholics in name only―but are not true Catholics. They form part of the “blizzard” of damned souls, or the “goats” on Our Lord’s left hand that are condemned. For God clearly makes known His THOUGHTS and His WAYS when He says (as Christ): “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24) and “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth … But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also!” (Matthew 6:19-21).
Most Catholics treasure their TV, their smartphone, their tablet or laptop, their worldly internet sites, their ‘music box’ of one kind or another, their social media, their parties, socials, barbecues, dances, sports and fashions, etc. They treasure these more than they treasure God―they have no intention of relinquishing those worldly preoccupations (that have become addictions), but intend to serve God and mammon for the rest of their lives. Their ways are not God’s way, their thoughts are not God’s thoughts, and little do they think or realize that they are on the broad wide road that leads to damnation: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14). “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “And why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Stop Pretending! Stop Two-Timing God!
In other words, why do you profess yourself to be a Catholic, but ignore the thoughts and ways of the Lord? Why are you not progressively and increasingly detaching yourself from the world and its thoughts and ways―for the world is an enemy of God: “Our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world!” (Galatians 1:3-4). “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “Adulterers! Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God!” (James 4:4). “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “That we be not condemned with this world!” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world!” (1 John 2:16). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31).
“If then you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world, why do you still act as though living in the world?” (Colossians 2:20). “For we brought nothing into this world: and certainly we can carry nothing out!” (1 Timothy 6:7). “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
True Catholicism Demands True Bravery
True Catholicism requires that we fight against the world and not that we make peace with this world! “For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-16). We are called to fight against the world: “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places!” (Ephesians 6:12). Therefore we must “Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12) and not fight to cling onto the world and its thoughts and ways. Heaven is not for the half-hearted, but for the fighters, as the following words of Our Lord prove:
“The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). “Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth―I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household!” (Matthew 10:34-36). “For they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony unto them … And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Mark 13:9-13). “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you!” (John 15:19). It is not for nothing that elsewhere Holy Scripture says: “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1).
God’s Thoughts and Ways of Fighting is Not Our Thoughts and Way of Fighting
Yet God’s way of fighting―even though He has used extreme violence at times, not only by destroying the Egyptian army, as well many of the pagans that threatened the existence of His Chosen People, but even destroying some of His Chosen People, delivering them over to many decades of exile and oppression as in the Babylonian Captivity, and destroying Jerusalem in 70 AD, etc.―usually God fights in a way that scandalizes us. Our Lord allows Himself to be betrayed, tortured and put to death―thereby practicing what He preached about our fate at the hands of the world. He says to us to be content and happy when persecuted, maligned and suffering violence: “You have heard that it hath been said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth!’ But I say to you not to resist evil―but if anyone strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other! … Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice! For your reward is very great in Heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:38-39; 5:10-12). We were not made “soldiers of Christ” in the Sacrament of Confirmation for nothing and for no reason or purpose! A soldier must fight! Fight whom? Fight the triple enemy―the devil, the world and our own passions and concupiscence: “Overcome the wicked one. Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof!” (1 John 2:14-17).
God’s Idea of Weaponry Are Not Our Idea of Weaponry
When we think of a war or fighting, we think of punches, kicks, blows, stabbing, shooting, bombing, killing, annihilating. We imagine guns, artillery, tanks, armored vehicles, planes, missiles, etc. The weaponry that God has in mind is not what we have in mind―His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts. Rather than kill the enemy, God wants us to convert the enemy. Rather than shoot them down with bullets or kill them with bombs and missiles, God want us to shoot them with the truth and kill their errors with the ‘bombs’ and ‘missiles’ of the Word of God.
“They shall come upon thee well appointed with chariot and wheel, a multitude of people: they shall be armed against thee on every side with breastplate, and buckler [a small round shield], and helmet” (Ezechiel 23:24). “Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect! Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice! And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace! In all things taking the shield of Faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:13-17). “From His mouth came out a sharp two-edged sword” (Apocalypse 1:16). “And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp two edged sword; that with it He may strike the nations!” (Apocalypse 19:15). “For the word of God is living and effectual, and more piercing than any two-edged sword; and reaching unto the division of the soul and the spirit, of the joints also and the marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart!” (Hebrews 4:12). “Every word of God is fire tried!” (Proverbs 30:5). “The word of the Lord is tried by fire! He is the shield of all that trust in Him!” (2 Kings 22:31). “All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Notice that it doesn’t say: “Therefore take unto you the armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day! Stand, therefore, in front of your TV set or computer screen, having your mind girt with latest posts on the internet, and having on the breastplate of social media, and your remote control in your left hand and your smartphone in your right hand, with the helmet of the virtual-reality before your eyes, and the headphones of music on your head, and your feet shod with the latest designer sneakers, trainers or basketball shoes, and yourself clothed with robes of the latest fashions.” Those are the weapons and armor of the enemy―the world. We should be weaning ourselves off those things and taking unto ourselves the true armor and weapons of God―less glamorous, but more effective and profitable.
The Spoils of War and the Fruits of Faith
When we speak of “the spoils of war” we mean the profits obtained as the result of winning a war or other military activity. These “spoils of war” are further categorized as “prizes of war” which are regarded as legitimate or lawful, and “war looting” which is regarded as illegitimate or unlawful.
It is the role of every Catholic―since they are soldiers of Christ by virtue of the Sacrament of Confirmation―to fight against the devil, the world their own flesh with its passions and concupiscence. The armor, as a whole and in general terms, is the Faith: “For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world―and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our Faith!” (1 John 5:4). Yet many have thrown this ‘armor’ of Faith away―so much so that we are seeing the relevance of Our Lord’s prophecy when He said: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8).
We know, of course, that He won’t find much Faith left―as Our Lady has foretold. She speaks of a general falling away from the Faith among both clergy, religious and laity: “As heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God … People will think of nothing but amusement. The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls … A great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … [Only a] small number of souls, who are hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith” (Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette).
Our Lord will look to see what fruits of the Faith can be found, and, like the fruitless fig tree, the Church will have no noticeable fruit to be found. It is not that everyone will have lost the Faith in the strict sense―though many will have apostatized from the Faith―there will some who still ‘believe’, but they will also ‘believe’ the false gospel of the devil and the world. Believing alone is not enough―as Hoy Scripture says: “Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well―but the devils also believe and tremble!” (James 2:19). That is why Scripture adds: “Faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself … But some man will say: ‘Thou hast faith, and I have works!’ Show me thy Faith without works; and I will show thee, by works, my Faith! Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well: the devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? … Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only? … For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also Faith without works is dead!” (James 2:17-26). Just as a tree produces fruits, so must the Faith produce fruits, which we call the works of Faith―or, in day modern parlance, we say: “Actions (Faith with works) speak louder than words” (Faith without works).
St. Bede on Fruits and Works
In the Breviary or Divine Office readings from Matins of Tuesday after the First Sunday of Lent, Holy Mother Church presents us with a homily of St. Bede on the subject of Our Lord searching for our fruits or works of Faith. Here is what St. Bede writes in his Eleventh Homily for Lent, Volume 7:
“The same thing which the Lord showed in a figure by cursing the barren fig-tree, He afterwards more plainly put before us by casting the desecrators out of the Temple [in Jerusalem]. The tree herself had not sinned by bearing no fruit, when the Lord was hungry, for the time of figs was not yet come, but those priests had sinned who were carrying on worldly business in the Lord’s house, and who neglected to bring forth that fruit of godliness which they owed, and which the Lord was hungry to find in them. The Lord made the fig-tree to wither away under His curse, that all men who saw it, and all men who hear of it, might know that they will be condemned by the judgment of God, if they content themselves with the talk of godliness, without the solid fruit of good works, even as that barren fig tree was clothed only with a rustling garb of green leaves. (Faith without works is dead―be not hearers of the word, but doers also).
“But because the buyers and sellers understood not the parable of the barren fig-tree, the Lord brought upon them the stroke of the punishment that they had deserved, and cast out the traffickers in earthly things, from that house, wherein it had been commanded that nothing should be done save the work of God, sacrifices and prayers offered up to Him, and His word read, taught, and sung. And yet it may be believed that nothing was being sold or bought in the Temple save such things as were needful for the service thereof, as we read in another place (John 2:14), that when Jesus went into the Temple, He found those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and all these things were, without doubt, there for no other end but to be offered to God in His holy House, and were sold by the natives to those worshipers who came from a distance, to be so used. (Those oxen, sheep doves―TVs, smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc., and any and all other worldly things that distract us from God and hinder our worship of God).
“If, therefore, the Lord would not have to be sold in the temple, even such things as He willed should be offered therein―(on account, that is, of the greed or dishonesty which is often the stain of such transactions)―with what anger, suppose ye, would He visit such as He might find laughing or gossiping there, or yielding to any other sin. If the Lord suffer not to be carried on, in His house, such worldly business as may be freely done elsewhere, how much more shall such things as ought never to be done anywhere, draw down the anger of God if they be done in His own holy House.” (St. Bede the Venerable, Doctor of the Church, as quoted in the Breviary for Matins of the Tuesday after the 1st Sunday of Lent).
Not Everyone Produces Fruit from Faith
Fruits have to be cultivated and protected from the pests of the world―the same is true for the “Fruits of the Faith.” Fruits come from trees and trees come from seeds. Our Lord says as much in the parable about the Sower of the Seed. He explains that the “seed” that is sown is the “word of God”―but not all of the seed that is sown ends up becoming a tree or a plant that bears fruit. “The sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And other some fell upon a rock: and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And other some fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with it, choked it. And other some fell upon good ground; and being sprung up, yielded fruit a hundredfold. The seed is the word of God. And they by the way side are they that hear; then the devil cometh, and taketh the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be saved. Now they upon the rock, are they who when they hear, receive the word with joy: and these have no roots; for they believe for a while, and in time of temptation, they fall away. And that which fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit. But that on the good ground, are they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience” (Luke 8:5-15).
The “No Nots”, the “Know Nots”, the “Know Knots” and the “No Knots”
As the philosophical axiom states: “Something cannot give what it has not got.” Our Lord basically says this is His parable: The seed withered away and could give no fruit because it had no moisture. Other seed could not give fruit because it had no roots. This is true of our Faith and what we do with it. We receive the seed of Faith in baptism, but it is received in SEED FORM. This seed of Faith has to watered, nourished and cultivated and protected from weeds and thorns, the “birds of the air” and other pests.
Those who are “NO NOTS” are those who say: “No! I will not water, nourish and cultivate and protect my seed of Faith from weeds and thorns, the birds of the air and other pests!”
The “KNOW NOTS” are those who want the Faith, but know not the Faith, or know very little about the Faith. Hence they give their seed of Faith too little moisture and too little nourishment. They do not nourish their Faith on the word of God through reading Holy Scripture and other spiritual books; they do not produce deep roots by meditation; they do not water the Faith with grace obtained by much prayer. They do something, but it is too little.
The “KNOW KNOTS” are those whose Faith is tangled knots by their imprudence in trying serve the world as well as God. They have sown many seeds of the world around their Faith, which, as they grow, choke and starve the Faith by stealing its nourishment and moisture―by taking up our time with unimportant or secondary materialistic, worldly or earthly matters. Time (nourishment) and love (moisture) that could and should be given to God―“thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength” (Mark 12:30)―that time and love is given to other things instead. Thus, like an embryo in its mother’s womb, their Faith gets all tangled and knotted and they strangle their Faith like the baby strangles on the umbilical cord―thus producing, not fruit, but dead fruit or a spiritual miscarriage.
The “NO KNOTS” are those who are not entangled at all with the things of the world and in whom there are no knots to be found to choke and strangle them. They are what Our Lord calls “the good ground, they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience.”
Not Fruit By Magic, But By Hard Work
Of course we should be trying to know the thoughts and follow the ways of God―as taught and lived-out by Our Lord. The first Christians found this difficult. Every generation since then has found this difficult. But, as Jesus said: “With men this is impossible: but with God all things are possible!” (Matthew 19:26). “The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God!” (Luke 18:27). However, God is not going to “wave a magic wand” and make us effortlessly attain our salvation. He will, however, help us by His grace and inspirations to carry our cross to our salvation. “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23). “And he that taketh not up his cross and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38). The cross is the “good tree” that Jesus looks for in our lives―and the pains, sacrifices, mortifications and sufferings of the cross are the fruits that Jesus wants to find on that “good tree” of the cross. If you like, you could call those “fruits” of the “good tree” by another name―the “spoils of war” or the “legitimate prizes of war.”
In the reading from today’s Mass―Tuesday after the First Sunday of Lent―God stated: “My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts. And as the rain and the snow come down from Heaven, and return no more there, but soak the Earth and water it, and make it to spring, and give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater―so shall My word be, which shall go forth from My mouth. It shall not return to Me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please, and shall prosper in the things for which I sent it!” (Isaias 55:8-11). Is the word of God watering, seeding, growing and prospering in your soul? Are you doing what God sent you to do in this world? Or is your Faith returning to God void of any fruits―like the barren fig-tree, which Our Lord cursed because He found no fruit on its branches? As the reading in the Epistle from the First Sunday of Lent said: “Receive not the grace of God in vain. For He saith: ‘In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee!’ Behold, now is the acceptable time! Behold, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:1-2).
Monday March 11th
Article 15
The Devil and Temptation
Article 15
The Devil and Temptation
“Talk of the Devil, and He’s Bound to Appear!”
We have all heard that phrase used, perhaps more than once: “Talk of the devil, and he’s bound to appear!” But not to talk of the devil, is tantamount to spiritual suicide, as the following Church authorities will clearly testify. In a day and age, when many a pope and bishop (not to even mention Our Lady) has said that the devil has been unleashed into our world—to be negligent in talking about him and warning others of his presence, power and tactics, as well as pointing out the defenses and remedies against him, would be a grave sin of omission for which the negligent will one day have to answer and pay. So since the devil made his appearance in last Sunday’s Gospel of Our Lord’s temptation in the desert, we would do well to seriously reflect upon his impact in the world today and his impact on our families.
Words of Sister Lucia spoken in 1957 to Fr. Augustine Fuentes, a Mexican priest.
The importance of the subject is further underlined by the revelation Sister Lucia of Fatima made to Fr. Fuentes in 19557, when she revealed: “The Most Holy Virgin has made me understand that we are in the last times of the world. She has told me that the devil is about to wage a decisive battle with the Virgin, and a decisive battle is a final battle, in which one side wins, the other side loses. Also, starting with the present time, we belong either to God or we belong to the demon; there is no middle ground.”
“The devil is about to wage a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. The devil knows what it is that most offends God and which, in a short space of time, will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them.” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima interview with Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
Sr. Josefa Menendez Speaks of the Devil
In one the visions of Hell that Our Lord allowed Sr. Josefa to endure, she heard the devil, speaking of different ways of tempting, said: “Insinuate yourselves by inducing carelessness in them ... but keep in the background, so that you are not found out ... by degrees they will become callous, and you will be able to incline them to evil. Tempt these others to ambition, to self-interest, to acquiring wealth without working, whether it be lawful or not. Excite some to sensuality and love of pleasure. Let vice blind them ... As to the remainder ... get in through the heart ... you know the inclinations of their hearts ... make them love ... love passionately ... work thoroughly ... take no rest ... have no pity. Let them cram themselves with food! It will make it all the easier for us ... Let them get on with their banqueting. Love of pleasure is the door through which you will reach them.” (Sr. Josefa Menendez, The Way of Divine Love, February 3rd, 1923).
Ancient & Modern
There are many modern Catholics who do not like to refer to, nor rely on, quotes and opinions from the distant past, so, for their benefit, let us go against personal preferences and furnish some quotes from modern authors—popes and priests—to show any and all modern readers that the enemy is still the enemy, whether the times be ancient or modern. And the enemy has to spoken of and his tactics have to be revealed. Imagine not telling soldiers about their enemy for fear of frightening them; or failing to tell your children not to walk-off with strangers; or not telling them about the dangers of scorpions and snakes, for fear of scaring them! Our Lady did not fear showing a 7-year old, an 8-year old and a 10-year old a vision of Hell! So, here are your modern day quotes!
CAVEAT or WARNING!
The following quotes selected from various websites are merely a “reporting” of what was posted on those sites. There is no intent to recommend any or all of those websites. It is much like quoting from a secular newspaper’s website--it does not mean that we agree with all the content on that website. Nor do we endorse all that the modern popes say—for, as Pope St. Pius X said, the modernist will on one page of his writings give you the most beautiful traditional doctrine you can read, and then, on the next page, give you pure modernism. It is much like what is said of the devil: “Satan will admit nine truths in order to slip the lie on point number ten!”
► POPE FRANCIS AND THE (D)EVIL ONE
● Catholic Answers website
In fact, Pope Francis has shown himself to be a straight-talking preacher who isn’t afraid of using the kind of language that some in the dissenting camp might label as “negative” and “harsh.” I’ve lost count over how many times Pope Francis has used the words “devil”, “Satan”, “the Evil One”, and “the Enemy” in his homilies and various addresses. He has even quoted the French convert Leon Bloy, who said, “Whoever does not pray to God prays to the devil.”
(Catholic Answers website).
● Catholic News Agency (CAN) and EWTN News Service
Vatican City, May 14, 2013 (CNA/EWTN News). Christians who buy into Satan’s temptation to live selfishly, get swindled, while those who live life as a “gift” to others, are immersed in love and the Church community, Pope Francis said. “And, we must say, with Satan the payback is rotten. He always rips us off, always!” the Pope emphasized.
● Catholic Culture website
Pope Francis stated emphatically that the Devil’s existence is a reality, in his homily at a daily Mass on October 11th, 2103.
The Pope observed that some priests, when they preach about Gospel accounts of Jesus driving out demons, say that the stories refer to mental illness. It is true that sometimes mental illness can mimic demonic possession, the Pope conceded. “But it is also true that there was the devil!” “We should not be naïve,” the Pope continued. The devil is a reality, and refusing to recognize the struggle between Jesus and the devil is a way of only “halfway” accepting the salvific role of Jesus Christ. The Lord came to end “the enslavement the devil has over us,” the Pope said. He reminded his congregation of Christ’s words from the day’s Gospel: “Either you are with Me or you are against Me.” Pope Francis urged the faithful to guard against the devil, relying on the Holy Spirit and remaining vigilant against temptations.
► POPE FRANCIS ON THE DEVIL
● The Vatican Insider magazine
THE VATICAN INSIDER magazine ran an article entitled “To what extent does the Pope acknowledge the devil?” by their journalist Andrea Tornielli, on August 20, 2013. Here are some extracts from that article: “ ‘When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil’―these were the words of Pope Francis in the homily of his first Mass as Pope, celebrated in the Sistine Chapel on the day after being elected ...
On March 24th, 2013, in St. Peter’s Square, while celebrating World Youth Day, he recalled the fact that a Christian’s joy comes not from owning many possessions but from encountering Jesus, ‘from knowing that with Him we are never alone, even when we come across problems and obstacles in life that seem insurmountable – and there are so many of them! That is when the enemy comes, when the devil comes.’
Furthermore, on May 4th, 2013, during the morning Mass at Santa Marta, Francis reflected upon the persecution of the Christians, speaking of the ‘hate of the prince of the world for those who have been saved and redeemed by Jesus.’” (THE VATICAN INSIDER article entitled “To what extent does the Pope acknowledge the devil?” by Andrea Tornielli, August 20, 2013).
► CATHOLIC CLERGY RUN WEBSITE “CATHOLIC PREACHING” ON POPE FRANCIS & THE DEVIL
Fr. Roger J. Landry, May 24, 2013
Pope Francis was elected in order to bring about the reform of the Church ... He is…seeking to repair the Church by addressing the deeper issues that have led to the problems in the Vatican and elsewhere. To reform means to bring back into shape. The call to reform presupposes that there has been a deformation. It begs the question of what caused the Church to get out of shape.
[During the papal pre-election speeches] Cardinal Bergoglio identified that the chief sickness ailing the Church is a spiritual worldliness. “When the Church … gives way to that very great evil which is spiritual worldliness (the worst evil that can come upon the Church)…” But how do those in the Church become spiritually worldly, setting our hearts and minds on the things of this world rather than the things of God? Pope Francis has been talking about. The chief cause of the corruption of the Church, the root of the deformation that has led to the need for reform, is through succumbing to the temptations of the devil.
Many have noted that Pope Francis speaks about the devil almost every other homily, but most have been responding to what he’s been saying with indifference or curiosity, not seriousness. We live in a world in which most regard the devil as a medieval superstition, a beast in red leotards carrying a pitchfork, and relegate him to the same existential category as tooth fairies and centaurs. Even within the Church, most bishops, pastors, theologians and catechists minimize the devil and seldom mention him, even though Jesus battled him, exorcised him, and taught us all to pray to the Father to be delivered from him.
Pope Francis, however, has been mentioning the devil since the beginning of his pontificate, because he knows he’s not a myth, and wants to help the rest of us recognize the presence of the serpentine saboteur.
During his first homily, when he returned to the Sistine Chapel the day after his election to celebrate the traditional Mass with his cardinal electors, he talked with somewhat shocking forthrightness about the evil one. “Anyone who doesn’t pray to the Lord prays to the devil,” he said, quoting Leon Bloy. “When we do not profess Jesus Christ, we profess the worldliness of the devil, a demonic worldliness.”
One of the chief problems facing the Church today is that most Catholics ignore the devil. If the TSA were as negligent with regard to terrorists as most of us are to the father of evil, we wouldn’t have any airplanes left. In the book length dialogue “On Heaven and Earth,” published in Spanish in 2010 and recently released in English, Cardinal Bergoglio [now Pope Francis] said, “I believe that the devil exists” and “his greatest achievement in these times has been to make us believe that he doesn’t exist. … His fruits are always destruction: division, hate and slander.”
Pope Francis talked about that destruction — and what our response needs to be to it — in a daily Mass homily on May 4th, 2013. “The origin of hatred is this: we are saved and the prince of this world, who does not want us to be saved, hates us and gives rise to the persecution that from the earliest times of Jesus continues until today. One must react to the devil as did Jesus, who replied with the word of God. With the prince of this world one cannot dialogue; … one can only respond with the word of God that defends us.”
Pope Francis’ waking us up to the presence and work of the devil in the Church today is something each of us must ponder and act upon.
On the day of our baptism, and in so many renewals over the years, each of us has renounced Satan, his evil works and his empty promises as a precondition for living by Faith in God. But many times those baptismal vows have just been said as a chorus of half-hearted “I do’s,” rather than pronounced with the seriousness with which loving spouses say and mean every word of their marital vows.
Pope Francis wants to assist us truly to renounce Satan and all his seductions, to refuse to dialogue with him and accept his lies, and to reject his call to live spiritually for ourselves instead of for God and others.
The devil who never sleeps — the one whom Jesus himself battled and called a “murderer from the beginning,” a “liar and the father of lies” and “the prince of this world” — will doing all he can to get you to ignore what Pope Francis has been saying and dismiss this column, so that he can continue his work of deformation.
But now’s the time for us to discern under which standard we’ve really been living and, like Pope Francis, choose Christ anew and completely.
► CIVILTÀ CATTOLICA, ROME’S CATHOLIC NEWSPAPER ON THE DEVIL
These hints that were repeatedly dropped were already picked up on by the press, and have prompted reflections from Fr. Giandomenico Mucci in Civiltà Cattolica. He wrote, “for several decades, Catholic preaching has forgotten about the devil, who is fully present in the very documents of Vatican II. Some theologians have welcomed the opinion whereby Satan is a fruit of human fantasy, a figure dreamt up in pagan areas, only to later penetrate into Jewish thought. This would explain the stir which was created among believers and non-believers alike when the Pope preached about the devil.”
Forgetting the devil is a phenomenon which has been particularly characteristic of the last fifty years. In order to highlight this very point, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a study in 1975, during the pontificate of Paul VI, under the title, “Christian Faith and demonology.” The study aimed to stymie any attempt to “demythify the centuries-old doctrine of the Church on Satan.” It recalls a great many quotes from the Gospels, the Book of Revelation, the Apostolic Letters, the Fathers of the Church, the Councils and the Papal Magisterium.
A considerable part of Fr. Mucci’s article includes long quotes from Paul VI’s famous speech, who reserved the catechesis of the general audience for this argument, stating that, “one of the greatest needs of the Church today is that of defending against the evil which we know to be the devil.” Pope Paul VI placed emphasis on the fact that, “evil is not simply a force in the background but rather truly present, a living being who is spiritual, perverse and who renders perverse. He is a horrifying reality, a mysterious force who spreads fear. Anyone who refuses to recognise his existence is distancing themselves from the framework of Biblical and Church teaching.” (also reported by THE VATICAN INSIDER article entitled “To what extent does the Pope acknowledge the devil?” by Andrea Tornielli, August 20, 2013).
► FR. MALACHI MARTIN ON SATAN AND THE VATICAN
Catholic priest and scholar Malachi Martin, formerly Professor of Palaeontology at the Vatican’s Pontifical Biblical Institute, and from 1958 Martin also served as a theological adviser to Cardinal Augustin Bea in the Vatican, later a Jesuit professor at Georgetown University, USA, and a confidant of Vatican insiders. Also an author of 17 books, among which his most significant works were The Scribal Character of The Dead Sea Scrolls (1958) and Hostage To The Devil (1976) which dealt with satanism, demonic possession, and exorcism. In the latter mentioned book, Martin references his experience as an exorcist. According to the book he assisted in several exorcisms. In 1996, he spoke of having performed thousands of minor exorcisms, and participated in a few hundred major exorcisms during his lifetime. Fr. Martin declared in a New York City interview: “Yes, it’s true. Lucifer is enthroned in the Catholic Church.”
Fr. Martin was also interviewed by The Fatima Crusader (Fr. Grunner’s organization), a well-known Catholic publication. He again repeated his allegations, and expressed his dismay and distress that the Catholic institution, of which he is a part, has grown so decadent and morally reprobate since the Vatican II Council of the 1960s. The contention that there are Satanists in Rome is “completely correct” said Martin, adding: “Anybody who is acquainted with the state of affairs in the Vatican in the last 35 years is well aware that the prince of darkness has and still has his surrogates in the court of St. Peter in Rome.”
► FR. GABRIEL AMORTH — ONE OF ROME’S CHIEF EXORCISTS — ON VATICAN & DEVIL
Even Father Gabriele Amorth, official chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, is aware of the existence of satanic cults, including the Clergy in Rome. In an excerpt of his “Memoirs” we read:
Question: “Satanists in the Vatican?”
Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “Yes, even in the Vatican there are members of Satanic cults.”
Question: “Who is involved? Is it simple priests or laymen?”
Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “There are priests, monsignors and even cardinals.”
Question: “Forgive me, Father Gabriel, but how do you know?”
Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “I know from people who reported to me how they got to know this directly. It is something, “confessed” several times by the Devil, himself, under obedience during the exorcisms.”
Question: “Was the Pope informed?”
Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “Of course he was informed! But he does what he can. It’s horrifying. Keep in mind also that Benedict XVI is a German Pope, who is from a nation decidedly averse to these things. In Germany, in fact, there are virtually no exorcists, yet the Pope believes. I had occasion to speak with him three times, while he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. You bet he believes!...”
Question: “ Is it really true that Paul VI said: that ‘the smoke of Satan” entered the church?’”
Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “It’s true, unfortunately, because even in the Church there are adherents to Satanic cults. Pope Paul VI reported this detail about the smoke of Satan on June 29th, 1972. Of course, this broke the ice, lifting a veil of silence and censorship that has lasted too long, but it had no practical consequences. It took someone like me – who was a nobody – to spread the alarm in order to get results.”
So, as stated by Father Amorth, Pope Benedict XVI is aware of the fact that, in the Vatican, there are cardinals, bishops and priests who are members of Satanic cults, “but he does what he can”!
► CRISIS MAGAZINE — SIN & SATAN
Advice for Preachers on Sin and Satan
by Regis Martin
I once knew a pastor whose homilies were so awful, so bone crushingly boring, … but while they may have been a tad bit thin theologically, they were always reassuringly thick with orthodoxy. So I didn’t really mind missing the spiritual wheat germ so much, because I figured at least he’s not trying to poison me. For real toxicity, one would have to go elsewhere.
And, believe me, I have gone elsewhere; indeed, over the years, I have been regularly assaulted by some of the best ‘hit and run’ homilists in the business. I’ll never forget a certain curate who preached one Sunday on sin, his point being that since we so rarely commit any, we should stop feeling guilty worrying about it.
“Haven’t you already opted fundamentally for God?” he asked. “Then why fuss over details? Details are for bookkeepers, not for Christians, who, loving Jesus and everyone else, are blessedly free to do what they will!” How very soothing it all sounded at the time, his honeyed words exuding great dollops of sweetness and light. Well that was all rather a long time ago, and I haven’t noticed the levels of sin diminishing all that much.
In other words, when preparing their homilies, priests and pastors mustn’t forget the long shadow cast by sin. Nor, while they’re at it, the devil himself, who was the first to live in love’s shadow, and has been wandering about the world ever since trying mightily to put out the lights. I mean, who else besides all those fallen and corrupt angels deserve the first word in a sermon on sin?
Ah, but Satan, we are told, achieved his master-stroke sometime in the nineteenth century, when he managed to persuade huge numbers of people to stop believing in him. Once that ruse got around—and, as always, educated opinion was sinfully eager to help it along—the devil was at liberty to do his worst. What then becomes of sin, in a world more and more stripped of belief in an Evil Intelligence, who is bent on bedeviling us with its false attractions? As Monsignor Ronald Knox once wryly put it: “It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil when he is the only explanation of it.”
Any recovery of a sane and healthy sense of sin, therefore, crucially depends on getting people to believe once again in the devil. If the world and the flesh fell on his, and Adam’s, account, why ever not? “The devil is the number one enemy,” declared Pope Paul VI, “the source of all temptation … the sophistical perverter of man’s moral equipoise, the malicious seducer who knows how to penetrate us (through the senses, the imagination, desire, utopian logic or disordered social contacts) in order to spread error….”
And if papal testimony were not telling enough, particularly from the tragedy of one who felt, in his final days, “the very smoke of Satan” within the Temple of God [which is what Paul VI said before he died], Holy Scripture emphasizes that “the whole world is under the power of the evil one,” who is not called “the prince of this world” for nothing. So let the devil have his due, I say.
► THE IRISH CATHOLIC
The Devil in the World Today
The Devil has been a subject addressed surprisingly frequently by Pope Francis in the early months of his pontificate.
The same subject is addressed with rivaled frequency in the New Testament. However, in spite of this, the surprise somehow remains. The new Pope’s preaching, it seems, is much like his renewed approach to the papacy — unfamiliar. Pope Francis parts ways with the current preaching in the Church, which is silent about the Devil, or reduces him to a mere metaphor. Theology’s treatment of evil today, by and large, trivializes the Devil. It seems Pope Francis wants to call everyone back to face the reality of evil and educate them on how exactly to confront the Devil. One thing is certain. For this Pope, the Devil is not a myth, but a real person.
Hatred
In one of Francis’ recent morning homilies, the Pope said that not only is there a hatred in the world for Jesus and the Church, but that behind this spirit of the world is the Devil. Dialogue doesn’t work with the Devil; the only defense is the word of God, humility and meekness, especially in response to his works of hatred and persecution, Pope Francis said.
“Humility and meekness: These are the weapons that the prince of the world, the spirit of the world does not tolerate, because he makes proposals for worldly power, proposals of vanity, proposals for riches,” the Pope said.
“Many Christian communities are persecuted today, more now than in the early days of the Church: today, right now, on this day and at this hour,” he said. The reason for this persecution comes from the Devil and his hatred; the path of persecution “is a consequence of the hatred of the world and the prince of this hatred in the world.”
Persecutions
The Devil hates Christians, he said, because “we have been saved and the prince of the world doesn’t want us to be saved, he hates us and gave rise to the persecutions from the time of Jesus to today.” With his death and resurrection, Christ “ransomed us” and all humanity from worldly power and the Devil’s grasp, the Pope said.
Just as the Devil tried to trick and tempt Jesus, he tries to trick others, too, Pope Francis said. Jesus did not respond by bargaining with the Devil or trying to fight him on his own; he responded with the word of the God. “You cannot dialogue with the prince of this world. This is clear!” the Pope said. According to the Pope, the best defense against the Devil’s “seductions, fireworks and flattery” is Jesus, the word of God, and Jesus’ own example of humility and meekness, he said.
In speaking of the Devil, Francis demonstrates that he has very clearly in mind his biblical and theological foundations. But what exactly are these foundations? What do Catholics actually believe about Satan?
Seductive voice
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Behind the disobedient voice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church’s tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called ‘Satan’ or the ‘Devil’.”
Throughout the Scriptures, we find mention of Satan, otherwise known as the Devil. The word “Satan” comes from the Hebrew word “satan”, meaning “the opposer” or “the adversary”; while “Devil” is derived from the Greek diabolos, meaning “the slanderer.”
The Church’s teaching on the subject is clear from its liturgy. At baptism, those to be baptized are called upon to reject Satan, his works, and his empty promises. The Church provides an official rite of exorcism, which presupposes the existence of Satan.
Pseudo-Reality or Virtual Reality
In 1975 the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship issued a document called Christian Faith and Demonology. It explained the Church’s teaching on the subject. This document quotes Pope Paul VI’s teaching regarding the devil. Neither Bible commentators nor theologians can neglect this caution, the document warns.
Just as Francis is right to preach about the Devil, he is right also to advise the faithful on how to combat such evil. Arming themselves with humility and meekness, Catholics can be confident that the power of God will always triumph over that of Satan; good over evil and love over hatred. As St John reminds us: “It was to destroy the Devil’s works that the Son of God revealed Himself” (1 John 3:8).
► MODERN PRIEST ON PREACHING ABOUT THE DEVIL
Father John Zuhlsdorf writes: “Before anything else, let it be said that, ‘God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it’ (1 Corinthians 10:13). Now…
“The greatest accomplishment of the Enemy of our souls is to deceive people that the Enemy doesn’t exist … that there is no Hell … that people can’t go to Hell … that no one is in Hell, blah blah blah. Let’s be clear about this. Catholics are obliged to believe in the existence of the Devil and of Hell. These are de fide doctrines taught by the Church without the possibility of error.
“The Devil exists! Fallen angels hate you with a malice no human can imagine! They have an intellect that surpasses our mere human faculties in a way that we can’t fathom. They never tire! They are relentless! They are real! If you don’t believe in the existence of malicious fallen angels, you are in serious risk of joining them in Hell. This is no joke!
“Hell is real! In Hell, the damned suffer the pain of sense and the pain of loss (hint: unending pain is a key feature of your eternity in Hell). We can choose to separate ourselves from God and go to Hell by sinning, by resisting grace, by failing to repent, by failing to do what we ought, by presuming that we are automatically saved. If, when you die ― and you will die ― you are not in the state of grace, if, when you die ― and it is going to happen to you ― you are not living the friendship of God, you will go to Hell. Once you are there, that’s it! There is no hope of ever changing your lot! There is no changing your mind. There is no possibility of leaving even after a million billion years!
“If you don’t believe in Hell, you will probably wind up there. And if you chose that fate, it would be better for you had you never been born (cf. Matthew 26:24).
“STOP. Spend a moment to examine your conscience.
“NOW. Try to imagine what goes through the mind of the damned soul during his first 30 seconds in Hell.
“I remind you of these harsh realities because I don’t want to go to Hell. Priests and bishops who don’t teach about Hell will probably wind up there. It is my job to keep as many of you as possible out of Hell. I will therefore tell you about Hell and then echo St. Augustine, who told his flock: ‘Nolo salvus esse sine vobis! … I don’t want to be saved without you!’
“We must be clear about the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell. Sure, we must also talk about Heaven and goodness and joy and kitties and sunshine and birthday cakes. Let’s get this Hell and Devil thing straightened out because it’s been neglected for far too long.
“We must also work to revive the Sacrament of Penance, which was instituted by Christ as the ordinary way our sins would be forgiven. Going to confession, making a sincere confession of all your mortal sins in kind and number, can keep you out of Hell. Got that? GO TO CONFESSION. What a victory for the demons of Hell it has been to run down the Sacrament of Penance until it is barely thought of in some parishes.
“Fathers, if you are parish priests and have the obligation to hear confessions, hearing confessions can help to keep you out of Hell. If you are parish priests and you don’t hear confessions or you won’t teach about confession, you will probably go to Hell. Just try to deny it! Just try!”
► THE CURÉ OF ARS: ST. JOHN VIANNEY
In Chapter Seven of Fr. Trochu’s book, The Curé d’Ars: St. John Vianney, we read of one priest questioning St. John Vianny’s assistant priest about St. John Vianney’s preaching habits:
“Did Fr. Vianney preach long sermons?” Mgr. Convert one day asked Fr. Drémieux.
The assistant priest replied: “Yes, long ones, and always on Hell. . . . He would strike his hands together, saying ‘My children, you are lost!’ Or he struck his breast. What a constitution he had! There are people who say there is no Hell. Ah, well! He believed in it!”
► FROM THE BOOK “RULES FOR DISCERNING SPIRITS” BY FR. BARRIELLE
“‘The life of man is a battle upon Earth’, said Job—[“The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1)]. We must expect to fight continually for the whole of our lives. The difficulty is that in these battles, where we defend our souls from the attacks of the devil, one does not see the enemy ... We do not see those who attack us, because the devils are pure spirits ... The devil does all in his power to make us believe that he does not exist or to think not of him. It is then that he is able to act with all freedom. This is the reason for all these attempts to deny the existence of the angels that we hear repeated, sometimes even in the sacristies: because if there were no angels there would not be any devils.
“Many people do not realize the influences that a spirit can have on us. Someone will say to me: ‘Father, I’m down in the dumps!’
“I reply: ‘No, you are not down in the dumps. That does not exist. You have the devil hovering about you!’
“He exclaims: ‘Father, you see the devil everywhere! I’m down in the dumps because the sun is not out today, and when the weather is bad I’m sad, that’s all! It has nothing to do with the devil.’
“I tell him: ‘Exactly! Do you not know that the devil uses everything when coming to tempt you? He will use advantageously the bad weather, as a disposition. You just are not aware of the fact that if you are feeling sad, the devil is hovering about you. Beware!’
“As soon as one knows that it comes from the devil, it must be rejected without any discussion. My master of novices, Fr. Terradas said, ‘One does not play with the devil.’ He calls ‘playing with the devil’ the fact of tarrying with a thought that one knows to be not good, and thus, from the devil (while reassuring oneself, with a firm will, not to consent to it). Woe to him who consents to dialogue with the devil (who is much stronger that we). Eve succumbed because she ‘played’ with the devil. After having told her that God had forbidden it, the devil followed up with new reasons. Instead of cutting him short, she started to discuss with him.
“St. Bernard wrote: ‘Nemo repente fit pessimus’, meaning ‘Nobody becomes suddenly bad.’ We sometimes hear of priests falling, of great, exemplary Christians falling, etc. Know that it has not happened all of a sudden. For a long time, they have played with the devil ... Fr. Roothan said that this can also be applied to those who, without being in the state of mortal sin, are well entrenched in tepidity (lukewarmness). For example, those Christians and religious who have decided not to correct their venial sins. The devil reassures one in tepidity (lukewarmness), and it is very dangerous for their salvation. The good angel sends him grave warnings. Woe to those who pay no attention! It is in this way that laxity is introduced into many convents and even into Christian families. This is why the examination of conscience is so important. ‘Vigilate et orate!’ said Jesus in the Gospels: ‘Watch and pray!’ Woe to the Christian that is not on his guard! The devil will do with his soul as he pleases if he is not alert.
“ ‘All trouble comes from the devil,’ said St. John Berchmans, including moody temperaments and vivid emotions. Sometimes in the family, there is tension in the air. The wife loses her temper, the children are particularly unbearable, the father is boxing every one’s ears. Know that the devil is present! There, he wins every time... Foolish things are said and done, sin is committed more or less gravely, and more or less numerously. Watch! Pray! … St. Peter says to us, ‘Brethren, be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist ye, strong in the Faith!’ … The devil ‘roams about us,’ as St. Peter says, looking for our weak points in order to attack them. When you observe so many priests, religious and Christians, well‑advanced in the interior life, who later stagnate or even slide backwards, you wonder why. Whence did it come about? Out of a major difficulty? No! There was a slight inordinate attachment: gluttony or, more frequently, human respect, this accursed human respect which is the source of laxity and even of the damnation of so many people, even amongst the clergy.
“One of the first things the devil always does is to make people stop praying. No more meditations, spiritual reading, Rosaries, examinations of conscience, breviary, thanksgivings, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, confessions... No more Masses (or sacrilegious ones, which is worse!). No more devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, etc.” (Fr. Ludwig Barrielle, Rules for Discerning the Spirits).
CONCLUSION
It is absolutely necessary to speak about the devil and to speak about him often. If Blessed Pope Pius IX begged priests to preach more and preach often about Hell, then it is equally important to preach more and preach often about the devil. The enemy always benefits when he is “out of sight and out of mind.” It is a grave duty for priests, teachers and parents to continually bring the devil to mind and his tactics within our sight. How many souls are now in his clutches because of a false fear, a negligence, a silly sentimentality, hellish human respect, or being pressured to keep silent on the most destructive of the triple enemy: the devil, the flesh and the world. Let us reflect once more on what Sr. Josefa Menendez heard the devils speaking about, when she was mystically dragged down to Hell:
The devil, speaking of different ways of tempting, said: “Insinuate yourselves by inducing carelessness in them ... but keep in the background, so that you are not found out ... by degrees they will become callous, and you will be able to incline them to evil. Tempt these others to ambition, to self-interest, to acquiring wealth without working, whether it be lawful or not. Excite some to sensuality and love of pleasure. Let vice blind them ... As to the remainder ... get in through the heart ... you know the inclinations of their hearts ... make them love ... love passionately ... work thoroughly ... take no rest ... have no pity. Let them cram themselves with food! It will make it all the easier for us ... Let them get on with their banqueting. Love of pleasure is the door through which you will reach them.” (February 3rd, 1923).
Don’t play with devil ... Don’t let the devil play ... Don’t let your children just play, but teach them to pray and pray well ... Pull them out of the devil’s playground, which is the world of which he is prince ... Otherwise you are playing with their salvation, which may unexpectedly turn into damnation. “What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:15). “Now the sons of Heli [the high priest] were children of Belial, not knowing the Lord” (1 Kings 2:12). Make sure that “Belial shall no more pass through thee again, and is utterly cut off” (Nahum 1:15).
We have all heard that phrase used, perhaps more than once: “Talk of the devil, and he’s bound to appear!” But not to talk of the devil, is tantamount to spiritual suicide, as the following Church authorities will clearly testify. In a day and age, when many a pope and bishop (not to even mention Our Lady) has said that the devil has been unleashed into our world—to be negligent in talking about him and warning others of his presence, power and tactics, as well as pointing out the defenses and remedies against him, would be a grave sin of omission for which the negligent will one day have to answer and pay. So since the devil made his appearance in last Sunday’s Gospel of Our Lord’s temptation in the desert, we would do well to seriously reflect upon his impact in the world today and his impact on our families.
Words of Sister Lucia spoken in 1957 to Fr. Augustine Fuentes, a Mexican priest.
The importance of the subject is further underlined by the revelation Sister Lucia of Fatima made to Fr. Fuentes in 19557, when she revealed: “The Most Holy Virgin has made me understand that we are in the last times of the world. She has told me that the devil is about to wage a decisive battle with the Virgin, and a decisive battle is a final battle, in which one side wins, the other side loses. Also, starting with the present time, we belong either to God or we belong to the demon; there is no middle ground.”
“The devil is about to wage a decisive battle against the Blessed Virgin. The devil knows what it is that most offends God and which, in a short space of time, will gain for him the greatest number of souls. Thus the devil does everything to overcome souls consecrated to God, because in this way the devil will succeed in leaving the souls of the faithful abandoned by their leaders, thereby the more easily will he seize them.” (Sr. Lucia of Fatima interview with Fr. Fuentes, December 26th, 1957).
Sr. Josefa Menendez Speaks of the Devil
In one the visions of Hell that Our Lord allowed Sr. Josefa to endure, she heard the devil, speaking of different ways of tempting, said: “Insinuate yourselves by inducing carelessness in them ... but keep in the background, so that you are not found out ... by degrees they will become callous, and you will be able to incline them to evil. Tempt these others to ambition, to self-interest, to acquiring wealth without working, whether it be lawful or not. Excite some to sensuality and love of pleasure. Let vice blind them ... As to the remainder ... get in through the heart ... you know the inclinations of their hearts ... make them love ... love passionately ... work thoroughly ... take no rest ... have no pity. Let them cram themselves with food! It will make it all the easier for us ... Let them get on with their banqueting. Love of pleasure is the door through which you will reach them.” (Sr. Josefa Menendez, The Way of Divine Love, February 3rd, 1923).
Ancient & Modern
There are many modern Catholics who do not like to refer to, nor rely on, quotes and opinions from the distant past, so, for their benefit, let us go against personal preferences and furnish some quotes from modern authors—popes and priests—to show any and all modern readers that the enemy is still the enemy, whether the times be ancient or modern. And the enemy has to spoken of and his tactics have to be revealed. Imagine not telling soldiers about their enemy for fear of frightening them; or failing to tell your children not to walk-off with strangers; or not telling them about the dangers of scorpions and snakes, for fear of scaring them! Our Lady did not fear showing a 7-year old, an 8-year old and a 10-year old a vision of Hell! So, here are your modern day quotes!
CAVEAT or WARNING!
The following quotes selected from various websites are merely a “reporting” of what was posted on those sites. There is no intent to recommend any or all of those websites. It is much like quoting from a secular newspaper’s website--it does not mean that we agree with all the content on that website. Nor do we endorse all that the modern popes say—for, as Pope St. Pius X said, the modernist will on one page of his writings give you the most beautiful traditional doctrine you can read, and then, on the next page, give you pure modernism. It is much like what is said of the devil: “Satan will admit nine truths in order to slip the lie on point number ten!”
► POPE FRANCIS AND THE (D)EVIL ONE
● Catholic Answers website
In fact, Pope Francis has shown himself to be a straight-talking preacher who isn’t afraid of using the kind of language that some in the dissenting camp might label as “negative” and “harsh.” I’ve lost count over how many times Pope Francis has used the words “devil”, “Satan”, “the Evil One”, and “the Enemy” in his homilies and various addresses. He has even quoted the French convert Leon Bloy, who said, “Whoever does not pray to God prays to the devil.”
(Catholic Answers website).
● Catholic News Agency (CAN) and EWTN News Service
Vatican City, May 14, 2013 (CNA/EWTN News). Christians who buy into Satan’s temptation to live selfishly, get swindled, while those who live life as a “gift” to others, are immersed in love and the Church community, Pope Francis said. “And, we must say, with Satan the payback is rotten. He always rips us off, always!” the Pope emphasized.
● Catholic Culture website
Pope Francis stated emphatically that the Devil’s existence is a reality, in his homily at a daily Mass on October 11th, 2103.
The Pope observed that some priests, when they preach about Gospel accounts of Jesus driving out demons, say that the stories refer to mental illness. It is true that sometimes mental illness can mimic demonic possession, the Pope conceded. “But it is also true that there was the devil!” “We should not be naïve,” the Pope continued. The devil is a reality, and refusing to recognize the struggle between Jesus and the devil is a way of only “halfway” accepting the salvific role of Jesus Christ. The Lord came to end “the enslavement the devil has over us,” the Pope said. He reminded his congregation of Christ’s words from the day’s Gospel: “Either you are with Me or you are against Me.” Pope Francis urged the faithful to guard against the devil, relying on the Holy Spirit and remaining vigilant against temptations.
► POPE FRANCIS ON THE DEVIL
● The Vatican Insider magazine
THE VATICAN INSIDER magazine ran an article entitled “To what extent does the Pope acknowledge the devil?” by their journalist Andrea Tornielli, on August 20, 2013. Here are some extracts from that article: “ ‘When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil’―these were the words of Pope Francis in the homily of his first Mass as Pope, celebrated in the Sistine Chapel on the day after being elected ...
On March 24th, 2013, in St. Peter’s Square, while celebrating World Youth Day, he recalled the fact that a Christian’s joy comes not from owning many possessions but from encountering Jesus, ‘from knowing that with Him we are never alone, even when we come across problems and obstacles in life that seem insurmountable – and there are so many of them! That is when the enemy comes, when the devil comes.’
Furthermore, on May 4th, 2013, during the morning Mass at Santa Marta, Francis reflected upon the persecution of the Christians, speaking of the ‘hate of the prince of the world for those who have been saved and redeemed by Jesus.’” (THE VATICAN INSIDER article entitled “To what extent does the Pope acknowledge the devil?” by Andrea Tornielli, August 20, 2013).
► CATHOLIC CLERGY RUN WEBSITE “CATHOLIC PREACHING” ON POPE FRANCIS & THE DEVIL
Fr. Roger J. Landry, May 24, 2013
Pope Francis was elected in order to bring about the reform of the Church ... He is…seeking to repair the Church by addressing the deeper issues that have led to the problems in the Vatican and elsewhere. To reform means to bring back into shape. The call to reform presupposes that there has been a deformation. It begs the question of what caused the Church to get out of shape.
[During the papal pre-election speeches] Cardinal Bergoglio identified that the chief sickness ailing the Church is a spiritual worldliness. “When the Church … gives way to that very great evil which is spiritual worldliness (the worst evil that can come upon the Church)…” But how do those in the Church become spiritually worldly, setting our hearts and minds on the things of this world rather than the things of God? Pope Francis has been talking about. The chief cause of the corruption of the Church, the root of the deformation that has led to the need for reform, is through succumbing to the temptations of the devil.
Many have noted that Pope Francis speaks about the devil almost every other homily, but most have been responding to what he’s been saying with indifference or curiosity, not seriousness. We live in a world in which most regard the devil as a medieval superstition, a beast in red leotards carrying a pitchfork, and relegate him to the same existential category as tooth fairies and centaurs. Even within the Church, most bishops, pastors, theologians and catechists minimize the devil and seldom mention him, even though Jesus battled him, exorcised him, and taught us all to pray to the Father to be delivered from him.
Pope Francis, however, has been mentioning the devil since the beginning of his pontificate, because he knows he’s not a myth, and wants to help the rest of us recognize the presence of the serpentine saboteur.
During his first homily, when he returned to the Sistine Chapel the day after his election to celebrate the traditional Mass with his cardinal electors, he talked with somewhat shocking forthrightness about the evil one. “Anyone who doesn’t pray to the Lord prays to the devil,” he said, quoting Leon Bloy. “When we do not profess Jesus Christ, we profess the worldliness of the devil, a demonic worldliness.”
One of the chief problems facing the Church today is that most Catholics ignore the devil. If the TSA were as negligent with regard to terrorists as most of us are to the father of evil, we wouldn’t have any airplanes left. In the book length dialogue “On Heaven and Earth,” published in Spanish in 2010 and recently released in English, Cardinal Bergoglio [now Pope Francis] said, “I believe that the devil exists” and “his greatest achievement in these times has been to make us believe that he doesn’t exist. … His fruits are always destruction: division, hate and slander.”
Pope Francis talked about that destruction — and what our response needs to be to it — in a daily Mass homily on May 4th, 2013. “The origin of hatred is this: we are saved and the prince of this world, who does not want us to be saved, hates us and gives rise to the persecution that from the earliest times of Jesus continues until today. One must react to the devil as did Jesus, who replied with the word of God. With the prince of this world one cannot dialogue; … one can only respond with the word of God that defends us.”
Pope Francis’ waking us up to the presence and work of the devil in the Church today is something each of us must ponder and act upon.
On the day of our baptism, and in so many renewals over the years, each of us has renounced Satan, his evil works and his empty promises as a precondition for living by Faith in God. But many times those baptismal vows have just been said as a chorus of half-hearted “I do’s,” rather than pronounced with the seriousness with which loving spouses say and mean every word of their marital vows.
Pope Francis wants to assist us truly to renounce Satan and all his seductions, to refuse to dialogue with him and accept his lies, and to reject his call to live spiritually for ourselves instead of for God and others.
The devil who never sleeps — the one whom Jesus himself battled and called a “murderer from the beginning,” a “liar and the father of lies” and “the prince of this world” — will doing all he can to get you to ignore what Pope Francis has been saying and dismiss this column, so that he can continue his work of deformation.
But now’s the time for us to discern under which standard we’ve really been living and, like Pope Francis, choose Christ anew and completely.
► CIVILTÀ CATTOLICA, ROME’S CATHOLIC NEWSPAPER ON THE DEVIL
These hints that were repeatedly dropped were already picked up on by the press, and have prompted reflections from Fr. Giandomenico Mucci in Civiltà Cattolica. He wrote, “for several decades, Catholic preaching has forgotten about the devil, who is fully present in the very documents of Vatican II. Some theologians have welcomed the opinion whereby Satan is a fruit of human fantasy, a figure dreamt up in pagan areas, only to later penetrate into Jewish thought. This would explain the stir which was created among believers and non-believers alike when the Pope preached about the devil.”
Forgetting the devil is a phenomenon which has been particularly characteristic of the last fifty years. In order to highlight this very point, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published a study in 1975, during the pontificate of Paul VI, under the title, “Christian Faith and demonology.” The study aimed to stymie any attempt to “demythify the centuries-old doctrine of the Church on Satan.” It recalls a great many quotes from the Gospels, the Book of Revelation, the Apostolic Letters, the Fathers of the Church, the Councils and the Papal Magisterium.
A considerable part of Fr. Mucci’s article includes long quotes from Paul VI’s famous speech, who reserved the catechesis of the general audience for this argument, stating that, “one of the greatest needs of the Church today is that of defending against the evil which we know to be the devil.” Pope Paul VI placed emphasis on the fact that, “evil is not simply a force in the background but rather truly present, a living being who is spiritual, perverse and who renders perverse. He is a horrifying reality, a mysterious force who spreads fear. Anyone who refuses to recognise his existence is distancing themselves from the framework of Biblical and Church teaching.” (also reported by THE VATICAN INSIDER article entitled “To what extent does the Pope acknowledge the devil?” by Andrea Tornielli, August 20, 2013).
► FR. MALACHI MARTIN ON SATAN AND THE VATICAN
Catholic priest and scholar Malachi Martin, formerly Professor of Palaeontology at the Vatican’s Pontifical Biblical Institute, and from 1958 Martin also served as a theological adviser to Cardinal Augustin Bea in the Vatican, later a Jesuit professor at Georgetown University, USA, and a confidant of Vatican insiders. Also an author of 17 books, among which his most significant works were The Scribal Character of The Dead Sea Scrolls (1958) and Hostage To The Devil (1976) which dealt with satanism, demonic possession, and exorcism. In the latter mentioned book, Martin references his experience as an exorcist. According to the book he assisted in several exorcisms. In 1996, he spoke of having performed thousands of minor exorcisms, and participated in a few hundred major exorcisms during his lifetime. Fr. Martin declared in a New York City interview: “Yes, it’s true. Lucifer is enthroned in the Catholic Church.”
Fr. Martin was also interviewed by The Fatima Crusader (Fr. Grunner’s organization), a well-known Catholic publication. He again repeated his allegations, and expressed his dismay and distress that the Catholic institution, of which he is a part, has grown so decadent and morally reprobate since the Vatican II Council of the 1960s. The contention that there are Satanists in Rome is “completely correct” said Martin, adding: “Anybody who is acquainted with the state of affairs in the Vatican in the last 35 years is well aware that the prince of darkness has and still has his surrogates in the court of St. Peter in Rome.”
► FR. GABRIEL AMORTH — ONE OF ROME’S CHIEF EXORCISTS — ON VATICAN & DEVIL
Even Father Gabriele Amorth, official chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome, is aware of the existence of satanic cults, including the Clergy in Rome. In an excerpt of his “Memoirs” we read:
Question: “Satanists in the Vatican?”
Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “Yes, even in the Vatican there are members of Satanic cults.”
Question: “Who is involved? Is it simple priests or laymen?”
Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “There are priests, monsignors and even cardinals.”
Question: “Forgive me, Father Gabriel, but how do you know?”
Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “I know from people who reported to me how they got to know this directly. It is something, “confessed” several times by the Devil, himself, under obedience during the exorcisms.”
Question: “Was the Pope informed?”
Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “Of course he was informed! But he does what he can. It’s horrifying. Keep in mind also that Benedict XVI is a German Pope, who is from a nation decidedly averse to these things. In Germany, in fact, there are virtually no exorcists, yet the Pope believes. I had occasion to speak with him three times, while he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. You bet he believes!...”
Question: “ Is it really true that Paul VI said: that ‘the smoke of Satan” entered the church?’”
Fr. Gabriele Amorth: “It’s true, unfortunately, because even in the Church there are adherents to Satanic cults. Pope Paul VI reported this detail about the smoke of Satan on June 29th, 1972. Of course, this broke the ice, lifting a veil of silence and censorship that has lasted too long, but it had no practical consequences. It took someone like me – who was a nobody – to spread the alarm in order to get results.”
So, as stated by Father Amorth, Pope Benedict XVI is aware of the fact that, in the Vatican, there are cardinals, bishops and priests who are members of Satanic cults, “but he does what he can”!
► CRISIS MAGAZINE — SIN & SATAN
Advice for Preachers on Sin and Satan
by Regis Martin
I once knew a pastor whose homilies were so awful, so bone crushingly boring, … but while they may have been a tad bit thin theologically, they were always reassuringly thick with orthodoxy. So I didn’t really mind missing the spiritual wheat germ so much, because I figured at least he’s not trying to poison me. For real toxicity, one would have to go elsewhere.
And, believe me, I have gone elsewhere; indeed, over the years, I have been regularly assaulted by some of the best ‘hit and run’ homilists in the business. I’ll never forget a certain curate who preached one Sunday on sin, his point being that since we so rarely commit any, we should stop feeling guilty worrying about it.
“Haven’t you already opted fundamentally for God?” he asked. “Then why fuss over details? Details are for bookkeepers, not for Christians, who, loving Jesus and everyone else, are blessedly free to do what they will!” How very soothing it all sounded at the time, his honeyed words exuding great dollops of sweetness and light. Well that was all rather a long time ago, and I haven’t noticed the levels of sin diminishing all that much.
In other words, when preparing their homilies, priests and pastors mustn’t forget the long shadow cast by sin. Nor, while they’re at it, the devil himself, who was the first to live in love’s shadow, and has been wandering about the world ever since trying mightily to put out the lights. I mean, who else besides all those fallen and corrupt angels deserve the first word in a sermon on sin?
Ah, but Satan, we are told, achieved his master-stroke sometime in the nineteenth century, when he managed to persuade huge numbers of people to stop believing in him. Once that ruse got around—and, as always, educated opinion was sinfully eager to help it along—the devil was at liberty to do his worst. What then becomes of sin, in a world more and more stripped of belief in an Evil Intelligence, who is bent on bedeviling us with its false attractions? As Monsignor Ronald Knox once wryly put it: “It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil when he is the only explanation of it.”
Any recovery of a sane and healthy sense of sin, therefore, crucially depends on getting people to believe once again in the devil. If the world and the flesh fell on his, and Adam’s, account, why ever not? “The devil is the number one enemy,” declared Pope Paul VI, “the source of all temptation … the sophistical perverter of man’s moral equipoise, the malicious seducer who knows how to penetrate us (through the senses, the imagination, desire, utopian logic or disordered social contacts) in order to spread error….”
And if papal testimony were not telling enough, particularly from the tragedy of one who felt, in his final days, “the very smoke of Satan” within the Temple of God [which is what Paul VI said before he died], Holy Scripture emphasizes that “the whole world is under the power of the evil one,” who is not called “the prince of this world” for nothing. So let the devil have his due, I say.
► THE IRISH CATHOLIC
The Devil in the World Today
The Devil has been a subject addressed surprisingly frequently by Pope Francis in the early months of his pontificate.
The same subject is addressed with rivaled frequency in the New Testament. However, in spite of this, the surprise somehow remains. The new Pope’s preaching, it seems, is much like his renewed approach to the papacy — unfamiliar. Pope Francis parts ways with the current preaching in the Church, which is silent about the Devil, or reduces him to a mere metaphor. Theology’s treatment of evil today, by and large, trivializes the Devil. It seems Pope Francis wants to call everyone back to face the reality of evil and educate them on how exactly to confront the Devil. One thing is certain. For this Pope, the Devil is not a myth, but a real person.
Hatred
In one of Francis’ recent morning homilies, the Pope said that not only is there a hatred in the world for Jesus and the Church, but that behind this spirit of the world is the Devil. Dialogue doesn’t work with the Devil; the only defense is the word of God, humility and meekness, especially in response to his works of hatred and persecution, Pope Francis said.
“Humility and meekness: These are the weapons that the prince of the world, the spirit of the world does not tolerate, because he makes proposals for worldly power, proposals of vanity, proposals for riches,” the Pope said.
“Many Christian communities are persecuted today, more now than in the early days of the Church: today, right now, on this day and at this hour,” he said. The reason for this persecution comes from the Devil and his hatred; the path of persecution “is a consequence of the hatred of the world and the prince of this hatred in the world.”
Persecutions
The Devil hates Christians, he said, because “we have been saved and the prince of the world doesn’t want us to be saved, he hates us and gave rise to the persecutions from the time of Jesus to today.” With his death and resurrection, Christ “ransomed us” and all humanity from worldly power and the Devil’s grasp, the Pope said.
Just as the Devil tried to trick and tempt Jesus, he tries to trick others, too, Pope Francis said. Jesus did not respond by bargaining with the Devil or trying to fight him on his own; he responded with the word of the God. “You cannot dialogue with the prince of this world. This is clear!” the Pope said. According to the Pope, the best defense against the Devil’s “seductions, fireworks and flattery” is Jesus, the word of God, and Jesus’ own example of humility and meekness, he said.
In speaking of the Devil, Francis demonstrates that he has very clearly in mind his biblical and theological foundations. But what exactly are these foundations? What do Catholics actually believe about Satan?
Seductive voice
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “Behind the disobedient voice of our first parents lurks a seductive voice, opposed to God, which makes them fall into death out of envy. Scripture and the Church’s tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called ‘Satan’ or the ‘Devil’.”
Throughout the Scriptures, we find mention of Satan, otherwise known as the Devil. The word “Satan” comes from the Hebrew word “satan”, meaning “the opposer” or “the adversary”; while “Devil” is derived from the Greek diabolos, meaning “the slanderer.”
The Church’s teaching on the subject is clear from its liturgy. At baptism, those to be baptized are called upon to reject Satan, his works, and his empty promises. The Church provides an official rite of exorcism, which presupposes the existence of Satan.
Pseudo-Reality or Virtual Reality
In 1975 the Sacred Congregation for Divine Worship issued a document called Christian Faith and Demonology. It explained the Church’s teaching on the subject. This document quotes Pope Paul VI’s teaching regarding the devil. Neither Bible commentators nor theologians can neglect this caution, the document warns.
Just as Francis is right to preach about the Devil, he is right also to advise the faithful on how to combat such evil. Arming themselves with humility and meekness, Catholics can be confident that the power of God will always triumph over that of Satan; good over evil and love over hatred. As St John reminds us: “It was to destroy the Devil’s works that the Son of God revealed Himself” (1 John 3:8).
► MODERN PRIEST ON PREACHING ABOUT THE DEVIL
Father John Zuhlsdorf writes: “Before anything else, let it be said that, ‘God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it’ (1 Corinthians 10:13). Now…
“The greatest accomplishment of the Enemy of our souls is to deceive people that the Enemy doesn’t exist … that there is no Hell … that people can’t go to Hell … that no one is in Hell, blah blah blah. Let’s be clear about this. Catholics are obliged to believe in the existence of the Devil and of Hell. These are de fide doctrines taught by the Church without the possibility of error.
“The Devil exists! Fallen angels hate you with a malice no human can imagine! They have an intellect that surpasses our mere human faculties in a way that we can’t fathom. They never tire! They are relentless! They are real! If you don’t believe in the existence of malicious fallen angels, you are in serious risk of joining them in Hell. This is no joke!
“Hell is real! In Hell, the damned suffer the pain of sense and the pain of loss (hint: unending pain is a key feature of your eternity in Hell). We can choose to separate ourselves from God and go to Hell by sinning, by resisting grace, by failing to repent, by failing to do what we ought, by presuming that we are automatically saved. If, when you die ― and you will die ― you are not in the state of grace, if, when you die ― and it is going to happen to you ― you are not living the friendship of God, you will go to Hell. Once you are there, that’s it! There is no hope of ever changing your lot! There is no changing your mind. There is no possibility of leaving even after a million billion years!
“If you don’t believe in Hell, you will probably wind up there. And if you chose that fate, it would be better for you had you never been born (cf. Matthew 26:24).
“STOP. Spend a moment to examine your conscience.
“NOW. Try to imagine what goes through the mind of the damned soul during his first 30 seconds in Hell.
“I remind you of these harsh realities because I don’t want to go to Hell. Priests and bishops who don’t teach about Hell will probably wind up there. It is my job to keep as many of you as possible out of Hell. I will therefore tell you about Hell and then echo St. Augustine, who told his flock: ‘Nolo salvus esse sine vobis! … I don’t want to be saved without you!’
“We must be clear about the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell. Sure, we must also talk about Heaven and goodness and joy and kitties and sunshine and birthday cakes. Let’s get this Hell and Devil thing straightened out because it’s been neglected for far too long.
“We must also work to revive the Sacrament of Penance, which was instituted by Christ as the ordinary way our sins would be forgiven. Going to confession, making a sincere confession of all your mortal sins in kind and number, can keep you out of Hell. Got that? GO TO CONFESSION. What a victory for the demons of Hell it has been to run down the Sacrament of Penance until it is barely thought of in some parishes.
“Fathers, if you are parish priests and have the obligation to hear confessions, hearing confessions can help to keep you out of Hell. If you are parish priests and you don’t hear confessions or you won’t teach about confession, you will probably go to Hell. Just try to deny it! Just try!”
► THE CURÉ OF ARS: ST. JOHN VIANNEY
In Chapter Seven of Fr. Trochu’s book, The Curé d’Ars: St. John Vianney, we read of one priest questioning St. John Vianny’s assistant priest about St. John Vianney’s preaching habits:
“Did Fr. Vianney preach long sermons?” Mgr. Convert one day asked Fr. Drémieux.
The assistant priest replied: “Yes, long ones, and always on Hell. . . . He would strike his hands together, saying ‘My children, you are lost!’ Or he struck his breast. What a constitution he had! There are people who say there is no Hell. Ah, well! He believed in it!”
► FROM THE BOOK “RULES FOR DISCERNING SPIRITS” BY FR. BARRIELLE
“‘The life of man is a battle upon Earth’, said Job—[“The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1)]. We must expect to fight continually for the whole of our lives. The difficulty is that in these battles, where we defend our souls from the attacks of the devil, one does not see the enemy ... We do not see those who attack us, because the devils are pure spirits ... The devil does all in his power to make us believe that he does not exist or to think not of him. It is then that he is able to act with all freedom. This is the reason for all these attempts to deny the existence of the angels that we hear repeated, sometimes even in the sacristies: because if there were no angels there would not be any devils.
“Many people do not realize the influences that a spirit can have on us. Someone will say to me: ‘Father, I’m down in the dumps!’
“I reply: ‘No, you are not down in the dumps. That does not exist. You have the devil hovering about you!’
“He exclaims: ‘Father, you see the devil everywhere! I’m down in the dumps because the sun is not out today, and when the weather is bad I’m sad, that’s all! It has nothing to do with the devil.’
“I tell him: ‘Exactly! Do you not know that the devil uses everything when coming to tempt you? He will use advantageously the bad weather, as a disposition. You just are not aware of the fact that if you are feeling sad, the devil is hovering about you. Beware!’
“As soon as one knows that it comes from the devil, it must be rejected without any discussion. My master of novices, Fr. Terradas said, ‘One does not play with the devil.’ He calls ‘playing with the devil’ the fact of tarrying with a thought that one knows to be not good, and thus, from the devil (while reassuring oneself, with a firm will, not to consent to it). Woe to him who consents to dialogue with the devil (who is much stronger that we). Eve succumbed because she ‘played’ with the devil. After having told her that God had forbidden it, the devil followed up with new reasons. Instead of cutting him short, she started to discuss with him.
“St. Bernard wrote: ‘Nemo repente fit pessimus’, meaning ‘Nobody becomes suddenly bad.’ We sometimes hear of priests falling, of great, exemplary Christians falling, etc. Know that it has not happened all of a sudden. For a long time, they have played with the devil ... Fr. Roothan said that this can also be applied to those who, without being in the state of mortal sin, are well entrenched in tepidity (lukewarmness). For example, those Christians and religious who have decided not to correct their venial sins. The devil reassures one in tepidity (lukewarmness), and it is very dangerous for their salvation. The good angel sends him grave warnings. Woe to those who pay no attention! It is in this way that laxity is introduced into many convents and even into Christian families. This is why the examination of conscience is so important. ‘Vigilate et orate!’ said Jesus in the Gospels: ‘Watch and pray!’ Woe to the Christian that is not on his guard! The devil will do with his soul as he pleases if he is not alert.
“ ‘All trouble comes from the devil,’ said St. John Berchmans, including moody temperaments and vivid emotions. Sometimes in the family, there is tension in the air. The wife loses her temper, the children are particularly unbearable, the father is boxing every one’s ears. Know that the devil is present! There, he wins every time... Foolish things are said and done, sin is committed more or less gravely, and more or less numerously. Watch! Pray! … St. Peter says to us, ‘Brethren, be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour Whom resist ye, strong in the Faith!’ … The devil ‘roams about us,’ as St. Peter says, looking for our weak points in order to attack them. When you observe so many priests, religious and Christians, well‑advanced in the interior life, who later stagnate or even slide backwards, you wonder why. Whence did it come about? Out of a major difficulty? No! There was a slight inordinate attachment: gluttony or, more frequently, human respect, this accursed human respect which is the source of laxity and even of the damnation of so many people, even amongst the clergy.
“One of the first things the devil always does is to make people stop praying. No more meditations, spiritual reading, Rosaries, examinations of conscience, breviary, thanksgivings, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, confessions... No more Masses (or sacrilegious ones, which is worse!). No more devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, etc.” (Fr. Ludwig Barrielle, Rules for Discerning the Spirits).
CONCLUSION
It is absolutely necessary to speak about the devil and to speak about him often. If Blessed Pope Pius IX begged priests to preach more and preach often about Hell, then it is equally important to preach more and preach often about the devil. The enemy always benefits when he is “out of sight and out of mind.” It is a grave duty for priests, teachers and parents to continually bring the devil to mind and his tactics within our sight. How many souls are now in his clutches because of a false fear, a negligence, a silly sentimentality, hellish human respect, or being pressured to keep silent on the most destructive of the triple enemy: the devil, the flesh and the world. Let us reflect once more on what Sr. Josefa Menendez heard the devils speaking about, when she was mystically dragged down to Hell:
The devil, speaking of different ways of tempting, said: “Insinuate yourselves by inducing carelessness in them ... but keep in the background, so that you are not found out ... by degrees they will become callous, and you will be able to incline them to evil. Tempt these others to ambition, to self-interest, to acquiring wealth without working, whether it be lawful or not. Excite some to sensuality and love of pleasure. Let vice blind them ... As to the remainder ... get in through the heart ... you know the inclinations of their hearts ... make them love ... love passionately ... work thoroughly ... take no rest ... have no pity. Let them cram themselves with food! It will make it all the easier for us ... Let them get on with their banqueting. Love of pleasure is the door through which you will reach them.” (February 3rd, 1923).
Don’t play with devil ... Don’t let the devil play ... Don’t let your children just play, but teach them to pray and pray well ... Pull them out of the devil’s playground, which is the world of which he is prince ... Otherwise you are playing with their salvation, which may unexpectedly turn into damnation. “What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:15). “Now the sons of Heli [the high priest] were children of Belial, not knowing the Lord” (1 Kings 2:12). Make sure that “Belial shall no more pass through thee again, and is utterly cut off” (Nahum 1:15).
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Saturday March 9th & Sunday March 10th
Article 14
Breaking Out Of Your Vicious Cycle and Circle
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Article 14
Breaking Out Of Your Vicious Cycle and Circle
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Life Goes Round in Circles
Are you going round in circles? Are you caught in a vicious cycle or vicious circle? ― A “vicious cycle” is the same thing as a “vicious circle” in case you were wondering, it’s just two ways of saying the same thing. We speak of “the circle of life” which essentially speaks of Nature’s way of taking and giving back life to Earth. In fact, the circle represents eternity―by not having a beginning and not having an end. It represents the infinite nature of energy, meaning if something dies, it gives new life to another being―Our Lord even speaks of this when He says: “Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24-25).
One of the Old Testament Books of Wisdom says much the same: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth standeth for ever. The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: and there rising again, maketh his round by the south, and turneth again to the north: the spirit goeth forward surveying all places round about, and returneth to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not overflow: unto the place from whence the rivers come, they return, to flow again” (Ecclesiastes 1:4-7).
A tree or a plant produces a “live-seed”, which, when it falls from the plant or tree, dies and produces new life―hence the acorn-tree-acorn-tree-acorn-tree endless or circular syndrome. Even the seasons follow this circular or cyclical pattern―over and over again―spring, summer, fall, winter and the cycle begins again. Similarly, in our emotional lives, the emotions tend to act like the seasons, leading from one to another, yet another, and another, until we arrive back at the first emotion and start all over again. Even our daily physical life is cyclical or circular―we awake, we work, we sleep and we awake once more to resume the endless cycle, day after day. The same with our lungs―we inhale, we absorb, we exhale and inhale once more―the cycle is endless as long as we live and breath. The same with food―it is an endless cycle of eat, absorb, excrete and eat again to resume the cycle. The same with drinking. The same with work―we work, we earn, we are paid, we spend, we go to work again. We plant, we grow, we harvest, we gather the seed, and we plant again. The same with conversation―we think, we speak, we listen, we think and speak again. Walking is the same cycle―left, right, left, right, left, right, etc. We tend to stir and mix in a circular pattern. We can only drive somewhere if the wheels of our car will continually turn in circles. Our many letters of our alphabet and numerals are based upon a full or partial circular form―a, b, c, d, e, g, o, p, q, 3, 5, 6, 8, 0. Most of our cooking pots and pans and our plates, saucers, bowls, cups and dishes keep to a circular shape. All of this shapes our thinking and acting processes. Even the planet Earth is roughly circular, likewise the moon. In art, even Heaven’s halos are depicted as circular! Look wherever you will―the same circular pattern appears everywhere in shapes, seasons, movement, etc.
The Cycle of Life
We ourselves are born helpless as babes and die as helpless as babes in old age―having to be looked after and cared for like babies. William Shakespeare famously depicts this in his famous comedy, As You Like It, where the melancholic Jaques, in Act II Scene VII Line 138, gives a monologue which has become to be famously known by its opening words― “All the world’s a stage”―and proceeds to compare the the world to a stage and life to a play, wherein Shakespeare depicts the seven stages of a man’s life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man―infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, Pantalone, and old age, facing imminent death. It is one of Shakespeare's most frequently quoted passages. The notion behind the seven ages seems to come from mediaeval philosophy and theology, which groups many thing in groups of seven―such as the as the Seven Sacraments; the Seven Deadly Sins; the Seven Chief Virtues (3 theological plus 4 cardinal virtues), the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy; the Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy, etc., etc.
A Little Bit of Culture à la Shakespeare
Here is Shakespeare’s originally phrase monologue (which you may find hard to understand in parts) and so alongside is the modern-man’s current day English translation―take your pick! In any case―it depicts the cycle of life from helpless infancy to helpless old age.
Are you going round in circles? Are you caught in a vicious cycle or vicious circle? ― A “vicious cycle” is the same thing as a “vicious circle” in case you were wondering, it’s just two ways of saying the same thing. We speak of “the circle of life” which essentially speaks of Nature’s way of taking and giving back life to Earth. In fact, the circle represents eternity―by not having a beginning and not having an end. It represents the infinite nature of energy, meaning if something dies, it gives new life to another being―Our Lord even speaks of this when He says: “Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24-25).
One of the Old Testament Books of Wisdom says much the same: “One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth standeth for ever. The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: and there rising again, maketh his round by the south, and turneth again to the north: the spirit goeth forward surveying all places round about, and returneth to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not overflow: unto the place from whence the rivers come, they return, to flow again” (Ecclesiastes 1:4-7).
A tree or a plant produces a “live-seed”, which, when it falls from the plant or tree, dies and produces new life―hence the acorn-tree-acorn-tree-acorn-tree endless or circular syndrome. Even the seasons follow this circular or cyclical pattern―over and over again―spring, summer, fall, winter and the cycle begins again. Similarly, in our emotional lives, the emotions tend to act like the seasons, leading from one to another, yet another, and another, until we arrive back at the first emotion and start all over again. Even our daily physical life is cyclical or circular―we awake, we work, we sleep and we awake once more to resume the endless cycle, day after day. The same with our lungs―we inhale, we absorb, we exhale and inhale once more―the cycle is endless as long as we live and breath. The same with food―it is an endless cycle of eat, absorb, excrete and eat again to resume the cycle. The same with drinking. The same with work―we work, we earn, we are paid, we spend, we go to work again. We plant, we grow, we harvest, we gather the seed, and we plant again. The same with conversation―we think, we speak, we listen, we think and speak again. Walking is the same cycle―left, right, left, right, left, right, etc. We tend to stir and mix in a circular pattern. We can only drive somewhere if the wheels of our car will continually turn in circles. Our many letters of our alphabet and numerals are based upon a full or partial circular form―a, b, c, d, e, g, o, p, q, 3, 5, 6, 8, 0. Most of our cooking pots and pans and our plates, saucers, bowls, cups and dishes keep to a circular shape. All of this shapes our thinking and acting processes. Even the planet Earth is roughly circular, likewise the moon. In art, even Heaven’s halos are depicted as circular! Look wherever you will―the same circular pattern appears everywhere in shapes, seasons, movement, etc.
The Cycle of Life
We ourselves are born helpless as babes and die as helpless as babes in old age―having to be looked after and cared for like babies. William Shakespeare famously depicts this in his famous comedy, As You Like It, where the melancholic Jaques, in Act II Scene VII Line 138, gives a monologue which has become to be famously known by its opening words― “All the world’s a stage”―and proceeds to compare the the world to a stage and life to a play, wherein Shakespeare depicts the seven stages of a man’s life, sometimes referred to as the seven ages of man―infant, schoolboy, lover, soldier, justice, Pantalone, and old age, facing imminent death. It is one of Shakespeare's most frequently quoted passages. The notion behind the seven ages seems to come from mediaeval philosophy and theology, which groups many thing in groups of seven―such as the as the Seven Sacraments; the Seven Deadly Sins; the Seven Chief Virtues (3 theological plus 4 cardinal virtues), the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy; the Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy, etc., etc.
A Little Bit of Culture à la Shakespeare
Here is Shakespeare’s originally phrase monologue (which you may find hard to understand in parts) and so alongside is the modern-man’s current day English translation―take your pick! In any case―it depicts the cycle of life from helpless infancy to helpless old age.
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ELIZABETHAN ENGLISH OF SHAKESPEARE'S DAY
“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. At first the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms. Then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail unwillingly to school. And then the lover, sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier, full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard, jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel, seeking the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice, in fair round belly with good capon lin’d, with eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances; and so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon, with spectacles on nose and pouch on side; his youthful hose, well sav’d, a world too wide for his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice, turning again toward childish treble, pipes and whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, that ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion; sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” [“sans” is a French word for “without”] |
MODERN-DAY ENGLISH OF TODAY
“The whole world is a stage, and all the men and women merely actors. They have their exits and their entrances, and in his lifetime a man will play many parts, his life separated into seven acts. In the first act he is an infant, whimpering and puking in his nurse’s arms. Then he’s the whining schoolboy, with a book bag and a bright, young face, creeping like a snail unwillingly to school. Then he becomes a lover, huffing and puffing like a furnace as he writes sad poems about his mistress’s eyebrows. In the fourth act, he’s a soldier, full of foreign curses, with a beard like a panther, eager to defend his honor and quick to fight. On the battlefield, he puts himself in front of the cannon’s mouth, risking his life to seek fame that is as fleeting as a soap bubble. In the fifth act, he is a judge, with a nice fat belly from all the bribes he’s taken. His eyes are stern, and he’s given his beard a respectable cut. He’s full of wise sayings and up-to-the-minute anecdotes: that’s the way he plays his part. In the sixth act, the curtain rises on a skinny old man in slippers, glasses on his nose and a money bag at his side. The stockings he wore in his youth hang loosely on his shriveled legs now, and his bellowing voice has shrunk back down to a childish squeak. In the last scene of our play—the end of this strange, eventful history—our hero, full of forgetfulness, enters his second childhood: without teeth, without eyes, without taste, without everything.” |
God’s Chosen People Caught in a Vicious Cycle
In reading the Old Testament, what clearly stands out of the overall “big-picture” is the fact that the Chosen People, the Israelites, lived in a vicious circle or vicious cycle that was repeated time and time again―they are complacent and cocky about being God’s Chosen People; this leads them to sin without fear; they are chastised severely in one way or another as a punishment; they become sad, sorrowful and repent; God forgives them and blesses them once again in many ways; they become too comfortable again; they sin again; they are punished again; they repent again; they are forgiven and blessed again; they grow too comfortable again; they sin again, etc., etc. This, sadly, is the case of very many Catholics―who end up treating the mercies of God like a doormat and the confessional like a revolving door.
The Vicious Cycle of Temptation
This brings us to the vicious cycle or vicious circle of temptation―which it is appropriate to consider right now, as the First Sunday of Lent presents to us the Gospel of Our Lord’s temptation in the desert by the devil. You could, in a sense, call this “Temptation Weekend”―which shows us how the devil tempts and how to resist and break that cycle of temptation. The vast multitude of souls in Hell, either failed to successfully break the cycle of temptation, or didn’t really want to break it―because they enjoyed the temptations too much!
Why call it “The Vicious Cycle of Temptation”? Because sin itself is vicious―as the catechism tells us, mortal sin and venial sin and the two greatest and most vicious evils in the world―therefore, what leads us into them, is equally vicious. “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [venial sin] is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, Spirago-Clarke; My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow, STD).
In reading the Old Testament, what clearly stands out of the overall “big-picture” is the fact that the Chosen People, the Israelites, lived in a vicious circle or vicious cycle that was repeated time and time again―they are complacent and cocky about being God’s Chosen People; this leads them to sin without fear; they are chastised severely in one way or another as a punishment; they become sad, sorrowful and repent; God forgives them and blesses them once again in many ways; they become too comfortable again; they sin again; they are punished again; they repent again; they are forgiven and blessed again; they grow too comfortable again; they sin again, etc., etc. This, sadly, is the case of very many Catholics―who end up treating the mercies of God like a doormat and the confessional like a revolving door.
The Vicious Cycle of Temptation
This brings us to the vicious cycle or vicious circle of temptation―which it is appropriate to consider right now, as the First Sunday of Lent presents to us the Gospel of Our Lord’s temptation in the desert by the devil. You could, in a sense, call this “Temptation Weekend”―which shows us how the devil tempts and how to resist and break that cycle of temptation. The vast multitude of souls in Hell, either failed to successfully break the cycle of temptation, or didn’t really want to break it―because they enjoyed the temptations too much!
Why call it “The Vicious Cycle of Temptation”? Because sin itself is vicious―as the catechism tells us, mortal sin and venial sin and the two greatest and most vicious evils in the world―therefore, what leads us into them, is equally vicious. “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [venial sin] is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, Spirago-Clarke; My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow, STD).
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Not fair!
We may feel that it is unfair for God to expose us to temptation and allow it to attack us. We know that Our Lord was tempted in the desert after praying and fasting there for forty days and nights—but He, after all, was God. We are mere mortals! We are like babies or infants compared to an adult! But as children we had to learn to avoid many unpleasant and dangerous things: poisonous liquids, poisonous berries, fire, electricity, lakes and rivers if we couldn’t swim, reptiles, snakes, vicious animals, and so many other things that are too numerous to name. Dealing with and avoiding what is harmful, is all part and parcel of growing up. The same is true for growing up spiritually.
Same Temptation—Different Destination
St. Augustine tells us that the same crosses lead some souls to Heaven, but other souls to Hell. By this he means that some souls accept their crosses and sufferings—like the ‘Good Thief’ on the cross; whereas others refuse their crosses and sufferings and seek to escape them—like the ‘Bad Thief’ on the cross. The ‘Good Thief’ ended up in Paradise, the ‘Bad Thief’ did not! Likewise, the same temptations will lead some souls to Heaven, but other souls to Hell. It depends upon whether the temptation is powerfully rejected or gladly accepted.
Material of Glory
Fr. Frererick Faber tells us that “Temptations are the raw material of glory.” That is why St. James says: “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations!” (James 1:2), to which St. Peter will add: “You shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations: so that the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Beware If You Have No Temptations
“If you have no temptations,” St. Gregory tells us, “it is because the devils are your friends, your leaders, and your shepherds. And by allowing you to pass your poor life tranquilly, to the end of your days, they will drag you down into the depths.” St. Augustine tells us that the greatest temptation is not to have temptations, because this means that one is a person who has been rejected, abandoned by God, and left entirely in the grip of one's own passions. St. John Vianney explains: “If Our Lord was tempted, it was in order to show us that we must be also. It follows, therefore, that we must expect temptation. If you ask me what is the cause of our temptations, I shall tell you that it is the beauty and the great worth and importance of our souls which the Devil values and which he loves so much that he would consent to suffer two Hells, if necessary, if by so doing he could drag our souls into Hell” (St. John Vianney).
Temptations Are Necessary
That classic book, The Imitation of Christ, tells us that “It is good for us to have trials and troubles at times, for they often remind us that we are on probation and ought not to hope in any worldly thing. It is good for us sometimes to suffer contradiction, to be misjudged by men even though we do well and mean well. These things help us to be humble and shield us from vainglory. When to all outward appearances men give us no credit, when they do not think well of us, then we are more inclined to seek God, Who sees our hearts. Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men. When a man of good will is afflicted, tempted, and tormented by evil thoughts, he realizes clearly that his greatest need is God, without Whom he can do no good. Saddened by his miseries and sufferings, he laments and prays. He wearies of living longer and wishes for death that he might be dissolved and be with Christ. Then he understands fully that perfect security and complete peace cannot be found on earth” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 12).
Nobody is Exempt from Temptations
The author of The Imitation of Christ continues: “So long as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and temptation. Whence it is written in Job: “The life of man upon earth is a warfare.” Everyone, therefore, must guard against temptation and must watch in prayer lest the devil, who never sleeps but goes about seeking whom he may devour, find occasion to deceive him. No one is so perfect or so holy but he is sometimes tempted; man cannot be altogether free from temptation. Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 13).
“There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us C in sin we were born. When one temptation or trial passes, another comes; we shall always have something to suffer because we have lost the state of original blessedness. Many people try to escape temptations, only to fall more deeply. We cannot conquer simply by fleeing, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies. The man who only shuns temptations outwardly and does not uproot them will make little progress; indeed they will quickly return, more violent than before. Little by little, in patience and long-suffering you will overcome them, by the help of God rather than by severity and your own rash ways. Often take counsel when tempted; and do not be harsh with others who are tempted, but console them as you yourself would wish to be consoled” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 13).
A Testing and Trying Time
Before all else, it is essential that we get as clear a notion as possible of the meaning of the word temptation.
“Temptation” is derived from the Latin “tentare”, which means “to try” or “to test”. Accordingly, a temptation may be said to be a trying or a testing of the soul for the purpose of ascertaining its attitude toward God and its fidelity in the service it owes to Him.
To a great extent, temptations are to the spiritual life, what various tests on machines and materials are to mechanical and building operations. Before a steam boiler is put into operation, its ability to withstand a determined pressure of steam is ascertained by subjecting it to a rigorous test. Before a beam is placed in a building, its carrying strength is determined. And so in hundreds of other cases. The machines and materials are put through stresses designed to show whether they will prove adequate to the demand that will be made on them. By a transfer of meaning, we can say that they are tempted.
This, then, is the meaning of temptation — a trial or a test. In the service of God, souls are tested or tried in order that the quality of their love for God and their devotion to Him may become known, and that they may at the same time be given opportunities of winning for themselves large treasures of grace and merit. Temptations, therefore, are meant to reveal whether the love that a soul claims to have for God is genuine and true, and not mere hollow sham and vain pretense. They are the acid test of the spiritual life.
Sifting the True form the Fake
It is well known that there are certain substances that look so much like gold that they are often mistaken for that precious metal by ignorant and inexperienced persons. Many a man has been deceived by the worthless substance commonly known as “fool's gold.” To discover whether minerals that look like gold are the genuine metal, an assayer employs special tests. One of these consists in subjecting the substance to the action of strong nitric acid. If the substance is gold, the acid will have no effect on it; if it is not, it will break up and dissolve — an easy way of proving that what was thought to be gold was nothing more than worthless dross.
This has its parallel in the spiritual world. There are many souls parading before men what appears to be solid and genuine virtue. An acid test is needed to re-veal the true character of these souls. This is supplied by temptations. The soul that truly loves God, will not allow itself to be overcome by them, but will remain firm and immovable in the keeping of His holy law; whereas that which is only a pretender, will offer but little resistance, or perhaps none at all.
God Causes Some 'Temptations' and Permits Others
When the man on the street speaks of temptations, it is commonly understood as an incitement or allurement to some sin, brought about by either suggestion, the fear of suffering, or the offer of some good or pleasure. It may be an external temptation, such as the sight of objects, e.g., books, improper pictures, immodestly dressed persons; or by hearing, e.g., of suggestive or obscene stories, attacks on religion or the Church, detraction, or calumny. Or it may be an internal temptation, as when evil thoughts, imaginings, or desires spring up in the mind, or when feelings or sensations of a sensual character arise in the body without our having voluntarily caused them. These and similar causes make an assault on the will to induce it to give its consent to the evil proposed.
Does God Tempt or Not?
In the Sacred Scriptures we find two sets of passages, relating to temptations, that, at first sight, seem to contradict each other. One set appears to make God the author of temptations, while the other plainly denies this. Thus we read that “God tempted Abraham” (Genesis 22:1) while we are assured by St. James that “God tempts no man” (James 1:13). To reconcile these two seemingly contradictory statements, we must keep in mind that there are two distinct varieties of temptations: those which are known as temptations of probation and those which go by the name of temptations of solicitation.
Temptations of Probation
The word “probation” finds it root in the Latin verb “probare” which means “to examine, to test, to try or to prove.” By temptations of probation we understand all those special trials to which God at times subjects persons, to prove their virtue, to prepare them for some particular work, or to elevate them to a very high degree of holiness, as was the case with Abraham, the Egyptian Joseph, Job, and Tobias in the Old Law; and with St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and countless other saints in the New. Such temptations are not incitements to sin, but simply what the first meaning of the word implies: a proving or testing of a person's virtue, as of faith, hope, patience, etc. In this sense, it is quite correct to say that God tempts man.
Hence all such evils as sickness, loss of fortune, poverty, enmities, false accusations, persecutions, wars, and other calamities with which people, both the good and the bad, are often visited, can be designated as temptations sent by God, or temptations of probation.
Temptations of Solicitation
But the case is entirely different when there is question of temptations of solicitation. The word “solicitation” finds it root in the Latin verb “sollicitare” which means “to stir up, to arouse, to agitate, or to incite.” These are really incitements or allurements to violations of the law of God that come, directly or indirectly, from the Devil. They come from him directly by reason of the superior spiritual powers he possesses and by which he can, to a great extent, work on our imagination and senses and suggest evil to our mind. They come from him indirectly by what Sacred Scripture designates as “the flesh” and “the world,” or by what St. John more particularly calls “the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). Of these means the enemy of our souls makes constant use for the purpose of enticing us to commit sin.
The Providential Design Behind Temptations
Fr. Tanquerey, in his book The Spiritual Life, explains the providential reason and use that God makes of temptations: God Himself does not tempt us directly: “Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God. For God is not a tempter of evils : and He tempteth no man” (James 1:13). But He allows us to be tempted by our spiritual enemies, at the same time giving us the graces necessary to resist: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). And this for excellent reasons of His own.
1. He wants to make us merit heaven.
Undoubtedly He could have bestowed upon us eternal life as a pure gift, but in His wisdom He has willed that we merit it as a reward. He even wills that the recompense be in proportion to the merit and hence in proportion to the obstacle overcome. Temptation, which imperils our frail virtue, is certainly one of the most trying hardships; to struggle courageously against it is one of the most meritorious acts we can perform; and once we have triumphed with God's grace, we can repeat with St. Paul, that we have fought the good fight, and that it only remains for us to receive the crown of justice which God has prepared for us. The more we have done in order to merit that crown, the greater shall be our honor and our joy.
2. Temptation is likewise a means of purification.
(a) It reminds us that through lack of vigilance and of effort in the past we have fallen, and it becomes thus an occasion for new acts of contrition, shame, and humiliation, which make for the purification of the soul.
(b) It obliges us at the same time to put forth earnest and sustained efforts lest we fall; it makes us atone for our negligences and for our surrenders by the performance of contrary acts which further purify the soul. This is why when God wants to purify a soul more perfectly in order to raise it to contemplation, He allows it to undergo horrible temptations, as we shall see when treating of the unitive way.
3. Lastly, temptation is an instrument of spiritual progress.
(a) It is like a stripe of the lash that awakens us at the moment we would lull ourselves to sleep and relax. It makes us realize the necessity of forging ahead, of not halting midway, but of ever aiming higher, the more surely to remove the danger.
(b) It is a school of humility, of distrust of self. When tempted we realize more fully our weakness, our powerlessness; we feel more keenly the need of grace, and we pray with greater earnestness. We see all the better the necessity of mortifying in us the love of pleasure, the source of our temptations, and we embrace more eagerly the little crosses of every day in order to weaken the power of concupiscence.
(c) It is a school of love of God; for to insure our power of resistance, we throw ourselves into God's arms there to seek for strength and shelter; we are more grateful to Him for His unfailing grace; we act towards Him as children of a most loving Father to Whom we have recourse in all our trials.
God's Friends Will Be Tempted
Hence, temptation possesses manifold advantages and it is on this account that God allows His friends to be tempted: “Because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you” (Tobias 12:13). Which is why Fr. Faber says “Temptations are the raw material of glory” and St. James commands: “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations!” (James 1:2).
We may feel that it is unfair for God to expose us to temptation and allow it to attack us. We know that Our Lord was tempted in the desert after praying and fasting there for forty days and nights—but He, after all, was God. We are mere mortals! We are like babies or infants compared to an adult! But as children we had to learn to avoid many unpleasant and dangerous things: poisonous liquids, poisonous berries, fire, electricity, lakes and rivers if we couldn’t swim, reptiles, snakes, vicious animals, and so many other things that are too numerous to name. Dealing with and avoiding what is harmful, is all part and parcel of growing up. The same is true for growing up spiritually.
Same Temptation—Different Destination
St. Augustine tells us that the same crosses lead some souls to Heaven, but other souls to Hell. By this he means that some souls accept their crosses and sufferings—like the ‘Good Thief’ on the cross; whereas others refuse their crosses and sufferings and seek to escape them—like the ‘Bad Thief’ on the cross. The ‘Good Thief’ ended up in Paradise, the ‘Bad Thief’ did not! Likewise, the same temptations will lead some souls to Heaven, but other souls to Hell. It depends upon whether the temptation is powerfully rejected or gladly accepted.
Material of Glory
Fr. Frererick Faber tells us that “Temptations are the raw material of glory.” That is why St. James says: “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations!” (James 1:2), to which St. Peter will add: “You shall greatly rejoice, if now you must be for a little time made sorrowful in divers temptations: so that the trial of your faith (much more precious than gold which is tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the appearing of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:6-7).
Beware If You Have No Temptations
“If you have no temptations,” St. Gregory tells us, “it is because the devils are your friends, your leaders, and your shepherds. And by allowing you to pass your poor life tranquilly, to the end of your days, they will drag you down into the depths.” St. Augustine tells us that the greatest temptation is not to have temptations, because this means that one is a person who has been rejected, abandoned by God, and left entirely in the grip of one's own passions. St. John Vianney explains: “If Our Lord was tempted, it was in order to show us that we must be also. It follows, therefore, that we must expect temptation. If you ask me what is the cause of our temptations, I shall tell you that it is the beauty and the great worth and importance of our souls which the Devil values and which he loves so much that he would consent to suffer two Hells, if necessary, if by so doing he could drag our souls into Hell” (St. John Vianney).
Temptations Are Necessary
That classic book, The Imitation of Christ, tells us that “It is good for us to have trials and troubles at times, for they often remind us that we are on probation and ought not to hope in any worldly thing. It is good for us sometimes to suffer contradiction, to be misjudged by men even though we do well and mean well. These things help us to be humble and shield us from vainglory. When to all outward appearances men give us no credit, when they do not think well of us, then we are more inclined to seek God, Who sees our hearts. Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men. When a man of good will is afflicted, tempted, and tormented by evil thoughts, he realizes clearly that his greatest need is God, without Whom he can do no good. Saddened by his miseries and sufferings, he laments and prays. He wearies of living longer and wishes for death that he might be dissolved and be with Christ. Then he understands fully that perfect security and complete peace cannot be found on earth” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 12).
Nobody is Exempt from Temptations
The author of The Imitation of Christ continues: “So long as we live in this world we cannot escape suffering and temptation. Whence it is written in Job: “The life of man upon earth is a warfare.” Everyone, therefore, must guard against temptation and must watch in prayer lest the devil, who never sleeps but goes about seeking whom he may devour, find occasion to deceive him. No one is so perfect or so holy but he is sometimes tempted; man cannot be altogether free from temptation. Yet temptations, though troublesome and severe, are often useful to a man, for in them he is humbled, purified, and instructed. The saints all passed through many temptations and trials to profit by them, while those who could not resist became reprobate and fell away” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 13).
“There is no state so holy, no place so secret that temptations and trials will not come. Man is never safe from them as long as he lives, for they come from within us C in sin we were born. When one temptation or trial passes, another comes; we shall always have something to suffer because we have lost the state of original blessedness. Many people try to escape temptations, only to fall more deeply. We cannot conquer simply by fleeing, but by patience and true humility we become stronger than all our enemies. The man who only shuns temptations outwardly and does not uproot them will make little progress; indeed they will quickly return, more violent than before. Little by little, in patience and long-suffering you will overcome them, by the help of God rather than by severity and your own rash ways. Often take counsel when tempted; and do not be harsh with others who are tempted, but console them as you yourself would wish to be consoled” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 1, chapter 13).
A Testing and Trying Time
Before all else, it is essential that we get as clear a notion as possible of the meaning of the word temptation.
“Temptation” is derived from the Latin “tentare”, which means “to try” or “to test”. Accordingly, a temptation may be said to be a trying or a testing of the soul for the purpose of ascertaining its attitude toward God and its fidelity in the service it owes to Him.
To a great extent, temptations are to the spiritual life, what various tests on machines and materials are to mechanical and building operations. Before a steam boiler is put into operation, its ability to withstand a determined pressure of steam is ascertained by subjecting it to a rigorous test. Before a beam is placed in a building, its carrying strength is determined. And so in hundreds of other cases. The machines and materials are put through stresses designed to show whether they will prove adequate to the demand that will be made on them. By a transfer of meaning, we can say that they are tempted.
This, then, is the meaning of temptation — a trial or a test. In the service of God, souls are tested or tried in order that the quality of their love for God and their devotion to Him may become known, and that they may at the same time be given opportunities of winning for themselves large treasures of grace and merit. Temptations, therefore, are meant to reveal whether the love that a soul claims to have for God is genuine and true, and not mere hollow sham and vain pretense. They are the acid test of the spiritual life.
Sifting the True form the Fake
It is well known that there are certain substances that look so much like gold that they are often mistaken for that precious metal by ignorant and inexperienced persons. Many a man has been deceived by the worthless substance commonly known as “fool's gold.” To discover whether minerals that look like gold are the genuine metal, an assayer employs special tests. One of these consists in subjecting the substance to the action of strong nitric acid. If the substance is gold, the acid will have no effect on it; if it is not, it will break up and dissolve — an easy way of proving that what was thought to be gold was nothing more than worthless dross.
This has its parallel in the spiritual world. There are many souls parading before men what appears to be solid and genuine virtue. An acid test is needed to re-veal the true character of these souls. This is supplied by temptations. The soul that truly loves God, will not allow itself to be overcome by them, but will remain firm and immovable in the keeping of His holy law; whereas that which is only a pretender, will offer but little resistance, or perhaps none at all.
God Causes Some 'Temptations' and Permits Others
When the man on the street speaks of temptations, it is commonly understood as an incitement or allurement to some sin, brought about by either suggestion, the fear of suffering, or the offer of some good or pleasure. It may be an external temptation, such as the sight of objects, e.g., books, improper pictures, immodestly dressed persons; or by hearing, e.g., of suggestive or obscene stories, attacks on religion or the Church, detraction, or calumny. Or it may be an internal temptation, as when evil thoughts, imaginings, or desires spring up in the mind, or when feelings or sensations of a sensual character arise in the body without our having voluntarily caused them. These and similar causes make an assault on the will to induce it to give its consent to the evil proposed.
Does God Tempt or Not?
In the Sacred Scriptures we find two sets of passages, relating to temptations, that, at first sight, seem to contradict each other. One set appears to make God the author of temptations, while the other plainly denies this. Thus we read that “God tempted Abraham” (Genesis 22:1) while we are assured by St. James that “God tempts no man” (James 1:13). To reconcile these two seemingly contradictory statements, we must keep in mind that there are two distinct varieties of temptations: those which are known as temptations of probation and those which go by the name of temptations of solicitation.
Temptations of Probation
The word “probation” finds it root in the Latin verb “probare” which means “to examine, to test, to try or to prove.” By temptations of probation we understand all those special trials to which God at times subjects persons, to prove their virtue, to prepare them for some particular work, or to elevate them to a very high degree of holiness, as was the case with Abraham, the Egyptian Joseph, Job, and Tobias in the Old Law; and with St. John the Baptist, St. Joseph, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and countless other saints in the New. Such temptations are not incitements to sin, but simply what the first meaning of the word implies: a proving or testing of a person's virtue, as of faith, hope, patience, etc. In this sense, it is quite correct to say that God tempts man.
Hence all such evils as sickness, loss of fortune, poverty, enmities, false accusations, persecutions, wars, and other calamities with which people, both the good and the bad, are often visited, can be designated as temptations sent by God, or temptations of probation.
Temptations of Solicitation
But the case is entirely different when there is question of temptations of solicitation. The word “solicitation” finds it root in the Latin verb “sollicitare” which means “to stir up, to arouse, to agitate, or to incite.” These are really incitements or allurements to violations of the law of God that come, directly or indirectly, from the Devil. They come from him directly by reason of the superior spiritual powers he possesses and by which he can, to a great extent, work on our imagination and senses and suggest evil to our mind. They come from him indirectly by what Sacred Scripture designates as “the flesh” and “the world,” or by what St. John more particularly calls “the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). Of these means the enemy of our souls makes constant use for the purpose of enticing us to commit sin.
The Providential Design Behind Temptations
Fr. Tanquerey, in his book The Spiritual Life, explains the providential reason and use that God makes of temptations: God Himself does not tempt us directly: “Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God. For God is not a tempter of evils : and He tempteth no man” (James 1:13). But He allows us to be tempted by our spiritual enemies, at the same time giving us the graces necessary to resist: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able: but will make also with temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). And this for excellent reasons of His own.
1. He wants to make us merit heaven.
Undoubtedly He could have bestowed upon us eternal life as a pure gift, but in His wisdom He has willed that we merit it as a reward. He even wills that the recompense be in proportion to the merit and hence in proportion to the obstacle overcome. Temptation, which imperils our frail virtue, is certainly one of the most trying hardships; to struggle courageously against it is one of the most meritorious acts we can perform; and once we have triumphed with God's grace, we can repeat with St. Paul, that we have fought the good fight, and that it only remains for us to receive the crown of justice which God has prepared for us. The more we have done in order to merit that crown, the greater shall be our honor and our joy.
2. Temptation is likewise a means of purification.
(a) It reminds us that through lack of vigilance and of effort in the past we have fallen, and it becomes thus an occasion for new acts of contrition, shame, and humiliation, which make for the purification of the soul.
(b) It obliges us at the same time to put forth earnest and sustained efforts lest we fall; it makes us atone for our negligences and for our surrenders by the performance of contrary acts which further purify the soul. This is why when God wants to purify a soul more perfectly in order to raise it to contemplation, He allows it to undergo horrible temptations, as we shall see when treating of the unitive way.
3. Lastly, temptation is an instrument of spiritual progress.
(a) It is like a stripe of the lash that awakens us at the moment we would lull ourselves to sleep and relax. It makes us realize the necessity of forging ahead, of not halting midway, but of ever aiming higher, the more surely to remove the danger.
(b) It is a school of humility, of distrust of self. When tempted we realize more fully our weakness, our powerlessness; we feel more keenly the need of grace, and we pray with greater earnestness. We see all the better the necessity of mortifying in us the love of pleasure, the source of our temptations, and we embrace more eagerly the little crosses of every day in order to weaken the power of concupiscence.
(c) It is a school of love of God; for to insure our power of resistance, we throw ourselves into God's arms there to seek for strength and shelter; we are more grateful to Him for His unfailing grace; we act towards Him as children of a most loving Father to Whom we have recourse in all our trials.
God's Friends Will Be Tempted
Hence, temptation possesses manifold advantages and it is on this account that God allows His friends to be tempted: “Because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove you” (Tobias 12:13). Which is why Fr. Faber says “Temptations are the raw material of glory” and St. James commands: “My brethren, count it all joy, when you shall fall into divers temptations!” (James 1:2).
Friday March 8th
Article 13
Are You Good At Crosswords or Crosswalks?
Don’t just talk the talk! Walk the walk! Walk after Christ with your cross!
Article 13
Are You Good At Crosswords or Crosswalks?
Don’t just talk the talk! Walk the walk! Walk after Christ with your cross!
Talking the Talk or Walking the Walk?
We all know the expression, “Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk!” In other words, don’t just give me the theory, prove it in practice. Or “Actions speak louder than words!” For, more often than not, our own gospel is more a case of “Do as I say, but don’t do as I do!” Which is what Our Lord saw in the Scribes and Pharisees: “All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do! But according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not!” (Matthew 23:3).
Elsewhere, Holy Scripture says the same thing slightly differently, telling us that theory alone will not suffice for Heaven: “Faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: ‘Thou hast Faith, and I have works!’ Show me thy Faith without works; and I will show thee, by works, my Faith! Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well―but the devils also believe and tremble! Wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only? For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:17-26).
The Cross is an Essential Work of Faith
Make no mistake about it―no cross, no Heaven! Our Lord puts it this way: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me’”’ (Luke 9:23) … “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). Which is why the Church says―and we will hear this during the Liturgy of Holy Week― “Ave crux spes unica!” meaning, “Hail cross, our sole hope!” and “In cruce salus!” meaning, “In the cross is salvation!”
Our Lord even spells it out more clearly what it will be like to take up our cross daily and follow Him―“Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three … And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household … The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:51-53; Matthew 10:36). “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:10-12). “And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death” (Mark 13:12). “They shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death, and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake!” (Matthew 24:9). “You shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake: but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22).
The Theory of Ash Wednesday in Practice
On Ash Wednesday, you went to the School of the Passion (the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass) and there you were enrolled in the School of the Cross, by being “branded” with the cross of ashes being rubbed into the skin of your forehead. It was a lesson on how to get to Heaven. Now, on this Friday after Ash Wednesday, it is customary and traditional for the Church to begin the weekly lessons on the “Way of the Cross”, or the “Stations of the Cross” or, as in a school career, the “Classes of the Cross” ― ranging from the pre-schooler classes, then kindergarten classes and then the twelve grades to graduation (which total fourteen―as in the fourteen Stations of the Cross―which finally come to fruition with graduation at the end of Twelfth Grade of High School. In each Station of the Cross we learn something more about how to get to Heaven―but it praying or even meditating the Station of the Cross, we are still in the realm of THEORY and not practice. Our “School of Suffering” classwork theory (or crosswork theory or crossword theory) has to be put into practice by doing our homework in all the daily events and circumstances of our lives.
Going to the Stations of the Cross is fine and necessary―but even more necessary is putting into practice what we have uttered with our lips or considered with our minds. This is where most people fail―they are fine with the theory, but fail in practice. The cross is on their lips, but not in their hearts. This is witnessed and proved by the countless times during each and every day that they mutter, complain, whine, moan and groan when a cross comes their way. God sends them numerous crosses down the production-line, but most of them are thrown into the cross-trash-can. They see the cross as a loss, rather than a profit. God speaks thus of such persons: “He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
In Cruce Salus―In the Cross is Salvation
How can we consider the cross as a loss when it helps us avoid the loss of our souls? In the cross is salvation! “In cruce salus” as Holy Mother Church says. Our Lord adds: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Our Lord offers us salvation in exchange for the cross―we pay for salvation with the cross, the Way of the Cross is the way to salvation. That is why Holy Mother Church sings: “O ave crux spes unica!” ― meaning, “Hail O cross, our sole hope!”
That is why St. Paul preaches the cross: “The Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom! But we preach Christ crucified―unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles it is foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23). “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). “Be ye followers of me, brethren … For many walk―of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping―that they are enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in Heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Philippians 3:17-20). “Then is the scandal of the cross made void!” (Galatians 5:11). What is more precious than salvation? In that case, what is more precious than the cross? There is no loss in the cross.
Avoiding the Cross
In this age of technology and comfort, we have become a generation of cross avoiders and cross voiders. We run from the cross, and, if we cannot escape it, we make it void by our complaints, whine, moans and groans. This reminds us a little of St. Simon of Cyrene, who didn’t want to carry Jesus’ cross, but was forced to do so: “And going out, they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon―him they forced to take up His [Jesus’] cross” (Matthew 27:32). Most people in this world do not want the cross―and so God forces the cross upon them by His Divine Providence. But what is God forcing them to take? Poison? No, the cross is no poison, but healthy medicine―even though it tastes bitter. But many medicines do taste bitter―even natural medicines in the form of food―for as they say: “Bitter is better” in many if not most cases. Garlic is bitter, cayenne is sharp, lemon is bitter, ginger is sharp, many herbs are bitter―yet they are among the best medicines that we have.
The Sign of the Cross
As we read a little above, St. Paul said: “The Jews require signs” (1 Corinthians 1:22). On Calvary, the Jews wanted a sign from Christ that would prove that He really was the Son of God. They said among themselves: “He saved others! Himself He cannot save! If He be the king of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him!” (Matthew 27:42). Thus, they cried out to Him: “Save Thy own self! If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross!” (Matthew 27:40). Sure, Jesus could have performed a miracle and could have freed Himself of the cross―but He preferred to perform an even greater miracle by remaining faithful and attached to the cross of salvation, and, after dying on the cross, He would not merely come down from the cross while still alive, He would instead come out of the tomb “alive and kicking” after He had died!
When we make the “Sign of the Cross”―which we do, or should be doing, many times a day, when we rise, before and after prayers, before and after meals, etc.―we are reminded ourselves of the theory and the lessons we have learnt in our classes of the Stations of the Cross, and reminding ourselves that salvation will only be gained by picking-up our many crosses daily, collecting them rather than throwing them away, and following Christ on the Way of the Cross. How sad it is to see the vast majority of Catholics make the Sign of the Cross, rapidly, irreverently, haphazardly, indifferently, superficially, thoughtlessly and carelessly! Imagine how Our Lord feels and what He must think of such a flippant, heartless, loveless use of the Sign that He has left us to remind us of the gargantuan and gruesome sufferings He underwent to pay the price of our salvation! Our attitude should one of hailing, not failing the Cross of Christ―“Ave crux spes unica”―“Hail O Cross, our only hope!”
St. Augustine―probably in reference to the two thieves crucified on Calvary with Jesus―says that the same crosses or the same sufferings lead some souls to Heaven and other souls to Hell. The one thief―whom we call “the bad thief”―despised his cross and wanted to be freed from it, even though he was justly condemned to die upon it. The other thief―whom we call “the good thief”―willingly accepted his cross as a just punishment for his crimes. To the “good thief” Our Lord said: “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise!” Luke 23:43).
We all know the expression, “Don’t just talk the talk, but walk the walk!” In other words, don’t just give me the theory, prove it in practice. Or “Actions speak louder than words!” For, more often than not, our own gospel is more a case of “Do as I say, but don’t do as I do!” Which is what Our Lord saw in the Scribes and Pharisees: “All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do! But according to their works do ye not; for they say, and do not!” (Matthew 23:3).
Elsewhere, Holy Scripture says the same thing slightly differently, telling us that theory alone will not suffice for Heaven: “Faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself. But some man will say: ‘Thou hast Faith, and I have works!’ Show me thy Faith without works; and I will show thee, by works, my Faith! Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well―but the devils also believe and tremble! Wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead? Do you see that by works a man is justified; and not by Faith only? For even as the body without the spirit is dead; so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:17-26).
The Cross is an Essential Work of Faith
Make no mistake about it―no cross, no Heaven! Our Lord puts it this way: “And He said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me’”’ (Luke 9:23) … “And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). Which is why the Church says―and we will hear this during the Liturgy of Holy Week― “Ave crux spes unica!” meaning, “Hail cross, our sole hope!” and “In cruce salus!” meaning, “In the cross is salvation!”
Our Lord even spells it out more clearly what it will be like to take up our cross daily and follow Him―“Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three … And a man's enemies shall be they of his own household … The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law!” (Luke 12:51-53; Matthew 10:36). “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven!” (Matthew 5:10-12). “And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death” (Mark 13:12). “They shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death, and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake!” (Matthew 24:9). “You shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake: but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22).
The Theory of Ash Wednesday in Practice
On Ash Wednesday, you went to the School of the Passion (the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass) and there you were enrolled in the School of the Cross, by being “branded” with the cross of ashes being rubbed into the skin of your forehead. It was a lesson on how to get to Heaven. Now, on this Friday after Ash Wednesday, it is customary and traditional for the Church to begin the weekly lessons on the “Way of the Cross”, or the “Stations of the Cross” or, as in a school career, the “Classes of the Cross” ― ranging from the pre-schooler classes, then kindergarten classes and then the twelve grades to graduation (which total fourteen―as in the fourteen Stations of the Cross―which finally come to fruition with graduation at the end of Twelfth Grade of High School. In each Station of the Cross we learn something more about how to get to Heaven―but it praying or even meditating the Station of the Cross, we are still in the realm of THEORY and not practice. Our “School of Suffering” classwork theory (or crosswork theory or crossword theory) has to be put into practice by doing our homework in all the daily events and circumstances of our lives.
Going to the Stations of the Cross is fine and necessary―but even more necessary is putting into practice what we have uttered with our lips or considered with our minds. This is where most people fail―they are fine with the theory, but fail in practice. The cross is on their lips, but not in their hearts. This is witnessed and proved by the countless times during each and every day that they mutter, complain, whine, moan and groan when a cross comes their way. God sends them numerous crosses down the production-line, but most of them are thrown into the cross-trash-can. They see the cross as a loss, rather than a profit. God speaks thus of such persons: “He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:38).
In Cruce Salus―In the Cross is Salvation
How can we consider the cross as a loss when it helps us avoid the loss of our souls? In the cross is salvation! “In cruce salus” as Holy Mother Church says. Our Lord adds: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Our Lord offers us salvation in exchange for the cross―we pay for salvation with the cross, the Way of the Cross is the way to salvation. That is why Holy Mother Church sings: “O ave crux spes unica!” ― meaning, “Hail O cross, our sole hope!”
That is why St. Paul preaches the cross: “The Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom! But we preach Christ crucified―unto the Jews indeed a stumbling-block, and unto the Gentiles it is foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:22-23). “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). “Be ye followers of me, brethren … For many walk―of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping―that they are enemies of the cross of Christ; whose end is destruction; whose God is their belly; and whose glory is in their shame; who mind earthly things. But our conversation is in Heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ!” (Philippians 3:17-20). “Then is the scandal of the cross made void!” (Galatians 5:11). What is more precious than salvation? In that case, what is more precious than the cross? There is no loss in the cross.
Avoiding the Cross
In this age of technology and comfort, we have become a generation of cross avoiders and cross voiders. We run from the cross, and, if we cannot escape it, we make it void by our complaints, whine, moans and groans. This reminds us a little of St. Simon of Cyrene, who didn’t want to carry Jesus’ cross, but was forced to do so: “And going out, they found a man of Cyrene, named Simon―him they forced to take up His [Jesus’] cross” (Matthew 27:32). Most people in this world do not want the cross―and so God forces the cross upon them by His Divine Providence. But what is God forcing them to take? Poison? No, the cross is no poison, but healthy medicine―even though it tastes bitter. But many medicines do taste bitter―even natural medicines in the form of food―for as they say: “Bitter is better” in many if not most cases. Garlic is bitter, cayenne is sharp, lemon is bitter, ginger is sharp, many herbs are bitter―yet they are among the best medicines that we have.
The Sign of the Cross
As we read a little above, St. Paul said: “The Jews require signs” (1 Corinthians 1:22). On Calvary, the Jews wanted a sign from Christ that would prove that He really was the Son of God. They said among themselves: “He saved others! Himself He cannot save! If He be the king of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him!” (Matthew 27:42). Thus, they cried out to Him: “Save Thy own self! If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross!” (Matthew 27:40). Sure, Jesus could have performed a miracle and could have freed Himself of the cross―but He preferred to perform an even greater miracle by remaining faithful and attached to the cross of salvation, and, after dying on the cross, He would not merely come down from the cross while still alive, He would instead come out of the tomb “alive and kicking” after He had died!
When we make the “Sign of the Cross”―which we do, or should be doing, many times a day, when we rise, before and after prayers, before and after meals, etc.―we are reminded ourselves of the theory and the lessons we have learnt in our classes of the Stations of the Cross, and reminding ourselves that salvation will only be gained by picking-up our many crosses daily, collecting them rather than throwing them away, and following Christ on the Way of the Cross. How sad it is to see the vast majority of Catholics make the Sign of the Cross, rapidly, irreverently, haphazardly, indifferently, superficially, thoughtlessly and carelessly! Imagine how Our Lord feels and what He must think of such a flippant, heartless, loveless use of the Sign that He has left us to remind us of the gargantuan and gruesome sufferings He underwent to pay the price of our salvation! Our attitude should one of hailing, not failing the Cross of Christ―“Ave crux spes unica”―“Hail O Cross, our only hope!”
St. Augustine―probably in reference to the two thieves crucified on Calvary with Jesus―says that the same crosses or the same sufferings lead some souls to Heaven and other souls to Hell. The one thief―whom we call “the bad thief”―despised his cross and wanted to be freed from it, even though he was justly condemned to die upon it. The other thief―whom we call “the good thief”―willingly accepted his cross as a just punishment for his crimes. To the “good thief” Our Lord said: “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise!” Luke 23:43).
Thursday March 7th
Article 12
Don't Be Rash! Don't Trash the Ash! It's Spiritual Cash!
Article 12
Don't Be Rash! Don't Trash the Ash! It's Spiritual Cash!
Too Superficial―Too Inattentive―Too Distracted
For most people, Ash Wednesday came and went! That’s it! All done and dusted―if you pardon the pun! (“Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shall return!”). O never mind! Another joke burnt to ashes! Nevertheless, it is true―for most people Ash Wednesday is a thing of the past that is of further consequence. However, Ash Wednesday is far from being “just another day”! The ashes may go away―as we wash them away at some point or another―but their significance should be like an indelible mark on our mind, heart and soul. Yet we far too superficial, far too inattentive and far too distracted to really pay attention to and profit from Ash Wednesday. What could be spiritual riches, ends up being spiritual poverty! What could be a diamond, crumbles into dust! No sooner has Ash Wednesday gone, it is quickly forgotten. Ash Wednesday, like the proverbial water that flows off a duck’s back, is washed away in the next shower―from both body and mind.
This is not how it should be! Ash Wednesday is not to be a “one-day-wonder” to be quickly forgotten! What did the priest say as he imposed the ashes on your forehead? The very first word is like a hammer blow― “REMEMBER man that thou art dust and to dust thou shall return!” Yes, REMEMBER! We read of Our Lady: “And His Mother kept all these words in her heart” (Luke 2:51). “But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart” Luke 2:19)―which is how we ought to look at Ash Wednesday and “REMEMBER” these things in our heart. The opposite to “remember” is to “forget.” Remember for how long? Every day―until the day you die and turn to dust! In this modern consumer world, where everything has to be fast and has to be constantly changing―no better epitomized by the TV screen, where the images are often changing angles or views at a rate of two, three or even four different angles or settings in one single second―whereas, in bygone years, the camera would hold a scene setting for many, many seconds before shifting to another view or angle. We have been trained, brainwashed and have accepted constant change as part and parcel and the normality of life―so much so, that when there is no change, we become irritated, agitated and consternated.
All of this works against our spiritual life, which, on the contrary, requires prolonged focus on matters: “Be still and see that I am God!” (Psalms 45:11). We may be addicted to change, but with God there is no change: “The Father of lights, with Whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration” (James 1:17). That is why we are so superficial and unspiritual, because we have become so addicted to change, to new things, always seeking something different, that we find it impossible to sit still and think deeply and thing spiritually―for the spiritual is not a tangible thing, like all the ‘goodies’ in this world, that we can see, touch, hear, smell and taste. We become impatient, dry, restless and fruitless when faced with spiritual thought and meditation―because we are predominantly bombarded with material, physical, earthly and worldly elements that can be seen, heard, touched, tasted and smelt all around us. The spiritual is a desert by comparison.
Spiritual Lessons from Palm Branches and Ashes
The life of a palm branch or palm leaf goes from worldly glory to spiritual humiliation and annihilation. At first the palm branch basks in the sun and gloriously wafts around in the tropical air, playing its part in beautifying the world. Then, it finds itself chopped-down, and, like prisoners, tied together with other palm leaves and shipped off to the ‘prison camp’ of some local church, where it will be ‘baptized’ (sprinkled with holy water) and ‘sold’ as a slave on Palm Sunday to some Catholic family. After a year of slavery and dying of ‘dehydration’ it finds itself, as Ash Wednesday approaches, sentenced to death by burning, after which ‘cremation’ its ashes are distributed once again among the Catholic families who had brought them to their ‘death’. What a beautiful lesson on how God prepares the soul for Heaven! If you have ever read accounts of the “Three Ways of the Spiritual Life”, or the “Three Stages or Conversions of the Spiritual Life”, then you will see the similarities―whereby God gradually takes away, reduces, strips, destroys our worldliness in order to make us fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.
The preparation of the ashes for Ash Wednesday begins when the people of the parish bring back the palms that were blessed and they received the previous year on Palm Sunday. The palms are first cut up into smaller pieces―which allow them to burn more quickly. Then they are placed in some kind of burning container (everyone has their own way), it could even be an old barbecue, with a tray placed underneath to catch the ash. Palm leaves are dry (dry spiritually?), having lost their moisture (grace?) through the year, leaving only the cellulose material (worldliness?), which also help them to burn more quickly, but, at the same time, reduces the volume of ash produced. As they burn, the palm branches need to be stirred about in order to introduce the oxygen (grace) that is required for the burning process (fires of love?) to continue. Once burned, the CARBON material is collected and placed in an old-fashioned flour sifter. The ashes are stirred and sifted reducing them to a fine granular powder. It is amazing the amount of palm leaf material that is needed to obtain a sufficient amount for distribution on Ash Wednesday.
From Ashes to Jewels
The whole process is a spiritual lesson waiting to be meditated―but modern man has no time to think spiritually―barely a few minutes―never mind meditate, or dig deep and MINE THE TREASURES that are to be found. Which―speaking of CARBON and MINING―brings us to the subject of diamonds. For there is a connection between ashes and diamonds―in the sense that high heat (flames) reduce the palm branches to ashes (CARBON) and high heat within the Earth’s mantle produces rough diamonds from CARBON.
A rough diamond can easily be overlooked and discarded by someone who does not recognize what a rough diamond looks like. Everyone has an image of a diamond as being a sparkling jewel―the king of the jewels. If you fail to recognize a rough diamond, you will most likely pass or even pick-up and throw away a fortune! A rough diamond is an unprocessed, unpolished, rugged, common-looking stone. Perhaps you have at one time held or seen a rough diamond without realizing it. In its original form it is totally unimpressive. The untrained and superficial eye will have great difficulty or even find it impossible to recognize the king of jewels in its basic and original condition. You could say the same thing about Our Lord―whether as an infant in the cave at Bethlehem, or bloodied and bruised on the cross on Calvary. Many an untrained mind or soul found it impossible to see the King of kings in the person that was in front of them. While it is still unpolished, the rough diamond looks like a piece of colorless, cloudy, milky glass, or even a yellowish-brown pebble. Only when cut and polished does its beauty shine forth.
As the saying goes: “Diamonds are forever!”―so too is your soul. Not only are diamonds ‘eternal’, but they take an ‘eternity’ to be formed. It takes thousands of years to form a rough diamond at depths of over a hundred miles beneath the Earth’s surface―which makes us think of the eternity of the fires of Hell and relative seeming ‘eternity’ of the fires of Purgatory, both places are held to by, by many saints, beneath the surface of the Earth. Diamonds are created only by being under enormous pressure and in extremely high temperatures. Only then does volcanic activity bring them towards the surface of the Earth, waiting to be discovered and mined as rough diamonds. It is not easy to recognize a rough diamond among the many pebbles among which it is embedded. The expressions “one in a thousand” or “one in a million” spring to mind―which again reminds of the few number of souls (rough diamonds) that are saved and find themselves as jewels in the crowns of Our Lord and Our Lady in Heaven.
Only when polished does a rough diamond reveal its exquisite sparkle and beauty. The rough diamond has to be cut and polished until they shine―which speaks volumes for our path to holiness―only then are they taken to the goldsmiths and jewelers―which reminds us that only shining saints are taken into Heaven.
Similar to graphite, diamonds are comprised purely of carbon. However there is more to it than that. Carbon is not the only ingredient. Diamonds have three other crucial ingredients: pressure, heat, and time. Diamonds are formed in the Earth's mantle, somewhere between 1 and 3 billion years ago. Formed by heat and pressure, diamonds are then delivered to the Earth's surface by deep-source volcanic eruptions or the movement of subduction zones that bring the diamonds up to the ocean floor. In addition to being formed deep in the Earth, diamonds can also be formed from the immense heat and pressure of asteroid strikes. Diamonds require environments of at least 752 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius) and 434,113 pounds per square inch (30 kilobars). The most favorable diamond-forming conditions can be found about 100 miles (160 kilometers) underground.
Making “Diamonds” from the “Ashes” in Lent
For man, a rough diamond is useless if it remains embedded deep in the Earth and is not brought up closer to the Earth’s surface to within mining distance. Likewise, to God, a soul (rough diamond) is useless if it is embedded deep in the things of this Earth and fails to be brought closer to God.
As rough diamonds are formed from carbon over time spent in intense heat and pressure―likewise, “rough diamonds” (saints) can be formed from the carbon of the ashes smeared on our foreheads by spending a prolonged time in the intense ‘heat’ and ‘pressure’ of Lent. Of course, we hate the heat and we prefer no pressure, but Holy Scripture tells us: “Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in fear and prepare thy soul for temptation!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1). “As silver is tried by fire, and gold in the furnace―so the Lord trieth the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3). “For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation” (Ecclesiasticus 2:5)―and Lent sure is humbling, it can be a real furnace, if it is lived-through correctly with penitential and mortified spirit―which is how it was meant to be lived in the first place.
Of course, today’s 95% Lenten fast discount―reducing the 40 days of fasting to a mere 2 days of fasting, namely Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, makes Lent ‘a piece of cake’ or a ‘cakewalk’ for today’s ‘couch-potato’ Catholics. This is just what Our Lady warned us about at La Salette in 1846: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish.” Twelve years later, at Lourdes in 1858, she would emphatically insist on “Penance! Penance! Penance!” Which she essentially reiterated at Fatima in 1917, bys asking for sacrifices to the point of much suffering: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort!” (Our Lady of Fatima, May 1917). While at Akita, in 1973, Our Lady further warned: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful. Beloved souls who console Him forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!” (Our Lady of Akita, August 3rd, 1973). Our Lord sums all of this up with the blunt, frightening words: “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
Fasting a Fast-Track to Holiness! Careful What You Consume!
As Our Lady warned at La Salette, ““Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little!” As a counter-measure to these attacks, Our Lord reminds us: “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20), which is why St. Francis de Sales encourages our battles against Satan with these words: “Although we may be able to do but little, the enemy nevertheless stands more in awe of those whom he knows can fast.” While St. Thomas Aquinas points out the spiritualizing effects of fasting: “Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, kindles the true light of chastity.”
However, it is not only fasting from food that we are encouraged to do! St. John Chrysostom very astutely says: “Let the mouth fast from disgraceful and abusive words, because, what gain is there when, on the one hand we avoid eating chicken and fish and, on the other, we chew-up and consume our brothers? He who condemns and blasphemes is as if he has eaten brotherly meat, as if he has bitten into the flesh of his fellow man. It is because of this that Paul frightened us, saying: ‘If you chew up and consume one another, be careful that you do not annihilate yourselves!’”
The Humility of Ashes―Big as Dust
There were some very important men in the Old Testament, key figures chosen by God to lead or teach His Chosen people: Adam, Abraham, Job, etc. These men were among the favorites of God. Yet of Adam, God says: “Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:19); Abraham, in speaking to God says of himself:”I am dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27); and Job echoes a similar sentiment saying of himself: “I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes” (Job 30:19), adding, ”Therefore I reprehend myself, and do penance in dust and ashes”(Job 42:6).
On this Ash Wednesday, we have all heard the words of God addressed to us:”Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return!” This is a reminder of death, with the same words that God pronounced Adam’s fate: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:19).
What Goes Around Comes Around
Our fate is the same as that of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and we “shall be like small dust: and as ashes passing away” (Isaias 29:5). Since Original Sin, the fate of the human race is one of being reduced to ashes: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). As God says: “Everyone shall die for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16).
Our Lady, directly and indirectly, explicitly and implicitly, reinforces this truth—that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)—at her modern-day apparitions.
At Lourdes she says: “You will pray to God for sinners!” (February 21st, 1858); “Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground as an act of penance for sinners!” (February 24th).
Warnings of a Mother
At La Salette she warns that: “the priests … by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity [and] the priests are asking vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together.”
Our Lady appeared to St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima several times between December 1919 and February 1920. Our Lady told her many things including: “The sins of the world are very great ... If men only knew what eternity is, they would do everything in their power to change their lives.” … “Fly from riches and luxury; love poverty and silence; have charity, even for bad people!”
“More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason” … “The Mother of God wants more virgin souls bound by the vow of chastity” … “Confession is a sacrament of mercy and we must confess with joy and trust” … “Our Lady can no longer uphold the arm of Her Divine Son which will strike the world. If people amend their lives, Our Lord will even now save the world, but if they do not, punishment will come” … “People must renounce sin and not persist in it, as has been done until now. It is essential to repent greatly!”
Effects Have Causes
What is the source or cause of these calamities, woes and punishments promised by Heaven? It is in large part a lack of prayer and penance. As Our Lady says at La Salette: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God.”
For most people, Ash Wednesday came and went! That’s it! All done and dusted―if you pardon the pun! (“Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shall return!”). O never mind! Another joke burnt to ashes! Nevertheless, it is true―for most people Ash Wednesday is a thing of the past that is of further consequence. However, Ash Wednesday is far from being “just another day”! The ashes may go away―as we wash them away at some point or another―but their significance should be like an indelible mark on our mind, heart and soul. Yet we far too superficial, far too inattentive and far too distracted to really pay attention to and profit from Ash Wednesday. What could be spiritual riches, ends up being spiritual poverty! What could be a diamond, crumbles into dust! No sooner has Ash Wednesday gone, it is quickly forgotten. Ash Wednesday, like the proverbial water that flows off a duck’s back, is washed away in the next shower―from both body and mind.
This is not how it should be! Ash Wednesday is not to be a “one-day-wonder” to be quickly forgotten! What did the priest say as he imposed the ashes on your forehead? The very first word is like a hammer blow― “REMEMBER man that thou art dust and to dust thou shall return!” Yes, REMEMBER! We read of Our Lady: “And His Mother kept all these words in her heart” (Luke 2:51). “But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart” Luke 2:19)―which is how we ought to look at Ash Wednesday and “REMEMBER” these things in our heart. The opposite to “remember” is to “forget.” Remember for how long? Every day―until the day you die and turn to dust! In this modern consumer world, where everything has to be fast and has to be constantly changing―no better epitomized by the TV screen, where the images are often changing angles or views at a rate of two, three or even four different angles or settings in one single second―whereas, in bygone years, the camera would hold a scene setting for many, many seconds before shifting to another view or angle. We have been trained, brainwashed and have accepted constant change as part and parcel and the normality of life―so much so, that when there is no change, we become irritated, agitated and consternated.
All of this works against our spiritual life, which, on the contrary, requires prolonged focus on matters: “Be still and see that I am God!” (Psalms 45:11). We may be addicted to change, but with God there is no change: “The Father of lights, with Whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration” (James 1:17). That is why we are so superficial and unspiritual, because we have become so addicted to change, to new things, always seeking something different, that we find it impossible to sit still and think deeply and thing spiritually―for the spiritual is not a tangible thing, like all the ‘goodies’ in this world, that we can see, touch, hear, smell and taste. We become impatient, dry, restless and fruitless when faced with spiritual thought and meditation―because we are predominantly bombarded with material, physical, earthly and worldly elements that can be seen, heard, touched, tasted and smelt all around us. The spiritual is a desert by comparison.
Spiritual Lessons from Palm Branches and Ashes
The life of a palm branch or palm leaf goes from worldly glory to spiritual humiliation and annihilation. At first the palm branch basks in the sun and gloriously wafts around in the tropical air, playing its part in beautifying the world. Then, it finds itself chopped-down, and, like prisoners, tied together with other palm leaves and shipped off to the ‘prison camp’ of some local church, where it will be ‘baptized’ (sprinkled with holy water) and ‘sold’ as a slave on Palm Sunday to some Catholic family. After a year of slavery and dying of ‘dehydration’ it finds itself, as Ash Wednesday approaches, sentenced to death by burning, after which ‘cremation’ its ashes are distributed once again among the Catholic families who had brought them to their ‘death’. What a beautiful lesson on how God prepares the soul for Heaven! If you have ever read accounts of the “Three Ways of the Spiritual Life”, or the “Three Stages or Conversions of the Spiritual Life”, then you will see the similarities―whereby God gradually takes away, reduces, strips, destroys our worldliness in order to make us fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.
The preparation of the ashes for Ash Wednesday begins when the people of the parish bring back the palms that were blessed and they received the previous year on Palm Sunday. The palms are first cut up into smaller pieces―which allow them to burn more quickly. Then they are placed in some kind of burning container (everyone has their own way), it could even be an old barbecue, with a tray placed underneath to catch the ash. Palm leaves are dry (dry spiritually?), having lost their moisture (grace?) through the year, leaving only the cellulose material (worldliness?), which also help them to burn more quickly, but, at the same time, reduces the volume of ash produced. As they burn, the palm branches need to be stirred about in order to introduce the oxygen (grace) that is required for the burning process (fires of love?) to continue. Once burned, the CARBON material is collected and placed in an old-fashioned flour sifter. The ashes are stirred and sifted reducing them to a fine granular powder. It is amazing the amount of palm leaf material that is needed to obtain a sufficient amount for distribution on Ash Wednesday.
From Ashes to Jewels
The whole process is a spiritual lesson waiting to be meditated―but modern man has no time to think spiritually―barely a few minutes―never mind meditate, or dig deep and MINE THE TREASURES that are to be found. Which―speaking of CARBON and MINING―brings us to the subject of diamonds. For there is a connection between ashes and diamonds―in the sense that high heat (flames) reduce the palm branches to ashes (CARBON) and high heat within the Earth’s mantle produces rough diamonds from CARBON.
A rough diamond can easily be overlooked and discarded by someone who does not recognize what a rough diamond looks like. Everyone has an image of a diamond as being a sparkling jewel―the king of the jewels. If you fail to recognize a rough diamond, you will most likely pass or even pick-up and throw away a fortune! A rough diamond is an unprocessed, unpolished, rugged, common-looking stone. Perhaps you have at one time held or seen a rough diamond without realizing it. In its original form it is totally unimpressive. The untrained and superficial eye will have great difficulty or even find it impossible to recognize the king of jewels in its basic and original condition. You could say the same thing about Our Lord―whether as an infant in the cave at Bethlehem, or bloodied and bruised on the cross on Calvary. Many an untrained mind or soul found it impossible to see the King of kings in the person that was in front of them. While it is still unpolished, the rough diamond looks like a piece of colorless, cloudy, milky glass, or even a yellowish-brown pebble. Only when cut and polished does its beauty shine forth.
As the saying goes: “Diamonds are forever!”―so too is your soul. Not only are diamonds ‘eternal’, but they take an ‘eternity’ to be formed. It takes thousands of years to form a rough diamond at depths of over a hundred miles beneath the Earth’s surface―which makes us think of the eternity of the fires of Hell and relative seeming ‘eternity’ of the fires of Purgatory, both places are held to by, by many saints, beneath the surface of the Earth. Diamonds are created only by being under enormous pressure and in extremely high temperatures. Only then does volcanic activity bring them towards the surface of the Earth, waiting to be discovered and mined as rough diamonds. It is not easy to recognize a rough diamond among the many pebbles among which it is embedded. The expressions “one in a thousand” or “one in a million” spring to mind―which again reminds of the few number of souls (rough diamonds) that are saved and find themselves as jewels in the crowns of Our Lord and Our Lady in Heaven.
Only when polished does a rough diamond reveal its exquisite sparkle and beauty. The rough diamond has to be cut and polished until they shine―which speaks volumes for our path to holiness―only then are they taken to the goldsmiths and jewelers―which reminds us that only shining saints are taken into Heaven.
Similar to graphite, diamonds are comprised purely of carbon. However there is more to it than that. Carbon is not the only ingredient. Diamonds have three other crucial ingredients: pressure, heat, and time. Diamonds are formed in the Earth's mantle, somewhere between 1 and 3 billion years ago. Formed by heat and pressure, diamonds are then delivered to the Earth's surface by deep-source volcanic eruptions or the movement of subduction zones that bring the diamonds up to the ocean floor. In addition to being formed deep in the Earth, diamonds can also be formed from the immense heat and pressure of asteroid strikes. Diamonds require environments of at least 752 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius) and 434,113 pounds per square inch (30 kilobars). The most favorable diamond-forming conditions can be found about 100 miles (160 kilometers) underground.
Making “Diamonds” from the “Ashes” in Lent
For man, a rough diamond is useless if it remains embedded deep in the Earth and is not brought up closer to the Earth’s surface to within mining distance. Likewise, to God, a soul (rough diamond) is useless if it is embedded deep in the things of this Earth and fails to be brought closer to God.
As rough diamonds are formed from carbon over time spent in intense heat and pressure―likewise, “rough diamonds” (saints) can be formed from the carbon of the ashes smeared on our foreheads by spending a prolonged time in the intense ‘heat’ and ‘pressure’ of Lent. Of course, we hate the heat and we prefer no pressure, but Holy Scripture tells us: “Son, when thou comest to the service of God, stand in fear and prepare thy soul for temptation!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1). “As silver is tried by fire, and gold in the furnace―so the Lord trieth the hearts” (Proverbs 17:3). “For gold and silver are tried in the fire, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation” (Ecclesiasticus 2:5)―and Lent sure is humbling, it can be a real furnace, if it is lived-through correctly with penitential and mortified spirit―which is how it was meant to be lived in the first place.
Of course, today’s 95% Lenten fast discount―reducing the 40 days of fasting to a mere 2 days of fasting, namely Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, makes Lent ‘a piece of cake’ or a ‘cakewalk’ for today’s ‘couch-potato’ Catholics. This is just what Our Lady warned us about at La Salette in 1846: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish.” Twelve years later, at Lourdes in 1858, she would emphatically insist on “Penance! Penance! Penance!” Which she essentially reiterated at Fatima in 1917, bys asking for sacrifices to the point of much suffering: “Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the sufferings He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the conversion of sinners? … Then you are going to have much to suffer, but the grace of God will be your comfort!” (Our Lady of Fatima, May 1917). While at Akita, in 1973, Our Lady further warned: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord. In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind. I desire souls to console Him to soften the anger of the Heavenly Father. I wish, with my Son, for souls who will repair―by their suffering and their poverty―for the sinners and the ungrateful. Beloved souls who console Him forming a cohort of victim souls. Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!” (Our Lady of Akita, August 3rd, 1973). Our Lord sums all of this up with the blunt, frightening words: “Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3).
Fasting a Fast-Track to Holiness! Careful What You Consume!
As Our Lady warned at La Salette, ““Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little!” As a counter-measure to these attacks, Our Lord reminds us: “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting!” (Matthew 17:20), which is why St. Francis de Sales encourages our battles against Satan with these words: “Although we may be able to do but little, the enemy nevertheless stands more in awe of those whom he knows can fast.” While St. Thomas Aquinas points out the spiritualizing effects of fasting: “Fasting cleanses the soul, raises the mind, subjects one’s flesh to the spirit, renders the heart contrite and humble, scatters the clouds of concupiscence, quenches the fire of lust, kindles the true light of chastity.”
However, it is not only fasting from food that we are encouraged to do! St. John Chrysostom very astutely says: “Let the mouth fast from disgraceful and abusive words, because, what gain is there when, on the one hand we avoid eating chicken and fish and, on the other, we chew-up and consume our brothers? He who condemns and blasphemes is as if he has eaten brotherly meat, as if he has bitten into the flesh of his fellow man. It is because of this that Paul frightened us, saying: ‘If you chew up and consume one another, be careful that you do not annihilate yourselves!’”
The Humility of Ashes―Big as Dust
There were some very important men in the Old Testament, key figures chosen by God to lead or teach His Chosen people: Adam, Abraham, Job, etc. These men were among the favorites of God. Yet of Adam, God says: “Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:19); Abraham, in speaking to God says of himself:”I am dust and ashes” (Genesis 18:27); and Job echoes a similar sentiment saying of himself: “I am compared to dirt, and am likened to embers and ashes” (Job 30:19), adding, ”Therefore I reprehend myself, and do penance in dust and ashes”(Job 42:6).
On this Ash Wednesday, we have all heard the words of God addressed to us:”Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return!” This is a reminder of death, with the same words that God pronounced Adam’s fate: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:19).
What Goes Around Comes Around
Our fate is the same as that of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and we “shall be like small dust: and as ashes passing away” (Isaias 29:5). Since Original Sin, the fate of the human race is one of being reduced to ashes: “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). As God says: “Everyone shall die for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16).
Our Lady, directly and indirectly, explicitly and implicitly, reinforces this truth—that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23)—at her modern-day apparitions.
At Lourdes she says: “You will pray to God for sinners!” (February 21st, 1858); “Penance! Penance! Penance! Pray to God for sinners. Kiss the ground as an act of penance for sinners!” (February 24th).
Warnings of a Mother
At La Salette she warns that: “the priests … by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity [and] the priests are asking vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together.”
Our Lady appeared to St. Jacinta Marto of Fatima several times between December 1919 and February 1920. Our Lady told her many things including: “The sins of the world are very great ... If men only knew what eternity is, they would do everything in their power to change their lives.” … “Fly from riches and luxury; love poverty and silence; have charity, even for bad people!”
“More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason” … “The Mother of God wants more virgin souls bound by the vow of chastity” … “Confession is a sacrament of mercy and we must confess with joy and trust” … “Our Lady can no longer uphold the arm of Her Divine Son which will strike the world. If people amend their lives, Our Lord will even now save the world, but if they do not, punishment will come” … “People must renounce sin and not persist in it, as has been done until now. It is essential to repent greatly!”
Effects Have Causes
What is the source or cause of these calamities, woes and punishments promised by Heaven? It is in large part a lack of prayer and penance. As Our Lady says at La Salette: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God.”
Ash Wednesday March 6th
Article 11
We Need To Be More Ashen-Faced!
Article 11
We Need To Be More Ashen-Faced!
Glory Reduced to Ashes
In the Catholic Encyclopedia entry for “Ash Wednesday” we read: “The name « dies cinerum » (day of ashes), which it bears in the Roman Missal, is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the eighth century. On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead — or in case of clerics upon the place of the tonsure [on the crown, i.e., the top of the head] — of each the sign of the cross, saying the words: « Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return. » The ashes used in this ceremony are made by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year.”
Palms are a symbol of glory, victory and peace―and when you think about it, it is logical in its order: the glory of the battles fought, followed by victory in the war, which obviously means and end to the war which is followed by peace after overcoming the enemy. In the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world, the palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life. The palm was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt represented immortality. In Judaism, the date palm is used during the festival of Sukkot. A palm branch was awarded to victorious athletes in ancient Greece, and a palm frond or the tree itself is one of the most common attributes of Victory personified in ancient Rome. In Christianity, the palm branch is associated particularly with Palm Sunday, when according to Christian tradition palm branches were waved at the triumphal and victorious entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Burning the Previous Year’s Palms Symbolizes Burning Our Previous Glories
Since palms represent glory, victory, peace and eternal life, the burning of these palms and reducing them to ashes represents a burning-up of glory, victory, peace and eternal life. We are, by nature and the effects of Original Sin, proud creatures and we love to “glory” whenever possible. We live in a “glorious” age, when technology “glories” over its own power, its potential, its “victories” and achievements. Technology boasts of many “victories” and helps us live our lives in “peace” and comfort. Technology, in the medical field, seeks to ward-off illness and death and thus gives us a false sense of “eternal life” on Earth, with the feeling that we will never die, even though we know we will.
No Glory in Glory! Unless It’s the Right Glory!
Yet, paradoxically, all this glory, victory, peace and imagined immortality that surrounds us in this world, is potentially reducing our chance of salvation to ashes! This man-made, man-sought, man-loved glory, victory, peace and imagined immortality is diametrically opposed to the Spirit of God. It is a man-made and man-sought and man-loved idol, that displaces God, dethrones God, uncrowns God and puts self in the place of God. This is something that God never could and never will tolerate, as shown repeatedly in Holy Scripture. God has to reduce this man-made glory to ashes. God has to reduce this falsely imagined immortality to ashes. God has to reduce this false sense of victory and peace to ashes. “That no flesh should glory in His sight!” (1 Corinthians 1:29). “Let no man therefore glory in men!” (1 Corinthians 3:21). “And fear not the words of a sinful man―for his glory is dung and worms!” (1 Machabees 2:62). “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches!” (Jeremias 9:23). Let not modern-man glory in his technology! “Thou shalt not have strange gods in My sight!” (Deuteronomy 5:7). “Let them be all confounded that adore graven things and that glory in their idols!” (Psalms 96:7). “They shall decay in hell from their glory” (Psalm 48:15).
“Let us not be made desirous of vain glory!” (Galatians 5:26). “But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord!” (2 Corinthians 10:17). “Give glory to the Lord!” (Tobias 13:3). “Give to the Lord glory to His Name!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:29). “Glory ye in His holy Name!” (Psalm 104:3). “For by grace you are saved through Faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God, not of works―so that no man may glory” (Ephesians 2:8-9). “He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of Him that sent him, he is true, and there is no injustice in him!” (John 7:18). “But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me―for I am the Lord that exercises mercy, and judgment, and justice in the Earth: for these things please Me, saith the Lord!” (Jeremias 9:24).
Reducing Glory to Dust and Ashes
If we glory in ourselves, our knowledge, our skills, our influence, our popularity, our standard of living, our achievements, our ideas, our ‘holiness’, our station in life, our riches, our house and home, our possessions, etc. ― then let us remember that “he that is a searcher of majesty, shall be overwhelmed by glory!” (Proverbs 25:27) and instead let us cry out to God: “Bring down my glory to the dust!” (Psalm 7:6).
That is exactly what Ash Wednesday reminds us of―a reminder that all the glory of man will eventually be reduced to mere dust and ashes, and that only the glory of God, and things done for the glory of God, shall endure and remain for eternity. There is something shockingly simple and scathing about the traditional words addressed to each person during the imposition or marking of the forehead with ashes: “Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shall return!” The very substance of ashes is humiliating―they are grey or black (venial and mortal sin), they are grimy and coarse (like sinful man), they are diametrically opposed to the usual things that are plastered or placed on the face―perfume, pleasantly colored make-up, scented after-shave, scented soaps, etc.
More Than Just Words!
Instead of the traditional, unambiguous, clear as day, no mincing of words, slap in the face statement: “Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shall return!” ― the modern-Church has introduced a less-harsh and more comfortable admonition to be used while marking a person’s forehead with ashes, which is: “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel!” or “Repent, and believe in the Gospel!”―though it retains the option of saying: “For dust you are and to dust you shall return!”
Perhaps you do not notice these things, but the second of the these two admonitions is even more watered-down than the first watered-down admonition. “Turn away from sin” seems to imply something that is being done in practice, whereas “Repent!” implies something that only takes place in the mind. To think is easier that to do―as we all know from common experience every day―we often find out that we cannot do the things we think we can do!
Additionally, “Be faithful to the Gospel!” sounds more demanding that merely “Believe in the Gospel!”―for believing alone doesn’t mean much or guarantee much, as Holy Scripture brutally points out: “Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well! But the devils also believe and tremble! But wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead?” (James 2:19-20). “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves!” (James 1:22). Being faithful to the Gospel involves far, far more than merely believing in the Gospel. Another indication of how the modern-Church is diluting, dismantling and destroying the Faith to the point where when “the Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth” (Luke 18:8). Our Faith is being reduced to ashes!
Furthermore, the modern-Church has decimated and destroyed the most beautiful prayers that were used to bless the ashes on Ash Wednesday. We see this liturgical decrease, diminution, dilution and devaluation very clearly when we compare the two Ash Wednesday Blessing of Ashes Rituals. What there is now is just a morsel, a crumb, a dried-up, micro-waved, fast-tracked, drive-thru blessing that is a pitiful replacement for the beautiful, instructive, inspiring and humbling liturgy of old. What do we have now? Here is what there is now:
In the Catholic Encyclopedia entry for “Ash Wednesday” we read: “The name « dies cinerum » (day of ashes), which it bears in the Roman Missal, is found in the earliest existing copies of the Gregorian Sacramentary and probably dates from at least the eighth century. On this day all the faithful according to ancient custom are exhorted to approach the altar before the beginning of Mass, and there the priest, dipping his thumb into ashes previously blessed, marks the forehead — or in case of clerics upon the place of the tonsure [on the crown, i.e., the top of the head] — of each the sign of the cross, saying the words: « Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return. » The ashes used in this ceremony are made by burning the remains of the palms blessed on the Palm Sunday of the previous year.”
Palms are a symbol of glory, victory and peace―and when you think about it, it is logical in its order: the glory of the battles fought, followed by victory in the war, which obviously means and end to the war which is followed by peace after overcoming the enemy. In the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world, the palm branch is a symbol of victory, triumph, peace, and eternal life. The palm was sacred in Mesopotamian religions, and in ancient Egypt represented immortality. In Judaism, the date palm is used during the festival of Sukkot. A palm branch was awarded to victorious athletes in ancient Greece, and a palm frond or the tree itself is one of the most common attributes of Victory personified in ancient Rome. In Christianity, the palm branch is associated particularly with Palm Sunday, when according to Christian tradition palm branches were waved at the triumphal and victorious entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
Burning the Previous Year’s Palms Symbolizes Burning Our Previous Glories
Since palms represent glory, victory, peace and eternal life, the burning of these palms and reducing them to ashes represents a burning-up of glory, victory, peace and eternal life. We are, by nature and the effects of Original Sin, proud creatures and we love to “glory” whenever possible. We live in a “glorious” age, when technology “glories” over its own power, its potential, its “victories” and achievements. Technology boasts of many “victories” and helps us live our lives in “peace” and comfort. Technology, in the medical field, seeks to ward-off illness and death and thus gives us a false sense of “eternal life” on Earth, with the feeling that we will never die, even though we know we will.
No Glory in Glory! Unless It’s the Right Glory!
Yet, paradoxically, all this glory, victory, peace and imagined immortality that surrounds us in this world, is potentially reducing our chance of salvation to ashes! This man-made, man-sought, man-loved glory, victory, peace and imagined immortality is diametrically opposed to the Spirit of God. It is a man-made and man-sought and man-loved idol, that displaces God, dethrones God, uncrowns God and puts self in the place of God. This is something that God never could and never will tolerate, as shown repeatedly in Holy Scripture. God has to reduce this man-made glory to ashes. God has to reduce this falsely imagined immortality to ashes. God has to reduce this false sense of victory and peace to ashes. “That no flesh should glory in His sight!” (1 Corinthians 1:29). “Let no man therefore glory in men!” (1 Corinthians 3:21). “And fear not the words of a sinful man―for his glory is dung and worms!” (1 Machabees 2:62). “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches!” (Jeremias 9:23). Let not modern-man glory in his technology! “Thou shalt not have strange gods in My sight!” (Deuteronomy 5:7). “Let them be all confounded that adore graven things and that glory in their idols!” (Psalms 96:7). “They shall decay in hell from their glory” (Psalm 48:15).
“Let us not be made desirous of vain glory!” (Galatians 5:26). “But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord!” (2 Corinthians 10:17). “Give glory to the Lord!” (Tobias 13:3). “Give to the Lord glory to His Name!” (1 Paralipomenon 16:29). “Glory ye in His holy Name!” (Psalm 104:3). “For by grace you are saved through Faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God, not of works―so that no man may glory” (Ephesians 2:8-9). “He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh the glory of Him that sent him, he is true, and there is no injustice in him!” (John 7:18). “But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me―for I am the Lord that exercises mercy, and judgment, and justice in the Earth: for these things please Me, saith the Lord!” (Jeremias 9:24).
Reducing Glory to Dust and Ashes
If we glory in ourselves, our knowledge, our skills, our influence, our popularity, our standard of living, our achievements, our ideas, our ‘holiness’, our station in life, our riches, our house and home, our possessions, etc. ― then let us remember that “he that is a searcher of majesty, shall be overwhelmed by glory!” (Proverbs 25:27) and instead let us cry out to God: “Bring down my glory to the dust!” (Psalm 7:6).
That is exactly what Ash Wednesday reminds us of―a reminder that all the glory of man will eventually be reduced to mere dust and ashes, and that only the glory of God, and things done for the glory of God, shall endure and remain for eternity. There is something shockingly simple and scathing about the traditional words addressed to each person during the imposition or marking of the forehead with ashes: “Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shall return!” The very substance of ashes is humiliating―they are grey or black (venial and mortal sin), they are grimy and coarse (like sinful man), they are diametrically opposed to the usual things that are plastered or placed on the face―perfume, pleasantly colored make-up, scented after-shave, scented soaps, etc.
More Than Just Words!
Instead of the traditional, unambiguous, clear as day, no mincing of words, slap in the face statement: “Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shall return!” ― the modern-Church has introduced a less-harsh and more comfortable admonition to be used while marking a person’s forehead with ashes, which is: “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel!” or “Repent, and believe in the Gospel!”―though it retains the option of saying: “For dust you are and to dust you shall return!”
Perhaps you do not notice these things, but the second of the these two admonitions is even more watered-down than the first watered-down admonition. “Turn away from sin” seems to imply something that is being done in practice, whereas “Repent!” implies something that only takes place in the mind. To think is easier that to do―as we all know from common experience every day―we often find out that we cannot do the things we think we can do!
Additionally, “Be faithful to the Gospel!” sounds more demanding that merely “Believe in the Gospel!”―for believing alone doesn’t mean much or guarantee much, as Holy Scripture brutally points out: “Thou believest that there is one God. Thou dost well! But the devils also believe and tremble! But wilt thou know, O vain man, that Faith without works is dead?” (James 2:19-20). “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves!” (James 1:22). Being faithful to the Gospel involves far, far more than merely believing in the Gospel. Another indication of how the modern-Church is diluting, dismantling and destroying the Faith to the point where when “the Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth” (Luke 18:8). Our Faith is being reduced to ashes!
Furthermore, the modern-Church has decimated and destroyed the most beautiful prayers that were used to bless the ashes on Ash Wednesday. We see this liturgical decrease, diminution, dilution and devaluation very clearly when we compare the two Ash Wednesday Blessing of Ashes Rituals. What there is now is just a morsel, a crumb, a dried-up, micro-waved, fast-tracked, drive-thru blessing that is a pitiful replacement for the beautiful, instructive, inspiring and humbling liturgy of old. What do we have now? Here is what there is now:
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THE LITURGY BEFORE THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
Blessing and Distribution of Ashes
The Opening Antiphon At the altar, before Mass begins, the Priest, standing with hands joined, says: Hear me, O Lord, for Thy mercy is kind! Look upon me according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, O Lord! (Psalm 68:17). Save me, O God: for the waters are come in even unto my soul! (Psalm 68:2). Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Hear me, O Lord, for Thy mercy is kind! Look upon me according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, O Lord! (Psalm 68:17). First Prayer Over the Ashes The Priest, standing with hands joined, says: Let us pray: Almighty, everlasting God, spare those who are repentant, be merciful to those who pray to Thee, and graciously send Thy holy angel from Heaven to bless ☩ and sanctify ☩ these ashes, that they may be a wholesome remedy for all who humbly implore Thy Holy Name; who accuse themselves by acknowledging their sins, who weep for their evil deeds in the sight of Thy divine mercy; who humbly and earnestly seek Thy fatherly love. Grant to us who call upon Thy Holy Name, that all who are sprinkled with these ashes for the forgiveness of their sins, may receive health for their bodies and salvation for their souls. Through Christ our Lord. Response: Amen. Second Prayer Over the Ashes Let us pray: O God, Thou Who desirest not the death but the repentance of sinners, look graciously upon the weakness of our human nature, and, in Thy fatherly love, mercifully bless ☩ these ashes which are to be placed upon our heads as a sign of humility and a pledge of Thy forgiveness. We know that we are but ashes, and because of our wickedness must return to dust. May we obtain, from Thee, mercy the pardon of all our sins and the rewards promised to those who repent. Through Christ our Lord. Response: Amen. Third Prayer Over the Ashes Let us pray: O God, Thou Who art moved by our acts of humility and appeased by our works of penance, turn Thy ear lovingly to our prayers, and, by the ashes sprinkled upon the heads of Thy servants, mercifully pour forth upon them the grace of Thy blessing, fill them with the spirit of repentance and truly grant what they ask for in the right way; and may whatever Thou grant, remain fixed and unchanged always. Through Christ our Lord. Response: Amen. Fourth Prayer Over the Ashes Let us pray: Almighty, everlasting God, Who bestowed upon the people of Ninive, who repented in sackcloth and ashes, Thy merciful remedies, graciously grant that we may so imitate their outward behavior as inwardly to obtain Thy forgiveness. Through Christ our Lord. Response: Amen. THE IMPOSITION OF ASHES The priest then sprinkles the ashes three times with Holy Water and then incenses the ashes with the censer (thurible) three times. Then the Priest places ashes on the head of all those present who come to him, and says to each one: Remember man that thou art dust and to dust thou shall return! Antiphons Sung During the Distribution of Ashes ANTIPHON 1 Let us change our garment for ashes and sackcloth! Let us fast and lament before the Lord! For our God is plenteous in mercy to forgive sins! (Joel 2:13). ANTIPHON 2 Between the porch and the altar the priests the Lord’s ministers shall weep, and shall say: "Spare, O Lord, spare Thy people! And shut not the mouths of them that sing to Thee, O Lord!" (Joel 2:17). THE RESPONSORIAL (taken from Esther ch. 13; Joel ch. 2, Psalm 78:9). Responsory: Let us amend for the better in those things in which we have sinned through ignorance: lest suddenly overtaken by the day of death, we seek space for penance, and are not able to find it. Hear O Lord, and have mercy: for we have sinned against Thee! Help us, O God, our Savior! And, for the glory of Thy Name, O Lord, deliver us! And forgive us our sins for Thy Name’s sake! O Lord deliver us! Listen, O Lord!” Versicle: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. Listen, O Lord! The Final Prayer Let us pray: Grant us, O Lord, to take up our duty as soldiers of Christ by holy fasting, that we, who are going to struggle with the evil spirits, may be protected by the help of self-restraint! Through Christ our Lord. Response: Amen. |
THE LITURGY AFTER THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL
Blessing and Distribution of Ashes
The Opening Address After the Homily, the Priest, standing with hands joined, says: Dear brethren (brothers and sisters), let us humbly ask God our Father that he be pleased to bless with the abundance of his grace these ashes, which we will put on our heads in penitence. Prayer Over the Ashes After a brief prayer in silence, and, with hands extended, he continues: (The following prayer corresponds to the Third Prayer in the pre-Vatican II rite) O God, who are moved by acts of humility and respond with forgiveness to works of penance, lend Your merciful ear to our prayers and in Your kindness pour out the grace of Your blessing on your servants who are marked with these ashes, that, as they follow the Lenten observances, they may be worthy to come with minds made pure to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of Your Son. Through Christ our Lord. Amen. (Notice that in the above prayer, the rubrics do not indicate a blessing with the sign of the cross ☩ , but merely invokes God to bless) (Later the following SHORTENED prayer replaced the prayer just above) Lord, bless the sinner who asks for Your forgiveness and bless ☩ all those who receive these ashes. May they keep this Lenten season in preparation for the joy of Easter. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Response: Amen. Or: [this being given a choice, either / or, means that ONLY ONE prayer is said. (The following prayer corresponds to the Second Prayer in the pre-Vatican II rite) O God, who desire not the death of sinners, but their conversion, mercifully hear our prayers and in your kindness be pleased to bless ☩ these ashes, which we intend to receive upon our heads, that we, who acknowledge we are but ashes and shall return to dust, may, through a steadfast observance of Lent, gain pardon for sins and newness of life after the likeness of Your Risen Son. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. (Later the following SHORTENED prayer replaced the prayer just above) Lord, bless these ashes ☩ by which we show that we are dust. Pardon our sins and keep us faithful to the discipline of Lent, for you do not want sinners to die but to live with the risen Christ, who reigns with you for ever and ever. Much has been lost by way of instruction, teaching, symbolism and spiritual significance by only saying ONE prayer, and omitting the other THREE prayers from the Pre-Vatican II Ritual of Blessing. THE IMPOSITION OF ASHES The priest then sprinkles the ashes with Holy Water (the rubrics give no mention of how many times) but does not incenses the ashes.Then the Priest places ashes on the head of all those present who come to him, and says to each one: Repent, and believe in the Gospel. (notice this is the first choice) Or: Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return. (this is in second place) Antiphons Sung During the Distribution of Ashes ANTIPHON 1 Let us change our garments to sackcloth and ashes, let us fast and weep before the Lord, that our God, rich in mercy, might forgive us our sins. ANTIPHON 2 Cf. Joel 2:17; Esther 4:17 Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, stand between the porch and the altar and weep and cry out: "Spare, O Lord, spare Your people; do not close the mouths of those who sing Your praise, O Lord!" ANTIPHON 3 Psalm 51 (50):3 Blot out my transgressions, O Lord. THE RESPONSORIAL Cf. Baruch 3:2; Psalm 79 (78):9 Responsory: Let us correct our faults which we have committed in ignorance, let us not be taken unawares by the day of our death, looking in vain for leisure to repent. Versicle: Help us, O God our Savior; for the sake of Your Name, O Lord, set us free. The references to God by the words "You" and "Your" have been capitalized here, though in the original text, as is sadly the case with the modern Church, in addition to throwing out the more reverential "Thee", "Thou", "Thy", "Thine", their replacement words--"you" and "your"--are not even capitalized in most cases. |
Church Being Burnt to Ashes
The above comparison is just the tip of the iceberg of similar reductions and redactions, reformations and deformations, dilutions and defusions of a once powerful Church Liturgical and Sacramental power-house. This tweaking and tinkering has assaulted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (the weapon of all weapons), the Holy Rosary, the Sacraments (for example, there are no more exorcisms at Baptism, use of dubious oils for Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders), and the many various blessings and prayers of the Church.
Much has been said in prophecy about the almost total collapse of the Catholic Church. It will, of course, stand until the end of time―as Christ promised: “And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it!” (Matthew 16:18). Yet that does mean that much will remain standing―for the same Jesus Christ says: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8).
This is backed up by prophecy, when Our Lady of Good Success (text in black print) and La Salette (text in red print) forewarns: “At the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, various heresies will be propagated … Many people … will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil … During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education … The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties … Many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger … Many authentic vocations will perish … The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised. ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … The demon will try to persecute the ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests ... In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the king of all hearts … for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good pastors of the Church … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls ... and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist …
“Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost ... The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Everywhere, as true Faith has faded, a false light brightens the people … The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis. The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. In order to free men from bondage to these heresies, those―whom the merciful love of my Most Holy Son has designated to effect the restoration―will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence in God. To test this Faith and confidence of the just, there will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed" (combined quotes from Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette).
The Cross of Death on Your Forehead
That little black or grey powdery cross―that you received so nonchalantly on your forehead, without it penetrating your mind and giving you much reflection or meditation―is far from being little in its signification. Above all, the cross is a sign of death―after all, it was on the cross that Our Lord chose to die and allowed Himself to be nailed to it. You could call it a “Cross of Death” from various different viewpoints. (1) It is the Cross of Death upon which Christ died to give us life; (2) it is a Cross of Death signifying that if we wish to go to Heaven, we have to take up our cross daily and follow Christ into death, but, in our case, it means dying to the world and worldliness; (3) it is a Cross of Death that also reminds us that this vain, distracting, comfort seeking life will one day end and that we will also die; (4) it is a Cross of Death that reminds us that it was the instrument of torture upon which Christ’s enemies and fake followers nailed Him; (5) it is a Cross of Death that signifies that through the crosses of suffering we can overcome the devil, the world and our own passions. These are not all the significations, just a few of them. It is this Cross of Death that the Church imprinted upon your forehead on Ash Wednesday―but were those thoughts imprinted in your mind? Or was everything washed away as we proceeded to “wash the ash” or “toss the cross”?
What sounds like bad news is also good news. There is a flip-side to that Cross of Death―the flip side is the Cross of Life. For when we take upon ourselves the Cross of Death for Christ’s sake and follow Him―“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23)―then we find that Cross of Death turns into a Cross of Life, much like when St. Simon of Cyrene was FORCED to carry Jesus’ Cross of Death, his attitude gradually changed from one of resentment to one of contentment, with the result that he and his sons became saints by the time they died! Death becomes Life―as Jesus said: “Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25) … “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel, shall save it!” (Mark 8:35).
Don’t Trash the Ash! Don't Waste the Paste!
The whole ceremony of Ash Wednesday with its solemn imposition of ashes is not something to be trashed, but something to be stashed! So don’t trash the ash! Your ash is spiritual cash! We are too superficial―living a life of “Easy come, easy go!” We never really let the word of God penetrate our minds and most likely we didn’t let the ash penetrate our minds, too! The ashes could be compared to seeds―which immediately bring to mind the parable of The Sower of the Seed, which, by no coincidence, the Church made us listen to, ten days ago, on Sexagesima Sunday―during our countdown to Lent. Given the few number of souls that are saved―not by fate, but due to their own stupidity, laziness, worldliness and spiritual indifference, for God wishes to save everyone―it is in our most serious interests not to “trash the ash” or “waste the paste” that we received on our heads, but to take a prolonged look at the incredible and indelible significance of what happened on Ash Wednesday, like Our Lady: “But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart … His mother kept all these words in her heart” (Luke 2:19; 2:51). Thus, like seeds, we will allow the ashes―which have become grace attracting sacramentals by being blessed on Ash Wednesday―penetrate and sprout in the spiritual soil of our minds and hearts―thus, hopefully, gradually sprouting, growing, maturing and producing rich fruit by the end of Lent.
The above comparison is just the tip of the iceberg of similar reductions and redactions, reformations and deformations, dilutions and defusions of a once powerful Church Liturgical and Sacramental power-house. This tweaking and tinkering has assaulted the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (the weapon of all weapons), the Holy Rosary, the Sacraments (for example, there are no more exorcisms at Baptism, use of dubious oils for Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders), and the many various blessings and prayers of the Church.
Much has been said in prophecy about the almost total collapse of the Catholic Church. It will, of course, stand until the end of time―as Christ promised: “And I say to thee: That thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it!” (Matthew 16:18). Yet that does mean that much will remain standing―for the same Jesus Christ says: “The Son of man, when He cometh, shall He find, think you, Faith on Earth?” (Luke 18:8).
This is backed up by prophecy, when Our Lady of Good Success (text in black print) and La Salette (text in red print) forewarns: “At the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, various heresies will be propagated … Many people … will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil … During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education … The secular Clergy will leave much to be desired, because priests will become careless in their sacred duties … Many priests will lose their spirit, placing their souls in great danger … Many authentic vocations will perish … The Sacred Sacrament of Holy Orders will be ridiculed, oppressed and despised. ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God … The demon will try to persecute the ministers of the Lord in every possible way and he will labor with cruel and subtle astuteness to deviate them from the spirit of their vocation, corrupting many of them. These corrupted priests, who will scandalize the Christian people, will incite the hatred of the bad Christians and the enemies of the Roman, Catholic and Apostolic Church to fall upon all priests ... In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the king of all hearts … for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … This apparent triumph of Satan will bring enormous sufferings to the good pastors of the Church … The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish … Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls ... and a great number of priests and members of religious orders will break away from the true religion; among these people there will even be bishops … Rome will lose the Faith and become the seat of the Antichrist …
“Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost ... The spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Everywhere, as true Faith has faded, a false light brightens the people … The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis. The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. In order to free men from bondage to these heresies, those―whom the merciful love of my Most Holy Son has designated to effect the restoration―will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence in God. To test this Faith and confidence of the just, there will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed" (combined quotes from Our Lady of Good Success and La Salette).
The Cross of Death on Your Forehead
That little black or grey powdery cross―that you received so nonchalantly on your forehead, without it penetrating your mind and giving you much reflection or meditation―is far from being little in its signification. Above all, the cross is a sign of death―after all, it was on the cross that Our Lord chose to die and allowed Himself to be nailed to it. You could call it a “Cross of Death” from various different viewpoints. (1) It is the Cross of Death upon which Christ died to give us life; (2) it is a Cross of Death signifying that if we wish to go to Heaven, we have to take up our cross daily and follow Christ into death, but, in our case, it means dying to the world and worldliness; (3) it is a Cross of Death that also reminds us that this vain, distracting, comfort seeking life will one day end and that we will also die; (4) it is a Cross of Death that reminds us that it was the instrument of torture upon which Christ’s enemies and fake followers nailed Him; (5) it is a Cross of Death that signifies that through the crosses of suffering we can overcome the devil, the world and our own passions. These are not all the significations, just a few of them. It is this Cross of Death that the Church imprinted upon your forehead on Ash Wednesday―but were those thoughts imprinted in your mind? Or was everything washed away as we proceeded to “wash the ash” or “toss the cross”?
What sounds like bad news is also good news. There is a flip-side to that Cross of Death―the flip side is the Cross of Life. For when we take upon ourselves the Cross of Death for Christ’s sake and follow Him―“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!” (Luke 9:23)―then we find that Cross of Death turns into a Cross of Life, much like when St. Simon of Cyrene was FORCED to carry Jesus’ Cross of Death, his attitude gradually changed from one of resentment to one of contentment, with the result that he and his sons became saints by the time they died! Death becomes Life―as Jesus said: “Amen, amen I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25) … “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel, shall save it!” (Mark 8:35).
Don’t Trash the Ash! Don't Waste the Paste!
The whole ceremony of Ash Wednesday with its solemn imposition of ashes is not something to be trashed, but something to be stashed! So don’t trash the ash! Your ash is spiritual cash! We are too superficial―living a life of “Easy come, easy go!” We never really let the word of God penetrate our minds and most likely we didn’t let the ash penetrate our minds, too! The ashes could be compared to seeds―which immediately bring to mind the parable of The Sower of the Seed, which, by no coincidence, the Church made us listen to, ten days ago, on Sexagesima Sunday―during our countdown to Lent. Given the few number of souls that are saved―not by fate, but due to their own stupidity, laziness, worldliness and spiritual indifference, for God wishes to save everyone―it is in our most serious interests not to “trash the ash” or “waste the paste” that we received on our heads, but to take a prolonged look at the incredible and indelible significance of what happened on Ash Wednesday, like Our Lady: “But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart … His mother kept all these words in her heart” (Luke 2:19; 2:51). Thus, like seeds, we will allow the ashes―which have become grace attracting sacramentals by being blessed on Ash Wednesday―penetrate and sprout in the spiritual soil of our minds and hearts―thus, hopefully, gradually sprouting, growing, maturing and producing rich fruit by the end of Lent.
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Monday March 4th & Tuesday March 5th
Article 10
Shamed By The World!
Article 10
Shamed By The World!
Christians Inferior to Worldlings?
Our Lord has some cutting and biting words to offer us as we approach this season of Lent, or spiritual battlefield! What are those words? Here they are: “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light” (Luke 16:8). What does Our Lord mean by that? To better understand what Our Lord means, let us place His words in the context of the parable where they appear―the Parable of the Unjust Steward:
Parable of the Unjust Steward
“And Jesus said also to His disciples: ‘There was a certain rich man who had a steward: and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said to him: “How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship! For now thou canst be steward no longer!” And the steward said within himself: “What shall I do, because my lord taketh away from me the stewardship? To dig I am not able; to beg I am ashamed. I know what I will do, that when I shall be removed from the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses!”
“Therefore calling together every one of his lord's debtors, he said to the first: “How much dost thou owe my lord?” But he said: “A hundred barrels of oil.” And he said to him: “Take thy bill and sit down quickly, and write fifty!” Then he said to another: “And how much dost thou owe?” Who said: “A hundred quarters of wheat!” He said to him: “Take thy bill, and write eighty!” And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely―for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. And I say to you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity * [see below]―that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings. He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater: and he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in that which is greater. If, then, you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon; who will trust you with that which is the true? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!’
“Now the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided Him. And He said to them: ‘You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts! For that which is high to men, is an abomination before God!’” (Luke 16:1-15).
* Regarding “mammon of iniquity”―Mammon signifies riches. They are here called the mammon of iniquity, because oftentimes ill-gotten, ill-bestowed, or an occasion of evil; and, at the best, are but worldly, and false; and not the true riches of a Christian. In general this means that the Christian should use the things of this world in such a way that, once he dies, he will be well-received by his friends in Heaven because of the Christian way he has used the riches of this world.
We shall look at some examples of modern day mammon lovers whose efforts truly put modern day Christians to great shame!
The Race―Earthly or Heavenly?
Septuagesima Sunday marked the countdown for Lent. You could say that it was the beginning of the training session or preparation for Lent. This attitude was clearly seen by the choice of Epistle that Holy Mother Church presented her children on that day. It was “The Epistle of the Race” in which St. Paul speaks of this life being a race for Heaven, where all run, but only one gets the prize of first place, or, as we would say today, the gold medal. He tells us to approach this race prepared and to run it so as to win it. “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Not by chance, but by design, Holy Mother Church, on the First Sunday of Lent, then presents us with what could be called “The Epistle of Suffering”―which lists some of the many sufferings we have to undergo for the Faith in order “to win the prize” of eternal life. “In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. In all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings!” (2 Corinthians 6:1-10).
This notion or combination of “The Epistle of the Race” with “The Epistle of Suffering” ― taken in light of Our Lord’s warnings that “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12) and that “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8), leads us to look at the race which is arguably “The Epitome of Races” as well as being “The Epitome of Suffering”―for those unsure of the meaning of the word “epitome” (pronounced: epit-oh-mee), it means “a representative or perfect example of a class or type.”
Our Lord has some cutting and biting words to offer us as we approach this season of Lent, or spiritual battlefield! What are those words? Here they are: “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light” (Luke 16:8). What does Our Lord mean by that? To better understand what Our Lord means, let us place His words in the context of the parable where they appear―the Parable of the Unjust Steward:
Parable of the Unjust Steward
“And Jesus said also to His disciples: ‘There was a certain rich man who had a steward: and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said to him: “How is it that I hear this of thee? Give an account of thy stewardship! For now thou canst be steward no longer!” And the steward said within himself: “What shall I do, because my lord taketh away from me the stewardship? To dig I am not able; to beg I am ashamed. I know what I will do, that when I shall be removed from the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses!”
“Therefore calling together every one of his lord's debtors, he said to the first: “How much dost thou owe my lord?” But he said: “A hundred barrels of oil.” And he said to him: “Take thy bill and sit down quickly, and write fifty!” Then he said to another: “And how much dost thou owe?” Who said: “A hundred quarters of wheat!” He said to him: “Take thy bill, and write eighty!” And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely―for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. And I say to you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity * [see below]―that when you shall fail, they may receive you into everlasting dwellings. He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater: and he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in that which is greater. If, then, you have not been faithful in the unjust mammon; who will trust you with that which is the true? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon!’
“Now the Pharisees, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided Him. And He said to them: ‘You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your hearts! For that which is high to men, is an abomination before God!’” (Luke 16:1-15).
* Regarding “mammon of iniquity”―Mammon signifies riches. They are here called the mammon of iniquity, because oftentimes ill-gotten, ill-bestowed, or an occasion of evil; and, at the best, are but worldly, and false; and not the true riches of a Christian. In general this means that the Christian should use the things of this world in such a way that, once he dies, he will be well-received by his friends in Heaven because of the Christian way he has used the riches of this world.
We shall look at some examples of modern day mammon lovers whose efforts truly put modern day Christians to great shame!
The Race―Earthly or Heavenly?
Septuagesima Sunday marked the countdown for Lent. You could say that it was the beginning of the training session or preparation for Lent. This attitude was clearly seen by the choice of Epistle that Holy Mother Church presented her children on that day. It was “The Epistle of the Race” in which St. Paul speaks of this life being a race for Heaven, where all run, but only one gets the prize of first place, or, as we would say today, the gold medal. He tells us to approach this race prepared and to run it so as to win it. “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Not by chance, but by design, Holy Mother Church, on the First Sunday of Lent, then presents us with what could be called “The Epistle of Suffering”―which lists some of the many sufferings we have to undergo for the Faith in order “to win the prize” of eternal life. “In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. In all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings!” (2 Corinthians 6:1-10).
This notion or combination of “The Epistle of the Race” with “The Epistle of Suffering” ― taken in light of Our Lord’s warnings that “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12) and that “the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8), leads us to look at the race which is arguably “The Epitome of Races” as well as being “The Epitome of Suffering”―for those unsure of the meaning of the word “epitome” (pronounced: epit-oh-mee), it means “a representative or perfect example of a class or type.”
BELOW: A photo of Johnny Hoogerland's barbed-wire lacerated calf. Other parts of his body were just as lacerated.
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The Toughest Race in the World
The race that is being referred to is the Tour de France― which is an annual men’s multiple stage bicycle race, primarily held in France, that lasts 23 days with 21 day-long riding stages over all kinds of terrain―flat stages, hilly stages and several mountain stages with several mountainous peaks with interchanging climbs and descents. The race took place in 1903 and has been held annually except for breaks during the two World Wars. In the early years, the Tour de France had 14 rest days for the 21 stages―because of the much longer distances overall and per day (around 3,500 miles total and an average of 160 miles per day, compared to 2,200 miles total and 100 miles per day these days), the riders would need those 14 rest days for one day’s riding would mean around 12 hours in the saddle and would stretch into the night, so that they would need the next day to recover. Today it is an international event, attracting the fittest professional riders from all over the world, who ride for the now customary 22 or so teams that enter the Tour de France, with each team having eight riders. The Tour de France is probably the hardest endurance event in the world. Exercise scientists have calculated the riders’ TRIMP value (“training impulse,” or training volume multiplied by training intensity) for the 21-day long-haul to be at an astronomical 7,112. For comparison’s sake, the TRIMP for running a marathon is only about 300. In other words, it is even more than the energy output of running 21 marathons in 23 days, which would only total a TRIMPT value of 6,300 compared to the 7,112 of the Tour de France race. For most people, biking 125 miles over rugged mountain passes would be the challenge of a lifetime. But cyclists competing in the Tour de France are tackling such physical feats almost every day for three weeks ― covering more than 2,000 miles and powering through nine mountain stages, including one next week that will finish on a 8,677-foot (2,645-meter) summit. In the early years―the early 1900s―the Tour de France was usually ridden around the entire perimeter (circumference) of France―which always made the race over 3,000 miles long―with riders cycling a minimum of 200 miles daily. Nowadays, the route changes annually is usually anywhere from 2,000 to 2,400 miles long. The longest Tour de France was in 1926, with a total distance of 3,570 miles over 17 stages―which translates to an average of 210 miles a day (stage) and was ridden at an average speed of 15 miles per hour on much, much heavier bikes than professional cyclists have today. The fastest modern day average speed was 25 miles per hour over a distance of 2,115 miles. To give you an idea of what 2,000 miles looks like―Toronto, Canada, to Miami in Florida is merely 1,400 miles by road or 1,200 “as the crow flies” (straight line). The distance from New York City to Denver Colorado is only 1,700 miles by road, or 1,600 miles by air. The distance, coast to coast, from New York City to Los Angeles is only 2,700 miles by road, or 1,600 miles by air―which is still short of the distance covered by the Tour de France cyclists in the early years (varying annually from around 3,000 to 3,500 miles). “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). A Day In The Life of a Tour de France Cyclist Around 195 top-level professional cyclists start the race―only around 130 ever finish the race. That shows how hard it is―even for the elite professional cyclists of the world. Here is an example of one particular year’s schedule. DAY 1: 127 miles, about 9 hours saddle time DAY 2: 94 miles, about 7 hours saddle time with 3 pretty big hills DAY 3: 87 miles, about 7 hours saddle time with 4 pretty big hills DAY 4: quick 15 mile sprint (Team Time Trial) DAY 5: 137 miles, about 10 hours saddle time, 4 small hills DAY 6: 106 miles, about 7 hours of saddle time DAY 7: 123 miles, about 8.5 hours saddle time, 2 pretty big and 1 substantial hill DAY 8: 117 miles, about 9 hours saddle time, 2 mountains, one climbing up 5k feet DAY 9: 101 miles, about 8.5 hours, 5 mountains that'll hurt DAY 10: finally a day off DAY 11: 118 miles, about 9 hours, pretty flat DAY 12: quick 20 mile sprint (individual time trial) DAY 13: 130 miles, about 9 hours, flat DAY 14: 104 miles, about 6.5 hours, flat DAY 15: 114 miles, about 7.5 hours, 7 substantial hills DAY 16: 145 miles, 11+ hours, 4 hills plus 5000 ft of pain straight up Mt. Ventoux DAY 17: another rest day (you'll need it) DAY 18: 101 miles, 7 hours, 3 big hills DAY 19: quick 20 mile sprint (individual time trial) DAY 20: 103 miles, 10 hours, up the mountain Alpe d'Huez (6,102 feet) TWICE!!! Pain! Pain! Pain! DAY 21: 122 miles, 11 hours, 2 big alpine mountains and 3 more big climbs DAY 22: 75 miles, 7 hours, 4 more mountain climbs DAY 23: 80 miles, 6 hours into Paris down the Champs-Elysées “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). No Lukewarm Riders The Tour de France is probably the most physically demanding major sporting event in the world. Over 23 days and 21 stages, riders burn an average of roughly 5,000 calories per day, which is almost twice as much as a professional marathon runner might burn in a single race―but whereas the marathon runner stops running after one race, these cyclists repeat the same gruesome race 21 times over 23 days―and all the while they must maintain a sharp mind, marking their opponents and working with teammates to go fast as efficiently possible before their bodies cave in. Cycling a grand Tour is as much a fight against one’s own body as it is against opponents. Quite literally, cyclist’s bodies begin fighting back after the first week. Riders begin to lose muscle, their immunes systems tank, and they practically have to force feed themselves in order to maintain the baseline system functionality to climb mountain roads, such as the feared Alpe d’Huez which rises to over 6,000 feet. Just as in the spiritual life, lukewarmness means the death of the cyclist. To win the race, it is a case of “all or nothing”―or, as Our Lord says: “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). The Tour de France cyclist are far from being lukewarm, half-hearted, or half-committed. The amount of energy they expend for the worldly goal puts the layman to shame! If you’re the kind of sensible person who stops riding when you’re sick, or injured, or exhausted, or in extreme glucose debt (a.k.a. hypoglycemia or the “bonk”), you’ll never be a professional cyclist. These guys don’t quit. When the body doesn’t have excess fat to break down for fuel, it breaks down muscle. The Tour de France riders are literally cannibalizing themselves to get through the race. Even so, they don’t quit. They begin the Tour looking like strong, fit and gaunt athletes. Many of them finish looking emaciated. “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Using Phenomenal Amounts of Energy The U.S. Department of Agriculture says that, on average, an adult American woman needs between 1,800 and 2,400 calories each day to support her normal activities. The range for adult men is between 2,400 and 3,000 calories. A professional cyclist riding in the Tour de France, will typically burn about 4,000 calories on an “easy” stage. Average stages require between 4,000 and 6,000 calories to complete the stage. Grueling mountain stages demand calorie burns of 7,000 calories or more. A Tour de France rider will burn enough calories during a six-hour mountain stage to fuel an average person’s activity for two to four days. At first glance it might not look to be much― a little bit more than twice as many calories a day as an average person. However, this fails to see that 2,400 calories is what an average person burns in 24 hours, whereas the professional cyclist burns between 4,000 and 7,000 calories in the 5 to 10 hours while they’re racing. They still have to live and burn calories after the race is over―which means burning calories for another 14 to 19 hours before and after the race―which will use up a few more thousand calories. “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). No Fasting, But Force-Feeding In order to have enough body fuel and energy for a day during the Tour de France, a rider needs an 8,000 calories per day diet, a rider will typically consume about 1,000 calories before the race starts. They will then try to consume approximately 1,500 calories during the race. This leaves roughly 5,500 calories to choke down between the time the race ends in the late afternoon or early evening and the time the usually exhausted rider goes to sleep. Consuming this many calories is not an easy thing to do. Eating on the bike is hard. Riders don’t have time to eat during hard efforts or long mountain descents. Sometimes when they do have the time, the thought of putting food in your mouth is nauseating. Even when the idea of eating doesn’t turn your stomach, the hassle of eating while riding can seem like it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Because of the constant need for glucose to fuel muscle activity, a rider’s calorie intake is overbalanced toward carbohydrates. Too many carbohydrates, in too short a time, leads to nausea and vomiting. Fall a little short and you don’t have the energy you need to compete; overdo it a little bit and you and your stomach are in for an unpleasant ride. Eating off the bike is also hard, because there are so many calories that have to be consumed and so little time to consume them. Eating becomes more difficult as the race wears on over days and weeks. Exhaustion and fatigue accumulate and riders experience appetite loss. Meals become increasingly unpalatable as the rider’s extreme dietary requirements result in eating the same things on the same schedule day after day. The goal may be to consume 6,000 to 8,000 calories a day, but few riders are successful at meeting this goal throughout the course of the Tour. They inevitably fall behind and, once that occurs, it is almost impossible to catch up. When calorie intake falls behind the demands of the stressed body, the body begins to feed on itself to get the energy it needs to finish the stage. “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). No Party-Poopers Here! Spending all those hours in the saddle, without being able to stop for a lunch-break (having to eat from sacks or pouches as you ride), brings about an inevitable and delicate question. Life is life and nature stops for no one! Though not many speak of these things, these things will not go away. As they say: “If ya gotta go, ya gotta go!” This is another example of how far dedicated athletes will go in order to win that “prize”―but there are no prizes for pooping! Nevertheless, the demands of nature will not go away just because of an important race. Since Our Lord spoke of things that “goeth out into the privy” meaning into the toilet bowl (Mark 7:19), a brief word about “the privy” can be said here too! Here is an extract from an article that deals with this delicate issue that besieges every single rider in the Tour de France. Let it be lesson that shows to what degree those dedicated athletes are prepared go to in order to win a prize! Way back in the early days of the Tour de France, when a cyclist had to use the bathroom, the entire race used to stop and wait for him to finish in a proper bathroom/restroom/toilet (call it what you will, according to the country you live in). Of course, this was back when cycling races like the Tour de France were more about being gentlemanly than about vigorously competitive. As races became more competitive, some riders would still stop to use a bathroom/restroom/toilet, but the other riders would not stop with them, but use that to their advantage and push on. Today, there’s time on each stage for a few bathroom. In the Tour and many other big races, the race leader is king. If he has to go, he can call a bathroom break whenever he desires, says Stephen Hall, a professional rider with OTOC-Vault Racing Team and a stage winner at the Tour of Thailand. A former Tour professional rider, Jonathan Vaughters, says: “Generally, the big pee break of the day occurs when the breakaway of the day is finally established, sometimes after five minutes, sometimes after two hours. The yellow jersey (the race leader, who currently holds the fastest time for the Tour, is given the yellow jersey to identify him as the race leader) will roll to the front and make a sign to everyone to see he’s stopping for a pee break. That’s like a truce flag on a battlefield. If that happens, a bathroom break is like an oasis in the desert—you take advantage of it when you see it. The peloton (the main group or pack of riders) will slow up a bit, and you'll pull over to the side of the road. Once your business is finished, you’ll work together to navigate back to pack. Usually there are at least two, sometimes three pee breaks.” Outside of those two or three pee breaks, nobody stops for anything short of the apocalypse and having to pee or poop does not count as apocalyptic. One Tour de France professional says: “Generally speaking, you’re better off peeing down your leg than using too much energy flapping around in the convoy!” Today, elite athletes will just poop in their pants and continue on. These professional cyclists compete to the point that their body is beyond just being stressed ― it feels likes it is dying. The heart rate is going haywire, it’s difficult to breathe, and the muscles are so tired and overworked that they feel as if they are literally screaming to stop torturing them. These riders can be on the verge of unconsciousness, sometimes death, and because their bodily biology doesn’t know that they are doing this for a ‘fun’ race, their body thinks it is in serious danger. A big part of the body’s response to the danger signal is to shut down the digestive system, so that the blood flow can be routed to areas that will keep you alive―the brain, muscles, and lungs. This can result in one of two responses by the digestive system: puking or pooping. Puking is something people expect of athletes, but the pooping part is something people don’t talk about. Some bike shorts have padding that can essentially double as an adult diaper if need be. Alternatively, riders will sprint off in front and get ahead of the peloton (the main group or pack of riders) to take a break. That way, by the time they’re done, the field has caught up and they’re ready to join back in. If there’s no break in sight, racers will gather up some teammates to give them a push while they go from the bike—it’s just about impossible to pedal and pee at the same time. Just one more slap in the face that proves that the “children of darkness” have more dedication than the “children of light”! And they do it for an earthly crown, a worldly prize, a materialistic gain! How much more of a prize is Heaven? Yet we complain about the slightest, most trivial, inconsequential, stupid little things! “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8). “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). No Dragging Your Heels (or Wheels) You could say that riding a bike on the Tour de France is similar to carrying your cross in the race for Heaven. The bike is an added weight for the rider―but guess what, you can’t win the Tour de France without a bike―just like you can’t win the race for Heaven without a cross! The average speed over the entire Tour de France race―which includes the flat roads, the mountain ascents or climbs, and the super-fast mountain downhill descents―is around 25 miles per hour. When the riders are all together in the peloton (the main group of cyclists) and nothing exciting is going on, then they will pedal at this speed, sometimes slower if it's a super long, hard stage, with around 10 hours in the saddle, and at times they will move along faster if they have a tailwind, or they want to make sure that isolated breakaway riders don't get too far ahead. Then they will hit speeds of 30 miles per hour or faster. As regards the so-called “Time Trial”, which has individual riders, released at staggered intervals, having to ride a set distance over a variety of terrains―sometimes it may be mainly flat, at other times it will undulating terrain, at other times it will be a continuous mountain climb. They are on their own fighting the clock. The fastest average speed in a time trial at 34.5 miles per hour, which obviously means at times the pedal faster and at times slower. At the end of a day’s racing, having spent many hours in the saddle and suffering from muscle pain and fatigue, the riders who are leading the race find energy to spring for the finishing line. When the leaders go for a sprint finish, they will often hit speeds of over 40 miles per hour (there is that number “forty” again! 40 days of Lent, 40 days of Our Lord in the desert fasting, 40 years wandering in the desert with Moses, etc.). Recorded data from one finishing line spring showed the winning cyclist hitting speeds of 44 miles per hour in order to win. The top mountain climb cyclists ride up the mountains at an average speed of 12 miles per hour―though that depends upon the steepness of the climb and also how many miles they have to climb. Some climbs can stretch out for as many as 15 miles. The record average speed for climbing the towering mountain Alpe d’Huez is around 14 miles per hour over an eight mile climb, taking a total of 38 minutes, over an average gradient of 8% with its steepest part being 12%, while climbing up a total of just over 6,000 feet. When you are working at a high output at altitude, and you’re super fit, your body relies heavily on oxygen, and with a low oxygen availability and partial pressure of oxygen in that environment, the fitter you are, the more you suffer. Your body also uses a lot more carbohydrate and your respiration rate and heart rate are also elevated. Cycling uphill is a pain! But what goes up, must come down! The best part of cycling is, of course, going downhill! Obviously! The Englishman, Chris Froome, stated the obvious during the 2017 Tour de France, when he reached spectacular speeds during his descent on the way to a victory on stage eight of the Tour de France, stating afterwards: “I felt like a kid again, just trying to ride my bike as fast as I could!” What were those speeds? He was clocked at reaching speeds up to 81 miles per hour! Another cyclist reached 79 miles per hour! Another reached 75 miles per hour. This is not on interstate roads (“motorways” for the Brits), but on regular roads! See the photo on the left of this paragraph, showing a typical Tour de France mountain descent. Many people would nervous driving a car at 81 miles per hour on regular roads, but here we have someone on a “push-bike” pushing its limits! One false move and you could be dead! “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Talk About Penance!!! There are few people on Earth who can possibly comprehend what riders go through during the Tour de France. In an interview with Dr. Stacy Sims―an environmental exercise physiologist and nutrition scientist at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, was a pro women’s cyclist who later went on to work with men’s pro cycling teams like Saxo and Dimension Data during the Tour de France―the interviewer, Louis Bien, gleaned the following information (the quotes of Dr. Sims are taken from his article): Dr. Stacy Sims speaks of “three weeks of intensity” where riders put themselves “through the ringer for three weeks.” At the outset, during “the first week, their body can handle the stress. It’s going to be hard, they’re going to have an elevated metabolism and poor sleep because you have the traveling, you have the racing, you have the poor food that goes with it.” Yet as stress begins to invade and bludgeon the mind and the body, “you really see the body start to bottom out. And you see people start to drop out, getting sick, more crashes because there’s less reaction time available, because their bodies enter so much stress.” Dr. Sims then says that the body begins to fight back during the third week, for it faces a “the idea of fight or flight and the famine situation, where the body is all of a sudden like, ‘OK, I have this increased stress, and I have to deal with it because it’s not going away!’” Experienced riders handle this better than newcomers or “less seasoned riders … who don’t have as much training history, will drop out earlier, or fall and be off the back a lot earlier.” Dr. Sims goes on to say that the July heat presents further danger, for “if they’re not acclimatized to the heat, that increases dehydration status and inflammation, poor abilities to recover. And then when they get into the cold and the altitude [on the mountain climbs], they have that compensation they have to worry about, less oxygen available, and the fitter you are, the more you suffer at altitude”―because you need and consume more oxygen due to being extremely fit. The cold, especially at high altitudes, which is more keenly felt due to the “wind chill” that comes from riding in the open air on a bike, can lead to some riders “getting hypothermic and not being able to control the gears because your hands are frozen. These have some consideration into crashing and attenuating your immune response to exercise.” With all this stress, the body starts to creak and get weak. Dr. Sims points out that “for each successive stress day, you have an increase in cortisol, you have increased inflammation, you have your protein breakdown, which is your catabolism. You’re depleting your fuel stores. And your immune system is very reliant on having glutamine available, which is a key amino acid which is also in the gut. Also having some protein available for white blood cell regeneration and stimulation. You also have the need for a reduction in inflammation in order for the immune system to do what it needs to do, because the response to inflammation, again, is an immune response. So if your body is dealing with body and muscle inflammation, it can’t necessarily deal with virus or bacterial infections that come into play. So as you are continuing to put your body under this stress, after about seven days you’re at this tipping point, so that’s usually when the rest day occurs.” Even Tour de France Riders Crave Sugar during their 3-Week “Lent” Isn’t it strange how some people can crave much more vehemently during Lent the things that they have decided to give up. Sugar is sweet―but sugar is not good! Dr. Sims points out a similar situation for the Tour de France riders. “In my experience working with a lot of the pro riders, all they want is sugar — sugar, sugar, sugar — because they’re in such a depleted state, they’re craving carbohydrates. So instead of trying to help repair, they’re just looking for that quick hit of carbohydrate and quick hit of sugar, and the more they have of the sugar aspect, the worse it is on their gut microbiome, which is also tied to the immune system. Because if they’re eating high sugar diet, then it’s going to reduce the growth of the bacteria that protects from fatigue and inflammation, and helps your immune system, and the more it’s going to grow the bacteria that relies on simple sugar and the metabolites of stress. So it’s a multi-tier effect of why they bottom out.” The cycling team’s doctor and dieticians, like unpopular parents, try to force the riders to eat what is best for their recovery and repair, rather than let them give in to their sugar-cravings. They need to address the catabolic state of the riders and the inevitable inflammation and immune-system depletion that comes along with the stress of high level physical effort for hour after hour, almost one day after another―with only 2 rest days being allowed in 23 days. Dr. Sims then speaks of the proverbial “bonk” which she says “comes from poor recovery or inadequate glucose regeneration and glycogen. We technically say it’s «low energy availability»― but what happens is that they’re not taking in enough to put everything back in their muscle and their liver—their body is using more in the immediate rather than storing it. So as you get further and further into the race, and you have less and less storage, they have to eat more and more, and physically they just don’t have the appetite. So it’s more force feeding both on the bike and off the bike. So as you get more and more into this depleted state, it becomes this fine balance of getting riders to take in enough to be able to perform, but also knowing that they have no appetite, and they’re dehydrated and you have this repercussion aspect. They’re going to hit the wall, they’re going to ‘bonk’, and then it’s all over!” Sink or Swim―Ride or Fall―Fight or Fail The race will not go away! Your body will not go away! You either adapt and persevere or you quit and fail. Dr. Sims, in speaking of the stark realization that finishing the race will require some “blood and guts”, then, as she says, “you get to a point and it becomes about survival. So you are getting a little bit fitter as you’re riding, so that extra fitness comes into play as well, and you’ll have less of a stress response because your body has kind of learned that stress response … Your body is starting to attune to that stress and understand what that is, so when you get into that third week, it’s not as strong of a response to that stress. That is what the «bounce back» is, because you don’t have as much cortisone being released, not as much adrenaline being released. The body is more efficient in carbohydrate utilization, more efficient in fat utilization. The inflammation response isn’t as great, so everything has kind been attenuated and habituated to that response.” Accidents Will Happen Cycling is a sport that mixes tragedy and triumph like few others. While there is perhaps no greater joy in the sport than a solo victory, there is no greater pain than that of a high-speed crash. There are numerous, perhaps countless incidents, of Tour de France riders continuing to ride after being involved in a bad crash. There was one incident in the 2018 Tour de France, where a rider lost control of his bike, skidded, hit a wall and was thrown over the wall. He remounted and continued cycling another 35 miles to the finish line, where it was discovered he had a broken his knee [see the photo of his broken knee to the left of this paragraph]. He was rightly recognized for his courage and bravery with an award for the 'most combative rider of the stage' on the podium. Obviously, he had to withdraw from the race. Hinault was the cherished champion of French cycling in the 1980s. In 1985, he was aiming for his fifth Tour de France win. Only two other riders, Jacques Anquetil and Eddy Merckx, had accomplished this feat. His dreams were nearly crushed when he went down in the last kilometer of Stage 14, landing on his head and breaking his nose. Heroically, Hinault got back on his bike. A trail of blood followed him to the finish line, and he went on to win the Tour de France. Cars will always be a cyclist’s biggest enemy. With around 20 miles to go in the ninth stage of the 2011 Tour de France, Johnny Hoogerland was side swiped by a rival’s team car. As bad as that may sound, the collision wasn’t where the damage occurred. Hoogerland and Spaniard Juan Antonio Flecha were sent flying into a barbed-wire fence. The blood and gashes on Hoogerland’s legs looked like something out of a WWII movie. Years later, Hoogerland is said to still suffer from back pain, mood swings and insomnia as a result of the horrific incident. A brutal day of heat ruined Joseba Beloki’s chances of up-ending Lance Armstrong in the 2003 Tour de France. Entering the day in second place overall, Beloki hit a patch of road tar that had melted from the blazing temperatures. To ompound the matter, Beloki was in the middle of a high-speed descent. The crash was one of the more horrific in Tour de France history. Beloki ended up with a fractured femur, fractured elbow and fractured wrist, and he wouldn’t return to action again until 2004. In the 1951 Tour de France, a historic crash occurred when leader Wim Van Est, experienced a tyre blow-out and went off the road, smashing himself down 70 yards of a steep, rocky ravine. Of course, in those days, he was not wearing a helmet, but astoundingly the Dutchman walked away from the accident and got back in the race. In the 2009 Tour de France, Jens Voigt suffered an epic disaster descending the Col du Petit Saint Bernard. Voigt was traveling in excess of 60 miles per hour when his front wheel hit a bump in the road, sending him face first over the handlebars. What could have been worse was that a trailing photographer on a motorcycle just missed running him over. TV cameras captured Voigt lying completely still for several minutes—leaving most of the viewing audience holding their breath in horror. In the end, Voigt survived, suffering a fractured cheekbone and a severe concussion. The most tragic crash was that of the Italian Fabio Casartelli crashed coming down the Col de Portet d'Aspet in the 1995 Tour de France. The 24-year-old rider crashed along with several other riders on the 15th stage of that year’s Tour. He hit his head on a roadside barrier, which resulted in a massive stream of blood coming from his head. Casartelli was airlifted to hospital, but slipped into a coma and died later that same day. “Know you not that they that run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain. And every one that striveth for the mastery, refraineth himself from all things: and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection!” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Just one more slap in the face that proves that the “children of darkness” have more dedication than the “children of light”! And they do it for an earthly crown, a worldly prize, a materialistic gain! How much more of a prize is Heaven? Yet we complain about the slightest, most trivial, inconsequential, stupid little things! “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8). Madness? Five-time Tour de France winner, Bernard Hinault of France, is on record as saying of the Tour de France: “An amateur should think long and hard before attempting one of these stages. Two would probably necessitate a visit to a doctor, and three would require a psychiatrist ― any more, and you should be checking if that person has written a will.” The Words of Pope St. Gregory the Great Our Lord says in another place of the Gospels: “If any man minister to Me, let him follow Me” (John 12:26). To be worthy of Him, we must follow His steps and examine the way in which He walked. And first we see that He, the Creator of all heavenly and reasonable beings, deigned to descend into the womb of a virgin, there to assume the human nature, which He Himself had created out of nothing. We see that He did not choose to be born of rich parents, when taking our human nature, but chose poor parents, who were not even able to offer for Him in the temple a lamb, but only a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons. Thus our Redeemer did not seek happiness in this world; He endured insults, scorn, and blasphemies; He allowed Himself to be spat upon, to be buffeted, scourged, crowned with thorns, and nailed to a cross. He would give us to understand that the pleasures we derived from corporeal things, robbed us of the eternal happiness, of which we can again take possession only by drinking the bitter chalice of suffering. Yet, since God suffered so much for man, what suffering will the sinful man be ready to endure? When after all this, a Christian, believing in Jesus Christ, is still ruled and led by avarice or ambition; when he is still devoured by the fire of envy or carnal pleasures; when he is eagerly rushing after the happiness of this world, then we can truly say that, instead of following Jesus, he is despising Him, because he is walking on quite a different road, and not on the road taken by the Son of God during His mortal life of bitter suffering. Let us, therefore, recall to our mind our own wickedness; let us remember that the eternal Judge will punish our sins most severely; then, let us endeavor to destroy them by sorrowful repentance. Now, let us do severe penance, and thus escape in eternity the terrible wrath of an offended God. The tears shed in this life will take us to the joys of heaven, for Our Lord said: “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:5); whereas the pleasures of this world will, according to the same Savior, bring us to the eternal dwelling of tears and sorrow. “Woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep” (Luke 6:25). If we wish to obtain the highest felicity, let us now walk in the path of penance, and our penitential life will not only gain for us great merits with God, but will be to His greater glory; for, according to the words of the Gospel, others will be encouraged by our good example. |
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Saturday March 2nd & Sunday March 3rd
Article 9
Your Life is No Joke! Heaven is Not a Piece of Cake!
Heaven needs Sanctity―Sanctity needs Heroic Virtue―Heroism needs Extreme Effort!
Article 9
Your Life is No Joke! Heaven is Not a Piece of Cake!
Heaven needs Sanctity―Sanctity needs Heroic Virtue―Heroism needs Extreme Effort!
With “Fear and Trembling” or “Laughter and Jokes”?
St. Paul tells us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12) Yet many jokingly ask: “Saved from what?” Millions think salvation is a joke, but sadly, one day the so-called “joke” will be on all those who don’t care much for God and the salvation of their soul. Successive popes have complained about the fact that the world in general, and Catholics in particular, have lost the sense of sin. Once you lose the sense of sin, you lose the sense of the seriousness of your salvation and you lose the sense of having to do pay for your sins by penance. Hence, for many, Lent is pointless and is treated more like a joke than a yoke for sin.
No More Fear and No More Trembling
This attitude is not helped very much by the fact that the Catholic Church has trivialized penance since Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Constitution, Paenitemini, of February 17th, 1966, which slashed Lenten penance ‘prices’ for sin by 95% ― reducing the 40 days of Lenten fasting to a mere two days of obligatory fasting: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday―Lent was reduced to ashes and the people thought it was good!
This has created a problem within the Church and a problem with regard to salvation, or the chance of salvation. It beggars belief and blows the mind to think that the Church leaders―Pope Paul VI and supporters―are so blind in matters of Faith and Morals, as to reduce the amount of medicine the ‘patient’ is to take when the disease is getting worse! What kind of doctor would prescribe that? What fire-marshal would advocate using less and less fire-fighting equipment when the fire is getting worse? What teacher would teach less and less when his or her students are failing more and more? Yet that is what has been going on for the last 53 years since Pope Paul VI gave wholesale discounts on Lenten penance. Was sin going down? Was is being reduced? Legalized abortion had not even got going in 1966! The worldwide legalization of homosexual unions had not yet taken place! The fashions were nowhere near as immodest as they are now! The internet was around 30 years in the future!
Don’t forget that it was common Church teaching that most souls were being lost―not just in 1966, but all throughout the history of the Church! What was the miraculous sudden turn-around from sin to sanctity that took place around 1966 to warrant the Pope’s 95% discount? There was no sudden turn to sanctity―instead, there was ever-increasing sin, which contracts an ever-increasing debt, which in turn requires ever-increasing penance! How true are the words of Holy Scripture for our times: “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride!” (Job 24:23). Lent is our place for penance―will we abuse in our pride?
Laughing And Joking All The Way To Hell
Even a Protestant Puritan preacher, like John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, saw the danger of looking upon sin and salvation too lightly―he wrote:
“Fools make a mock of sin, will not believe;
It carries such a dagger in its sleeve!
How can be, they say, that such a thing
So full of sweet, should ever wear a sting?
They know not that it is the very spell
of sin, to make them laugh themselves to Hell?”
Pope Paul VI Not Laughing
Pope Paul VI was not laughing very much after having massively reduced penance within the Church with his Apostolic Constitution, Paenitemini, of February 17th, 1966. By 1972 Pope Paul VI admitted that that “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God” (June 29th, 1972). A few years later he repeated the same concern: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977).
To this must be added the thoughts of St. Padre Pio on the subject of television, which he thought was the ingenious tool of the devil. By the mid-1960s, the Capuchins in his monastery were permitted to watch TV, which did not please Padre Pio, who felt that the programs did not lead to virtues desirable in Christian living. He also feared that excessive television viewing was a factor in the destruction of family life―instead of interacting with one another, talking to each other, family members now tended to spend evenings staring gape-mouthed, like zombies, at the television set. He strongly advised anyone who asked his opinion not to buy a television set. When the subject was broached, he was known to say: “The devil is in it!” He realized it would destroy family life and told everyone not to buy one. Regarding movies and the cinema (or “’sin’-ema”), Padre Pio always gave the same answer: “The devil is in it!” Movies are more problematic than not. St. Padre Pio refused to view one, shouting (when they tried to take him to one): “The devil is in it!” Too often, the devil is in it. There is a prophecy―contested by some―that is attributed to the American religious sister, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) had a vision she could not understand in the middle 1800’s: “Every American would have a black box in their home and the devil would enter through it.”
Merely 50 or so years from the time Padre Pio said those things about the television, the modern day Catholic’s outraged reaction to such words would be: “Hah! Poo! Pah! Piffle! What does Padre Pio know!!? It’s all harmless fun! Hey! You can’t be getting too serious about religion, you know!” Which brings back to mind the Protestant Puritan preacher’s, John Bunyan’s, words: “They know not that it is the very spell of sin, to make them laugh themselves to Hell?” Today, life is “one big long laugh”, a endless era of entertainment―which of course neutralizes and paralyzes penance and mortification and pulls away from prayer.
The Spell of Hell Blinds the Mind
The vast majority of Catholics today are immersed in the cauldron of fun, bubbling with mirth and drowning in entertainment. They have lost the plot of what life is all about! Life is the here and now―and to Hell with hereafter! Their stupid idiocy and foolishness―“The perverse are hard to be corrected, and the number of fools is infinite!” (Ecclesiastes 1:15)―leads them to foolishly believe that they are safe if they think, talk and behave like the majority! Despite the ceaseless and ever-increasing number of sins rising to Heaven, the Church gives a 95% discount on penance; fails to promote the one thing Our Lady insisted was the solution―the Rosary; and prefers to preach on social issues, human matters, rather than preach on sin, penance, Heaven and Hell. Already back in the mid-19th century (mid-1800s), Blessed Pope Pius IX criticized and complained to his priests that they preached far too little on Hell. What the hell are they preaching today?
The foolish and tragic 95% discount on penance has produced a similar feeling with regard to the price of Heaven. The fact that penance has been slashed and discounted so much, has led most Catholics to discount Heaven and discount the efforts required to attain Heaven. Our Lord’s statement that “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12) has been reduced, by both clergy and faithful alike, to a “cake-walk” or “a piece of cake”! This is implied by the tacit acceptance of the clergy that hardly anybody goes to confession anymore; also proved by the fact that sin―and what constitutes mortal sin and what kinds of mortal sins there are―is rarely or never preached anymore. This leads to the faithful living in a fog about sin and the gravity of certain thoughts, words and actions―which is further compounded by the fact that priests often tell their faithful: “You aren’t committing any mortal sins!”―when in actual fact there are far more mortal sins being committed than would like to “wishfully think.” Heck! All throughout history most souls have been lost―and our present age sees a tidal wave of temptation that those earlier centuries never experienced or even dreamed that it was possible!
All that vast majority of souls in Hell are not in there for stealing a cookie out the candy jar, or saying their prayers a little hurriedly! They are there for one reason only―mortal sin, committed, unrepented or insufficiently repented and unconfessed or misconfessed. And yes, there ARE souls in the fires of Purgatory for confessed but unpaid mortal sins, and unrepented, unconfessed and unpaid venial sins―even “teeny-weeny” ones like the proverbial stealing of the cookie out of the cookie jar! Why that shocks us is because we are no longer shocked by sin, even venial sin. We no longer fully believe that sin, even venial sin, is the greatest evil in the world―it sounds too dramatic, too far-fetched. Yet our catechisms tell us that: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [venial sin] is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, Spirago-Clarke; My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow, STD).
Lent is No Joke―Just as Sin is No Joke!
Lent is here for a purpose and we don’t need a 95% discount coming with it! Unless, of course, you like an extremely hot climate and are actually looking forwards to the idea of sitting in either the fires of Hell or the fires of Purgatory (which the saints say are just like the fires of Hell―except they gradually lessen and finally end). If you are one of those heat-loving souls, it is recommended that you buy the best asbestos suit that you can find―not it will do you much good, but it might help a little! Alternatively, you could meditate often about placing your hand in a fire for a whole day or two―as a little foretaste and “watered-down” sample of what it will be like. The bottom line is that we need Lent and FORTY DAYS OF FASTING (not just two) like we need the air that we breath.
In his homily on the Gospel of Quinquagesima Sunday, Pope St. Gregory the Great says: “Now, let us do severe penance, and thus escape in eternity the terrible wrath of an offended God. The tears shed in this life will take us to the joys of heaven, for Our Lord said: ‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted’ (Matthew 5:5); whereas the pleasures of this world will, according to the same Savior, bring us to the eternal dwelling of tears and sorrow. ‘Woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep’ (Luke 6:25).”
God Wants to Save―But Most Don’t Want to be Saved
God will save any sinner―even the ones we seem to condemn in our minds. God is prepared to save the pedophile parent or priest. God is prepared to save the abortionist or aborting parent. God is prepared to save the homosexual, lesbian, or transgenderist. God is prepared to save the murderer or rapist. God is prepared to save the adultery or masturbator. God is prepared to save the alcoholic or drug-addict. God is prepared to save the sex-addict, pornographer or pervert. God is prepared to save the human trafficker or pimp. Why? Our Lord tells us: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost!” (Luke 19:10)―and all the aforementioned sinners are certainly lost. Yet God is only prepared to save them if they are willing to stop sinning, to change and to do penance. This is abundantly clear from numerous passages of Holy Scripture.
“The soul that sinneth, the same shall die … But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die … Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit: and why will you die? For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, return ye and live!” (Ezechiel 18:20-32). “Return” says the Lord―that is what the word “conversion” literally means―it comes from the Latin verb convertere meaning “to turn back” therefore “to return.”
Salvation Requires A Turning-Away From the World and Worldliness
To “return” to God means to “turn one’s back” on sin. As Our Lord said: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24). To “return” to God means to “turn one’s back” on the world―for the world is an enemy of God. Our Lord was “the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world … And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto his own, and His own received him not. But as many as received him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God” (John 1:9-12). To the world and the worldly, “He said to them: ‘You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To those who received Him, He told them not to be of this world: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). To which Holy Scripture adds: “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). For Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world” (Galatians 1:4). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
The World Chokes Salvation
In His parable about the Sower of the Seed―the seed being the word of God―Our Lord says: “He that received the seed among thorns, is he that hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, choke up the word of God, and the word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit” (Matthew 13:3-8, 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-15)―which, today, is most of the world.
Our Lord tells another parable that should strike fear into the hearts of the worldly Catholics of today: “And He spoke a similitude to them, saying: ‘The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: “What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?” And he said: “This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer!’” But God said to him: “Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God!’” (Luke 12:16-21).
At another time―not in a parable, but a real life incident―Our Lord further pushed home the danger of worldliness and riches: “And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’
“And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’
“And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!’ Who wondered the more, saying among themselves: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said: ‘With men it is impossible; but not with God! For all things are possible with God!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).
Now, you may not consider yourself as being rich―but you are being too shortsighted and are not seeing beyond the end of your nose! You may well look around and say that there are lots of people far, far richer than you are―and that, in actual fact, you are more on the poor side than the rich side. Perhaps that is so―but that only applies TO THIS AGE. We are a human family stretching back thousands of years―we are the “last kinds on the block” and, just as they say of the youngest children, they are always spoilt rotten. Nobody in all the bygone centuries has had it so good as we have it today! Maybe we are not millionaires and billionaires―but we are rich compared to all those who have lived before the 1800s and even 1900s and especially far, far richer than the people of Our Lord’s time―which is time when He first spoke the parables and met the young rich man. They did not have cars, smartphones, tablets, computers, TVs, radios, worldwide instant communication, Google to answer difficult questions, medical technology and health care, food available from all over the world at all times of the year, houses with windows and mosquito screens, electricity, gas, plumbing, central heating, air-conditioning, running water, indoor toilets, baths and showers, electrical appliances such as refrigerators and freezers to keep food from spoiling, washing machines and dryers for laundry, dishwashers, microwaves, blenders, food processors, grinders, electric kettles, crockpots, pressure-cookers, power tools, vacuum cleaners, lawn-mowers, rotary tillers, seed planters, electric saws, etc., etc., etc. Yes, we are rich compared to people of all time―we are probably in the top 1% of which our millionaires and billionaires are at the very top. Our Lord’s words about how hard it is for a rich man to enter Heaven, are even more applicable to our day than they were in Our Lord’s day―when most people were far, far below what we call the “poverty line” today. Even Our Lord Himself lived at a level way below today’s “poverty line.” In other words, today it is even harder to get to Heaven than it ever was―if we are attached to our "riches" which detach us from God. It is no strange coincidence that while the rich West increasingly falls away from God, the poverty struck people in Africa are growing as regards Christianity!
Salvation at a Price
Yes, for man alone, salvation is impossible―but with God all things are possible, even the salvation of the worst sinner. However, even though “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost!” (Luke 19:10), He will not save anybody who does not want to be saved. Nor will He save anyone on any terms except His own terms. As Jesus says: “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “And why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Modern Day Blindness
In the readings for the Mass of Quinquagesima Sunday, we have the blind man in today’s Gospel―crying-out: “Lord! That I may see!”―and St. Paul speaking of the importance of Charity in today’s Epistle. They say, “Love is blind”―which is true in a sense, for love is an act of the will, which is blind in itself and needs the guidance of reason to point it in the right direction, so that it loves the right things and not the wrong things. Faith is the light of our reason―instructing us to walk in the direction God intends us to walk and guiding our will to love the things that God wants us to love. Today, like the blind man of the Gospel reading (Luke 18:31-43), most of the world is blind and is blindly, but happily, staggering around in a blind love of the world, thinking they are on road to Heaven! We need to see the truth of the matter and to do so, we need to cry out with the blind man: “Lord! That I may see!” Otherwise, we will remain blind and will lead those who are blind around us, blindly into the pit of Hell. We are also those of whom Our Lord spoke, when He said: “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). We do not want to be left alone to fall into the pit―we need to cry out: “Lord! That I may see!” For it is clear that we cannot see correctly anymore! Or, perhaps it is more correct to say that we do not want to see correctly anymore―we prefer seeing things the modern way, the easy way, the comfortable way. In our blindness we think that the easy-chair or the armchair is the cross!
Learning From The Blind
It sounds strange, does it not? ―“Learning from the blind!” Yet this real-life incident and the attitude of the blind man has much to teach us. In case you did not attend a Quinquagesima Sunday Mass, here is the short excerpt from the Gospel:
“Now it came to pass, when Jesus drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the way side, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying: ‘Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me!’ And they that went before, rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried out much more: ‘Son of David! Have mercy on me!’ And Jesus, standing, commanded him to be brought unto Him. And when he was come near, He asked him, saying: ‘What wilt thou that I do to thee?’ But he said: ‘Lord! That I may see!’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Receive thy sight! Thy faith hath made thee whole!’ And immediately he saw, and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God” (Luke 18:35-43).
Those Who Can See Are Blind―Those Who Are Blind Can See
You could provocatively say that those who could see were actually blind, and he who was blind could actually see! By this is meant that the multitude of people had natural sight or natural vision, but no supernatural sight or supernatural vision―they had human eyes, but not spiritual eyes, which is true for vast majority (multitude) of people today. Whereas the blind man (a tiny minority among that multitude) did not have natural sight or natural vision because of the blindness in his eyes, but he had something better than that―he had supernatural sight or supernatural vision due to the eyes of his Faith. The multitude was naturalistic, materialistic, earthly and worldly―that is all they had eyes for. Whereas the blind man could not see naturalistic, materialistic, earthly and worldly things, and so there was nothing hindering, blocking or blindfolding his supernatural vision. “The blind see” (Matthew 11:5). The blind man could ‘see’ the power of Jesus, he believed in His power, and was crying out, praying to Jesus for help―and the naturalistic, materialistic, earthly and worldly multitude kept telling him to shut up.
If our family, relatives, friends work-colleagues, fellow-students or neighbors are naturalistic, materialistic, earthly and worldly, then they will resent any kind of spirituality that we may show―they will tell us to shut up (either by words, reactions, gestures, or by their body language and facial expressions). These kind of people are those who are really blind and who lead others to damnation: “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). Rather than be pressured into oblivion, we should follow the lead of the blind man from the Gospel, of whom we are told: “The blind man cried on the Lord so much the more” with the result that “he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God.”
Blind Resistance From The ‘Seeing’ Multitude
This resistance and opposition from the multitude is what Jesus warned us about: “Everyone therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven. Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:32-37).
“For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and famines. These things are the beginning of sorrows. But look to yourselves. For they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony unto them. And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Mark 13:8-13).
The False Gospels of “Safety in Numbers” and “Follow the Crowd”
It is tragically saddening, yet highly infuriating, to see so many blind souls blindly believing and following the false gospels of “safety in numbers” and “follow the crowd” and “everyone is doing it.” You can cry-out and scream and yell as much as you want―people will just pay attention or heed the advice! There is no safety in sin, no matter how great the number of sinners there are committing sin! Following the crowd means following them to Hell! If “everyone is doing it” then everyone will pay for it―in the fires of Hell or, if they are lucky in the fires of Purgatory! You can think what you want, say what you want, stamp your feet as much as you want, roll your eyes as much as you want―that is the plain painful truth! Our Lord has said it, Our Lady has said it, the Saints have said it―who are you going to bring as witness for your theory? The only one you can bring is the multitude or the devil, but nobody from Heaven!
In case you are blind and need your eyes opening like the blind man on the road to Jericho, then here are some of the many, many quotes:
According to Our Lord
● “Many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16).
● “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
● “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: ‘Lord! Open to us!’ And He, answering, shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are!’ Then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out!’” (Luke 13:23-28).
● “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14).
According to Our Lady
● “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! … Many people … will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil … The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation … Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom” (Our Lady of Good Success).
● “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. People will think of nothing but amusement!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
● “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go! … Many souls go to Hell … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! … . If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved … but if people do not cease offending God … Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated!” (Our Lady of Fatima, July & August 1917).
Regarding the annihilation of nations: it is important to note that, during the Father Fuentes interview, Sister Lucia said that Our Lady had told herself (Lucia), Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations ”many times!” (Frère François, Tragedy and Triumph, p. 27.)
● “Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind ... If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead” (Our Lady of Akita, October 13th, 1973).
● “The whole ruin or salvation of souls depends upon the use of their free will; but most men use it ill and damn themselves … Mortals would receive great enlightenment, and incomparable favors from the Lord, if only they did not hinder them by their sins and abominations. But as they block up the way, which God in His ineffable Providence has opened up for conducting them to eternal felicity, the greater part of them damn themselves … Weep thou in seeing them laugh at their eternal damnation! … The rich might purchase eternal life with their possessions,but they abuse them to draw upon themselves damnation as senseless and foolish creatures … Great was the sorrow of my most holy Son, that not all should make use of the fruits of His Redemption. But next to this sorrow, my greatest one was to know, that after all these sufferings of the Lord, so many men should still damn themselves―even within sight of all the infinite treasures of grace ... Understand, that, if in the glory, which I now enjoy, I could be sorrowful, one of the reasons for being so would be the dreadful carelessness and presumption with which mortals approach to receive the Sacred Body and Blood of my divine Son; some of them unclean and abominable, others without veneration and respect, and nearly all of them without attention … Many children of the Church treat it with irreverence and without any fear or decorum. Weep then over this misfortune; weep, because there are few who weep over it. And in order that thou mayest weep more bitterly, I tell thee, that, just as in the primitive Church there were so many, who were saved by it, now there are countless souls, who damn themselves through it!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
According to the Saints
● St. Peter the Apostle: “If the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly man and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:18).
● Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604), Doctor of the Church: “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly Kingdom. Behold how many are gathered here for today’s feast-day―we fill the church from wall to wall. Yet who knows how few they are who shall be numbered in that chosen company of the Elect? … Few are the grains carried into the barns, but high are the piles of chaff burned with fire … They who are to be saved as saints, and wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved!”
● St. Justin Martyr (100-165), Father of the Church: “The majority of men shall not see God, excepting those who live justly, purified by righteousness and by every other virtue.”
● St. Jerome (347-420), Doctor and Father of the Church: “So that you will better appreciate the meaning of Our Lord’s words, and perceive more clearly how few the Elect are, note that Christ did not say that those who walked in the path to Heaven are few in number, but that there were few who found that narrow way. It is as though the Savior intended to say: The path leading to Heaven is so narrow and so rough, so overgrown, so dark and difficult to discern, that there are many who never find it their whole life long. And those who do find it are constantly exposed to the danger of deviating from it, of mistaking their way, and unwittingly wandering away from it, because it is so irregular and overgrown!’ … Many begin well, but there are few who persevere ... Out of one-hundred-thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved!”
● St. John Chrysostom (247-407), Doctor and Father of the Church: “What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that! … I do not speak rashly, but I do not think that many bishops are saved, and that those who perish are far more numerous!” (St. John Chrysostom, Doctor and Father of the Church).
● St. Augustine (354-430), Doctor and Father of the Church: “Take care not to resemble the multitude whose knowledge of God’s will only condemns them to more severe punishment ... It is certain that few are saved … If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate” (St. Augustine, Sermon 224:1).
● St. Bede the Venerable (673-735), Doctor and Father of the Church: “Nor should we think that it is enough for salvation that we are no worse than the mass of the careless and indifferent … Christ's flock is called ‘little’ (Luke 12:32) in comparison with the greater number of the reprobates.”
● St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church: “If thou wouldst be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few… Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, so that they may attain everlasting blessedness.”
● St. Thomas Aquinas (1235-1274), Doctor of the Church: “There are a select few who are saved!” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.7, ad 3.) “Those who are saved are in the minority!” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.8, ad.3).
● St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori (1696-1787), Doctor of the Church: “Everyone desires to be saved but the greater part is lost! … The greater part of men choose to be damned rather than to love Almighty God! … The saints are few, but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few! … The common opinion is that the greater part of adults is lost … All persons desire to be saved, but the greater part, because they will not adopt the means of being saved, fall into sin and are lost! ... In fact, the Elect are much fewer than the damned, for the reprobate are much more numerous than the Elect … It is certainly a great happiness for some sinners who, after a bad life, are converted at their death, and are saved; but these cases are very rare: ordinarily he that leads a bad life dies a bad death … In the Great Deluge in the days of Noe, nearly all mankind perished, eight persons alone being saved in the Ark. In our days a deluge, not of water but of sins, continually inundates the Earth, and out of this deluge very few escape. Scarcely anyone is saved … especially among seculars! … What is the number of those who love Thee, O God? How few they are! The Elect are much fewer than the damned! Alas! The greater portion of mankind lives in sin unto the devil, and not unto Jesus Christ … Ah, I pray Thee, O omnipotent God, O sovereign and infinite Good, make all men know and love Thee! … To obtain salvation we must tremble at the thought of being lost, and tremble not so much at the thought of Hell, as of sin, which alone can send us there. He who dreads sin, avoids dangerous occasions of sin, frequently recommends himself to God, and has recourse to the means of keeping himself in the state of grace. He who acts thus will be saved; but for him who lives not in this manner it is morally impossible to be saved.”
● St. John Climacus (579-606), Father of the Church: “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few!”
● St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Doctor of the Church: “I had the greatest sorrow for the many souls that condemned themselves to Hell, especially those Lutherans ... I saw souls falling into Hell like snowflakes!”
Those are just the tip of the iceberg of the massive number of testimonies of the saints on the number of saved souls. Where are the saints who say that most souls are saved? How many are those ‘saints’ in number? It is mainly Liberals and Modernists―who are far from being saints―who insist that most souls are being saved and that we have little or nothing worry about! It is to be wondered what St. Paul would make of that attitude, since he wrote: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12).
One such Liberal priest interviewed Sr. Lucia of Fatima. The following is a rare interview with Sister Lucia by Father Lombardi. It was recorded in the Vatican weekly “Osservatore della Domenica” on February 7th, 1954.
Fr. Lombardi: “Tell me, is the ‘Better World Movement’ a response of the Church to the words spoken to Our Lady?”
Sr. Lucia: “Father, there is certainly a great need for this renewal. If it is not done, and taking into account the present development of humanity, only a limited number of the human race will be saved.”
Fr. Lombardi: “Do you really believe that many will go to Hell? I hope that God will save the greater part of humanity.” [He had just written a book entitled: Salvation for Those Without Faith]
Sr. Lucia: “Father, many will be lost.”
Fr. Lombardi: “It is true that the world is full of evil, but there is always a hope of salvation.”
Sr. Lucia: “No Father, many will be lost.”
Father Lombardi remembered that Lucia had seen Hell and added: “Her words disturbed me. I returned to Italy with that grave warning impressed on my heart.”
Scaring the Hell Out Of You?
What is the point of all this? To scare you? Well, yes, if you are lukewarm, complacent, lackadaisical or superficial in your Faith and its practice. However, even those who are serious about their Faith and its practice should also “tremble” in their boots―for, as St. Padre Pio said, most of the few souls that make it to Heaven, do not manage to get there without having to go through Purgatory. Lent is here for a reason―and it is not to be taken lightly, nor is it recommended that you “buy-into” the 95% discounted Lent either! As Pope St. Gregory says, in his homily for Quinquagesima Sunday:
“Let us, therefore, recall to our mind our own wickedness; let us remember that the eternal Judge will punish our sins most severely; then, let us endeavor to destroy them by sorrowful repentance. Now, let us do severe penance, and thus escape in eternity the terrible wrath of an offended God. The tears shed in this life will take us to the joys of heaven, for Our Lord said: ‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted’ (Matthew 5:5); whereas the pleasures of this world will, according to the same Savior, bring us to the eternal dwelling of tears and sorrow. ‘Woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep!’ (Luke 6:25). If we wish to obtain the highest felicity, let us now walk in the path of penance, and our penitential life will not only gain for us great merits with God, but will be to His greater glory; for, according to the words of the Gospel, others will be encouraged by our good example: ‘And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.’”
St. Paul tells us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12) Yet many jokingly ask: “Saved from what?” Millions think salvation is a joke, but sadly, one day the so-called “joke” will be on all those who don’t care much for God and the salvation of their soul. Successive popes have complained about the fact that the world in general, and Catholics in particular, have lost the sense of sin. Once you lose the sense of sin, you lose the sense of the seriousness of your salvation and you lose the sense of having to do pay for your sins by penance. Hence, for many, Lent is pointless and is treated more like a joke than a yoke for sin.
No More Fear and No More Trembling
This attitude is not helped very much by the fact that the Catholic Church has trivialized penance since Pope Paul VI’s Apostolic Constitution, Paenitemini, of February 17th, 1966, which slashed Lenten penance ‘prices’ for sin by 95% ― reducing the 40 days of Lenten fasting to a mere two days of obligatory fasting: Ash Wednesday and Good Friday―Lent was reduced to ashes and the people thought it was good!
This has created a problem within the Church and a problem with regard to salvation, or the chance of salvation. It beggars belief and blows the mind to think that the Church leaders―Pope Paul VI and supporters―are so blind in matters of Faith and Morals, as to reduce the amount of medicine the ‘patient’ is to take when the disease is getting worse! What kind of doctor would prescribe that? What fire-marshal would advocate using less and less fire-fighting equipment when the fire is getting worse? What teacher would teach less and less when his or her students are failing more and more? Yet that is what has been going on for the last 53 years since Pope Paul VI gave wholesale discounts on Lenten penance. Was sin going down? Was is being reduced? Legalized abortion had not even got going in 1966! The worldwide legalization of homosexual unions had not yet taken place! The fashions were nowhere near as immodest as they are now! The internet was around 30 years in the future!
Don’t forget that it was common Church teaching that most souls were being lost―not just in 1966, but all throughout the history of the Church! What was the miraculous sudden turn-around from sin to sanctity that took place around 1966 to warrant the Pope’s 95% discount? There was no sudden turn to sanctity―instead, there was ever-increasing sin, which contracts an ever-increasing debt, which in turn requires ever-increasing penance! How true are the words of Holy Scripture for our times: “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride!” (Job 24:23). Lent is our place for penance―will we abuse in our pride?
Laughing And Joking All The Way To Hell
Even a Protestant Puritan preacher, like John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, saw the danger of looking upon sin and salvation too lightly―he wrote:
“Fools make a mock of sin, will not believe;
It carries such a dagger in its sleeve!
How can be, they say, that such a thing
So full of sweet, should ever wear a sting?
They know not that it is the very spell
of sin, to make them laugh themselves to Hell?”
Pope Paul VI Not Laughing
Pope Paul VI was not laughing very much after having massively reduced penance within the Church with his Apostolic Constitution, Paenitemini, of February 17th, 1966. By 1972 Pope Paul VI admitted that that “from some fissure the smoke of Satan has entered the temple of God” (June 29th, 1972). A few years later he repeated the same concern: “The tail of the devil is functioning in the disintegration of the Catholic world. The darkness of Satan has entered and spread throughout the Catholic Church even to its summit. Apostasy, the loss of the Faith, is spreading throughout the world and into the highest levels within the Church” (Pope Paul VI, Address on the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, October 13th, 1977).
To this must be added the thoughts of St. Padre Pio on the subject of television, which he thought was the ingenious tool of the devil. By the mid-1960s, the Capuchins in his monastery were permitted to watch TV, which did not please Padre Pio, who felt that the programs did not lead to virtues desirable in Christian living. He also feared that excessive television viewing was a factor in the destruction of family life―instead of interacting with one another, talking to each other, family members now tended to spend evenings staring gape-mouthed, like zombies, at the television set. He strongly advised anyone who asked his opinion not to buy a television set. When the subject was broached, he was known to say: “The devil is in it!” He realized it would destroy family life and told everyone not to buy one. Regarding movies and the cinema (or “’sin’-ema”), Padre Pio always gave the same answer: “The devil is in it!” Movies are more problematic than not. St. Padre Pio refused to view one, shouting (when they tried to take him to one): “The devil is in it!” Too often, the devil is in it. There is a prophecy―contested by some―that is attributed to the American religious sister, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1774-1821) had a vision she could not understand in the middle 1800’s: “Every American would have a black box in their home and the devil would enter through it.”
Merely 50 or so years from the time Padre Pio said those things about the television, the modern day Catholic’s outraged reaction to such words would be: “Hah! Poo! Pah! Piffle! What does Padre Pio know!!? It’s all harmless fun! Hey! You can’t be getting too serious about religion, you know!” Which brings back to mind the Protestant Puritan preacher’s, John Bunyan’s, words: “They know not that it is the very spell of sin, to make them laugh themselves to Hell?” Today, life is “one big long laugh”, a endless era of entertainment―which of course neutralizes and paralyzes penance and mortification and pulls away from prayer.
The Spell of Hell Blinds the Mind
The vast majority of Catholics today are immersed in the cauldron of fun, bubbling with mirth and drowning in entertainment. They have lost the plot of what life is all about! Life is the here and now―and to Hell with hereafter! Their stupid idiocy and foolishness―“The perverse are hard to be corrected, and the number of fools is infinite!” (Ecclesiastes 1:15)―leads them to foolishly believe that they are safe if they think, talk and behave like the majority! Despite the ceaseless and ever-increasing number of sins rising to Heaven, the Church gives a 95% discount on penance; fails to promote the one thing Our Lady insisted was the solution―the Rosary; and prefers to preach on social issues, human matters, rather than preach on sin, penance, Heaven and Hell. Already back in the mid-19th century (mid-1800s), Blessed Pope Pius IX criticized and complained to his priests that they preached far too little on Hell. What the hell are they preaching today?
The foolish and tragic 95% discount on penance has produced a similar feeling with regard to the price of Heaven. The fact that penance has been slashed and discounted so much, has led most Catholics to discount Heaven and discount the efforts required to attain Heaven. Our Lord’s statement that “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12) has been reduced, by both clergy and faithful alike, to a “cake-walk” or “a piece of cake”! This is implied by the tacit acceptance of the clergy that hardly anybody goes to confession anymore; also proved by the fact that sin―and what constitutes mortal sin and what kinds of mortal sins there are―is rarely or never preached anymore. This leads to the faithful living in a fog about sin and the gravity of certain thoughts, words and actions―which is further compounded by the fact that priests often tell their faithful: “You aren’t committing any mortal sins!”―when in actual fact there are far more mortal sins being committed than would like to “wishfully think.” Heck! All throughout history most souls have been lost―and our present age sees a tidal wave of temptation that those earlier centuries never experienced or even dreamed that it was possible!
All that vast majority of souls in Hell are not in there for stealing a cookie out the candy jar, or saying their prayers a little hurriedly! They are there for one reason only―mortal sin, committed, unrepented or insufficiently repented and unconfessed or misconfessed. And yes, there ARE souls in the fires of Purgatory for confessed but unpaid mortal sins, and unrepented, unconfessed and unpaid venial sins―even “teeny-weeny” ones like the proverbial stealing of the cookie out of the cookie jar! Why that shocks us is because we are no longer shocked by sin, even venial sin. We no longer fully believe that sin, even venial sin, is the greatest evil in the world―it sounds too dramatic, too far-fetched. Yet our catechisms tell us that: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [venial sin] is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, Spirago-Clarke; My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow, STD).
Lent is No Joke―Just as Sin is No Joke!
Lent is here for a purpose and we don’t need a 95% discount coming with it! Unless, of course, you like an extremely hot climate and are actually looking forwards to the idea of sitting in either the fires of Hell or the fires of Purgatory (which the saints say are just like the fires of Hell―except they gradually lessen and finally end). If you are one of those heat-loving souls, it is recommended that you buy the best asbestos suit that you can find―not it will do you much good, but it might help a little! Alternatively, you could meditate often about placing your hand in a fire for a whole day or two―as a little foretaste and “watered-down” sample of what it will be like. The bottom line is that we need Lent and FORTY DAYS OF FASTING (not just two) like we need the air that we breath.
In his homily on the Gospel of Quinquagesima Sunday, Pope St. Gregory the Great says: “Now, let us do severe penance, and thus escape in eternity the terrible wrath of an offended God. The tears shed in this life will take us to the joys of heaven, for Our Lord said: ‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted’ (Matthew 5:5); whereas the pleasures of this world will, according to the same Savior, bring us to the eternal dwelling of tears and sorrow. ‘Woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep’ (Luke 6:25).”
God Wants to Save―But Most Don’t Want to be Saved
God will save any sinner―even the ones we seem to condemn in our minds. God is prepared to save the pedophile parent or priest. God is prepared to save the abortionist or aborting parent. God is prepared to save the homosexual, lesbian, or transgenderist. God is prepared to save the murderer or rapist. God is prepared to save the adultery or masturbator. God is prepared to save the alcoholic or drug-addict. God is prepared to save the sex-addict, pornographer or pervert. God is prepared to save the human trafficker or pimp. Why? Our Lord tells us: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost!” (Luke 19:10)―and all the aforementioned sinners are certainly lost. Yet God is only prepared to save them if they are willing to stop sinning, to change and to do penance. This is abundantly clear from numerous passages of Holy Scripture.
“The soul that sinneth, the same shall die … But if the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment, and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die … Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live? … Cast away from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and make to yourselves a new heart, and a new spirit: and why will you die? For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God, return ye and live!” (Ezechiel 18:20-32). “Return” says the Lord―that is what the word “conversion” literally means―it comes from the Latin verb convertere meaning “to turn back” therefore “to return.”
Salvation Requires A Turning-Away From the World and Worldliness
To “return” to God means to “turn one’s back” on sin. As Our Lord said: “You cannot serve God and mammon!” (Matthew 6:24). To “return” to God means to “turn one’s back” on the world―for the world is an enemy of God. Our Lord was “the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world … And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it … He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto his own, and His own received him not. But as many as received him, He gave them power to be made the sons of God” (John 1:9-12). To the world and the worldly, “He said to them: ‘You are from beneath, I am from above! You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). To those who received Him, He told them not to be of this world: “If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:19). To which Holy Scripture adds: “Keep yourself unspotted from this world!” (James 1:27). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him!” (1 John 2:15). “We have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God! … Use this world, as if [you] used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away!” (1 Corinthians 2:12; 7:31). For Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present wicked world” (Galatians 1:4). “For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16). “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
The World Chokes Salvation
In His parable about the Sower of the Seed―the seed being the word of God―Our Lord says: “He that received the seed among thorns, is he that hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the pleasures of this life, choke up the word of God, and the word becomes fruitless and yields no fruit” (Matthew 13:3-8, 13:18-23; Mark 4:3-8; Luke 8:5-15)―which, today, is most of the world.
Our Lord tells another parable that should strike fear into the hearts of the worldly Catholics of today: “And He spoke a similitude to them, saying: ‘The land of a certain rich man brought forth plenty of fruits. And he thought within himself, saying: “What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?” And he said: “This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and my goods. And I will say to my soul: ‘Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thy rest; eat, drink, make good cheer!’” But God said to him: “Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God!’” (Luke 12:16-21).
At another time―not in a parable, but a real life incident―Our Lord further pushed home the danger of worldliness and riches: “And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’
“And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’
“And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!’ Who wondered the more, saying among themselves: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said: ‘With men it is impossible; but not with God! For all things are possible with God!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).
Now, you may not consider yourself as being rich―but you are being too shortsighted and are not seeing beyond the end of your nose! You may well look around and say that there are lots of people far, far richer than you are―and that, in actual fact, you are more on the poor side than the rich side. Perhaps that is so―but that only applies TO THIS AGE. We are a human family stretching back thousands of years―we are the “last kinds on the block” and, just as they say of the youngest children, they are always spoilt rotten. Nobody in all the bygone centuries has had it so good as we have it today! Maybe we are not millionaires and billionaires―but we are rich compared to all those who have lived before the 1800s and even 1900s and especially far, far richer than the people of Our Lord’s time―which is time when He first spoke the parables and met the young rich man. They did not have cars, smartphones, tablets, computers, TVs, radios, worldwide instant communication, Google to answer difficult questions, medical technology and health care, food available from all over the world at all times of the year, houses with windows and mosquito screens, electricity, gas, plumbing, central heating, air-conditioning, running water, indoor toilets, baths and showers, electrical appliances such as refrigerators and freezers to keep food from spoiling, washing machines and dryers for laundry, dishwashers, microwaves, blenders, food processors, grinders, electric kettles, crockpots, pressure-cookers, power tools, vacuum cleaners, lawn-mowers, rotary tillers, seed planters, electric saws, etc., etc., etc. Yes, we are rich compared to people of all time―we are probably in the top 1% of which our millionaires and billionaires are at the very top. Our Lord’s words about how hard it is for a rich man to enter Heaven, are even more applicable to our day than they were in Our Lord’s day―when most people were far, far below what we call the “poverty line” today. Even Our Lord Himself lived at a level way below today’s “poverty line.” In other words, today it is even harder to get to Heaven than it ever was―if we are attached to our "riches" which detach us from God. It is no strange coincidence that while the rich West increasingly falls away from God, the poverty struck people in Africa are growing as regards Christianity!
Salvation at a Price
Yes, for man alone, salvation is impossible―but with God all things are possible, even the salvation of the worst sinner. However, even though “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost!” (Luke 19:10), He will not save anybody who does not want to be saved. Nor will He save anyone on any terms except His own terms. As Jesus says: “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23). “And why call you Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Modern Day Blindness
In the readings for the Mass of Quinquagesima Sunday, we have the blind man in today’s Gospel―crying-out: “Lord! That I may see!”―and St. Paul speaking of the importance of Charity in today’s Epistle. They say, “Love is blind”―which is true in a sense, for love is an act of the will, which is blind in itself and needs the guidance of reason to point it in the right direction, so that it loves the right things and not the wrong things. Faith is the light of our reason―instructing us to walk in the direction God intends us to walk and guiding our will to love the things that God wants us to love. Today, like the blind man of the Gospel reading (Luke 18:31-43), most of the world is blind and is blindly, but happily, staggering around in a blind love of the world, thinking they are on road to Heaven! We need to see the truth of the matter and to do so, we need to cry out with the blind man: “Lord! That I may see!” Otherwise, we will remain blind and will lead those who are blind around us, blindly into the pit of Hell. We are also those of whom Our Lord spoke, when He said: “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). We do not want to be left alone to fall into the pit―we need to cry out: “Lord! That I may see!” For it is clear that we cannot see correctly anymore! Or, perhaps it is more correct to say that we do not want to see correctly anymore―we prefer seeing things the modern way, the easy way, the comfortable way. In our blindness we think that the easy-chair or the armchair is the cross!
Learning From The Blind
It sounds strange, does it not? ―“Learning from the blind!” Yet this real-life incident and the attitude of the blind man has much to teach us. In case you did not attend a Quinquagesima Sunday Mass, here is the short excerpt from the Gospel:
“Now it came to pass, when Jesus drew nigh to Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the way side, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying: ‘Jesus! Son of David! Have mercy on me!’ And they that went before, rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried out much more: ‘Son of David! Have mercy on me!’ And Jesus, standing, commanded him to be brought unto Him. And when he was come near, He asked him, saying: ‘What wilt thou that I do to thee?’ But he said: ‘Lord! That I may see!’ And Jesus said to him: ‘Receive thy sight! Thy faith hath made thee whole!’ And immediately he saw, and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God” (Luke 18:35-43).
Those Who Can See Are Blind―Those Who Are Blind Can See
You could provocatively say that those who could see were actually blind, and he who was blind could actually see! By this is meant that the multitude of people had natural sight or natural vision, but no supernatural sight or supernatural vision―they had human eyes, but not spiritual eyes, which is true for vast majority (multitude) of people today. Whereas the blind man (a tiny minority among that multitude) did not have natural sight or natural vision because of the blindness in his eyes, but he had something better than that―he had supernatural sight or supernatural vision due to the eyes of his Faith. The multitude was naturalistic, materialistic, earthly and worldly―that is all they had eyes for. Whereas the blind man could not see naturalistic, materialistic, earthly and worldly things, and so there was nothing hindering, blocking or blindfolding his supernatural vision. “The blind see” (Matthew 11:5). The blind man could ‘see’ the power of Jesus, he believed in His power, and was crying out, praying to Jesus for help―and the naturalistic, materialistic, earthly and worldly multitude kept telling him to shut up.
If our family, relatives, friends work-colleagues, fellow-students or neighbors are naturalistic, materialistic, earthly and worldly, then they will resent any kind of spirituality that we may show―they will tell us to shut up (either by words, reactions, gestures, or by their body language and facial expressions). These kind of people are those who are really blind and who lead others to damnation: “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14). Rather than be pressured into oblivion, we should follow the lead of the blind man from the Gospel, of whom we are told: “The blind man cried on the Lord so much the more” with the result that “he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God.”
Blind Resistance From The ‘Seeing’ Multitude
This resistance and opposition from the multitude is what Jesus warned us about: “Everyone therefore that shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father Who is in Heaven. But he that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven. Do not think that I came to send peace upon Earth! I came not to send peace, but the sword! For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me!” (Matthew 10:32-37).
“For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and famines. These things are the beginning of sorrows. But look to yourselves. For they shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake, for a testimony unto them. And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Mark 13:8-13).
The False Gospels of “Safety in Numbers” and “Follow the Crowd”
It is tragically saddening, yet highly infuriating, to see so many blind souls blindly believing and following the false gospels of “safety in numbers” and “follow the crowd” and “everyone is doing it.” You can cry-out and scream and yell as much as you want―people will just pay attention or heed the advice! There is no safety in sin, no matter how great the number of sinners there are committing sin! Following the crowd means following them to Hell! If “everyone is doing it” then everyone will pay for it―in the fires of Hell or, if they are lucky in the fires of Purgatory! You can think what you want, say what you want, stamp your feet as much as you want, roll your eyes as much as you want―that is the plain painful truth! Our Lord has said it, Our Lady has said it, the Saints have said it―who are you going to bring as witness for your theory? The only one you can bring is the multitude or the devil, but nobody from Heaven!
In case you are blind and need your eyes opening like the blind man on the road to Jericho, then here are some of the many, many quotes:
According to Our Lord
● “Many are called, but few chosen” (Matthew 20:16).
● “Not everyone that saith to Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
● “And a certain man said to Him: ‘Lord! Are they few that are saved?’ But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able. But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: ‘Lord! Open to us!’ And He, answering, shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are!’ Then you shall begin to say: ‘We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets!” And He shall say to you: ‘I know you not, whence you are! Depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity!’ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the Kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out!’” (Luke 13:23-28).
● “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat! How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!” (Matthew 7:13-14).
According to Our Lady
● “From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! … Many people … will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil … The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation … Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … The Christian spirit will rapidly decay, extinguishing the precious light of Faith, until it reaches the point that there will be an almost total and general corruption of morals … The small number of souls, who hidden, will preserve the treasures of the Faith and practice virtue will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom” (Our Lady of Good Success).
● “Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish ... Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. People will think of nothing but amusement!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
● “You have seen Hell where the souls of poor sinners go! … Many souls go to Hell … Sacrifice yourselves for sinners! … . If what I say to you is done, many souls will be saved … but if people do not cease offending God … Russia will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated!” (Our Lady of Fatima, July & August 1917).
Regarding the annihilation of nations: it is important to note that, during the Father Fuentes interview, Sister Lucia said that Our Lady had told herself (Lucia), Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations ”many times!” (Frère François, Tragedy and Triumph, p. 27.)
● “Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind ... If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead” (Our Lady of Akita, October 13th, 1973).
● “The whole ruin or salvation of souls depends upon the use of their free will; but most men use it ill and damn themselves … Mortals would receive great enlightenment, and incomparable favors from the Lord, if only they did not hinder them by their sins and abominations. But as they block up the way, which God in His ineffable Providence has opened up for conducting them to eternal felicity, the greater part of them damn themselves … Weep thou in seeing them laugh at their eternal damnation! … The rich might purchase eternal life with their possessions,but they abuse them to draw upon themselves damnation as senseless and foolish creatures … Great was the sorrow of my most holy Son, that not all should make use of the fruits of His Redemption. But next to this sorrow, my greatest one was to know, that after all these sufferings of the Lord, so many men should still damn themselves―even within sight of all the infinite treasures of grace ... Understand, that, if in the glory, which I now enjoy, I could be sorrowful, one of the reasons for being so would be the dreadful carelessness and presumption with which mortals approach to receive the Sacred Body and Blood of my divine Son; some of them unclean and abominable, others without veneration and respect, and nearly all of them without attention … Many children of the Church treat it with irreverence and without any fear or decorum. Weep then over this misfortune; weep, because there are few who weep over it. And in order that thou mayest weep more bitterly, I tell thee, that, just as in the primitive Church there were so many, who were saved by it, now there are countless souls, who damn themselves through it!” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God).
According to the Saints
● St. Peter the Apostle: “If the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly man and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:18).
● Pope St. Gregory the Great (540-604), Doctor of the Church: “There are many who arrive at the Faith, but few who are led into the heavenly Kingdom. Behold how many are gathered here for today’s feast-day―we fill the church from wall to wall. Yet who knows how few they are who shall be numbered in that chosen company of the Elect? … Few are the grains carried into the barns, but high are the piles of chaff burned with fire … They who are to be saved as saints, and wish to be saved as imperfect souls, shall not be saved!”
● St. Justin Martyr (100-165), Father of the Church: “The majority of men shall not see God, excepting those who live justly, purified by righteousness and by every other virtue.”
● St. Jerome (347-420), Doctor and Father of the Church: “So that you will better appreciate the meaning of Our Lord’s words, and perceive more clearly how few the Elect are, note that Christ did not say that those who walked in the path to Heaven are few in number, but that there were few who found that narrow way. It is as though the Savior intended to say: The path leading to Heaven is so narrow and so rough, so overgrown, so dark and difficult to discern, that there are many who never find it their whole life long. And those who do find it are constantly exposed to the danger of deviating from it, of mistaking their way, and unwittingly wandering away from it, because it is so irregular and overgrown!’ … Many begin well, but there are few who persevere ... Out of one-hundred-thousand sinners who continue in sin until death, scarcely one will be saved!”
● St. John Chrysostom (247-407), Doctor and Father of the Church: “What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that! … I do not speak rashly, but I do not think that many bishops are saved, and that those who perish are far more numerous!” (St. John Chrysostom, Doctor and Father of the Church).
● St. Augustine (354-430), Doctor and Father of the Church: “Take care not to resemble the multitude whose knowledge of God’s will only condemns them to more severe punishment ... It is certain that few are saved … If you wish to imitate the multitude, then you shall not be among the few who shall enter in by the narrow gate” (St. Augustine, Sermon 224:1).
● St. Bede the Venerable (673-735), Doctor and Father of the Church: “Nor should we think that it is enough for salvation that we are no worse than the mass of the careless and indifferent … Christ's flock is called ‘little’ (Luke 12:32) in comparison with the greater number of the reprobates.”
● St. Anselm (1033-1109), Doctor of the Church: “If thou wouldst be certain of being in the number of the elect, strive to be one of the few, not of the many. And if thou wouldst be quite sure of thy salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few… Do not follow the great majority of mankind, but follow those who enter upon the narrow way, who renounce the world, who give themselves to prayer, and who never relax their efforts by day or by night, so that they may attain everlasting blessedness.”
● St. Thomas Aquinas (1235-1274), Doctor of the Church: “There are a select few who are saved!” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.7, ad 3.) “Those who are saved are in the minority!” (Summa Theologica, Ia, q.23, art.8, ad.3).
● St. Alphonsus Maria Liguori (1696-1787), Doctor of the Church: “Everyone desires to be saved but the greater part is lost! … The greater part of men choose to be damned rather than to love Almighty God! … The saints are few, but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few! … The common opinion is that the greater part of adults is lost … All persons desire to be saved, but the greater part, because they will not adopt the means of being saved, fall into sin and are lost! ... In fact, the Elect are much fewer than the damned, for the reprobate are much more numerous than the Elect … It is certainly a great happiness for some sinners who, after a bad life, are converted at their death, and are saved; but these cases are very rare: ordinarily he that leads a bad life dies a bad death … In the Great Deluge in the days of Noe, nearly all mankind perished, eight persons alone being saved in the Ark. In our days a deluge, not of water but of sins, continually inundates the Earth, and out of this deluge very few escape. Scarcely anyone is saved … especially among seculars! … What is the number of those who love Thee, O God? How few they are! The Elect are much fewer than the damned! Alas! The greater portion of mankind lives in sin unto the devil, and not unto Jesus Christ … Ah, I pray Thee, O omnipotent God, O sovereign and infinite Good, make all men know and love Thee! … To obtain salvation we must tremble at the thought of being lost, and tremble not so much at the thought of Hell, as of sin, which alone can send us there. He who dreads sin, avoids dangerous occasions of sin, frequently recommends himself to God, and has recourse to the means of keeping himself in the state of grace. He who acts thus will be saved; but for him who lives not in this manner it is morally impossible to be saved.”
● St. John Climacus (579-606), Father of the Church: “Live with the few if you want to reign with the few!”
● St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Doctor of the Church: “I had the greatest sorrow for the many souls that condemned themselves to Hell, especially those Lutherans ... I saw souls falling into Hell like snowflakes!”
Those are just the tip of the iceberg of the massive number of testimonies of the saints on the number of saved souls. Where are the saints who say that most souls are saved? How many are those ‘saints’ in number? It is mainly Liberals and Modernists―who are far from being saints―who insist that most souls are being saved and that we have little or nothing worry about! It is to be wondered what St. Paul would make of that attitude, since he wrote: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12).
One such Liberal priest interviewed Sr. Lucia of Fatima. The following is a rare interview with Sister Lucia by Father Lombardi. It was recorded in the Vatican weekly “Osservatore della Domenica” on February 7th, 1954.
Fr. Lombardi: “Tell me, is the ‘Better World Movement’ a response of the Church to the words spoken to Our Lady?”
Sr. Lucia: “Father, there is certainly a great need for this renewal. If it is not done, and taking into account the present development of humanity, only a limited number of the human race will be saved.”
Fr. Lombardi: “Do you really believe that many will go to Hell? I hope that God will save the greater part of humanity.” [He had just written a book entitled: Salvation for Those Without Faith]
Sr. Lucia: “Father, many will be lost.”
Fr. Lombardi: “It is true that the world is full of evil, but there is always a hope of salvation.”
Sr. Lucia: “No Father, many will be lost.”
Father Lombardi remembered that Lucia had seen Hell and added: “Her words disturbed me. I returned to Italy with that grave warning impressed on my heart.”
Scaring the Hell Out Of You?
What is the point of all this? To scare you? Well, yes, if you are lukewarm, complacent, lackadaisical or superficial in your Faith and its practice. However, even those who are serious about their Faith and its practice should also “tremble” in their boots―for, as St. Padre Pio said, most of the few souls that make it to Heaven, do not manage to get there without having to go through Purgatory. Lent is here for a reason―and it is not to be taken lightly, nor is it recommended that you “buy-into” the 95% discounted Lent either! As Pope St. Gregory says, in his homily for Quinquagesima Sunday:
“Let us, therefore, recall to our mind our own wickedness; let us remember that the eternal Judge will punish our sins most severely; then, let us endeavor to destroy them by sorrowful repentance. Now, let us do severe penance, and thus escape in eternity the terrible wrath of an offended God. The tears shed in this life will take us to the joys of heaven, for Our Lord said: ‘Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted’ (Matthew 5:5); whereas the pleasures of this world will, according to the same Savior, bring us to the eternal dwelling of tears and sorrow. ‘Woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep!’ (Luke 6:25). If we wish to obtain the highest felicity, let us now walk in the path of penance, and our penitential life will not only gain for us great merits with God, but will be to His greater glory; for, according to the words of the Gospel, others will be encouraged by our good example: ‘And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.’”
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Thursday February 28th & Friday March 1st
Article 8
Were Saints Extreme? Were Saints Fanatical? What Should You Be?
Article 8
Were Saints Extreme? Were Saints Fanatical? What Should You Be?
Hatred of Extremism and Fanaticism
For the most part, people hate extremism and fanaticism. The press is full of negative reports about extremists and fanatics. Such people are said to be the most likely to be guilty of “hate crimes”. Even Catholics will quote St. Thomas Aquinas as saying that virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect―and extremism and fanaticism is not the middle path. Furthermore, extremists and fanatics are extremely likely to use violence if they do not get their own way―further proving their undesirability and danger to mankind. All of this sounds extremely logical and extremely true―but is it? Coming back to St. Thomas Aquinas―who is never afraid to look at all objections in his search for the truth―let us dig deeper, let us dig extremely deep, let us dig fanatically in order to examine the truth and viability of the above statements.
Back to the Dictionary Again
In matters of importance, it is important to define the terms that one is using, so as to be able to stick to the point and debate on the same thing. If we are to debate on whether or not Florida is cool―we must define what we mean by the word “cool”―is it meant as being “cool in temperature” or “cool” as in “enjoyable, fun, trendy, etc.”? Similarly, with the word “bad”―in classical English “bad” always meant “evil”, today’s slang has taken the word “bad” and has additionally and confusingly given it the meaning of being “cool” as in something “above the normal, great, funny, enjoyable, sexy, etc.”
As an adjective, “extreme” means: “(a) of a character or kind that is farthest removed from the ordinary or average, (b) intense, utmost, or exceedingly great in degree, (c) farthest from the center or middle; outermost; endmost, the most remote in any direction.”
As a noun, “extremist” means “a person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action; or a person who advocates illegal, violent, or other extreme action; or someone who goes through extreme tactics to reach their goal. These could involve torture, attack on innocent people and over-the-top violence.”
Originally, the word “fanatic” came from the Latin root-word “fanum”, which means, a sanctuary, shrine or temple, and the derivative word, “fanaticus”, means inspired; enthusiastic, frenzied. In the good sense of the word, “fanatic” means something akin to holy, sacred, enthusiastic, highly fervent, inspired by God—which is along the lines of what “devotion” is, or should be. In the bad sense of the word, “fanatic” means someone who is overly enthusiastic, highly fervent, obsessive in the pursuit of something that is not good, but bad or even evil.
Is “Extremism” and “Fanaticism” Always Evil?
Therefore, we have to ask if “extreme”, “extremism” and “extremist”, or “fanatical”, “fanaticism” and “fanatic”―are always and everywhere bad, or can they actually be good? In other words, is “extremism” and “fanaticism” always something evil, or can it also be something virtuous? In the previous articles, it has been shown, without any shadow of a doubt, that “God is extreme” and “Christ is extreme”―not only in the work of saving souls, but also in the realm of justice. God has created a place of extreme happiness―called Heaven. He has also created a place of extreme punishment―called Hell. He also has a place of extreme remediation or extreme purification for imperfection―called Purgatory. All of these places are “extreme” by our mode of thinking―yet, as God says, He does not think like we do: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). As was said in the earlier articles, GOD HAS MADE US TO BE EXTREME and that being extreme is not “extreme” (as defined above), but is actually NORMAL and not “extreme”. The level to which God calls us is NORMAL in His eyes, but EXTREME in our eyes.
We Are Born With a ‘Gene’ or Tendency Towards Extremism
It might sound highly controversial to you to be told that we are all born with a tendency or propensity towards extremism―yet, if you dig below the surface and discard all tendencies of an ‘on-the-fly’, ‘bite-sized’, ‘fast-track’, ‘express-lane’, ‘only read the headlines’ superficial reasoning, then you will begin to see the truth of that statement.
A baby instinctively goes to extremes. The new born baby wants to be fed all the time―here is the testimony of several mothers from online sources: “My dear daughter nursed 24/7 for the first month. Well, it felt that way anyway. My husband would come home from work and make dinner and bring it to me. He had to bring me water, etc. After a few days of constant nursing, I finally took a shower and she was screaming when I got out. (It was probably a 10 minute shower). She just wanted to be attached to me all the time! Finally she settled into every 3 hours, then we got a 5 hour stretch at night. Now, at 4 months, she sleeps from 9ish to 8ish and nurses every 2 hours during the day.” Another mother replies: “Yes it's normal and very typical up until about 8-12 weeks!” Another says: “Just wanted to share that everything you are talking about is very normal. In the beginning some babies will nurse non-stop. My son nursed every two hours for months. Now, he's two. We still nurse, but only in the morning, nap time, and before bed. There's some nursing in between, but NOTHING like it was in the beginning!” Another comments: “Welcome to life with a newborn. We'd be worried if your baby didn't want to eat constantly!” Another chimes in: “Yup, totally normal and good because it helps to establish your milk supply. Young babies can spend 15+ hours a day nursing.” In other words, this is nursing to the extreme because the baby instinctively (by God’s design) has extreme demands.
A baby seems to have an extreme need for attention, you could almost call the baby a “fanatic” for attention. Babies will need to be clothed and changed (every couple of hours, infants need about 10 diaper changes a day), soothed, carried, talked to, taken to the doctor (infants can’t drive themselves). They will need someone to be around them every moment of every day for the first several months of their life―and this is for infants with no health issues; otherwise medicine need to be administered and more doctor appointments to be taken. As one mother puts it: “Does it feel as though your baby is demanding more attention of you than you can possibly give? Is your brain frazzled from the constant crying? Your baby craves your attention for a number of reasons. First and foremost, your baby needs your attention for his physical development and to make sure his needs are met. Your baby also needs your attention for healthy psychological development. Your baby is born with the need to be loved, to feel emotionally secure and valued. That’s why he calls for your attention; it’s a natural reaction because he realizes it’s the only way he’ll get to feel comfortable and satisfied.”
“Bonding―the emotional connection that forms between baby and parent during the early years―provides the basis for your baby’s future relationships. And the only way you and your baby can form this psychological bond is by you giving him your attention. Your baby quickly learns that your approval for his good behavior makes him feel good (he loves it when you smile lovingly at him). In fact, his desire is so strong that if your positive attention is given to something he does (for instance, he makes a loud noise with a rattle), then the chances are he’ll do the same again the next time. He thinks, “Mum made a lovely fuss of me the last time, so I’ll do the same this time!” An infuriating characteristic of many babies, however, is that they think, “Any form of attention is better than no attention at all.” This explains why a 9 month old may cry, no matter what you do to soothe him. If he’s learnt that crying brings you to his side, he may turn on the waterworks just for that purpose. The fact that you may be tense, tired and annoyed doesn’t really make a jot of difference to your baby. He thinks, “I’d rather mum was here, even if she is angry, than I was here on my own.” Our baby will do anything for a ‘well done’ and clap of our hands. My husband and I really sound foolish at times with seal like clapping to praise our daughter. But she thrives on it and it’s worth it see her beautiful smile!”
It is normal and healthy for children to go through a demanding phase during their development, God has designed them in that way. Yet their “extreme” and “fanatical” demands can continue through life if they are not regulated and channeled in the right directions. Constantly “rewarding” the child with material things―which are inferior to spiritual, supernatural things―risks the child becoming very emotionally demanding and manipulative, showing extremely materialistic tendencies throughout their childhood― especially during the preteen and teen years. Parents often unwittingly encourage this materialistically demanding behavior of “I want! I need! I must!” by over-indulging children emotionally and materialistically as a way of showing them “love”―which often is a mere substitution for the lack of time they show their children, giving them a “thing” instead of giving themselves. Thus, no matter how much they give, their children feel entitled to more. This extreme craving is not wrong or evil in itself, but it can become evil by craving the wrong things. They instinctively and rightly crave parental love (and love is a spiritual thing), but they are given a substitute for love (materialistic things). It is like the example of the baby above, who craves the mother’s milk, but is given a substitute instead―the bottle.
Learning From Babies, Infants and Children
There is something to be learnt from babies and children―even Holy Scripture indicates this. Our Lord Himself tried to teach us through the example of children: “And Jesus calling unto Him a little child, set him in the midst of them, and said: ‘Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven. And he that shall receive one such little child in My Name, receiveth Me!’” (Matthew 18:2-5). “Amen, I say to you: Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a child, shall not enter into it!” (Luke 18:17). “And Jesus said to them: Yea! Have you never read: ‘Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise?’” (Matthew 21:16). “And they brought unto Him also infants, that He might touch them” (Luke 18:15). Our Lord Himself chose to begin life amongst us as an infant―even though He could have come from Heaven in the form of a man, foregoing any need for a natural birth. Likewise, we are called “children of God” and begin our spiritual life born in the waters of the womb of the baptismal font.
The Desert Fathers, the Doctors and Fathers of the Church and many other saints, would learn about God through the things that God has created. God’s creation is a book that teaches us about God―the creature or creation reflects something of the Creator, just like a painting or a poem, or a song, reflects something of the artist, poet or composer. We learn about God from the things He has created, as Holy Scripture says: “Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable! Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified Him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools!” (Romans 1:19-22). “All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who, by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is … Let them understand by them, that He that made them, is mightier than they. For by the greatness of the beauty and of the creature, the Creator of them may be seen, so as to be known through them” (Wisdom 13:1-5).
Are the above example of the extreme needs and extreme demands of the baby wrong, evil, anti-establishment, subversive, tyrannical, hateful, etc. No, they are normal and necessary for the life and health and development of the baby on a natural level. Now, if you will once again switch-off the habitual ‘microwave’, ‘fast-lane’, ‘convenience’, ‘just-to-the-end-of-my-nose’, superficial thinking and look at the above from a spiritual and supernatural perspective―what do you see?
Baby Love Teaches How to Love God
In looking at the first days, weeks and months of a baby’s life and the circumstances surrounding it, we have an incredible meditation and instruction on the love of God and how God wants to be loved. It is EXTREME! Let us look and reflect upon this much closer.
(1) The Baby is Totally Helpless Without Its Parents
It is as clear as day and blatantly obvious that the baby cannot survive without its parents. Everything has to be done FOR the baby―it cannot do anything for itself. It is totally dependent upon the mother and the father for everything. Does this not remind you of the following words of Our Lord: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Scripture adds: “All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made” (John 1:3).
(2) The Baby Needs Almost Constant Feeding and Nourishment
The breast-feeding of the baby can be compared to our need for grace, and that grace usually comes through prayer and the Sacraments. Hence Our Lord tells us: “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times!” (Luke 21:36). “We ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). To which Holy Scripture adds: “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessanlonians 5:17). “O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet!” (Psalm 34:8). “Thou hast brought us indeed into a land that floweth with rivers of milk and honey!” (Numbers 16:14)―which reminds us that a mother’s breast milk is indeed sweet and rich in sugar. “Who shall suck as milk the abundance of the sea!” (Deuteronomy 33:19)―and Mary is a sea of grace to us, as St. Louis de Montfort writes: “God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea―in Latin: ‘mare’. He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary―in Latin: ‘Maria’!” (True Devotion to Mary, “§23). That sea of grace, or abundance of milk, is for the children of God: “That you may suck, and be filled with the breasts of her consolations: that you may milk out, and flow with delights, from the abundance of her glory” (Isaias 66:11). We see a similar analogy in the Epistle reading that is applied to Mary from the Mass of Immaculate Heart of August 22nd: “In me is all grace of the way … Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet above honey … They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst!” (Ecclesiasticus 24:25-29).
St. Louis de Montfort adds: “The world was unworthy, says St. Augustine, to receive the Son of God directly from the Father’s hands. He gave Him to Mary in order that the world might receive Him through her … God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired by His life and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues; and He has made her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. She is His mysterious canal; she is His aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly … To Mary, His faithful spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He possesses, in such wise that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men which He does not have pass through her virginal hands. Such has been the will of God, who has willed that we should have everything through Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §16, §24, §25).
(3) The Baby Needs Constant Attention and Love
We could do a role-reversal here, and put Our Lord in the role of the baby and ourselves in the role of the baby’s parents―which is not hard to imagine, since Our Lord initially came into this world as a baby! Babies require constant watching, constant care, constant attention and constant feeding―all these things are part and parcel of love. Do we give Our Lord this constant watching, constant care, constant attention and constant feeding in the spiritual domain? Were we not told to “love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind! This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-38). What does “whole” mean? It means “total”, “everything”, “all”, etc. Hence we should be loving God the whole time, all the time, totally and with all the powers of our body and soul. Holy Scripture adds: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Furthermore, a love of God is only proved if we keep His commandments: “Keep all My commandments at all times” (Deuteronomy 5:29). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If anyone love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10).
(4) The Baby Shows Happiness Over the Most Trivial Things
It is amazing at how easy it is to bring a smile to a baby! Things that we rate as being too trivial, inconsequential, useless or stupid―nevertheless can bring joy and a smile to the baby’s face! God is teaching us something about Himself in this phenomenon―He does not look upon anything as being too small, too trivial, inconsequential or useless. As Jesus Himself reveals: “Whosoever shall give to drink, to one of these little ones, a cup of cold water, only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you he shall not lose his reward!” (Matthew 10:42). “Whosoever shall give you to drink a cup of water in My Name, because you belong to Christ, Amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward” (Mark 9:41). “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father [knowing and allowing it]. Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered!” (Matthew 10:29-30). “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered!” (Luke 12:7). God never misses a thing―both good and bad―hence, Our Lord reminds us: “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the Day of Judgment!” (Matthew 12:36). Nothing is ever too small with God―whether in acts of virtue, good deeds, little offerings, nor by way of negligences, offenses and sins! We might think that some sins are only “teeny-weeny” inconsequential sins, but that is not true in God’s eyes―just go to Purgatory and see how long and terrible are some of the sufferings for “teeny-weeny” inconsequential sins. Yet, by the same token, you will be amazed at the happiness, joy and generosity God will have shown for “teeny-weeny” good deeds and “teeny-weeny” virtues! The little baby reminds us of all this by its reaction to “teeny-weeny” things!
(5) The Immense Sensitivity of the Baby
This leads us to another point, which is linked to the previous one, and that is the immense sensitivity of a baby. The slightest thing―as we have seen―can make it happy and the slightest thing can make it cry. We should have this awareness with regard to God―He is teaching us something about Himself through the baby. We are often so callous, insensitive, forgetful, rude, crude and indifferent to God―as we focus on self and our daily wants, needs, desires, pleasures and schedules. We treat a baby better than we treat God! Doesn’t that shame us in any way?
(6) The Immense Love of the Baby
We can all picture the baby snuggled-up in its mother’s arms with its little hands around her neck, peacefully resting there with eyes closed and look of security, contentment and peace on its face. Or sleeping re-assuredly on its father’s chest, with a blissful, calm and carefree expression. We have all witnessed the spontaneous, intense and tremendously expressive love the baby shows towards its parents―longingly stretching out its arms towards them, with a totally natural, unfeigned, sincere and deep love radiating from its countenance and body language! The absolute truth, sincerity, desire and depth of love in such expressions is both shocking and shaming! Why? Because we have lost such childlike simplicity! Ours has become more of a calculated, conditional, counterfeit, cold-hearted love―motivated more by self-seeking that self-giving; tainted by suspicion or sorrowful remembrances; trained and formed more by social convention than by true spiritual impulse! If only we could act and react towards God as the baby acts and reacts to its parents!
(7) Babies Pee and Poo with Much Boo-Hoo
One inescapable phenomenon of the baby’s life is the repeated “peeing” and “pooing” that goes on! It should remind us of the fact that we are all guilty of venial (“peeing”) sin and most probably mortal (“pooing”) sin. As Holy Scripture points out to us: “There is no just man upon Earth, that doth good and sinneth not!” (Ecclesiastes 7:21). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins [“pee” and “poo”], He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). “For a just man shall fall seven times” Proverbs 24:16)―which was the basis in St. Peter’s question to Jesus: “Then came Peter unto him and said: ‘Lord! How often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him [change his diaper]? Till seven times?’Jesus saith to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times!’ (Matthew 18:21-22). Our sins―or “pee” and “poo”―makes us, as it were, “lepers” in the sight of God. This reminds us of the non-Jew, Naaman the Leper: “Naaman [the Leper] came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus: And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: ‘Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thou shalt be clean!’ … Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times: according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child, and he was made clean” (4 Kings 5:10-14). The baby―after “peeing” or “pooing”―often attracts attention to its sordid plight by lots of “booing” and “hooing” (crying and hollering). It does not like nor wants to remain in its sordid situation. The diaper needs removing and washing or discarding. Similarly, we can wash ourselves in the waters of the Jordan (the Sacraments of Baptism and the Sacrament of Confession) by confessing our sins and wash away the stains and stench of our own “peeing” and “pooing” (venial and mortal sins) by our tears of contrition, “booing” and “hollering” to God for mercy! “And we cried to the Lord God of our fathers: Who heard us, and looked down upon our affliction, and labor, and distress!” Deuteronomy 26:7).
You could go no all day spotting spiritual and supernatural lessons in the life of a baby and its interactions with its parents. That is not the point of this article―let it suffice in pointing out the treasures and inspirations that can be found, so that they remind us of our relationship with God, our dependence upon God and how we ought love our God. Nevertheless, lest the crux of the matter be forgotten―the life of a baby shows many in-built extremes and capacities for extremes, that God has wisely put there.
The Extremes of Childhood and Adolescence
It is not as though the baby grows out of its capacity and tendency towards extremes―this capacity and tendency remains as the baby grows into infancy, childhood and then adolescence. On the website Psychology Today, in an article entitled “Adolescence and the tyranny of extremes”, Dr. Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D., writes:
“Adolescence is not a moderate age. It is an all out effort to separate from childhood and begin the momentous transformation … into a young adult … It often takes extreme measures … In the process, adolescents must struggle with the tyranny of extremes in many forms. Thus they test limits. They disobey rules. They follow ideals. They want urgently. They feel intensely. They elevate standards. They break traditions. They object strenuously. They rebel strongly. They take dares. They fight hard. They dream dreams. They seek excitement. They risk adventure. This is a time when young people can make dramatic [extreme] personal changes … An extreme alteration of values distinguishes the adolescent from the child, establishes her individuality in the family, and becomes a statement of independence.”
Thus Dr. Pickhardt confirms the innate or inborn tendency towards extremes―the adolescent is merely carrying on or adapting the baby’s extremes to a wider circle. As said before, our tendency towards extremes can be applied in a good, virtuous or positive way, or it can be applied in bad, sinful or negative way. Dr. Pickhardt then goes on to analyze those extreme adolescent feelings and desires in relation to forbidden things. He writes:
“Furthermore, what adolescents are strictly forbidden in harshest [extreme] terms they can end up doing to an extreme degree … Parents can add their own agenda of extremes. Feeling more out of control come their child’s adolescence, parents can advocate for extremes around matters of conduct when they want the young person to be extremely careful, to work extremely hard, to be extremely responsible, and to perform extremely well.” Thus we also see a capacity and tendency within the parents for the extreme.
Dr. Pickhardt then points out how the adolescents seek to imitate their worldly heroes, or worldly ‘saints’ by going to extremes. He writes: “Susceptibility to extremes can be socially encouraged, because adolescent is such an impressionable age … Near at hand, outstanding peers inspire imitation, particularly those who are extremely popular, powerful, cool, confidant, attractive, and successful … More influential are models found in the world of celebrity … Just as popular entertainment uses extremely sensational content to compete for the adolescent audience, so the marketplace traffics in extreme images that embody youthful ideals to compete for young people's interest and allegiance. Adolescents will pay to listen to, look at, and look like their idols. Because these idealized images are powerfully attractive, they can create a lot of pressure to live up to, while failing to meet them can cause young people to become self-critical, even self-punitive for not measuring up. Where ideals rule, to be ‘ordinary' or ‘average' can be an admission of inadequacy or inferiority. Extremes also intensify the demands of expectations.”
The Stuff of Saints―But Stuffed Aside
Ha! If only we and they would do the same thing in relation to the true heroes and true idols―the saints! Nevertheless, it shows several things:
(1) It shows that adolescents are willing to go to extremes in the imitation of someone whom they idolize.
(2) It shows that adolescents are willing to sacrifice much money and time in their pursuit of being like their idols.
(3) It shows the adolescent’s grief at not attaining an extreme goal.
(4) It shows that the adolescent does not resent being set extreme goals and embraces them.
(5) It shows that adolescents are capable of living to extremes day after day without flagging or wearying of the extremes.
Thus, they can spend hour after hour on extreme electronic engagement via the TV, the smartphone, tablet, laptop, computer, i-pod, mp3, mp4, or whatever. What will be their excuse to Our Lord, when He says to them the words He said to His three sleeping Apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” (Matthew 26:40). According to Common Sense Media, teens spend an average of nine hours a day online, compared to about six hours for those aged eight to 12; and the 50 minutes for kids between 0 and eight.
According to a Pew Research Center study, 60% of teens—those between the ages of 13 to 17—say that spending too much time online is a “major” problem facing their age group, with about nine in 10 teens dubbing it a problem. More than half of teens (54%) say they spend too much time on their cellphones/smarphones, and 41% say they overdo it on social media. Pew Research Center’s latest research suggests that teens are self-aware about the problem—but unable to rein themselves in. While 72% of parents say their teen is sometimes or often distracted by their phone while having real-life conversations, more than half (51%) of teens say the same about their parents! Like father, like son! Like mother, like daughter!
The average American adult spends nearly half a day staring at a screen. A Nielsen Company audience report revealed that adults in the United States devoted about 10 hours and 39 minutes each day to consuming media on our tablets, smartphones, personal computers, multimedia devices, video games, radios, DVDs, DVRs and TVs. Around 81% of American adults have smartphones, according to the report, which they use, on average, for around one hour and 39 minutes daily scanning the media. The report also states that despite the increasing availability of new electronic devices, radio and television are still the most popular. The report states that around 94% of American adults have a HD (high definition) TV screen, and that they spends around 4½ hours a day watching it. The report concluded that out of 168 hours in a week, we spend more than 50 hours with electronic devices―and little or none of that time is spent studying religion on those devices!
Any way you cut it, it's a lot of time staring at a screen! In case you missed that―the numbers are PER DAY and NOT per week! Extreme, huh? So there can and should be no excuse if Our Lord asks for the extreme! We all have an EXTREME GENE―the crucial thing is what we use and spend it on! For it could mean the difference between Heaven and Hell―both extreme places, one a place of extreme peace, joy and happiness, the other a place of extreme anguish, misery and pain.
In the next article we shall look at what was, what is and what could be and what will be!
For the most part, people hate extremism and fanaticism. The press is full of negative reports about extremists and fanatics. Such people are said to be the most likely to be guilty of “hate crimes”. Even Catholics will quote St. Thomas Aquinas as saying that virtue stands in the middle between excess and neglect―and extremism and fanaticism is not the middle path. Furthermore, extremists and fanatics are extremely likely to use violence if they do not get their own way―further proving their undesirability and danger to mankind. All of this sounds extremely logical and extremely true―but is it? Coming back to St. Thomas Aquinas―who is never afraid to look at all objections in his search for the truth―let us dig deeper, let us dig extremely deep, let us dig fanatically in order to examine the truth and viability of the above statements.
Back to the Dictionary Again
In matters of importance, it is important to define the terms that one is using, so as to be able to stick to the point and debate on the same thing. If we are to debate on whether or not Florida is cool―we must define what we mean by the word “cool”―is it meant as being “cool in temperature” or “cool” as in “enjoyable, fun, trendy, etc.”? Similarly, with the word “bad”―in classical English “bad” always meant “evil”, today’s slang has taken the word “bad” and has additionally and confusingly given it the meaning of being “cool” as in something “above the normal, great, funny, enjoyable, sexy, etc.”
As an adjective, “extreme” means: “(a) of a character or kind that is farthest removed from the ordinary or average, (b) intense, utmost, or exceedingly great in degree, (c) farthest from the center or middle; outermost; endmost, the most remote in any direction.”
As a noun, “extremist” means “a person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action; or a person who advocates illegal, violent, or other extreme action; or someone who goes through extreme tactics to reach their goal. These could involve torture, attack on innocent people and over-the-top violence.”
Originally, the word “fanatic” came from the Latin root-word “fanum”, which means, a sanctuary, shrine or temple, and the derivative word, “fanaticus”, means inspired; enthusiastic, frenzied. In the good sense of the word, “fanatic” means something akin to holy, sacred, enthusiastic, highly fervent, inspired by God—which is along the lines of what “devotion” is, or should be. In the bad sense of the word, “fanatic” means someone who is overly enthusiastic, highly fervent, obsessive in the pursuit of something that is not good, but bad or even evil.
Is “Extremism” and “Fanaticism” Always Evil?
Therefore, we have to ask if “extreme”, “extremism” and “extremist”, or “fanatical”, “fanaticism” and “fanatic”―are always and everywhere bad, or can they actually be good? In other words, is “extremism” and “fanaticism” always something evil, or can it also be something virtuous? In the previous articles, it has been shown, without any shadow of a doubt, that “God is extreme” and “Christ is extreme”―not only in the work of saving souls, but also in the realm of justice. God has created a place of extreme happiness―called Heaven. He has also created a place of extreme punishment―called Hell. He also has a place of extreme remediation or extreme purification for imperfection―called Purgatory. All of these places are “extreme” by our mode of thinking―yet, as God says, He does not think like we do: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9). As was said in the earlier articles, GOD HAS MADE US TO BE EXTREME and that being extreme is not “extreme” (as defined above), but is actually NORMAL and not “extreme”. The level to which God calls us is NORMAL in His eyes, but EXTREME in our eyes.
We Are Born With a ‘Gene’ or Tendency Towards Extremism
It might sound highly controversial to you to be told that we are all born with a tendency or propensity towards extremism―yet, if you dig below the surface and discard all tendencies of an ‘on-the-fly’, ‘bite-sized’, ‘fast-track’, ‘express-lane’, ‘only read the headlines’ superficial reasoning, then you will begin to see the truth of that statement.
A baby instinctively goes to extremes. The new born baby wants to be fed all the time―here is the testimony of several mothers from online sources: “My dear daughter nursed 24/7 for the first month. Well, it felt that way anyway. My husband would come home from work and make dinner and bring it to me. He had to bring me water, etc. After a few days of constant nursing, I finally took a shower and she was screaming when I got out. (It was probably a 10 minute shower). She just wanted to be attached to me all the time! Finally she settled into every 3 hours, then we got a 5 hour stretch at night. Now, at 4 months, she sleeps from 9ish to 8ish and nurses every 2 hours during the day.” Another mother replies: “Yes it's normal and very typical up until about 8-12 weeks!” Another says: “Just wanted to share that everything you are talking about is very normal. In the beginning some babies will nurse non-stop. My son nursed every two hours for months. Now, he's two. We still nurse, but only in the morning, nap time, and before bed. There's some nursing in between, but NOTHING like it was in the beginning!” Another comments: “Welcome to life with a newborn. We'd be worried if your baby didn't want to eat constantly!” Another chimes in: “Yup, totally normal and good because it helps to establish your milk supply. Young babies can spend 15+ hours a day nursing.” In other words, this is nursing to the extreme because the baby instinctively (by God’s design) has extreme demands.
A baby seems to have an extreme need for attention, you could almost call the baby a “fanatic” for attention. Babies will need to be clothed and changed (every couple of hours, infants need about 10 diaper changes a day), soothed, carried, talked to, taken to the doctor (infants can’t drive themselves). They will need someone to be around them every moment of every day for the first several months of their life―and this is for infants with no health issues; otherwise medicine need to be administered and more doctor appointments to be taken. As one mother puts it: “Does it feel as though your baby is demanding more attention of you than you can possibly give? Is your brain frazzled from the constant crying? Your baby craves your attention for a number of reasons. First and foremost, your baby needs your attention for his physical development and to make sure his needs are met. Your baby also needs your attention for healthy psychological development. Your baby is born with the need to be loved, to feel emotionally secure and valued. That’s why he calls for your attention; it’s a natural reaction because he realizes it’s the only way he’ll get to feel comfortable and satisfied.”
“Bonding―the emotional connection that forms between baby and parent during the early years―provides the basis for your baby’s future relationships. And the only way you and your baby can form this psychological bond is by you giving him your attention. Your baby quickly learns that your approval for his good behavior makes him feel good (he loves it when you smile lovingly at him). In fact, his desire is so strong that if your positive attention is given to something he does (for instance, he makes a loud noise with a rattle), then the chances are he’ll do the same again the next time. He thinks, “Mum made a lovely fuss of me the last time, so I’ll do the same this time!” An infuriating characteristic of many babies, however, is that they think, “Any form of attention is better than no attention at all.” This explains why a 9 month old may cry, no matter what you do to soothe him. If he’s learnt that crying brings you to his side, he may turn on the waterworks just for that purpose. The fact that you may be tense, tired and annoyed doesn’t really make a jot of difference to your baby. He thinks, “I’d rather mum was here, even if she is angry, than I was here on my own.” Our baby will do anything for a ‘well done’ and clap of our hands. My husband and I really sound foolish at times with seal like clapping to praise our daughter. But she thrives on it and it’s worth it see her beautiful smile!”
It is normal and healthy for children to go through a demanding phase during their development, God has designed them in that way. Yet their “extreme” and “fanatical” demands can continue through life if they are not regulated and channeled in the right directions. Constantly “rewarding” the child with material things―which are inferior to spiritual, supernatural things―risks the child becoming very emotionally demanding and manipulative, showing extremely materialistic tendencies throughout their childhood― especially during the preteen and teen years. Parents often unwittingly encourage this materialistically demanding behavior of “I want! I need! I must!” by over-indulging children emotionally and materialistically as a way of showing them “love”―which often is a mere substitution for the lack of time they show their children, giving them a “thing” instead of giving themselves. Thus, no matter how much they give, their children feel entitled to more. This extreme craving is not wrong or evil in itself, but it can become evil by craving the wrong things. They instinctively and rightly crave parental love (and love is a spiritual thing), but they are given a substitute for love (materialistic things). It is like the example of the baby above, who craves the mother’s milk, but is given a substitute instead―the bottle.
Learning From Babies, Infants and Children
There is something to be learnt from babies and children―even Holy Scripture indicates this. Our Lord Himself tried to teach us through the example of children: “And Jesus calling unto Him a little child, set him in the midst of them, and said: ‘Amen I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven. And he that shall receive one such little child in My Name, receiveth Me!’” (Matthew 18:2-5). “Amen, I say to you: Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a child, shall not enter into it!” (Luke 18:17). “And Jesus said to them: Yea! Have you never read: ‘Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise?’” (Matthew 21:16). “And they brought unto Him also infants, that He might touch them” (Luke 18:15). Our Lord Himself chose to begin life amongst us as an infant―even though He could have come from Heaven in the form of a man, foregoing any need for a natural birth. Likewise, we are called “children of God” and begin our spiritual life born in the waters of the womb of the baptismal font.
The Desert Fathers, the Doctors and Fathers of the Church and many other saints, would learn about God through the things that God has created. God’s creation is a book that teaches us about God―the creature or creation reflects something of the Creator, just like a painting or a poem, or a song, reflects something of the artist, poet or composer. We learn about God from the things He has created, as Holy Scripture says: “Because that which is known of God is manifest in them. For God hath manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity: so that they are inexcusable! Because that, when they knew God, they have not glorified Him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools!” (Romans 1:19-22). “All men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who, by these good things that are seen, could not understand Him that is … Let them understand by them, that He that made them, is mightier than they. For by the greatness of the beauty and of the creature, the Creator of them may be seen, so as to be known through them” (Wisdom 13:1-5).
Are the above example of the extreme needs and extreme demands of the baby wrong, evil, anti-establishment, subversive, tyrannical, hateful, etc. No, they are normal and necessary for the life and health and development of the baby on a natural level. Now, if you will once again switch-off the habitual ‘microwave’, ‘fast-lane’, ‘convenience’, ‘just-to-the-end-of-my-nose’, superficial thinking and look at the above from a spiritual and supernatural perspective―what do you see?
Baby Love Teaches How to Love God
In looking at the first days, weeks and months of a baby’s life and the circumstances surrounding it, we have an incredible meditation and instruction on the love of God and how God wants to be loved. It is EXTREME! Let us look and reflect upon this much closer.
(1) The Baby is Totally Helpless Without Its Parents
It is as clear as day and blatantly obvious that the baby cannot survive without its parents. Everything has to be done FOR the baby―it cannot do anything for itself. It is totally dependent upon the mother and the father for everything. Does this not remind you of the following words of Our Lord: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). Scripture adds: “All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made” (John 1:3).
(2) The Baby Needs Almost Constant Feeding and Nourishment
The breast-feeding of the baby can be compared to our need for grace, and that grace usually comes through prayer and the Sacraments. Hence Our Lord tells us: “Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times!” (Luke 21:36). “We ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). To which Holy Scripture adds: “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessanlonians 5:17). “O taste, and see that the Lord is sweet!” (Psalm 34:8). “Thou hast brought us indeed into a land that floweth with rivers of milk and honey!” (Numbers 16:14)―which reminds us that a mother’s breast milk is indeed sweet and rich in sugar. “Who shall suck as milk the abundance of the sea!” (Deuteronomy 33:19)―and Mary is a sea of grace to us, as St. Louis de Montfort writes: “God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters and He named it the sea―in Latin: ‘mare’. He made an assemblage of all His graces and he called it Mary―in Latin: ‘Maria’!” (True Devotion to Mary, “§23). That sea of grace, or abundance of milk, is for the children of God: “That you may suck, and be filled with the breasts of her consolations: that you may milk out, and flow with delights, from the abundance of her glory” (Isaias 66:11). We see a similar analogy in the Epistle reading that is applied to Mary from the Mass of Immaculate Heart of August 22nd: “In me is all grace of the way … Come over to me, all ye that desire me, and be filled with my fruits. For my spirit is sweet above honey … They that eat me, shall yet hunger: and they that drink me, shall yet thirst!” (Ecclesiasticus 24:25-29).
St. Louis de Montfort adds: “The world was unworthy, says St. Augustine, to receive the Son of God directly from the Father’s hands. He gave Him to Mary in order that the world might receive Him through her … God the Son has communicated to His Mother all that He acquired by His life and His death, His infinite merits and His admirable virtues; and He has made her the treasurer of all that His Father gave Him for His inheritance. It is by her that He applies His merits to His members, and that He communicates His virtues, and distributes His graces. She is His mysterious canal; she is His aqueduct, through which He makes His mercies flow gently and abundantly … To Mary, His faithful spouse, God the Holy Ghost has communicated His unspeakable gifts; and He has chosen her to be the dispenser of all He possesses, in such wise that she distributes to whom she wills, as much as she wills, as she wills and when she wills, all His gifts and graces. The Holy Ghost gives no heavenly gift to men which He does not have pass through her virginal hands. Such has been the will of God, who has willed that we should have everything through Mary” (St. Louis de Montfort, True Devotion to Mary, §16, §24, §25).
(3) The Baby Needs Constant Attention and Love
We could do a role-reversal here, and put Our Lord in the role of the baby and ourselves in the role of the baby’s parents―which is not hard to imagine, since Our Lord initially came into this world as a baby! Babies require constant watching, constant care, constant attention and constant feeding―all these things are part and parcel of love. Do we give Our Lord this constant watching, constant care, constant attention and constant feeding in the spiritual domain? Were we not told to “love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind! This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-38). What does “whole” mean? It means “total”, “everything”, “all”, etc. Hence we should be loving God the whole time, all the time, totally and with all the powers of our body and soul. Holy Scripture adds: “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God!” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Furthermore, a love of God is only proved if we keep His commandments: “Keep all My commandments at all times” (Deuteronomy 5:29). “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If anyone love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10).
(4) The Baby Shows Happiness Over the Most Trivial Things
It is amazing at how easy it is to bring a smile to a baby! Things that we rate as being too trivial, inconsequential, useless or stupid―nevertheless can bring joy and a smile to the baby’s face! God is teaching us something about Himself in this phenomenon―He does not look upon anything as being too small, too trivial, inconsequential or useless. As Jesus Himself reveals: “Whosoever shall give to drink, to one of these little ones, a cup of cold water, only in the name of a disciple, amen I say to you he shall not lose his reward!” (Matthew 10:42). “Whosoever shall give you to drink a cup of water in My Name, because you belong to Christ, Amen I say to you, he shall not lose his reward” (Mark 9:41). “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father [knowing and allowing it]. Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered!” (Matthew 10:29-30). “Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? Yea, the very hairs of your head are all numbered!” (Luke 12:7). God never misses a thing―both good and bad―hence, Our Lord reminds us: “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the Day of Judgment!” (Matthew 12:36). Nothing is ever too small with God―whether in acts of virtue, good deeds, little offerings, nor by way of negligences, offenses and sins! We might think that some sins are only “teeny-weeny” inconsequential sins, but that is not true in God’s eyes―just go to Purgatory and see how long and terrible are some of the sufferings for “teeny-weeny” inconsequential sins. Yet, by the same token, you will be amazed at the happiness, joy and generosity God will have shown for “teeny-weeny” good deeds and “teeny-weeny” virtues! The little baby reminds us of all this by its reaction to “teeny-weeny” things!
(5) The Immense Sensitivity of the Baby
This leads us to another point, which is linked to the previous one, and that is the immense sensitivity of a baby. The slightest thing―as we have seen―can make it happy and the slightest thing can make it cry. We should have this awareness with regard to God―He is teaching us something about Himself through the baby. We are often so callous, insensitive, forgetful, rude, crude and indifferent to God―as we focus on self and our daily wants, needs, desires, pleasures and schedules. We treat a baby better than we treat God! Doesn’t that shame us in any way?
(6) The Immense Love of the Baby
We can all picture the baby snuggled-up in its mother’s arms with its little hands around her neck, peacefully resting there with eyes closed and look of security, contentment and peace on its face. Or sleeping re-assuredly on its father’s chest, with a blissful, calm and carefree expression. We have all witnessed the spontaneous, intense and tremendously expressive love the baby shows towards its parents―longingly stretching out its arms towards them, with a totally natural, unfeigned, sincere and deep love radiating from its countenance and body language! The absolute truth, sincerity, desire and depth of love in such expressions is both shocking and shaming! Why? Because we have lost such childlike simplicity! Ours has become more of a calculated, conditional, counterfeit, cold-hearted love―motivated more by self-seeking that self-giving; tainted by suspicion or sorrowful remembrances; trained and formed more by social convention than by true spiritual impulse! If only we could act and react towards God as the baby acts and reacts to its parents!
(7) Babies Pee and Poo with Much Boo-Hoo
One inescapable phenomenon of the baby’s life is the repeated “peeing” and “pooing” that goes on! It should remind us of the fact that we are all guilty of venial (“peeing”) sin and most probably mortal (“pooing”) sin. As Holy Scripture points out to us: “There is no just man upon Earth, that doth good and sinneth not!” (Ecclesiastes 7:21). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins [“pee” and “poo”], He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). “For a just man shall fall seven times” Proverbs 24:16)―which was the basis in St. Peter’s question to Jesus: “Then came Peter unto him and said: ‘Lord! How often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him [change his diaper]? Till seven times?’Jesus saith to him: ‘I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times!’ (Matthew 18:21-22). Our sins―or “pee” and “poo”―makes us, as it were, “lepers” in the sight of God. This reminds us of the non-Jew, Naaman the Leper: “Naaman [the Leper] came with his horses and chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Eliseus: And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying: ‘Go, and wash seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thou shalt be clean!’ … Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times: according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored, like the flesh of a little child, and he was made clean” (4 Kings 5:10-14). The baby―after “peeing” or “pooing”―often attracts attention to its sordid plight by lots of “booing” and “hooing” (crying and hollering). It does not like nor wants to remain in its sordid situation. The diaper needs removing and washing or discarding. Similarly, we can wash ourselves in the waters of the Jordan (the Sacraments of Baptism and the Sacrament of Confession) by confessing our sins and wash away the stains and stench of our own “peeing” and “pooing” (venial and mortal sins) by our tears of contrition, “booing” and “hollering” to God for mercy! “And we cried to the Lord God of our fathers: Who heard us, and looked down upon our affliction, and labor, and distress!” Deuteronomy 26:7).
You could go no all day spotting spiritual and supernatural lessons in the life of a baby and its interactions with its parents. That is not the point of this article―let it suffice in pointing out the treasures and inspirations that can be found, so that they remind us of our relationship with God, our dependence upon God and how we ought love our God. Nevertheless, lest the crux of the matter be forgotten―the life of a baby shows many in-built extremes and capacities for extremes, that God has wisely put there.
The Extremes of Childhood and Adolescence
It is not as though the baby grows out of its capacity and tendency towards extremes―this capacity and tendency remains as the baby grows into infancy, childhood and then adolescence. On the website Psychology Today, in an article entitled “Adolescence and the tyranny of extremes”, Dr. Carl Pickhardt, Ph.D., writes:
“Adolescence is not a moderate age. It is an all out effort to separate from childhood and begin the momentous transformation … into a young adult … It often takes extreme measures … In the process, adolescents must struggle with the tyranny of extremes in many forms. Thus they test limits. They disobey rules. They follow ideals. They want urgently. They feel intensely. They elevate standards. They break traditions. They object strenuously. They rebel strongly. They take dares. They fight hard. They dream dreams. They seek excitement. They risk adventure. This is a time when young people can make dramatic [extreme] personal changes … An extreme alteration of values distinguishes the adolescent from the child, establishes her individuality in the family, and becomes a statement of independence.”
Thus Dr. Pickhardt confirms the innate or inborn tendency towards extremes―the adolescent is merely carrying on or adapting the baby’s extremes to a wider circle. As said before, our tendency towards extremes can be applied in a good, virtuous or positive way, or it can be applied in bad, sinful or negative way. Dr. Pickhardt then goes on to analyze those extreme adolescent feelings and desires in relation to forbidden things. He writes:
“Furthermore, what adolescents are strictly forbidden in harshest [extreme] terms they can end up doing to an extreme degree … Parents can add their own agenda of extremes. Feeling more out of control come their child’s adolescence, parents can advocate for extremes around matters of conduct when they want the young person to be extremely careful, to work extremely hard, to be extremely responsible, and to perform extremely well.” Thus we also see a capacity and tendency within the parents for the extreme.
Dr. Pickhardt then points out how the adolescents seek to imitate their worldly heroes, or worldly ‘saints’ by going to extremes. He writes: “Susceptibility to extremes can be socially encouraged, because adolescent is such an impressionable age … Near at hand, outstanding peers inspire imitation, particularly those who are extremely popular, powerful, cool, confidant, attractive, and successful … More influential are models found in the world of celebrity … Just as popular entertainment uses extremely sensational content to compete for the adolescent audience, so the marketplace traffics in extreme images that embody youthful ideals to compete for young people's interest and allegiance. Adolescents will pay to listen to, look at, and look like their idols. Because these idealized images are powerfully attractive, they can create a lot of pressure to live up to, while failing to meet them can cause young people to become self-critical, even self-punitive for not measuring up. Where ideals rule, to be ‘ordinary' or ‘average' can be an admission of inadequacy or inferiority. Extremes also intensify the demands of expectations.”
The Stuff of Saints―But Stuffed Aside
Ha! If only we and they would do the same thing in relation to the true heroes and true idols―the saints! Nevertheless, it shows several things:
(1) It shows that adolescents are willing to go to extremes in the imitation of someone whom they idolize.
(2) It shows that adolescents are willing to sacrifice much money and time in their pursuit of being like their idols.
(3) It shows the adolescent’s grief at not attaining an extreme goal.
(4) It shows that the adolescent does not resent being set extreme goals and embraces them.
(5) It shows that adolescents are capable of living to extremes day after day without flagging or wearying of the extremes.
Thus, they can spend hour after hour on extreme electronic engagement via the TV, the smartphone, tablet, laptop, computer, i-pod, mp3, mp4, or whatever. What will be their excuse to Our Lord, when He says to them the words He said to His three sleeping Apostles in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Could you not watch one hour with Me?” (Matthew 26:40). According to Common Sense Media, teens spend an average of nine hours a day online, compared to about six hours for those aged eight to 12; and the 50 minutes for kids between 0 and eight.
According to a Pew Research Center study, 60% of teens—those between the ages of 13 to 17—say that spending too much time online is a “major” problem facing their age group, with about nine in 10 teens dubbing it a problem. More than half of teens (54%) say they spend too much time on their cellphones/smarphones, and 41% say they overdo it on social media. Pew Research Center’s latest research suggests that teens are self-aware about the problem—but unable to rein themselves in. While 72% of parents say their teen is sometimes or often distracted by their phone while having real-life conversations, more than half (51%) of teens say the same about their parents! Like father, like son! Like mother, like daughter!
The average American adult spends nearly half a day staring at a screen. A Nielsen Company audience report revealed that adults in the United States devoted about 10 hours and 39 minutes each day to consuming media on our tablets, smartphones, personal computers, multimedia devices, video games, radios, DVDs, DVRs and TVs. Around 81% of American adults have smartphones, according to the report, which they use, on average, for around one hour and 39 minutes daily scanning the media. The report also states that despite the increasing availability of new electronic devices, radio and television are still the most popular. The report states that around 94% of American adults have a HD (high definition) TV screen, and that they spends around 4½ hours a day watching it. The report concluded that out of 168 hours in a week, we spend more than 50 hours with electronic devices―and little or none of that time is spent studying religion on those devices!
Any way you cut it, it's a lot of time staring at a screen! In case you missed that―the numbers are PER DAY and NOT per week! Extreme, huh? So there can and should be no excuse if Our Lord asks for the extreme! We all have an EXTREME GENE―the crucial thing is what we use and spend it on! For it could mean the difference between Heaven and Hell―both extreme places, one a place of extreme peace, joy and happiness, the other a place of extreme anguish, misery and pain.
In the next article we shall look at what was, what is and what could be and what will be!
Wednesday February 27th
Article 7
Like Father, Like Son―Jesus Was Extreme Too! Will You Be Extreme Too?
Article 7
Like Father, Like Son―Jesus Was Extreme Too! Will You Be Extreme Too?
Like Father, Like Son! Whaddya know! Jesus is Extreme Too!
If God the Father is extreme in everything, then do you think God the Son will be any different—They both have the same nature; and, as the saying goes, “Like Father, like Son!” If God the Father doesn’t do things by halves, neither does God the Son! He is extreme in His actions and His words, with Himself and with others. That is the epitome of devotion. He was a devoted man, trying to show us how to be devoted. When He said “Learn of Me! … Love one another, as I have loved you!” (Matthew 11:29; John 15:12), He showed us an extreme love: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)—He said it and He did it! He even went past that measuring line, and laid down His life for His enemies, saying: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Extreme On Himself
As for Himself, He wishes to be born in extreme poverty! He goes to the providential extremes of being pursued by a murderous king while He still yet a babe! How many children are born into that fate? He then chooses to be exiled while still a babe! The whole life of the King of kings will be one of poverty, to the point where He will later say: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). The suffering that He chooses to undergo in His Passion is extreme to say the least! He was born in a cave—He died naked—He was buried in someone else’s tomb, not having one of His own. He made everything, yet He owned nothing—so that nothing would get in the way of His love for us! He was the most innocent of all beings, yet He was treated as the worst of criminals. He was born between two Saints, but He died between two thieves. He was the Truth, but was called a liar! He was God, but they said He was possessed! He raised others to life, yet allowed Himself to be put to death! All this was done for what? It was done in order to forgive and save the sinners that were offending Him! They contracted the debt, He would pay! That is devotion! That is devotion to the extreme! And He says: “Learn of Me! … Love one another, as I have loved you!”
Extreme with Others In Words
When St. Peter tries to prevent the Our Lord’s sufferings from coming to pass, Our Lord comes out with an extreme rebuke, calling him Satan: “From that time Jesus began to shew to his disciples, that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again. And Peter taking Him, began to rebuke Him, saying: ‘Lord, be it far from Thee, this shall not be unto Thee!’ Jesus, turning, said to Peter: ‘Go behind me, Satan! Thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!’” (Matthew 16:21-23).
Extreme with the Canaanite Woman
Even women were on occasion treated ‘extremely’―as is seen in the case of the Canaanite woman, whose daughter was possessed by a devil and she sought out Jesus asking for help. Our Lord at first gives her the “silent-treatment” or “cold-shoulder”; then He tells her that she is of the wrong religion and that He only helps those of the House of Israel; finally, He calls her a dog! Only then does He help her! “And behold a Syro-Phoenician born woman of Canaan, a Gentile, who came out of those coasts, crying out, besought Him that He would cast forth the devil out of her daughter, saying to Him: ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David! My daughter is grieviously troubled by the devil!’ Jesus answered her not a word. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying: ‘Send her away! For she crieth after us!’ And Jesus answering, said to her: ‘I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel!’ But she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord! Help me!’ Jesus answering, said: ‘Suffer first the children to be filled: for it is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs!’ But she answered and said to Him: ‘Yea, Lord; for the whelps under the table also eat of the crumbs of the children that fall from the table of their masters!’ Then Jesus answering, said to her: ‘O woman, great is thy faith! For this saying go thy way! Be it done to thee as thou wilt! The devil is gone out of thy daughter!’ And her daughter was cured from that hour. And when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed, and that the devil was gone out of her daughter” (Matthew 15:22-28; Mark 7:16).
Extreme with the Pharisees
In His arguments with the Scribes and Pharisees, He does a similar thing, basically calling them sons of the devil: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do!” (John 8:44). “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites … Woe to you blind guides … You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of Hell?” (Matthew chapter 23). Not content with calling them “hypocrites” just once, He calls them “hypocrites” seven times in that one single encounter! Yet these few quotes are a mere tip of an extreme iceberg of criticism that Our Lord hurls at the Pharisees, who, we should not forget, were meant to be the lay upholders of the Jewish traditions, laws and religion. The whole chapter (23) of Matthew should be read to get a clear idea of the extremes Our Lord broached.
Extreme with Judas
With Judas He shows both extremes. On the one hand He warns Him, saying: “Woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed: it were better for him, if that man had not been born” (Matthew 26:24); then once Judas did betray Him, Jesus showed extreme restraint. Instead of laying into Judas like He had done with the Pharisees, He is civil and polite with His betrayer, even calling him “friend”: “And Jesus said to him: ‘Friend, whereto art thou come? … Dost thou betray the Son of man with a kiss?” (Matthew 26:50; Luke 22:48)―to imagine that Our Lord was speaking demeaningly and sarcastically at that moment, would be blasphemous―for He had come to seek and save that which was lost, and Judas was most certainly lost!
Extreme Pain and Torture
The same extreme restraint was shown throughout the Passion—in front of Annas, Caiphas, Pilate and Herod. The same extreme restraint was shown throughout all the tortures he received at the hand of the Roman soldiers—experts in torture no less! The same extreme restraint was shown while He was crucified on the Cross, with the nails continually rubbing against the chief nerves of the body for three hours—recall what your reaction was when the dentist may have touched a tiny (not chief) nerve of yours while drilling! Multiply that pain hundreds of times for what Our Lord must have suffered!
Extreme Kindness in Death
As He dies tortured and in inexpressible agony, He finds time to forgive a thief at the last moments of his sinful life and not only forgives him, but promises him Paradise that very day! “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:44). How extreme is that? Think of the souls burning in Purgatory for centuries before they can lay claim to Paradise! Yet the thief had not crucified Our Lord, he only happened to encounter Him by chance that day. With regard to those who had condemned Him and crucified Him, He still finds room in His Heart to pray for forgiveness for them also: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” (Luke 23:34). Extreme even in death!
Extreme Punishment for Jerusalem and the Jews
As God had punished various peoples in the Old Testament, the same is seen with Our Lord in the New Testament—notably with God’s own Chosen People. For their rejection of Him and His message, Our Lord prophesies a horrendous punishment by God. Shortly before His Passion and Death, knowing of his imminent rejection that would lead to His Passion and Death, Jesus said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38). “And as he was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to him: ‘Master, behold what manner of stones and what buildings are here!’ And Jesus answering, said to him: ‘Seest thou all these great buildings? There shall not be left a stone upon a stone, that shall not be thrown down!’” (Mark 13:1-2).
Extreme Measures of Survival
This would come to pass less than 40 years after Jerusalem crucified her Lord and King. In the year 66 AD the Jews of Judea rebelled against their Roman masters. In response, the Emperor Nero dispatched an army under the general Vespasian to restore order. By the year 68, resistance in the northern part of the province had been eradicated and the Romans turned their full attention to the subjugation of Jerusalem. That same year, the Emperor Nero committed suicide and Vespasian was declared Emperor and returned to Rome, leaving his son, Titus, to lead the assault on Jerusalem. A long siege Jerusalem’s stocks of food and water, and thing became so bad that some were now frying and eating their own dead children in order to stay alive during the long siege—and they were disgusted and revolted at Our Lord’s words about having to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood. Those who tried to escape the city were crucified—thousands of them.
The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, who worked for the Romans as a negotiator with the Jews, claims that 1.1 million people were killed during the siege, of which a majority were Jewish, and that 97,000 were captured and enslaved. Josephus, being an eye-witness, writes: “The slaughter within was even more dreadful than the spectacle from without. Men and women, old and young, insurgents and priests, those who fought and those who entreated mercy, were hewn down in indiscriminate carnage. The number of the slain exceeded that of the slayers. The legionaries had to clamber over heaps of dead to carry on the work of extermination.”
Extreme in His Providence on the Holy Innocent Babes of Bethlehem
We too easily forget that Jesus was the cause or reason behind the massacre of the Holy Innocent babes of Bethlehem―for King Herod sought to kill Jesus, but did not know who He was or where exactly He was to be found, since the Magi had not returned to tell him of Jesus’ whereabouts. So he took it upon himself to massacre the babes in the whole region around Bethlehem, aged two years and under. Our Lord or God’s providence could have prevented that loss of life, but it did not! Extreme, huh? Yes―but a guaranteed ticket to an eternal Heaven!
Jesus Makes Extreme Demands of His Followers
Our Lord does not mince His words when speaking of Heaven and what it takes to get there! “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled? Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Luke 12:49-53).
“And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it” (Matthew 10:36-39). “He that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:33).
Extreme? Yes. That’s how God is! Heaven is meant to be fought for: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12). St. John the Baptist fought the good fight, and of him Our Lord said: “What went you out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are clothed in soft garments, are in the houses of kings” (Matthew 11:7-8). Whew! Time to check the wardrobe!
Our Lord demands total dedication and ceaseless prayer, saying: “Jesus said to him: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-38) and “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
His judgment of our lives will to the extremes, for He warns: “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment!” (Matthew 12:36). As for punishment―there will no discounts: “Thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26).
Extremes of Eating His Body and Drinking His Blood
Can you imagine the shock factor when the Jews first heard Jesus speak of them having to eat His Body and drink His Blood? He lost many followers that day, because they found that far too extreme! Here are some excerpts of what Jesus said: “My Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven. For the bread of God is that which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life to the world ... I am the Bread of Life! He that cometh to Me shall not hunger and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst! … I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead! This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die! I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread that I will give, is My Flesh, for the life of the world … Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you! He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath everlasting life … For My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed! He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so too he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me. This is the Bread that came down from Heaven! Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead! He that eateth this Bread, shall live for ever!” (John 6:32-35, 48-52; 54-59).
“The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: ‘How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat?’ … Many therefore of His disciples, hearing it, said: ‘This saying is hard! And who can hear it?’ … After this many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him” (John 6:53, 61, 67).
Suffering and Death is Meant to be a Joy
Following Christ is no picnic! He puts no political spin on His party manifesto. He calls it as it is! “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).”He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18-20).
“Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).
Matthew, Mark and Luke all report several instances of Jesus saying: “For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16:25). “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel, shall save it” (Mark 8:35). “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall save it” (Luke 9:24). “Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose it, shall preserve it” (Luke 17:33).
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Heaven is Extremely Demanding
“You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12).
“For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20). “Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23-24).
“Not every one that saith to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord!’ Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name? And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!” (Matthew 7:21). “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). Wow! Even some miracle workers and prophets won’t make the cut! Is there a word that is stronger than “extreme”?
Extreme Suffering of the End Times
Our Lord also paints an extremely grim picture of the end times: “And when you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, fear ye not. For such things must needs be, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and famines. These things are the beginning of sorrows.
“They shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake. And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death.
“But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved. In your patience you shall possess your souls. And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. But pray ye, that these things happen not in winter. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the Earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves; men withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For in those days shall be such tribulations, as were not from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, neither shall be.
“And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect which He hath chosen, He hath shortened the days. Take you heed therefore; behold I have foretold you all things. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things may be fulfilled, that are written. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand” (Mark 13; Luke 21).
Our Attitude to Salvation Needs a Rethink and Re-evaluation
You need to really have a rethink on what Our Lord expects in return for allowing us into Heaven! It is not the “piece of cake” that most think it is―since most souls drop their “piece of cake” as they fall into Hell. Not that God wants them in Hell―it is just that they refused to pay God’s price for an entry into Heaven. Everyone and anyone can get into Heaven―even the greatest sinners that have ever existed―but it is on God’s terms at God’s price―it is His way or the highway and broad way that leads to perdition: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat” (Matthew 7:13). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). The majority prefer to “sow in their flesh” and indulge their bodies, very few are those who “sow in the spirit”! As Jesus warned: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!” (Luke 13:24).
Our Lord expressed His disgust for “halfway measures” to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame) when He said: “If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small spineless imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me ... But I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! [=extreme] — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Woe to souls like this! Woe!” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito Ecuador). While Our Lady of Good Success added: “O if only human beings and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God! How differently they would live―sparing no sacrifice [=extreme] in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness, while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which … destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of virtues [=extreme] and fraternal charity and child-like simplicity” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Today’s modern vocabulary would be tempted to describe Jesus as “radical”, “extreme”, “anti-establishment”, “anti-social”, “rebellious”, “guilty of hate crimes” against the Pharisees (Matthew 23) and other Jews. Already in His own day some of the things they said of him were along the same lines: “These words are hard to accept” — “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” (John 6:61) is the reaction when He says “eat my flesh” (6:55); “Thou hast a devil!” (John 7:20; 8:52); “Thou art a Samaritan!” (John 8:48); “He hath blasphemed!” (Matthew 26:65); “How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?” (John 9:16); “He seduceth the people!” (John 7:12). He “maketh Himself a king, [and] speaketh against Caesar!” (John 19:12); “We have found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar!” (Luke 23:2). Truly His life was “radical” and “extreme”, provoking extreme love or extreme hatred or extreme indifference from His contemporaries. How is the world treating you these days? We are all called to the Imitation of Christ!
We need to re-assess, re-evaluate, re-consider and re-energize the flimsy, half-hearted, lukewarm, feet-dragging, unfocused, mechanical, insufficient efforts we are making towards gaining an entrance ticket to Heaven. As Our Lord says, few succeed in getting a ticket―not because there are not enough tickets to go around, but because they refuse to pay the price and follow the rules. You do not tell God what to do! Whoever tried, got a free ticket to the other place!
Why Are We So Blind to Reality?
If you pardon the ‘French’―but why the hell do most people think that almost everyone goes to Heaven? How can they be so damned stupid! Our Lady indicated that many, if not most, souls are damned already back in 1917―a relatively innocent time compared with today! At Akita in 1973, she warned that if sins increased in number and gravity, then there would be no more mercy. Have sins decreased or increased since 1973? Yet today, the modern Church has funerals in white, rarely mention Purgatory (and most definitely will not mention Hell), while toasting the recently departed soul as “being up there!” Idiots! Blind idiots! “These things they thought, and were deceived―for their own malice blinded them!” (Wisdom 2:21). “In the last times, some shall depart from the Faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared [mind blinded]” (1 Timothy 4:1-2).
Our Lady of La Salette also foretells this blindness of mind of our era: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Everywhere, as true Faith fades, a false light will brighten the people … for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement.” How true and how sad her prophecy is―for we can clearly see such an environment and atmosphere all around us!
God, in Holy Scripture, punctures the balloon of our self-sufficiency and complacency when He says: “Thou sayest: ‘I am rich and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold [charity], fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see!” (Apocalypse 3:17-19). Yet most do not see―and of them Jesus says: “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
What we need to open our eyes to―and this is what the devils so successfully blind us to―is the fact that Heaven requires an extremely high standard, not an unattainable standard, but an extremely high standard. We might be tempted to say with the Apostles: “And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:25-26). However, for it to be possible, God requires that we do what He says: “Why call you Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
The Final Extreme is an Eternal Extreme!
Without necessarily intending to, most people make a mockery of God, a mockery of the value of Heaven, a mockery of terrors of Hell―yet these are inescapable realities that stare ever person in the face, even though most people have shut their eyes and plugged their ears to those eternal realities, those extreme―eternally extreme―realities. God is not mocked! You cannot devalue God below a smartphone or a computer or a TV set and get away with it! You cannot spend extremely long times on worldly pleasures and expect extreme eternal happiness. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! [Neither is Our Lady!] For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
Both Heaven and Hell are extremes―extremes that beat all other extremes! “As it is written: ‘That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him!’” (1 Corinthians 2:9), says St. Paul quoting the prophet Isaias (64:4). By the same token, Holy Scripture paints an extreme, yet truthfully extreme, picture of Hell: “The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, they shall have their portion in the pool burning with fire and brimstone” (Apocalypse 21:8). “The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” (Matthew 13:49-50). “Cast alive into the pool of fire, burning with brimstone!” (Apocalypse 19:20). “Into Hell, into unquenchable fire, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished!” (Mark 9:42-43). “And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever: neither have they rest day nor night!” (Apocalypse 14:11). Pretty extreme, huh? That is why Holy Scripture tells us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). Don’t take it for granted!
As St. Peter writes: “God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes, to the lower Hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment! And God spared not the original world, but preserved only Noe, the eighth person, the preacher of justice, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. And God reduced the cities of the Sodomites, and of the Gomorrhites, into ashes, condemned them to be overthrown, making them an example to those that might afterwards act wickedly! … The Lord knoweth to reserve the unjust, unto the Day of Judgment, to be tormented … These men shall perish in their corruption … For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them. For, that of the true proverb has happened to them: ‘The dog is returned to his vomit!’ and, ‘The sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire!’” (2 Peter 2:4). Boy oh boy! St. Peter sounds a little extreme, doesn’t he?!!
Think on that for a while―there are souls in Hell for eternity for having committed a sin that lasted only a few minutes or even a few seconds! There are souls burning in Purgatory―like the 18 year-old Amelia of Fatima, whom Our Lady said would remain in Purgatory until the end of the world! Extreme, huh? Yes, extremely extreme! Perhaps it’s time to start getting extreme ourselves? Or, to put it better―perhaps it’s time to stop spending extreme amounts of time on matters of the world, and start spending extreme amounts of time perfecting our soul! As Our Lord said: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Most people are spending almost all of their time on worldly matters and very little time on spiritual matters! “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
If God the Father is extreme in everything, then do you think God the Son will be any different—They both have the same nature; and, as the saying goes, “Like Father, like Son!” If God the Father doesn’t do things by halves, neither does God the Son! He is extreme in His actions and His words, with Himself and with others. That is the epitome of devotion. He was a devoted man, trying to show us how to be devoted. When He said “Learn of Me! … Love one another, as I have loved you!” (Matthew 11:29; John 15:12), He showed us an extreme love: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)—He said it and He did it! He even went past that measuring line, and laid down His life for His enemies, saying: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Extreme On Himself
As for Himself, He wishes to be born in extreme poverty! He goes to the providential extremes of being pursued by a murderous king while He still yet a babe! How many children are born into that fate? He then chooses to be exiled while still a babe! The whole life of the King of kings will be one of poverty, to the point where He will later say: “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). The suffering that He chooses to undergo in His Passion is extreme to say the least! He was born in a cave—He died naked—He was buried in someone else’s tomb, not having one of His own. He made everything, yet He owned nothing—so that nothing would get in the way of His love for us! He was the most innocent of all beings, yet He was treated as the worst of criminals. He was born between two Saints, but He died between two thieves. He was the Truth, but was called a liar! He was God, but they said He was possessed! He raised others to life, yet allowed Himself to be put to death! All this was done for what? It was done in order to forgive and save the sinners that were offending Him! They contracted the debt, He would pay! That is devotion! That is devotion to the extreme! And He says: “Learn of Me! … Love one another, as I have loved you!”
Extreme with Others In Words
When St. Peter tries to prevent the Our Lord’s sufferings from coming to pass, Our Lord comes out with an extreme rebuke, calling him Satan: “From that time Jesus began to shew to his disciples, that he must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again. And Peter taking Him, began to rebuke Him, saying: ‘Lord, be it far from Thee, this shall not be unto Thee!’ Jesus, turning, said to Peter: ‘Go behind me, Satan! Thou art a scandal unto me: because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!’” (Matthew 16:21-23).
Extreme with the Canaanite Woman
Even women were on occasion treated ‘extremely’―as is seen in the case of the Canaanite woman, whose daughter was possessed by a devil and she sought out Jesus asking for help. Our Lord at first gives her the “silent-treatment” or “cold-shoulder”; then He tells her that she is of the wrong religion and that He only helps those of the House of Israel; finally, He calls her a dog! Only then does He help her! “And behold a Syro-Phoenician born woman of Canaan, a Gentile, who came out of those coasts, crying out, besought Him that He would cast forth the devil out of her daughter, saying to Him: ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David! My daughter is grieviously troubled by the devil!’ Jesus answered her not a word. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying: ‘Send her away! For she crieth after us!’ And Jesus answering, said to her: ‘I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel!’ But she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord! Help me!’ Jesus answering, said: ‘Suffer first the children to be filled: for it is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs!’ But she answered and said to Him: ‘Yea, Lord; for the whelps under the table also eat of the crumbs of the children that fall from the table of their masters!’ Then Jesus answering, said to her: ‘O woman, great is thy faith! For this saying go thy way! Be it done to thee as thou wilt! The devil is gone out of thy daughter!’ And her daughter was cured from that hour. And when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed, and that the devil was gone out of her daughter” (Matthew 15:22-28; Mark 7:16).
Extreme with the Pharisees
In His arguments with the Scribes and Pharisees, He does a similar thing, basically calling them sons of the devil: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do!” (John 8:44). “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites … Woe to you blind guides … You serpents, generation of vipers, how will you flee from the judgment of Hell?” (Matthew chapter 23). Not content with calling them “hypocrites” just once, He calls them “hypocrites” seven times in that one single encounter! Yet these few quotes are a mere tip of an extreme iceberg of criticism that Our Lord hurls at the Pharisees, who, we should not forget, were meant to be the lay upholders of the Jewish traditions, laws and religion. The whole chapter (23) of Matthew should be read to get a clear idea of the extremes Our Lord broached.
Extreme with Judas
With Judas He shows both extremes. On the one hand He warns Him, saying: “Woe to that man by whom the Son of man shall be betrayed: it were better for him, if that man had not been born” (Matthew 26:24); then once Judas did betray Him, Jesus showed extreme restraint. Instead of laying into Judas like He had done with the Pharisees, He is civil and polite with His betrayer, even calling him “friend”: “And Jesus said to him: ‘Friend, whereto art thou come? … Dost thou betray the Son of man with a kiss?” (Matthew 26:50; Luke 22:48)―to imagine that Our Lord was speaking demeaningly and sarcastically at that moment, would be blasphemous―for He had come to seek and save that which was lost, and Judas was most certainly lost!
Extreme Pain and Torture
The same extreme restraint was shown throughout the Passion—in front of Annas, Caiphas, Pilate and Herod. The same extreme restraint was shown throughout all the tortures he received at the hand of the Roman soldiers—experts in torture no less! The same extreme restraint was shown while He was crucified on the Cross, with the nails continually rubbing against the chief nerves of the body for three hours—recall what your reaction was when the dentist may have touched a tiny (not chief) nerve of yours while drilling! Multiply that pain hundreds of times for what Our Lord must have suffered!
Extreme Kindness in Death
As He dies tortured and in inexpressible agony, He finds time to forgive a thief at the last moments of his sinful life and not only forgives him, but promises him Paradise that very day! “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:44). How extreme is that? Think of the souls burning in Purgatory for centuries before they can lay claim to Paradise! Yet the thief had not crucified Our Lord, he only happened to encounter Him by chance that day. With regard to those who had condemned Him and crucified Him, He still finds room in His Heart to pray for forgiveness for them also: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” (Luke 23:34). Extreme even in death!
Extreme Punishment for Jerusalem and the Jews
As God had punished various peoples in the Old Testament, the same is seen with Our Lord in the New Testament—notably with God’s own Chosen People. For their rejection of Him and His message, Our Lord prophesies a horrendous punishment by God. Shortly before His Passion and Death, knowing of his imminent rejection that would lead to His Passion and Death, Jesus said: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate” (Matthew 23:37-38). “And as he was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to him: ‘Master, behold what manner of stones and what buildings are here!’ And Jesus answering, said to him: ‘Seest thou all these great buildings? There shall not be left a stone upon a stone, that shall not be thrown down!’” (Mark 13:1-2).
Extreme Measures of Survival
This would come to pass less than 40 years after Jerusalem crucified her Lord and King. In the year 66 AD the Jews of Judea rebelled against their Roman masters. In response, the Emperor Nero dispatched an army under the general Vespasian to restore order. By the year 68, resistance in the northern part of the province had been eradicated and the Romans turned their full attention to the subjugation of Jerusalem. That same year, the Emperor Nero committed suicide and Vespasian was declared Emperor and returned to Rome, leaving his son, Titus, to lead the assault on Jerusalem. A long siege Jerusalem’s stocks of food and water, and thing became so bad that some were now frying and eating their own dead children in order to stay alive during the long siege—and they were disgusted and revolted at Our Lord’s words about having to eat His Flesh and drink His Blood. Those who tried to escape the city were crucified—thousands of them.
The Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, who worked for the Romans as a negotiator with the Jews, claims that 1.1 million people were killed during the siege, of which a majority were Jewish, and that 97,000 were captured and enslaved. Josephus, being an eye-witness, writes: “The slaughter within was even more dreadful than the spectacle from without. Men and women, old and young, insurgents and priests, those who fought and those who entreated mercy, were hewn down in indiscriminate carnage. The number of the slain exceeded that of the slayers. The legionaries had to clamber over heaps of dead to carry on the work of extermination.”
Extreme in His Providence on the Holy Innocent Babes of Bethlehem
We too easily forget that Jesus was the cause or reason behind the massacre of the Holy Innocent babes of Bethlehem―for King Herod sought to kill Jesus, but did not know who He was or where exactly He was to be found, since the Magi had not returned to tell him of Jesus’ whereabouts. So he took it upon himself to massacre the babes in the whole region around Bethlehem, aged two years and under. Our Lord or God’s providence could have prevented that loss of life, but it did not! Extreme, huh? Yes―but a guaranteed ticket to an eternal Heaven!
Jesus Makes Extreme Demands of His Followers
Our Lord does not mince His words when speaking of Heaven and what it takes to get there! “I am come to cast fire on the Earth; and what will I, but that it be kindled? Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation. For there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided: three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Luke 12:49-53).
“And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it” (Matthew 10:36-39). “He that shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 10:33).
Extreme? Yes. That’s how God is! Heaven is meant to be fought for: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12). St. John the Baptist fought the good fight, and of him Our Lord said: “What went you out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are clothed in soft garments, are in the houses of kings” (Matthew 11:7-8). Whew! Time to check the wardrobe!
Our Lord demands total dedication and ceaseless prayer, saying: “Jesus said to him: ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment!” (Matthew 22:37-38) and “We ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1).
His judgment of our lives will to the extremes, for He warns: “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment!” (Matthew 12:36). As for punishment―there will no discounts: “Thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26).
Extremes of Eating His Body and Drinking His Blood
Can you imagine the shock factor when the Jews first heard Jesus speak of them having to eat His Body and drink His Blood? He lost many followers that day, because they found that far too extreme! Here are some excerpts of what Jesus said: “My Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven. For the bread of God is that which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life to the world ... I am the Bread of Life! He that cometh to Me shall not hunger and he that believeth in Me shall never thirst! … I am the Bread of Life. Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead! This is the Bread which cometh down from Heaven; that if any man eat of it, he may not die! I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven. If any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread that I will give, is My Flesh, for the life of the world … Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you! He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, hath everlasting life … For My Flesh is meat indeed: and My Blood is drink indeed! He that eateth My Flesh, and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so too he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me. This is the Bread that came down from Heaven! Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead! He that eateth this Bread, shall live for ever!” (John 6:32-35, 48-52; 54-59).
“The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: ‘How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat?’ … Many therefore of His disciples, hearing it, said: ‘This saying is hard! And who can hear it?’ … After this many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him” (John 6:53, 61, 67).
Suffering and Death is Meant to be a Joy
Following Christ is no picnic! He puts no political spin on His party manifesto. He calls it as it is! “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23).”He that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:38). “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you” (John 15:18-20).
“Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for My sake: Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).
Matthew, Mark and Luke all report several instances of Jesus saying: “For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for My sake, shall find it” (Matthew 16:25). “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel, shall save it” (Mark 8:35). “For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; for he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall save it” (Luke 9:24). “Whosoever shall seek to save his life, shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose it, shall preserve it” (Luke 17:33).
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Heaven is Extremely Demanding
“You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12).
“For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:20). “Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 19:23-24).
“Not every one that saith to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord!’ Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name? And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!” (Matthew 7:21). “And why do you call Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). Wow! Even some miracle workers and prophets won’t make the cut! Is there a word that is stronger than “extreme”?
Extreme Suffering of the End Times
Our Lord also paints an extremely grim picture of the end times: “And when you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, fear ye not. For such things must needs be, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and famines. These things are the beginning of sorrows.
“They shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake. And the brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake. And you shall be betrayed by your parents and brethren, and kinsmen and friends; and some of you they will put to death.
“But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved. In your patience you shall possess your souls. And woe to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days. But pray ye, that these things happen not in winter. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the Earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves; men withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For in those days shall be such tribulations, as were not from the beginning of the creation which God created until now, neither shall be.
“And unless the Lord had shortened the days, no flesh should be saved: but for the sake of the elect which He hath chosen, He hath shortened the days. Take you heed therefore; behold I have foretold you all things. For these are the days of vengeance, that all things may be fulfilled, that are written. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up, and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand” (Mark 13; Luke 21).
Our Attitude to Salvation Needs a Rethink and Re-evaluation
You need to really have a rethink on what Our Lord expects in return for allowing us into Heaven! It is not the “piece of cake” that most think it is―since most souls drop their “piece of cake” as they fall into Hell. Not that God wants them in Hell―it is just that they refused to pay God’s price for an entry into Heaven. Everyone and anyone can get into Heaven―even the greatest sinners that have ever existed―but it is on God’s terms at God’s price―it is His way or the highway and broad way that leads to perdition: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat” (Matthew 7:13). “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). The majority prefer to “sow in their flesh” and indulge their bodies, very few are those who “sow in the spirit”! As Jesus warned: “Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able!” (Luke 13:24).
Our Lord expressed His disgust for “halfway measures” to Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres (of Our Lady of Good Success fame) when He said: “If men would only realize how greatly I am wounded and displeased with the coldness, indifference, lack of confidence and small spineless imperfections on the part of those who so closely belong to Me ... But I will not tolerate this! Halfway measures are not pleasing to Me! I desire all or nothing! [=extreme] — according to My example, for I gave of Myself to the last drop of Blood and Water from My shattered Body on the Cross. Woe to souls like this! Woe!” (Our Lord to Mother Mariana, Quito Ecuador). While Our Lady of Good Success added: “O if only human beings and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God! How differently they would live―sparing no sacrifice [=extreme] in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness, while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which … destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of virtues [=extreme] and fraternal charity and child-like simplicity” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Today’s modern vocabulary would be tempted to describe Jesus as “radical”, “extreme”, “anti-establishment”, “anti-social”, “rebellious”, “guilty of hate crimes” against the Pharisees (Matthew 23) and other Jews. Already in His own day some of the things they said of him were along the same lines: “These words are hard to accept” — “This saying is hard, and who can hear it?” (John 6:61) is the reaction when He says “eat my flesh” (6:55); “Thou hast a devil!” (John 7:20; 8:52); “Thou art a Samaritan!” (John 8:48); “He hath blasphemed!” (Matthew 26:65); “How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles?” (John 9:16); “He seduceth the people!” (John 7:12). He “maketh Himself a king, [and] speaketh against Caesar!” (John 19:12); “We have found this man perverting our nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar!” (Luke 23:2). Truly His life was “radical” and “extreme”, provoking extreme love or extreme hatred or extreme indifference from His contemporaries. How is the world treating you these days? We are all called to the Imitation of Christ!
We need to re-assess, re-evaluate, re-consider and re-energize the flimsy, half-hearted, lukewarm, feet-dragging, unfocused, mechanical, insufficient efforts we are making towards gaining an entrance ticket to Heaven. As Our Lord says, few succeed in getting a ticket―not because there are not enough tickets to go around, but because they refuse to pay the price and follow the rules. You do not tell God what to do! Whoever tried, got a free ticket to the other place!
Why Are We So Blind to Reality?
If you pardon the ‘French’―but why the hell do most people think that almost everyone goes to Heaven? How can they be so damned stupid! Our Lady indicated that many, if not most, souls are damned already back in 1917―a relatively innocent time compared with today! At Akita in 1973, she warned that if sins increased in number and gravity, then there would be no more mercy. Have sins decreased or increased since 1973? Yet today, the modern Church has funerals in white, rarely mention Purgatory (and most definitely will not mention Hell), while toasting the recently departed soul as “being up there!” Idiots! Blind idiots! “These things they thought, and were deceived―for their own malice blinded them!” (Wisdom 2:21). “In the last times, some shall depart from the Faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared [mind blinded]” (1 Timothy 4:1-2).
Our Lady of La Salette also foretells this blindness of mind of our era: “Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Everywhere, as true Faith fades, a false light will brighten the people … for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth … People will think of nothing but amusement.” How true and how sad her prophecy is―for we can clearly see such an environment and atmosphere all around us!
God, in Holy Scripture, punctures the balloon of our self-sufficiency and complacency when He says: “Thou sayest: ‘I am rich and made wealthy, and have need of nothing!’ And knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of Me gold [charity], fire tried, that thou mayest be made rich; and mayest be clothed in white garments, and that the shame of thy nakedness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see!” (Apocalypse 3:17-19). Yet most do not see―and of them Jesus says: “Leave them alone! They are blind, and leaders of the blind! And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into the pit!” (Matthew 15:14).
What we need to open our eyes to―and this is what the devils so successfully blind us to―is the fact that Heaven requires an extremely high standard, not an unattainable standard, but an extremely high standard. We might be tempted to say with the Apostles: “And when they had heard this, the disciples wondered very much, saying: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus beholding, said to them: ‘With men this is impossible―but with God all things are possible!’” (Matthew 19:25-26). However, for it to be possible, God requires that we do what He says: “Why call you Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
The Final Extreme is an Eternal Extreme!
Without necessarily intending to, most people make a mockery of God, a mockery of the value of Heaven, a mockery of terrors of Hell―yet these are inescapable realities that stare ever person in the face, even though most people have shut their eyes and plugged their ears to those eternal realities, those extreme―eternally extreme―realities. God is not mocked! You cannot devalue God below a smartphone or a computer or a TV set and get away with it! You cannot spend extremely long times on worldly pleasures and expect extreme eternal happiness. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! [Neither is Our Lady!] For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
Both Heaven and Hell are extremes―extremes that beat all other extremes! “As it is written: ‘That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him!’” (1 Corinthians 2:9), says St. Paul quoting the prophet Isaias (64:4). By the same token, Holy Scripture paints an extreme, yet truthfully extreme, picture of Hell: “The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, they shall have their portion in the pool burning with fire and brimstone” (Apocalypse 21:8). “The angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth!” (Matthew 13:49-50). “Cast alive into the pool of fire, burning with brimstone!” (Apocalypse 19:20). “Into Hell, into unquenchable fire, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished!” (Mark 9:42-43). “And the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever: neither have they rest day nor night!” (Apocalypse 14:11). Pretty extreme, huh? That is why Holy Scripture tells us: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation!” (Philippians 2:12). Don’t take it for granted!
As St. Peter writes: “God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes, to the lower Hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment! And God spared not the original world, but preserved only Noe, the eighth person, the preacher of justice, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. And God reduced the cities of the Sodomites, and of the Gomorrhites, into ashes, condemned them to be overthrown, making them an example to those that might afterwards act wickedly! … The Lord knoweth to reserve the unjust, unto the Day of Judgment, to be tormented … These men shall perish in their corruption … For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment which was delivered to them. For, that of the true proverb has happened to them: ‘The dog is returned to his vomit!’ and, ‘The sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire!’” (2 Peter 2:4). Boy oh boy! St. Peter sounds a little extreme, doesn’t he?!!
Think on that for a while―there are souls in Hell for eternity for having committed a sin that lasted only a few minutes or even a few seconds! There are souls burning in Purgatory―like the 18 year-old Amelia of Fatima, whom Our Lady said would remain in Purgatory until the end of the world! Extreme, huh? Yes, extremely extreme! Perhaps it’s time to start getting extreme ourselves? Or, to put it better―perhaps it’s time to stop spending extreme amounts of time on matters of the world, and start spending extreme amounts of time perfecting our soul! As Our Lord said: “For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Most people are spending almost all of their time on worldly matters and very little time on spiritual matters! “Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8).
Tuesday February 26th & Wednesday February 27th
Article 6
"X-Treme" Catholicism―Nasty Or Necessary?
Article 6
"X-Treme" Catholicism―Nasty Or Necessary?
“Xtreme” is an Extremely New Concept
The modern notion or idea behind the recently created word “xtreme” or “x-treme” is defined by the Urban Dictionary as follows: “To define something as "cooler" than the norm. Originally used for outrageous sports and death-defying stunts, « Xtreme » has managed to find its way into nearly every marketing campaign in America: deodorant, beef tacos, soft drinks, and even duct tape, etc.”
As simple search reveals this to be true, as you will find the following:
Xtreme Action Park
Xtreme Treme Cars
Xtreme Treme Fitness
Xtreme Treme Rock Climbing
Xtreme Treme Racing
Xtreme Xperience
Xtreme Videos
Xtreme Sports
Xtreme Wrestling
Xtreme Solutions
Xtreme Pizza, etc., etc.
Classical Extremes
The classical dictionary definition of “extreme” is along the lines of the following:
(1) ADJECTIVE―“(a) of a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average, as in ‘extreme measures’, (b) intense, utmost or exceedingly great in degree, as in ‘extreme joy’ or ‘extreme grief’, (c) farthest from the center or middle; outermost; endmost, the most remote in any direction, as in the phrase ‘the extreme limits of a town’ or ‘the extreme edge of the field’, (d) farthest, utmost, or very far in any direction, as in ‘an object at the extreme point of vision.”
(2) NOUN―“(a) the utmost or highest degree, or a very high degree, as in ‘cautious to an extreme’, (b) one of two things as remote or different from each other as possible, as in ‘the extremes of joy and grief’.”
Extremism
Naturally, “extremism” is born of “extreme”―it is the practitioner of the idea. As they say, “ideas have consequences” and the consequence of the idea of something “extreme” is put into practice by “extremism”. Pretty simple, huh? The average dictionary will define “Extremist” as: “a person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action.” Urban Dictionary defines an extremist as “someone who goes through extreme tactics to reach their goal. These could involve torture, attack on innocent people and over-the-top violence” (this is a more modernistic, one-sided, notion of an extremist in light of current worldwide political unrest). Or as the Oxford Dictionary states: “a person who holds extreme political or religious views, especially one who advocates illegal, violent, or other extreme action, as in ‘‘right-wing extremists’” (Hmm! Why not mention “left-wing extremists” or “Liberal extremists”?) The Collins Dictionary says: “If you describe someone as an extremist, you disapprove of them because they try to bring about political change by using violent or extreme methods. If you say that someone has extremist views, you disapprove of them because they believe in bringing about change by using violent or extreme methods.” Or, as Wikipedia, under the entry “Extremism” says: “Extremism means, literally, ‘the quality or state of being extreme’ or ‘the advocacy of extreme measures or views’. The term ‘extremism’ is primarily used in a political or religious sense, to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied shared social consensus) to be far outside the mainstream attitudes of society.”
Who Defines What is Extreme and What is Normal?
Looking at the above definitions, one has to notice the obvious―which is: “Who has the power and objectivity to decide what is normal, or what is the norm, or expected standard. If you cannot decide on what is normal or the expected standard, then you have no way of measuring what is extreme! If there is no agreement on what is “normal”, then there can be no agreement on what is “extreme”! Who has the power, the intelligence, the prudence and the foresight to define and demand what is to be the norm?
Extremism is in the Eye of the Beholder
You have, no doubt, heard the expression: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!”―meaning that not all people have the same opinions about what is attractive. Beauty cannot be judged objectively, for what one person finds beautiful or admirable may not appeal to another. You will first find this idea used 3rd century BC in Greek. It’s present popular form began to be used in the 19th century, with a whole host of varieties or similar expressions existing in between, such as: “Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye, Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues” (Shakespeare, Love Labors Lost, 1588); “Beauty, like supreme dominion, Is but supported by opinion” (Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1741); “Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them” (David Hume, Essays, Moral and Political, 1742).
The same could be said of the notion of what is “extreme” and what is “not extreme”―it depends upon where you are standing in the first place. If you live in America, then New Zealand is extremely far away, but it you live in Australia, then it is not so far away. If you live in Florida, then 60 degrees Fahrenheit will seem cool and 30 degrees Fahrenheit will seem extremely cold―whereas to an Eskimo from northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland, or eastern Siberia, 60 degrees Fahrenheit will seem to be extremely hot and 30 degrees Fahrenheit will seem warm.
The same is true in the political sphere. To a Communist, the Capitalist West is lax, undisciplined and corrupt to an extreme. Whereas to a Westerner, Communism is rigorous, tyrannical and repressive to an extreme. It all depends upon where you are standing, what you are used to, what your tendencies are, what your ambitions are, and what direction you want your life to take. Arguably, you could that everyone has “extreme” views and everyone practices “extremism”―but in different ways and in different directions.
Are We All Extreme?
The question then arises, “Are we all extreme and extremists?” Personally and arguably, one is tempted to say: “Yes!” But is that true or a mere opinion? To dig deeper, let us again revisit the dictionary definitions of what “extreme” and “extremist” means.
EXTREME―As an adjective, “extreme” means: “(a) of a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average, as in ‘extreme measures’, (b) intense, utmost or exceedingly great in degree, (c) farthest from the center or middle; outermost; endmost, the most remote in any direction, (d) farthest, utmost, or very far in any direction.” As a noun, “extreme” means “the utmost or highest degree, or a very high degree.”
EXTREMIST― As a noun, “extremist” means “a person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action; or a person who advocates illegal, violent, or other extreme action; or someone who goes through extreme tactics to reach their goal. These could involve torture, attack on innocent people and over-the-top violence.” As an adjective, “if you describe someone as an extremist, you disapprove of them because they try to bring about political change by using violent or extreme methods. If you say that someone has extremist views, you disapprove of them because they believe in bringing about change by using violent or extreme methods.”
When "Extreme" is "Normal" and "Normal" is "Extreme"
It is the contentious and shocking premise of this article to show that we are all extreme―if not in actual fact, then at least in potential. Furthermore―and even more shockingly―it is argued that GOD HAS MADE US TO BE EXTREME and that being extreme is not “extreme” (as defined above), but is actually NORMAL and not “extreme”. The level to which God calls us is NORMAL in His eyes, but EXTREME in our eyes. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9).
God is Extreme, So We Must Be Extreme
Without doubt GOD IS EXTREME. “O God, who shall be like to thee?” (Psalm 82:2). “Know that there is none like to the Lord our God” (Exodus 8:10)―which makes Him extreme, out on His own, unsurpassable. If “extreme” is defined as “a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average”―then GOD IS EXTREME. If “extreme” is further defined as “intense, utmost or exceedingly great in degree”―then GOD IS EXTREME. If “extreme” is being the “farthest from the center or middle; outermost; endmost, the most remote in any direction”―then GOD IS EXTREME. If “extreme” means “the utmost or highest degree, or a very high degree”―then GOD IS EXTREME. If “extremist” means being someone “who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action; or a person who advocates illegal, violent, or other extreme action; or someone who goes through extreme tactics to reach their goal. These could involve torture”―then GOD IS AN EXTREMIST. If you do not believe that, then you are EXTREMELY IGNORANT, or EXTREMELY BLIND, or EXTREMELY NAÏVE, or EXTREMELY BIASED.
God is Perfect to the Extreme
God, being absolutely perfect, is extremely perfect—He is extreme in everything: extreme in mercy, yet extreme in justice; extreme in patience, yet extreme in anger; extreme in kindness, yet extreme in punishment (what can be more extreme than Hell? Or Heaven, too, for that matter!). This is something that we find hard to grasp completely. For us it is a case of either/or: we are either merciful or just; patient or impatiently angry; kind or not kind. That is because we are imperfect—imperfect in our understanding and imperfect in our actions. For us, the idea of being called an “extremist” or a “fanatic” is troublesome and we seek to avoid such labels. Yet, there again, we have a poor understanding of the meaning of the word, and we use it or take it badly. Originally, the word “fanatic” came from the Latin root-word “fanum”, which means, a sanctuary, shrine or temple, and the derivative word, “fanaticus”, means inspired; enthusiastic, frenzied. In the good sense, “fanatic” means something akin to holy, sacred, enthusiastic, highly fervent, inspired by God—which is along the lines of what “devotion” is, or should be.
Only Extreme Efforts Obtain Heaven
In a certain sense, we have to be ‘fanatical’ (in the good sense of the word) to be able to get to Heaven. Our Lord said to us: “Be you therefore perfect as you heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it? But we have to be extreme to get to Heaven. “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12). Violence is an extreme measure. If we are not extreme in this world, then those extremes will have to be reached in the extremely painful fires of Purgatory, where, as any saint or good Catholic book will tell you, souls suffer extremely, until they reach the extreme perfection required to enter Heaven. “There shall not enter into it anything defiled” (Apocalypse 21:27). “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence, till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26). Some writers, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, say that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell—now how’s that for extreme! Could we say ‘fanatical’?
The Extreme Attitude of God
God does not do things by halves. He can be extremely kind and loving, or extremely angry and vengeful. It all depends upon whether or not we are for Him or against Him; whether we obey Him or disobey Him. As we sow, so shall we reap. There is a passage that perfectly manifests these two extremes in God.
The following quotes from Holy Scripture will prove that God is extreme. However, before we begin, let us say that―If God is extreme, then we have to be extreme―for Our Lord says: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48)―which logically means, if God is extreme according to His infinite or limitless capacity, we must be extreme according to our limited capacity! Again, Scripture adds: “You shall be holy men to me!” (Exodus 22:31)―and holiness is a cut above the ordinariness we see all around us, holiness is thus an extreme compared to what we see everywhere. “For I am the Lord your God―be holy because I am holy!” (Leviticus 11:44). “You shall be holy, because I am holy!” (Leviticus 11:46). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26). Holiness is a cut above mediocrity, lukewarmness, indifference, comfort-seeking―and even further above sinfulness. Holiness is extreme and saints are extremists, because there are few souls that end up being saved―and that is extreme in itself! [read more here]
The Old Testament Shows God To Be Extreme
Extreme Death Sentence
We see death come to the whole human race, through all centuries to come, just because Adam and Eve ate a fruit they were told not to eat! “Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death” (Genesis 2:16-17). “By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
God Promises Extreme Rewards and Threatens Extreme Punishments
Towards the end of the Book of Leviticus, God lists His extreme rewards and extreme punishments. As Scripture says elsewhere—He rewards the good and punishes the evil. “I am the Lord your God: If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. I am the Lord your God: who have brought you out of the land of the Egyptians, that you should not serve them, and I have broken the chains on your necks, that you might go upright.” (Leviticus 26:1-13). Who wouldn’t want this? No shortage of food! Perfect seasons of the year! Peace in the land, with no threats from anywhere! If enemies arise, a guarantee of God’s help and protection—even if we are outnumbered! Guarantee of victory over all enemies! At peace with God! Wow! Extreme kindness!
But… Brace Yourself!
“But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant: I also will do these things to you: I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you. But if you will not yet for all this obey Me: I will chastise you seven times more for your sins, and I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass: your labor shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit. If you walk contrary to Me, and will not hearken to Me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins: and I will send in upon you the beasts of the field, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate. And if even so you will not amend, but will walk contrary to Me: I also will walk contrary to you, and will strike you seven times for your sins. And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies, after I shall have broken the staff of your bread: so that ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and give it out by weight: and you shall eat, and shall not be filled. But if you will not for all this hearken to Me, but will walk against Me: I will also go against you with opposite fury, and I will chastise you with seven plagues for your sins, so that you shall eat the flesh of your sons and of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. And I will destroy your land, and your enemies shall be astonished at it, when they shall be the inhabitants thereof. And I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed. And as to them that shall remain of you I will send fear in their hearts in the countries of their enemies, the sound of a flying leaf shall terrify them, and they shall flee as it were from the sword: they shall fall, when no man pursueth them, And they shall every one fall upon their brethren as fleeing from wars, none of you shall dare to resist your enemies. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own: until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed me, and walked contrary unto Me. Therefore I also will bring them into their enemies’ land: then shall they pray for their sins. And I will remember My covenant, that I made with Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham. But they shall pray for their sins, because they rejected My judgments, and despised My laws. And yet, for all that, when they were in the land of their enemies, I did not cast them off altogether, neither did I so despise them that they should be quite consumed, and I should make void My covenant with them. For I am the Lord their God. And I will remember My former covenant, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, in the sight of the Gentiles, to be their God. I am the Lord. These are the judgments, and precepts, and laws, which the Lord gave between Him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses” (Leviticus 26:14-45). Extreme to the very extreme, huh?
League Table of Extremes—Lower Rankings
That was the theory or just words—here comes the practice or the action! How would you treat someone who sinned by mistake, through ignorance? Here is what God ruled, in the laws that He dictated to Moses: “If any one sin through ignorance, and do one of those things which by the law of the Lord are forbidden, and being guilty of sin, understand his iniquity, He shall offer, of the flocks, a ram without blemish to the priest, according to the measure and estimation of the sin: and the priest shall pray for him, because he did it ignorantly: and it shall be forgiven him, because by mistake he trespassed against the Lord” (Leviticus 5:17-19).
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Whosoever shall sin, and despising the Lord, shall deny to his neighbour the thing delivered to his keeping, which was committed to his trust; or shall by force extort anything, or commit oppression; or shall find a thing lost, and denying it, shall also swear falsely, or shall do any other of the many things, wherein men are wont to sin: being convicted of the offence, he shall restore all that he would have gotten by fraud, in the principal, and the fifth part besides to the owner, whom he wronged. Moreover, for his sin, he shall offer a ram without blemish out of the flock, and shall give it to the priest, according to the estimation and measure of the offence: and he shall pray for him before the Lord, and he shall have forgiveness for everything in doing of which he hath sinned” (Leviticus 6:1-7). Yikes! Aren’t you glad you weren’t alive in those days!? Well, the justice of Purgatory makes that look a ‘walk-in-the park’! A bit on the extreme side? Well, speak to God about that!
God does some tough-talking about worldliness and worldly customs: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: “I am the Lord your God. You shall not do according to the custom of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt: neither shall you act according to the manner of the country of Chanaan, into which I will bring you, nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall do My judgments, and shall observe My precepts, and shall walk in them. I am the Lord your God. Keep My laws and My judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 16:1-5).
League Table of Extremes—Middle Rankings
Where would you rank the following law in the Table of Extremes? “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “The man that hath an issue of seed, shall be unclean. And then shall he be judged subject to this evil, when a filthy humour, at every moment, cleaveth to his flesh, and gathereth there. Every bed on which he sleepeth, shall be unclean, and every place on which he sitteth. If any man touch his bed, he shall wash his clothes: and being washed with water, he shall be unclean until the evening. If a man sit where that man hath sitten, he also shall wash his clothes: and being washed with water, shall be unclean until the evening. He that toucheth his flesh, shall wash his clothes: and, being himself washed with water, shall be unclean until the evening. If such a man cast his spittle upon him that is clean, he shall wash his clothes: and, being washed with water, he shall be unclean until the evening. The saddle on which he hath sitten shall be unclean. And whatsoever has been under him that hath the issue of seed, shall be unclean until the evening. He that carrieth any of these things, shall wash his clothes: and, being washed with water, he shall be unclean until the evening. Every person whom such a one shall touch, not having washed his hands before, shall wash his clothes: and being washed with water, shall be unclean until the evening” (Leviticus 15:1-11). A lot of washing going on! Extreme? Again, speak to God about that! I guess His ways are not our ways, and our thoughts are not His thoughts (Isaias 55:8).
League Table of Extremes—Highest Rankings
God will think nothing of taking away life—especially the lives of His enemies! Before being finally allowed to leave Egypt, the Israelites saw the vengeance of God being wreaked upon the land of Egypt. God had commanded Moses to smear the doorposts of all the homes of the Israelites with the blood of the lamb to protect them from the extreme vengeance that the angel of the Lord would enact, saying: “And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord” (Genesis 12:12). Pretty extreme, eh? That’s the way God is!
God does not seem to do things by halves or half-heartedly, like we tend to do. When the Egyptian army was pursuing Moses and the Israelites, even to point of crossing the divided sea, God could have stopped them at the coastline, by making the sea close-up behind the Israelites as they passed through—but God does not do things by halves, He went to the extreme of slaughtering the Egyptian army. The Lord said to Moses, after they had crossed the sea: “‘Lift thou up thy rod, and stretch forth thy hand over the sea, and divide it: that the children of Israel may go through the midst of the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the heart of the Egyptians to pursue you!’ … And when Moses had stretched forth his hand over the sea, the Lord took it away by a strong and burning wind blowing all the night, and turned it into dry ground: and the water was divided. And the children of Israel went in through the midst of the sea dried up … And the Egyptians pursuing went in after them, and all Pharao’s horses, his chariots and horsemen through the midst of the sea. And the Lord said to Moses: ‘Stretch forth they hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and horsemen!’ And when Moses had stretched forth his hand towards the sea, it returned at the first break of day to the former place: and as the Egyptians were fleeing away, the waters came upon them, and the Lord shut them up in the middle of the waves. And the waters covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the army of Pharao, who had come into the sea after them, neither did there so much as one of them remain” (Exodus 14:16-28). Extreme? Yes, but that’s God!
Extreme—Even With His Favorites!
But God does not only kill His enemies, He is not averse to killing His own Chosen People—His personally selected favorites. God expects His people to be devoted to Him. One aspect of devotion implies fighting and overcoming fatigue. In the desert, some of the Israelites were moaning and groaning about the difficulties they had to endure — and God’s reaction to their complaints may seem to be extreme: “In the meantime there arose a murmuring of the people against the Lord, as it were repining at their fatigue. And when the Lord heard it, He was angry. And the fire of the Lord, being kindled against them, devoured them that were at the uttermost part of the camp. And when the people cried to Moses, Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire was swallowed up. And he called the name of that place, “The Burning”, for that the fire of the Lord had been kindled against them” (Number 11:1-3). Extreme? Yes, but God is extreme.
A little bit of idolatry did not even the see the favored family of Aaron spared: “And Nadab and Abiu, the sons of Aaron, taking their censers, put fire therein, and incense on it, offering before the Lord strange fire: which was not commanded them. And fire coming out from the Lord destroyed them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1-2).
Several times God allowed His Chosen People to be conquered and carried off from Jerusalem as captives to Babylon, where they remained for decades on end. On top of that, God allowed the Temple of Jerusalem to be totally destroyed.
You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!
It gets tougher as we go along! God is not afraid to go to the extremes of death—the ultimate punishment for man. How about this? “He that curseth his father, or mother, dying let him die. If any man commit adultery with the wife of another, and defile his neighbour’s wife, let them both be put to death … If a man lie with his stepmother, let them both be put to death. If any man lie with his daughter-in-law, let both die. If anyone lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination, let them be put to death. If any man, after marrying the daughter, marry her mother, he shall be burnt alive with them. He that shall copulate with any beast or cattle, dying let him die, the beast also ye shall kill. The woman that shall lie under any beast, shall be killed together with the same. If any man take his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother, and see her nakedness: they have committed a crime and they shall be slain, in the sight of their people. If any man lie with a woman in her flowers, and uncover her nakedness, and she open the fountain of her blood, both shall be destroyed out of the midst of their people [after this many more cases are listed that are worthy of death. Keep my laws and my judgments, and do them: lest the land into which you are to enter to dwell therein, vomit you also out. Walk not after the laws of the nations, which I will cast out before you. For they have done all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine.” (Leviticus 20:9-26).
Ultimate Extremes
We see mass death and destruction being inflicted on the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrha: “And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the Earth” (Genesis 19:24-25). Extreme? Yes, but God is extreme.
If He is going to do something, He will do, cost what it may. God is not worried about numbers. If Sodom and Gomorrha was a large number, then what about this: “God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the Earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, It repented Him that he had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth, from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air, for it repenteth Me that I have made them!’” (Genesis 6:5-7). So the flood came and the entire world, except for eight people and some animals on the ark were spared! Extreme? Yes, but God is extreme.
We are of the family of God, adopted children of God! Families have their traits—is this trait of the “extreme” found in us? God expects devotion, which, by its nature, is extreme, outstanding, above the average. God expects to be put first. God expects to be obeyed. Let us ask for that grace of such devotion in the highest most extreme degree! Catholics need to be extreme or "X-Treme Catholics" for it is only perfection or holiness that opens to us the gates of Heaven.
The modern notion or idea behind the recently created word “xtreme” or “x-treme” is defined by the Urban Dictionary as follows: “To define something as "cooler" than the norm. Originally used for outrageous sports and death-defying stunts, « Xtreme » has managed to find its way into nearly every marketing campaign in America: deodorant, beef tacos, soft drinks, and even duct tape, etc.”
As simple search reveals this to be true, as you will find the following:
Xtreme Action Park
Xtreme Treme Cars
Xtreme Treme Fitness
Xtreme Treme Rock Climbing
Xtreme Treme Racing
Xtreme Xperience
Xtreme Videos
Xtreme Sports
Xtreme Wrestling
Xtreme Solutions
Xtreme Pizza, etc., etc.
Classical Extremes
The classical dictionary definition of “extreme” is along the lines of the following:
(1) ADJECTIVE―“(a) of a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average, as in ‘extreme measures’, (b) intense, utmost or exceedingly great in degree, as in ‘extreme joy’ or ‘extreme grief’, (c) farthest from the center or middle; outermost; endmost, the most remote in any direction, as in the phrase ‘the extreme limits of a town’ or ‘the extreme edge of the field’, (d) farthest, utmost, or very far in any direction, as in ‘an object at the extreme point of vision.”
(2) NOUN―“(a) the utmost or highest degree, or a very high degree, as in ‘cautious to an extreme’, (b) one of two things as remote or different from each other as possible, as in ‘the extremes of joy and grief’.”
Extremism
Naturally, “extremism” is born of “extreme”―it is the practitioner of the idea. As they say, “ideas have consequences” and the consequence of the idea of something “extreme” is put into practice by “extremism”. Pretty simple, huh? The average dictionary will define “Extremist” as: “a person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action.” Urban Dictionary defines an extremist as “someone who goes through extreme tactics to reach their goal. These could involve torture, attack on innocent people and over-the-top violence” (this is a more modernistic, one-sided, notion of an extremist in light of current worldwide political unrest). Or as the Oxford Dictionary states: “a person who holds extreme political or religious views, especially one who advocates illegal, violent, or other extreme action, as in ‘‘right-wing extremists’” (Hmm! Why not mention “left-wing extremists” or “Liberal extremists”?) The Collins Dictionary says: “If you describe someone as an extremist, you disapprove of them because they try to bring about political change by using violent or extreme methods. If you say that someone has extremist views, you disapprove of them because they believe in bringing about change by using violent or extreme methods.” Or, as Wikipedia, under the entry “Extremism” says: “Extremism means, literally, ‘the quality or state of being extreme’ or ‘the advocacy of extreme measures or views’. The term ‘extremism’ is primarily used in a political or religious sense, to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied shared social consensus) to be far outside the mainstream attitudes of society.”
Who Defines What is Extreme and What is Normal?
Looking at the above definitions, one has to notice the obvious―which is: “Who has the power and objectivity to decide what is normal, or what is the norm, or expected standard. If you cannot decide on what is normal or the expected standard, then you have no way of measuring what is extreme! If there is no agreement on what is “normal”, then there can be no agreement on what is “extreme”! Who has the power, the intelligence, the prudence and the foresight to define and demand what is to be the norm?
Extremism is in the Eye of the Beholder
You have, no doubt, heard the expression: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!”―meaning that not all people have the same opinions about what is attractive. Beauty cannot be judged objectively, for what one person finds beautiful or admirable may not appeal to another. You will first find this idea used 3rd century BC in Greek. It’s present popular form began to be used in the 19th century, with a whole host of varieties or similar expressions existing in between, such as: “Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye, Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues” (Shakespeare, Love Labors Lost, 1588); “Beauty, like supreme dominion, Is but supported by opinion” (Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack, 1741); “Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them” (David Hume, Essays, Moral and Political, 1742).
The same could be said of the notion of what is “extreme” and what is “not extreme”―it depends upon where you are standing in the first place. If you live in America, then New Zealand is extremely far away, but it you live in Australia, then it is not so far away. If you live in Florida, then 60 degrees Fahrenheit will seem cool and 30 degrees Fahrenheit will seem extremely cold―whereas to an Eskimo from northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland, or eastern Siberia, 60 degrees Fahrenheit will seem to be extremely hot and 30 degrees Fahrenheit will seem warm.
The same is true in the political sphere. To a Communist, the Capitalist West is lax, undisciplined and corrupt to an extreme. Whereas to a Westerner, Communism is rigorous, tyrannical and repressive to an extreme. It all depends upon where you are standing, what you are used to, what your tendencies are, what your ambitions are, and what direction you want your life to take. Arguably, you could that everyone has “extreme” views and everyone practices “extremism”―but in different ways and in different directions.
Are We All Extreme?
The question then arises, “Are we all extreme and extremists?” Personally and arguably, one is tempted to say: “Yes!” But is that true or a mere opinion? To dig deeper, let us again revisit the dictionary definitions of what “extreme” and “extremist” means.
EXTREME―As an adjective, “extreme” means: “(a) of a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average, as in ‘extreme measures’, (b) intense, utmost or exceedingly great in degree, (c) farthest from the center or middle; outermost; endmost, the most remote in any direction, (d) farthest, utmost, or very far in any direction.” As a noun, “extreme” means “the utmost or highest degree, or a very high degree.”
EXTREMIST― As a noun, “extremist” means “a person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action; or a person who advocates illegal, violent, or other extreme action; or someone who goes through extreme tactics to reach their goal. These could involve torture, attack on innocent people and over-the-top violence.” As an adjective, “if you describe someone as an extremist, you disapprove of them because they try to bring about political change by using violent or extreme methods. If you say that someone has extremist views, you disapprove of them because they believe in bringing about change by using violent or extreme methods.”
When "Extreme" is "Normal" and "Normal" is "Extreme"
It is the contentious and shocking premise of this article to show that we are all extreme―if not in actual fact, then at least in potential. Furthermore―and even more shockingly―it is argued that GOD HAS MADE US TO BE EXTREME and that being extreme is not “extreme” (as defined above), but is actually NORMAL and not “extreme”. The level to which God calls us is NORMAL in His eyes, but EXTREME in our eyes. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts” (Isaias 55:8-9).
God is Extreme, So We Must Be Extreme
Without doubt GOD IS EXTREME. “O God, who shall be like to thee?” (Psalm 82:2). “Know that there is none like to the Lord our God” (Exodus 8:10)―which makes Him extreme, out on His own, unsurpassable. If “extreme” is defined as “a character or kind farthest removed from the ordinary or average”―then GOD IS EXTREME. If “extreme” is further defined as “intense, utmost or exceedingly great in degree”―then GOD IS EXTREME. If “extreme” is being the “farthest from the center or middle; outermost; endmost, the most remote in any direction”―then GOD IS EXTREME. If “extreme” means “the utmost or highest degree, or a very high degree”―then GOD IS EXTREME. If “extremist” means being someone “who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action; or a person who advocates illegal, violent, or other extreme action; or someone who goes through extreme tactics to reach their goal. These could involve torture”―then GOD IS AN EXTREMIST. If you do not believe that, then you are EXTREMELY IGNORANT, or EXTREMELY BLIND, or EXTREMELY NAÏVE, or EXTREMELY BIASED.
God is Perfect to the Extreme
God, being absolutely perfect, is extremely perfect—He is extreme in everything: extreme in mercy, yet extreme in justice; extreme in patience, yet extreme in anger; extreme in kindness, yet extreme in punishment (what can be more extreme than Hell? Or Heaven, too, for that matter!). This is something that we find hard to grasp completely. For us it is a case of either/or: we are either merciful or just; patient or impatiently angry; kind or not kind. That is because we are imperfect—imperfect in our understanding and imperfect in our actions. For us, the idea of being called an “extremist” or a “fanatic” is troublesome and we seek to avoid such labels. Yet, there again, we have a poor understanding of the meaning of the word, and we use it or take it badly. Originally, the word “fanatic” came from the Latin root-word “fanum”, which means, a sanctuary, shrine or temple, and the derivative word, “fanaticus”, means inspired; enthusiastic, frenzied. In the good sense, “fanatic” means something akin to holy, sacred, enthusiastic, highly fervent, inspired by God—which is along the lines of what “devotion” is, or should be.
Only Extreme Efforts Obtain Heaven
In a certain sense, we have to be ‘fanatical’ (in the good sense of the word) to be able to get to Heaven. Our Lord said to us: “Be you therefore perfect as you heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48). That’s a bit extreme, isn’t it? But we have to be extreme to get to Heaven. “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (Matthew 11:12). Violence is an extreme measure. If we are not extreme in this world, then those extremes will have to be reached in the extremely painful fires of Purgatory, where, as any saint or good Catholic book will tell you, souls suffer extremely, until they reach the extreme perfection required to enter Heaven. “There shall not enter into it anything defiled” (Apocalypse 21:27). “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence, till thou repay the last farthing” (Matthew 5:26). Some writers, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, say that the fires of Purgatory are the same fires as those of Hell—now how’s that for extreme! Could we say ‘fanatical’?
The Extreme Attitude of God
God does not do things by halves. He can be extremely kind and loving, or extremely angry and vengeful. It all depends upon whether or not we are for Him or against Him; whether we obey Him or disobey Him. As we sow, so shall we reap. There is a passage that perfectly manifests these two extremes in God.
The following quotes from Holy Scripture will prove that God is extreme. However, before we begin, let us say that―If God is extreme, then we have to be extreme―for Our Lord says: “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48)―which logically means, if God is extreme according to His infinite or limitless capacity, we must be extreme according to our limited capacity! Again, Scripture adds: “You shall be holy men to me!” (Exodus 22:31)―and holiness is a cut above the ordinariness we see all around us, holiness is thus an extreme compared to what we see everywhere. “For I am the Lord your God―be holy because I am holy!” (Leviticus 11:44). “You shall be holy, because I am holy!” (Leviticus 11:46). “You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine!” (Leviticus 20:26). Holiness is a cut above mediocrity, lukewarmness, indifference, comfort-seeking―and even further above sinfulness. Holiness is extreme and saints are extremists, because there are few souls that end up being saved―and that is extreme in itself! [read more here]
The Old Testament Shows God To Be Extreme
Extreme Death Sentence
We see death come to the whole human race, through all centuries to come, just because Adam and Eve ate a fruit they were told not to eat! “Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat: but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death” (Genesis 2:16-17). “By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death; and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
God Promises Extreme Rewards and Threatens Extreme Punishments
Towards the end of the Book of Leviticus, God lists His extreme rewards and extreme punishments. As Scripture says elsewhere—He rewards the good and punishes the evil. “I am the Lord your God: If you walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments, and do them, I will give you rain in due seasons. And the ground shall bring forth its increase, and the trees shall be filled with fruit. The threshing of your harvest shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your coasts: you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid. I will take away evil beasts: and the sword shall not pass through your quarters. You shall pursue your enemies, and they shall fall before you. Five of yours shall pursue a hundred others, and a hundred of you ten thousand: your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look on you, and make you increase: you shall be multiplied, and I will establish My covenant with you. I will set My tabernacle in the midst of you, and My soul shall not cast you off. I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be My people. I am the Lord your God: who have brought you out of the land of the Egyptians, that you should not serve them, and I have broken the chains on your necks, that you might go upright.” (Leviticus 26:1-13). Who wouldn’t want this? No shortage of food! Perfect seasons of the year! Peace in the land, with no threats from anywhere! If enemies arise, a guarantee of God’s help and protection—even if we are outnumbered! Guarantee of victory over all enemies! At peace with God! Wow! Extreme kindness!
But… Brace Yourself!
“But if you will not hear Me, nor do all My commandments, if you despise My laws, and contemn My judgments so as not to do those things which are appointed by Me, and to make void My covenant: I also will do these things to you: I will quickly visit you with poverty, and burning heat, which shall waste your eyes, and consume your lives. You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies. I will set My face against you, and you shall fall down before your enemies, and shall be made subject to them that hate you, you shall flee when no man pursueth you. But if you will not yet for all this obey Me: I will chastise you seven times more for your sins, and I will break the pride of your stubbornness, and I will make to you the Heaven above as iron, and the Earth as brass: your labor shall be spent in vain, the ground shall not bring forth her increase, nor the trees yield their fruit. If you walk contrary to Me, and will not hearken to Me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you for your sins: and I will send in upon you the beasts of the field, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number, and that your highways may be desolate. And if even so you will not amend, but will walk contrary to Me: I also will walk contrary to you, and will strike you seven times for your sins. And I will bring in upon you the sword that shall avenge My covenant. And when you shall flee into the cities, I will send the pestilence in the midst of you, and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies, after I shall have broken the staff of your bread: so that ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and give it out by weight: and you shall eat, and shall not be filled. But if you will not for all this hearken to Me, but will walk against Me: I will also go against you with opposite fury, and I will chastise you with seven plagues for your sins, so that you shall eat the flesh of your sons and of your daughters. I will destroy your high places, and break your idols. You shall fall among the ruins of your idols, and My soul shall abhor you. And I will destroy your land, and your enemies shall be astonished at it, when they shall be the inhabitants thereof. And I will scatter you among the Gentiles, and I will draw out the sword after you, and your land shall be desert, and your cities destroyed. And as to them that shall remain of you I will send fear in their hearts in the countries of their enemies, the sound of a flying leaf shall terrify them, and they shall flee as it were from the sword: they shall fall, when no man pursueth them, And they shall every one fall upon their brethren as fleeing from wars, none of you shall dare to resist your enemies. You shall perish among the Gentiles, and an enemy’s land shall consume you. And if of them also some remain, they shall pine away in their iniquities, in the land of their enemies, and they shall be afflicted for the sins of their fathers, and their own: until they confess their iniquities and the iniquities of their ancestors, whereby they have transgressed me, and walked contrary unto Me. Therefore I also will bring them into their enemies’ land: then shall they pray for their sins. And I will remember My covenant, that I made with Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham. But they shall pray for their sins, because they rejected My judgments, and despised My laws. And yet, for all that, when they were in the land of their enemies, I did not cast them off altogether, neither did I so despise them that they should be quite consumed, and I should make void My covenant with them. For I am the Lord their God. And I will remember My former covenant, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, in the sight of the Gentiles, to be their God. I am the Lord. These are the judgments, and precepts, and laws, which the Lord gave between Him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses” (Leviticus 26:14-45). Extreme to the very extreme, huh?
League Table of Extremes—Lower Rankings
That was the theory or just words—here comes the practice or the action! How would you treat someone who sinned by mistake, through ignorance? Here is what God ruled, in the laws that He dictated to Moses: “If any one sin through ignorance, and do one of those things which by the law of the Lord are forbidden, and being guilty of sin, understand his iniquity, He shall offer, of the flocks, a ram without blemish to the priest, according to the measure and estimation of the sin: and the priest shall pray for him, because he did it ignorantly: and it shall be forgiven him, because by mistake he trespassed against the Lord” (Leviticus 5:17-19).
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Whosoever shall sin, and despising the Lord, shall deny to his neighbour the thing delivered to his keeping, which was committed to his trust; or shall by force extort anything, or commit oppression; or shall find a thing lost, and denying it, shall also swear falsely, or shall do any other of the many things, wherein men are wont to sin: being convicted of the offence, he shall restore all that he would have gotten by fraud, in the principal, and the fifth part besides to the owner, whom he wronged. Moreover, for his sin, he shall offer a ram without blemish out of the flock, and shall give it to the priest, according to the estimation and measure of the offence: and he shall pray for him before the Lord, and he shall have forgiveness for everything in doing of which he hath sinned” (Leviticus 6:1-7). Yikes! Aren’t you glad you weren’t alive in those days!? Well, the justice of Purgatory makes that look a ‘walk-in-the park’! A bit on the extreme side? Well, speak to God about that!
God does some tough-talking about worldliness and worldly customs: “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: “I am the Lord your God. You shall not do according to the custom of the land of Egypt, in which you dwelt: neither shall you act according to the manner of the country of Chanaan, into which I will bring you, nor shall you walk in their ordinances. You shall do My judgments, and shall observe My precepts, and shall walk in them. I am the Lord your God. Keep My laws and My judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. I am the Lord” (Leviticus 16:1-5).
League Table of Extremes—Middle Rankings
Where would you rank the following law in the Table of Extremes? “And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: “The man that hath an issue of seed, shall be unclean. And then shall he be judged subject to this evil, when a filthy humour, at every moment, cleaveth to his flesh, and gathereth there. Every bed on which he sleepeth, shall be unclean, and every place on which he sitteth. If any man touch his bed, he shall wash his clothes: and being washed with water, he shall be unclean until the evening. If a man sit where that man hath sitten, he also shall wash his clothes: and being washed with water, shall be unclean until the evening. He that toucheth his flesh, shall wash his clothes: and, being himself washed with water, shall be unclean until the evening. If such a man cast his spittle upon him that is clean, he shall wash his clothes: and, being washed with water, he shall be unclean until the evening. The saddle on which he hath sitten shall be unclean. And whatsoever has been under him that hath the issue of seed, shall be unclean until the evening. He that carrieth any of these things, shall wash his clothes: and, being washed with water, he shall be unclean until the evening. Every person whom such a one shall touch, not having washed his hands before, shall wash his clothes: and being washed with water, shall be unclean until the evening” (Leviticus 15:1-11). A lot of washing going on! Extreme? Again, speak to God about that! I guess His ways are not our ways, and our thoughts are not His thoughts (Isaias 55:8).
League Table of Extremes—Highest Rankings
God will think nothing of taking away life—especially the lives of His enemies! Before being finally allowed to leave Egypt, the Israelites saw the vengeance of God being wreaked upon the land of Egypt. God had commanded Moses to smear the doorposts of all the homes of the Israelites with the blood of the lamb to protect them from the extreme vengeance that the angel of the Lord would enact, saying: “And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every firstborn in the land of Egypt both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord” (Genesis 12:12). Pretty extreme, eh? That’s the way God is!
God does not seem to do things by halves or half-heartedly, like we tend to do. When the Egyptian army was pursuing Moses and the Israelites, even to point of crossing the divided sea, God could have stopped them at the coastline, by making the sea close-up behind the Israelites as they passed through—but God does not do things by halves, He went to the extreme of slaughtering the Egyptian army. The Lord said to Moses, after they had crossed the sea: “‘Lift thou up thy rod, and stretch forth thy hand over the sea, and divide it: that the children of Israel may go through the midst of the sea on dry ground. And I will harden the heart of the Egyptians to pursue you!’ … And when Moses had stretched forth his hand over the sea, the Lord took it away by a strong and burning wind blowing all the night, and turned it into dry ground: and the water was divided. And the children of Israel went in through the midst of the sea dried up … And the Egyptians pursuing went in after them, and all Pharao’s horses, his chariots and horsemen through the midst of the sea. And the Lord said to Moses: ‘Stretch forth they hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and horsemen!’ And when Moses had stretched forth his hand towards the sea, it returned at the first break of day to the former place: and as the Egyptians were fleeing away, the waters came upon them, and the Lord shut them up in the middle of the waves. And the waters covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the army of Pharao, who had come into the sea after them, neither did there so much as one of them remain” (Exodus 14:16-28). Extreme? Yes, but that’s God!
Extreme—Even With His Favorites!
But God does not only kill His enemies, He is not averse to killing His own Chosen People—His personally selected favorites. God expects His people to be devoted to Him. One aspect of devotion implies fighting and overcoming fatigue. In the desert, some of the Israelites were moaning and groaning about the difficulties they had to endure — and God’s reaction to their complaints may seem to be extreme: “In the meantime there arose a murmuring of the people against the Lord, as it were repining at their fatigue. And when the Lord heard it, He was angry. And the fire of the Lord, being kindled against them, devoured them that were at the uttermost part of the camp. And when the people cried to Moses, Moses prayed to the Lord, and the fire was swallowed up. And he called the name of that place, “The Burning”, for that the fire of the Lord had been kindled against them” (Number 11:1-3). Extreme? Yes, but God is extreme.
A little bit of idolatry did not even the see the favored family of Aaron spared: “And Nadab and Abiu, the sons of Aaron, taking their censers, put fire therein, and incense on it, offering before the Lord strange fire: which was not commanded them. And fire coming out from the Lord destroyed them, and they died before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1-2).
Several times God allowed His Chosen People to be conquered and carried off from Jerusalem as captives to Babylon, where they remained for decades on end. On top of that, God allowed the Temple of Jerusalem to be totally destroyed.
You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet!
It gets tougher as we go along! God is not afraid to go to the extremes of death—the ultimate punishment for man. How about this? “He that curseth his father, or mother, dying let him die. If any man commit adultery with the wife of another, and defile his neighbour’s wife, let them both be put to death … If a man lie with his stepmother, let them both be put to death. If any man lie with his daughter-in-law, let both die. If anyone lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination, let them be put to death. If any man, after marrying the daughter, marry her mother, he shall be burnt alive with them. He that shall copulate with any beast or cattle, dying let him die, the beast also ye shall kill. The woman that shall lie under any beast, shall be killed together with the same. If any man take his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother, and see her nakedness: they have committed a crime and they shall be slain, in the sight of their people. If any man lie with a woman in her flowers, and uncover her nakedness, and she open the fountain of her blood, both shall be destroyed out of the midst of their people [after this many more cases are listed that are worthy of death. Keep my laws and my judgments, and do them: lest the land into which you are to enter to dwell therein, vomit you also out. Walk not after the laws of the nations, which I will cast out before you. For they have done all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. You shall be holy unto Me, because I the Lord am holy, and I have separated you from other people, that you should be Mine.” (Leviticus 20:9-26).
Ultimate Extremes
We see mass death and destruction being inflicted on the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrha: “And the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrha brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heaven. And He destroyed these cities, and all the country about, all the inhabitants of the cities, and all things that spring from the Earth” (Genesis 19:24-25). Extreme? Yes, but God is extreme.
If He is going to do something, He will do, cost what it may. God is not worried about numbers. If Sodom and Gomorrha was a large number, then what about this: “God seeing that the wickedness of men was great on the Earth, and that all the thought of their heart was bent upon evil at all times, It repented Him that he had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth, from man even to beasts, from the creeping thing even to the fowls of the air, for it repenteth Me that I have made them!’” (Genesis 6:5-7). So the flood came and the entire world, except for eight people and some animals on the ark were spared! Extreme? Yes, but God is extreme.
We are of the family of God, adopted children of God! Families have their traits—is this trait of the “extreme” found in us? God expects devotion, which, by its nature, is extreme, outstanding, above the average. God expects to be put first. God expects to be obeyed. Let us ask for that grace of such devotion in the highest most extreme degree! Catholics need to be extreme or "X-Treme Catholics" for it is only perfection or holiness that opens to us the gates of Heaven.
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Sexagesima Sunday February 24th & Monday February 25th
Article 5
Sowing God's Seed?―Or Sowing Wild Oats?
Article 5
Sowing God's Seed?―Or Sowing Wild Oats?
What’s Your Preference? God’s Seed or Wild Oats?
Today’s Sexagesima Sunday’s Gospel speaks of sowing the seed. No doubt you have also heard of the expression about a person “sowing their wild oats.” What is this seed? What are those wild oats? The first question is answered by Our Lord Himself, Who says that the seed is the Word of God. The second question―about sowing wild oats―has a double meaning. One is literal and agricultural in meaning; the other is metaphorical and has an immoral meaning.
Wild Weeds and Wild Behavior
The literal and agricultural meaning of “sowing wild oats” refers to a European species of grass―botanically called Avena fatua, which the English have been calling “wild oats” for centuries. Botanists are of the opinion that these “wild oats” are the origin of cultivated oats. Farmers, since ancient times, have detested these “wild oats” because they are nothing but a useless weed, whose seeds have always been difficult to separate from those of useful cereals. Consequently, these “wild oats” have survived and multiply from year to year. The only way to remove it was by hand-weeding it. Modern seed cleaning and selective weed-killers have not really solved the problem in our days―for it still exists.
The metaphorical and immoral meaning of “sowing wild oats” refers to activities that are either immoral or a pure waste of time with little or no fruit coming from them. Hence, the expression of a “young man sowing his wild oats” came to be applied to those who “frittered away their time in stupid or idle pastimes.” Or as one writer puts it: “There’s a strong sexual association here, too, because the phrase was often applied, in a more or less indulgent way, and always to young men, to what was politely referred to as youthful dissipation. The associations between male sexual activity and sowing seed are obvious enough.”
It is asserted that the expression goes back to Roman times, with a certain Roman, called Plautus, thought to be the originator of the phrase. In the English language, it was apparently first used by the Norfolk Protestant clergyman Thomas Becon, in 1542. Later, in 1869, Louisa May Alcott used the expression in her book, Little Women, saying: “Boys will be boys, young men must sow their wild oats, and women must not expect miracles”―by which she seems to give the expression as one of time-wasting, trivial, pointless, infantile or stupid activities.
Our Lady on Wild Oats and Wild Behavior
You could say that Our Lady speaks of the same ‘wild behavior’ when she says: “As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of morals. From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! The Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education .… acting thus to snare many into sin, and will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
These words of Our Lady of Good Success are reiterated and compounded by Our Lady at Fatima, when she revealed that the sins that damn most souls are the sins of the flesh―sins of impurity in either thought, word or deed―which deeply affected little St. Jacinta Marto, to whom Our Lady―in three private apparitions―revealed that “More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason” … “Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much” … “Woe to women lacking in modesty” and that “The Mother of God wants more virgin souls bound by the vow of chastity.”
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg of “sowing one’s wild oats”―for it is not just sexual sins that damn souls, but a whole host of other ‘weeds’ or ‘wild oats’ that choke the life out of the soul. The list itself is generally summarized by the Ten Commandments―but the Ten Commandments are merely ‘chapter headings’ that have an awful lot of detail in their chapters, as anyone who has read a Moral Theology manual will tell you. If you like, the Ten Commandments are like the names of ten countries―but within each country there are millions of people, more or less alike, speaking the same language, but each one different to everyone else in one way or another.
Yet today, everyone seems to sowing more seeds of sin than seeds of virtue! It will not end well!
Sowing What Seed?
God, through His Church, has provided us with many seeds of knowledge, graces and virtues. But unless that seed is planted and makes us die to the world, we will bear no fruit. “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25). “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32).
We have a choice in whether to be Marthas or Marys. We can be busy with the world, or busy with Our Lord. Each choice has its inescapable consequences. As we sow, so shall we reap. To those who sow their seed in the world, it will be said: “Because thou hast forgotten God thy Savior, thou shalt sow strange seed” (Isaias 17:10); “Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap” (Micheas 6:15) ... “You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies” (Leviticus 26:16).
Jesus spoke of those who were too preoccupied with the world and were thus unable to see the mysteries of God: “And the prophecy of Isaias is fulfilled in them, who saith: ‘By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive .For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear” (Matthew 13:14-16).
The Parable of the Sower of the Seed
Explaining the Parable of the Sower of the Seed, Jesus tells His Apostles that the seed is the Word of God. He then continues (here follow both the accounts by St. Matthew and St. Mark):
“Hear you therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, there cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart: this is he that received the seed by the way side. And he that received the seed upon stony ground, is he that heareth the word, and immediately receiveth it with joy. Yet hath he not root in himself, but is only for a time: and when there ariseth tribulation and persecution because of the word, he is presently scandalized. And he that received the seed among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless. But he that received the seed upon good ground, is he that heareth the word, and understandeth, and beareth fruit, and yieldeth the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty” (Matthew 13:18-23).
“He that soweth, soweth the Word. And these are they by the way side, where the Word is sown, and as soon as they have heard, immediately Satan cometh and taketh away the Word that was sown in their hearts. And these likewise are they that are sown on the stony ground: who, when they have heard the Word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but are only for a time: and then when tribulation and persecution ariseth for the Word, they are presently scandalized. And others there are who are sown among thorns: these are they that hear the Word, and the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things entering in choke the Word, and it is made fruitless. And these are they who are sown upon the good ground, who hear the Word, and receive it, and yield fruit, the one thirty, another sixty, and another a hundred” (Mark 4:14-20).
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. And in doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we shall reap, not failing. Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the Faith” (Galatians 6:7-10). “With the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted” (Psalm 17:27).
We cannot give what we have not got! Therefore, we need to plant that Word of God within us; we need to nurture the mysteries of God what we have seen this Christmas season, which only recently ended (February 2nd); we need to let those seeds sprout in our souls; and water them with our prayers and pluck out any weeds with our sacrifices. It is serious work, it is hard work, it is the work of salvation!
Preparing the Plant for “Hardening-Off”
“Hardening off” is the process of moving plants outdoors for a portion of the day to gradually introduce them to the direct sunlight, dry air, and cold nights. Young, pampered seedlings that were grown either indoors or in a greenhouse need a period to adjust and acclimate to outdoor conditions, prior to planting in the garden.
Hardening-off gradually exposes the tender plants to wind, sun and rain and toughens them up by thickening the cuticle on the leaves so that the leaves lose less water. This helps prevent transplant shock; seedlings that languish, become stunted or die from sudden changes in temperature. Hardening-off times depend on the type of plants that are being grown and the temperature and temperature fluctuations.
The same is true for our spiritual life. Advent was a time for preparing the soil of the soul. Christmas was the time of planting the seed of the baby Christ-Child in that prepared soil. Now we have a period of growth, where the feasts and festivities have to give way to the eventual fasting and abstinence of Lent. So we need to adjust, we need that period of “hardening-off” whereby our softness becomes less soft and more ready to bear the harshness of Lent. That Lenten harshness is necessary for the maturity of our spiritual plant, the soul, in order for it to bring forth the fruit required by God, once it is watered by the grace of the Holy Ghost after Pentecost.
Faith is a Seed that Must Grow
Our Lord Himself says that the “Word of God” is a “seed” and then delivers the Parable of the Sower of the Seed. Speaking of this “Word of God,” St. Paul says: “I planted, Apollo watered, God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6). “He took of the seed and put it in the ground, that it might take a firm root: He planted it on the surface of the Earth” (Ezechiel 17:5)—that is to say the Faith was planted on the surface of the Earth; it was also planted in our souls at our Baptism. Yet all around us, in the world that surrounds and which we must live, there is an abundance of wild oats―meaning worldliness.
Our Faith Should Flourish
“They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish” (Psalm 91:14) and “shall be like a tree, which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off” (Psalm 1:3). “He shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots towards moisture” (Jeremias 17:8). “Planted by the waters” means staying close to Sacraments and grace, which only the one true Faith can supply, while “spreading roots towards moisture” indicates an attraction to the things that give grace — namely, the Sacraments, prayer and other spiritual exercises.
The Mustard Seed of Faith
“Another parable he proposed unto them, saying: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof’” (Matthew 13:31-32).
Likewise, our Faith is like a little mustard seed, planted in our souls at Baptism, and which is expected to grow into the proportions of a tree—a Tree of Life, of Eternal Life. This Faith has to be nourished and protected, and if this is done correctly, then we will be amazed at the power of its fruits: “Amen I say to you, if you have Faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Remove from hence hither!’, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:19).
What is Your Seed Doing?
“Is the seed as yet sprung up?” (Aggeus 2:20). God expects profit. “I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. In this is My Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit” (John 15:1-8).
Where is Your Fruit?
This is what God expects of us—as in the Parable of the Talents, which we could just as easily call the Parable of Faith—where our Faith is expected to bear fruit: in one a hundred-fold, in another sixty-fold and another thirty-fold. “Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root: they prosper and bring forth fruit” (Jeremias 12:2). “It was planted in a good ground upon many waters, that it might bring forth branches, and bear fruit, that it might become a large vine” (Ezechiel 17:8). Our Faith is not a pointless gift that allows us to remain idle: “And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place idle. And he said to them: ‘Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just!’” (Matthew 20:3-4).
Good Fruit and Bad Fruit
However, in the vineyard of the Lord, as well as the vineyard of the world, there are good and bad trees, good seed and seed of wild oats, or as another parable states, Wheat and Cockle. God has planted, but the enemy has corrupted: “I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then art thou turned unto Me into that which is good for nothing” (Jeremias 2:21).
“Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:13-20).
Wheat and Cockle
The parable of the Wheat and the Cockle could easily be called the parable of the Seed of God and the Seed of Wild Oats. “Another parable He proposed to them, saying: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and over-sowed cockle among the wheat and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. And the servants of the good man of the house coming said to him: “Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it cockle?” And he said to them: “An enemy hath done this!” And the servants said to him: “Wilt thou that we go and gather it up?” And he said: “No, lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it. Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and, in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers: ‘Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn’” “ (Matthew 13:24-30).
Avoiding the ‘Bad Trees’ and the ‘Cockle’
Our Faith is too precious to risk weakening it or losing it, for in the process we may also lose our souls. The world is an enemy of the Faith: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed” (Genesis 3:15). Jesus “was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not” (John 1:10). The world hated Jesus and so it has to hate us also (if we love Jesus)—“If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18-19). “In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Since He is not of this world, He does not pray for this world: “I pray not for the world” (John 17:9)—He simply tries to take souls away from the world and its spirit, which is ultimately the spirit of the devil, so that “all the world may be made subject to God” (Romans 3:19).
The World belongs to the Devil
Jesus refers to the devil as the prince of the world: “The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not any thing” (John 14:30). To the worldly Jews, Our Lord said: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin” (John 8:23-24). If the world will not listen to the Word of God, and will not accept the Faith―which is symbolized by the seed―then we are told to leave the world behind: “Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words: going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet” (Matthew 10:14).
Those who secretly love the world, find this hard to accept, and under a false pretense of desiring the conversion of the world, continue to hang around the world even after having their attempts at conversion rejected. They want to sow the seed of God together with the wild oats of the world. “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). “He that loveth danger shall perish in it” (Ecclesiasticus 3:27). “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:25). Speaking of His true followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16).
We are explicitly told to stay clear of the world and to flee the world: “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “that we be not condemned with this world” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “And you, in time past, when you were dead in your offenses and sins, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now works upon the children of unbelief: in which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts. But God, even when we were dead in sins, hath raised us up together [above this world], and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-6).
Separation from the World is Essential―Sow the Seed of God, Not the World
The field of our soul should be sown solely with the seed of God and not the world―there can be no cross-breeding, only cross carrying. The world is a weed that chokes the seed of God―which is the word of God. The two seeds cannot grow side by side―we cannot serve God and mammon, we cannot grow the seed of God and the world in the same soul. “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: If any man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers, that dwell in Israel, give of his seed to the idol Moloch, dying let him die: the people of the land shall stone him. And I will set My face against him: and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, because he hath given of his seed to Moloch, and hath defiled My sanctuary, and profaned My Holy Name!’” (Leviticus 20:1-3).
Separate the Seeds
God commanded a separation for the Israelites from the heathens and pagans that surrounded them. “Thou shalt not keep company with them” (Isaias 14:20) ... “Who have said to God: ‘Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways!’” (Job 21:14) … “Separate thyself from thy enemies” (Ecclesiasticus 6:13) … “What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. Wherefore, go out from among them, and be ye separate!” (2 Corinthians 6:15-17) ... “Be not seduced: Evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33) … “A corrupt man loveth not one that reproveth him: nor will he go to the wise” (Proverbs 15:12).
St. Paul tells us: “I have written to you, not to keep company, with any man that is named a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat” (1 Corinthians 5:11). The Liberals of this world are aghast at such intolerant words! St. Paul would again be stoned by the Liberals if he were to come around today. “The Liberal Catholic calls himself a Catholic because he firmly believes Catholicity to be the veritable revelation of the Son of God; he calls himself a Liberal Catholic because he believes that no one can impose upon him any belief which his individual judgment does not measure as perfectly rational. He falls an easy victim to the snare set by the devil for the intellectually proud. As a consequence, he is really not Christian, but pagan. He has no real supernatural Faith, but only a simple human conviction ... Liberals have a horror of any coercive element in matters of Faith; any chastisement of error shocks their tender susceptibilities, and they detest any … intolerance” (Liberalism Is A Sin, Chapter 7).
Liberals Will Not Separate
The disease of Liberalism has penetrated almost every corner of the world and every facet of daily life. What does one do? Can one be at peace with Liberalism? The words of the famous book, Liberalism is a Sin (a book praised and recommended by Rome itself) gives us some answers: “Should Catholics combine with the more moderate Liberals for … resisting the advance of the … extreme Liberals? … Such unions are neither good nor commendable … Liberalism, let its form be as moderated, as wheedling as possible, is by its very essence in direct and radical opposition to Catholicity… Liberals are born enemies of Catholics. … ‘Better seek solitude than bad company.’” (Liberalism Is A Sin, Chapter 30).
“Catholic associations ought chiefly to take care to exclude from amongst themselves, not only those who openly profess the principles of Liberalism, but also those who have deceived themselves into believing that a conciliation between Liberalism and Catholicism is possible, and who are known as Liberal Catholics.” (Liberalism Is A Sin, Chapter 31).
Many of our problems of today stem from the fact that we ignore this advice, and, by our own example and social contacts, we have taught our children to ignore this advice. For many, it is a case of vainly trying to bolt the barn door after the horse has escaped into the world.
If we fail to take to heart this command to separate ourselves and our loved ones from the world, then no matter what other precautions we take, they will merely be ‘Band-Aid’ solutions for a shotgun wound. As the above quote said: “Better seek solitude than bad company.”
What Seeds Have Been Sown in Your Family, Parish, School or Workplace?
As one, long-deceased, very conservative and traditional bishop used to say: “We are all Liberals!”―it is only in degrees of Liberalism that we differ. It is much the same as sin―we are all sinners: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us!” (1 John 1:8)―the only difference is in the degree of sin present in our lives. Liberalism is basically a freedom from authority, a freedom from being told what to do, a freedom of thought, a freedom of conscience, a freedom of action, a freedom of belief. Hence, today’s false theory of Ecumenism is pure Liberalism. Today’s false theory of Religious Freedom is pure Liberalism. Today’s false theory of everyone being equal is pure Liberalism. Today’s focus on Human Rights is pure Liberalism when it ignores and fails to place the Divine Rights of God above all Human Rights. Today’s laws―or so-called ‘laws’―that allow sinful behavior that contradicts the laws of God, are pure Liberalism. There is no love of God in Liberalism for a love of God requires a submission to God and His Laws: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If any one love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10). Liberalism seeks to escape the keeping of God’s commandments and God’s word―therefore Liberalism is not a love of God, but a hatred of God―varying, of course, according to the degree of Liberalism with which each one us is infected.
Pope Leo XIII writes: “It is a high crime to withdraw allegiance from God, in order to please men, … to break the laws of Jesus Christ, in order to yield obedience to earthly rulers, or, under pretext of keeping the civil law, to ignore the rights of the Church; ‘we ought to obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29) … If the laws of the State are manifestly at variance with the Divine Law, containing enactments hurtful to the Church, or conveying injunctions adverse to the duties imposed by religion, then, truly, to resist becomes a positive duty, to obey would be a crime … Commands that are issued adversely to the honor due to God, and hence are beyond the scope of justice, must be looked upon as anything rather than laws … Human laws can never be set above the Divine Law” (Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Sapientia Christianae).
Let us not pretend that there are no weeds, no cockle, no wild-oats being sown in our family, or parish, or school or workplace or social field. Once again, the words of Holy Scripture refute us and contradict us―“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He [God] is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him [God] a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). Liberalism is a sin―as irrefutably indicated in the book Liberalism Is A Sin, by Fr. Felix Salvany, and so the Scriptural passage could easily be rephrased to include Liberalism: “If we say that we have no Liberalism within us, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our Liberalism, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our Liberalism, and to cleanse us and weed out our iniquitous Liberalism. If we say that we have no Liberalism, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
The Biggest Weeds, the Wildest Oats
Without any shadow of a doubt, the biggest, greatest and most successful sower of cockle and wild-oats is today’s modern technological media apparatus―the TV, the internet (via computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone), the radio. Through these ‘weapons’ the devil manages to sow his cockle which leads us to “sow our wild oats” in a variety of ways, ranging from wasting time, worldliness, irresponsible behavior, impure imaginations, immoral and impure actions. We are a civilization of time-fritterers, wasting the precious time that God has given us to grow in a knowledge, love and service of Him, by using that time to grown in a knowledge, love and service of the world and all it offers. The eyes are said to be the “windows of the soul” and the ears could be said to be the doors of the soul. The modern media is one long continuous intense onslaught on our eyes and ears. If we would only listen to sermons and read spiritual material for as long as we open our eyes and ears to this media onslaught! Our Lord says that loving God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength is the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38; Luke 10:27)―yet we give our whole heart (or most of it), mind, soul and strength to these media outlets which enter through the inlets of our eyes and ears.
Watching and listening to what is on the screen has become an epidemic of addiction throughout the world. Within the USA people are watching screens of TVs and computers, browsing social media and swiping their lives away on their tablets and smartphones. The market research organization, Nielsen, reported in August of 2018, that an average adult in the USA (Catholic and non-Catholic combined) spends more than 11 hours per day watching, reading, listening to or simply interacting with media. That is a 90 minute daily increase from 2014. The average time spent on computers, tablets and smartphones was just under 4 hours a day. Television remains the most used media outlet, with an average of almost 5 hours a day being consecrated to that worldly tabernacle.
Some people even put their idols on a par with God―taking their smartphones to Mass and using them during Mass, especially during the sermon. Perhaps they are texting God and asking Him to “pull-the-plug” on the sermon! Now, it may well be that they are taking notes of the sermon―which, at a stretch, would be permissible―but it is hard for others to know whether that person is holily taking notes, or if that person is unholily texting or surfing the internet (unless you happen to be sitting right next to them or behind them). Or they may even be recording the sermon―but that does not involve tapping away at the keyboard. Yet, in all honesty, how many persons take notes during sermons, or record sermons. For most people the sermon is too long anyway―and the last thing they want to do is go through the ordeal all over again!
Nevertheless, there are quite a few interruptions during Mass as one Smartphone or another chimes in to add to the worship of God with its own peculiar ‘hymn’―some obnoxious modern-day tune or ringtone. One wonders why a phone cannot be turned off during Mass. Then there is a goodly number of ‘worshipers’ who cannot wait to get out of church once Mass has finished, and pull-out and start using their beloved Smartphone. Their zeal for doing that exceeds their zeal for receiving Holy Communion. Thanksgiving to God after Holy Mass and Holy Communion is pretty far down the list―you have to scroll to the bottom to get there.
God Becomes an Afterthought
Far from loving God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength (Matthew 22:37-38; Luke 10:27), we pat ourselves on the head if we give Him a few minutes a day―and those are often rushed, distracted and half-hearted minutes, of which Our Lord says: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me!” (Matthew 15:8). Most children―especially as they grown older―have little care and little time for God, and parents and teachers care little about trying to uproot that cancerous weed that is choking their hearts.
The Spiritual Loses to the Material
The general tone and flavor of once-spiritual Christian feasts and seasons has been flooded with anti-Christian values of a greedy desire for material goods, and an unmortified indulgence in amusements, entertainment, fun and pleasure, a gluttonous consumption of food and drink—all of which, as the spiritual masters tell us, leads to sexual sins of thought, word and action—because if we do not and cannot control our physical appetites, then this overflows to our sexual appetites, which we find are even more difficult to control. Hence the suitability of our annual Lent―which (until 1966, when Pope gave a 95% discount in Lenten penance) is meant to put a brake on our appetites and force us to practice self-control throughout the Lenten season by 40 days of fasting.
The World Feeds Our Greed and Gluttony
The world is always seeking to feed both our physical and sexual appetites to gratification—and let us face it: Our Lady, way back in 1917, said that sexual sins (not just actions, but thoughts, glances, reading, watching, looking, talking, etc.) are the sins that damn the most souls in this modern era. She said that long before the advent of television, internet, social media, widespread books and magazines, popular music, modern fashions, modern dancing, beachwear, etc. When the three children of Fatima asked Our Lady about the whereabouts of their friend Amelia—who had recently died aged around 18—Our Lady said that she would have to burn in Purgatory until the end of the world! Amelia’s sin? She was known to have been a little immodest (in 1917!!) and perhaps guilty of some impurity (1917)—how much worse is 102 years later, in 2019!!! How much more guilty are we today than Amelia was in 1917!
Our Appetites Have Increased!
Back in 1917, there was very little to have and to own by way of possessions—compared to weeds and cockle that is available to the common person today, in 2019. The variety and quantity of food was far, far less than what is available in the stores today. There were no electronic goods, gizmos and convenient electrical appliances in 1917. In 1882 Thomas Edison helped form the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, which brought electric light to parts of Manhattan, Ney York―but only one square mile and not for everyone within that square mile― there were 85 customers with a total of 400 light bulbs between them, served by 6 jumbo generators. Progress was slow. Most Americans still lit their homes with gas light and candles for another fifty years. In 1925, only around half of all homes in the U.S. had electric power. If you lived in town in the 1930s, your house had probably electricity. In town, the more affluent families started using electric stoves, coffee makers, waffle irons, hot plates, electric roasters, and Waring Blenders during the 1930s. But if you lived in a farmhouse in the country, you did not have electricity.
The Sinful Daughters of Electricity
Once electricity arrived on the scene, it quickly gave birth to a large family, many of whom were the seductive occasions of sin. Television or TV is one example. Television sales took-off in the late 1940s, following the start of individual stations in the largest cities. Only in such heavily populated places was the relatively high cost of starting and operating a TV station considered economically viable. TV set ownership thus initially possessed a big-city or, more accurately, metropolitan-area bias. Yet do not for one second imagine that every household had a TV set! There were ONLY around 102,000 TV sets in the ENTIRE United States in early 1948, two-thirds of those TV sets were in the New York area, from which most of the first TV stations operated.
Another child of electricity was the PC (personal computer). Home computers were entering the market as a rarity in 1977, and becoming common during the 1980s. Yet in those ‘ancient’ days, much like electricity when it first became available to homes, only a few households had a computer. It was a rarity, unlike today. The first “mainframe” computers—too large for any home—would soon give birth to smaller computers, leading to the desktop computer, then the laptop computer, and then the computerized phones and tablets. The computer, though not an evil in itself, was to be the platform or forerunner of a series of ‘children’ or offspring, who would imitate it and build upon it—namely, the Internet, the Smartphone, computer Tablets, computer TV sets or Smart-TVs, etc.
A later child of electricity was the Internet. On August 6th, 1991, the World Wide Web became publicly available—and what a web it has become! How many souls in Hell owe their presence there to the Internet? Not a few! The Internet—even though it has a FEW good qualities—has brought about LOTS of sin in general, and immodesty and impurity in particular—into the home (much like the TV).
All of these electronic “conveniences” have become a very convenient way for the devil and the world to bring the spirit of the world—which is not the spirit of God—into the home today. If “eyes are the window of the soul”—then these electronic gizmos (TV, Cable TV, Satellite TV, Streaming TV, Smart TV, Computer, Laptop, Tablet, Smartphone, etc. loaded with the Internet and its offspring of Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, DeviantArt, BeMyEyes, NextDoor, etc.), then these electronic gizmos have become “the windows of the home”—and those windows are left open day and night! It is not for nothing that one of the major computer platforms is called “WINDOWS”! Thus does the sowing of wild oats begin with these seeds being sowed without hindrance.
Open Windows and Open Doors!
Parents used to take vigilant care on whom they allowed to enter their homes, for the sake of protecting the morals of their children—now, with these electronic gizmos, they and their children are open to invasion by anyone and anything, regardless of trying to take ‘preventative’ measures to protect the morals of the home from the immorality in the world. We are not just talking about sexual immorality, but of worldliness in general and a whole host of attitudes in particular, that cover topics such as bad language, bad music and lyrics, immodest dress, the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, greed, gluttony, anger, lust, envy, sloth), lying, mockery, materialism in general, erroneous philosophies of life, indifference to God and religion, questioning and doubting of the Faith, indirect and direct exposure to false religions, promotion of atheism and sinful lifestyles, etc. Consequently, the seeds of wild oats are sown and start to sprout, grow roots, and spread out and grow bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper.
If all of this does not please and appeal to the Catholic, it will still, nevertheless, gradually weaken the Faith―on the basis of the principle or axiom of: “You cannot place and leave clothes in a smoky room, without them gradually taking on the smell of smoke”—much like you cannot continue to peel onions without your hands taking on the smell of onions. Even if the Catholic miraculously (by God’s grace) escapes drinking-in the mortal sins from these electronic gizmos, the Catholic will nevertheless drink-in many poisonous venial sins and be gradually “desensitized” and “acclimatized” to sin and worldliness in general. Living among all the present opulence and wealth of the world, gazing at all the so-called “goodies” in the stores and malls, only serves to feed our appetite for all those things, which we begin to desire and seek. This is what Our Lord means, when explaining the parable of the Sower of Seed, in referring to the seeds of the word of God that bear no fruit because either the birds of the air take the seeds away, or they fall on stony ground, or among thorns and weeds.
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day, Catholic Aren’t Corrupted in a Day
As they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and neither is the Catholic corrupted in a day. Yet that corruption or sowing of wild oats—you had better believe it—is planned and put into effect by the devil and world. Our Lord does not call the devil “the prince of this world” for no reason at all! If he is a prince—rather than a mere citizen—then he has power, and he uses that power well, as we see from the fact that most souls are lost and end up being eternal citizens of that prince in his real princedom—Hell. Why on earth (or should we say, why the hell) does Holy Scripture say: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). We need to be reminded of this again and again and again―because we are falling into that (pleasant) trap again and again and again!
The World is Not a Friend, But an Enemy
Holy Scripture says these things because God know that our ENEMY is the WORLD—which is why Our Lord pointed-out: “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18-19). Yet, strangely enough, we DO NOT hate the world! We actually LIKE THE WORLD! We seek to MARRY THE WORLD to our Faith and its beliefs! Yet, this is NOT POSSIBLE, as Holy Scripture clearly states: “Children of Belial are gone out of the midst of thee and have said: ‘Let us go, and serve strange gods which you know not!’” (Deuteronomy 13:13) … “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
Separation of Church and State, But No Separation of Catholic from the World
We naively or ignorantly accept the irreligious principle of “Separation of State from Church”, but we refuse to accept the religious principle of separating ourselves from the world. God says: “What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). Yet we DO NOT separate ourselves from—and make all kinds of specious excuses for not separating ourselves as much as possible. Today, the temples of Belial (the stores or screens of TV, computer or smartphone) are filled with glistening-eyed worshipers. They drool before the altars (store-shelves or TV and computer or smartphone screens) of those temples which are filled with “the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).
This is nothing new! The Chosen People of old—during the Exodus from Egypt—did the very same thing. They became tired of the mortification of the desert wilderness, that God had led them into on their way to the Promised Land, just as we get tired of being spiritual in the desert wilderness of worldliness. They hankered after the “fleshpots” of Egypt and wanted to turn back—as we will hanker after the things of the world that we may have left during the upcoming Lent and want to indulge in them all over again. They, so to speak, sowed their wild oats by building their golden calf in the desert and were severely punished for that—and do we expect to go unpunished for loving our “golden calves” more than we love God?
St. Paul warns us of repeating that grave mistake: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea. And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was [a figure of] Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert. Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’ Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. Let no temptation take hold on you!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-13).
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
You say: “Of course—I know all this! I’ve heard countless times before! I don’t need to be told of it over again, and again, and again!” Of course you know this! Yet when you drive your car—and you are heading down a steep hill—do you merely apply the brakes only once (at the top of the hill), or do you keep the pressing the brake-pedal down continually, or at least press it down “again and again and again”? We, in this most materialistic and most affluent age in all of the world’s history, are heading down a very steep hill—and we are going down very fast—accelerating with each year! “Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat!” (Matthew 7:13). If you do not want to crash through the gates of Hell, then the brakes must be applied and the horn must be sounded―“again and again and again”! Road signs that warn of dangers are left up day and night―and are not just posted for a day or two―so that we might see them “again and again and again”!
Holy Scripture says: “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:1-4). So we preach “in season and out of season”.
Today’s Sexagesima Sunday’s Gospel speaks of sowing the seed. No doubt you have also heard of the expression about a person “sowing their wild oats.” What is this seed? What are those wild oats? The first question is answered by Our Lord Himself, Who says that the seed is the Word of God. The second question―about sowing wild oats―has a double meaning. One is literal and agricultural in meaning; the other is metaphorical and has an immoral meaning.
Wild Weeds and Wild Behavior
The literal and agricultural meaning of “sowing wild oats” refers to a European species of grass―botanically called Avena fatua, which the English have been calling “wild oats” for centuries. Botanists are of the opinion that these “wild oats” are the origin of cultivated oats. Farmers, since ancient times, have detested these “wild oats” because they are nothing but a useless weed, whose seeds have always been difficult to separate from those of useful cereals. Consequently, these “wild oats” have survived and multiply from year to year. The only way to remove it was by hand-weeding it. Modern seed cleaning and selective weed-killers have not really solved the problem in our days―for it still exists.
The metaphorical and immoral meaning of “sowing wild oats” refers to activities that are either immoral or a pure waste of time with little or no fruit coming from them. Hence, the expression of a “young man sowing his wild oats” came to be applied to those who “frittered away their time in stupid or idle pastimes.” Or as one writer puts it: “There’s a strong sexual association here, too, because the phrase was often applied, in a more or less indulgent way, and always to young men, to what was politely referred to as youthful dissipation. The associations between male sexual activity and sowing seed are obvious enough.”
It is asserted that the expression goes back to Roman times, with a certain Roman, called Plautus, thought to be the originator of the phrase. In the English language, it was apparently first used by the Norfolk Protestant clergyman Thomas Becon, in 1542. Later, in 1869, Louisa May Alcott used the expression in her book, Little Women, saying: “Boys will be boys, young men must sow their wild oats, and women must not expect miracles”―by which she seems to give the expression as one of time-wasting, trivial, pointless, infantile or stupid activities.
Our Lady on Wild Oats and Wild Behavior
You could say that Our Lady speaks of the same ‘wild behavior’ when she says: “As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of morals. From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! The Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education .… acting thus to snare many into sin, and will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world!” (Our Lady of Good Success).
These words of Our Lady of Good Success are reiterated and compounded by Our Lady at Fatima, when she revealed that the sins that damn most souls are the sins of the flesh―sins of impurity in either thought, word or deed―which deeply affected little St. Jacinta Marto, to whom Our Lady―in three private apparitions―revealed that “More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason” … “Certain fashions will be introduced that will offend Our Lord very much” … “Woe to women lacking in modesty” and that “The Mother of God wants more virgin souls bound by the vow of chastity.”
All of this is just the tip of the iceberg of “sowing one’s wild oats”―for it is not just sexual sins that damn souls, but a whole host of other ‘weeds’ or ‘wild oats’ that choke the life out of the soul. The list itself is generally summarized by the Ten Commandments―but the Ten Commandments are merely ‘chapter headings’ that have an awful lot of detail in their chapters, as anyone who has read a Moral Theology manual will tell you. If you like, the Ten Commandments are like the names of ten countries―but within each country there are millions of people, more or less alike, speaking the same language, but each one different to everyone else in one way or another.
Yet today, everyone seems to sowing more seeds of sin than seeds of virtue! It will not end well!
Sowing What Seed?
God, through His Church, has provided us with many seeds of knowledge, graces and virtues. But unless that seed is planted and makes us die to the world, we will bear no fruit. “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:24-25). “The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32).
We have a choice in whether to be Marthas or Marys. We can be busy with the world, or busy with Our Lord. Each choice has its inescapable consequences. As we sow, so shall we reap. To those who sow their seed in the world, it will be said: “Because thou hast forgotten God thy Savior, thou shalt sow strange seed” (Isaias 17:10); “Thou shalt sow, but shalt not reap” (Micheas 6:15) ... “You shall sow your seed in vain, which shall be devoured by your enemies” (Leviticus 26:16).
Jesus spoke of those who were too preoccupied with the world and were thus unable to see the mysteries of God: “And the prophecy of Isaias is fulfilled in them, who saith: ‘By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive .For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear” (Matthew 13:14-16).
The Parable of the Sower of the Seed
Explaining the Parable of the Sower of the Seed, Jesus tells His Apostles that the seed is the Word of God. He then continues (here follow both the accounts by St. Matthew and St. Mark):
“Hear you therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, there cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart: this is he that received the seed by the way side. And he that received the seed upon stony ground, is he that heareth the word, and immediately receiveth it with joy. Yet hath he not root in himself, but is only for a time: and when there ariseth tribulation and persecution because of the word, he is presently scandalized. And he that received the seed among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless. But he that received the seed upon good ground, is he that heareth the word, and understandeth, and beareth fruit, and yieldeth the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty” (Matthew 13:18-23).
“He that soweth, soweth the Word. And these are they by the way side, where the Word is sown, and as soon as they have heard, immediately Satan cometh and taketh away the Word that was sown in their hearts. And these likewise are they that are sown on the stony ground: who, when they have heard the Word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but are only for a time: and then when tribulation and persecution ariseth for the Word, they are presently scandalized. And others there are who are sown among thorns: these are they that hear the Word, and the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things entering in choke the Word, and it is made fruitless. And these are they who are sown upon the good ground, who hear the Word, and receive it, and yield fruit, the one thirty, another sixty, and another a hundred” (Mark 4:14-20).
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting. And in doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we shall reap, not failing. Therefore, whilst we have time, let us work good to all men, but especially to those who are of the household of the Faith” (Galatians 6:7-10). “With the elect thou wilt be elect: and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted” (Psalm 17:27).
We cannot give what we have not got! Therefore, we need to plant that Word of God within us; we need to nurture the mysteries of God what we have seen this Christmas season, which only recently ended (February 2nd); we need to let those seeds sprout in our souls; and water them with our prayers and pluck out any weeds with our sacrifices. It is serious work, it is hard work, it is the work of salvation!
Preparing the Plant for “Hardening-Off”
“Hardening off” is the process of moving plants outdoors for a portion of the day to gradually introduce them to the direct sunlight, dry air, and cold nights. Young, pampered seedlings that were grown either indoors or in a greenhouse need a period to adjust and acclimate to outdoor conditions, prior to planting in the garden.
Hardening-off gradually exposes the tender plants to wind, sun and rain and toughens them up by thickening the cuticle on the leaves so that the leaves lose less water. This helps prevent transplant shock; seedlings that languish, become stunted or die from sudden changes in temperature. Hardening-off times depend on the type of plants that are being grown and the temperature and temperature fluctuations.
The same is true for our spiritual life. Advent was a time for preparing the soil of the soul. Christmas was the time of planting the seed of the baby Christ-Child in that prepared soil. Now we have a period of growth, where the feasts and festivities have to give way to the eventual fasting and abstinence of Lent. So we need to adjust, we need that period of “hardening-off” whereby our softness becomes less soft and more ready to bear the harshness of Lent. That Lenten harshness is necessary for the maturity of our spiritual plant, the soul, in order for it to bring forth the fruit required by God, once it is watered by the grace of the Holy Ghost after Pentecost.
Faith is a Seed that Must Grow
Our Lord Himself says that the “Word of God” is a “seed” and then delivers the Parable of the Sower of the Seed. Speaking of this “Word of God,” St. Paul says: “I planted, Apollo watered, God gave the increase” (1 Corinthians 3:6). “He took of the seed and put it in the ground, that it might take a firm root: He planted it on the surface of the Earth” (Ezechiel 17:5)—that is to say the Faith was planted on the surface of the Earth; it was also planted in our souls at our Baptism. Yet all around us, in the world that surrounds and which we must live, there is an abundance of wild oats―meaning worldliness.
Our Faith Should Flourish
“They that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish” (Psalm 91:14) and “shall be like a tree, which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off” (Psalm 1:3). “He shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots towards moisture” (Jeremias 17:8). “Planted by the waters” means staying close to Sacraments and grace, which only the one true Faith can supply, while “spreading roots towards moisture” indicates an attraction to the things that give grace — namely, the Sacraments, prayer and other spiritual exercises.
The Mustard Seed of Faith
“Another parable he proposed unto them, saying: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which is the least indeed of all seeds; but when it is grown up, it is greater than all herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof’” (Matthew 13:31-32).
Likewise, our Faith is like a little mustard seed, planted in our souls at Baptism, and which is expected to grow into the proportions of a tree—a Tree of Life, of Eternal Life. This Faith has to be nourished and protected, and if this is done correctly, then we will be amazed at the power of its fruits: “Amen I say to you, if you have Faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, ‘Remove from hence hither!’, and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:19).
What is Your Seed Doing?
“Is the seed as yet sprung up?” (Aggeus 2:20). God expects profit. “I am the true vine; and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me, that beareth not fruit, He will take away: and every one that beareth fruit, He will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine: you the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up, and cast him into the fire, and he burneth. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you shall ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. In this is My Father glorified; that you bring forth very much fruit” (John 15:1-8).
Where is Your Fruit?
This is what God expects of us—as in the Parable of the Talents, which we could just as easily call the Parable of Faith—where our Faith is expected to bear fruit: in one a hundred-fold, in another sixty-fold and another thirty-fold. “Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root: they prosper and bring forth fruit” (Jeremias 12:2). “It was planted in a good ground upon many waters, that it might bring forth branches, and bear fruit, that it might become a large vine” (Ezechiel 17:8). Our Faith is not a pointless gift that allows us to remain idle: “And going out about the third hour, he saw others standing in the market place idle. And he said to them: ‘Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just!’” (Matthew 20:3-4).
Good Fruit and Bad Fruit
However, in the vineyard of the Lord, as well as the vineyard of the world, there are good and bad trees, good seed and seed of wild oats, or as another parable states, Wheat and Cockle. God has planted, but the enemy has corrupted: “I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then art thou turned unto Me into that which is good for nothing” (Jeremias 2:21).
“Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it! Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them” (Matthew 7:13-20).
Wheat and Cockle
The parable of the Wheat and the Cockle could easily be called the parable of the Seed of God and the Seed of Wild Oats. “Another parable He proposed to them, saying: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and over-sowed cockle among the wheat and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. And the servants of the good man of the house coming said to him: “Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Whence then hath it cockle?” And he said to them: “An enemy hath done this!” And the servants said to him: “Wilt thou that we go and gather it up?” And he said: “No, lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it. Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and, in the time of the harvest, I will say to the reapers: ‘Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn’” “ (Matthew 13:24-30).
Avoiding the ‘Bad Trees’ and the ‘Cockle’
Our Faith is too precious to risk weakening it or losing it, for in the process we may also lose our souls. The world is an enemy of the Faith: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becometh an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed” (Genesis 3:15). Jesus “was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not” (John 1:10). The world hated Jesus and so it has to hate us also (if we love Jesus)—“If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18-19). “In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Since He is not of this world, He does not pray for this world: “I pray not for the world” (John 17:9)—He simply tries to take souls away from the world and its spirit, which is ultimately the spirit of the devil, so that “all the world may be made subject to God” (Romans 3:19).
The World belongs to the Devil
Jesus refers to the devil as the prince of the world: “The prince of this world cometh, and in Me he hath not any thing” (John 14:30). To the worldly Jews, Our Lord said: “You are from beneath, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you, that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sin” (John 8:23-24). If the world will not listen to the Word of God, and will not accept the Faith―which is symbolized by the seed―then we are told to leave the world behind: “Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words: going forth out of that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet” (Matthew 10:14).
Those who secretly love the world, find this hard to accept, and under a false pretense of desiring the conversion of the world, continue to hang around the world even after having their attempts at conversion rejected. They want to sow the seed of God together with the wild oats of the world. “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). “He that loveth danger shall perish in it” (Ecclesiasticus 3:27). “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal” (John 12:25). Speaking of His true followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world” (John 17:16).
We are explicitly told to stay clear of the world and to flee the world: “Be not conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) … “that we be not condemned with this world” (1 Corinthians 11:32). “And you, in time past, when you were dead in your offenses and sins, you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now works upon the children of unbelief: in which also we all conversed in time past, in the desires of our flesh, fulfilling the will of the flesh and of our thoughts. But God, even when we were dead in sins, hath raised us up together [above this world], and hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:1-6).
Separation from the World is Essential―Sow the Seed of God, Not the World
The field of our soul should be sown solely with the seed of God and not the world―there can be no cross-breeding, only cross carrying. The world is a weed that chokes the seed of God―which is the word of God. The two seeds cannot grow side by side―we cannot serve God and mammon, we cannot grow the seed of God and the world in the same soul. “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: If any man of the children of Israel, or of the strangers, that dwell in Israel, give of his seed to the idol Moloch, dying let him die: the people of the land shall stone him. And I will set My face against him: and I will cut him off from the midst of his people, because he hath given of his seed to Moloch, and hath defiled My sanctuary, and profaned My Holy Name!’” (Leviticus 20:1-3).
Separate the Seeds
God commanded a separation for the Israelites from the heathens and pagans that surrounded them. “Thou shalt not keep company with them” (Isaias 14:20) ... “Who have said to God: ‘Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways!’” (Job 21:14) … “Separate thyself from thy enemies” (Ecclesiasticus 6:13) … “What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. Wherefore, go out from among them, and be ye separate!” (2 Corinthians 6:15-17) ... “Be not seduced: Evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33) … “A corrupt man loveth not one that reproveth him: nor will he go to the wise” (Proverbs 15:12).
St. Paul tells us: “I have written to you, not to keep company, with any man that is named a fornicator, or covetous, or a server of idols, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one, not so much as to eat” (1 Corinthians 5:11). The Liberals of this world are aghast at such intolerant words! St. Paul would again be stoned by the Liberals if he were to come around today. “The Liberal Catholic calls himself a Catholic because he firmly believes Catholicity to be the veritable revelation of the Son of God; he calls himself a Liberal Catholic because he believes that no one can impose upon him any belief which his individual judgment does not measure as perfectly rational. He falls an easy victim to the snare set by the devil for the intellectually proud. As a consequence, he is really not Christian, but pagan. He has no real supernatural Faith, but only a simple human conviction ... Liberals have a horror of any coercive element in matters of Faith; any chastisement of error shocks their tender susceptibilities, and they detest any … intolerance” (Liberalism Is A Sin, Chapter 7).
Liberals Will Not Separate
The disease of Liberalism has penetrated almost every corner of the world and every facet of daily life. What does one do? Can one be at peace with Liberalism? The words of the famous book, Liberalism is a Sin (a book praised and recommended by Rome itself) gives us some answers: “Should Catholics combine with the more moderate Liberals for … resisting the advance of the … extreme Liberals? … Such unions are neither good nor commendable … Liberalism, let its form be as moderated, as wheedling as possible, is by its very essence in direct and radical opposition to Catholicity… Liberals are born enemies of Catholics. … ‘Better seek solitude than bad company.’” (Liberalism Is A Sin, Chapter 30).
“Catholic associations ought chiefly to take care to exclude from amongst themselves, not only those who openly profess the principles of Liberalism, but also those who have deceived themselves into believing that a conciliation between Liberalism and Catholicism is possible, and who are known as Liberal Catholics.” (Liberalism Is A Sin, Chapter 31).
Many of our problems of today stem from the fact that we ignore this advice, and, by our own example and social contacts, we have taught our children to ignore this advice. For many, it is a case of vainly trying to bolt the barn door after the horse has escaped into the world.
If we fail to take to heart this command to separate ourselves and our loved ones from the world, then no matter what other precautions we take, they will merely be ‘Band-Aid’ solutions for a shotgun wound. As the above quote said: “Better seek solitude than bad company.”
What Seeds Have Been Sown in Your Family, Parish, School or Workplace?
As one, long-deceased, very conservative and traditional bishop used to say: “We are all Liberals!”―it is only in degrees of Liberalism that we differ. It is much the same as sin―we are all sinners: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us!” (1 John 1:8)―the only difference is in the degree of sin present in our lives. Liberalism is basically a freedom from authority, a freedom from being told what to do, a freedom of thought, a freedom of conscience, a freedom of action, a freedom of belief. Hence, today’s false theory of Ecumenism is pure Liberalism. Today’s false theory of Religious Freedom is pure Liberalism. Today’s false theory of everyone being equal is pure Liberalism. Today’s focus on Human Rights is pure Liberalism when it ignores and fails to place the Divine Rights of God above all Human Rights. Today’s laws―or so-called ‘laws’―that allow sinful behavior that contradicts the laws of God, are pure Liberalism. There is no love of God in Liberalism for a love of God requires a submission to God and His Laws: “If you love Me, keep My commandments … He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them; he it is that loveth Me … If any one love Me, he will keep My word … He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My words … If you keep My commandments, you shall abide in My love” (John 14:15, 14:21-24; 15:10). Liberalism seeks to escape the keeping of God’s commandments and God’s word―therefore Liberalism is not a love of God, but a hatred of God―varying, of course, according to the degree of Liberalism with which each one us is infected.
Pope Leo XIII writes: “It is a high crime to withdraw allegiance from God, in order to please men, … to break the laws of Jesus Christ, in order to yield obedience to earthly rulers, or, under pretext of keeping the civil law, to ignore the rights of the Church; ‘we ought to obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29) … If the laws of the State are manifestly at variance with the Divine Law, containing enactments hurtful to the Church, or conveying injunctions adverse to the duties imposed by religion, then, truly, to resist becomes a positive duty, to obey would be a crime … Commands that are issued adversely to the honor due to God, and hence are beyond the scope of justice, must be looked upon as anything rather than laws … Human laws can never be set above the Divine Law” (Pope Leo XIII, Encyclical Sapientia Christianae).
Let us not pretend that there are no weeds, no cockle, no wild-oats being sown in our family, or parish, or school or workplace or social field. Once again, the words of Holy Scripture refute us and contradict us―“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He [God] is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him [God] a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). Liberalism is a sin―as irrefutably indicated in the book Liberalism Is A Sin, by Fr. Felix Salvany, and so the Scriptural passage could easily be rephrased to include Liberalism: “If we say that we have no Liberalism within us, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our Liberalism, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our Liberalism, and to cleanse us and weed out our iniquitous Liberalism. If we say that we have no Liberalism, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
The Biggest Weeds, the Wildest Oats
Without any shadow of a doubt, the biggest, greatest and most successful sower of cockle and wild-oats is today’s modern technological media apparatus―the TV, the internet (via computer, laptop, tablet, smartphone), the radio. Through these ‘weapons’ the devil manages to sow his cockle which leads us to “sow our wild oats” in a variety of ways, ranging from wasting time, worldliness, irresponsible behavior, impure imaginations, immoral and impure actions. We are a civilization of time-fritterers, wasting the precious time that God has given us to grow in a knowledge, love and service of Him, by using that time to grown in a knowledge, love and service of the world and all it offers. The eyes are said to be the “windows of the soul” and the ears could be said to be the doors of the soul. The modern media is one long continuous intense onslaught on our eyes and ears. If we would only listen to sermons and read spiritual material for as long as we open our eyes and ears to this media onslaught! Our Lord says that loving God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength is the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38; Luke 10:27)―yet we give our whole heart (or most of it), mind, soul and strength to these media outlets which enter through the inlets of our eyes and ears.
Watching and listening to what is on the screen has become an epidemic of addiction throughout the world. Within the USA people are watching screens of TVs and computers, browsing social media and swiping their lives away on their tablets and smartphones. The market research organization, Nielsen, reported in August of 2018, that an average adult in the USA (Catholic and non-Catholic combined) spends more than 11 hours per day watching, reading, listening to or simply interacting with media. That is a 90 minute daily increase from 2014. The average time spent on computers, tablets and smartphones was just under 4 hours a day. Television remains the most used media outlet, with an average of almost 5 hours a day being consecrated to that worldly tabernacle.
Some people even put their idols on a par with God―taking their smartphones to Mass and using them during Mass, especially during the sermon. Perhaps they are texting God and asking Him to “pull-the-plug” on the sermon! Now, it may well be that they are taking notes of the sermon―which, at a stretch, would be permissible―but it is hard for others to know whether that person is holily taking notes, or if that person is unholily texting or surfing the internet (unless you happen to be sitting right next to them or behind them). Or they may even be recording the sermon―but that does not involve tapping away at the keyboard. Yet, in all honesty, how many persons take notes during sermons, or record sermons. For most people the sermon is too long anyway―and the last thing they want to do is go through the ordeal all over again!
Nevertheless, there are quite a few interruptions during Mass as one Smartphone or another chimes in to add to the worship of God with its own peculiar ‘hymn’―some obnoxious modern-day tune or ringtone. One wonders why a phone cannot be turned off during Mass. Then there is a goodly number of ‘worshipers’ who cannot wait to get out of church once Mass has finished, and pull-out and start using their beloved Smartphone. Their zeal for doing that exceeds their zeal for receiving Holy Communion. Thanksgiving to God after Holy Mass and Holy Communion is pretty far down the list―you have to scroll to the bottom to get there.
God Becomes an Afterthought
Far from loving God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength (Matthew 22:37-38; Luke 10:27), we pat ourselves on the head if we give Him a few minutes a day―and those are often rushed, distracted and half-hearted minutes, of which Our Lord says: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me!” (Matthew 15:8). Most children―especially as they grown older―have little care and little time for God, and parents and teachers care little about trying to uproot that cancerous weed that is choking their hearts.
The Spiritual Loses to the Material
The general tone and flavor of once-spiritual Christian feasts and seasons has been flooded with anti-Christian values of a greedy desire for material goods, and an unmortified indulgence in amusements, entertainment, fun and pleasure, a gluttonous consumption of food and drink—all of which, as the spiritual masters tell us, leads to sexual sins of thought, word and action—because if we do not and cannot control our physical appetites, then this overflows to our sexual appetites, which we find are even more difficult to control. Hence the suitability of our annual Lent―which (until 1966, when Pope gave a 95% discount in Lenten penance) is meant to put a brake on our appetites and force us to practice self-control throughout the Lenten season by 40 days of fasting.
The World Feeds Our Greed and Gluttony
The world is always seeking to feed both our physical and sexual appetites to gratification—and let us face it: Our Lady, way back in 1917, said that sexual sins (not just actions, but thoughts, glances, reading, watching, looking, talking, etc.) are the sins that damn the most souls in this modern era. She said that long before the advent of television, internet, social media, widespread books and magazines, popular music, modern fashions, modern dancing, beachwear, etc. When the three children of Fatima asked Our Lady about the whereabouts of their friend Amelia—who had recently died aged around 18—Our Lady said that she would have to burn in Purgatory until the end of the world! Amelia’s sin? She was known to have been a little immodest (in 1917!!) and perhaps guilty of some impurity (1917)—how much worse is 102 years later, in 2019!!! How much more guilty are we today than Amelia was in 1917!
Our Appetites Have Increased!
Back in 1917, there was very little to have and to own by way of possessions—compared to weeds and cockle that is available to the common person today, in 2019. The variety and quantity of food was far, far less than what is available in the stores today. There were no electronic goods, gizmos and convenient electrical appliances in 1917. In 1882 Thomas Edison helped form the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York, which brought electric light to parts of Manhattan, Ney York―but only one square mile and not for everyone within that square mile― there were 85 customers with a total of 400 light bulbs between them, served by 6 jumbo generators. Progress was slow. Most Americans still lit their homes with gas light and candles for another fifty years. In 1925, only around half of all homes in the U.S. had electric power. If you lived in town in the 1930s, your house had probably electricity. In town, the more affluent families started using electric stoves, coffee makers, waffle irons, hot plates, electric roasters, and Waring Blenders during the 1930s. But if you lived in a farmhouse in the country, you did not have electricity.
The Sinful Daughters of Electricity
Once electricity arrived on the scene, it quickly gave birth to a large family, many of whom were the seductive occasions of sin. Television or TV is one example. Television sales took-off in the late 1940s, following the start of individual stations in the largest cities. Only in such heavily populated places was the relatively high cost of starting and operating a TV station considered economically viable. TV set ownership thus initially possessed a big-city or, more accurately, metropolitan-area bias. Yet do not for one second imagine that every household had a TV set! There were ONLY around 102,000 TV sets in the ENTIRE United States in early 1948, two-thirds of those TV sets were in the New York area, from which most of the first TV stations operated.
Another child of electricity was the PC (personal computer). Home computers were entering the market as a rarity in 1977, and becoming common during the 1980s. Yet in those ‘ancient’ days, much like electricity when it first became available to homes, only a few households had a computer. It was a rarity, unlike today. The first “mainframe” computers—too large for any home—would soon give birth to smaller computers, leading to the desktop computer, then the laptop computer, and then the computerized phones and tablets. The computer, though not an evil in itself, was to be the platform or forerunner of a series of ‘children’ or offspring, who would imitate it and build upon it—namely, the Internet, the Smartphone, computer Tablets, computer TV sets or Smart-TVs, etc.
A later child of electricity was the Internet. On August 6th, 1991, the World Wide Web became publicly available—and what a web it has become! How many souls in Hell owe their presence there to the Internet? Not a few! The Internet—even though it has a FEW good qualities—has brought about LOTS of sin in general, and immodesty and impurity in particular—into the home (much like the TV).
All of these electronic “conveniences” have become a very convenient way for the devil and the world to bring the spirit of the world—which is not the spirit of God—into the home today. If “eyes are the window of the soul”—then these electronic gizmos (TV, Cable TV, Satellite TV, Streaming TV, Smart TV, Computer, Laptop, Tablet, Smartphone, etc. loaded with the Internet and its offspring of Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Instagram, DeviantArt, BeMyEyes, NextDoor, etc.), then these electronic gizmos have become “the windows of the home”—and those windows are left open day and night! It is not for nothing that one of the major computer platforms is called “WINDOWS”! Thus does the sowing of wild oats begin with these seeds being sowed without hindrance.
Open Windows and Open Doors!
Parents used to take vigilant care on whom they allowed to enter their homes, for the sake of protecting the morals of their children—now, with these electronic gizmos, they and their children are open to invasion by anyone and anything, regardless of trying to take ‘preventative’ measures to protect the morals of the home from the immorality in the world. We are not just talking about sexual immorality, but of worldliness in general and a whole host of attitudes in particular, that cover topics such as bad language, bad music and lyrics, immodest dress, the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, greed, gluttony, anger, lust, envy, sloth), lying, mockery, materialism in general, erroneous philosophies of life, indifference to God and religion, questioning and doubting of the Faith, indirect and direct exposure to false religions, promotion of atheism and sinful lifestyles, etc. Consequently, the seeds of wild oats are sown and start to sprout, grow roots, and spread out and grow bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper.
If all of this does not please and appeal to the Catholic, it will still, nevertheless, gradually weaken the Faith―on the basis of the principle or axiom of: “You cannot place and leave clothes in a smoky room, without them gradually taking on the smell of smoke”—much like you cannot continue to peel onions without your hands taking on the smell of onions. Even if the Catholic miraculously (by God’s grace) escapes drinking-in the mortal sins from these electronic gizmos, the Catholic will nevertheless drink-in many poisonous venial sins and be gradually “desensitized” and “acclimatized” to sin and worldliness in general. Living among all the present opulence and wealth of the world, gazing at all the so-called “goodies” in the stores and malls, only serves to feed our appetite for all those things, which we begin to desire and seek. This is what Our Lord means, when explaining the parable of the Sower of Seed, in referring to the seeds of the word of God that bear no fruit because either the birds of the air take the seeds away, or they fall on stony ground, or among thorns and weeds.
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day, Catholic Aren’t Corrupted in a Day
As they say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” and neither is the Catholic corrupted in a day. Yet that corruption or sowing of wild oats—you had better believe it—is planned and put into effect by the devil and world. Our Lord does not call the devil “the prince of this world” for no reason at all! If he is a prince—rather than a mere citizen—then he has power, and he uses that power well, as we see from the fact that most souls are lost and end up being eternal citizens of that prince in his real princedom—Hell. Why on earth (or should we say, why the hell) does Holy Scripture say: “Know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). “Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). We need to be reminded of this again and again and again―because we are falling into that (pleasant) trap again and again and again!
The World is Not a Friend, But an Enemy
Holy Scripture says these things because God know that our ENEMY is the WORLD—which is why Our Lord pointed-out: “If the world hate you, know ye, that it hath hated Me before you. If you had been of the world, the world would love its own: but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (John 15:18-19). Yet, strangely enough, we DO NOT hate the world! We actually LIKE THE WORLD! We seek to MARRY THE WORLD to our Faith and its beliefs! Yet, this is NOT POSSIBLE, as Holy Scripture clearly states: “Children of Belial are gone out of the midst of thee and have said: ‘Let us go, and serve strange gods which you know not!’” (Deuteronomy 13:13) … “Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
Separation of Church and State, But No Separation of Catholic from the World
We naively or ignorantly accept the irreligious principle of “Separation of State from Church”, but we refuse to accept the religious principle of separating ourselves from the world. God says: “What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Wherefore, ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17). Yet we DO NOT separate ourselves from—and make all kinds of specious excuses for not separating ourselves as much as possible. Today, the temples of Belial (the stores or screens of TV, computer or smartphone) are filled with glistening-eyed worshipers. They drool before the altars (store-shelves or TV and computer or smartphone screens) of those temples which are filled with “the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:16).
This is nothing new! The Chosen People of old—during the Exodus from Egypt—did the very same thing. They became tired of the mortification of the desert wilderness, that God had led them into on their way to the Promised Land, just as we get tired of being spiritual in the desert wilderness of worldliness. They hankered after the “fleshpots” of Egypt and wanted to turn back—as we will hanker after the things of the world that we may have left during the upcoming Lent and want to indulge in them all over again. They, so to speak, sowed their wild oats by building their golden calf in the desert and were severely punished for that—and do we expect to go unpunished for loving our “golden calves” more than we love God?
St. Paul warns us of repeating that grave mistake: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea. And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was [a figure of] Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert. Now these things were done in a figure of us, that we should not covet evil things as they also coveted. Neither become ye idolaters, as some of them, as it is written: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play!’ Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ: as some of them tempted, and perished by the serpents. Neither do you murmur as some of them murmured, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall. Let no temptation take hold on you!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-13).
Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!
You say: “Of course—I know all this! I’ve heard countless times before! I don’t need to be told of it over again, and again, and again!” Of course you know this! Yet when you drive your car—and you are heading down a steep hill—do you merely apply the brakes only once (at the top of the hill), or do you keep the pressing the brake-pedal down continually, or at least press it down “again and again and again”? We, in this most materialistic and most affluent age in all of the world’s history, are heading down a very steep hill—and we are going down very fast—accelerating with each year! “Broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat!” (Matthew 7:13). If you do not want to crash through the gates of Hell, then the brakes must be applied and the horn must be sounded―“again and again and again”! Road signs that warn of dangers are left up day and night―and are not just posted for a day or two―so that we might see them “again and again and again”!
Holy Scripture says: “Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time, when they will not endure sound doctrine; but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:1-4). So we preach “in season and out of season”.
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Friday February 22nd & Saturday February 23rd
Article 4
If You Won’t Look After the Church―The Church Won’t Look After You!
Article 4
If You Won’t Look After the Church―The Church Won’t Look After You!
Who’s Your Mother?
You have, no doubt, heard the saying: “Everyone loves their mother!” Generally, that is true―unless the mother has been particularly cruel, nasty and abusive. By analogy, it is also said: “The father is the head of the family and the mother is the heart of the family.” We also speak of loving with our hearts and not with our heads! The head is a symbol of thought and the heart is a symbol of love―hence we also say that the man tends to lean towards being logical and the woman tends more towards feelings and emotions. Mothers tend to be closer to the hearts of their children than their fathers due to the fact that it was the mother who carried the child day and night in her womb; it was the mother who nursed the baby after it was born; it was the mother who spent more hours with the infant than the father; it was the mother who usually tended to the sick child; it was the mother who usually made the meals that fed the family, etc.
Looking at the negative aspects of life, a child born out of wedlock is usually under the care of the mother. In cases of failed marriages, it is usually the mother who retains custody of the children. In times of danger, the mother vehemently seeks to protect her children, even to the point of sacrificing her safety or even her life.
The Connection of Mother and Church
Today, February 22nd, we celebrate the feast of The Chair of St. Peter. Today’s feast used to be two separate feasts―one commemorating St. Peter’s Chair at Rome on January 18th, and one commemorating his Chair at Antioch on February 22nd. The two were combined and are now celebrated as one feast today. Yes, there is a physical object known as “the Chair of St. Peter”― is located in the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Catholic Encyclopedia states: “We conclude, therefore, that there is no reason for doubting the genuineness of the relic preserved at the Vatican, and known as the ‘Cathedra Petri’.”
The Chair of Peter naturally brings to mind the thought and image of the Church―for it is to Peter that Our Lord said: “Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon Earth, it shall be bound also in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon Earth, it shall be loosed also in Heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19).
The Church is a body―the Body of Christ. This theology is based on several passages in the Bible, where Jesus Christ is seen as the “head” of the body, which is the church, while the “members” of the body are seen as members of the Church: “Christ is the head of the Church” (Ephesians 5:23). “He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn” (Colossians 1:18). “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Romans 12:5). “His body, which is the Church” (Colossians 1:24). “For as the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free; and in one Spirit we have all been made to drink. For the body also is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were the eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God hath set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased Him. And if they all were one member, where would be the body? But now there are many members indeed, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand: ‘I need not thy help!’ nor again the head to the feet: ‘I have no need of you!’ Yea, much more those that seem to be the more feeble members of the body, are more necessary. And such as we think to be the less honorable members of the body, about these we put more abundant honor; and those that are our uncomely parts, have more abundant comeliness. But our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, giving to that which wanted the more abundant honor, that there might be no schism in the body; but the members might be mutually careful one for another. And if one member suffer any thing, all the members suffer with it; or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the Body of Christ, and members of member” (1 Corinthians 12:12–27). “It is now revealed to His holy Apostles and Prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body, and co-partners of His promise in Christ Jesus, by the Gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
The Womb of the Church
The Church―the Mystical Body of Christ―can be looked upon as a womb, in which children are conceived (baptized) and nourished (by the Holy Eucharist and the Word of God) and trained (confirmed) to be soldiers of Christ to fight for and defend Holy Mother Church against all attacks―both physical (persecutions) and intellectual (heresies and errors).
We often hear the Church referred to as “Sancta Mater Ecclesia” or “Holy Mother Church.” We speak of Protestants having “strayed” and needing to return “home” to “Holy Mother Church.” In literature, the Roman Catholic Church is referred to as the Holy Mother Church in Cervantes’ Don Quixote (Chapter XXVII), Scott’s Ivanhoe (Chapter II), Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Chapter XXV), Shakespeare’s King John (Act III, Scene 1), and many other works of literature.
Our Lady―the Blessed Mother of God―is a symbol of the Church. She is the microcosm of the macrocosm which is the Church. Microcosm and Macrocosm refers to a vision of things (or cosmos) where the smaller part (microcosm) reflects the greater whole (macrocosm) and vice versa. For example, as in a small group of individuals such as a Catholic family (microcosm) whose behavior is typical of a larger social body such as the Parish (macrocosm) in which they live. Or, if you take the family as being the macrocosm, each individual family member is a microcosm that reflects the whole family macrocosm. You will see children reflect the attitudes and behaviors of their parents; students reflect their teachers―hence we say: “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you what you are!” Or, “You are what you eat!”―in the sense that healthy people more often than not reflect healthy eating habits. As doctors say: “We eat ourselves into disease!” Our Lady reflects what the true Church should be like―and the Church should reflect Our Lady in the way it lives and conducts itself.
If we live in a way that reflects the mind and heart of the Church, then the Church will be our protection, safeguard and refuge. What Holy Scripture says of God, is also true of the Church―which is the Spouse or Bride of God: “Be not deceived, God [and the Church] is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).
It Comes In Threes
They say “It comes in threes!” We have three Persons in one God, three members of the Holy Family, three Theological Virtues, three elements to each family (father, mother, child). Our Lady has a triple relationship with the Holy Trinity―she is the daughter of the Father, the mother of the Son and the spouse of the Holy Ghost. She lived a triple life on Earth―as a single woman, as a married woman and as a widowed woman. The Canaanite woman asks Our Lord for help three times and is refused by Our Lord three times. Our Lord gives us the “three strikes and you’re out” rule in correcting others―first privately, then with one or two witnesses, then with the Church. The Church still uses this by giving three solemn warnings before an excommunication. Our Lord was transfigured amongst a threesome―Himself, Elias and Moses. The family that Jesus loved had three members―Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary Magdalen. Our Lord had three favorite Apostles―Peter James and John. Our Lord was betrayed three times by St. Peter and after His resurrection Our Lord asks Peter three times if Peter loves Him. It is traditionally held that three nails were driven into Our Lord at His crucifixion. There were three crucifixes on Calvary and three main persons at the foot of Our Lord’s cross―His Mother, St. John and St. Mary Magdalen. After His death, Jesus was in the tomb over the course of three days. We have the three locations in the after life―Heaven, Purgatory and Hell. The Angels are divided into three groups and then subdivided into three further groups―giving us the nine choirs of angels. There is an abundance of other “threes” throughout Scripture―the purpose here is not to list them all, but merely to point out the fact.
In the Church, the number “three” continues to play an important part. We have three participants in Baptism―the baby, the godfather and the godmother. There are three Sacraments that impart to us an indelible mark and character―Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders. There are three basic states in life―married laity, single laity and some form of the religious life (priest, deacon, brother, sister, monk or nun). Our sins of commission and omission are of three basic kinds―things we did or not think; things we did or did not say; things we did or did not do. There are three essential requirements for a sin to classified as being a mortal sin―the thing itself must be serious, we must personally know that it is a serious thing at the time of committing the sin, and we must fully want to do it. In the Rosary, we have the traditional centuries old division into three groups of mysteries―Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious. In our prayer life, we make the three acts of Faith, Hope and Charity―which are the only three ways in which a person can relate to God. At the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Extraordinary Rite, i.e. Latin Mass), we say three times: “mea culpa” or “through my fault”. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has three essential parts―the Offertory, the Canon (containing the Consecration), and the Communion. Also during Mass, we have the three-times-three Kyrie/Christe/Kyrie Eleison and the triple Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) at the end of the Preface. Before Holy Communion, we say the prayer “Lord I not worthy, etc.” three times. Before ridiculous changes were made, the obligatory fast before receiving Holy Communion was of three hours and was binding under pain of mortal sin. We have sacred Triduum (Three Days) during Holy Week―Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. There is also the requirement by Canon Law for three banns of marriage to be proclaimed by the local church before any Catholic can get married. The pope used to wear a triple tiara―which reflected his power to govern, to teach and to make laws. Inadvertently, even fallen-away sinners worship in “threes”―for the only time you see them in church is at baptisms, marriages and funerals! Again, there is an abundance of other “threes” throughout the Liturgy, Sacraments and Canon Law―the purpose here is not to list them all, but merely to point out the fact.
The Spiritual Life is also loaded with “threes”―from its very foundation upwards. We have the Three Ways or Three Ages or Three Stages (call them what you will) of the Spiritual or Interior Life:
(1) The Way of Beginners―also called the Purgative Way
(2) The Way of the Proficient―also called the Illuminative Way
(3) The Way of the Perfect―also called the Unitive Way.
The point is that EVERYONE MUST pass through ALL of these three stages before they are admitted to Heaven―the only exceptions being deaths of baptized infants before they reach the age of reason and martyrdom. We also have the triple Baptism―baptism by water, baptism by blood and baptism by desire. Let it be said that baptism by desire is not the loose, open-ended, loophole that some people, by stretching or distorting the truth, like to apply to almost every Tom, Dick or Harry (notice the “three” in Tom, Dick and Harry!).
The Water of Grace
In living our spiritual or interior life, we must remember that without God and His grace we can do nothing: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5)―thus we have three elements in all that we do: God, His grace and ourselves. It is the Church that Christ has chosen and constructed to be the chief channel for His grace: “Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church!” (Matthew 16:18). Water is a symbol of grace and that is why we are baptized with water. Holy Mother Church provides us with holy water, which is a sacramental and therefore a source of grace. Besides being able to bless (make) holy water at any time, the Church has special moments where water is more solemnly blessed―such as blessing of water during the Paschal Vigil ceremony and on the eve of the Epiphany. The holy water is used during the blessing of persons, objects and homes, used during exorcisms, used at certain solemn Masses, used during processions, used upon the sick, etc. Holy Mother Church is a fountain of water―a source of grace―for all who come to her: “Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever! But the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting” (John 4:13-14).
No Life Without Water
It needs no mentioning how important water is for life. We can survive without food far longer than we can survive without water. A person can last for more than three weeks without food, but nowhere near as long without water. Water helps lubricate our joints, regulates body temperature by means of sweating and respiration, and helps flush-out waste. The experts vary in their opinions, but the general opinion is that we cannot survive longer than around 100 hours (4 days = 96 hours) without water. If only a little water is available, then it will not save life, but only delay inevitable death. Where outdoor temperatures are mild, it is estimated that a person could endure 100 hours without water. If it is cooler, you can last for a little longer. If you are in high temperatures and in direct sunlight, then it is less―for in extreme temperatures, the body can sweat as much as 2 to 3 pints per hour! Of course, all of these estimates will differ according to each individual, the amount of activity undergone and one’s general health.
The Effects of Dehydration
If even you manage to survive a prolonged time of being deprived of water or having less water than the body needs daily, you will not survive without various detrimental side-effects taking place due to varying levels of dehydration. Every year, American hospitals deal with around 500,000 persons due to dehydration. Around 10,000 of that number die in hospital.
The effects of dehydration depend upon how much water you have lost. If you lose 3% to 4% of your body weight due to fluid depletion, then you merely feel “off” and not in your best shape, though there may not be any clearly identifiable symptoms yet. If you lose around 5% to 6% of your body weight through fluid loss, then you can experience thirst, fatigue, dizziness and headaches, leading to muscles cramping―as is experienced by some athletes, especially long-distance runners. A 7% to 10% loss cannot be ignored. At this level blood pressure drops, the pulse might race, normal urination frequency decreases, prodded skin loses its “bounce-back” capacity, and vomiting can occur. Five or more hours at this level requires an emergency room visit. Severe dehydration begins when 11% to 15% of the body weight is lost due to fluid depletion. At this point, if fluid loss is severe enough, electrolyte abnormalities can lead to seizures and later death― symptoms include pale, cool and clammy skin; a rapid heartbeat; and shallow breathing. Heart muscles can begin to spasm, creating an arrhythmia (abnormal heartbeat), the heart cannot pump enough blood to the body, leading to hypovolemic shock, which can kill a person. Emergency medical treatment is necessary at this stage, to obtain intravenous rehydration. If you lose 16% to 25% percent of your total body weight to fluid depletion, death is highly likely if you cannot rehydrate yourself or get assistance. Prolonged or frequent occurrences of severe dehydration can severely affect the kidneys, causing kidney stones or eventually kidney failure.
Grace Dehydration
Since water is a symbol of grace, we can find symptoms similar to dehydration in the life of grace―you could call it “grace dehydration” or “degraciation”―with venial sin and lukewarmness being the early stages or symptoms of “grace dehydration” and death coming on with mortal sin. Our interior life, our spiritual life―the only real true life that brings any real and lasting reward―is a life of grace. We normally receive that first grace at our Baptism, where the priest says during the ceremony: “Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, has freely called him (her) (them) to His holy grace and blessed way and to the waters of Baptism.” … “Thus will they be made ready for the grace of Thy baptism and ever remain ... ready at all times to receive your grace” … “They are purified in the grace-laden waters” … “Make good use of the grace received in Baptism” … “May they delight in having become by grace what they could not have aspired to by nature.” It is symbolic of grace that water is used―for water washes things clean and water fills up objects and water sustains and promotes life. The baptized has Original Sin and all their personal sins removed; grace is poured into the soul; the Gifts of the Holy Ghost are planted within the soul; the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity come into the soul; the person becomes an adopted child of God and an heir to the kingdom of Heaven! Simple words and actions, but an awesome and powerful result! Yet just like newly planted seeds in a garden―as these gifts have been planted in the soul―they all need to be looked after, tended to, cultivated, nourished and protected so that they can grow and thrive.
As stated above, without God’s grace we can do nothing―grace is everything. Every good thought, word or action owes itself to God’s grace starting the ball rolling: “To every one of us is given grace” (Ephesians 4:7). “Therefore, my son, be strong in grace” (2 Timothy 2:1). “Stir up the grace of God which is in thee!” (2 Timothy 1:6). “And He [Christ] said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee!’” (2 Corinthians 12:9). “By the grace of God, I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all they―yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). “God is able to make all grace abound in you; so that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8) … “having different gifts, according to the grace that is given us” (Romans 12:6). “Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above―coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). “Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace: that we may find grace in seasonable aid” (Hebrews 4:16). “So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace” (1 Corinthians 1:7). “As every man hath received grace … of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10). “Being justified freely by his grace, through … Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24) … “without [Whom] we can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “Who hath delivered us and called us by His holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:9). “For by grace you are saved … and not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). “Trust perfectly in the grace which is offered you!” (1 Peter 1:13). “Grow in grace!” (2 Peter 3:18). “We do exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1). “Neglect not the grace that is in thee!” (1 Timothy 4:14).
You Are a Church
Your soul is like a mini-church―a microcosm of the universal Catholic Church, which is the macrocosm. That is why some saints call our soul a “diocese” of which we are the “bishop” or “pastor” (pastor means “shepherd”). If you take care of your “flock” or your “sheep”, the members of your “diocese”, then they will take care of you and ensure that you are led to eternal life. If Our Lord can say: “The Kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21)―then obviously you can also say: “The Church of God is within you!”―for God’s Kingdom includes His Church. If you don’t believe that, then explain why Holy Scripture says: “Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are!” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). “What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore: ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord. Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
If you love God, then you will be careful about who you allow into your church! In more sane and respectable days, people who were immodestly dressed were barred from entering the church building. Any kind of secular or rowdy behavior is forbidden in the church. You cannot use your laptop, tablet, smartphone, i-Pod or i-Pad in church. You don’t watch TV and videos in church. You don’t listen to modern music―such as pop, rock & roll, heavy metal, blues, jazz, hip-hop, soul, country, reggae, etc.―in church. Why not? Because the church is a sacred place, not a secular place. The same is true of your soul. It was made by God and made for God―remember you catechism? Question: “Who made me?” Answer: “God made me!” Question: “Why did God make me?” Answer: “God made me to know Him, love Him, serve Him in this life and to be happy with Him in the next!” We were made by God and made for God―and God is not of this world! Jesus is not of this world, as He Himself said: “I am from above! You [the worldly minded] are from beneath! You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Speaking of His followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world!” (John 17:16).
What is the ‘church’ of your soul like? Is it a ‘worldly church’ or a ‘heavenly church’―“By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Not everyone that saith to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’ Every one therefore that heareth these my words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof” (Matthew 7:16-27).
Is Your Church Crumbling or Thriving? Are You Looking After Your Church?
Is the church of your soul resting on sand, or is it resting on rock? Will it stand or will it fall? Are you doing ‘church maintenance’ (soul maintenance)? Outside of grace, there is nothing more precious than your soul. As Our Lord said: “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon! Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the clothing? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them! Are not you of much more value than they? … Be not solicitous therefore, saying: ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink? or “With what shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:19-33) and “The Kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21). “Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are!” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
You have, no doubt, heard the saying: “Everyone loves their mother!” Generally, that is true―unless the mother has been particularly cruel, nasty and abusive. By analogy, it is also said: “The father is the head of the family and the mother is the heart of the family.” We also speak of loving with our hearts and not with our heads! The head is a symbol of thought and the heart is a symbol of love―hence we also say that the man tends to lean towards being logical and the woman tends more towards feelings and emotions. Mothers tend to be closer to the hearts of their children than their fathers due to the fact that it was the mother who carried the child day and night in her womb; it was the mother who nursed the baby after it was born; it was the mother who spent more hours with the infant than the father; it was the mother who usually tended to the sick child; it was the mother who usually made the meals that fed the family, etc.
Looking at the negative aspects of life, a child born out of wedlock is usually under the care of the mother. In cases of failed marriages, it is usually the mother who retains custody of the children. In times of danger, the mother vehemently seeks to protect her children, even to the point of sacrificing her safety or even her life.
The Connection of Mother and Church
Today, February 22nd, we celebrate the feast of The Chair of St. Peter. Today’s feast used to be two separate feasts―one commemorating St. Peter’s Chair at Rome on January 18th, and one commemorating his Chair at Antioch on February 22nd. The two were combined and are now celebrated as one feast today. Yes, there is a physical object known as “the Chair of St. Peter”― is located in the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Catholic Encyclopedia states: “We conclude, therefore, that there is no reason for doubting the genuineness of the relic preserved at the Vatican, and known as the ‘Cathedra Petri’.”
The Chair of Peter naturally brings to mind the thought and image of the Church―for it is to Peter that Our Lord said: “Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon Earth, it shall be bound also in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon Earth, it shall be loosed also in Heaven” (Matthew 16:18-19).
The Church is a body―the Body of Christ. This theology is based on several passages in the Bible, where Jesus Christ is seen as the “head” of the body, which is the church, while the “members” of the body are seen as members of the Church: “Christ is the head of the Church” (Ephesians 5:23). “He is the head of the body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn” (Colossians 1:18). “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another” (Romans 12:5). “His body, which is the Church” (Colossians 1:24). “For as the body is one, and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free; and in one Spirit we have all been made to drink. For the body also is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were the eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God hath set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased Him. And if they all were one member, where would be the body? But now there are many members indeed, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand: ‘I need not thy help!’ nor again the head to the feet: ‘I have no need of you!’ Yea, much more those that seem to be the more feeble members of the body, are more necessary. And such as we think to be the less honorable members of the body, about these we put more abundant honor; and those that are our uncomely parts, have more abundant comeliness. But our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, giving to that which wanted the more abundant honor, that there might be no schism in the body; but the members might be mutually careful one for another. And if one member suffer any thing, all the members suffer with it; or if one member glory, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the Body of Christ, and members of member” (1 Corinthians 12:12–27). “It is now revealed to His holy Apostles and Prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and of the same body, and co-partners of His promise in Christ Jesus, by the Gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).
The Womb of the Church
The Church―the Mystical Body of Christ―can be looked upon as a womb, in which children are conceived (baptized) and nourished (by the Holy Eucharist and the Word of God) and trained (confirmed) to be soldiers of Christ to fight for and defend Holy Mother Church against all attacks―both physical (persecutions) and intellectual (heresies and errors).
We often hear the Church referred to as “Sancta Mater Ecclesia” or “Holy Mother Church.” We speak of Protestants having “strayed” and needing to return “home” to “Holy Mother Church.” In literature, the Roman Catholic Church is referred to as the Holy Mother Church in Cervantes’ Don Quixote (Chapter XXVII), Scott’s Ivanhoe (Chapter II), Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (Chapter XXV), Shakespeare’s King John (Act III, Scene 1), and many other works of literature.
Our Lady―the Blessed Mother of God―is a symbol of the Church. She is the microcosm of the macrocosm which is the Church. Microcosm and Macrocosm refers to a vision of things (or cosmos) where the smaller part (microcosm) reflects the greater whole (macrocosm) and vice versa. For example, as in a small group of individuals such as a Catholic family (microcosm) whose behavior is typical of a larger social body such as the Parish (macrocosm) in which they live. Or, if you take the family as being the macrocosm, each individual family member is a microcosm that reflects the whole family macrocosm. You will see children reflect the attitudes and behaviors of their parents; students reflect their teachers―hence we say: “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you what you are!” Or, “You are what you eat!”―in the sense that healthy people more often than not reflect healthy eating habits. As doctors say: “We eat ourselves into disease!” Our Lady reflects what the true Church should be like―and the Church should reflect Our Lady in the way it lives and conducts itself.
If we live in a way that reflects the mind and heart of the Church, then the Church will be our protection, safeguard and refuge. What Holy Scripture says of God, is also true of the Church―which is the Spouse or Bride of God: “Be not deceived, God [and the Church] is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption! But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8).
It Comes In Threes
They say “It comes in threes!” We have three Persons in one God, three members of the Holy Family, three Theological Virtues, three elements to each family (father, mother, child). Our Lady has a triple relationship with the Holy Trinity―she is the daughter of the Father, the mother of the Son and the spouse of the Holy Ghost. She lived a triple life on Earth―as a single woman, as a married woman and as a widowed woman. The Canaanite woman asks Our Lord for help three times and is refused by Our Lord three times. Our Lord gives us the “three strikes and you’re out” rule in correcting others―first privately, then with one or two witnesses, then with the Church. The Church still uses this by giving three solemn warnings before an excommunication. Our Lord was transfigured amongst a threesome―Himself, Elias and Moses. The family that Jesus loved had three members―Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary Magdalen. Our Lord had three favorite Apostles―Peter James and John. Our Lord was betrayed three times by St. Peter and after His resurrection Our Lord asks Peter three times if Peter loves Him. It is traditionally held that three nails were driven into Our Lord at His crucifixion. There were three crucifixes on Calvary and three main persons at the foot of Our Lord’s cross―His Mother, St. John and St. Mary Magdalen. After His death, Jesus was in the tomb over the course of three days. We have the three locations in the after life―Heaven, Purgatory and Hell. The Angels are divided into three groups and then subdivided into three further groups―giving us the nine choirs of angels. There is an abundance of other “threes” throughout Scripture―the purpose here is not to list them all, but merely to point out the fact.
In the Church, the number “three” continues to play an important part. We have three participants in Baptism―the baby, the godfather and the godmother. There are three Sacraments that impart to us an indelible mark and character―Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Orders. There are three basic states in life―married laity, single laity and some form of the religious life (priest, deacon, brother, sister, monk or nun). Our sins of commission and omission are of three basic kinds―things we did or not think; things we did or did not say; things we did or did not do. There are three essential requirements for a sin to classified as being a mortal sin―the thing itself must be serious, we must personally know that it is a serious thing at the time of committing the sin, and we must fully want to do it. In the Rosary, we have the traditional centuries old division into three groups of mysteries―Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious. In our prayer life, we make the three acts of Faith, Hope and Charity―which are the only three ways in which a person can relate to God. At the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Extraordinary Rite, i.e. Latin Mass), we say three times: “mea culpa” or “through my fault”. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has three essential parts―the Offertory, the Canon (containing the Consecration), and the Communion. Also during Mass, we have the three-times-three Kyrie/Christe/Kyrie Eleison and the triple Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy) at the end of the Preface. Before Holy Communion, we say the prayer “Lord I not worthy, etc.” three times. Before ridiculous changes were made, the obligatory fast before receiving Holy Communion was of three hours and was binding under pain of mortal sin. We have sacred Triduum (Three Days) during Holy Week―Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. There is also the requirement by Canon Law for three banns of marriage to be proclaimed by the local church before any Catholic can get married. The pope used to wear a triple tiara―which reflected his power to govern, to teach and to make laws. Inadvertently, even fallen-away sinners worship in “threes”―for the only time you see them in church is at baptisms, marriages and funerals! Again, there is an abundance of other “threes” throughout the Liturgy, Sacraments and Canon Law―the purpose here is not to list them all, but merely to point out the fact.
The Spiritual Life is also loaded with “threes”―from its very foundation upwards. We have the Three Ways or Three Ages or Three Stages (call them what you will) of the Spiritual or Interior Life:
(1) The Way of Beginners―also called the Purgative Way
(2) The Way of the Proficient―also called the Illuminative Way
(3) The Way of the Perfect―also called the Unitive Way.
The point is that EVERYONE MUST pass through ALL of these three stages before they are admitted to Heaven―the only exceptions being deaths of baptized infants before they reach the age of reason and martyrdom. We also have the triple Baptism―baptism by water, baptism by blood and baptism by desire. Let it be said that baptism by desire is not the loose, open-ended, loophole that some people, by stretching or distorting the truth, like to apply to almost every Tom, Dick or Harry (notice the “three” in Tom, Dick and Harry!).
The Water of Grace
In living our spiritual or interior life, we must remember that without God and His grace we can do nothing: “Without Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5)―thus we have three elements in all that we do: God, His grace and ourselves. It is the Church that Christ has chosen and constructed to be the chief channel for His grace: “Thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church!” (Matthew 16:18). Water is a symbol of grace and that is why we are baptized with water. Holy Mother Church provides us with holy water, which is a sacramental and therefore a source of grace. Besides being able to bless (make) holy water at any time, the Church has special moments where water is more solemnly blessed―such as blessing of water during the Paschal Vigil ceremony and on the eve of the Epiphany. The holy water is used during the blessing of persons, objects and homes, used during exorcisms, used at certain solemn Masses, used during processions, used upon the sick, etc. Holy Mother Church is a fountain of water―a source of grace―for all who come to her: “Whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him, shall not thirst for ever! But the water that I will give him, shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting” (John 4:13-14).
No Life Without Water
It needs no mentioning how important water is for life. We can survive without food far longer than we can survive without water. A person can last for more than three weeks without food, but nowhere near as long without water. Water helps lubricate our joints, regulates body temperature by means of sweating and respiration, and helps flush-out waste. The experts vary in their opinions, but the general opinion is that we cannot survive longer than around 100 hours (4 days = 96 hours) without water. If only a little water is available, then it will not save life, but only delay inevitable death. Where outdoor temperatures are mild, it is estimated that a person could endure 100 hours without water. If it is cooler, you can last for a little longer. If you are in high temperatures and in direct sunlight, then it is less―for in extreme temperatures, the body can sweat as much as 2 to 3 pints per hour! Of course, all of these estimates will differ according to each individual, the amount of activity undergone and one’s general health.
The Effects of Dehydration
If even you manage to survive a prolonged time of being deprived of water or having less water than the body needs daily, you will not survive without various detrimental side-effects taking place due to varying levels of dehydration. Every year, American hospitals deal with around 500,000 persons due to dehydration. Around 10,000 of that number die in hospital.
The effects of dehydration depend upon how much water you have lost. If you lose 3% to 4% of your body weight due to fluid depletion, then you merely feel “off” and not in your best shape, though there may not be any clearly identifiable symptoms yet. If you lose around 5% to 6% of your body weight through fluid loss, then you can experience thirst, fatigue, dizziness and headaches, leading to muscles cramping―as is experienced by some athletes, especially long-distance runners. A 7% to 10% loss cannot be ignored. At this level blood pressure drops, the pulse might race, normal urination frequency decreases, prodded skin loses its “bounce-back” capacity, and vomiting can occur. Five or more hours at this level requires an emergency room visit. Severe dehydration begins when 11% to 15% of the body weight is lost due to fluid depletion. At this point, if fluid loss is severe enough, electrolyte abnormalities can lead to seizures and later death― symptoms include pale, cool and clammy skin; a rapid heartbeat; and shallow breathing. Heart muscles can begin to spasm, creating an arrhythmia (abnormal heartbeat), the heart cannot pump enough blood to the body, leading to hypovolemic shock, which can kill a person. Emergency medical treatment is necessary at this stage, to obtain intravenous rehydration. If you lose 16% to 25% percent of your total body weight to fluid depletion, death is highly likely if you cannot rehydrate yourself or get assistance. Prolonged or frequent occurrences of severe dehydration can severely affect the kidneys, causing kidney stones or eventually kidney failure.
Grace Dehydration
Since water is a symbol of grace, we can find symptoms similar to dehydration in the life of grace―you could call it “grace dehydration” or “degraciation”―with venial sin and lukewarmness being the early stages or symptoms of “grace dehydration” and death coming on with mortal sin. Our interior life, our spiritual life―the only real true life that brings any real and lasting reward―is a life of grace. We normally receive that first grace at our Baptism, where the priest says during the ceremony: “Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, has freely called him (her) (them) to His holy grace and blessed way and to the waters of Baptism.” … “Thus will they be made ready for the grace of Thy baptism and ever remain ... ready at all times to receive your grace” … “They are purified in the grace-laden waters” … “Make good use of the grace received in Baptism” … “May they delight in having become by grace what they could not have aspired to by nature.” It is symbolic of grace that water is used―for water washes things clean and water fills up objects and water sustains and promotes life. The baptized has Original Sin and all their personal sins removed; grace is poured into the soul; the Gifts of the Holy Ghost are planted within the soul; the theological virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity come into the soul; the person becomes an adopted child of God and an heir to the kingdom of Heaven! Simple words and actions, but an awesome and powerful result! Yet just like newly planted seeds in a garden―as these gifts have been planted in the soul―they all need to be looked after, tended to, cultivated, nourished and protected so that they can grow and thrive.
As stated above, without God’s grace we can do nothing―grace is everything. Every good thought, word or action owes itself to God’s grace starting the ball rolling: “To every one of us is given grace” (Ephesians 4:7). “Therefore, my son, be strong in grace” (2 Timothy 2:1). “Stir up the grace of God which is in thee!” (2 Timothy 1:6). “And He [Christ] said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee!’” (2 Corinthians 12:9). “By the grace of God, I am what I am; and His grace in me hath not been void, but I have labored more abundantly than all they―yet not I, but the grace of God with me” (1 Corinthians 15:10). “God is able to make all grace abound in you; so that ye always, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8) … “having different gifts, according to the grace that is given us” (Romans 12:6). “Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above―coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1:17). “Let us go therefore with confidence to the throne of grace: that we may find grace in seasonable aid” (Hebrews 4:16). “So that nothing is wanting to you in any grace” (1 Corinthians 1:7). “As every man hath received grace … of the manifold grace of God” (1 Peter 4:10). “Being justified freely by his grace, through … Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24) … “without [Whom] we can do nothing!” (John 15:5). “Who hath delivered us and called us by His holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 1:9). “For by grace you are saved … and not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). “Trust perfectly in the grace which is offered you!” (1 Peter 1:13). “Grow in grace!” (2 Peter 3:18). “We do exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain!” (2 Corinthians 6:1). “Neglect not the grace that is in thee!” (1 Timothy 4:14).
You Are a Church
Your soul is like a mini-church―a microcosm of the universal Catholic Church, which is the macrocosm. That is why some saints call our soul a “diocese” of which we are the “bishop” or “pastor” (pastor means “shepherd”). If you take care of your “flock” or your “sheep”, the members of your “diocese”, then they will take care of you and ensure that you are led to eternal life. If Our Lord can say: “The Kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21)―then obviously you can also say: “The Church of God is within you!”―for God’s Kingdom includes His Church. If you don’t believe that, then explain why Holy Scripture says: “Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are!” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). “What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God; as God saith: ‘I will dwell in them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people!’ Wherefore: ‘Go out from among them, and be ye separate!’ saith the Lord. Bear not the yoke with unbelievers. For what participation hath justice with injustice? Or what fellowship hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever?” (2 Corinthians 6:14-17).
If you love God, then you will be careful about who you allow into your church! In more sane and respectable days, people who were immodestly dressed were barred from entering the church building. Any kind of secular or rowdy behavior is forbidden in the church. You cannot use your laptop, tablet, smartphone, i-Pod or i-Pad in church. You don’t watch TV and videos in church. You don’t listen to modern music―such as pop, rock & roll, heavy metal, blues, jazz, hip-hop, soul, country, reggae, etc.―in church. Why not? Because the church is a sacred place, not a secular place. The same is true of your soul. It was made by God and made for God―remember you catechism? Question: “Who made me?” Answer: “God made me!” Question: “Why did God make me?” Answer: “God made me to know Him, love Him, serve Him in this life and to be happy with Him in the next!” We were made by God and made for God―and God is not of this world! Jesus is not of this world, as He Himself said: “I am from above! You [the worldly minded] are from beneath! You are of this world, I am not of this world!” (John 8:23). Speaking of His followers, Jesus says: “They are not of the world, as I also am not of the world!” (John 17:16).
What is the ‘church’ of your soul like? Is it a ‘worldly church’ or a ‘heavenly church’―“By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them. Not everyone that saith to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven: but he that doth the will of My Father Who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord! Lord! Have not we prophesied in Thy Name, and cast out devils in Thy Name, and done many miracles in Thy Name?’ And then will I profess unto them: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you that work iniquity!’ Every one therefore that heareth these my words, and doth them, shall be likened to a wise man that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. And every one that heareth these my words, and doth them not, shall be like a foolish man that built his house upon the sand, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall thereof” (Matthew 7:16-27).
Is Your Church Crumbling or Thriving? Are You Looking After Your Church?
Is the church of your soul resting on sand, or is it resting on rock? Will it stand or will it fall? Are you doing ‘church maintenance’ (soul maintenance)? Outside of grace, there is nothing more precious than your soul. As Our Lord said: “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). “Lay not up to yourselves treasures on Earth―where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in Heaven―where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also! … No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon! Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the clothing? Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them! Are not you of much more value than they? … Be not solicitous therefore, saying: ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink? or “With what shall we be clothed?’ For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye therefore first the Kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:19-33) and “The Kingdom of God is within you!” (Luke 17:21). “Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are!” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Wednesday February 20th & Thursday February 21st
Article 3
Where Will You Do Your "Boot Camp"? On Earth, Purgatory or Hell?
Article 3
Where Will You Do Your "Boot Camp"? On Earth, Purgatory or Hell?
Boot the “Boot-Camp” Talk!
Why all this talk about “Boot Camps”? Isn’t that a worldly thing? What place have worldly things among spiritual things? That seems like a plausible argument―yet Our Lord would often use examples of worldly things in His parables and draw analogies or lessons from them for the spiritual life. He speaks of seeds, trees, fruits, farms, vineyards, wheat fields, coins, pearls, treasures, sheep, goats, serpents, weddings, banquets, rulers, armies, masters, servants, armies, soldiers, etc. In speaking of “Boot Camps”, the intention is not to canonize “Boot Camps”, but to draw analogies from them that are most fitting, instructional and inspirational for the spiritual life and our daily warfare against its enemies. As Our Lord also said in His parable about the unjust steward: “And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely―for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8).
If anyone were to spend some time researching the various Religious Orders and their history (which is not the purpose of this article), they would find a similar “Boot Camp” mentality and procedure in the formation of their religious. This brings us to the next point.
Christian Evangelist Trumps Catholic at Boot Camp
Just as Our Lord would often make the non-Jew the hero in His parables (for example The Good Samaritan parable, where Our Lord paints the Jewish priest and Levite in bad light, but the enemy of the Jews, the Samaritan, in good light), here is a true story, from a Marine Boot Camp experience, recounted by an ex-Marine. This Catholic Marine found himself bettered by a Christian Evangelical, when faced by a constantly blaspheming Drill Instructor during the Marine Boot Camp. Here are the key excerpts from his story:
“To be honest, I (the Catholic) was not always such a zealous defender of the Lord’s sacred Name. I have always had negative internal reactions to blasphemy, but I don’t recall ever speaking out or expressing my displeasure to anyone in the face of it. Hating blasphemy is one thing; confronting the blasphemer is another. To gain that kind of moral courage I needed an example, and I was given one in a most unlikely place―Marine Corps boot camp. My ‘tutor’ in ‘Second Commandment Defense’ was another candidate, a young man who showed me what a true Christian ought to do in the face of the persistent abuse of the sacred Name. I remember him well. He was not an extremely adept Marine, as far as military discipline goes, but he was impressive in a more important category. He was an evangelical Christian and he did not hide his faith under a bushel basket. His faith was real and mature. He spoke of Jesus openly and even asked some of those tough Marines if they were “saved” – in boot camp! I initially wrote him off as a fundamentalist, of the kind that used to knock on doors in my neighborhood. But I quickly learned to appreciate this man’s holy “fanaticism” when it came to showing love and respect for the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was willing to fight for God’s honor.
“The moral courage that it took to defend Jesus’ Holy Name was heightened in the harsh environment of basic training, especially since the main blasphemer in the camp was our very own drill instructor. This particular warrior was arguably the toughest of the hard-core types that fall into the dreaded category of Marine Corps drill sergeant. He was in every way the perfect Marine. He was the epitome of military discipline, with battle scars from Vietnam to enhance his credibility – as if his credibility needed any enhancing. Our platoon, of impressionable twenty-year olds, both feared and respected him. He had a godlike quality. He seemed to be present everywhere and at all times. There was no evidence that he ever slept or ate. He always knew everything that was going on. What’s more he could outrun, out-hike, out-shoot, out-anything his candidates could do, at any time of the day or night. This man pushed us hard in physical training, hikes and bivouacs, obstacle courses, inspections, you name it. He was all over us, and we lived with a very real dread that he could make our lives miserable. He had everything the Marine Corps needed in a drill instructor, but there was one thing he didn’t have – a healthy fear of God.
“The sergeant had a habit of regularly blaspheming the Sacred Name of Jesus in front of all the candidates. No one would expect a Marine drill sergeant to use dainty language in executing his duties, but this man’s blasphemy was simply gratuitous. To be painfully precise: at any given moment, he would vehemently yell the full Name of Jesus Christ at us, but with a vile expletive inserted between the Names “Jesus” and Christ”. The first time I heard this foul abuse I cringed with horror. It was pure sacrilege. It had a feel of military aggression to it, almost as if he reveled in offending God. Perhaps in his own mind it reinforced his godlike demeanor in that super-controlled environment where no dissent of the system or its overlords would be tolerated. He used the term constantly and relentlessly. While I hated hearing it, I didn’t feel I had any other choice than to put up with it. What was the lowest of the low men on the totem pole going to say to his drill sergeant in boot camp? Thankfully, the true Christian in the platoon didn’t suffer from the same disease of moral cowardice. He didn’t react precipitously to the constant string of blasphemies hurled at us each day, but patiently endured it during the first two weeks of camp. Perhaps he was hoping that the blasphemy was just some passing negative behavior in a stressful environment. Or it may have just taken him time to get up the courage to confront the drill sergeant about the abusive language. But confront him he did. And the encounter was not pretty.
“On a break one afternoon, I was going to the camp store when I happened to be walking by a tent at the precise moment in which my platoon mate was speaking to the drill sergeant about his blasphemous language. Apparently the candidate made an appointment in order to address the matter in private, a method that is perfectly in accord with the biblical rules for fraternal correction found in Matthew 18:15-20. Hearing their voices, I confess that curiosity got the best of me. I paused at the corner of the tent to eavesdrop. What I heard was astonishing. The candidate used terms like “my Lord’s Name” and “God’s Commandment” a number of times. I heard him say he felt “insulted” by the constant use of the blasphemous phrase and that it was “not right.” He respectfully insisted that the formidable Marine not use that term any more when addressing the candidates. The drill sergeant initially sounded stunned at being called to account by a lowly recruit. But then his shock turned to sarcasm as he tried to make it look like the candidate was a fanatic: “You’re in boot camp, Candidate! What do you want?” Well, he wanted the vile blasphemy to stop. But as the conversation drew to a close I wasn’t convinced that the candidate had won the Marine over and I thought it best to exit the area―quickly.
“In the next day or two I was filled with foreboding that there would be “hell to pay” for that little encounter. Amazingly, there was not. The drill sergeant came out of the confrontation chastened but not furious, as I expected. If he was angry about the respectful rebuke, he didn’t show it overtly or take it out on anyone. No one but me knew about his chastening because the candidate had told no one. The drill sergeant later made a few snide comments to the platoon that “Candidate So-and-So was hyper-sensitive to cursing”, but he was not aggressive about it. Chastened, yes; repentant ― not so much. Yet, from that day forward, we never once heard the drill sergeant take the Lord’s Name in vain, even in the rough and stressful environment of Marine boot camp. I fully acknowledge that the candidate was a better Marine than I ― and a better Christian as well. He exhibited more military courage on the field of battle than I did even though I was one of the top performers of the platoon during those six weeks. But he also exercised moral courage when and where it was most needed. In the single most critical category of our relationship with God, he was the company honor man. I never saw the candidate again, but his measured, zealous example of moral courage has stayed with me. Now every time I hear the Lord’s Name taken in vain a fighting spirit awakens in me.
“Believe it or not, there is a lot we can do in the face of the blasphemy onslaught of our culture. Nowadays, if I hear blasphemous language in conversation around me, I immediately cross myself as a sign to the blasphemer that his or her words were noticed. If the blasphemy is more serious, I grimace and find some respectful way to show my displeasure. There was even one time when I actually yelled at a man who used the drill sergeant’s atrocious term. I am still that horrified by that term. But I regret that I was not a model of courtesy in that instance. I guess that was just the Marine in me coming out. Boot camp taught me the value of shouting. Yelling tends to wake a person up and lets him know that something important is at stake ― like his soul. I think I’ve mellowed over the years, though. I’m not at all averse to walking out of a movie when the offensive language goes beyond the pale. But now when I need to employ a gentle rebuke for a blaspheming neighbor ― i.e., when the blasphemy is serious and persistent ― I keep it courteous and on point. I have the vivid memory of a time when a true Christian man respectfully confronted a powerful blasphemer in a very harsh environment to draw on as a guide. Perhaps if we all confronted blasphemy instead of just ignoring It, we might be able to eventually change the culture. We might even change it enough to affect the movies we see and the music we hear. Whether it caused any permanent change in the heart of the drill sergeant I’ll never know. But the effect on the one Marine eavesdropping on a conversation that afternoon was literally life-changing.”
“Boot-Up” for “Boot-Camp”
Everyone must “boot-up”! Not their computer, but their soul. Everyone is expected to do a “Boot-Camp”! There is no escape from it―we either do it now or in eternity. It lasts for a while or for eternity. Why do Marines (or other soldiers) go to a “boot-camp”? They go there because they are not good enough to do what is expected of them as soldiers. They have to get rid of certain habitual ways of thinking, talking and acting―which are inappropriate for a future soldier and even dangerous to their well-being and survival in battle.
They need to be “untrained” so that they can be “retrained”―which Holy Scripture puts thus: “Christ died for all―so that they who live, may not now live to themselves, but unto Him … If, then, any be a new creature in Christ, the old things are passed away, and, behold, all things are made new!” (2 Corinthians 5:15-17). “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined” (Luke 5:36-37) … “Put off the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth!” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “Be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may see what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).
The recruits―wanting to be future Marines―are too conformed to the ways of the world and they need to be reformed to do―not their own will―but the will of their commanders. The same is true for anyone wishing to be a recruit for Heaven―they are too conformed to the ways of the world and need to be reformed to do the will of God, for only through that will they be sanctified and saved: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from [sin]” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). As Jesus said: “Whosoever shall do the will of God, he is My brother, and My sister, and mother!” (Mark 3:35). “Wherefore become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God” (Ephesians 5:17). “Not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but, as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart!” Ephesians 6:6).
Boot Camp Makes a New Man Out of You
Jon Davis―a Marine sergeant, Iraq veteran, and weapons instructor―explains:
“You have to train 18-year-olds to run to the sound of gunfire and perform under fire and the threat of death. This act defies all logic, goes against all human instinct, and takes one of the most intensive acts of psychological reprogramming to overcome. My experiences are that of the United States Marine Corps. Generally, no one argues that Marines’ boot camp is, by far, the hardest of U.S. military indoctrinatory exercises and is famous/infamous for its training tactics, so from that experience, I will share what I know.
“As for why boot camp training tactics are so important, you need to imagine what is expected of someone who goes there. In modern warfare, you have people too young to think about fighting the wars that we go through year after year. This has been the practice for centuries. The need for warriors and the nature for who has to fight hasn’t evolved much and likely won’t change in any near future. Drones, stealth, atomic warfare, and high-tech weaponry won’t change this. There will always be the need for young men and women who are willing and able to run to the sound of imminent danger and many, to their death. Nations need this. You need this. It is a horrible thing, but the sanctity and security of every nation on Earth requires young men and women capable of doing this.
“To do this, however, we need a form of psychological training that is able to forge individuals who can do this. That is why boot camp has evolved to become such a potent tool in today’s military machine. The most important single thing to know about boot camp is that it is 100% designed to reprogram children and civilians into warriors. It places within them a sense that they are expected to do important things, far more important things than could be expected from other 18-year-olds. This is all happening during one of the most intensely stressful periods of your life, when you are kept isolated from contact from your family and friends and taught that everything you were before entering the Marines was weak and lacking any real value until you too are a Marine. The psychological transformation of boot camp is a very intense and intentional effort by the Marine Corps ― out of kids who have just barely left high school ― to make warriors able to fight and kill. From the point that you graduate boot camp, you will be different and have parts of the Marine Corps culture as part of your psyche.” (Jon Davis―a Marine sergeant).
We Are Imperfect in God’s Eyes
When you enter a Marina Boot Camp, one of the first things you quickly realize is how imperfect, impatient, impetuous, imprudent, impractical, imprecise and imperceptive you are. You are called an imbecile and many more unprintable and unmentionable words―and are expected to “take it on the chin”! Our Lord does the same thing, to drill home the fact that we are imperfect way―He does this in a positive way, by encouraging, but He is not afraid to do it in a negative way, by what we would call “an insult”. In positive fashion, He says to His listeners: “Be perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)―meaning that they are not perfect in first place. Yet, in the very same Sermon on the Mount, He also addresses that imperfection negatively, by saying: “If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts …” (Matthew 7:11). Furthermore, He is not afraid to call St. Peter “Satan” when Peter shows imperfection by not grasping the principles of Christ and His mission, by trying to dissuade Our Lord from going into His Passion and Death: “Jesus began to show to His disciples, that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again. And Peter taking Him, began to rebuke Him, saying: ‘Lord! Be it far from thee! This shall not be unto thee!’ Who turning, said to Peter: ‘Go behind Me, Satan! Thou art a scandal unto Me―because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!’” (Matthew 16:21-23).
St. Peter takes the ‘insulting’ correction, learns from it and changes his attitude, but when Our Lord negatively attacked the Scribes and Pharisees, they did not seem to learn from it or correct themselves:
“Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of Heaven against men, for you yourselves do not enter in! … Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you devour the houses of widows, praying long prayers. For this you shall receive the greater judgment. Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves! Woe to you blind guides! … Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees! … Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel! Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness! Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may become clean! Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whitened sepulchers, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness! So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity! … Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! … You serpents, generation of vipers! How will you flee from the judgment of Hell? Behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes―and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city! … Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate!” (Matthew 23:13-38).
On another occasion, because the Scribes, Pharisees and other Jews would not accept His teaching―for the umpteenth time―Jesus said to them words similar to those which He addressed to St. Peter: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do! He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him! When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof!” (John 8:44).
Then we have the incident where Our Lord calls the Canaanite woman a “dog”―but He is putting her through her own short “boot camp”―by making her suffer rejection and insults as a means of testing her resolve and faith, before allowing her to “graduate” or “pass” with the obtaining of the miracle she sought: “And Jesus went from thence, and retired into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold a woman of Canaan who came out of those coasts, crying out, said to Him: ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou son of David! My daughter is grieviously troubled by the devil!’ Who answered her not a word [He rejects her by giving her the ‘silent treatment’]. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying: ‘Send her away, for she crieth after us!’ And He answering, said: ‘I was not sent but only to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel!’ [In other words: “Go away! You are of the wrong religion!”] But she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord! Help me!’ Who answering, said: ‘It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs!’ [In other words: “Go away, you dog!”] But she said: ‘Yea, Lord! For the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters!’ Then Jesus answering, said to her: ‘O woman, great is thy faith! Be it done to thee as thou wilt!’―and her daughter was cured from that hour” (Matthew 15:21-28). St. Mark reports it thus: “A woman, as soon as she heard of Him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, came in and fell down at His feet. For the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophenician born. And she besought Him that He would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. Who said to her: ‘Suffer first the children to be filled! For it is not good to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the dogs!’ But she answered and said to Him: ‘Yea, Lord! For the whelps also eat under the table of the crumbs of the children!’ And He said to her: ‘For this saying, go thy way! The devil is gone out of thy daughter!’ And when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed, and that the devil was gone out” (Mark 7:25-30).
No Marine Boot Camp Drill Instructor could deliver a better “put-down” than the ones above by Our Lord. Furthermore, In these incidents, we see the side or face of Our Lord along the lines of a Marine Boot Camp Drill Instructor, where He is tough and seemingly harsh―not because He is “having a bad day”―but for a reason and a purpose that is for the benefit of the victim of His toughness and seeming harshness.
We Need a Heavenly Boot Camp
As Scripture says, nothing impure or unclean will enter Heaven: “There shall not enter into it anything defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie―but they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb” (Apocalypse 21:27). Unfortunately, everyone is defiled―as Scripture says: “For all have sinned!” (Romans 3:23). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). “Every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured. Then, when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin” (James 1:14). Even the Old Testament, in several places, speaks of all men being defiled by sin: “They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways: there is none that doth good, no not one! The Lord hath looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good, no not one!” (Psalms 13:1-3; 52:2-4).
In the twelfth chapter of the Book of Hebrews, we read of need of tribulation and chastisement as a means of cleansing us from those sins and as means of acquiring holiness, without which there is no entry into Heaven: “Laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run to the fight proposed to us! Looking on Jesus, Who, having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God. For think diligently upon Him―Who endured such opposition from sinners against Himself―that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds. For in fighting against sin you have not yet resisted unto blood! And you have forgotten the consolation, which speaketh to you, as unto children, saying: ‘My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord; neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by him! For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth!’ Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with His sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct? But if you be without chastisement―whereof all are made partakers―then are you bastards, and not sons. Moreover, we have had fathers of our flesh for instructors and we reverenced them! Shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live? Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards, to them that are exercised by it, it will yield, the most peaceable fruit of justice. Follow peace and holiness―without which no man shall see God ... Let us serve, pleasing God, with fear and reverence. For our God is a consuming fire!” (Hebrews 12:1-29).
Unfortunately, the Chosen People did not live up to their calling! “And the Lord said to them: ‘You have forsaken Me and have worshipped strange gods! Therefore I will deliver you no more! Go and call upon the gods which you have chosen! Let them deliver you in the time of distress!’ And the children of Israel said to the Lord: ‘We have sinned! Do Thou unto us whatsoever pleaseth Thee―only deliver us this time!’ And saying these things, they cast away, out of their coasts, all the idols of strange gods and served the Lord their God! And He was touched with their miseries” (Judges 10:11-16).
We, Catholics, the “Chosen People of God” of the New Testament, are likewise guilty of similar sins of idolatry. If we pretend that we are serving God as He wants to be served, then we are liars. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). As the Good Thief admitted as he died on the cross on Calvary, alongside Christ: “We receive the due reward of our deeds!” (Luke 23:41). Like the Good Thief, we must receive “the due reward of our deeds”―we have to pay for our sins. “We deserve to suffer these things, because we have sinned” (Genesis 42:21). There is no escape from this unpleasant fact―we “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), “sin entered into this world, and by sin death” (Romans 5:12), “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and “the soul that sinneth, the same shall die” (Ezechiel 18:20) because “sin, when it is completed, begetteth death” (James 1:14-15). There is no greater sorrow than death―and there is no greater evil than sin. Our catechisms tell us that: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [venial sin] is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, Spirago-Clarke; My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow, STD).
Price of Sin in the Past
In the early Church, sin was looked upon as the greatest evil in the world, which what our catechisms still teach today. However, whereas our modern-day penances somehow fail to underline that truth, the penances of the early Church clearly reflected that truth. Here is an excerpt from the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia under the entry for “The Sacrament of Penance.”
“To give some idea of the ancient discipline, the penalties attached to graver crimes are cited here from the English and Irish Penitentials (which were books listing sins and a recommended penance for each kind of sin). For [a single sin of] stealing, Cummian prescribes that a layman shall do one year of penance; a cleric, two; a subdeacon three; a deacon, four; a priest, five; a bishop, six. For murder or perjury, the penance lasted three, five, six, seven, ten or twelve years according to the criminal’s rank. Theodore commands that if any one leave the Catholic Church, join the heretics, and induce others to do the same, he shall, in case he repent, do penance for twelve years. For the perjurer who swears by the Church, the Gospel, or the relics of the saints, Egbert prescribes seven or eleven years of penance. Usury entailed three years; infanticide, fifteen; idolatry or demon-worship, ten. Violations of the sixth commandment were punished with great severity; the penance varied, according to the nature of the sin, from three to fifteen years, the extreme penalty being prescribed for incest, i.e., fifteen to twenty-five years. Whatever its duration, the penance included fasting on bread and water, either for the whole period or for a specified portion.”
Pay Now or Pay Later
When look at the severity of the penances in the early Church, we must pinch ourselves and remind ourselves that these penances were still fantastic “discount-prices” on the true cost of sin. It is when we read of the torments the holy souls undergo in Purgatory, that we start to understand and appreciate what the price of one single VENIAL SIN actually is, not to mention the price on each confessed and forgiven mortal sin. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7). “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing!” (Matthew 5:26).
That is why Holy Scripture is full of commands to repent, to change one’s heart and life, to pay for past sins: “Be penitent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19).
“And there came down fire from God out of Heaven, and devoured them. And the devil, who seduced them, was cast into the pool of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and one sitting upon it, from whose face the Earth and Heaven fled away. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the pool of fire” (Apocalypse 20:9-15).
A Time of “Do As You Want!”―Play Now, Pay Never!
Today, most people live and do as they want―even sinning as they want and as much as they want―because they have imagined and created their own version of the Faith, where God is an all-loving, all-tolerating, all-forgiving , sugar-coated doormat, who will take all the offenses that we throw at Him and still kindly open the doors of Heaven to us. These kind of fools refuse to accept the “whole package” of God, filtering and distilling God until they are left with nothing but sugar. They take only the sweet Scriptural quotes and ignore the bitter ones. They will endlessly use quotes like: “The Lord is gracious and merciful; patient and plenteous in mercy! The Lord is sweet to all and His tender mercies are over all his works!” (Psalm 144:8-9), or “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18). Beautiful, huh? Not only beautiful, but also true! Yet equally true is the following: “Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:14). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). “Say not: ‘I have sinned―and what harm hath befallen me?’ For the most High is a patient rewarder!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:4).“Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “I gave her a time that she might do penance, and she will not repent” (Apocalypse 2:21). “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride” (Job 24:23). “I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
Church Complacency Cripple Catholics
In 1956, Blessed Elena Aiello― Mystic, Stigmatic, Victim Soul, Prophetess & Foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―received the following warning from Our Lady: “People are offending God too much! Were I to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief. These are grave times. The world is in total turmoil because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge. Everything is in suspense, like a thread; when this thread breaks, the justice of God will fall like a thunderbolt and will complete its terrible course of purification.”
In 1966, barely ten years later, despite the ever-escalating number of sins throughout the world, Pope Paul VI, in his Apostolic Constitution Paenitemi, reduced the Lenten fast from 40 days to a mere 2 days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday)―thus fulfilling the prophetic condemnation of Our Lady of La Salette, who warned: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars, which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish.”
In 1973, seven years after Pope Paul’s 95% reduction in Lenten fasting in 1966, Our Lady appeared at Akita in Japan, where she spoke of the continual increase in the number and gravity of sins, and warned of the consequences of this increase: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before ... If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!” (Our Lady of Akita). Then, as if delivering a ‘slap in the face’ for the reduction of penance by Pope Paul VI, she implicitly condemned it, saying: “Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!”
Escalation of Sin
ABORTION: Note that back in 1973, the level of sin was nowhere near the astronomical heights it has reached since 1973. The contentious legal battle Roe versus Wade took place in 1973 and opened the doors to ever escalating abortions since then. Presently, in the USA alone, almost 3,000 babies are aborted EACH DAY―or 125 an hour―or just over 2 per minute―or 1 every 30 seconds. Add to that number the enormous, but incalculable amount of babies killed at the moment of conception by the new abortifacient contraceptive pill―and you have a slaughter house beyond belief! In America an abortion reform movement emerged in the 1960s. In 1963 The Society for Human Abortions was formed, providing women with information on how to obtain and perform abortions. In the late 1960s, a number of organizations were formed to mobilize opinion both against and for the legalization of abortion. In 1967, 21 members of the clergy announced in the New York Times that they would help women find safe abortion providers. In 1967, Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman. Similar laws were passed in California, Oregon, and North Carolina. In 1970, Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortions on the request of the woman. By the end of 1972, 13 states had a law similar to that of Colorado, while Mississippi allowed abortion in cases of rape or incest only and Alabama and Massachusetts allowed abortions only in cases where the woman's physical health was endangered. The landmark judicial ruling of the Supreme Court, in Roe versus Wade, ruled that a Texas statute forbidding abortion except when necessary to save the life of the mother was unconstitutional. The Court arrived at its decision by concluding that the issue of abortion and abortion rights falls under the right to privacy. The Court held that a right to privacy existed and included the right to have an abortion.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: The abominable same-sex marriage ‘laws’ were years away from being even suggested―never mind passed and enforced! Divorce ‘laws’ were being made less and less strict. The history of same-sex marriage in the United States dates from the early 1970s, when the first lawsuits, seeking legal recognition of same-sex relationships, brought the question of civil marriage rights and benefits for same-sex couples to public attention―though they proved unsuccessful. The subject became increasingly prominent in U.S. politics following the 1993 Hawaii Supreme Court decision in Baehr v. Lewin, which suggested the possibility that the state’s prohibition on same-sex marriages might be unconstitutional. That decision was met by actions at both the federal and state level to restrict marriage to male-female couples, notably the enactment at the federal level of the Defense of Marriage Act. In May of 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state and the sixth jurisdiction in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. By late 2014, same-sex marriage had become legal in states that contained more than 70% of the United States population. In June of 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage, legalized it in all fifty states.
DIVORCE: By the middle to late 1800s, divorce rates in the United States increased at a rapid rate, and Americans obtained more divorces than were granted in all of Europe. By 1916, the U.S. led the world in number of divorces―by 1909, Reno, Nevada, was―and was happy to be―“the divorce capital of the world.” At that time, only six months in Nevada were sufficient to establish Nevada residency and qualify for divorce proceedings. However, due to divorce competition from other states, Nevada dropped residency requirements from six months to three months, then from three months to six weeks! Initially, divorce was only granted on grounds of adultery―this was later changed to included cruelty, drunkenness, insanity and desertion. The big change came in 1969, when a law was passed, allowing couples to divorce after they had been separated for two years (or five years if only one of them wanted a divorce). A marriage could be ended if it had irretrievably broken down, and neither partner no longer had to prove “fault”. In 1969, California became the first U.S. state to pass a no-fault divorce law. As regards the divorce rate, back in 1890, 0.003% (3 out of 1,000 couples) were divorced and by 1920, it had risen to 0.008% (8 out of 1,000 couples) being divorced. Today, the divorce rate among highly educated couples is 11% (110 out of 1,000 couples), while the divorce rate for lower income couples is 17% (170 out of 1,000 couples)―a massive rise from the 3 per 1,000 couples in 1890. The median length for a marriage in the US today is 11 years with 90% of all divorces being settled out of court. However, studies have shown that lower-income couples are currently more likely to get a divorce than higher-income couples.
ADULTERY & FORNICATION: These numbers are even higher than the above cases of abortion, same-sex marriage and divorce. Our Lady of Fatima said that impurity was the main cause in the present era for the damnation of souls. A 2014 Pew study, on global morality, found that premarital sex was considered particularly unacceptable in predominantly Muslim nations, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan and Egypt, each having over 90% disapproval, while people in Western European countries were the most accepting, with Spain, Germany and France expressing less than 10% disapproval―and these countries are mainly Catholic on paper. The Guttmacher Institute― a leading researcher on sexual and reproductive health―states: “The vast majority of Americans have sex before marriage … Further, contrary to the public perception that premarital sex is much more common now than in the past, the study shows that even among women who were born in the 1940s, nearly nine in 10 had sex before marriage. According to the analysis, 95% had had sex before marriage. Even among those who abstained from sex until age 20 or older, 81% had had premarital sex by age 44. “This is reality-check research. Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades,” says study author Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research at the Guttmacher Institute. “The data clearly show that the majority of older teens and adults have already had sex before marriage, which calls into question the federal government’s funding of «abstinence-only-until-marriage» programs for 12–29-year-olds.” Holy Scripture warns: “Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err! Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, shall possess the kingdom of God!” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). “Let marriage be honorable in all, and the bed undefiled! For fornicators and adulterers God will judge!” (Hebrews 13:4).
In a study conducted in the United States, 61% of men and 12% of women, born before to 1910, admitted to having premarital sex. Starting in the 1920s, and especially after World War II, premarital sex became more common, particularly among women. By the end of the 20th century, between 75% and 80% of Americans had experienced full sexual relations before the age of 19. Today, the figure is above 95%. Here we are only talking about sexual actions between persons―you can add to that the even more frequent cases of solitary sexual sins in both action and even more frequent sexual sins committed in thought―“Having eyes full of adultery” (2 Peter 2:14)―which can happen many, many times a day for just ONE PERSON. “You have heard that it was said to them of old: ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery!’ But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart!” (Matthew 5:27-28).
Once married, there arises the next temptation of adultery. Research suggests that 21% of men have been physically sexually unfaithful to their spouse or significant other. While among women, 15% acknowledging an affair in a current or previous relationship. While that might seem a fairly low number, it represents a 40% increase over the past two decades. The fear of getting caught red-handed is a pretty strong deterrent for most people, but 74% of men say they would be unfaithful to their partners if they knew they could get away with it. Whereas 68% of women said they would be unfaithful if there was no chance of their current partner finding out. Women, for the most part, tend to feel strongly about infidelity and 84% agree that it's wrong if you're married. Men, on the other hand, approach the issue with a slightly different attitude. Around 78% say that it's not okay for married spouses to have a romance on the side. Again, these numbers are referring to physical sexual relations―the number of adulterous thoughts must be sky high compared to actual physical infidelities. “Turn away thy face from a woman dressed up, and gaze not about upon another's beauty!” (Ecclesiasticus 9:8).
In addition to the above categories, you have sins of anger, hatred, dishonor, disrespect, foul language, violence, murder, rape, theft of all kinds, envy, pride, gluttony, drunkenness, addictions of all kinds, laziness, neglect, blasphemy, sacrilege, Satanism, witchcraft, Freemasonry and the other secret societies, calumny (lying), detraction (revealing sins of others), gossip, plus all the sins that arise from not doing what we should do.
Add it all together and you suddenly have before you what Our Lady spoke of: “Mankind is obscured by a thick fog, as a result of the many grievous sins, which are almost covering the whole Earth … Numerous scandals are bringing souls to ruin―particularly through the corruption of youth. Stirred up, and unrestrained in the enjoyment of the pleasures of the world, they have degraded their souls in corruption and sin. The bad example of parents trains the family in scandal and infidelity, instead of virtue and prayer, which is almost dead on the lips of many. Stained and withered is the fountain of Faith and sanctity the home … Men are offending God too much! If I were to show you the number of sins committed in a single day, you would die of horror and sorrow! … The times are grievous. The whole world is in turmoil, because IT HAS BECOME WORSE THAN AT THE TIME OF THE DELUGE!” (Our Lady to Blessed Sr. Elena Aiello, in 1955). “During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education. The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation … Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Without virginity, it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Who Will Pick-Up The Tab? Who’s Paying For All This?
All those sins show a massive self-indulgence or even gluttony in Satan’s Sinful Steakhouse or the Devil’s Diner of Damnation! Nothing is free in this life, not even sin. Every sin on the menu has a price! Someone has to pay for it! Who is going to “foot the bill” or “pick-up the tab”? Of course, we know that the actual perpetrator of the sin will pay―and will pay big-time! Yet, do we really think that we are “not-guilty” of the sins of others? We most certainly are―even though it is to a lesser degree than the sinner himself or herself. We might be tempted to say with Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). The answer is, of course, “Yes, you are your brother’s keeper!” As Holy Scripture says: “He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him―how doth the charity of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). If we cannot see that the vast majority of the world needs our prayers and sacrifices, yet we refuse to produce SUBSTANTIAL prayers and sacrifices―how can we dare to say that we love God? “If any man say: ‘I love God!’ and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not?” (1 John 4:20). We cannot be loving our neighbor if we see our neighbor sink deeper and deeper into sin and refuse to do anything SUBSTANTIAL about it. That was the whole point of Fatima―to do something for the vast majority of poor sinners who were falling into Hell, because there was nobody to pray and offer sacrifices for them.
“Then he shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat! I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink! I was a stranger, and you took Me not in! Naked, and you covered Me not! Sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:41-46).
From this passage, we derive the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy―the Corporal Works of Mercy being: (1) to feed the hungry; (2) to give drink to the thirsty; (3) to clothe the naked; (4) to visit the imprisoned; (5) to shelter the homeless; (6) to visit the sick; (7) to bury the dead. The Spiritual Works of Mercy being: (1) to admonish the sinner; (2) to instruct the ignorant; (3) to counsel the doubtful; (4) to comfort the sorrowful; (5) to bear wrongs patiently; (6) to forgive all injuries; (7) to pray for the living and the dead.
We must not forget the Church’s teaching on how we can become guilty of the sins of others: (1) by Counsel; (2) by Command; (3) by Consent; (4) by Concealment; (5) by Partaking; (6) by Provocation; (7) by Praise or Flattery; (8) by Silence; (9) by Defense of the Evil Done. The major one that jumps out at us is guilt by silence―not only silence in correction, but silence in prayer, we do not pray for their conversion, or, if we pray, we do pray enough or well enough.
If, by our silence, we fail to do something to stop this incredible loss of souls, then we are to some degree guilty―having the knowledge and the possibility to try and save them. How many people say SEVERAL Rosaries a day for the conversion of sinners? How many people have SEVERAL or MANY Masses offered for the conversion of sinners? How many people FORMALLY and LOVINGLY offer their daily sufferings, plus other additional sacrifices, for the conversion of sinners? Drill this into your heart and mind―it is a few paltry, inattentive, distracted, speedy, half-hearted, mumbled prayers that are going to pay the price of the incredible bill that has been and still is being run-up by the sinners of this world.
Boot Camp Battle Talk
Perhaps one of the most damaging things Catholics can do is to forget that they Soldiers of Christ, placed behind enemy lines, in a perpetual warfare against the world. “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Be sober and watch―because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour! Whom resist ye, strong in Faith―knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world!” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
“Be strengthened in the Lord, and in the might of his power. Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit―which is the word of God!” (Ephesians 6:10-17).
“All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, so that the man of God may be made perfect, and equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). “The high praise of God shall be in their mouth: and two-edged swords in their hands” (Psalm 149:6). “For the word of God is more piercing than any two edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). “And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp two edged sword―so that with it He may strike the nations. And He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Apocalypse 19:15).
Negligence Has Its Price
“Neglect not to pray!” (Ecclesiasticus 7:10) … “Neglect not, lose no time!” (Judges 18:9) … “Neglect not the grace that is in thee!” (1 Timothy 4:14) … “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) … “We ought always to pray, and not to faint!” (Luke 18:1) … “Know that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins!” James 5:20).
Boot Camp Battle Talk
Perhaps one of the most damaging things Catholics can do is to forget that they Soldiers of Christ, placed behind enemy lines, in a perpetual warfare against the world. “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Be sober and watch―because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour! Whom resist ye, strong in Faith―knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world!” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
“Be strengthened in the Lord, and in the might of his power. Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit―which is the word of God!” (Ephesians 6:10-17).
“All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, so that the man of God may be made perfect, and equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). “The high praise of God shall be in their mouth: and two-edged swords in their hands” (Psalm 149:6). “For the word of God is more piercing than any two edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). “And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp two edged sword―so that with it He may strike the nations. And He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Apocalypse 19:15).
We Are Headed For a 21st Century Universal Boot-Camp
After Our Lord, there is nobody who is kinder, sweeter, more gentle, more loving, more merciful and more generous than Our Lady. Yet this is what that sweet, gentle, kind, loving, merciful and generous Mother of God has to say to us―the following words of Our Lady are a combination from her apparitions at Quito in Ecuador (as Our Lady of Good of Success), at La Salette in France, at Fatima in Portugal and at Akita in Japan:
“The end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, various heresies will be propagated. As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of morals. During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private. The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many of them will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings … To test this Faith and confidence of the just, there will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed … From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! … Under the appearance of virtue and bad-spirited zeal, many will turn upon Religion, who nourished them at her breast ... Many people … will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil … During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education. Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation, and those who should speak out will be silent … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Without virginity, it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Woe to the Princes of the Church who think only of piling riches upon riches, to protect their authority and dominate with pride. The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless Sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“In the year 1864, Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Everywhere, as true Faith has faded, a false light brightens the people … The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis. The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten, each individual will want to be independent and be superior to others” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family. There will be desecration of holy places. In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the king of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy, because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes. At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy. The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“The Holy Father will suffer a great deal. I will be with him until the end and receive his sacrifice. The mischievous would attempt his life several times to do harm and shorten his days, but neither he, nor his successor will see the triumph of the Church of God” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated!” (Our Lady of Fatima).
Regarding the annihilation of nations: it is important to note that during the Father Fuentes interview, Sister Lucia said that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times”! (Frère François, Tragedy and Triumph, p. 27.)
“Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead ... If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!” (Our Lady of Akita).
“Esteeming these very punishments to be less than our sins deserve, let us believe that these scourges of the Lord, with which like servants we are chastised, have happened for our amendment, and not for our destruction” (Judith 8:27).
If Only We Knew!
“Oh, if only human beings and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God, how differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness, while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which … destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of virtues and fraternal charity and child-like simplicity! Cursed human respect, which makes one ask: ‘What will others say about this?’ … Many hearts consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will fall into lukewarmness. This, then, will be the cause of the cursed demon taking possession and he will achieve his victories” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Why all this talk about “Boot Camps”? Isn’t that a worldly thing? What place have worldly things among spiritual things? That seems like a plausible argument―yet Our Lord would often use examples of worldly things in His parables and draw analogies or lessons from them for the spiritual life. He speaks of seeds, trees, fruits, farms, vineyards, wheat fields, coins, pearls, treasures, sheep, goats, serpents, weddings, banquets, rulers, armies, masters, servants, armies, soldiers, etc. In speaking of “Boot Camps”, the intention is not to canonize “Boot Camps”, but to draw analogies from them that are most fitting, instructional and inspirational for the spiritual life and our daily warfare against its enemies. As Our Lord also said in His parable about the unjust steward: “And the lord commended the unjust steward, forasmuch as he had done wisely―for the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light!” (Luke 16:8).
If anyone were to spend some time researching the various Religious Orders and their history (which is not the purpose of this article), they would find a similar “Boot Camp” mentality and procedure in the formation of their religious. This brings us to the next point.
Christian Evangelist Trumps Catholic at Boot Camp
Just as Our Lord would often make the non-Jew the hero in His parables (for example The Good Samaritan parable, where Our Lord paints the Jewish priest and Levite in bad light, but the enemy of the Jews, the Samaritan, in good light), here is a true story, from a Marine Boot Camp experience, recounted by an ex-Marine. This Catholic Marine found himself bettered by a Christian Evangelical, when faced by a constantly blaspheming Drill Instructor during the Marine Boot Camp. Here are the key excerpts from his story:
“To be honest, I (the Catholic) was not always such a zealous defender of the Lord’s sacred Name. I have always had negative internal reactions to blasphemy, but I don’t recall ever speaking out or expressing my displeasure to anyone in the face of it. Hating blasphemy is one thing; confronting the blasphemer is another. To gain that kind of moral courage I needed an example, and I was given one in a most unlikely place―Marine Corps boot camp. My ‘tutor’ in ‘Second Commandment Defense’ was another candidate, a young man who showed me what a true Christian ought to do in the face of the persistent abuse of the sacred Name. I remember him well. He was not an extremely adept Marine, as far as military discipline goes, but he was impressive in a more important category. He was an evangelical Christian and he did not hide his faith under a bushel basket. His faith was real and mature. He spoke of Jesus openly and even asked some of those tough Marines if they were “saved” – in boot camp! I initially wrote him off as a fundamentalist, of the kind that used to knock on doors in my neighborhood. But I quickly learned to appreciate this man’s holy “fanaticism” when it came to showing love and respect for the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was willing to fight for God’s honor.
“The moral courage that it took to defend Jesus’ Holy Name was heightened in the harsh environment of basic training, especially since the main blasphemer in the camp was our very own drill instructor. This particular warrior was arguably the toughest of the hard-core types that fall into the dreaded category of Marine Corps drill sergeant. He was in every way the perfect Marine. He was the epitome of military discipline, with battle scars from Vietnam to enhance his credibility – as if his credibility needed any enhancing. Our platoon, of impressionable twenty-year olds, both feared and respected him. He had a godlike quality. He seemed to be present everywhere and at all times. There was no evidence that he ever slept or ate. He always knew everything that was going on. What’s more he could outrun, out-hike, out-shoot, out-anything his candidates could do, at any time of the day or night. This man pushed us hard in physical training, hikes and bivouacs, obstacle courses, inspections, you name it. He was all over us, and we lived with a very real dread that he could make our lives miserable. He had everything the Marine Corps needed in a drill instructor, but there was one thing he didn’t have – a healthy fear of God.
“The sergeant had a habit of regularly blaspheming the Sacred Name of Jesus in front of all the candidates. No one would expect a Marine drill sergeant to use dainty language in executing his duties, but this man’s blasphemy was simply gratuitous. To be painfully precise: at any given moment, he would vehemently yell the full Name of Jesus Christ at us, but with a vile expletive inserted between the Names “Jesus” and Christ”. The first time I heard this foul abuse I cringed with horror. It was pure sacrilege. It had a feel of military aggression to it, almost as if he reveled in offending God. Perhaps in his own mind it reinforced his godlike demeanor in that super-controlled environment where no dissent of the system or its overlords would be tolerated. He used the term constantly and relentlessly. While I hated hearing it, I didn’t feel I had any other choice than to put up with it. What was the lowest of the low men on the totem pole going to say to his drill sergeant in boot camp? Thankfully, the true Christian in the platoon didn’t suffer from the same disease of moral cowardice. He didn’t react precipitously to the constant string of blasphemies hurled at us each day, but patiently endured it during the first two weeks of camp. Perhaps he was hoping that the blasphemy was just some passing negative behavior in a stressful environment. Or it may have just taken him time to get up the courage to confront the drill sergeant about the abusive language. But confront him he did. And the encounter was not pretty.
“On a break one afternoon, I was going to the camp store when I happened to be walking by a tent at the precise moment in which my platoon mate was speaking to the drill sergeant about his blasphemous language. Apparently the candidate made an appointment in order to address the matter in private, a method that is perfectly in accord with the biblical rules for fraternal correction found in Matthew 18:15-20. Hearing their voices, I confess that curiosity got the best of me. I paused at the corner of the tent to eavesdrop. What I heard was astonishing. The candidate used terms like “my Lord’s Name” and “God’s Commandment” a number of times. I heard him say he felt “insulted” by the constant use of the blasphemous phrase and that it was “not right.” He respectfully insisted that the formidable Marine not use that term any more when addressing the candidates. The drill sergeant initially sounded stunned at being called to account by a lowly recruit. But then his shock turned to sarcasm as he tried to make it look like the candidate was a fanatic: “You’re in boot camp, Candidate! What do you want?” Well, he wanted the vile blasphemy to stop. But as the conversation drew to a close I wasn’t convinced that the candidate had won the Marine over and I thought it best to exit the area―quickly.
“In the next day or two I was filled with foreboding that there would be “hell to pay” for that little encounter. Amazingly, there was not. The drill sergeant came out of the confrontation chastened but not furious, as I expected. If he was angry about the respectful rebuke, he didn’t show it overtly or take it out on anyone. No one but me knew about his chastening because the candidate had told no one. The drill sergeant later made a few snide comments to the platoon that “Candidate So-and-So was hyper-sensitive to cursing”, but he was not aggressive about it. Chastened, yes; repentant ― not so much. Yet, from that day forward, we never once heard the drill sergeant take the Lord’s Name in vain, even in the rough and stressful environment of Marine boot camp. I fully acknowledge that the candidate was a better Marine than I ― and a better Christian as well. He exhibited more military courage on the field of battle than I did even though I was one of the top performers of the platoon during those six weeks. But he also exercised moral courage when and where it was most needed. In the single most critical category of our relationship with God, he was the company honor man. I never saw the candidate again, but his measured, zealous example of moral courage has stayed with me. Now every time I hear the Lord’s Name taken in vain a fighting spirit awakens in me.
“Believe it or not, there is a lot we can do in the face of the blasphemy onslaught of our culture. Nowadays, if I hear blasphemous language in conversation around me, I immediately cross myself as a sign to the blasphemer that his or her words were noticed. If the blasphemy is more serious, I grimace and find some respectful way to show my displeasure. There was even one time when I actually yelled at a man who used the drill sergeant’s atrocious term. I am still that horrified by that term. But I regret that I was not a model of courtesy in that instance. I guess that was just the Marine in me coming out. Boot camp taught me the value of shouting. Yelling tends to wake a person up and lets him know that something important is at stake ― like his soul. I think I’ve mellowed over the years, though. I’m not at all averse to walking out of a movie when the offensive language goes beyond the pale. But now when I need to employ a gentle rebuke for a blaspheming neighbor ― i.e., when the blasphemy is serious and persistent ― I keep it courteous and on point. I have the vivid memory of a time when a true Christian man respectfully confronted a powerful blasphemer in a very harsh environment to draw on as a guide. Perhaps if we all confronted blasphemy instead of just ignoring It, we might be able to eventually change the culture. We might even change it enough to affect the movies we see and the music we hear. Whether it caused any permanent change in the heart of the drill sergeant I’ll never know. But the effect on the one Marine eavesdropping on a conversation that afternoon was literally life-changing.”
“Boot-Up” for “Boot-Camp”
Everyone must “boot-up”! Not their computer, but their soul. Everyone is expected to do a “Boot-Camp”! There is no escape from it―we either do it now or in eternity. It lasts for a while or for eternity. Why do Marines (or other soldiers) go to a “boot-camp”? They go there because they are not good enough to do what is expected of them as soldiers. They have to get rid of certain habitual ways of thinking, talking and acting―which are inappropriate for a future soldier and even dangerous to their well-being and survival in battle.
They need to be “untrained” so that they can be “retrained”―which Holy Scripture puts thus: “Christ died for all―so that they who live, may not now live to themselves, but unto Him … If, then, any be a new creature in Christ, the old things are passed away, and, behold, all things are made new!” (2 Corinthians 5:15-17). “No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined” (Luke 5:36-37) … “Put off the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth!” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “Be not conformed to this world; but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may see what is the good, and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2).
The recruits―wanting to be future Marines―are too conformed to the ways of the world and they need to be reformed to do―not their own will―but the will of their commanders. The same is true for anyone wishing to be a recruit for Heaven―they are too conformed to the ways of the world and need to be reformed to do the will of God, for only through that will they be sanctified and saved: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from [sin]” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). As Jesus said: “Whosoever shall do the will of God, he is My brother, and My sister, and mother!” (Mark 3:35). “Wherefore become not unwise, but understanding what is the will of God” (Ephesians 5:17). “Not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but, as the servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart!” Ephesians 6:6).
Boot Camp Makes a New Man Out of You
Jon Davis―a Marine sergeant, Iraq veteran, and weapons instructor―explains:
“You have to train 18-year-olds to run to the sound of gunfire and perform under fire and the threat of death. This act defies all logic, goes against all human instinct, and takes one of the most intensive acts of psychological reprogramming to overcome. My experiences are that of the United States Marine Corps. Generally, no one argues that Marines’ boot camp is, by far, the hardest of U.S. military indoctrinatory exercises and is famous/infamous for its training tactics, so from that experience, I will share what I know.
“As for why boot camp training tactics are so important, you need to imagine what is expected of someone who goes there. In modern warfare, you have people too young to think about fighting the wars that we go through year after year. This has been the practice for centuries. The need for warriors and the nature for who has to fight hasn’t evolved much and likely won’t change in any near future. Drones, stealth, atomic warfare, and high-tech weaponry won’t change this. There will always be the need for young men and women who are willing and able to run to the sound of imminent danger and many, to their death. Nations need this. You need this. It is a horrible thing, but the sanctity and security of every nation on Earth requires young men and women capable of doing this.
“To do this, however, we need a form of psychological training that is able to forge individuals who can do this. That is why boot camp has evolved to become such a potent tool in today’s military machine. The most important single thing to know about boot camp is that it is 100% designed to reprogram children and civilians into warriors. It places within them a sense that they are expected to do important things, far more important things than could be expected from other 18-year-olds. This is all happening during one of the most intensely stressful periods of your life, when you are kept isolated from contact from your family and friends and taught that everything you were before entering the Marines was weak and lacking any real value until you too are a Marine. The psychological transformation of boot camp is a very intense and intentional effort by the Marine Corps ― out of kids who have just barely left high school ― to make warriors able to fight and kill. From the point that you graduate boot camp, you will be different and have parts of the Marine Corps culture as part of your psyche.” (Jon Davis―a Marine sergeant).
We Are Imperfect in God’s Eyes
When you enter a Marina Boot Camp, one of the first things you quickly realize is how imperfect, impatient, impetuous, imprudent, impractical, imprecise and imperceptive you are. You are called an imbecile and many more unprintable and unmentionable words―and are expected to “take it on the chin”! Our Lord does the same thing, to drill home the fact that we are imperfect way―He does this in a positive way, by encouraging, but He is not afraid to do it in a negative way, by what we would call “an insult”. In positive fashion, He says to His listeners: “Be perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48)―meaning that they are not perfect in first place. Yet, in the very same Sermon on the Mount, He also addresses that imperfection negatively, by saying: “If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts …” (Matthew 7:11). Furthermore, He is not afraid to call St. Peter “Satan” when Peter shows imperfection by not grasping the principles of Christ and His mission, by trying to dissuade Our Lord from going into His Passion and Death: “Jesus began to show to His disciples, that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the ancients and scribes and chief priests, and be put to death, and the third day rise again. And Peter taking Him, began to rebuke Him, saying: ‘Lord! Be it far from thee! This shall not be unto thee!’ Who turning, said to Peter: ‘Go behind Me, Satan! Thou art a scandal unto Me―because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men!’” (Matthew 16:21-23).
St. Peter takes the ‘insulting’ correction, learns from it and changes his attitude, but when Our Lord negatively attacked the Scribes and Pharisees, they did not seem to learn from it or correct themselves:
“Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you shut the kingdom of Heaven against men, for you yourselves do not enter in! … Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: because you devour the houses of widows, praying long prayers. For this you shall receive the greater judgment. Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you go round about the sea and the land to make one proselyte; and when he is made, you make him the child of hell twofold more than yourselves! Woe to you blind guides! … Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees! … Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel! Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you make clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but within you are full of rapine and uncleanness! Thou blind Pharisee, first make clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside may become clean! Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites; because you are like to whitened sepulchers, which outwardly appear to men beautiful, but within are full of dead men's bones, and of all filthiness! So you also outwardly indeed appear to men just; but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity! … Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! … You serpents, generation of vipers! How will you flee from the judgment of Hell? Behold I send to you prophets, and wise men, and scribes―and some of them you will put to death and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city! … Behold, your house shall be left to you, desolate!” (Matthew 23:13-38).
On another occasion, because the Scribes, Pharisees and other Jews would not accept His teaching―for the umpteenth time―Jesus said to them words similar to those which He addressed to St. Peter: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do! He was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth; because truth is not in him! When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof!” (John 8:44).
Then we have the incident where Our Lord calls the Canaanite woman a “dog”―but He is putting her through her own short “boot camp”―by making her suffer rejection and insults as a means of testing her resolve and faith, before allowing her to “graduate” or “pass” with the obtaining of the miracle she sought: “And Jesus went from thence, and retired into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold a woman of Canaan who came out of those coasts, crying out, said to Him: ‘Have mercy on me, O Lord, Thou son of David! My daughter is grieviously troubled by the devil!’ Who answered her not a word [He rejects her by giving her the ‘silent treatment’]. And His disciples came and besought Him, saying: ‘Send her away, for she crieth after us!’ And He answering, said: ‘I was not sent but only to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel!’ [In other words: “Go away! You are of the wrong religion!”] But she came and adored Him, saying: ‘Lord! Help me!’ Who answering, said: ‘It is not good to take the bread of the children, and to cast it to the dogs!’ [In other words: “Go away, you dog!”] But she said: ‘Yea, Lord! For the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters!’ Then Jesus answering, said to her: ‘O woman, great is thy faith! Be it done to thee as thou wilt!’―and her daughter was cured from that hour” (Matthew 15:21-28). St. Mark reports it thus: “A woman, as soon as she heard of Him, whose daughter had an unclean spirit, came in and fell down at His feet. For the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophenician born. And she besought Him that He would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. Who said to her: ‘Suffer first the children to be filled! For it is not good to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the dogs!’ But she answered and said to Him: ‘Yea, Lord! For the whelps also eat under the table of the crumbs of the children!’ And He said to her: ‘For this saying, go thy way! The devil is gone out of thy daughter!’ And when she was come into her house, she found the girl lying upon the bed, and that the devil was gone out” (Mark 7:25-30).
No Marine Boot Camp Drill Instructor could deliver a better “put-down” than the ones above by Our Lord. Furthermore, In these incidents, we see the side or face of Our Lord along the lines of a Marine Boot Camp Drill Instructor, where He is tough and seemingly harsh―not because He is “having a bad day”―but for a reason and a purpose that is for the benefit of the victim of His toughness and seeming harshness.
We Need a Heavenly Boot Camp
As Scripture says, nothing impure or unclean will enter Heaven: “There shall not enter into it anything defiled, or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie―but they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb” (Apocalypse 21:27). Unfortunately, everyone is defiled―as Scripture says: “For all have sinned!” (Romans 3:23). “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). “Every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured. Then, when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin” (James 1:14). Even the Old Testament, in several places, speaks of all men being defiled by sin: “They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways: there is none that doth good, no not one! The Lord hath looked down from Heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together! There is none that doth good, no not one!” (Psalms 13:1-3; 52:2-4).
In the twelfth chapter of the Book of Hebrews, we read of need of tribulation and chastisement as a means of cleansing us from those sins and as means of acquiring holiness, without which there is no entry into Heaven: “Laying aside every weight and sin which surrounds us, let us run to the fight proposed to us! Looking on Jesus, Who, having joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and now sitteth on the right hand of the throne of God. For think diligently upon Him―Who endured such opposition from sinners against Himself―that you be not wearied, fainting in your minds. For in fighting against sin you have not yet resisted unto blood! And you have forgotten the consolation, which speaketh to you, as unto children, saying: ‘My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord; neither be thou wearied whilst thou art rebuked by him! For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth!’ Persevere under discipline. God dealeth with you as with His sons; for what son is there, whom the father doth not correct? But if you be without chastisement―whereof all are made partakers―then are you bastards, and not sons. Moreover, we have had fathers of our flesh for instructors and we reverenced them! Shall we not much more obey the Father of spirits, and live? Now all chastisement for the present indeed seemeth not to bring with it joy, but sorrow: but afterwards, to them that are exercised by it, it will yield, the most peaceable fruit of justice. Follow peace and holiness―without which no man shall see God ... Let us serve, pleasing God, with fear and reverence. For our God is a consuming fire!” (Hebrews 12:1-29).
Unfortunately, the Chosen People did not live up to their calling! “And the Lord said to them: ‘You have forsaken Me and have worshipped strange gods! Therefore I will deliver you no more! Go and call upon the gods which you have chosen! Let them deliver you in the time of distress!’ And the children of Israel said to the Lord: ‘We have sinned! Do Thou unto us whatsoever pleaseth Thee―only deliver us this time!’ And saying these things, they cast away, out of their coasts, all the idols of strange gods and served the Lord their God! And He was touched with their miseries” (Judges 10:11-16).
We, Catholics, the “Chosen People of God” of the New Testament, are likewise guilty of similar sins of idolatry. If we pretend that we are serving God as He wants to be served, then we are liars. “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us!” (1 John 1:8-10). As the Good Thief admitted as he died on the cross on Calvary, alongside Christ: “We receive the due reward of our deeds!” (Luke 23:41). Like the Good Thief, we must receive “the due reward of our deeds”―we have to pay for our sins. “We deserve to suffer these things, because we have sinned” (Genesis 42:21). There is no escape from this unpleasant fact―we “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23), “sin entered into this world, and by sin death” (Romans 5:12), “for the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), and “the soul that sinneth, the same shall die” (Ezechiel 18:20) because “sin, when it is completed, begetteth death” (James 1:14-15). There is no greater sorrow than death―and there is no greater evil than sin. Our catechisms tell us that: “Sin is the only evil upon Earth” … “Mortal sin is a great evil, the greatest evil in the world, a greater evil than disease, poverty, or war, because it separates us from God … [venial sin] is second only in evil consequences to mortal sin” (The Catechism Explained, Spirago-Clarke; My Catholic Faith, Bishop Morrow, STD).
Price of Sin in the Past
In the early Church, sin was looked upon as the greatest evil in the world, which what our catechisms still teach today. However, whereas our modern-day penances somehow fail to underline that truth, the penances of the early Church clearly reflected that truth. Here is an excerpt from the 1917 Catholic Encyclopedia under the entry for “The Sacrament of Penance.”
“To give some idea of the ancient discipline, the penalties attached to graver crimes are cited here from the English and Irish Penitentials (which were books listing sins and a recommended penance for each kind of sin). For [a single sin of] stealing, Cummian prescribes that a layman shall do one year of penance; a cleric, two; a subdeacon three; a deacon, four; a priest, five; a bishop, six. For murder or perjury, the penance lasted three, five, six, seven, ten or twelve years according to the criminal’s rank. Theodore commands that if any one leave the Catholic Church, join the heretics, and induce others to do the same, he shall, in case he repent, do penance for twelve years. For the perjurer who swears by the Church, the Gospel, or the relics of the saints, Egbert prescribes seven or eleven years of penance. Usury entailed three years; infanticide, fifteen; idolatry or demon-worship, ten. Violations of the sixth commandment were punished with great severity; the penance varied, according to the nature of the sin, from three to fifteen years, the extreme penalty being prescribed for incest, i.e., fifteen to twenty-five years. Whatever its duration, the penance included fasting on bread and water, either for the whole period or for a specified portion.”
Pay Now or Pay Later
When look at the severity of the penances in the early Church, we must pinch ourselves and remind ourselves that these penances were still fantastic “discount-prices” on the true cost of sin. It is when we read of the torments the holy souls undergo in Purgatory, that we start to understand and appreciate what the price of one single VENIAL SIN actually is, not to mention the price on each confessed and forgiven mortal sin. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked!” (Galatians 6:7). “Amen I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence till thou repay the last farthing!” (Matthew 5:26).
That is why Holy Scripture is full of commands to repent, to change one’s heart and life, to pay for past sins: “Be penitent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3:19).
“And there came down fire from God out of Heaven, and devoured them. And the devil, who seduced them, was cast into the pool of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. And I saw a great white throne, and one sitting upon it, from whose face the Earth and Heaven fled away. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the pool of fire” (Apocalypse 20:9-15).
A Time of “Do As You Want!”―Play Now, Pay Never!
Today, most people live and do as they want―even sinning as they want and as much as they want―because they have imagined and created their own version of the Faith, where God is an all-loving, all-tolerating, all-forgiving , sugar-coated doormat, who will take all the offenses that we throw at Him and still kindly open the doors of Heaven to us. These kind of fools refuse to accept the “whole package” of God, filtering and distilling God until they are left with nothing but sugar. They take only the sweet Scriptural quotes and ignore the bitter ones. They will endlessly use quotes like: “The Lord is gracious and merciful; patient and plenteous in mercy! The Lord is sweet to all and His tender mercies are over all his works!” (Psalm 144:8-9), or “If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool” (Isaias 1:18). Beautiful, huh? Not only beautiful, but also true! Yet equally true is the following: “Sin no more, lest some worse thing happen to thee!” (John 5:14). “Be not without fear about sin forgiven, and add not sin upon sin!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:5). “Say not: ‘I have sinned―and what harm hath befallen me?’ For the most High is a patient rewarder!” (Ecclesiasticus 5:4).“Be not deceived, God is not mocked! For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap! For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting!” (Galatians 6:7-8). “I gave her a time that she might do penance, and she will not repent” (Apocalypse 2:21). “God hath given him place for penance, and he abuseth it unto pride” (Job 24:23). “I say to you: but unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish!” (Luke 13:3).
Church Complacency Cripple Catholics
In 1956, Blessed Elena Aiello― Mystic, Stigmatic, Victim Soul, Prophetess & Foundress of the Minim Tertiaries of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ―received the following warning from Our Lady: “People are offending God too much! Were I to show you all the sins committed on a single day, you would surely die of grief. These are grave times. The world is in total turmoil because it is in a worse condition than at the time of the deluge. Everything is in suspense, like a thread; when this thread breaks, the justice of God will fall like a thunderbolt and will complete its terrible course of purification.”
In 1966, barely ten years later, despite the ever-escalating number of sins throughout the world, Pope Paul VI, in his Apostolic Constitution Paenitemi, reduced the Lenten fast from 40 days to a mere 2 days (Ash Wednesday and Good Friday)―thus fulfilling the prophetic condemnation of Our Lady of La Salette, who warned: “The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars, which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish.”
In 1973, seven years after Pope Paul’s 95% reduction in Lenten fasting in 1966, Our Lady appeared at Akita in Japan, where she spoke of the continual increase in the number and gravity of sins, and warned of the consequences of this increase: “Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … If men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before ... If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!” (Our Lady of Akita). Then, as if delivering a ‘slap in the face’ for the reduction of penance by Pope Paul VI, she implicitly condemned it, saying: “Prayer, penance and courageous sacrifices can soften the Father’s anger!”
Escalation of Sin
ABORTION: Note that back in 1973, the level of sin was nowhere near the astronomical heights it has reached since 1973. The contentious legal battle Roe versus Wade took place in 1973 and opened the doors to ever escalating abortions since then. Presently, in the USA alone, almost 3,000 babies are aborted EACH DAY―or 125 an hour―or just over 2 per minute―or 1 every 30 seconds. Add to that number the enormous, but incalculable amount of babies killed at the moment of conception by the new abortifacient contraceptive pill―and you have a slaughter house beyond belief! In America an abortion reform movement emerged in the 1960s. In 1963 The Society for Human Abortions was formed, providing women with information on how to obtain and perform abortions. In the late 1960s, a number of organizations were formed to mobilize opinion both against and for the legalization of abortion. In 1967, 21 members of the clergy announced in the New York Times that they would help women find safe abortion providers. In 1967, Colorado became the first state to decriminalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, or in which pregnancy would lead to permanent physical disability of the woman. Similar laws were passed in California, Oregon, and North Carolina. In 1970, Hawaii became the first state to legalize abortions on the request of the woman. By the end of 1972, 13 states had a law similar to that of Colorado, while Mississippi allowed abortion in cases of rape or incest only and Alabama and Massachusetts allowed abortions only in cases where the woman's physical health was endangered. The landmark judicial ruling of the Supreme Court, in Roe versus Wade, ruled that a Texas statute forbidding abortion except when necessary to save the life of the mother was unconstitutional. The Court arrived at its decision by concluding that the issue of abortion and abortion rights falls under the right to privacy. The Court held that a right to privacy existed and included the right to have an abortion.
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: The abominable same-sex marriage ‘laws’ were years away from being even suggested―never mind passed and enforced! Divorce ‘laws’ were being made less and less strict. The history of same-sex marriage in the United States dates from the early 1970s, when the first lawsuits, seeking legal recognition of same-sex relationships, brought the question of civil marriage rights and benefits for same-sex couples to public attention―though they proved unsuccessful. The subject became increasingly prominent in U.S. politics following the 1993 Hawaii Supreme Court decision in Baehr v. Lewin, which suggested the possibility that the state’s prohibition on same-sex marriages might be unconstitutional. That decision was met by actions at both the federal and state level to restrict marriage to male-female couples, notably the enactment at the federal level of the Defense of Marriage Act. In May of 2004, Massachusetts became the first U.S. state and the sixth jurisdiction in the world to legalize same-sex marriage. By late 2014, same-sex marriage had become legal in states that contained more than 70% of the United States population. In June of 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all state bans on same-sex marriage, legalized it in all fifty states.
DIVORCE: By the middle to late 1800s, divorce rates in the United States increased at a rapid rate, and Americans obtained more divorces than were granted in all of Europe. By 1916, the U.S. led the world in number of divorces―by 1909, Reno, Nevada, was―and was happy to be―“the divorce capital of the world.” At that time, only six months in Nevada were sufficient to establish Nevada residency and qualify for divorce proceedings. However, due to divorce competition from other states, Nevada dropped residency requirements from six months to three months, then from three months to six weeks! Initially, divorce was only granted on grounds of adultery―this was later changed to included cruelty, drunkenness, insanity and desertion. The big change came in 1969, when a law was passed, allowing couples to divorce after they had been separated for two years (or five years if only one of them wanted a divorce). A marriage could be ended if it had irretrievably broken down, and neither partner no longer had to prove “fault”. In 1969, California became the first U.S. state to pass a no-fault divorce law. As regards the divorce rate, back in 1890, 0.003% (3 out of 1,000 couples) were divorced and by 1920, it had risen to 0.008% (8 out of 1,000 couples) being divorced. Today, the divorce rate among highly educated couples is 11% (110 out of 1,000 couples), while the divorce rate for lower income couples is 17% (170 out of 1,000 couples)―a massive rise from the 3 per 1,000 couples in 1890. The median length for a marriage in the US today is 11 years with 90% of all divorces being settled out of court. However, studies have shown that lower-income couples are currently more likely to get a divorce than higher-income couples.
ADULTERY & FORNICATION: These numbers are even higher than the above cases of abortion, same-sex marriage and divorce. Our Lady of Fatima said that impurity was the main cause in the present era for the damnation of souls. A 2014 Pew study, on global morality, found that premarital sex was considered particularly unacceptable in predominantly Muslim nations, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan and Egypt, each having over 90% disapproval, while people in Western European countries were the most accepting, with Spain, Germany and France expressing less than 10% disapproval―and these countries are mainly Catholic on paper. The Guttmacher Institute― a leading researcher on sexual and reproductive health―states: “The vast majority of Americans have sex before marriage … Further, contrary to the public perception that premarital sex is much more common now than in the past, the study shows that even among women who were born in the 1940s, nearly nine in 10 had sex before marriage. According to the analysis, 95% had had sex before marriage. Even among those who abstained from sex until age 20 or older, 81% had had premarital sex by age 44. “This is reality-check research. Premarital sex is normal behavior for the vast majority of Americans, and has been for decades,” says study author Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research at the Guttmacher Institute. “The data clearly show that the majority of older teens and adults have already had sex before marriage, which calls into question the federal government’s funding of «abstinence-only-until-marriage» programs for 12–29-year-olds.” Holy Scripture warns: “Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err! Neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, shall possess the kingdom of God!” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). “Let marriage be honorable in all, and the bed undefiled! For fornicators and adulterers God will judge!” (Hebrews 13:4).
In a study conducted in the United States, 61% of men and 12% of women, born before to 1910, admitted to having premarital sex. Starting in the 1920s, and especially after World War II, premarital sex became more common, particularly among women. By the end of the 20th century, between 75% and 80% of Americans had experienced full sexual relations before the age of 19. Today, the figure is above 95%. Here we are only talking about sexual actions between persons―you can add to that the even more frequent cases of solitary sexual sins in both action and even more frequent sexual sins committed in thought―“Having eyes full of adultery” (2 Peter 2:14)―which can happen many, many times a day for just ONE PERSON. “You have heard that it was said to them of old: ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery!’ But I say to you, that whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart!” (Matthew 5:27-28).
Once married, there arises the next temptation of adultery. Research suggests that 21% of men have been physically sexually unfaithful to their spouse or significant other. While among women, 15% acknowledging an affair in a current or previous relationship. While that might seem a fairly low number, it represents a 40% increase over the past two decades. The fear of getting caught red-handed is a pretty strong deterrent for most people, but 74% of men say they would be unfaithful to their partners if they knew they could get away with it. Whereas 68% of women said they would be unfaithful if there was no chance of their current partner finding out. Women, for the most part, tend to feel strongly about infidelity and 84% agree that it's wrong if you're married. Men, on the other hand, approach the issue with a slightly different attitude. Around 78% say that it's not okay for married spouses to have a romance on the side. Again, these numbers are referring to physical sexual relations―the number of adulterous thoughts must be sky high compared to actual physical infidelities. “Turn away thy face from a woman dressed up, and gaze not about upon another's beauty!” (Ecclesiasticus 9:8).
In addition to the above categories, you have sins of anger, hatred, dishonor, disrespect, foul language, violence, murder, rape, theft of all kinds, envy, pride, gluttony, drunkenness, addictions of all kinds, laziness, neglect, blasphemy, sacrilege, Satanism, witchcraft, Freemasonry and the other secret societies, calumny (lying), detraction (revealing sins of others), gossip, plus all the sins that arise from not doing what we should do.
Add it all together and you suddenly have before you what Our Lady spoke of: “Mankind is obscured by a thick fog, as a result of the many grievous sins, which are almost covering the whole Earth … Numerous scandals are bringing souls to ruin―particularly through the corruption of youth. Stirred up, and unrestrained in the enjoyment of the pleasures of the world, they have degraded their souls in corruption and sin. The bad example of parents trains the family in scandal and infidelity, instead of virtue and prayer, which is almost dead on the lips of many. Stained and withered is the fountain of Faith and sanctity the home … Men are offending God too much! If I were to show you the number of sins committed in a single day, you would die of horror and sorrow! … The times are grievous. The whole world is in turmoil, because IT HAS BECOME WORSE THAN AT THE TIME OF THE DELUGE!” (Our Lady to Blessed Sr. Elena Aiello, in 1955). “During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education. The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation … Innocence will almost no longer be found in children, nor modesty in women … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Without virginity, it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them” (Our Lady of Good Success).
Who Will Pick-Up The Tab? Who’s Paying For All This?
All those sins show a massive self-indulgence or even gluttony in Satan’s Sinful Steakhouse or the Devil’s Diner of Damnation! Nothing is free in this life, not even sin. Every sin on the menu has a price! Someone has to pay for it! Who is going to “foot the bill” or “pick-up the tab”? Of course, we know that the actual perpetrator of the sin will pay―and will pay big-time! Yet, do we really think that we are “not-guilty” of the sins of others? We most certainly are―even though it is to a lesser degree than the sinner himself or herself. We might be tempted to say with Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). The answer is, of course, “Yes, you are your brother’s keeper!” As Holy Scripture says: “He that hath the substance of this world, and shall see his brother in need, and shall shut up his bowels from him―how doth the charity of God abide in him?” (1 John 3:17). If we cannot see that the vast majority of the world needs our prayers and sacrifices, yet we refuse to produce SUBSTANTIAL prayers and sacrifices―how can we dare to say that we love God? “If any man say: ‘I love God!’ and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not?” (1 John 4:20). We cannot be loving our neighbor if we see our neighbor sink deeper and deeper into sin and refuse to do anything SUBSTANTIAL about it. That was the whole point of Fatima―to do something for the vast majority of poor sinners who were falling into Hell, because there was nobody to pray and offer sacrifices for them.
“Then he shall say to them also that shall be on His left hand: ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat! I was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink! I was a stranger, and you took Me not in! Naked, and you covered Me not! Sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me!’ Then they shall answer Him, saying: ‘Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister to Thee?’ Then He shall answer them, saying: ‘Amen I say to you, as long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me!’ And these shall go into everlasting punishment: but the just, into life everlasting” (Matthew 25:41-46).
From this passage, we derive the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy―the Corporal Works of Mercy being: (1) to feed the hungry; (2) to give drink to the thirsty; (3) to clothe the naked; (4) to visit the imprisoned; (5) to shelter the homeless; (6) to visit the sick; (7) to bury the dead. The Spiritual Works of Mercy being: (1) to admonish the sinner; (2) to instruct the ignorant; (3) to counsel the doubtful; (4) to comfort the sorrowful; (5) to bear wrongs patiently; (6) to forgive all injuries; (7) to pray for the living and the dead.
We must not forget the Church’s teaching on how we can become guilty of the sins of others: (1) by Counsel; (2) by Command; (3) by Consent; (4) by Concealment; (5) by Partaking; (6) by Provocation; (7) by Praise or Flattery; (8) by Silence; (9) by Defense of the Evil Done. The major one that jumps out at us is guilt by silence―not only silence in correction, but silence in prayer, we do not pray for their conversion, or, if we pray, we do pray enough or well enough.
If, by our silence, we fail to do something to stop this incredible loss of souls, then we are to some degree guilty―having the knowledge and the possibility to try and save them. How many people say SEVERAL Rosaries a day for the conversion of sinners? How many people have SEVERAL or MANY Masses offered for the conversion of sinners? How many people FORMALLY and LOVINGLY offer their daily sufferings, plus other additional sacrifices, for the conversion of sinners? Drill this into your heart and mind―it is a few paltry, inattentive, distracted, speedy, half-hearted, mumbled prayers that are going to pay the price of the incredible bill that has been and still is being run-up by the sinners of this world.
Boot Camp Battle Talk
Perhaps one of the most damaging things Catholics can do is to forget that they Soldiers of Christ, placed behind enemy lines, in a perpetual warfare against the world. “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Be sober and watch―because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour! Whom resist ye, strong in Faith―knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world!” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
“Be strengthened in the Lord, and in the might of his power. Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit―which is the word of God!” (Ephesians 6:10-17).
“All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, so that the man of God may be made perfect, and equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). “The high praise of God shall be in their mouth: and two-edged swords in their hands” (Psalm 149:6). “For the word of God is more piercing than any two edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). “And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp two edged sword―so that with it He may strike the nations. And He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Apocalypse 19:15).
Negligence Has Its Price
“Neglect not to pray!” (Ecclesiasticus 7:10) … “Neglect not, lose no time!” (Judges 18:9) … “Neglect not the grace that is in thee!” (1 Timothy 4:14) … “Pray without ceasing!” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) … “We ought always to pray, and not to faint!” (Luke 18:1) … “Know that he who causeth a sinner to be converted from the error of his way, shall save his soul from death, and shall cover a multitude of sins!” James 5:20).
Boot Camp Battle Talk
Perhaps one of the most damaging things Catholics can do is to forget that they Soldiers of Christ, placed behind enemy lines, in a perpetual warfare against the world. “The life of man upon Earth is a warfare!” (Job 7:1). “Fight the good fight of Faith: lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). “Be sober and watch―because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour! Whom resist ye, strong in Faith―knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world!” (1 Peter 5:8-9).
“Be strengthened in the Lord, and in the might of his power. Put you on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and to stand in all things perfect. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of justice, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take unto you the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit―which is the word of God!” (Ephesians 6:10-17).
“All Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, so that the man of God may be made perfect, and equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). “The high praise of God shall be in their mouth: and two-edged swords in their hands” (Psalm 149:6). “For the word of God is more piercing than any two edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). “And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp two edged sword―so that with it He may strike the nations. And He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty” (Apocalypse 19:15).
We Are Headed For a 21st Century Universal Boot-Camp
After Our Lord, there is nobody who is kinder, sweeter, more gentle, more loving, more merciful and more generous than Our Lady. Yet this is what that sweet, gentle, kind, loving, merciful and generous Mother of God has to say to us―the following words of Our Lady are a combination from her apparitions at Quito in Ecuador (as Our Lady of Good of Success), at La Salette in France, at Fatima in Portugal and at Akita in Japan:
“The end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, various heresies will be propagated. As these heresies spread and dominate, the precious light of Faith will be extinguished in souls by the almost total corruption of morals. During this period, there will be great physical and moral calamities, both public and private. The small number of souls who, hidden, will preserve the treasure of the Faith and practice virtue, will suffer a cruel, unspeakable and prolonged martyrdom. Many of them will succumb to death from the violence of their sufferings … To test this Faith and confidence of the just, there will be occasions when all will seem to be lost and paralyzed … From the end of the 19th century and especially in the 20th century, the passions will erupt and there will be a total corruption of morals, for Satan will reign almost completely by means of the Masonic sects. They will focus particularly on the children, in order to achieve this general corruption. Woe to the children of these times! … Under the appearance of virtue and bad-spirited zeal, many will turn upon Religion, who nourished them at her breast ... Many people … will rebel against the spirit of the Catholic Church, impelled by the malice of the devil … During this epoch the Church will find herself attacked by terrible assaults from the Masonic sect, and corruption of morals, unbridled luxury and extravagance, an impious press and secular education. Moreover, in these unhappy times, there will be unbridled luxury which, acting thus to snare the rest into sin, will conquer innumerable frivolous souls who will be lost. The vices of impurity, blasphemy and sacrilege will dominate in this time of depraved desolation, and those who should speak out will be silent … The spirit of impurity that will permeate the atmosphere during these times. Like a filthy ocean, it will run through the streets, squares and public places with an astonishing liberty. There will be almost no virgin souls in the world … Without virginity, it will be necessary for fire from Heaven to rain down upon these lands in order to purify them” (Our Lady of Good Success).
“If my people do not wish to submit themselves, I am forced to let go of the hand of my Son! It is so heavy and weighs me down so much, that I can no longer keep hold of it! I have suffered all of the time for all of you! If I do not wish my Son to abandon you, I must take it upon myself to pray for this continually! And all of you think little of this! In vain you will pray! In vain you will act! You will never be able to make up for the trouble I have taken over for all of you!” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Woe to the Princes of the Church who think only of piling riches upon riches, to protect their authority and dominate with pride. The priests, ministers of my Son, the priests, by their wicked lives, by their irreverence and their impiety in the celebration of the Holy Mysteries, by their love of money, their love of honors and pleasures, the priests have become cesspools of impurity. Yes, the priests are asking for vengeance, and vengeance is hanging over their heads. Woe to the priests and to those dedicated to God who, by their unfaithfulness and their wicked lives, are crucifying my Son again! The sins of those dedicated to God cry out towards Heaven and call for vengeance, and now vengeance is at their door, for there is no one left to beg mercy and forgiveness for the people. There are no more generous souls, there is no one left worthy of offering a spotless Sacrifice to the Eternal for the sake of the world. God will strike in an unprecedented way” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Woe to the inhabitants of the Earth! God will exhaust His wrath upon them, and no one will be able to escape so many afflictions together. The chiefs, the leaders of the people of God, have neglected prayer and penance, and the devil has bedimmed their intelligence. They have become wandering stars which the old devil will drag along with his tail to make them perish. God will allow the old serpent to cause divisions among those who reign in every society and in every family. Physical and moral agonies will be suffered. God will abandon mankind to itself and will send punishments which will follow one after the other for more than thirty-five years. The society of men is on the eve of the most terrible scourges and of gravest events. Mankind must expect to be ruled with an iron rod and to drink from the chalice of the wrath of God” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“In the year 1864, Lucifer, together with a large number of demons, will be unloosed from Hell; they will put an end to Faith, little by little, even in those dedicated to God. They will blind them in such a way, that, unless they are blessed with a special grace, these people will take on the spirit of these angels of Hell. Several religious institutions will lose all Faith and will lose many souls. Evil books will be abundant on Earth and the spirits of darkness will spread everywhere a universal slackening of all that concerns the service of God. Everywhere, as true Faith has faded, a false light brightens the people … The Church will yield to large persecution, a time of darkness and the Church will witness a frightful crisis. The true Faith to the Lord having been forgotten, each individual will want to be independent and be superior to others” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“All the civil governments will have one and the same plan, which will be to abolish and do away with every religious principle, to make way for materialism, atheism, spiritualism and vice of all kinds. They will abolish civil rights, as well as ecclesiastical rights. All order and all justice will be trampled underfoot and only homicides, hate, jealousy, lies and dissension will be seen, without love for country or family. There will be desecration of holy places. In convents, the flowers of the Church will decompose and the devil will make himself like the king of all hearts. May those in charge of religious communities be on their guard against the people they must receive, for the devil will resort to all his evil tricks to introduce sinners into religious orders, for disorder and the love of carnal pleasures will be spread all over the Earth” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“France, Italy, Spain, and England will be at war. Blood will flow in the streets. Frenchman will fight Frenchman, Italian will fight Italian. A general war will follow which will be appalling. For a time, God will cease to remember France and Italy, because the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been forgotten. The wicked will make use of all their evil ways. Men will kill each other, massacre each other, even in their homes. At the first blow of His thundering sword, the mountains and all Nature will tremble in terror, for the disorders and crimes of men have pierced the vault of the Heavens. Paris will burn and Marseilles will be engulfed. Several cities will be shaken down and swallowed up by earthquakes. People will believe that all is lost. Nothing will be seen but murder, nothing will be heard but the clash of weapons and blasphemy. The righteous will suffer greatly. Their prayers, their penances and their tears will rise up to Heaven and all of God’s people will beg for forgiveness and mercy and will plead for my help and intercession” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“The Holy Father will suffer a great deal. I will be with him until the end and receive his sacrifice. The mischievous would attempt his life several times to do harm and shorten his days, but neither he, nor his successor will see the triumph of the Church of God” (Our Lady of La Salette).
“Pray, pray very much, and make sacrifices for sinners; for many souls go to Hell, because there are none to sacrifice themselves and pray for them! … Do not offend the Lord our God anymore, because He is already so much offended! … God is about to punish the world for its crimes, by means of war, famine, and persecutions of the Church and the Holy Father. To prevent this, I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia to my Immaculate Heart, and the Communion of Reparation on the First Saturdays. If my requests are heeded, Russia will be converted, and there will be peace; if not, she will spread her errors throughout the world, causing wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, various nations will be annihilated!” (Our Lady of Fatima).
Regarding the annihilation of nations: it is important to note that during the Father Fuentes interview, Sister Lucia said that Our Blessed Mother had told herself, Jacinta and Francisco “many times ... that many nations will disappear from the face of the Earth.” We only have the one recorded instance in July 1917, but Lucia said Our Lady spoke of the annihilation of many nations “many times”! (Frère François, Tragedy and Triumph, p. 27.)
“Many men in this world afflict the Lord … In order that the world might know His anger, the Heavenly Father is preparing to inflict a great chastisement on all mankind … As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead ... If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them!” (Our Lady of Akita).
“Esteeming these very punishments to be less than our sins deserve, let us believe that these scourges of the Lord, with which like servants we are chastised, have happened for our amendment, and not for our destruction” (Judith 8:27).
If Only We Knew!
“Oh, if only human beings and religious knew what Heaven is and what it is to possess God, how differently they would live, sparing no sacrifice in order to enter more fully into possession of it! But some let themselves be dazzled by the false glamour of honors and human greatness, while others are blinded by self-love, not realizing that they are falling into lukewarmness, that immense evil which … destroys their fervor, humility, self-renunciation and the ceaseless practice of virtues and fraternal charity and child-like simplicity! Cursed human respect, which makes one ask: ‘What will others say about this?’ … Many hearts consecrated to God in the priestly and religious state will fall into lukewarmness. This, then, will be the cause of the cursed demon taking possession and he will achieve his victories” (Our Lady of Good Success).
DOUBLE DAY ARTICLE : Monday February 18th & Tuesday February 19th
Article 2
Fit for the Fight? Or Scared and Put to Flight?
Article 2
Fit for the Fight? Or Scared and Put to Flight?
Fit, Fat, Fight, Flee
Heaven requires a certain fitness―not so much a physical fitness as a spiritual fitness. Yet some of the attributes that go into achieving physical fitness, are also necessary for spiritual fitness. Our Lord and Holy Scripture are very clear on that matter. Heaven is no place for “push-overs”, but more a place of “push-ups”―not a place for the “flighty” but the “feisty”―not a place for the “halfhearted” but the “wholehearted”―not a place for the “talkers” but the “walkers”! It takes a certain amount of grit―gritting your teeth through the many tribulations to be encountered―in order to successfully get to Heaven. Here are some of the many unmistakably uncompromising fitness statements that Our Lord and Holy Scripture state―they almost paint a “boot-camp” image that any prospective Soldier for Christ must pass through in order to qualify:
Fighting Talk
“Fight the good fight of Faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). Jesus adds: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23). “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death: and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake! And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another!” (Matthew 24:9-10). “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation For there shall be, from henceforth, five in one house divided―three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53). “The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake―but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved! … And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it.” (Matthew 10:21-22; 10:36-39).
If You Want to be Fit for Heaven ...
“And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!’ Who wondered the more, saying among themselves: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said: ‘With men it is impossible; but not with God! For all things are possible with God!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).
Christ’s “Boot Camp”
That sounds a little harsh, doesn’t it? “Christ’s Boot-Camp”! The image brought to mind by a “boot-camp” is one of rigor, discipline, harshness, yelling, insults, hatred, rough treatment, excessive exercise, exhaustion, etc. How could our sweet, gentle, compassionate, kind, loving, merciful Jesus be associated with such behavior and treatment? That would be the initial, instinctive, impassioned plea of a modern-day Catholic who has lost all contact with truth and reality, and, instead, has made-up his or her own sweet and sugar-coated, soft-centered, milk and honey chocolate version of the Faith. Without any doubt Jesus is sweet, gentle, compassionate, kind, loving and merciful―but we must not forget that Jesus has also created a Hell and a Purgatory―which are a zillion, trillion, billion times more excruciating than any earthly boot-camp―and which probably house the vast majority of mankind! Does that pop the balloon of self-imagined and man-made ideas of what the Faith is all about? It should do! Once again, those words of Jesus need to be digested: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12).
How Christ Treats His Recruits
Never mind Hell and Purgatory―even on Earth the true followers of Christ are put through a “Christian Boot Camp” of ever-increasing intensity. Not many like that! Many more refuse that! That is why Our Lord says of His recruits: “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14)―words that we also read in Sunday’s Gospel for Septuagesima Sunday―which, in certain sense, we could say is the arrival of the bus at “Christ’s Boot Camp”―which could be said to last from Septuagesima Sunday through to Easter Sunday. The Marine Boot Camp there are more than 70 training days (“Septuagesima” refers to the number “Seventy”) in a period that is a little longer than 12 weeks, almost 13 weeks, whereas the Catholic has potentially 64 days of training from Septuagesima Sunday to Easter Sunday―though the really grueling part of that training begins with Ash Wednesday.
Our Lord did his own “boot-camp” in the desert―for 40 days and 40 nights―fasting, praying and doing battle with the devil. God had His Chosen People do a “boot-camp” of 40 years in the desert wilderness―during which the vast majority failed to graduate and died in the desert! Once the elite Chosen People (like the Marines are said to be an elite fighting force) reached the Promised Land, they had to do another 70 year “boot-camp” (cf. Marine 70 day boot-camp and Septuagesima [meaning 70] connection) as exiles in Babylon due to their infidelity to God. Notice too, that in the year 70 AD, Jerusalem was made to undergo a “boot-camp” in the form of the Roman siege of Jerusalem, which lasted around 7 months. The length of our “boot-camp” life on Earth, according to Holy Scripture, is an average of 70 years: “The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years” (Psalm 89:10)―a “score” is twenty years, thus “three score and ten” equals seventy (Septuagesima).
Boot Camp of Saints
There is no saint in Heaven who has not passed through Christ’s Boot Camp! You most certainly remember the story where St. Teresa of Avila―in trying to reform and open Carmelite convents of the strict observance―met with one setback after another, whether from humans or from nature. On one occasion, on the way to visit one of her religious houses, she lost her footing in trying to navigate a road that had disappeared under a flooding river, and was almost carried away. Exasperated, she lovingly yet frustratingly complained to Our Lord, asking why on earth He was allowing all this to happen to her, when she was merely trying to do something good and fulfill His will. Our Lord basically said that He treated all His friends in that harsh manner―to which Teresa retorted that, if that was the case, then she was not surprised that Our Lord had so few friends! Here is the account from a French biography of St. Teresa of Avila, entitled The Life of St. Teresa, a 1912 translation by Alice Lady Lovat “taken from the French of ‘A Carmelite’ Nun,” which gives the following story on page 548.
In January of the last year of her life, 1582, she left Ávila to establish convents in Burgos and Grenada, and this befell her along the way:
Teresa describes the journey thus: “We had to run many dangers. At no part of the road were the risks greater than within a few leagues of Burgos, at a place called Los Pontes. The rivers were so high that the water in places covered everything, neither road nor the smallest footpath could be seen, only water everywhere, and two abysses on each side. It seemed foolhardiness to advance, especially in a carriage, for if one strayed ever so little off the road (then invisible), one must have perished.” The saint is silent on her share of the adventure, but her companions relate that, seeing their alarm, she turned to them and encouraged them, saying that “as they were engaged in doing God’s work, how could they die in a better cause?” She then led the way on foot. The current was so strong that she lost her footing, and was on the point of being carried away when our Lord sustained her. “Oh, my Lord!” she exclaimed, with her usual loving familiarity, “when wilt Thou cease from scattering obstacles in our path?” “Do not complain, daughter,” the Divine Master answered, “for it is ever thus that I treat My friends!” “Ah, Lord, it is also on that account that Thou hast so few!” was her reply.
Boot Camp of the Early Christians
We see, too, how the sweet, gentle, loving, merciful, kindly Christ―and He really is all of those things to the highest degree imaginable, but He is also more than that― treated the early Christians of the Church by His Divine Providence. The early Christians were God’s new “Chosen People”, His newly beloved children―but He chose to treat them, not in the way that the world would treat its chosen ones and beloved ones, but more in line with the words of Holy Scripture, where, in both the Old and New Testaments, God says: “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth: and, as a father in the son, He pleaseth Himself!” (Proverbs 3:12). “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth!” (Hebrews 12:6). “When thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1). “They shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake! … The brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death! And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake! But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Mark 13:9-14).
Prior to Saul’s (Paul’s) conversion, Our Lord told Ananias that Paul would have to suffer much for the Lord’s Name’s sake: “And the Lord said to him: ‘Go thy way! For this man [Saul/Paul] is to me a vessel of election, to carry My Name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake!’” (Acts 9:15-16). Hence, St. Paul speaks of being “in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, … in longsuffering, … by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; … as dying, and behold we live; as chastised, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:4-10).
St. Paul gives a litany of sufferings that he had to endure for being a follower of Christ: “They are the ministers of Christ―(I speak as one less wise) I am more! In many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, less one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren. In labor and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness!” (2 Corinthians 11:23-27).
We Want a Holiday Camp, Not Boot Camp
With God being so powerful, merciful and sweet―one would expect a “Holiday Camp” rather than a “Boot Camp” for his followers. Yet, as God Himself says: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9) … “And the children of Israel say: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Are not My ways right, O house of Israel, and are not rather your ways perverse?” (Ezechiel 18:29). “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:10-12). “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 115:16). “Be you humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in the time of visitation!” (1 Peter 5:6).
Adversity and tribulation often provokes repentance―and it us thus that God speaks to His Chosen People during their seventy year Babylonian Captivity, on account of their infidelities to God: “For thus saith the Lord: When the seventy years shall begin to be accomplished in Babylon, I will visit you: and I will perform my good word in your favor, to bring you again to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of affliction, to give you an end and patience. And you shall call upon Me, and you shall go and you shall pray to Me―and I will hear you. You shall seek Me, and shall find Me when you shall seek Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you, saith the Lord: and I will bring back your captivity, and I will gather you out of all nations, and from all the places to which I have driven you out, saith the Lord, and I will bring you back from the place to which I caused you to be carried away captive!” (Jeremias 29:10-14).
Boot Camp of the Desert Fathers
Look at the “Boot-Camp” of the Desert Fathers, who personally and willingly chose to leave the comforts of the world (with their sinful temptations) and went into the desert wilderness―not for a mere 70 days training (like the US Marine boot camp), but for the rest of their lives! St. Paul of Thebes, commonly known as St. Paul, the First Hermit or St. Paul the Anchorite, lived alone in the desert from the age of sixteen to one hundred and thirteen years of age―97 years in the desert wilderness, living on next to nothing! Paul fled to the Theban desert as a young man during the persecution of the Roman Emperors Decius and Valerianus, around 250 AD. He lived in the mountains of this desert in a cave, near a clear spring and a palm tree, the leaves of which provided him with clothing and the fruit of which provided him with his only source of food, until he was 43 years old, when a raven started bringing him half a loaf of bread daily. He would remain in that cave for the rest of his life―almost a hundred years. He is now in Heaven reaping the plentiful rewards FOR ALL ETERNITY for those mere 97 years of “boot camp”.
The Desert Fathers (along with Desert Mothers) were early Christian hermits, ascetics, and monks who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt, beginning around the third century AD. The desert monastic communities that grew out of the informal gathering of hermit monks became the model for Christian monasticism. Paul of Thebes is often credited with being the first hermit monk to go to the desert, but it was Anthony the Great who launched the movement that became the Desert Fathers. Sometime around 270 AD, Anthony heard a Sunday sermon stating that perfection could be achieved by selling all of one’s possessions, giving the proceeds to the poor, and following Christ (Matthew 19:21). He insisted on selling all his material possessions—he left his younger sister a small amount of money to live her life in a convent, donated the rest to the poor, and left for the desert wilderness.
Anthony was not alone in his sentiments. The legalization of Christianity by the Roman Empire in 313 gave many Christians a desire to retire from the world. Some, nostalgic for the tradition of martyrdom that had been the lot of many Christians throughout almost 300 years of persecution, saw withdrawal and asceticism as an alternative to martyrdom. When members of the Church began to look for ways in which they could work with the Roman state, the Desert Fathers saw that as a compromise between “the things of God and the things of Caesar.” The monastic communities were essentially an alternative Christian society―an uncompromising Christian society. The hermits doubted that religion and politics could ever produce a truly Christian society. For them, the only Christian society was spiritual and not worldly.
Anthony lived in a time of transition for Christianity—the persecution of Christians, by the Roman Emperor Diocletian, in the years following 303 AD, was the last great formal persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Only ten years later, Christianity was made legal in Egypt by Diocletian’s successor Constantine I. Those who left for the desert formed an alternative Christian society, at a time when it was no longer a risk to be a Christian. The solitude, austerity, and sacrifice of the desert was seen by Anthony as an alternative to martyrdom, which was formerly seen by many Christians as the highest form of sacrifice. Anthony quickly gained followers eager to live their lives in accordance with this solidarity and separation from material goods. From these prohibitions it is recorded by Athanasius that Anthony received special privileges from God, such as the ability to heal the sick, inspire others to have faith in healing through God, and even converse with God on occasion. Around this time, desert monasticism appeared nearly simultaneously in several areas, including Egypt and Syria.
Over time, the model of Anthony and other hermits attracted many followers, who lived alone in the desert or in small groups. They chose a life of extreme asceticism, renouncing all the pleasures of the senses, rich food, baths, rest, and anything that made them comfortable. They instead focused their energies on praying, singing psalms, fasting, giving alms to the needy, and preserving love and harmony with one another while keeping their thoughts and desires for God alone. Thousands joined them in the desert, mostly men, but also a handful of women. Religious seekers also began going to the desert seeking advice and counsel from the early Desert Fathers. By the time of Anthony’s death, there were so many men and women living in the desert that it was described as “a city” by Anthony’s biographer.
Boot Camp of Christian Martyrs Throughout Centuries
Beheading, stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake and a host of other gruesome manner of deaths―were fairly common methods of disposing of Catholic saints, who were a nuisance and thorn in the side of the pagans and the worldly. There have been an estimated 70 million martyrdoms for the Faith, from the time of Christ to this present day.
● St. Stephen was stoned to death. His success in converting Jews drew the ire of the Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court). His punishment for speaking against “this holy place and the law” was to be stoned to death.
● St. Sebastian, a Praetorian Guard under Diocletian (a committed persecutor of Christians), ‘died’ twice. The first martyrdom was being shot through with arrows and he was left for dead, after it was found out that he was a Christian who had been converting his fellow soldiers. He was found by a woman (later St. Irene) who nursed him back to health. Sebastian later again appeared before Diocletian; the emperor then had him clubbed to death, a punishment that did, in fact, kill Sebastian this time, and his body was dumped into a Roman sewer.
● St. Lawrence was grilled to death over a fire. He was a victim of persecution by the Roman emperor Valerian in 258. St. Lawrence’s martyrology states that he was grilled alive—as in, on an actual red-hot gridiron. It was recorded that he bore his slow torture stoically, even quipping: “Turn me over! I’m cooked on this side!”
● St. Margaret Clitherow was pressed to death. These days, we talk of being under pressure. Well, Margaret Clitherow, the Catholic-convert wife of a Protestant butcher in York, England, allowed Masses to be offered in her home secretly, and she also harbored priests there. When this was discovered, Margaret fell foul of a law instituted, in 1583, that imposed the death penalty for such crimes, and her sentence was to be pressed to death. Pressed, lying on her back with a sharp stone under her and with a door on top of her, which was topped with an 800-pound weight. It took 15 minutes for her to die.
● St. Cassian was hacked to death by children. Formerly the Bishop of Brescia, he became a schoolmaster after his banishment from that place. By refusing to make sacrifice to the pagan gods, he angered the local officials, who sentenced him to death and turned him over to his students as his executioners. Cassian’s death was torturous because of it: the only instruments the students had at their disposal were small and non-lethal. The boys employed their tablets to bash Cassian and their styluses (pointed iron instruments for writing) and penknives to make a multitude of cuts and punctures all over his body for an agonizingly extended time. Conscious through the long process.
● St. Dymphna was beheaded by her father. It is not so much the manner of St. Dymphna’s death---beheading---but the reason for it and the person behind it that is especially awful. Born in Ireland to a 13th century pagan king, Dymphna became a Christian convert. After the death of her mother, her deranged father demanded to marry his daughter Dymphna, a beautiful young woman who resembled his late wife. She refused and fled. Her father eventually found her. He reiterated his demand to marry her; she again refused. He had his servants kill the priest, but he himself cut off his daughter’s head.
● St. Bartholomew was skinned alive. The date is not known, but it is traditionally said that he died in Albanopolis, Armenia. There is evidence that he was a missionary to what are now Iran and Turkey as well as Armenia, Ethiopia, and Mesopotamia, and that the Armenian king Astyages called for his death after Bartholomew converted the king’s brother. Bartholomew’s death was especially grotesque―flaying. That is, his skin was fully removed from his body, in strips, while he was still alive. Then he was beheaded for good measure.
The Boot Camp of Being “Hung, Drawn and Quartered”
The form of execution referred to as being Hung, Drawn and Quartered was described by a chronicler called William Harrison:
“The greatest and most grievous punishment used in England, for such as offend against the State, is the drawing from the prison to the place of execution upon an hurdle or sled, where they are hanged till they be half-dead, and then taken down, and quartered alive; after that, their members and bowels are cut from their bodies, and thrown into a fire, provided near hand and within their own sight, even for the same purpose.” The Quarters of the body were then hung in prescribed locations in the City of London as a deterrent to all English citizens.
If, after a trial in court, a person was found guilty and convicted of treason (and Catholics were looked upon as being guilty of treason), then they were sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. On the day of execution, they were first attached to the back of a horse and then dragged along the ground, over cobbles, stones, or whatever else was found on the road, to the place of their execution. Sometimes it was as simple as tying their hands and ankles with ropes. Other times, they were dragged with their bodies on a wooden frame called a hurdle. While the latter seems somewhat more compassionate, the real purpose was to keep the prisoners alive, so they could properly endure their punishment. By this point, fear would flood the victim's body with adrenaline, causing their heart rate and blood pressure to rapidly increase.
Traitors (Catholics) would often be subjected to the torture of crowds upon arriving at their execution place. These people came specifically to watch the barbaric display of retribution. However, just watching the execution wasn't enough: crowds would usually be waiting for their own opportunity to abuse the traitor. These vicious preliminary attacks could easily result in blunt force trauma, causing a variety of injuries from abrasions and lacerations to hemorrhaging and ruptured organs.
The execution would then begin with a hanging. Traitors (Catholics) were hanged until they are almost dead. Once semi-conscious, the victim’s body would exhibit spasms and all bowel and bladder control would be gone. After being hanged for a while, the condemned person would be pulled down from the scaffold. If the rope had compressed his neck arteries for too long, asphyxia would have led to the complete loss of consciousness. The compression could also have essentially brought the heart to a standstill. Regardless, if the traitor wasn’t conscious, he was vigorously splashed with water to wake him back up for what was coming next.
If they were lucky, at this point they would already be dead―since hanging is the least brutal aspect of the entire punishment. More often than not, the traitor would experience extra punishment outside of the outlined execution program. This involved everything from chopping off his extremities and cauterizing the stumps in hot sulfur, to creating lacerations with burning hot tools and then pouring molten lead into the wounds.
If the traitor’s body was not already in shock from asphyxiation, it would definitely be in shock by now. These types of injuries would cause immense pain, as burns can affect nerves, blood vessels, muscles, and bones. The burned portions of the body would experience instant cell death, an immense loss of fluids, and edema, or extreme swelling. In the term “drawn and quartered,” the word “drawn” was used to refer to disembowelment. A cut would be made down the traitor’s torso and his intestines pulled out, sometimes along with other major organs.
Tearing the mesentery (a fold in the lining of the abdomen that holds the digestive organs in place) from the inner wall of the body, would cause massive amounts of bleeding. This would trigger hypovolemic shock, as the severe blood loss would hinder the heart from pumping blood throughout the body. This type of shock would shut down the organs―if most of the traitor’s insides weren’t already out. You may ask yourself, what could be worse than disembowelment? How about being disemboweled and being castrated? In addition to watching their entrails being pulled out, traitors also had to witness their genitals being sliced off. This act symbolically took away the victim's masculinity, permanently ending the traitor’s bloodline and name.
If the traitor had not yet bled to death, then this horrific mutilation (in tandem with hypovolemic shock) usually resulted in his death. Once the traitor’s abdominal cavity was emptied and his manhood detached, his genitals and entrails were burned before his eyes. Sometimes, if the charges were particularly heinous, the executioner would go the extra mile to dig out the contents of the traitor’s chest cavity and burn them, as well.
By this point in the harrowing process, the traitor would most likely already be dead from shock, as there would be no substantial blood pressure and no vital organs to sustain the remnants of the body. If they happened to be unlucky enough to survive to this point, they would barely be hanging on to any essence of life. In a final act of punishment within the traitor’s last hypothetical moments of life, his head would be cut from his body. Immediately after decapitation, the head was held in the air by the executioner. This was ritualized in order to show the head its own body, as well as the faces of the crowd.
If the condemned was somehow still alive after decapitation, he may have actually caught a glimpse of this view, as consciousness can remain for a few short seconds after beheading. After this, the complete lack of oxygen would quickly lead to death. Following all of the agony, the traitor’s corpse would be quartered. In this act the body was divided into four parts, or quarters. Sometimes this was entirely done by hand, but it has been more notably achieved by scoring the body before tying the limbs (or remaining limbs) to four horses. The horses would then be booted to trot away in four different directions, tearing the body apart.
If the combined effort of the horses failed to properly break the portions away, the executioner assisted by making hatchet cuts on the joints. Sometimes the decision was made to simply burn the quarters of the body. More often than not, though, the four parts and head were preserved for display. The traitor’s head was parboiled in a brine mixture to maintain its appearance while ensuring that the rotting flesh wouldn’t fall victim to circling birds.
The quarters were sometimes parboiled, as well. However, in more serious cases of treason, the quarters were coated in tar to create longer-lasting displays. The preserved quarters were sometimes hung on a gibbet, but typically the crime of treason required that the parts be put on display in various public places. Each limb would often receive an inscription stating the reason(s) for its exposure before being placed atop town gates.
Sometimes the limbs would be scattered in towns in completely different parts of the country. The head would always be displayed in large public places, such as the London Bridge. It would be shoved on a stake and affixed to the bridge as the ultimate deterrent to other traitors.
Catholics Who Were Hung Drawn and Quartered
Here is a list of some Catholic martyrs (there are many more), who died for their Faith by being hung, drawn and quartered in England during the 16th and 17th centuries. Not all of anniversaries of their martyrdoms are on the Church calendar, but several Catholic martyrs from the English recusant (meaning those who “refused”) era, from the time of Elizabeth I to Charles II, are honored with feast days. These martyrs provide us examples of those who paid the ultimate price for adhering to the true Faith, when England was in process of tweaking, changing and eventually rejecting the true Faith.
● St. John Fisher (1469-1535) was an English Catholic bishop and cardinal who was executed by order of Henry VIII during the English Reformation for refusing to accept the King as Supreme Head of the Church of England and for upholding the Roman Catholic Church's doctrine of papal supremacy. He was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, London.
● St. Thomas More (1478-1535) was an English lawyer, a councilor to King Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England. He opposed the Protestant Reformation and the king's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and rejected to uphold the annulment of Hnery’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy of Henry being the Head of the Catholic Church in England, he was convicted of treason and condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, London― but the King later changed this to execution by decapitation.
● St. John Rigby, a layman, was hung, drawn and quartered in 1600, for having converted to Catholicism and neglected to attend Church of England services.
● St. Thomas Garnet, SJ (1575-1608) was hung, drawn, and quartered* during the reign of James I after the Gunpowder Plot discovery. He denied any involvement in it and would not swear James’ Oath of Allegiance denying the Pope’s authority. On June 23, 1608, he proclaimed himself the happiest man alive before his execution.
● St. John Southworth (1592-1654) had already been arrested and exiled once before, but then he had returned to England to serve the Catholic laity as a newly ordained priest. In 1585, a law had been passed branding as treasonable any priest who dared to come back to England. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
● Blessed Philip Powell, OSB, (1594-1646) was a lawyer who became a Benedictine monk and priest, serving as a missionary in England during the English Civil War. He was condemned to death under the Elizabethan statute that designated his priesthood in England as an act of treason. He was hung, drawn and quartered on June 30th, 1646.
● St. Oliver Plunkett (1625-1681), the Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland, was executed at Tyburn in London. Plunkett was the last Catholic priest to be hung, drawn and quartered there.
● Blessed Thomas Maxfield (1590-1616) was condemned solely for being a priest and hung, drawn and quartered.
● Blesseds George Beesley and Montford Scott were hung, drawn and quartered on Fleet Street, in 1591, after suffering torture by Richard Topcliffe, Elizabeth I’s official priest catcher. Two groups of Catholic martyrs in Elizabethan England — in 1594 in Dorchester and in 1597 in York — comprised of priests and the laymen who protected them, were also hung, drawn and quartered. In Dorchester, Blessed John Cornelius, priest, and Blesseds Thomas Bosgrave, John Carey, and Patrick Salmon, all laymen. Father Cornelius was tortured to reveal more lay contacts. In the town of York, Blessed William Andleby, priest, and Blesseds Henry Abbot, Thomas Warcop, and Edward Fulthorp, again laymen.
God could have prevented this torture of His saints―but He didn’t. God knows that the those ‘terrible’ sufferings during that torture were the duration of a mere blink of an eye when compared to eternity. God also knows that the most terrible, horrendous, cruel, sadisitic, prolonged, intense sufferings that you could possibly imagine, are like a mere tickle compared to the sufferings of Purgatory, never mind those of Hell! Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “Suffering in Purgatory is greater than all suffering on Earth. Such is the doctrine of tradition, supported by theological reasoning. Tradition is expressed by St. Augustine: ‘That fire will be more painful than anything man can suffer in the present life.’ St. Isidore speaks in the same sense. According to these testimonies and others similar to them, the least pain in Purgatory surpasses the greatest sufferings of the present life. St. Bonaventure speaks somewhat differently: ‘In the next life, by reason of the state of the souls there retained, the purifying purgatorial suffering will be, in its kind, more severe than the greatest trials on Earth.’ We must understand him thus: For one and the same sin, the smallest suffering in Purgatory is greater than any corresponding suffering on Earth. But it does not follow that the least pain in Purgatory surpasses the greatest terrestrial suffering” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange. Life Everlasting) [read more here]
These eighteen martyrs represent the hundreds beatified, canonized or not, who suffered in England for their Faith from the 1570s to the 1690s, not to mention those many others who were imprisoned, fined, and exiled. They inspire us with their courage and willingness to sacrifice their lives in fighting for the Faith―something that is sorely lacking in Catholics today.
We Are Headed For a 21st Century Universal Boot-Camp
After Our Lord, there is nobody who is kinder, sweeter, more gentle, more loving, more merciful and more generous than Our Lady. Yet this sweet, gentle, kind, loving, merciful and generous Mother of God tells us that we are on the verge of the most terrible "Boot Camp" the world has even seen―while the modern Church lives in a complacency resembling the inhabitants of the world just before the Great Flood, which was survived by only a handful of people―Noe and Company, who opened and shipbuilding company and eventually “floated their shares”. More on all that―and more besides―in the next article.
Heaven requires a certain fitness―not so much a physical fitness as a spiritual fitness. Yet some of the attributes that go into achieving physical fitness, are also necessary for spiritual fitness. Our Lord and Holy Scripture are very clear on that matter. Heaven is no place for “push-overs”, but more a place of “push-ups”―not a place for the “flighty” but the “feisty”―not a place for the “halfhearted” but the “wholehearted”―not a place for the “talkers” but the “walkers”! It takes a certain amount of grit―gritting your teeth through the many tribulations to be encountered―in order to successfully get to Heaven. Here are some of the many unmistakably uncompromising fitness statements that Our Lord and Holy Scripture state―they almost paint a “boot-camp” image that any prospective Soldier for Christ must pass through in order to qualify:
Fighting Talk
“Fight the good fight of Faith! Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called!” (1 Timothy 6:12). Jesus adds: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12). “And Jesus said to all: ‘If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me!’” (Luke 9:23). “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall put you to death: and you shall be hated by all nations for My Name’s sake! And then shall many be scandalized: and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another!” (Matthew 24:9-10). “Think ye, that I am come to give peace on Earth? I tell you, no; but separation For there shall be, from henceforth, five in one house divided―three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against his father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53). “The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and shall put them to death. And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake―but he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved! … And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth Me, is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for Me, shall find it.” (Matthew 10:21-22; 10:36-39).
If You Want to be Fit for Heaven ...
“And behold, a certain rich young man, running up and kneeling before Him, asked Him: ‘Good Master, what shall I do that I may receive life everlasting?’ And Jesus said to him: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments!’ The young man said to Him: ‘All these I have kept from my youth! What is yet wanting to me?’ And Jesus looking on him, loved him, and said to him: ‘One thing is wanting unto thee! If thou wilt be perfect, go sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me!’ And when the young man had heard this word, being struck sad at that saying, went away sorrowful: for he was very rich and had great possessions. And Jesus, seeing him become sorrowful, looking round about, said to His disciples: ‘How hardly shall they that have riches, enter into the Kingdom of God! Amen, I say to you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. And again I say to you: It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!’ And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus again answering, said to them: ‘Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches, to enter into the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God!’ Who wondered the more, saying among themselves: ‘Who then can be saved?’ And Jesus looking on them, said: ‘With men it is impossible; but not with God! For all things are possible with God!’” (combined account of Matthew 19:16-29; Mark 10:17-31; Luke 18:18-25).
Christ’s “Boot Camp”
That sounds a little harsh, doesn’t it? “Christ’s Boot-Camp”! The image brought to mind by a “boot-camp” is one of rigor, discipline, harshness, yelling, insults, hatred, rough treatment, excessive exercise, exhaustion, etc. How could our sweet, gentle, compassionate, kind, loving, merciful Jesus be associated with such behavior and treatment? That would be the initial, instinctive, impassioned plea of a modern-day Catholic who has lost all contact with truth and reality, and, instead, has made-up his or her own sweet and sugar-coated, soft-centered, milk and honey chocolate version of the Faith. Without any doubt Jesus is sweet, gentle, compassionate, kind, loving and merciful―but we must not forget that Jesus has also created a Hell and a Purgatory―which are a zillion, trillion, billion times more excruciating than any earthly boot-camp―and which probably house the vast majority of mankind! Does that pop the balloon of self-imagined and man-made ideas of what the Faith is all about? It should do! Once again, those words of Jesus need to be digested: “The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away!” (Matthew 11:12).
How Christ Treats His Recruits
Never mind Hell and Purgatory―even on Earth the true followers of Christ are put through a “Christian Boot Camp” of ever-increasing intensity. Not many like that! Many more refuse that! That is why Our Lord says of His recruits: “Many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14)―words that we also read in Sunday’s Gospel for Septuagesima Sunday―which, in certain sense, we could say is the arrival of the bus at “Christ’s Boot Camp”―which could be said to last from Septuagesima Sunday through to Easter Sunday. The Marine Boot Camp there are more than 70 training days (“Septuagesima” refers to the number “Seventy”) in a period that is a little longer than 12 weeks, almost 13 weeks, whereas the Catholic has potentially 64 days of training from Septuagesima Sunday to Easter Sunday―though the really grueling part of that training begins with Ash Wednesday.
Our Lord did his own “boot-camp” in the desert―for 40 days and 40 nights―fasting, praying and doing battle with the devil. God had His Chosen People do a “boot-camp” of 40 years in the desert wilderness―during which the vast majority failed to graduate and died in the desert! Once the elite Chosen People (like the Marines are said to be an elite fighting force) reached the Promised Land, they had to do another 70 year “boot-camp” (cf. Marine 70 day boot-camp and Septuagesima [meaning 70] connection) as exiles in Babylon due to their infidelity to God. Notice too, that in the year 70 AD, Jerusalem was made to undergo a “boot-camp” in the form of the Roman siege of Jerusalem, which lasted around 7 months. The length of our “boot-camp” life on Earth, according to Holy Scripture, is an average of 70 years: “The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years” (Psalm 89:10)―a “score” is twenty years, thus “three score and ten” equals seventy (Septuagesima).
Boot Camp of Saints
There is no saint in Heaven who has not passed through Christ’s Boot Camp! You most certainly remember the story where St. Teresa of Avila―in trying to reform and open Carmelite convents of the strict observance―met with one setback after another, whether from humans or from nature. On one occasion, on the way to visit one of her religious houses, she lost her footing in trying to navigate a road that had disappeared under a flooding river, and was almost carried away. Exasperated, she lovingly yet frustratingly complained to Our Lord, asking why on earth He was allowing all this to happen to her, when she was merely trying to do something good and fulfill His will. Our Lord basically said that He treated all His friends in that harsh manner―to which Teresa retorted that, if that was the case, then she was not surprised that Our Lord had so few friends! Here is the account from a French biography of St. Teresa of Avila, entitled The Life of St. Teresa, a 1912 translation by Alice Lady Lovat “taken from the French of ‘A Carmelite’ Nun,” which gives the following story on page 548.
In January of the last year of her life, 1582, she left Ávila to establish convents in Burgos and Grenada, and this befell her along the way:
Teresa describes the journey thus: “We had to run many dangers. At no part of the road were the risks greater than within a few leagues of Burgos, at a place called Los Pontes. The rivers were so high that the water in places covered everything, neither road nor the smallest footpath could be seen, only water everywhere, and two abysses on each side. It seemed foolhardiness to advance, especially in a carriage, for if one strayed ever so little off the road (then invisible), one must have perished.” The saint is silent on her share of the adventure, but her companions relate that, seeing their alarm, she turned to them and encouraged them, saying that “as they were engaged in doing God’s work, how could they die in a better cause?” She then led the way on foot. The current was so strong that she lost her footing, and was on the point of being carried away when our Lord sustained her. “Oh, my Lord!” she exclaimed, with her usual loving familiarity, “when wilt Thou cease from scattering obstacles in our path?” “Do not complain, daughter,” the Divine Master answered, “for it is ever thus that I treat My friends!” “Ah, Lord, it is also on that account that Thou hast so few!” was her reply.
Boot Camp of the Early Christians
We see, too, how the sweet, gentle, loving, merciful, kindly Christ―and He really is all of those things to the highest degree imaginable, but He is also more than that― treated the early Christians of the Church by His Divine Providence. The early Christians were God’s new “Chosen People”, His newly beloved children―but He chose to treat them, not in the way that the world would treat its chosen ones and beloved ones, but more in line with the words of Holy Scripture, where, in both the Old and New Testaments, God says: “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth: and, as a father in the son, He pleaseth Himself!” (Proverbs 3:12). “For whom the Lord loveth, He chastiseth; and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth!” (Hebrews 12:6). “When thou comest to the service of God, stand in justice and in fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation!” (Ecclesiasticus 2:1). “They shall deliver you up to councils, and in the synagogues you shall be beaten, and you shall stand before governors and kings for My sake! … The brother shall betray his brother unto death, and the father his son; and children shall rise up against the parents, and shall work their death! And you shall be hated by all men for My Name’s sake! But he that shall endure unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Mark 13:9-14).
Prior to Saul’s (Paul’s) conversion, Our Lord told Ananias that Paul would have to suffer much for the Lord’s Name’s sake: “And the Lord said to him: ‘Go thy way! For this man [Saul/Paul] is to me a vessel of election, to carry My Name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake!’” (Acts 9:15-16). Hence, St. Paul speaks of being “in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, … in longsuffering, … by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; … as dying, and behold we live; as chastised, and not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as needy, yet enriching many; as having nothing, and possessing all things” (2 Corinthians 6:4-10).
St. Paul gives a litany of sufferings that he had to endure for being a follower of Christ: “They are the ministers of Christ―(I speak as one less wise) I am more! In many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, less one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea. In journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren. In labor and painfulness, in much watchings, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness!” (2 Corinthians 11:23-27).
We Want a Holiday Camp, Not Boot Camp
With God being so powerful, merciful and sweet―one would expect a “Holiday Camp” rather than a “Boot Camp” for his followers. Yet, as God Himself says: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the Heavens are exalted above the Earth, so are My ways exalted above your ways, and My thoughts above your thoughts!” (Isaias 55:8-9) … “And the children of Israel say: ‘The way of the Lord is not right!’ Are not My ways right, O house of Israel, and are not rather your ways perverse?” (Ezechiel 18:29). “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for the sake of justice―for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake! Be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very great in Heaven! For so they persecuted the prophets that were before you!” (Matthew 5:10-12). “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 115:16). “Be you humbled therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in the time of visitation!” (1 Peter 5:6).
Adversity and tribulation often provokes repentance―and it us thus that God speaks to His Chosen People during their seventy year Babylonian Captivity, on account of their infidelities to God: “For thus saith the Lord: When the seventy years shall begin to be accomplished in Babylon, I will visit you: and I will perform my good word in your favor, to bring you again to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of affliction, to give you an end and patience. And you shall call upon Me, and you shall go and you shall pray to Me―and I will hear you. You shall seek Me, and shall find Me when you shall seek Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you, saith the Lord: and I will bring back your captivity, and I will gather you out of all nations, and from all the places to which I have driven you out, saith the Lord, and I will bring you back from the place to which I caused you to be carried away captive!” (Jeremias 29:10-14).
Boot Camp of the Desert Fathers
Look at the “Boot-Camp” of the Desert Fathers, who personally and willingly chose to leave the comforts of the world (with their sinful temptations) and went into the desert wilderness―not for a mere 70 days training (like the US Marine boot camp), but for the rest of their lives! St. Paul of Thebes, commonly known as St. Paul, the First Hermit or St. Paul the Anchorite, lived alone in the desert from the age of sixteen to one hundred and thirteen years of age―97 years in the desert wilderness, living on next to nothing! Paul fled to the Theban desert as a young man during the persecution of the Roman Emperors Decius and Valerianus, around 250 AD. He lived in the mountains of this desert in a cave, near a clear spring and a palm tree, the leaves of which provided him with clothing and the fruit of which provided him with his only source of food, until he was 43 years old, when a raven started bringing him half a loaf of bread daily. He would remain in that cave for the rest of his life―almost a hundred years. He is now in Heaven reaping the plentiful rewards FOR ALL ETERNITY for those mere 97 years of “boot camp”.
The Desert Fathers (along with Desert Mothers) were early Christian hermits, ascetics, and monks who lived mainly in the Scetes desert of Egypt, beginning around the third century AD. The desert monastic communities that grew out of the informal gathering of hermit monks became the model for Christian monasticism. Paul of Thebes is often credited with being the first hermit monk to go to the desert, but it was Anthony the Great who launched the movement that became the Desert Fathers. Sometime around 270 AD, Anthony heard a Sunday sermon stating that perfection could be achieved by selling all of one’s possessions, giving the proceeds to the poor, and following Christ (Matthew 19:21). He insisted on selling all his material possessions—he left his younger sister a small amount of money to live her life in a convent, donated the rest to the poor, and left for the desert wilderness.
Anthony was not alone in his sentiments. The legalization of Christianity by the Roman Empire in 313 gave many Christians a desire to retire from the world. Some, nostalgic for the tradition of martyrdom that had been the lot of many Christians throughout almost 300 years of persecution, saw withdrawal and asceticism as an alternative to martyrdom. When members of the Church began to look for ways in which they could work with the Roman state, the Desert Fathers saw that as a compromise between “the things of God and the things of Caesar.” The monastic communities were essentially an alternative Christian society―an uncompromising Christian society. The hermits doubted that religion and politics could ever produce a truly Christian society. For them, the only Christian society was spiritual and not worldly.
Anthony lived in a time of transition for Christianity—the persecution of Christians, by the Roman Emperor Diocletian, in the years following 303 AD, was the last great formal persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Only ten years later, Christianity was made legal in Egypt by Diocletian’s successor Constantine I. Those who left for the desert formed an alternative Christian society, at a time when it was no longer a risk to be a Christian. The solitude, austerity, and sacrifice of the desert was seen by Anthony as an alternative to martyrdom, which was formerly seen by many Christians as the highest form of sacrifice. Anthony quickly gained followers eager to live their lives in accordance with this solidarity and separation from material goods. From these prohibitions it is recorded by Athanasius that Anthony received special privileges from God, such as the ability to heal the sick, inspire others to have faith in healing through God, and even converse with God on occasion. Around this time, desert monasticism appeared nearly simultaneously in several areas, including Egypt and Syria.
Over time, the model of Anthony and other hermits attracted many followers, who lived alone in the desert or in small groups. They chose a life of extreme asceticism, renouncing all the pleasures of the senses, rich food, baths, rest, and anything that made them comfortable. They instead focused their energies on praying, singing psalms, fasting, giving alms to the needy, and preserving love and harmony with one another while keeping their thoughts and desires for God alone. Thousands joined them in the desert, mostly men, but also a handful of women. Religious seekers also began going to the desert seeking advice and counsel from the early Desert Fathers. By the time of Anthony’s death, there were so many men and women living in the desert that it was described as “a city” by Anthony’s biographer.
Boot Camp of Christian Martyrs Throughout Centuries
Beheading, stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake and a host of other gruesome manner of deaths―were fairly common methods of disposing of Catholic saints, who were a nuisance and thorn in the side of the pagans and the worldly. There have been an estimated 70 million martyrdoms for the Faith, from the time of Christ to this present day.
● St. Stephen was stoned to death. His success in converting Jews drew the ire of the Sanhedrin (the supreme rabbinic court). His punishment for speaking against “this holy place and the law” was to be stoned to death.
● St. Sebastian, a Praetorian Guard under Diocletian (a committed persecutor of Christians), ‘died’ twice. The first martyrdom was being shot through with arrows and he was left for dead, after it was found out that he was a Christian who had been converting his fellow soldiers. He was found by a woman (later St. Irene) who nursed him back to health. Sebastian later again appeared before Diocletian; the emperor then had him clubbed to death, a punishment that did, in fact, kill Sebastian this time, and his body was dumped into a Roman sewer.
● St. Lawrence was grilled to death over a fire. He was a victim of persecution by the Roman emperor Valerian in 258. St. Lawrence’s martyrology states that he was grilled alive—as in, on an actual red-hot gridiron. It was recorded that he bore his slow torture stoically, even quipping: “Turn me over! I’m cooked on this side!”
● St. Margaret Clitherow was pressed to death. These days, we talk of being under pressure. Well, Margaret Clitherow, the Catholic-convert wife of a Protestant butcher in York, England, allowed Masses to be offered in her home secretly, and she also harbored priests there. When this was discovered, Margaret fell foul of a law instituted, in 1583, that imposed the death penalty for such crimes, and her sentence was to be pressed to death. Pressed, lying on her back with a sharp stone under her and with a door on top of her, which was topped with an 800-pound weight. It took 15 minutes for her to die.
● St. Cassian was hacked to death by children. Formerly the Bishop of Brescia, he became a schoolmaster after his banishment from that place. By refusing to make sacrifice to the pagan gods, he angered the local officials, who sentenced him to death and turned him over to his students as his executioners. Cassian’s death was torturous because of it: the only instruments the students had at their disposal were small and non-lethal. The boys employed their tablets to bash Cassian and their styluses (pointed iron instruments for writing) and penknives to make a multitude of cuts and punctures all over his body for an agonizingly extended time. Conscious through the long process.
● St. Dymphna was beheaded by her father. It is not so much the manner of St. Dymphna’s death---beheading---but the reason for it and the person behind it that is especially awful. Born in Ireland to a 13th century pagan king, Dymphna became a Christian convert. After the death of her mother, her deranged father demanded to marry his daughter Dymphna, a beautiful young woman who resembled his late wife. She refused and fled. Her father eventually found her. He reiterated his demand to marry her; she again refused. He had his servants kill the priest, but he himself cut off his daughter’s head.
● St. Bartholomew was skinned alive. The date is not known, but it is traditionally said that he died in Albanopolis, Armenia. There is evidence that he was a missionary to what are now Iran and Turkey as well as Armenia, Ethiopia, and Mesopotamia, and that the Armenian king Astyages called for his death after Bartholomew converted the king’s brother. Bartholomew’s death was especially grotesque―flaying. That is, his skin was fully removed from his body, in strips, while he was still alive. Then he was beheaded for good measure.
The Boot Camp of Being “Hung, Drawn and Quartered”
The form of execution referred to as being Hung, Drawn and Quartered was described by a chronicler called William Harrison:
“The greatest and most grievous punishment used in England, for such as offend against the State, is the drawing from the prison to the place of execution upon an hurdle or sled, where they are hanged till they be half-dead, and then taken down, and quartered alive; after that, their members and bowels are cut from their bodies, and thrown into a fire, provided near hand and within their own sight, even for the same purpose.” The Quarters of the body were then hung in prescribed locations in the City of London as a deterrent to all English citizens.
If, after a trial in court, a person was found guilty and convicted of treason (and Catholics were looked upon as being guilty of treason), then they were sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered. On the day of execution, they were first attached to the back of a horse and then dragged along the ground, over cobbles, stones, or whatever else was found on the road, to the place of their execution. Sometimes it was as simple as tying their hands and ankles with ropes. Other times, they were dragged with their bodies on a wooden frame called a hurdle. While the latter seems somewhat more compassionate, the real purpose was to keep the prisoners alive, so they could properly endure their punishment. By this point, fear would flood the victim's body with adrenaline, causing their heart rate and blood pressure to rapidly increase.
Traitors (Catholics) would often be subjected to the torture of crowds upon arriving at their execution place. These people came specifically to watch the barbaric display of retribution. However, just watching the execution wasn't enough: crowds would usually be waiting for their own opportunity to abuse the traitor. These vicious preliminary attacks could easily result in blunt force trauma, causing a variety of injuries from abrasions and lacerations to hemorrhaging and ruptured organs.
The execution would then begin with a hanging. Traitors (Catholics) were hanged until they are almost dead. Once semi-conscious, the victim’s body would exhibit spasms and all bowel and bladder control would be gone. After being hanged for a while, the condemned person would be pulled down from the scaffold. If the rope had compressed his neck arteries for too long, asphyxia would have led to the complete loss of consciousness. The compression could also have essentially brought the heart to a standstill. Regardless, if the traitor wasn’t conscious, he was vigorously splashed with water to wake him back up for what was coming next.
If they were lucky, at this point they would already be dead―since hanging is the least brutal aspect of the entire punishment. More often than not, the traitor would experience extra punishment outside of the outlined execution program. This involved everything from chopping off his extremities and cauterizing the stumps in hot sulfur, to creating lacerations with burning hot tools and then pouring molten lead into the wounds.
If the traitor’s body was not already in shock from asphyxiation, it would definitely be in shock by now. These types of injuries would cause immense pain, as burns can affect nerves, blood vessels, muscles, and bones. The burned portions of the body would experience instant cell death, an immense loss of fluids, and edema, or extreme swelling. In the term “drawn and quartered,” the word “drawn” was used to refer to disembowelment. A cut would be made down the traitor’s torso and his intestines pulled out, sometimes along with other major organs.
Tearing the mesentery (a fold in the lining of the abdomen that holds the digestive organs in place) from the inner wall of the body, would cause massive amounts of bleeding. This would trigger hypovolemic shock, as the severe blood loss would hinder the heart from pumping blood throughout the body. This type of shock would shut down the organs―if most of the traitor’s insides weren’t already out. You may ask yourself, what could be worse than disembowelment? How about being disemboweled and being castrated? In addition to watching their entrails being pulled out, traitors also had to witness their genitals being sliced off. This act symbolically took away the victim's masculinity, permanently ending the traitor’s bloodline and name.
If the traitor had not yet bled to death, then this horrific mutilation (in tandem with hypovolemic shock) usually resulted in his death. Once the traitor’s abdominal cavity was emptied and his manhood detached, his genitals and entrails were burned before his eyes. Sometimes, if the charges were particularly heinous, the executioner would go the extra mile to dig out the contents of the traitor’s chest cavity and burn them, as well.
By this point in the harrowing process, the traitor would most likely already be dead from shock, as there would be no substantial blood pressure and no vital organs to sustain the remnants of the body. If they happened to be unlucky enough to survive to this point, they would barely be hanging on to any essence of life. In a final act of punishment within the traitor’s last hypothetical moments of life, his head would be cut from his body. Immediately after decapitation, the head was held in the air by the executioner. This was ritualized in order to show the head its own body, as well as the faces of the crowd.
If the condemned was somehow still alive after decapitation, he may have actually caught a glimpse of this view, as consciousness can remain for a few short seconds after beheading. After this, the complete lack of oxygen would quickly lead to death. Following all of the agony, the traitor’s corpse would be quartered. In this act the body was divided into four parts, or quarters. Sometimes this was entirely done by hand, but it has been more notably achieved by scoring the body before tying the limbs (or remaining limbs) to four horses. The horses would then be booted to trot away in four different directions, tearing the body apart.
If the combined effort of the horses failed to properly break the portions away, the executioner assisted by making hatchet cuts on the joints. Sometimes the decision was made to simply burn the quarters of the body. More often than not, though, the four parts and head were preserved for display. The traitor’s head was parboiled in a brine mixture to maintain its appearance while ensuring that the rotting flesh wouldn’t fall victim to circling birds.
The quarters were sometimes parboiled, as well. However, in more serious cases of treason, the quarters were coated in tar to create longer-lasting displays. The preserved quarters were sometimes hung on a gibbet, but typically the crime of treason required that the parts be put on display in various public places. Each limb would often receive an inscription stating the reason(s) for its exposure before being placed atop town gates.
Sometimes the limbs would be scattered in towns in completely different parts of the country. The head would always be displayed in large public places, such as the London Bridge. It would be shoved on a stake and affixed to the bridge as the ultimate deterrent to other traitors.
Catholics Who Were Hung Drawn and Quartered
Here is a list of some Catholic martyrs (there are many more), who died for their Faith by being hung, drawn and quartered in England during the 16th and 17th centuries. Not all of anniversaries of their martyrdoms are on the Church calendar, but several Catholic martyrs from the English recusant (meaning those who “refused”) era, from the time of Elizabeth I to Charles II, are honored with feast days. These martyrs provide us examples of those who paid the ultimate price for adhering to the true Faith, when England was in process of tweaking, changing and eventually rejecting the true Faith.
● St. John Fisher (1469-1535) was an English Catholic bishop and cardinal who was executed by order of Henry VIII during the English Reformation for refusing to accept the King as Supreme Head of the Church of England and for upholding the Roman Catholic Church's doctrine of papal supremacy. He was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, London.
● St. Thomas More (1478-1535) was an English lawyer, a councilor to King Henry VIII, and Lord High Chancellor of England. He opposed the Protestant Reformation and the king's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as Supreme Head of the Church of England and rejected to uphold the annulment of Hnery’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy of Henry being the Head of the Catholic Church in England, he was convicted of treason and condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered at Tyburn, London― but the King later changed this to execution by decapitation.
● St. John Rigby, a layman, was hung, drawn and quartered in 1600, for having converted to Catholicism and neglected to attend Church of England services.
● St. Thomas Garnet, SJ (1575-1608) was hung, drawn, and quartered* during the reign of James I after the Gunpowder Plot discovery. He denied any involvement in it and would not swear James’ Oath of Allegiance denying the Pope’s authority. On June 23, 1608, he proclaimed himself the happiest man alive before his execution.
● St. John Southworth (1592-1654) had already been arrested and exiled once before, but then he had returned to England to serve the Catholic laity as a newly ordained priest. In 1585, a law had been passed branding as treasonable any priest who dared to come back to England. He was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.
● Blessed Philip Powell, OSB, (1594-1646) was a lawyer who became a Benedictine monk and priest, serving as a missionary in England during the English Civil War. He was condemned to death under the Elizabethan statute that designated his priesthood in England as an act of treason. He was hung, drawn and quartered on June 30th, 1646.
● St. Oliver Plunkett (1625-1681), the Archbishop of Armagh in Ireland, was executed at Tyburn in London. Plunkett was the last Catholic priest to be hung, drawn and quartered there.
● Blessed Thomas Maxfield (1590-1616) was condemned solely for being a priest and hung, drawn and quartered.
● Blesseds George Beesley and Montford Scott were hung, drawn and quartered on Fleet Street, in 1591, after suffering torture by Richard Topcliffe, Elizabeth I’s official priest catcher. Two groups of Catholic martyrs in Elizabethan England — in 1594 in Dorchester and in 1597 in York — comprised of priests and the laymen who protected them, were also hung, drawn and quartered. In Dorchester, Blessed John Cornelius, priest, and Blesseds Thomas Bosgrave, John Carey, and Patrick Salmon, all laymen. Father Cornelius was tortured to reveal more lay contacts. In the town of York, Blessed William Andleby, priest, and Blesseds Henry Abbot, Thomas Warcop, and Edward Fulthorp, again laymen.
God could have prevented this torture of His saints―but He didn’t. God knows that the those ‘terrible’ sufferings during that torture were the duration of a mere blink of an eye when compared to eternity. God also knows that the most terrible, horrendous, cruel, sadisitic, prolonged, intense sufferings that you could possibly imagine, are like a mere tickle compared to the sufferings of Purgatory, never mind those of Hell! Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange writes: “Suffering in Purgatory is greater than all suffering on Earth. Such is the doctrine of tradition, supported by theological reasoning. Tradition is expressed by St. Augustine: ‘That fire will be more painful than anything man can suffer in the present life.’ St. Isidore speaks in the same sense. According to these testimonies and others similar to them, the least pain in Purgatory surpasses the greatest sufferings of the present life. St. Bonaventure speaks somewhat differently: ‘In the next life, by reason of the state of the souls there retained, the purifying purgatorial suffering will be, in its kind, more severe than the greatest trials on Earth.’ We must understand him thus: For one and the same sin, the smallest suffering in Purgatory is greater than any corresponding suffering on Earth. But it does not follow that the least pain in Purgatory surpasses the greatest terrestrial suffering” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange. Life Everlasting) [read more here]
These eighteen martyrs represent the hundreds beatified, canonized or not, who suffered in England for their Faith from the 1570s to the 1690s, not to mention those many others who were imprisoned, fined, and exiled. They inspire us with their courage and willingness to sacrifice their lives in fighting for the Faith―something that is sorely lacking in Catholics today.
We Are Headed For a 21st Century Universal Boot-Camp
After Our Lord, there is nobody who is kinder, sweeter, more gentle, more loving, more merciful and more generous than Our Lady. Yet this sweet, gentle, kind, loving, merciful and generous Mother of God tells us that we are on the verge of the most terrible "Boot Camp" the world has even seen―while the modern Church lives in a complacency resembling the inhabitants of the world just before the Great Flood, which was survived by only a handful of people―Noe and Company, who opened and shipbuilding company and eventually “floated their shares”. More on all that―and more besides―in the next article.
Sunday February 17th
Article 1
We All Run in the Race! Will You be a Winner or a Loser?
Article 1
We All Run in the Race! Will You be a Winner or a Loser?
The Many and the Few―The Idlers and the Workers―The Losers and Winners
The Gospel for Septuagesima Sunday ends with those ominous words: “Many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 20:16). Equally disconcerting to the modern-day “Catholic-Couch-Potato” are the words of the Epistle for Septuagesima Sunday, in which St. Paul warns all slackers that everyone must run in the race to Heaven―there are no exceptions, there are no spectators, only runners, and not everyone who runs (or walks or waddles) will get the prize: “Know you not that … all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain!” (1 Corinthians 9:24). The race to Heaven seems to be more like a marathon than a short race! We are more likely and more ready to run to the fridge, or run to the store, than to run to Heaven! Yes, “Many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 20:16)―many are called to run, but few choose to run!
Life is full of “the many and the few” syndrome―many want to be rich, only a few get to be rich; many want to be successful in the chosen field of work, but only few are successful; many are the teams in each sports league, but only one gets to be champion; many want to be top of the class, but only one is; many are the prayers we say, few are the prayers that get answered the way we want; many are the times we have made resolutions and wished we could change―become more virtuous, more skillful, more slender, more liked, etc.―but few are times we have succeeded; many are the souls that wish to be saved, but few are those who are saved.
“And a certain man said to him: Lord, are they few that are saved? But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: “Lord! Open to us!” And he answering, shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are!” Then you shall begin to say: “We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets!” And he shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are! Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity!” There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! And there shall come from the east and the west, and the north and the south; and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And behold, they are last that shall be first; and they are first that shall be last!’” (Luke 13:23-30).
This is by no means the only reference to the number of souls that are saved or damned. Our Lord also speaks of this on another occasion—during His Sermon on the Mount: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!”(Matthew 7:13-14). “Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:13-14).
Wise and Foolish Virgins
Another parable told by Our Lord, which is very appropriate for this Septuagesima Season, was that of the Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins: “Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish, and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom cometh! Go ye forth to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out!’ The wise answered, saying: ‘Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves!’ Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last come also the other virgins, saying: ‘Lord! Lord! Open to us!’ But he answering said: ‘Amen I say to you, I know you not!’” (Matthew 25:1-12).
They found themselves locked-out because they had not prepared sufficiently―let us not waste this Septuagsima Season of preparation by foolishly remaining indifferent to it and idle throughout it!
Two Shall Be In The Field…
Notice the numbers in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins—five and five. Not all get to go to the banquet—which symbolizes Heaven. Though we should place absolute value and credence on the numbers mentioned, they do match another statement by Our Lord, concerning the last days, where He speaks of the numbers who will be taken up by the angels and the numbers left behind: “But of that day and hour no one knoweth, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone. And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark, and they knew not till the flood came, and took them all away; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be. Then two shall be in the field: one shall be taken, and one shall be left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill: one shall be taken, and one shall be left. Watch ye therefore, because ye know not what hour your Lord will come!” (Matthew 24:36-42).
The 'Unchosen Ones' Among the Chosen People
Our Lord mentioned the time of Noe and the Ark, reminded us of how few were saved―“the flood came, and took them all away.” God had no qualms about eliminating most of the human race because of sin and wiped them off the face of the Earth—“It repented Him that He had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth!’” (Genesis 6:6-7).
We see the same anger in God during the Exodus from Egypt on the journey to the Promised Land: “And again the Lord said to Moses: ‘See that this people is stiff-necked! Let Me alone, that My wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation!’”(Exodus 32:9-10).
St. Paul reminds us of this in the New Testament: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea! And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea! And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ! But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
God was not well pleased with most of them! What a horrifying thought! They were His Chosen People—were they not? Yet He was ready to destroy them, He made them wander in the desert―until all who had murmured, complained, rebelled and disobeyed God had died―so that only two (Josue and Caleb) of the original millions of adults, who had left Egypt with Moses, actually entered the Promised Land—the rest were a new generation that had been born in the desert during those forty years! With most of them God was not well pleased! What, then, would God think of our ultra-sinful world today? We shiver to think!
Get the Spiritual Engine Serviced Before Lent
Before we know it, Lent will be upon us! This Sunday, Septuagesima Sunday, the Church places before us the words of St. Paul, about running in a race in such a manner that we may win. “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain!” (1 Corinthians 9: 24). In our lazy modern times, the car has replaced the two feet as the chief means of running around; but whether it is the athlete with his feet, or the driver with his car, the bottom line is that, to win a race, the athlete or the car has to be in peak condition.
Secondly, no athlete will win a competitive race without training beforehand. The car has to be tried out beforehand also, to see if all is running smoothly and well. This is what the Septuagesima season, with its three countdown Sundays (Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima) is for―a serious time of preparation for the even more serious time of Lent. In the previous article we spoke about the example furnished by St. Bernadette for our prayer life. Prayer is of the utmost importance to our ‘spiritual engine’; it is what drives our ‘spiritual body’ forwards and it is what gives it power.
“Do we believe in the power of prayer? We know the common teaching of theologians: that true prayer—by which we ask something for ourselves with humility, confidence and perseverance, the graces necessary for salvation—is infallibly efficacious (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, Q.83, Art.15, ad 2). We know this doctrine, and yet it seems to us, at times, that we have truly prayed without being heard. We believe in, or rather we see, the power of a machine, of an army, of money and of knowledge; but we do not believe strongly enough in the efficacy of prayer” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23).
The Gasoline of Grace comes through Prayer
“The modern world cannot do without God. This is the root of its ills. The great truth is that we have an absolute need of God…He normally bestows His grace only in response to prayer. Since our need exists at all times .... ‘We ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1) .... The true nature of Christian prayer is perfectly expressed in the following definition given by St. John Damascene and St. Thomas Aquinas: prayer is ‘a raising of the mind and heart towards God’ to offer Him our homage and to ask Him for all those things of which we stand in need” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Spinning Wheels and Going Nowhere
People often pray without realizing what it is that they are doing, or Whom they are addressing! God so rightly complains in Scripture saying: “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:7).
“It happens to some souls that, when they have recited many formulas, they realize that they have said nothing to God from the bottom of their hearts. Our mind may be far distant from the words that fall from our lips .... In our prayer, we must give up to God our whole heart and our whole mind .... Just as the sanctuary light burns itself up without reserving anything, so our soul, in its conversation with God, must be entirely dedicated to the Almighty. We must free ourselves from preoccupations and from vain thoughts, which tie the soul down to Earth and prevent it from being entirely given over to the Lord” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Winning Races Requires Intensity
Many find prayer difficult. That is only natural, since we are trying to communicate with the supernatural world.
“Prayer always requires a certain effort, even from those who find in it their delight, because a certain strain is involved in the concentration necessary to speak to God; it is always more or less difficult to maintain the soul in an atmosphere which is above its usual level. That is why prayer can serve as a sacramental penance. We must not be surprised at this difficulty in applying ourselves to prayer: for to raise ourselves towards God, even in the smallest degree, is to exceed our natural powers” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Focus on the Race, the Whole Race and Nothing but the Race
Too many people limit prayer to an isolated part of the day—first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Yet God should be part of our whole day, not just a mere ten minutes.
“Prayer in our life, must not be limited to a number of isolated, passing incidents. We must cultivate a spirit of prayer. What must we understand by this? A spirit of prayer is an habitual disposition of soul whereby, in our troubles and discouragements, as well as in our joys and successes, our hearts turn towards Our Lady and Our Lord, as to our best friends and most intimate confidants of our feelings. And it is not only in the morning and in the evening that the soul should be raised heavenwards, but always: ‘My eyes are ever towards the Lord’ (Psalm 24:15)” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
All Enter the Race, Not All Finish the Race
Prayer is actually a bending of our will towards the will of God. He wishes the salvation of all, but all will not be saved—and one of the contributory causes of failing to make it to Heaven is a lack of prayer; a lack of prayer by those who will be damned (the driver) and a lack of prayer on the part of others for the conversion of those unfortunate souls (the mechanics and maintenance crew).
“For material harvests, God prepared the seed, the rain that must help it germinate, the sun that will ripen the fruits of the Earth. Likewise, for spiritual harvest, He has prepared spiritual seeds, the divine graces necessary for sanctification and salvation. Prayer is one of the causes meant to produce that sanctification and salvation” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23). We can add to this the Biblical axiom of we reap what we sow: “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:8). Prayer is sowing in the spirit. Playing is sowing in the flesh. The Angel said to the children at Fatima: “Don’t play, but pray!”―which is essentially the same thing as we see in the Gospel for Septuagesima Sunday, where the Lord of the vineyard says to those men who were idly standing around in the market place: “But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: ‘Why stand you here all the day idle?’” (Matthew 20:6). No race was ever won, nor was work ever done, by merely standing around or playing!
“St. Gregory the Great says: ‘Men ought, by prayer, to dispose themselves to receive what Almighty God, from eternity, has decided to give them’ (Dialogues, Book 1, chapter 8). Thus, Christ, wishing to convert the Samaritan woman, led her to pray by saying to her: “If thou didst know the gift of God!” In the same way, He granted Mary Magdalen a strong and gentle actual grace, which inclined her to repentance and to prayer. He acted in the same way to Zacheus and the Good Thief. It is, therefore, as necessary to pray in order to obtain the help of God, as it is necessary to sow seed in order to have wheat. To those who say that, what was to happen would happen, whether they prayed or not, is as foolish as to maintain that, whether or not we sowed seed, wheat would still appear once summer came! Therefore, prayer is necessary to obtain the help of God, as seed is necessary for the harvest” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23).
The problems we face, arise from the fact that God is prepared to give far more than we are prepared to ask for—we are so lazy and negligent, lacking in confidence and perseverance, that we receive only a fraction of what God is prepared to give. The efficacy of prayer, correctly made, is infallibly assured by Christ:
“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you....And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he give him a serpent?...If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from Heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Luke 11:9-13). The problem does not lie with the Giver, but with us.
Some Racing Tips
Many of us become discouraged with prayer because our prayers are rarely, if ever heard. It is like entering the race just to make up numbers—but we never win! Yet, there are ways in which we can, almost infallibly, get our prayers answered and win that race! The spiritual writers or racers list the following chief tactics as “infallible” or guaranteed means of having our prayers favorably heard and answered:
1. PRAY FOR WHAT IS GOOD AND NOT SINFUL OR HARMFUL TO OUR SALVATION—We should always remember that what we want is not always what we need. At times, adversity is a better route to Heaven than prosperity. St. Augustine says: “We ought to be persuaded that what God refuses to our prayer, He grants to our salvation.”
2. OUR PRAYER MUST BE HUMBLE—Remember the prayer of the Pharisee and the Publican. Remember, too, Our Lady’s prayer, the Magnificat, wherein she says that God has “regarded the humility of His handmaid…He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble.” The Old Testament says: “...nor from the beginning have the proud been acceptable to Thee―but the prayer of the humble and the meek hath always pleased Thee” (Judith 9:16). “May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things” (Psalm 11:4). “Thou hast rebuked the proud” (Psalm 118:21). “Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 16:5).
3. OUR PRAYER MUST BE FERVENT—Too often our prayers are said listlessly, routinely, mechanically; our heart is not in them. Of such Our Lord said: “This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!” (Matthew 15:7). Our prayers should be like grains of incense, placed on the hot coals of our hearts.
4. WE SHOULD AMEND OUR LIFE — If we persist in leading a life of sin, even venial sin, then we greatly handicap the chances of having our prayers heard. “He who turns his ears from hearing the law, his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9).
5. WE SHOULD FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAVE INJURED US — This was the example of Christ dying on the cross: “Father, forgive them...” “If, therefore, thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee—Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then, coming, thou shalt offer thy gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). “Forgive thy neighbor if he hath hurt thee, and then shall thy sins be forgiven to thee, when thou prayest” (Ecclesiasticus. 28:2).
6. OUR PRAYER SHOULD BE UNITED TO GOOD WORKS OR SACRIFICES — “Prayer is good with fasting and alms” (Tobias 12:8). That is why penance is so crucial in strengthening our prayer. Our Lady asks not only for prayer at Fatima, but prayer and sacrifices. The power of this is expressed in Scripture, where the Apostles failed to cast out a demon from one particular person, and asked Our Lord why they had failed. Our Lord replied: “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:20).
7. WE SHOULD PRAY WITH CONFIDENCE — Our Lord praised the Faith and confidence of persons on many occasions, saying: “Go, thy Faith has made thee whole!” (Matthew 9:22; Mark 5:34; 10:52; Luke 17:19; 18:42). He also told us that “all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). Do we have that confidence in prayer?
8. WE SHOULD PRAY WITH PERSEVERANCE — “He defers the granting to increase our desire and appreciation” says St. Augustine. Our Lord Himself said: “Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Luke 11:8-9).
If we would only pray in the above manner, we would be amazed at the response our prayers would bring from Heaven! Keep in mind the words of St. Augustine: “The man who knows how to pray well, is the one who knows how to live well.” Which, for our purposes, translates into “Drive well, and you’ll win the race! Pray well, and you’ll get the grace!”
But Above All … Have Charity
To this, we could well add, “The man who loves well, is one who prays well!”―which is basically the flip side of the coin of what Our Lord expresses when he says: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me!” (Matthew 15:8). When our heart is not in our prayer, then our prayer is not as well prayed as it should be―our prayers may be “said”, but they are not “prayed”―because they mainly come from the lips and not from the heart.
Therefore, to make a successful Lent, you need to rectify, improve, overhaul and repair the way and manner in which you love God and show your love to God―otherwise, no matter how many other things you may do, they will be of little or no supernatural benefit and profit. It is our love of God, our charity towards God, that is the measure of our actions. The profit we get, or the rewards we receive, are directly proportionate to the love with which perform them. Hence, Holy Scripture says: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). St. Teresa of Ávila writes: “It is love alone that gives worth to all things!” That is why St. Paul adds: “But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection!” (Colossians 3:14).
Just as Our Lord would say: “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26), you can likewise say: “What doth it profit a man if he perform all the possible penances but has no charity?”―charity being, above all else, a love of God. Sure, we can pray to God, we can say: “Lord! Lord! I love you!”―but actions speak louder than words, and love is proved by its actions and not its words, as Jesus Himself said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments!” (John 14:15) … “Why call you Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Keeping the commandments of God is the very basic, beginners or novices level of charity―it includes, first of all, the elimination of all habitual mortal sin and then the elimination of all deliberate venial sin. The next level of charity manifests a great desire to be in the presence of God as much as possible, especially by prayer―sincere, heartfelt prayer and not mere automatic, repetitive, mechanical lip-service. The next and ultimate level of charity is a great desire to suffer more and more for God’s sake, out of a love for Him.
The Engine and Engine Room of Charity
To win our race for Heaven, we have to have enough “fuel in the gas tank”―because the race is not a 100 yard sprint, but a lifelong marathon. “He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22). Charity is that premium fuel that gives us maximum mileage and maximum results―as so beautifully explained by the following passage from the Imitation of Christ:
“Love is an excellent thing, a very great blessing, indeed. It makes every difficulty easy, and bears all wrongs with equanimity. For it bears a burden without being weighted and renders sweet all that is bitter. The noble love of Jesus spurs to great deeds and excites longing for that which is more perfect. Love tends upward; it will not be held down by anything low. Love wishes to be free and estranged from all worldly affections, lest its inward sight be obstructed, lest it be entangled in any temporal interest and overcome by adversity.
“Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider; nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in Heaven or on earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God, Who is above all created things. One who is in love flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free, not bound. He gives all for all and possesses all in all, because he rests in the one sovereign Good, Who is above all things, and from Whom every good flows and proceeds. He does not look to the gift but turns himself above all gifts to the Giver.
“Love often knows no limits but overflows all bounds. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles, attempts more than it is able, and does not plead impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. For this reason, it is able to do all, performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls. Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Wearied, it is not tired. Pressed, it is not straitened. Alarmed, it is not confused, but like a living flame, a burning torch, it forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle.
“If a man loves, he will know the sound of this voice. For this warm affection of soul is a loud voice crying in the ears of God, and it says: “My God, my love, You are all mine and I am all Yours. Give me an increase of love, that I may learn to taste with the inward lips of my heart how sweet it is to love, how sweet to be dissolved in love and bathe in it. Let me be rapt in love. Let me rise above self in great fervor and wonder. Let me sing the hymn of love, and let me follow You, my Love, to the heights. Let my soul exhaust itself in praising You, rejoicing out of love. Let me love You more than myself, and let me not love myself except for Your sake. In You let me love all those who truly love You, as the law of love, which shines forth from You, commands.”
“Love is swift, sincere, kind, pleasant, and delightful. Love is strong, patient and faithful, prudent, long-suffering, and manly. Love is never self-seeking, for in whatever a person seeks himself there he falls from love. Love is circumspect, humble, and upright. It is neither soft nor light, nor intent upon vain things. It is sober and chaste, firm and quiet, guarded in all the senses. Love is subject and obedient to superiors. It is mean and contemptible in its own eyes, devoted and thankful to God; always trusting and hoping in Him even when He is distasteful to it, for there is no living in love without sorrow. He who is not ready to suffer all things and to stand resigned to the will of the Beloved is not worthy to be called a lover. A lover must embrace willingly all that is difficult and bitter for the sake of the Beloved, and he should not turn away from Him because of adversities” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, Chapter 5: “The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love”).
Read and re-read that beautiful passage―each day leading up to Lent and each day throughout Lent! It is the foundation of all that we do or might do―without which all we do is insignificant or even useless. Read it and meditate it throughout the rest of your life―for if you can increase the level of your love just a fraction (actually, you can’t―God has to do it for you, but you have to pay for it, earn it), then the tiniest action or word or thought at that slightly higher level of charity, blows away, outstrips, leaves standing, surpasses THE COMBINED TOTAL OF ALL ACTIONS, WORDS AND THOUGHTS PERFORMED THROUGHOUT YOUR WHOLE LIFE AT A LOWER LEVEL OF CHARITY. That is like one grain of sand weighing more than a mountain! Charity can do that! That is why charity (a love of God) should be the “Number One” item on you Septuagesima Shopping List for Lent! Get that right and so many other things will rectify themselves as a side-effect―as St. Thomas Aquinas says, that if we practice one virtue to a heroic degree, then without realizing it we are practicing all the other virtues as consequence, at one time or another. More articles will follow on how to achieve this.
The Gospel for Septuagesima Sunday ends with those ominous words: “Many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 20:16). Equally disconcerting to the modern-day “Catholic-Couch-Potato” are the words of the Epistle for Septuagesima Sunday, in which St. Paul warns all slackers that everyone must run in the race to Heaven―there are no exceptions, there are no spectators, only runners, and not everyone who runs (or walks or waddles) will get the prize: “Know you not that … all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain!” (1 Corinthians 9:24). The race to Heaven seems to be more like a marathon than a short race! We are more likely and more ready to run to the fridge, or run to the store, than to run to Heaven! Yes, “Many are called, but few are chosen!” (Matthew 20:16)―many are called to run, but few choose to run!
Life is full of “the many and the few” syndrome―many want to be rich, only a few get to be rich; many want to be successful in the chosen field of work, but only few are successful; many are the teams in each sports league, but only one gets to be champion; many want to be top of the class, but only one is; many are the prayers we say, few are the prayers that get answered the way we want; many are the times we have made resolutions and wished we could change―become more virtuous, more skillful, more slender, more liked, etc.―but few are times we have succeeded; many are the souls that wish to be saved, but few are those who are saved.
“And a certain man said to him: Lord, are they few that are saved? But He said to them: ‘Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able! But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: “Lord! Open to us!” And he answering, shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are!” Then you shall begin to say: “We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets!” And he shall say to you: “I know you not, whence you are! Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity!” There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out! And there shall come from the east and the west, and the north and the south; and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And behold, they are last that shall be first; and they are first that shall be last!’” (Luke 13:23-30).
This is by no means the only reference to the number of souls that are saved or damned. Our Lord also speaks of this on another occasion—during His Sermon on the Mount: “Enter ye in at the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in thereat. How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life: and few there are that find it!”(Matthew 7:13-14). “Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:13-14).
Wise and Foolish Virgins
Another parable told by Our Lord, which is very appropriate for this Septuagesima Season, was that of the Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins: “Then shall the Kingdom of Heaven be like to ten virgins, who taking their lamps went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. And five of them were foolish, and five wise. But the five foolish, having taken their lamps, did not take oil with them: but the wise took oil in their vessels with the lamps. And the bridegroom tarrying, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made: ‘Behold the bridegroom cometh! Go ye forth to meet him!’ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise: ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out!’ The wise answered, saying: ‘Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and for you, go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves!’ Now whilst they went to buy, the bridegroom came: and they that were ready, went in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut. But at last come also the other virgins, saying: ‘Lord! Lord! Open to us!’ But he answering said: ‘Amen I say to you, I know you not!’” (Matthew 25:1-12).
They found themselves locked-out because they had not prepared sufficiently―let us not waste this Septuagsima Season of preparation by foolishly remaining indifferent to it and idle throughout it!
Two Shall Be In The Field…
Notice the numbers in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins—five and five. Not all get to go to the banquet—which symbolizes Heaven. Though we should place absolute value and credence on the numbers mentioned, they do match another statement by Our Lord, concerning the last days, where He speaks of the numbers who will be taken up by the angels and the numbers left behind: “But of that day and hour no one knoweth, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone. And as in the days of Noe, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, even till that day in which Noe entered into the ark, and they knew not till the flood came, and took them all away; so also shall the coming of the Son of man be. Then two shall be in the field: one shall be taken, and one shall be left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill: one shall be taken, and one shall be left. Watch ye therefore, because ye know not what hour your Lord will come!” (Matthew 24:36-42).
The 'Unchosen Ones' Among the Chosen People
Our Lord mentioned the time of Noe and the Ark, reminded us of how few were saved―“the flood came, and took them all away.” God had no qualms about eliminating most of the human race because of sin and wiped them off the face of the Earth—“It repented Him that He had made man on the Earth. And being touched inwardly with sorrow of heart, He said: ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the Earth!’” (Genesis 6:6-7).
We see the same anger in God during the Exodus from Egypt on the journey to the Promised Land: “And again the Lord said to Moses: ‘See that this people is stiff-necked! Let Me alone, that My wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation!’”(Exodus 32:9-10).
St. Paul reminds us of this in the New Testament: “For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea! And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud, and in the sea! And did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ! But with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the desert!” (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
God was not well pleased with most of them! What a horrifying thought! They were His Chosen People—were they not? Yet He was ready to destroy them, He made them wander in the desert―until all who had murmured, complained, rebelled and disobeyed God had died―so that only two (Josue and Caleb) of the original millions of adults, who had left Egypt with Moses, actually entered the Promised Land—the rest were a new generation that had been born in the desert during those forty years! With most of them God was not well pleased! What, then, would God think of our ultra-sinful world today? We shiver to think!
Get the Spiritual Engine Serviced Before Lent
Before we know it, Lent will be upon us! This Sunday, Septuagesima Sunday, the Church places before us the words of St. Paul, about running in a race in such a manner that we may win. “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain!” (1 Corinthians 9: 24). In our lazy modern times, the car has replaced the two feet as the chief means of running around; but whether it is the athlete with his feet, or the driver with his car, the bottom line is that, to win a race, the athlete or the car has to be in peak condition.
Secondly, no athlete will win a competitive race without training beforehand. The car has to be tried out beforehand also, to see if all is running smoothly and well. This is what the Septuagesima season, with its three countdown Sundays (Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima) is for―a serious time of preparation for the even more serious time of Lent. In the previous article we spoke about the example furnished by St. Bernadette for our prayer life. Prayer is of the utmost importance to our ‘spiritual engine’; it is what drives our ‘spiritual body’ forwards and it is what gives it power.
“Do we believe in the power of prayer? We know the common teaching of theologians: that true prayer—by which we ask something for ourselves with humility, confidence and perseverance, the graces necessary for salvation—is infallibly efficacious (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, IIa IIae, Q.83, Art.15, ad 2). We know this doctrine, and yet it seems to us, at times, that we have truly prayed without being heard. We believe in, or rather we see, the power of a machine, of an army, of money and of knowledge; but we do not believe strongly enough in the efficacy of prayer” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23).
The Gasoline of Grace comes through Prayer
“The modern world cannot do without God. This is the root of its ills. The great truth is that we have an absolute need of God…He normally bestows His grace only in response to prayer. Since our need exists at all times .... ‘We ought always to pray and not to faint” (Luke 18:1) .... The true nature of Christian prayer is perfectly expressed in the following definition given by St. John Damascene and St. Thomas Aquinas: prayer is ‘a raising of the mind and heart towards God’ to offer Him our homage and to ask Him for all those things of which we stand in need” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Spinning Wheels and Going Nowhere
People often pray without realizing what it is that they are doing, or Whom they are addressing! God so rightly complains in Scripture saying: “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:7).
“It happens to some souls that, when they have recited many formulas, they realize that they have said nothing to God from the bottom of their hearts. Our mind may be far distant from the words that fall from our lips .... In our prayer, we must give up to God our whole heart and our whole mind .... Just as the sanctuary light burns itself up without reserving anything, so our soul, in its conversation with God, must be entirely dedicated to the Almighty. We must free ourselves from preoccupations and from vain thoughts, which tie the soul down to Earth and prevent it from being entirely given over to the Lord” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Winning Races Requires Intensity
Many find prayer difficult. That is only natural, since we are trying to communicate with the supernatural world.
“Prayer always requires a certain effort, even from those who find in it their delight, because a certain strain is involved in the concentration necessary to speak to God; it is always more or less difficult to maintain the soul in an atmosphere which is above its usual level. That is why prayer can serve as a sacramental penance. We must not be surprised at this difficulty in applying ourselves to prayer: for to raise ourselves towards God, even in the smallest degree, is to exceed our natural powers” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
Focus on the Race, the Whole Race and Nothing but the Race
Too many people limit prayer to an isolated part of the day—first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Yet God should be part of our whole day, not just a mere ten minutes.
“Prayer in our life, must not be limited to a number of isolated, passing incidents. We must cultivate a spirit of prayer. What must we understand by this? A spirit of prayer is an habitual disposition of soul whereby, in our troubles and discouragements, as well as in our joys and successes, our hearts turn towards Our Lady and Our Lord, as to our best friends and most intimate confidants of our feelings. And it is not only in the morning and in the evening that the soul should be raised heavenwards, but always: ‘My eyes are ever towards the Lord’ (Psalm 24:15)” (Dom Marmion, Abbot of Maredsous, Christ—The Ideal of the Priest, chapter 15).
All Enter the Race, Not All Finish the Race
Prayer is actually a bending of our will towards the will of God. He wishes the salvation of all, but all will not be saved—and one of the contributory causes of failing to make it to Heaven is a lack of prayer; a lack of prayer by those who will be damned (the driver) and a lack of prayer on the part of others for the conversion of those unfortunate souls (the mechanics and maintenance crew).
“For material harvests, God prepared the seed, the rain that must help it germinate, the sun that will ripen the fruits of the Earth. Likewise, for spiritual harvest, He has prepared spiritual seeds, the divine graces necessary for sanctification and salvation. Prayer is one of the causes meant to produce that sanctification and salvation” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23). We can add to this the Biblical axiom of we reap what we sow: “For what things a man shall sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:8). Prayer is sowing in the spirit. Playing is sowing in the flesh. The Angel said to the children at Fatima: “Don’t play, but pray!”―which is essentially the same thing as we see in the Gospel for Septuagesima Sunday, where the Lord of the vineyard says to those men who were idly standing around in the market place: “But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: ‘Why stand you here all the day idle?’” (Matthew 20:6). No race was ever won, nor was work ever done, by merely standing around or playing!
“St. Gregory the Great says: ‘Men ought, by prayer, to dispose themselves to receive what Almighty God, from eternity, has decided to give them’ (Dialogues, Book 1, chapter 8). Thus, Christ, wishing to convert the Samaritan woman, led her to pray by saying to her: “If thou didst know the gift of God!” In the same way, He granted Mary Magdalen a strong and gentle actual grace, which inclined her to repentance and to prayer. He acted in the same way to Zacheus and the Good Thief. It is, therefore, as necessary to pray in order to obtain the help of God, as it is necessary to sow seed in order to have wheat. To those who say that, what was to happen would happen, whether they prayed or not, is as foolish as to maintain that, whether or not we sowed seed, wheat would still appear once summer came! Therefore, prayer is necessary to obtain the help of God, as seed is necessary for the harvest” (Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, chapter 23).
The problems we face, arise from the fact that God is prepared to give far more than we are prepared to ask for—we are so lazy and negligent, lacking in confidence and perseverance, that we receive only a fraction of what God is prepared to give. The efficacy of prayer, correctly made, is infallibly assured by Christ:
“Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you....And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? Or a fish, will he give him a serpent?...If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from Heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him?” (Luke 11:9-13). The problem does not lie with the Giver, but with us.
Some Racing Tips
Many of us become discouraged with prayer because our prayers are rarely, if ever heard. It is like entering the race just to make up numbers—but we never win! Yet, there are ways in which we can, almost infallibly, get our prayers answered and win that race! The spiritual writers or racers list the following chief tactics as “infallible” or guaranteed means of having our prayers favorably heard and answered:
1. PRAY FOR WHAT IS GOOD AND NOT SINFUL OR HARMFUL TO OUR SALVATION—We should always remember that what we want is not always what we need. At times, adversity is a better route to Heaven than prosperity. St. Augustine says: “We ought to be persuaded that what God refuses to our prayer, He grants to our salvation.”
2. OUR PRAYER MUST BE HUMBLE—Remember the prayer of the Pharisee and the Publican. Remember, too, Our Lady’s prayer, the Magnificat, wherein she says that God has “regarded the humility of His handmaid…He hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble.” The Old Testament says: “...nor from the beginning have the proud been acceptable to Thee―but the prayer of the humble and the meek hath always pleased Thee” (Judith 9:16). “May the Lord destroy all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things” (Psalm 11:4). “Thou hast rebuked the proud” (Psalm 118:21). “Every proud man is an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 16:5).
3. OUR PRAYER MUST BE FERVENT—Too often our prayers are said listlessly, routinely, mechanically; our heart is not in them. Of such Our Lord said: “This people honoureth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me!” (Matthew 15:7). Our prayers should be like grains of incense, placed on the hot coals of our hearts.
4. WE SHOULD AMEND OUR LIFE — If we persist in leading a life of sin, even venial sin, then we greatly handicap the chances of having our prayers heard. “He who turns his ears from hearing the law, his prayer is an abomination” (Proverbs 28:9).
5. WE SHOULD FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAVE INJURED US — This was the example of Christ dying on the cross: “Father, forgive them...” “If, therefore, thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee—Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then, coming, thou shalt offer thy gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7). “Forgive thy neighbor if he hath hurt thee, and then shall thy sins be forgiven to thee, when thou prayest” (Ecclesiasticus. 28:2).
6. OUR PRAYER SHOULD BE UNITED TO GOOD WORKS OR SACRIFICES — “Prayer is good with fasting and alms” (Tobias 12:8). That is why penance is so crucial in strengthening our prayer. Our Lady asks not only for prayer at Fatima, but prayer and sacrifices. The power of this is expressed in Scripture, where the Apostles failed to cast out a demon from one particular person, and asked Our Lord why they had failed. Our Lord replied: “This kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:20).
7. WE SHOULD PRAY WITH CONFIDENCE — Our Lord praised the Faith and confidence of persons on many occasions, saying: “Go, thy Faith has made thee whole!” (Matthew 9:22; Mark 5:34; 10:52; Luke 17:19; 18:42). He also told us that “all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive” (Matthew 21:22). Do we have that confidence in prayer?
8. WE SHOULD PRAY WITH PERSEVERANCE — “He defers the granting to increase our desire and appreciation” says St. Augustine. Our Lord Himself said: “Yet if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend; yet, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say to you: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Luke 11:8-9).
If we would only pray in the above manner, we would be amazed at the response our prayers would bring from Heaven! Keep in mind the words of St. Augustine: “The man who knows how to pray well, is the one who knows how to live well.” Which, for our purposes, translates into “Drive well, and you’ll win the race! Pray well, and you’ll get the grace!”
But Above All … Have Charity
To this, we could well add, “The man who loves well, is one who prays well!”―which is basically the flip side of the coin of what Our Lord expresses when he says: “This people honoureth Me with their lips: but their heart is far from Me!” (Matthew 15:8). When our heart is not in our prayer, then our prayer is not as well prayed as it should be―our prayers may be “said”, but they are not “prayed”―because they mainly come from the lips and not from the heart.
Therefore, to make a successful Lent, you need to rectify, improve, overhaul and repair the way and manner in which you love God and show your love to God―otherwise, no matter how many other things you may do, they will be of little or no supernatural benefit and profit. It is our love of God, our charity towards God, that is the measure of our actions. The profit we get, or the rewards we receive, are directly proportionate to the love with which perform them. Hence, Holy Scripture says: “If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity―then I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity―then I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity―then it profiteth me nothing!” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). St. Teresa of Ávila writes: “It is love alone that gives worth to all things!” That is why St. Paul adds: “But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection!” (Colossians 3:14).
Just as Our Lord would say: “What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26), you can likewise say: “What doth it profit a man if he perform all the possible penances but has no charity?”―charity being, above all else, a love of God. Sure, we can pray to God, we can say: “Lord! Lord! I love you!”―but actions speak louder than words, and love is proved by its actions and not its words, as Jesus Himself said: “If you love Me, keep My commandments!” (John 14:15) … “Why call you Me: ‘Lord! Lord!’ and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).
Keeping the commandments of God is the very basic, beginners or novices level of charity―it includes, first of all, the elimination of all habitual mortal sin and then the elimination of all deliberate venial sin. The next level of charity manifests a great desire to be in the presence of God as much as possible, especially by prayer―sincere, heartfelt prayer and not mere automatic, repetitive, mechanical lip-service. The next and ultimate level of charity is a great desire to suffer more and more for God’s sake, out of a love for Him.
The Engine and Engine Room of Charity
To win our race for Heaven, we have to have enough “fuel in the gas tank”―because the race is not a 100 yard sprint, but a lifelong marathon. “He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved!” (Matthew 10:22). Charity is that premium fuel that gives us maximum mileage and maximum results―as so beautifully explained by the following passage from the Imitation of Christ:
“Love is an excellent thing, a very great blessing, indeed. It makes every difficulty easy, and bears all wrongs with equanimity. For it bears a burden without being weighted and renders sweet all that is bitter. The noble love of Jesus spurs to great deeds and excites longing for that which is more perfect. Love tends upward; it will not be held down by anything low. Love wishes to be free and estranged from all worldly affections, lest its inward sight be obstructed, lest it be entangled in any temporal interest and overcome by adversity.
“Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing stronger or higher or wider; nothing is more pleasant, nothing fuller, and nothing better in Heaven or on earth, for love is born of God and cannot rest except in God, Who is above all created things. One who is in love flies, runs, and rejoices; he is free, not bound. He gives all for all and possesses all in all, because he rests in the one sovereign Good, Who is above all things, and from Whom every good flows and proceeds. He does not look to the gift but turns himself above all gifts to the Giver.
“Love often knows no limits but overflows all bounds. Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of troubles, attempts more than it is able, and does not plead impossibility, because it believes that it may and can do all things. For this reason, it is able to do all, performing and effecting much where he who does not love fails and falls. Love is watchful. Sleeping, it does not slumber. Wearied, it is not tired. Pressed, it is not straitened. Alarmed, it is not confused, but like a living flame, a burning torch, it forces its way upward and passes unharmed through every obstacle.
“If a man loves, he will know the sound of this voice. For this warm affection of soul is a loud voice crying in the ears of God, and it says: “My God, my love, You are all mine and I am all Yours. Give me an increase of love, that I may learn to taste with the inward lips of my heart how sweet it is to love, how sweet to be dissolved in love and bathe in it. Let me be rapt in love. Let me rise above self in great fervor and wonder. Let me sing the hymn of love, and let me follow You, my Love, to the heights. Let my soul exhaust itself in praising You, rejoicing out of love. Let me love You more than myself, and let me not love myself except for Your sake. In You let me love all those who truly love You, as the law of love, which shines forth from You, commands.”
“Love is swift, sincere, kind, pleasant, and delightful. Love is strong, patient and faithful, prudent, long-suffering, and manly. Love is never self-seeking, for in whatever a person seeks himself there he falls from love. Love is circumspect, humble, and upright. It is neither soft nor light, nor intent upon vain things. It is sober and chaste, firm and quiet, guarded in all the senses. Love is subject and obedient to superiors. It is mean and contemptible in its own eyes, devoted and thankful to God; always trusting and hoping in Him even when He is distasteful to it, for there is no living in love without sorrow. He who is not ready to suffer all things and to stand resigned to the will of the Beloved is not worthy to be called a lover. A lover must embrace willingly all that is difficult and bitter for the sake of the Beloved, and he should not turn away from Him because of adversities” (The Imitation of Christ, Book 3, Chapter 5: “The Wonderful Effect of Divine Love”).
Read and re-read that beautiful passage―each day leading up to Lent and each day throughout Lent! It is the foundation of all that we do or might do―without which all we do is insignificant or even useless. Read it and meditate it throughout the rest of your life―for if you can increase the level of your love just a fraction (actually, you can’t―God has to do it for you, but you have to pay for it, earn it), then the tiniest action or word or thought at that slightly higher level of charity, blows away, outstrips, leaves standing, surpasses THE COMBINED TOTAL OF ALL ACTIONS, WORDS AND THOUGHTS PERFORMED THROUGHOUT YOUR WHOLE LIFE AT A LOWER LEVEL OF CHARITY. That is like one grain of sand weighing more than a mountain! Charity can do that! That is why charity (a love of God) should be the “Number One” item on you Septuagesima Shopping List for Lent! Get that right and so many other things will rectify themselves as a side-effect―as St. Thomas Aquinas says, that if we practice one virtue to a heroic degree, then without realizing it we are practicing all the other virtues as consequence, at one time or another. More articles will follow on how to achieve this.