You of little faith, why are you so afraid?

Source

The Catholic blogosphere and internet have been awash with weeping and and wailing and gnashing of teeth over the Synod on the Family. As far as many in the Catholic blogosphere are concerned, there has never been a worse assault on the Catholic Church than the Synod on the Family which has just come to a conclusion in Rome as I write this.

We have heard charges that Pope Francis is deliberately trying to tear the Church apart. We have heard bishops and cardinals attacking one another. Someone even started an online petition urging the bishops to walk out.  As Hilary White of the far-right radical traditionalist Remnant Newspaper entitled her report, "Blasphemy, Heresy, Schism and the 'Collapse' of the Church (but, hey, at least the bishops will get to vote)."  That pretty much sums up the consensus of the Catholic blogosphere.

Keep Your Eyes On The Lord

Lately I have been finding it very depressing going onto Catholic websites and blogs.  It all seems to be just bad news and doom and gloom.  Many seem to think that the Catholic Church is on the brink of implosion and self destruction.  Many moan and carry on about our wayward bishops, priests and religious.  It seems everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else.  The authors of the blogs and websites think they are just fine and everyone else is on the path to hell.

And there certainly are tremendous problems within and outside of the Church.  But this is hardly new.  The Church and the world are populated by sinners, and we tend to have a lot of problems.  It's like looking at a hospital and saying, "Look at all those sick people."

I agree that times are much worse than they have been for several generations.  It wasn't that long ago when it was fairly easy to be a Christian in our society because, at least on the surface, our culture was based on Christian morality.  But that is no longer true for myriad reasons, and the immorality and the loss of the sense of right and wrong has invaded large swaths of the Church.  Just as has happened many times in our 2000 year history, we are at a crisis point for many in the Church, and it is important that we pray and offer up reparations for this situation.

But should we be focusing all our energy and time on looking at all the problems in the Church and in each other?  We are most definitely in the midst of a storm.  But should our focus be on the storm, or should we be looking elsewhere?

One of the greatest Catholics of the 20th Century, and maybe any century, was Venerable Fulton Sheen. He was truly the greatest evangelist of our time, much beloved by Catholics and non-Catholics alike. His talks and writings are widely available all over the Internet, and I would highly suggest that you avail yourself of these materials.

Screen shot of the Fulton Sheen app

One of these Fulton Sheen resources that I would recommend without hesitation is  an absolutely wonderful app that is available on the Iphone/Ipod/Ipad and also on Android devices. It is called the Fulton Sheen Audio Library. Click here to view information about this app. Click here for the link to their website.  From their own description:

Almost 300 audio talks from the great 20th Century Catholic preacher and writer, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. Includes many of his retreat talks to priests and laymen, his St. T  herese of Lisieux series, and his incredible 50-part catechism series that outlines all the basic teachings of the Catholic Church, as well as many individual talks on so many important topics relevant today. Grow in your own spiritual life and get to know the life and teachings of Jesus Christ from the man loved and admired by people of all Christian and non-Christian religions for his commanding and sincere preaching via radio and television. He died in 1979, and he is in the process of becoming a canonized saint of the Catholic Church. This is an amazing collection you don't want to be without.

This is not hyperbole. This truly is an amazing collection of talks by Venerable Fulton Sheen that, if listened to in a right and prayerful attitude, is guaranteed to strengthen your faith and bring you closer to your Creator. You can download the app for free which gives you a few sample talks, and for about $8 more you can get all of the almost 300 talks. One is better than the other. I cannot recommend this app highly enough. This developer also has several other apps with some great Catholic speakers on them that you can check out as well. Forget the game apps and get this one.

I recently listened to one of the series of talks from this App which was a retreat given by Bishop Sheen. The last talk in this series is entitled, "Peter's Fall & Rise." Bishop Sheen explains how we are all just like St. Peter, our first Pope, in his foibles and weaknesses and that there is much to learn from Peter. At one point Bishop Sheen talks about the time that Christ came out to the disciples on the water. The apostles were in a boat and Our Lord walked across the water towards them. Impetuous Peter got out of the boat and started, amazingly, to walk on the water towards our Lord. From Bishop Sheen:

[Our Lord, to escape the crowds who wanted to make Him king, had gone up to the mountain top to pray. Our Lord did not want the apostles contaminated by those who wanted to make Christ a political king, so he sent the apostles across the lake]. A storm came up. He sees them from the mountain top and the storm is so great . . . that even these fisherman were frightened. And they see someone coming to them on the water. And they think it is a ghost. Despite all the time they have been with our Lord, they still do not know him. They were not absolutely convinced that He was God and they had not given themselves totally to him. Finally, the Lord said, "It is I." . . . Here we get the impulsiveness of Peter. Is it impulsiveness really? He said, "Lord, bid me come to you upon the waters." He so loved the Lord and he had gone through this storm that he wanted to be with Him immediately. So, "Bid me come to you." . . . The Lord said, "Come." Let us not forget that. The Lord said, "Come." . . . And he walked on the water. Then he began to sink. Why did Peter sink? He began to drown, and Peter could swim because we know that he swam 400 yards on the Sunday after Easter. But he began to drown. Why? Have you ever read the gospels closely enough to know the answer? He took his eyes off Jesus. He took account of the winds. In other words, he began to say, "Oh, have you read that latest survey about the priests? Oh, did you see that article about the Church? Oh, did you hear what is happening to the nuns? Oh, did you read those statistics?" He took account of all the currents of popular opinion and he began to sink. He took his eyes off the Lord.

Peter and the apostles were in the midst of a very real and dangerous storm that was threatening to drown them all.  When Peter got out of the boat and started walking on water towards Jesus, he was doing something that is normally physically impossible.  But if Peter and the other Apostles had kept their eyes, mind and heart on the Lord, the storm would have had no effect on them whatsoever.  Peter would have walked on the water as if he was walking on solid granite.  They were walking by sight, not by faith, and the result was they were fearful and in danger of drowning.

We know that we live in a post-Christian society.  But do we have to focus in on every degenerate, despicable and evil thing that is happening both in and out of the church?  Far too often it isn't even the inherently evil and sinful events around us but just things that we don't personally like that consume people's attention.  Recently a lot of people got themselves all riled up over the bishops doing a dance at World Youth Day in Rio.  Here are some comments from the forum at fisheaters.com, a traditional Catholic forum:

The most nauseating spectacle so far out of WYD 2013. All of the "excellencies" dancing around like pre-schoolers... there are no words 

All the WYD nonsense I am seeing in the news has been really getting to me! 

I wonder if Cardinal Dolan was the lead dancer. Laughing, as he does, and getting into the "spirit of Vatican 2" for the whole world to see. Hey we can be just like the Pentecostals. 

The CHURCH of Vac II not only helps you lose your faith and also entertains..the dumb down catholic who think this is what going to church is entertainment. Because their n.o .mass is boring. They the Bishops can not help themself to make themself look foolish.

There actually was one poster who felt this was much ado about nothing, but still doesn't quite get it:

I saw this as well, and while I do find it annoying and frustrating, I am not going to get all up in arms about it either. It didn't happen in the context of the Mass to my knowledge, or the Divine Office, so there are no teachings or rubrics governing such things. We might argue about its prudence, but outside of Liturgical Prayer, its hard to argue much more than that. There are plenty of things to get up in arms about that are much bigger deals than this from my perspective. Others are, of course, free to disagree.

Even Michael Voris, who never misses a chance to bash bishops and priests, said there was nothing sinful or even wrong about what the bishops did.  He, like many others, thought it looked foolish and sent a wrong message to the world.  So why are we dwelling on it?  Why don't we hear about the good things that happened at Worth Youth Day?  What about the millions who had a truly spiritual experience and developed a greater love for God and the Church?

Like Peter and the other apostles, we focus on the storm, and like Peter, we find ourselves drowning. What did Jesus say to Peter when he started to fall into the water? "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?" We, as Catholics, are given an ironclad promise by our Lord that He will never leave us. We know that He is with us always in the Blessed Sacrament. We know that our Blessed Mother, Mary, is constantly before her Son's throne pleading and interceding on our part. We have communion with the angels and saints who pray for us constantly, and even the poor souls in Purgatory. We know that Satan will have his hour, but that his time is limited and it will come to an end. We have the Sacraments of the church so that we always have access to the Grace of God and His great mercy and forgiveness. The Lord is as much with us as He was with the apostles during the storm on the Sea of Galilee.  

In another message entitled "Hour of Testing" from the same retreat, Bishop Sheen talked about the troubling times that we live in and the fact that our world has become so anti-Christian.  He says that the time we live in (and this was in the 1970's) the majority opinion, even in the Church, is often wrong and like Gideon in the Bible, God's army on this earth is very small.  From Bishop Sheen:

These days, therefore, our ranks are being thinned. God does not expressly say to the Church tell your cowards to leave. They just leave. God doesn't make some kind of papal decision to say that well, the majority opinion is wrong, those that get the ear of the press. No, but he allows things to work out this particular way. And then will come, not in our time but not far after our time and perhaps in the time of some, then will come the battles and the testing. Our Lord said Satan would sift you as wheat, and we're being sifted as wheat. So we can all thank God that we live in these days. Really, it's beautiful. Now we can say aye or nay. And we can bear up under assaults and criticisms and ridicule because this is the lot of the Christian in the days of the spirit of the world.

How are we bearing up under the assaults of the spirit of the world? Are we just moaning and complaining and saying how terrible it all is? Or are we, as Bishop Sheen said, thanking God for allowing us to live in this time when we can truly shine as servants of God? Are we keeping our eyes on the Lord, or are we concentrating on the storms around us?

Read some of the messages given to us in Holy Scripture:

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:28-31)

God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.  (Heb. 13:5)

For those of us who are concentrating on the storm and not on the Lord, remember, we are to walk by faith, not by sight.  

Psalm 3:

O Lord, look how my enemies have increased!

    Many are attacking me.

 

Many are saying about me,

    “Even with God on his side,

        he won’t be victorious.” Selah

But you, O Lord, are a shield that surrounds me.

    You are my glory.

    You hold my head high.

I call aloud to the Lord,

    and he answers me from his holy mountain. Selah

 

I lie down and sleep.

    I wake up again because the Lord continues to support me.

 

I am not afraid of the tens of thousands

    who have taken positions against me on all sides.

Arise, O Lord!

    Save me, O my God!

    You have slapped all my enemies in the face.

    You have smashed the teeth of wicked people.

 

        May your blessing rest on your people. Selah

Credit:  thedanceoflifewithjenna.blogspot.com 

Are Traditionalists Becoming the Pharisees of Our Time?

I unabashedly and without apology love traditional Catholicism. I love Gregorian chant, all the old devotions, reading the fathers and saints, and I especially love the Traditional Latin Mass. I feel that the Traditional Latin Mass is as close to experiencing heaven as we can get on this earth. The beauty and solemnity - even of a low Mass where the priest prays silently at the altar and there is no singing - is an overwhelming experience, maybe because of the silence. It is not hard to imagine the altar being surrounded by the angels and saints and our Blessed Mother. Every Mass - if properly attended - can be a truly life changing experience. If I have a chance of choosing between the Ordinary Form of the Mass next door to me or traveling 25 miles to the Latin Mass, I'm on the road without question.

Lately, though, especially since the election of Pope Francis, I have not been feeling too good about my fellow "traddies." I have already written a couple of posts about this, and it's not getting any better, as can be seen on traditional Catholic blogs. It isn't so much the bloggers themselves, although some of them are kind of scary, but more what you find in their comboxes.

Father Z has made some attempts to reign in negative comments about Pope Francis on his blog, but he still lets a lot of them go. On the other hand, he has also posted things which, while certainly not attacking the Holy Father in any way, leave room for his readers to do so. An example of this was a post that was a textbook example of a left handed compliment to Pope Francis, which you can read here. He opined that the the Pope's flaunting of the liturgical laws in regard to foot washing at the Holy Thursday service will actually drive people to the Latin Mass where the rubrics cannot be tampered with, and therefore Pope Francis has done more in two weeks to push the cause of Summorum Pontificum than Pope Benedict XVI did in his entire papacy. Here are just a few of the comments.

In this first comment. Father Z shows his disapproval (in red), but yet still lets the comment stand.

allan500 says:30 March 2013 at 9:55 pm

Fr. Z, I think the most important thing you observed is that “War-weary Catholics are back in the trenches.” We have no choice but to fight. It appears that Pope Francis is looking for a fight. Why? Could it be that he is not the humble man of peace he pretends to be, but a cunning fake? He knows exactly what he is doing when he ignores rubrics. He knows what he is doing when he greets every motley group of heretic and heathen but refuses to acknowledge the SSPX. Surely then are no further from the heart of the church than Muslims. He seems to be the classic bully doing what he wants–in disregard of people’s feelings and lawful aspirations– just because he can. Humble men don’t act like that.

[I won't write here what I think of suggestions like this in my combox.] 

Why doesn't Father Z let us know what he thinks of this comment?  I think he has a responsibility to either delete it or answer it.  To respond with something as vague as this is to invite others to agree with the comment.

Here's another one (typos were in the original), with no comeback from Father Z:

Potato2 says:30 March 2013 at 4:42 pm 

Nice try Fr. Z
I’m not buying it.
Just like I don’t buy it when political conservatives thank obama for amking them stronger. He doesn’t make them stronger. He pushes his agenda. same here.
You know it don’t you? 

There is, of course, the usual denigration of Vatican II, which Father Z seldom challenges:

Parasum says:
30 March 2013 at 9:05 pm 

“In two weeks Pope Francis has done more to promote Summorum Pontificum than Pope Benedict did since the day he promulgated it.”
## So true. His scandalous behaviour is a powerful indication of the new rite’s capacity for being abused. It is a room in a half-way house between the True Faith in its beauty, and the abominations of heresy. Despite himself, he proves by his abuses that Vatican II was built on shifting sand, and cannot last. For that at least he can be thanked.

And one more really scary comment, again with no rebuttal from Father Z:

Nan says:30 March 2013 at 4:32 pm

Magpie, I’m still weeping because the church has lost its foundation. For me, the temple veil is now torn and the church doesn’t lead to salvation. 

When Father Z lets comments like this stand with no rebuttal, he is giving tacit approval to them whether that is what he intends or not.  He is a priest with priestly authority, not just some non-entity like me blogging our own opinions.   He has a responsibility to either answer such heretical statements or delete them from his blog.

The most disturbing aspect of these comments is that they are coming from people who consider themselves good loyal Catholics and who supposedly put Christ and His church at the center of their existence. Yet they talk with tones of despair and defeatism. We are in the midst of Easter, the most positive liturgical season of the year as we celebrate Christ's victory over death and sin, and these "traditional Catholics" talk as if the Church was on the verge of self destruction. Did our Lord die for nothing? Did His promises that "the gates of hell will never prevail" against the Church and that He will be with us always mean nothing? It would seem so according to many of those who comment on Father Z's blog.

The very worst of the Traditional Catholic blogs, in my opinion, has been Rorate-caeli. This is a highly respected blog among Catholic traditionalists which has contributions from a number of people. In fact, Father Z links to this blog as one that he follows. Rorate posted one article about Pope Francis and the washing of feet on Holy Thursday, which as we all know, included women and non-Catholics. You can read the posting here. While they lament the actions of Pope Francis, they don't specifically condemn His Holiness. However, many of those who left comments see this act as the end of the world and do not hesitate to criticize the Pope and even question how truly Catholic he is.

The first comment is made by a reader who is rejoicing at what he sees as the destruction of the "conciliar" church and what he further sees as the Pope's role in that destruction. Also note that this person refers to His Holiness as "Bergoglio", a sign of ultra disrespect for the Vicar of Christ:

Francis in Ma said...
Yes, this modernist garbage (in this case washing the feet of women) has been going on in the Novus Ordo churches for a while now. While that of course is bad it is truly scandalous for the bishop of Rome to publicly wash the feet of pagans and women; inside a prison no less while trying to promote "humility"!! The leftwing and secular "media" is eating this garbage up. Bergoglio is taking the conciliar church deeper into the abyss of worldly relativism, modernism, humanism, syncretism and indifferentism. Which can only help to move along the conciliar church's demise. Yes, it will take a while, but looking at it positively Bergoglio may be helping the church that Vatican II built into oblivion.
28 March, 2013 20:36

Here is a post comparing the divinely appointed Vicar of Christ to those who crucified Christ on Calvary. Interestingly, the birth of the Church occurred when Christ was pierced with the spear after his death. The writer here does not appear to be aware of that fact:

M said...
Wonder why he didn't wait until tomorrow to stick a spear into the side of the Bride of Christ?
Good grief! Don't tell me he has something worse in mind for Good Friday!
28 March, 2013 20:39

Here is just one of many posts basically accusing Pope Francis of self will and false humility:

Petrus Radii said...
In mediaeval times, the Pope originally did in fact wash the feet of twelve paupers (all male, of course). If memory serves, local bishops who practised the custom would either wash the feet of paupers or of their clergy. The original monastic custom was for the abbot to wash the feet of *all* the community.
However, the present Pope's behaviour is nothing so much as archaeologism tainted with feminism, and one might wish to argue that his proclaimed "humility" is more likely self-will. Libera nos, Deus!
28 March, 2013 20:40

Here is a comment implying that Pope Francis is basically destroying the Papacy:

lee said...
A pope once suppressed the Jesuits (clement xiv);
so naturally a jesuit appears to be suppressing the papacy.
28 March, 2013 21:21

Here is one comment fundamentally accusing the Pope of being a heretic and praising the Society of St. Pius X, which is in schism right now:

Jan said...
As far as I am concerned, this was outright disobedience by Francis of Church law, even though it was done at a Novus Ordo Mass. Francis has set the tone for disobedience and, in doing so, has undermined his own authority.
As regards the SSPX, the only safety for anyone's soul is within the Church. As it is, they can do nothing to help the Church because they have no standing in canon law. I too believe they should have accepted Pope Benedict's offer. I don't believe the Church would have sunk down as far if they had not left in the first place. When that happened there were few left to battle against the modernism that has led to the election of Francis who appears by his own actions to be rejecting the papacy himself. Once he was just a disobedient Cardinal, now he sets the example for all to be disobedient to him.
28 March, 2013 21:26

Here is one comment actually urging Catholics to leave the Church and join the SSPX:

Dominic said...
At this point, anyone not already attending an SSPX chapel should seriously consider joining. It's only going to go downhill from here. The second great western schism is about to happen soon.
28 March, 2013 21:48

Following is one comment calling our Holy Father diabolical and a "monster" and using Scripture to back up his point:

The Viking said...
2 Thessalonians 2:14
Therefore, brethren, stand fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle.
If it is true that Il Papa Francesco washed the feet of 2 non-believing women, then his disdain for the Traditions of the Church have reached the level of diabolical. So much for Peter honoring the actions of Our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles on this the day which commemorates the institution of the Priesthood and the Mass. 
... WHAT AN ABSOLUTE SIGN WHICH GOD HAS ALLOWED
Lex orandi, lex credendi--the law of prayer is the law of belief. So a man acts liturgically, so he believes in his head. Dear God have mercy on the earth because Jorge Mario Bergoglio is a monster making a mockery of the Petrine Office to the glee of the entire world and most importantly, to the enemies of God's church.
28 March, 2013 23:02

One last comment from someone who has no idea what to do and is also thinking of jumping ship to the SSPX:

Unknown said...
I am so confused. I want to believe that the Church is going to be restored & survive. I thought Pope Benedict was re-constructing & that the elderly Pope Francis had some means of bringing us back to tradition. He's pro-life at least. why am I so grateful for a few crumbs of goodness from him? Pretty sure going back to the SSPX & giving up on the Mainstream church is the only option. Very sad and afraid. How are we supposed to know what to do??????
28 March, 2013 23:38

How are we suppose to know what to do? How about listening to the words of our founder, Jesus Christ?

All of these comments I have posted above sound to me like they would come right out of the mouths of the Pharisees in the time of Christ. The Pharisees were constantly attacking Jesus because he did not conform to the traditions which they held so dearly:

1. Christ "broke" the Sabbath by healing
2. Christ "broke" by the Sabbath by allowing his apostles to pick and eat corn on that day
3. Christ and his apostles did not ceremonially wash their hands before eating as commanded by Moses
4. Christ associated with known sinners, including prostitutes and tax collectors
5. The Pharisees accused Jesus of healing and driving out demons out by demonic power.

Our Lord scandalized the average man and woman when He made the statement that we must eat His Body and drink His Blood. No one understood the meaning of this because no one had any concept of the Eucharist, which had not been introduced yet. As far as everyone who heard this was concerned, Jesus was suggesting cannibalism.

From John 6:

53 Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 56 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. 57 Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”

66 From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

The mindset of many of the current Catholic Traditionalists criticizing Pope Francis seems to be exactly the same as the Pharisees at the time of Christ. While so many accuse Pope Francis of false humility, they show no humility at all. They know exactly what the Church needs and what is right and wrong, and no one - certainly not any upstart Pope - is going to tell them differently. Their statements all show tremendous pride and self righteousness.

They who claim to be so knowledgeable about the teachings of the Church seem to have completely forgotten that the Pope is the divinely chosen Vicar of Christ. He is the direct successor to St. Peter and has been given the keys to the Kingdom. What he has loosed on earth will be loosed in heaven and what he binds on earth shall be bound in heaven. This statement applies to the Pope and only the Pope. Our Lord has in effect told us that we have no right to judge any actions of the Pope in his capacity as Pope. The only one allowed to stand in judgment of the Holy Father is Jesus Christ.

Yes, it did go against the rubrics to wash the feet of women and non-Catholics at the Holy Thursday service. I have trouble understanding it. But I'm not the Pope! And this is hardly a heretical act. If he had given communion to non-Catholics, then we would definitely have a problem. But washing their feet? Oh, I know the arguments, just as we read in the comments. Because the pope "disobeyed", now no one needs to obey.

The Pope is not just any man. One would think Traditional Catholics above all would be aware of this fact. He is not bound as we are by such laws as whose feet to wash. He is the one who gets to do the "loosening and binding," remember? The Church is not a democracy, we don't get to decide if he is right or wrong.

I am not one of those liberals who hate traditionalists. I'm one of you! But first and foremost, I am Catholic, and as such, I am a papist. Pope Francis is my Pope, no matter what my personal feelings are. As I have written previously on this blog, I have a firm promise from my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that His Vicar will never mislead me. I don't have to understand everything he does and says, just as the Apostles did not understand everything Christ said and did. In fact, before his death, the apostles understood next to nothing of what Christ said and did. But as Peter said to Christ (John 6:68):

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

As I mentioned at the top of this post, I love the Traditional Latin Mass. You need only to look around at my blog to realize that. I believe like many Traditionalists do that the Mass is the salvation of the world. But if we start using the Sacrifice of the Mass to judge the Holy Father, then we have, as impossible as it may seem, made an idol of the Mass. Many Traditionalists are afraid of losing the Mass, and are actually willing to attack the Vicar of Christ over it.

St. Teresa of Avila gave us a beautiful example of obedience. She had been having visions of Christ, and when she told her confessor, he told her it was a demon and she should reject the visions:

For three years, while Father Balthasar was her director, she suffered from the disapproval of those around her; and for two years, from extreme desolation of soul. She was censured for her austerities and ridiculed as a victim of delusion or a hypocrite. A confessor to whom she went during Father Balthasar's absence said that her very prayer was an illusion, and commanded her, when she saw any vision, to make the sign of the cross and repel it as if it were an evil spirit. But Teresa tells us that the visions now brought with them their own evidence of authenticity, so that it was impossible to doubt they were from God. Nevertheless, she obeyed this order of her confessor. Pope Gregory XV, in his bull of canonization, commends her obedience in these words: "She was wont to say that she might be deceived in discerning visions and revelations, but could not be in obeying superiors."

St. Teresa of Avila actually rejected Christ out of obedience to her superiors and was commended for it.  We, too, must submit ourselves to the obedience of the Pope, whether we understand it or not.  If we truly believe the Holy Father is being misled, then we need to pray for him.  But we should not be on the Internet which is read around the world telling everyone that the Vicar of Christ is a heretic and of the devil.  When we do that, we are playing directly into the hands of the devil who wants to destroy the Church.

Remember what our Lord said as recorded in Matthew 12:36:

But I say to you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.

Pray for our Holy Father.  Don't judge him.

Meditation on the Fourteenth Station of the Cross: Jesus' Body Is Placed In the Tomb

We are now at the last station of the Cross: Jesus' body is placed in the sepulchre. The crowds are gone. All of those who tormented and mocked Our Lord in his last terrible hours have disappeared. The only ones to be seen are a small group of Christ's disciples along with His Blessed Mother. The High Sabbath is fast approaching, and they must quickly anoint Jesus' body and place it in the tomb given to them by Joseph of Arimathea, who was a secret follower of Jesus.

Our Blessed Mother, through her tears and sorrow, personally cleaned and wrapped her Son's Precious Body, carefully winding the cloth around Him. How this must have reminded her of washing Jesus and wrapping Him in swaddling clothes to lay Him in the manger where He was born. And now it had all come full circle. 

Although only a small group of people were visible, we can be sure there were many angels surrounding this small group of mourners who still could not totally comprehend the fact that Jesus, so alive only a day ago, was now dead, killed in a most horrible and brutal manner. He had warned them and tried to prepare them for the great scandal of the Cross, but only Mary had listened. Only she understood what had really happened here.

The Church has gone through many dark days in her 2000 year history. There have been many times when it has seemed she was facing insurmountable odds and a deadly, overpowering enemy. But for those who truly believed, there has always been hope and faith. A great saint or saints were raised up, such as St. Joan of Arc or St. Charles Borromeo. They were always there to remind us that as threatening as the times may seem, Our Lord promised He would never leave us.

But for those at the Garden Tomb burying our Lord's Body, they only knew that our Lord was gone. He had told them He would never leave them, but now He was dead, and all of their dreams and hopes went with Him. The death of our Lord was truly the darkest day in the history of the Church right up to our time. His followers had seen Him die. They saw the nails go into His Hands and Feet, they saw the sword pierce His Side, they heard Him breathe his last. They took down His dead Body from the Cross and they knew, without any doubt, that He was gone. They put His Body into the tomb, and then they went and hid themselves from the Romans. They were beyond consolation.

How often have we doubted Our Lord? We see storms and darkness around us, we feel we're falling off the edge of the world, and we think it's all over. There is no hope. One lesson we should all take from the Passion of Jesus Christ is that what the world deems as failure is often just the opposite. When it seems we have been totally defeated is often just the time when Our Lord will deliver us in unexpected and magnificent ways. Mere physical death means nothing. As our Lord told us, "fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him that is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."  Our Lord faced death and came out the victor. And all who follow Him shall defeat death as well.

St. Paul told us in Romans 8:35-37:

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

Those who laid Jesus' Body in the tomb on that first Good Friday had not yet seen the resurrected and victorious Jesus Christ. Even though our Lord had warned them, they could not be faulted for believing the dream had come to an end. But we have seen our resurrected Lord. We have no excuse to ever give in to despair and bitterness, no matter what our external circumstances may be. "Overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us."

From St. Francis' Way of the Cross:

The body of Jesus is interred in a stranger's sepulchre. He who in this world had not whereupon to rest His head, would not even have a grave of His own, because He was not from this world. You, who are so attached to the world, henceforth despise it, that you may not perish with it.

Attachment to this world will lead us to doubt and despair.  Just as Christ died without even a grave of his own, so we should be emotionally, mentally and materially detached from this world.  Our affection  should be entirely focused heavenward on our Lord.  That is where our Blessed Mother was focused, and that is why, despite her great sorrow and pain, she never gave in to anger, despair and bitterness.  As St. Francis warns us, if we are attached to this world, we will perish with it.

From St. Francis' Way of the Cross:

O Jesus, Thou hast set me apart from the world; what, then, shall I seek therein? Thou hast created me for Heaven; what, then, have I to do with the world? Depart from me, deceitful world, with thy vanities! Henceforth i will follow the Way of the Cross traced out for me by my Redeemer, and journey onward to my heavenly home, there to dwell forever and ever.

Concluding Prayer

Almighty and eternal God, merciful Father, who hast given to the human race Thy beloved Son as an example of humility, obedience, and patience, to precede us on the way of life, bearing the cross: Graciously grant us that we, inflamed by His infinite love, may take up the sweet yoke of His Gospel together with the mortification of the cross, following Him as His true disciples, so that we shall one day gloriously rise with Him and joyfully hear the final sentence: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, and possess the kingdom which was prepared for you from the beginning," where Thou reignest with the Son and the Holy Ghost, and where we hope to reign with Thee, world without end. Amen.

Will the Real Pope Francis Stand Up?

Pope Francis' Pontificate is not even two weeks old at the time of this posting, and he has already come under intense scrutiny as to how he will conduct himself as pope and whose interests he will serve.  Liberals are tending to claim him as one of their own, convinced he will loosen up the teachings of the Catholic Church to bring it more into line with the modern world.

From American Spectator:

“I was overwhelmed by joy,” said Hans Kung, the dissenting European theologian, in a radio interview after the elevation of Pope Francis. “There is hope in this man,” gushed Kung, who predicted that Pope Francis will conform to the progressive interpretation of Vatican II and not follow the “line of the two popes from Poland and Germany.”

Leonardo Boff, one of the fathers of liberation theology, was quoted in the German press as saying that Francis is “more liberal” than commonly supposed.

Cardinal Roger Mahony took to Twitter to proclaim that the Church would move from high church to “low” church under Francis: “So long Papal ermine and fancy lace!”

The National Catholic Reporter approvingly quoted an unnamed Vatican diplomat as saying that “the Traditional Latin Mass brigade is finished.”

Esteban Paulon, president of the Argentine Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transsexuals, told the Washington Post that Pope Francis is “known for being moderate” and when “he came out strongly against gay marriage, he did it under pressure from the conservatives.” According to Sergio Rubin, whom the Post calls his authorized biographer, Pope Francis initially “urged his bishops to lobby for gay civil unions” as an alternative to gay marriage.

Many Traditionalists are afraid Pope Francis will undo everything Pope Benedict XVI did and take away the Traditional Mass. 

From The American Conservative:

The Rorate Caeli blog, written by Traditionalist Catholics, is deeply apprehensive about Cardinal Bergoglio’s elevation to the papacy, in particular because they say he was hostile to the traditional Latin mass in his archdiocese. But that’s not the whole thing. Here’s an excerpt they posted sympathetically from an analysis by an Argentine Catholic journalist:

Of all the unthinkable candidates, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is perhaps the worst. Not because he openly professes doctrines against the faith and morals, but because, judging from his work as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, faith and moral seem to have been irrelevant to him.

A sworn enemy of the Traditional Mass, he has only allowed imitations of it in the hands of declared enemies of the ancient liturgy. He has persecuted every single priest who made an effort to wear a cassock, preach with firmness, or that was simply interested in Summorum Pontificum.

We reject all false optimism, and this is the spirit we will keep here, and it does not matter if many do not like it. In the web, it is quite easy to avoid things one does not like.

The article quotes from another traditional Catholic blog:

UPDATE: My trad Catholic TAC colleague Michael Brendan Dougherty is grim:

There are reasons to believe that Pope Francis is a transitional figure, unlikely to affect major reform at the top of the church. He is not known as a champion of any theological vision, traditional or modern. He is just two years younger than Pope Benedict was upon his election eight years ago. He has deep connections to Italy, but little experience with the workings of the Vatican offices. A contentious reading of Pope Francis’ rise is that Benedict’s enemies have triumphed completely.

It is unusual for a one-time rival in a previous election to triumph in a future one. And there is almost no path to Bergoglio’s election without support from curial Italians, combined with a Latin American bloc. Low-level conspiracy theories already flourish in Italy that Benedict’s resignation was the result of a curia determined to undermine his reforms. This election will only intensify that speculation. An older pope who does not know which curial offices and officers need the ax, will be even easier to ignore than Benedict.

Many seem to be viewing this pope in terms of what they want from him, as in the case of liberals, or in what Pope Francis might take away, as in the case of Traditionalists.  All, of course, are judging him on what they perceive to be his action and the rumors - true or false - that are flying around about what he has allegedly done in the past.

Peter Denies Jesus

I thought of this today at Mass when the long Gospel of Matthew 26:3-75 and 27:1-60 was read.  Part of this Gospel involves the scandalous behavior of our first Pope -  St. Peter - and how he reacted at the Crucifixion of our Lord.  We are told that he actually denied Jesus Christ, saying he didn't even know the Man:

69 Now Peter was sitting out in the courtyard, and a servant girl came to him. “You also were with Jesus of Galilee,” she said.
70 But he denied it before them all. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.
71 Then he went out to the gateway, where another servant girl saw him and said to the people there, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.”
72 He denied it again, with an oath: “I don’t know the man!”
73 After a little while, those standing there went up to Peter and said, “Surely you are one of them; your accent gives you away.”
74 Then he began to call down curses, and he swore to them, “I don’t know the man!”

Can you imagine how the media and others would treat the election of St. Peter to the Papacy: "And this man is going to lead the Church? He is weak and selfish, breaking down in the face of adversity. How can we ever trust him? Do you know that our Lord actually called him Satan at one point? He constantly puts his foot in his mouth, and you can't trust anything he says. He pledged his undying loyalty to the Lord, and only a few hours later he was denying he even knew him! We're all doomed."

Did you ever wonder why a Pope must take a new name when he is elected? It is because he no longer belongs to himself. One he accepts election to the Chair of Peter, he is Peter: "Tu es Petrus." The pope is no longer Karol Wojtyla, Joseph Ratzinger or Jorge Mario Bergoglio. All of those men, in effect, ceased to exist when they became pope. Everything a pope says and does in his official acts as Pope from the time of his election and acceptance is guided and controlled by the Holy Spirit.

I'm certainly not saying that a pope cannot sin and rebel in his personal life against God. We, unfortunately, have seen many examples of this in the 2000 year history of the Church. But not one of those sinful popes ever misled the church in faith or morals. "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church." That was said to St. Peter and all of his successors. The Pope is the rock of the Church on earth.

All of those liberals who are salivating at the thought that major dogmas of the Catholic Church will be changed or those Traditionalists who fear that everything they love and believe in will be taken away are showing that they place no trust in the guidance of the Holy Spirit or the promises of Jesus Christ.

The Pope is not just a political figure. He is not just some guy who happened to be at the right place at the right time (or wrong place and wrong time, depending on your point of view). And he is no longer the same person he was before he became pope. Of course he still has his own personality and style. But he is not free to take the church in any direction he chooses. He still has freedom of will in his personal life, but he does not have freedom of will as Pope. That is why no one is ever allowed to judge a pope's actions.

It is for this reason that no sane man would ever desire to be pope. Although it is the most powerful office in the world because the Pope is the divinely chosen head of the one true Church of Jesus Christ, in actual fact the Pope has no personal power at all. He is a puppet of the Holy Spirit.

Before resigning, Pope Benedict pledged his complete obedience and loyalty to his successor, even though he had no idea who that would be. How could he do that? Didn't he want to make sure first that his successor would be the kind of pope that he, Benedict, thought he should be? Pope Benedict XVI was telling us with this statement that it does not matter who, individually, occupies the Chair of Peter. The real One occupying the Chair of Peter is the real Head of the Church - Jesus Christ. When we pledge our obedience and loyalty to the Vicar of Christ, we are making this pledge to Jesus Christ Himself.

The secular media is going to do what it is going to do. They see the pope as just another political figure. But we, as Catholics, must realize that the Pope is unlike any other man on earth. There is no politician or head of state who can compare to him. He is going to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It may or may not be what we think is right, but like the Pope, we need to get our own pride and ego out of the way and realize that as smart as we are, the Holy Spirit knows better than we do.  

The Israelites were ready to throw Moses over when he led them out of the land of Egypt to the Red Sea. They were being pursued by Pharaoh's army with no escape. Moses' command to them was "Be still and see the salvation of the Lord." I think that is some of the best advice that has ever been given in the history of mankind.

In other words, when it comes to the Pope - SHUT UP!!!  Or as they say here in Brooklyn - "SHADDUP!"

Thank you.