BE OPENED

A SERMON FOR THE 11TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

With the single word Ephphatha, our Lord cures the deaf man, opening his ears and introducing him to a world of sound and noise.  We may legitimately wonder how this man was able to deal with his new life, to differentiate between what is sound and what is noise. And we may apply this thought also to ourselves, acknowledging any guilt there may be in that department.

As we go about our daily business we hear a lot of things.  We hear many unpleasant sounds, like jack hammers or rock music, and we cover our ears.  We call these sounds “noise” and that’s all they are.  The normal person has no interest in listening to noise.  We don’t pull up a chair and smoke our pipe as we listen to workmen digging up the street.  When we hear the vile noise that some people call “music”, we should, if we have any culture or sense of beauty at all, be equally repulsed. 

At other times the things we hear are not so painfully loud, but we still don’t want to hear them because they have no interest for us.  When we hear the jabber of commercials coming from our car radio or TV, when we pass people talking in the street, we’re not interested in what they’re saying, and so our mind relegates it to the category of noise and we block it out to focus on other more interesting things.

What does morality have to do with all this?  First of all, we must recognize that God is not going to be offended by what we happen to hear.  God is interested only in our reaction to it.  In other words, not in what we hear, but what we listen to.  If we accidentally overhear a few words of someone’s private conversation, good manners, charity, and the good Lord himself expect that we will move away.  Sin enters in when we put our ear to the keyhole to listen.  We expect privacy and take the means to protect it, and we should be equally careful in preserving the privacy of our neighbor from our own tendencies to be curious or nosy.  

When our Lord opens up the ears of the deaf man, it is not so that he can misuse his hearing by listening to things that lead him into sin.  And let’s face it, we can very easily sin by deliberately listening to bad conversations.  Even if we don’t participate in them ourselves, even if we don’t take pleasure in them, we should realize that we are in the near occasion of sin and should take the necessary steps to distance ourselves or change the subject if possible. This rule applies especially to conversations and situations over which we do have complete control and can easily escape—in other words, what we hear on television and the internet—where all we have to do is fast forward or change the channel.

It’s not just the sixth commandment we can sin against by listening to bad talk.  What about  blasphemous talk against God?  Do we listen to shows that attack our holy faith?  Remember, this can be done not just openly, blatantly, but also in far more subtle ways that affect our thinking about faith and morals?  TV and Hollywood, for example, always seem to  portray priests and nuns these days as immoral.  Not that such priests and nuns don’t exist, but the entire mindset of the media today has swung to the opposite extreme from the earlier stereotypical depiction of priests and nuns as wise, good-natured, sympathetic people, cool even (think of Bing Crosby and Ingrid Bergman in Bells of St. Mary’s).  We must realize that we are being fed the latest liberal anti-God propaganda, and that it is affecting the way we think.  We must remember too that such propaganda has been very effective, and that the bigger the lie the more forcefully the mass media will promote it.  How else did a Catholic country like Ireland vote overwhelmingly in support of same-sex marriage?  We listen to all the rubbish being spoken on this subject, we’re exposed to a whole new gamut of “sympathetic characters” with their unnatural vices, and before we know it, we’re starting to go beyond the mere toleration of evil to its acceptance, and then to its active encouragement.  Did God really give us ears so that we can listen to the brainwashing techniques of his enemies?  Be aware of what passes through your ears and ends up sinking into your mind.  And let us not smugly believe we’re beyond such techniques.  What about the more vulnerable minds of our children?  What are they hearing in school?  In their cartoons on TV?  The attack begins early, be very careful.

Then there’s gossip.  And by gossip, I don’t mean the harmless observations we tend to make about other people and their behavior.  I’m talking about the eighth commandment that forbids calumny and detraction.  Do we listen deliberately to tales told about the secret sins of others, things that are none of our business and that we’d be better off not knowing.  Treat these conversations with the same reaction as you would if you were hearing filth.  Walk away, change the subject, or if you can’t do either, contribute to the conversation by pointing out the positive characteristics of the person being gossiped about.  Do what you can to protect his or her reputation. Do anything other than just sitting there listening with a blank smile of acceptance on your face.

There are many ways, then, that we can sin by listening to things we shouldn’t listen to.  There’s a reverse side to this coin though, and that is when we don’t listen to things we shouldlisten to.  This is where we our ears truly should be open, as per the command of our Lord, Ephphatha!  We must remember we have the responsibility to know certain things.  That means we have to listen to the right people at the right time.  Who are these people?  Those who know more than we do about the things we belong knowing.  Children must listen to their parents, students to their teachers.  Citizens must listen to the laws of the land, Catholics to the teachings of our Church. If we don’t listen, if we deliberately choose to remain ignorant, we have to realize that any sins we commit as a result of that deliberate ignorance are not excusable.  Are our ears open or closed to the Church’s laws, for example, on natural birth control, the so-called rhythm method?  Before practicing anything like that, married couples have the obligation to know the circumstances under which it is permitted.  Ignorance is no excuse, and souls are endangered daily by the refusal of couples to listen to what the Church says on the matter.

There are many other circumstances when we do have the tendency to want to close our ears.  I see it all the time in people who will not listen when they are told the truths of the traditional Catholic faith, or the truths of traditional Catholic morality. And the main reason they don’t want to listen is because they are afraid of the consequences.  What consequences?  Simply put, they fear having to face the change in their lifestyle they would be obliged to follow if they listened and believed.  The divorced do not want to face the impossibility of not being able to remarry, the parishioners at the Novus Ordo or local Protestant churches don’t want to be put in the position of having to leave all their friends behind and attend Mass outside the stability and comforts of their institutionalized religions.  So they refuse to listen to what’s right.  And by that refusal they are all the more responsible for the wrong they do.

Our Blessed Lord has two reactions towards those of us who are refusing some aspect of the truth.  First he looks up to heaven and he sighs.  He is exasperated at the foolishness of those who have the truth presented to them, but won’t even listen.  And then he says Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.  He gives us not only the grace of the truth, but he gives us also the grace to hear it and react appropriately.  Most importantly of all, he gives us the grace to deal with all the inconvenient consequences. But like all decisions in this life, we have free will and must choose ourselves whether we will listen or not. All good things come from above, all good things including the Truth.  Let’s not bury our heads in the sand and refuse to hear it.  If we do, we should know what to expect and where we’re going to find ourselves when we finally pull our heads out and look around. By all means, let’s be like the second of the three wise monkeys, the one with his hands over his ears, who hears no evil.  Let’s do our very best to hear no evil.  But when the time comes to hear what is good, let’s unplug those ears and listen up.  

TWO EARS, ONE MOUTH

A REFLECTION FOR THE 11TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

When it comes to speaking up and joining in the conversation of people around us, we often act as though the most important thing is to impress others with our knowledge and wit.  This false objective replaces what we should really be trying to do, which is to help them on their path to God.  We focus so much on looking good in the eyes of our neighbor that we end up failing to make the point of what we really should be saying.  We act as though it’s all about “me” and not about the needs of the person with whom we’re communicating.  Today’s Gospel restores our priorities in this regard, and we should try and retain the lesson it gives us.

Think about it, isn’t it true that the main role of speech is to be an instrument of that love which is the chief commandment?  To love God with our whole heart and mind and soul and strength means that we should love God also with our whole voice.  We should pray often, talking, conversing with God, communicating to him our adoration, repentance, thanksgiving and petitions.  But even before we do this, there is something we must first accomplish, and that is to listen.  As children we listen as our mothers and teachers teach us the catechism, the basics of our faith.  By listening, we learn about God, and only after we know something about him are we able to then love him and serve him.  Listen first to the truths about God, then talk to him.

The same goes for people.  Before we can love our neighbors, we must first get to know them.  That means listening to what they have to say, understanding their likes and dislikes, their fears and worries, learning about their careers and family life, whatever they choose to tell you.  In fact, your very first act of charity towards your neighbor is to listen to him. 

In today’s Gospel, our Lord first puts his fingers into the ears of the deaf mute, and only then does he touch his tongue.  His ears were opened and his tongue was loosed, and “he spake plain.” Let us open our ears to the words of our neighbors, not just their words of goodwill and compassion, but also to their requests, suggestions, even their complaints.  Listen, and you’ll know what to say.  You’ll know how to approach their most basic needs and be there, as a good neighbor, to help them in the most effective way possible.

It is said that there is a good reason we have been given two ears but only one mouth. We should do twice as much listening as talking.  If we listen to our neighbor instead of turning a deaf ear, then maybe we won’t sound quite so dumb when we speak!

BRIGHT AS THE SUN, FAIR AS THE MOON

A HYMN FOR THE ASSUMPTION OF OUR LADY

By Sr. Genevieve Glen, OSB

Bright as the sun, fair as the moon,

She reigns, who held within her womb

The Word made flesh, God’s Son made hers,

To whom the angel host defers.

Night is not dark where she stands bright,

The woman robed in living light,

Crowned with the stars, who served on earth

The Word to whom her faith gave birth.

O God, we read by her love’s flame

The Word in whom we sing thy name:

We bow before thy majesty,

One holy, threefold Mystery.

THE TRIUMPH OF OUR LADY

A REFLECTION FOR THE 10TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The last years of our Lady’s life are shrouded in mystery.  We know that the Apostle St. John took care of her and that she lived for a time in the city of Ephesus on the west coast of modern-day Turkey. And we know that when her lifespan came to its natural end, she was taken up body and soul into heaven, there to be crowned Queen by her divine Son.

As we know, the end of our life here on earth signals merely the beginning of our eternity. Our Blessed Lady is already in heaven, enjoying that everlasting bliss that is union with God.  This happiness does not prevent her from continuing to love us, her children, who continue to send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.  She shows her love in many ways, one of which is by protecting us from the snares of the devil, whose head she never ceases to crush beneath her heel.

The great war between Good and Evil began when Lucifer learned that God would become man, born of a virgin.  It continues today and will not end until the end of time itself.  Who will be the victor of this most terrible of conflicts? That same Blessed Virgin revealed the answer to the three children of Fatima on July 13, 1917:  “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.  In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph. The Holy Father will consecrate Russia to me, and she will be converted, and a period of peace will be granted to the world.”

It is not ours to know how or when this will take place, but we have been given the assurance from our Blessed Lady herself that her Immaculate Heart will eventually triumph over the forces of evil that beset this world. For this reason, Pope Pius XII designated August 22^nd, Octave Day of our Lady’s Assumption into heaven, as the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  For a full week we celebrate our Lady’s triumph over sin and death by the privilege of her Assumption, and to crown this octave of grace, we will celebrate on this coming Thursday the absolute victory over the devil that is yet to come.

By praying the Rosary we join our prayers to hers in accomplishing this final victory.  It is fitting that it should be the Mother of God who is set to achieve this triumph. Since her own Immaculate Conception in the womb of St. Anne, she has been the living witness of her final conquest over evil.  Exempt from Eve’s stain of original sin, Mary is placed before us as the perfection to which we are all called, but to which she alone was chosen to achieve.  She is our reminder of what we could have been, had it not been for the sin of our first parents.  She is our example of what we should strive towards, the light towards which we should steer our souls, like ships in a storm, the safe haven to which we all aspire.

When we hope for salvation, her promise that her Immaculate Heart will triumph is what helps us persevere in that hope, propelling us forward to our eternal goal.  “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.”  

HOW ARE YOU TODAY?

A SERMON FOR THE 10TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

"How are you today?"

"Fine, thank you."

"Really?"

“Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are…”. How are you, Mr. Pharisee? asks God.  Fine, thank you.  Just fine, God.  Mighty fine. 

And how are you, Mr. Publican?  Standing afar off… he smites upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.  How are you? I’m a sinner.  I’m not doing too well.

When God asks the Pharisee how he’s doing, the Pharisee is only too pleased to rattle off all the good things he does.  But when God asks the publican the same question, the poor man can’t even look him in the face—“he would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven.”  Why does he ask these two men this question? He already knows the answer, because he’s God.  He asks because he wants each of these men to express to him how theythink they’re doing.  The Pharisee is smug and complacent with his good deeds, the publican is ashamed of his sins.  And our Lord tells us that it is the publican who goes down to his house justified rather than the other.   The Pharisee exalts himself and God will humble him.  The publican humbles himself and God will exalt him.

Today our Lord asks us:  How are youdoing?  And so do we dare to reply to him, “Fine thanks?”  That’s something we might say to the cashier at Kroger’s if she asks us how we’re doing today.  But it isn’t a fitting reply to the great high God who knows exactly how we’re doing, and is looking for something other than some glib, smug assessment of our own self-satisfaction.  The publican shows us what answer God actually prefers.  Let’s take our cue from him, and make our response to God today as is fitting, with the humble recognition that we are sinners in need of God’s mercy, and that no matter how many good deeds we manage to accomplish, it is never enough until we reach the perfection that God demands of us.

Are any of us perfect yet?  The day we think we have finally achieved perfection is the day we will be condemned by God for the sin of pride.  We must realize that we will never achieve perfection, but that God looks at our efforts to achieve it rather than our ultimate success.  We strive and we fail.  Our striving is good and we will be judged on how hard we strive.  Our failing is not good, and yet it is inevitable. God sets the high standard of perfection for a reason.  He asks the impossible of us, knowing full well it is impossible and that we will never reach it.  We will all fail to some degree or other.  And yet our efforts may still save us.  This salvation lies not in the failure itself, but in the humble acknowledgment of our failures and our willingness to get up and try again.  

Humility is a very difficult virtue to achieve.  Really, the only way to achieve it properly is in avoiding the opposing vice, pride.  It’s better not to concentrate on being humble.  As soon as we focus on the humility itself, we fall into pride.  It’s ironic, isn’t it, but the instant we try assessing how humble we are, we cease to be humble.  We start to take pride in our humility.  So don’t think about humility.  Don’t do as the Pharisee does and focus on the good things we do, the degree of humility we’ve managed to accomplish.  Instead, focus on the false pride we cling to, smiting our breast with a sincere mea culpa, asking for God’s mercy, and resolving to do better. Maybe then, and only then, will God actually grant us that mercy, maybe then we will go down to our house justified. We can hope for that but never presume it, for the second we do is the second we become the Pharisee, exalting ourselves in the presence of God.  And just as we loathe the smugness of the Pharisee, so too will God look upon our own complacent satisfaction in ourselves.

The perfect example to follow is that given to us by our blessed Mother in her canticle, the Magnificat.  “He hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden, for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”  She recognizes her own lowliness and is in awe that God has deigned to make her blessed among women.  Note how she gives all the credit to God for blessing her: “he that is mighty hath magnified me; and holy is his Name.”  During this Octave of our Lady’s Assumption into heaven, we have before us the ultimate example of the humble child of God who goes to her house justified, the one who actually did reach perfection and yet remained humble.  She understands perfectly that the Pharisee is not pleasing to God—"He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.. he hath put down the mighty from their seat.”  And she knows too that God “hath exalted the humble and meek”.  If we want to follow her, justified, into the gates of heaven, it’s our job now to think and act like her.  If she who is without sin, who truly is perfect, can still be humble, how greater is our own need to abase ourselves, keeping our eyes down to the earth, and raising only our voices as we cry out “God, be merciful to me a sinner!”

THE TIME OF THY VISITATION

A SERMON FOR THE 9TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Vatican 2…  (‘ll bet you’re groaning already.  But listen up anyway, we’re going to make a point I hope you’ll all appreciate.). Vatican 2 was a council of the Church held back in the 1960s before many of us here were even born.  A council which left in its path a trail of destruction that has haunted us to this very day.  We might not like to think about Vatican 2, but even our plans this morning have been made because of Vatican 2, traveling to this little chapel miles from our home in order to receive sacraments and teaching that we can trust.   Let’s face it, Vatican 2 has shaped our lives whether we like it or not.

The fact that we’re here this morning means, presumably, that we don’t like it.  All of us here today feel the same about Vatican 2, and so we should.  We have come to hate the sound of these words, Vatican 2.  We’ve tried to put them out of our head, like a bad tune that won’t stop playing in our mind. Some of us just distract ourselves with other things, some mindless , others material.  Alas, there are also those for whom the distractions truly go too far, who “lust after evil things” as the world also lusted.  They “sit down to eat and drink, and rise up to play,” as St. Paul says in this morning’s Epistle.  As a result of Vatican 2, so many of the faithful have lost their sense of what it is to be Catholic.  They fall away from the faith, gradually at first, by ceasing to attend Mass regularly, then before they even realize it’s happened, they lose the faith entirely and give themselves up to sins and false faiths, lost in a godless world devoid of hope or mercy.  It’s a tragic end for anyone who has been born, baptized and bred as a Catholic.

For us here today, we’re probably more interested in just making the best of it, making our lives as normal as we can under the circumstances.  In our more noble moments we try to center our lives on God, hanging on to his presence in the hope that we’ll somehow save our own souls and those of our children.  We are the victims of Vatican 2, victims of those who claim to be the vicars of Christ but who have betrayed their high calling.  Some of us may indeed save our souls, others will gradually drift away.  But where are the saints amongst us?

Do we even want to be saints?  In every crisis of the Church God has raised saints to combat the evil that threatened.  But where are the saints today?  Are we prepared to do what it takes to be those saints?  To love God with all our mind and soul and strength? Do we have that strength, the strength that it takes to take up our cross and follow Christ?  If so, let us at least follow him in today’s Gospel narration, as he arrives outside the city walls of  Jerusalem.  Let’s remind ourselves that Jerusalem represents our holy Mother Church, and with this in mind, let us behold the city, the Church, and together with our Lord let us weep over it.  We may be sick and tired of hearing about Vatican 2, but I tell you this, not only has Vatican 2 shaped our lives, but this awful council and its aftermath is the single most important and defining event that has occurred since Pentecost.  It is the worst thing that has happened since the Crucifixion.  So weep! Weep with Christ over the holy city that is Rome.  Even if you’re jaded by the sound of the name of Pope Francis, by the never-ending torrent of evil that spews from the mouth of him and his minions, we must never forget that out of the billions of people who have ever lived or ever will live, it is up to us to deal with it.

Have we become like the ostrich that buries its head in the sand, refusing to think about the evils that Vatican 2 has brought upon us?  If so, it’s time to pull our heads out of those sands of deliberate ignorance and listen today.  Ours is not a “feel-good” religion like that of the Protestants and Novus Ordo Catholics. Haven’t you noticed, there are are very very few of us compared with the tens of thousands who attend the new Mass and other false religious services on Sunday.  Most Christians either don’t know about, or deliberately choose to ignore the devastation that Vatican 2 has caused.  And we must not follow their example.  We are few because ours is the very opposite of a “feel-good” religion, it is a religion where we choose to follow our blessed Lord, his example and his commandments.  And that’s no easy feel-good thing.  When he says that if we would be his disciples, we must take up our cross and follow him, do we really think this was just a figure of speech, or that he was joking?  God is not mocked, and he doesn’t mock us.  So many get tired and fall away, some as soon as they can when they reach the age of 18.  But as St. Paul says, all these things have happened for our example, and as a warning. A warning for whom?  Read the Gospel again—for us, “upon whom the ends of the world are come.”   You want to pretend everything is okay with the world?  “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”

When our Lord spoke of the literal city of Jerusalem, he warned that it would soon be destroyed by enemies who “shall not leave one stone upon another.”  And why? Because Jerusalem, the holy city of the Jewish nation, did not know the time of its visitation.  This is the reason our Lord gave for the coming destruction of Jerusalem.  What did he mean by the time of their visitation?  Who was it who visited them?  Who was it that they didn’t recognize?  Himself, of course!  Here was their Messiah, come to save them and all mankind from their sins, and they knew him not, they refused him, they crucified him.

This was their visitation.  Did we receive such a visitation before Vatican 2?  And if so, have we, like the Jews, refused that visitation and refused its message?  Since our Lord’s Ascension into heaven, our Lord has made very few appearances in this world.  Instead, he has preferred to send another, one who was chosen to be the ultimately destroyer of Satan and God’s enemies.  The Blessed Mother has appeared many times, she has visited us and warned us. Think only of La Salette and Fatima, apparitions of our Lady that included the most terrible warnings of what would happen if mankind didn’t stop lusting after evil things.  In the Old Testament they committed fornication, and there fell in one day three and twenty thousand, a direct punishment from God. This was nothing compared with the dreadful chastisement we should expect in the New Testament.

In the 19^thcentury at La Salette, our Lady warned us that “Rome will become the seat of the Antichrist.”  In the 20^thcentury, she revealed to Sr. Lucia the so-called Third Secret of Fatima, commanding that it be made public in 1960.  But 1960 came, and John XXIII refused to make it public.  It is still a secret today, but we know it has something to do with Vatican 2 and its aftermath.  You may have heard of a priest called Fr. Malachi Martin.  He worked in Rome and had the privilege of seeing and reading the Third Secret of Fatima.  He was once asked in an interview about a version of the Third Secret that was doing the rounds in the newspapers.  This version presented a devastating picture of the woes that would befall the Church and all mankind if we allowed the Church, Christ’s Mystical Body, to be infiltrated by the modernists.  It included these words: “Millions and millions of men will lose their lives from one hour to the next, and those who remain living will envy those who are dead. There will be tribulation as far as the eye can see, and misery all over the earth and desolation in every country.”  “Is this the Third Secret of Fatima?” the interviewer asked Fr. Malachi Martin.  “No,” he replied, “the actual Third Secret is far, far worse.”

After weeping over Jerusalem, our Lord went into the city and, with a whip, he drove out the money-lenders from the temple.  “My house—in other words, my temple, my Church—is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.”  The Vatican 2 church is a den of thieves—thieves who have stolen our faith, our holy Mass, and let’s face it, everything else, statues, altars, sacraments, you name it.  They need to be driven out by our prayers and any other means that God would approve of.  Weeping over the situation isn’t enough.  It’s even worse if we ignore it, pretending it doesn’t exist, as we go through our daily routines and make the most of our miserable lives.  No!  We have been chosen for these times, and God expects that every man shall do his duty. That duty is to obey the wishes of our Blessed Mother and pray, pray, pray.  Pray the Rosary for the Church for the salvation of souls.  Pray and do penance.  Whatever might be the will of God in the end, whether the great chastisement before us may be averted or not, we may be sure that we will be judged on our efforts to prevent it.

JERUSALEM THE GOLDEN

A HYMN FOR THE 9TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

By Bernard of Cluny, translated by J.M. Neale

1 Jerusalem the golden,
with milk and honey blest,
beneath your contemplation
sink heart and voice oppressed.
I know not, O I know not,
what joys await us there;
what radiancy of glory,
what bliss beyond compare.

2 They stand, those halls of Zion,
all jubilant with song,
and bright with many an angel,
and all the martyr throng.
The Prince is ever in them,
the daylight is serene;
the pastures of the blessed
are decked in glorious sheen.

3 There is the throne of David;
and there, from care released,
the song of them that triumph,
the shout of them that feast;
and they who with their Leader
have conquered in the fight,
forever and forever
are clad in robes of white.

4 O sweet and blessed country,
the home of God's elect!
O sweet and blessed country
that eager hearts expect!
Jesus, in mercy bring us
to that dear land of rest;
who are, with God the Father
and Spirit, ever blest.

THE CHURCH OF DOMINUS FLEVIT

A REFLECTION FOR THE 9TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Today’s Gospel of the 9^thSunday after Pentecost takes us back to Palm Sunday, when Our Lord was approaching Jerusalem, there to be greeted by the hollow shouts of Hosanna, just a few days before the same Jews, his chosen people, would call out for his crucifixion. And Our Lord, who knew what was to come, “when he came near unto Jerusalem, beheld the city, and wept over it.”

The approach that Our Lord took to arrive at the so-called Golden Gates of Jerusalem was from the east.  An appropriate direction, as it is the direction from which the sun rises, just as the Son of God had arisen out of a town called Bethlehem, just to the east of Jerusalem, and who was to be, like the rising sun, a “light to lighten the Gentiles”, he who would illuminate the darkness of this world with his truth, his divinity, and our redemption.

When Our Lord reached a certain point on the road to Jerusalem, he had to cross the Mount of Olives.  From here there is, even today, a beautiful vantage point from where to behold the vista of the Holy City and its walls.  The view today, however, cannot possibly compare with what Jesus must have observed on his last, fateful journey two thousand years ago.  At that time the Holy Temple towered above the Kidron Valley - its marble columns and enormous bronze doors a shimmering vision in the morning sun. Indeed, the dazzle of the city's glorious palaces and shiny white marble towers must have blinded the eyes of its beholders.

Walking toward Jerusalem, then, and overwhelmed by the glory of this sight, Jesus suddenly became distraught. He knew the tragic fate which would soon befall the Holy City and was aware of the devastation and desecration that would follow.  He was also fully cognizant of the ingratitude and indifference of the Jewish people to their God, who had been preparing them since the Fall of Adam for this, the day of their visitation.  Indeed, their coldness and indifference was now hardening into contempt and plain hostility toward the Son of God who had come to redeem them.  Hence, the sadness of Our Lord, who saw plainly through the shouts of Hosanna that day, and could look forward only to the latter days of that same week when these same chosen people would clamour for his crucifixion.

The site where Our Lord wept over the Holy City was venerated as early as the Crusades.  A church was built on the spot which later fell into ruin.  It was not until the reign of Pope Pius XII that an Italian architect called Antonio Barluzzi was commissioned to build a new church on the same spot, a church that was to be called the “Dominus Flevit” (The Lord wept). 

Construction began in 1953 and was completed in 1955. The church was built in the shape of a Greek cross, and was different from most traditional churches in one essential aspect:  instead of facing east as is the custom, this particular church faces west, the same direction as Our Lord was facing as he walked towards Jerusalem, and as he beheld and wept over the Holy City.  The dome of the church is also unusual, in that it is shaped like a teardrop, with large urns at each corner, set up according to Jewish custom as if to collect the tears which ran down from the face of Our Lord.

With its unique westward-facing altar, we have perhaps the most remarkable feature of this church.  As the priest says Mass (the traditional Mass of course, facing away from the people, and toward—in this case—the west), behind the altar he doesn’t face a crucifix, or a large stained-glass.  He faces a simple window.  A window that provides the most breathtaking view of Jerusalem, and the same vista that Our Lord beheld when he wept over the city.

GOOD VS. EVIL

A SERMON FOR THE 8TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

The ultimate nostalgia trip must surely be that, since the greatest and most beautiful of all angels, Lucifer, said those fateful words “I will not serve,” things just haven’t been the same anymore.  The great peace, which comes from God, which isGod, was shattered that day, and ever since, there has been a great battle between Good and Evil. It was waged first in heaven, between the good angels, led by St. Michael, and the bad angels who followed Lucifer.  No longer great or beautiful, Lucifer was banished from heaven, and from the stench of his infernal pit, he appointed other angels to roam the earth, seeking whom they may devour by temptation and other means.  The men these demons try to destroy are loved by God, and so Lucifer hates them.  He and his demons try to destroy our souls partly because of this hatred they have for us, the beloved of God, but even more so, because they know that our damnation is a gross offense against that God they hate more than anything else.  They attack us chiefly in order to hurt God.

So the battle that began in heaven has continued to this day.  We must remember that it is not a battle of equals. There is no doubt who will eventually win, and even Lucifer knows he’s going to lose, although he’ll do his best to do the most damage possible before it happens.  Lucifer made his first mistake in imagining he was so great, so beautiful, that he was on the level of God.  But as St. Michael exclaimed with such resounding simplicity, “Who is like unto God!”  It wasn’t a question.  It was a declaration made by an archangel who knew his own place as God’s creature. Lucifer didn’t know his place.  He will never be on the same level as God.  The creature can never be equal to the Creator. And that brings me to the main point today, that Evil will never be on the same level as Good.

There have been several heresies during the course of history that have made the same mistake as Lucifer, putting Good and Evil on the same level—equals who are constantly at war, with Good winning a battle here and there, and sometimes Evil triumphing.  Who will win in the end is anybody’s guess, if indeed there ever will be an end.  But we who have the faith know better.  We believe our Lady of Fatima, who was sent by God to tell us that “in the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”  For God, who is so infinitely superior to Lucifer, has decreed that it will not be he, Almighty God, who will directly destroy the Devil. It will not be St. Michael, a great angel like Lucifer.  It will not even be a man.  The devil will have his head crushed beneath the heel of a mere woman.  This is what God promised to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and the devil has ever since been bitterly aware that this would be his humiliating fate.

Such an end will be perfectly fitting for the proud and arrogant Lucifer who thought he was like unto God.  He completely failed to realize that the light of his beauty compared with that of God was like the light of a candle against that of the sun in the heavens.  And that was before his expulsion from heaven. Since then, even that pale light has been extinguished and he has become dark.  He is indeed the Prince of Darkness.  He is nothing but the absence of light, the absence of all goodness. How can something’s absence ever be compared to the thing itself.  Evil is, and can never be, on the same level as Good, when it’s nothing but what’s left over when all the Good is taken away.

And yet there are heresies that claim there are two Gods, one good, one evil, equal in strength, constantly at war.  One of these heresies sprung up in thirteenth-century France around the town of Albi.  For this reason the adherents of this heretical sect were known as Albigensians. Condemned by Pope Innocent III as “worse than the Muslims”, the Albigensians, also known as Cathars, developed their heresies from the Bogomil reforms of Dalmatia and Bulgaria, which called for a return to the Christian principles of perfection, poverty, and preaching.  

That sounds good, you might think.  But the Albigensians had a completely different approach to these ideals, stemming from an ancient heretical belief of the Manicheans, that there are two equal and opposed principles of Good and Evil.  The spirit, the soul, is good.  The body, all material things, are evil.  Even Christ himself was partially evil as he had a physical body.  They thought of him as imperfect, a sinful creature. Similarly, they denied the Resurrection of the Body, as the human physical body, being evil, could not possibly ever be admitted into heaven.  Instead, the Albigensians were obsessed with the idea of doing everything they could to separate the soul from the body.  This led, logically enough, to suicide, which was considered to be not only morally good, but something to be encouraged.  Even the process for the propagation of the human race was considered evil and every attempt was made to prevent it.  Thus, marriage was forbidden, while other unnatural vices were preferred. Perfection consisted in subjugating the body with all manner of unnatural penances and even violence.

There were two types of Albigensian heretics.  The so-called “perfecti” who would abstain from marriage and perform prolonged and severe penances, and the “believers”, who were permitted to indulge in marriage and not be so hard on themselves.  Naturally, there were a lot more “believers” than “perfecti”, and most of the believers preferred to put off “perfection” to their death bed. However, the ones who did so but then survived their illness were often starved to death or poisoned by the “perfecti”.

These Albigensians were like modern-day Mormons.  They sent out preachers all over the south of France, who would travel in twos, corrupting the faith of good Catholics by frightening them into this false religion.  If left to spread uncontrolled, this doctrinal virus of Albigensianism threatened not only the Catholic Church but indeed, because of their perverted beliefs, the whole human race.

All this made a lot of good Catholics back then very worried.  The Pope decided to tackle the problem first of all by diplomatic means.  However, when his ambassador arrived to reason with them, the Albigensians murdered him. The Pope then launched a crusade against the Albigensians, which lasted twenty years.  

In spite of the terrible slaughter, it is a man of peace who receives the most credit for helping to stamp out the Albigensian heresy.  It was in fact none other than St. Dominic, whose feast day we celebrate today.   In the year of Our Lord 1204, Pope Innocent III sent Dominic to France to join forces with the Cistercian monks who were supposed to be fighting the Albigensian heresy.  But what Dominic found, on his arrival, was that the Cistercians had used their influence in the region to grow very worldly.  Their luxurious lifestyle offended and scandalized the local people. Instead of persuading the people to avoid the heretics, they ended up repelling them with their own worldliness, and the people found the false austerity of the Albigensians far more attractive.  So the first task of St. Dominic was to persuade the Cistercians to renounce their indulgent habits, and their life of pomp and worldliness.  Through his preaching, but more successfully, by the example of his own frugal lifestyle, he was successful in persuading vast numbers of Cistercians to reform their worldly ways.  We see now the first fruit of St. Dominic’s approach.  He was not angry with the Cistercians, he didn’t antagonize them by chastising and shaming them.  He simply led by good example.  

Do we want to end the apostasy in the Church today?  Follow the example of St. Dominic.  Lead by example.  We must make sure our own lifestyle is sinless and holy, rooted in traditional values, and above all filled with the charity by which the children of God may be known.  Being angry at the modernists is actually just plain old self-indulgence, letting off steam, venting.  It’s natural, it’s justified even, but let’s not make it our habitual reaction to the latest news from the Vatican.  Rather, let’s try and be as holy as we can be ourselves.  We may not be able to change the Vatican, but within our own sphere of influence, within our own family and circle of friends, there is no telling how effective our own godly behavior may be in persuading others of the righteousness of our cause.

St. Paul warns us in today’s Epistle that if we live after the flesh, we shall die.  The Albigensians, as we have shown, took this to an extreme St. Paul never intended.  The Apostle did not mean that the flesh is intrinsically evil.  We are creatures of flesh and bone, material beings, and that’s how God made us.  His creation cannot be evil in itself.  But we can abuse the physical and material in order to commit evil deeds.  We shouldn’t reject the physical but rather we should subjugate the physical to the spiritual. The body is not evil because we are hungry or tired.  But if we indulge the body with gluttony and sloth then sin enters in.  We must do as St. Paul says, “if [we] through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, [we] shall live.”  

St. Dominic was the founder of the Order of Preachers, the Dominicans. He and his followers used the talent of preaching given them by God to draw vast crowds to the truth of the Catholic Faith.  St. Dominic preached the truth in the towns and villages where the Albigensian heresy was prevalent.   He did not preach with anger.  What good would that have done when a violent crusade was already being waged against them? He preached with charity, taking the arguments of the Albigensians and showing just where they went wrong.  He explained how it is not physical human nature that is evil, but that the consequence of original sin is a fallen nature and therefore an inclination towards evil.  He showed how we must fight this inclination by subjugating the body to the laws of God, not by outlandish penances, but simply by moderation and the virtue of temperance.  He preached the Resurrection of the Body, showing how Christ’s body rose from the dead and how this glorious body later ascended into heaven, leading the way for us to follow.  Most importantly, he preached the Rosary, the great weapon that Our Lady had entrusted to him, for of course without the help of God and his Blessed Mother, not even the great St. Dominic could convert these stubborn and wicked men.  But slowly, drawn by the truth of his arguments and by their renewed discovery of God’s love for them, and of course, by the power of the Rosary, the people of the South of France began to reject the Albigensian heresy once and for all.

Today we need to follow St. Dominic’s example, so that in our own little sphere of influence we can help stem the tide of ignorance and iniquity that surrounds us.  One step at a time, one Hail Mary at a time.  St. Dominic is known more than anything else for the Rosary and it’s the Rosary that should be our chief weapon.  Last week we spoke about the chains that bound St. Peter in prison, the chains that bind Rome in modernism.  This week, let’s turn to that other chain, the one that holds together the beads of our Rosary.  The Devil knows that he will be vanquished by our Lady and the Rosary.  He’s afraid of them, and there’s no better way to drive him away. 

BE STILL MY SOUL

A HYMN FOR THE 8TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

By Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel, translated by Jane Borthwick

1. Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side. 
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. 
Leave to thy God to order and provide; 
In every change, He faithful will remain. 
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly Friend 
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

2. Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake 
To guide the future, as He has the past. 
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake; 
All now mysterious shall be bright at last. 
Be still, my soul: the waves and windsstill know
His voice Who ruled them while He dwelt below.

3. Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart, 
And all is darkened in the vale of tears, 
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart, 
Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears. 
Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay 
From His own fullness all He takes away.

4. Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on 
When we shall be forever with the Lord. 
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone, 
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored. 
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past, 
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last. 

5. Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise 
On earth, believing, to thy Lord on high; 
Acknowledge Him in all thy works and ways, 
So shall He view thee with a well-pleased eye. 
Be still, my soul: the Sun of life divine 
Through passing clouds shall but more brightly shine.

A BABY BOOMER PERSPECTIVE

A REFLECTION FOR THE 8TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

How well do we take care of what we have?  It all starts when we’re children, and we’re given things.  Toys, dolls, all kinds of interesting things are lavished upon us from an early age.  How we treat them is a sure sign of how we will treat our possessions as we get older.

Today’s Gospel is about a lord who had a steward, whom he accuses of wasting his goods.  A steward, you see, is a person we pay to look after our goods.  Most of us don’t employ a steward, and we look after our own goods.  In fact, it is we who are the stewards of the many possessions we have.  Do we keep our gardening tools clean and well oiled?  Do we wipe down the stove after we’ve cooked? Do we make our bed in the morning? These are all signs of whether we’re a good steward of our goods.

As one of the so-called baby boomer generation, I share with many here the interesting perspective of being able to compare the generation that came before me with the one that follows.  In terms of stewardship, the “Great Generation” as a whole treasured their possessions.  I’ve noticed they are extremely careful to maintain them and keep them as perfect as the day they purchased them.  I once admired a shiny pair of very smart-looking shoes on the father of a friend of mine. It turns out he had bought them just after World War II. This generation came out of the Great Depression.  They didn’t have much, and so what they did have, they made last.

Meanwhile, the new generation of Milennials have a totally different attitude to their goods, as parents learn very early in their lives.  When someone buys a pair of jeans that already has holes in it, you kind of know they’re not made to last.  Our brave new world is so full of material things that we have created a whole new breed of material girls and boys who have so many clothes and toys they don’t know the value of them.  It’s the law of inflation at work, only in the closet and the toybox.

All good things come from above, from the good Lord who made us.  All we have is on loan from him, and we are his stewards.  How well do we take care of our things?  Our home, our family, our church, our soul, our values?  How well have we trained the next generation to care for these things?  The trend this past hundred years has not been a good one, and make no mistake, the responsibility rests with us to pass down the values we received.  It’s called being a good steward.