@JamesMartinSJ and internet bullying

Posted on 14 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

It seems that a Twitter user accused Jesuit homosexualist activist Fr James Martin of writing fake supportive letters to himself.  The person who wrote that accusation (who later apologized) used a sardonic generic label “RadTrad Twitter™”: “So, it appears we at RadTrad Twitter™ do owe @JamesMartinSJ an apology.”  This is like saying, “we here in SanityLand™ (not a real thing) think you are wrong” rather than “we here at America Magazine (a real thing) are crazy”.

Martin posted a video via Twitter in which he shows some letters people have written to him. He resorts to calling the Twitter user not by his actual Twitter handle, but by a variation of the generic, throw away label, “Rad Trad Catholic Twitter”.

Martin, who isn’t stupid and who knows the difference between the handle of a single user of Twitter who wrote about him and, on the other hand that “RadTrad Twitter™” throw away, made a modification of the throw away as a shaming term.

This is tantamount to: “Anyone Catholic who objects to my homosexualist agenda” is a ‘Rad Trad’!”  It’s a subtle form of bullying.

Martin used “Rad Trad Catholic” as a hate-term to smear the huge number of people who object to his homosexualist agenda.  In an ironic twist, Martin did what I’m confident he objects to when people use “faggot” for people with same-sex inclinations.

When the Twitter guy used “RadTrad Twitter™” it was a throw away.  When Martin used “Rad Trad Catholic”, it was name calling.

But he can do that because he’s “building bridges”.

Martin uses Twitter to push his homosexualist agenda.

I was going to write about the following when it came up, because it dealt with the Diocese of Madison, but I let it pass at the time.  Now, however, we should have a look at the way Martin works on Twitter.

Martin used Twitter to wade into something on my home turf and to push his homosexualist agenda.

I am not going to get into the details of the case, but in nutshell, a woman lost her job at a Catholic grade school in the Diocese of Madison for her open, public support of homosexualism on Facebook.  She also had a bumper sticker on her car that read, “America needs nasty women”.  Not the greatest example for Catholic school children.

Martin jumps in on Twitter.  His message is clear, though implicit: Never mind policy and principles, she should keep the job at the Catholic school.

By spotlighting the situation in Madison, homosexualist activist Jesuit Martin engaged in intimidation.  Now that Bp. Morlino has passed away, Martin is testing the new guy, Bp. Hying.

In other words, this is internet bullying.

This is what we expect from homosexualist activists, because homosexualism – the need relentlessly to jam it in everywhere – is a totalitarian ideology.

But he does it with a smile, so it’s okay.

Let’s frame what Martin wrote in his tweet another way.

Martin acknowledged that the former employee exposed herself on Facebook and then, later, said she wouldn’t do that again.  Hence, she should keep the job.

Let’s say that you are a public “flasher”.  You know what a flasher is, right?  You live next to a Catholic grade school.  You occasionally expose yourself to school children. You also have something awful written on your trench coat.  You get caught.  After all… it was public.  You promise you won’t do it again.  “I take it back!  I won’t use that coat anymore and I won’t flash here.  I don’t renounced my desire to flash, but I’m sorry that I got caught.  I’ll make sure I don’t get caught again.”  Therefore, you argue, you should continue to live unchallenged next to the Catholic grade school.

Let’s refine this.  You don’t live next to the school.  You, the flasher, work at the school.

The former-school employee in question exposed her views on Facebook and on her car’s bumper.  But hey! Everyone now is supposed to unsee all of that and pretend it doesn’t matter.

That’s what Martin was saying in his Tweet. “Hey! She deleted the post in which she exposed herself! She should keep her job with the children despite your clearly stated policy!”

This is why so many are increasingly irritated with the agenda of homosexualists.  They want to jam open homosexualism into every possible venue.  They weaponize sentimentality to contravene common sense and they resort to bullying, subtle and not so subtle.

UPDATE:

This note came into my email today.  It’s from a smart, scholarly, thoughtful guy.

Good afternoon, Father:

Two things come to mind regarding Fr Martin.

First, and speaking from a Charismatic Catholic background, it appears to me, in the strongest way possible, that Fr Martin has an infestation of the ‘spirit of mockery’–that is to say, jeering at piety, not unlike the”professionally religious” visitors to Jerusalem who thought the Apostles were drunk (Acts 2:13; cf Mt 27:42).  Someone afflicted with this malice is in need of deliverance/minor exorcism.

Second, let’s assume his project comes to fruition, namely the fullest acceptance of “LGBTQ” in the Church.  Then what?  I’m seeing exactly nothing about–even within the framework of homosexual liaisons–chastity as gay/lesbian persons, reform of the gay culture in repudiating pornography, sex clubs, kink, and the like.  In other words, is the acceptance a one-way street?  What does he think Christ is demanding by way of discipleship?  Or is the whole Church supposed to look like Most Holy Redeemer Parish in San Francisco or St Ambrose’s Parish in West Hollywood?

I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on this.

I think you may be on to something.  Demons can attach to people who are into certain things.  And point about “discipleship” is well-taken.  I pair this with the sardonic line from Bob Hope quoted in a comment, below.

Posted in Jesuits, Sin That Cries To Heaven | Tagged , , , ,
17 Comments

Our Lady of Sorrows Project: 5th Sorrow – The Crucifixion of Jesus

Posted on 13 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

So far…

1st Sorrow – The Prophecy of Simeon
2nd Sorrow – The Flight into Egypt
3rd Sorrow – The loss of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem
4th Sorrow – Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary

Now we turn to…

The Crucifixion of Jesus. (Matthew 27:34–50, Mark 15:23–37, Luke 23:33–46, John 19:18–30)

If we see Crucifixion as a process, this is also possibly the 10th, 11th, and 12th Stations of the Way of the Cross, namely, Jesus is stripped of His clothes Jesus is nailed to the Cross, and Jesus dies on the Cross. It is also the 5th Sorrowful Mystery of the Most Holy Rosary. Associated with this mystery is the practice during the Triduum of the Seven Words, that is, the phrases in Scripture which Jesus spoke during His physical Crucifixion until His death.

Along the way in these reflections, I have tried to weave together the possibility of Mary’s Sorrows together with Mary’s joy at each of the challenging and painful events in her life with and apart from the Lord, in her life of ministry to and ministry with the Lord.  Let’s continue in that vein.

Mary was the most profound minister to Jesus.  In His earthly ministry, there were those who accompanied the Lord and provided material help for Him and the Apostles.  Mary literally gave her blood and flesh and breath to Him as He was being knit together under her Immaculate Heart.  She continued to minister to Him as a child and as a young man.  There is a moment when she was outside a house where Jesus was, and she was trying to see Him.  Was Mary one of those who, at some remove, accompanied the Apostles and the Lord?

Mary ultimately ministered, ultimately, to the Lord by her presence at their Cross.

Sometimes all you can do is be there.

“They also serve who only stand and wait”, wrote the Calvinist John Milton in Sonnet 19 a defense of sola fides.  But at this moment, pivotal in salvation history, Mary is helpless to do any other thing but serve by standing and waiting.

There is nothing for her outwardly to do now, but to wait for the inevitable.

Outwardly.

Sometimes I talk on the binomial, “Don’t just be there, do something!” and “Don’t just do something, be there!”  In these two we can find a key to our participation at Holy Mass, in which is Calvary renewed.

At the Cross, helpless Mary is still active.  She was actively receptive, actively taking in everything that was a going on.  She was inwardly actively offering everything in and with her Son up to the Father.  Mary’s pattern is reception and pondering, then outward expression.

Receptivity need not be passive and inactive.  This is particularly true in the participation of lay people and sacred ministers during the unbloody renewal and re-presentation of Calvary which is Holy Mass. God wants to lavish graces on us through every word and gesture of Mass.  We must make acts of will to unite our minds and hearts to everything that is going on, being offered by the priest at the altar.  Liturgical receptivity is active, not passive.  Mary was active, not passive, in her stillness and receptivity.  Mary receives and ponders.  Then she offers.

Imagine yourself reaching out with the hands of your eyes, the arms of your ears to take in every thing being offered to you.  Now imagine Mary at the foot of the Cross.   She does not suffer from the distractions and disordered passions and appetites that we have.  She was preserved from them by grace.  Mary has the ability to focus even in this horrible moment.

For her entire life with the Lord, from His conception onward, Mary has been preparing and disciplining herself for this very moment.

Say that you were visited by an angel who told you that in five minutes you were going to be given a brief vision of historic Calvary.  Would you, during that five minutes, try to calm yourself and get yourself ready?  And what about the time of the vision itself?  Do you suppose you might strain to take it all in so that it is burned into the memory?  What an amazing moment!

Here is Mary at the Cross after 33 years of preparation.   How might she be taking it all in?

Let’s return for a moment to the Holy Family’s home in Nazareth.  The Lord had dazzled the scholars in the Temple.   Would the Lord have then never opened his mouth again, in the family home, to talk with Joseph about the Scripture which they, as pious Jews, would have read and prayed over and studied?  What might Mary have heard?  As diligent parents, their home would have been filled with the Scriptures.

Deuteronomy 6 provides a foundation of instruction of children, surely conducted perfectly in the Holy Family.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Do you suppose that Joseph would never have asked his Son, “What say you about the portion of Torah we heard?”  We know that Christ “grew in wisdom”.  What else could that mean but knowledge of the ways of God and how God prepared, through foreshadowing and prophecy, for Him and His saving mission.

Mary, perfectly preserved from sin, mind and emotions unclouded by the appetites and passions we deal with, heard in a way that we don’t.  Scripture from Genesis through the Prophets points to the coming of the Messiah, a Davidic King High Priest, a New Moses, a New Adam.  They knew who He was.  Mary might not have fully grasped what would finally transpire, but she surely knew of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah…

As many were astonished at him –
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the sons of men—

“Bruised, derided, cursed, defiled, she beheld her tender Child all with bloody scourges rent.”

So shall he startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they shall see,
and that which they have not heard they shall understand.

“Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed.”

Examples of fulfillment of Scripture can be multiplied, but I suspect that – in a kind of “grok” – Mary, with all her heart, all her mind, and all her strength, grasped something of supreme meaning of this consummation of salvation history so deeply that she gave herself entirely over to it as an actively receiving participant, offering herself in a perfect oblation, and offered Him, as and through her High Priest Victim, in the very Sacrifice she was witnessing.

With that encompassing “grok” in mind, how might joy and sorrow be at work in Mary in this moment of terrible splendor?  Sorrow and joy, dread and ecstasy, pain and exaltation.

Rooted in knowledge of foreshadowing and prophecies, explained even by her Son in the family home, could these hours under the Cross have been for like a countdown?

How angst-laden and exhilarating are countdowns of great earthly events.   But this was beyond “Houston the Eagle has landed” or the “Miracle on Ice” or “D-Day” by cosmic orders of magnitude for one who was on the inside track of salvation history: Mary, Mother of the foreshadowed and prophesied Messiah, at the foot of their Cross.

Counting breaths backwards… heartbeats backwards.  Tension building…

FIVE – (No… no… my poor baby…) FOUR – (Yes! Go God!) THREE – (NO… please stop the pain….) – TWO – (Father, take Him! It’s time!) ONE – (Any… moment … now… fiat… fiat… fiat…) …

It is finished.

The sound of the RUACH leaving His Body reaches her yearning ears.  Her eyes take in the last heave and droop of the head.

Victory!

The gulf is bridged.  The sin of the First Adam and First Eve are resolved.   Humanity is freed from the Enemy whose head will be crushed.

As Fulton Sheen said, “Mary’s Fiat was one of the great Fiats of the universe: one made light, another accepted the Father’s will in the Garden, and hers accepted a life of selfless fellowship with the Cross.”

She had lost her earthly Son but knew that everything had been gained.

She stands below her lifeless Lord, daughter of her dead Son, gazing upward and inward.

She stands below her victorious Lord, she turns and looks at John, the newly ordained priest.

Here is her new care, to minister to and to be ministered by.

Like a pup with his hands still perfumed with Chrism and wrapped in the manutergium which will be buried with his mother, Father John’s feet are still damp by Christ’s washing, by the dew of the Garden of agony, and now with mud of the dirt we come from and the Lord’s own still red Blood.

“Woman, behold your son.  Son, behold your Mother.”

Let us pray.

O Mary, Queen of the Clergy, you who are the Mother of the Church, the Queen of the missions, the perfect and alluring ideal of all the ecclesiastical virtues, deign to sow, with a magnificent profusion, the graces of the priestly and missionary vocations in the pure hearts of First Communicants; prepare yourself the souls of the young Levites for the formidable duties of the sacred ministry; fill Priests, your favorite sons, with the burning fervor of tireless zeal and adorn them with the holiness and knowledge necessary for their glorious mission.

O Priestly Virgin, you who are the appointed protector of the Catholic hierarchy, enlighten and strengthen our Bishops so that they are the vigilant pastors and active leaders of your people. Extend your powerful protection to our Holy Father, the Pope, so that he guides with a firm and sure hand the Barque of Your Church to the harbor of eternity through the storms and convulsions of the modern world.

O Noble Queen of Heaven and Earth, O blessed warden of my heart, draw all souls to you and bind them to your virginal Heart by the unbreakable bond of a love so pure and so passionate that they live only to love and to please you now, in the shadows of exile, and, soon, in the splendors of the eternal homeland. Amen!

P. Ignace Marie O.F.M. Imprimatur: Fr. Paulus, C.P. Metis, 16.6.1925. E. Emel, vic. gen. (Translation from the French)

6th Sorrow – The Piercing with the Lance and the Deposition

Posted in Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Our Solitary Boast | Tagged , , ,
4 Comments

Fakebook

Posted on 13 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

For some reason, the Fakebook sharing button seems to be working.

Share while we can!

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
Comments Off on Fakebook

Mind-blowing profundity at the reconstituted John Paul II Institute 2.0

Posted on 13 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Sometimes I like to post lighter fare on a Friday.  But today, I am so moved, so overwhelmed and thunderstruck with awe, that I must share this quote.  Honestly, folks, I’m gobsmacked.  I’m all at sixes and sevens.

We once thought that the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and the Family was pretty nifty.  HAH!  We had no idea what potential it had.

Then came Francis and Co.

At last they’ve purged of all traces of rigidity and the psychological problems behind traditional things and rules.  They’ve banished John Paul II’s legacy, except part of the name of the place. Gotta be patient.  They are sooo wise.

Now a new staff is in place, including the new President of the JPII 2.o Perangelo Sequeri.

Sequeri has offered some thoughts for the opening of the new academic year.  HERE

Ready?  Put down your drink and get ready to be awestruck.

 “The recomposition of the thought and practice of faith with the global covenant of man and woman is now, with all evidence, a planetary theological space for the epochal remodelling of the Christian form; and for the reconciliation of the human creature with the beauty of faith.  Put in simpler terms, through the overcoming of every intellectualistic division between theology and the pastoral, spirituality and life, consciousness and love, one treats of rendering this evidence persuasive for everyone: knowing the faith bodes well for the men and women of our time.”

Really, amazing.  No?  The profundity of it all.  The sheer depth.  I’m speechless.

It’s even better in Italian.

I’m reminded of the scene in That Hideous Strength when during the banquet the agents of N.I.C.E. wind up speaking in jibber-jabber.

Can someone at JPII 2.0 please release the bear?

Posted in Lighter fare, What are they REALLY saying?, You must be joking! | Tagged ,
40 Comments

RECENT POSTS and THANKS!

Posted on 13 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Things scroll off the front page pretty fast.  Here are some posts going back a couple weeks.

First, can we pray for each other?

Your Urgent Prayer Requests

And now:

Finally, I want to thank those of you who have been so kind to me, through notes with prayers, donations, items from my wishlist.  I have to admit that these are rocky times and sometimes it is hard to fight despondency.  When something comes in, it’s a boost of encouragement.

I ask for your continued, even increased support, and your prayers.  I remember benefactors at Holy Mass and in my prayers.

Posted in SESSIUNCULA |
Comments Off on RECENT POSTS and THANKS!

YOUR URGENT PRAYER REQUESTS

Posted on 13 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Please use the sharing buttons! Thanks!

Registered here or not, will you in your charity please take a moment look at the requests and to pray for the people about whom you read?

Continued from THESE.

I get many requests by email asking for prayers. Some are heart-achingly grave and urgent.

As long as my blog reaches so many readers in so many places, let’s give each other a hand. We should support each other in works of mercy.

If you have some prayer requests, feel free to post them below.

You have to be registered here to be able to post.

I still have a pressing personal petition.

I also ask your prayers for a friend, J, in job trouble.

Posted in Urgent Prayer Requests | Tagged
11 Comments

VIDEO: Fr. Murray, Prof. Royal on EWTN on Francis’ latest PPP (Papal Plane Presser) comments

Posted on 12 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

My friends Fr. Murray and Prof. Royal were on EWTN with Raymond Arroyo’s The World Over.

They discussed Francis’ comments during the latest PPP (papal plane presser).

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

Posted in Francis, The Drill | Tagged , ,
3 Comments

@FatherZ responds to @PhilipPullella of Reuters about the Holy Spirit and the elections of Popes

Posted on 12 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I had retweeted my friend Fr. Blake’s tweet.

I agree with Fr. Blake.  Francis has a mean streak.  I get that.  Francis is a human being.  He’s going to have bad days.  Francis’ labeling of people who love the Church’s Tradition as rigid, and the suggestion that there is something psychologically wrong with them is just plain mean.  I have in my mind’s eye the episode of him mocking an altar boy who had his hands together, as he was taught, or gossiping derisively about a priest getting a cassock and Roman hat at Euroclero after having inveighed against gossiping many times.  How about his drubbing of the Cardinals and Bishops of the Roman Curia as a Christmas gift a few years ago?  Francis scoffed at a spiritual bouquet people offered him.   He ridiculed people in Chile who were horrified by a bishop who covered up child abuse.

These are not massive ecclesial decisions (like abandoning Catholics in China or wiping out the John Paul II Institute or refusing to answer officially submitted dubia or avoding transparency and alacrity in investigating a pernicious ex-cardinal), but they are signals.

Drop a stone on a someone’s head from but a short distance and it stings, but it doesn’t do lasting harm.  When a stone is dropped from a great height, it does a lot of damage.  Someone you barely know might make mean remark and you brush it off.  But if Father does it at the parish?  Ouch.  And if it is the POPE?

Long-time Vatican newsie for Reuters, Phil Pullella took Fr. Blake’s comment too far and got too far out over his skiis.  Phil dragged me into it because of my retweet.  I’ll bet other people retweeted Fr. Blake, but Phil only picked on me.  Interesting, no?

Phil, in response to Fr. Blake (and to me, apparently), tweeted:

Oh dear.

First, the Holy Spirit doesn’t sleep.  As I wrote elsewhere today, the RUACH is still blowing through the Church.

Acknowledging that Phil was just using a figure of speech, we move on.

The Holy Spirit might offer guidance to Electors who, with their mouths at least, say they want guidance, but that doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit is “acting on”, actually guiding all the Electors in a conclave.

The Vengeance of Urban VI
by Jean-Paul Laurens

The Electors can vote according to many motivations, some holy, some not so holy, some guided by the Holy Spirit, some guided by another not-so-holy spirit.

John XII (+964).  This Pope gave land to his mistress, had people killed, and was in turn murdered by a man who caught him in flagrante with his wife. The Holy Spirit guided the electors in this election, right?

Not so much, you say?

How about Urban VI (+1389)? This predecessor of Francis didn’t just have harsh words for priests.  He had cardinals who conspired against him tortured and then lamented that he didn’t hear enough screaming. They played for keeps back in the day.

Clearly chosen by the Holy Spirit!

And there’s Alexander VI, Borgia, (+1503).  Chosen by the Holy Spirit? Are you suuuuuure?

Entering the modern conclave the Cardinal Electors pray, inter alia:

“Ecclesia universa, nobis in oratione communi coniuncta, gratiam Spiritus Sancti instanter exorat, ut dignus Pastor universi gregis Christi a nobis eligatur…. The whole church, joined to us in common prayer, earnestly prays for the grace of the Holy Spirit, that a worthy Shepherd of the whole flock of Christ be elected by us.”

“By us.”

The Holy Spirit inspires, but the men are free to choose.. and they do.

Once upon a time, Card. Ratzinger was was interviewed by a Bavarian TV network. He was asked:

INTERVIEWER: Your Eminence, you are very familiar with church history and know well what has happened in papal elections…. Do you really believe that the Holy Spirit plays a role in the election of the pope?
RATZINGER: I would not say so in the sense that the Holy Spirit picks out the pope, because there are too many contrary instances of popes the Holy Spirit would obviously not have picked. I would say that the Spirit does not exactly take control of the affair, but rather like a good educator, as it were, leaves us much space, much freedom, without entirely abandoning us. Thus the Spirit’s role should be understood in a much more elastic sense, not that he dictates the candidate for whom one must vote. Probably the only assurance he offers is that the thing cannot be totally ruined.”

In the case of Alexander VI, a real piece of work in his personal life, we might see what Ratzinger was talking about.  The role of the Holy Spirit is to protect the Church from disaster.

If you look at A6’s legislation and other documents, if you stroll through the Bullarium Romanum for his pontificate, you will find that he never put his foot wrong in doctrine.   Moreover, on his deathbed he made a good confession and received the last sacraments in the state of grace, which every time it happens is surely helped by the Holy Spirit.  We want sinners to convert, right?  And big sinners are the cause of greater rejoicing, right? Perhaps Alex 6 was chosen by the Holy Spirit so that his death could be emulated by his inept or wicked successors?  So that they knew that it was possible, in the end, to repent?  Augustine of Hippo, commenting on the washing of the feet of the Apostles, made the point that Christ was teaching them – certainly Peter the most – that they were going to get their feet dirty in the service of the Lord.  They were going to get the world’s muck on themselves.  Thus, He taught them that they had to stick to Him to be able to carry out their work in the world.

Or maybe the electors of Alexander VI just blew off the Holy Spirit and acted from more worldly motives.

Enough.  Having a Church is messy and running one, in the best of times, is like entering the fog of war.

The Holy Spirit didn’t write “Bergoglio” on the ballots any more than He wrote “Sarto” or “Wojtyla” or “Borgia” for that matter.  The Holy Spirit did not guide the hands of the Electors in automatic writing any more than He did with the Evangelists or Paul or the Old Testament writers.   He offered graces.  We are all free to accept or reject God’s offers.

There’s no certainty that the Holy Spirit truly guided the majority in the election of any Pope.  We can only go by the facts on the ground.   It might be more probable that He did in one case or pretty obvious in another that He didn’t.  Is the pontificate a disaster?  That might be a clue.  Would it have been an even worse disaster had this or that Pope not been elected?  How can we know that? The Holy Spirit can, but we can’t.  Did a pontificate usher in reform and result in greater holiness among the Church’s members?  That might be a clue.

What happened under the pontificate?  That might be a starting point.  Do we want to lift that rock and look?

You might object that “It’s too early to tell! We need years, even after a pontificate, to tell!”

Sometimes it really is too early to tell.  Sometimes it isn’t.  Which is it with this pontificate?  Do you know?  I don’t.

The Church is indefectible till the end. The Holy Spirit will make sure that no Pope can hurt the Church too much.  That’s about all we can say.

Some people think that we get the priests and bishops that we deserve or that we need for correction or for punishment or purification or reform.

I firmly believe that God raises up saints for different needs and different times by offering certain people extraordinary graces.

Does God actively raise up people or events to afflict the Church, knowing that they will do evil, for the sake of correction and the increase of grace and eventual good and glory?  Correptio et gratia?

Only God knows how that works in actuality.

We had a little confusion about God’s active and permission will a while back in this pontificate with Francis’ remarks about God willing a diversity of religions – impossible in view of His positive will, possible only in view of His permissive will.

What was the Holy Spirit’s role in 2013?  What’s at work in the election of any Pope?

I’m going with Ratzinger on this one.  How about you, Mr. Pullella?

Posted in Francis, The Drill | Tagged , , ,
10 Comments

Our Lady of Sorrows Project: 4th Sorrow – Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary

Posted on 12 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

So far…

1st Sorrow – The Prophecy of Simeon
2nd Sorrow – The Flight into Egypt
3rd Sorrow – The loss of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem

Now we turn to…

Mary meets Jesus on the way to Calvary. (Tradition – not attested in Scripture)

This is also the Fourth Station of the Way of the Cross.

It is entirely reasonable that if Mary was at the foot of the Cross, then she was also somewhere along the route upon which our bleeding and beaten Savior was flogged and cruelly compelled.  It is entirely reasonable that she would have raised her voice and, so, the Lord spotted her in the crowd.

In 2005, Joseph Card. Ratzinger provided the texts for the Way of the Cross on Good Friday, for their praying at the Colosseum.  Remember the pictures of John Paul II, dying, seated and watching on TV?

Ratzinger begins his meditation on the Fourth Sorrow of Mary, the Fourth Station of the Via Crucis, by quoting what we looked at in my remarks on the 1st Sorrow, the prophecy of Simeon in Luke 2 that a rhomphaia would pierce Mary’s heart.

With his usual ability to discover new facets of the jewels of our faith, Ratzinger underscores that, at a certain point, Mary simply steps aside, out of the picture, as her Son embraced a new “family”.  That process was foreshadowed in the last Sorrow, when He tarried in Jerusalem and then, in front of Joseph and those assembled, spoke of His other Father.  Mary also had to stand outside a house Christ was visiting, trying to see Him. She probably heard Christ say, “Who is my mother?”  They are my mother. (Matthew 12:46-50)  That’s also something she would have “kept in her heart” to ponder in the long dark nights.  And it was her Son who said it.  She is being emptied, in a way, as He was, to take her humanity, and later to be crucified.

Fulton Sheen wrote that with each Sorrow, Christ was the one driving the “sword” into Mary, with each Sorrow more deeply, each Sorrow a different kind of pain.  “Some new area of the soul is touched that before was virginal to grief.  In each dolor it is the Son Who is the executioner, but He always makes His edge the sharper.”

Sharper.  More piercing.  St. Alphonsus Liguori, in his Stations wrote that when they looked at each other,

“their looks became as so many arrows to wound those hearts which loved each other so tenderly.”

But, the fact is, though she is silent after Cana, she was still there, somewhere along the road the Lord took in His earthly ministry, while He was healing the lame and teaching in synagogues and casting out demons. She wanted to be close to Him.   She wanted to be close to Him now, in His driven agony.

What mother wouldn’t bear her child’s pain, if only she could do?  Sheen says: “If carrying one’s own Cross is the condition of being Christ’s follower, then the condition of being the Savior’s Mother is to carry the Savior’s Cross.”  So, she longs for His Cross as her own Cross, mediating His pain as she will come to mediate graces.

If this is so, friends, if being Christian means “taking up one’s Cross and following Him”, then this is also the condition of the whole Church as a Church.  She is Holy Mother, the Church, Bride of Christ and Body.  If Christ had His Passion, our Church must have her Passion, and we who are sensitive and faithful with her.  I am a crucifer.  You are a crucifer.  And the Church will be pierced by bitter swords of sorrow, and the bitterest swords are those wielded by those to whom more has been given, who should love all the more.

Mary wanted to be near Jesus, bear with Him, in this hour more than at any other moment of their lives together. The end of the mission was nigh.

Would Mary have been intimidated by the crowds and the guards?  At the beginning of her ministry with and to Jesus, the angel said, “Do not be afraid!” (Luke 1:30).  Mary could hear – listen – differently than we do.  Note that when angels appear to others, they usually say, “Don’t be afraid.” People tend to do terrified face-plants when angels show up.  The first thing Gabriel said to Mary was “Hail!”.  Only later, when describing her own ministry to and with the Lord, would the angel say, “Don’t be afraid!”

This surely is the fear-filled moment.  She is not afraid.  She is exultantly horrified, eager in dread.  They are almost there.

Mary is really the only one present on that original Way of the Cross who has a fuller picture, knows something more than everyone else about what’s happening.  She still had to have faith, but her faith was so much informed, which made her hope and love the stronger.  She can both be filled with dread and be eager.

And yet – at the same time – she remains, quintessentially, a Mother watching her Son’s bitter agony.

She ponders in her lacerated Immaculate motherly Heart a new way to share in salvific pain.

She found Him in the Temple talking about a heavenly Father.  No surprise there.  But then she stood outside as He called others his “mother”.  A single scene, but exemplary in her life, in those chapters that are silent about her.  Now, “bruised, derided, cursed, defiled, she beheld her tender Child all with bloody scourges rent.”

Mary prepared, practiced for this “hour” for 33 years.

She is utterly in God’s hands in a new way, feeling, as Sheen said, a new kind of sorrow.

Now she knows what being truly helpless is.

I cannot do better than this image from Mel Gibson’s film, The Passion of the Christ.  He conflates a memory from Christ’s childhood with one of His falls along the way, and combines the meeting with His mother – in a stroke of true inspiration – with the words from Revelation 21:5.

YouTube thumbnailYouTube icon

I close these poor remarks with the same tears which that single scene has always drawn.  And so, thank you for bearing with me.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” And he who sat upon the throne said,

“Behold, I make all things new.”

5th Sorrow – The Crucifixion of Jesus

Posted in Our Solitary Boast | Tagged , , , , ,
4 Comments

“This is the time God chose for us. Get up off the ground!” Wherein Fr. Z rants.

Posted on 12 September 2019 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Time for A Rant.

I know that many of you readers are upset by what is going on in the Church.  May I repeat some advice?

Remember that Popes come and go.  There are good Popes and bad Popes, important Popes and forgettable Popes.  Men pick them, not the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit’s role in their election is to make sure that the Pope isn’t a disaster for the Church.

The RUACH hasn’t stopped either in the Church or in your soul.

No one promised us at baptism that life in the Church was going to be easy.  This world has its fell Prince, who hates us and the Church and who works relentlessly against her, from without and from within by his agents.

It should not be a surprise to any Catholic that there is chaos in the Church from time to time.  It stands to reason that things will get rocky.  This is a WAR, after all!   War is messy.

You are a member of the Church Militant, and, therefore, you … YOU… are NOT exempt from “military service” in the Church.  You have your own role to play in this spiritual war.  You fulfill your duty according to Religion by offering worship to God and by living your vocation properly.

Our great Captain, Christ, provided for us pilgrim soldiers in this dire war.  He gave us sacraments.  You, dear troops of Christ, have been baptized into His Corps (Body).   He gave you other sacraments to help you as well.  Consider your CONFIRMATION.

Confirmation strengthens us to make the hard call and then stand firm when we are challenged in our Christian living.  We can call upon the power of this sacrament, which has imparted an indelible character, like the potter’s mark of ownership, into our souls.  Confirmation is an ongoing reality in our lives just as the Pentecost event is an ongoing reality in the Church.

In these troubled and troubling times, make a conscious choice to call upon that mighty sacrament you received.  Activate it. The sacrament will be mighty in you when you are in the state of grace.  Therefore,…

GO TO CONFESSION!

While there is life there is hope.

Every single bizarro thing that happens is an opportunity to be tested and to love God in your vocation.  Get up!  Something really rotten happens?  Oorah!  “Blessed be the Name of the Lord!”

With every crazy occurrence, you have a new chance to be better informed about the faith, more faithful in your life, more trusting in God’s providence.  Every single loony-tune story and antic from the top down must not bring you down or even go to waste.

Think about each seeming set back as a personal challenge to become stronger, more dedicated, more motivated to work on your principle faults and pursue the good, the true and the beautiful.  Engage each and every negative with greater resolve.  Let every burden be a grace-filled way to strengthen your knees and hands and backbone.

The RUACH hasn’t stopped either in the Church or in your soul.

Bring it on, bad guys. They want some “lío”? We’ve got some “lío”.

You are amazing, strong warriors in this vale of tears and nothing and nobody can beat you down.  You have dependable resources and tools.  You have thousands of fellow Catholics praying with and for you. You have the sacraments.

Think of what that means!  You have the sacraments.  And you know how to use them!

You’ve been gifted with awesome spiritual armor and gifts.  Clean them up.  Put them on.  Forward!

If you feel like the antics of prelates and popes have knocked the wind out of you, bashed you down daily, get up off the ground.  Suck it up, buttercup. This is serious stuff we are dealing with.  This is the time God chose for us.  These times, not some other time, some other ecclesial fantasy land.  Therefore, if we are faithful and persevere, God will give us every actual grace we need.

Stand up, stick your chin out and move with purpose.

Start with this:

“Almighty God my heavenly Father, You knew me before the creation of the cosmos and You wanted me to come into existence to bring You glory.  Of all the possible universes You could have created, You created this one and You called me into it at exactly the time and place You chose for me so that I could fulfill my part in Your unfathomable plan.  You willed that I have the honor to be baptized into the Church You designed and You maintain for our well-being.  You willed that I receive the Body and Blood of Your Son and the indwelling of Your Spirit.   You willed that I should also be confirmed so that our relationship be even deeper and that I might be an even better instrument of Your will.  I now call upon that mighty Sacrament of Confirmation.  Through it make me strong to bear whatever burdens I must endure in Your service.  Make me wise to recognize accurately and then strong to resist, resolute, whatever is out of harmony with Your will as manifested especially in the beautiful Tradition You have guided in the authoritative, infallible and indefectible Church. Even if that disharmony should come from those whom you have endowed with the grace of Orders and seated even in the highest places of teaching, governing and sanctifying, make me steadfast.  With confidence in Your plan for me I ask this for myself and for the brethren through the Holy Spirit’s Gifts and in the Name of Jesus Christ Your Son, who lives and reigns with You, ever one God, world without end.  Amen.”

 

Posted in ¡Hagan lío!, Be The Maquis, GO TO CONFESSION, Hard-Identity Catholicism, Si vis pacem para bellum!, The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices, Wherein Fr. Z Rants | Tagged , ,
16 Comments