Surgery
The manner in which the Holy Eucharist, i.e, the Mass, is celebrated speaks to the state of men's souls, the souls of men who by their care or lack thereof manifest their true intentions toward the Mass.
The Mass is a mirror of our intentions, the canon (κανών) by which we measure all that we do. When the Mass is subject to carelessness, parody or another form of disrespect, one need only look to/at those who inflict abuse or permit the Eucharist to be so brutalized. If priests and bishops can subject Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, daily to the preaching of heterodoxy and by occupying the centre of attention in the Mass properly belonging to God, surely those same clergymen will see little harm in manipulating young boys and seminarians, to exploit them to whatever twisted end their insatiable lust for pleasure (and power) demands.
Without requiring respect for the Eucharist by all who celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, any attempt to reform the priesthood, and to do away with coverups and the like by bishops, will fall short of what is necessary to protect the flock from wolves.
If not accompanied by a thorough and ongoing spiritual catechesis regarding the true nature of the Sacred Liturgy, vocations will dry up and abuse will increase.
Those parishes and dioceses are blessed that honour God by keeping His commandments and by the worthy celebration of the sacraments. The blessings which God bestows upon faithful Catholics are clearly signs of God's approval. Where God is truly worshipped and adored, God raises up men and women in service to the Church. Vocations flourish.
It is no mere coincidence that the scandalous treatment of innocent children and the attacks on seminarians have occurred to a horrific degree in an age when attitudes toward the Sacred Liturgy in any of its forms, in times both immediately preceding and following the Second Vatican Council, reflect man's elevation of himself over and above the Lord of Hosts.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.—Romans 1:24-25
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonouring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.—Romans 1:24-25
The cancer of sexual abuse and perversion must be excised from the Church. Ponder that for a moment: surgically removed, not in a manner bluntly nor which indiscriminately pulverizes the innocent along with the guilty.
- Surgery: incarceration of clergy who commit and/or enable criminal acts.
- Chemotherapy: defrock clergy who commit and/or enable criminal acts and who persist in (or permit on their watch) immoral behaviour.
- Radiation: intense discernment must be enacted in seminaries: to free innocent young men to pursue a vocation without fear of abuse; to deprive men twisted by perversion the opportunity to use the Church as a forum in which they subject innocent boys and young men to abuse.
- Targeted therapies: shut down seminaries that fail to preserve the Catholic Faith and which fail to insist that candidates for the priesthood must be above reproach.
- Recovery: catechesis and vigilance.
As man has allowed his attention to drift away from the Four Last Things—death, judgement, heaven or hell—which are constantly examined and hymned in the Extraordinary Form of the Mass and Divine Worship, the Mass of the Personal Ordinariate established by Pope Benedict XVI's Anglicanorum Coetibus, man has become enamoured of himself and confirmed in his need to be front and centre. At such a centre, Jesus, ever meek and humble to become present, transforming the bread and wine that become His very Body and Blood, is abandoned, as He often is, when priest and people engage in an orgy of glad-handing routinely seen for example at the Sign of Peace during the Ordinary Form of the Mass.
The manner in which the Ordinary Form (OF) of the Mass is celebrated week to week, Sunday to Sunday, because it is the most common form of the Mass celebrated, is the most potent negative influence among Catholics. Bishops have permitted the OF Mass to become a plaything of priests and liturgists. Thus, without the Mass reverently celebrated as a reference to which Catholics can measure their witness to and embrace of the Faith, it should hardly come as a surprise that people wander off into strange, dangerous and, as we are now seeing, again, criminal behaviour.
Liturgical catechesis that promotes the true, the good and the beautiful, is essential to ecclesial coherence, vitality and increase (for the sake of the salvation of souls).
- - -
Words to the wise from Tom Nash at The Catholic Thing:
In responding to the real scandals in the Church, we must strive to avoid contributing to new ones by how we speak and act. (CCC 2284-87) We ourselves can become occasions of sin to non-Catholics and Catholics, including those not well formed in the Faith, who may – in part because of our misguided witness – stop practicing their faith or seek to serve God outside the visible boundaries of the Church. Righteous anger is legitimate, as St. Paul says, but we must avoid sin in expressing that anger, lest the devil magnify the scope and impact of sin, as he is wont to do. (Eph. 4:26-27)
- - -
What are the Four Last Things?
by Dr. Peter Kreeft
The Church’s teaching about life after death is summarized in the Four Last Things — death, judgment, heaven, and hell. However, even humanity outside the Church instinctively knows something about these four things.
Life’s one certainty is death. Everyone knows this, though not everyone knows what comes next. Nearly all religions, cultures and individuals in history have believed in some form of life after death. Man’s innate sense of justice tells him that there must be an ultimate reckoning, that in the final analysis no one can cheat the moral law and get away with it or suffer undeserved injustices throughout life and not be justly compensated. Since this ultimate justice does not seem to be accomplished in this life, there must be “the rest of the story.”
This instinctive conviction that there must be a higher, more-than-human justice is nearly universal. Thus the second of the Four Last Things, judgment, is also widely known. As Scripture says, “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb 11:6). The final judgment is an encounter with Christ.
Most men also know that justice distinguishes the good from the evil and, therefore, that after death there must be separate destinies for us — rewards for good and punishments for evil. Thus mankind also usually believes in some form of heaven and hell.
There are only two eternal destinies: heaven or hell, union or disunion with God. Each one of us will be either with God or without him forever. If hell is not real, the Church and the Bible are also liars. Our basis for believing in the reality of hell is exactly the same authority as our basis for believing in the reality of heaven: Christ, his Church, and her scriptures.
If hell is not real, then Jesus Christ is either a fool or a liar for he warned us repeatedly and with utmost seriousness about it. There is no reincarnation, no “second chance” after time is over. There is no annihilation, no end of the soul’s existence. There is no change of species from human being to angel or to anything else.
The particular judgment occurs immediately after each individual’s death. The general judgment takes place at the end of all time and history.
So the scenario of final events is:
Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ. The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith.
Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven — through a purification or immediately — or immediate and everlasting damnation. At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.
Catechism of the Catholic Church #1021-1022
The manner in which the Ordinary Form (OF) of the Mass is celebrated week to week, Sunday to Sunday, because it is the most common form of the Mass celebrated, is the most potent negative influence among Catholics. Bishops have permitted the OF Mass to become a plaything of priests and liturgists. Thus, without the Mass reverently celebrated as a reference to which Catholics can measure their witness to and embrace of the Faith, it should hardly come as a surprise that people wander off into strange, dangerous and, as we are now seeing, again, criminal behaviour.
Liturgical catechesis that promotes the true, the good and the beautiful, is essential to ecclesial coherence, vitality and increase (for the sake of the salvation of souls).
- - -
Words to the wise from Tom Nash at The Catholic Thing:
In responding to the real scandals in the Church, we must strive to avoid contributing to new ones by how we speak and act. (CCC 2284-87) We ourselves can become occasions of sin to non-Catholics and Catholics, including those not well formed in the Faith, who may – in part because of our misguided witness – stop practicing their faith or seek to serve God outside the visible boundaries of the Church. Righteous anger is legitimate, as St. Paul says, but we must avoid sin in expressing that anger, lest the devil magnify the scope and impact of sin, as he is wont to do. (Eph. 4:26-27)
- - -
What are the Four Last Things?
by Dr. Peter Kreeft
The Church’s teaching about life after death is summarized in the Four Last Things — death, judgment, heaven, and hell. However, even humanity outside the Church instinctively knows something about these four things.
Life’s one certainty is death. Everyone knows this, though not everyone knows what comes next. Nearly all religions, cultures and individuals in history have believed in some form of life after death. Man’s innate sense of justice tells him that there must be an ultimate reckoning, that in the final analysis no one can cheat the moral law and get away with it or suffer undeserved injustices throughout life and not be justly compensated. Since this ultimate justice does not seem to be accomplished in this life, there must be “the rest of the story.”
This instinctive conviction that there must be a higher, more-than-human justice is nearly universal. Thus the second of the Four Last Things, judgment, is also widely known. As Scripture says, “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb 11:6). The final judgment is an encounter with Christ.
Most men also know that justice distinguishes the good from the evil and, therefore, that after death there must be separate destinies for us — rewards for good and punishments for evil. Thus mankind also usually believes in some form of heaven and hell.
There are only two eternal destinies: heaven or hell, union or disunion with God. Each one of us will be either with God or without him forever. If hell is not real, the Church and the Bible are also liars. Our basis for believing in the reality of hell is exactly the same authority as our basis for believing in the reality of heaven: Christ, his Church, and her scriptures.
If hell is not real, then Jesus Christ is either a fool or a liar for he warned us repeatedly and with utmost seriousness about it. There is no reincarnation, no “second chance” after time is over. There is no annihilation, no end of the soul’s existence. There is no change of species from human being to angel or to anything else.
The particular judgment occurs immediately after each individual’s death. The general judgment takes place at the end of all time and history.
So the scenario of final events is:
- first, death;
- then, immediately, the particular judgment;
- then, either hell,
- or purgatory as preparation for heaven, or heaven; and, at the end of time, the general judgment; and the “new heavens and new earth” for those who are saved.
Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ. The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith.
Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven — through a purification or immediately — or immediate and everlasting damnation. At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.
Catechism of the Catholic Church #1021-1022
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