The BISHOP and the Liturgist. 15th Weekday in Ordinary time.

  1. The bishop and the Liturgist.

      A bishop had just established a new parish Chapel and visited a Liturgist.

      Bishop:  Father, can you please visit my newly reconstructed chapel and give me some suggestions on how to decorate it. 

      Liturgist: Bishop, a chapel is the visible sign of the spiritual state of the members of your diocese. The chapel will be large depending on the size of the Faith of the members of your diocese. It will be splendidly decorated as the soul of your members are filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit. 

                       If the chapel is richly decorated and large but if the spiritual state of the members of your diocese have no spirituality the rich decoration and the vastness of the chapel will both look ugly. The physical chapel, always, reflect the state of the spirituality of the diocese or the parish. Note how beautiful are the cathedrals during the golden age of Christianity. And how ugly are the highly decorated and vast church of today. As we say in the Liturgy; there is no sacrality, a description of the true Church. 

     Bishop:  what do you do to beautify the chapel?

     Liturgist;   Beautify the souls of the members of your church and this will reflect in your chapel. A church with holy souls will be reflected in the chapel spiritually, not physically. Your chapel could be a very old Spanish time, dark adobe and moss covered unpainted walls. But anyone who looks at it, if your members are holy, will find the chapel beautiful.  The spiritual beauty will be reflected in the chapel. You will not need any superficial decorations or art work. 

     Bishop:   where do you begin?

     Liturgist:  begin with the Liturgy, not with the building. A well celebrated Liturgy can transform an ugly chapel into a heavenly kingdom. Because the kingdom of God will be there for everybody to see. 

     Bishop:   but every chapel have the Liturgy. How come many of them look ugly?

     Liturgist:   because the Liturgy is not celebrated well. I do not have to recall to you the Liturgical abuses that is common in most churches. From African dances, to circus performers, to same sex marriages to women preachers. This is not Liturgy. These are shows and a very cheap kind at that. 

     Bishop; what aspects of the Liturgy are you referring to. We have nice vestments, nice chalices, nice altars and nice sound systems.

     Liturgist;  the Liturgy is directed to the spiritual faculties of the soul of the people, the intellect and the free will. They must know the doctrines Jesus taught; these are directed towards the intellect. They must know and obey the commandments Christ taught; these are directed towards the free will. As St. James the apostle wrote; disobedience to one command is disobedience to all the commands. And St. Augustine added; rejection of one doctrine is rejection of all doctrines. The Liturgy teaches all the doctrines of Christ but more so teaches all the commands of Christ, starting from the easiest to the hardest. The order must not be changed; and the correct order are seen in the Liturgy of the Mass, i.e. during the Sunday and weekly Masses, during the Gospels. 

     Bishop;  do you mean that all the doctrines and all the commands of Christ as presented during the Sunday and weekly Masses must be taught ?

     Liturgist;  yes, together with the correct interpretation of the Gospels as taken from the writings of the Father of the Church. The interpretation of the Gospel message is the 'how' which Christ commanded His first apostles to teach in the Apostolic Commission. These interpretations were made by Christ, Himself,  but it was never written down due to physical impossibility, no pens and papers. But these interpretations made by Christ and collected by the first Christian communities were, later on, written down by the first holy bishops of the Church. These are referred to as the Fathers of the Church. Each Gospel must be explained with the interpretation of the Father of the Church, which is Christ's own interpretation. 

     Bishop;  I never heard these official interpretations of the Church in the seminary. 

    Liturgist;  it was taught in general as Patristic theology but they never went into detail so most priests do not know this.

     Bishop;  Is this the main reason why the congregation do not have the Faith necessary to beautify their churches?

     Liturgist;  The reason why most so called 'catholics' never really entered the Catholic Church is because the 'how,' i.e. the correct interpretation, was never given to them by the preachers. Thus, they have no true Faith that beautifies the souls and which eventually is reflected in the beauty of the churches. No church or cathedral erected after Vatican II is 'sacral,' i.e. have a sacred atmosphere that makes them truly beautiful.  This is supposed to reflect the 'Holy' visible sign of the true Church of Christ. Not being 'Holy' the church is neither One, Catholic and apostolic. This is reflected in the physical buildings. 

     Bishop;  where do we start?

     Liturgist;  the Liturgy states that we must all begin instructing the people with the spirit of Advent, which is Old Testament. But a more skilful teacher or evangelist may start with the Liturgy of Ash Wednesday up to Pentecost. The whole world, today, have not started this first lesson found in the Liturgy; not even the so-called Catholics. The reason why most Catholics are ignorant of the first lesson is because the bishops and priests do not know this first step. They were not properly evangelised. It is the fault of the seminary schools. But the continuous negligence of each person is more to blame. Even if the seminary did not really teach this important subject, Holy Mother the Church has these treasures of Holy Readings that everybody could have availed of. 

     Bishop;  it is getting a little complicated. Can you just give me the first thing we bishops and priest should do to begin beautifying our churches. 

     Liturgist;  again, begin with the soul of the people, not the buildings and statues. Teach them how to develop the virtue of Penance as well described by St. Thomas of Aquinas. The virtue of Penance is different from the sacrament of Penance. 

                      The Sacrament of Penance is what Catholics do when they go to confession to a priest. That is alright. But what forgives sins is the virtue of Penance that should accompany the Sacrament of Penance. The Sacrament does not forgive sins. The virtue is what forgives sin. The soul must be cleansed before God can begin beautifying the soul that will be reflected in the buildings. 

     Bishop;  do you mean that all the confessions we encouraged the people to do did not forgive their past sins because we did not teach them how to acquire the virtue of Penance?

     Liturgist; all the Fathers of the Church say 'yes.' The people were taught the wrong teachings. You must begin by, first, correcting this error. Right now, with this wrong notion, they are all living in the state of sin and could go to hell if they die.

     Bishop;  this is hard saying. We cannot embarrass our priests. This will cause a lot of confusion. 

     Liturgist; it will certainly cause a lot of confusion. But they are headed towards hell with their unrepentant sins. They must change their course. And begin in the right way, again.

     Bishop;  I am afraid, we cannot do this.

     Liturgist;  yes, the institutional church could not do it since the Council of Trent. We, really , expect it to continue as can be seen by the continuous effort of church authorities to destroy the Liturgy. Because it keeps reminding mankind that the institutional Church is going towards the wrong direction. So since 1972,  its churches had been ugly. Is has no sacredness in it because its visible sign 'Holy' is not in it.  

     

SIN - The main reason for world events. 13 Weekday in Ordinary time.

  1. What are sins?

      To have a complete knowledge of Catholic Doctrines, we must listen to the Gospels of every Sunday and weekdays together with their correct interpretations given by Christ, Himself, to the first Christian communities but written down by the Fathers of the Church and further clarified by the Doctors of the Church. 

       These lesson are arranged in the proper order in the Liturgy,  from Advent up to Christ the King, but is summarised from Ash Wednesday up to Pentecost. Unable to do a day to day explanation, we put together several days lesson in one post. We are putting together the whole of last weeks Liturgy.

       For the last few weeks, the Liturgy had been differentiating the man of Faith, who are the true members of the Catholic Church, and the man without Faith, the sinner who are outside the Catholic Church.  

2. The commemorations in the Mass.

     We have noted that in every Gospel in each Mass, there are sometimes commemorations of saints. These saints are the examples that illustrates the message of the Gospel. In every homily, both the Gospel, the interpretation from the Fathers of the Church and the example of the saint commemorated must be intertwined for a full understanding of the Mass. 

      Recently, the Liturgy of the Mass described what is perfect Faith; it is Faith enlivened with Charity. This is the true definition of the Catholic Faith. St. Peter and Paul were the examples par excellence of perfect Christian Faith. While the two men from Gerasene, possessed by the devil is the example of those without Faith.

      The Liturgy of the Mass is supposed to inform the masses who have Faith and who do not have so that the Mass goers can see where they belong and act accordingly. Repent and believe, if they do not have Faith. Repent and believe further if they have Faith. 

3. The faithless are those in the state of mortal sin. 

     The Gospel described the state of the devil before the end times. The devils are not yet in hell; they are allowed by God to remain on the earth to test the children of men. Most of them are in the air, looking for sinful souls to dwell in. St. Thomas noted that devils cannot stand remaining outside of human souls. It is a torture for them. So they seek for sinful souls and their favourite are worldly souls that, like pigs, are wallowing in the mud of worldliness. 

     St. Augustine describe souls wallowing in worldliness, lost most men, as pigs. Like pigs, they cannot look up to heaven. They constantly have their eyes down on the earth. For the devils to beg Christ to be sent to pigs was a request to allow them to possess such worldly lovers of the world. Which Christ allowed. 

4. What are the effects of sin and how does the devil subsequently possess the human soul. 

    The three wounds of the soul, according to St. Bede as quoted by St. Thomas of Aquinas. 

     A. The first wound is the loss of sanctifying grace which makes the soul displeasing to God, and therefore, destined to hell. With sin, the soul completely loses its ability to rise up to the supernatural level. He cannot know God, he cannot know how to save his soul, he cannot love anybody with true love. 

           The sinful soul cannot know the Blessed Trinity. He cannot know the true religion and the true Church. He cannot know who is truly Catholic and who is not. He does not know who is the true Pope. HE cannot know the approach of General Judgment Day.  He is, truly a lost soul. He cannot know any solution to spiritual problems and have a very poor knowledge of solutions to natural problems, as part of his punishment for his sins.

            On the other hand, those with Faith know all supernatural truths. They know the Blessed Trinity, the true religion, the true Church, the true Catholics, the souls who are going to heaven, and the true Pope. 

             Christ, testing the knowledge of His apostles based on their Faith asked them the question; 'who do people say I am.' A few apostles gave the ordinary human answers of the common people; 'John the Baptist, Elijah. Or one of the prophets.' And Christ asked His believing apostles; 'and you, who do you say I am. ' Peter answered; you are Christ, the Son of the Living God. All bishops and priest learned from men. Unless taught directly through the mercy of God, all of them have no Faith. Aggravated by the fact that many have serious sins of perversion that deprives them of sanctifying grace. 

             Watch what Christ said; No man taught you that but My Father in heaven. No man; because supernatural truths cannot be taught by men. Catholic truths, being supernatural truths cannot be taught by men, either in the seminaries or theological schools, as having been happening. They cannot. Supernatural truths can only be taught by the Father in Heaven, including who is the true Pope. Only a St. Catherine of Sienna who communicates with God could say who was the true Pope among the several pretenders. Not even the cardinals, bishops and priest during her time knew who was the true Pope, because they were not in the state of sanctifying grace. Just like the bishops and priests theologians during the trial of St. Joan of Arc. 

              Those in the state of grace know all supernatural truths, including who is the true Pope. And the true Pope know who they are among the bishops, priests and laymen. 

               The state of the institutional Church with head quarters in the Vatican and of the whole world is that they are all in the natural level, if not down in the unnatural level of sin. None of them are being taught by the Father in heaven; so no one seem to know the true Catholic Church. 

          B. The wounded mind.

               Due to sin, especially original, the mind of man is wounded so that, though, ordinarily God made the mind to know the truth, the mind suddenly does not know the truth. It only knows lies, speaks lies and believes lies.  And he cannot know that a lie is a lie because it does not know any truth. The greater the sin the more ignorant is the mind to whatever is true. The world today lives on lies, especially politicians.

                St. Thomas of Aquinas, however, wrote that the mind does not completely lose its knowledge of the truth because God retains the conscience to enable sinful man to know its sins and repent. Conscience is so effective is that if the sinful man insist in not admitting his sins and repent, conscience drives him crazy as punishment.

                When man insists in his sins, the devil, finding that his soul is empty of God, dwells in the soul of the sinner. This is called spiritual possession, like that of Judas.  This is different from physical possession often seen in movies. 

                The wounded mind cannot reason logically and philosophically. So it is utterly useless to discuss anything with such. This is why 'common sense', philosophy and logic is gone, today. 

            C. The wounded free will.

                  Due to sin, the free will cannot desire any spiritual good or even physical or political good. Such ideas as 'the common good,' 'the salvation of the soul,' cannot be heard anymore. 

5. As a consequence of these three wounds, mankind is sliding straight to hell. 

    It was for this fact that Christ became man; to save mankind because nobody else can do it. It was mission impossible. Today, the situation is, also, mission impossible. No human institution can solve the present problems of the world, except God. But God, as in the day of Noah and the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, won't do it.

    God has taught mankind how to cooperate with Him in the salvation of their souls. The Liturgy repeats this 'Plan of salvation' every year from Ash Wednesday up to Pentecost. Man can cooperate in the salvation of his soul. We have just heard the lesson twice during this pandemic on how to repent.  But due to unrepentant sins, he won't. Indeed, mankind is spiritually wounded. God have given the medication. But mankind won't use it......out of pride. Mankind is going where the author of pride Lucifer  is going. 

      

We are living in an atmosphere where God is saying; Enough is enough!