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Alas Pope Benedict will have to wait for next month to be included as the calendar had already been made by the time he had died
Of course you can always add him to a day which is what those lines in the full calendar or the blank calendar are for.
So a happy new year and many more to you all.
It occurs to me, now that we are back to one Pope that by become Pope Emeritus Benedict set a pretty good example. There is some advantage to having a Pope Emeritus who basically devotes the remainder of his life to prayer for the Church and the people. The willing surrender of power and authority is an act of humility and having a holy faithful man in constant prayer for the church certainly can’t hurt.
The reins of St. John Paul II & Benedict the XVI were, in my opinion a golden age in terms of solid theology and evangelization. Nothing has made this more clear than the pontificate of Francis You never know how good you have things till they’re gone.
One of the things that Benedict will likely not get credit for in the media was his strong action concerning various church scandals. The standards that were implemented during his pontificate to prevent a repeat of the horrible abuse scandals from the past were rather solid and have made a real difference in the church.
One secular note concerning his death, he was the last living head of state or former head of state have served in the Military during World War 2 having been drafted into and served in an anti-aircraft unit for Germany. He and Elizabeth II, who served in the British military during the war mark the end of an era.
Finally you have to go back to the 7th century and before to see as many consecutive Popes be canonized as you have in the last 60 years. Every pope since John XXIII has been elevated either to Sainthood or to the stage just before Sainthood (Pope John Paul I) (Pope Pius XII St. John XXIII’s predecessor remains at the “venerable” stage likely, in my opinion for political reasons ).
Will Benedict XVI be canonized. I don’t expect Francis to waive the standard five year waiting period for a cause to be opened and I suspect that when those five years are up neither Francis nor any like minded successor will be in any hurry to push forward a cause for sainthood for Benedict. However in the end it comes down to God and if he decides that Benedict should be publicly recognized as a canonized saint it will happen if not under this pope then under a successor in the future.
In the end it doesn’t matter, all who are in heaven are by definition saints and most are not canonized. Canonization only reveals to us what has already happened, it doesn’t rush or push a soul forward out of purgatory nor can it remove a soul from hell that has already been damned. No power on earth can make the judgement of God concerning Benedict XVI any different than it is.
It’s most likely I won’t find the answer during my lifetime so i’ll end up having to find out for myself the hard way. I hope and pray when that happens I’ll be in a state where I can take joy in confirming what I already suspect. Any and all prayers for my soul while I’m still alive to do something about it or when I’m gone will be gratefully accepted.
UPDATE: It hit me about an hour after I wrote this post that Pope Benedict XVI is going to make history in another way.
He will be the first Pope in history to have his funeral presided over by the Pope
I’ve known the Popes back in Illinois known all of them, they’re all liars and braggarts but don’t know of any particular reason why a liar and a braggart shouldn’t make a good general.
Abe Lincoln on being told John Pope can’t be trusted to tell the truth.1862
I must admit I’m slightly conflicted about the George Santos business.
On the one hand I’m a great believer in people being hoisted on their own petard. Our Democrat friends have become big on utilitarianism, (remember Harry Reid’s famous “He didn’t win did he?” concerning his lies about Romney) and the whole abandonment of the standard of honesty among the left has become so great that it’s almost laughable that they’re complaining about Santos’ whoppers.
Furthermore there is the question of vetting, I think Jazz Shaw’s theory on the matter is likely on the nose here:
How did George Santos make it over the finish line before all of this information came to light? The general consensus among New York Democrats seems to be that it’s a matter of timing. You see, Santos ran for this seat in 2020 against Democrat Tom Suozzi. It was obvious that Santos was going to get his clock cleaned and he did, losing by roughly 20 points. He was basically little more than a placeholder name on the ballot for the Republicans, so nobody really bothered vetting him or looking at the race too closely. And two years later, since he had run before, a lot of people clearly assumed that he’d already been vetted. (And there were bigger, hotter races to cover in the state anyway.)
Given the Democrats failure to vet an opponent and the tactics they have repeatedly used the partisan in my sees no reason for George Santos to resign anything. If they voters in his district want him out the proper solution is a recall election and who knows maybe Lincoln observation about not knowing of any particular reason why a liar and braggart shouldn’t make a good general applies to being a member of congress too.
But then we run into the Santos the Catholic business.
Santos is in fact a Catholic and as a Catholic there is a specific thing about the whole “bearing false witness” business. To win this office by bearing false witness is going to be damaging to his soul.
Christ was rather emphatic about this being a bad idea
Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay everyone according to his conduct.
Matthew 16:24-27
Since gaining the whole world isn’t a good enough reason to forfeit eternal life how much less is a two year term in congress?
So my advice to George Santos: resign the seat and take a good look at the state of your soul.
That’s the best advice I can give, however since he has embraced the whole gay marriage, Joe Biden Nancy Pelosi “Catholics for Mortal sin” business I suspect this advice will go unheeded.
I’ll pray for him anyways. You should too.
Yesterday the third episode of the third season of the Chosen premiered in a live stream. It is a significant episode for a few reasons.
All of these things make the episode interesting but the biggest thing is that it is an adaptation of Luke Chapter 4 verses 16-30 which says:
He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom 8 into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him.
He said to them,
“Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”
And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” He said to them,
“Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,’ and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'” And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”
When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away.
Luke 4:16-30
Note that last paragraph. They were preparing to execute Jesus for his words and that’s what were were seeing in the episode. The men of the town were preparing to kill him. Even more important in the episode, one of the two men charged by the Rabbi to hurl Jesus off the brow of the hill is a character from season 1. Rafi, the father of the bride at Cana where Jesus preforms his first public miracle. Even though he knows that there is something miraclious going on with Jesus, even though Jesus saved him from incredible embarrassment at his daughter’s wedding he is still unwilling to speak up and defend him.
It’s an important reminder, it’s not all about the nice soft comfortable fuzzy things, Mary with her demons banished, Simon Peter with his debts cleared. Matthew reformed and reconciled, Simon Z with his brother healed and abandoning the way of the sword.
We are invited to follow Christ and are offered great rewards but many people skip over an important bit:
Jesus said,
“Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and (the) last will be first.”
Mark 10:29-31 Emphasis mine
We are entering an age where the persecution and the othering of Christians by society will be the normal, an age where merely praying silently can get you arrested in England. It’s good that people remember this and it’s important that the chosen remind us the cost of discipleship.
But it’s also necessary for a crowd funded project like the chosen to inspire people to kick in the money for the next season. They have paid for 3 episodes for season 4, 5 episodes costing 15 million remain. With tonight’s livestream they have moved the needle from 3% of episode 4 paid for to 5%.. It remains to be seen if the message of the costs of the faith are enough to inspire the funds to keep the ball rolling.
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