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…is to wish and pray for God’s mercy on themselves while at the same time wishing and praying for God’s justice on others.
Because if you are doing that it means you are forgetting this key line from the Our Father/The Lord’s Prayer.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
I suspect that no line in general prayer is more consistently ignored by those pray it than this is.
Fr Lou: Hmm. Sadly, movies and TV have filled our heads with images that are largely metaphorical. Not meant to be taken literally. I’m not here to hurt you, Edward. I’m here to help you. To put you at your ease. Make sure you’re comfortable. Personally, I’ve never met a demon. I’ve never been part of an exorcism, nor do I expect to be. Many of the things that bother us are just our own fears and disordered thoughts.
Nefarious (though James): [Suddenly calm] So… You… You don’t consider demonic possession to be a possibility?
Fr Lou: Our understanding has evolved beyond that.
Nefarious: Huh. Well, I appreciate you telling me that. I feel… I feel much better. And, Lou, I was wrong about you. I should’ve had you come and visit sooner.
Fr. Lou: I am glad that we’re all getting along. Would you like me to stay?
Nefarious: No, we’re done.
Nefarious 2023
One of the most basic teachings of the church is that the mass is the mass and the sacraments are the sacraments even if the priest who preforms the mass or delivers the sacraments is a lukewarm, priest or a bad priest or even an unbelieving priest. Thus the mass obligation doesn’t disappear if the priest you have isn’t up to snuff, one just has to be careful to know their catechism so as to accept the sacraments and any should teaching while reject anything contrary to church teaching that might be thrown in.
But sometimes the problem isn’t so much what is preached being contrary but what is not taught at all and the next two weeks are a good measuring stick along those lines:
Today’s Gospel for example is the parable of the sower and the weeds:
Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying:
“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest;
Matt 13:24-30
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”
Now that passage above will be read in every catholic parish in the nation, but the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has, for some reason, made the rest of the full Gospel scheduled for this week “optional”:
He proposed another parable to them.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'”
He spoke to them another parable.
“The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened.”All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation
of the world.Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He said in reply,
“He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
Matt 13:31-43
What jumps out at you right away in the part of the Gospel that is “optional” is Jesus explicably talking about those who “cause others to sin and evil doers” being thrown into the fiery furnace, in short, Hell.
So the USCCB is giving parishes the option to duck away from a core teaching of the church. Why? Perhaps because it might be off putting to those who sin or cause others to sin (think of all those pro-abort Catholics out there) who might otherwise think twice and want to give pastors the option to skip it.
“But DaTechGuy” you might say, “It’s the middle of summer and it’s a long gospel. If it’s a hot day perhaps a shorter Gospel might be better in a church without AC.” Well one might give that innocent interpretation to such options , that is if next weeks’ Gospel didn’t do the same thing with the following passage from Matthew’s Gospel mandatory on the joys of the kingdom of heaven:
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
Matt 13:44-46
searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”
And this part about eternal punishment “optional”:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away. Thus it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. “Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes.” And he replied,
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.”
Matt 13:47-52
Those extra five verses doesn’t make it a very long Gospel, but they again explicitly talk about damnation of the wicked and the USCCB has again made them “optional” in this post Vatican II world.
I’m sure there are many Fr. Lou’s out there who aren’t comfortable reading that Gospel or teaching about it because it challenges the congregation to see themselves in the light of truth and that just won’t do. I guarantee you that those are the parishes that have short or non-existent lines for confession every week because nobody there ever sins and has to worry about hell.
My advice is this: if you find yourself in such a parish, find another if you’re able. If you’re not then go to Mass and take the sacraments where you are but make it a point to read all the bracketed text and find a good solid outlet either online or on radio or TV with solid Catholic teaching to feed your soul.
Whoever has ears let them hear.
Today I noticed this tweet from Church Militant:
The fact is while the motives for those pushing this might not be all that pure I find this issue interesting because unlike Gay Marriage or communion for the divorced this isn’t an issue that involves making mortal sin licit.
Many people forget that the imposition of celibacy on the priesthood was itself a reform to stop inherited parishes being passed down to sons as a family business rather than being about the worship of God, so if this reform was rolled back while it would be a big change from what we’re used to it would not be an assault on the doctrine of the church.
But there is a difference between this change being “licit” and it being wise. Let me give you a few reasons why this would be a rather foolish idea.
And of course none of this will solve the problem of predatory priests when you consider that four out of five cases involve homosexual behavior, in fact you might end up with the horrible situation where a priest uses a wife as a “beard” to cover such behavior. And these are just the problems that I’ve come up with today.
The death of the maker of the Titanic Sub and those who traveled with them is not unremarkable as those with wealth have been taking large risks for centuries but when I heard that in interviews he had stated he rejected hiring experienced submariners because he didn’t want a bunch of 50 year old white guys all I could think of was General John Sedgwick saying about rebel snipers with new rifles with telescopic sights: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” just before being shot by one.
The primary difference being that Sedgwick lived long enough after he was hit to appreciate the irony of his word, reports now coming out state there was an implosion and all those aboard died instantly.
RIP
The more I see of what is happening on the national level the more I’m amazed at the country doing its level best to go along with national suicide.
Of course historically this is consistent with republics, but what a difference between reading about such things and living it.
Mind you in a generation with the left spaying their own kids that managed to survive the womb it might be moot as the future still belongs to those who show up.
There’s that Tom Hagen math again.
Yet another futile terrorist attack has taken place in Israel.
As always Israel will survive it and do their level best to go after those who helped out but in the end none of these things are going to bring down the state, nor frankly will Iran’s nuclear dreams as Israel, particularly with Biden in the White House is not going to allow itself to be destroyed to sate those who own him.
For Nearly 80 years the Arabs have dreamt of the destruction of Israel. As a supporter of Israel, I ironically see the obvious way for them to achieve those ends and have done so for a long while but it has never has and likely never will occur to them.
How you ask? That’s a secret I’ll take to my grave.
Attended my Godfather/Uncle’s wake yesterday taking a day off work for the final relative of the generation ahead of me to die. I was sitting praying my rosary as people reached the receiving line and I heard an interesting exchange as a couple greeted My uncle’s son who lead it. They had not seen them for years and marveled at their son and daughter now near 30 and asked:
“Any Grandchildren?”
“No they’re not married.” answered my cousin’s wife.
The friends noted that these days that’s not necessary and while my devout Catholic Uncle’s dead body naturally did not flinch at the exchange in my mind’s eye his soul was fist pumping that his son and daughter in law had brought up their children right.
Finally today I’ll be having lunch with some friends from work who no longer see since I’ve been transferred to another building down the road. It’s important to keep up in person contacts like this in a digital world when possible but I must confess it’s very weird in the sense that of the friends I make the vast majority are young enough to be my children and some young enough to be my grandchildren.
Sometimes this is very hard because I’m very aware of my faults and failings and grateful for the sacrament of confession to be absolved of them but when I’m with these young folks it’s incumbent on me to carry myself in such a was as to set an example rather than in the relaxed way friends can be.
That’s a sentence that is rejected by those who spent a lifetime treating their kids as friends and doing all they can to pretend they will now grow old and die, but I suspect if they worried more about setting a good example our society and republic might not be dying before our eyes.
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