Posts Tagged ‘catholic’

A Great Turning Point in the Chosen (Spoiler Alert)

Posted: December 26, 2022 by datechguy in catholic
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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.

  1. It is an all Jesus episode without any of the disciples.
  2. It introduces Lazarus along with his sisters Martha and Mary.
  3. It has a flashback with a young Jesus and Joseph

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.

The Three Dangers of the Frank Pavone Case Danger #3 The Idolatry of the Masses

Posted: December 24, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine
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Click here for Danger 1: The errors of the Church

Click here for Danger 2: The Sin of Pride

I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree in what you say, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose. For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you.

I mean that each of you is saying, “I belong to  Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Kephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

St. Paul’s 1st Letter to the Corinthians 1:10-13

If there is one thing that you will note if you read the old Testament is that the children of Israel are constantly falling back into a state of idolatry from household Gods to Solomon giving sacrifices to his wife’s Gods to the various high places. No matter how much God asserts himself in doing things for them and saving them when they cry out, Israel again falls back into idolitry.

This is of course not purely a religious state of man but something that crosses all of those lines. All one has to do is look at our culture of sports and celerity and you can see that we constantly erect idols to worship and follow. Just take a look at the Taylor Swift ticket insanity if you don’t believe me.

And of course we see this in various megachurches from our protestant brothers whereby a “bishop” will make an idol of themselves and obtain wealth power and influence.

The real danger of all of these things is that the idol becomes more important that the God to be worshiped. This is in fact one of the great advantages of the Catholic system and hierarchy as it provides a check not just to personalities within the church getting too big for their britches but for any cause to supersede the cause of Christ and salvation which should be the primary goal of any and all in the Church. Lewis warned of this in the Screwtape letters:

Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything—even to social justice. The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience.

CS Lewis The Screwtape Letters #XXIII

I have already heard reports of outraged people saying they are going to other denominations due to this case and as I’ve already noted Frank Pavone has, to his credit already urged people not to go down that road.

Even so there are some who might be holding off again due to idolatry, again following the idol to those folks I’d like to remind them of what I wrote at the very start:

there are priests who have some background because when he was still Fr. Frank Pavone they were aware of the history between himself and the Bishops over him. His willingness to defy edicts from Bishops would not tend to grab sympathy from people who like him have taken a vow of obedience to such authority nor might the final result be a surprise to them.

And if there is one priest who knows the background of all of this it’s Fr. Stephen Imbarado the protest Priest. A tireless foe of Abortion who led the Eucharistic Procession here in Fitchburg before the Planned Parenthood in Fitchburg that our local and state press completely ignored but less that two years later, they were gone. (My videos of those events are all over Rumble) He recently put out a post on facebook on the subject. I’m having trouble embedding the video but you can see it via the link below

https://www.facebook.com/FrStephenImb/videos/910187783693495/

If you are even slightly considering dodging the church and the sacraments over this I urge you to watch this video and I urge you alto to take the warning that the folks at Church Militant gave of those who will use this events both to promote schism and to obtain your email for fundraising purposes.

This event is a tool that the enemy will try to use against your soul and let me remind you the enemy that I’m referring to is not the curia in Rome or the left or even Planned Parenthood, it is the only real enemy the Devil whose primary goal is to separate you from Christ and the Church for the purpose of obtaining your soul. He will use any tool toward this end and while I suspect he has a great hatred for Frank Pavone for all he’s done over the decades for the cause of life he will happily hold him up as an idol before you to saying: “See how horrible he is being treated by the church. How can you follow a church like that?”

That’s the danger and the game being played on you, don’t fall for it.

The Three Dangers of the Frank Pavone Case: Danger One The Errors of the Church

Posted: December 21, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
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Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying,

“The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses. Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example. For they preach but they do not practice…”

Matthew 23:1-3

Before I begin this series of posts let’s stipulate the following right up front:

The fight against Abortion is just and right and the efforts of Priests for Life in general and the former Father Frank Pavone in particular to oppose abortion and promote life have been to my knowledge a fine and noble undertaking in the best traditions of the Catholic Church and a service to all humanity.

That being said let’s get to the issues at hand.

There is a lot we don’t know about about the Frank Pavone case and the Vatican can take a lot of credit for this. However there are priests who have some background because when he was still Fr. Frank Pavone they were aware of the history between himself and the Bishops over him. His willingness to defy edicts from Bishops would not tend to grab sympathy from people who like him have taken a vow of obedience to such authority nor might the final result be a surprise to them.

But all of this is internal from as one might put it, “inside the club” outside the club this looks very different.

It looks like the Vatican which has over the last few years been very forgiving to those openly flaunting church teachings even to the point of advocating mortal sin while cracking down on the faithful.

As the Vatican letter states Fr. Pavone is a very public figure and creating this image, without explaining to the faithful the background behind it is not only foolish and short sighted, it plays into the hands of every group whose primary goal is to bring down the church, it increases the chance of schism and suggests a double standard for those who follow church teaching on subjects like abortion and those who do not. Given the recent history of the church under this pontiff I suspect very few daily mass Catholic will find such a double standard surprising

The folks at Church Militant put it best, even if all that is alleged by the Vatican is true and correct, and it’s very possible that it is, this was not the way to do things in a media age.

More importantly it illustrates the problem with putting off an issue that was illustrated during the gay pedophilia scandals.

Over and over the church rather than confronting the issue up front when it happened, they punted, transferred and tried to hide the issues. Stalling only made things worse until the scandals exploded much worse then it would have been it they had just been taken care of when they first came up.

If the then Father Pavone was disobeying his bishop back in his days in NY the church would have been better off cracking down at once, punting on the issue and stalling on the issue is one of the reasons why it’s a crisis for the church.

I know and concede that the Vatican by it’s very nature moves slowly and quietly and whenever possibly privately but this is just plain stupid and contrary to the spirit of Christ who when before Annas said:

The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his doctrine. Jesus answered him,

“I have spoken publicly to the world. I have always taught in a synagogue or in the temple area where all the Jews gather, and in secret I have said nothing. Why ask me? Ask those who heard me what I said to them. They know what I said.”

When he had said this, one of the temple guards standing there struck Jesus and said, “Is this the way you answer the high priest?”

Jesus answered him,

“If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?”

John 18:19-23

When you have truth on your side, the thing to do is be open. The church should understand that and act accordingly.

Of course there is the possibility that the folks at the top who made this decision DO understand it and are silent because of it. I hope and pray this is not the case. I honestly don’t know, and frankly I suspect most of the people who read this post don’t know either.

I’m going to reserve judgement on the Vatican’s Move on Fr Pavone for now…

Posted: December 18, 2022 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
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…but I’m going to note that for quite a while St. Faustina’s diary and devotions she advanced were actively suppressed by the Vatican. It was not till decades later than these restrictions were removed and Faustina was eventually canonized.

I find myself suddenly reminded of this passage from the Acts of the Apostles:

We gave you strict orders (did we not?) to stop teaching in that name. Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and want to bring this man’s blood upon us.” But Peter and the apostles said in reply, “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand 5 as leader and savior to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins. We are witnesses of these things, as is the holy Spirit that God has given to those who obey him.”

When they heard this, they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death. But a Pharisee in the Sanhedrin named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, respected by all the people, stood up, ordered the men to be put outside for a short time, and said to them,

“Fellow Israelites, be careful what you are about to do to these men. Some time ago, Theudas appeared, claiming to be someone important, and about four hundred men joined him, but he was killed, and all those who were loyal to him were disbanded and came to nothing. After him came Judas the Galilean at the time of the census. He also drew people after him, but he too perished and all who were loyal to him were scattered. So now I tell you, have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God.”

They were persuaded by him. After recalling the apostles, they had them flogged, ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, and dismissed them. So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

Acts 5:28-43

I don’t pretend to know the details or the justifications behind this decision, but I do know that under the rules of Holy Obedience Fr. Pavone would be subject to his local bishop and the Vatican and be obliged to obey any such directive even this one. If this is the work of God then there is no point in opposing or resisting it, it must be accepted with humility, and if it turns out it’s the work of man it will fall apart just as the sanctions against St. Faustina did.

I’m sure this is a tremendous blow to him but the best advice I can give is for him to trust in God. He’s knows what he’s doing even if he hasn’t let us in on that knowledge.

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