1. Growth towards Faith.
John the Baptist was preaching ‘repentance’. That was a preparation for ‘the act of repentance,’ preached by Christ. The latter was complex; while John’s repentance was more a pure act of the intellect, Christ’s repentance was a complete mature human act involving both the intellect and the free will.
The act of Catholic Faith includes both the repentance of John and the act of repentance of Jesus. Supernatural Faith is a gift from God after a soul has accomplished the two repentances. The forgiveness of sin is accomplished by the grace of supernatural Faith, not by repentance.
Most confessors do not know this; that is why most of their absolutions are invalid and the forgiveness of sin does not take place. The forgiveness of sins is accomplished by obedience to the commands of Christ who preached, ‘Repent and believe.’ So first, the two repentances. And having accomplished these the grace of Faith for the forgiveness of sins is given by God.
2. The 3rd Sunday of Advent speaks about belief in John and is followed by Faith in Christ.
John knew that his disciples loved him and were having a crisis when John told them to go to Christ. In fact, at the beginning some of John’s disciples were slandering Christ. John saw the problem. He knew that to be saved his disciples must leave him and go to Christ.
John, also knew, his time was up. He was in prison and he knew what was coming; a birthday party and his decapitation. His disciples must be directed to Faith in Christ. So John sends his disciples to Christ to see the signs that will make them believe in Christ. The disciples of John saw the signs that Christ was the Messiah and believed in Him because John had prepared them well. The little problem was just emotional; the separation from the prophet they loved.
What signs did the disciple of John hear and see? Those who were ignorant of supernatural truths begun to understand those truths. They were able to do the impossible commands of Christ. Those who had serious sins were freed from their sins. Those who were spiritually dead were brought back to life. And those who could not understand simple truths begun to understand Divine Truths. This is the image of a soul who enters the Catholic Church and gradually learns all the teachings of Christ as proposed by the Church.
3. But this Advent is a preparation for Christ the King.
Advent is a preparation for Christmas before Christ was born. But Christ had been born. So Advent as celebrated in the Liturgy is now a preparation for the Second Coming of Christ or the Feast of Christ the King.
After the Gospel described how a soul within the Catholic Church progresses in the spiritual life, it adds an out of place statement; ‘blessed is the man who finds no stumbling block in Me.’ What was that for? Well, it gives the steps necessary for the salvation of one’s soul and then gives one last sign that the end is near, therefore, we must rejoice. Our efforts in obeying all the commands of Christ will now be rewarded, therefore, rejoice, ‘Gaudete.’ So we wear rose in the Liturgy a combination of purple, the continuous need for the life of repentance, and white, the happy expectation for salvation.
This last enigmatic sign can only be understood by those who have finished all the necessary steps for salvation. It cannot be understood by others so Christ said that others will not know the time and the day of His second coming. He did not say that those who will finish all the necessary steps of salvation will know when the end is coming, because they will know, though not the exact time and day. But they will know if it is by the door.
4. What is this ‘stumbling block?’
A stumbling block is a block of stone. If someone is walking and does not see the stone, he can stumble by it. Or he may see the stone but find it to be blocking his way.
Man has only one reaction to a stumbling block, he takes it and throws it away. Everybody takes away a stumbling block.
In the Gospel, Christ is saying that when people learn all the commands of Christ or even just a few of them, they will find that certain commands are blocks preventing them from doing their selfish desires. In fact, the commands of Christ prevents man from doing all his selfish desires. Since most of our desires are selfish those stumbling blocks can be very annoying as all blocks are annoying. When man learns the commands of Christ he, also, learns what are the commands of Christ that are stumbling blocks to his desires.
He will refuse to see that those commands of Christ are stumbling blocks to prevent him from stumbling straight to hell. They were meant to prevent man from going to hell. They are road signs saying ‘danger, do not enter.’ If they remove those stumbling blocks and proceed, they will go straight to hell.
5. Pope, Cardinals and bishops.
The Pope, cardinals, bishops and priests are supposed to be the ones to teach souls how to go to heaven; and that is through obedience to the commands of Christ. But unbelieving Catholics who should see that the commands of Christ are meant to bring them speedily to heaven will find these same commands as stumbling blocks in fulfilling their personal selfish desires. The adulterous man will find the doctrine of fidelity a stumbling block to his adulterous desires. So what do they do? They throw away the stumbling block; they throw away fidelity and embrace adultery.
The problem is that it is not the laymen who throw away the stumbling block. It is the Pope, cardinals, bishops and priests who encourage the laymen to throw away these commands as if they are stumbling blocks. Yes, the commands of Christ are stumbling blocks to the adulterers, to the sodomites, to the Protestants, to the Evangelicals, to the atheist, to the Lutherans, to the Soros club…….in fact, as Clinton said, the Catholic Religion is a stumbling block to the hedonistic goals of the entire world. And that this religion should be annihilated.
The Gospel did not refer to those businessmen and politicians. It refers to the Pope, cardinals, bishops and priests who will find the very person of Christ and His commands as stumbling blocks to man’s quest in making this world their heaven. It is like pointing to the Cross and saying; ‘there is the great stumbling block. Throw it away. What a failure.’
6. The Gospel preached throughout the world.
When the Gospels can be read throughout the world, as it can be learned today by all men through the computer, then the Gospel says; men will find that most of Christ commands are stumbling blocks to their quest for selfish and sinful pleasures. So they will throw away these blocks. And the throwing away will be done by the Pope, many of the cardinals, most of the bishops and many priest. And the laity will rejoice in seeing a level playing field where they sin freely; without seeing that it leads straight to hell.
When most of the hierarchy find the teachings of Christ as stumbling blocks to men’s hedonistic and sinful desires, like today…… then REJOICE, ‘Gaudete.’ Your ecclesiastical confusions will soon be over.
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