1. 2nd Sunday of Advent. First lessons on Catholicism.
We are Cycle A of the Liturgical Year. The Liturgical Year begins with Advent and ends with the feast of Christ the King. During the Liturgical Year, Holy Mother the Church teaches us the complete teachings of Jesus Christ as proposed by the Magisterium.
One liturgical year is often enough to teach us the truths of the Catholic Church. But the three liturgical years, A, B and C will give us a better knowledge of Catholic truths because it will cover the four Gospels.
In the 1st Sunday of Advent we begin our lesson. The lesson connects with the previous Sunday, the Feast of Christ the King. It reminds us that death or the Second Coming of Christ will arrive as in the day of Noah. The world will still be eating, drinking, and marrying without realizing that the water was rising and that the door of the Ark of Noah had been shut by God, Himself. Nobody else could enter. Death comes unexpectedly. So what? Well, are you prepared for the Divine Judgment that will follow?
2. Preparations for a course in Catholic spirituality.
The Gospel of the 2nd Sunday tells us where is the classroom, who our teacher should be and what will be the subject matter that will be taught.
The classroom is in the desert. John the Baptist taught only in the desert. People from all over went to the desert to learn from John the Baptist. He never taught in the cities or provinces. The Gospel is emphasizing the fact that what is going to be taught is supernatural truths. These truths are complicated and deep truths and cannot be learned with other forms of knowledge. You cannot learn these truths side by side with a liberal education and other sciences. Divine truths must be studied alone so it can be learned only in the desert where there are no distractions.
Later on, it became convenient to learn these truths in monasteries; it is for this reason that monasteries were found in way out forest, hills and deserts, to be away from all worldly distractions.
Today seminaries and schools of theology are in the cities so students cannot learn Divine Truths because they are distracted with countless worldly thoughts that lead to heresies.
The teachers should have the characteristics of St. John the Baptist. What are these? John was clothed in a garment of camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist. Grasshopers and wild honey were his food. St. Thomas of Aquinas wrote that camel’s hair is a sign of an austere life. The leather belt is the sign that one’s senses and passions are disciplined and under control. Grasshopers and wild honey shows his simple food being mostly naturally prepared.
And what is the subject of his preaching? Two lessons on Repentance; first, the repentance taught by St. John the Baptist and the repentance taught by Christ.
John’s repentance is referred to as the Old Testament repentance and Christ’s is called the New Testament repentance. John’s repentance does not forgive sins. Christ’s repentance is what forgives sins. John repentance is a preparation for Christ’s repentance. Christ’s repentance is impossible without the preparation of John’s repentance. John’s repentance is referred to in Scriptures as ‘to repent.’ Christ’s repentance is referred to as ‘to do penance.’ The words used are so similar so that almost everybody gets confused with the two phrases. Or worse, most do not know the meaning of both phrases.
3. St. John the Baptist’s repentance.
John’s repentance is a purely intellectual or mental activity. It consist in knowing what is right and wrong; and for a person to know the wrongs he has done and why it is wrong. Knowledge of the sinful act and the motive for the sinful act is necessary here.
It, also, consist in knowing the good one must do but which was not done and the motive for the neglect. This judgment must not be done on one’s own just as Martin Luther did; this judgment must be based on the commandments of God as found in the Old Testament.
Note that to make this judgment, it is necessary to master what is good and evil as taught in the Old Testament, and to have a good self knowledge of one’s actions. This is not an easy task; so much so we need a desert as a classroom to do so and a very good teacher, like John, to be able to make a good judgment.
The above is ‘to repent’ and it is a preparation for Christ’s ‘to do penance.’
4. Christ’s repentance.
‘To do penance’ is often referred to in Scriptures as the fruit of repentance. John’s repentance is the flower; Christ’s repentance is the fruit. We cannot have the fruit unless we first have the flower.
This repentance are ‘mature human acts,’ and not mere acts of the mind. Three acts are enumerated by St. Thomas. First, based on the knowledge of God and the fear of God, the repentance soul punishes himself for the wrongs he has done. Forms of punishments are described in Scriptures; he should not invent his own.
Secondly, the repentant soul should flee from both the sin and the occasions of sins. This is, also, a mature human act.
Thirdly, the repentant soul must be eager to do good works. These good works are described in Scriptures and in Tradition. Do not invent your own good works.
It is only when these ‘fruits of repentance’ are all evident in the soul that Christ grants the soul the gift of supernatural Faith that forgives all past sins. “Give some evidence that you mean to reform. Every tree that has no fruits will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” Those who do not produce the fruits of repentance (the repentance of Christ) will be thrown into the fire.
5. Impediments.
Boasting is a sign of pride that prevents a soul from repenting. Christ rebuked the Pharisees who were boasting; ‘we are the children of Abraham.’ That is like someone saying, ‘Hey, I am a Catholic with a baptismal certificate. I am a cardinal. I am a bishop. I am the Pope, etc… Christ says; that does not mean anything to Me. ‘You brood of vipers.’ ‘Give evidence that you are a Catholic by showing your fruits of repentance.’
The Ark of Noah is finished. People are eating, dancing and marrying. The door might still be open and God could be using His winnowing fan separating the chaff from the grain because soon God, Himself, will close the door of the Catholic Church. Where would we be? Inside the Ark or outside? Well, if we have the fruits of repentance we would be inside.
6. Today……
Are we repenting with the repentance of John the Baptist? How about the repentance of Jesus Christ? As we have noticed during the Bishop’s Synod of 2012, the time of Pope Benedict, though the bishops were told to discuss the topic of repentance because that is the very foundation of the ‘new evangelization’ the bishops were not able to do so. And since then, they have never discussed the topic at all. Pope Francis, in his more than two years Pontificate have never discussed nor defined this topic. In fact, Pope Francis and most of the Cardinals and bishops have acted against the very concept of repentance of John the Baptist.
They have not made the sound judgment on what is right or wrong. Allowing separated couples to remarry and even receive Holy Communion is wrong according to the Old Testament. Most Bishops Conference have already agreed to ‘Amoris Laetitia’ allowing divorce and remarriage of divorcees. This shows that they have not even observed the Old Testament repentance of St. John the Baptist. It means they are not prepared to receive the repentance of Christ in the New Testament. It means all their past sins have not been forgiven. It means they are not Catholics at all. It means they are chaff which will be thrown into everlasting fire.
Proofs they do not have the fruits of repentance that is necessary for salvation. They have not done the repentance of Christ. They have not condemned themselves in their sin of scandal. They have not fled from their state of sin and have continued to pursue promoting the sins they are proposing. They have not done the good work of correcting each other.
It was hoped that the new Jesuit General would corteously correct Pope Francis. But an article written by some who knew him says the new general is even worse than Pope Francis. Poor Pope
Francis. Who will be so Charitable as to correct him. ‘This age will experience the waxing cold of Charity.’
The theological virtue of Charity is gone from the Catholic Church. There is only public relations to entertain all kinds of guests in the state of sin. But the good guys are treated as garbage (no need to repeat the cases). Repentance both of John the Baptist and of Christ are nowhere to be found in the Catholic Church. Unless I am looking for it in the wrong places? Didn’t Christ say; destroy this temple and I will build it up in three days. Pope Francis had probably destroyed the Mystical Body of Christ with his erroneous doctrines (enumerated by so many writers.) And Christ must have rebuilt it somewhere else. Only those who have completely repented would know where it is because they would be part of that Church.
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