WALLS AND BRIDGES.

1. ‘Rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,’ from Psalm 50, by King David.
     These words in Psalm 50 was given to the Church by the Holy
Spirit. The psalm is one of the Penitential psalms of King David. It expresses most  the spirit and virtue of Penance that earned the king the forgiveness of God. In the Catholic Church, we pray this Psalm every morning for Lauds. Here, we clearly see the Holy Spirit commanding to ‘rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.’ 
     In the first level of interpretation, the Psalm is telling the Chosen People to physically rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. But the deeper meaning of the text is to rebuild the spiritual walls of the Catholic Church. How do you do that?

2. Sacramental meaning. 
     Many things in the Catholic Church are sacramental, i.e. they are visible signs expressing invisible realities. The ‘rebuilding of the walls’ is a visible sign that reminds us of invisible and spiritual realities. So, in the Catholic Church we visibly ‘rebuild walls’ to express ‘the building of spiritual realities.’ The spiritual realities does not minimize the importance of the visible sacramental signs, without which it is impossible to understand the spiritual realities. 

3. Importance of ‘walls.’
     If the Holy Spirit mentioned the ‘building of walls’ this must be important. In which case we must examine Pope Francis’ statement to ‘remove walls and build bridges’ instead because Francis’ statement would go contrary to what the Holy Spirit is saying. 

4. Physical walls.
     Physical walls are used to prevent the entry of crimes into one’s property. It can, also, prevent the entry of evil into one’s soul. So the physical wall can, also, represent a spiritual wall. So the visible wall if a sacrament expressing the importance of a spiritual invisible wall. 
     Pope Francis contradicting the Holy Spirit is due to his inability to rise up to the spiritual level. All his words and actions, from the beginning of his papacy up to the present are all in the natural level; and often below the natural level. He is too concerned with  public relation gimmicks that he has not uttered any spiritual doctrine. In the few attempts he did so, his statements were so confusing. So it is expected to contradict the Holy Spirit since he had been contradicting Jesus Christ, Himself, and all the previous Popes, too.

5. Walls are essential to the ascetical life of the Catholic Church.
     Walls have two purposes; first, to preserve those who are within. And second, to keep those outside outside. Walls allow those who are inside to pursue their goal of worshiping God while keeping the evils outside. 
     When God chose His own people in the Old Testament, the first thing  He did was to separate them from the rest of the world by telling them two things; first, not to associate with unbelievers. And secondly, to live in community following God’s commands. To obey this the Chosen people built walls. The walls of Jerusalem should be sufficient proof. 

      In the New Testament, when the first Christians begun establishing the Church, in continuity with the Old Testament, they lived in mountains, forests, deserts and enclosed themselves with walls. Ancient monasteries will attest to this practice, like the monastery in Mt. Sinai. Even up to the present, monasteries of Carmelites, Benedictines, Camaldolese, etc. are surrounded by tall walls. These walls are expensive and were not built for mere decorations. They were meant to keep the world outside outside; while those inside pursue the work of self sanctification. That was the purpose of the walls in the Old Testament, and that is still the purpose of walls today.
      There is a bridge between the world and the walls. Only one bridge and it is well guarded. In Sinai, there is only one entrance high up on the wall. To enter, a basket is lowered by a monk, the visitor rides the basket; is pulled up and that is his bridge into the monastery. In the parable of the Gospel, there is only one door leading into the wall. And it is guarded by the Father of the groom checking if the guest are wearing wedding gowns. 
      We cannot remove the walls. We cannot ease entrance through the bridge because that is not how it was done by God in Scriptures. The walls have to be high and strong. And entrance through the bridge is very strict with God the Father, Himself, being the sentry. 
     What Pope Francis is saying is just the opposite. He wants the walls torn down and bridges multiplied; and rashly judges those who do not do so as un-christian. His instruction is tantamount to allowing all the evils in the world (since the Lenten season tells us that the world is Satan’s) to enter the Catholic Church and to destroy the Faith of those who are inside by destroying the proper ambiance for self sanctification. 

6. Again.
    The purpose of walls is to keep the world (which Satan said belong to him) outside while those inside are being properly evangelized. That is the essence of the monastic life; the giving up of the world in order to attain the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. Pope Francis, in effect, is destroying the Catholic means of evangelization and substituting it with his own  which we do not know where it leads.
     When he suggested to Israel to remove the fences and suggested in Mexico to remove the US walls, it was very bad politics because it goes against the natural tendency for men to take good care of themselves and their families besides being  accompanied with insults. But it was even worse in that Pope Francis completely demolished the entire ascetical theology of the Catholic Church.   

      From the beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis had been demolishing huge portions of Catholic Theology and substituting them with his own personal beliefs. In his first talk as Pope, entitled ‘Love without dogma’ he demolished the entire treatise on the Theological virtues. In his telephone interviews with Scalfari he demolished the entire treatise on Divine Providence. In his comment on walls and bridges he demolished the entire spirituality of monasticism. He had completely undressed the Catholic Church of her doctrines. And he looks as if he does not know what he had done. 

 7. Summary.
     The Psalms states we must build walls; first, that we might have a protected place within which we can peacefully seek the kingdom of God. And secondly, that we may protect ourselves from the world of which the devil is the prince. That is a spiritual wall. We must also build a physical wall against many physical evils, starting with a wall in our house and a wall around our lots.
     There is only one narrow bridge as  entrance.  It must made by God and it is well guarded by the Father checking whether those who enter have a wedding garment or not. 
      Don’t just tear down those walls just because a Pope politician is campaigning for world popularity. And don’t just build bridges made by men with no competent guard to watch it. 
      Pope John XXII said something about opening windows to let the Spirit enter. Everybody misunderstood him. The Holy Spirit is already inside the Church…..the true Church. There is no need to open anything to let him in. John meant to open your hearts, not the Church. Opening your hearts mean to acquire the virtue of Penance, the main message of the Lenten Season. Everybody opened the wrong doors. And what happened? Pope Paul VI, himself, answered; ‘Satan entered the Church.’ See what happens when we tear down wrong walls and build wrong bridges. Unwelcome guest enter. 
      The command of the Holy Spirit is clear; ‘rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,’ rebuilt the walls around yourselves, around your families, around your nation but over and above all, around your souls and the true Church.
     Why is Pope Francis saying so many wrong things? Maybe, as the New Hampshire Representative defending Trump said; he is the anti-Christ.  Well, the anti-Christ will be a layman head of state, not a bishops. Like Robert Benson wrote in his book in the 1800…..probably the President of the USA. When a bishop is an anti-Christ, he is still an anti-Christ but he is referred to  as an anti-pope. Benson had a bishop who joined forces with the US president anti-Christ and became the anti-pope of the anti-Christ. His name was Francis. 
     Well, that is something to think about.  Pope Francis is leading us. We must make sure where he is leading us.