1. Predictions. Psychology, astronomy, stock market, Scriptures.
Predictions are used in all spheres. We psychologists predict human behaviour. We based it on our concept of the natural mature human being. If a man acts according to his nature we can predict he will behave like a human in the future. But if he has insane tendencies then he becomes more unpredictable.
Astronomy is more predictable. The date of a lunar eclipse can be predicted on the exact date. But the passing of a comet can be unpredictable.
The stock market is the most unpredictable thing because its ups and downs are based on too many variants.
But eschatology is very predictable because it is based on prophecies and the signs of the times.
2. Eschatology is predictable because it is part of prophesy.
Like the on going Eucharistic Congress. We can picture how it will take place. We base it on two things; from prophecies from the past and the present state of the Catholic Church.
The Chosen people dancing around the Golden calf is a Eucharistic Congress gone bad. Remember they were worshiping God who was not there because of their infidelity. This is a prophetic picture that happened in the Old Testament and a type that will constantly occur through the history of men.
It would happen again on Good Friday. There was a Congress with the living Eucharist on the Cross crucified by the members of Congress. This is referred to as type-fulfilled.
3. God aids the Church with lessons from types.
To guide man towards his eternal goal, God have him signposts in the form of types. Types appear in three forms; first as a type, secondly as a type-fulfilled. And thirdly as a type-eschatologically realized.
And these types can be types for what we must do and what we must not do.
Types appear in the Old Testament in figures that is almost impossible to interpret at first, like Paradise is a type for what? Heaven, of course. This type is fulfilled in the New Testament as the Catholic Church. And eschatologically it is realized in heaven.
Types are lessons on what man must do and what he must avoid to attain eternal life. Like the shepherds and Magi before Christ is a type of a Eucharistic Congress that was help very well for the glory of God. While Good Friday was a Eucharistic Congress that redounded to the perdition of most of the participants.
Two general elements must be considered; the people and their relation with God.
4. In the last post, we considered these two elements basing them on two documents; ‘Lumen Gentium’ which describes the people. And ‘Mysterium Fidei,’ which referred to God the Son in the Eucharist.
If the people conforms to the description of ‘Lumen Gentium then they are like the Magi who truly worships God physically present in ‘verbum Dei.’ If the people do not conform to the description of ‘Lumen Gentium,’ then they are just dancing around a golden calf.
5. Let us put together the good and the bad types.
The good and the bad goes almost together giving all men a chance to chose sides that will spell their salvation or damnation.
For example; on the first Eucharistic Congress in Bethlehem the Magi, ‘Lumen Gentium, acknowledged and worshiped the God physically present in ‘verbum dei’. But there was also a Congress going on in Herod’s palace who claimed they want to worship the Messiah but was really intent to kill the babe. The Magi saw the child. The killers did not find the child.
So in a Eucharistic Congress, some may see and worship Christ present physically in the Eucharist but there will be some who will not find the Christ anywhere. The former because they believed; the latter because they did not believe. Belief here is defined as obedience to the commands of God. The Magi showed obedience to the star; Herod showed no obedience to anything.
Note that seeing the Divinity in the Child was due to the
Faith of the Magi showned by their obedience to the star prophesied by Balaam. Seeing the ‘Mysterium Fidei’ was based on being ‘Lumen Gentium,’ a true member of the Catholic Church. Without Faith or obedience to God’s commands one sees nothing.
6. Let us see if ‘Lumen Gentium’ is present. If so, there will surely be a ‘Mysterium Fidei.’ If not, then, there will be no ‘Mysterium Fidei’ as what happened before at the time of the Maccabbees and at Good Friday. When the Ark of the Covenant disappeared from the temple eschatologically teaching us that the presence of God in the tabernacle, like before, will disappear due to the disobedience of the people.
7. Let us analyze the signs of the times.
It had been like this from the time of Pius IX. It grew worst during Vatican II and intolerably bad today. ‘Lumen Gentium’ being the ecclesiological document states that a Catholic is one who submits his intellect and will to all the commands of God as preached by the apostles and the fathers of the Church and proposed by the Magisterium through its spokesman the Pope, not only in those things that are ex-cathedra but also in those which are non-exchatedra. Blessed John Newman’s definition is more complete in that he adds; if the Pope smokes a brand of cigarette we should also smoke the same.
At the time of Pius IX many priest were disobedient to both the commands of God and of the Pope. Thus he and Pius X issued the list of their sins in the ‘Syllabus of error.’ At that time the four visible signs of the true Church as described in the Nicene Creed had disappeared from the known Catholic Church.
Vatican I was meant to hold the spread of these disobediences but to no effect. Pope John XXIII when starting Vatican II mentioned in his speech that the purpose of Vatican II is to restore the visible signs of the true Church. Instead the opposite evil signs appeared. Though before the priest showed external obedience to the ex-cathedra pronouncements of the Pope, during Vatican II they no longer showed external obedience to those which were not ex-cathedra. They even opposed those pronouncements; this was almost perfect disobedience to the provisions of ‘Lumen Gentium.’ The dissension, the rebellion, the withdrawal from the true Church was complete. The four visible signs from the Nicene Creed were gone. The 15 Marks of the true Church mentioned by St. Robert Bellarmine in which ‘Lumen Genium’ was based were also gone.
8. Pope Benedict’s reaction.
Being a good theologian and a holy person, Pope Benedict saw what was happening. So, he did not resign, but not wishing to be the Pope of a church that does not have the four visible signs of the true Church, namely, One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic, he stepped out of this church to continue to be the Pope of the true Church which at the moment he could not see. At first he thought that this true Church with the four visible signs was among the emerging new ecclesial communities. But the visible signs were not there either. But he knows the true Church has to be around and he is the Pope of this true Church. His search was made easier when the Latin work of St. Robert Bellarmine on ecclesiology was translated into English showing an expanded version of the four visible signs in the Nicene Creed into 15. This, of course made the search for the true Church easier.
9. The ‘men of disobedience’.
Those men of disobedience described in the ‘Syllabus of error,’ who refused to submit in their minds and will but remained within the Church like cockles in the vineyard of the Lord, came out in the open during Vatican II. And out of sheer number begun the rule the Church.
Because of technologies, their names and their beliefs were all published in mass media. So we know who they are. And many of them are running the on going Eucharistic Congress here. Men who do not believe in the indissolubility of marriage, those who believe in universal salvation, those who do not believe in the real presence and state that the host is just a symbol, those who want to completely junk ‘Summorum Pontificum’, the men of the hermeutics of discontinuity from Bologna and Belgium, those who believe priest should marry even a man, that women should be ordained priest…..name it and it is in the ‘Syllabus of errors.’ The only consoling sight is Cardinal Zen who celebrated the old Mass.
When the Jews were disobedient at the time of the Maccabees and at the time of Christ, where was the Ark of the Covenant? Nowhere. And because of the infidelity of the world the Ark which was the only place where God’s presence was is still nowhere to be found. The eschatological equivalent of the Ark of the Covenant is the tabernacle in the center of the Altar. The tabernacle is still there. But is the presence of God still there? Yes, if there is ‘Lumen Gentium.’ No, if the four visible signs of the Church in the Nicene Creed cannot be found among the people.