1. Christ, after the Resurrection, appeared only to a few.
It is said that if Christ, after the Resurrection, appeared to all, the world would be totally Catholic today. But He didn’t. He appeared to a very select few; to the few who were predestined to heaven. It was clear that to see the Resurrected Christ before one’s death is a sure sign one will go to heaven after death. If one does not see the Resurrected Face of Christ before one’s death, there is still the possibility that he can go to heaven but it is not certain. And this uncertainty is a big risk no one in his right mind should take.
So, like the Apostles, we must see the Face of the Resurrected Christ before we die. This is an undeserving gift from God. There is nothing we can do to deserve this. Except that Christ promised that if we reached this height in the spiritual life, He will manifest Himself to the soul.
This is not a physical apparition. It is a purely spiritual experience in which the Father will love the human soul and the Trinity will come to him to make their dwelling place with him always. This does not happen to everybody. It happens only to those who reach that level of spirituality shown by the 6th Sunday of Easter. The soul must have finished the spirituality represented by the 7 days of creation; because the spirituality of the 6th day of Easter occurs on the 7th day of creation.
2. To emphasise the importance of this experience Christ left three pieces of cloths in the tomb. The one that covered his face while on the cross to prevent the onlookers from seeing the hideousness of the face of a man crucified; today this is the sudarium of Oviedo. The second is the large clothe that covered the entire body of Christ; today this is the Shroud of Turin. And the third is practically a handkerchief; today this is the Sudarium of Manopello.
What is the differences between these three pieces of clothes? The way the image of Christ is imprinted in them. In the first clothe, there is absolutely no image of Christ. Just blotches of stain blood. In the Shroud, we see the entire Body of Christ, front and back but it is an image of the dead Christ. In the handkerchief of Manopello we see only the face of Christ. It is in colour and translucent. He is alive and smiling. He is even about to say something. His eyes are alive and looking straight at you. There is not a single sign of wound. It is, indeed, the Resurrected Christ.
Basing it on the Gospel of the 6th Sunday of Easter, Christ said; ‘I will go away. And those who see, only, My non-existing Face in the Sudarium of Oviedo will not follow Me to heaven.
‘I will go away but you cannot follow Me NOW. But later on you can follow Me,’ are for those who will eventually follow Christ to where He is going to go. These are those who see Christ in the Shroud of Turin.
‘I will go away for a while and I will come back to you to bring you to where I will go,’ are those who see the Face of Christ in the Sudarium of Monopello. These are the souls who will see the face of the Resurrected Christ before they die, a guarantee that after death they will go straight to heaven.
It is said that when Martin Luther viewed the Face of Christ in the Sudarium of Monopello, he saw nothing. Pope Francis and Cardinal Kasper who believe in the heresies of Martin Luther would probably see nothing, too. But wait this picture is just God’s way of teaching us a lesson. The truth behind this devotion is the spiritual manifesting of God to a soul as described in todays Gospel.
3. To whom will Christ manifest Himself?
Christ promised He will manifest Himself to those who are destined to go to heaven before they die. He made the promise. He will certainly fulfil it. How come we do not hear of anybody experiencing it?
God had never made it that we will die without knowing for sure where we are going. Before we die we can know for certain where we will go. To heaven or to hell. To those who will go to heaven, the Gospel for today writes, Christ will manifest Himself to them before they die. Just as Christ showed Himself, only, to the Apostles after His Resurrection before they died. That was a sure sign of predestination.
4. To whom will Christ manifest Himself?
‘Anyone who loves Me and to those who will be true to My Word.’ Christ will not manifest Himself to the world nor to bad Catholics.
He will manifest Himself, only, to those who have Charity and who are obedient. These two words, Charity and obedience, have identical definition. Both consists in knowing the commands of Christ and obeying the commands of Christ.
What do we mean by knowing the commands of Christ? It means we know all the commands of God the Father as taught in the Old Testament and we should know its New Testament interpretation. We cannot obey the commands of God the Father as it is in the Old Testament. That is passe. We must obey the commands in the Old Testament according to its New Testament interpretation. Where can we find that? In the explanations of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church.
Of course, there is also the commands of Christ in the New Testament, like to pray unceasingly and the one command that was lacking in the life of the young rich man. Nobody seems to obey these two just mentioned commands of Christ in the New Testament. This means that nobody is Charitable and nobody is obedient. Nobody is worthy to experience the manifestation of Christ. What?? In other words, nobody is going to heaven? Without Christ manifesting Himself to us we cannot be certain to go to heaven. But Pope Francis said everybody is going to heaven; even atheist, pagans, adulterers, Protestants, born again, Jews. Well, we will not be the judge. God will be the judge. And God said that only to those to whom He manifested Himself.
5. Those who love and those who are obedient.
Who are these?
These are the souls who have learned from Christ by encountering Him inside the Catholic Church. They have learned all His commands and the correct interpretation of His commands. ( this is the ‘what’ and the ‘how.’)
The obedient are those who have put into practice all the commands of Christ . The act of knowing the commands of Christ is an act of the intellect. The act of actually obeying the commands of Christ is an act of the Free Will.
Those who love God and are obedient to God are those who with their intellect knows all the commands of Christ and who with their free will have obeyed all the commands of Christ.
It is to these souls that God will come and will make Our dwelling place with him always.
6. How will Christ manifest Himself to you.
‘I will love you and make my dwelling place with you always. And I will send you the Holy Spirit who will instruct you in everything and remind you of all that I told you.’ There we have the formula on how to run a seminary. The curriculum musts be to teach the seminarians all the commands of Christ and how to obey them. If the seminarians learn all the commands and obey them, then the Holy Spirit will teach them the entire Moral and Dogmatic theology, Church history, etc. And not only that, the Spirit will remind them all the truths that Christ taught that is found in Divine Revelation. That is the way to learn theology; not the way it is done today.
7. The situation today.
Note the rampant disobediences to the commands of Christ from Pope Francis down to the priests and laymen; their disobediences to the command that husbands should love their wives as Christ love the Church, to the command that wives be submissive to their husband, that both parents be faithful to their children, that souls in mortal sin should not receive Communion unless they first repent. These disobedience to these commands, according to St. James is equivalent to disobedience to all the commands of Christ. The catechism repeats this. So what now?
So these disobedient Pope and cardinals does not love Christ precisely because they are not true to His words. Thus God does not love them. Thus the Trinity will not come to them to make their dwelling on these priests.
Because they do not obey the commands of Christ, the Spirit will not instruct them in anything; and the same Spirit will not remind them of the things Christ taught in Divine Revelation. That is why these people hardly quote the teachings of Christ; only their own quotes.
Then Christ will come again and will leave to go to heaven. And this Pope will all his accomplices will not go with Him to where He is going.
On the other hand, if we truly love Christ shown by our obedience to His commands (like His command for husband and wife to be united for life), then Christ says, ‘I will come back to you. And because you were obedient you will rejoice to have me go to the Father because you can follow Me.’
Conclusion. He who does not love me does not keep my words. I will not send him My Spirit so he will not know anything of My instructions and he will not remember anything that My Son Jesus had taught in Divine Revelation.
‘I do not love Bergoglio and I will not manifest Myself to him. And he will not go where St. Ignatius, St. Peter Canitius, St. Peter Faber went. Because he does not know My commands and have not obeyed My commands.’ With the way the Catholic Church is going today, confused and in heresy, many of us will hear the same identical words just mentioned. Isn’t there any Jesuit who can charitably and fraternally read St. Thomas’ interpretation of today’s Gospel to him? Oh, I forgot. The Jesuits don’t like St. Thomas as they often joked during my seminary days.