Author: Odon De Castro

Christ made provisions for His Church by giving us the “Apocalypse”, narrating series of events that “must soon take place (c.1)” showing the future of the Church up to the end times. It is really a big help to know what would befall the Church in the future (which is now) so we are forewarned and forearmed for all eventualities. Of course, many christians are so interested about the signs of the end times. It is a popular topic that catches attention and used often by preachers to gain attention. Novels, making atrocious claims, have become instant best sellers. But I have not seen much serious attempts to explain present events as fulfillments of the Apocalypse. Even the Fathers of the Church, apart from Victorinus, hardly commented on the Apocalypse.

Bloggers had shown the state of the physical Church, the buildings. In Europe, grandiose Churches are turned from art shops to garages; in the United States, some are demolished to give way to supermalls and new ones look like glorified shoe boxes. Seminaries and convents are closing down by the hundreds. Stores sell beautiful altar appointments for profit, instead of those same things being used for the worship of God. What’s going on?

Allow me to try and explain what is going on, and show how this is one of the fulfillments of the prophecies of the Apocaplypse.

In the early Church, there was the hierarchical Church; these were the bishops and priests in their dioceses and parishes. It was part of the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church and I would add, the external structure of the Church. It was tangible, it could be experienced. But there was, also, an inner structure of the Church that seems not to be part of the external structure of the Church; and this was the monastic communities. These communities were extra-judicial. They were in some sense outside the direct jurisdiction of the bishop. It is difficult to see them as part of the diocese or parish. They live in caves or individual huts, called hermitages or cells. While the grandeur of the Church was in the pageant of the Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, priest and altar boys, the monastic communities were in the margin, estranged from the rest. Alone. The bishops were to interfer in the monasteries, only, if some problems arose in the monasteries. Otherwise, the Bishops are hands off on the monasteries. That is how the monasteries progressed. With their great degree of independence from hierarchical domination. But it was the monks who lived the Gospels; the rest simply expressed the Gospel message in their rituals or liturgies. We can say that the monks lived the spirit of the Gospel while those in the cities performed the external liturgies.

Since the monks had the spirit, it was just right that they would be fit to celebrate the liturgies best. So The monks who lived in caves and cells began to build great monasteries with great Churches where the liturgies were developed in their splendor. The Spirit of the Desert, the monastic life which essentially is worshipping God in spirit and truth, without the externals of ceremonials was suddenly married to these external sacramentals of the Church. But these are two separate entities, glorious when they are together but each can exist independently from one another as in the early times of monasticism. It shouldn’t be separated but, once upon a time, they were.

Today, we see a crumbling of the exterior of this structure. The internal structure exist and Pope Benedict, though attempting to reform the external Liturgy is, in more sense, interested in developing the original internal structure, the spirit of monasticism (particularly the monasticism of St. Benedict.).

What’s going on? Right now there seems to be a collapse of the apocalyptic outer Church, i.e. the external structure of the Church, of which the Church building is a symbol. There is a melt down in the handing down of the true faith from the Church, down to the Bishops, through the priests and down to the faithful. Nothing is being handed down! But definitely, there are souls who are getting the message; though clearly, not through the ordinary means which is the external structure of the Church. I am amazed at the knowledge of a Gilbert Chesterton or a John Newman seeing that they were not instructed by the external structure of the Church (namely, by catechist, priests, nuns or bishops). This, in fact, is common among converts. They seem to possess a knowledge that surpass even those of born Catholic priest-theologians. That’s the way monks acquired their Divine knowledge. By living the interior life of the Church and not by a mere life within the structure of the Church.Today, sadly, I do not know, monastic orders are canonically within the structure of the Church. Would this be the reason why it has weakened the internal life of the Church? Pope Benedict is looking seriously at small lay religious communities with the hope that these groups are initiating what the first monks initiated during their time…true worshippers who worshipped in spirit and truth.

Now, let’s go back to the Apocalypse and see if these events we are witnessing had been prophesied in the Apocalypse. Like all prophesies, it is impossible to interpret prophecies unless it is actually being fulfilled.

Chapter 11 states:”Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told ‘rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy City for forty-two months.'”

Note those who are pleasing to God: those who are worshipping in the temple and the altar. These are those who are worshipping in spirit and in truth minus the external structures of dioceses, parishes and Liturgy in the Churches. And those who are in the court outside the temple are those in the external structure of the Church which we see collapsing today; the bishops and priests who have failed to do their jobs of teaching and sanctifying their flocks, the Liturgies, the Diocesan and parish structures and the church buildings. And this outer court of the temple will be given to the gentiles, those Catholics in words but not in deed, who will trample over the holy Religion for forty-two months (three and a half years, the time alloted to the anti-christ to rule the earth).

It is, therefore, with great wisdom, that Pope Benedict is looking back at the time when monasteries were the places where worshippers worshipped in spirit and in truth independently from the external Structure of the Church, and as in times past, to build a sound external structure and Liturgy on that inner structure. The possibility in succeeding in the first is great but the prophecy of the Apocalypse shows that the second will be difficult, “for it was given to the gentiles to trample upon the holy temple.” (Picture above is Mt. Quarantel, the site of the temptation of Christ. A monastery stands at the cave where Jesus stayed.)

Pope Benedict XVI had been quoting St. Benedict of Norcia under whose patronage he had put his Petrine office. From the very first talk he gave as Pope, he already quoted from the writings of the Patriach of Western monasticism. And he had not stopped.

One of the mottoes of St. Benedict is “Ora et Labora.” Three simple words and yet it contains the entire theology of the spiritual life. “Ora” is the whole theology of prayer life, specially contemplation and “Labora” is the foundation of the theology of “Rerum Novarum.”

“Ora et Labora” is the marriage of the spiritual and the natural. With the spiritual invigorating the natural while the natural defending the spiritual. It is, in fact, a combination of Mary and Martha; the mystery of the Incarnation.

“Labora” is not work as we ordinarily understand it. In Christian asceticism we do not work to sustain ourselves. We do not get a job so we can eat. We depend completely on the providence of God for our sustenance, for He had promised to provide all our needs if we seeked His kingdom first. In Christianity, we work to be able to provide for the needs of others. Christians do not work to sustain themselves, they work so they can do good works or works of charity for their neighbors.

“Ora” is the more important part. “Ora,” or prayer is love of God; “Labora,” or work is love of neighbor.

When Prayer invigorates Labor, the land is transformed into a garden and a city becomes a city of God. Labor, on the other hand, raises a soul to the heights of contemplation. This was the movement that created the most splendid civilization in the world…Christian Europe. . . something Our Holy Father hopes to re-create in a smaller degree.

The central point of St. Benedict’s Rule of Life (which is the New Testament summarized and simplified) is the Divine Office, the Liturgical prayers. And in between these prayers are schedules of work which were not meant for the sustenance of the community, but for the deepening of the monk’s spiritual life. The moments of prayer were the leaven that sanctified their work. Of course, when they worked, they had produce. Well, might as well consume them. But that was not the purpose.

See a similar illustration in Exodus. The jews left Egypt to go to the desert to worship God through prayer. In their journey, they did not have to work for their sustenance, though they brought their cattle. God fed them along the way.

Picture this in a sort of extra-terrestial vision; through “Ora” God beams on earth graces from heaven. Then the beams of graces transform the earth into an earthly paradise. That is how things are supposed to work. And that was what precisely happened to Western Europe except that everything went crashing down before it was completely transformed into a City of God. Today, our present Pope is content to have a little suburb of God. And there is no other way of going about it than through “Ora et Labora.”

Most religious movements contain the element of sanctifying the workplace. A movement closer to “Ora et Labora” is the return of the converts to the fields. It is happening in the U. S. It happened in England during the springtime of Catholicism in the beginnings of the 19th century in the Dichtling community. It bloomed during the time of the guilds in the middle ages shown by the fact that the laborers were freer, more contented and had more food than now. Attempts to revive it were made by the Distributist movement of Belloc and Fr. Vincent McNabb O.P. This movement had the right idea of what “Ora et Labora” should be. Definitely it would never enrich any national economy. And as Chesterton, one of its proponent, quipped: it was not tried and found wanting, it was found too difficult and never tried again. But it was definitely very successful when tried at first.(Painting above is St.Benedict’s sermon to the inhabitants of Montecassino by Stefanelli)

An act is good or bad dependng on whether it is in obedience or disobedience to the commands of Christ. So far abortion is being condemned because it goes against the child’s right to life. For Catholics the basis for our condemnation is because it goes against the commands of Christ. What commands?

Children are important because it is from them that we learn how to be children again, a requirement to enter the kingdom of God. Of course, we can always learn from our own youth but at age 65 we can’t remember what happened when we were 40, how much more our youth. The whole New Testament teaches us how to become children again; and to have children around us is a great help since we have an actual demonstration how it is done.

And so if Moloch, (I mean the devil), would want to prevent us from learning how to become children againt, all he has to do is convince us to get rid of those “fetuses.” No children to teach us how to become children again; no chance for us to be great in the kingdom of heaven.

Then Christ adds: “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” Christ identifies Himself with those “fetuses.” He who receives and welcomes a conceived child receives and welcomes Christ. And he who rejects through family planning or abortion one of those “fetuses” rejects Christ. Now tell me what more serious sin can you imagine that can plunge us to hell than to reject Christ? Maybe crucifying Christ? But disobeying Christ’s command is liken to crucifying Christ!

Christ continues; “See that you do not despise one of these little one, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven.” That’s like saying if you abort that child his guardian angel will stand witness against you in heaven. With an angel on the side of the prosecution what chance do you have.

Of course, when Christ refers to children in the Gospels, He usually means innocent children or grown ups who have become like little children again. So His condemnation will apply to old people who have become like little children whom we refuse to take care and/or subjected to euthanasia.(The painting above is “Madonna con bambino” by Pompeo Batoni)

1. Not by flesh and blood.
The Catholic religion is a religion revealed by God; in fact, the only one revealed by a god. As such only God can teach and explain it. Let’s recall the dialogue between Christ and His apostles: “Who do people say I am?” And Peter answered; “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus praised him saying: “Flesh and blood had not revealed it to you but My Father in heaven.”

2. Theological schools were doing it wrong.
Hey, wait a minute. You mean we cannot learn the things of God from teachers or preachers of flesh and blood? We can only learn from the Father in heaven? Right! So seminaries and theological and even religious houses had been doing things wrong all these years and you are wondering why very few know the Catholic Faith? Most Catechist, priests, nuns and parents had been doing a bad job? Right! And they had been doing it for the last three known generations. No wonder the world is like this.

3. How do you learn to lay a deep foundation of the Gospel Doctrine?
The book of Wisdom states that the word “wise” in Scriptural language has often been used to refer to craftiness, like the unjust steward is praised because he acted wisely, and the children of this world are often wiser than the children of light. That’s one kind of wisdom.

4. The wisdom of children.
There is another wisdom which is used to describe the innocent, gullible and simpleton which the business smart guys often missed. This is the wisdom that comes from God and given to children. Peter, after three years training under Christ, acquired this wisdom which consists in being “like little children.” It is the method by which we learn through Pope Benedict’s “New Evangelization.” And this is different from the way used by seminaries and theologiacal schools.

5. The truths are learned through a way of life.
The truths of Christ are learned not in the classroom like other subjects. They are learned through living a way of life…. a life of humility. The book of wisdom repeats interminably that wisdom is given to the humble. “Learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart. Learn My humility and I’ll teach you My Theology.

6. Acquire wisdom through humility; learn humility through obedience.
Did I fail to mention books, classes, professors, etc. I sure did! You only need humility acquired through obedience. Christ asked His disciples who men said He was, to remove the false opinions or ideas they got before He revealed Himself. Most of us have learned our theology through flesh and blood, like in theological schools and have learned little. Living a life of obedience according to the Rule of St. Benedict and acquiring humility (St. Benedict enumerates 7 degrees of humility) is the way to be worthy to receive the gift of wisdom. Humility is the classroom from where we learn the things of God. That’s why St. Benedict calls his monasteries the school of the Lord’s service. The steps: obey that you may become humble. God expresses His Will to the humble and gives the knowledge on Who He is and how to glorify Him.

7. What is man’s and what is God’s.
The things of men can be discussed by men but the things of God can only be discussed by God. The opinion of men about Christ was close to the truth but still far below the true dignity of God. When Christ questioned Peter much more was expected of him to see beyond the appearances.

8. Christ was asking for what was concealed which is only revealed to believers. The answer must combine natural knowledge of the Son of Man and a supernatural knowledge of the Son of God. One without the other offers us no hope of wisdom or salvation.

Christ invites them to higher thoughts concerning Him. “Whom say ye that the Son of Man is. You being men think of Me as man, ye who are gods, whom do you think of Me. Christ had asked for the wrong opinions of the common men. Now He questions those who are recipient of His revelation. For the opinion of men, all the disciples answered. For the true opinion, only Peter answers. The Jews knew He was the Son of Man but did not know He was the Son of God. “Thou are the Son of the Living God”. A living Son of God.

“Blessed are you Simon Bar Jona for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.” That which flesh and blood could not reveal, was revealed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. Peter had received a revelation from the Holy Spirit. Not from the words of the mouth of flesh and blood but by the grace of God.

The deeper doctrines of the Catholic Faith are received by revelation. That’s why the first monks learned their theology by living a life of silence

Peter was blessed because to have looked and to have seen beyond human sight is matter of praise, not beholding that which is of flesh and blood, but seeing the Son of God by the revelation of the heavenly Father. And this revelation can grow as one’s faith increases.

In short, the way to learn the doctrine of our faith is by acquiring the virtue of humility. All the Holy Rules of the founders of religious orders contain this. The defect is oftentimes in the exectuion of the rules. It is upon the acquisition of humility that we become deserving of the knowledge given to the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church. We are reminded of the Cure of Ars who was almost always in danger of failing his seminary courses. His homilies were comparable to the great Fathers of the Church. And St. Therese of Lisieux who never attended a theological seminar nor read many books is now a doctor of the Church.

(The picture above is the monastery of Saint Catherine at the foot of Mt. Sinai. The early monks believed that to learn the things of God, they must live a way of life as Moses did, waiting by the foot of Mt. Sinai.)

Evangelization is the process by which we teach men the way to God as taught by God, Himself. Since God’s ways are never man’s ways, the search for this knowledge could cause some distress. Well, not really. It can look complicated as found in the New Testament, but St. Benedict of Norcia, a saint Pope Benedict referred to as “my Patron since my election to the Petrine ministry”, simplified it. Sort of “How to go to heaven for dummies.”

St. Benedict had no intention of evangelizing Europe or saving Roman civilization. He was guiding simple peasants who wanted to seek God, by writing a summary of the New Testament with some explanations from the Fathers of the Church on what are the commandments of Christ and how to put those commandments into a way of life that leads to union with God. He wrote the “Rule” intending it to be a way of life for the “male peasants he was guiding.” Thus his monasteries for men. Evangelization begins with oneself seeking God. Only after you have found God can you show Him to others.

When these men became fervent in their faith, their families, wives, sons and daughters wanted to follow. So St. Benedict gathered them in small towns at the borders beside but outside his monasteries. As the young men progressed in their spiritual life he would allow them to enter the monastery proper; and in the case of the young women, he placed them in their own monasteries, similar to that of St. Scholastica.

The families living at the border towns of the monasteries followed,also, the Rule of St. Benedict in their own homes. And note the wisdom of this arrangement. This was the beginnings of a miniature Catholic Church…many Christian homes united by one way of life based on the New Testament and Fathers of the Church. We could almost see the Catholic Church existing and expanding, living one, holy, Catholic and an apostolic life. The brilliant arrangement and the continuous expansion would eventually become Christian Europe. Our Holy Father, Benedict XVI is praying the same thing would happen today.

Let us look at Monte Cassino, one of St. Benedict’s more popular monastery. The monks were within the monastery walls living according to the Gospel. We also know St. Scholastica, Benedict’s twin sister, was living with other women within a monastery. The question was: what was the way of life of the families with their sons and daughters in the border towns of the monasteries?

St. Benedict was not ignorant of the Tradition of the Catholic Church. His Rule was for monasteries exclusively for men or exclusively for women. It was applicable for those living as a family, too. But the Rule had no provision for several entire families living in community. Benedict did not have to write a separate Rule because there was the Long Rule of St. Basil for the purpose. In Chapter 73 he reminds us that the monastic community could grow to a point where there will be many families who would want to live together as a monastic community. There must be provisions for sons and daughters. St. Basil had disciplinary rules for these.

While St. Benedict’s Rule is for individuals living together, it is also for a family Christianizing its home. The Rule of St. Basil is for several or many entire families living together the Gospel. Both Rules are essentially the same. The slight difference is that St. Basil made disciplinary rules for entire families.

Like the writings of all the Fathers of the Church, the Rules of Sts. Benedict and Basil were for evangelization…to make good Christians of men and women. All the Rules of the founders of religious orders were for the same purpose; to be holy. This was the classical way of evangelization. Today. Benedict’s monasticism has not been tried and found wanting. It was found difficult and never tried again, as Gilbert Chesterton would say. It is fitting that our present Holy Father is bent on trying it….. for just one last time? (Picture above is St. Benedict with the Blessed Virgin Mary and the child Jesus by L. Giordano.)

As a young boy, reading “The descent of men” and “Origin of the species,” I got the impression that man came from the monkeys. And I believed it. When I became a Benedictine monk, meditatimg upon my defects and sins, I became more convinced that I was a monkey. Some childish questions followed; why didn’t the apes continue turning into men, why didn’t man continue to be superman; or why didn’t the apes turn into rats (reversed evolution)? This topic had been raised once more because of statements made by the cardinal from Austria.

Pope Benedict XVI said: “The purpose of our lives is to reveal God to men…we are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.” These words confirm the old belief that the first men was a finished product.

The idea that evolution is an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection, and that evolution is governed by a wise intelligent being were not part of my old theology. I learned that there was no evolution of whatever kind. When God created Adam and Eve they were as human as we are right now.

Evolution is not a scientific fact; it is an explanation (and not a very good one). Evolution does not go against religion; it goes against rationalism, G. K. Chesterton states. Evolution was born when man had ceased to believe in God who created everything out of nothing; in evolution man found it more thinkable to believe that the ape turned itself into a man.

Chesterton, using comon sense, wrote in “Everlasting Man” that the art works of early man showed that primitive man was as human as his office mates in the Daily News. Art is the expression of man’s culture. It is a copy of life. It shows how man lived. It expresses the nobility or ignobility of a civilization. He observed that the art of early men was more artful than our present art. Their art reflected their innocence and the intelligence that come from that innocence. It reflected a high degree, not of technology, but of culture. Art is born, Chesterton continues, when the temporary touches the eternal. And the charcoal drawings in those ancient caves showed that the first men were in contact with the eternal. Their sketches were meant to entertain their children as the universe entertains a philosopher. Try to compare the art of the cavemen with the art of the French and Russian revolution. It’s like comparing the art of a man with the scribblings of an ape.

Scientific discoveries had consistently shown that the “caveman” showed great intelligence. We thought we were intelligent until we found the civilization of Egypt, until we discovered the civilization of the Aztecs. Now we are discovering that the”Ice Man” was sophisticated in running his life. We live in concrete homes, the caveman lived in caves or flimsy huts. Both sheltered themselves. The disparate materials they used were dependent on materials available and not on the quality of their minds.

Let’s consider how God acted in Scriptures. God was always in a hurry He was in a hurry to replenish heaven after the fall of the angels. So He created man. Jesus Christ was in a hurry to work out the redemption of men to replenish heaven with new citizens as seen in His restless activity while on earth. And Christ in His teachings kept on reminding us to repent as soon as possible. Never to wait or waste time “Today, if you hear His voice…” It would not be consistent with God’s behaviour if He tarried for a million years to wait for that chimp to become a man. He didn’t have to wait. God is outside time.

God could have done things fast, redeem man fast, and end the world fast. The first man was a finished product and not an object of evolution.

This is not a conflict between science and religion. Because the theory of evolution is not scientific at all and is, therefore, not science. The fear we had, which had been comfirmed, is that it would affect morality. That heterosexual marriage would evolve into same sex marriage.

What I learned from my evolution teacher was that God created the world. “Let there be light.” There was a big bang and it all started: everything began small, like one- celled amoebas; then those amoeba-like-fish in the water went up the land, lost their fins and grew legs for walking. Then not satisfied with walking on land, they climbed trees and became apes. They probably developed vertigo so they came down the trees. While down on earth, God gave them human souls and eureka… there was Adam and Eve.

Of course, science cannot prove this. Anyway it is only an intellectual proposition with no basis in fact. But then I began to wonder. If everything begun small and grew big, how come at the begining we have giant dinosaurs and now they have shrunk to lizards?

Groote, purportedly the author of the spiritual classic “The Imitation of Christ,” wrote that there is such a thing as a “forbidden tree.” And this tree is made up of forbidden knowledge. Not so much because this knowledge is forbidden but more because this was an utter waste of time and distracts the soul from the more important job of working out his salvation. And St. Paul tells us not to be concerned with genealogies, whether we came from apes or chimpanzees.. The quests for knowledge of things in the stars fall under the same category of forbidden knowledge. The stars are there, not for us to explore for inhabitants , nor for us to measure the distances from here to there. No. The stars were created for us to marvel at the glory of God.

Man did not evolve. He was as he is. Probably a little sun-burned because he only wore fig leaves. Well, let me modify my statement, probably man is worst now than beforew. Because man in his depravity abused the environment and descended below his human dignity and even below the beasts. The soul of man today is worst than Adam and Eve, who had retained the innocence of childhood inspite of the fall. Man today have perverted themselves into adulthood. “Unless you become like little children…”was Christ’s message from the cave.” Or shall we say “Unless you become like Adam and Eve?”

We, Catholics have the secured confidence that nothing ever change in the spiritual realm. This is our foundation in believing in Tradition… that the teachings of Christ that had been handed down to us have not changed and will never change just as the movements of the stars had been so precise that we can set our watches by them. But we also have the more dreary confidence that nothing will ever remain the same. Everything is in flux.

Why don’t we just stick to the Bible and say ‘man came from the slime of the earth.’ That sounds better for my ego than to say that he came from the apes. That’s what we are, all the rest of us…..slime of the earth. But man’s nobility rests on the fact that the slime was moulded by the hands of God. But the evolutionist prefer to tell man that he came from King Kong.

The evolutionists and liberals believe that eventually men can marry men and women can be ordained priests and the problems of the world will all be solved. This Darwinian mentality, which was Heraclitus’ difficulty, is the source of all heresies. If the fruits are bad, couldn’t it be that the tree is a bad theory? Yes, the Church has not condemned the theory of evolution. But evolutionist find it impossible to prove it. So why waste time on it.

But spiritual evolution , on the other hand, is a theological reality. We can be born lunatics and end up contemplatives. G.K. Chesterton described evolution as a “slippery slope.” Do you remember who used that phrase recently? “A miry slope” where it is very easy to slide down to heresy.”

Let us listen to what Pope Benedict XVI said about evolution and leave the rest as “forbidden knowledge” …and how about starting to memorize the prayers in Latin as he encouraged. (Picture above is “Paradiso Terrestre” by Peter Wenzel.)

Europe have been described as a spiritual wasteland. The whole world is. . . in different degrees. The Catholic Church, herself, looks like a wasteland except for a few, select greeneries that God had chosen from the many. There is nothing in the wasteland that can nourish the soul.

The converts to Catholicism from England, around the year 1800, had noticed this and described England as a wasteland. T.S. Eliot described his times ” as a time of disillusionment and the disintegration of values… that caused despair…and developed a deep respect for tradition and the keen moral sense which underlay them.” He wrote this after a nervous breakdown and stay in a sanitarium. Neurosis and psychosis, the mental states of the world today (and their natural manifestations, like homosexuality, lesbianism and suicide) are the products of this wasteland.

These writers described it as the era of modern secular liberalism. Evelyn Waugh similarly described this in his novel “A Handful of Dust” wherein he attacked the vacuities of modern life. It was a conflict between flesh and faith. Just like St. Benedict’s times. It was in this scenario that converts, like Olivia Plunket Greene found the Catholic Church under the influence of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross; she, eventually, lived a solitary and celibate life, like St. Benedict.

Eliot continues: the key to understanding the “inferno” of Dante is to understand first the “Purgatorio” and the “Paradiso.” Pope Benedict XVI’s dictatorship is a foretaste of “inferno” on earth. Most of us do not believe in hell nor in the devil because we have no concept, whatsoever, of heaven or purgatory. Our present life is just the continuation of Eliot’s times. Is our present era of relativism a taste of “inferno” because we have forgotten “Purgatorio” or “Paradiso?” Has’nt Pope Benedict XVI reminded us to regain the knowledge of heaven and purgatory through the Sacrifice of the Mass wherewith the Church Triumphant, Suffering and militant are present?

St. Benedict of Nurcia left Rome to live in a cave because he wanted to run away from a wasteland. Siegfried Sassoon, another convert, would describe his journey to the Catholic Church as “a long and contemplative search for truth.” Sounds like a monk.

Understanding Catholic truths cannot be attained by study, as seminarians, religious and theologians do. It can only be attained by living a way of life. The book of Wisdom describes truth as a gift given to the humble, “Draw near to me, ye unlearned, and gather yourselves together into the house of discipline, (Ecclus. 51:31)(or Sir. 51;23.) It is a gift given to the unlearned if they live together in community in the house of discipline. Monasticism is for the unlearned to live together in a house of discipline. The disciplined life is living a humble life. This is how one learns the deep truths of Christ. And the monastic life of St. Benedict is meant to make us humble and as a consequence worthy to receive the gift of knowledge and wisdom.

St. Benedict has a chapter on the degrees of humility which was copied later by St. Ignatius. Well, humility is the basis of the Christian religion. It is for all. “Learn from Me for I am meek and humble of heart.” Wisdom and knowledge are gifts dependent on the degree of one’s humility, and not on the number of years spent studying theology.

Note how many of these converts have more knowledge and wisdom than the usual born Catholics. In humility they had confess their former errors and in humility had accepted the truth. Converts, often, do not reaize that their efforts to go deeper into the truths of the Church expressed in their efforts at Apologetics are, in fact, a desire for the monastic life or contemplative life. Did you notice how some converts, like Edith Stein, went all the way to become a Carmelite (contemplative)nun. Men, like John Newman, Robert Benson, Ronald Knox became priests. They cannot be mediocre Catholics.

In Scriptures, the wastelands had always been described as the abode of the devil. Christ went to the desert, after preparing Himself for battle during His hidden life (which he did not have to do being a God but which He did for our imitation) to do battle against the devil. The early monks believed that the devil abided in the desert wasteland. So they retreated within the protective shield of the monastery to train themselves for the battle, then ventured into the desert to do battle against the devil. St. Anthony the hermit was described as shining with the perfection of holiness after he emerged from the desert tombs where he prepared himself. Then he went forth to do battle against the devil.

Pope Benedict XVI has described the world as a spiritual wilderness. He went short of saying that this world had become the abode of the devil. Pope Paul VI had already mentioned it. The signs of both the presence and possessions by the devil are all around.

The devil entered into Judas Iscariot because of the manner of his life. There is a way of life that invites the devil to possess a soul; just as there is a way of life that invites the Holy Spirit to abide in a soul. And the way of life described as the tyranny of relativism, is an open invitation for the devil to come in. Shall we wonder why as head of the CDF Cardinal Ratzinger exerted efforts to improve the ritual for exorcism?

We need a spiritual mind to detect the wasteland amids the dazzling lights and entertainments of the world. We need extraordinary graces to see the emptiness in the fullness of a shopping mall. Don’t we see this miracle of grace among such people as Edith Stein, a philosopher, who saw nothing worthwhile around her.

In such a scenario how do we go about seeking God and the salvation of our souls. St. Benedict showed us the steps. We must first desire to truly seek God, flee the world (because it would be impossible to worship God in a pagan environment), undergo a rigid regimen of training in discipline within the protective walls of a monastery and then go forth to the wasteland to do battle against the spirits of evil. With such a prepration we are assured of victory; without it we could end up a casualty.

Pope Benedict XVI and Don Giussani were, in some way, nurtured spiritually in Sacro Speco, Subiaco, the cave where St. Benedict stayed after running away from paganized Rome. In an address on “Europe in the crisis of culture” in Subiaco, which Giussani frequented with the young, then Cardinal Ratzinger noted the wisdom of St. Benedict in being able to present the entire Gospel in an easy and simple form for beginners in the spiritual life, “To put nothing to the love of Christ.”

Caves have a symbolic meaning in Christianity. When Christ decided to become man, he was born in a cave. And it was there that the shepherd and Magi found Him. It symbolized a way of life completely different from the ways of the world. This was the definition of “metanoia” or conversion given by Pope Benedict XVI in his “The New Evangelization.” There was nothing new really. He just showed how to do it right!

Isn’t this the aim of the World’s Youth Day and of every Catholic? In Cologne, where reportedly the relics of the Magi are, the motto is “We have come to worship Him.” We must first know the way to seek God through the Catechism, we must actually seek Him through obedience to the commands of Christ learned from the Gospel and summarized by St. Benedict, and hopefully find and worship Him.

When the Israelites left Egypt with its fleshpots and went to the desert, it was in order to worship God. The shepherds were out of the city, in the fields watching their flocks. St. Benedict, also, felt he had to leave his studies in the city and go to a cave in order to worship God. Abraham had to leave the city of Ur and dwell for a while in the desert. Is it any wonder why caves and deserts which Christ, Himself, frequented were important places for the first Christians… and are now being pointed to us by Pope Benedict XVI?

Well, the caves and deserts (and forests and boats) were the symbols of the monastic life. It is the place where we find Christ, the place were the Israelites found God. It is the place where we can come to worship Him. But we must first “flee the world” and find where the child dwells… in the cave of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Monasticism, from the beginning, was for laymen. The Holy Family during the 30 years of hidden life was the model of monasteries. The desire to be away from men to be alone with God is inherent in man. St. Augustine said it is better to talk with God than to talk with men. Monks were described as laymen who were seriously seeking God. Converts are never at ease with mediocrity because there is within them that desire to do more, which St. John Chrysostom described as “the call of the desert.”

The monastic life is a way of life by which we seek God, find God and worship God. Seminaries and convents were established for this same purpose and patterned after the first monasteries. Except that they were established when the Church has become lax and effeminate, and thus failed in their purpose of making its inhabitants search, find and worship Christ. This is why St. Vincent de Paul tried to restore monastic life by establishing seminaries for the diocesan clergy. It was an attempt during his times to prevent the present problems we are now facinf with some priests.

The journey or pilgrimage to Cologne, Germany, must be symbolic of the monastic life … a fleeing from the “cities”, to search, find and worship God in Cologne. And if each delegate live the monastic life “in spirit”, as exemplified in the rule for beginners written by St. Benedict, by fleeing the world to go to the “cave” of Cologne, who knows, they might just find Christ and worship Him. And hopefully, like the Magi go back to their cities living a completely different way of life (conversion) and proclaiming with great joy what they saw…a child in a cave.

A person may be a member of the Catholic Church only in name but not in spirit; on the other hand he can be a member in spirit but not in name. The Church mentions baptism of desire as one way of spiritual membership and Baptism of blood as another way. The Holy Innocents is an example of the latter. Let me dwell a little more on Baptism of desire: these are my musings pending the publication of the compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church where the topic is discussed at better length..

A theological stand is held in that a soul, who lives according to its conscience, who lives a naturally good life, etc., but who is invincibly ignorant of the true faith could be saved through baptism of desire. Ronald Knox in commenting on “salvation outside the Church” says: “The simplest way to put it, I think, is this – there is no other religious body in the world except the Catholic Church which makes a supernatural contribution to a man’s chances of salvation. He may receive natural help from some other source; his conscience may be stirred by the preaching of the Salvation Army, or he may learn a useful habit of mental prayer from the Buchmanites, or his sense of worship may be stimulated by the beauty of the ceremonies which he witnesses at the Church of the Cowley Fathers. But there’s only one religious body whose membership, of itself, tends to procure our salvation, and that is the Cathlic Church. If anybody is saved without visible membership of it he is saved, not because he’s an Anglican, not because he’s a Methodist, not because he’s a Quaker, but for one reason only —because he is a Catholic without knowing it. (ISG, 118-19)

The doctrine is clear. But I would like to focus on “without knowing it,”…on the invincible ignorance. Today, is it possible to be in the state of invincible ignorance when the Gospel had been preached throughout the world? Have we not reached a point wherein the Gospel had been preached throughout the world? Is it possible that in the Providence of God, He will give a soul the knowledge of Catholicism and still withold a small amount of grace wherewith the soul may come to know and enter the Catholic Church? Would’nt God have the power to show the Church and give such soul the opportunity to enter the Church considering He had already given the soul so much graces? And isn’t God’s way like this: whenever He has given a soul the grace of conversion, He, also, “sends” someone, precisely, to point out the Church to such a soul, as Christ sent Philip to the Eunoch?

Isn’t this clear in the lives of converts? All of the converts who were encased in their previous beliefs, from John Newman to Edith Stein, found the Catholic Church? God’s way is evidently clear. That when He gives the grace of conversion to a soul, He gives it so that they may find and enter the visible Church. Why should God fall short in the case of a few souls and deprive them of graces from entering the visible Church?”

Is it possible for God to give a soul the grace of conversion and still keep him in invinsible ignorance? How come in the stories of converts, God did not allow them to remain in invinsible ignorance if they can be saved without entering the visible Church, He who knows the hearts of men? If Christ came to establish His Church, membership of which is necessary for salvation, why should he withold the grace of membership when by His almighty power, He can give the occassion for them to enter?

Take the hypothetical case of a native, alone in an island who was enlightened by God into following his conscience and living a good natural life, can he be saved as he is? Theoretically, yes. But basing it in the Providence of God, God would either arranged it in some way that he gets in contact with the Church enabling him to enter the visible Church or God will “send” him a messenger, like Philip, who would introduce him to the visible Church. It is for this purpose that God instituted “apostles,” meaning “sent” that such souls may be able to enter the visible Church. Isn’t this the apostolic commission: that we go to all nations and point the Church and teach all how to enter the Church?

Going back to Ronald Knox’s “he is a Catholic without knowing it,” this is theoretically correct. But most probably God will give him the grace to know and enter the visible Church…. if he is to be saved.

Even before the elevation of CardinalRatzinger to the Papacy, the world have been polarized into two camps; those for Christ and those against Christ. During apostolic times, those against Christ( satan and his cohorts) were outside the Church and attacked those within. But Satan saw that in this way he was just sending hordes of souls to heaven through martyrdom. No, he wanted them in hell. So he changed his tactic. He placed his cockles within the Church and attacked her from within. St. Paul would, eventually, describe this as the “Great Apostasy” that would follow the smaller apostasies and herald the end times. Pope Paul VI would comment that the “smoke of Satan” had entered the sanctuary of the Church. Satan had entered the Church since the beginning of Christianity as the parable of the wheat and the cockle illustrates. Should we be surprised that he is all around?

It is a visible sign of the true Church that we have cockles within the wheatfield of the Lord rather than the “we are all saved” declarations of other sects. Ronald Knox noted that in England everyone was saved except the Catholics.

Did you notice that this polarization became more pronounced with Pope Benedict XVI? The historian Hilaire Belloc stated that when Martin Luther left the Catholic Church he, himself, was amazed at his following. He was not a charismatic leader nor a brilliant preacher. So why did half of Europe follow him. Because half of Europe was already Protestant at heart. They were just waiting for an excuse to apostatize. And the Luther was their excuse.

The world of Pope Benedict XVI is already pagan at heart. He was the excuse the apostates and schismatics were waiting for.

St. Paul gave the “great apostasy” as a sign of the end times. Are we in the end times? Does this explain the great apostasy happening today. Is this why Pope Benedict looks forward to a small Church? Is this why the Pope is hesitant in exerting efforts arresting the great apostasy? Prophesies are always fulfilled.

During this polarization, there is nothing we can do about the other side. All our efforts must be in keeping ourselves and our love ones in the RIGHT side,(literally the side of those who will be saved) on the side of the Pope, the Vicar of Christ.