HOLY FAMILY and MARY, MOTHER OF GOD.

 1. The Christmastide Liturgy.
     The Christmastide Liturgy is followed by the Sundays in Ordinary time which further clarifies the ‘life of repentance’ which is the Old Testament spirituality. This is followed by the general headline in the Missal entitled ‘Instruction of developing one’s Faith.’ So we are confronting the two main topics that Christ first preached ‘Repent, believe.’ This is enough for salvation but it is better for all to proceed further to the perfection of Charity that is taught to us during Pentecost according to Christ’s teaching ‘be perfect as My heavenly Father is perfect.’
     In the feast of the Holy Family we see the figure of the Catholic Church in Joseph, Mary and Jesus.  In the Feast of Mary mother of God, we see Mary as a true Catholic. Both Liturgy reviews the outline on what we must do to attain everlasting life. The Gospel describes the three general steps. Let us discuss each step.

2. First step.
     We must know the commands of God. Here we have to hear the commands of God;  then we  must be certain that it is God’s command and not mere commands of men. Having heard the commands of God we must register them in our mind or intellect.              Where can we get the commands of God? First,  from a well translated work of Scriptures. Secondly,  these commands are also imbedded in the commentaries of the Fathers and doctors of the Church. Thirdly, from the innocence of children. Fourthly, from angels. 
     Mary, Joseph and the shepherds, being entirely detached from worldly attachments, were suitable subjects for visiting angels. Usually, if a soul is intent  in  learning the Word of God and shows zeal in studying Scriptures and Tradition, they will, also, easily learn from the innocence of children and from Angels. 
     The intellectual effort demanded of a person is for such person to integrated the knowledge he has into a unified whole which will enable him to incorporate new compatible truths and dispel truths contrary to the unified whole.
     Mary, Joseph and the shepherds were well acquainted with Scriptures and the prophets. They were very good candidates for visitation from angels. 
     In this first step, the action demanded of us is to acquire a very reliable correct knowledge of the teachings of Christ. AND for us to believe these truths because they are clearly the teachings of God. This first step is an act of the mind or the intellect. 
     Knowing the truths, having checked the truths that they are truly from God and believing these truths because they came from God, makes up the first step. And this was shown by the shepherds in the Gospel. The shepherds were very certain that the message was from God because it came from angels. 

3. Second step.
    The second step is to obey the command. St. Joseph obeyed; he took the child and his mother and brought them to Egypt until the angel said otherwise.   And the shepherds obeyed the message of the angels. They went and looked for a child in swaddling clothes. 
     While knowing the commands of God is called Faith, obeying the commands of God is called Charity. While knowing the commands is an act of the intellect, obeying the commands is an act of the free will. Faith is an act of the intellect; Charity is an act of the free will. You cannot have Charity without Faith. You cannot love God without first knowing God through obedience to His commands. ‘This is to know God, to obey His commands. ‘
     Pope Francis went against Catholic teaching when in his first publicized papal  talk he proposed that Charity is possible without dogmas. You cannot love God unless you first know the dogmas on who God is. You cannot love someone you do not know; that would only be puppy love. 

     This second step was shown by the shepherds in that they went and look for the child while Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart. The shepherds obeyed the command with an external physical act of traveling, looking for the child and finding the child. Mary obeyed the command by a pure act of the free will; with no accompanying visible physical act of the body. 

4. The circumcision. 
     The circumcision is the symbol of the soul’s ability to be able to remove all sources of sin. This ability is part of the infused gift of Faith together with the forgiveness of sin. An added gift comes with this gift and that is a new name, which does not come from man but from God. This is, also, a sign of predestination. The Book of the Apocalypse describes this as a white stone wherewith your new name from God is written. 
     Thus Christ received a name, not from men, but from the angel even before He was born. This feast reminds us to desire and to work for that day when we, too, will receive our new names from God and written in a white tablet which no one else can read except by the receiver. 

5. The Vatican Church today. 
     Gilbert Chesterton wrote that those outside the Catholic Church are like people peeping into the Cathedral through a key hole. They can see a little of the beauty of the Catholic Church but only a little. But those who are able to enter the Catholic Church through the supernatural virtue of Faith can see and appreciate the great beauty of the Church especially in her doctrines.
     Seeing fully the teachings of the Church they can easily defend the Church and reject what ever is against those holy teachings. 

     Unable to see fully what is inside the Church, outsiders are ignorant of what is inside, including the fact who is the true Pope, because they are outside and the Pope is inside. At the time the Church had two to three Popes, most cardinals and bishops did not know who was the true Pope because, without knowing it, they were outside the Church. 
     When a soul enters the Catholic Church, having repented and believed, he is united to the Mystical Body of Christ and the first person he sees inside the Church is the Pope, because a true Pope must be inside the Church. And all those who are inside will exhibit the four visible signs enumerated in the Nicene Creed; One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic.

      If I know that I am still outside the Church and I can still see Pope Francis and can relate with him the way I can relate with my friend, does that mean that we are both  outside the Church?
      If, as Chesterton wrote, I am an outsider and I peep through the key hole of the Church; and through that hole I can see how a true Pope looks like, can’t I not compare what I see through the key hole with the present Pope? Seeing the Popes inside the Church can I not compare them with the  one I see now? The view might neither be complete nor clear but I think it is possible. Christmas is like a key hole. Outside we have the Old Testament as a guide. We can peep inside where the New Testament is and compare the little we see inside with the much that we see outside.
     If we peep at the doctrines of the New Testament and at the Pope inside the Church and compare them to the doctrines and at the present Pope’s teachings they are different; they are even opposites. Let us look at the first step mentioned above; St. Joseph and the shepherds were obedient to the commands given to them by the angel. Is Pope Francis obedient to the 10 commandments of God in the Old Testament? Did anybody exempt him  from the 6th and 9th commandments? 
     His allowing adulterer to remarry and receive Holy Communion makes him an accomplice to the sin of disobedience to the commands of the Old Testament. His allowing an atheist journalist to remain an atheist makes him guilty of scandal against the command of Christ in the New Testament. 
     Obviously, Pope Francis is going against the spirituality of Christmastide which is the first step that leads to entrance to the Catholic Church and salvation. If he has not even taken the first step that leads to the Catholic Church will that mean that he is not yet even inside the Church? Since he is most popular with catholics who are outside the Church, he must really be outside the Church in which case he cannot be the Pope of the Catholic Church.