1. I am not like them.
Pride, the sin of the devil, is difficult to discern.
And likewise, all the more, its opposite, humility; though both being in the natural level can be easily understood. But man, because of his fallen nature, has become totally incapable of knowing if he is proud; since pride makes him blind to his sins. This makes repentance impossible for him. Humility, on the other hand, being contrary to the fallen human nature, though natural, is even more difficult to discern; because of the pride that is natural in man.
To repent one must know that he is proud. To know if we are inside the Catholic Church or not, all that we must do is to be humble; since humility is the first degree of the Beatitude and the first degree of membership inside the Church.
The literature of the Catholic Church is filled with treatises on Pride and humility. So there is no reason why we can remain ignorant of both. St. Gregory the Great had a comparative study of both pride and humility in his ‘Pride according to St. Gregory the Great – a Study of the Moralia.’ And humility is discussed by almost every saint; from St. Gregory the Great, St.Augustine, St. Benedict, St. Thomas of Aquinas and even St. Ignatius of Loyola which makes me wonder why they say Pope Francis is humble when he does not have an iota of Christian humility as described even by St. Ignatius. Pope Francis only have PR, like the politicians and movie stars.
As prophesied, the pride of life will rule the world today. And this is confirmed by the 3rd Sunday of Lent.
2. The Gospel described the Galileans whose blood was mixed by Pilate with their sacrifice and the 18 upon whom the tower of Siloam fell. Both groups were going against existing authorities, sort of people’s power, which is a sin (consult ‘Mirari vos’ of Pius IX.) But they alleged that they were not revolting but merely obeying the command to honor God and not the state.
The occupying powers punished them severely. Then the Jews confronted Christ with the question; ‘how come they were punished by God when they were doing something good while we are not being punished. Is that a sign we are better? No.! Christ said; You are no better unless you repent.
3. Christ, in effect, said; the Galileans and the 18 men were guilty of trying to overthrow duly constituted authority. And this is a serious sin, as clearly explained by Pius IX. The first Christians never demonstrated against the most cruel emperors. So the Galileans and the 18 were duly chastised with death. When the Jews commented to Christ that they are better because they have not been chastised, Christ answered; you are as bad as they are for one reason; ‘because you have not repented.’ Note that the sin of not being in the state of repentance is a very serious sin.
4. The rule on the virtue of Penance.
The third Sunday of Lent goes deeper into explaining the virtue of Penance which is the spirit of Lent. To have our past sins forgiven we must repent for each and every mortal sin. Repentance consist in four steps; one, to know each and every mortal sin. Second, to be contrite for all those mortal sins. Third, to resolve not to sin again. And fourthly, to make reparation to both God and neighbor. These four steps must be applied to each and every mortal sin to have all past mortal sins forgiven. This is a tedious process though it is only an act of the mind and the will.
5. The above are the four steps of repentance; and if done properly leads to developing the virtue of Penance.
Now, that the past sins are forgiven what next? The next is to avoid committing those mortal sins again in the future. How do you do that? But continuing the life of repentance by practicing the virtue of Penance. An example of one who continuously is repenting for those past forgiven mortal sins is St. Peter, who up to the time he was being crucified had in mind his sin for having denied Christ. How can a saint still be thinking of his past forgiven sins? Because that is the way to avoid those sins again in the future. As Psalm 50 (51) states: ‘and my sins are always before me.’
One repents to have his past sins forgiven; and one continues to repent to avoid those past forgiven sins in the future. That’s the only way to avoid future sins…continuously living the virtue of Penance. A Christian repents,… repents….. and repents from the beginning of his life up to the last second of his life.
The sin of the Jews questioning Christ is that…… just because they were not being chastised by God, they thought they were alright and pleasing to God. No!! God said; the mere fact that you are not repenting is already a sin.
6. This is the common sinful state of all men. Not only are they sinning; they are not putting into practice the virtue of Penance that makes a soul worthy to receive sanctifying grace that forgives all their past sins and prevents them from sinning in the future Remember, if your past sins had been forgiven because you have repented…..but if you stop for a while repenting, your soul returns to the state of sin ….just by the mere fact that you stopped repenting, St. Thomas wrote in his treatise on the Sacrament of Penance. When you stop repenting even for a while, the sin committed is called ‘ingratitude.’
7. The Jews did not know that ‘not to be in a state of repentance’ is a sin. This is what the Gospel is trying to teach. This is, also, what we do not know. ‘My sins are always before me,’ means you must never forget your sins and you must constantly be contrite for those sins up to the end of your life. Forget this virtue just for a second and that is a sin, which Christ is explaining to the Jews in today’s Mass.
8. All are committing this ‘strange’ sin, from the Pope, down to the Cardinals, bishops, priest and almost every men. The way of life in the modern world and the present state of the Catholic Church are perfect for making man forget the need for continuously practicing the virtue of Penance. And the result? We are like a fig tree without fruit; without the fruits of repentance.
The Gospel states that Christ approached the fig tree for three years and found it had no fruit. It does not say whether there were fruits in the first or second year. But clearly there were no fruits after the third year. Why three years? These are the three stages in the age of man; childhood, adulthood and old age. They represent the three ages of the life of the Catholic Church. Probably childhood is around Pentecost, adulthood in the 15th century and old age is today, year 2016. And Christ saw that the Church is completely devoid of the virtue of Penance; she has no fruit of repentance. Is this true? Just look at all the headlines. Paul VI was right. All around we see sins because all around are the devils on the loose.
9. The unrepentant Church.
Instead of practicing the virtue of Penance for the forgiveness of sins, the whole Catholic Church is, instead committing serious sins. From the Pope we see him teaching wrong doctrines, encouraging divorce, pushing adulterer to receive Holy Communion sacrilegiously, etc. Instead of teaching the Church the virtue of Penance the Pope, himself, is teaching people to sin. And most of the Cardinals and Bishops are agreeing with the Pope’s mind to allow contraception in case of the Zika virus.
Contraception is intrinsically evil; it cannot be allowed for any reason. And even the President of the Philippine CBCP endorsed this sin to all the bishops and it seems no one disagreed. Maybe a few disagreed silently but one cannot disagree silently. That is like assenting to the error.
There is a worldwide effort to make the whole world commit serious sin……instead of teaching them to repent. Even the infamous missionary of mercy will not be going around to teach the virtue of Penance which they are probably ignorant of. They will simply absolve all the sins of unrepentant souls and make them erroneously believe they will all go to heaven. The world is piling up sins upon sins and they don’t know it.
The fig tree, the Catholic Church, is surely alive! But it has not fruit…..and probably no leaves. The angry words of Christ is very clear; ‘Cut it down.’
10. A reprieve.
But the gardener, who is Christ, begs the Father to give it one last year, And He will try to do some extraordinary gardening, like hoeing around the fig tree and applying manure. If this still does not work and the Catholic Church still does not bear fruit, then this Church will be chopped down…….condemned. What? The Catholic Church chopped down? No.
Infidelity, the absence of fruits, is the present state of the Catholic Church. Joseph Ratzinger’s article on this lost of Faith is the first one I read as a young seminarian. And proof of it abound now. The last one is Bouyer’s (a convert and now a liturgist) article on the same topic. The three years of inspection is over and as prophesied the vineyard of Lord has been devastated by the men of the Church.
But it was allowed a reprieve of one year (which can be an hour or a week.) What is this emergency procedure described by the Gospel. We will try to explain it lengthily in another future posts but here is a short answer given to us by Pope Benedict quoting St. Bonaventure who had been waiting for the event of the fruitless fig tree. The emergency procedure of hoeing and applying manure is a description of the monastic life according to St. John Climacus. This is quite a unique form of monasticism different from St. Benedict or Bernard or Romuald. Pope Benedict and Bonaventure described it as ‘new monasticism’ upon which is based the ‘new evangelization.’ Only this procedure can make the fig tree bear fruit. Otherwise expect it to be chopped down and thrown into the fire. But be sure we are not part of it. St. Climacus’ monasticism is the ICU of the terminally sick soul. St. Peter Damian used it to cure gays and homosexuals.
11. Like the Jews who viewed the Galileans and the 17 men as deserving of punishment, we, also, look at other men as evil; Hitler, Stalin, even our own presidents like Nixon and Marcos. Christ’s message to us; ‘unless you repent’ you are no different from them. In fact, they might be better than you because they were chastised on earth and, therefore, could go to heaven. If you are not being chastised and, worse, if you are not repentant, you shall be candidate for the chopping board.
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