1. The Gospel for this feast teaches us how the Word of God is understood.
Christ asked His disciples; ‘who do people say I am?’ And Christ received two answers. The first answer came from the ordinary people. The second answer came from St. Peter.
From the ordinary people the answer came; ‘some say Elijah. Others say Jeremiah or one of the prophet. But when Jesus turned to Peter, Peter answered; ‘You are the Son of the Living God.’
Christ did not give any comment on the answer that came from the multitude. He gave a comment on St. Peter’s response; ‘it is not man who told you that. But My Father in heaven.;
2. Ordinary human language.
When a person speaks we hear sounds. And the sounds have its corresponding meaning. Each words the person utters have a meaning which we may refer to as dictionary meaning. For example. If a person says ‘this is a box,’ the dictionary meaning means that this square object here on the table has four sides and it is enclosed.
Any human being with an average intelligence would know the dictionary meaning of the statement. There might be other meanings to what the person said. But whatever other meaning it has would be within the dictionary meaning and would be under the capability of any normal human being to understand.
Thus the apostles gave several answers that shows the different degrees of understanding but within the natural capability of natural man; ‘some say Elijah. Some Jeremiah or one of the prophets. ‘ The idea of Christ being a person is obvious. The idea of a prophet is slightly higher intellectually but is still within man’s natural capability to understand.
3. Supernatural language.
But the Word of God is the spoken Word of God, spoken to man for his instruction. Man can understand the dictionary meaning of the sounds. But man will not be able to understand what God really means unless God, Himself, explains the meaning.As such the Word of God can be understood by man because it comes in the form of a sound that man can recognise, i.e. in a language, but man can only understand what God really meant through a Divine Revelation.
Man can hear the sound of the words. And like any language the sound of the word can be understood because it has a dictionary meaning. So if it says; ‘this is an ark.’ This is equivalent to saying; ‘this is a box.’
But because it is God who is speaking, God give the Words His own meaning. So the sound of the words; ‘this is a box,’ can have a deeper meaning and mean; ‘this is a tabernacle.’ This can still be easily understood by natural man. But if the meaning is in the supernatural realm it can mean; ‘this is My Church in the person of the Blessed Virgin Mary. That is very far from the idea of a box. ‘ This would be beyond the understanding of all human beings. At this point there is need of Divine Revelation.
4. All the teachings of the Catholic Church is in the supernatural level. They are all Divinely revealed. They cannot be learned by man unless God, Himself, teaches them; like what St. Peter learned that Jesus is the Son of the Living God. And Christ said so; ‘no one can teach you that except My Father in Heaven. The Catholic truths can only be taught by God directly through Divine Revelation.
Seminary or theological study should be a process by which students are taught to sit down, pray, fast, do good works while listening from a lecture from God. Not from a human professor.
What happens, therefore, in teaching Catholic truths is this; first, the preacher or teacher makes the sounds of the words. Secondly, the hearer hears the sounds of the words. Thirdly, the hearer finds out the dictionary meaning of the words. And fourthly, then the hearer waits for God to teach him the supernatural meaning of the words.
At this point we can get rid of all the theology professors, all the theology books, all the ball pens and notebooks and all the classrooms. We, only, need one who would read aloud and clearly the Words of Christ, a brief commentary of the Fathers of the Church and a very comfortable chair where the student can sit down and wait for God’s explanation.
Even the reader can be dispensed with since he might have a very bad German accent. In which case the student can read directly from the New Testament and from the Fathers. All of these are provided for in the Divine Office that all priests and religious pray. Oh, I forgot. Very few pray the complete Divine Office today. Too busy housing immigrants, adulterers and kissing the feet of women on Holy Thursday.
The supernatural meaning of the words does not come immediately; so the need for a very comfortable chair. It can come soon or much, much later. Or even years later. So the hearer of the words of God have to wait in contemplative prayer for the supernatural meaning. He should not occupy himself with other activities in the meantime. He must exclusively wait in prayer for the supernatural meaning of the Words of God.
xxxxxxxThis just described procedure is the way instructions in theology should be given in seminary and schools of theology. So again; first, the dogmatic or moral teachings of Christ should be learned from Divine Revelation. This can either be read publicly by a reader or it may be read by the seminarian himself. Secondly, he must learn the everyday dictionary meaning of the words read. The cultural background of the words read may, also, be studied. These readings should be as short as the readings in the Mass. Thirdly, if this is available, the writings and interpretation of the Fathers of the Church may be added. This, like the dictionary meaning of the words, is still in the human level. Fourthly, then the seminarian or anybody wishful of studying the word of God should pray contemplatively and wait for God’s supernatural meaning.
God’s meaning may come during work, during studies, while taking a penitential walk in the clausura but it will come normally during Divine Office. For this reason the Divine Office is considered the Work of God, ‘Opus Dei,’ because it is during those Liturgical prayers when God speaks to the contemplative soul. Thus this process of learning as practiced in the monastery makes the monastery the school of the Lord’s service.
5. It came from God.
So when asked where he learned his theology, if he had learned it the proper way, the seminarian should answer; ‘I learned it from God the Father.’ Unless he says this, he had learned nothing.
The Word of God had been learned the wrong way since time immemorial; they were being learned from the words of men who merely gave dictionary meanings to the Word of God. The Protestants are still doing it this way until now. The Catholic Church are doing it worse because added to the dictionary meaning they add their own personal, emotional interpretation.
This is the defect of seminary training since the 10th century. As Christ noted; ‘you have learned this from men.’ Around the 10th century, the word of God was taught by men in classrooms. This was the result of spread of the heresy of Plagiarism when men thought he could learn the things of God by his own efforts rather than through contemplative prayer.
The example of Pope Francis is typical of todays priesthood. Explaining the parable of the new wine in new wine skin and old wine in old wineskin, he ended his homily on the Gospel by reading the last phrase that said; ‘the old wine is better than the new wine.’ Everybody knows that. But after reading that last phrase, Pope Francis said; ‘and the new wine is better than the old wine.’ He, not only did not know the supernatural meaning of the Gospel, he did not know the dictionary meaning of the words and contradicted the very words of the Gospel.
The old wine is better. And he said the new wine is better. That was during a Mass in Santa Marta in front of bishops and cardinals who did not wink an eyelash. Well, they all came from the same school where the Words of God are taught by humans, and not by My Father in Heaven.
The ancient monasteries were doing it well up to the 9th century. The Words of God were learned and understood through waiting and praying contemplatively. But during the onslaught of Plagiarism and Semi-pelagianism, man begun to believe that the things of God can be learned through human efforts. So man begun to learn from other men. From then on priests, bishops and the laity never learned the teachings of the Catholic Church in the proper way thus never reached Faith, Hope and Charity which are supernatural virtues.
Visit any seminary or theological school and even at the very entrance you will see the list of human theology professors. All humans. All men that can only teach that Christ is a prophet. They cannot say like St. Peter; ‘You are the Son of the Living God,’ belief upon whom is the supernatural act of Faith is built. This latter can only come from God. You don’t have to go further.
So what do we have today? Priests, bishops, cardinals who do not have a supernatural knowledge of the Catholic religion. Even a Pope who only talks about allowing adulterers to continue committing adultery, who talk about atheist who should continue to be atheist, who talk to Anglicans like his friend Tony Palmer to remain an Anglican and who is talking to the whole world to remain as they are because there is no hell.
No seminary is teaching the Word of God correctly. Pope John Paul II took notice of this in his visit here in the Philippines. And the research done here clearly showed that no seminary was teaching the way to heaven. Imagine, the whole Catholic Church here does not know the way to heaven due to a faulty seminary curriculum. Again, if we are lucky to find one or two priests it is more because God took pity on the island and, personally, trained the one or two (since He alone can do so, as the Gospel shows.)
A Bishop’s committee made a new curriculum based on today’s Gospel. It was never implemented. It still stands; we do not have a single seminary that teaches the truths of the Catholic Church in the right way; in the way described in today’s Gospel. In the meantime, thousands of Catholics are dying without Faith. Oh, nothing to worry. Since Pope Francis had been hinting that there is no hell, another Jesuit heresy.
6. So teaching the Words of God is based on todays Gospel; the sound of the words of God can be listened to from any one or simply read from a book. But God’s meaning of His own Words can be explained by God alone when we are in an attitude of Prayer of Faith. Otherwise we learn nothing. So, as suspected, from the 10th century up to the present times, due to the wrong way of studying the Words of God, no priest, no bishop, no cardinal and even Pope Francis do not know the teachings of God as found in Divine Revelation. Surely, there are a few. But they have learned the Word of God through a miracle due to the mercy of God and due to their humble attitude in life.
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