1. Every time we celebrate a Sunday Liturgy, it coincides with Pope Francis saying the opposite. And as we read the Gospel where Christ gives a command, it coincides with Pope Francis disobeying the command. We have noticed this and have recorded them in the past posts
For example, on ‘Amoris Laetitia’ Sunday Pope Francis wrote his exhortation ‘Amoris Laetitia’ where he contradicted what Christ said in the Gospel. And now, as Pope Francis gave ‘Vultum Dei Quaerere,’ Pope Francis just contradicted the teaching of Christ in the Gospel on Martha and Mary.
In the Gospel of the 16th Sunday in Ordinary time, Jesus corrected Martha explaining that Mary had chosen the better portion and nobody can take it away from her. In other words, contemplative study of the Word of God is superior to caring for the poor and it is so superior that Christ will not take it away from her and tell her to do something else. Well, Pope Francis just took away the better portion from the Marys. What Christ would not do, Pope Francis did. What do you call a person who goes against the teachings of Christ? An anti- Christ.
The contemplative life is the soul of the Church. Most orders have a contemplative section that is the power house of the orders. Without the contemplative portion of the Church, the Church ceases to be ‘ecclesia orans.’ It ceases to be the Catholic Church. Is Pope Francis trying to end the existence of the Catholic Church? If he wants to.
Stop the contemplatives from being contemplatives. And that is, precisely, what he is doing with the latest exhortation. If the contemplatives want to continue supporting the existence of the Catholic Church, they should disobey Pope Francis and obey Christ, Himself, who said you have chosen the better portion and let no one take it away from you. As Scriptures states; it is better to obey God than to obey man.
Neither Mary nor Martha were involved in vanities of vanities.
2. Vanities of vanities.
The headlines are filled with news on people dying. Plane load of vacationers returning home crashed and all the passengers died. People who were merely dancing danced towards the very face of death. Or people just strolling to celebrate the day their forefathers butchered the Catholic Church in France,…. many of them are dead. As a priest my first question is; where are their souls now? The lighting of candles, the moment of silence, the testimonials, the speeches are fine. Looking for the black box and searching for terrorist are equally fine. But what concerned me is where are their souls now. Does anybody ever think about this?
If I ask myself where will I go when I die, before I get the answer, I would immediately enter a monastery in Mont Sant’ Michel rather than go dancing at Bataclan. But Mont Sant’ Michel is still empty. Bataclan is back in business. Man is choosing his own priorities.
The 18th Sunday is about preparing for death. Christ said; ‘fools, what are you doing now. Tonight I will demand an accounting of your soul. ‘ Are you working to get rich or are you working to get rich in the sight of God?
If we can answer that question, then we would know where those who died went. We can rejoice with the story of that venerable priest killed while saying Mass at the altar in Rouen, France. While we can only pray for those killed, the great- grand children of the revolutionaries who conquered Bastille and started a genocide of French Catholics.
3. The readings.
The first reading speaks about vanities and describes every day activities as vanities. And Ooheleth gives a list of vanities that are not sinful; labouring to acquire wisdom and knowledge, acquiring skill and earning money, buying properties and labouring under the sun.
Note that these people were not going about committing adultery, stealing what belongs to others, killing innocent people or anything of the like. The vanity of vanities enumerated were lawful activities. Yet they were described as vanities, i.e. ‘useless’ for the salvation of one’s soul.
The second reading speaks about what pertains to higher realms where Christ is seated at God’s right hand. Then to prepare for death St. Paul writes is to be “be intent on things above rather than on things of earth.’
And the Gospel warns us; ‘fool, this very night your life shall be required of you. When we die God will judge us according to our deserts. In fact, after we die, we will see that we have already been judged by God. So there will be no further hearings after death. And God will judge us according to what we can carry in our soul. So St. Thomas of Aquinas in his commentary wrote; you cannot bring those vanities with you; you cannot use them in your defence.
You will be judged by what you can carry in your soul; your sins or your virtues. Things that make you rich in body are fine but you cannot use them for your defence in God’s court. Sins, of course, are bad news. The Gospel urges us to grow rich in the sight of God. And what makes us rich in the sight of God? Virtues !! The moral and theological virtues, but especially the virtue of Charity which is the trait of the contemplative. The thing Pope Francis wants the nuns to abandon? Yes.
Without Charity or without being a contemplative you do not have what your soul needs to be saved.
3. What must we do to prepare ourselves to die a holy death?
A good preparation, summarised from ‘preparation for death by St. Alphonsus Liquori and another by St. Robert Bellarmine, is St. Paul’s ‘be intent on things above rather than on things of earth.
Before St. Paul begins to list the vanities of vanities, he enumerates, first, sins, which are worse than vanities; namely, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desires and that lust which is idolatry. These are the things Pope Francis and some bishops want us to welcome. In fact, the DOCAT contains lessons on these for the Youth to read, with compliments from Cardinal Schonborn.
The concern of the top men of the Church today are the things of the earth; global warming wherein one solution is killing babies, belief in big bang theory and evolution aside from confirming couples in their adultery, in their sexual perversion and total independence from God. These are, not only the things of the earth but are mortal sins.
4. How do we grow rich in the sight of God.
Christ said; to prepare for a holy death, do not grow in riches and in achievements. Instead grow rich in the sight of God. What will make you rich in the sight of God. Charity !!! How can we attain Charity? Charity is a supernatural gift of God. He gives it, only, to those who have Faith. But Faith is, also, a supernatural gift from God. And He gives it only to those who have completely repented. He does not give it to those in the state of sin like adultery or infidelity.
And God does not give anyone the grace of repentance unless he supernatural humility, which is the first Beatitude. “Blessed are the poor in spirit (the humble) for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Note the phrase ‘for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They will go to heaven no matter how they die.
5. Humility (the ‘Poor in Spirit.)
Imagine, those who are rich in the sight of God are those who are ‘poor in spirit; those who own nothing, who has nothing materially and has no personal desires except God (Cardinal Sarah’s ‘God or nothing.) We can only possess God if we are nothing ‘poor in spirit.’ Very poor in our souls because the soul has no other desire except the things of heaven (as the second reading states.)
That is the reason why Pope John Paul II in his splendid encyclical ‘Veritatis Splendor’ centered his exhortation on the ‘young rich man,’ who asked Christ; ‘what must I do to attain everlasting life.’ The same question the lawyer asked Christ. What was Christ’s answer; go home, sell all your possession, give it to the poor and come follow Me. Ananias and Saphira was castigated by St. Peter. Why? Because they kept a small portion. See, the need to be totally ‘poor in spirit.’ The couple who kept a little was a little rich in spirit. But not rich in the sight of God.
The Vatican after Benedict XVI has become very rich. And corruption had grown with scandals on money lost growing. Add to this the news that one can get a private papal audience for $25,000 with a photo of Di Carpio handing the check personally to the Pope during a private papal visit.
6. The rich in the sight of God.
Humility is have nothing and to be nothing. Today, it is the non-existing virtue because it is a God given virtue and it seems God had recently not given it to anybody, because nobody deserves it.
When the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in Kibeho, Rwanda, the school girls asked her why she appeared in Africa and not in glamorous Paris. Her answer was; ‘because I cannot find any one who is humble except here.’ Well, Mary said that, not me. So may I rightly accuse everybody for not being humble?
Humility is the most defined and described virtue in the Catholic Church. St. Pope Gregory the Great defined it. So did St. Augustine and later on St. Thomas of Aquinas. St. Benedict collated all the descriptions and wrote the 12 degrees of humility. St. Ignatius of Loyola, trained by the Benedictine Abbot Cisneros from Montserrat wrote about humility which makes me wonder why somebody does not have it.
The world is totally ignorant of the virtue. All the people in society phrased as humble are not so but are only P.R. humble, i.e. putting up humility to win an election or whatsoever. But if we pick up the true Catholic definition of humility somebody does not have it according to St. Ignatius’ definition.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux did something even more helpful. He listed the 12 degrees of humility of St Benedict and then wrote down its opposite 12 degrees of Pride. Most people today described as humble are in truth proud according to St. Bernard. So where are the humble people? Only in Kibeho, Rwanda. Mary said it and we better believe it.
So only those African are rich in the sight of God? Maybe together with Cardinal Arinze and Cardinal Sarah. That is why they are humiliated by Cardinal Nichols and in the Vatican……. and taking it very well.
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