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Passion Sunday, March 22, 2015
The Man of Sorrows (Is.53:3)
As we enter
Passiontide, we witness Jesus being caught between apostate Jews, who
constantly challenge His teachings and His authority to teach, and, and the
pagan Romans, with whom they are collaborating. His constant adversaries, the
Pharisees and the Sadducees, blasphemously charge that He is possessed by a
devil.
Jesus reveals His
true identity most clearly when He says, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before
Abraham came to be, I am” (Jn.8:58). He has taken to Himself the Name God
revealed to Moses at Mount Sinai, “I am who am” (Ex.3:14). Jesus Christ is
truly God and truly Man! They take up stones to cast at Him, which is the
punishment for blasphemy. They would soon call upon the Romans for His
execution, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” (Lk.23:21).
What the Church is
suffering now, and is about to suffer, parallels what Jesus suffered at the
hands of the unbelieving Jews. In fact, the suffering and crucifixion of the
Church has been foretold by the great saints and mystics, as well as by the
Lord Himself:
“If the world
hates you, know that it has hated me before you. If you were of the world, the
world would love what is its own. But because you are not of the world, but I
have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the
word that I have spoken to you: No servant is greater than his master. If they
have persecuted me, they will persecute you also; if they have kept my word,
they will keep yours also” (Jn.15:18-20).
The world indeed
hates us! God’s holy Commandments are despised, and we will be expected to
observe and live by the evil laws that replace them. All over the world
governments and government agencies are preparing to declare marriage rights
for same-sex couples, which would eventually bind states and churches to
perform such marriages, and all citizens to accept them as legitimate. The
supreme court of the United States intends to rule on this by late June of this
year. This shows that there is a hidden hand in control, and that no country is
truly independent. Children in the schools are being brainwashed to accept evil
as good, and good as evil. We will all have to do that, or suffer the
consequences.
The Church today,
like her Lord, also finds herself “between a rock and a hard place”. On the one
hand she faces the apostasy of her leadership. Francis, whom the world calls
“Pope”, wants the Traditionalists, whom he considers to be stubborn and
backward, to be shut down. In the meantime, he has incurred excommunication
many times over, by taking part in Jewish worship services in their synagogues,
and praying with Muslims in their mosques. Christian, Jew, Muslim, or whatever,
it’s all the same to him. St. John the Apostle warns us that to take part in
such meetings with unbelievers is to share in their evil works:
“For many
deceivers have gone forth into the world who do not confess Jesus as the Christ
coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Look to
yourselves, that you do not lose what you have worked for, but that you may
receive a full reward. Anyone who advances and does not abide in the doctrine
of Christ, has not God; he who abides in the doctrine, he has both the Father
and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not
receive him into the house, or say to him, Welcome. For he who says to him,
Welcome, is sharer in his evil works” (2Jn.7-11).
St. Paul also
gives us warning:
“Do not bear the
yoke with unbelievers. For what has justice in common with iniquity? Or what
fellowship has light with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and
Belial? Or what part has the believer with the unbeliever? And what agreement
has the temple of God with idols?... Wherefore, ‘Come out from among them, be
separated, says the Lord, and touch not an unclean thing…” (2Cor.6:14:16a;17).
Then how could any
true “Vicar of Christ” ever join in worship with Talmudic Jews, who believe
that our beloved Jesus Christ, whom we adore as God, is a sinner and deceiver
suffering in Hell for all eternity? And how could a true “Vicar of Christ” pray
together with blasphemers who believe that Mary, the Most Pure and Holy Mother
of God, was a sinner, no better than a streetwalker? Just as they hate Him,
they hate her also.
She is our Mother
too, whom we should defend with our last breath from those who commit such
unspeakable blasphemies against her. Every day her shrines and statues are
desecrated. Unbelievers, like those who work for Charlie Hebdo in France, do horrible and degrading caricatures of our
Blessed Mother. The Muslims didn’t let them get away with doing that to their
prophet. Can we stand by and see our Mother treated like this? Who will defend
her now, if we don’t? God Himself was not willing to let her remain in this
sinful world. He took her up into Heaven, body and soul, where she prays for us
and pleads our cause. We must stand up for her now here on earth. This is not a
call for thoughtless and imprudent action, but to wake up and come to the
defense of your Mother!
This week we
celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation on Wednesday, and the Seven Sorrows of
the Blessed Virgin Mary on Friday. We are entering the most holy season of the
Liturgical Year. The statues and pictures are veiled, so that we may
concentrate on the mystery of Our Lord’s Passion, which Isaiah sees
prophetically:
“Despised and the
most abject of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with infirmity: and his
look was as it were hidden and despised. Whereupon we esteemed him not. Surely
he has borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him
as it were a leper and as one struck by God and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our iniquities: he was bruised for our sins. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him: and by his bruises we are healed” (ls.53:3-5).
(Posted with Fr. Campbell's permission)
(Posted with Fr. Campbell's permission)
