Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
On this Monday after the Feast of Epiphany,
we hear in the Gospel of St. Matthew our Lord really beginning his public ministry
with the preaching of penance and with the working of miracles.
What we hear him say in St. Matthew's account is,
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And what we see him do in this passage
is to show the people that indeed the kingdom of heaven is at hand
by means of the miracles that he works,
the people that he cures,
and the possessed and lunatics that he delivers,
and the paralytics that he has stand up and walk.
Our Lord preaches penance and then shows forth his might
and his glory so that we might know that it is his voice
that will bring about the forgiveness of our sins.
Our Lord does this in the flesh.
He does this in a visible way,
in a way in which everyone can see and hear.
And it is by means of the visual carnal reality
of the individual.
And it is by means of the visual carnal reality of the individual.
And it is by means of the visual carnal reality of the individual.
And it is by means of the visual carnal reality of the individual.
And the fact that this word, the word of God,
the eternal word of the Father who speaks in human language
and backs up everything that he has to say with deeds of power,
it is in this way that we come to know the truth
and see that it is indeed from God
and are able through his grace
to assent to the teaching of Jesus with all our hearts
and all our minds.
St. John in his first letter today
tells us that this is the case.
This is how you can know the spirit of God.
Every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ
come in the flesh belongs to God.
And every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus
does not belong to God.
And the spirit of the Antichrist
is that spirit by which
the flesh belongs to God.
The spirit of incarnation
and the fleshly existence of Christ
is denied.
And today it is denied.
Not only in the fact that
Jesus is not acknowledged as Lord by many,
but by others who do acknowledge Jesus as Lord,
they don't acknowledge the fact
that he still comes to us in the flesh.
The church, you might say,
is an extension of the flesh of Christ.
Not only because
in the holy sacrifice of the Mass
that we receive Jesus Christ,
Jesus in the Eucharist
in his fleshly existence,
although present to us sacramentally
in the form of the Eucharist,
but also because the church
remains the visible sign
of Christ's presence in the world
and of his truth.
And that's what's denied
more than anything else
in today's world
is that Jesus Christ
still speaks to his church.
And through the visible signs
that he has himself established,
that is through the bishops
and the Holy Father
and the bishops in union
with the Holy Father.
We live in troubled times,
times in which there are many voices
and voices that speak words of confusion,
whether they come from the side of secularism
or the side of,
religion or sometimes
even from the side of tradition.
Because the spirit by which we acknowledge
Christ's coming in the flesh
is a spirit of humility and obedience.
Because our Lord, in fact,
when he came into this world,
came to humble himself and to obey.
The incarnation itself
was a profound and infinite act of faith.
Humility, this is what causes us so much joy
as we celebrate Christmas,
that God should have loved us so much
that he should humble himself
and then come to obey his mother,
but not only the Immaculate Conception
and Saint Joseph, his holy foster father,
but even wicked men
who had ultimately put him to death.
So the way that our Lord has shown us,
the way of repentance,
the way that he has backed up
with his deeds of wonder and glory,
is the way of humility and obedience.
Of course, this is the way that
the world does not accept
and will quite explicitly and vocally reject,
but sometimes on the part of Orthodox Catholics
or traditionalists,
while in principle this is accepted,
in practice we get in the habit
of being disrespectful to the bishops
and sometimes even the Holy Father
and setting ourselves up
as sort of armchair theologians
to carry on the spirit of criticism.
And while, you know, priests and bishops do make, you know,
priests and bishops do make, you know, priests and bishops do make, you know,
priests and bishops do make, you know, priests and bishops do make, you know,
priests and bishops do make, you know, priests and bishops do make mistakes,
I think it becomes a dangerous habit of mind
when we submit our superiors,
especially the bishops and the Holy Father,
to our own policing and analysis.
Sometimes even something comparable
to what happens with Bible Christians
happens with those who are of tradition and orthodoxy.
Instead of thumping the Bible,
we thump the Catechism of the Council of Trent
and bounce off everything that this bishop or that bishop
or sometimes even what the Holy Father says
against something that had been previously written down
in magisterial documents.
And while it is true the ordinary magisterium of the Church
is established by its consistency
with what has already been determined by the Church and the Magisterium,
with what has already been determined by the Church and the Magisterium,
in other words, if a pope just comes out one day
and says something in a homily or in a Wednesday audience
that is completely out of line with what has come before,
then of course it's not part of the ordinary magisterium of the Church.
But that's not what I'm talking about.
What I'm talking about is the habit of mind
by which subjects are constantly analyzing their superiors,
especially when it comes to Catholics in the pews
or even priests and bishops.
Or priests or traditionalists or Orthodox Catholics
or priests or traditionalists or Orthodox Catholics
who are constantly submitting what bishops say
or what the Holy Father says
to submitting it to their analysis of the church tradition
and the Church documents.
And it very much becomes like Protestant Bible Thumping.
And it is not the spirit of Jesus Christ.
And it is not the spirit of Jesus Christ.
It is not the spirit of Christ.
It is not the spirit of Jesus Christ.
It is not the spirit of Jesus Christ.
It is not the spirit of Jesus Christ.
It is not the spirit of Jesus Christ.
It is not the spirit of Jesus Christ.
It is not the spirit of Jesus Christ.
It is not the spirit of Jesus Christ.
And it very much becomes like Protestant bible thumping.
of humility the fact of the matter is in each and every age of the church there has been a living
magisterium there have been schisms yes there has been anti-popes and confusing times there is no
question but our lord set the church up in such a way that it works when there's a visible head
and it works when we are submissive to the living teaching magisterium even when for example
catholics just do something very simple such as go to confession they submit themselves in that case
to the judgment of a fallible man there's no guarantee that the priest is infallible in the
confession he's not the pope and he's not speaking on issues of faith and morals you're we submit
our sins to the judgment of the priest and through the sacrament working through the
the weak material of this fallible man
man god works the sacrament we submit our case to the priest and he determines whether or not
we're um uh repentant of our sins and he gives us the advice that hopefully in a prayerful way he
he believes is appropriate to us and then he gives us absolution and we can walk out of that
confessional wondering whether or not we are forgiven or whether or not we have gotten the
best advice or whether or not we've been guided properly and there's no guarantee that the priest
is infallible but that is the act of humility which jesus christ himself set up for us to
receive the forgiveness of our sins that is the way the church works it doesn't work in any other
way so if if we're constantly analyzing everything that superiors or bishops
or
even sometimes unfortunately the holy father says we don't have the spirit of christ i don't care
what any traditionalist says or whatever document they want to thump that is the way the church
works that's what our lord himself did that's what the saints did for example that's what padre
pio did traditionalists will often quote padre pio as their champion padre pio never spoke out
publicly against any of his superiors
even when he was being persecuted even when he was being accused of soliciting in the confessional
even though he didn't particularly care for the novus ordo he never spoke out that is simply
a fact and so that should be a sign to us of the spirit by which we should confront
our age our secular age our godless age
our age in which there is a crisis crisis of faith
and sometimes a crisis of faith among
uh... the clergy
among those who have hold
positions
of responsibility
we are challenged often
to to deal with very complicated difficult situations
but we need to have the spirit of christ
we could imitate
saint john neumann whose feast we celebrate today
because he was
a great
leader, a holy man, someone who was a bishop, of course, and who had the care of souls.
But his attitude was that of humble service to the flock entrusted to his care. And he
had the spirit of obedience and humility. So that's what we need. And that's the only
way we're going to be able to confront the problems that we encounter in the world today.
That is the spirit of Christ. The way Christ has shown us is the way of humility and obedience.
The way Christ has shown us is the way of humility and obedience.