In today's first reading from Samuel, we learn that the prophet was ignorant of the ways of the Lord until the Lord had revealed it to him.
And so, that first reading points to one of the ways of illumination, for there are essentially four.
Natural illumination, that is, the light cast on object.
Rational illuminations, that is, our conformity to those things we can see through natural illumination.
Prophetic illumination and divine illumination.
And all of these are open to each and every one of us.
The first three in this life, the last in the life to come,
unless we are given...
those extraordinary graces that were given to St. Paul and most likely to St. John the Baptist,
that is, the beatific vision, the beatific illumination while we are still dwelling on this earth.
And so, in today's gospel, we learn of these profound truths present before us.
We learn in the incident many profound truths that we must apply most especially in our day and age.
A day and age that is so much laboring in the first two forms.
A day and age of illumination, the natural and the rational.
For without the prophetic illumination, then we all devolve into the paganism and the pantheism of our modern time.
And indeed, that is what today's gospel truly points out to us.
And indeed, we see it very clearly in the incident.
For it was not, as it were, until the disciples declare Rabboni, that is, Master,
or, as it is commonly understood in the Doctrines,
in Fathers of the Church, Teacher, that is, the way of the prophetic illumination
by which Jesus Christ truly teaches us all things.
And so, we see St. John the Baptist this day witnessing for the third consecutive day
that he is not the Christ and he does so in accord with the teaching of St. Scripture
and the virtue of humility which tells us to put no hope in man.
That Christ is man.
That John can see both through the natural light and the rational light
for he can detect with his senses, he can hear the voice of the man,
he can see the flesh of a man, and indeed, he can even touch that flesh with his hand
and, quite frankly, he can smell that Christ is truly a man.
And so, his senses tell him very clearly that this Christ who stands before him is truly a man.
But he is also able to declare that he is not the Christ.
That he is the Christ, i.e., that he is God.
For St. John also, by the bodily senses, he can see that he is a man.
But by the spiritual senses, that is, by the way of prophetic illumination,
he believes that he is also the Son of God.
And so, he sees truly both with the eyes of the natural light and natural reason
and also with the eyes of the Spirit.
And so, we observe...
We observe the great prudence of St. John the Baptist.
Prudence, a virtue which is so often misunderstood
and, indeed, a virtue that if it simply remains on a natural level
becomes what St. Augustine declares to us to be nothing but a beautiful vice.
And so, we see St. John the Baptist exercising great prudence in today's Gospel.
And prudence is, as St. Pius X tells us,
prudence is the virtue that directs each action
towards a new life.
It makes its lawful end
and, consequently, seeks the proper means
in order that the action be well accomplished
in all points of view
and, thereby, pleasing to our Lord.
And so, prudence declares to us
that, ultimately, our happiness lies
in pleasing the Lord.
And so, we must do all things well,
but we must do them in accord with the dictates
of the doctrine of the Church.
And so, we learn through prudence
that we have, essentially,
three spirits to contend with in this life.
We must deal with the Divine Spirit.
We must deal with the Diabolical Spirit.
And we must deal, and often,
this is the spirit we wrestle with the most,
that is, the human spirit.
And so, Fr. Frederick Faber has pointed out
that in regards to this last spirit,
we act from purely natural motives
and in a purely natural way,
apart from grace.
It is the human nature,
the human tendency to gravitate
independent of satanic impulses
to peace, comfort, ease, liberty,
and making ample provisions for the body.
And we see this widespread in our day and age.
For we are told to seek peace at all costs,
and most especially,
at the cost of compromising our faith.
That is, to bring about peace
not in accord with the way
that Christ tells us to do so,
but in a way that is not in accord with the way
that the human spirit tells us to do so.
We are sought to seek comfort and ease in every way.
We are told that our happiness will lie
if we have enough funds to acquire the latest medical advance
so that when the pain of our final death
or the pain of disease overwhelms the human spirit,
we will have the means to be happy
and to be comfortable in dealing with that pain
in an irrational manner.
And so, this earth may be an unhappy place,
but it is neither the pressure of God's providence
that makes it unhappy,
nor is it the ragings of the devils
that primarily make it unhappy.
For the ragings of the devil would have no effect on us
if we truly applied our faith
in each and every moment of our lives.
But what causes the bulk of our unhappiness
is the human spirit
operating in a way that is not happy.
In quarrels, in coldness,
in conceit, in rivalry,
envy, in strife,
in jealousies, misunderstandings,
and an exaggerated idea of slights and wrongs.
And if we think, any one of us,
that we escape these effects of original sin,
this weakening of the human spirit,
Scripture tells us that the just man falls seven times a day.
And when Scripture uses the term just man,
it means a holy man.
And so, even the saints wrestled
with their fallen human spirit,
even the saints wrestled with all those things listed
by Father Faber
that point out the human spirit and its influence.
And so, ultimately, we are prisoners,
not by way of demonic possession,
as is often understood,
but we are primarily prisoners
to our own bad habits
and our sinful inclinations.
And St. John the Baptist declares to us today,
in prudence,
that there is one way out
of this tribulation
and one way only.
And it is in this most profound light
that St. John the Baptist begins to unfold to us
all the mysteries of our faith.
In this light, the Baptist does not compel
or urge his disciples to follow Christ,
but only points him out
so that they may,
with all the fervor of their hearts,
pursue so great a good as Christ,
whom they themselves have discovered,
that is, the unearthed treasure spoken of in Scripture,
that when the human heart discovers it
on his own efforts under the influence
of friends who truly love him,
as the Baptist truly loved his disciples,
for amongst his disciples
were James and John and Andrew,
and he would point out to them
that he was not the Christ,
put no hope in man.
And so they would come under this divine influence
and ultimately they would come to know
the most profound mysteries of our faith,
and they would not count the cost in any way.
They would not give in to comfort,
for the two disciples sought to pursue the Lord,
as it is said,
in the tenth hour,
or around four in the evening,
when the sun begins to set
and we begin to make provisions
for a night's sleep.
These disciples cast aside any concern for sleep
because they had found
the treasure of great price,
the pearl that we are supposed to pursue,
the Christ.
And so they were beginning to come under
that most extraordinary of all influences,
the divine spirit.
That divine spirit which essentially consists
first and foremost and primarily of God,
but also in his holy legions,
that is, the angels who remain faithful
and all the saints who have gone before us,
those legions led by the blessed Virgin Mary.
And so our hope is in conforming to the divine spirit
so that we may overcome
both the diabolical and the human,
but primarily the human spirit,
and so the divine spirit always seeks
to give us illumination,
that is, prophetic insight.
And the apostles begin to see this
when they declare him to be Rabboni,
that is, the teacher of mankind,
not by way of natural knowledge,
but by way of supernatural knowledge.
And so it is truly the prophetic light,
and in it we begin to see all the mysteries
that unfold to us in the scripture.
We begin to see, not by human sentimentality,
why Jacob was willing,
was permitted to steal the birthright of Esau,
because it is not according to human sensitivities
that we discern the truths being taught to us
in the Old Testament,
but by the sign and symbol
that they were to point out.
And so Jacob stole the birthright of his son
in order to indicate that the chosen people
who came first in time
were not first in the mind of God
and in the mystery of salvation,
the church was.
And because they localized their mission
of holding on to that truth
until it would explode on the human scene
in the divine person of Christ and his church,
because they were unfaithful
to their mission of preserving it,
it was given to another people,
that is us,
the Gentile people,
the pagan peoples.
And why do we have that mission?
In order to give it back to the world,
both the pagans and the chosen people,
whom scripture tells us will come ultimately
in the end into the church at last.
And these are the marvels
and the mysteries of our faith.
These are the great battles that we are involved in
by being incorporated into the body of Christ.
Saint John does it
in a most simple and profound term
that the doctors and the fathers
could not exhaust themselves
in this life meditating on.
Behold the Lamb of God.
Behold Him
who takes away the sins of the world.
And so in that term,
Saint John the Baptist tells us
that this Christ
is the spotless sacrifice
of the Eternal Father.
And by that term,
he declares emphatically his belief
that He is truly God
and truly man.
For no sacrifice
can be pleasing to the Father
unless it is an infinite sacrifice.
And it can only be infinite
if it is God Himself.
And so he declares a mystery
that even the apostles
have not begun to penetrate
at this time.
But they see something unique in the Christ.
And so,
they abandon all things
to follow Him.
And so we too
must abandon all things
to follow Him.
Saint John the Baptist declares to us
of himself,
and when he does so,
he declares it of every human person,
why follow me?
For all those
who hold out
some type of happiness and hope
for the human family outside of Christ,
Saint John declares,
why follow me?
I am not the Christ.
Follow Him
who is the Lamb of God,
the ransom of the world,
and the only hope
for us not to fall
to the fallen spirits,
the diabolical,
and the human.
The only hope
that elevates us
into the life
of the Divine Spirit
by which we operate
in this life
through the prophetic light.
Otherwise,
all our virtues,
prudence,
justice,
temperance,
fortitude,
only become
those beautiful vices
by which the world
is dragged down
and led astray.
And ultimately,
if it is not delivered
by the Divine Spirit,
deposited
in that abode
of the demons.
That is,
to receive
the recompense
for their pride
and their sins.
Saint John is telling us,
there is no excuse
for the human spirit,
weakened
and as depraved
as it may be,
to not see in Christ
something different,
something special.
The Apostles did it,
not clearly,
but they clearly recognized
because the Baptists pointed out,
don't you see something
in that man unique?
And what was it?
It was the purity of Christ,
the sinlessness of Christ,
and by way,
at least of implication,
if not directly,
and we may assume directly,
because Saint John the Baptist
had an intimate relation
with the Mother of God,
for she brought him
salvation
before
he could see
through the natural
or the rational light.
But at the moment
of the visitation,
Saint John the Baptist
begins immediately
to see
through the prophetic light
and it causes that infant
in his mother's womb
to leap for joy.
For all knowledge,
only if it,
as it were,
is elevated
in the prophetic light,
simply becomes knowledge
by which the human spirit
is ultimately crushed
and we remain prisoners
of our own devices,
as was pointed out
by certain followers
of the secular order.
It is a line
from one of the most popular songs
of our modern age.
We are all just prisoners
of our own devices.
We are not.
If
we, like the Baptists,
recognize
something unique
and totally different
in the God-man Christ
that we are called
to be delivered
from the prison
of our own devices
and ultimately
from the hands of Satan.
And so,
let us learn
from the words of Saint Pio
as the Apostles began
to learn this day
when they did not worry
about the comforts
of their human existence
and went to stay
with the Christ
and stayed up all night
as the Lord began
their reclamation project
teaching them
of the things
come and see
where I stay.
And what they would find out
is that mystery
pointed out
by the Baptist
when he said
the Lamb of God
the suffering servant
our Lord came
to this life
to stay
to abide
to attach himself
totally
and completely
to one thing
and it is
the most precious thing
suffering.
Because by suffering
endured for love
we have the formula
for sacrifice.
And so,
he would witness to us
the most profound love
when he would be
slaughtered
as the Lamb of the Father
on the cross at Calvary.
And Saint Pio tells us
of this mystery
give praise to God alone
not to man.
Honor the Creator
and not the creature.
During your life
learn to endure
bitterness
that is
the effects
of original sin
and the weakening
of the human spirit.
Learn to endure
your bitterness
in order
to participate
in the sufferings
of Christ
and ultimately
to bask
in that abode
where all
the other lights
pale
including
the prophetic
in comparison
to the divine
light
the beatific vision
where we see God
as he truly is
for all eternity
face to face
and then
and then alone
do we truly come
to know
what love is.
And so
let us not
be deceived
by all the modern
savants
by all the modern
seers
who hold out
to us
some form of happiness
separated
from Christ.
Saint John the Baptist
tells us
if you want
to be happy
if you want
to be saved
attach
yourself
to the Lamb
of God
for no man
is the Christ
except
the one
who has been revealed
by the Father.
No man
has been given
the divine seal
the divine witness
save Christ.
And so
let us try
to struggle
through our human spirit
fallen
as it is.
And somehow
like the Baptist
point out
Christ
to the world
so that the world
may begin
on their own
to seek Him
and then
like James
and John
like Andrew
and Peter
come to possess Him
in this life
so that they may
possess Him
for all eternity
in the life
to come.
What matters most
to Christ
and all his fratricidal
Rothschild
and all He
Yes.