Today, in the life of the Church, we really conclude the Easter mystery with the solemnity
of the Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. In order for us to truly understand this great
mystery in the life of the mystical body, we must first have a profound understanding
of what cost our Lord his very life. For the Lord and Savior of mankind did not die because of an
emotional or a feeling presentation of the faith, but the Savior of mankind died for the sound
doctrine that he promulgated to the chosen people. He died because of his teaching on marriage.
He died because of his teaching on the Blessed Trinity. He died for all the truths that must
imbue the mystical body. And so, if we are to understand this mystery of the Pentecost,
we must understand the mystery of Christ's death, that he did not die because he came to establish
a faith based on feeling and emotions.
But he died because he came to imbue the Church with sound doctrine and, hence, refute all the
errors that had been driving mankind into the arms of Satan from the fall of our first parents
until the coming of Christ. He came to end the reign of Satan by ending the reign of faith
based on feelings and emotions. And then we begin to understand the mystery transpiring
in today's world.
In today's liturgy, for here, as St. Luke says, we see the Church, and it is depicted in the
process of being born. It is awaiting the seal of the Holy Spirit promised to her by the Savior
himself, Jesus, our Lord and Savior. And what do we see in that wonderful icon painted to us
by St. Luke? We see that Mary is present, but not just merely present as one of the many worshipers,
but Mary is present at the very center of the church.
For St. Luke takes pains in his Acts of the Apostles to point out that the whole Church,
the mystical body of Christ, was gathered in the presence of the Mother of God.
She literally is the center because she is the very heart of the Church, and so she is the center
of the Church, the Mother of Jesus and of all the disciples. It will be from the Virgin Mary
that the Church will go forth and proclaim until the end of time.
those wonderful saving truths that her son died for and that she herself would have her
Immaculate Heart impaled at the foot of the Cross. And so St. Luke says, while this mystery is
transpiring, He shows us that Our Lady is both the spiritual and the prayerful. He shows forth both
her spiritual and her prayerful maternity of Mary, most holy. She is the mother of the invitee,
of the infant infant church and she is the virgin at prayer waiting in joyful and active expectation
that is she is involved she is not merely a passive instruments for god's grace but she is
here by her prayer active in securing for her for the mystical body her children the expectation of
the holy spirit and when he comes he will bring to the mystical body of christ the light and warmth
of the nation church and that is precisely why it the holy spirit is depicted as coming in tongues
of fire for fire gives light and it also gives warmth and so the infant church is being cared for
by its very mother for is that not the first thing that a mother does when a child comes into the
world first the child is born born born brought forth into light and then the child is placed
into the church and then the child is brought into the church and then the child is brought into
the church and then the child is brought into the church and then the child is brought into the church
the arms of its mother where it receives its warmth that's why our lady is described both
as the heart and the hearth of the church for the hearth is none other than the fireplace in a home
in which all the children gather in the presence of the mother and they receive that warmth and so
she is here depicted as collaborating with the holy spirit as she did at nazareth in the
incarnation and of Christ and of christ's birth at bethlehem so to the mother of god is now
collaborating with the holy spirit at calvary she will collaborate with the holy spirit in the
conception of the church and today in its birth at pentecost her presence is not by way of mere
chance but because chance is none other than a risky gamble and God does not take risky gambles
as our mother probably says and certainly so is пожалуйста all the mamas pretty slick political
world has so often done in its false philosophies and its false understandings. But Our Lady is
present by an essential way, that is, by the way of divine ordinances. She is there because the
most blessed Trinity had chosen her and set her aside amongst all creatures to be the mother of
the second person of the blessed Trinity from all eternity. And so we begin to understand the mystery
of the Holy Spirit, and it is a mystery we must truly understand if we are to understand why we
are blessed to be guided by the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is the third person of the most
blessed Trinity, and he is designated by the name of the Holy Spirit because he proceeds from the
Father and from the Son by way of aspiration and of love. And to him is especially attributed the
sanctification of souls because it is the Holy Spirit who is the most blessed.
The Holy Spirit is the work of love, or more properly, the work of charity, because of the confusion, at least in the English-speaking world, of that word love. For we have often confused it to justify everything we seek to do. But more importantly, charity connotes that we love God above all things, and we love our neighbor for God's sake, so that all things we doubt back to God. And so he is called the Holy Spirit because the work of charity is the work of love.
The works of charity are attributed to him. And what is happening on this most blessed day of the Pentecost, we see first and foremost that the grace of the Holy Spirit confirms the apostles in faith, filling them with the light, the strength, and the charity, and the abundance of all his gifts in order to emphasize the primacy of the Church of Christ. It is an apostolic church. And so it is the apostles'
first and foremost who received the grace of the Holy Spirit in its abundance. It pours forth on them like a river breaking over its banks at a flood. It fills each and every one of those blessed apostles with an abundance of the gifts that they will go forth and give to the world because the Holy Spirit will do this in preparation. And it is the apostles that are first sanctified, but it is not the apostles alone
who are first sanctified, but it is the apostles alone who are first sanctified.
sanctified on the Pentecost, for the Holy Spirit was sent to the whole church and to every faithful
soul. And so we too dwell within the Spirit when we maintain and hold the faith of the apostles,
because our faith is first and foremost doctrinal. And while our feelings and emotions often may
confirm the faith we have, it is not necessary for us to possess that faith. And then we begin
to understand the mystery that transpired on this first Pentecost. For it is said that St. Peter,
now emboldened by the grace of the Holy Spirit, will go forth and preach. But St. Peter does not
go out and give a sermon based on feelings and emotion. He declares doctrinal truths. This Jesus
whom you crucified, this same blessed apostle, who a moment before would not dare utter those
words of the Holy Spirit, will go forth and preach. But St. Peter does not go out and give a sermon
based on feelings and emotions. He declares doctrinal truths. This Jesus whom you crucified,
in public, because he was fearful of the life that it could cost him. He knew full well what
happened to his Savior when he declared these truths. And so he feared that the same may happen
to him. But now imbued with the grace and the light of the Holy Spirit, he goes forth and
proclaims these doctrines, not fearing man, because he now has a healthy fear of God and the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so he does not go out and give a sermon based on feelings and emotion. But St.
language. He spoke the language he spoke, the Aramaic, the common language of the people of
that age, but all gathered understood him in their own language. Those from Crete understood
him in that language. Those from Pamphylia understood him in that language. And so it was
an intellectual miracle. And as St. Bonaventure points out, the essence of holiness is the
sanctification of the intellect, because we cannot begin to love God until first we know him.
And we cannot know him truly unless our knowledge is based on the perennial truths that the Son of
God came to teach the apostles and the disciples, and that the Holy Spirit will continue, as it were,
to teach us until the end of time. And so the Holy Spirit gives this gift to that blessed apostle,
the Vicar.
The Vicar of Christ, and he goes forth and immediately begins the conversion of the world. And St. Thomas
points out to us that all those extraordinary signs, those truly sensational miracles that were
worked through the nation church were done in order to prepare the Gentile world for the workings of
the apostles. And so he says that after the first Pentecost, those charismatic gifts, as they are
called,
began to subside, because once the church is established, now she works through the ordinary
missionary activity, that is, the willingness of every member of the mystical body to do what St.
Paul did, to do what St. Peter did, and St. James and St. John's and Bartholomew and Philip and all
the apostles, to go into the Gentile world, the pagan world, proclaim those truths, not counting
the cost. And so...
And St. Thomas says that once, as it were, the Gentile world is prepared, and they begin to accept the doctrine of Christ,
and most especially, the doctrine of original sin, so universally denied in our day and age, then those
charismatic gifts begin to disappear, because when the church is established, the members of the mystical body are
willing, quite literally, to put their heads on the line for the sake of Christ, and many will be saved.
would do so we only have to read the annals of what transpired in the coliseum at rome the untold
shedding of blood the gallons untold thousands and thousands of gallons of blood shed for the
love of christ whose witness would ultimately convert even the highest elements of the pagan
world so that at the time of the 13th century it can truly be said that christ reigned over the
civilized world and he would bring civility to the world if civility is lacking in the world
it is because the world has forced christ to retreat how can it force him because christ
will not force himself upon any soul and so where he is not wanted he will retreat but he will do so
and he will do so and he will do so and he will do so and he will do so and he will do so and he will do so
in order to gather his forces again and to go back time and time again through his mystical body
in order to seek those souls so precious to his dear mother.
And that is a true charismatic gift, the perseverance of the mystical body in the works of conversion.
And so, in order to accomplish this, the Holy Spirit gives his life to the church by his grace and by his gifts.
As the soul gives life to the body, he establishes in her the kingdom of truth and of love
and helps lead her and her children in safety along the way to heaven.
And that is ultimately the greatest gift we receive from the Holy Spirit,
perseverance in the one true holy Catholic faith until we depart from this life and death
and then find that union that alone can bring happiness to the human soul.
And so?
It is very good for us to reflect upon these truths taught by the church of the Holy Spirit.
For we live in an age in which we think in order for something to be good, it has to be new.
And so we have a new this and a new that.
We have, as we are told, a new understanding of theology.
We have the new catechism that first came out in Belgium and denied.
In its very essence, the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.
For it is a modernist trick to use the natural fallen inclination of mankind
to quest for the novel, to quest for the new.
And so we need only to put the word new in front of something
and the majority of mankind will fly to it thinking that in it they will find salvation.
But salvation does not come.
It does not come from a quest of novelty.
It comes from a quest of those perennial truths
that were with the Blessed Trinity from all eternity.
Those truths that the Savior would teach to mankind
and that the church will continue to teach mankind until the end of time.
It is interesting to note that one of the modern political pundits
who has a very sharp and very gifted mind,
who seems to be very perceptive on analysis,
is a man who has a very sharp and very good sense of the world.
He is a man who has a very sharp and very good sense of the world.
He is a man who has a very sharp and very good sense of the world.
He read it and then he read it to his audience
and he declared, not a member of the mystical body at presence,
but he declared in recognizing in his natural tendency to seek truth,
he declared, this is the only man on earth making any sense.
He said, no one on earth makes any sense except this man.
And so we must pray that he begins, as it were,
to delve more and more in to the teachings of the vicar of Christ
so that he may become a member of the mystical body
and then his mind can be used to refute the modern errors of our time
and help bring about again the establishment of the love of the sacred,
heart of Jesus, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Ultimately, the greatest gift we can receive from the Holy Spirit
is the gift of reverence because, as Dietrich von Hildebrandt points out,
its role is in the Christian life and in Christian worship.
He says it is the mother of all virtues
because it is the basic attitude that all virtues presuppose.
The most elementary gesture of reverence
is its response to being itself.
That is, it distinguishes the autonomous majesty of being
from mere fiction and illusion.
That is, it recognizes that we have our existence
solely because of the free loving act of God
that he did not use pre-existing matter to bring about the world.
But that first and foremost,
in the mind of God,
in the mind of the Blessed Trinity,
when the decision was made to create,
was the incarnation of the Son of God
and so that all of creation, in some way,
reflects the truth and beauty of Christ.
From the very soil we walk on
until the very end of the universe,
all were based on Christ.
And so, reverence is the first,
an awesome, majestic wonder,
at this blessed gift that God has given the creature
to call him literally into being out of nothing.
For God does not need the cosmic seed
or any pre-existing matter to create.
He is as the Church teaches
and each person of the Blessed Trinity
shares equally in that all-powerfulness.
And so, he simply speaks the word.
And the universe is created.
And all of the universe is intended to point
to the pinnacle of the created order, Christ,
and hence also to Mary.
For as the Church tells us,
she was set aside singularly by the Blessed Trinity
in the first decree of creation
to be that most blessed Mother of God
and hence the Mother of all humanity,
and of all creations.
And it is her motherly care
that teaches us how to use
all the gifts that God has created.
From the tiniest grain of sand
until that most awesome responsibility
in which the human being shares,
collaborates with God in the creation
of another human person
by providing in the matrimonial embrace
the matter, the body,
in which God infuses a soul.
And so, it is not new theology
that we should seek in these matters,
but it is old theology.
Older than the universe itself
because it is always old
and it is always new
because it is eternal.
And the eternal Son of God came
when mankind could not see his way
out of the blindness
to establish light in the world again.
And Saint John tells us something very pathetic
for mankind.
For he said,
the light came into the world
and the world received it not.
It chose to dwell in the darkness of sin.
But Christ would not back off.
He would not hesitate.
And so in the darkness of sin
he would mount the wood of Calvary
and there be lit
just like an oil lamp
of which the oil lamps in the Old Testament
and in the synagogue worship were a sign of.
He would be lifted high up
and he would burn with love for humanity
an all-consuming fire
that would literally take from him
every drop of that precious blood
provided by the Mother of God
for his sacred humanity.
And so when the Holocaust was consumed
the Savior himself would say,
Father, it is consummated.
And hence he shows forth
that intense love he had for mankind
by which he would have himself consumed
and at the same time his mother
spiritually would be consumed
for the sake of mankind.
When he was consumed in love
from his sacred wound
on the side
would flow the church
now conceived
and waiting, waiting
for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
That is one of the reasons
why the evangelists take pains to point out
out flowed blood and water.
For I tell you
unless a man be born again
of water in the Spirit
he cannot have life.
And so the Holy Spirit
came to establish us
in sound doctrine
and profound belief
in the sacraments of the church.
Not in what some declare to be
the eighth sacrament
which is none other than our feelings
and our emotions.
We have not the Holy Spirit
unless we have the faith of Peter.
We may convince ourselves entirely
and be of good will
but if we have a novel understanding
contrary to the faith and morals of Peter
we have not the Holy Spirit.
But we have a spirit of perdition
of chaos
of Satan
for Satan is always contrary
to truth.
Always.
And he does not present it to us
in its crassness
he covers it up
with words like new
progressive
liberty.
But what is true liberty?
This is what the Holy Spirit tells us
and this is why reverence is needed.
True liberty
is when the creature
is exercising that freedom
by which God created him.
And for the human person
that means worshipping
the one true God
as he has revealed himself.
He has not revealed
any other church.
God cannot be worshipped
in several ways.
Otherwise we have simply fallen
into the inveterate era
of mankind.
Pantheism.
All is God
all is a path to God.
It is not true.
Holy Mother Church
is the only path to God.
Holy Mother Church
is the only safe haven
in this pilgrimage
this life.
There are not several ways
to God.
There is only one.
And it is to us
to be the light
for that way.
What does Isaiah say?
She is like a lamp
uncovered and burning
on a mountain top.
And yet
we have fallen
and are afraid.
To declare
that we are Christians.
Because we have fallen
into the era
that modernism spreads.
Spiritual and corporal sloth.
We hear a blasphemy
uttered publicly.
We will let the Holy Spirit
take care of it.
He will enlighten them.
But what does scripture tell us?
The advocate is given to us
until the end of time
so that we may do his work.
So that we may do his works
in the world.
Yes, it is true.
He can directly
operate and does
on a soul.
But the ordinary way
is for us to be used
as instruments
in the hand of his spouse
to witness
to that truth.
And so
we see very clearly
that this is a very awesome
wonder
of the very act of creation
that preserved the mystery
of our call out of nothingness.
We must remember
always
that even
the simplest of creatures
is a mysterious thing.
Or as Saint Francis de Sales declared
if you could understand
the essence of a fly
you would be God.
And there is no sense
of that mystery of creation
in almost all of modern science.
It has declared
it will know the essence.
First it was the atom.
Then it was the quarks
in the quarks.
Now it's DNA.
The essence of creation
is the love of God.
It has nothing to do
with the things we can see.
You can't get to the essence
of creation
through a microscope.
You can only get it
through an act of reverence
that begins humbly
on our knees
praying
for the grace
of the Holy Spirit
to persevere in our faith.
Irreverence
is the chief source
of philosophical error.
It is the quest
for the novel
not the unchanging truths
that the Holy Spirit
alone gives.
And so
we must not fall
into those forms
of irreverence
by which we disregard
the very symbols
of our faith.
It is an irreverent thing
to do
to take
the Apostles' Creed
and to take
the Apostles' Creed
and to put it
to modern
decadent music.
It simply is
in and of itself
an irreverent thing
to do
and it shows
a quest
for the novel
not for the perennial truths
of our faith.
It is an irreverent thing
to do
to take
the smallest mystery
of our faith
and to treat it
in an irreverent matter.
To put it
to modern forms
of art
that have nothing
to do
with the body
of Christ
let us not
think
of the body
of Christ.
Let us always remember
what the present
vicar of Christ
said
when
as a theologian
he wrote
an article
and said
all art
declares
what we believe
of the incarnation
and he pointed out
there are certain
modern forms
of art
that deny
the very possibility
of an incarnation.
Deny it.
And he particularly
pointed out
that we have
to be on guard
for that
in the culture
of music.
For what does
Saint Augustine
say
of music?
It declares
what is in
the heart
of man.
And he says
he who sings
well
prays twice
and he does not
mean we have
to be gifted
with an operatic
voice.
He simply means
when we pray
with a reverent
heart
we may
crack
the windows
but if that song
is being sung
out of reverence
for the gift
of our creation
and our
recreation
in Christ
then we pray
twice.
And he says
that all
too often
in the quest
for novelty
we have
confused
that everything
we do
speaks
of what
we believe
of the mystery
of the incarnation
of God
in the womb
of the Virgin Mary.
So much
so
that it is
universally
denied
in our modern
culture
and its expressions.
And so
let us have
none
of the irreverence
of the modern
world.
Let us have
none of the false
statements
by which we can
somehow
find a common
ground
with those
who do not
believe
in the dignity
of human life.
Those who believe
that it is
inherent
in the spirit
of the Holy Spirit
to have
the option
they call it.
The option
to do what?
Murder
a child.
That is
what it is
that is what
it will always be
that is what
the Holy Spirit
teaches.
The abortion
of an infant
in its mother's
womb
is the murder
of a child.
And that murder
is repeated
in the world
over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
and over
in matters so contrary to the natural law,
if dialogue can't work a quick coming to one's senses,
then ultimately we have to ask the important question,
which of the Ten Commandments do you refuse to obey?
For he said, the trying to justify same-sex marriage,
the murder of infants, is not an intellectual problem.
It is always and everywhere a moral problem.
And it is always and everywhere related to the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th Commandments,
lust and greed.
In other words, it is none other than the inveterate error of mankind,
pantheism, the indulgence of our pleasures in this life
because we have no hope for a life hereafter.
And if the world doesn't see the mystical body,
mortified in its passions,
then it will not be mortified or even seek to mortify
the passions that cause us to sit and twiddle our thumbs
as we are told to find common ground with ultimately Satan.
That Christ should sit down and enter into dialogue with Satan
to find a common ground.
He has to sit down and enter into dialogue with Satan
to find a common ground with ultimately Satan.
He has to sit down and enter into dialogue with Satan
with ultimately Satan.
He has to sit down and enter into dialogue with certainly Satan
to find a common ground with ultimately Satan
to find a common ground with ultimately Satan
to find a common ground with ultimately Satan
find a common ground. And what does our Lord say? I have come to spread fire, the
fire of the Holy Spirit that will separate mother from daughter and father
from son. Does he speak of a quest for common ground while life is assaulted at
its very beginning? Contraception is not merely a bad thing. It is a blasphemous
thing because it is the usurpation by mankind in creation. Objectively, we speak
not of the personal disposition of those, but objectively, contraception is
blasphemy. That's why Pope Paul the
sixth warned that once it becomes accepted, then man will become blind and
he will waste much effort and much energy trying to treat the symptoms, abortion,
euthanasia, infanticide, the symptoms of a contraceptive mentality, which
ultimately means what? Mankind believing that he is God, a lack of reverence for
the created order.
A lack of reverence for where we came from. And so, let us always remember that God
create us out of nothing so that we may come to know Him, to love Him and to serve
Him in this life, in order to be happy with Him forever in the life to come. He
didn't come nor does the Holy Spirit come to give us a notion that we can celebrated
Find the happiness we seek here on earth,
for the happiness we seek is much greater than any earthly pleasures,
and so they can only be true pleasure insofar as they are exercised in accord with the will of God,
and hence all things must necessarily be done in moderation.
That is, to be in accord with the divine orchestra,
to strike the note when God says this note must be struck,
and so all relationships between a man and a woman outside of marriage are disconcordant
because the note is struck outside of the symphony that God has created,
and so it is with all things,
and so let us truly rejoice that we are guided by the spirit of truth,
and that if we remain reverent,
towards the mysteries of our faith,
we will cooperate with him in the destruction of irreverence,
so that all mankind may be united in that divine orchestra,
each and every one hitting the note of praising God together for all eternity.
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