1. The Liturgy.
God, in His Goodness, helps mankind by revealing to him the way of salvation, what will happen before, during and in the future, so man will always be prepared to pass his tests of Faith.
Thus, Divine Revelations contains, the ‘plan of salvation,’ the preparations for the first steps and prophecies that describes future tests. All are meant to help mankind pass all the coming tests of Faith. This is the purpose for everything that happens to man.
So every moment, man either passes or fails his test. He either progresses forward or regresses downward. The Liturgy is the sure instrument by which man can know if he is progressing or regressing.
The Liturgy tells anyone where he will go, heaven or hell, if he falls dead at this very instant. Catholicism is no guess work. It is a religion based on certainty. But Faith is needed to attain this certainty.
Thus the general topic that can be read in the old Missal with regard to this season is ‘Attaining Faith.’ And the sub-title for this Sunday’s Mass, 16th Sunday in ordinary time is ‘establishing a Catholic Church,’ or establishing a Christian community.
Since Ash Wednesday, the Liturgy had been teaching how to attain the supernatural and theological virtue of Faith; through a life attaining the virtue of Penance that leads to Faith enlivened by Charity.
During these past weekdays, the Liturgy had been describing the theological virtue of Faith. In today’s Gospel, 15th Sunday, Faith is attained within a Christian community, i.e. within the Catholic Church. It is the first sign that a soul is within the Catholic Church. The Liturgy of this Sunday describes how this community, i.e. the Parish or Diocese should look like. So people can know if they are inside or outside.
2. First Reading.
The first reading describes the biggest obstacle to the life of Faith; the priests, the bishops, the cardinals and Pope Francis.
The Liturgy the previous week had been describing the true teachers of the Church of Christ; they teach only one thing; that the kingdom of God is at hand. They don’t preach anything else. Only that the kingdom of God is at hand.
‘The kingdom of God is at hand,’ means that souls can now enter the kingdom of God, the true Catholic church by having perfect repentance that leads to perfect Faith enlivened by Charity. This is the way to enter the kingdom of God that is at hand.
Who will do this? Christ and after His Ascension, the messengers He sends, called apostles. And men God will send after the apostles called ‘sent of God,’ i.e. apostles, too.
Not everybody can claim that they are apostles. Apostles must have repented perfectly that leads to perfect Faith enlivened by Charity. These are the steps to enter the Kingdom of God. They must, first, know how it is done before they can teach others how to do it.
The first reading warns us that, part of man’s test is that God will allow Lucifer to send false apostles, teachers and prophets who will deceive and scatter mankind as part of their test of Faith.
The Church had been undergoing this test since the beginning, but especially today, as expected, precisely with this prophecy found in the first reading from Jeremiah.
Listen to the Words of God, through the pophert Jeremiah; ‘Woe to the shepherds, who mislead and scatter the flock of My pasture, says the Lord. You have scattered My sheep and driven them away. You have not cared for them. But I will take care to punish your evil deeds.’ Today, the Liturgy, in the words of Jeremiah, was referring to priests, bishops, cardinals and Pope Francis.
How is the flock misled and scattered? By teaching them doctrines contrary to the teachings of Christ, summarised in the Nicene Creed, and teaching them to go against the more than 80 commands of Christ in the New Testament.
The news is showing Pope Francis, most of the cardinals, bishops and priests are going against the teachings and commandments of Christ. Keeping in mind what St. James the apostle wrote; that disobedience to one command of Christ is disobedience to all the commands of Christ. And St. Augustine wrote; heresy against one teachings of Christ is apostasy to all the teachings of Christ. Most of them have gone, not only once or twice, but many times against the teachings and commandments of Christ, at a time mankind does not know what are the teachings and commandments of Christ.
Today, there is no preacher who is teaching that the kingdom of God is at hand, shown by the fact that they are not teaching how the virtue of Penance is obtained that leads to Faith enlivened by Charity, which allows them to enter the kingdom of God that is at hand.
There are good preachers who are showing the defects of priests and bishops, the heresies within the institutional Church. And they are right. But they are not teaching ‘that the kingdom of God is at hand.’
3. How should the successors of the apostles build up the Church in a parish or diocese?
The second reading shows what true apostles are supposed to do – they are supposed to establish the kingdom of God, i.e. they are supposed to teach souls how to enter the kingdom of God that is at hand.
How? Let us show how it is done with two souls. The true apostle must teach each soul all the teachings of Christ in the New Testament; this is referred to as Dogmatic theology. Then the true apostle must teach each soul all the commands of Christ and how to put them to practice as taken from the teachings of the Father of the Church. Then the true apostle must observe if the two souls are understanding the dogmatic truths correctly and obeying the moral commands correctly. The apostle must continue to guide and correct the two souls until they observe both dogmas and morals perfectly. When the two souls have reached perfection, the Holy Spirit will unite these two souls. Thus a Catholic Church is established. The establishment of the church is not done by the priest, bishops, cardinal or Pope Francis. The Church is established by the Holy Spirit.
Due to the ongoing test of Faith wherein we have shepherds who deceive, scatter and destroy, no one is establishing the church in the parish, in the diocese and even in the Vatican. Nowhere. Because the above procedure described in the second reading is not being followed.
4. What does God do in such a situation.
As what is happening today, God, as He had promised, will punish severely these priests, bishops, cardinals together with Pope Francis and, personally, select and assign shepherds that will take care of those who truly seek God. God will personally intervene, as He had promised in the first reading. And that is precisely what is happening today. God is intervening but nobody knows where it is taking place. ‘There, they are dwelling in security,’ Jeremiah prophesied.
5. The good and bad shepherds.
Christ showed how good apostles act. The Gospel stated that the apostles preached and, then, returned to Jesus and reported what they had done and taught. The good apostles always returns to Christ to report what they have done and taught to see if they did well or not. No priest, bishop, cardinal or even Pope Francis ever did that; to return to Christ and check if they did right. When almost everything they do is wrong.
Because Christ is not physically present today, Christ suggested that they go to the desert and, there, check with God, if they have taught right. And if wrong , repent and correct themselves.
Pope Francis does not even want to be corrected with his blatant heresies as in the case of the, now, famous ‘dubia.’ which he had not answered after more than one thousand seven hundred days. If Pope Francis followed Christ’s advice and went to his room and checked if he was right about his teaching on allowing adultery, he would have gotten an immediate answer from Christ; ‘you are wrong!’ But no. He was intentionally doing what was wrong just as he is intentionally allowing those killing babies to receive Holy Communion which is clearly wrong, again. As St. James wrote in his letter, ‘when you start doing one thing wrong, everything you do that follows will all be wrong.’That is the punishment God gives to shepherds who deceive and scatter the sheep.’ Jeremiah prophesied. Their punishment is great.
The world is filled with bad shepherds; all because God uses them to test mankind. And these are men and women who do and say things without checking afterwards with God if they are right or wrong.
The good ones, after they teach, enter their rooms and lock the door; to pray and check with God if they did and said things right. All of these things happening are under God’s control and part of His Divine Providence. The present dire situation of Pope, cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns in utter confusion is God’s way of testing the Faith and Charity of each man before each one faces God in General Judgment day. Most are doing very badly. That is why God will close the curtain.