Dissident Bishops, hallucinating nuns, pagans in Church worship, homosexual priests, heads of Vatican Curias that had run amock, pro-abortion Catholic speakers treated as stars in Catholic schools, closing down of parishes … name it and Pope Benedict have it. So why does he not pick up the phone and simply fire all those cockles? Christ said the angels will do it when it is time for the second to the last Pope, or something to that effect.
The Holy Father knows we are living at a time where there is not much he can do about this state of affairs. He would be wasting his time trying to remedy this situation. He knows Scriptures point to this age as not only hopeless but will even get worse. “Their love will wax cold.” And he knows that the Holy Spirit is running the church.
I think we are now facing the same situation as what our Theology professors use to tell us in Casus Conscientiae. If you are in a sinking ship, you save those whom you can save; which could be a total stranger who is beside you while foregoing your loved one who is far from you. Difficult choice! But it must be made. Of course, you can try saving both and die trying.
Theologians distinguish between the “Ecclesia” and the “Elect.” When Christ said: “Many are called but few are chosen,” the “many” make up the “Ecclesia,” which in Scriptures refers to the fish-net that contained both the good and bad fishes, or the field with both the cockles and the wheat (that is the good and the bad). The “many” who are called constitute the Church, “Ecclesia,” who are called out from among ALL. While the “elect” are the few that are called out from among the “many.” The “Ecclesia” is one thing, the “elect” are another. And it was the capital mistake of Protestantism that it never realized that, thus believing they were all saved.
St. Paul clearly stated that he was sent to preach to the “elect” and prayed that by the end of his life he had done the will of God of having preached to the “elect,” though he found himself preaching to the Ecclesia, too. But the “elect” within the “Ecclesia” was the object of his preaching.
It is possible that, like St. Paul, Pope Benedict XVI will preach to the “Ecclesia” because that is his vowed duty, but his concentration will be on the “elect,” which he often referred to as the small Church? This would mean the fervent hidden nuns in convents, faithful monks in monasteries and all those lay writers and bloggers who are explaining and defending the Mystical Body of Christ. Don’t forget those mothers living quietly like Mary in their homes and the countless young boys and girls that they inspire to be saints.
Joshua had an army to fight his enemies. But he had to test them by a stream to choose the few from among the many who will fight the battles of the Lord.