1. The Liturgy
The Liturgy of Ascension had been describing the Catholic Church that Christ had just established; what was the plan of salvation it would be accomplishing, who would be its teachers, where would its classroom be and what kind of pupils it will have. The Sunday and weekdays had been describing who would be its teachers, Jesus Christ first and foremost and the apostles as His successors.
The Liturgy today emphasised its teacher again, Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest. As High Priest of the Catholic Church, Christ had three functions according to St. Thomas of Aquinas. First, He would take away the sins of the people. Secondly, He would give them the gift of Faith. And thirdly, He would give them the virtue of Charity.
Thus the successors of Christ, the Pope, Bishop and priest should do the same for the Church to be worthy priests of the Church of Christ. Thus, the Pope, bishop and priest should teach the people how to acquire the virtue of Penance for the forgiveness of their past sins. This consist in living a life of Prayer, Penance and Good works as described by St. Augustine. Acquiring the virtue of Penance is not the same as the sacrament of Penance. The virtue of Penance that should accompany the sacrament is what forgives sins.
Secondly, the Pope, bishops and priests should teach the people, what Christ commanded the apostles to do, to teach them all the commands of Christ as enumerated in the New Testament and how to obey them, as written down by the Fathers of the Church, that the people may acquire the virtue of Faith.
Thirdly, the Pope, bishops and priests should teach the people how to acquire Charity, first, by receiving the first breath of Christ, to empower them to love their neighbour and secondly, to receive the Holy Spirit to empower them to love God above all things.
2. Nobody is doing these.
Neither Pope Francis, nor the bishops and priests are performing these functions because of the pandemic. The few who are brave enough to celebrate Mass are neither doing these functions. The problem is deeper in that no one seems to know these functions. They are not heard either in preachings nor in written articles. Neither are they found in recent encyclicals or apostolic exhortations. It is due to this ignorance that the present pandemic cannot be contained because it is a chastisement from God informing the Pope, bishops and priests that they do not know how to be good priests.
These functions were last seen and heard in the writings of Pope Benedict XVI and John Paul II. After that they were never heard again.
3. The Jews lost their priesthood.
One of the punishment given by God due to the infidelity of the Jews is that their priesthood was abolished. Is the Catholic Church undergoing the same chastisement. The Catholic Church lost its priesthood during the ongoing pandemic. During the slow reopening of Churches, are they performing the functions of Christ the eternal High Priests. The way things are going, they are not. The priesthood of the Church is gone. Except for a select few that is directly sustained by God to serve the very little church Pope Benedict had been alluding to.
St. Thomas of Aquinas had clearly described the functions of the priesthood of Christ. His present successors are not following suit. As the parable of the vineyard showed, when the owner of the vineyard saw that the workers were unfaithful, what did He do? He took away the vineyard from the unfaithful workers and gave to others who would tend to it. Isn’t the world wondering, where is the true Catholic Church?