Today's Readings (and a call for prayer)

Yesterday, a friend phoned me to talk about a local controversy at a parish here on the south shore of Boston.

The parish has been burdened for about 20 years by a few dozen wealthy lay families and a handful of women who castrate/sissify the priests. Between the two, the teachings of the Church have not been proclaimed for a generation.

The habitat for humanity crowd has given devotions on the Blessed Mother, Eucharistic Adoration, the Rosary and the Sacrament of Penance a run for their money. By a run for their money, I mean they have the money and the teachings, devotions and Sacraments of the Catholic Church and Catholics who want them are on the run...with a mob of vigilantes chasing them down route 3A!!

 Blah, blah, blah.

Describes about 95% of parishes in the United States doesn't it. To be fair, there was a very faithful parochial vicar there for the past several years who made some progress. The pastor has been there for only a few years and seems to be earnest, but the people in the pews have been entrenched and enabled for decades and...whoah baby. They have driven multitudes from the parish.

Anyway, along comes new parochial vicar. Late vocation. On fire. After a famine, has dusted off the Catechism and is teaching it. Feeding the starving sheep. Contraception. Homosexuality. Adultery. Abortion. In Vitro.

My friend was upset,telling me that the flock is being divided! Reporting that people stood up and walked out of Mass. Others waited until after Mass and then surrounded his wagons to pluck his eyes out, rip the hair out of his head, douse him with gasoline and burn him on the lawn. LOL. Seriously, please pray for the priest and his pastor. He is in Crete.

As my friend was telling me the story of the people who disrupted the Sacred Liturgy, scandalized the teachings of the Church and roughed up the priest teaching them, I was giddy! "GREAT!!", I said,'Hopefully the tyrants will march right down to the unitarian church where they belong! FREEEEEEEEEEEEEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I tried to explain the reasons why those walking out is a win/win situation for all. Why the prodigal's father lets the son walk out the door for his own good and for the common good of those in the household. How silencing the teachings of the Church to keep these people in the pews has been catastrophic. Today's instruction from readings cuts to that chase.

First Letter of Stain Paul to the Corintihans 5: 1-8. Brothers and sisters: It is widely reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of a kind not found even among the pagans - a man living with his father's wife. And you are inflated with pride. Should not not rather have been sorrowful? The one who did this should be expelled from your midst.

You read that right. The instructions from St. Paul are to boot his booty. Give him a ride on the end of your shoe. No doubt this is redacted this from the bible of the Patheos?  

"I, for my part, although absent in body but present in spirit have already, as if present, pronounced judgment on the one who has committed this deed, in the name of our Lord Jesus: When you have gathered together and I am with you in spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord."

Deliver them to Satan for the destruction of their flesh. To save them. Eventually and repeatedly as Satan devours in the foxholes and gutters, pestilence and plagues, torments, they will have numerous opportunities for repentance. Most of us take them. Holding onto them in the pews comes from two cesspools of sin: Greed and Ego. You either want their money or their affection both of which you hold onto for the price of their immortal soul.  

"Your boasting is not appropriate. do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb, Christ has been sacrificed. Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast,the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. The word of the Lord.

Thank you Jesus. Praise you Jesus. He has sent us a shepherd on the south shore. YIPPPEEEEEEE.