Pope Francis Homily at Canonization Mass

Fr. Z has some thoughts on Pope Francis homily that, with one exception, are dead center of the bullseye of my own thoughts.

The translation of the homily is a bit off here:

In convening the Council, John XXIII showed an exquisite openness to the Holy Spirit.

The word used by Pope Francis was not openness, but docility.

When we are docile to the Holy Spirit, we are willing to be guided by His Word and teachings. We are guidable,malleable, yielding to God. It is surrender.

A few other things I want to point out with Pope Francis homily before I give my thoughts.

Take a moment and ponder these in your heart:

Whereupon that man, so straightforward and accustomed to testing everything personally, knelt before Jesus with the words: “My Lord and my God!”

John XXIII and John Paul II cooperated with the Holy Spirit in renewing and updating the Church in keeping with her pristine features, those features which the saints have given her throughout the centuries.

The wounds of Christ are a scandal, a stumbling block for faith, yet they are also the test of faith.

The hope and joy of Easter, forged in the crucible of self-denial, self-emptying, utter identification with sinners, even to the point of disgust at the bitterness of that chalice.

John XXIII and John Paul II cooperated with the Holy Spirit in renewing and updating the Church in keeping with her pristine features,

Unity and reconciliation is very much on Pope Francis mind.

I was too young to remember Saint John XXIII but with the combination of urban legends about the meaning of his council and the kooks affiliated with the theological and liturgical madness that came from it, until this morning, I did not understand why he canonized these two saints on the same day.

The spiritual daughters and sons of Saint John Paul II and those who hijacked and trampled the deposit of faith in the name of Saint John XXIII are oil and water.

Poor Saint John XXIII is saddled with some baggage that doesn't even belong to him. (Some good reading here) Perhaps canonizing them together is genius. Time will tell.

The spiritual sons and daughters of Saint John Paul II commit themselves to the discipline of keeping their soul in a state of grace, drawing the Divine Properties in the Eucharist in a state of purity. Drawing from Christ in a state of purity is mutually beneficial to Christ and the soul.

Like a heart clogged with cholesterol, a soul in a state of moral sin can't circulate Divinity properly. The interaction between the intellect, soul and Properties in the Eucharist -- which is essentially communication and direction with and from God -- gets tossed and twisted with sin. The intellect loses the ability to process thoughts with right judgment. The person suffering from this malady gets more deeply immersed into their addictions and sins.

The theological name for it is diabolical disorientation.

It is a sickness of the soul that affects the mind and the only cure for it is acknowledging the sin or sins, seeking the Sacrament of Confession to admit your acknowledgement of the offense, express remorse, make an oath before God to refrain from doing it again and ask for God's forgiveness through the absolution of the Sacrament of the Catholic Church.

Consequently, when the sons and daughters of Saint John Paul II hear the kooks tell us they are being merciful when they give us Communion in a state of mortal sin, we remind them of their part in the spiritual suicide of that soul.

It is a death. The priests and bishops responsible for the many nations full of them have tied a millstone around the necks of their victims.

After four decades of it, the diabolical disorientation is so deeply-rooted most are incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.

Sadly, most of us affiliate this state of affairs with the stupid ideas that were executed from the council engineered by Saint John XXIII. Compounded with the fact there are no miracles associated with Saint John XXIII, on its face, it is perplexing.

There will never be reconciliation between a priest, bishop or even pope who tells Catholics who know the substance of the mystical that he is delivering the mercy of Christ when he compounds the state of a moral soul by adding sacrilegious Communion to the mania of mortal sin.

It will never happen, for reasons I do not have to explain to this audience. I do not believe he is going to run that flag up the flagpole and ask us to salute. He knows we will not. We are incapable of it. As Fr. Z implies, if that kind of scandal happens, it's going to get very ugly.

A lot of people focus on the fact that the Pope cannot change the substance of marriage. This is true. But to me, it's actually even more serious.

A pope cannot change the physics and chemistry of unrepentant sin upon the soul.

Asking us to accept the poppycock that he is not sentencing souls to spiritual suicide under the caricature of 'mercy' is a disaster (to unity) of historical proportions. He doesn't look that stupid to me.

There is lots of speculation out there on where he's going with it.

I continue to urge you to be most careful who and what you read and to stay away from the histrionics.

It is no coincidence that he preceded this event with this homily on the indissolubility of the Sacrament of Marriage. He is shooting flares across our bows. Pay attention to them. He said we need clear doctrine to emphasize that marriage is for life.

Also, please duly note Pope Francis' reference to Saint John Paul II as the pope of the family. As in Familiaris Consortio.

The dual canonization and homily conveys to me that he is acutely aware of the internal schism and his desires are to gently dispel the hostility to truth and the teachings of the Church and to harvest every conceivable field.

I am not a sorcerer but he has given us a few clues as to where he is going. I believe he will, with his authority to bind, add a few more reasons to grant annulments that affect formation, maturity, understanding necessary. I think these will be limited but he will foster other circumstances where he casts the net into the deep and grabs the children, perhaps helping the parents to perhaps live celibate to receive the Eucharist.

The reminder of these teachings in the public square is going to need our support. The people who take advantage of it will need a welcome embrace.

Keep a tight rein on your horses.
Chill out.
Don't twist your pajamas into a knot.
Take it down a couple of notches.
Be Not Afraid!

What a glorious day. The canonization of my spiritual father and an indulgence!