Jan 05 – Homily – Fr Angelo: Repent, the Kingdom is at Hand
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Homily #090105 (
13min) Play - Fr. Angelo preaches on the need to repent and to be thankful for the Kingdom of Christ which He has made manifest to us through scripture and the living Magisterium.Ave Maria! Mass readings
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Excellent points made in this homily. Certainly I understand where you are coming from, having many uncomfortable experiences in my own life in the church. There are those on the far right that feel free to criticize the Holy Father! I have asked sometimes, “Are you more Catholic than the Pope?” And those on the left complaining about women not being ordained or not enough so-called peace and justice focus on temporal things. And the bottom line is that all this complaining is more than a waste of time! It makes the heart bitter and angry.
I know what it is to leave Mass angry at the shenanigans. I have taken things as far as the bishop who wanted to chastise me for mentioning the abuses in my parish. Enough said! I took it to superiors and from there the responsibity was in their hands. And try to change the subject when complaints arise; this is not to say I do not echo them in my own heart. And when some point to St. Catherine of Siena and say she publicly criticized the Pope–nope, she did not; this has been misread. The saints, a prime example being St. Pio as was mentioned, never publicly criticized Church authority.
But sometimes one feels in between a rock and a hard place. Abuses, terrible abuses not only liturgically but spiritually, physically and emotionally have occured by those in places of repsonsibility. Then one may have a duty to speak in those cases for the sake of souls, wouldn’t you say?
Magdelene,
Yes, I totally agree with you, but there is a forum for everything and a respectful course of action. I well know that when that course of action is taken, such as, a private letter, very often nothing happens. This is why people sit around and complain or take their gripes to press and then invoke the example of St. Paul with respect to St. Peter or, as you say, of St. Catherine.
Even if the comparison were accurate, which it isn’t–who really is a St. Paul with respect to St. Peter?–the public humiliation of bishops accomplishes nothing but to drum up a distracted rabble and replace true sacrificial spirituality (Padre Pio) with a dysfunctional familial relationship.
In any case, what I criticized, as I tried to make clear, was not the providential opportunity to do some real good for souls, but the habit of mind by which we become our superiors’ policemen–a habit of suspicion, of a ready judgment to posit bad will, and a kind casual attitude toward blackening of people’s good names.
Deo Gratius for Our Lady’s words which ring as true today as they did when first spoken, “Do all that He tells you.” Doing so opened the floodgates for a new wine, a wine that inebriates the soul.
We must always remember that Our Lord’s work is HIS work and He is the King in charge of His Church on earth. His Will be Done!
Most importantly, Deo Gratias for all our Priests. Channels of ongoing grace. Let us remember to pray for them and tell them how important they are to the faithful for without them, we would NOT know Christ! Be they priests, bishops, cardinals… we must pray for them always because they offer their lives in service and seldom see the fruit of their sufferings.