+
JMJ
JMJ
Feast of St. Paul of the Cross
The "High-Priestly" prayer of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that they all may be one...,
is offered to be the justification for Vatican's endorsement of
that "Ecumenical Movement" spearheaded by the "World Council of
Churches" (cf., "Our 'Great Reversal'"). And the projected effect is like to this: Thy word is a
lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths... I have chosen the way of
truth... I have run the way of Thy commandments... Uphold me according
to Thy word (Ps. 118. 105, 30, 32, 116).
Now, if we are to
examine: first, the consistent adverse judgment of the Church, prior to
the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), against this initiative which
has sprung among the "Bible-only" fundamentalists, this will recall the
observation made by Pope Paul VI on the condition of the Church after
Vatican II: the madness of "the Church attacking herself" (cf., our post
"Our Lady and the Diabolical Campaign") - the "New [Vatican II] Church"
(as Hans Kung, the leading Vatican II 'theological expert', calls it; in our post
"The Ultimate Delusion of Vatican II 'Catholicism'") 'contradicting' the
"pre-Vatican II Church," a fact seized upon by the Sedevacantists to
excuse their other extreme form of mutant Catholicism [that of a visibly
headless Constantinian-Tridentine ultramontane Church, cf., our post "On the Sedevacantist Position: A Reply (II)"]; to put it
simply, the implication is that the "pre-Vatican II Church" got Jesus
Christ wrong over the Johannine passage - the Church of the
Constantinian-Tridentine ultramontane age against the desire of her Lord
and Master; and, second, the context of the prayer of the Savior and
its consistency with the other Scriptural passages, especially the
Apostolic Epistles (see our reply to a 'comment' below), dealing with those who wander out of the way of ... the traditions [Gk: "paradosis"] ... of the Apostles
(Pr. 21.16; 2 Thess. 2.14; Ac. 2.42), then this would be madness much
greater than in the first: Christ against His words and His Spirit Who
spoke through the mouths of His Apostles.
From the context of the passage (Jn. 17.6-26), the object of Our Savior's prayer is unity in the Faith (in truth) while the subject is the first group of His disciples (the words which Thou gavest Me, I have given to them... sanctify them in truth) and for them also who through their [the Apostles'] words shall believe in
[Him] - that is, Our Lord's prayer for that unity willed by God extends
only therefore to the Church of all time, to those who will owe their
faith to the traditions of the Apostles.
In fact, the Savior says I pray not for the world (v.9) which world refers here to that Scriptural sense of the world of sinners organized
under the banner of Satan in opposition (whether this involves violent
physical hostility or polemical attack) to God and His appointed Order
of things under the dominion of Jesus Christ the King - the traditional
Catholic order. For rebelling against the divinely constituted hierarchy
of teaching authority in that Order of new creation in Christ, founded
upon the Apostles (Eph. 2.20), the "Bible-only" fundamentalists, on the
pretext that they would rather adhere to what they themselves would READ
in the 'Bible', were only rightfully cast out into that erring world
for they who will not HEAR the Church, let [them] be... as the heathen and publican (Mt. 18.17). In constituting the 'Bible' to be the pillar and ground
of their 'truth' ("sola scriptura") - the fundamental principle upon which is built the
entire 'Protestant' opposition to Catholicism - these fundamentalists
therefore contradict with a hard face the testimony of the tradition of
the Apostles (through their word...): the Church... the pillar and ground of the truth (St. Paul in his first Epistle to Timothy (3.15).
In
a passage in the Gospel of St. Matthew, we learn that the vineyard of
the Lord can never be joined to those of self-appointed 'apostles' for
the same High Priest Jesus Christ declares that every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up (15.13). And instead of affording the erring Christians an ecumenical condescension, the Good Shepherd bids thus: Let them alone: they are blind, and leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit (15.14). Hence the Holy See, prior to Vatican II, consistently refused to take part in the "Ecumenical Movement" that is sought to be terminated outside its sovereign dominion.
Ecumenism is only a response to Christ's wish that we all be one - nothing more. True ecumenism seeks to find common ground while retaining a love for the truth. Because there are differences doe snot mean we should not see each other as brothers. Of course it doesn't mean watering down our faith or going against our conscience but it does mean putting love for God and neighbour first.
ReplyDeleteThe true response to Christ's prayer for unity is categorically expressed by St. Paul: "that there might be no schism in the body" (1 Cor. 12.25). "In the body...," that is, IN the ancient Church - the "body" of Christ (Eph. 5 22,23) - built on "Cephas" with the Apostles for its foundation (Eph. 2.20), where not all interpret (v.30) as "doctors" (v.28). The same Apostle does not apply Our Lord's appeal to those who "wander away from... the traditions... of the Apostles"; rather: "We charge you, brethren, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly, and not according to the tradition which they have received of us" (2 Thess. 3.6) and in his Epistle to Titus: "A man that is a heretic... avoid: knowing that he... is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment" (3.10,11). St. John the Apostle, who recorded for us the "High Priest" prayer for unity of the Savior, has this to say for those who "revolt" and "continue not" in the "traditions" of the Apostles: "They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no doubt have remained with us; but that they may be manifest, that they are not all of us ["Let them alone...," (Mt. 15.14) as the Master says] (1 Jn. 2.19). The Apostles' response is not in the sense of a Freemasonry-inspired "New World Order" religious brotherhood or fraternity where no creed is to claim to be the absolute for one's salvation - there we have the subtle diabolical effort to "water down" or amend the Catholic position.
DeleteOne need not seek another common "ground" for the divine Master Builder has already established it (1 Tim. 3.15, quoted in our post). You have constituted the 'Bible' to be the common "pillar and ground of the truth" for "Christians", what happened?
Yes, St. Paul admonishes the faithful to "withdraw" from any religious association with those who do not walk according to the "paradosis" [traditions] of the Apostles, but he and the successors of the Apostles (Ac. 1.20-26: Mt.28.20) did not forget: ""Yet do not esteem him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother" (2 Thess. 3.15). History even proves that the Catholic faithful under the direction of their orthodox pastors were most eager to lend their assistance, aid, and collaboration even with non-Catholic adherents but this was only in times of accidents, calamities, and the like.
It is charity that unites a soul to God Who Is "Charity" (1 Jn. 4.8), but since one cannot love what one does not know it is the true Faith (the unreserved submission of reason by the operation of grace to the truths proposed by divine Reason through Its constituted hierarchy of teaching authority) that must be laid first: "I will espouse thee to Me in faith" [Osee (Hosea in non-Catholic versions) 2.20].