33rd Sunday Year C - Synod

 

Image taken from the Vatican Synod Website

“By your perseverance you will secure your lives”. During this time just before Advent, the Church gives us Apocalyptic readings in Scripture that can be frightening, but passages like today’s Gospel can also fill us with hope.

Today, we read about Jesus reaching the temple, surrounded by all its grandeur. For the Jewish people, the temple was a sacred place. It stood as a reminder that God had chosen Israel as His own. So when Jesus warned, “There will not be left a stone upon another stone,” His message troubled His listeners.

Just as Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, so the Catechism of the Catholic Church predicts the passion of the Church, meaning the body of Christ, will go through its apparent crucifixion. But it will rise after what appears to be its destruction, as Jesus told Peter, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The Catechism states, “Before Christ’s second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the “mystery of iniquity” in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth….The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover, when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.”

There is a synod going on in Rome some believe could cause the Church to go through its passion. This synod is causing great concern among bishops, priests and lay people. There is not only concern in the US, but also throughout the world.

A synod is general term for ecclesiastical gatherings under hierarchical authority, for the discussion and decision of matters relating to faith, morals, or discipline. It’s different from a Church Council called by the pope and all bishops of the world participate. But, all the bishops of the world don’t participate in a synod. A synod cannot make infallible statements on faith and morals. Synod statements can contain errors.

However, a Church Council, when in union with the pope, can make infallible statements on faith and morals binding all Catholics to believe. The last Church Council was Vatican II.

The current synod underway has been criticized by some cardinals, bishops and priests.

When I was in Medjugorje, a Dominican priest, who preached in the presence of a bishop who offered the Mass, gave a homily on the synod. He said, “In the pre-synodal reports of certain countries, they clamor for change in doctrine and morals.” “...some who promoting for change, claim holiness is an ideal, rather than a goal. They seek to accompany, which they mean to keep people exactly where they are. What is sinful is no longer called sin. We are reassured that hell is not eternal or that it is empty. When we fail to love people enough and properly, our error manifests. How? By lying to them and blessing their disordered unions. By confirming them in adultery and fornication. By affirming their grave errors like abortion and reward them with Communion without repentance. It is a failure to love people’s souls and the willingness to risk their eternal salvation. And all, why? For the sake being inclusive and nice. For the sake of making myself popular.”

In Catholic news recently, Bishop Robert Mutsaerts from the Netherlands, said, “One thing is clear to me. God is out of the picture in this damned synodal process. The Holy Spirit has absolutely nothing to do with it. Among the protagonists of this process are to me a little too many defenders of gay marriage, folks who don't really think abortion is a problem and never really show themselves defenders of the Church's rich creed, wanting above all to be liked by their secular surroundings. How un-pastoral, how unloving. People want sincere answers. They don't want to go home with more questions. You're keeping people from salvation. I have since dropped out of the synodal process.”

Cardinal Mueller, former head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith was recently interviewed on the Catholic television EWTN show, The World Over hosted by Raymond Arroyo. During the interview the cardinal spoke about the current synod being held in Rome. He, other clerics and church theologians are accusing the synod leaders of having a pre-planned agenda.

He said, “This is a desire to take over, a power which doesn't exist, a want to be more intelligent than God himself. It is like the Marxistic form of creating the truth by presenting of his own power. ... They have the intention to substitute their own subjective ideas, against a revealed reality of Jesus Christ, as is the [path to the] destruction of the Catholic Church... This occupation of the Catholic Church is a hostile takeover of the Church of Jesus Christ... And if you look at only one page, or read one page of the Gospel, you'll see that it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ... and [in this agenda] they think that doctrine is only like a program of a political party, who can change it according to their votes. And we must resist it like the old heretics of the Arianism.” The words of Cardinal Mueller are sobering.

What if the majority of bishops in the world, were to say, Jesus is more than a man, but less than God? Would you follow the majority of the bishops? This is actually what happened in the early 300’s, during the Arian Heresy. During that time, the majority of the bishops in the world were holding to a false teaching that originated by a bishop, whose name was Arius. However, the majority of the people of the Church did not accept this false idea, but persevered through that crisis and the heresy died away because the Church, as the bride of Christ was victorious. Ordinary lay people believed what the Church had taught, Jesus is fully God and fully man, with two natures, human and divine.

What if today, suppose for example, the majority of the bishops would say women can be ordained priests, homosexual unions are no longer sinful, and can be blessed, and everyone, no matter their religion, or if in they are in a state of mortal sin, can receive the Holy Eucharist. But the problem with these ideas, is that the teachings of the Church on these subjects can never be changed. These topics are actually being discussed at the synod.

But what if the majority of the bishops followed these errors? Suppose for example, if a synod document would make these erroneous statements, would you follow the synod? You better not, because then you would be setting yourself outside the teachings of the Church passed down to us from Jesus and the Apostles.

St. John’s second letter, he said, “Anyone who is so “progressive” as to not remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God; whoever remains in the teaching has the Father and the Son.” (2 John: 4-9)

St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians (1:8) said, “Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the we preached to you, let him be cursed.”

Bishop Fulton Sheen, whose cause for his canonization is under way, said, this about the future antichrist: He will give “the temptation to have a new religion without a Cross, a liturgy without a world to come, a religion to destroy a religion, or a politics which is a religion.. He will set up a counter church which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. ..But the twentieth century will join the counter church because it claims to be infallible when its visible head speaks ex cathedra from Moscow on the subject of economics and politics, and as chief shepherd of world communism.”

My friends, we are entering into very confusing times in the Catholic Church and the world. That is why in last week’s bulletin, I suggested you keep up on Catholic news. We must always hold fast to our Catholic faith. It is the pearl of great price. Human beings make mistakes and sin. But the deposit of faith (divine revelation) given to us by way of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition (as found in the Catechism) can never change and if we cling to it, no matter what goes on around us, we will always have hope.

Jesus wasn’t just predicting the destruction of Jerusalem (which actually took place in 70 AD), about 37 years after His death and resurrection. He was also unveiling a spiritual reality. Like the prophet Jeremiah centuries before Him, Jesus was warning the people not to place all their confidence on the temple alone. Rather than placing their hope in bricks and mortar, they needed to look to the God who inhabits the temple.

It wasn’t just the temple, either. Jesus also foretold of earthquake, famines, wars, and persecutions. Nations would fall; good health, peace, and stability would collapse. Everything the people relied on—everything we rely on—would one day pass away. Only God and His teachings lasts forever.

So where’s the hope? By exposing the lie that says security comes from money, status, or well-being, from human beings, Jesus is pointing us to what does last: heaven. Because He loves us, He is warning us not to rely on fleeting things that will only disappoint us. As much as we enjoy the consolations and blessings of life on earth, they can’t possibly compare to heaven!

That the hope: Jesus is showing us the greatness of our God and the glory of the life to come. He’s opening our eyes to the only One who lasts: our faithful God. With Him, we find everlasting life. That’s why, as we persevere and cling to Him, and His divine revelation through His immemorial teachings of the Church, and we will “secure our lives”.
The words of Jesus to Peter, give us hope: “I say to you: That you are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” He doesn’t promise the Church won’t go turmoil. But, He promises His Church and His teachings will never change and will last until He comes on the clouds of heaven. Let us turn to the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church and ask Her to watch over and protect the Church and help us to always be faithful to the Church’s teachings, even to death if necessary. And may we keep all those who are causing confusion in the Church in our prayers, that they may become a witness to the truth of the Gospel.

Fr. Leon's Pereira Homily before a Bishop, who offered the Mass at St. James in Medjugorje

 Bishop Robert Mutsaerts Synod Explanation

https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2022/11/dutch-bishop-god-is-out-of-picture-in.html

Cardinal Mueller's Interview with EWTN the World Over

 https://fatheredmondkline.blogspot.com/2022/10/ewtn-world-over-cardinal-mueller.html