Blogger Priest

The Holy Father introduced the Angelus on August 11, 2024, to 12,000 pilgrims in Saint Peter’s Square with a few words about John 6:41-51 taken from the day’s Mass. The Pope explained that those who knew Christ questioned how he could say that he came down from heaven. It should be obvious that those who thought they knew him, did not know him well enough. The Holy Father asserts, “They are obstructed in their faith by their preconception of his humble origins, and they are obstructed by the presumption, therefore, that they have nothing to learn from him.” As the Pope offers his words, one must wonder if he has mistakenly shifted to another text, Matthew 13:54-58:

“He came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, ‘Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?’ And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and in his own house.’ And he did not work many mighty deeds there because of their lack of faith.”

The Pope’s observation is true in its proper context, but the theme to the actual Gospel for the day is Jesus as the Eucharist. 

Turning to the correct reading, Jesus tells the crowd, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” Pope Francis seems to miss or at least bypass the core meaning of the Gospel selection— that Jesus will feed his people with his very self. Our Lord makes himself painfully clear: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” This is why his listeners “murmur.”

It is not simply that they have closed hearts. Our Lord is testing them with a message that sounds absurd or irrational to their ears. Their law would have them refrain from the blood of animals and yet what Jesus proposes sounds like cannibalism. They cannot make sense of it. It has not been revealed to them that Jesus is God. The claim that Jesus makes is wild, maybe even deemed as madness. Many of the Jews will walk away. It is here that there is a major disconnect with what Pope Francis tells the crowd:

“Preconceptions and presumptions, how much harm they do! They prevent sincere dialogue, a coming together, of brothers and sisters: beware of preconceptions and presumptions. They have their rigid mindsets, and there is no space in their heart for what does not fit into them, for what they are unable to catalogue and file-away, in the dusty shelves of their security. And this is true: very often our securities are closed-up, dusty, like old books.”

Dusty old books often retain the great treasures of inspiration and wisdom gathered over the ages.  Why should the Holy See elevate the novel and untried over the ancient and proven? After all, it is the Church’s ancient apostolic pedigree that singles her out from among her ecclesial rivals.

Nothing about the Eucharist is mentioned. How can this be? The Jews are wronged for that which they did not and could not yet know. It is not their fault that they fail to understand. Indeed, our Lord would turn to his apostles and ask if they would leave him, too.  Peter will affirm to Jesus that while he will not abandon him, like the others, he can make no sense of his message either. He remains because he personally believes that Jesus has the words of eternal life. He stays because of a forged relationship, not because he yet understands.  

The Holy Father’s message is not an exegesis of the immediate text but the imposition of a thinly veiled polemic against the obstinacy of traditionalists and those who maintain what he regards as a rigid faith. What are the harmful “preconceptions and presumptions”? One would expect the Pope, before all others, would affirm settled doctrine and maintain perennial truths against the errors of our times. But he has become notorious for ambiguity. Yes, we can be compassionate to those in same sex relationships and in irregular unions. However, we cannot condone sin but must call all to repentance and conversion. Whatever ritual used for Mass, God is praised, and the children of God encounter the saving oblation of Calvary and receive the resurrected Christ in communion. Should we exclude any Mass, old rite or new, that nourishes the People of God, forgives sins, and saves souls? Should we not err on the side of freedom and not seek to hurt the faith sensibilities of believers?

The Pope argues that those who resist and abandon Jesus do so because “they carry out their religious practices not so much to listen to the Lord, but rather to find in them the confirmation of what they think. They are closed to the Word of the Lord and look for confirmation of their own thoughts.” Again, it becomes clear that this is not a homily on the Scriptures, but another of many assaults on the resistance of traditionalists. Granting the Holy See every respect, is there not something presumptuous about the negative stamp impressed upon traditionalists and so-called conservatives? Why would he view those who prefer the Traditional Latin Mass as having a hollow faith?  Can he read hearts? How does he know that they are “closed” to the living Word? Is it wrong for them to have confidence in the truth, particularly in a revelation that comes from the Lord and the legacy of faith?   

Returning to the actual Scripture text, the difference between the murmuring Jews and the obstinate traditionalists is crucial. While the Jews are in the cold and our Lord has not yet instituted the Eucharist, the latter group (good Catholics) have received the fullness of revelation. The catechism can be trusted as passing down the truths of Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. The papacy is organized precisely to preserve and define the Church in perennial truths, not to challenge or undermine the faith.

Equating the complaining traditionalists with the murmuring Jews, is he fearful of schism just as many Jewish disciples walked away from Jesus? The analogy is a poor one. It is no secret that the Holy Father is not happy with many, i.e. EWTN and “conservative” or “orthodox” news services, traditional critics on social media, books by clergy and laymen who oppose his synodality effort and how he promotes the reform of the Mass. He impugns their faith, saying, “they are convinced, and they shut themselves in, they are closed in an impenetrable fortress. And so, they are unable to believe.”

Should anyone negate the faith of critics who emphasize the head over the heart? We must recognize the normal progression:  to know, to love, and to serve.  Is it not wrong to view this as a resistance to truth? He writes: “When you find a person who is closed in their mind, in prayer, that faith and that prayer are not true.” No, the mind for many of his critics is not closed to the truth but to error. We are not talking about liberal dissent but rather men and women who seek to think with the Church. True development of doctrine starts with what we know as genuine and reliable. There is no reversal of revealed truth. Truth builds upon truth. The Christian acknowledges that there are some questions that have been answered definitively. Marriage is only between a man and a woman. There are only two genders. Sex outside of marriage is always wrong and sinful. The human soul is infused at conception and this constituted person has a sacred dignity and a right to life. Any legitimate Mass, both the Novus Ordo and the Traditional Latin, constitute the re-presentation of Calvary in a clean oblation to the Father wherein propitiation is made, and we are redeemed. Jesus makes himself fully present in the bread and wine that is transformed into his body and blood. Christ is our one mediator. None are saved apart from Christ and his Church. The Church is governed by an apostolic hierarchical authority. Only men can be ordained as bishops, priests and deacons. The commandments and precepts of the Church bind us under the law of God. The seven sacraments give grace. Priests act in the person of Christ as head of the Church at our altars. We are given beatitudes, corporal works and spiritual works of mercy. The Lord’s Prayer shows us how to pray and Jesus shares something of his relationship to the Father with us. None of this is up for grabs. It is imposed from on high, and no synodal process from below can change any of it.      

All this said, Pope Francis regularly laments the harm caused by critics on the right, viewing their stance as a failure to love. But given his treatment of traditionalists, the many insults against priests, and the vindictive retaliation against faithful bishops, we must ask in all humility, is his heart fully open to love? It is here that I hope the Holy Father takes his own words to heart. He writes:

“Let us pay attention to all of this, because at times the same thing can happen to us too, in our life and in our prayer: it can happen to us, that is, that instead of truly listening to what the Lord has to say to us, we look to Him and others only for a confirmation of what we think, a confirmation of our convictions, our judgements, which are prejudices. But this way of addressing God does not help us to encounter God, to truly encounter Him, nor to open ourselves up to the gift of His light and His grace, to grow in goodness, to do His will and to overcome failings and difficulties. Brothers and sisters, faith and prayer, when they are true, open the mind and the heart; they do not close them.”

What the Pope prays in theory becomes more problematical in practice. He would have us ask ourselves a series of questions.

• “In my life of faith, am I capable of being truly silent within myself, and listening to God?”
• “Am I willing to welcome His voice, beyond my own mindset, and also, with His help, to overcome my fears?”

We should all find a silence within ourselves to listen to God. But God speaks to us in his Word and through the truths taught by the Church. The confusion emerges when dissenting opinions emerge from a secular modernity that seem to conflict with what Christ revealed and with what the Church has always taught. God cannot teach falsehood. Living popes must agree with dead ones on matters of immutable doctrine and morality. We must also be able to discern between the true voice of God and that which is a snare from the devil or from ignorance. The posture of the true disciple should always be one that is open to correction and enlightenment. While we can practice accompaniment, we must not walk with others away from the Lord on the road of sin; rather, we should get those that are lost to accompany us on the one way of Christ. The development of doctrine must always be organic and reasonable. The irrational or chaotic or disordered is not from the Lord.  Rather, these traits belong to the prince of the world.

The Pope prays, “May Mary help us to listen with faith to the Lord’s voice, and to do His will courageously.” Just as the teaching authority of the papacy should never be taken for granted; neither should the magisterial theologians have their voices or teachings dismissed with impunity.  It seems to me that many priests and bishops seek to speak truth to power, and do so courageously, not as a form of disrespect but with confidence in Christ and a love for the Church.   

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