• Their Last Supper. Saint Epiphanius (d. 403) asserted that the Gospel of John was written by a disciple of Jesus who left the fold when Jesus delivered his sermon on the Eucharist, but returned later after Jesus rose from the dead. Whether that’s true or not, St. John’s gospel tells us that many people left Jesus because the teachings about consuming his body and blood were too difficult to understand and too much for them to accept. It is a difficult teaching … one that our intellect would like to reject based on sensory experience, but our wills maintain based on faith. If it was that hard to accept when Jesus himself pronounced the doctrine, how much harder is it today for those Catholics exposed to the numerous sacrileges of the Eucharist? Practices at many Novus Ordo churches reinforce disbelief with a casual approach to the sacred body and blood of our Lord. Communion in the hand, communion standing, communion distributed by “ministers” whose attire and attitude all project the commonplace, invite the confused or questioning Catholic to reject Christ’s teaching and follow those who walked away. Unfortunately, it may be too late to come back when they see Jesus really meant what he said. Praxi lex est lex credendi.
• Immunized Against the Truth. It seems nearly impossible to bring a Novus Ordo Catholic into the traditional Faith of the Church. So many are convinced they know already what the Church teaches, when (having been there myself), they have only a faint understanding of the true depth of the Church’s teaching on the sacrifice of the Mass, the meaning of suffering, the preeminent role of Mary, the fewness of the saved and so much more. It’s as if they received a vaccination containing a weakened strain of the Faith, and having successfully absorbed it into their souls, they now resist the full version. Only a more powerful, forthright and frequent exposure to the fullness of Catholic teaching, most readily found in traditional Catholic parishes, will overcome their “immunization.”
• Un-Orthodox Targets. The Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece today on the multiple recent attacks in New York against ultra-Orthodox Jews. The article explains, “Their values have never been so out of step with the city where they live. They have many children in a time when most Americans have few. Global warming doesn’t rate on their lists of top concerns. They lead traditional lives, directed toward God, and maintain traditional families. They don’t know the meaning of ‘genderqueer’.” That description could just as easily describe traditional Catholics. And although anti-semitism is a disease all its own, if the author’s conclusion is true that such differences make otherwise good people look the other way when the ultra-Orthodox are targeted, traditional Catholic parishes should also be prepared. Our parish has an armed guard at every mass.