Neither Predator nor Prey nor Church (Bede)

Homily - Neither Predator nor Prey nor Church (Bede)

Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians...[Take heed] to feed the church of the Lord which he obtained with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)

DEAR FRIENDS:

IN THE AVALANCHE OF NEWS concerning the former Cardinal and the bishops and priests of six dioceses in Pennsylvania...

WE MAY BE TEMPTED TO BELIEVE that the prelates who covered up the criminal perversity and... became complicit in the sins of the Cardinal and of the priests...

WE MAY BE TEMPTED TO BELIEVE that these prelates and priests loved the predators more than they loved the young men, women and children upon whom they preyed!

BUT NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER from the truth!

DEAREST FRIENDS:

IF THESE BISHOPS LOVED the predators, they would have beaten them with the rod of correction!

As Solomon says:

He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him. (Proverbs 13:24)

IF THEY LOVED THE YOUNG MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN... whom the predators devoured they would have sounded the alarm...

THEY WOULD HAVE SOUNDED the alarm...

So that the holy people of God would have come to the defense of the weak!

As David says:

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." (Psalms 82:3-4)

BUT, THEY LOVED NOT the predator!

AND, THEY LOVED NOT their prey!

NEITHER DID THESE PRELATES love the Church!

FOR HAD THEY LOVED the Church they would have guarded her soul!

BUT, THEY CHOSE TO PRESERVE the outward appearance of the Church of God... Rather than vigorously defend and guard her true sanctity!

As our Lord Jesus Christ says:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.”  (Matthew 23:27)

DEAREST BRETHREN IN CHRIST:

THESE WICKED MEN DID THIS because they LOVED... and STILL LOVE ONLY THEMSELVES!

BUT, HERE TOO THEIR LOVE has proven itself too weak!

For as the holy Prophet Ezekiel says:

...If you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; BUT YOU WILL HAVE SAVED YOUR LIFE. (Ezekiel 3:19)

O Saint Pius X: You who loved the Modernists enough to admonish, discipline and punish them; And who loved the laity enough to warn them concerning the pernicious doctrines of the heretics: Pray for us!

O Lord Jesus Christ: The Alpha and the Omega. You who walk among the lampstands of the Churches: Have mercy on us!

Grant, O merciful Lord, Your Holy Roman Church, Your Mystical Body... Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Priests, Deacons and Religious...

Give to your holy and ever spotless Bride... Shepherds like unto Pope Saint Pius X Again!