7th Sunday after Pentecost – July 31, 2011
(Epistle Romans 6: 19-23)
(Gospel Matthew 7: 15-21)
In the Epistle reading last week, St. Paul stated in clear language a central fact of Christian life: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [Jesus] that the body of sin may be destroyed, and that we may serve sin no longer,” so that we also reckon ourselves “to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God.” Today St. Paul develops that fact.
Our first parents’ original sin carries down to all of us today. Our bodies, to one degree or another, are always at the call of Satan, who never lets us forget our vices. But death comes at last and our souls are set free. Satan then has no claim on us. The original sin carried by our bodies is the “old man”, as St. Paul puts it, and this old man is buried under the waters of Baptism. It’s obvious to adults who have reasoning minds that we must cooperate with the grace given us in Baptism, because our inclination to sin comes to life again and again by the slightest encouragement. St. Paul writes in Romans 6 that we were once servants of sin, but thanks to God we have been freed and made servants of justice. He tells us that we will win eternal life if we serve justice with as much earnestness as we once served uncleanness and iniquity.
Living a life of sin degrades us, but Justice blesses us with peace of mind at every step we take in doing our duty. Ecclesiasticus 15: 1-8 tells us that he who possesses justice, shall lay hold on Wisdom: he shall find delights in that divine Wisdom, which surpasses all that earth could give us. We work for justice as Jacob labored 14 years to obtain Rachel. The name Rachel means “vision of the beginning.” St. John’s Gospel tells us that “In the beginning was the Word . . . and the Word was God,” that is, Jesus Christ. Laboring for justice is the Wisdom which shows us God. Justice means the Commandments, and the Commandments prescribe works of justice.
We do not understand all there is to know about other people, even those we love. Neither do we understand all about God, but we begin with faith. To live an ordered and happy life we begin with faith, then proceed to works of justice. We gain knowledge and wisdom, but however much we understand of life, we will always have to labor for justice. This is a tiring life of labor, but it is a complete life that leads to an eternity of joy in the Kingdom of our Lord.
In today’s Gospel, our Lord warns us to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” Catholics have been spoken of as sheep because throughout history they have willingly gone to their deaths as martyrs rather than to sin against God, like sheep going in for the slaughter. Today our Lord is telling us to beware of hypocrites, the false prophets who preach a false religion.
Jesus is not speaking here of Catholics who believe something in error, like today’s Feeneyites, who hold that without baptism of water there is no salvation. Without going into the error of Feeneyism, the Church teaches the whole truth, that there is a Baptism of desire, a Baptism of blood and a Baptism of water. Our Lord today is talking about the ravening wolves that hide within and enjoy the peace of the Catholic Church. These are not the faithful who have been misled with false doctrine. The wolves are those who mislead the faithful purely for their own gain or in order to destroy the Church.
The Catholic Church has had to put up with these wolves since its beginning. In Acts 20: 29 St. Paul says, “I know that after my departure, ravening wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.” These false prophets apparently followed St. Paul wherever he went, and they have been an irritant to the Church and the True Faith right up until today. These wolves have included bishops, priests, deacons, brothers, nuns and countless lay persons. They clothe themselves in the garb of Catholics and call themselves Catholics, however, their hearts are not set on heaven but on the things of this life. Again, I am not talking about those who have been misled.
Today’s wolves, the so-called modernists, are especially good at corrupting the faithful with their feel-good religion that preaches that everyone goes to heaven, and their Machiavellian tactics of deception which were later adopted by the communists and so-called progressives. They take two steps forward, and if challenged by the truth, take one step back, and when the pressure is off, then another two steps forward, and one step back if challenged again, keeping this up until they reach their goal of total control and destruction of the One True Church. The wolves have repeated this false pretence of being Catholic and have now captured almost the entire Catholic Church organization. St. John Chrysostom said of these wolves: “There is nothing that so menaces what is good as pretence.”
But again, let’s separate these wolves from those who hold beliefs in error. It is easy to find much goodness in the lives of those who hold some beliefs in error. But among the wolves you will not find goodness. St. Augustine said that it must be the duty of the hierarchy, the Bishops and priests, to feed the flock of the Lord out of love, as Jesus told St. Peter three times in succession at John 21:15-17, “Feed my lambs … Feed my lambs … Feed my sheep.” And consider further that, “those whose motive in feeding Christ’s sheep is to make them their own and not Christ’s, stand convicted of loving themselves and not Christ. They are moved by the desire to gain glory or power or wealth, and not [moved] by charity, which seeks to obey, to render service, to please God.”
The hypocrites, the ravening wolves, are hidden within the Church and so appear to be pious persons. But start taking away their glory or power or wealth and they will quickly take off the clothing of sheep, bare their fangs and show how great is their hatred of what is good. When they are called upon to walk in the footsteps of Christ, as St. Chrysostom says they are “easily detected because to walk in charity is painful to them. And a hypocrite does not readily choose what is painful. So I will end today by repeating the words of our Lord: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.” +++
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