Bald Eagle, a frequent sight, for me symbolic of Saint John the Evangelist, but, here in America, also a symbol of patriotism, a virtue of piety if truth be told, as described as a virtue of justice by Saint Thomas Aquinas. Lots of those in the parish.
Wild Turkey, which always reminds of our forefathers and Thanksgiving. Quiet foragers, stately. I’ve counted as many as 90 together at the right time and place.
Turkey vultures with their red-heads and huge wingspans taking over roadways over roadkill and sailing effortlessly in their “kettles” as they spy for more to scavenge. Necessary. Helpful.
Humming bird, smallest, meanest, most violent, most beautiful, fastest, noisiest, most helpful in their own way with pollination and such.
Then their are the song-birds, the varieties of finches and chickadees and sparrows.
There are crows and ravens, and the waaaaay too opinionated blue-jays.
You thought I was talking about birds. Them too. But I was talking about parishioners. All good.
You know, one kind of bird we do not at all have in the parish are ostriches. Nobody is wanting to escape reality. We look to our Risen Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we see His wounds. And then everything is right with the world again, because we have our souls pointed to the heavens.
The above Sacred Heart was texted in with the note that this was a painting her father did for her on her birthday. Awesome. Of course, this reminds us ever so appropriately of the fiery Holy Spirit:
Great theological truths being portrayed with the Sacred Heart! Thank you.
Until some animal rights groups got involved a couple years back, there was a live “possum drop” festival every year just south of the parish, then right close to the parish church. Then it was gone. The possums were treated like royalty in their highly decorated perches with all the food and water and comforts they could possibly want. They were gently lowered from on high. Who knows why? It is what it is. Kind of harmless, especially to the possums.
Any possums now being dropped are toys in the secret of people’s homes. Some traditions don’t die out so quickly. I saw this the other day in one of the parishioner’s homes:
It’s difficult to get rid of human traditions.
But what happens when it’s Sacred Tradition that’s being treated like human tradition?
There’s not only more resistance to what is thought by innovators to be open to change, but that change actually is impossible regardless of what kind of resistance there is, though that resistance will be there, and it will be implacable.
Sacred Tradition is constituted by the articles of faith, the traditiones as the Council of Trent calls them in its first dogmatic decree of 8 April 1546 in its fourth session. That supernatural faith provided by the Holy Spirit is univocal and handed on as if by hand, like handing on a book, but is actually wrought by the Holy Spirit, very personal, with love, providing us hope. The Council mocked those who otherwise thought they could control the very Revelation of God, changing doctrine, changing morals, stripping away truth and love and hope, while thinking themselves to be in complete control. For its mockery, the Council used the phrase quasi per manus, almost as if by hand, so as to say:
“You think you have God’s Revelation in hand, but you do not. You think you can change doctrine and morals, but you cannot. The handing on of Sacred Tradition is wrought by the direct work of the Holy Spirit. It’s not just tradition, but Sacred Tradition. We’re talking about the unmanipulatable Truth of the Living God. No prestidigitations will be suffered. You do not have control of Sacred Tradition.”
But the innovators will not see that, will not hear that, will not be able to understand that. The innovators will continue to treat the Sacred Revelation of God Himself as a mere possum, which they treat as oh-so-precious, but which they think can ditch any time they want.
Example: The Holy Spirit teaches us all that Jesus taught us. Jesus taught us that at the Last Supper united with Calvary, He recites His Wedding Vows with His Bride the Church, this is my body being given for you in Sacrifice, my blood being poured out for you in Sacrifice, total self-giving, Jesus insisting that this brings us His body, blood, soul and divinity. This has been the teaching of the Church always as it is always the teaching of the Holy Spirit. This is the lex orandi, the law of prayer. This is therefore the lex credendi, the law of believing. This is SACRED TRADITION.
In Traditionis custodes Pope Francis admits that the lex orandi, the law of prayer, is THE TRADITION guaranteed by the custodians of that tradition — though, wait a minute, they are not the Holy Spirit, but mere men — Ooops! The lex orandi is defined in His own accompanying letter as the Sacrifice of Jesus in the Sacrifice of Holy Mass as brought about with the consecrations, say, Hoc est enim corpus meum quod pro vobis TRADETUR. Yep. But Pope Francis says that such a Tradition of Traditions in the Consecrations is not any kind of expression at all of the Latin Rite of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, of the lex orandi. Wait… What? And then elsewhere he says that it is not the mandate of the custodians of tradition to guard doctrine and morality, the deposit of faith. Wait… What?
Fine. I’ll stay with the Holy Spirit, and the “custodians” can attempt all they want to betray the Holy Spirit. They won’t get far at all. Nowhere. To be a good custodian means not to add to, nor take away from, nor change anything. They can expound upon. How authentic that is has to be seen. But that’s all they can do.
Speaking prophetically: Their attempts, say, a printed version of Traditionis custodes, will likely give rise to a culture in which that printed version will be dropped from a great height, and we’ll call that tradition “The Traditionis custodes Drop“. And then that will be made illegal by idiots, regardless of how well that hardcopy was treated as precious as it was being ever so gently lowered in all mockery. And then, being forced underground, people will participate in “The Traditionis custodes Drop” only in the secret of their homes. But they will do it. With joy. With mockery befitting the event. And they they will go to their churches in thanksgiving, participating in a public dropping. And they they will assist at the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, the Traditional Latin Mass, the TLM, being more custodians of Sacred Tradition than any of those congratulating themselves to be have ever been. And as all that drops, we raise the Lord on high:
Just some random thoughts on this feast of feasts…
During the fiery creation the Holy Spirit was hovering over the turbulent waters.
During the exodus the Holy Spirit in fiery winds of the pillar of cloud and fire was hovering over the chosen people bringing them through the turbulent waters.
In the turbulent waters of John’s Baptism, with that entire region of the world going down for the baptism, the Holy Spirit hovered over Christ Jesus.
Upon the cross, there were turbulent waters (water and blood) which had formed when the pericardium of Jesus was sundered in His traumatic prayer to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane (which the doctors of Calvary say, considering the sweat of blood, was accompanied by a massive heart attack. We saw those turbulent waters flow out of Jesus’ Heart, His side, when pierced by the sword of the Roman soldier. Jesus breathed forth our Redemption and the grace for our salvation. Jesus breathed on them, to those whose sins you forgive, He said, those sins are forgiven, the Holy Spirit being provided for the forgiveness of sin, whether in the turbulent waters of baptism from the side of Christ, or by way of absolution with the Holy Spirit’s sanctification of us coming by that same Sacrifice of the Mass, water gushing everywhere.
At Pentecost, that fiery love of the Holy Spirit forms us into being the members of the Body of Christ. The original fifty days was from the turbulent waters of the exodus to the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai always accompanied, guarded, guided by the Holy Spirit in the cloud of fire, then right into the Tent, to the Temple, but the Temple is Christ Jesus, and Mary herself the Ark of the Covenant, she the Immaculate Spouse of the Holy Spirit. And while the Law brought us to understand how dead we were in sin, in also thus prepared us to keep that law perfectly but as the littlest children of God.
So, then, we also recall that the Rock with the chosen people was Christ Himself, with those turbulent waters flowing from the Rock, giving them drink in their thirst in the desert. There is the fiery Holy Spirit. There is Christ. Did the Apostles offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on that fiftieth day, that Pentecost in fulfillment of the entire economy of salvation. Of course they did. Thanks be to God. And we are made to living stones of that Temple in which is the Light of Christ, the fiery ardent love of God.
From Ezekiel 47: The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side. As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in–a river that no one could cross. He asked me, “Son of man, do you see this?” Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, “This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Sea. When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh.
According to faithless ecclesiastical “leaders” joy is to be found by abandoning clear teaching on doctrine and morality and the spiritual life, so that joy is found in lackadaisical liturgy, not striving after excellence with love. But Jesus said: “If you love me, keep the commandments.” Instead, we hear: Ignore the commandments so that you are tolerated as politically correct, and that self-absorbed sterile Styrofoam conformity subservient to browbeaters will be your joy.
That is not joy. It has nothing to do with Jesus, nothing to do with love, nothing to do with truth. And that’s not joy. That’s misery. That leads to depression, despair.
Joy is to be found in taking up our cross, all the effects of original sin and our own, weakness of mind, weakness of will, emotions all the hell over the place, sickness, death, and, meanwhile, following Jesus by way of being drawn up by His grace to be one with Him, so, being in His strength, so our lives are expressions of His goodness and kindness, His truth, His life.
Realizing that we cannot follow the commandments on our own, that we, on our own have no chance at all of keeping the commandments frees us to depend on Jesus and His strength, and we can do all things in Him. He’s the One, the only One. Once we get that, as it were, on the other side of the Cross, that’s when we meet up with joy in the Holy Spirit. Jesus is our Savior!
And we rejoice when He says, “If you love me, keep the commandments,” because we know that in His strength, united with Him, we can absolutely keep the absolute commandments, laughing at weakness as it shows us how strong Jesus us. Yes, we can still sin, so weak are we, but look at His the power of His love. Thank you, Jesus.
Examples from the fake “joy” of terrorism, alternative “life-styles”, self-entitled narcissism, and so on, all in contrast to just when the true joy of the Holy Spirit is established by Almighty God in the souls of His little flock.
To anyone who might recognize himself in the alternative “life-styles” example: no apologies for my comments here. And certainly no apologies to the at-one-time largest monastery in North America (with, I think, some 412 professed monks), which was one of many home parishes for me when I was very many decades younger than I am now.
Oh, yes: Thanks go to the airport transport driver, really cool guy.
A parishioner painted this the-eyes-follow-you-everywhere portrait of Jesus as He would be just after His baptism by John in the Jordan. Note the reference of Mt 3:17. Note the angels ready to serve Him in the desert after the 40 days and nights of fasting. Note the crucifixion with the Father holding His Son, and then the burial (in the folds of the garments below the neck).
In fact, to fulfill all righteousness as Jesus set about showing us mercy founded on justice by being Himself baptized, even while being the innocent Divine Son of God, He took on the death we deserve because of original sin, effectively saying to our Heavenly Father that He, Jesus, should be treated as if He had enslaved everyone in sin from Adam until the last man is conceived, and should therefore be punished with the death we deserve for actually enslaving each other in sin, deserving to be put to death much like the charioteers and soldiers of Pharaoh were drowned in the Red Sea for having merely enslaved the children of Abraham unto physical labor for so many centuries.
The goodness and kindness of Jesus as He takes on His Passion and Death… A face which is peaceful as is right for the Prince of the Most Profound Peace. He’s the One I follow.
Today’s Gospel from John 14:15-21 — Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.
But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”
Jesus doesn’t say: “Manifest the fruits of the Holy Spirit!” No. You know why? Because those come about naturally, as it were, when we are tabernacles of the Holy Spirit, so, O.K., we can learn about all the fruits, love them, assent to them, but it’s really stupid to try to bring them about on our own as if we ourselves were the Holy Spirit. Rejoice in the fruits of the Holy Spirit, but don’t put the cart before the horse.
Jesus doesn’t say: “Give yourselves the gifts of the Holy Spirit!” Although you would think He did say that the way some people think that they can go about acquiring those gifts if only they are really smart and prudent and whatever all without the Holy Spirit. No. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit are gifts, and like any otherwise gratia gratis data (grace freely given) such as the gift of tongues or the gift of prophesy, cannot be practiced because, you know, they are a gift. They flow naturally, as it were, when we are tabernacles of the Holy Spirit. We can learn about them, love them, assent to them, but it’s really stupid to try to bring them about on our own as if ourselves were the Holy Spirit. Rejoice in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but don’t put the cart before the horse.
Jesus did say that the Holy Spirit would teach us all things, everything that He taught us, and Jesus also gave us the way to be available to the workings of the Holy Spirit. We are, with the Holy Spirit, to set about keeping the commandments. Then we find that that is impossible for us on our own and, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, we are to assent to dying to ourselves, crucified to the world, to live only for Christ Jesus. And this battle ground is the field of action of the Holy Spirit who sets about forming us into the image of Jesus, making us members of the Body of Christ. And in all that mayhem of the battle, that is when we see the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit shine. The horse is keeping the commandments with the grace of the Holy Spirit; the cart is the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit. Living the fruits and gifts are hugely encouraging for us to keep the commandments, yes, but they come from the Holy Spirit.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 