MY COMMENTS FIRST! Haven't I been teaching this all along? The human being's soul even if that person is a male, has a feminine soul and thus the Church composed of males and females but collectively referred to as "souls" is feminine , she, her, holy mother, bride of Christ. This has significance and implications for the truth about the sacraments of Matrimony and Holy Orders. This pope who has quite explicitly called for the end of the discussion of the possibility of women deacons, priests or bishops and certainly no possible discussion of the Sacrament of Matrimony being opened to same sex couples, gives us a rationale for it imprinted on our female souls, no matter if that person is a male! This pope is radically orthodox but radically into the mission of the "poor little one" Saint Francis of Assisi who went about his entire life striving to "rebuild" the Church of his day, that had grown corrupt and arrogant and too rich for her britches! And what was bad about Holy Mother Church in Saint Francis day is magnified to the nth degree in our own day and Pope Francis knows it! Corruption is worse than just being a mortal sinner. He is out to clean out the corruption not only of the self-serving princes of the curia and hierarchy who could care less about the Church in her local forms, but also those in academia and elsewhere that push the Church towards heterodoxy by pushing for women's ordination, infidelity to the Magisterium, neglect of the Deposit of Faith and sexual immorality as it concerns the call to chastity for everyone, no matter their sexual attraction!
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis celebrated Mass on Monday morning in the chapel of the Casa Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. He focused his remarks after the readings of the day on the coming feast of the Nativity, and the threefold coming of Christ into history, at the end of time, and into our daily lives. Drawing on the lesson of St. Bernard, Pope Francis spoke of a “Third coming” of Christ – that which occurs every day in the life of the Church and of Christian faithful:
“There is a third coming of the Lord: that of every day. The Lord visits His Church every day! He visits each of us, and so our souls as well [experience something similar] : our soul resembles the Church , our soul resembles Mary. The desert fathers say that Mary, the Church and our souls are feminine, and that what is said about one can be said analogously of the others. Our soul is also in waiting, this waiting for the coming of the Lord – an open soul that calls out, ‘Come, Lord.’”
Pope Francis went on to say that the Holy Spirit moves each of us in these days to make this prayer his own, and recalled how all throughout the Advent season the Church has described herself as being in vigilant expectation – the attitude that is the hallmark of the pilgrim. “We are pilgrims,” he said:
“Are we expectant, or are we [indifferent]? Are we vigilant, or are we closed up ‘safely’ in an inn along the way, without desire to go forward. Are we are pilgrims, or are we vagabonds? For this reason, the Church invites us to pray, ‘Come! ‘, in order to open our soul and in order that that our soul be, these days, vigilant and expectant. Keep vigil! Be mindful of the difference the Lord’s coming (or not) makes in us. Is there a place for the Lord, or only for parties, for shopping , for revelry ... Is our soul open , as is Holy Mother Church and as was the Virgin Mary? Or is our soul rather closed, with a “Do Not Disturb!” sign hung on the door to it?”
“The world,” warned Pope Francis, “does not end with us,” but with the Lord, with Our Lady and with Mother Church. “So,” he said, “we do well to repeat [the invocation”: ‘O Wisdom , O Key of David, O King of the nations, come!”:
“Now, repeat [the call] many times, ‘Come, Lord Jesus!’ and look to see our soul be not one of those souls that say, “Do not disturb!” No! Let ours be great souls – souls open to receive the Lord in these days and that begin to feel that, which tomorrow the Church will speak to us in the antiphon: ‘Know that today the Lord will come, and in the morning you will see his glory!’
Text from page http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2013/12/23/pope_francis:_daily_mass_at_casa_santa_marta/en1-758096
of the Vatican Radio website
20 comments:
Let me get this straight…what the Pope said about Mary…that she may have thought, "Lies! I have been cheated…" So, Fr. , how long are we supposed to keep re-interpreting, ignoring, and defending this Pope? He reads Mary's mind now? This is laughable…sad, but laughable.
What is he talking about? Does Francis know that he is dealing with a Church that has dumbed down the Catholic Faith so much that most Catholics today don't even know how to pray the "Hail Mary" and yet he is trying so hard to prove he has an intellect equal to Pope Benedict. He doesn't of course but neither does anyone else in the Western Hemisphere. Why can't he speak in a clear, Catholic way. Every day it's the name calling for anyone he doesn't agree with and the constant correction and vagueness. It may be news to Pope Francis but the Catholic Faith didn't begin with him. He isn't the alpha and omega. Does he ever go a day without talking and correcting somebody.
What are you referring to, Gene? I can’t find it in this post or elsewhere.
Fr. McDonald,
I enjoy your blog, but I'm having trouble viewing it in Chrome or Internet Explorer. For example, your YouTube videos stretch across to other elements of the page, and I cannot access the comments section of your recent post on Cardinal Burke. Is there a better browser to use for viewing your blog?
Pin/Gene - You claim to read my mind all the time . . .
Gene, Christ was tempted, was he not? Therefore, why couldn't Mary be tempted too? Of course, she didn't give in to temptation, but if Our Lord wasn't even exempt from merely experiencing temptation, it doesn't make sense that Our Lady would never be tempted at all. You're assuming that the Holy Father was saying Our Lady could have sinned in her thoughts, but he knows that that's not the case! I'd like to remind you that slander and rash judgement are grave sins.
FrJBS
I view the blog in both IE and Firefox(lately more in Firefox).
I haven't used Chrome or Opera(yet).
With the post on Cardinal Burke,the issue is the size of the font. It views better in IE,at least with the version of IE I use (which is three iterations behind the most recent version of that browser). It would be nice if one could view every web page and blog the same way no matter if one was using a desktop, IPad, notebook, netbook, kindle or whatever and no matter what operating system one was using but it doesn't work that way. There are interoperability issues that come about for various reasons.
You can go to Google and enter the browser version you are using along with the problem and see what comes up.
Can we dispel the myth that St Francis spent his life striving to rebuild a Church which had become corrupt? The reign of Innocent III (1198-12) was the high-water mark of the medieval Church, and the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 was, along with Trent, the most important Council of the second millennium.
The mendicant friars needed papal support and Innocent was astute enough to realize that their enthusiasm could be harnessed in the service of the papacy, which would also ensure that the friars remained orthodox.
The legend of Innocent's dream, in which Francis is holding up the Lateran Basilica (made famous by Giotto's famous fresco at Assisi) is not about Francis rebuilding a crumbling Church, but about Francis supporting the papacy in its grand project of reform.
Gene -- of course Our Lady was humble and obedient, but it doesn't mean she couldn't experience temptation. Just because Scripture doesn't mention it doesn't mean it didn't happen (sola scriptura is nonsense, remember?). Let me spell it out for you -- the Pope did not say Mary "bitch[ed]about being lied to and cheated." What he was saying was that she could possibly have been tempted to do so but did not give in to such temptation. Experiencing temptation is not a sin! Don't put words in His Holiness' mouth.
I have now tracked down the source and know what everyone is talking about. Apparently in his morning sermon on December 20 Pope Francis said:
"The Gospel tells us nothing: if she said a word or not ... She was quiet, but in her heart - how much she said to the Lord! 'You told me then - that's what we have read - that He will be great. You told me that You would give him the throne of his father David, that he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And now I see Him there!' The Blessed Mother was human! And perhaps she would have wanted to say, 'lies! I have been cheated!'. John Paul II said this when he spoke of the Mother of God at one point. But she was overshadowed with the silence of the mystery that she did not understand, and with this silence, she has accepted that this mystery can grow and flourish in the hope ".
Assuming that what Pope Francis has in mind when he says “John Paul II said this when he spoke of the Mother of God at one point” is Pope John Paul’s 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater, here is what seems to be the salient passage (which I quote in full to convey a sense of context and tone, although perhaps the entire encyclical should be read to do that properly):
17. . . . The Mother of that Son, therefore, mindful of what has been told her at the Annunciation and in subsequent events, bears within herself the radical "newness" of faith: the beginning of the New Covenant. This is the beginning of the Gospel, the joyful Good News. However, it is not difficult to see in that beginning a particular heaviness of heart, linked with a sort of night of faith"-to use the words of St. John of the Cross-a kind of "veil" through which one has to draw near to the Invisible One and to live in intimacy with the mystery. And this is the way that Mary, for many years, lived in intimacy with the mystery of her Son, and went forward in her "pilgrimage of faith," while Jesus "increased in wisdom...and in favor with God and man" (Lk. 2:52). God's predilection for him was manifested ever more clearly to people's eyes. The first human creature thus permitted to discover Christ was Mary, who lived with Joseph in the same house at Nazareth.
However, when he had been found in the Temple, and his Mother asked him, "Son, why have you treated us so?" the twelve-year-old Jesus answered: "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" And the Evangelist adds: "And they (Joseph and Mary) did not understand the saying which he spoke to them" (Lk. 2:48-50). Jesus was aware that "no one knows the Son except the Father" (cf. Mt. 11:27); thus even his Mother, to whom had been revealed most completely the mystery of his divine sonship, lived in intimacy with this mystery only through faith! Living side by side with her Son under the same roof, and faithfully persevering "in her union with her Son," she "advanced in her pilgrimage of faith," as the Council emphasizes.37 And so it was during Christ's public life too (cf. Mk. 3:21-35) that day by day there was fulfilled in her the blessing uttered by Elizabeth at the Visitation: "Blessed is she who believed."
[continued]
My computer messed up so I am trying again. I apologize if there is a double post:
I have now tracked down the source and know what everyone is talking about. Apparently in his morning sermon on December 20 Pope Francis said:
"The Gospel tells us nothing: if she said a word or not ... She was quiet, but in her heart - how much she said to the Lord! 'You told me then - that's what we have read - that He will be great. You told me that You would give him the throne of his father David, that he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And now I see Him there!' The Blessed Mother was human! And perhaps she would have wanted to say, 'lies! I have been cheated!'. John Paul II said this when he spoke of the Mother of God at one point. But she was overshadowed with the silence of the mystery that she did not understand, and with this silence, she has accepted that this mystery can grow and flourish in the hope ".
Assuming that what Pope Francis has in mind when he says “John Paul II said this when he spoke of the Mother of God at one point” is Pope John Paul’s 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater, here is what seems to be the salient passage (which I quote in full to convey a sense of context and tone, although perhaps the entire encyclical should be read to do that properly):
17. . . . The Mother of that Son, therefore, mindful of what has been told her at the Annunciation and in subsequent events, bears within herself the radical "newness" of faith: the beginning of the New Covenant. This is the beginning of the Gospel, the joyful Good News. However, it is not difficult to see in that beginning a particular heaviness of heart, linked with a sort of night of faith"-to use the words of St. John of the Cross-a kind of "veil" through which one has to draw near to the Invisible One and to live in intimacy with the mystery. And this is the way that Mary, for many years, lived in intimacy with the mystery of her Son, and went forward in her "pilgrimage of faith," while Jesus "increased in wisdom...and in favor with God and man" (Lk. 2:52). God's predilection for him was manifested ever more clearly to people's eyes. The first human creature thus permitted to discover Christ was Mary, who lived with Joseph in the same house at Nazareth.
However, when he had been found in the Temple, and his Mother asked him, "Son, why have you treated us so?" the twelve-year-old Jesus answered: "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?" And the Evangelist adds: "And they (Joseph and Mary) did not understand the saying which he spoke to them" (Lk. 2:48-50). Jesus was aware that "no one knows the Son except the Father" (cf. Mt. 11:27); thus even his Mother, to whom had been revealed most completely the mystery of his divine sonship, lived in intimacy with this mystery only through faith! Living side by side with her Son under the same roof, and faithfully persevering "in her union with her Son," she "advanced in her pilgrimage of faith," as the Council emphasizes.37 And so it was during Christ's public life too (cf. Mk. 3:21-35) that day by day there was fulfilled in her the blessing uttered by Elizabeth at the Visitation: "Blessed is she who believed."
9Continued)
18. This blessing reaches its full meaning when Mary stands beneath the Cross of her Son (cf. Jn. 19:25). The Council says that this happened "not without a divine plan": by "suffering deeply with her only-begotten Son and joining herself with her maternal spirit to his sacrifice, lovingly consenting to the immolation of the victim to whom she had given birth," in this way Mary "faithfully preserved her union with her Son even to the Cross." It is a union through faith- the same faith with which she had received the angel's revelation at the Annunciation. At that moment she had also heard the words: "He will be great...and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Lk. 1:32-33).
And now, standing at the foot of the Cross, Mary is the witness, humanly speaking, of the complete negation of these words. On that wood of the Cross her Son hangs in agony as one condemned. "He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows...he was despised, and we esteemed him not": as one destroyed (cf. Is. 53:3- 5). How great, how heroic then is the obedience of faith shown by Mary in the face of God's "unsearchable judgments"! How completely she "abandons herself to God" without reserve, offering the full assent of the intellect and the will"39 to him whose "ways are inscrutable" (cf. Rom. 11:33)! And how powerful too is the action of grace in her soul, how all-pervading is the influence of the Holy Spirit and of his light and power!
Through this faith Mary is perfectly united with Christ in his self- emptying. For "Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men": precisely on Golgotha "humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (cf. Phil. 2:5-8). At the foot of the Cross Mary shares through faith in the shocking mystery of this self- emptying. This is perhaps the deepest "kenosis" of faith in human history. Through faith the Mother shares in the death of her Son, in his redeeming death; but in contrast with the faith of the disciples who fled, hers was far more enlightened. On Golgotha, Jesus through the Cross definitively confirmed that he was the "sign of contradiction" foretold by Simeon. At the same time, there were also fulfilled on Golgotha the words which Simeon had addressed to Mary: "and a sword will pierce through your own soul also."
______________________
Note that even though Blessed Pope John Paul does not speculate explicitly regarding the possible thoughts that may have passed through Mary’s mind, is Pope Francis’s speculation a reasonable gloss on this passage from Redemptoris Mater?
18. This blessing reaches its full meaning when Mary stands beneath the Cross of her Son (cf. Jn. 19:25). The Council says that this happened "not without a divine plan": by "suffering deeply with her only-begotten Son and joining herself with her maternal spirit to his sacrifice, lovingly consenting to the immolation of the victim to whom she had given birth," in this way Mary "faithfully preserved her union with her Son even to the Cross." It is a union through faith- the same faith with which she had received the angel's revelation at the Annunciation. At that moment she had also heard the words: "He will be great...and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end" (Lk. 1:32-33).
And now, standing at the foot of the Cross, Mary is the witness, humanly speaking, of the complete negation of these words. On that wood of the Cross her Son hangs in agony as one condemned. "He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows...he was despised, and we esteemed him not": as one destroyed (cf. Is. 53:3- 5). How great, how heroic then is the obedience of faith shown by Mary in the face of God's "unsearchable judgments"! How completely she "abandons herself to God" without reserve, offering the full assent of the intellect and the will"39 to him whose "ways are inscrutable" (cf. Rom. 11:33)! And how powerful too is the action of grace in her soul, how all-pervading is the influence of the Holy Spirit and of his light and power!
Through this faith Mary is perfectly united with Christ in his self- emptying. For "Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men": precisely on Golgotha "humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (cf. Phil. 2:5-8). At the foot of the Cross Mary shares through faith in the shocking mystery of this self- emptying. This is perhaps the deepest "kenosis" of faith in human history. Through faith the Mother shares in the death of her Son, in his redeeming death; but in contrast with the faith of the disciples who fled, hers was far more enlightened. On Golgotha, Jesus through the Cross definitively confirmed that he was the "sign of contradiction" foretold by Simeon. At the same time, there were also fulfilled on Golgotha the words which Simeon had addressed to Mary: "and a sword will pierce through your own soul also."
______________________
Note that even though Blessed Pope John Paul does not speculate explicitly regarding the possible thoughts that may have passed through Mary’s mind, is Pope Francis’s speculation a reasonable gloss on this passage from Redemptoris Mater?
A post of mine was removed, which makes some of the responses after make no sense. I am not sure what was offensive about it. Scripture says nothing about Mary being tempted or having any thoughts at all other than to be obedient and humble. The Pope's "gloss" (which it wasn't) is pure nonsense...pop theology, feel-good humanism.
There is another way to look at the following passage i.e the question Jesus asked in reply to his mother.
However, when he had been found in the Temple, and his Mother asked him, "Son, why have you treated us so?" the twelve-year-old Jesus answered: "Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?"
Is this not a rhetorical question one would ask if one expected the person to know the answer? It implies to me that the Blessed Virgin new a lot more about her son and what He was here for. Of course it the fullness of knowledge of her son's mission was only to be fully revealed to her later.
AS far as the Holy Father's insight
"The Blessed Mother was human! And perhaps she would have wanted to say, 'lies! I have been cheated!'"
This would have been the reaction of many a human mother but the Blessed Virgin was not just any human mother. Her faith was too great to have thought that and she was protected by the grace of God from satan and his wiles and interpositions.
George:
Attending to the grammar may be helpful. The Holy Father did not say “perhaps she wanted to say (in her heart)” but “perhaps she would have wanted to say (in her heart).” The use of the subjunctive “would” makes all the difference because it suggests that even though an ordinary sinful human would have wanted to say those things in her heart, Mary did not do so because of the action of grace in her soul, even though her soul was pierced through with a sword. Hence the “But” that follows, i.e., “But she was overshadowed with the silence of the mystery that she did not understand, and with this silence, she has accepted that this mystery can grow and flourish in the hope.”
This is consistent with Blessed John Paul when he says:
“At that moment she had also heard the words: ‘He will be great...and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there will be no end’ (Lk. 1:32-33).
And now, standing at the foot of the Cross, Mary is the witness, humanly speaking, of the complete negation of these words. On that wood of the Cross her Son hangs in agony as one condemned. . . . How great, how heroic then is the obedience of faith shown by Mary in the face of God's ‘unsearchable judgments’! How completely she ‘abandons herself to God’ without reserve, offering the full assent of the intellect and the will’ to him whose ‘ways are inscrutable’ (cf. Rom. 11:33)! And how powerful too is the action of grace in her soul, how all-pervading is the influence of the Holy Spirit and of his light and power!”
As Thomas Peters says in his article that is the subject of a later post, we Catholics have a choice. I would put it starkly: Are we for this Pope or against him? Put in those terms, doesn’t the question answer itself?
So, concretizing that choice regarding the matter under discussion, there is a “principle in charity” that can be applied, or not, in reading a text, i.e., reading that text in the best light, particularly in light of the full context in which it is uttered – which, in the Holy Father’s case, is the context of orthodoxy.
And if someone objects that the Holy Father should be clearer, well, perhaps he should; or perhaps, just perhaps, the Holy Spirit is using Pope Francis to test us by giving us this choice. Just a thought.
Anonymous2
I was actually putting forth my take on what the Holy father was saying as to my understanding of what he was saying. The "would have wanted" does not necessarily imply even the possibility that she did want to say this. Yes, it's not hard to imagine that many an ordinary mother would have. I was not finding a problem with his insight or "gloss" - at least in how I understood what he was saying.
If I may expound further in a different way on the following:
"And perhaps she would have wanted to say, 'lies! I have been cheated!'"
Don't these words reflect some of the ancient Israelites, who in their exiles and in their wandering in the desert abandoned the true God for false gods of their own making?
Are these words not echoed with those followers of Jesus who left Him because he was not the political Messiah they expected or because they could not accept His teachings?
Were not these words and attitudes among those who listened to and followed the Protestant reformers and so left the Church of the True faith?
And yet there were those who no matter what did not lose their faith and abandon God.
Among these was the Blessed Virgin. What human being could ever know Jesus as well as she? What human being ever had a faith and holiness as great as she?
The Holy Virgin Mary would never ever abandon her son, even in her thoughts because her faith and knowledge of Christ her son exceeded that of any other human being, even the most faithful.
Merry Christmas.
I need to clarify two points in my comment at 6:45 p.m.
– In the first paragraph: by “Mary did not do so” strike “do so” (so the sense is “Mary did not want to say those things (in her heart)).”
– In the penultimate paragraph: “principle in charity” should read “principle of charity.”
BTW that same principle of charity in reading the text could also yield Militia Immaculata’s interpretation of Pope Francis’s words (see above in this thread).
Anon 2, there is no defense for this speculative, humanistic nonsense. Hey, I can do it, too:
On the Cross, perhaps Jesus thought, "How stupid I have been. And, I was going fishing Sunday."
Perhaps Mary once thought thought, "Wow, Peter looks hot in those new sandals."
Perhaps Jesus thought, while being tempted by Satan, "A motorcycle…if he offers me a motorcycle I may take him up on it."
This kind of "stuff" is the very basis for neo-protestant theology. Stop defending it…are we that desperate?
George: Thank you for the helpful clarification. I am sorry that I misunderstood you. If I understand you correctly now, we seem to agree that Pope Francis’s words should be interpreted charitably.
Gene: Now it is you who seem to have misunderstood. It seems you can’t “do it too.” It is not the same. Your examples are equivalent to Pope Francis saying “And perhaps Mary wanted to say.” But, as I point out, he did not say that. He said “And perhaps Mary WOULD have wanted to say.” With the “would have” you have to understand the implied “were it not for.”
So I am not defending what you say I am defending.
And I don’t see anything neo-Protestant about defending the Pope by seeking understandings of what he says that are not neo-Protestant. Isn’t it rather you who insists on reading him in a neo-Protestant way?
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