A Short Sunday Reflection

And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Mt. 22:11-13)

Ferocious words from Christ and perhaps they seem somehow unfair. After all, the man had been invited off the streets, no wonder he wasn't dressed up. But our Lord isn't talking salvation through haberdashery, he's addressing the state of a person's soul.

Is that clothed correctly? If it's not, if our hearts are full of darkness, of pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, sloth and incumbent wickedness, then we have no part in the marriage feast; we can't participate or be a part of the celebration of the union of God and Man in Christ. On the contrary,  our home isn't in heaven, it's in the other place, the outer darkness where there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, Hell.

So put on the wedding garment, all you who've answered the invite of the king and turned up at the feast which is the worship of the Church on earth and in heaven. Put on the garment or find yourself thrown out as a soul incompatible with divine love. But what is this garment?

St. Paul describes its character and quality, writing to the Philippians,  "...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence..." Truth, honor, justice, purity, love, grace, excellence, these are the defining qualities of a soul fit for the feast. And they are the virtues of Christ himself. As the Apostle says elsewhere, we must "put on" Christ as a garment.

To that end, turn to our Savior in humble, repentant faith that he may clothe us in righteousness and admit us to the marriage feast of the Lamb, to paradise itself.

You'll note, Worldwide LSP Communion, that I am preaching to myself.

Vade Retro Satana,

LSP

Sunday Reflection - Discipleship

 

As Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem he calls a man to follow him: 

And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “[Lord,] let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:59-60)

 

Christ's words sound callous at first glance, but surely it's the business of those whose home is the world and walk according to the flesh, who are spiritually dead, to attend to the end of their condition. The disciple on the other hand is to proclaim the Kingdom of God, life itself,  a proclamation which demands total "assent to Jesus' summons" to follow him as Lord and Savior.

Benedict XVI comments:

What is made clear to us here is that assent to Jesus' summons has priority and demands totality.  That means it takes precedence and demands the totality of our being.  One cannot simply offer a piece of oneself, a portion of one's time and one's will.  In that case one has not answered this summons that is so great that it really demands and fills a whole life, but only fills it if it is offered totally.

This also means that there is a moment of Jesus Christ which one cannot put off and calculate and say: "Yes, I want to all right, but at the moment it is still too risky for me.  At the moment I still want to do this and that."

One can miss the moment of one's life, and with prudence gamble away the real worth of one's life never again to be able to recover it.  There is the time of being called in which the decision is present, and it is more important than what we have thought out for ourselves and what is in itself quite reasonable.  The reason of Jesus and his summons have precedence: they come first.  This courage to defer what seems so reasonable to us in favor of the greater thing that he is, is decisive not only in the first moment but continually on all parts of the way.  It is only in this way that we really come close to him.

 

This courage to defer what seems so reasonable to us in favor of the greater thing that he is, is decisive not only in the first moment but continually on all parts of the way.  It is only in this way that we really come close to him. Amen to that.

May God grant us such courage,

LSP

Sunday Reflection

 

After his baptism, Jesus goes out into the wilderness to fast and pray, to gain strength for his journey to Calvary and the Cross. Hating this, Satan attempts to divert him by way of three temptations, three "shortcuts from the Cross." 

We're familiar with them, if you're the Son of God, turn these stones to bread, cast yourself down from the Temple and the angels will bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone and finally, the offer of all the kingdoms of the world on the condition Christ worshiped Satan.

There they are, the sins of the flesh, of pride, and of greed which if Jesus had succumbed to them would have hijacked his mission of redemption. Stones to bread, why go to the Cross if you can win men's hearts by feeding them? What need for the agony and shame of Golgotha when you can perform a marvel, a sign which converts the people? And why endure the agony of crucifixion when you can establish an earthly kingdom here and now?

Why not indeed. Because in all of Satan's beguilement redemption doesn't occur, the people remain in their sin and subject to death and Hell regardless of how well fed, self-sufficient and well governed they are. No Cross, no Resurrection, no life.

I like Fulton Sheen's observation. The first temptation is economic, the second a marvel and the third political; bread and circuses under the aegis of diabolic power. Perhaps this sounds familiar, as it was in the days of ancient Rome so now. But consider the second or in Luke's case third temptation.

Throw yourself down from the Temple, says Satan to Christ, throw yourself away from the Church. Who will catch you? Angels, yes, but surely fallen ones, demons, and will they hold you up in their claws and talons, elevating you above the ground of reality, of God himself? Maybe for a time, until they don't and the Faustian pact resolves on collision with the rock.

Thus warned, we pray and meditate on God's holy Word, practice fasting, abstinence and self-denial, give alms and tithe, repent and confess our sins. All the disciplines of Lent by which we beat back Satan and find unity with the Cross and from there the risen life of Easter.

God bless,

LSP

A Sunday Reflection - The Wicked Tenants

Do you remember the parable of the wicked tenants, the murderous usurpers who attempt to steal a husbandman's vineyard for themselves only to come to a miserable end? (Matt. 34-44)

It's a terrifying warning. What will happen to the tenants who beat, stone and kill the owner's servants and murder his son, asks Jesus of the priests and elders. They reply, unwittingly condemning themselves, "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons." (Matt. 21:41) 

So it came to pass, and I usually take the opportunity to wax large on the siege of Jerusalem and beat on the iniquitous, apostate heretics infesting the Western Church. Watch out, you brood of vipers or the vineyard will be taken from you.

All well and good, and doubtless an appropriate sermon at, say, the Church of England's York Synod or the Episcopal Church's General Convention. But pause for a moment and consider the features of the vineyard.

It stands for Israel of course, planted by God, with a hedge, the Law, a winepress, the Altar, and a watchtower, the Temple. All of this is present in the new Israel of the Church, which is called to "render him the fruits in their seasons." What is this fruit and where is it offered?

On the wine press which sits between hedge and tower, Law and Temple, as does the Cross between the Incarnation and the Resurrection. And what is the Cross but Christ's sacrificial altar, on which the perfect fruit of the vineyard, righteousness, the Word made flesh, is offered to the Father.

The fruit then, ultimately, is Christ himself, righteousness incarnate, sacrificed on Calvary, and we enter into union with this offering and "yield it up" sacramentally at the altars of of our churches. There, we abide in Christ and he in us. "Abide in me, and I in you," says Jesus,  "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." (Jn. 15:4)

This, surely, is the endeavor of the Christian life; as faithful tenants of the vineyard to live ever more closely in Christ, offering up the fruit which is pleasing to the Father, Jesus himself. And as we do, by the grace of God and the working of the Spirit, become channels of his righteousness in the world. 

Unless you're a wicked heretic of course, in which case the concluding words of our Lord ring true with awful effect, "And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." (Matt. 21:44) 

And so we come full circle. Take note, Justsin Welby and, for that matter, everyone else.

God bless,

LSP