News Item: : Agnus Dei, Qui Tollis Peccata Mundi - Miserere Nobis!
(Category: Torch of The Faith News)
Posted by admin
Tuesday 21 February 2017 - 11:11:44

I often recall the exactitude of Laurence England's question to Cardinal Raymond Burke, during His Eminence's visit to Chester in March 2015.

In the question-time at the end of the evening, Laurence had asked to what degree the cardinal thought the present crisis in the Church was related to a Eucharistic crisis. To this question, Cardinal Burke had replied that there is a definite link between the loss of belief in the Real Presence, together with the correct understanding of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the associated call for the divorced/re-''married'' to be given Holy Communion.

The gravity of this situation is borne out by the awful matters I discussed here yesterday. The spectacle of a laicised priest mocking Jesus Christ, during an entertainment show on a major feast day in a formerly Catholic country, is nothing short of apocalyptic. Even one generation ago, nobody would have deemed such evils to be possible in Ireland. Neither would such things have been tolerated.

I know a priest who, about 25 years ago, was once cutting through an alleyway in Ireland during a visit to the sick. Two thugs suddenly appeared and blocked his path in an attempted mugging. When they realized he had with him the Blessed Sacrament, the muggers hesitated, grew fearful, backed off and then rapidly fled the scene. Sinners they might have been, but they knew better than to mess with the good God.

In some sense, these characters were not as bad as those who scoffed at Jesus on RTE. They still had some handle on the hierarchy of reality, and a sense of what is right and wrong. There is even a certain humility in their action of running in fear. Please God, that shock might have been the grace they needed to bring them to repentance.

I read this morning, at 1 Peter 5, that the Judas-Bishop Charles Scicluna down in Malta has suggested that seminarians who ''do not agree with Francis'' will freely find that ''the seminary gate is open''.

What he seems unable to see, blinded as he must be by a remarkably narrow ultramontanism - and who knows what else - is that it is the truth which sets us free (John 8:32).

Indeed, Charles Scicluna needs reminding that the very gates of Hell yawn open for him if he does not repent of his present course.

Scicluna's promotion of heresy and sacrilege is made even worse by his not-so-subtle attempt to coerce others into joining in his sins with him. This is all very grave indeed.

Unlike those muggers who backed off when they were faced with the Presence of God and the gravity of their crime, Scicluna has an inverted sense of the hierarchy of truth.

He would place the confusing subtleties of Francis above the clear Truth of Jesus Christ, the dignity of Holy Matrimony and the salvation of souls.

Therefore, his is a worse kind of crime, because he does not hesitate to steal Christ; mugging his own priests, seminarians and lay faithful in order to throw Jesus to the very street dogs. And, unlike those thieves who attempted their misdeeds in the shadows, he even has the temerity to promote sacrilege to the public in broad daylight!

There is a beautiful account recorded in St. Bonaventure's classical Life of St. Francis. It tells of a sheep that was given to St. Francis.

St. Bonaventure relates: ''The pious man admonished the little sheep to praise God attentively and to avoid giving any offence to the friars. The sheep carefully observed his instructions, as if it recognized the piety of the man of God. For when it heard the friars chanting in choir, it would enter the church, genuflect without instructions from anyone, and bleat before the altar of the Virgin, the Mother of the Lamb, as if it wished to greet Her. Besides, when the most sacred Body of Christ was elevated at Mass, it would bow down on bended knees as if this reverent animal were reproaching those who were not devout and inviting the devout to reverence the Sacrament.''

No doubt those who mocked Christ on RTE would scoff at this story. However, it shows that, when God gives His grace, even a dumb animal is capable of discerning the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Unlike them, this sheep could see because it was innocent, humble and without guile.

Those who would laugh at this story should recall that St. Bonaventure, who carefully relates it, was not only one of the greatest minds of his age, but was also holy and therefore trustworthy. Not only that, he had made an honest research into the life of St. Francis from the saintly men who had actually lived with him and witnessed many of the miracles associated with his life.

This story reminds me of a small spruce tree in one of the quadrangles at Ushaw Seminary in the 1990s. My late-friend Fr. Mike Williams and I noted how it was growing about 20-ft from the chapel wall, at an angle of about 60 degrees from the ground. This meant that its tip was pointed directly at the Tabernacle. Fr. Mike observed to me, ''Because Christ is not loved or respected here, even the very trees pay Him homage''. This certainly does call to mind Luke 19:40: ''To whom he said: I say to you, that if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out.''

Again, whilst post-moderns would scoff at this type of piety, it demonstrates the purity of heart that sees Christ in all things; and above all where He most certainly is, in the Blessed Sacrament.

I've related here once before how a highly educated Nigerian priest, a man with several university degrees, once told Angie and I that he had been giving a retreat back in Africa.

One evening, after an Adoration and Benediction service in which he had blessed the congregation with the Monstrance in the chapel, a small Protestant boy from the nearby village came up to him. The child asked, ''Who was that baby?'' When the priest wondered which baby he meant, the boy replied, ''The one you were carrying in the church''.

It came to light that when this boy had looked up at the Blessed Sacrament, held aloft by the priest in the Monstrance, he had seen the Christ-Child. And so, when the priest explained to him about the Real Presence of Jesus, he had no trouble understanding or believing! Some time later, after a period of catechesis and the permission of his family, this boy became a Catholic.

Again, what we see here is the innocence and humility that, when aided by grace, is able to recognize Christ in the Eucharist.

Angie and I know a priest who was once concelebrating Holy Mass with another priest, during a time of spiritual searching that he was going through. After the Consecration, the main celebrant suddenly gestured to him to look at the Sacred Host on the paten. He told us that, with the other priest, he was amazed to see Jesus looking back at them both from the Host with great joy and love! This priest told us that the Lord looked back and forth at them, from one to the other, each in turn. When he gasped ''It's Jesus!'' to himself, this priest told us that the Lord seemed to be exuding a great sense of delight, as if to say, ''Well, Who did you expect... Of course it's Me!''

When that priest told us his account of this event, he was giggling with a child-like innocence. Don't think this means he is a bit soft in the head. On the contrary, his personality is normally serious, and he has served for a prolonged period of time in a difficult placement.

Finally, we once heard a Franciscan priest in America preaching about a mission he had given in Latin America.

He did not have sufficient Hosts to give out to all of the devout locals who flocked to Holy Mass.

Choked with emotion, this priest related how he had prayed trustingly to the Lord, and had just kept on giving out Holy Communion to the crowds of faithful until, in a manner reminiscent of the Multiplication of the Loaves in Sacred Scripture and the similar Eucharistic Miracles of St. John Bosco, all who came had received Holy Communion. Only then, did the supply of Hosts cease to be there. The priest said with simplicity: ''This is how it is on mission.''

What all of these accounts have in common is Catholic Dogma, the Real Presence of Jesus, God's gift of grace and the humble faith of those who received these unfathomable gifts.

Whilst God sometimes allows such miracles to remind people of His Presence in the Eucharist, most of us are called to believe in faith based only upon His Word and the testimony of His holy Church.

To quote Gerard Manley Hopkins' translation of St. Thomas Aquinas' Adoro te devote: ''What God's Son has told me, take for truth I do; Truth Himself speaks truly, or there's nothing true.'' And we know from Sacred Scripture and Tradition that God's Son has told us that the Eucharist is His Body and Blood.

These stories are shared here to remind us all of that fact; and to encourage and edify readers in these grimly faithless times.

In the midst of this present crisis, may Jesus give us all the grace to recognise Him in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:35). Let us especially pray this prayer for those who are choosing to be His enemies, and for those who deny Him, or who lead sinners into even worse sins through a wrong notion of mercy.

Eucharistic Heart of Jesus - Have Mercy on Us!

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This news item is from Torch of The Faith
( http://www.torchofthefaith.com/news.php?extend.1560 )