Tuesday 15 December 2015

Those Tax Collectors and Prostitutes

One can almost hear those whose understanding of mercy is distorted proclaiming that all should be welcome at Holy Communion in light of today’s reading from the Novus Ordo. The Gospel passage in question is Matthew 21v28-38: “Prostitutes and tax collectors are making their way into the kingdom of God before you”. What the proponents of the distorted Gospel will say is that these prostitutes (and this would include all sexually irregular lives) and tax collectors (dishonest, collaborating men) are making their way into the Banquet of Heaven before Traditional Catholics who ‘count their rosaries’ while holding like Pharisees to the Church’s laws. Nonsense; that is prejudiced (or at the very least ignorant) preaching. The reason those prostitutes and dishonest men were making their way into the Kingdom of God was because they left their sin behind after hearing John the Baptist: “John came, a pattern of true righteousness, and you did not believe him, yet the tax collectors and prostitutes did.” And what was it John was preaching? “Repent ('about face'), for the Kingdom of Heaven is close at hand” (Matt. 3v2). It was because of their repentance; their metanoia, their ‘about face’ that they entered the Kingdom of Heaven; they were in fact former tax collectors and former prostitutes, not people actively living a life of sin. You can bet your last dollar that this will be forgotten in many homilies offered today, and that what we will will be distorted presentations of mercy that diminish or even eradicate the need for a change in lifestyle; presentations that say we should accept active homosexuals, cohabitees and those in civil marriages to the Eucharist. Such preachers are, I suggest, by failing to act on the Gospel teaching of John, our Lord, and the 2000 year history of the Church, those who 'do not believe’. Their love for the sinner is not one of holy charity and truth but a human emotion –and it is human emotion that lead many they support into the irregular lifestyles Holy Mother Church has long-since labelled ‘occasions of sin’. 
Who could not want to see everyone in heaven? Whop could ever hope that any soul would be lost? Surely we all want to see every person whom the lord has created and for whom He died enter into heaven? But we do have to uphold the need for a change of life from one of vice to virtue if that is to happen, all the while encouraging folk that no matter how often they fall, if they are genuinely repentant and willing to return to the life of virtue, that there is no sin God cannot or will not forgive, and that he is eager to welcome them home.

9 comments:

  1. Amen to those thoughts Fr Gary but what of our hierarchy who claim that the EF Mass is only 'tolerated'? when Pope Benedict made it absolutely clear that it has equality with the OF

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    1. I didn't know the hierarchy say it is only tolerated; I would correct them on that if they said it to me.
      Blessings of the coming season to you and yours.

      Delete
  2. Dear Father,
    The Prodigal Son lived a life of depravity. Had he died in the “foreign land” his body would have been cast into the pit with the remains of poor animals. However, he came to his senses, left behind his evil life, and determined to beseech the meanest position in his father’s household (as an immense and completely undeserved favour).
    His elder brother was offended, because his father’s welcome seemed to devalue his own loyalty and dutiful observance. The father gently admonished his hurt pride by reminding him that all he had would be the inheritance of his dutiful son. Nevertheless, how could anyone, still less his brother, begrudge salvation from infamy and death.
    It seems clear from this parable that, although salvation is offered to all, the eternal reward will be commensurate with the response to God’s grace.
    AT

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    1. Yes, we should all hope to see everyone saved; let us hope that we all do what the younger brother did: see the error of one's ways and return home to one's duties as a son.
      Blessings of the coming season to you and yours.

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  3. Love the sinner but hate the sin!!! Why is it that today we have so much false mercy and false charity? We ought to correct sinners and not encourage sin. That is true charity.

    We are all sinners and should encourage each other to get to Heaven instead of sinking deeper into Hell. We all must work out our salvation in fear and trembling.
    Rose

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    1. Thank you, Rose.
      Indeed with fear and trembling but also with hope!
      Blessings of the coming season to you and yours.

      Delete
  4. Father,

    I suspect we agree on this, and no doubt I have said something similar before?

    So much of he confusion and decay in the Church can be traced back to the idea that all have the “right” to join the queue and shuffle up during what has effectively ceased to be the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and is now just a Protestant communion service.

    In my church I sometimes do not go to communion, as last Sunday for example. That has and did earn me a looks of annoyance for blocking the pew as someone had to step past me and another chose to go round the other way. Why should you choose to be different from the rest of us?

    This whole development post Vat II is or course not by accident, but a now seen to be a successful attack on the Doctrine of the Real Presence, as can be seen when after the Mass when the majority of receivers get to their feet in their various groups, totally ignoring the Reserved Sacrament in the central tabernacle and the crescendo of laughter and chatter becomes almost painfully loud.

    No, all apparently should unblock the pew and go up with every body else, regardless!

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  5. Very well-articulated, Father. If only the other priests could see and understand as we do.
    Have a Happy and Blessed Christmas

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    1. I think many understand, but choose to ignore truth for the sake of popularity with the folks, with the Bishops (or their brother Bishops) and the world.
      God Bless.

      Delete

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