Papacy and Prophecy

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

“The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord.” It seems to me that with all that’s going on right now in the Church, we’re at this critical time of this crisis in the Church, and now the preparing for a conclave, and our little mission is enveloped in that crisis, as we’re being accused of being schismatics. And so, it seems to me that the readings today are especially providential. That seems to me there’s so much, so much light about what is happening. I’ll try not to be too long, but I wanted to look, I think it’s worth taking some time to look at these three readings, because they show us three different presences of our risen Lord guiding His Church. And one point that they highlight is a point that St John Paul often came back to; that the Church that Jesus established is guided both by hierarchical graces, the hierarchy, you know of the Pope, the bishops, the priests and deacons, but also so hierarchical, but also charismatic. And when we think of charismatic, we often think of the charismatic movement or charismatic renewal. But this has a slightly different sense. Charisms are all the special graces that God gives to people, sometimes a lot of them are very simple and ordinary and sometimes they’re extraordinary.  S,o this is a different type of way that the Lord guides us, the Church, through the hierarchical graces, but also through the special graces that He gives to each person. And a good example is St Faustina. She didn’t have any particular – she wasn’t in the hierarchy, but the Lord gave her a very special role in revealing His mercy for the Church. And so, prophets are a good example. We’ve often spoken of prophets are a good example of a charism that helps guide the Church. And so, the Church needs both of these aspects, as St John Paul highlighted this over and over. Both of them have their challenges, but both are needed and they’re complimentary. And so, let’s look at these three readings. So, the first reading, the Gospel we have the great gospel, “our Lord says, Simon, son of John, do you love Me? Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, Do you love Me? And he said to him, Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” So, we have here one of the apparitions of the risen Lord. And we’re familiar with apparitions in which the visionaries are in ecstasy. But this is a very different type of apparition. They’re not in ecstasy. They’re having breakfast with Jesus. They’re cooking breakfast. They’re preparing the fish. So, they’re not in ecstasy, but it’s truly an apparition of our risen Lord. And what Jesus is referring to here when He asked Peter three times, do you love me,  of course, is Peter’s triple denial of Jesus. And so, as I was saying a couple weeks ago, there was like, just like there was an eclipse on a Good Friday. There was like an eclipse, because Jesus had said, “Peter, you are a rock, and on this rock I will build my Church.” But it was like for a short time, there was like an eclipse of this grace of Peter. Because it could have seemed like, well, Peter, when the Church most needs him, he’s not fulfilling his role. And it’s true for a few days, he was weak, there was like this eclipse. But that doesn’t mean that the promise of Jesus and that the role He had destined Peter for, was not going to be fulfilled, because this like an eclipse, was just temporary. And I think the Church is experiencing something like that right now, like an eclipse of the role of the successor of Peter. But that doesn’t mean that Jesus’ promises have failed. It means that the Church is following in the paschal mystery of Jesus. So, it’s experiencing something similar to what Jesus himself experienced, Jesus in the Church. And so here we have Peter making his humble reparation. And so, notice earlier, earlier Peter, Jesus had asked Peter that essential question, “Who do you say that I am?” So, the question, and that’s when Peter responds correctly, that’s when Jesus prophesies his role, gives him this role, announces his role. And now we have before Jesus’ ascension, He asked Peter another question, and it’s not a complicated question. It’s not a long question, complicated questionnaire. We have to have a number two pencil, and you fill in a bunch of little dots. It’s not a question – it’s not a test that takes hours and hours. He’s asking him. He asked him three times, but it’s one question, do you love me? That’s the essential thing that Jesus needs from Peter and his successors to know who Jesus is and to love Jesus. That’s what the Church needs from Peter and his successors to know and proclaim who Jesus truly is, and above all, to love Jesus, to give witness to Jesus. And so, Peter is the first of the papacy, and we know that that’s one of the core elements of the Catholic Church, that Jesus founded on Peter and his successors. And so our Catholic belief is different from our other Christian brothers, like the Protestants, or even the Orthodox brothers and sisters, who don’t accept the authority of Peter, and the Pope, the way the Catholics believe. Or even our position is different from the position of the Catholics who are considered themselves sedevacantists, who believed that since Pope Pius, the 12th death in 1958 that there hasn’t been a valid Pope. Because we know that there’s, among the popes, they have different characters, different qualities. Some have been great saints, some have been very bad, but they were still Popes. But we also know that there have been extended times in which the Church has been without a Pope, and even times in which there were anti popes. In the position of MDM, our little mission is not at all rejecting the institution of the papacy. And you know, we’ve had for many years the image of of Saint John Paul, because he spent a very special role in the in helping to, help inspiring our little mission. And so, our position is not at all rejecting the papacy. And so we’re being accused of being schismatics. And even I heard recently on a podcast, a very well known and very competent Catholic apologist, Jimmy Akin, but I think on this point making a common mistake. And so, we tried to say this very clearly on our website and FAQs. I’m just going to recognize that we also had a quote on our last Friday’s email about this. I just want to read two critical sentences. “Eminent canonists recognize, however that – (one and the eminent canonist from many years ago,) – “however that one who has sincere and reasonable doubts about the legitimacy of the ostensible Pope – (that is of the one who appears to be pope) – cannot be charged with schism.” So those who have sincere and reasonable doubts that the one who seems to be pope is not truly the Pope. And then we say, “such a person is not willfully refusing to submit to the one that he knows is the Pope, that would be systematic behavior, but rather refusing to submit to one he precisely believes is not the true pope.” And so, this difficult time that the Church is living, in which I think the hierarchy, which is so important, is in a grave crisis, terrible crisis, like in an eclipse. As I said, this would be a time in which the Church needs these special graces, special help from the Lord. And so, we’re going to come back to that in a moment. But so, in this Gospel we have today, in this apparition of Our Lord, notice that there’s something I hadn’t paid much attention to. So, this gospel shows that the risen Christ continues actively helping His Church, actively present. Because we know that Jesus had a short life here, 33 years on this earth, in this earthly life, and then just three years of public ministry. But what this gospel shows is that right away, after His death and resurrection, He doesn’t just, He doesn’t just die and then rise into heaven and not come back until the end of time. Right away He comes back. And we’re so used to hearing that, that we don’t realize how striking it is. Because Jesus, right after His death and rising to heaven, He comes right back the very same day, the very day of His resurrection. He comes right back, and not once, but a multitude of times, just in the Gospel. And here we have an example of Jesus coming back in His risen body to continue guiding Peter and the apostles. And so we realize that the apostles are, and I think he’s giving here a model for the Church’s life, that the Church is guided not just by what Jesus did in His earthly life, but also by the risen Jesus who continues living and active with His Church. Again we see it right away. That’s what the gospel today is about. It’s Jesus no longer in His earthly life, but the risen Jesus, in an apparition guiding the Church. And so, as I say, I think that that gives us, right away, a model for the Church has not just what Jesus said and did 2000 years ago, but we believe in a risen Jesus. That’s what, of course, the Divine Mercy image is showing us. It’s the risen Jesus who is continuing, active and present in His Church. Why do we have an image of Jesus of Divine Mercy? Because he appeared to St Faustina. She saw Him, and she described how she saw Him, and she was disappointed that the artist couldn’t present as magnificent, as radiant as Jesus was. But it’s because she saw Him, because Jesus risen, is present in this Church, and not just present to Peter, but He was present to this little nun the way He’s been present to many people. And so that’s a key point, that this gospel is revealing, that Jesus, the risen Jesus, continues present and active and guiding and helping His Church from the very beginning, and that the New Testament is full of examples of this. But today we have two more examples, just in the readings today. And so, we have the second reading is from the book of Revelations. So, St John and the great revelation he had. And so, the book of Revelation, and we had this last week, begins with the revelation of Jesus Christ. That’s the name of it, the revelation of Jesus Christ. And it begins with John having an apparition of Jesus. So again, and this is many decades later than the gospel, but John, this is another example of the risen Lord guiding His Church through His continuing presence and through these prophetic graces. John says that the book he’s writing, the Book of Revelation, the Apocalypse, is a prophetic book. And so here we have an example of this grace of prophecy, by which the risen Lord continues to guide His Church. And the passage we had today, said, John says, “Then I looked and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders, the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads.” Myriad is 10,000 so this is 10 1000s of 10 1000s. I think that’s 100 million myriads, a myriad. So this is a bunch of angels and 1000s of 1000s saying with a loud voice. And you can imagine how loud over 100 million angels could be. Saying with a loud voice – worthy, wow. What would that be like? Hundreds of millions, maybe a billion. I don’t know how many there were altogether of all these angels saying with a loud voice, “worthy, is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And so John is experiencing the risen Lord. John who lived with our Lord in His earthly life for those three years, but now he’s experiencing the risen Lord come back to give him special guidance, special lights for the whole Church. And we mentioned last week, one of the things he’s going to speak about, which I think is very important right now for what the Church is living, is this beast like a lamb, which represents the false prophet, and as the Marian Movement of Priests, the messages that Don Gobi received, he believes, from our Blessed Mother, say that this represents the spirit of evil that has infiltrated the Church, and calling it ecclesiastical freemasonry to create a false Christ and a false church, not just to destroy the Church, but to subvert the church, making the Church focus on a false Christ and changing what the Church is called to be. And I think that’s what we’re living right now, this period of infiltration of evil, which is subtly subverting the Church, and so that’s causing great trials and confusion. But some people would think, how could the situation be so grave? If things go on pretty much just normal, most Catholics go to their parish, and it’s pretty much the way it’s been for a long time. How could this be a grave crisis when everything seems just pretty normal? But you know, that’s what often happens. Scripture shows that very often, oftentimes there’s a grave danger and people are not aware of it. They’re not paying attention, and so they have no idea of the disaster that is about to happen, right from, you know, right from the very beginning with Noah, that was the problem. And Jesus says that it will be like the days of Noah, when people were just eating, drinking, getting married, just living life normally, until the flood came. Jesus says that, and he said, that’s the way it’s going to be, that people won’t notice, though there’s signs, but people aren’t paying attention to the signs, because it takes spiritual sensitivity. They’re not paying attention and disaster strikes, like Sodom and Gomorrah. The people in Sodom and Gomorrah had no idea that they were about to be destroyed. And in the very Book of Revelation, John gives warning to certain of the cities, the Christian community in certain cities that they need to repent and change, or otherwise there will be a chastisement for them. And so that’s why often we need prophets. The Lord says to Ezekiel, the prophet Ezekiel, that he’s called to be a watchman. He’s called the Lord is like raising him up. He compares him to a watchman who’s way up on the tower of the walls, the fortifications, and he’s awake at night on the tower looking out so that he can see if the enemy is coming. And so the Lord says that Ezekiel and the prophets are called to be watchmen who warn the people about what is the danger that is approaching, and if people have been paying attention to many prophetic messages already from Scripture and from many Marian apparitions, and also messages that are being given right now, and I think the messages that the Lord has shared with our community, but also with many other people. We’re hearing from many people who have sent something similar, that there a grave problem. Some people sensed it right away, at the election of Francis, that and in the prophetic messages that we’ve received that spoken of a usurper, that he was a usurper. And so we believe that, especially because of the messages, we believe that the Lord is giving. But also there’s a lot of evidence, a lot of people, even without prophetic messages, but just very eminent members of the of the hierarchy and lay persons, and some of them very learned lay persons, and these are serious devout Catholics who are also sensing that there’s something gravely wrong. And some of them are even using that same expression, a usurper in the Church. And so that leads us to the third and final point, and which is the first reading. And so, this is we know that Jesus, the risen Jesus, sends His Holy Spirit at Pentecost so the apostles can be His witnesses. In the book of Acts shows how the risen Lord and His Holy Spirit continues to guide the Church from the very beginning. And so, the passage we have today shows the apostles who have been imprisoned and brought before the high priest and the Sanhedrin. And so, it says, “the high priest questioned them, saying, ‘We strictly charged you not to teach in this name. Yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man’s blood upon us.’” That’s an interesting expression. You intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. It’s not us who did it. It’s you’re doing that. But remember, this is the high priest, in the highest religious authority of the Jews. And if I think the institution of the high priest by that time may have been corrupted, it might even be proper to speak of had been usurped. But they are considered, whether they were legitimate authorities, they were considered the highest authorities, and they were treated as such, and they had the vestments as the chief priest and the Sanhedrin and so forth. So, whether they were usurpers or not, that’s the way they were treated. And what are they charging the apostles with? They’re charging them with disobedience. “We told you to stop teaching, to stop saying this, and you are disobeying, and you’re accusing us.” And so how does Peter respond, Peter and the apostles? Peter is not a theologian. He’s a fisherman who has spent three years with Jesus and then received the Holy Spirit. So, his explanation is not complicated. It’s very simple and clear, “we must obey God rather than men.” And where is Peter saying this? He’s saying this in front of the Sanhedrin, that not long ago, brought about the death of Jesus. So this is, seems to be a very, very divisive and dangerous thing that he’s saying. But he doesn’t say that, he doesn’t say that meekly. He says, “the God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree, God exalted Him at His right hand as leader and Savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to this, to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him, the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey God.” And so, notice again, St Peter and the apostles, says, “we must obey God rather than men.” And notice, this is the highest authority of the Church on earth. The highest authority in the Church is our Lord Himself. But on the earth, it’s Peter, and here he’s speaking in union with the other apostles, with the college of the apostles. So, it’s the highest authority of the Church on earth. And it’s not just some Pope, some Pope in the line, this is Peter himself, Saint Peter himself. And it’s not just something that has been, someone you know, pass it on through some tradition. This is in Sacred Scripture itself, in the Acts of the Apostles. So there couldn’t be a more authoritative statement by the highest authority at the very beginning, in the central text of the Church. This is not just in the code of canon law. This is in Scripture itself, from Peter and the apostles, and it says, “we must obey God rather than men.” That’s not the Mission of Divine Mercy, fishing out some obscure statement from some saint or from some mystic, but this is from the highest authority in the Church at the very beginning saying.  So it’s very clear we must obey God rather than men, And so people say, Well, what about Saint Faustina? What about Padre Pio and so forth? And they were great examples of obedience. But the situation is different today. If it’s true that the highest authority of the Church on earth has been temporarily usurped, then there’s no obligation to obey. And if that usurper is trying to destroy, to subvert and infiltrate and to destroy the Church, true fidelity to the Church is not obedience to a usurper. It is obedience to God, rather than to a usurper. And Jesus Christ gives us that example when He Himself, even in the because that was the, I think was the second message the Lord had us give to the archbishop, way back in 2018, was a message, a message on obedience. And the Lord reminded that He Himself even the holiest of all authorities, which was Saint Joseph and in our Blessed Mother. But Jesus, even then, when He was 12 years old, disobeyed them, because He had to obey God. And then later on, Jesus was respectful. But when His mission called for it, we know He very publicly disobeyed the high priest, and that’s why He was killed, of course. So we, I won’t go into that more, because we developed that in our statement, which is precisely entitled, we must obey God rather than men. But I just wanted to emphasize that point, that before canon law, before any other canonical tradition, this is at the very beginning of the highest authority in the Church, “we must obey God rather than men.” And so, to conclude, our risen Lord Jesus is alive, and He continues with the Holy Spirit to guide His Church in different ways, especially through the hierarchy and also through special graces called charisms, like prophecy that He gives to His Church. And we know that He has instituted Peter and the apostles and their successors to be good shepherds after Jesus, to be pastors who know Jesus, who love Jesus, who give witness to Jesus, and who feed the sheep of Jesus. And so the legitimate authority in the Church should be respected and obeyed within its proper limits, but if a usurper infiltrates the hierarchy to betray Jesus and to destroy His Church, they are not to be obeyed but resisted. As the Acts of the Apostles clearly shows us. As St Peter said, “we must obey God rather than men.” Alleluia, Amen. 

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
John 21:1-14
Acts 5:27-32, 40-41
Revelation 5:11-14