Reading Matins this morning, according to Divino Afflatu for the Fifth Day in the Octave of Epiphany (done away with as an Octave in 1955), we read from the Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians in three parts. Rather than use the translation from Matins, from the Douay, I will instead use that of the New Revised Standard Version - Catholic Edition. This will then make obvious in the most current way, how clear St. Paul is:
1 Corinthians 5:1-11 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
Sexual Immorality Defiles the Church
5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality (the Douay refers to "fornication," the NRSV-CE uses an even broader term with "sexual immorality") among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father’s wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Should you not rather have mourned, so that he who has done this would have been removed from among you?
3 For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present I have already pronounced judgement 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.6 Your boasting is not a good thing. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore, let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Sexual Immorality Must Be Judged
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons— 10 not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one.
"Do not even eat with such a one!"
So "rigid" was that writer. Such a "self-absorbed, Promethean, neo Pelagian" before Pelagian even existed, was that "tent maker." What a "clericalist" was that student of Gamaliel, considered by the Church to have been a secret Christian and a Saint; in the Martyrology for August 3. His remains are at the Duomo in Pisa, Italy (of "Leaning Tower" fame). Holy Gamaliel is made famous in Acts wherein he says:
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| S.Gamaliel by Rembrandt |
"I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.’
For nearly two-thousand years, we have had the words of St. Paul speak clearly and emphatically to us of how to live, how to be moral and upstanding and faithful to Christ. Clearly, the words of the men to whom Holy Gamaliel referred were doing the work, "from God,"
Now, we have moderns who take a position out of some false mercy that is opposite that of Paul. Such a "doctor," he was, a terrible "detached" man with a "clericalist psychology." It is these men, lead by Bergoglio, who are, "fighting against God."
What then, must Pope Bergoglio think of St. Paul, after he reads that passage, from Scripture, (from something other than Divino Afflatu, of course), considering what he said this morning, at the chapel at the Casa Santa Marta?
"Jesus served the people, He explained things because the people understood well: He was at the service of the people. He had an attitude of a servant, and this gave authority. On the other hand, these doctors of the law that the people… yes, they heard, they respected, but they didn’t feel that they had authority over them; these had a psychology of princes: ‘We are the masters, the princes, and we teach you. Not service: we command, you obey.’ And Jesus never passed Himself off like a prince: He was always the servant of all, and this is what gave Him authority."
"They were detached from the people, they were not close [to them]; Jesus was very close to the people, and this gave authority. Those detached people, these doctors, had a clericalist psychology: they taught with a clericalist authority – that’s clericalism. It is very pleasing to me when I read about the closeness to the people the Blessed Paul VI had; in number 48 of Evangelii nuntiandi one sees the heart of a pastor who is close [to the people]: that’s where you find the authority of the Pope, closeness. First, a servant, of service, of humility: the head is the one who serves, who turns everything upside down, like an iceberg. The summit of the iceberg is seen; Jesus, on the other hand, turns it upside down and the people are on top and he that commands is below, and gives commands from below. Second, closeness."
"On the other hand, this people was not coherent and their personality was divided on the point that Jesus counselled His disciples: ‘But, do what they tell you, but not what they do’: they said one thing and did another. Incoherence. They were incoherent. And the attitude Jesus uses of them so often is hypocritical. And it is understood that one who considers himself a prince, who has a clericalist attitude, who is a hypocrite, doesn’t have authority! He speaks the truth, but without authority. Jesus, on the other hand, who is humble, who is at the service of others, who is close, who does not despise the people, and who is coherent, has authority. And this is the authority that the people of God senses."
If Paul was not speaking with "authority" and the authority of Jesus, then who is he that we should consider what he says? Does Bergoglio place himself above St. Paul? We know what Bergoglio is saying in these little diatribes, he refers to faithful Catholics and faithful prelates who dare to stand up for the Truth of Christ and His Church.
Bergoglio speaks frequently about "senses" and "peripheries" and what the "people of God" think.
Perhaps it is time for Pope Bergoglio to tell the world what God thinks, and the "Catholic God" specifically! Perhaps its time for Bergoglio to smell a little bit more like the incense of heaven rather than the stench of the sheep. Even the sheep like a bath now and then and sweet smelling things.
After all, the 39th Psalm (Douay numbering) does tell us that:
3 And he heard my prayers, and brought me out of the pit of misery and the mire of dregs. And he set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps.
There's a little too much wallowing around in the "mire of dregs" and not enough setting of "feet upon the rock," and directly the steps of those in sexual immorality. Those, and we can name many of them within the ranks of Bergoglio's new Cardinals, will rue the day they choose to "accompany." They'll take on more than the smell of sheep, it will smell more like sulphur.
How ironic, at a time when this Pope decides that we should praise the filthy apostate Luther and his followers who believe in "sola scriptura" that this Pope, chooses to ignore Holy Scripture and instead, places himself above it.
Given a choice between one or the other, I'll choose Paul of Tarsus over Bergoglio of Buenos Aires!