I have been praying as to why God has allowed me to develop ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease (not complaining, just wondering why ALS). The Church is the body of Christ and Jesus is the head of the Church, while the Pope functions as his Head on earth. The Head gives orders which the body should obey.
In ALS, the brain keeps working well (in my case it has always been a bit off), but the message no longer gets to the body (especially the tongue in my case). In other words, the head has thoughts which are no longer preached by the tongue, and the arms and legs don't do what the head tells them to do. Interestingly, the heart keeps working which keeps the body alive (although it finally becomes paralyzed). It would seem that the pollution of the spinal cord with bad chemicals and rogue mutant cells is what destroys the nerves and so cuts off communication and finally life.
In this way, ALS seems a perfect metaphor for the Church today. The head is working well and sending out the very same message of Christ which it has always done. We have had holy Popes and all their documents are easily accessible online. However, the message from Christ the head is no longer getting to the Body of Christ (particularly the younger members). The cultural and family environment has been polluted by the relativism and immorality of the modern world, and so the communication system (family life and Catholic education) are no longer conveying the message from Christ the Head, via the Pope, His head on earth. Indeed, many Bishops who function as heads of their own dioceses are also preaching well again today, but the body is not getting the message due to the acidic affects of modern culture on the body of Christ.
As with ALS, the cure will not be an easy one! We must reduce the cultural pollution which is blocking the message from Christ, the head, by turning off the television, violent video games, and access to impure images on the Internet. Also, Catholic education must be reformed so that the rogue mutants who are teaching heresy must be removed from Catholic schools. Bishops are starting to do this, and I have seen that parish schools and Catholic high schools and colleges are revitalized when this happens. We are blessed to already have medicine to heal the body from spiritual ALS, namely Holy Communion, Confession, and the daily Rosary. In other words, the cure is available, but people have to radically alter their life styles to bring about spiritual healing and the healing of the Church.
Finally, this helps me understand why God sent me to Pope Pius XII to pray for a cure. He was the head of the Church on earth, and he ruled it in such a way that the Church overcame modernism during his tenure. However, the level of modernism swelled in 1968, and so Pope Paul VI was not listened to and most Catholics and even many Bishops rejected his teaching on artificial birth control, which has now led to the acceptance of homosexuality.
God sent me on a pilgrimage to Rome to show that the Holy See functions as the head of Christ on earth.
I had Mass with the current Pope, who consecrated the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the presence of Our Lady of Fatima. Indeed, the Fatima message shows the primacy of the Pope and gives us the final solution to overcome modernism (spiritual ALS). If Catholics make a spiritual pilgrimage to Rome (in their hearts) and listen often to the message of Pope Francis, then the Church will be healed and so will I. If the people are not willing to listen to priests who are faithful to the Holy Father, then the Church will die and so will I. People did not listen to Jesus, and they Crucified Him. Today, the Body of Christ, His Church is being crucified by us (I am a sinner too). However, when He Arose, His heart poured out rays of Mercy, and that Mercy is always there whenever we turn to Him with Trust (until death when we are judged). O Blood and Water which gushed forth from the heart of Jesus as a fount of Mercy for us, I trust in Thee! Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us! St. Joseph, pray for us! Padre Pio, pray for us! Ven. Pius XII, pray for us!
A very thought-provoking insight, Fr. Benjamin. Thank you Anne, for printing it.
ReplyDeleteThe analogy of ALS and the Church's lapse in communications seems to be an apt one. I think it might be debated, however, if either the head and/or the body are also not doing their functions to the best of their abilities. The culture may have created a break in the communications, but some would say the Church (head) is not using effective communications, compounding the problem. And some might say the people (body) aren't listening very well for the communications which ARE there. In short, there definitely are some outside interferences in our communications, but there might well be some inside interferences also. We can't make too much of an effect on those outside ones, but we need to pray about the inside ones, which we CAN influence, starting with ourselves, and prayer, and learning more about our faith --- and on hearing it.