Praise be to Jesus Christ: We have Pope Francis

Praise be to Jesus, we have a new Pope.  And he has chosen the name Francis.  Whether he chose this name because of Francis Xavier or after St. Francis of Assisi, the choice is most significant.  For the Jesuit Order was founded by St. Ignatius of Loyola and based largely upon the revolutionary spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi.

And so, at a time when the Church finds herself in crisis (and she has weathered other storms through the centuries), and when many within the Church have shown that they prefer the darkness to the light, I offer these passages from St. Francis of Assisi, the Mirror of Christ:

"Those who do not wish 'to taste and see how sweet the Lord is' and who 'love the darkness more than the light' by refusing to obey the commandments of God are damned: of them it has been said by the mouth of the prophet, 'Cursed are those who fall from your precepts.'  But how blessed and favored are those who love the Lord and do as the Lord says in the Gospel: 'Love the Lord God with all your heart and soul and your neighbor as yourself.'....

We must hate our own body with its sin and vice, for the Lord has said in the Gospel all sins and vices 'come from the heart,' and 'we should love our enemies and do good to those who hate us.'  We must observe the precepts and counsels of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We must also deny ourselves and put our body under the yoke of discipline and holy obedience, as everyone has promised the Lord." (A Letter to All the Faithful," probably written in 1215).

Notice what St. Francis says here?  We "must" [this is the solemn obligation of everyone who professes to be Christian] put our body under the yoke of discipline and holy obedience.

In this same letter, St. Francis insists that, 'We ought not be wise and prudent 'according to the flesh,' but rather we should be simple, pure, and humble.  We should hold our bodies in low esteem for, through our fault, we are wretched, broken, like worms....All those who live in this way and persevere to the end will have the spirit of the Lord dwelling in them as in a home.  They will be sons of the Heavenly Father and the spouse, brother, and mother of our Lord Jesus Christ.."

Contrast this with the pride of life we have witnessed in many corners of the Church.  Many have preferred darkness and the "wisdom of the flesh."  Obedience to Christ who teaches us through His Church has been replaced by many with self-assertion and self-affirmation.  Such have preferred their own opinions or those of dissenting theologians, Bishops, priests and religious to the authoritative teaching of Jesus Christ, made known to us through the Magisterium.

The Lord willing, we will now have renewal.  The Lord willing, we have begun a new day.  We are a Resurrection People.  If we haven't been already, let's start acting like it!

The denial of the Ascension is as grave a departure from Christian teaching as is denial of Christ's Resurrection....

An insert in the parish bulletin of Saint Patrick's Parish in Jaffrey explains nicely that, "The Ascension of Our Lord, which occurred 40 days after Jesus Christ rose from the dead on Easter Sunday, is the final act of our redemption that Christ began on Good Friday. On this day, the risen Christ, in the sight of His Apostles, ascended bodily into Heaven (Luke 24: 51; Mark 16: 19; Acts 1: 9-11).

The reality of the Ascension is so important that the creeds (the basic statements of belief) of Christianity all affirm, in the words of the Apostles' Creed, that "He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead." The denial of the Ascension is as grave a departure from Christian teaching as is denial of Christ's Resurrection.

Christ's bodily Ascension foreshadows our own entrance into Heaven not simply as souls, after our death, but as glorified bodies, after the resurrection of the dead at the Final Judgment. In redeeming mankind, Christ not only offered salvation to our souls but began the restoration of the material world itself to the glory that God intended before Adam's fall."

And so, Christ's Ascension fills us with hope. Even in the midst of a fallen, broken world filled with errors, vice and scandals. We have hope because "'Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.' Christ's Ascension into heaven signifies his participation, in his humanity, in God's power and authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in heaven and on earth. He is 'far above all rule and authority and power and dominion,' for the Father 'has put all things under his feet.' Christ is Lord of the cosmos and of history. In him human history and indeed all creation are 'set forth' and transcendently fulfilled." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 668, citing Romans 14:9; Ephesians 1: 20-22; Ephesians 1:10).

The Lord Jesus has Ascended into Heaven. He is Truth. And as Pope John Paul II reminded us, "The truth of Jesus is capable of reinforcing all your energies...You may still be vulnerable to attack from the pressures of the world, from the forces of evil, from the power of the devil. But you will be invincible in hope: 'in Christ Jesus our hope'(1 Timothy 1: 11)."

Many have lost hope because of the sex abuse scandals. Many have become fearful because so many have been anxious to rise up against the Church and to unjustly condemn the Mystical Body of Christ. But our hope is in the Risen Lord and in His power and authority. What shall we say to those who, like Father James Scahill, have lost this invincible hope in Jesus Christ and His Mystical Body the Church? We will reiterate the teaching of the Church as outlined in Vatican II's Gaudium et Spes: "Examining his heart, man finds that he has inclinations toward evil, too, and is engulfed by manifold ills which cannot come from his good Creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his beginning, man has disrupted also his proper relationship to his own ultimate goal as well as his whole relationship toward himself and others and all created things. Therefore, man is split within himself. As a result all of human life, whether individual or collective, shows itself to be a dramatic struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness. Indeed, man finds that by himself he is incapable of battling the assaults of evil successfully, so that everyone feels as though he is bound by chains. But the Lord himself came to free and strengthen man, renewing him inwardly and casting out that 'prince of this world' (Jn 12:31) who held him in the bondage of sin (cf. Jn 8:34)." (Gaudium et Spes, No. 13).

Jesus has assured us that the gates of Hell will never prevail against His Church. And God is truthful. It is by faith that we accept what God has told us as absolutely true. Jesus Himself tells us that, "The one who sent me is truthful, and what I have learnt from him I declare to the world." (John 8: 26). And St. Paul writes to Titus that God "does not lie" (Titus 1: 2) and that indeed "it is impossible for God to lie." (Hebrews 6: 18). Therefore, since God is absolute truth or Truth itself, He cannot lie or deceive.