[REBLOG] Jesus Was No Girlie

Another excellent blog post from the “man with no uncertain trumpet”, Monsignor Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington.

This time, Monsignor Pope’s attention is focused on the image of Jesus that was smuggled around in the Seventies, and that still influences the Sixty-Eighters and other pot-smokers today. In those years – and whilst I was a child, I got my share of those years – Jesus was generally portrayed as a kind of a whimp, a girly boy unable to exert or project any form of manliness, a mixture of hare “krishna” follower and Gandhi with, later, the addition of a dollop of Nelson Mandela. Victimised, but as meek as a sheep; bullied, but always answering with a smile, and unable to threat or harm, this is the Jesus we had brought to us as an example. “Peeaace” and “luuuuv” were everywhere, and not a whip in sight.

Well, one only needs to read the Gospel to get a completely different picture of Jesus; a man who never said things half, and never minced words; a man able to openly defy his opponents in public, in times when conflicts were carried out rather less nicely than today, and “being hurt” had a different meaning than today; a man whose followers went around armed with swords, certainly not for aesthetic reasons; a man able to free himself from the grasp of multitudes desirous to apprehend him, which can’t have been accomplished without a towering presence and an extremely commanding, charismatic, utterly manly attitude; a man able, alone, to throw away from the temple an undefined, but certainly not little number of moneychangers out of the sheer fury of his action, and the might of his whip. On this occasion, the contrast between the calm preparation of the whip and the explosion of irresistible physical power gives a wonderful example of the manliness of Jesus’ behaviour.

No, this was no pink-shirted, manicured, anti-wrinkle-lotioned, tubular-jeans-wearing metrosexual; this was a real man, oozing masculinity in everything he did. Try to imagine the scene of St. Matthew’s conversion and tell me whether it is compatible with anything else than the most commanding authority. Then try to imagine how Gandhi or Deepak Chopra would have tried to achieve the same result, and you’ll know the difference.

You see this everywhere in the Gospels, as the words and gestures of Jesus are always accompanied by an undercurrent of sheer authority, a commanding stance, the attitude of one who knows that he will be obeyed everytime he wants. Even scourged almost to death, Jesus talks to Pilate from a position of utter power, and leaves him in no doubt as to who is boss. Make no mistake, this is no Gandhi.

Thankfully, the gently whispering Jesus of my younger years is now slowly being substituted for an image more attuned to the Gospel image, largely – I think – because of the excellent “passion of the Christ” and James Caviezel’s very manly rendition of the Lord. It will take time, though, before the Birkenstock-sandalled, tofu-eating, Cosmo-reading and Oprah-watching Jesus is replaced by, well….. Jesus.

Mundabor

Brave Fag World

And it came to pass that the organisers of St. Patrick's Day parade caved in to popular pressure and corporate sponsorship and decided that faggots, lesbians and all the other variety of militant reprobation are welcome to the parade dedicated to the Saint, because… they are prostitutes.

A Monsignor of the diocese of Washington and blogger of some repute (about whom I have blogged and reblogged on several occasions: Monsignor Charles Pope) then writes a rather blunt blog post, openly questioning non only the opportunity of such exercises, but the smartness of those who continue to cling to such phantoms of the past after they have been, very clearly, highjacked by the Enemy.

And then… what do you think? In pure Soviet style, the Archdiocese of Washington, who publishes the blog, pulls the article.

Catholicism on the Internet presence of a US Archdiocese? God forbid! We must at all costs avoid that the immense fraud of “Inclusiveness”, “no sense of judgment” NuChurch be exposed for what it is!

Let us pull the article, then. We don't want to be “divisive” now, do we? Let's make a united front and march together with the perverts instead. More “inclusive”, you see. In the brave fag world of the contemporary US church, Catholic voices must be silenced so that the little (or huge, as the case may be) minions of Satan do not feel uncomfortable, and can continue to guffaw their bollocks undisturbed.

Thankfully, the almost omniscient (or at least extremely well-informed) Rorate Caeli has the text.

Ah, the beauty of the Internet! The blog post will now soon have a wider circulation that we could ever hope. Reblog the article on your blog, please. Tweet it around. Let the world know at what point of complicity with evil NuChurch has arrived.

Now let me think one moment: who is in charge over there?

Cardinal Wuerl, you say?

This here?

Or this here?

How is it that I am not surprised?

March forward, brave US Cardinals. Hand in hand with militant faggots and lesbians, singing the song of “inclusiveness” in the new “age of Mercy”.

Enjoy their company. You will see it is going to continue for very long after you die.

Mundabor

 

Spiritual Starvation

Openly atheist and clearly unchallenged: David Cameron's girlfriend.

I would suggest you skip the first part of this – still very interesting – blog post from Monsignor Pope (the part with the “oh how guilty I feel that I struggle with my weight whilst other don’t have enough to eat”) and jump directly to the serious part: the comparison between the stages leading to the physical starvation and the correspondent symptoms of the spiritual starvation in the West.

The comparison is useful and certainly a tool for reflection, though I dare to say I am far less pessimistic than Monsignore.

Particularly concerning Europe, I think we are far away from being doomed, though we are certainly in a worse shape than the United States.

Interestingly, Monsignor Pope mentions the Pope saying that the lights are going out in Europe, without telling us what this very same Pope is doing to avoid this happening. I mean, not by talking – he is, undoubtedly, good at that – but by acting. Can’t see much of that I admit; at least, by far not enough to start that reversal of fortune Catholicism in Europe needs.

And in fact, it seems to me that the initial stages described by Monsignor Pope (weakness and confusion) beautifully apply to the Vatican. Weakness, because no one seems able or willingly to declare war to the rampant secularism (they most certainly don’t; they deplore it, which is vastly different) and to start to uproot the evil among the bishops; and confusion, because the present Church  hierarchy stills wants to be everything to everyone: recover Tradition, and accept the Neocathecumenal masses; enact Summorum Pontificum,  and refuse to enforce it; desire a reconciliation with the SSPX, and insist in keeping the tenets of Conciliar thinking; promote orthodoxy, and host Assisi gatherings.

The lack of clarity of the European Christianity is first and foremost the result of the lack of a clear guidance from the European Church. The spiritual starvation so well described by Monsignor Pope applies to the European Church hierarchy in exactly the same way; the apathy and lethargy are those we can see every day in front of rampant heresy among bishops and priests. 

It is good to notice and criticise the dangerous secular drift of the Western world. But it is, in my eyes, dangerous not to see that this does not come from irresistible forces expanding notwithstanding the Church’s resistance, but from very resistible forces which have expanded because the Church has made no resistance. 

It is, of course, not too late. By far not. But the awakening must start from the place where it is most important that right thinking – and, far more importantly, acting – sets in: Rome.

Mundabor

Jesus Was No Girlie

No pink shirt, and no mistake.

Another excellent blog post from the “man with no uncertain trumpet”, Monsignor Pope of the Archdiocese of Washington.

This time, Monsignor Pope’s attention is focused on the image of Jesus that was smuggled around in the Seventies, and that still influences the Sixty-Eighters and other pot-smokers today. In those years – and whilst I was a child, I got my share of those years – Jesus was generally portrayed as a kind of a whimp, a girly boy unable to exert or project any form of manliness, a mixture of hare “krishna” follower and Gandhi with, later, the addition of a dollop of Nelson Mandela. Victimised, but as meek as a sheep; bullied, but always answering with a smile, and unable to threat or harm, this is the Jesus we had brought to us as an example. “Peeaace” and “luuuuv” were everywhere, and not a whip in sight.

Well, one only needs to read the Gospel to get a completely different picture of Jesus; a man who never said things half, and never minced words; a man able to openly defy his opponents in public, in times when conflicts were carried out rather less nicely than today, and “being hurt” had a different meaning than today; a man whose followers went around armed with swords, certainly not for aesthetic reasons; a man able to free himself from the grasp of multitudes desirous to apprehend him, which can’t have been accomplished without a towering presence and an extremely commanding, charismatic, utterly manly attitude; a man able, alone, to throw away from the temple an undefined, but certainly not little number of moneychangers out of the sheer fury of his action, and the might of his whip. On this occasion, the contrast between the calm preparation of the whip and the explosion of irresistible physical power gives a wonderful example of the manliness of Jesus’ behaviour.

No, this was no pink-shirted, manicured, anti-wrinkle-lotioned, tubular-jeans-wearing metrosexual; this was a real man, oozing masculinity in everything he did. Try to imagine the scene of St. Matthew’s conversion and tell me whether it is compatible with anything else than the most commanding authority. Then try to imagine how Gandhi or Deepak Chopra would have tried to achieve the same result, and you’ll know the difference.

You see this everywhere in the Gospels, as the words and gestures of Jesus are always accompanied by an undercurrent of sheer authority, a commanding stance, the attitude of one who knows that he will be obeyed everytime he wants. Even scourged almost to death, Jesus talks to Pilate from a position of utter power, and leaves him in no doubt as to who is boss. Make no mistake, this is no Gandhi.

Thankfully, the gently whispering Jesus of my younger years is now slowly being substituted for an image more attuned to the Gospel image, largely – I think – because of the excellent “passion of the Christ” and James Caviezel’s very manly rendition of the Lord. It will take time, though, before the Birkenstock-sandalled, tofu-eating, Cosmo-reading and Oprah-watching Jesus is replaced by, well….. Jesus.

Mundabor

The Monsignor With No Uncertain Trumpet.

Alexander Mair, "Memento Mori", 1605.

Truly beautiful contribution (on the Archdiocese of Washington’s internet site) of Msgr. Charles Pope. The contribution comes in two forms: the excerpt from the funeral sermon held by himself and the very insightful, crystal-clear reflections posted on the Internet site of the Archdiocese.

I allow myself to suggest that you listen to the sermon first. It is nothing shocking for those accustomed to this blog but certainly unusually clear for those who are not. For people not even accustomed to darken the doors of a church on Sundays – and told all the time that “their heart is in the right place” and therefore everything is fine – it must be outright shocking.

Msgr. Pope delivers truth in copious quantity and without any meaningful dilution. I will mention here only some of the many brilliant statements he makes:

[..] the usual approach at funerals has been to be “nice” and if sin, or purgatory, or judgment (or, God forbid, Hell), are mentioned at all it should be subtle, so subtle as to barely be noticed. Vague attestations of ”we at the parish will surely pray for Joe’s happy repose and for you the family.” Somewhere the doctrine of purgatory is lurking in the saying but only a trained theologian could really see it.

I had tried the more subtle approach for years. It didn’t really work and no one really took it seriously, if they even understood what I was “getting at.”

I think prophecy needs to be clear, strong and unambiguous. I get a much better result that way. I can surely attest to the fact that more have returned to Mass on a regular basis as a result of strong words than ever happened in the years when the usual reaction to my ministration was, “Oh Father, you’re such a dear. What a heart-warming and consoling message!

I have over 50 funerals a year. And for most of them the Church is packed with people I will only see once, or perhaps not until the next family funeral. I cannot wait for a “less delicate” time

Preaching is about saving before it is about consoling

A lot of times powerful preaching takes people through a cycle of: mad, to sad, to glad.

I think we have long enough tried the “nice guy” preaching that is extolled by many, as the model. But all through these past 40 years with that model largely operative, Mass attendance has steadily dropped.

Fr. Bill Casey defines superficial preaching as: “watered-down, filled with generalities and abstractions, devoid of doctrinal content and moral teaching, more akin to pop-psychology than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is not scriptural, it does not move, it does not inspire, it generates no enthusiasm for Jesus Christ, his Church or the Gospel and it has got to change”.

The fact is, I think there is a general hunger for a return to vivid and strong preaching. I think this is more common among younger people, many of whom have had enough of polite but abstract sermons that preach ideas more than unvarnished Catholic and Biblical truth.

Mgr. Pope hits the bull’s head so many times that there’s no space for the darts left. Not only does he get the nature of the problem (as, I am sure, many others do), but he has the nerve to speak it out, and to do so when the majority of lukewarm priests with oversized political antennae would not dare to do it. He reports (and chastises) the thinking of colleagues of him who say that they wouldn’t be able to get away with talking as he does.

Get…. what?! Since when has a priest been ordained to reflect about what he can “get away with”? Since when has a priest seen it as his job to avoid saying what his parishioners don’t want to hear? What kind of priesthood is this? These questions seem to escape Mgr. Pope’s colleagues: you picture them smiling and saying “aahhh, I could not do that…”

If the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself for the battle? In the modern age what we see is that many shepherds (often Bishops or Archbishops) are very well aware that their trumpet is barely audible. But you know what? They just don’t care! They’d never allow the Truth to come in the way of their popularity among the crowds, making them acceptable to vast cohorts of, often, non-Catholics or even non-Christians.

What a difference between Mgr. Pope and many of our shepherds.
I wish he were Archbishop of Westminster.

Mundabor