[1] I will sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a hill in a fruitful place. [2] And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. [3] And now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard. [4] What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? [5] And now I will shew you what I will do to my vineyard. I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down. [6] And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged: but briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it. [7] For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry.
I think the parallel between the state of that vineyard and the current state of the Church is all too obvious. We have many "wild grapes" within the midst of the clergy, spewing forth "foul wine" that is, heresy. Yesterday I posted a video of Cardinal Walter Kasper doing precisely that. Almost every sentence he uttered was heresy capable of damning an ignorant soul to hell.
Read a post from Fr Z's blog about Kasper's opinion of the Church's teachings on adultery, teachings that are derived from Jesus Christ Himself. Kasper went so far as to opine that the language the Church uses about adultery, drawn from the words of Jesus, would cause these culprits to feel offended. I will make a point that I didn't see in Fr. Z's blog. In making that horrific statement, Cardinal Kasper has set himself up as a judge: not of the Pope, not of fellow bishops, but as a judge of Jesus Christ Himself. And this is a man that Pope Francis called "a clever theologian". Well, we know "clever" can have several meanings, don't we?
Looking at Kasper in light of today's first reading, I can only imagine Kasper as the quintessential "wild grape". He's probably not the only one there. These "wild grapes" are tearing down the protective hedges and walls around Holy Mother Church.
The question of why these "wild grapes" are allowed to occupy places of influence in the Church will have to be faced one day. For now, we must pray that at this synod, the damage that these "wild grapes" would inflict will be curtailed.
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