During the Easter Season, the weekday epistles are taken from the Acts of the Apostles while the Gospel reading is from the Gospel of John. Two days ago we had the reading in which Peter and John were brought before the Sanhedrin and ordered to stop preaching. The two apostles replied they'd obey God rather than man. It is on that reading that the Pope based his homily for that Mass.
His theme was rather odd. It was a push for "dialogue". Ladies and gentlemen, if there's one thing God did not command the apostles to do, it was to engage in "dialog". No. They were commissioned by God to proclaim the Gospel, to baptize all and to teach them everything He commanded. No pointless "back and forth" was ever required. God never dialogued with anyone. Oh, there were conversations, but not dialogue as with equals. He taught, preached, commanded - but did not dialogue for He has no equal.
He then went on to say of the pharisees, "they had studied the history of the people, they had studied the prophecies, they had studied the law, they knew all about the theology of the people of Israel, the revelation of God, they knew everything, they were teachers". No, they did not know everything. In fact, Jesus Himself rebuked them for their lack of knowledge when He declared to them, "you err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God". (Matthew 22:29) I believe that once again we see the attempt to portray those who honor Sacred Tradition in honor as not much more than "stick in the mud" types who can be dismissed as those who don't "dialogue" with every silly fad that blows their way.
He uttered this rather odd statement: "The one who doesn't know to dialogue does not obey God." The Bible and Sacred Tradition do a rather decent job in spelling out sins that offend God. I'd wager that if anyone searched the entire Bible (any version!), the writings of Church doctors and other time-honored writings of the Church for any hint of "dialogue" as being a requirement of true Christianity, that not one mention would be found.
We see another curious phrase: "newness of God". No such thing! God is NOT "new" as He existed even before time began. He is eternal. News Flash! "New" and "eternal" or NOT synonyms! Is this a throw-back to the "god of surprises" excrement? An attempt to induce mistrust in the Traditions and Teachings of Holy Mother Church? Another "maturation" effort to brainwash us for the next sin-nod? Louie Verrecchio has some excellent commentary; I refer you now to his post.
To sum up, the world is in desperate need of real shepherds who will preach God's word, teach His Commandments, administer the Sacraments of the Church. We need no useless back-and-forth jabber-jawing as though those steeped in sin can somehow better the Church. Should this dalliance with "dialogue" continue, I suspect that may be a cause in real wrath to come.
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