Here's the original quote: "But Lord, throw a banana peel in front of them, so that they will take a good fall, and feel shame that they are sinners, and so encounter You, [and realize] that You are the Saviour. Many times a sin will make us feel shame, and make us encounter the Lord, Who pardons us, as the sick who were there and went to the Lord for healing."
Leaving aside the obvious lack of charity and respect that the pope exhibits towards faithful, devout, pious Catholics, let's consider some other fundamental points:
- Our Lord may allow us to sin, because we have free will and He honors that which He gave to us.
- Our Lord also allows us to sin, but He will never directly will us to sin for (this is important!) He cannot directly will evil to occur. It is against His perfect, sinless nature to do so.
- Our Lord will never tempt us to sin. If a person deliberately tempts one to sin (throwing the proverbial banana peel) that action would itself be sin - probably mortal, for its deliberation and malice towards the one being tempted.
- The pope alleges a final purpose in causing the banana-peel target to "encounter the Lord", but as he should well know, the ends never justifies an inherently immoral means. To deliberately tempt someone to sin is always immoral.
- In his supposed "prayer", the pope is asking God to commit sin Himself. This is not prayer - it is nothing short of BLASPHEMY.
Catholic Encyclopedia gives an excellent treatment of blasphemy. I think that what the Pope did yesterday is to engage in the heretical form of blasphemy.
I am reminded of a conversation that occurred between King St Louis IX of France and his holy mother, Queen Blanche. She said to him that "I'd rather see you dead at my feet than guilty of one mortal sin". Do we dare doubt that Our Lord's abhorrence of sin is less than Blanche's?
I am stunned. This isn't a mere gaffe. I said yesterday that I think this homily is part of a campaign to get us to accept, or at least be indifferent to, the reception of Holy Communion by those living in mortal sin. But now I realize that he is presenting a distorted image of God Himself. But come to think of it, he is the Vicar of Christ who has been doing that for some time: the clown noses, the beach balls on the altars, the discarding of papal traditions. I never dreamed it would come to this, but now he's painting a horrible picture of God Himself - at least he did so yesterday. I pray we don't see future episodes from the Vicar of Christ.
Let's double down on our Rosaries (I hope that doesn't sound too pelagian) for our poor Mother Church needs them.
