Subtle Heresies In Hymns At Mass

That is what I encountered last weekend at the 11:15 Mass at St John Neumann in Gaithersburg.  It was one phrase in the Offertory hymn that was so problematic as to be heretical.  I find that often happens in songs with a "social justice" theme.

The hymn was When Jesus Came Preaching by Fred Pratt Green, a now-deceased Methodist minister in England.  Here's the embedded heresy: "so let none of us swerve from our mission to serve that has made us his church from the start".  That phrase displays a totally inverted and perverted view of the Church.  I'll contrast this with some facts from the Baltimore Catechism, facts that I learned in the first grade.  I'll list questions 136-138.

• 136 What is the Church?  The Church is the congregation of all baptized persons united in the same true faith, the same sacrifice, and the same sacraments, under the authority of the Sovereign Pontiff and the bishops in communion with him.
• 137 Who founded the Church? Jesus Christ founded the Church.
• 138 Why did Jesus Christ found the Church?  Jesus Christ founded the Church to bring all men to eternal salvation.

According to Green, this "mission to serve" caused the church to come into being.  For him, the question isn't even who spawned the Church but what.  In his thinking, Jesus Christ Himself has been substituted by this "mission to serve" as originator of the Church.  This is de facto idolatry.  I'm sure that was not the intention of any of St John's music minstry to promulgate heresy and idolatry, but nonetheless that is in fact what happened, with many decent Catholics in the pews singing this right along, not realizing until too late what was happening (assuming they were alert enough to sense a problem).

Additionally, this "mission to serve" is never quite defined.  Since we did have a guest priest who spoke on behalf of a charity to serve the third-world impovershed (and it sounds like a very good organization), I venture a guess that this song was picked with "social justice" in mind.   Question 138 states quite plainly God's intention for the Church: to facilitate eternal salvation, that is, to save people from hell and get them into heaven.  Any charitable endeavor, important though it is, is ancillary to the salvation of immortal souls.

Too many are losing sight of the primacy of eternal salvation.  Indeed, far too many don't believe in hell and don't seem to care that one unconfessed mortal sin at the time of death will result in eternal damnation.  Jesus spoke about hell many times during His earthly ministry, yet today we rarely (if ever) hear the word "hell" mentioned from the pulpit.  This constitutes a gross disservice to the wayward Catholic in the pew, who will never benefit from the warning to avail him/herself of Confession.  Now that is a true "social injustice", one that will have everlasting consequences.

At any rate, I'd suggest that when we arrive at Mass and are waiting for it to begin, that we give the hymns a glace to make sure that we won't be singing something that doesn't conform to Church Teaching..

Where Is The REAL Care For God's Creation???

My colleague at One Peter Five put up the pope's latest video regarding environmentalism.  As he stated in this commentary, this video explicitly extols the idolatry of "earth worship" before the worship of the One True God.  The stench of idolatry billows forth from the first few moments of the clip till the very end.

Notice that "believers and unbelievers" are told that they "agree that the earth is our common heritage".  Then the pope asks, "however, what is happening to the world we live in"?  In a word, it's called "sin" and it manifests itself in much more significant ways than in some trash on a beach.  Its spiritually deadly effects are manifest in sexual immorality, murders of babies, elderly and other innocents, the persecution of Christians in once-civilized countries.  Please note that it is the latter group of sins that can and will damn souls to hell; trash on a beach won't do that.

Let's look at that phrase "earth is our common heritage".  No, that's not why God created man.  Let's hearken back to the Baltimore Catechism.  Why did God make man?  God made man to know, love and serve Him in this world and to be happy with Him in the next.  God created man to be with Him in heaven, not to be focused on this earth (good as it may be in and of itself).  It is the God-given mission of the Church to help souls get to heaven - that's it!  Anything else is ancillary and must be explicitly aimed at the ultimate end of eternal salvation.  Watch the video carefully.  Are the words "heaven", "soul", "repentance", "salvation" mentioned therein at least once?

At the 0:48 mark, the pope states that "we need a change that unites us all".  That change is the conversion of every person to the Roman Catholic Church.  Unless that happens, any unity will at best be very temporary and at worst, a cheap and dangerous facade of true unity.  Read the book of Genesis. It's worth noting that in the very beginning, there was true earthly harmony in creation.  It was only after the sin of our first parents that creation fell out of harmony.  That harmony won't be restored until there is conversion to the One True Faith and attendant obedience to the Church in matters of faith and morals.  At the 0:57 mark, we see the pope hoping that we "be free from the slavery of consumerism".  Well, how about "freedom from sin"?  

The absence of the call for conversion to Catholism in this video constitutes true indifference to the pinnacle of God's creation, i.e., man for if there is no explicit and overt effort to bring about conversion to the One True Faith, there is no real concern for God's creation.

Unless There Is Repentance, God's Unconditional Love Will Be To No Avail

Simply put, God insists that we approach Him on His terms, not our own.  The Church of Nice, along with their atheist/progressive puppet masters, have trouble acknowledging that the first admonition of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of Mark is "repent".

Too often I hear at my own church homilies that proclaim the greatness of God's love (true enough) and that if we'd just "open ourselves to His love" our lives would be fuller.  Well, what does "open ourselves" mean?  I know full well that in that congregation are those in irregular marriages, those who call themselves "pro-choice", those who support sexual perversion (and who punish those priests who stand for God's teaching in that regard).  They will never "open themselves to His love" until they repent of their mortal sins - and many won't unless they are told, point-blank from the pulpit, just what specific sins endanger their immortal souls and that they need to get themselves to Confession pronto.  First things first - as exemplified in the Gospel of Mark (see Mark 1:15).

Today's Vortex delves more deeply into this matter.  I'll reiterate one key line of Voris's: God loves us unconditionally, but He does not save us unconditionally.

Gay Clergy = Moral Cesspool = Souls Going To Hell

Michael Voris comments on a party where gay priests brought their "boyfriends" (i.e., accomplices in the mortal sin of sodomy) to a Christmas party.  What a way to blaspheme that Holy Day!  They will have to account for much, and for them - unless they repent and make good Confessions - their outcome is looking mighty dubious.  Pray for them and all those scandalized by them.

Twin Perils Of Indifferentism And Universalism

The Necessity Of Infant Baptism - Sidewalk Counselors Take Note

I address this to fellow pro-life activists, particularly sidewalk counselors.  In some meeting that I've attended, I've heard leaders put forth a dangerous theory as to our main purpose on the sidewalks.  I quote from one leader, "our goal is not ultimately about saving babies from abortion…God can take care of the babies whether they’re born or not born.As Catholics we consign them to His mercy…what we’re really after is souls.”

Well, I'd hope that these "souls" include those of the unborn children.  Without sacramental baptism, they won't attain heaven.  They most certainly are our first priority.  I now link to a commentary by Dr Taylor Marshall on a bull against abortion issued by Pope Sixtus V in the 1500s (it was a problem back then).  Now listen to this homily on the topic; I find it to be quite thorough.

Contraception And Salvation - Third of Four Parts

I post here the third of the four-part series presented by Real Catholic TV of Dr Martin Brenner's reflections on contraception.

When he says, "most people are saved because of the dynamic requirements that they respond to in marriage," I don't know how that jives wth the revelations that so many saints claim to have received, that state that those saved are a very small percentage of the entire collection of humanity that has ever and will ever exist.  Of course, both sets of opinions are precisely that - opinions.  They don't define any dogma, one way or the other.  I suppose, too, that according to Dr Brenner, salvation would depend on the quality of response to marriage - meaning, of course, that the usage of contraception in marriage would seriously endanger and perhaps render impossible the salvation of the couple.  Our Lady of Fatima did tell the children that most marriages did not please God - and she was talking of marriages circa 1917.  One can only imagine how she would deplore the state of marriages today!

The clip is below.  At the end, Dr. Brenner gives a bit of a "teaser" for the final segment, which I'll post next weekend.  Click here if you cannot see embedded video.

"Social Justice" Subordinate To Matters Of Eternal Salvation

In this Vortex, Michael Voris comments on some words of Pope Benedict XVI, that can be found here.  Click here if you cannot see embedded video.