“Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen…”

Today is the Second Sunday of Advent. The first portion of today’s Gospel is from Matthew 11, and goes like this:

At that time, when John had heard in prison the works of Christ: sending two of his disciples he said to him: “Art thou he that art to come, or look we for another?” And Jesus making answer said to them: “Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me.” 

Before we get to the reasons why John may have sent these disciples to question Christ, let us first get out of the way that this is definitely not John’s faith failing. John, in prison, perhaps only days from his earthly end, had perfectly fulfilled his mission as Forerunner. About to go to his reward, he still has his own disciples hanging out near him. So John sends them so that they too might believe in Christ. That’s the first interpretation.

The second, favored by St. Jerome, is that John sent them to find out if John was to yet continue his mission into the next life… to be the Forerunner to dead, announcing Christ’s coming even to them.

Either way, we can see that a theme is common to both: Care for souls.  The salvation of souls is the supreme law of the Church. Can you imagine if She still acted that way?

And as I’ve written many times before, Christ answers these disciples in a way that should make every Cardinal in attendance at the 2013 faux “Conclave” terrified. Why?

“Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen…”

What do your senses say? How do your senses inform your intellect? What is the evidence laid out before you? What do you hear? What do you see?

In short: “Examine the evidence”

Dear Cardinals of Feb/March 2013: Do you see two popes dressed in white, both living in the Vatican, both granting audiences, both addressed as His Holiness, both with their Fisherman’s Rings, both giving their Apostolic Blessing, etc, etc. Does the older pope seem to think he is still papal in some way? Is that possible? If that’s what Pope Benedict thought when he wrote his resignation, that he could somehow remain some way “papal,” doesn’t Canon 188 render the resignation invalid? It seems he was in Substantial Error, his mind giving assent to an erroneous notion regarding the essential nature of what he was doing. Isn’t there at least enough evidence to call for an investigation? Another piece of evidence, the cherry on top, is that the younger “pope” isn’t even Catholic. Maybe that is the first clue that something isn’t right. How many shall he scandalize out of the Church before you do something?

The salvation of souls is the supreme law of the Church. Get cracking.

2 thoughts on ““Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen…””

  1. Who can declare a papal election or resignation invalid but another pope? That’s the flaw in the papal system.

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