non veni pacem

Cardinal Mueller seeks to clarify the situation around Amoris Laetitia and proceeds to… make things even more confusing? HERE

“In the German cardinal’s eyes “Amoris Laetitia is very clear in its doctrine and [in it] we can interpret [sic] the whole doctrine of Jesus concerning marriage, the whole doctrine of the Church of 2000 years history.” Moreover, for Pope Francis, it is all about “discerning the situation of those people who live in irregular [sic] unions” and thus about helping them to “find a new integration into the Church according to the conditions of the Sacraments and according to the Christian message on marriage.” Cardinal Müller adds that he does “not see any contradiction: on the one side we have the clear doctrine on marriage, on the other the obligation of the Church to help those persons in difficulties.””

Well… of course! Why didn’t you say it like this before?! Now I see it is perfectly understandable!
No.
If you read through the whole thing, I think +Mueller’s strategy here (the clear part, anyway) is somewhat along the lines of what +Chaput and +Olmsted have proclaimed. That is, Amoris Laetitia cannot possibly have changed doctrine because Amoris Laetitia cannot possibly have changed doctrine. Which is a demonstrably true statement, since doctrine cannot be changed. But of course the issue here is whether it attempted to change doctrine or otherwise change disciplines in a way that radically departs from sound doctrine, or even inverts it.  And we all know the answer to that.
As I have been writing in recent weeks, the final appeal of Francis will be an appeal to Heaven, to a false transcendence that supersedes doctrine for the sake of (false) mercy, with the added benefit of declaring those who hold to the true doctrines as devils and heretics.
The almost daily back and forth among prelates as this accelerates toward whatever it’s accelerating towards is truly breathtaking, even as it has suddenly become commonplace. Avoid the temptation to ignore them just because at times it’s hard to keep up.  These volleys and sorties will be, unless this really is the final chastisement, replayed by historians for a thousand years. We are living through the brick by brick final act of nuChurch, and you have a front row seat.

They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth. Gen 11:3-9 (NIV)

That was then, this is now.  We shall see.

Cardinal Tobin was installed at Newark yesterday. From his homily:

To believe in Jesus “is not acceptance of a doctrine or a moral code…” HERE

Oh, really? I thought it was the Roman Catholic Diocese of Newark.  Isn’t being Catholic a prerequisite for taking this job?

“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.” John 14:15-21

You see, “acceptance of the moral code” is precisely what is required of a Catholic. No matter how many times we may fail, we must never deny the Eternal Truths as they’ve been graciously revealed to us.  The Commandments are not a punishment, they are a blessing. They are proof of God’s love.  He is not a selfish or distant lover.  He comes right out and tells us how to love Him, what he expects from us, and what we can expect in return.

Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:22-26

The commands given by Jesus, which belong to the Father, and are reinforced by the Holy Spirit, are a representation of the Divine Love that flows eternally between the Three Persons of the Trinity, in which we will take part if we persevere to the end (Matt 24:13). These loving instructions provided by the Triune God are the key not only to attaining Heaven by the merits of the Cross, but they are also the only way to achieve even fleeting happiness in this world.

The mystery of the Most Holy Trinity is the central mystery of Christian faith and life. It is the mystery of God in himself. It is therefore the source of all the other mysteries of faith, the light that enlightens them. It is the most fundamental and essential teaching in the “hierarchy of the truths of faith”. The whole history of salvation is identical with the history of the way and the means by which the one true God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, reveals himself to men “and reconciles and unites with himself those who turn away from sin”. CCC#234

mkay?
 

From Lifesite HERE.

An Austrian bishop has given a sweeping interview claiming that “remarried” Catholics now have the “blessing of the Pope” to receive Communion, the use of contraception is “a decision of conscience” for couples, and homosexuals can constitute a “family.” Bishop Benno Elbs, who heads the Feldkirch diocese in west Austria, made the comments in an interview with Die Presse on December 23.
Regarding the admission of “remarried” divorced Catholics to Communion, he said, “The teaching [of the Church] has changed insofar as she has opened the door. People have made decisions of conscience in the past, but now they can do it – so to say – with the blessing of the Pope. That is an essential progress.”

“We had unanimity in everything, and the Pope has taken up a lot.” For Elbs, the entirety of Amoris Laetitia is about the decision of conscience: “If that is written in a footnote or not is not important. The whole paper breathes the spirit that the individual person can find a way in his conscience to deal with situations of life.” He added that the admission to Communion of those in question is irreversible. “That has been in the pastoral praxis for quite some time. Even theologically. Now we should not make the mistake of inventing new rules. The progress is an attitude that surpasses norms.”

“The progress is an attitude that surpasses norms.”

Sound familiar?  Brick by brick they are setting the stage for the big reveal, which is False Unity through the doctrine of False Transcendence.  Thanks to Bishop Elbs, we now have the first formula of this doctrine, which comes on the heels of this:

Now is the time to unleash the creativity of mercy, to bring about new undertakings, the fruit of grace.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) December 14, 2016

I wrote a brief post on this HERE.

The endgame to the dubia and the entire implementation and enforcement of Amoris Laetitia is not in yes or no answers. The endgame will be to assign the questions and criticisms to a malformed, primitive, simplistic moral theology, which needs to be enlightened by the Third Person of the God of Surprises. That is why you are hearing all the talk lately about spirits, and it will soon become clear which Spirit or spirits are on which side.
The endgame will be false transcendence. If twitter allowed more than 140 characters, it would sound something like this:
“Doctors of the law remain fixated on the ‘ideals’ of the Gospel, and indeed the ‘ideals’ remain unchanged. But the God of Surprises demands us to unleash the creativity of mercy at this time, to bring about new undertakings amidst the concrete situations of real life. This is the fruit of grace to which the spirit is calling. It is a grace that transcends mere ideals, bringing God’s profound mercy and hope to those on the peripheries.”

My forthcoming essay on this topic is now complete, and awaiting editing. It will be posted shortly.

 
These screen shots are from Saturday at the Te Deum, and were retweeted all over the world. “Te Deum laudamus” is how the hymn begins, “Thee, O God, we praise.”  Pssst, you’re supposed to kneel on that kneely thingee and praise God. It’s not polite to stand there and stare.
Silly Francis, he only kneels for muslims and wheelchairs. Not sure what +Marini is thinking, but I like how he keeps on setting up the prie dieu. Except when he sets it up and then Francis orders him to remove it, like at the opening of the Holy Door for the Year of (false) Mercy. We can’t have any distractions when Francis is going for an Ecce Homo moment with the press.  Watch, as he stands Vader-like at the 0:29 mark:

 
Just think about what these pictures say, for all the world to see. Go back and look at the twitterpics again. There are two possibilities for what is going through the mind of Francis right here.
If he DOES believe in the Real Presence, the blinding Pride monster is on full rage. He is openly mocking God to His face, refusing to kneel to his creator, in a public demonstration of non serviam. Just like he does at the consecration at every Mass. But the visual in this scene is one of pure defiance.
If he DOES NOT believe in the Real Presence, he’s actually demonstrating not pride, in his mind, but humility. By allowing himself to be paraded in front of a cracker, he begrudging goes through the motions of doing his job, even if he can’t manage to wipe the scowl from his face.  Plus there is the added bonus of scoring points with the other cool kids who don’t believe any of that stuff.
Which one is it?
Which one is worse?
Well, I’m not sure what is going on in the FrancisBrain, but I sure know what is going on in actual reality.

I’m pretty sure I stole this headline from Seb Gorka, but I can’t seem to locate the tweet.  Anyway, this may as well been what Putin said to Obama today. Pretty much.  HERE 
The most amazing thing in all of this is that these people must not even realize how stupid they look, or else continue to believe their own fake news. The Podesta emails revealed the deception and deviancy of the Democrat Party for all the world to see. Do they think that demonstrating their indignance somehow gains back credibility? With whom? 
Putin is fresh off the Syrian ceasefire and liberation of Aleppo, with pictures of Christians celebrating victory over ISIS broadcast throughout the world (though not on the USA MSM, of course). Yes, I do realize Putin is a muderous thug. But the ease with which he comes off as the bigger man here is truly an iconic demonstration of the incompetence of the past eight years, and how this has necessarily lead to the strengthening of Russia.
As for Obama, the humiliation deepens. With his legacy further imploding with each laughable misstep, it is becoming a real concern what else might be tried in the next 22 days. If he’s willing to risk eradicating diplomatic ties with Russia over the alleged hacking of a private gmail account, days after throwing Israel to the dogs and trotting out Kerry to spout insanity, you have to wonder what else is coming.
Obama always was, and is becoming more and more, the pajama boy of Obamacare meme fame.  The petulance will continue until 20 January, Noon, Eastern Standard Time.

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning,
Jesu, to Thee be glory given.
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;
See how the shepherds, summoned to His cradle,
leaving their flocks, draw nigh to gaze.
We too will thither bend our hearts’ oblations;
There shall we see Him, His eternal Father’s
everlasting brightness now veiled under flesh.
God shall we find there, a Babe in infant clothing;
Child, for us sinners, poor and in the manger,
we would embrace Thee, with love and awe.
Who would not love Thee, loving us so dearly?
Merry Christmas!

“Pope Francis told the Roman Curia that malevolent resistance came from distorted minds which occurs when the devil inspires “cattive” intentions, bad or wicked intentions [che germogliano in menti distorte e si presentano quando il demonio ispira intenzioni cattive]. He said that such malevolent resistance often appears “under the guise of lambs”. This last type of resistance hides behind words of self-justification, and accusations, taking refuge in traditions, in appearances, in formalities, in what is known, or wanting to make everything personal without distinguishing between the act, the actor and the action.” HERE

Yes! More classic rock band names. You do remember the “Prophets of Gloom”, right?  Oh yes, you must go read about the Prophets of Gloom.  HERE
Well today we got more! “The Malevolent Resisters”… “Distorted Minds”… “Cattive Intentions”…”Guisers of the Lambs”… “The Tradition Refugees”.
Wait. I though Francis LURVED all the all refugees.  Why now the hate?
But seriously, do re-read the last part of the last sentence of the quote. “…wanting to make everything personal without distinguishing between the act, the actor and the action.”  This is the heart of Chapter Eight of Amoris Laetitia, as well as the Dubia. This is pure Situational Ethics and an inversion of eternal truths. Francis couldn’t be much clearer.  The person isn’t really responsible, because look at his situation. Poor, poor person can’t possibly be expected to try to live by those oh so lofty “ideals”.
But for those who really do need more clarity, I proposed to Francis (or Spadaro or Tucho or whomever wrote this speech) a slightly edited update:
“Those who hide behind the Word of God as spoken from the very lips of our Lord, thus taking refuge in what is known, are possessed by the devil.”
Do I have that about right?

Big time. HERE

Cardinal Burke: “If a Pope would formally profess heresy he would cease, by that act, to be the Pope. It’s automatic. And so, that could happen…It is a scary thought, and I hope we won’t be witnessing that at any time soon…(but) there is already in place the discipline to be followed when the Pope ceases from his office, even as happened when Pope Benedict XVI abdicated his office. The Church continued to be governed in the interim between the effective date of his abdication and the inauguration of the papal ministry of Pope Francis.”

This is…stunning. Look at the precision of the words he uses in this quote and elsewhere in the interview. Look at the term “ceases from his office”. +Burke, a foremost expert in Canon Law, knows that no one, nor any group of people, can render a juridical judgement against Francis, if he is the pope. But by committing formal heresy, he would automatically cease to be pope. A heretic cannot be pope.

Think about the lateness of the Dubia.  It took months to plan out every possible contingency to ensure an airtight case. I think +Burke knows exactly what he is doing. The timing of everything that has happened since the Dubia were made public also seems to be very well calculated.

I’ve already stated that I think the endgame for Francis and his minions will be an appeal to false transcendence.  I haven’t had time to write about this in detail yet. I will do so in the coming days.

Francis addresses the curia in the morning.  That will be interesting.

 
I mean, I’m paraphrasing.
First up was John Allen, who attempts to plant the flag of tolerance atop the moral high ground in the debate over Amoris Laetitia:

“There is nevertheless an increasingly nasty cycle of finger-pointing in print, online, in social media, and sometimes even face-to-face, and if there’s to be an end to it, perhaps what we need is the equivalent of a verbal truce. If conservatives troubled by some aspects of Amoris Laetitia and other aspects of the present papacy could at least concede that, in the main, those on the other side are not enemies of the faith, and that their positions are not a blatant rupture with Catholic tradition, that might be a powerful confidence-building measure.” HERE

To which Mundabor shot back, “Guerra!!” HERE

“Truth is the most important thing there is on this planet. Compared to it, “niceness” does not even appear on the radar screen. To ask for a verbal truce when a war for our souls is raging is exactly the same as asking for a kinder way to converse with Satan lest the proper manners are forgotten. It boils down to this: if for you Catholic Truth is sacred, nothing else count in comparison to it. There is literally nothing else that can be seen with a binocular.”

My thoughts on the matter were already penned on this weeks ago. From Ecclesiastes, this is “a time to be far from embraces…a time for war.” HERE  Also, regarding the name of this blog HERE,

“Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s enemies shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for me, shall find it.” Matt 32-39
Does any of this describe anything going on in your life right now? Because, if not, you’re doing it wrong. If your testimony is limited to unoffensive doctrine, that’s not the preaching from the housetops He was talking about. If the extent of your mission consists of one hour on Sunday, you are not worthy of Him. If you are a priest afraid to make people uncomfortable, you are not worthy of Him. If you are too polite to offer charitable correction to father, mother, son or daughter, THEN YOU LOVE THEM MORE THAN HIM AND YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF HIM.  The Word of God will always and everywhere divide men against themselves, including within families. Everyone chooses a side.
 
It’s not the Will of God to bring division, destruction, and death. Rather, it is the will of him who can destroy both soul and body.  Lucifer’s “non serviam” caused the first great divide, and subsequently the Fall and the concupiscent wretchedness of sinful man. The divisions are the result of the free will of men, who repeat the non serviam with their thoughts and deeds, with which God does not interfere. Seeking to avoid division means leaving souls to die.
We make our own choices, and those choices determine where we spend eternity. Make a choice to stand for the Truth. Your soul depends on it, and you might save a few more along the way.

In that same post, I said something that turned out to come true just last week, when Francis and others accused those standing for Truth to have some sort of mental sickness or “bad spirit”:

The disciples should expect to be treated as the Pharisees treated Jesus, like when they accused Him of being possessed by Beelzebub (Mt 9:34, 12:24; Mk 3:22; Lk 11:15). But they should fear not, so long as they remain focused on the spiritual and not the material. You too will be accused of being evil, precisely because you are proclaiming the Truth.

Mr. Allen, perhaps you remember that “peace in our time” turned out to be very bloody. You might want to strap yourself in.
Then from Austen Ivereigh, some very interesting revelations in his happy birthday letter to Francis. He wastes no time getting to the New Age catechesis:

“If Pope Francis allows himself the chance today, he might pause at his 80^thmilestone to review his core life task and be grateful for its remarkable fruition.  A core life task is the source of our sin as well as our redemption. It is our inspiration, as well as our temptation. It is the playing out of the hand we were given at birth, developed in childhood, and which as an adult we must deploy in the service of others lest it lead us into a dead end.” HERE

No, the source of our sin is not the source of our redemption. That would mean God is the source of our sin.  The source of our sin is also not our “inspiration”. This is rather like the gospel according to Whitney Houston, “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”
Mr. Ivereigh then transitions to the Enneagram, a New Age tool for divinizning personality traits, among other things:

On the Enneagram, that personality-type identifier first created by the desert fathers which received its modern form from the Jesuits, Francis is an Eight – as Father Richard Rohr OFM, the leading Catholic authority on the Enneagram, has confirmed to me in an email.
(Pope Francis, incidentally, knows the Enneagram well and is not against it. But he is wary of the way it can be misused and lead to excessive introspection if not deployed within a solid spiritual framework.)
The Enneagram has long been used in retreat houses to help people identify their core compulsion, usually a driving need or desire inherited from childhood which in adulthood needs to be ‘redeemed’ if it is not to hamper our ability to function and relate to others.

Well, what a relief!  Father Richard Rohr has been officially consulted! Francis is an Eight, and Francis isn’t against it!
The Enneagram turns contemplative prayer inward, overly focused on self, at the expense of contemplating divine transcendence.  Disguised in a shroud of false humility, it is a dangerous descent into ego-centric meditation. Then, the “discovered” personality traits are used to justify bad behavior — blaming sin on “personality” instead of the conscious choice of a disordered will, hence eliminating both culpability and the need for repentance. It diabolically conflates the  “dying to self” of true Christianity, where we are called to surrender our will to God’s will, with an eastern self-mastery of introspective navel-gazing. If allowed to progress, it leads to outright sorcery by attempting to meld our consciences to the material essence of God (quite different than uniting our will to God’s will).
Fr. Rohr is a false doctor of the false church of The Third Way, a preacher of gnostic mysticism. He claims that it is impossible to understand the teachings of Christ without first achieving a higher level of consciousness known as non-duality, which teaches there are no black and white laws of God, only shades of grey that must be “discerned” after we’ve achieved “emotional sobriety”. Since no one is to blame for their actions (because we can’t choose our own personality) +Rohr is pro-gay, pro-communion for unrepentant sinners, and pro-intercommunion. He accuses the Church of suppressing higher-level thinking, keeping Her adherents in a childlike simplistic mindset. He blames Christianity for all of the wars, misery, misogyny, repression, corruption, greed, and deceit of the last 2000 years.  His only commandment is Thou Shalt Be A Pacifist.
Ivereigh invoking +Rohr’s imprimatur in support of Francis really helps us understand the broader pogrom, doesn’t it? If you want to learn more about him, HERE is an article to get you started, and a few short videos HERE and HERE. He is all over youtube.
Lastly, Mr. Ivereigh gives us this:

For years…(Francis) worked on a study of Guardini’s theory of ‘contrastingness’  (Der Gegensatz), in which the philosopher describes “two elements, each of which are irreducible, impossible to confuse with each other, yet are indissolubly bound together, and cannot be thought of except together.” An example would be the way permanence and change co-exist in a human being. People both change and stay the same. This is a contrast, yet the coexistence and codependence of each quality is what makes us human…it has deeply influenced his understanding of leadership and politics…in the service of what he calls “people-building.” The most important of these is that ‘Unity prevails over conflict.’ He rejects both those who avoid conflict and those who embrace it in such a way as to become its prisoners – fueling polarization. The third way, he says, “is the willingness to face conflict head on, to resolve it, and to make it a link in the chain of a new process.”

There is no third way.
Law of the Excluded Middle.
Google it.
 
 
 

Francis continues his epic streak of insults, blasphemies and off-the-cuff third grade commentary. Remember these hits from the recent past?

• The Blessed Virgin Mary commits mortal sin at the foot of the cross, accusing God the Father of deception HERE
• God the Son commits the sin of deception HERE
• God the Son commits a sin in creating the Fifth Joyful Mystery, for which he needed to “beg forgiveness” HERE and HERE
• God the Father commits mortal sin by willing mortal sin HERE

Well, here he goes again.
First, we have Francis accusing John the Baptist of “doubt”, or lack of faith, in Matthew 11:

Although John was great, strong, secure in his vocation, “he still had dark moments,” he had his doubts,” said Francis. In fact, John began to doubt in prison, even though he had baptized Jesus, “because he was a Saviour that was not as he had imagined him.” And so he sent two of his disciples to ask Him if He was the Messiah. And Jesus corrects the vision of John with a clear response. In fact, He tells them to report to John that “the blind see,” “the deaf hear,” “the dead rise.” “The great can afford to doubt, because they are great,” the Pope said. HERE

No.  John, who was about to be murdered in prison, sent his disciples to hear the words from Jesus so that THEY would believe.

John was the greatest prophet – conduit of the Holy Spirit – in the history of mankind. God Himself, in the Third Person of the Trinity, actually flowed through John in a greater way than any other human being, save for Mary, whom the Third and Second Person of the Trinity flowed through spiritually and corporeally. John’s conception, which was miraculous, was announced to his father Zachariah by the same angel who performed the Annunciation of the Incarnation to Mary. (aside: Zachariah’s doubting response to the angel provides a striking dichotomy to Mary’s, which sculpts her Fiat in greater relief).
So blessed was John, he was afforded the grace of baptism in the womb, which is the Second Joyful Mystery. Highest praise for John comes directly from the lips of our Lord in Matt 11:11. Would Jesus, omniscient God Incarnate, have called John “the greatest” if John was doubting Him at that very moment?  After the miraculous conception, miraculous baptism, birth, life and imprisonment of John, isn’t it reasonable to assume the Holy Spirit provided him one last vision – that of his impending death –  to which John responds by sending his disciples to Jesus for their own good? Jesus then answers them with words that would have been instantly recognizable as fulfilling the prophecy from Isiah 35:5-6. Go read the link to 1P5 for all the citations of Church Fathers and Doctors on this.
One more thing I can’t help but mention. John is known as the “Forerunner of Christ”. There are people today proposing that Francis is possibly the False Prophet Forerunner of the Antichrist…which would make Francis the Anti-John. HERE  John was imprisoned and murdered for his defense of traditional marriage and condemnation of adultery. Francis attempts to destroy marriage and promotes adultery. Are you awake yet?
All in a day’s work, Francis then moved on to address patients and practitioners from the papal hospital. After His Tonedeafness proclaimed, in front of children with terminal cancer, that “the worst cancer in a hospital is corruption”, he then said this:

Answering a question put to him by Valentina Vanzi, a nurse in multi-speciality paediatrics, who asked why children suffer, he said: “I have no answer to this question. Nor has Jesus given an answer to these words. There is no answer to this question, all we can do is look at the crucifix and let it give us the answer”. The Pope added: “is God unjust? He was unjust with his son, he sent him to the cross, if we follow this logic then we have to say this. But it is our human existence, our flesh, that suffers in that child and when one suffers, people do not speak, they weep and pray in silence.” HERE

This isn’t the first time Francis has been stumped by a question about suffering, and apparently it didn’t bother him at all that he didn’t know the answer the first time, because he is still totally and unabashedly clueless. The man literally doesn’t know what he doesn’t know. I don’t have time to get into it here, but if you need to learn about suffering, read some books.  Start with The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis; you can read it in an afternoon.
But what really jumps out is the blasphemy. The idea that God is capable of injustice, when in fact God is PERFECT JUSTICE, is truly astonishing. Perfect Justice is not just the administration of justice by God, justice is actually part of the Divine Nature. Christ’s willing sacrifice on the Cross is truly justice fulfilled (Gal 4:4-5). His passion, death and resurrection is OUR justification – a recompense for our unjust failings. Calling God’s plan of salvation “unjust” in any way is simply jaw-dropping.
Now maybe you are thinking, ” but it isn’t fair that Jesus was sinless and He had to die so that my sins could be forgiven.” You have to lift yourself out of this third grade reasoning. It is like saying God isn’t fair to Himself. It’s nonsensical.  The opening of Heaven and the possibility of us entering it through the Crucifixion and Resurrection is the ultimate expression of God’s love for us, and is thus the ultimate expression of “fairness”. It is BEYOND fair, in that we really, really, really don’t deserve it, not even the saints.  No one can ever merit Heaven; achieving it is only possible through the ransom of Christ and our cooperation with Sanctifying Grace.
I’m out of breath and out of time.
Blessed Fourth Sunday of Advent!