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                               May 31, 2013

 

John 10: 1: A Reflection by Timothy A. Duff

Jn. 10:1

by Timothy A. Duff

May 24, 2013

348th Anniversary of the death of Ven. Mary of Agreda

This morning I was catching up on my reading of the Missal, very rich at this time of Pentecost Week.

In particular, I was reading the Gospel for Pentecost Tuesday. It is one of my very favorite passages in Scriptures, for in it Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ explicitly explains how to tell true pastors (shepherds) from false ones. If you have not meditated upon Jn. 10:1-16, I urge you to do so. The late Patrick Henry Omlor was also very dedicated to this passage, and in fact his favorite title for the Novus Ordo was the Robber Church, a term he coined from this Scripture passage.

I could write a very long article on this passage, but I will spare you.

What struck me this morning for the first time was the very first verse. In this verse Our Lord not only describes the chief characteristic of a false shepherd, but He also prophesies exactly how, in our day, the thieves and robbers would not only enter into the hierarchy but ascend (ostensibly) to the very Throne of Peter!

The first verse explains it all:

 

 

 

Amen, amen I say to you: He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber. (Jn. 10:1)

This single verse is critically important if we are to understand what has happened in the Catholic Church.

First, Christ begins with “Amen, amen”, and this is His most solemn way of getting the attention of his hearers, for He is about to say something of absolutely paramount importance.

Next, He talks about entering. But entering what? The Catholic Church which He founded.

Then He mentions entering by the door. By this door is meant orthodoxy. A man has to have the Catholic Faith, and retain it whole and entire, to remain in His Church. Without this Faith, a man simply cannot rule over any part of His sheepfold; rather, a schismatic, heretic, or apostate would be a wolf, not a shepherd. St. Paul also explicitly stated this twice when, in speaking of the ministers of Christ, he said:

[Christ] was predestinated the Son of God, according to the spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead;

 

 

By whom we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith. (Rom. 1:4-5; Epistle for the Vigil of Christmas, emph. mine)

Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God.


Here now it is required among the dispensers, that a man be found faithful. (I Cor. 4:1-2; Epistle,Advent IV; emph. mine)

If a man is not obedient to the Faith, and is not found faithful (i.e., he has lost membership in the Church by schism, heresy, apostasy, or excommunication), he cannot have office, authority, or jurisdiction over true Catholics who are obedient to the Faith and who are found faithful. And note the word is cannot, not should not. The most simple catechumen can fully understand this. Somehow, the luminaries some call conservative Novus Ordites cannot. [And I hate that term “conservative” – it has absolutely no fixed and definite meaning, and therefore I never use it. It is a classic Modernist term.]

But here is the critical part and, in my opinion, is an explicit prophecy of what has indeed happened in our day. Christ mentions those who climbeth up another way. What I find so interesting is that He did not repeat the verb “entereth”, but rather says “climbeth”. By this I believe that He was explicitly warning the true Catholic Hierarchy against the enemies of the Church who would enter the seminaries clandestinely in order to climb the degrees of holy orders to become priests, bishops, cardinals, and eventually “Pope”, thereby gaining supposed “authority” over the true faithful.

But who exactly are those who have climbed up another way and attained their goal of usurpation of the offices of the Catholic Church? The Freemasons! How do we know? From the permanent instruction from the Italian Grand Lodge called the Alta Vendita.

It would lengthen this article many times over to discuss the Alta Vendita. So I am assigning it for your homework. There will be a quiz tomorrow! [Sorry – teacher mode kicks in.]