A Homily for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost

+ “You will know them by their fruits,” Our Lord teaches in this morning’s Gospel. “A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit,” he insists.

In the past fortnight we have seen the cold, technocratic, and possibly even malicious—it is hard to find the right words—exclusion of one most fruitful trees in the garden of the Church. I speak, of course, of the recent (but highly questionable) declaration of the excommunication of the bishops, clergy and others of the Society of St Pius X.

Whilst parishes and seminaries and religious houses have dwindled and closed worldwide in recent decades, this group have built and opened houses of formation and churches and chapels in every continent, and continue so to do. So much so that it is an undisputed fact that their ageing bishops needed help in sustaining the sacramental life of the faithful who turn to them.

One may legitimately question whether or not the recent episcopal consecrations should have proceeded without the papal mandate—and in the leadup there certainly seems to have been intransigence on both sides—but it remains a fact that they were pastorally necessary.

The result of the declaration of excommunication has been to confuse if not to scandalise the simple faithful and to give opportunistic liberals—whether mitred, priestly or lay—weapons with which to terrorise them further. The fact that the declaration and its attendant documents were, seemingly, canonically deficient adds even further to the confusion and scandal.

All of this has troubled people and filled many with distressing worries and scruples. It is only to be expected—as we have seen in people contacting the monastery in recent days—that despair and bitterness are predictable responses to such unwise communications, especially communications from those who hold places of authority. One cannot escape the possibility that the charge of being “false prophets,” against which Our Lord warns us this morning, could be applicable.

In the Gradual of this Mass the Church sings in the words of the Psalmist: “Come, O sons, listen to me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Look to him, and be radiant; so your faces shall never be ashamed.”

How far removed is this assurance from the spreading of ambiguity which troubles others and fills them with useless scruples! Despair and bitterness are predictable responses to unguarded communications, especially from those who hold places of authority, such as the false prophets against whom Our Lord warns us.

A genuine father can be recognised by his teaching of the fear of the Lord so as to ever draw people to God that He may illumine them and give them the courage to do that which is necessary for His glory—not only to act for His glory out of duty, but to rejoice in Him with joy and thanksgiving. True fear of the Lord draws a person to keep the eternal verities before their eyes—pre-eminently the four last things and the need ever to work for the salvation of their soul and of the souls of others. If we are conscious of the reality of eternity the right manner of dealing with what is temporal becomes clear.

In our present context we must keep this before us always. Political posturing and ideology and partisan division in the Church must not be allowed to distract or divert us from the path of salvation. It must not be allowed to keep us from the sacraments and the saving graces that they convey.

To supposedly excommunicate people in the hope that they will somehow return from such banishment when abusive, power-grabbing policies such as those promulgated in Traditiones Custodes are still officially in force is risible at best and pure evil at worst. In these circumstances the faithful can only turn to the sources of grace that are actually at their disposition.

This morning’s Gospel ends with a stark warning: “Not everybody who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But he that doeth the will of my Father.” In these tumultuous times let all examine their consciences accordingly, ever conscious that the salvation of souls, and not the preservation of some ideology, is the supreme law in the Church.