Seed For The Harvest

A man sows good seed in his field.  But while he sleeps, up creeps the enemy and sows cockle among the wheat.  And when the crops grow, he wakes up to find a nasty mixture of wheat and cockle.

We know how he feels when he discovers this.  For two thousand years, the Church has managed to preserve the purity of the crops she grew.  But at some point, the powers that be in the Church let down their guard.  They went to sleep, happily oblivious of the seeds of cockle being sown by the enemies of the Cross of Christ.  After the death of Pope St. Pius X, they increased their efforts to sow evil in the minds of men, introducing into the clergy of certain countries a schismatic and sometimes even heretical liberal mindset that would eventually rebel quite openly at the Second Vatican Council.  The ideals of freemasonry took over the ideals of the Church, and Liberty, Equality and Brotherhood replaced Faith, Hope and Charity.

Catholics today are a mix of wheat and cockle.  No longer are we a united block of solid theology based on the Truth–sinners, yes, but sinners who knew they were sinning and were sorry for it.  Today, to all appearances, we are a divided Church—traditional Catholics, sedevacantists, conservative Novus Ordo, liberal Catholics, woke Catholics, heretical Catholics, non-Catholic Catholics…  To be blunt, this is nonsense and impossible.  You’re either Catholic or you’re not.

That being said, we can affirm that the Church is not divided today, it can never be divided because it is the Mystical Body of Christ, and that is a Body which is indvisible and One.  The very first of the four Marks of the Church is that she is One.  She is one before she is holy, before she is Catholic, and before she is apostolic.  The Church is One because Christ is One, because God is one.  So the divisions we see are not really divisions in the Church but divisions in a new human Institution, a whole new Church that is not Catholic at all.  And this is why we cannot and must not have anything to do with that Church.

We reject the false Church of Vatican II, and with it we must reject the fake pope of Rome, with his diocesan bishops and our local parish churches.  We reject their new Mass, the new sacraments, the new religion.  We do so, not because we like to condemn them, not because we hate them, and not because we are prideful and arrogant rebels.  On the contrary, we are the ones who have not rebelled.  We are the ones who have continued to submit to Our Lord Jesus Christ the King, to him who is the Way, and the Truth and the Life.  So long as we live and love God, the Mystical Body of Christ is intact and undivided.  Petty differences between traditional groups are unfortunate.  They are sometimes even scandalous.  But they are superficial because we all believe the truths of the Faith, we practice intact the morality of God’s commandments, and we worship our God in the manner he prescribed in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.

There’s a saying about the Catholic Church.  We always said, “As the Church goes, so goes the world.”  And as long as the world took its cue from the Church, the world managed to preserve some sense of normalcy, common sense, and sound ethics, at least in an official capacity.  But what happened as soon as the Church of Vatican II opened her windows and let the world in?  Those of you old enough to remember the 1960s don’t need me to remind you how institutions fell, one after the other, until the present day.  The results of last Tuesday’s election are a perfect measure of how far we have descended into the abyss of unnatural immorality.  Next time you’re in the supermarket, look around you at your fellow citizens of this great state of Ohio…  the vast majority claim to support the principle of murdering any unborn baby at any moment of pregnancy and for any reason.  Without getting into the arguments of pro-life versus pro-choice, let’s just let this unbelievable and terrifying fact sink in, that a majority of people prefer their own whimsical convenience to the life of an innocent child who depends on them for the very air they breathe.  And if they would do that to a harmless infant in the womb of his mother, what do you think they’d do to you if you get in their way?

What can we do about it now?  We have failed on a monumental scale in our attempts to convince others.  What’s left?  Prayer is a good idea—it’s powerful and can move God to inspire the hearts of even the lowest of sinners.  However, we must not expect God to intervene by changing the free will of those who insist on their own evil choices.  There has to be something more.

I’m not going to suggest from the pulpit ways in which we can bring others to a better understanding of the meaning of life, the innocence of the unborn, the pain they feel, the selfishness of disposing of them so glibly.  There are other platforms which serve this purpose, although apparently , not effectively enough.  What I am going to suggest is that we take a new and closer look at ourselves, our own lifestyles, our own personalities, our own imperfections, defects and vices.  Do we show the rest of the world an example we can be proud of?  Are we confident that our character is so honorable, so attractive to others that they will admire not us, but the Catholic Faith which makes us united, principled and holy?  We need to take a good, long, and deep look into that true crystal ball which is the mirror of our soul.  And then we need to rejoin the battle, not against the enemies of God directly but against ourselves, our miserable and pathetic attempts to follow the moral compass and radiate the love of God.

We must sow good seeds within our own hearts.  We shouldn’t be surprised when we wake up now and again and see that the devil or our own negligence has thrown a few bad seeds into the mix.  In fact we’ve been watching both virtues and vices grow not only amongst us but actually within us in our own hearts.  But it’s time now to get ready for the harvest.  This world can’t last much longer if it continues its headlong plunge into destruction.  So let’s not waste time whining that “an enemy hath done this.”  Let’s get to work gathering up the cockle in our hearts.  Let’s bind it in bundles and burn it.  And then let’s gather the wheat, any goodness we can find deep down within us, and use it to feed the multitudes of the morally impoverished and ignorant.  It’s the most sure and effective way we can help them—not by yelling at them that they’re wrong, not by limiting our action to a few easy prayers, and certainly not by paying for ads on the TV or canvassing for votes.  The eternal joys of heaven need to be reflected in our own mundane lives so that our example can turn people from their evil ways, not out of fear, but by showing them there’s something better.