--by Fr. Farfaglia
CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - Chapter Thirteen of Saint Mathew's Gospel is comprised of seven different parables. For this reason this chapter is usually called the parable discourse. Because the subject matter and themes are similar, the parables are called the kingdom parables.
Jesus' parables are very effective. By drawing on the ordinary routines of daily life, he sheds light on the deepest supernatural mysteries. Thus by reflecting upon the parables we may get a glimpse at the humanity of Jesus and his kindness toward those crowded about him, eager to hear his message of truth. Jesus taught the seven parables on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, sometimes called Lake Gennesaret or Lake Tiberius.
Last week we focused on man's response to God. We have been given the gift of free will and we all respond to God differently. This Sunday, let us focus our attention on the mystery of evil.
Pope Paul VI often commented that this Sunday's gospel passage had proven the most difficult for him to understand. Why does God allow the weeds and the wheat to grow together? Why does God allow evil to co-exist with good?
The Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965) ushered in an era of excitement and hope for the Catholic Church. Two world wars, the Korean conflict, the global tensions of the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis which had brought North America to the brink of destruction, were countered with a time of euphoria.
Shortly after the close of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI was overwhelmed by the universal rejection of many of the Council's teachings. The true teachings of the Council were hijacked and the post-conciliar crisis ravaged the Church causing massive apostasy.
Throughout the remainder of his pontificate, the Holy Father lived a daily martyrdom. His secretary kept the morning newspapers away from the Pope until later in the day. At one point during the crisis, Paul VI delivered his famous Wednesday General Audience on the smoke of Satan entering through the cracks of the Church. His teaching was met with abundant ridicule, mostly from the clergy.
Pope Paul VI speaking to another General Audience said in 1972: "So we know that this dark disturbing being exists and that he is still at work with his treacherous cunning; he is the hidden enemy who sows errors and misfortunes in human history. It is worth recalling the revealing Gospel parable of the good seed and the cockle, for it synthesizes and explains the lack of logic that seems to preside over our contradictory experiences:
'An enemy has done this.' He is 'a murderer from the beginning, and the father of lies,' as Christ defines him. He undermines man's moral equilibrium with his sophistry. He is the malign, clever seducer who knows how to make his way into us through the senses, the imagination and the libido, through utopian logic, or through disordered social contacts in the give and take of our activities. He can bring about in us deviations that are all the more harmful because they seem to conform to our physical or mental makeup, or to our profound, instinctive aspirations."
However, prior to these teachings on the evil one, let us recall an important moment in the Pontificate of Pope Paul VI. On July 25, 1968, the Pope published the encyclical letter Humanae Vitae.
My dear friends, back in 1968 Pope Paul VI warned the world what would happen if contraceptives were to be made available:
"Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings-and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation-need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection" (Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, 17).
"An enemy has done this." Let us recall these powerful words from this Sunday's Gospel passage. Satan has destroyed the modern world through sexual sin. The world is sexually out of control. The modern world has become obsessed with sexual sin and through sexual sin modern man is telling God: Non serviam. I will not serve. Do not tell me what to do about anything. I will do what I want to do.
Because of this total rejection of God, man has become ...
Jesus' parables are very effective. By drawing on the ordinary routines of daily life, he sheds light on the deepest supernatural mysteries. Thus by reflecting upon the parables we may get a glimpse at the humanity of Jesus and his kindness toward those crowded about him, eager to hear his message of truth. Jesus taught the seven parables on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, sometimes called Lake Gennesaret or Lake Tiberius.
Last week we focused on man's response to God. We have been given the gift of free will and we all respond to God differently. This Sunday, let us focus our attention on the mystery of evil.
Pope Paul VI often commented that this Sunday's gospel passage had proven the most difficult for him to understand. Why does God allow the weeds and the wheat to grow together? Why does God allow evil to co-exist with good?
The Second Vatican Council (1962 - 1965) ushered in an era of excitement and hope for the Catholic Church. Two world wars, the Korean conflict, the global tensions of the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis which had brought North America to the brink of destruction, were countered with a time of euphoria.
Shortly after the close of Vatican II, Pope Paul VI was overwhelmed by the universal rejection of many of the Council's teachings. The true teachings of the Council were hijacked and the post-conciliar crisis ravaged the Church causing massive apostasy.
Throughout the remainder of his pontificate, the Holy Father lived a daily martyrdom. His secretary kept the morning newspapers away from the Pope until later in the day. At one point during the crisis, Paul VI delivered his famous Wednesday General Audience on the smoke of Satan entering through the cracks of the Church. His teaching was met with abundant ridicule, mostly from the clergy.
Pope Paul VI speaking to another General Audience said in 1972: "So we know that this dark disturbing being exists and that he is still at work with his treacherous cunning; he is the hidden enemy who sows errors and misfortunes in human history. It is worth recalling the revealing Gospel parable of the good seed and the cockle, for it synthesizes and explains the lack of logic that seems to preside over our contradictory experiences:
'An enemy has done this.' He is 'a murderer from the beginning, and the father of lies,' as Christ defines him. He undermines man's moral equilibrium with his sophistry. He is the malign, clever seducer who knows how to make his way into us through the senses, the imagination and the libido, through utopian logic, or through disordered social contacts in the give and take of our activities. He can bring about in us deviations that are all the more harmful because they seem to conform to our physical or mental makeup, or to our profound, instinctive aspirations."
However, prior to these teachings on the evil one, let us recall an important moment in the Pontificate of Pope Paul VI. On July 25, 1968, the Pope published the encyclical letter Humanae Vitae.
My dear friends, back in 1968 Pope Paul VI warned the world what would happen if contraceptives were to be made available:
"Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings-and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation-need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection" (Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, 17).
"An enemy has done this." Let us recall these powerful words from this Sunday's Gospel passage. Satan has destroyed the modern world through sexual sin. The world is sexually out of control. The modern world has become obsessed with sexual sin and through sexual sin modern man is telling God: Non serviam. I will not serve. Do not tell me what to do about anything. I will do what I want to do.
Because of this total rejection of God, man has become ...
dehumanized. Man kills his own children through abortion and has become obsessed with sexual perversion, especially homosexuality.
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