Reality
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TESTING THE FLOCK (From Father Odon's Blog)

Pope Benedict gave us four steps leading to Eternal Life. The equivalent to these four steps are the four steps taught to us in the Liturgical Calendar, namely, Repentance, Faith, Hope and Charity. The last three are supernatural virtues that cannot be understood by men without the gift of Faith. They cannot be acquired by mere human means. They are supernatural gifts given by God.

A natural man can never understand the act of a man of Faith....and all the more will he not understand the act of a man with the virtues of Hope and Charity. But a man of Faith knows he must continue to go forward to the virtues of Hope and Charity. That is the normal path for one seeking salvation. The superior acts benefits the soul and the Church as a whole.

When some disciples approached St. Peter, the first Pope, complaining that the Greek widows were not well attended to, Peter replied that such works should be done by deacons who are filled with the Holy Spirit, i.e. man with Faith. That he, Peter must be engaged in the more important work of Praying and studying the Word of God in preparation for a more effective preaching. Peter did not resign from being the first Pope. He merely assigned the less important work to men filled with the Holy Spirit while he attended to the more important Papal work of contemplative prayer and contemplative meditation. So the two activities can be divided and assigned to two different persons. Thus when Pope John Paul II was being raised by God to a higher spirituality by his illness and sufferings, Cardinal Ratzinger took over the administration of the Church. Thus Pope John Paul remained as Pope while Cardinal Ratzinger was his Spirit filled deacon, so to say.

Pope Benedict, also, mentioned St. Benedict and his desire to continue the 'Work of God.' The work of God is divided into 'Ora' et 'Labora'. St. Benedict ruled that the monk while working (Labora) should also pray (Ora). But while praying 'Ora' he should not work because work will be a source of destruction and ruin one's prayer. The Holy Father is saying that he is putting aside his 'labora' of entertaining diplomats and posing for pictures with Cardinals to spend more time for 'Ora' because the administration of the Vatican (Labora) will be a hindrance to his 'Ora' which is much needed by the Catholic Church.

The monk was instructed to work and pray because as beginner if he does not work he will fall asleep during prayer. The work is to keep him awake for prayer. If he progresses in his prayer life he may slowly reduce his labor so he can spend more time in prayer. And if he has progressed by God's invitation to the higher degree of prayer called contemplation, the monk may set aside completely his work and become a hermit. St. Benedict had insisted that no one enters the heremitical life unless he had perfected his virtues in community life. The Holy Father had labored well in learning the teachings of Christ. He is well prepared to enter the higher form of prayer in the heremitical life where he can get more favors from God to solve the problems of the Church. Note that here one sets aside a degree of spirituality to rise up to a higher degree of spirituality where one's prayer is more pleasing to God thus enabling one to receive more favors for oneself and for the Church.

When the Holy Father felt that he must rise to a higher degree of spiritual life to be able to get graces much needed by the Church, he sets aside the 'Labora' that can be done by those whose prayers are not yet too pleasing to God to rise up to the higher activity of 'Ora' which in monasticism is the heremitical life. He does not cease to be a Pope. He only ceased doing an inferior activity hat will be detrimental to a life of prayer and go higher to that perfect way of life lived by hermits.

Many journalists could not understand why Mother Teresa wasted her time taking care of the abandoned just as they could not understand why Fr. Damien took care of lepers. It is for the same reason That Christians took care of Greek widows. If they cannot understand this Act of Faith how can they understand why Apostles would leave the widows to spend time uselessly praying and studying the word of God in a room.....which is an act of perfect Charity.

Th lack of Faith is the reason people, journalists, priests, bishops and sadly Cardinals could not see why Pope Benedict was abandoning caring for the administration of the Church and going to a nearly empty room to pray and study the Word of God. They cannot see the deeper theology that he remains a Pope who is only doing his higher duty as Pope. Those failing the test of Faith is getting to be more and more. We begun with the seminarians being educated wrongly and now it has reached those seminarians who have become priests, bishops and Cardinals. And now they are transfering their erroneous knowledge to the next batch of seminarians who will be the next priests, bishops and Cardinals. Many of those ill-educated seminarians are now in the Conclave and probably will be elected ........pope?

The ‘labora’ and ‘ora’ is explained better by the sisters Martha and Mary. Martha is a symbol of ‘labora’ that is physical work. This is not mere physical labor like cooking but laboring to serve the Physical body of Christ, which now is the Catholic Church like cooking for Christ or cooking for the Church. Mary is a symbol of ‘ora’ which is contemplative prayer which consist in sitting by the foot of Christ learning His teachings. Christ called Mary’s job as the better one. So Pope Benedict is shedding the ‘labora,’ which is the physical running of the Vatican to choose the better part, Mary’s part, which is contemplation. And Pope Benedict clearly stated this preference. This progress from Martha to Mary is a normal, natural progress in the spiritual life. Everybody should pass through those steps. And you don't say good-bye to everyone every time you pass from one stage of the spiritual life to rise to a higher state.

On the sixth day, Christ brought Peter, James and John up the mountain of transfiguration, it was to prepare the budding Catholic Church for the coming passion. Going up the mountain in Scriptures is a symbol of going up to a higher degree of spirituality needed to understand higher doctrines. Christ, Peter, James and John was the type of the early Church. Peter is the symbol of the Pope. James and John are the symbols of true Catholics who are zealous both for the commandments of Christ and in loving Him. When Christ brought Peter up the mountain he did not tell him to resign from being head of the apostles who were left down in Jerusalem. He brought Peter up and ordered him to return back and complete his work. The same with Pope Benedict. When, as he said, Christ had told him to go up the mountain of Transfiguration to pray, he was not told to resign being head of the Apostles but just to leave them for a while….’in order to pray’ and see His face transfigured. Then to return and continue to run the Church from a higher level to bring the Church to that same higher level.
One day, Christ visited the vineyard and saw a fig tree without fruit. It was like that for three years. So He threatened to chop down the fig tree. But the vinedresser prayed to the Lord to give it another year. The fig tree is the Catholic Church which had been given three years or chances, the first chance in the garden of Eden, a second chance in the Old Testament and a third chance in the New Testament and she still had no fruit. So Christ threatens the tree. But the vinedresser, that is Pope Benedict begs and pleads to give it one year more. Having loosened the soil (i.e. the teaching of the catechism) and having applied dung, that is humility (a virtue that he had clearly shown and better seen now that he had set aside all the royalties of the Papal Office) he proposes to Christ that he will go and pray contemplatively, to plead and beg to give the Church one more year.

We have seen how in Scriptures we have many incidents where one has to leave a lower degree of spirituality to climb to a higher degree. We need Faith and even great Faith to appreciate this teaching. Something lacking almost in everyone commenting on recent events about Pope Benedict's stepping down.

This teaching is important. Because most theologians seems faithless and see only a resigning Pope and all their future vision of the Church is in complete confusion because it is based on the short sighted understanding of the Pope's stepping down. But if they keep the traditional teaching that a Pope is a Pope ad sempiternam then there is absolutely no confusion.

When John Paul II was ill, he was Pope and wore the Papal vestiments but that was immaterial because those were mere externals. While Cardinal Ratzinger handled the administration of the Vatican. He only wore a Cardinal's soutane but that is immaterial because that is mere externals. Today, it can happen that Pope Benedict may have risen up to Mary's better part while an elected Pope can attend to Martha's part. The former can don the externals of an Emeritus Pope while the latter can don the externals of a Pope. But those are only externals.
From the above two problems arises. Many Cardinals entering the Conclave are known for unorthodox doctrines, a few are listed in the secret list of conspirators, a few had been violating rules on campaigning..... because of these signs of lack of Faith they cannot know the Will of God and, therefore, cannot keep their promise to select a candidate according to God’s Will. They will surely select one according to their own will.

Thus we are confronted by a Pope not according to God’s Will, an un-canonically elected pope.But if the newly elected Pope work in tandem with Pope Benedict as Ratzinger worked with John Paul, one as Martha and the other as Mary, then it might work. Better still if both of them are contemplatives they could work in perfect harmony under the influence of grace. One still being the real Pope and the other a helper. But if the one elected is one among the Cardinals who is without Faith and is not conscious of the above possibility......then we could end up being an anti-pope and lead most of the Catholic population to error and to damnation.