A reading of the holy gospel according to Saint Matthew. This is a continuation of the discourse of our lord as he's sending out his disciples. And he continues. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Now you know what chance a sheep has among wolves.
Just think of that. If you've ever seen a sheep torn up by a dog, you know that that's a minor form of the what a wolf can do to it. So our lord says, I'm because just keep this in mind. That's what we're doing. We're being sent.
We're disciples. That occurred when we were baptized to carry the light, Lucifer. So our lord says, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. You must be clever as snakes, as innocent as doves. Be on your guard with respect to others.
They will hail you into court. Now notice, this is a wonderful proposition. He's telling the this to these guys before he's sending them out. This is enough to to freeze you. Let's just listen to what our lord's telling them.
You know, this is such nice, easy pablum. You know, the kind of religion that puts you to sleep, as my late friend Mark said. They will hail you into court. They'll flog you in their synagogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings to give witness before them and the Gentiles on my account, not yours.
When they hand you over, notice he's taken for granted. When they hand you over, do not worry about what you will say or how you will say it. When that hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. You yourselves will not be the speakers. The spirit of your father will be speaking in you.
Now listen. That's bad enough, but now listen. He's talking to Jews where the family is the core of their society, actually. Listen. Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his own child.
Children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all on account of me. That's your prospect of being a follower of Christ. It's beautiful, isn't it? But whoever holds out till the end will escape death.
When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. I solemnly assure you, you will not have covered the towns of Israel before the son of man comes. And this is the gospel, the good news of the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. What I've just read needs no comment, believe me.
So I turned to a thought that's been on my mind since last Sunday. It was a great day, you know, down in well, I won't say where it was. Anyway, I went to church, and we began mass. I guess it was mass. It was called a celebration.
We began by introducing ourselves to everybody around you. So, of course, the whole congregation breaks up. Everybody's talking and laughing and, you know, a nice communal spirit. Exactly the same thing as fraternity or a sorority or the KFC were gathering together for a festive meal. Festive meal.
See? So that's the way the mass began, by hellebaloo. Then, of course, when the sign of peace comes, we have a repetition of the whole thing again, except it's much worse. Here, the most solemn part of the mass, just before you go to communion or before the sacrifice is consummated on the altar, all hell breaks loose again in the congregation. I was in a situation where I lost the congregation.
They started to leave the church. So a couple of good faithful Catholics had to go up and round them up like a bunch of cowboys bringing in Maverick Steers. I'm not exaggerating this at all. And this is a set intent because, you see, not once in this whole service, it was called a service. It was and we were joining all Christians.
We weren't joining Catholics. We were joining all Christians to worship God. And I think that's nice. We ought to worship God. That I approve of.
You can quote me on that. This is not an accident. The word mass and sacrifice didn't occur once. Not at all. The the the sacred vessels used on the altar and for giving communion were just glass goblets, the kind you would have on your dining room table.
It was just a happy gathering, a a communal service, a meal. Now this is in a Catholic church as of last Sunday, and this is commonplace. In many instances, this would be a conservative approach. You it a good service in a high church, Episcopal church would be far more Catholic. Now I ask you, when you come into these pews, what do you come to do?
Have you asked yourself that? What is the mass to you? I use the word I make no apologies for. I've read practically most well, I've read all the documents on Vatican two having to do with this particular subject, and you don't find the word celebration there. They talk about the sacrifice of the mass.
But that's that's almost a four letter word now. The whole idea now in many is is what we call Eucharist, which simply is a Greek word for saying thanks. But that's interpreted as a communal meal. We have readings, and then we join together in the meal. So we have a cup just like you would have your dining room table, and we we pass around bread and wine.
This is absolutely what what Calvin did, absolutely what Calvin did. The only thing is he put the bread in a basket and had the people pass the basket around, which was more hygienic, at least. You see, what's happened is many Catholics have lost the idea that what we come here for is a sacrifice. And this ties in with women praying for for the priesthood. Believe me.
You see, all this talk about women becoming priests and now with the episcopalians becoming bishops, it has to do as if being a priest was just like being the vice president or the chairman of the board or the executive vice president or the executive officer of a of a company, a corporation. The Catholic church teaches, and there's no ambiguity about this. Go to Trent. Go to Vatican 2. Go to any official document of the church.
You won't find what I'm saying in the least contradicted. What you will not find is what is the contemporary actions in many Catholic churches, which have become thoroughly Protestant in many ways. And I say that intentionally. I mean it. Do you the church teaches that the mass is the is the is the duplication of Calvary.
Well, can you imagine Mary and John and the other Mary coming up to to the cross shaking hands with everybody around them and singing hallelujahs and all that kind of nonsense, when they're coming up to witness the death of Christ on the cross, that's what that cross means up there. I have officiated at a at a wedding, couple a good distance from here where we had a revolving altar. We had the Protestant side, and then you turned it, and you had it was on a government installation. You turned it, and you had a beautiful Catholic altar with a magnificent crucifix. Before that wedding, I was asked to use the Protestant side to eliminate the cross.
I said, well, I don't think I'll do that. That's not exactly how I said it either. That's how I'm saying it from this pulpit. What is the mass? It's Christ.
The priest is in the person of Christ. The the priest, when he consecrates the host before the sacrifice, he doesn't say this is the body of Christ. He says this is my body. My body. And the church says Christ is physically present.
He's a he's a he's there physically as man and as god. Body, soul, and divinity, as we say. And the mass is the sacrifice. And the whole idea for a congregation, for the priest, for the altar boys, for the choir notice, for the choir too, is to be united in the sacrifice, to be one with the priest in a sacrifice, not in a fraternity or sorority meeting or a KFC or a made Masonic lunch or a rotarian meeting. That'd be closest to a rotarian meeting.
That is not what the holy sacrifice of the mass is about. The holy sacrifice of the mass is about Calvary and Jesus Christ, the son of god, dying on the cross for me, a sinner. That's the hub of the that's the core of it. It's not to come to church to get a good feeling. You can get a good feeling in any bar.
Anybody feels better after two or three drinks, and it's cheaper. Let's be realistic. If a Catholic comes to church, it's to worship God as Christ worshiped his father on Calvary on the altar of the cross. I may not like this, but that's what the Catholic church teaches. And let me tell you, this is what Lefebvre has been trying to hammer out because he sees what's been happening.
And he's he's condemned it, and he's right in that regard. Let me hasten that. Is not is not at all right in his pride. And so get your thinking straight. I'm talking to myself too, remember.
We can be drawn into these wishy washy ways, which are not the ways of Jesus Christ. Just listen to what our lord said this morning. It is absolutely fearful, awesome, repulsive fathers turning over their sons for to have them killed, murdered for my name's sake, and they will hate you. And what we what all this talk about ecumenism in many instances is to make the world love us. We wanna be loved by we wanna be accepted by the world.
When the world accepts you, one of two things has happened. Either the world has radically changed and become and submitted to Christ on the cross or the person involved has joined the world. It's one of two things, and you know which one is true. And so I plead with you. I really do.
The Catholic church is so profound. When a person comes to mass, they are not supposed to relax on their hunches in a pew and just say, wanna be entertained by some good music. I wanna be feel good because everybody around me is shaking my hand. I wanna feel good because the sun is shining and will sing hymns that I like. That's not what a Catholic comes to church for.
They don't come to church even to hear a good sermon or a homily. They come to mass. They don't come to a service. They come to mass, to the holy sacrifice of the mass. They come to Calvary.
They come to stand under the cross of Jesus Christ, son of god, savior. In the name of the father, and of the son, and holy spirit. Amen.