By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
Upon a recent rereading of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exsultate, “On the Call to Holiness in Today’s World,” I found myself troubled by a glaring omission. The word “Heaven” seems to be missing from the document entirely.
In the context of the saints — which forms the basis for the introduction to the exhortation — the Pope mentions “true life” and “happiness,” but not “eternal life” or “beatitude.” A this-worldly bubble seems to surround the mental process at work here. The mundane is substituted in the place of the supernatural perspective for which faith exists.
The goal of a holy life here on Earth is Heaven, where happiness is eternal. The saints themselves often speak of the Kingdom as their only goal, where Love Himself is attained without fear of loss because the embrace is eternal. Without Heaven there can be no true hope because there only are found those realities which, once attained, can never be lost.
We cannot preach Christ without His Kingdom, which is not of this world. If we do so, we betray Him and those He came to save by dying and rising. Thus the reason for trepidation upon encountering a message promoted to the Church on behalf of the Church which omits the very goal for which the place of faith, the Church, was founded by Christ.
We cannot live without hope. Any message is false which purports to be of Christ but which does not teach, as He does, that the final and eternal union “not of this world” is the goal of our striving in the Church Militant. The most dangerous and cruel thing that we can do to others is to betray their hope, conferred and promised by Christ Himself as a theological virtue, because it pertains to final union with Him through saving faith.
The modern Catechism of the Catholic Church makes clear that the object of hope is union attained only in Heaven:
“Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit. ‘Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.’ ‘The Holy Spirit. . . . He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life’” (CCC, n. 1817).
We must look to those who hold and teach the faith if we are to have the hope which leads to eternal life. One modern prophet who decries the current state of crisis in the Church is Msgr. Nicola Bux.
Angelico Press offers some biographical information. “Msgr. Nicola Bux, born in 1947 and ordained in 1975, is a priest of the Archdiocese of Bari, Italy, and teaches at the Theological Faculty of Puglia. Specializing in Eastern Christian theology, sacramental theology, and liturgy, Msgr. Bux has taught for various faculties, published extensively, and served as a consultant to dicasteries of the Holy See. He also serves as priest at a confraternity church in the heart of Bari.” A recent book by Msgr Bux and published by Angelico is entitled No Trifling Matter: Taking the Sacraments Seriously Again.
Msgr. Bux spoke out recently on the perpetual synods under Francis, a virtual “Vatican III,” which is being instrumentalized to mutilate the Church into an NGO concerned with promoting the agenda of the world which has rejected God. Abortionists, population controllers, homosexuals, transvestites, heretics, and promoters of evil of every kind get a warm welcome at the Vatican, while those Catholics who believe and do as the Church has always done are rejected. The latest outrage of this sort is the laughable notion that the Traditional Latin Mass is the worst offender against Church unity.
Msgr. Bux, according to a recent news item at Gloria.tv, described the synods, the latest of which was promoted with the navel-gazing title “Synod on Synodality,” as a “Return to Babel.”
“Babel 2.0. The myth of synodality cultivated by Francis is a return to Babel. It leads to the collapse of Catholic culture, writes Msgr. Nicola Bux on LaNuovabq.it about Francis’ Synod on Synods and about the German synodal path.”
“Politics instead of religion. According to Bux, the problems not addressed at Francis’ Synod are secularization, religious ignorance, collapse of vocations, moral life, grace as a condition for receiving the sacraments, conversion, and the Gospels. The Synod is only about politics, economics, redistribution of wealth, solidarity, the common good and ecology. According to the working document, the goal is a ‘new, integral humanism.’ Bux asks whether humanism that Christ taught is no longer enough. Or in the words of St. Irenaeus: ‘Christ brought all that is new by bringing Himself — omnem novitatem attulit semetipsum afferens.’
“Another Church. For Bux, the goal of these synods is a so-called democratization of the Church. But according to the Second Vatican Council (Ad Gentes n. 2), the Church is missionary by nature, not synodal. Christ called people out of the reality of their lives and into the Church. But Paul VI already coined the slogan of a Church that ‘only serves,’ which Francis reframed as a ‘fully synodal’ Church. In contrast, Lumen Gentium n. 18 says that the Church is hierarchical, that is, governed by consecrated men. But the Francis Synod wants a different Church: not a sign and instrument of salvation, but a mega-group of alleged co-responsibility and alleged listening.
“Infantilism. The Synod’s working document says with Francis that the goal is — quote – ‘to plant dreams’ as well as ‘to bring forth prophecies and visions.’ Bux retorts that appealing to dreams and visions reveals an increasing ecclesiastical infantilism and an ideological distrust of reason and intelligence.
“Tragedy becomes farce. Bux concludes that previous synodal assemblies have not brought visible or measurable missionary progress, but only raised expectations regarding marriage for priests, ordination of women and sexual immorality. He speaks of an undeclared, de facto schism.”
Venerable men of the Church like Bux, who hold the faith of the Church, have been systematically deposed from places of influence while yes-men without conviction have been promoted in their place. Rule by emotion or whim has replaced pursuing truth by means of intellect.
“Corruptio optimi pessima.” The Devil endangers souls most when the best are corrupted, for this is the worst state of affairs. Those most responsible for the truth supplant it with lies. Men like Bux will continue to be sources of hope and it is to them we must look. In a time that seems dark in so many ways, those who have hope never fail to seek the light. Christ will always come to us through our sacred Tradition. This is what is meant when the Lord declares that Hell shall not prevail.
“Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in Heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matt. 5:11-12).
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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