15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Fr. Leo
Amos, after whom the Book of Amos is named after, is getting a tongue lashing from Amaziah, priest of Bethel. He tells him to go away and not play prophet in Bethel. Amos’ says he is not a prophet, he is just doing what the Lord asked of him when he said, “Go, prophecy to my people Israel.”
It seems as though those doing the Father’s work have always been persecuted for doing so, and usually by the religious authorities of the time. Jesus, suffered the same fate. He was crucified by the Jewish religious leaders though the hands of the Romans.
Truth doesn’t always get a fair hearing, because some don’t want to hear the truth, but are so egotistically convinced that they have the truth and no one else is close.
The Church is human, so we will always see this kind of thing in our ranks. Recently, the former nuncio to the United States, Carlo Vigano was excommunicated as an archbishop for not believing Pope Frances to be the true pope. He also denies all of Vatican II. He is a strong proponent of the Latin Liturgy.
So is he wrong? Without answering that we must not see excommunication as condemnation to hell. It means, “You don’t fit our church and are doing it harm.” Vigano is free to practice his faith, but not as a Roman Catholic.
For me, there is a lot of ego involved here. Vigano was the Pope’s nuncio to the United States, but went directly against the Spirit of the Pope concerning granting marriage licenses to gays and lesbians. This was a governmental issue and Vigano used it to further his own agenda. After that, he was called back to the Vatican, when it could have been seen that becoming a Cardinal in the church would be his next possible step.
Since that time Vigano has been campaigning against the pope more and more as time goes on. My question is, if he doesn’t recognize the pope and denies Vatican II, why would he want to stay and cause trouble? My guess is that it is somehow ego related.
In the Gospel, Jesus sent his disciples out in twos to continue his mission. He did not tell them to use Latin, a language he never spoke, and he didn’t tell them to become a hierarchy. Charity, love, forgiveness, and dying for others was his creed and practice.
The most important thing for all of us, is to be servants of the Holy Spirit, that we seek to know God and live as we believe he want’s us to live our lives, charity and love are the hallmarks of our authenticity. Not hate and division. If we are Christian, they will know us by our love. And we will learnt how to love from each other.