A True Priest, Two Sinners, and a Blog

Judas, too, was ordained a priest.

So the entry from yesterday was a lot more venomous than I had originally meant for it to turn out.  I guess I was still a lot more angry and disgusted than I thought.

Anyway, a comment on one of the articles gave me pause.  The woman wrote, "Jesus gave Communion to Judas, even knowing that he had betrayed Him, didn't He?"

He did!  And He most certainly knew that Judas had already betrayed Him.  In fact, as I mentioned before, Louisa Piccarretta described this scene in The 24 Hours of the Passion.  As Jesus knelt before Judas to clean his feet, His Heart was torn in agony as He foresaw the end Judas would meet because of his stubborn refusal to ask forgiveness.  In Judas, Christ saw all priests who would fall away from their callings.  Yet still, He persisted in His blessings, He persisted in allowing Judas to partake of the Eucharist.

Soon after reading this comment, I came across one of Maria Valtorta's visions in which Jesus appears to 500 followers after His Resurrection.  Sts. Peter and John are present, and Jesus teaches them the importance of obedience and perseverance.  He says to them:

"And remember also that I did not refuse Myself even to Judas of Kerioth… A priest must try to save, by all possible means. And let love always prevail, among the means used to save. Consider that I was not unaware of Judas' horror… But, overcoming all disgust, I treated the wretch as I treated John [the Beloved Disciple]...  One must work even then… always… until everything is accomplished."

Honestly, I have no idea how I came across that particular passage save for Divine Providence.  In my own arrogance, I had also disregarded Church teaching by reacting with such anger towards Johnson.  I think Christ wanted to remind me that I needed a bit more humility and a lot more charity if I wanted to fancy myself a follower of His.

Well played, Good Sir, well played. 

So while I'm still disgusted by Barbara Johnson's actions (those actions being her willful attempt to commit a sacrilege and her subsequent lambasting of Father Guarnizo), I no longer wish that she and her hoard of supporters drop off the Catholic radar.  Instead of praying for an early bout of Spring Cleaning that sees them all ostracized or relegated to protestant denominations, I should be praying that the Holy Spirit alights in their hearts so that they can see the error of their ways and return to the faithful, Catholic fold. 

After all, in the same vision, Jesus stated to the crowd:

And those that for any reason should separate from the Mother Church, would be members cut off, no longer nourished with the mystic blood that is Grace coming from Me, the divine Head of the Church. Like prodigal sons, separated through their own will from the paternal house, in their short-lived wealth and constant and graver and graver misery, they would be blunting their spiritual intellects by means of too heavy foods and wines, and then they would languish eating the bitter acorns of unclean animals until they returned to the paternal house, saying with contrite hearts: "We have sinned. Father, forgive us and open the doors of your abode to us". Then, whether it is a member of a separated Church, or an entire Church - oh! if it were so, but where, when will so many imitators of Me arise, capable of redeeming these entire separated Churches, at the cost of their lives, to make, to remake only one Fold under only one shepherd, as I ardently wish? - then whether it is only one person or an assembly that comes back, open the doors to them.

And may they all feel the Light of the Spirit.  May their minds be opened to His Wisdom, and may their egos be enveloped by His Glory.  May mine, too.

However, let not this testimony give anyone the opinion that I will no longer strike out against such folly in the future.  I still stand behind my opinion that this woman should be barred from the Eucharist until she reconciles herself to the Church through means of a true confession.  I still stand behind my opinion that the priest did exactly what he should have done in preventing the sacrilege to occur.  I also stand by my opinion that the superiors who shot out an apology should be ashamed of throwing their brother under the bus when he was only acting in the way our Church teaches he must (in protecting the Eucharist from sacrilege and by refusing to allow the public to be led astray by erroneous pastoral example).

May this brave and blessed priest ever feel the smile of Our Lady upon him, and may his superiors learn the error of their ways, seek forgiveness, and move forward with greater faith and solidarity.

---