17 May 2026

17 May 2026 - Seventh Sunday of Easter

Transcript

Reading:  

1 Peter 4:15-19 (different translation: RSCE) our reading ended with verse fifteen, but I need to continue on through verse nineteen. This is a different translation than was used at Mass.

Write:  

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker [makes more sense than “intriguer”]. Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. (17) For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?” Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.

Reflect:   

Decades ago, when the abuse scandal broke in the Catholic Church, Archbishop Curtiss invited the priests together to discuss the issue. After the facts were presented, he opened up the floor to us priests for comments. Well, your pastor opened his big mouth. 😏 I was referencing this reading from first Peter. I paraphrased verse seventeen this way: God always corrects his people – he has done so from the time of the Old Testament – and he does that first, then he turns to correct the nations he used to correct his people. And he is always harsher with the nations he used to correct Israel.

I told this to my brother priests, and I said that something was going to happen – I did not know when – but it was going to happen. Because there were so many people who took such glee in the problems in the Catholic Church, they need to watch out, because it is coming for them next. I do not know what form that will take, but God is nothing if not consistent.

Once the church has been corrected and healed, it will be ready to help the rest of the world pick up the pieces when God turns to correct them. Unfortunately, parts of the church have not learned the full lesson yet.

Apply:   

I heard from a brother priest later that half of the priests said, “I never thought of that!” The other half of the priests said, “what is he talking about?”

The church needs more correction. Proof of that comes from Germany and the German bishops who have chosen to defy church teachings and legitimize blessings of… things that are not really marriage. They received a letter in two thousand twenty-four telling them not to do it. They have proceeded anyway. The first letter was sent privately, it was resent – recently – publicly. They do not appear to be willing to listen to Rome. They do not appear to be willing to listen to the history of the church, of good moral behavior, and the teachings of Jesus.

Oh, it does not stop with just the German bishops. This week there was a big report from Rome on synodality – though not an official statement from the Pope – that wants to call into question the historical morality of the church in regard to sexual issues. I am doing my best to keep this as far above specifics as I possibly can. We have a mixed audience after all. But there is no simple way to avoid the issue of these people in the church who are in support of homosexual activities. This has been consistently condemned throughout the history of the church. Yet there are fools who think they can rewrite church teaching. They are – without a doubt – what Saint Peter called “mischief makers.” There is no way to say this other than: they are wrong.

Why is this happening after all of the scandals in the church? Because people are diabolically blinded in regard to some of these issues. Pope St. Paul the sixth said that the “smoke of Satan” entered the church with some of the nonsense that grew out of the second Vatican Council. It was not in the documents from the Council, but in the ways some people perverted the teachings of the Council.

Listen again to what our first Pope, St. Peter, said: “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinners?” Make no mistake: we have problems right here in River city, and that river is the Tiber (uh, that is the river that flows through Rome, in case you did not know). We need to pray seriously and strongly for our Holy Father. I pray he will be the one to clean house.

The clarity that is in Scriptures is there for everyone to see. It is an extremely unfortunate state the church finds herself in with the various false teachings of so many. On the opposite side of the spectrum I have been describing is the problem with the Society of Saint Pius the Tenth who has been warned that they will be going into schism if they consecrated four men as bishops on July 1st. They are a group of very conservative Catholics who notoriously reject the second Vatican Council. They have been warned that their schism will result in excommunication.

Next Sunday is the Feast of Pentecost when we celebrate the birthday of the church when Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to his bride, the church. (What a wedding gift!) During this last week of the Easter season, we need to pray for a new Pentecost, a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit of truth to a world that is so confused. We need a new Pentecost for a church that sends out so many mixed messages from people that seem to have the right to speak for the church, but are teaching falsehoods and accommodations to a culture that is radically opposed to the truth of the Gospel.

We are called to holiness, and that does not mean accommodating sexual perversions. The fact that there are those in teaching positions in the church who are promoting these things is an equally terrible scandal to what struck the church decades ago. We dare not accommodate this foolishness for the sake of truth, for the sake of the Bride of Christ. Amen? Amen.

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