If you’ve seen the move Il Postino, then you remember the scenes in which the young Postman falls in love with Beatriz, the niece of an inn keeper. He’s an awkward guy, but through the coaching of exiled Pedro Neruda, he learns poetry and the use of “metaphors.” Later, when the aunt can tell that her niece Beatriz is falling for the guy, she interrogates Beatriz, “What did he do to you?” “Nothing, he spoke to me” “What did he say?” “He spoke metaphors.” From there, the aunt is blaming metaphors for ruining her young Beatriz! In one scene, she complains that this man has hypnotized her with his “metaphors.”
So it seems in the Church today… we are being hypnotized with metaphors! “Dare we hope Hell is empty? There is one. Mesmerizing, and such a nice thought, but it is devoid of reality and impossible. In truth, if we follow Our Lord, Dare we hope anyone is going to Heaven today! The very opposite is true!
So it is with “All Are Welcome”… Sounds nice, very kind gesture. But we know it’s not true as it omits half the picture. The two thieves beside Our Lord on the cross — yes, they were both welcome. One repented, Saint Dismas. The other was welcome as well… what did he do? He mocked and cursed Our Lord. We can be fairly certain things did not go so well for him. We can take it a step further and “dare we hope he’s not in hell?” He was welcome, but did he clear the condition of penance that Dismas did? No.
Metaphors. They hypnotize and entice error. So it is today with a series of statements by Pope Francis, wherein he doubles down on this blessing thing.
Edward Pentin reported on Twitter much of this… The Pope’s comments on Africa are… well, strange.
I was appalled when I read this. Is God’s revelation of what He expects of his creatures merely “cultural”? As an aside, what about my Catholic culture? Why don’t we get a “special case” also? Why do only the Africans get “special case.” The implications of the “culture” statement were surely not measured when speaking this. Instead, it was a metaphor… And there we get hit with another metaphor as well, “include, not divide.” that’s one of those pills that sounds sweet in the mouth but bitter in the stomach. See above, where we discuss the thieves…
An error of good will. As an aside, we should recall the oft misquoted angelic greeting to the shepherds at Bethlehem announcing the Birth of Jesus… they did not wish good will to men. Rather, they wished peace to “men of good will.” What is “good will”? It is a will aligned to do the Will of God, right? So the angels divided. They did not bring peace to men of bad will. Just like salvation was available to the bad thief, all he needed was to have good will (i.e. repent), right?
And LifeSite News reports that — it’s the “people” not the “union” being blessed:
I would like to emphasize briefly two things: the first is that these blessings, outside of any liturgical context and form, do not require moral perfection to be received; the second, that when a couple spontaneously approaches to ask for them, one does not bless the union, but simply the people who together made the request.
Not the union, but the people — of course taking into account the context, the sensitivities, the places where people live and the most appropriate ways to do it.
LifeSite News, Pope Francis doubles down on homosexual blessings: ‘Not the union, but the people’ are blessed, 26 Jan 2024
More metaphors! Did Our Lord bless the bad thief from his cross? But He did bless Dismas, right? Especially when He promised Dismas that very day he’d be in paradise with Jesus.
One more metaphor slipped in all this that I’d like to parse a bit:
I believe the talk of schisms at this point is a distraction. Flat out contradiction of revelation is not schism, it is an affront to Our Lord. It is error. Error has no rights. You and I are not suborned to error — meaning, we are not to place our obedience to error. As Father Hardon would say it so often, “Error is synonymous with evil.” But if you want to be obedient to God’s revealed truth — plainly and well put over so many millennia now, get the second metaphor above: “small groups that manifest reflections of a schismatic nature.”
As a lawyer, and one familiar with criminal investigation, there are verbal analysts that parse symbols in the responses of the interviews police conduct. This phraseology employed by Francis above… notice that he did not say they were schismatic, but rather “manifest reflections of“… Strange words. They mean something. You are meant to think he is saying they are schismatic, but read those words again… are they? Or are they reacting (i.e. reflecting) others who are the schismatics? One might take issue here and say that is splitting hairs. I think if you feel that way, then you most likely didn’t even click this post to read it to begin with. “reflections” is a strange image — a strange metaphor, as it were. Parse those words and I think you’ll see an empty allegation, but some truth being spoken albeit through apparently confused speech.
On one side of this, recall that Elias had to see a loud boisterous storm go by, and he realized that was not the voice of God. Then, a fire and loud noise goes by, and Elias realized that was not God either. Only after all these big loud things does he encounter a “whisper” of silent air, and Elias realizes God is speaking to him. Francis says there is a “small group” disagreeing — that the group speaking what God says is small or quiet seems like a good thing to me. The world is loudly trying to make us ignore God’s revelations after all. They do it very loudly and imposingly, not to mention by force and with threats. Only a few people will ignore it and, like Elias, sit it out and wait for God to speak.
People run with the metaphors though. Disagreeing with this blessings mess does not make one a schismatic. Oddly, it does not even make you reflect schismatics… But this talk about reflections does make me think of Sr. Lucia’s third secret… “we saw as when people pass in front of a mirror.” That is, there was a reflection.
Like the Aunt in Il Postino, I can see that they are hypnotizing many with these “metaphors.” Mirrors, reflections, and metaphors… hypnotizing many. Dare we hope anyone will get to Heaven these days? All are welcome, but few repent, and even fewer listen to the whispers of Our Lord.
This article, Pandemic of Metaphors: Empty Hell, Small Voices, and “All Are Welcome” in the Wake of Fiducia Supplicans is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/pandemic-of-metaphors-empty-hell-small-voices-and-all-are-welcome-in-the-wake-of-fiducia-supplicans/
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