18/09/2021

I have been away from my computer for the last few days and am now pleased to be back. The world is such a complicated place and the works of man have got to be admired as with great struggles huge and beautiful edifices are erected and in the cities numerous people scurry purposefully about their business.

All of these are known to God in the same way that I am. Some of them are also turned inwardly to God and are the rich soil of the harvest. That inward longing for holiness is not apparent to mankind but is known only to the sower who will reap the rich harvest.

I know also that I failed to receive the grace of penance as I inexplicably could not accept the priest and did not have the humility to listen. 

The following is from the Vatican Website’s Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The Sacraments of Salvation

1127 Celebrated worthily in faith, the sacraments confer the grace that they signify.⁴⁸ They are efficacious because in them Christ himself is at work: it is he who baptizes, he who acts in his sacraments in order to communicate the grace that each sacrament signifies. the Father always hears the prayer of his Son's Church which, in the epiclesis of each sacrament, expresses her faith in the power of the Spirit. As fire transforms into itself everything it touches, so the Holy Spirit transforms into the divine life whatever is subjected to his power.

1128 This is the meaning of the Church's affirmation⁴⁹ that the sacraments act ex opere operato (literally: "by the very fact of the action's being performed"), i.e., by virtue of the saving work of Christ, accomplished once for all. It follows that "the sacrament is not wrought by the righteousness of either the celebrant or the recipient, but by the power of God."⁵⁰ From the moment that a sacrament is celebrated in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through it, independently of the personal holiness of the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them.

1129 The Church affirms that for believers the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation.⁵¹ "Sacramental grace" is the grace of the Holy Spirit, given by Christ and proper to each sacrament. The Spirit heals and transforms those who receive him by conforming them to the Son of God. The fruit of the sacramental life is that the Spirit of adoption makes the faithful partakers in the divine nature⁵² by uniting them in a living union with the only Son, the Saviour

My Commentary

In   # 1127 there is a powerful explication that all the graces are given by Jesus himself working through the priest; that the Holy Spirit touches us all and ensures that grace is poured into our hearts. I have never found it necessary to either question or really think about this. But now I have noticed the qualifying phrase with which it starts “Celebrated worthily in faith” which is given as a condition for Jesus to be present with us in the celebration. The phrase can only mean that the Minister must be worthy and fully believing.

#1128 shows that authors of these canons are not stupid. They are fully aware of the questions raised by “Celebrated worthily in faith”. But avoid the “going through the motions” implications of “ex opere operato” by turning the “work” from not that of the ordained minister but into the saving grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Which is of course independent of the spiritual condition of the minister. Of course it is! Then why does the efficacy of the reception of the Sacrament depend on the spiritual condition of the recipient? For this canon closes with another condition “Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them.”

The message here is we priests do not need to be holy to confect the Sacraments but to receive them you must be! Sin is all right for us but not for you. Is that the message of the pulpit? Is it for this that the Incarnation Crucifixion and Resurrection had to be undergone in all its painful humility and humiliation?

I have always believed #1129’s “the sacraments of the New Covenant are necessary for salvation.” What am I to do if I cannot find them in the Church founded by Jesus. Would that our Overseers do their duty and remove from office those priests who openly flaunt their persons and those who do not follow the rules for the distribution of Sacraments. In the past the Church was almost broken by the sinful vanity of its prelates and the ignorance of its clergy. We the laity were here to do what we were told but it is to us and for us that the Love of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit was incarnated, lived, suffered, died and resurrected so that the Church might have a source of Grace to share with all mankind.

Dear Lord let me learn to be holy and let all my sins receive the forgiveness so dearly won for us .