06/03/2025

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

When, as a child, I first heard the words that close the Gospel of today "For what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose himself" the Douay version of the Bible in English was crystal clear in identifying "the soul" as the eternal part, hence the essential part, of the trinity of being that is the reality of each of us. Body, mind and soul.

That translation was one of the reactions by the "the learned and the clever" to the legitimate objections to the condition  of the Church founded on St Peter made by those whom we now know as "Protestants". We still know them today because they were able to gain control  of  "kingdoms of this world" just as had  the "Greek Orthodox" 900 centuries previously, and as the Roman Catholic Church did until the 19th century. The Vatican is the last remnant of that Papal Empire.

May the Lord save us from the "Learned and the clever" is a petition that should be added to all the Litanies. Jesus condemned no-one except the "Thinking Jews" of his day. The wise men whose "wisdom" did not extend beyond their own prideful, self-awareness. All the changes within the Church that I have witnessed over the last 70 years have been introduced by those who claim to know better than did their forbearers. And "'twas always so".

Jesus is the Incarnation. His eternal being has no end. Past, present and Future are all one to him. When we become part of his mystical body we become part of the only generation that knows "IAMFATHERSONHOLYSPIRIT" for it is out of us that will come those who will not pass away without witnessing the end of time. 

We have to be the "little children" who welcome Jesús as soon as we see him and know that all that is material will pass away. We live out our lives as material beings always aware of "Our Father" and know that the "my" of "myself" is the "eternal human being" that there is not any reason to not call "soul" as did the translators of the Douay Bible.

"From the snares of the wise and clever, Good Lord deliver us."