I think I broke a three-year streak yesterday. I have posted something, generally on the lectionary. But I have an excuse. Yesterday was

• The celebration of my parent’s wedding anniversary. They got married August 24, and it was their Diamond Jubilee. Complete with letters from the Prime Minister, the governor-general and the Queen (My sister registered them months ago).
• The actual birthday of my beloved
• The first time we have been to my sister’s new house
• My older son has been in England, and I was able to get him to the celebrations

I care more about these things than a streak.

But today we are back to end times teaching. The message for today is two fold. We know that we will be hated and that the current western compromise which allows for tolerance will fail. The current regulation of the social discourse will continue.

Now we are told not to be deceived, for the return of the King will be obvious.

Mark 13:14-27

¹⁴“But when you see the desolating sacrilege set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains; ¹⁵the one on the housetop must not go down or enter the house to take anything away; ¹⁶the one in the field must not turn back to get a coat. ¹⁷Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! ¹⁸Pray that it may not be in winter. ¹⁹For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be. ²⁰And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days. ²¹And if anyone says to you at that time, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘Look! There he is!’ — do not believe it. ²²False messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, the elect. ²³But be alert; I have already told you everything.

²⁴“But in those days, after that suffering,
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
²⁵  and the stars will be falling from heaven,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.
²⁶Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. ²⁷Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.”

The first thing to take from this is to not be removed from the faith by either those who call themselves authoritative, or Christ incarnate, or better than Christ. They are frauds. Christ will come with more visible glory than a solar eclipse.

Instead, be faithful.

An observation from the son: he went to evensong almost every day while in England. He loved it. He would move to the Anglicans if New Zealand Anglicans did the same. But they are in a liturgical virtue spiral, and that is deadly.

To be even clearer : if an extremely orthodox, “Pius XIII” type Pope were, after years of ruthless orthodoxy, to declare “authoritatively” that going away from the Tridentine Mass is irreversible, even then such a Pope would immediately lose all credibility and every half-instructed Catholic would be obliged to recognise the obvious falsity and error of his statements.

But a nincompoop like Francis, does he really think he will put an end to the controversy by throwing his non-existent prestige – nay: the despise of and laughter about him of all sane Catholics – behind the question?

The statement itself is too stupid for words. It attempts to put the Pope’s authority behind a process of continuing change: this is firstly the contrary of everything the Church believes and, to make things more absurd, a blank check towards every kind of future change.

It is, in fact, a call to a permanent revolution (which, if it is liturgical, must perforce involve all the rest: lex orandi, lex credendi) which is as absurd from a Catholic point of view as it is indetermined and vague, though clearly heretical, from a factual one.

The ass has brayed, and he now wants for his bray to be taken seriously.

Keep dreaming, Unholy Father.

We will keep being Catholics.

The second thing is to not give up hope. The nations rail and the corporations want us to be apostate to increase their profit. But Christ will come, he will triumph, and at that point every knee shall bow.

My mother beamed when she received the letter — not the one from Patsy Rigger, the Governer General or Bill English the Prime Minister or her local MP — but the one from the Queen. How much better will it be if the King of Kings calls us his good and faithful servants. Aim for that.

And let the soon to be bankrupt mass media rant and rail, for they are falling.