Thank God for Clarity

Our Blessed Lady didn't give interviews but if she did her message would be crystal clear. At a time when we are bombarded with so many words from Pope Francis, words that still leave me in confusion, it is reassuring to go back to the New Eve, Mary Immaculate, to hear once more the answer to the initiative of Almighty God in His plan for our Salvation...

'I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done to me, according to thy word.'

Or later...

'Do whatever He tells you.'

What is truly remarkable about Pope Francis is the sheer wealth of opportunities that are presented to him to teach the Catholic Faith in his interviews. The last week alone has produced reams and reams of the thought of Jorge Bergoglio but next to nothing of the Catholic Faith. When Francis was elected, I was hopeful that what the Church would have would be a clear-speaking evangelist, someone who could explain the Catholic Faith to 'the man on the street'. What we received instead was a Pope who speaks so much, who talks so frequently and yet at the end of the day says next to nothing that teaches the Faith.

The continuity I expected to see between Francis and Benedict was perhaps not one evidenced by liturgical style, but Catholicity, sound and orthodox teaching and it really hasn't happened. I expected, and I think others hoped, that Francis would be the great evangelist who having promised to take the Church 'out of herself' and shine the light of Christ onto the World would do just that. Yet the very opposite seems to have taken place. Doubt is the new faith. The strange new agenda has made the Church more introverted and self-absorbed than I could have imagined, something exemplified at the Synod.

Instead of sowing the Faith, the Francis pontificate seems to be more marked by doubt and uncertainty than by anything else, that nothing we have received is trustworthy or solid. Petrine Authority? His Holiness seems to doubt it. Infallible doctrine? His Holiness seems to doubt it or seems to place the Church on the brink of promoting the idea that belief and 'real life' should be separated. I feel like we are being prepared for a 'great leap forward' - a project of some kind - but to where? It remains unclear.

The only 'great leap forward' the Church has to offer us is holiness and the promise of the Beatific Vision offered to all of mankind, if we will accept, not resist, the grace poured out upon us. Today the Church puts before us the Immaculate Woman who crushes the head of the serpent, whose light is the Light, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Blessed Virgin Mary radiates with purity, courage, fortitude, fidelity, faith, hope and love, with every possible virtue.

She is not the woman of doubt, she is not the daughter of uncertainty, doubt and confusion. Neither is her Divine Son the Author of such things. Everything about Mary is pure and clear. She is the spotless maid. She is the handmaid of the Lord. Even in the midst of the storm, should even the light of Faith grow darkened across the whole world, if we ask her for her maternal intercession, she will be there to guide us towards the Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ. She will never lead us astray.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, while she was on earth, believed everything that her Son taught and everything that His Apostles taught. So, if any man thinks he or any Church minister can be more humble, compassionate, kind, merciful and loving than Our Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, then, indeed, that man is in for a big surprise. We may never be able to believe with the perfect faith of the Blessed Virgin Mary but if we don't believe what Mary believed, then we do not believe.

A happy Feast to everyone.