New Encyclical Promotes Presumption, Cajoles the Unwary

David Martin | The Daily Knight

On October 24, Francis issued a new encyclical on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Dilexit Nos, which is supposedly grounded on chapter 8 of St. Paul’s epistle to the Romans. Out of context, Francis quotes the Apostle:

Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or persecution? or the sword?... But in all these things we overcome, because of him that hath loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37-39)

What Francis here is doing is promoting the false security of the Protestants, i.e., that Jesus ‘paid the price’ so that we needn’t worry about sin and can have the assurance that nothing can separate us from Christ. This is the sin of presumption, which is one of the sins against the Holy Ghost. It is heretical. One’s resolution to sin separates him from the love of Christ. St. Paul himself says, “For know you this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person (which is a serving of idols), has inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” (Ephesians 5:5)

Sin Separates us from the Love of Christ

When St. Paul says, “Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation? or distress, etc?, he speaks of those who are resolved to love Christ and keep his commandments, not those who break his commandments. He is speaking of those who are ready to die for Christ, not those who compromise and sell out their faith for filthy lucre, bribes, and ‘favors.’ The manifold sins of today’s hierarchy have separated them from the love of Christ so where do they find room to repose confidence in the Sacred Heart? Shall we stab Christ in the heart with our violations and then believe he will protect us?

Francis says in his encyclical:

“Our sufferings are joined to the suffering of Christ on the cross.” Not necessarily. Our sufferings are only joined to Christ’s sufferings if we believe and obey Christ and offer our sufferings to him.

Francis continues.

“If we believe that grace can bridge every distance, this means that Christ by his sufferings united himself to the sufferings of his disciples in every time and place. In this way, whenever we endure suffering, we can also experience the interior consolation of knowing that Christ suffers with us.”

Christ by his sufferings indeed unites himself to the sufferings of his disciples and friends, but not to the sufferings of those who despise him. Shall we be ungrateful for Christ’s Church and take the ax to it and then believe that Christ unites with us? Shall we fornicate, bless LGBT relations, promote transgenderism, and pollute Christ’s sanctuary and think that Christ will unite himself to us? Hardly.

Francis adds:

“As we contemplate the heart of Christ, the incarnate synthesis of the Gospel, we can, following the example of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, ‘place heartfelt trust not in ourselves but in the infinite mercy of a God who loves us unconditionally and has already given us everything in the cross of Jesus Christ.’”

This too is erroneous. God does not love us unconditionally; he does not accept us as we are. “His mercy is from generation unto generations, to them that fear him.” (Luke 1:50) One cannot place heartfelt trust in God if he is working against him. St. Theresa completely forgot herself and kindly refused God nothing, which enabled her to trustfully abandon herself to God, whereas Francis refuses God everything that he asks—that we stop Communion in the hand, get the women off the altar, restore tradition, and universally restore the old Latin Mass. He thinks only of himself and his clique of LGBT collaborators while thinking nothing of the flock.

He rather punishes the flock for being loyal to the Faith while rewarding criminals and abortion advocates. Let us not forget how he granted abortion activist Lillian Ploumen the Order of St. Gregory Award in June 2017 just after she had completed raising $300 million for International Planned Parenthood.

Gaining Trust to Tone Down Conservative Opposition

As always, Francis rings the ears of the unwary. He is very political and very predictable. Just as the Vatican is about to issue some wayward declaration (and Rome no doubt is making ready to issue a wayward declaration on its infamous Synod on Synodality that closed on October 24), Francis will publish words of love, goodness, and tradition to tone down conservative opposition. 

In his latest encyclical, he speaks of our calling to 'love and be loved,' which is a red flag right there, since we are called to love, not to seek love from others. Love is in giving and in keeping the commandments. "If you love me keep my commandments." (John 14:15) Wanting love from others is based more on self-love, which is the root of all corruption.

The problem today is that Christ is not loved, evidenced by the way the Church has cast aside his words and traditions while bowing to the invention of their own hands—the New Church of Man. Where is the gratitude for the gift of Holy Tradition? Where is the gratitude for the ancient Latin Mass? Francis’ words of love are empty fluff to conceal his revolt from the everlasting ordinance (Isaias 24: 5).

Hypocritical Call for Reparation

Francis calls for reparation to the Sacred Heart, writing that “reparation entails the desire to render compensation for the injuries inflicted on the Lord who is love.”

He explains:

“Acts of love of neighbor, with the renunciation, self-denial, suffering, and effort that they entail, can only be such when they are nourished by Christ’s own love.”

How can we expect Christ to nourish our reparative acts of “love” when we obstinately refuse to make this reparation? Have we seen Francis repairing for post-Vatican II humanism, modernism, and Marxism? Has Francis asked that we repair for the worldwide and sacrilegious practice of receiving Communion in the hand? What is it that he thinks we should repair for? Being tradition-minded Catholics who decry change, migrant intrusion, and homosexuality?

True Reparation would be an open confession from Francis and the hierarchy that most everything coming out of Rome today is false and deceptive. Let them prove themselves.

In the face of all the outrages and sacrileges being heaped upon the Sacred Heart, Francis makes no mention of repairing for these sins against the Sacred Heart, i.e., no mention of repairing for Pachamama idol worship, no mention of repairing for our revolt against tradition, no mention of repairing for Rome's promotion of LGBT and “transgenderism.” His words of “love” and “reparation” are but a smokescreen to conceal the Church’s manifold sins against the Sacred Heart.

Francis speaks of love yet has betrayed the suffering underground Church of China into the hands of hateful, state elected "bishops" of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) who torture and oppress the Chinese Catholics there. They cry for help, and Francis says, 'Be quiet and obey your red masters.'  He preaches love and mercy while appointing and empowering episcopal LGBT predators to assault the Church with their crimes of sodomy and clerical abuse.

Francis cries love, but what kind of love is he speaking of? Is it the rainbow of keeping the covenant or is it the 'other kind'?