Sermon for the 3rd Sunday, January 26, 2025, Warsaw Fr. Rafał Trytek (non-una-cum Mass)
In the name of the ♱ Father and ♱ the Son and the ♱ Holy Ghost. Amen.
For this III. Sunday after the Epiphany, the Church has prepared for us a fragment of the Gospel which tells of two miracles. And this second miracle in particular is so very telling, because it shows us that Christ was preparing the Jews for this fundamental change, which is the proclamation of the Gospel to the whole world and the acceptance of all peoples into the Church. Christ knew what he was talking about when he said that he had not encountered such faith in Israel as that of the centurion. On the one hand, this speaks very well of the centurion’s faith, but also how miserable the faith among the Jews must have been. And Christ clearly says that “the nations will come and sit in the kingdom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the children of the kingdom will be thrown out. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth”. This is terrible. But the Jews cannot say that Christ did not warn them. Few listened to Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews did not believe that they could be thrown out of the Kingdom, that the Son as Sons of the Kingdom would be thrown out where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is so hard to believe, if you are in the Kingdom, that this happiness and blessing will change and end.
And what the modernists are doing at the moment?! Yesterday, the prayers ended – the Week of Prayer for Unity, prescribed by St. Pius X. On Friday, January 24, a prayer is planned for the conversion of Jews and muslims. The modernists replaced these great intentions of Saint Pius X with counter-intentions – the day of Judaism, the day of Islam. We clearly see here two different intentions.
The Church – like Christ has the intention of saving all, of converting all to Christ. And Christ just as he announced to the Jews that they would be thrown out of the Kingdom, that is why the Church wants to convert all the Jews, Mohammedans and so on. The Catholic Church and Saint Pius X clearly have the same intention as Christ, and the modernists clearly have a counter-intention, a counter-intention. It is very important to realize how deep, fundamental the difference is between the saving intention of Christ and the Catholic Church, and such truly Catholic popes as Saint Pius X, and what the modernists do – something completely different!
It is a great deception that people think that this is some kind of love, recognizing infidels, non-Catholics as having, as Jews supposedly are supposed to have, their own, private, particular path of salvation outside of Christ. This is complete absurdity, complete absurdity! Prayers for the conversion of all. It is worth reading, finding somewhere in this calendar that we have published, in this Roman-Seraphic one, all these intentions are written for the month of January. It is worth reminding ourselves of these intentions. This is why the Church sent the Apostles, missionaries to the entire globe. It would make no sense at all if everyone had their own path of salvation.
Each day has a designated target group. People who would be converted through our prayers. Sectarians, for example Protestant sects, Hodurs, the schismatic East, Anglicans, Jews, Mohammedans, lukewarm Catholics. These are the intentions. In these intentions let us pray and ask the merciful God that we will not be hypocrites, because one of the days is designated to convert lukewarm Catholics. And we are constantly falling into lukewarmness and forgetting what a great battle is going on.
Tomorrow is the feast of St. John Chrysostom means “golden-mouthed” , and on this day (St. John Chrysostom is – as golden-mouthed- the patron saint of preachers) it is worth praying for all who have this unpleasant duty of having to preach, so that not only would God direct their lips so that they would say the wisest things possible, in accordance with the Faith, of course, but also that they would have the gift of convincing as many believers as possible, so that they would have the power of the Word of God like St. John Mary Vianney, like St. John Capistrano, who converted townspeople by the thousands on the streets of Wrocław or Kraków, like Blessed Władysław of Gielniów, who is the main patron saint of Warsaw, who also converted as best he could.
Let us remember our deceased and those who will leave this world today, tomorrow, in the nearest future. The moment of dying is the time when the fate of souls for eternity is decided. This fate is immutable, will be immutable, unchangeable. Completely different from our case. As you sow, so will you reap. As you sow in this life, so will you reap forever. And it will be either an endless nightmare from which you cannot wake up, which is suffering, or it will be eternal happiness.
In the name of the ♱ Father and ♱ the Son and the ♱ Holy Ghost. Amen.
+Praised be Jesus Christ. Amen
Blessed Virgin Mary Destroyer of all heresies pray for us
Saint Francis de Sales, pray for us.
