The Radio Immaculata Show

Fr Serafino in this podcast explores the relationship between two fundamentals virtues, humility and purity, by contemplating them as one, though distinct, in Our Lady's life. And yet the question: which one comes first? St Bernard and St Bonaventure have their say. And we follow it.

In the Gospel of St Luke (5:1-11) Jesus teaches the multitude pressing upon him from Simon's ship. It's Jesus who appointed Peter to be the foundation rock of the Church. However, not as a private person with his own ideas and convictions, but as the one who professes the Faith of the Church: "You are the Son of the living God." Faith comes first. Peter depends on the faith and not the other way round. Moreover, only after teaching the people, Our Lord commanded to Peter: "launch out into the deep" and "let down your nets for a catch". Evangelisation comes only after a clear teaching. If the doctrine is wobbling, or even put aside for the sake of pastoral care (as it is with the recent Synod on Synodality), the outreach is void.

Fr Serafino speaks about the relationship between the Triune God and Our Lady, laid out by the mystery of Mary's Virginity, reflection in our creation of God's Purity. Purity in God is the expression of his being: God cannot but be and be necessarily a communion of love. In Our Lady there is a finite but perfect manifestation of God's infinite perfection. This created perfection, which makes Mary resemble the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is Mary's purity, lived out by Her as perpetual virginity. When the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation assented to God with Her Fiat, She publicly made manifest her intimate relationship with the Triune God. By the power of the Holy Spirit, She became the Mother of the Son, virginally generated as He is purely generated by the Father since eternity. The analogy here is breathtaking!

In this episode we explore the true meaning of God's mercy. This to avoid two extremes: rigorism, which excludes mercy for the sake of justice and laxism, even more spread in our days, which refuses justice for the sake of mercy. Justice and mercy cannot be set one against the other for the fact that, according to St Bonaventure, whatever God does is done by virtu of the abundance of His goodness. Therefore, for the Seraphic Doctor, while justice is "the fittingness of divine good", mercy is "the abundance of divine goodness." Justice is the presupposition, mercy the completion. There can never be mercy without justice, nor justice without mercy.

Papa Francesco, esaminando la dialettica tra Legge (Torah) e fede in Cristo, ha concluso la sua ultima catechesi del mercoledì chiedendosi: «…disprezzo i Comandamenti? No. Li osservo, ma non come assoluti, perché so che quello che mi giustifica è Gesù Cristo». Questo insegnamento letto nel suo contesto non può che lasciare attoniti e smarriti. Se il Decalogo non è più assoluto, se cioè inizia a dipendere dal contesto storico e dalla nostra interpretazione, significa che è relativizzato e così l’agire morale è svuotato del suo contenuto. Francesco arriva a questa conclusione perché difatti identifica il Decalogo con la Legge, che è un pedagogo che ci ha condotto a Cristo. Il Decalogo, però, legge naturale prima ancora di essere cuore dell’Alleanza veterotestamentaria, fa sì parte della Legge (Torah) ma non l’esaurisce; quest’ultima è più ampia e contiene anche norme cultuali, sociali e alimentari. La fede ci libera da queste prescrizioni ma non dai Dieci Comandamenti che San Paolo, come già Nostro Signore, riassume nel comandamento più grande: la carità (cf. Gal 5,14 e Mc 12,28-31).

Pope Francis issued on 16 July 2021 a new law on the celebration of the Holy Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal (the Old Rite Mass). The previous dispositions by Pope Benedict XVI, favouring the celebration of this Mass by any priest with no authorisation, have been rescinded, and a very surprising statement has been made: the new Roman Missal issued by Paul VI in 1970 is the only expression of the Lex orandi of the Church. But a permission may be given by the local bishop to say the EF Mass. How can a priest be still authorised to say this Mass when the missal is no longer the expression of the prayer (and faith) of the Church? What is therefore a correct approach to the Apostolic Tradition of which the bishops are the guardians? It seems now that they are rather soldiers of it.