Triticum et Zizanium

Fr. Elias Khalil

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Friends came over to the house this weekend and stayed with us. They with my wife wanted to attend church on Sunday morning, so we went to the 10 am Mass at the South Annex of St. Matthew's Catholic Church. Rev. Elias Khalil, a Maronite Catholic priest from the country of Lebanon, officiated with a Deacon assisting. The Scripture readings for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time included the following:

• God's Characteristics: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
• Cry for Help: Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
• Intercession of the Holy Spirit: Romans 8:26-27
• Parable of the Wheat and the Tares: Matthew 13:24-43

Overall the Mass was conducted well. Unfortunately the hymns were quite modernist and gave more recognition to man than God as is typical of Novus Ordo Masses with a liberal progressive congregation. And the Gloria in Excelsis and the Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus were sung to the rhythm of elevator music instead of the old fashion way that exalts God with the passion of resounding praise. The Agnus Dei however was not done too badly. And the homily had a good message: at the end of time God's angels will separate the wheat from the tares. God will judge for it is not within our authority to judge during this time on Earth. This is a lesson which we would all do well to keep in mind, for in today's Church with the infiltration and infestation of modernism and liberalism, it is all too easy to sit in judgment and demand that God remove the heretics and apostates from authority whether in Parish or Diocese or the Vatican itself. God will do that but in God's time, not ours.

The only thing I really objected to in the homily was when Father Khalil described how farmers in the Middle East - particular Israel - would de-weed their fields, pulling up the tares and leaving the wheat; he referred to Israel as Palestine. Of course, since he is an Arab from Lebanon, that is to be expected. But the reality is this: Palestine was an artificial designation which the Romans had given to Judah, northern Israel, and Lebanon from 100 BC to about AD 400. There never were any Palestinian people and there are not any now, merely Arabs (descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham by the Egyptian Hagar, and Esau, first born of Isaac who sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge) who need to accept the authority which God promised Abraham over all the land ".....from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates" (Genesis 15:18). This promise still stands today because God does not renege on His Word, for St Paul states in Romans 11:1, "I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Of course not!"

In any event, the overall message of the homily was good - God will ensure separation of wheat form tares. The elevator music is however completely unsatisfactory. And Israel still remains in God's promises.

One last thing - I would encourage the reader to study what the Church Fathers have to say about the parable of the wheat and the tares. St. John Chrysostom gave two homilies on this:

• Homily 46
• Homily 47

And St. Augustine gave one homily:

• Sermon 23

Please also see the following at The American Catholic blog:

• Life in a Time of Tares

Let us pay attention to the Church Fathers and not today's modernist, feel-good liberalization of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith.

.

NuScale HIPS FPGA

NuScale SMR

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Nota Bene: links to various references cited in this blog post are embedded in the applicable document title or alphanumeric identifier. All references are in the public domain, usually in the Agencywide Document Access Management System (ADAMS) at the web site of the US NRC. No reference is cited and no statement is made with intention to be derogatory towards or demeaning of any governmental agency or of any nuclear energy company or corporation. Lastly, no special insider knowledge is held by the writer of this post regarding the inner workings of any governmental agency or of any nuclear energy company or corporation.

Every nuclear power plant licensed for operation in the West has a variety of safety systems controlled or actuated by safety-related instrumentation and controls. Current pressurized and boiling water reactors in the US have:

1. A reactor protection system which monitors certain parameters and trips the reactor (rapidly inserts neutron absorbing control rods) off line on sensing unsafe conditions. 
2. An engineered safeguards system which monitors the same or similar parameters and initiates emergency core cooling on sensing unsafe conditions.

These systems, designed in the 1960s, are often analog electronics, though some have been upgraded to digital in recent years as license extensions have been pursued and originally installed equipment becomes obsolete. Newly designed reactors like GE-Hiatchi's ESBWR, Westinghouse's AP-1000 and Areva's EPR have advanced digital electonics, either run-time software systems or Boolean logic systems, or a mixture of both. Sometimes these systems may be integrated together and other times they may be kept separate.

The specification, design, development, testing, installation, configuration management, safety analysis, verification and validation, and security vulnerability assessment of such systems are subject to rigorous requirements given in a series of industry standards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). Certain regulatory documents from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) endorse or otherwise invoke compliance with these standards:

• Regulatory Guide 1.152, Criteria for Use of Computers in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants
• Regulatory Guide 1.168, Verification, Validation, Reviews, and Audits for Digital Computer Software Used in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants
• Regulatory Guide 1.169, Configuration Management Plans for Digital Computer Software Used in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants
• Regulatory Guide 1.170, Test Documentation for Digital Computer Software Used in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants
• Regulatory Guide 1.171, Software Unit Testing for Digital Computer Software Used in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants
• Regulatory Guide 1.172, Software Requirement Specifications for Digital Computer Software and Complex Electronics Used in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants
• Regulatory Guide 1.173, Developing Software Life Cycle Processes for Digital Computer Software Used in Safety Systems of Nuclear Power Plants
• Regulatory Guide 1.180, Guidelines for Evaluating Electromagnetic and Radio-Frequency Interference in Safety-Related Instrumentation and Control Systems
• Regulatory Guide 1.209, Guidelines for Environmental Qualification of Safety-Related Computer-Based Instrumentation and Control Systems in Nuclear Power Plants
• Regulatory Guide 5.71, Cyber Security Programs for Nuclear Facilities

And such compliance is inspected via chapter 7 on Instrumentation and Controls in what the US NRC calls "The Standard Review Plan" in NUREG-0800, or in the case of small modular reactors from companies like B&W mPower, NuScale, etc., via that same chapter in what is called a Design Specific Review Standard (DSRS):

• Chapter 7 of B&W mPower DSRS
• Chapter 7 of the NuScale DSRS

The means by which a company shows compliance with all the various regulatory documents and industry standards required to obtain a license is given in what is called a Design Certification Application (DCA). Each series of systems has its own chapter in this massive document and that document is submitted for a 40+ month review by the US NRC. Chapter 7 on Instrumentation and Controls in NuScale's DCA is provided below.

Chapter 7 in the NuScale Design Certification Application

Using applicable industry standards, it literally takes years to design, build and test a complete reactor protection and engineered safeguards system. If the review of the DCA is successful, then at the end the US NRC will issue a Final Safety Evaluation Report (FSER) which authorizes the next step forward to initiate construction of the facility, and that is an entire multi-year process by itself.

In the case of NuScale, a supplementary topical report on its integrated reactor protection and engineered safeguards system was also submitted to the US NRC:

 TR-1015-18653, “Design of Highly Integrated Protection System Platform” 

This design according to publicly available information will use Boolean logic (develop from Hardware Description Language or HDL programming) in what is called Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) instead of run time software within EEPROM or UVPROM chips or on hard drives to run its integrated protection and safeguards system. Such FPGA systems have greater immunity to security threats, and unlike the sequential serial step-by-step operation of run time software systems, can do logic processing in parallel, On Monday, July 17, 2017 there was a press release entitled, "NuScale Power, LLC Announces Highly Integrated Protection System (HIPS) Platform." This press stated:

NuScale Power, LLC announced today that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently concluded the Highly Integrated Protection System [HIPS] Platform is acceptable for use in plant safety-related instrumentation and control (I&C) systems.

The truth however is a bit more nuanced than a marketing news announcement. This is what the last paragraph on page 1 of the US NRC's Safety Evaluation Report (SER) actually says:

The scope of the review excludes the quality of the HIPS platform standardized circuit boards and their instruments chassis, the quality of the design process, and its equipment qualification. These activities are application specific, dependent on the equipment vendor to be used to implement the HIPS platform.

That means that the work required by the aforementioned regulatory guides and industry standards has yet to be done, and all that the US NRC has accepted in a 133 page SER is a technical description of a proposed technology platform and architecture. All the software engineering and software quality assurance work required for actually building such a system remains to be done.

Everyone who is pro-nuclear wishes the designers and developers of new nuclear reactors well. The bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric is regrettable, and the fate of its AP-1000 reactors being built at Vogtle and VC Summer is problematic. GE-Hitachi's on-again, off-again involvement in a new ESBWR for Virginia's North Anna Site and for Detroit Edison out in the Great Lakes area is disheartening. Areva's virtual exit from the US new construction market is depressing and B&W mPower's abandonment of pursuing its small modular reactor design was another depressing blow. So all hopes are on NuScale to succeed and prove that the United States has what it takes to design and build advanced nuclear reactors, and we all are rooting for NuScale's success. However, that said, issuing marketing announcements that skew the actual facts is at best misleading. The public should never be misled, even by marketing trying to put a positive spin on things. NuScale has YEARS of work to perform in mechanical, electrical, I&C, nuclear and radiological areas so that it will complete everything that it committed to do in its DCA. Submission of the DCA is merely the first step in a decade plus long process. Indeed, if fossil fuel companies were subject to this same level of safety and environmental scrutiny, then there would not be a single coal, oil or gas electric plant left operating. And if solar and wind were subject to equivalent safety and environmental scrutiny, then purveyors of those so-called green energy sources would likewise be out of business.

Decessus Mei Senioris Ioannis McSweeney

Msg John McSweeney

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Monsignor McSweeney, Pastor of St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in Charlotte, NC, is retiring. The following includes extracts from Charlotte Observer with commentary. While I am disappointed in many of the things which Msg. McSweeney says, I am NOT surprised in the least. This is typical for children of the smoke of Vatican Council II. This is what happens when one is first and primarily a businessman desirous of appealing to the popular culture so that the cash continues to flow into the parish from the rich folk living in the Ballantyne area. Nevertheless, let us proceed without further delay,

Let married men become priests, says pastor of America’s largest Catholic church

STATEMENT: His parting advice for Charlotte and its leaders: “Remember that it is a city for all people, not just a select few.”

COMMENT: Jesus had a different viewpoint.

For many are called, but few are chosen. Matthew 22:14

STATEMENT: During an interview with the Observer, he spoke candidly about a Catholic Church he thinks has often put the Book of Law before the Book of Love.

COMMENT: Jesus had a different viewpoint.

Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:17-20

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15

STATEMENT: Echoing Pope Francis – the fifth pontiff to reign during McSweeney’s time as a priest – he’d like the church and the diocese to be more about hospitality and less about judgment. That means, he said, being more welcoming: Of divorced-and-remarried Catholics, of LGBTQ persons, and of others who have long felt excluded by the church.

COMMENT: Jesus specifically forbade divorce and remarriage, and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, St. Paul specifically proscribed sodomy and lesbianism.

He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.” Matthew 19:8-9

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals (ουτε μαλακοι ουτε αρσενοκοιται – neither male receivers of male penetration nor male givers of male penetration), nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. 1st Corinthians 6:9-10

STATEMENT: With too few diocesan priests, including in Charlotte, where the Catholic population is booming, McSweeney said he’d also support the church re-opening the door to married priests by making celibacy optional – as it was the first 1,000 years of Roman Catholicism.

COMMENT: Marriage of clerics should be permitted because it is Scripturally allowed. However, the discipline of celibacy in the Latin rite also has a basis in Scripture.

Now a bishop must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sensible, dignified, hospitable, an apt teacher…. Let deacons be the husband of one wife, and let them manage their children and their households well. 1st Timothy 3:2 & 12

I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own special gift from God, one of one kind and one of another. To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is well for them to remain single as I do. But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to be aflame with passion. 1st Corinthians 7:7-9

I want to free you from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided. 1st Corinthians 7:32-34

STATEMENT: The monsignor – a title for priests who have rendered valuable service to the church – said he’s been around many married Protestant ministers who are “doing great work.”

COMMENT: Protestants are heretics, having rejected the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

STATEMENT: “And many men I was in the (Catholic) seminary with would be great priests today except for one thing,” he added, that one thing being their desire to get married.

COMMENT: Divorce rate among Protestant clerics is similar to that among the general population. There is no indication that allowing Latin rite clerics to marry will not result in the same. There are also additional problems with financially supporting a priest with wife and children. Finally, if the inducement to the priesthood is the prospect of conjugal relations in marriage, then one ought not to be a priest in the first place.

STATEMENT: Revolt brewing?

COMMENT: It is not revolt to return to the Sacred Traditions of two thousand years of Church history.

STATEMENT: McSweeney said he’s also “very concerned” that many of the priests graduating from seminaries these days are too conservative and could spur a revolt by Catholics in the pews against the priests’ efforts to stifle the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Also known as Vatican II, this council in the 1960s embraced church reform, including expanding the role for lay Catholics and celebrating the Mass in the local language more so than in Latin.

COMMENT: Marginalizing and demeaning conservative clerics for holding onto the Tradition of the Fathers of the Church is unbecoming. If the introduction of such priests cause liberal parishioners to leave instead of repenting of their liberalism (see Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Libertas and Dr. Don Felix Sarda Y Salvany’s El Liberalismo es Pecado), then let them leave and join the Episcopalian Church instead of trying to turn the Catholic Church into an imitation of a heretical Protestant sect.

STATEMENT: “The population that is the worshiping Catholic community have no understanding or history of pre-Vatican II,” he said. “They weren’t born (yet). The same with these young priests.”

COMMENT: If the laity do not know the history of the Church, then the priests must ensure it is taught through Catechism classes, RCIA, and adult apologetic studies. Furthermore, priests must preach the unvarnished Gospel of conversion and repentance, righteousness and holiness instead of catering to the whims and fancies of the popular culture.

STATEMENT: McSweeney said Vatican II called for active lay participation in the liturgy, or Mass. “What I see happening (at some parishes) is that is not happening,” he said. “It’s being stopped.”

Lay people, particularly women, are not being permitted, for example, to dispense Communion as Eucharistic ministers. Altar boys are allowed, but not altar girls.

These young priests, McSweeney said, “are trying to reform the reform. ... I don’t endorse what they’re doing to God’s people.”

COMMENT: The rubrics of the liturgy must be obeyed. Laity participate to the extent permitted and required by those rubics in their worship of the Living God. Laity do NOT come to Church to be entertained, but to give worship to the Creator and Judge of all mankind.

Furthermore, St. Paul would not permit altar girls, having written the following:

Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith and love and holiness, with modesty. 1 Timothy 2:11-15

STATEMENT: Recently, at a Catholic church in Waynesville, which is part of the Charlotte diocese, the pastor resigned after many from the congregation left to protest his insistence, for example, of replacing popular hymns with the ancient Gregorian chant.

McSweeney said such rebellion could also happen in some Charlotte parishes, adding only half jokingly, “I’ll lead it.”

COMMENT: The elevator music which substitutes for Sacred Hymns nowadays is an affront and a stench in the nostrils of God. If laity wish to leave when ancient Gregorian chant is sung, then let them leave and join their Protestant brethren. We are Catholic, and we are called to obey, NOT rebel. A priest is expected and require to an example par excellence of such obedience.

STATEMENT: Bishop Peter Jugis, who heads the Charlotte diocese, is a conservative who seems less in sync with Pope Francis than with former Pope John Paul II, who named him bishop in 2003. Last month, Jugis ordained five new priests for the diocese, four of whom he had sent to the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, a school with a reputation for graduating priests with traditionalist views.

COMMENT: Thank you, Lord Jesus, and thank you, Your Grace, Bishop Jugis. The old Vatican II guard is dying out and God is raising up true shepherds to rein in His flock before being snared by the devil.

STATEMENT: McSweeney, whose many jobs over the years included being vicar-general and chancellor, or CEO, of the diocese, said he’d like to see Charlotte area churches get priests from a broader pool of seminaries, the way they used to.

“In our history, we would have men in training in different seminaries so we’d get a broader aspect of the church,” he said. “And I think that’s what should be done now. Not just one place.”

COMMENT: Jesus would have a different viewpoint:

Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

STATEMENT: To take over as pastor of St. Matthew, McSweeney convinced Jugis to appoint the Rev. Pat Hoare, who has most recently been pastor at St. John Neumann Catholic Church

“I had suggested very clearly to Bishop Jugis that (Hoare) might be my successor because of his sense of care of people and also because of his professional business background,” said McSweeney, who called Hoare a moderate.

Having a business background – Hoare has a master’s degree in business administration and was a commercial insurance underwriter at Liberty Mutual – can come in handy in running a megachurch. Before he became a priest, McSweeney worked in his family’s funeral and real estate businesses in Oneida, New York.

COMMENT: In the same fashion, is not Donald Trump a great President because he was first a business man and never a politician? Again, Jesus would have a different point of view about money changers in John 2:13-25, having whipped them out of the Temple. And St. Peter said:

I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk. Acts 3:6.

The Church is NOT a business. She is the Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ. Focusing on money in the Church is the same as what liberals accuse Republicans of doing: focusing on money in government.

STATEMENT: McSweeney’s advice to his successor: “Stay out of the way a little bit and let God’s people do what they’re called to do. I’ve been quoted and I mean it, that the star here is not a priest.” It’s Jesus, he said, and the church is like a jigsaw puzzle, with each person fitting in in some capacity.

COMMENT: Jesus is not a star. Jesus is the Logos, the eternal only begotten Son of the Living God. To call Jesus “the star here” is to demean Him. We go to Mass to worship Him and to eat His Body and drink His blood. That ought to put fear and trembling into us for we as sinful human beings are unworthy of His omnipotent and omniscient greatness.

STATEMENT: McSweeney also points to the front of St. Matthew’s weekly bulletin, which calls the church “a welcoming parish” no matter what your status is with the Catholic Church or your current marital situation or your sexual orientation – to name just a few of the examples listed.

COMMENT: All are welcome at a Catholic Church – welcome to repent and amend one’s life. If one is in a state of adultery (divorce and remarried) or is an active sodomite or lesbian, then one is welcome to repent. Failure to repent will result in the damnation of hell. And failure to tell people that their behavior will jeopardize their eternal soul is demonstrably unmerciful, unkind, and unjust.

STATEMENT: Some may question McSweeney’s record on inclusion. In 2013, for example, St. Matthew bowed out of hosting Mecklenburg Ministries’ annual interfaith Thanksgiving service rather than formally invite music director Steav Bates-Congdon to help organize the event. Bates-Congdon had been fired the year before by another Catholic church after he traveled to New York to marry his longtime male partner and then put the wedding photos on Facebook.

McSweeney, who participates in celebrating an annual Mass for gay and lesbian Catholics in the the diocese, said his issue with Mecklenburg Ministries was “you don’t tell me who to invite.” Also, at the time, Bishop Jugis had just championed a 2012 campaign to amend the N.C. Constitution to reaffirm the state’s ban on same-sex marriage. (That ban was later thrown out by federal courts.)

COMMENT: The Catechism of the Catholic Church is clear:

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

STATEMENT: McSweeney also said he “won’t go there” in taking a stand on whether women should be ordained priests in the Catholic Church. Recent popes, including Francis, have said it will never happen, even though several large mainline Protestant denominations have been ordaining women clergy for years.

But McSweeney does favor letting women become deacons, which would give them the authority to preach at Mass, baptize and perform weddings.

And the monsignor said about 95 percent of his 63 staffers at St. Matthew are women, including the church’s chief financial officer, its chief of facilities and most of its clinical counselors.

‘Never say no to Jesus’

COMMENT: Pope John Paul II in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis explains in detail the prohibition on woman’s ordination. Basically, a woman cannot be man under any circumstance, and as such cannot be a Father or (hence) priest. It is not her function. And in 1st Timothy 2:11-15 St. Paul forbade women to have authority over men. This means that women cannot be deacons (because Christ ordained no deaconettes), priests (because Christ ordained no priestesses), or bishops (because Christ consecrated no bishopresses). It is not that the Church says no to Jesus as implied, but that the Church says yes to Jesus when the Holy Spirit forbade through St. Paul women to have authority over men.

STATEMENT: This weekend, 1,400 volunteers at St. Matthew will do what they’ve done every year for 15 years: Pack 335,000 meals bound for local food banks and for Haiti and Jamaica – the two countries McSweeney is considering as his next home.

He plans to work with the Missionaries of the Poor, a Catholic group at work on the ground in both countries.

McSweeney feels called.

“I’ve had the privilege of being in many different roles in ministry. ... But I think I need now to to experience (poverty),” McSweeney said. “I have a little motto: ‘You never say no to Jesus.’ And he keeps talking to me.”

COMMENT: Wonderful. Yet the command Jesus gave is NOT one of social justice but this:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you… Matthew 28:19-20

Cum Hospetes Amicos Fiant

Rev. Mark Curtis
Weddington UMC

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

On Sunday, 07/02/2017 we visited the Weddington United Methodist Church where “teaching pastor” Mark Curtis gave a sermon entitled “When Strangers Become Friends” based on the Call of Levi in Matthew 9:9-13 (also given in Mark 2:13-17 and Luke 5:27-32). Frankly, just seeing the title of the sermon in the bulletin passed out by ushers as we initially entered the sanctuary, I knew immediately where the talk was going to end and sure enough I was not (as the reader will soon find out) disappointed. Indeed, after the reading of the Holy Gospel this clergyman began with anecdotal stories of recent occasions when he and his wife visited “Bed and Breakfast” hotels, meeting new people and making new friends; such stories only increased my expectation of the inevitable. We congregants were told that in like manner a dinner was convened at which all manner of people attended, Christ having invited them without distinction. Emphasis was placed on the phrase, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice….” Then the finality: why can’t Trump supporters and Hillary supporters attend the table of the Lord in like manner? Everyone is invited to the Lord’s table – even LGBTQ people – just as everyone attended the Lord’s table in the Gospel reading.

Let us now examine the Gospel passage:

9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax office; and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. 10 And as he sat at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Nota bene: Jesus called Matthew (also known as Levi) and he left his tax collecting job and followed Jesus. In other words, he left his old life of sin behind. And it was only after leaving his old life of sin behind that he sat at table. In fact, St. John Chrysostom explains Matthew’s call in the following way in his Homily number 30 on that Gospel:

“But as you have seen the power of Him that called, so consider also the obedience of him that was called: how he neither resisted, nor disputing said, What is this? Is it not indeed a deceitful calling, wherewith He calls me, being such as I am? nay; for this humility again had been out of season: but he obeyed straightway, and did not even request to go home, and to communicate with his relations concerning this matter; as neither indeed did the fishermen; but as they left their net and their ship and their father, so did he his receipt of custom and his gain, and followed, exhibiting a mind prepared for all things; and breaking himself at once away from all worldly things, by his complete obedience he bore witness that He who called him had chosen a good time.”

Now certainly everyone is invited to the Lord’s Table: adulterers, fornicators, sodomites, lesbians, murderers, thieves, liars, drunkards, etc. But first we must repent and be in a state of grace. St. John Chrysostom says that Matthew broke himself away at once from all worldly things. Why must we break away from all worldly things as Matthew did before partaking of the Lord's Table? Because in His Bread of Life Discourse in John 6:22-59 Jesus declares that His flesh is real food and His blood is real drink, and he who eats and drinks will have eternal life. That's Jesus' Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity up there on the Table! Thus, St. Paul warns us in 1st Corinthians 11:27-32 that we must discern the Body and Blood of Christ when we eat and drink, lest we do so unworthily and thereby eat and drink damnation unto ourselves, for which reason St. Paul explains many have gone sick or lie asleep in death.

Of course the objection is that it is unmerciful and unkind to point out such hard words to sodomites and lesbians because after all, Jesus declared that He desired mercy and not sacrifice. Yet under the inspiration of Holy Spirit St. Paul specifically condemned the pagan practice of same sex relations in Romans 1:18-32. In fact, he emphatically states in verse 32 that those who do such acts deserve to die, and not just they who do them but they that approve them doing such acts. And in 1st Corinthians 6:9-10 St. Paul is very explicit about those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God, including in his list of unrighteous people those whom in the original Greek he calls μαλακοι and αρσενοκοιται. The first term – μαλακοι – was used to denote male receivers of male penetration and the second term – αρσενοκοιται – was used to denote male givers of male penetration. The Greek is therefore quite specific: “…ουτε μαλακοι ουτε αρσενοκοιται….. βασιλειαν θεου κληρονομησουσιν.” It means, “Neither male receivers of male penetration nor male givers of male penetration…the Kingdom of God shall inherit.”

Amici, everyone is invited to the Lord’s Table, and the Lord did eat with sinners and publicans in the aforementioned Gospel passage. St. John Chrysostom explains it in this way:

“Now the publicans come together as to one of the same trade; for he, exulting in the entrance of Christ, had called them all together. The fact is, Christ used to try every kind of treatment; and not when discoursing only, nor when healing, nor when reproving His enemies, but even at His morning meal, He would often correct such as were in a bad way; hereby teaching us, that every season and every work may by possibility afford us profit. And yet surely what was then set before them came of injustice and covetousness; but Christ refused not to partake of it, because the ensuing gain was to be great: yea rather He becomes partaker of the same roof and table with them that have committed such offenses. For such is the quality of a physician; unless he endure the corruption of the sick, he frees them not from their infirmity.”

Nota bene care lector, that Jesus becomes partaker under the same roof and table that unless He endure the corruption of the sick, He frees them not from their infirmity, and such infirmity includes but is not limited to same sex attraction.

Yes, everyone is invited to the Lord’s Table, but we must repent and be in a state of grace prior to receiving the Holy Eucharist. That includes adulterers, fornicators, sodomites, lesbians, murderers, thieves, liars, etc. without distinction. And as St. Paul warns us in Romans 2:1, “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, whoever you are, when you judge another; for in passing judgment upon him you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.” Indeed, gossiping, holding grudges and resentments, being dishonest and selfish are evil also, and thus we must examine ourselves. However, we cannot gloss over the fact that sodomite and lesbian acts are specific sins that cry out to Heaven (Article 1867 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church). It is therefore demonstrably unkind and unmerciful to fail to warn of God’s wrath against sin.

Yes, everyone is invited to the Lord’s Table, but Jesus Himself says in Matthew 22:14, “For many are called, but few are chosen,” and in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

I am no better than any sodomite or any lesbian (St. Paul’s warning in Romans 2:1 weighs heavily on me). Sadly I sin too, and I need to repent frequently. But when I am conscious of grave sin leading unto death (1st John 5:16-17), then I refrain from partaking of the Lord’s Table till I have repented, and repentance means turning away from sin. It means doing what Matthew did – leaving his tax collector job behind where he cheated and stole from those who taxed and those to whom tax was due. He stopped sinning or as St. John Chrysostom writes, “breaking himself at once away from all worldly things,” before sitting at the Lord’s Table and that is what we are all called to do.