XXXII Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, pastor of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org) 

Submission to the blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella for XXXII Sunday in Ordinary Time

by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas © All Rights Reserved by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, November 7, 2023 ©

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time | USCCB

Recently, I met a Freemason while at a luncheon away from our parish. As I identified the Masonic pin on the lapel of his suit jacket, when I asked what church he belonged to, his first answer was that he believed in God. I replied that while the Freemasons acknowledged the existence of a Supreme Being, that being is not the God of Christian revelation, especially when that being is understood in Deistic terms or with mixtures of pagan, esoteric, and Christian themes. Furthermore, it is said that in Masonic rituals, the Holy Bible, the Qur’an, and the Torah are given equivalent honor. Although he was not a Catholic Christian, I questioned what the founders of his Protestant denomination would think of a sect that acknowledged divine inspiration of Sacred Scripture outside the Holy Bible (remember that the Torah itself is composed of the first five books, but only five, of the Old Testament). To avoid prolonging the encounter, I did not point out how the Masonic lodges eagerly supported efforts to oppose, persecute, and even exterminate the Catholic Church going into the 20th century, such as in Mexico.

If we are not careful or discerning, our search for wisdom and even for God Himself as set forth by the first two readings at Mass in the Ordinary Form today, could lead us to confusing mere knowledge, even esoteric knowledge, for wisdom or even beneficial contact with God. When the Freemason told me that he knew Catholics who belonged to Masonic lodges, I conceded the point glumly. However, I pointed out that Catholics who join Freemasonry incur mortal sin due to the above errors of the Masons and because of the Masonic oath involved in joining their lodges. Although there are those who cite the 1983 Code of Canon Law discontinuing the excommunication that applied to Catholics since 1738 who were Freemasons as somehow allowing Catholics to join their company, as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in that same year Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI of blessed memory, with the approval of St. John Paul II, reiterated that Masonic membership and ritual activity by a Catholic are irreconcilable with the Catholic faith and thus casts him in mortal sin and unable to receive Holy Communion. Cf. No sincere Catholic should join the Masons, Fr. William P. Saunders, Arlington Catholic Herald, Jan. 30, 2013, via www.catholicherald.com Perhaps the Mason whom I met thought that at the end of his life, his search for “light” would lead him to the “celestial lodge.” Let us recall the Lord’s words to the foolish virgins in today’s Gospel (Mt 25:11-12), “Afterwards the other virgins came and said, ‘Lord, Lord, open the door for us! But He said in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.” Perhaps the Lord put me in that Mason’s path to shed true light on the state of his soul and to invite him to reconsider with what “oil” he fuels his candle of life. As for Catholics, these reasons above are only a partial listing – even if a Catholic claims to join Freemasonry or its variations mostly or solely for professional, charitable, or social uses – why no sincere Catholic can become a Freemason and why no impenitent Freemason can be a Catholic in good standing in this life, let alone regarding eternity.