Monday, October 1, 2018

Can Viganò's Second Letter's Anecdotal Conclusion Perhaps Be Improved?

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò dated a letter on September 29, 2018, the Feast of Archangel Saint Michael, in which he wrote the following concluding remarks [1]:

It [referring to "a mosaic of the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice"] represents the miracle of the calming of the storm. I was struck by the fact that in the boat of Peter, tossed by the water, the figure of Jesus is portrayed twice. Jesus is sound asleep in the bow, while Peter tries to wake him up: “Master, do you not care that we are about to die?”  Meanwhile the apostles, terrified, look each in a different direction and do not realize that Jesus is standing behind them, blessing them and assuredly in command of the boat: “He awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Quiet! Be still,’ … then he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?’” (Mk 4:38-40). [Italics  original.]

The scene is very timely in portraying the tremendous storm the Church is passing through in this moment, but with a substantial difference: the successor of Peter not only fails to see the Lord in full control of the boat, it seems he does not even intend to awaken Jesus asleep in the bow.

Has Christ perhaps become invisible to his vicar? Perhaps is he being tempted to try to
act as a substitute of our only Master and Lord?

Perhaps this blogger is reading too much into it but his take away after reading Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò's conclusion is this: after Jesus was awoken by Peter and after He had calmed the wind and the sea, He asked Peter why he was afraid and why he still had no faith.  If Peter had absolute faith in Christ and was not afraid, then he would not have awoken Christ Who was sound asleep in the boat in a stormy sea.  By saying that Bergoglio did not intend to awaken Jesus, it could be interpreted to mean Bergoglio having Christ at the forefront of his mind and having complete faith in Christ which is the opposite of Viganò's point.

This blogger thinks he knows the point that Viganò was trying to make and he agrees with it, but to make it clear, perhaps Viganò could have added after these words "he does not even intend to awake Jesus asleep in the bow" this: in order to put an end to Christ's ministry by letting the stormy sea destroy the boat and drown those who are in it (implying the loss of all moral authority of the Catholic Church and all credibility of the good shepherds who preach the Gospel by having hypocrisies attributed to them by association).

Of course, this blogger is no where near as eloquent and subtle as Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, therefore his thoughts and blog posts are a reflection of such and other deficiencies.


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