Carissimi: Today’s Mass; Sunday VII Post Pentecost

Sunday VII Post Pentecost; Commemoration of St Pius I, Pope & Martyr: Missa “Omnes gentes“

For the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, quite possibly the most powerful of affirmations is given by our Lord and Saviour that it isn’t that difficult to tell who are the false prophets and heretics for by their fruits we shall know them. There is nothing ambiguous about Christ’s words that a bad tree will be chopped down and rooted out, then cast into the fire. What other kind of fire would the Son of Man be talking about in His parable but eternal hellfire? It dovetails with St. Paul’s words in the epistle that the wages of sin is death, as in mortal sin equals death to eternal life; and that eternal life is available only through the grace of God, our salvation merited by Christ’s offering Himself on the Cross, shedding every…