Written by Steve Skojec on February 15, 2009 – 5:58 pm “By their fruits you shall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire.”
- Mt. 7:16-19
If you’re a Christian of any stripe, it’s likely you’ve heard this passage at some point in your life. It seems sensible enough, to the point where I can only imagine it rarely garners much deeper reflection. Scripture is full of more meaningful passages to contemplate.
The problem is that when taken as a metaphor for human action, it can be used to justify bad behavior and ward off legitimate criticism. In fact, when compared to the real experiences most human beings have had, the most commonly understood meaning of this passage is so obviously false as to render it absurd. Of course bad (human) trees bear good fruit - if they didn’t, no one in their right mind would have anything to do with them.
This is clearly the case with the Legionaries of Christ, who seem most fond of using this scripture passage to deflect negativity about their “movement.”
7 comments:
I think the hardest aspect for many of us who gave years to the LC's is this - we are wrestling with the evil acts of the founder and the apparent good works we saw which we participated in.
I appreciate my LC formation. It has made me into the person I am today. Neverthless, I can't but be profoundly disturbed (and angry) by the depth and the breadth of these recent revelations of Marcial. It is quite possibly the biggest fleecing by anyone in the history of the Church - Think of the benefactors, the young men who have given their lives, the consecrated women who have given up their child bearing years, the bishops who have ordained their priests, JPII, and your everyday Catholic...all duped by this man. Good people will loose their faith, and enemies of the Church have fodder to feast on.
It is going to take time for the meaning and damage to marinate and produce the bitter conclusions which this wil bring. The more and more I reflect on how insiduous this man was the angrier and more resentful I become. How could God let this happen - How could he let good honest people be deceived by such an utterly selfish, narcissistic charlatain? My faith is strong, but in some ways I feel very much cast out into the dark night of uncertainty due to the actions of such a complete ASSHOLE!!!
Hang in there exlcs. I am an outsider and just an "average" Catholic, but I am very close to an exlc. I can never know what you all are going through, but it is so good that you can vent now! Let er rip! I am amazed at people who are too calm about the whole thing like this is just some ordinary sin and these things just happen. Let bygones be bygones ane let's all move on. They are zombies. The appropriate behavior after one finds out his wife has been raped is to want to destroy the offender! (at least in feelings if not in action.) Thank God for this web site. This is truly a good work! I hope that the bride of Christ will have her honor restored despite some bozos running the show.
"we are wrestling with the evil acts of the founder and the apparent good works we saw which we participated in." If this is any comfort to you, an "apparent" good work could be hollow in respect to Maciel, and not in respect to yourself. For example, if you and he went out to recruit, and he was recruiting out of pride, and you were recruiting out of a desire to bring glory to God--his pride doesn't nullify your good action. Your action was still good. You may have been misguided by him in that you were unknowingly drawing people toward his conceited plan. But nonetheless your action, comprised of your udnerstanding of the situation and your intention, was good. God takes that good, it is not worthless.
Is there a good concise description of the Legion's charism anywhere? I still can't figure out what it is. You might say, and I would agree, that the charism of the Legion is to promote the cult of MM, to facilitate MM's naughtiness, and to get big (satisfying MM's pride and desire for power and riches). All probably true. But what does the Legion say its charism is?
I would like to know if there is such a thing as an exorcism prayer for this sort of thing. It appears Satan has gotten himself firmly planted inside the Church. Would various LC superiors be willing to be prayed over by offical exorcists "just to be safe?" Just wondering.
Leave Satan out of this mess. Satan may be the father of lies but the Maciel and his cohort are nothing more than a bunch of pious con-artists. Judas knowingly betraying Messiah for his own ends- that's evil. Maciel and his followers were quick witted and lucky; therfore I avoid ascribing demonic attributes to this idiot.
To all my grass root supporters,
Do you believe this! Just because I molested a few kids, conned 5 popes and didn't tell the truth a few times, people are condemning me like I am Judas. Oh how weak people become when they are challenged. I just hope this doesn't prolong my beatification, I mean come on people its not like I didn't do enough good to not be a saint!!! One time when I was going to the airport both my Mercedes and Audi were in the shop being repaired. I had to ride in a Fiat! A fifteen minute ride to the airport in a Fiat with no air conditioning. What if Carlos Slim woulda seen me in a Fiat! Oh the Lord is good, he protected my image. between the fact I was riding in a Fiat and sweating so much from lack of AC I bet I freed 300 souls from purgatory that day. How many of you people can say that!! But no... your just like the liberal media, you only see the negatives of my life. So I embezzled money, big deal! I got that money from some rich yuppy anyway. I did him a favor by taking 5million dollars off his hands. That 5 million would have put him in hell. we all no Christ said man cannot serve two masters. But of course people only see me as a child molester. We all know I am a saint I heard so many people say oh that Maciel he's such a saint.. please please everyone your making me blush.. but then again for some odd reason I like to hear people toot my horn.. wow maybe I do have physiological problems... where the hells my morphine when I need it?!?! Oh yeh I kicked that addiction back in the 60's.. that darn Pius XII was onto me. He even had the nerve to kick me out of the Church for a few years! It can't be hey maciel thanks for putting Mexico back on the map or hey Maciel thanks for fleeing to the USA when times got tough so you could start such a great movement for the Church. Of course not he only saw me as a tripped out morph addict standing in the middle of St. Peters square claiming to be Elvis. I hope God judged him accordingly. And whats the deal with my mother why isn't she beatified yet!! Come on Pope Benny, I thought you were my friend. Geez whats a saint gotta do to get people to like him these days. Saint Francis had it easy!! If he only new all the suffering I have to go through.
well I will need to cut this letter short, my limo just pulled up I got a big meeting tonight with Carlos Slim... This Limo better have air conditioning. I get moody when I'm hot. Thank God I have all these peons to take my misery out on. Just like the one time a mistress of mine in Argentina wouldn't sleep with me anymore.. Oh I was mad, so mad I had one of the Novices clean up donkey droppings in front of my house in Cotija. I simply told him it was God's will and the poor SOB was on his hands and knees with a toothbrush cleaning donkey crap from between each brick. Oh the superiors told me all about it, I just wish I could have been there to laugh! But of course I wouldn't laugh at him I'd laugh with him. You know my Legionaries always smile. Those cute little boys there all just so happy doing God's will, it drives me wild!!. I did the kid a favor I let him make a sacrifice for Christ. Me being the initiator of the sacrifice gets me double the grace of the one doing task. Wow sometimes its tough being a living Saint all these graces I am receiving from my little upstarts doing all the work really makes me feel great. Maybe that's why my darn sex drive is so outta control. I just wish I knew my sexuality. That's why I keep my peon girls and boys separated. I know I can't keep it in my pants and I'm a living saint!! How is some average Joe from Kentucky not going to try and hook up with every girl he see's. So once again I am just doing my people a favor by separating the sexes... Damn, sometimes I hate being so smart. Well I must leave you know I got one of my mistresses here now complaining about child support and I need to jump in the limo to Go meet Mr Slim. Wow I am really suffering right now. This lady wants ten thousand dollars! I hope Slim will reimburse me! Remember, just because I am an oversexed pimp with my mind on my money and my money on my mind doesnt give you any reason to criticize me. If 5 popes supported me, all you no names better be bowing to me!
God Bless,
Saint MM
PS: I live off donations so don't get stingy with God. Not giving a saint money is like 5 lashes added to Christ suffering.
Oh yeh and make sure all checks are made to my Swiss Bank account. And don't you dare ask why I have a Swiss Bank account, that would be like asking for a glass of water in the hot desert! Simply accept it as God's will.
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