Allocutios

ALLOCUTIO BY FR WANKAR - AUGUST 27, 2023

Given at the monthly San Mateo County Council Meeting (Saint Veronica Church)

Spiritual Reading : Chapter 9: "The Legionary and the Mystical Body of Christ “

Part 1 Legionary Service is Based On This Doctrine p. 51 of the Legion Handbook. 

Majority of the doctrines in our church came about because people were denying those truths and the church only responded to them. For example, people would say , Jesus is only man, He’s not God or Jesus is God, He is not man. In response to that the church would define the divinity and the personhood of Jesus.  It became important to put this down in the Creed for us to recite everyday. Most of the doctrines of the Church had been in response to the denial of people. 

That forms the background of our spiritual reading this month. Why do you worship Mary ? Why are you praying to Mary? So if you read it from that background it is a response to people who deny.  Those denials exist up to this day. 

At the end of our spiritual reading, in there it talks about the relationship of the neck, the head and the body. The neck connects the head to the rest of the body but then the neck does not serve the entire purpose. As Mary does in this salvation she is the heart, how can you live without a heart ? You will not be able to live. The same thing as the Church, it cannot breathe, it cannot live without Mary. She is the source of life for the Church,  precisely because she gives life. She gave life to Christ. Behold the handmaid of the Lord , may it be done to me according to your word… She was conceived of  the Holy Spirit and brought forth Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now, one common tendency especially as I see in this country in approaching the teachings and doctrines of the church, people pick things according to convenience. “I am pro-life but I am going to vote for this person. “ I am Catholic but we don’t believe in this, we don’t believe in that. “ The handbook is telling us that the Christian faith, especially our Catholic faith is a continuum,  is a whole, you cannot pick this one, pick that one and pick that one. That is where the break in functionality comes about. And  that has been the history of all the heresies , of all the schisms and of all the  breakaways that we have . Today , you hear "she is making an effort. God looks at the heart." But He (Jesus) expects the person who has this heart should behave in a certain way. So you cannot claim that God  looks at the heart and you are not to condemn somebody and then you are behaving in another way . The person who has the heart , the one who receives Jesus should behave in a particular way.  Be it in Africa, be it in the Philippines , in Germany , the person who has that heart should behave in a certain way. You see him , you know that this is what he / she  is following . You hear him talk,  you know that this is what he / she  is following. So it doesn’t become a matter of  whether we are - pro choice, pro-this , we like this one , we pick this one.  So you go around churches in the Archdiocese. You find one church , you find things done this way. You go to another church and you find things done that way and they say,  we are diverse, we have to celebrate diversity . It’s mercy ! All of those things are tricks! All of those things are tricks to destroy the faith. Yes , we come from a diversity of people. Goodness and love. Even blind people know what love is . You treat them well , they know, this person is being loving to me. Even deaf people . If you are loving and kind to them they know. So the language of our faith is one. The language of our faith is to be one . The action proceeding from that language should be a single whole . You don’t find people doing this way , that way. No ! Those are tricks to destroy. Eucharist is Eucharist here as it is in Taiwan , as it is in China. That is what the handbook says. From the person of Christ flows the same amount of sanctification in the sacraments. The same sacraments is approached in  one way , are approached in another way , those are tricks . 

So I remind you, we do not have an army with guns, arrows and spears. The weapon of this army under our Blessed Mary is the individual action of each one of us.  Do the right thing as it should be done. That's our weapon. We don't have guns , we don’t have battalions. No, our army is doing things the right way. Be different from how it is done. People look at it , it becomes a sting on their heart . Why is she doing this ? Why is she behaving this way? The army is being effective. So I repeat myself, volunteer, in the parish , teach Catechism  that is where to start. Teach children to receive Holy communion on  the tongue. Teach children when they go to Confession . Our Catechism has not changed. Continue to do what you can. Continue to be there in your  various parishes doing the little you can. Doing it differently in a way you are not attracting attention but it is definitely going to attract attention . That is the army at work . The weapon that we have . We are not worshiping Mary . We value our mothers, they gave us life that is why we approach her to take our petitions towards Jesus.