In moments of history like a papal resignation, it is often the case that two sorts of reasoners emerge in the life of the Church: the regular reasoner and the signs and wonders reasoner. There is a place for both, and both need to learn to appreciate the other.
Regular reasoning looks at things like prudence, practicality, the witness of the Tradition, cost/benefit, etc. So, to a question like "Should the Pope resign from office?" a person of Benedict's temperament--while obviously open to the possibility that the Holy Spirit might do something miraculous to guide him--looks to the common sense of somebody like Gregory the Great, listens to his doctors saying, "You are not up to the job anymore", prays and seeks the light of the Holy Spirit, obeys his conscience, and arrives at a decision which he offers, in good faith, to God and (no doubt) in consultation with other good and holy people of common sense.
Signs and wonders reasoning looks to things like
The announcement was made on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes!
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Comet: will it be visible during conclave?
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Something something St. Malachy!
The Church, being Catholic, really does accomodate all sorts of folks, including folks who navigate life by means of signs and wonders. Jesus did, after all, perform wonders and make prophecies. On more than one occasion God actually inspired the psalmist with his glory via a lightning storm:
1 Ascribe to the LORD, O heavenly beings, * ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. 2 Ascribe to the LORD the glory of his name; worship the LORD in holy array. 3 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, upon many waters. 4 The voice of the LORD is powerful, the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. 5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars, the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire. 8 The voice of the LORD shakes the wilderness, the LORD shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of the LORD makes the oaks to whirl, * and strips the forests bare; and in his temple all cry, "Glory!" 10 The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD sits enthroned as king for ever. 11 May the LORD give strength to his people! May the LORD bless his people with peace!
And, indeed, at one point in Jesus' ministry, our Lord appears to take a burst of thunder as a sacramental sign of the voice of God:
"Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing by heard it and said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." (John 12:27-32)
The problem, of course, is that apart from the prophetic spirit, it's pretty tough to make hard and fast declarations about such events. Was that lightning strike after the Pope's announcement a sign? Dunno. If it was a sign, what did it signify? Dunno. People with the above passages in mind might think it signifies divine approval or disapproval for Benedict's decision. People with this passage in mind...
The seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" And he said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you. (Luke 10:17-19)
...might deduce such varied conclusions as "Benedict's decision inflicted a grievous wound on Satan." Or "Satan has fallen to earth to inaugurate the end of days because of this decision". Or "Benedict has given up the authority God has entrusted to him and we are all doooooooomed" or "God is still in control and nothing shall hurt us." As you might notice, each of these conclusions finds its source, not in the evidence of the lightning strike, but in the fears/hope/convictions of the person looking at the lightning strike. This includes, by the way, the atheist who arrives at the conclusion "Lightning is simply electricity and there is no meaning to it." That too is an attempt at prophecy and a claim to know the Secret Reality Behind World Events. It should be treated with the same skepticism as all other attempts at prophecy.
The moral of all this is that the prophetic spirit is properly to be subjected to the Holy Spirit at work in the whole Church in union with the bishops and Peter, not simply allowed to run rampant with speculations about wars and rumors of wars on websites. There is a place for discerning the signs of the times. But that place is within the larger apostolic tradition. Real prophecy can and does occur (see anything from the astounding career of Joan of Arc to the visions of Fatima). But the habit of perpetually trying to divine the Hidden History of our Time from lightning strikes, comets and coincidences is mostly either a waste of time or (when we do it while neglecting the Church's public revelation) actively pernicious. If you find that prophecy-chasing bears fruit in either gnostic pride (*I* know what's going to happen next") or gnostic fear ("I'm terrified of what is to come!") or a mixture of both, then drop it. Jesus says, "Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will worry about itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." Begin there.
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During his inaugural address, the Holy Father asked the faithful to “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves”. Bl. Elizabeth Canori-Mora wrote that she saw a vision of a pope: “surrounded by wolves who plotted to betray him… I saw the Sanhedrin of wolves which surrounded the Pope, and two angels weeping… when I asked them why they were sad and lamenting, looking upon Rome with eyes full of compassion they responded, ‘Wretched city, ungrateful people, the justice of God will chastise you.’”
She said that the angels told her that “many ecclesiastics who persecute Jesus Crucified and His holy Gospel under the guise of doing good… Like furious wolves they scheme to pull the Church leader down from his throne.” Then she was allowed to see the terrible indignation these wolves aroused in God. “In terror I saw the blazing lightening bolts of Divine Justice fall about me. I saw buildings collapsing in ruins. Cities, regions and the whole world fell into chaos. One heard nothing but countless weak voices calling out for mercy. Countless people will be killed. [I saw that God was] extremely angry with those who persecute Him. His omnipotent hands were holding bolts of lightening, His face was resplendent with indignation and His gaze alone was enough to incinerate the whole world.”
She was then shown a vision of the election of the Angelic Pope: http://unveilingtheapocalypse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/bl-elizabeths-prophecy-of-pope.html election of the Angelic Pope.
The “Worthy Shepherd Prophecy” of Bl. Tomasuccio de Foligno foretold that the “Worthy Shepherd” would be elected by about “twelve years shall the millennium have passed”:
“One from beyond the mountains shall become the Vicar Of God. Religious and clerics shall take part in this change. Outside the true path, there will be only disreputable men; I shrug my shoulders when the Bark of Peter is in danger and there is no one to lend it help… The schismatic shall fall into the scorn of the Italian faithful… By about twelve years shall the millennium have passed when the resplendent mantle of legitimate power shall emerge from the shadows where it was being kept by the schism. And beyond harm from the one who is blocking the door of salvation, for his deceitful schism shall have come to an end. And the mass of the faithful shall attach itself to the worthy Shepherd, who shall extricate each one from error and restore to the Church its beauty. He shall renew it.”
http://unveilingtheapocalypse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/is-worthy-shepherd-prophecy-about-to-be.html
How’s that for “signs and wonders reasoning”!
The lightning strike could also coincide with the Angel with the flaming sword in the Third “Secret” of Fatima, pointing to the earth and saying: Penance, Penance, Penance!
More signs and wonders reasoning.
Good write up, I think it shows some of the pitfalls with ‘signs and wonders’ while still being mindful of the fact that signs and wonders do in fact exist and should not be ignored.
Personally I tend to accept a bit of both, but when it comes to signs and wonders I try to stick pretty close to what can be readily discerned and what is approved by Holy Mother Church. I am of the mind that perhaps we saw more than what meets the eye with the lightning strike, but the author lays out the problems with trying to understand it. We have no good basis for understanding, and it is at least equally likely this was just sheer coincidence.
As such, I cautiously accept this as a divine sign of approval with regards to the humility of this act. Though who knows, perhaps the Anti-christ is here? I hope not.
What is to be gained by these folks that focus (I might even say obsess) on “signs and wonders”? Nothing good is my guess, as you so named it either gnostic pride or gnostic fear. Either one, IMHO they could be spending their time A LOT more profitably studying Scripture, Church teaching, various types of theology or….....cheesemaking, macrame, curling, Justin Bieber lyrics, etc.
I’m a detective, I’m not allowed to believe in coincidence.
Sheer coincidence does not exist. Better call it Providence. Even the hairs on our heads are counted! Now, how to interpret God’s signs is not for the individual imagination to unravel, but we must pray, united to Christ of whose Body we are members, and wait until the truth of the events is manifested. +
Mark
Excellent points.
That said, when a Pope announces he is leaving and is quickly followed by lightning strikes, a near miss asteroid, the biggest meteorite hit in a century as well as other meteor sightings (all from different directions, mind you) and a visible comet during a conclave might not be enough to head to the bunker, but stocking up on fruit loops and beef jerky might be in order!!
Alls I’m saying!! ;-)
When God sends a sign, we (as believers in HIm) should take notice and if we are well informed in the Faith, should know what the sign means and what we should do when it appears to us.
Pat, you forgot the earthquake that Rome had the next morning!
“Smoke of Satan,”
Shielding pedophile priests
Paying off victims of ecclesiastical “indiscretion”
Careerist clergymen
clericalism
Arius redux
freemason infiltration
communist infiltration
Marian reproach at Fatima,
consecration of russia?
“spirit of vatican ii”
crisis of catechesis
ecclesiastical contempt for St. JPII
neglect/contempt of humanae vitae
seameless garment
cave in to roe
cave in re marriage
staking out the ground around “insurance cost”
caving in re immigration
caving in re health care
Notre Dame
I note that Out Lady did not tip off any of the alleged seers who claim to receive frequent messages from her that Pope Benedict was retiring!
The lightning strike happened several hours after the announcement. Note the lights in the buildings and square indicating the photo was taken after sunset. The announcement was made before noon local time.
No doubt St Peter’s, like most tall buildings, is regularly hit by lightning - hence lightning conductors on all cathedrals, legislatures etc.. Should we try to correlate every papal utterance to lightning to test if it is Magisterial? This photo was was a lucky break for one of the many journalists and photographers who rushed to St Peter’s following the announcement.
Striking picture but nothing more to say.
I do firmly believe that there must be a balance between reason and a more personal experience of the faith. “Signs and wonders” must be given their due. The balance in recent decades has been toward cold reason, which I’m just not certain is right.
Any conclusion that comes from reason must be tested by a deeper spirituality guided by the holy spirit. Some excesses of reason in history would have been well served by this. Similarly, though, signs and reasons must be tested by reason. What is plainly superstition, conspiracy or just silliness needed to be set to the side.
How to apply all of that? That’s the great question. I find the St. Malachy story quite interesting, but that’s really all. If, after the white smoke, out comes Pope Peter II, I will definitely go back and take another look at it :).
T
www.traditium.com
I do firmly believe that there must be a balance between reason and a more personal experience of the faith. “Signs and wonders” must be given their due. The balance in recent decades has been toward cold reason, which I’m just not certain is right.
Any conclusion that comes from reason must be tested by a deeper spirituality guided by the holy spirit. Some excesses of reason in history would have been well served by this. Similarly, though, signs and reasons must be tested by reason. What is plainly superstition, conspiracy or just silliness needed to be set to the side.
How to apply all of that? That’s the great question. I find the St. Malachy story quite interesting, but that’s really all. If, after the white smoke, out comes Pope Peter II, I will definitely go back and take another look at it :).
T
That uncanny feeling of the ‘wholly Other’ as Otto Rank termed it, is never out of place. It is the ‘basic black’ of religious feeling and never out of style. Soon as you start ‘massaging the message’ this feeling is lost and a kind of perverse excitement of the self takes it place.
A note on what’s commonly Englished as “Penance, penance, penance!”, which our Blessed Mother or an angel is depicted as saying at Lourdes or Fatima or elsewhere: here the Portuguese word, for instance, is *penitência*, which can indeed mean “penance” (i.e., a difficult good action), but really means, more broadly, “penitence”, “repentance”, “self-reformation”.
Someone once said the lightning wasn’t a judgement either way, it was simply a descent of the Holy Spirit at work. I liked that. Instead of telling us what we ought to think or not think of these events, why not let us have a wait-and-see attitude?
“Was that lightning strike after the Pope’s announcement a sign? Dunno. If it was a sign, what did it signify? Dunno.”
My sentiments exactly.
The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a God of signs and wonders: the miracle of the promise to Abraham fulfilled even to our own time; the miraculous ram sacrificed in place of Isaac; the vision of Jacob with angels ascending and descending; the raised arms of Moses bringing victory to the Israelites.
Christianity is essentially a religion of signs and wonders. I believe the Lord Jesus is the son of God not because of theological formulations but because Simon Peter said he saw the Lord Jesus transfigured and that he resurrected few days after a most horrific and heart rending torture cumulating in death on a cross. I believe Simon Peter and the other apostles because I cannot see why they would lie considering they kept repeating the same message in the face of torture and death. In other words they gained nothing humanly speaking by their testimony; in fact they lost everything humanly speaking.
It was not the written scriptures that caused the Lord Jesus to succeed, it was the power of his spoken word and the miracle of his person and his presence amongst us even till now.
If only we had the faith what would the Lord Jesus not do for us?
NB! If you are curious about the lightning sign, read psalm 29 and 144 (Hebrew numbering)
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