Jesus: "Can you hear My groans that come forth from the depth of My Crucified Heart? The groans of My agony of love. Listen to My groans of love.
“WARN AND AWAKEN MY PEOPLE”
9/24/20
Part I – Groans with Christ
1 Corinthians 5:1-8
“It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and of a kind that is not found even among pagans; for a man is living with his father's wife. 2 And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. 3 For though absent in body I am present in spirit, and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment 4 in the name of the Lord Jesus on the man who has done such a thing. When you are assembled, and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. 6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our paschal lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us, therefore, celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
St. Paul admonishes the Christians of Corinth because they are acting from the spirit of criticism which St. Paul calls “arrogant” (5:2), “boasting” (5:6) and the “leaven of malice and evil” (5:8). St. Paul sees the impurity of their intentions. They are condemning and judging the sinner without profound mourning of heart for the death of the soul of their brother because they lack love— “Ought you not rather to mourn?” (5:2)
Listen to My Groans —Diary of a MOC. p.225
Can you hear My groans that come forth from the depth of My Crucified Heart? The groans of My agony of love. Listen to My groans of love. (3/11/12)
Living Tabernacle of God —#78 Diary of a MOC.[1]
To be one with Me means that you become the living tabernacle of God. My loving, pulsating Heart lives in you as one with you. You feel My sorrows and participate in My groans for the fulfillment of humanity's transformation into LOVE.
· Example: the episode of The Chosen in which a Pharisee listens to Jesus teach the crowd, but he is stuck in his own perceptions, understandings, hardness of heart and therefore calls the Roman officers to arrest Jesus. Yet Jesus gazes at him with “tenderness in mercy” which flows from the groans of His Sacred Heart.
· It is first and foremost from Jesus’ Heart suffering the intense groans of the condition of the hearts of the Pharisees that then He is able to speak the truth with sincerity and boldness:
In Mathew 23: 13-36 Jesus speaks the word “hypocrite” 6X confronting the darkness in the hearts of the Pharisees. He also calls them “blind guides”, “whitewashed tombs”, “dead men’s bones” directly to their faces. He speaks in LOVE the truth:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
St. Paul’s words, in the aforementioned letter to the Corinthians, reveal his restored manhood in Christ moved by the Spirit of Love. He admonishes both the community and the sinner severely, “you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh” (5:5). He excommunicates the man. This might seem very harsh to us, but the severe punishment was in order to humiliate the man, to bring about the taming and eradication of his lusts so that his spirit could be saved. It was a discipline to AWAKEN carried out in deep sorrow for one who has died. St Paul acts with the authority of the Holy Spirit knowing that this sin is rooted in the sexual disorders that were common among the pagans of that culture. If this “bad weed” spread through the new Christian community in Corinth, it would destroy them. St Paul desires the salvation of this man and the protection of the Christian community. St Paul acts in truth which is mentioned by William Barclay in his Bible commentary, “Discipline has to be exercised for the sake of the Church. To shut our eyes to the offense is not always a kind thing to do; it may be damaging. A weed must be plucked out before it damages the entire ground. Discipline should never be exercised for the satisfaction of the person who exercises it, but always for the mending of the person who has sinned and for the sake of the Church.” St Paul defends and protects the Church and also provides the guidance and formation they need through his “sincerity and truth”(5:8).
St. Paul was acting in the authority of God because he was being moved by the pure intention of love; love for the salvation of each Christian soul and for the new Church in Corinth. Love moved him to provide, defend and protect.
[1] Cf., Mk 8:31-38.
