By Judie Brown
Snaky: “insidious,” stealthy, or slithery
These synonyms apply to two men who have a common interest in life: misrepresentation of the respect and honor due to the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Christ in Holy Communion. The two men who currently come to mind are former vice president Joe Biden and FOX News host Brian Kilmeade. Both are Catholics who, for one reason or another, do not respect or honor the body of Christ. Such people are snaky Catholics.
Biden is a longtime advocate of abortion and has presided over a homosexual union. And Brian Kilmeade is a Catholic cohost of FOX & Friends. Commenting on the Biden incident, Kilmeade said: “I just find that extremely negative, if everybody in line to get communion has to live up to all the principles of Catholicism. As a Catholic, there’d be 2 or 3 people in line.” Such words reflect Kilmeade’s total lack of understanding of Catholic teaching, of the reality that Christ is truly present in Holy Communion, and of course Canon Law.
The men’s lack of honor is juxtaposed with the heroic actions of Catholic priests like Father Robert Morey who deny the sacrament to public advocates of grave sins such as abortion, homosexual marriages, and so on.
In response to the coverage of the heroic actions of Father Morey, Biden’s latest word on the matter is: “It’s not a position that I’ve found anywhere else, including from the Holy Father, who gives me Communion.”
How deceptive can Biden get? Over the years, numerous bishops, including Bishop Joseph Martino, have made it clear that they would not give the body and blood of Christ to Biden.
Biden and Kilmeade have made statements that bear a striking resemblance to the words of the serpent in the Garden of Eden who deceived Eve. That is why snaky defines such folks perfectly.
God spoke of our Blessed Mother when He warned the serpent: “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.”
The devil lurks everywhere, but through the intercession of the Blessed Mother goodness will prevail, even against the snakiest of human beings. And we know the struggle will be intense.
St. John Paul II elaborates on this in Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer)—his encyclical on the Blessed Mother:
There comes into the world a Son, “the seed of the woman” who will crush the evil of sin in its very origins: “he will crush the head of the serpent.” As we see from the words of the Protogospel, the victory of the woman’s Son will not take place without a hard struggle, a struggle that is to extend through the whole of human history. The “enmity,” foretold at the beginning, is confirmed in the Apocalypse (the book of the final events of the Church and the world), in which there recurs the sign of the “woman,” this time “clothed with the sun” (Rev. 12:1).
Mary, Mother of the Incarnate Word, is placed at the very center of that enmity, that struggle which accompanies the history of humanity on earth and the history of salvation itself. . . . Mary thus remains before God, and also before the whole of humanity, as the unchangeable and inviolable sign of God’s election, spoken of in Paul’s letter: “in Christ . . . he chose us . . . before the foundation of the world . . . he destined us . . . to be his sons” (Eph. 1:4, 5). This election is more powerful than any experience of evil and sin, than all that “enmity” which marks the history of man. In this history Mary remains a sign of sure hope.
Reading these profound words helps us understand that, as we pray the Rosary together, we are creating the Marian Blue Wave. Through our Rosaries, we assist the overcoming of evil that underscores deceptive statements from snaky people who appear to have lost their sense of the divine—and their sense of what it means to be worthy to receive Holy Communion.
As we pray the Rosary, we pray especially that every bishop and pastor will ponder these words from Wisdom 12:2: “And thus, gradually, you correct those who offend; you admonish and remind them of how they have sinned, so that they may abstain from evil and trust in you, Lord.”
Every snaky Catholic like Biden and Kilmeade needs to hear these words and understand the gravity of their actions. Their shepherds need to make it clear that disrespecting the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion is never okay.
Mary Mother of God, Mother of Divine Mercy, pray for us now and at the hour of death. Amen.
