Many new traditionalists may be ignorant of the fact that the first heretics excommunicated by Pope St. Pius X were heretics in their denial on the inerrancy of Sacred Scripture.  For instance, Pope St. Pius X excommunicated the French seminary professor, Fr. Loisy, for denying the supernatural aspects of the Bible.  Notice that Fr. Loisy was not excommunicated for liturgical issues or even moral issues, but denying the Bible.  This makes sense the initial heretics of modernism doubted Scripture, for Satan himself first said “Did God really say…?”

Later in the 20th century, we saw the heresies of Fr. Loisy and others mushroom out into the heresy of modernism that then encapsulated liturgical novelties, overhauling all the old sacraments, re-arranging the Catholic calendar and overturning nearly every moral tenet of the Catholic faith, included but not limited to contraception and abortion.  Rightly has it been stated that modernism is primarily seen in the replacement of a supernatural religion with a natural religion and the replacement of a God-centered religion (traditional Catholicism) with a man-centered religion (what currently emanates from the Vatican apparatus.)

But modernism could also be defined as the inversion of the Two Great Commandments.  Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ said: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.—Mt 22:37-39.    Thus, the First Great Commandment is a summary of all commandments that refer to loving God (the three first commandments on that one half of the Decalogue.)  The Second Great Commandment is a summary of all commandments that refer to loving one’s neighbor (the next seven commandments on the other half of the stone tablets.)

Notice that modernists always try to invert the Two Great Commandments.  For example, if a group of people petition a leftist pastor in a Novus Ordo parish that they desire to kneel in order to receive Holy Communion, he will often ignore the First Great Commandment (for example, to adore God by kneeling) under pretext of adhering to the Second Great Commandment for a reason of human concern.  For example, he might say “We can’t have people kneeling to receive the Eucharist because the elderly behind you might trip and fall in the Communion line.”  It sounds like such a pastor is concerned with the elderly, but it’s just a pretext to avoid protection of the Eucharist.

This great inversion of the Commandments of God recently came up in US politics.  JD Vance, a new Catholic (and new Vice President of the United States, top-right in image) recently criticized US bishops for their stance on open immigration.  On Fox News, Vance said, “There’s this old school – and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way – that you love your family and then you love your neighbour and then you love your community and then you love your fellow citizens and your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.”

The one glaring omission in his statement is that he failed to mention that the Christian is called to love God before he loves himself or his family or his community or the rest of the world.  How do I know this?  Again, because Christ Himself said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Besides that glaring omission on insisting that the love of God must be prioritized far ahead of love of neighbor (the main reason why modernists have denied nearly every aspect of traditional Catholic morality in the 20th century, as seen in the above example of many old people tripping in the Communion line) JD Vance did very well explaining the order of operations of the human heart in regards to who we are called to love with our limited time and our limited resources.

St. Thomas Aquinas (top-left in image) in his Summa Theologiæ Second Part of the Second Part Question 26 explains the order of charity as to who we are called to prioritize in love if ever there were a conflict between them all.  St. Thomas places the targets of our charity to be in this order:  1) God 2) my soul 3) my neighbor’s soul 4) my body.  This isn’t just the opinion of a random saint in the 12th century.  If you study that hierarchy closely, you will see that this approach to love is the only way to work for God’s glory and the salvation of souls.  God’s glory and man’s salvation is why the Catholic Church exists.

Next in line after aiming to love God and souls would be trying to help my neighbor’s body.  St. Thomas then explains how to prioritize working for the betterment of my neighbor’s soul and body in the Kingdom by writing in Q26: “Moreover there is yet another reason for which, out of charity, we love more those who are more nearly connected with us, since we love them in more ways.”  In other words, the great saint (who always starts with Biblical proof) insists simple geography should dictate who we first help with our resources.

Notice that the “social-justice Catholics” speak and write a lot about their neighbor’s bodies but do very little as seen in the recent uncovering of corruption found in both the US bishops and Catholic Charities especially in regards to illegal trafficking across the US/Mexico border for profit.  They hide their Marxism under occasional pro-life statements, or occasional pious words about the sacraments.  But the bishops’ Marxism is very similar to leftists around us all day on the streets.  For example, it’s easy for leftist Americans to put a bumper sticker on their car that says “Free Tibet” than “Free Unborn Babies” for four reasons:

  1. A bumper sticker that says “Free Unborn Babies” would make leftists re-evaluate their own sex-lives—something they do not want to do.
  2. The notion of “Free Tibet” on an American’s car is a way to feel self-righteous without any need for sacrifice on an issue that is 10,000 miles away.
  3. Leftists always want to use others’ money (not their own) in taking care of the problems they think they have identified.
  4. Leftists are Marxists who attempt to build a utopia on Earth as they live in a manner totally detached from reality.

You see, a bumper sticker that reads “Free Tibet” means Western leftists can feel good about their constant moral failings in the bedroom while doing nothing sacrificial for the poor in their own backyard.  This is because the overarching hallmark of leftism is that of being totally detached from reality.  That’s what we see in certain corrupt men in Rome defending their own Vatican borders while condemning the Trump administration for wanting to do the same thing.

St. Thomas Aquinas tells us to take care of our own first.  This isn’t out of selfishness, but rather the practicalities of geography.  It’s humble to take care of those near you instead of talking about problems across the world while doing nothing for them.  St. Thomas places the order of operations on the Second Great Commandment within geographical parameters, much as JD Vance did in his recent statements to Fox News in his opposition to the leftist US bishops claiming to help everyone, except those in their own backyard.  Dr. Taylor Marshall gave an example of just such a geographical hierarchy of the targets of our charity here:

  1. God
  2. myself
  3. my spouse
  4. my family, children and parents
  5. my godchildren and extended family
  6. my friends and coworkers
  7. my neighborhood (I pay HOA for this one, not all neighborhoods)
  8. my county
  9. my state
  10. my nation
  11. my nation’s allies

Thus, JD Vance was not too far from St. Thomas Aquinas when he explained how President Trump proceeds into an “America First” mindset in regards to foreign policy.  God bless and reward our good Vice President in his continued conversion to true Catholicism.  Let’s pray hard that Trump convert to Christ and His One Church, too.