Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of a sermon given on the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, July 12, 2026.
We heard in the first reading today timely words from Scripture. Each of us is being asked daily — and especially now amid recent events — to discern between good and evil, truth and falsehood.
The SSPX has become a major topic in the news lately, forcing everyone to choose a side and pushing many to decide where they stand. We cannot remain on the fence. Christ Himself gives us counsel today on how to discern and choose rightly.
The theme of today’s readings centers on fruits. The “fruit” of sin is death — the result of resisting the will of God.
When we hear the readings at Mass today, we should examine the fruits in our own lives and families: the fruits of the Holy Spirit (peace, charity, goodness, generosity) versus the fruits of discord and every evil. We must analyze also our own hearts and ask ourselves: Am I looking toward Christ and my true end, or am I distracted, dissipated, and diverted? The devil’s strategy is always to draw us away from Christ and from the lasting fruits He desires — our sanctification and justice.
These fruits of sanctification and salvation are worked out when we do the will of God, when we choose His will a hundred times each day in little things: the small sacrifice, the more arduous but virtuous path. This is our daily struggle against self-will and fallen nature, which always incline toward the easier way.
Scripture compares the soul to the sea — tossed about by waves from without and within, threatening seasickness and confusion. Yet there is only one light, one lighthouse, one narrow path to eternal life. That single degree out of 360 leads to heaven and sainthood; the other 359 degrees lead us astray in some way. The devil is content with a small deviation — a degree off each day, each week, each year. He does not need to turn us around completely at once.
Our Lord tells us we have indicators — both interior and outward — though they can sometimes deceive. Evil often disguises itself as good, and we may think we are choosing rightly. We want the fruits of justice, sanctification, salvation, holiness, and peace. Achieving them requires uprooting weeds, doing the hard daily work, never neglecting prayer or the spiritual life, and choosing order, charity, and truth. The saints have marked this path clearly for us. It has not changed.
A warning and a rule for discernment
Today, Jesus gives both a warning and a practical rule for judging between true and false, especially regarding false prophets. He says, “Beware of them!” On another occasion, He warned that many false prophets would arise and seduce many, and that even the elect would be deceived.
The Church Fathers teach that false prophets claim to speak for Christ yet they corrupt the faithful and lead souls away from the truth. They may draw great crowds and build big churches. But they preach prosperity with a beautiful smile while worshiping mammon. Their message sounds pleasant but twists the truth to destruction. They rarely speak of penance, sin, hell, or what must be avoided. Often their motives are ulterior — especially financial — and they pretend to be good shepherds while inwardly they are ravening wolves who devour the sheep.
The Book of Deuteronomy tells us: If a prophet arises and performs a sign or wonder, then afterward says, “Let us go and follow strange gods,” do not listen to him. In our day, are not those in shepherds’ clothing doing exactly this — devouring, destroying, and dividing the people while entering into dialogue with false gods? Their fruits are rotten. Their tree is bad. That tree is Vatican II. It began there.
Deuteronomy gives another warning: “Thou shalt have this sign: whatsoever that same prophet foretelleth in the name of the Lord, and it cometh not to pass — that the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath forged it by the pride of his mind; therefore thou shalt not fear him.”
If a prophet foretells great things in the Lord’s name and they do not come to pass, he is not from God.
The ‘voice’ of Vatican II
Recall what was promised after Vatican II: a great springtime, a new Church ushering in a new age of promise. All that was needed, they said, was to go into the world a little — religious would take off their habits, priests would remove their cassocks. “Stop ringing bells,” we were told. “They annoy the world.” All paths lead to heaven! Be nice and merciful by “accompanying” homosexuals, giving them blessing and approval, and never speaking of sin. Then the world would applaud, and there would be a great springtime, they said.
Was this the voice of a true prophet or a false one? “By their fruits you shall know them.” Vatican II produced no springtime, no increase, no good fruit. It was a revolution that is now clearly exposed — one that led to the death of religious life and vocations, the hollowing out of all things holy. Great promises, but all lies.
Crowds cheered for the new Church and bought the lie because the shepherds declared it would be wonderful. The elect were deceived, just as Christ foretold. Now, when the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth? It does not appear the large majority will possess it.
The large majority dances down the synodal path toward the precipice while the whole world joins with them, praying and condemning tradition and those who cling to it. Yet, there was voice who was despised because he foretold the impending doom and destruction of the Council. That voice stood almost alone, mocked and excommunicated. He was a great missionary in Africa. He foretold — before it happened — that the new Church and new Council were false promises that would kill many souls, that it would end the missions and religious life, and that it would bear only horrid fruits. They laughed, mocked, and called him evil. Like many saints, he stood alone. Yet his words came to pass.
The Dispatch
We cannot obey false prophets
According to God’s Word, who are the false prophets and false Christs? Many voices compete for our attention; they seek to divide and disperse us, to destroy families and turn people against one another, bearing rotten fruits. Powers are at work that we should have expected. We will endure every kind of opposition — from within, without, and everywhere. Our Lord said as much: “All men will hate you.” It is a narrow way.
Who was truthful and who lied? Who were the ravening wolves dressed as shepherds? The tree of novelty and error, the tree of Vatican II, will be cut down, for it has not yielded the fruits of justice or sanctification but the opposite. “Do not fear them,” says the Lord. They demand obedience, yet they themselves do not do the will of God; neither will they enter life, nor those who follow them. This is not holy obedience but rebellion.
These false prophets ushered in a revolution that the world applauds and praises. An unholy global coalition of evil unites to condemn the justice foretold by the saints and in the Scriptures for the end times. Like the Son of God crucified outside the city, we find ourselves, as it were, outside — but with Christ.
As Saint Paul warned in Second Timothy, “There shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth and be turned unto fables.” What shall we do? Our Lord said, “Flee to the hills.” They have the churches; we have the faith. We will hold fast to the heavenly doctrines preached by all the pontiffs, all the councils, and all the saints.
SSPX consecrations: Catholics must follow Christ into the wilderness to be fed by Tradition
The revolution of the 1960s and 70s, imbued with the spirit of the age, is antichrist. The word of tradition is infallible, immutable, and indefectible: the unchanging truth of God, preached and handed down orally through all the ages.
Christ said we would have shepherds in wolves’ clothing who would lead the people astray. We expect it. These ravening wolves deny the word of tradition. They do not protect the sheep nor feed them. They are worse than hirelings, for they themselves devour. They are not apostles or shepherds but wolves in shepherds’ clothing. Do not follow them. Do not fear them. Give no hearing to their false words.
Strong amid persecution
We must be strong and courageous. Persecution and confusion are increasing. We have been practicing for this; we have been praying. Give us the grace to endure, O Lord. Those who will be saved are those who persevere to the end and keep patience. Satan would like to sift you as wheat. Let us do the will of God and work out our salvation each day.
What are we to do? Be Catholic — not by inventing something new, but by keeping the faith, living it in your family, and holding the line. It is not an option to follow another gospel or another faith. The charity of Christ presses us to keep this faith. We must personally bear the fruits of sanctification. False prophets are out there seeking to deceive many; if you follow them you will lose your salvation. Our own pride, negligence, and sloth can also cause us to lose it. We must be diligent in the interior life and not neglect these things.
Do not be discouraged. Recognize that the time is now. The enemy is at the door — he knocks and is already inside. There is no option but to fight, to make a decisive choice, and to renew the choice we have already made. Let us bear these fruits and pray for holiness and justice in our lives and families. We will fall many times; we must get back up, go to confession, and trust in the Lord’s mercy. Never give up. He is good, merciful, and loving. He bears with us. We must not despair, worry, or be anxious. Simply look to Him, to His Sacred Heart, to Our Lady, and ask their assistance. They will not fail you.
We can expect to be pressed a little more in this time. Remain at the foot of the Cross, where there are always few — with Our Lady. That is our mission: to remain there, consoling Him, loving Him, interceding for priests and for the Church in this time of apostasy when so many have abandoned Our Lord Jesus Christ. When there are hardly any fruits, examples, or saints visible, we must look back to the saints of old and to tradition. It is time to bear witness anew.
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Let us not be found in sin. If we are, let us confess, and He will be faithful to forgive us. We have the most beautiful opportunity before us — yes, with much opposition and adversity. Do not think we are better than anyone; nor are not embittered. We are those who love the Church, who love Jesus Christ, and who recognize the crisis — the elephant in the room.
Why can we not acknowledge the state of great crisis that requires extraordinary means to keep the faith alive for our families? What is the alternative? The beautiful opportunity is to fight, suffer, and endure opposition for the treasure of the deposit of the faith, together with so many saints, the merits of Christ and Our Lady, and the whole of tradition. What an honor!
They will say every horrible slur against you. They will call you every heinous name — schismatic, extremist, divisive, disobedient — to scare you away. But disobedient to what? To a false word. We are an obedient people who love the law of Our Lord, who love Him and our faith. We have only to persevere to the end in the truth you have heard and known—in humility, in charity, with the fortitude of martyrs. We must preserve the faith and defend what is good and holy, transmitting it to our children. There is no other option, because we cannot follow another way.
We are honored to be hated by all men for Christ’s sake. There is no worldly gain in it for us, but there is gain for Christ. If we gain Christ and His approval, we have done well. We have not come preaching a human gospel. We have preached the way of the Cross, of rejection. Few will be able to follow it to the end, because the powers of evil have grown so great and because it is difficult and perhaps lonely. Many will fall away because their hearts grew cold. But we are not alone. We have the communion of the saints who also suffer; we have Jesus and Mary; we have one another.
Do not be afraid of men who can only kill the body, your reputation, or some passing thing. They will try to make you doubt and distrust. The demons do not want you to persevere or to follow your vocation. They want to pressure you, to make you apostatize, to turn away and deny Christ. They hate that you remain faithful to tradition. Why else would the whole world try so hard to call you the same names? They recognize their enemy. They will try to convince you that you are disobedient and doing the wrong thing. It is a lie.
The devil once used the pretext of “love” to usher in the sexual revolution; it was not love. Just so, this is not true obedience. What we do is the highest obedience and the most charitable thing we could do.
God bless you, and God love you.
