Transcription: Fr. Hewko's Sermon for Third Sunday after Epiphany [2025] "I Will Be Made Clean"

[Stone]

Third Sunday After Epiphany 
"I Will Be Made Clean"
January 26, 2025
By: Father Hewko

Transcription by The Catholic Trumpet [slightly adapted and reformatted]| January 29, 2025

Click here to listen to this sermon.


Today is the third Sunday after Epiphany here in central New York.

The Epistle is taken from St. Paul's letter to the Catholics in Rome, chapter 12:

Brethren, be not wise in your own conceits to no man render evil for evil but provide good things, not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as far as in you lies, be at peace with all men. Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to to the wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, give him food, and if he is thirsty, give him to drink, for by so doing you will heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

The Holy Gospel from St. Matthew, chapter 8:

At that time when Jesus had come down from the mountain, great crowds followed him, and behold, a leper came up and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And stretching forth his hand, Jesus touched him, saying, I will be made clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, See that you tell no one, but go, show yourself to the priests, and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a witness to them. Now when he had entered Capernaum, there came to him a centurion, who entreated him, saying, Lord, my servant is lying sick in the house, paralyzed, and is grievously afflicted. Jesus said to him, I will come and cure him. But in answer the centurion said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou should come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man subject to authority, and I have soldiers subject to me. And I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. And when Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who were following him, Amen. I say to you, I have not found such great faith in Israel.And I tell you, that many will come from the east and from the west, and will feast with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom will be put forth into the darkness outside. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion, Go your way, as you have believed, so be it done to you. And his servant was healed in that hour.

Thus are the words of the Holy Gospel.

By way of announcement, please pray for Bishop Williamson. There's been a few reports that he's already dead, but as far as I (can) confirm now, from a very reliable source, Bishop Williamson is not dead. He's still hanging on. He's now on life support in England, and apparently he's waiting for his brother [...] to come, and some of the bishops to come. So please pray for Bishop Williamson, but he's not expected to live much longer. So pray for him, and Bishop Williamson, as you know, consecrated six bishops for tradition, and at least he did this for the continuation of the true Catholic Mass and of Catholic tradition. So pray for him, because very soon he will face his judgment.

Judgments of bishops are always more severe than priests, and judgment of priests are more severe than the laity. So it's a scary thing when bishops and popes and priests come before the throne of God. So they do need prayers, and don't forget Bishop Tissier de Mallerais, who died also about a month or so ago. Pray for him as well.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

St. Ambrose makes a very powerful point on this Gospel. He says this: “When Christ said, “I will be made clean”, he said this because of Photinus. He commands and says, “Be made clean”, on account of Arius, the heretic, and he touches the leper on account of Manicheus, the heretic.” “For Photinus”, that's P-H-O-T-I-N-U-S, Photinus. “Photinus the heretic taught that Christ was a mere man and not God, whose attribute is an almighty will by which He says, ‘I will be thou clean’.” So Photinus the heretic said Christ was just a man and not God, and Arius the heretic taught that Christ was inferior to the Father, and not equal to the Father, and therefore did not himself command, but received the Father's commandments. So to counter that heresy, Christ commands the leprosy to go: “I will it. Be made clean.” So Christ shows He's God by commanding the sickness to leave. And then thirdly, “Manicheus, the heretic, taught that Christ had not real flesh, but only an appearance such as a ghost, as could not in reality either touch or be touched.” So to refute that heresy, Christ touches the leper with His hands to show He's not a ghost, He's a real body. So Christ counters all these heresies in this one curing of the leper, that He's really the true God, He really commands, and He really has a real body to sanctify that touches.

And when we go to Communion today, in the Holy Eucharist, Christ is truly present, His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. It's not a representation, it's not a symbol, it's not as they say in the New Mass, 'a symbol of the communities gathering and sharing one another's awareness and consciousness.' That's not what the Holy Eucharist is, but that's what they turned it into, some kind of symbol of the fellowship of the community, which is all just Protestant and Lutheran garbage. That's not the Catholic faith. The Catholic faith is this, that Jesus Christ is truly present, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the most Holy Eucharist.

The angels know it and adore Him by the millions. Right now the angels are gathering all in this whole area for miles. Millions of angels are coming down from heaven to get ready for the sacrifice of the Mass. And even the devils, they also form their flanks, because they hate the Mass, and they want to do everything to destroy the Mass. And is the devil ever wreaking havoc now? He wants to destroy this Catholic Mass, and now he has a Pope who is working with him to destroy the Mass. Pope Francis is trying to destroy the Tridentine Latin Mass. He can't stand the Latin Mass, and he mocks priests and says, “They have mental disease.”, all those priests who want to say the Tridentine Catholic Mass. Well, at his judgment, he'll see who really has the mental disease, and it's not Catholic tradition. It's not those priests faithful to tradition. So let's pray for this Pope. It'll be a frightening thought when he dies, and he's not far from it. Pray for his conversion. It's a frightful thought when these Popes die.

You know that Pope John Paul II, when he died two years later in Poland, there was a photograph at a celebration of his life. Someone took a photograph of a huge bonfire that just, you know, happened to be there in Poland celebrating Pope John Paul II. And when he developed the photograph, he was shocked to see the flames took the shape of the body of Pope John Paul II. And in Poland, the Polish people tell me the Muslims could not destroy Poland's Catholic faith. The Communists could not destroy Poland's Catholic faith. But who could? Pope John Paul II and Vatican II could destroy the faith of the Poles with a New Mass and the whole new religion. And they only keep the faith through the Blessed Mother, Our Lady of Czestochowa.

So when Pope John Paul II's body was taken in that photograph, shaped in flames, let's just be very kind and hope that's the fires of purgatory and not the fires of hell. Let's just pray that's the case. At least Pope John Paul II condemned what every bishop and pope and priest should condemn. He condemned the IVF and he condemned abortion. And he told priests and nuns, “Wear your habits!” And he did have a devotion to the Virgin Mary. So maybe Our Lady saved him. Remember, he was one of the most scandalous popes in the history of the Church. People declare him a saint and even the fake Church declares him a saint. But no saint can crucify Our Lord again, gathering all the world religions and praying with them, which he did. He started that Assisi meeting, which Pope Benedict continued to do, to the scandal of the whole world. And of course, Pope Francis continues this horrible ecumenism, which is really insulting to God. It really mocks the First Commandment: “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.”

And what do these modernist popes do? They gather all the world religions and treat them like they're all valid religions. And it's a very grave insult and blasphemy against the Most Holy Trinity. There's only one God and you have a beautiful depiction of the Most Holy Trinity here on the wall behind the altar. You see God the Father, God the Son holding the Cross of our redemption, and God the Holy Ghost, the Dove. And the love of the Father and the Son spirates the Holy Ghost without a beginning of time. And in God the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Ghost is God. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Ghost is uncreated. They are all eternal, yet (there) are not three gods, but one God, as the creed of St. Athanasius says: “And he who does not hold the Catholic faith cannot save his soul. He will be cast to the eternal fires of hell”, says the Athanasian Creed.

And we read in the Gospel today where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So that gives us an insight of what hell will be like for the souls who go there, and how Our Lord does not want any soul to go there. He died on the cross to rescue souls. But if a soul rejects God and doesn't want to go to heaven, and doesn't want to keep His commandments, what can our Lord do? He's not going to force us into heaven. Our Lord does not want battery-operated robots in heaven that are forced to say, “I love you Lord, I love you Lord, I obey you Lord.” Our Lord does not want robots. He wants those who love him freely.

If you get married, or if you are married, (do) you want your wife and spouse or your husband to be forced to tell you that you love them at gunpoint? There wouldn't be love. So in heaven, God only wants those who freely love Him and seek Him. He doesn't force us. So those who go to hell, knowingly, turn their back to God. And no one in hell can say that our Lord did not do all He could to save them. Because every soul in hell knows that our Lord knocked and knocked and knocked to save them. And if they're in hell, they have only themselves to blame. So it's such a sad tragedy when even one soul is lost, to know that our Lord suffered the whole passion, scourging, crowning of thorns, the way of the cross, the agony on the cross for three eternal hours, suffocating for the love of souls. And it kills Him literally, if one soul is lost. And we know that many souls are lost by their free will. So it's so tragic.

And St. Anthony of Padua says, “What is the weeping and the gnashing of teeth?” He says, “The weeping is the flames”, the souls in the burning flames. They can't get out. And another aspect of hell is they lose all equilibrium. When Sister Lucia looked into hell, the children saw the souls tossed around like sparks in a flame. So they have no balance. We appreciate being able to stand on solid ground. If ever you've been out deep sea fishing, and you're easily seasick, and you get sick, you're happy to get back on ground because it's solid. But in hell, you're never on ground. You're always being tossed around. You're always bubbling in lava and flames. Nothing is solid to stand on. And that alone is a hell, let alone the flames. So the tears of hell, and then the terrible loneliness of hell.

The rock musicians, in their delusion, and poor things often sell their souls to the devil, poor souls. But in hell, it's an extreme loneliness. There's no friends. There's no father or mother to turn to. There's nobody. Everybody's panicking, screaming. Everybody's in a state of eternal frenzy, like a psych ward. Nobody's normal. Everybody's panicking and screaming wildly, like a bunch of wild animals. So there's no calm to just say, look, I got a headache. Can we just discuss a little thing? Any friendship at all? None in hell. Nothing. No consolation. It's a total loneliness. Yet in parts of hell, their bodies are crushed together. Someone's elbow is here. Someone's knee is there. Someone's feet are in your back, and they're all kicking and biting each other. It's a horrible thing. And it's not, as the souls of hell said, in the case of Annette and Claire, Annette told Claire who was in hell, she said, “Your silly priests can try to scare you with what hell is like, but nothing they say even compares to how terrible it is.” And then St. Anthony says that “What is the gnashing of teeth?” He says “It's the ice cold parts of hell.” There are parts of hell that are so cold that when they have their bodies reunited to their soul, the bodies just crack and fall off. Arms and legs will just crack off and then be put back together again. It's so bitterly cold.

So this is why the battle for Catholic tradition is really a matter of saving our soul. It's not an option. The New Mass and the New Conciliar Church and any false religion, they're not options because we can't save our soul in them. It's not a question of which one is better, the Catholic tradition or the Novus Ordo or some false religion, the Buddhist, Muslim. There is no other option. The only bridge Christ built, and He was a very good carpenter, the only bridge He built is His cross that leads to heaven and His holy Catholic Church of tradition, not the phony Conciliar Church.

Listen to Archbishop Lefebvre. This is from the recent Recusant of Autumn 2024: “The real fundamental opposition between modernist Rome and Catholic tradition is the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord came to reign. They, (modernist Rome,) they say no and we say yes along with all the popes.” And he's talking about all the popes from Pius XII before him.

“Our Lord did not come to be hidden inside houses without coming out. Why missionaries, so many of them were massacred to preach that our Lord Jesus Christ is the only true God, to tell the pagans to convert. So the pagans wanted to make them disappear, but they didn't hesitate, (the missionaries), they didn't hesitate to give their lives to continue preaching our Lord Jesus Christ. But now we're meant to do the opposite, telling the pagans, ‘Your religion is good. Keep it as long as you are a good Buddhist, a good Muslim, or a good pagan.’” And that's what Vatican II teaches, by the way. And this is what Pope John Paul II taught, by the way. And so did Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. And these are outright heresies. You cannot save (your) soul in these false religions.

And Archbishop Lefebvre says, “That's why we can't get along with them, because we are obeying our Lord who said to the Apostles, go and teach the Gospel to the ends of the earth. That's why we shouldn't be surprised that we cannot get along with modernist Rome. This will not be possible as long as Rome does not return to the Faith [and] the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ, as long as it gives the impression that all religions are good. We clash on a point of the Catholic faith, just as Cardinal Bea and Cardinal Ottaviani clashed over it, and as all the popes clashed with liberalism. It's the same thing, the same current, the same ideas, and the same divisions within the church.

But before the Council of Vatican II, (which was from 1962-65), the Popes and Rome supported tradition against liberalism, whereas now the liberals have taken their place. Obviously they are against traditionalists, so we are persecuted. But we are at peace, because we are in communion with all the Popes since Our Lord and the Apostles. We are keeping their faith, and we're not going to switch now to the revolutionary faith in the Declaration of the Rights of Man. We do not want to be Sons of 1789, but the sons of Our Lord, sons of the Holy Gospel. The representatives of the [Conciliar] Catholic Church say that everyone is free, and that we can bring all religions together to pray, like at Assisi.  (That was in 1986 with Pope John Paul II.) This is an abomination, and the day when our Lord gets angry, it will be no laughing matter. For if our Lord punished the Jews as He did, it was because they had refused to believe in Him. He had announced that Jerusalem would be razed to the ground, and Jerusalem was razed to the ground, and the Temple has never been rebuilt since. He could well say the same thing now, that all His pastors are against Him. They no longer want to believe in His universal reign.”

So when you get popes, cardinals, bishops fighting the reign of Christ the King, the punishment, he's saying, will be severe. And one of those punishments is blindness. The blindness, they've lost the faith. The blindness is just stunning. The Catholic Church of Vatican II is falling to pieces. It's dying. It's sterile. It's empty. Dying monasteries, dying convents, dying parishes, selling off churches, and is being punished by the blindness.

And Archbishop Lefebvre says, “We must remain attached to the doctrine of the Church, remain attached to our Lord, who is everything to us. He is the master. He is the one who will judge us as He will judge everyone else. So we must pray for His kingdom to come, even if we are persecuted.”

So this beautiful little chapel, where does it exist? [It is a] barn on the outside, it's a barn. It's a chapel in a barn. Why? Because you and I cannot go to our local parish, because the bishops are modernists. They don't want the Tridentine Mass. And if they allow the Tridentine Mass, it's only because the priest has to compromise with the devil. He has to shake hands with the devil and say, “I accept Vatican II. I accept the New Mass. I accept the new Code of Canon Law.” Only then is he allowed to say the Latin Mass. So he makes a mockery of the Latin Mass. And no priest should compromise with Vatican II and the New Mass. That goes with the compromises of Bishop Fellay in 2012. That goes with the Fake Resistance also, with its dancing with the New Mass.

So Archbishop Lefebvre says: “Extraordinary as it may seem, that's the situation today. I didn't invent it. Why do I find myself almost alone in opposing this liberalism, when the vast majority of bishops, even in Rome, are in favor of it? It's a great mystery. In remaining faithful as before to everything the popes have said, one finds oneself almost alone.”

And that's true. Archbishop Lefebvre was basically alone, like Saint Athanasius against the whole world. It was Archbishop Lefebvre and Bishop de Castro Mayer against the whole tidal wave of modernism. “If you're with our Lord, that's the main thing, even if you have to be alone. If you are with all the teaching of the Church over more than 20 centuries, you have nothing to fear. There's nothing to worry about. It is there. Thanks be to God, the good Lord who knows the future will set things right one day, because the Church cannot remain in this situation indefinitely. So let's put our trust in the Blessed Virgin and our Lord, and let's not be discouraged or worried, because we are carrying on the Church. Let us remain in peace. May the good Lord bless you.” Archbishop Lefebvre.

So that's his conference in this, Liberalism, the Church's worst enemy, the conference of Archbishop Lefebvre. So yes, so we must simply fight on and carry on the Catholic faith and Tradition. Keep what Our Lady asks us to keep, the daily Rosary, wear Her Scapular, make devotion to the Sorrowful Heart of Mary, be greatly devoted to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, do the five first Saturdays as best you can to make reparation to her Immaculate Heart. And we must also study liberalism. We must understand this beast, this devil, this horde of devils that makes Catholics lose their faith and get confused. So we follow our Lord, we follow the Catholic tradition, and the teachings are clear.

The Popes have condemned modernism, liberalism, evolution. They have condemned communism, socialism. They have condemned compromise with error. They have condemned the New Mass. The Council of Trent clearly condemns the New Mass and says, “If anybody dares to take this Mass, turn it to face the people, let him be condemned. If anyone dares to say that the Mass should be put in the English or vernacular, let him be condemned. If anyone says that you got to simplify the rites and cut the prayers and cut and shorten everything, let him be condemned. If anyone denies that the Sacrament of Penance is the sacrament whereby sins are forgiven, let him be condemned. If anyone denies that the Sacrifice of the Mass is the same exact Sacrifice of Calvary and denies this, let him be condemned.” That's the Council of Trent. The teachings are clear.

And then you've got Pope Pius VI condemning all compromise and (the) using (of) slippery language and ambiguous phrases to seduce Catholics into error. And that's Vatican II. It's a total double-tongued document. All the documents have double-tongued. And our Lord hates the double-tongued, says the Holy Ghost. “I have hated the double-tongued.” So our Lord says, “Say yes or no but not double-tongued.” And that's Vatican II. And Vatican II is still destroying the church. Pope Francis is destroying marriage. He's destroying the priesthood. He's destroying the Mass. He's doing everything to destroy our Catholic Church in the name of what? Vatican II. Vatican II. And you might say well what does Vatican II have to do with us now? That's back in 1965. Well good question. But all that these modernist bishops and popes are doing is in the name of Vatican II. And Vatican II stands condemned by all of Catholic tradition. Every bit of it. [Emphasis - The Catacombs]

So you're fighting on the right side. And who cares if we have Mass up in a barn? Big deal. Saint John Vianney grew up going to Mass also in a barn. He didn't have a chapel this fancy. He had hay and cows and some chickens, (he was) probably sleeping on the rafters during Mass because it would be at midnight in a barn in the middle of the night. And the people would gather at the neighbor's barn when the priest would come. A priest who did not sign the Oath of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The Catholics would not go to Mass (with) a priest who signed the Oath. They were called juring priests- traitor priests. So today it's the same thing. Priests who compromise with Vatican II and the New Mass or the New Code. They're traitor priests. “Yeah but they're nice. They wear the cassock. They say the Latin Mass.” Big deal. They're still traitors if they accept Vatican II and the New Mass and the New Code in any way.

Sorry that's the way it is. And if I accept the New Mass or try to argue New Mass miracles or try to argue that you can get grace at the New Mass or “Vatican II is not so bad”, “You have to interpret it in the light of tradition”. If I start talking that way I become a traitor. I become a traitor to Jesus Christ our God and the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the court of heaven and to the most Holy Trinity. I have become salt that has lost its flavor worth nothing to be thrown out on a field to be trampled on by the Amish wagons and cow's feet. That's a priest who compromises or a bishop or a pope.

So it's a frightening thing today because we are quite alone but on the other side tradition is building. The Modernists are scared now because tradition is growing all around the world. It's growing and it's young people, young families who are having children and lots of children and that was an encouraging thing to hear from the vice president two days ago at the March for Life. It's encouraging to hear. Let's keep praying for Trump and Vance. They came in saying we're pro-abortion so let's pray they convert and condemn abortion and take action against it but at least Vance, J.D. Vance, at his talk at the March for Life he said: “America needs many babies, many children, families and good mothers and fathers to raise them.” Those are good words. Those are good words and President Trump, just yesterday, he cut the tax funding for Planned Parenthood which Biden, a traitor Catholic, funded the Planned Parenthood but Trump just cut that so that's a good thing. Those are good steps and he also released from prison these good people who were arrested under the Biden administration, even an old lady, 89 years old, in a wheelchair (was) put in prison, put in prison and when she was nine she was in a concentration camp under the Communists in Yugoslavia. She comes to America and Biden puts her in prison because in her wheelchair she goes down the hall singing hymns in a hallway where they're doing abortions in the hospital. Horrible thing. So Trump if he keeps going this way, it will win his conversion. Let's pray for him. Pray for him. He's a good man, in the sense that he's a good natural leader. He does have the ability to be a good leader but is he working with the dark side? Is he only playing two faces? Is he trying to please the synagogue of Satan? I don't know. God knows but let's pray for him and let's pray for Vance. Let's pray for Pope Francis.

Let's beg the Virgin Mary to give us finally a good pope, a good pope who will restore tradition, condemn Vatican II, condemn the New Mass, condemn the new Code of Canon Law, restore the pre-55 Liturgy where it belongs and restore our Catholic tradition. This day is going to come! It's promised: “In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

But our Lord, He could grant this today, and many people are praying the rosary, but we got to keep faithful. He just wants us fighting. He is pleased that we are fighting and walking the trenches with bullets flying and bombs and mines. He's just as pleased that we fight that's all, like Saint Joan of Arc said: “God may not want us to see the victory.” He may not want us to live to see a good pope or the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, maybe He will, but that doesn't matter. What He wants of us now is that we keep fighting and we keep fighting and we keep fighting and persevere with grace. I ask (this) for all of you through the hearts of Jesus and Mary in this holy Mass.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.

And for those who do not have recourse to thee especially all Communists and Freemasons and other enemies of holy mother Church, Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Ghost, Amen.