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| Archbishop Viganò defends Cardinal Müller and his Great Reset critique |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2021, 04:14 PM - Forum: Archbishop Viganò
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Archbishop Viganò defends Cardinal Müller and his Great Reset critique
Vigano comments on those considered by the 'globalist Sanhedrin' to be heretics,
'unworthy to ask questions about the new dogmas of the health religion defined ex cathedra by the experts in the pay of BigPharma.'
![[Image: vigano-muller-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/vigano-muller-810x500.jpg)
Thu Dec 16, 2021
(LifeSiteNews - slightly adapted) – After Cardinal Gerhard Müller gave Catholic activist Alexander Tschugguel a thoughtful and good interview concerning the coronavirus lockdowns, vaccine mandates, and especially the dangerous and anti-democratic agenda of the Great Reset, he came under strong attacks in Germany. Both state and faith leaders rebuked him for purportedly spreading “conspiracy theories” and even “anti-semitic codes,” because he mentioned George Soros as one of the globalists whose worldview he is rejecting.
LifeSite reached out to Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, whose strong position against the Great Reset is well-known, asking him whether he would like to comment on the strong reaction against Cardinal Müller’s reasonable critic of the current political developments which seem to use the health crisis in order to establish an anti-democratic, globalist order.
We thank Archbishop Viganò for his immediate response and help.
Please see here the full statement by the Italian prelate (here is the English translation):
Ephpheta, quod est, Adaperire!
“Ephphatha!”, which means: “Be opened!” - Mk 7:34
The virologist who affirms the ineffectiveness of the vaccine and highlights the serious conflicts of interest in the officials responsible for the authorization of drugs or therapies; the member of the Parliament who objects to the advisability of imposing lockdowns after they have proved useless to contain the pandemic and disastrous for the nation’s economy; the jurist who criticizes the rules imposed by the Government in violation of the Constitution; the parish priest who from the pulpit questions the morality of an experimental serum produced with abortive fetuses; the intellectual who points out how the criminal plan of the Great Reset promoted by the World Economic Forum and the United Nations Agenda 2030 find timely and disturbing realization precisely following that pandemic emergency hoped for since 2009 by Jacques Attali in the French weekly L’Express are considered by the globalist Sanhedrin as heretics, unworthy to ask questions about the new dogmas of the health religion defined ex cathedra by the experts in the pay of BigPharma. We can imagine what honesty and impartiality can be ensured by controllers paid by the controlled. am not surprised that the truth provokes mixed reactions in those who propagate the error that opposes it. The reactions of the Pharisees to the words of Our Lord – starting with the theatrical gestures of Caiaphas to the proclamation of His divinity by the Messiah – always betray the anger of liars and people in bad faith in the face of the affirmation of truth and intellectual honesty. And this indignation as forced as it is unmotivated, having no arguments to counter the refutation, often moves to the interlocutor, in an attempt to ridicule him, make him pass for mad or a dangerous criminal: the examples we have been able to witness to those who have put in any of the cornerstones of the official narrative on Covid are the confirmation of an intolerant attitude on the part of those who lie, and at the same time the accusation of intolerance towards those who limit themselves to saying a clear evidence of truth.
There is no point in citing the writings and the statements of the exponents of the deep state in which they brazenly confess their criminal project. Let’s take for example the quote from Jacques Attali:
Quote:«History teaches us that humanity evolves significantly only when it is really afraid: then it initially develops defense mechanisms; sometimes intolerable (of scapegoats and totalitarianisms); sometimes useless (of distraction); sometimes effective (therapies that deny all previous moral principles if necessary). Then, once the crisis is over, fear transforms these mechanisms to make them compatible with individual freedom and enroll them in a democratic health policy» (https://scenarieconomici.it/jacques-atta...permettera- to-establish-a-world-government/).
These words were spoken in 2009, in the imminence of the swine flu for which the WHO was then denounced. In them we can have confirmation of an exact picture of the methods of managing the health emergency, indeed even of the planning of the emergency itself, with the provision of possible responses from citizens. Just a few days ago Attali was interviewed without wearing a mask by two prone journalists, whom he scolded because they were holding the mask under their noses. The anecdote – which you can find in a video on the Internet – is proven proof of the absurdity of the pandemic narrative, which applies to the subjects and slaves of the system, but not to those in charge. Biden, Johnson, Merkel, Draghi, Bergoglio and all the “greats of the world” flaunt contempt for the masses, imposing on them absurd rules that they are the first to break precisely to demonstrate that adherence to this pandemic cult requires fideistic assent, and not it has nothing scientific.
His Eminence Müller, who is an intellectually honest person, said things already denounced by Cardinal Burke, by Msgr. Schneider and myself, among others; things that Klaus Schwab, George Soros, Bill Gates and all the followers of the Great Reset have always publicly declared, even producing official documents and printing books in which they explain in detail the different scenarios that can be predicted, from pandemic to climatic emergency. And the words of the Cardinal are the confirmation that his name affixed to my Appeal for the Church and for the World of last May 2020 was meditated and desired. I thank Eminence of him for that gesture in some respects courageous.
And I regret that in Germany the mainstream media have accused Cardinal Müller of anti-Semitism, for the simple fact that George Soros and Klaus Schwab have Jewish origins, while they have scrupulously avoided entering into the merits of the matter. Yet similar denunciations against the globalist elite and in particular against Schwab, Gates, Soros, the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers are made by orthodox rabbis and Jews who survived the Nazi concentration camps: are they anti-Semites too? But, again: asking reasonable questions to those who are biased is useless. As in Aesop’s tale, the wolf at the top of the waterway believes he has the right not to let the water be polluted by the lamb downstream.
I can imagine that, for a Cardinal who was also Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, it is somehow challenging and not so easy to take a stand on an issue that sees Bergoglio on the opposite side of propagating Pfizer vaccines and supporting the green economy and inclusive capitalism with the Rothschilds and Rockefellers. But I also think that, if His Eminence had the honesty to denounce the anti-human conspiracy of the New World Order and the interference of the billionaires Gates and Soros in the destiny of nations based on the evidence and the consent of their statements, he will recognize with equal clarity of analysis the same consent to the globalist ideology in the tenant of Santa Marta, who just recently blessed an inter-religious park in Argentina and approved the Foundation Fratelli tutti and its “holistic training” for dialogue with religions. If the interference of Soros and Gates in the government of nations is evident, Bergoglio’s responsibility in giving dignity and legitimacy to the accomplices of the WEF and the UN, to their plans and to those who cooperate with them is undeniable; because ecumenism, the divinization of Mother Earth, the “Amazonian” dimension of the Church, the synodal path, the transhumanism of the Foundation for Artificial Intelligence and all the unfortunate innovations of this pontificate are perfectly consistent with this framework, are instrumental to it and pursue the same end, namely the establishment of the Religion of Humanity which is the necessary goal of the New World Order.
If the health emergency has caused incalculable damage, it has nevertheless the merit of having opened the eyes of so many blind people, of having healed so many deaf and dumb, who return to listen and speak. This grace must be an opportunity for all of us to be able to evaluate with a supernatural gaze what is happening before our eyes, to perceive the inspiring principles and the undeclared purposes, to denounce those responsible and to warn the simple, who rightly expect let their Pastors be the ones to give them healthy indications, and not to push them into the abyss. And to understand how true are the words of the Lord: «Without me you can do nothing» (Jn 15: 5).
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
December 16, 2021
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| Rev. Fr. Clement Crock: Morality [1939] |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2021, 09:52 AM - Forum: Articles by Catholic authors
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I. THE VIRTUES OF CHASTITY, PURITY, MODESTY AND VIRGINITY
'Blessed are the clean of heart; for they shall see God' (Matt., v. 8). -'I beseech you therefore, brethren, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, your reasonable service' (Rom., xii. 1).
Of all the disquieting moments human flesh is heir to, my friends, there is nothing that seems to disturb the conscience of us mortals more than the sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. Due to ignorance or misinformation many people worry when there is no cause for worry. Others again do not worry when they should, and arouse their dormant conscience from slumber. Those who worry unnecessarily are usually those who confuse concupiscence and temptation with sin itself. Temptation in itself is no sin. Since the fall of Adam man is prone to evil. Concupiscence is but the aftermath of original sin.
Therefore, everybody should remember this: concupiscence in itself, like temptation, is not a sin. It is the mere tendency, the inclination, to sin. St. Paul speaks of this in his own members. He calls it a 'sting of the flesh,' which warreth against the spirit and keepeth a man humble. 'And lest the greatness of the revelations should exalt me,' he says, 'there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me. For which thing thrice I besought the Lord that it might depart from me. And He said to me: 'My grace is sufficient for thee'' (II Cor., xii. 7-9). It is only when this concupiscence is given free rein and left uncontrolled that it becomes sinful. It is then called the sin of lust. But when we retain control, or self-mastery, over our thoughts, words, and actions, we possess the beautiful virtue known as chastity.
Today, we shall first of all consider this key virtue, chastity, which is so necessary to make our daily conduct-our every thought, word and deed-pleasing to and meritorious before God.
Meaning of Chastity-Most people have heard the words, chastity, purity, modesty, virginity and continency; but few Catholics even know the correct meaning of all these terms. Let us define them briefly:
(a) Chastity or purity is a moral virtue or habit, which excludes or moderates the inordinate appetite of venereal pleasures, or concupiscence, according to the norm of right reason. Just as temperance and sobriety determine the proper use of food or drink, so chastity determines the proper control of our lower appetites.
(b) Modesty differs again from chastity or purity. Modesty is that blush, that shame, that instinct, to be found in all people who are not utterly depraved, which prompts them to abstain from improper words or actions, from unbecoming dress or conduct, to repress the curiosity of the eyes and the other senses, lest their chastity be violated. In German it is called 'Schamgefuhl,' the nearest to which is our word 'shamefulness.' For example, after their sin of disobedience, Adam and Eve realized for the first time that they were without clothes. Their instinct of modesty was awakened.
We might call modesty, therefore, the forerunner, the companion, the guardian, the teacher and protector, or the outpost of chastity. Whatever, then, is against chastity or purity, is also against modesty; but not vice versa.
© Lastly, chastity differs from continency. Although continency is ordinarily understood to mean only the restraint of all venereal appetites (because these are the hardest and most necessary to bring under control), in reality continency is that virtue by which we bridle all concupiscence and every other immoderation, even in eating and drinking or whatever it be.
Under the word chastity, we should also mention the terms of 'virginity, virginal chastity,' and 'conjugal chastity.' (i) Conjugal chastity avoids every thought, word, or deed that is not permitted in holy wedlock. It is that virtue which makes every Christian home so lovely, so happy, so sweet; and manifests itself so beautifully on the mellowed and chaste countenance of married people, who possess this domestic tranquility. (2) Virginal chastity, again, differs from virginity. Virginal chastity restrains from all forbidden sensual pleasures. It is the virtue so highly cherished by every good man and woman outside of holy wedlock. (3) Virginity, on the other hand, is that special jewel, that unspotted lily, that immaculate white garment, possessed by every man or woman who through life has preserved his or her body inviolate, unspotted by any willful Sin against holy purity.
Highly Cherished Virtue.-This, then, my friends, gives us a comprehensive idea of the virtue of chastity, no matter under what term we speak of it, be it purity, modesty, continency, virginity, and so on. To learn how dear to the pure Heart of Jesus this virtue is, especially in the lives o£ the young people, we need but to turn to Christ's associates in His own early childhood. Both in childhood and adolescence Jesus associated Himself mainly with those whom He knew to be absolutely pure and beyond suspicion. His Mother was the spotless and most pure Virgin, even in her divine motherhood. His foster-father, St. Joseph, was and remained a virgin. His precursor, St. John the Baptist, who prepared the way for His coming, was and remained a virgin. His favorite Apostle was the virgin John, who later took care of His Virgin Mother, Mary.
His enemies accused Jesus of being a law-breaker; but He would never permit even His enemies to accuse Him of violating the virtue of chastity. Why this insistence on holy virginity, holy purity, in His own behalf and for His intimate companions in the very beginning of His life? Undoubtedly, to impress upon all His followers the high value and urgent necessity of the virtue of chastity, particularly in the beginning of our career on earth. For Jesus knew that, once self-mastery has been acquired, all other virtues follow readily; and with them peace of heart and mind, which are the safe anchors for temporal and spiritual happiness. This Jesus confirmed once more in His Sermon on the Mount, when He addressed the multitude, saying 'Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God' (Matt., v. 8).
St. Anthony, who loved this virtue so dearly, was visibly rewarded one day when the Blessed Mother herself presented her Divine Infant into his arms. St. Agnes, Philomena, Cecilia, Lucy-all young girls-offered their lives in martyrdom rather than violate this holy virtue. In the Lives of other Martyrs we read that not only brutal men, but even savage beasts maddened with hunger and turned loose upon the helpless Christians who awaited their martyrdom in the arena, lost their ferocity, and were subdued unto gentleness and meekness by the sight of pure and innocent manhood and maidenhood.
Even the ancient pagan Greeks and Romans, who were noted for their lust, had their vestal virgins in testimony of the human instinct to reverence and prize whatever makes for purity and chastity. So great was their reverence for these vestal virgins, even though only outwardly so, that if a conquering hero returning from glorious victories was having a triumphal procession through the streets of the city and a vestal virgin came his way, the procession was halted in reverence to her, and the conqueror paid her public homage.
Considered even from a merely natural standpoint, it is far sweeter and more profitable to lead a chaste life than to be in the thralls of impurity. How often do we not read of a young man or woman committing suicide, after having lead an immoral life! But you never read of a young person ending his or her life through misery of mind and wretchedness of heart brought on through the practice of purity and self-control. Hence, for physiological and psychic reasons alone, a sensible young person will keep the mind clean, the heart pure, and the imagination away, as much as possible, from matters of sex.
Many non-Catholics, who have not the religious training that we have, from a mere interest in their personal comfort and wellbeing, from an instinctive appreciation of modesty, and as a strong factor towards self-control and self-possession and towards ensuring future happiness, ease and contentment, aim to keep their minds pure and their hearts chaste. Their native good sense tells them that this cannot be attained, except through a rigid check, a severe and unrelenting guard, over their sensuous leanings and sexual appetites. In consideration of all these motives, both and unrelenting guard, over their sensuous leanings and sexual appetites. In consideration of all these motives, both 2) could rightfully cry out: 'O how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory for the memory thereof is immortal: because it is known both with God and with men. When it is present, they imitate it: and they desire it when it hath withdrawn itself, and it triumpheth crowned forever, winning the reward of undefiled conflicts.'
Virginal Chastity Regained.-Many of my listeners are doing so perhaps with a heavy heart. Already, their many past transgressions against this virtue may lead them to cry out with St. Paul: 'Unhappy man (or woman) that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' (Rom., vii. 24). In consequence, there may be such who are wondering if, through their past lapses, they have forfeited the dignity and honor of virginal chastity forever; or if lost, can it ever be recovered somehow? And if so, in what manner?
The answer is contained in the same Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans: 'The grace of God, by Jesus Christ, our Lord' (Rom., vii. 25). It is true that the Church has made no explicit pronouncement upon this point. But St. Augustine, one of the greatest Doctors of the Church who in his youth and before his conversion had been guilty of shameful excesses of impurity, says a comforting word, when he declares, that 'virginity, which has been lost, may be recovered by a long practice of chastity' (see Meyer's 'Youth's Pathfinder,' p. 122). Added strength to this view of St. Augustine is found in the life of St. Margaret of Cortona. She is known as the St. Mary Magdalen of the Order of St. Francis. After her conversion from a scandalous life of immorality, Our Lord drew her closer and closer to Himself by the bonds of divine love. The stronger their holy friendship and union grew, the more tender and endearing were the names with which Jesus addressed Margaret. At first He called her His 'dear little sheep,' which He had found again. Then, in loving gradation He called her His 'child, His daughter, His beloved, and finally, His spouse,' assuring her at the same time that her place in Heaven would be among the virgins, whose glory she would share. No matter what be the theological value or non-value of this legend, there is at least a great deal of real comfort and genuine encouragement here for every God-loving soul who has been unfortunate after the manner of St. Margaret, but who, like her, wants to give whatever remains of her love and devotion entirely and forever to Jesus, the pure Lover of penitents, as well as of innocent virgins. In addition to St. Margaret and St. Augustine, there is another consoling fact. It is this: beneath the Cross of Jesus, as He was dying upon it, as His Precious Blood oozed forth from His sacred members, not only was Mary the spotless one, but immediately next to her stood also Mary, the penitent one. Following, therefore, the example of Christ, no position or vocation in the Church established by the same forgiving Lord should be closed to a repentant soul, be it honorable wedlock, or holy priesthood-just as St. Augustine was not barred from the priesthood, nor St. Margaret of Cortona from a religious sisterhood.
Conclusion: Never to Have Sinned Is Sweetest.-But sweet as is the forgiveness of sin on the part of God after the fall, the consciousness of never having seriously violated holy chastity and virginity, thanks to the grace of God, is a joy infinitely more soothing and delicious. Mary Magdalen was indeed happy at having been pardoned by Jesus after her fall. But Mary, the Mother of Jesus, must have been unspeakably more happy for never having sullied her innocence and purity with the least shadow of guilt.
But if it is too late for us to be happy after the manner of Mary Immaculate, then we must strive earnestly to be happy after the manner of Mary, the Penitent. If our innocence is still unsullied, then let our one ambition in life be to merit the eulogy pronounced by God upon Mary, namely: 'Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee' (Cant., iv. 7). At all events, either for innocence preserved or for innocence regained through penance, let us cultivate an ardent love and tender devotion to Mary, who invites all sincere lovers of purity, saying: 'Come to me, all ye that desire me. I am the Mother offair love. . . . In me is all grace, . . . all hope of life, and of virtue' (Ecclus., xxiv. 24 sq.). Amen.
II. THE SIN OF LUST
'Know ye this and understand, that no fornicator nor unclean person hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God' (Eph., v. 5).
From the moment of our conception, my friends, we have the germ of good and evil implanted within us. When we attain the use of reason, the battles of life begin. From then on until our dying day there is a dual struggle going on within our being, each inclination striving to gain the mastery over us. The one aims at the higher, the nobler things of life-the chaste, the pure, and the beautiful. Opposed to this is that other power which Sacred Scripture calls 'the beast' the animal nature within us, ever-striving to overpower our spiritual nature. This lower element of our nature constantly tends to the unholy things of life, and craves to satisfy those baser appetites.
These struggles become more violent as we grow into adolescence until the closing years of our teens, especially. Usually, after the age of twenty or thereabouts, one or the other of these dual powers will predominate. The stronger of the two will determine most of our thoughts, words and actions thereafter. Should the evil predominate, only a miracle of God's grace can liberate us from its meshes. Yes, any person so ensnared can truly cry out with St. Paul: 'O unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, by Jesus Christ, our Lord' (Rom., vii. 24 sq.),.
Proposition.-Under the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, we call this dual struggle within us between the good or bad, virtue or vice. The virtue we call chastity, the vice we call lust. In our previous sermon we have already considered the virtue of chastity under its different aspects. Today we turn to the unpleasant phase of this dual struggle. In other sermons to follow we shall consider the sins of the flesh and the occasions thereof, more in detail; but today we will speak of them under the one common term, namely, lust.
Definition.-What do we mean by the word, lust? It is defined as an inordinate, unnatural love of the pleasures of the flesh and of the senses. Contrary to the opinions of some, not all pleasures of the senses are forbidden. Divine Providence has prepared many pure and innocent pleasures for us-pleasures that are necessary to entertain us, to repair our strength, to preserve our health, to sustain us in our weakness, and to relieve our ills. For example, we have the sensible pleasure that goes with well-prepared food or drink; the sweetness of sleep in a cozy bed; the exhilarating sensation after a good bath; the beautiful aspects which nature and God's creatures present to our eyes; the sweet and harmonious strains of music, etc. Any such pleasures, when they are not excessive and are enjoyed with a proper motive, are praiseworthy and legitimate.
But it is different with the pleasures of the flesh and of the senses, in relation to the organs of sex, when they are contrary to the purpose for which God created them. We then call these pleasures 'sins of the sense,' or sensuality. There are other terms by which we designate these sins, due to their peculiar malice, with which all intelligent Catholics should be familiar. There is, for example, the sin of immodesty, the sin of impurity. (a) If the complete sexual satisfaction is sought by oneself alone, it is called self-abuse. (b) If it is an intercourse of sexes between single or celibate people, it is called fornication. © If one or both are married, the sin is called adultery. (d) If they are closely related, though not married to each other, it is incest. (e) Unnatural sexual relation between persons of the same sex, or of the opposite sex, is called sodomy-after the biblical city of Sodom, which was destroyed by fire and brimstone on account of these unnatural sins. (f) Finally, sexual transgression with an animal is called bestiality. But all these sins, by whatever name you call them, are classified under the one term, lust, of which Holy Scripture says 'that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God' (Gal., v. 21).
Nature and Gravity of Lust.-St. Jerome and St. Alphonsus give it as their opinion that nine out of every ten persons in hell owe their damnation to the sins of lust. Be that as it may, it seems probable that about that proportion of sacrilegious confessions are reducible to the sins of the flesh-either on account of lack of proper contrition or on account of failure to confess sins properly through false shame or pride. The reason why so many are lost on account of this sin, is because this sin so completely overpowers its victim that the unfortunate soul clings to its charms and pleasures to the last. Thus, dying unrepentant, it becomes for him the unpardonable sin.
The Dignity of Man.-It is only after we understand the dignity of man that we realize fully the gravity of these sins. (1) 'We are, first of all, creatures made to the image and likeness of God, endowed with understanding and free will. Through Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Communion, and the other Sacraments, our bodies, says St. Paul (I Con, vi. 15), become 'members of Christ,' nay, 'one with Christ.' 'Know you not,' says St. Paul (I Con, iii. 16-sq.), 'that you are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy. For the temple of God is holy, which you are.' This body is one day to arise again from the grave, either in glory or in shame. What, therefore, can be more degrading, more debasing, than to pollute this body with the sins of lust and sensuality?
What would you say if a man should come here before God's sanctuary and profane this temple with shameful crimes and abuses? But what of these crimes in comparison to those who profane the living temples of the Holy Ghost-their bodies, the dwelling places of their souls for whom Christ shed His Precious Blood, and died the ignominious death on the Cross?
(2) Secondly, to ascertain how displeasing to God the sins of lust are, we need but to look at the terrible punishments He has sent to those who have committed this sin. Was it not this vice that caused the deluge? Was it not the sins of lust that brought down fire and brimstone upon the infamous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and destroyed all the inhabitants thereof? Was it not lust that caused the death, through the sword of Phinees, of 24,000 Israelites in one day, that effected the extermination of almost the entire tribe of Benjamin, and which drew so many evils upon the house of David (Num., xxv. 6-9)?
In our own day, whence arise the many plagues and misfortunes that afflict us? Pestilences and contagious diseases; so many sudden deaths, bloody wars, tempests and storms, floods and drought; so many disasters, as fires and earthquakes, which ravage cities and provinces. In all of these can be seen the hand of an angry God, who strikes and chastises us. 'Believe me,' says St. Thomas of Villanova, 'they are also in punishment of intemperance and the frightful lust of mankind.' God's mills grind slowly, but surely; and severe chastisements of this nature God employs only as a last resort, in order to draw His wayward children from evil and sin.
Fatal Consequences to the Individual.-Furthermore, the individual addicted to the sin of lust brings both spiritual and physical ruin upon himself. I quote from a doctor of authority: 'The entire nervous system, the emotional and religious life become deranged. The body loses its vigor and resistive powers, while the mind forfeits its robustness, alertness and resourcefulness. Many a youthful and beautiful complexion, florid appearance, sprightly gait, graceful carriage, and easy manner, are hopelessly ruined by this unnatural practice; many a brilliant mind is shorn of its power of initiative, spirit of enterprise, glow of originality, fire of enthusiasm, by the same suicidal habits. It sickens the imagination, deadens the emotions, and brings on depression of spirits, melancholy, despondency and despair, and extinguishes every spark of religious enthusiasm.' There is no crime too low to which a man of lust will not stoop. Hardly had the wise Solomon become unchaste, when he offered incense to idols and became an apostate. King David, from an adulterer, became a homicide. What about Martin Luther, King Henry VIII of England, and Napoleon of France? It was lust that started them all on their career of apostasy, infidelity, murder and ruin. Why so many infidels in the world today, who mock everything holy, everything pure, if not because they are steeped in the sins of lust? O frightful plague of religion, of society, of so many individuals!
Conclusion.-Realizing the evil consequences, may I exhort you to fly from and to detest every avenue of approach to this sin? Every pastor knows, and God knows, the many temptations that are flaunted before us at every turn in the world today. For this reason, holy Mother Church is most generous in dispensing the graces of God to fortify us from being drawn into this maelstrom of lust which surrounds us on every side. In turn, there is something refreshing, amidst the present whirlpool of filth, to see those untold numbers of beautiful souls, young men and women as well as elders, in every walk of life, who in spite of evil surroundings still retain the beautiful virtue of purity and chastity.
These realize that we are never sure from an unexpected attack. Hence they combat these powers of evil by practising the virtue opposed to lust, namely, chastity-that most beautiful of all virtues, the flower of good morals, the honor of the body, the glory of both sexes, the foundation of all sanctity. Chastity elevates man above the angels, and renders him, so to say, similar to God. Let us pray often to God for this holy virtue; then rest assured that He will never refuse us the graces necessary to fulfill what He commands. Fortified thus, we can say with St. Paul: 'I can do all things in Him that strengtheneth me.' Amen.
III. OCCASIONS OF SINS OF LUST: THOUGHTS AND LOOKS
(Newspapers, Pictures, Movies, etc.)
'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh' (Matt., xii. 34).-'I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted, and fall from the simplicity which is in Christ' (II Cor., xi. 3).
Man, my friends, is made up of body and soul. Unlike all other creatures, he is endowed with intellect and free will. Through his soul, he becomes reasonable and free, master of his own actions.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul. (Wm. E. Hanley).
Yes, endowed with intellect, immortal and allied to the Angels is man! For, as the Psalmist declares: 'Thou hast made him a little less than the Angels.' On the other hand, through his body, man is related to inferior creatures, and even to the very dust of the earth. Hence these two elements, the material and the spiritual, body and soul united, forms man. But there must be one head, one master, that must dominate and rule. Which shall it be? You will say that it is the soul and reason, of course. And what is to be the subject of this rule? You answer that it is the body. It is the body that must obey.
But now take a glance at those steeped in lust and impurity. In such, the soul is degraded to the position of a servant and slave of the body and of the flesh. The right order is inverted. Passion controls, and reason obeys. To avoid this inverse order in our lives, of the body domineering over the soul, God has given us the Sixth and Ninth Commandments as guides. In these He forbids not only the sinful act itself, but also all those factors that may lead up to the sinful act, or prepare the way for it. The latter group, we shall begin to consider today. We may call them the avenues of the enemy's approach, or the occasions for the sins of impurity. Our Catechism groups them under the following heads, namely: thoughts, desires, looks, words, and deeds. Today we shall take up thoughts, desires and looks.
Thoughts and Desires. -Our enemy's first avenue of approach is through the intellect, by placing before us thoughts and images against holy purity. These thoughts and images, however bad they may be, are not sinful if not followed by bad and wilfully entertained desires. St. Paul and others of the greatest Saints had violent temptations of this nature.
These thoughts may even be accompanied by a certain sensation of pleasure without becoming sinful. Concupiscence is an effect of original sin; and it is in us, in spite of ourselves. But it is in our power not to give consent, either to the thought or to the sensation of pleasure. It is in our power to reject both as soon as we are conscious of them. In case we do, these thoughts are not only not sinful, but may be even meritorious. Such, for example, are the thoughts that so frequently confront us, like a mist, like a cloud, passing over a clear sky.
Therefore, before we should be disturbed over evil thoughts or desires, we must be certain of three things: (a) the thought or image must be intrinsically immodest or impure; (b) we must be conscious of its presence and take pleasure therein; © we must give our free consent to the thought or pleasure. If one or other of these conditions is missing, there can be no grievous sin. But when all three conditions are present, then our thoughts are sinful, and very often grievously sinful. For, says Christ, such a one has already committed the sin 'in his heart.' This important fact is frequently overlooked, when people examine their conscience for confession and neglect to mention the sin of thought.
Sins of Looks. -Next to our thought, come our sight and hearing and our other senses. Our eyes are frequently called the 'mirror of the soul.' For, it is through the eyes that objects from without are mirrored in our minds. Also our eyes may reveal to others the thoughts that are entertained within the mind. Frequently, without a warning, our eyes may fall upon an object that is indecent. If we immediately turn away from that object, we may incur no guilt. Even willful looks of curiosity may not in themselves be sinful; but they readily expose one to the danger of sin. For example, a curious and indiscreet look led David to fall (II Kings, xi. 2), the chief of Sichem to outrage Dina, the daughter of Jacob (Gen., xxiv. 2), the two men who threatened to attack the chaste Susanna, and so on. So grievous, therefore, may the sin of sight become that it is equal to the act itself. For, says Our Lord, 'whosoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart' (Matt., v. 28). And St. Augustine tells us that he knew persons of such eminent sanctity that he would have been less surprised to see an Angel fall than these holy persons; and yet they fell and were lost on account of immodest looks.
Bad Books and Pictures. -Most people's actions, and this is especially true with the young, are mere repetitions of what they see others do. For that reason, there used to be a popular saying: 'As the parent, so the child. As the father, so the son. As mother, so the daughter.' But in our day, when the fireside is no longer the place where children gather for their recreation and social hours, when the home is rather a place to eat and to sleep in when there is no other place to go, there are other outside influences that are equally as great as, if not greater than, the influence parents exercise in moulding the physical, mental, and moral future of their children. And of all the unbridled commercialized influences that have been instrumental in bringing morality, especially amongst the young, to such a low ebb as we find it today, there is nothing more destructive than the immoral picture magazines, cheap books, and the moving picture traffic, as we find them at present.
To confirm these statements, I visited one of our local 'respectable' newsstands, similar to those that are commonly found in every community all over the land. On its shelves I discovered more than 15 pornographic magazines, that reek with lewdness, filth, and immorality from cover to cover. In the same newsstands, you find circulating libraries of books, amongst which cannot be found one out of a hundred that is fit reading matter for respectable people. And yet, we find that our own Catholic people frequent and patronize these places without qualms of conscience.
Next to these magazines and books, which lead people to sin against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments through the sense of sight, we must mention in particular, our modern moving picture theatres. There, lewdness and sex have been depicted upon the screen in such a manner that the movie colony at Hollywood has fallen into ill-repute the world over. Even the players themselves there fell so low in their morals that one writer describes the colony 'as so rotten that it stinks.' In some foreign countries, as in Ireland, as high as 80% of American movies are banned from the country because of their obscenity and indecencies.
As advocates of the Legion of Decency, we do not condemn all movie pictures. Every new discovery in art or science can be used for good or evil. Visual education, too, can be productive of much good. But the evil lies rather in the industry itself, as it has been conducted, than with the individual movie houses. The reason is this: in this country four or six motion picture producing companies control, not only the production, but the distribution of nearly all movie films as well. Through their 'block' and 'blind' booking, these companies oblige the distributor to buy blindly in a block, without previous inspection and without any right of selection or discretion, whatever is sent to him locally. Those too in control of production are commonly people without any religion, and are frequently opposed to all positive religion.
And lest we be accused of exaggerating the physical, mental and moral harm that moving pictures are doing, let us hear from a nationally recognized authority. His name is Henry James Forman, who published his findings in 1929 after an exhaustive study. He entitled his book: 'Our Movie-Mad Children.' He estimates that the movies touch the lives of 250,000,000 people every week. The average weekly attendance in our own country is nearly 80 millions, of which 23 millions are young people under 21 years of age. These 23 millions of children spend at least two hours each week in movie theaters. Twelve millions of these children are 14 years or younger, while 6 millions are seven years or younger. Seventy per cent of the pictures reviewed had for a dominant theme crime, sex love, violence, or horror, with 449 crimes being noted in 115 films taken at random.
Effects on Children. -Here are the results upon the minds and bodies of these children.
(i) First, after attending such pictures, scientific tests were made of a group of children selected at random. The physical disturbances, indicated by increased restlessness in sleep, averaged 4% in girls and 26% in boys; while individuals registered as high as 90%. In all cases, the increased restlessness lingered over a period of several nights, while the normal work at school was disturbed for days after attending the movies.
(2) The emotional reactions were found equally as great, registering five times as great in children as in adults. Due to the excitement caused, it was found that the pulse had jumped to 140, instead of the normal pulse rate of 8o; in individual cases it reached 192. In the opinion of a noted neurologist, the scenes of horror and tense excitement produce an 'effect similar to shell-shock,' which eventually 'amounts to an emotional debauch, sowing the seeds for future neuroses and psychoses'-which, in our language, are forms of insanity.
(3) The moral harm can scarcely be estimated. The sex appeal; the racketeers, the flaming passion and high-power emotionalism so featured in the movies, may easily nullify every standard of life and conduct set up at home and at school for the child. What a crime this 'greed for profits on the bodies and souls of little children!' No wonder the Manchester Guardian of England, referring to our American movies, should suggest: 'The United States has agitated against the trade of opiates in the Far East. Would it not be well for her to act as vigorously against the corrupting influence that comes from her own shores (through her moving pictures)? No wonder, then, that according to a conservative estimate (Commonweal, May 5, 1933) there are at least 55 millions of intelligent people in this country, who never go to a movie theatre, because the pictures are 'below the level of their intelligence.'
Likewise with reason, therefore, did a group of Catholic women, under the National Council of Catholic Women, condemn the movies in the following caustic terms: 'We find the average film reeking with vulgarity, crammed with lewd dialogue, disguised under the term of 'wisecracking.' We find immorality exalted; gross spectacles presented in the form of realism. Divorce is upheld as an ideal condition; faithfulness between husband and wife is looked upon as something unusual. Films deal with the lives of morons, rather than of decent men and women. The gangster and horror pictures have given place to the production of the most immoral films of all time.'
The Legion of Decency.-Justified, therefore, was the Catholic Church as a whole, unitedly to organize her 'Legion of Decency,' under the capable leadership of the Most Rev. Archbishop McNicholas, O. P. Everyone knows the nature and intent of this organization now. Other religious bodies and organizations have united with us in this campaign. A good beginning has been made, but only a beginning. The producers in Hollywood have promised a reform. There are signs of improvement from that source. But we cannot stop there. This is only one angle of the work of the Legion of Decency. Our campaign must go on until all sources of corrupting influence are checked. We must go on until our news-stands with their bookshelves and magazine counters are cleared of filth and corruption; until our schools, colleges and universities remove from their teaching staffs those whose doctrines are demoralizing and corrupting the minds of their pupils.
This is your work and mission, you fathers and mothers, you older men and women! It is not the youth of the land that is seeking a lower standard of morals than our forbears. It is their elders that are preparing and pointing the way. It is true that thirty years ago the average criminal's age was forty. Today, those who glut our penal institutions are nearer twenty years of age, or even less. But where must we look for the causes of the youthful criminal? Is it not in our lewd advertisements in our daily newspapers, books and magazines, placed there for profit? In our theatres where crime and racketeering, where vice and immorality, are extolled and virtue flaunted? Is it not in our many schools of learning, where teachers are deliberately misleading youth from the high principles of living, offering in their stead unbridled license as the guiding principle of life, self-indulgence and self- gratification as its goal? These teachers of youth declare, that neither the criminal nor the ordinary citizen has any freedom to determine his own acts but that everything is predestined by his heredity and experiences. What respect can the pupils have for religion, what reverence for authority, human or divine, when their teachers sneer at the 'myth and outworn superstition,' as they call it, of a personal God? When the young are told that the Ten Commandments are only a man-made code of etiquette, the crystallized will of a group, and not the revealed law of God, binding upon the conscience of man? Are we forgetting George Washington's wise warning, that 'reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle'? Have we forgotten the proverb: 'It is hard to take out of the oak the twist that grewin the sapling'? Here lies our responsibility.
And our cause is not entirely hopeless. There are signs of an awakening in many quarters. 'The very presence of a widespread alarm and concern for youth is a sign of health. When public men and women are voicing the need of safeguarding the youth of the land, it is an indication that the Nation is becoming aroused to the evil influences threatening the young. When business and professional men, clergymen, parents and teachers are beginning to give thought to the problem, that fact alone begets the well-founded hope that youth, with 'its illusions, aspirations, and dreams,' will come through the perils of the new age victorious' ('Nation's Youth Problem,' by J. I. Corrigan, S. J.).
If we elders will not protect youth against this modern exhibition of 'greed for profits' which preys 'on the bodies and souls of little children,' there are signs that youth will soon refuse to follow us. They will set out to chart their own future course. The heart of American youth is still sound. 'Our young are fired with stronger idealism, higher ambitions to climb greater heights than ever before. They are charged with a courage to dare, with ambition to achieve, with nobility to strive, with inspiration to win, what their forefathers could not achieve.' What hopes for America, with her 40 and more millions of children and adolescents! 'What a picture they make as they troop off to school, day after day, 231/2 millions strong to our elementary schools, 5 millions to our high schools, and 1 million to our colleges and universities.' There is yet hope for the future-if not in our elders, then in our youth. We still retain confidence in modern youth, whose heart and mind are moulded after God's own plan. In the words of the poet, let us close with a tribute to youth:
How beautiful is youth! How bright its gleams,
With its illusions, aspirations, dreams!
Books of beginnings, story without end,
Each maid a heroine, and each man a friend!
All possibilities are in its hands,
No danger daunts it, and no fee withstands; In its sublime audacity of faith,
'Be thou removed,' it to the mountain saith. And with ambitious feet, secure and proud, Ascends the ladder, leaning on the cloud. Amen.
IV. OCCASIONS OF SINS OF LUST: WORDS AND ACTIONS
'Out of the abundance o f the heart the mouth speaketh' (Matt., xii. 34).-'Uncleanness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints' (Eph., v. 3).
Everything that is necessary for the proper care of the body, so that it remain clean and healthy, is allowed, and is no sin. Everything that is done for wicked pleasure, is forbidden, and is a sin; be it in thought or desire, in looks, in words, or in action. These are mostly known as the sins of the senses-the 'avenues of approach,' as we called them in our last discourse, or the occasions for sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. First of all, since the soul or mind should control the actions of the body in rational creatures, the evil one begins by directing his attack upon our thought-life. Evil thoughts may arise like a sudden mist, and try to disturb us. But, as we said, these thoughts are not sinful unless they are wilfully entertained. And by prayer and determination of will we can control these thoughts and dispel them before they become sinful.
Next to thought, Satan plans his approach through the eyes. Jeremias calls the eyes the 'windows through which death enters.' Salvian calls them the 'mines of the soul.' For, as the strongest rocks and walls are blasted by mines, so, by fixing the eyes upon dangerous objects, the soul is instantly confronted with impure thoughts and desires that cause the destruction of holy virtue. St. Bernard, therefore, says: 'A true sign of chastity is caution in looks, and he who is dissolute in looks, you must conclude, is also unchaste.'
Proposition.-From sinful objects or looks follow evil thoughts and desires; and from these proceed also evil words and actions. For, as St. Matthew wistfully says: 'Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh' (Matt., xii. 34). What these sinful words and actions are in relation to chastity, we shall discuss today.
Immodest Words.-St. Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians (v. 3) tells us: 'Uncleanness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints.' Elsewhere (1 Cor. xv. 33), he further warns: 'Evil companionships (communications) corrupt good morals.' For, once the eye has grown evil and thoughts become corrupt, the sense of speech is not slow to express in words what is in the minds of people with whom we associate. Who has not heard the saying: 'Like begets like'? Or: 'Tell me with whom you go, and I will tell you what you are.' In other words, he that sees alike, will think alike; and they that think alike, will speak alike; and from thinking and speaking there is but one step to doing alike.
No one knows human nature better than Jesus, our Saviour, knew it. And for the question under discussion He left us the parable of the prodigal son. This wayward son had become impregnated with evil thoughts and desires through bad companionship. Through his conversation with others he had heard of the liberties he might enjoy away from home. His home surroundings became distasteful, and he became restless. He asked his father for his inheritance- something he was not entitled to until after his father's death. 'He went abroad,' says Scripture, 'and wasted his substance, living riotously' (Luke, xv. 13). Upon his return, his brother states it more explicitly, by saying he 'devoured his substance with harlots' (ibid., 30).
Here Our Lord points out every step that is taken by one who falls into grievous sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. Had this young man not listened to the evil conversation of his wicked and corrupt companions with whom he associated, his downfall would have been averted. And yet, there are those who think lightly of the immodest conversation that is carried on daily by and around them. You frequently hear them say: 'Oh, we don't mean any harm by it. It is just in fun.' But not all those who hear that filthy talk, will go away and believe 'it was all in fun.' In their quiet moments, the things they have heard will recur again and again to their minds. It becomes a scandal to them; and like the prodigal son, it may be the beginning of a coming downfall, a life of sin. Hence, without making any distinction, whether any harm is meant or not, Sacred Scripture, through the mouth of the Apostle, forbids all immodest language, saying: 'Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth' (Eph., iv. 29). 'Put away filthy speech out of your mouth' (Col., iii. 8).
Bad Actions.-Speak no evil, do no evil! Or the reverse: speak about immodest things, and there is but one step to doing impure things! This brings us to another question which a Catholic priest would rather not speak about, but would prefer to pass over unnoticed. But were I, from false delicacy, to leave some of you entrusted to my care in dangerous ignorance of or in doubt concerning certain sinful acts, I might incur blame for serious injury to your souls and one day hear from God the awful sentence: 'If thou dost not announce My word to man and make it known, I will require his blood (his soul) at thy hand' (Ezech., iii. 18).
First of all, we must proceed to answer some of our objectors, who do not agree with us on what we call forbidden or sinful actions.
Objection 1-'Why,' they say, 'insist upon an impossibility? Nobody keeps quite chaste. You don't understand what life is, until you've tasted life. Give me a man who has had experience, and then he can talk, if he wants.'
Answer.-As to the impossibility, we know that there is a large group of clean men and women composed of Catholics and non-Catholics alike, who conduct themselves quite as they should. They come to marriage, or even live out their whole life of single blessedness, without their purity ever losing its lustre. There is still another group larger than the first, who, either through ignorance or through human frailty, have done wrong once perhaps, but never again. These quickly regain their friendship with God, and lead pure and noble lives the rest of their days.
Again, it is quite true that keeping oneself chaste involves the sacrifice of one experience, but it means the gaining of a better experience. For example, if I never had smallpox, I miss the experience of the infection of smallpox. Yet, is it not better to have experienced good health without the experience and marks of smallpox? Hence, you may answer the impure: 'I agree that I have sacrificed one experience; but I have also gained one. And so have you. But the one I have gained is by far better than the one you have had. I have got nearer to true manhood, you nearer to animalhood.'
Objection 2-Another fallacy you often hear is this: 'A certain amount of indulgence is good for you. It quiets your nerves.' In reply we say: go and ask any reputable doctor whether it 'is good for you.' He will tell you that our social diseases and nervous exhaustion, about which we hear a great deal today, are due to sexual debauchery. As to 'quieting your nerves,' he will tell you that just the contrary is true. Why does every instructor for prize fights and athletics advocate the very opposite, namely, complete abstinence? The fact of the matter is that sexual indulgence is a short, acute shock to the nerves, leaving its scars and searing the conscience. But virtue's experience 'is like a glow, not a flash; an experience of happiness, not of mere pleasure.'
In every age there have been those who held that ever so often it was good, nay, evennecessary, to ease one's concupiscence, either through pollution, self-abuse, or intercourse with others. This is one of the trump charges which the lecherous and impure love to make, especially against the chastity of priests and Sisters.
Here is a story to the point. A certain anti-Catholic speaker was making these very charges against priests and Sisters. Amongst other charges he made this statement: 'It is impossible for any man to remain pure for six months at a time.' A man in the audience arose, and asked the speaker this question: 'You are a married man with a family, are you not?' 'Yes,' was the speaker's reply. 'You just told us you recently spent nine months abroad on business, while your family was here at home, did you not?' 'Yes,' was again the reply. 'Then,' said the man in the audience, 'I pity your wife and your children.' The audience caught the point, and booed the speaker from the platform.
These people deny the possibility or the advisability of continency. Do you know the meaning of that word? Continency means the positive abstention from all carnal pleasures under all circumstances. This does not include those nocturnal or periodical emissions, which are natural for a healthy, normal person of either sex. We affirm that physicians are in almost unanimous agreement with the statement of Dr. Henry Stanton, a recognized authority, who says: 'Strict continence is neither injurious to health, nor does it produce impotence [as some contend]. While self- denial is difficult, since the promptings of nature often seem imperious, it is not impossible. It is certain that no youth will suffer physically by remaining sexually pure. The demands which occur during adolescence are mainly abnormal, due to the excitements of an over-stimulating diet, pornographic literature and art, and the temptations of impure association.' Of our own strength, yes, it might be physically impossible. But, says Our Lord 'My grace is sufficient for thee' (II Cor., xii. 9). 'The grace of God, by Jesus Christ, Our Lord' (Rom., vii. 25). And so counsels the Wise Man: 'As I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, I went to the Lord, and besought Him with my whole heart' (Wis., viii. 21). Prayer, then, gives us the added strength needed.
Objection 3.-But our adversaries are persistent. Their next reply is: 'Well, after all, these actions are but natural.' But this is only a half-truth, and that is why it sounds so plausible. In man, endowed with intellect and freewill, such actions uncontrolled are only partly natural. They correspond to instinct, which we have in common with the animal, the brute. But if they are duly controlled and properly governed by reason, they are fully natural. For actions through instinct go all the way in an animal, but only part of the way in man. Hence, to follow instinct and not reason would be to cut away the very part that makes man human-that which makes our acts human acts. Therefore, continency, or control of sensual appetites by reason and instinct combined, is natural, and self-indulgence is not.
Even aside from a supernatural standpoint, let us not be misled by these false prophets of self-indulgence. Listen to this remarkable document. In accordance with the best medical opinion of the world, the following Bulletin (known as 'General Headquarters Bulletin, No. 54') was issued from the American Army Staff in France, on August 7, 1918: 'Sexual continence is the plain duty of members of the American Expeditionary Forces, both for the vigorous conduct of the war, and for the clean health of the American people after the war. Sexual intercourse is not necessary for good health, and complete continence is wholly possible. . . . Commanding officers will urge continence on all men of their commands, as their duty as soldiers, and the best training for the enforced sexual abstinence at the front. Instruction, work, drill, athletics, and amusements will be used to the fullest extent in furthering the practice of continence. By command' of General Pershing. Official: Signed: Robert C. Davis, Adjutant General, James W. McAndrew, Chief of Staff.'
Finally, if 'it is but natural,' then why the feeling of remorse that follows every abnormal sensual satisfaction? Why call it a temptation or sin at all, if it is but natural? Why call 'each maid a heroine, and each man a friend,' who overcomes that evil propensity, if it is but natural? Why, if the opposite is but natural, does Tennyson cry out in Sir Galahad:
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.
Nay, rather 'blessed is the man that endureth temptation,' says St. James, 'for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life.' Amen.
V. OCCASIONS OF SINS OF LUST: DRESS AND DANCING.
'Evil communications corrupt good manners' (I Cor., XV. 33)
In childhood we acquire most of our knowledge by imitating what we see and hear our elders do and say. Even
after our mental faculties are properly developed, it is estimated that less than five percent of the people think for themselves. The other ninety-five per cent continue, as in childhood, to accept what they see others propose, or do, for them. You can readily understand, therefore, what an influence for good or for evil our modern newspapers, magazines, books, theatres, school and daily associates exercise in moulding the thoughts and habits of the majority of our people. It is estimated that the eighty millions of people who frequent our theaters every week spend more money on this form of amusement alone than is spent in and for all the churches in the country taken together.
As stated before, these external forces are frequently occasions for grievous sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. Bad example, then, is a fruitful source of many of our social evils of today. Even our recreation, our mode of dress, have come under their spell. I have, therefore, selected for our discussion today two other avenues of approach not heretofore mentioned, which Satan frequently employs as occasions that may lead to grave sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. They are two popular subjects, namely: dress and dancing.
Dress or Styles of Dress .-Frequently, when an audience hears a speaker mention the subject of styles and dress, a certain resentment arises in the minds of many, who murmur to themselves: 'Now, why should he bring up that subject again? Are not the styles determined by the designers of clothes? And must we not dress according to the time and the country in which we live?' Rather, would I ask you not to prejudge me as a radical on this matter. As intelligent Catholics and Christians, we should sooner ask: 'Why do we wear clothes at all? Where do styles originate? Who determines styles, and for what purpose?' After these facts have been determined, we may perhaps have cause for censure or for praise.
Origin of Dress. -The origin of dress dates back to the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve had sinned, their concupiscence was aroused; and they, for the first time, realized that they were naked.
In the Book of Genesis (iii. 7), the first Book of the Bible, we read: 'And when they perceived themselves to be naked, they sewed together fig leaves, and made themselves aprons. . . . And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife, garments of skins, and clothed them' (Gen., iii. 7, 21). It was God Himself, therefore, who dictated the first styles of clothing, and gave them to man. And it was modesty on man's part that prompted him to adopt clothing to cover his body.
Later on, clothing was worn, as it is today, for protection against heat and cold, to preserve health, and to ward off disease. Styles were further adopted to distinguish the sexes, to mark the difference in office, occupation or social rank, and so on. Thus, we find the different uniforms for general, captain, sergeant and common soldier, and for the police in cities all over the world; also different church vestments for the different festivals.
But early in the history of the human race women were known to clothe themselves for the sake of adornment, also using jewels and cosmetics to enhance their appearance. Nowhere do we find the Church condemning this practice as long as it is done with proper decorum and in moderation. But in the course of time these adornments were used for vanity's sake, and for other baser motives. Already we find St. Paul, for example (1 Tim., ii. 9), refer to improper styles of dress amongst his converts to Christianity, over whom Timothy was to preside as bishop. In his final instructions to Timothy, St. Paul says this: 'In like manner, women also, in decent apparel adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety, not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly attire (for vanity's sake).' In other words, he asked his convert women to dress becomingly and modestly. For 'after this manner,' says St. Peter, the head of the Apostles, 'heretofore the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves' (I Pet., iii. 5). Hence, ever obeying the mind of the Church, good Christian women clothe themselves with virtue; and virtue has always determined the styles or modes of dress for decent people.
However, on account of the constant contact with pagan nations, with their immoral principles and practices, the Church has been forced again and again to remind Christians in the words of St. Paul: 'Evil communications corrupt good manners' (1 Cor, xv. 33). And corrupt morals invariably manifest themselves m the mode or style of dress that is adopted, especially in feminine apparel. It is easily seen, therefore, how our designers of modern styles of dress are governed by the same pagan immoral influences, unless checked by our open protests. The impelling motives behind modern styles are no longer modesty, protection against weather, or becoming adornment, but principally sex appeal. And the sad part of it is, that so many of our modern Christian women and girls often have no idea what a factor their dress (which to the wearer may seem harmless) is in arousing the sex urge of others who must associate with them.
It is for this reason that especially the last three Pontiffs, Pius X, Benedict XV, and Pius XI, have deplored the modern styles of feminine apparel. Only recently, Pope Pius XI deplored the modern trend of fashion in the following terms: 'The unfortunate mania for fashion causes even honorable women to forget every sentiment of dignity and modesty. The decrease of womanly reserve has always been a sign of social decadence. The vanity of woman causes the disintegration of the family. An immodest mother will have shameless children. A shameless girl cannot be a good wife. It is possible to dress with ladylike decorum, without imitating monastic severity.'
On January 12, 1930, the same Holy Father of Christendom instructed the bishops throughout the world to take active measures in behalf of decency of dress. He requests them to report to him on this matter every three years. The note of instruction enjoins not only bishops, but also parish priests, fathers and mothers, directors of schools and institutions, and nuns conducting these schools, to remember their serious duty in giving all necessary instruction, and 'insisting' on modesty in feminine attire.
It is, therefore, vanity of dress that the Church condemns. For, says Lavater: 'She who studies her glass, neglects her heart.' And, continues Shakespeare: 'The soul of the vain man is in his clothes.' Hence, no matter how innocent the girl's intentions, no matter how good her motives, common decency forbids her parading before others to display the beauty of her form, instead of the 'beauty of her soul and the loveliness of her virtue.' For, as Father Scott, S.J., expresses it: 'God put the instinct of attractiveness in women, in order to induce honest love and marriage. The way some women dress induces only dishonorable love. . . . It implies no esteem, no honest purpose, no idea whatever of true affection. Nothing fades so fast as the attraction founded on animal passion. The scandalous dress of some women exposes them to lustful eyes, generates false love, and lays the foundations of lifelong misery.'
Dancing.-From improper styles in dress, we go to improper dancing. The one, as we readily see, is the natural supplement to, or outgrowth of, the other. The vain person is not content with self-adornment, but wants to display this vanity before others. Social gatherings and amusements afford the best opportunities for this. Hence, those whose vanity centers in the sex appeal, find no better outlet than in our dance halls, where participants may be observed at close range.
Here again the doctrine of the Catholic Church on dancing holds fast to the principle: 'Is it right, or is it wrong?' Unlike the puritanical attitude of those who condemn all forms of diversion and recreation-be it smoking, chewing, drinking, playing cards, games, theatricals, etc., even though practised in moderation-the Catholic Church condemns no pastime as long as there is no sin connected with it. Many pastimes can be directly or indirectly utilized for healthbuilding purposes. But, like in dress, so in dancing it is not the use, but the abuse, to which a thing is put that we condemn.
We know, for example, that in the Old Testament the Jewish people were accustomed on festival days to dance around the Ark. Even to-day, on great feasts in some countries, it is customary for children to dance before the Blessed Sacrament in the sanctuary. So, now we do not condemn respectable dances, where the participants are properly clad, proper decorum is observed, and the evening is spent together for recreation and innocent enjoyment. In fact, in most of our schools, we find instructors in this art, teaching the children rhythmical movements of their bodies and cultivating grace and proper bearing, all of which are conducive to health and happiness.
But what the Church does condemn is every form of sin and abuse in dancing. And today, as in the past, experience teaches that most of the public dance halls are hotbeds for sin and cesspools of vice. Hence, the Church forbids all public dances, where there is no restriction as to who attends. Whenever the advertisement reads, 'Everybody welcome,' that should be a sufficient warning in itself. Secondly, the Church condemns certain forms of dancing, no matter whether conducted in public or in private. This includes such types as the 'bunny-hug,' the 'tango,' certain 'foxtrots,' certain 'round dances,' which, on account of the position and proximity of the participants, are considered immoral, and are therefore forbidden. Individuals again are forbidden every form of dance which they themselves find a proximate occasion of sin.
Against sinful dances we are warned already in the Old Testament, where we read: 'Use not much the company of her that is a dancer, and hearken not to her, lest thou perish by the force of her charms' (Ecclus., ix. 4). And even though we sin at such dances only in thought, St. Paul tells us that 'he that lusteth after her in his mind, has already committed the sin before God.'
Even though one should not believe in the inspired word of God, we still have many other proofs from many other sources that confirm our attitude towards indecent dances. For example, Demosthenes, the greatest orator of pagan Greece, wishing to cast odium upon persons belonging to the army of King Philip of Macedon, accuses them of participating in public dances. In pagan Rome, to describe a woman without morals it was enough to say that 'she dances more elegantly than becomes an honest woman.' Ovid, Aristotle, Plato, Seneca and Scipio, all profane writers, describe public dances in their times in a manner that cannot even be quoted here. Tertullian represents the public dance hall as a 'temple of Venus, or a sink of obscenity.'
St. Ambrose calls them 'a choir of iniquity, the rock of innocence, the grave of shame.' And St. Charles Borromeo adds: 'The worldly dance is nothing else than a circle of which the devil is the centre and his slaves the circumference; whence it hardly ever happens that a person dances without sin.'
Just listen to these two quotations of our own times from the Hobart College Herald and the New York University News, representing two non-Catholic schools for women in this country.
From the Hobart College Herald, I quote: 'The outstanding objection to the modern dance is that it is immodest and lacking in grace. It is not based on the natural and harmless instinct for rhythm, but on a craving for abnormal excitement. And what is it leading to? The dance in the process of its degradation has passed from slight impropriety to indecency, and now threatens to become brazenly shameless. From graceful coordination of movement it has become a syncopated embrace. Even the most callous devotee of modern dancing cannot think with unconcern of the danger involved in any further excess. For American morals have undoubtedly degenerated with the dance. It cannot be denied that many who indulge in modern dancing do not realize the nature of the incentive which leads them to do so. They like to dance; it becomes a habit, a fascinating obsession. . Were this thoughtless immodesty restricted to the ballroom, the danger would be great enough, but it is unconsciously carried into everyday life. Truly, then, it is imperative that a remedy be sought to arrest the development of the modern dance before this perilous state gets beyond control.'
Now, briefly from the New York University News: 'Overlooking the physiological aspects of women's clothing, there is a strong moral aspect to this laxity of dress. When every dancing step discloses the entire contour of the dancer, it is small wonder that moralists are becoming alarmed. The materials, also, from which women's evening dresses are made, are generally of transparent cobweb. There is a minimum of clothes and a maximum of cosmetics, head-decorations, fans, and jewelry. It is, indeed, an alarming situation when our twentieth century debutant comes out arrayed like a South Sea island savage.' These, my friends, are words, not from a Catholic Priest, but from two groups of non-Catholic women, who still believe in decency and proper decorum.
Conclusion.-With such an array of indictments, then, surely no normal-minded Catholic or Christian can refrain from vigorously censuring such forms of amusement. What surprises us so often is the fact that all upright and cleanliving women do not rebel, and rise up in open revolt against the degradation that is being heaped upon pure womanhood everywhere around us. Why permit those enticing posters of nudity and unbecoming posture which we see upon display so frequently in front of present-day moving picture houses? Why permit the indecent display of their sex upon the shelves of our public newsstands? Shall we continue to tolerate such abuses, solely for lucre's sake, and the demoralization of our youth? It is said that if our Catholic people alone would unite and rise up in rebellion against these organized powers of evil, we could force every industry of vice into bankruptcy, and close the doors of our salacious haunts of vice and corruption. Once the start is made, all decent people will rally their forces behind us. Pray to God to give us strength and courage to marshal our forces against this present debauchery, and preserve for posterity holy purity, that anchor of all other virtues for which Christ Jesus came to earth, bled and died. Amen.
VI. OCCASIONS OF SINS OF LUST: UNDUE FAMILIARITIES, PETTING
'He that loveth danger shall perish in it' (Eccles., iii. 27).
A religious survey conducted in 1926 at Villanova College, a Catholic boys' school, disclosed a surprising need of more explicit instruction upon the specific dangers confronting young people of our day. In reply to the question, 'On what points of Catholic Doctrine do you feel you need more instruction?' purity and matrimony were mentioned more than any other point of doctrine. A similar questionnaire was given to my own high school pupils, and the same reply was received from both our boys and girls. Another similar questionnaire was submitted to 186 college graduates concerning their attitude on mixing socially with the better class of girls at dances, parties, etc., their attitude on minor love-making, their reaction from reading modern fiction containing realistic love scenes, from attendance at the average musical comedy and movies. Nearly all of these 186 men reported something disquieting in their conscience upon one or all of these points.
My friends -and especially you, my dear young men and women-the expressions of concern on the part of so many who answered these questionnaires, prove that, in spite of what others might think about these matters, a conscientious person is not entirely satisfied with the decorum observed by so many of our people today. It proves to us all that we see so frequently in modern fiction, on the screen, in our movies-the love scenes, those prolonged kisses, the undue familiarities between the sexes, the petting parties, and so on-do not prove to be innocent when put to an actual test. Our subject then for today will be as follows: 'Undue Familiarities and Petting Parties,' as two more means by which Satan leads people to sin against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments of the Decalogue.
Upon this subject I would love to speak to you as a friend to a true friend. And I trust you will accept my words in this spirit. Many parents and teachers are often ignorant of what actually goes on in the minds of young people. In like manner, upright young men are often ignorant of what is really transpiring in the minds of ideal young women with whom they associate, and vice versa. I refer to the fact that boys and girls, and parents too, are generally ignorant of the essential difference of the sex instinct, as found in man and woman. The common notion is that it is about the same in all people, and that it differs only in intensity. But biologists and psychologists have done well in exposing this wrong notion. They distinguish two factors in the sex urge which all should know. First, we have the psychic factor, that is, the craving of the soul for companionship, understanding and response. The second is the physical factor, which is inherent in the body, and which craves the sensuous phase of sex. It is well for all to know and remember this distinction.
In the boy it is usually the physical factor that predominates, while in the girl it is the psychic factor; and this not infrequently continues throughout life. Dr. Maurice A. Bigelow expresses it in this way: 'The sexual instincts of young men are characteristically active, aggressive, spontaneous, and automatic; while those of the girl, as a rule, are passive, and subject to awakening by external stimuli, especially in connection with affection.'
These facts should be of particular interest, especially to our young people. So often a good girl has no idea of the vehemence of the boy's passion. As a pure girl, she is conscious only of her love, and her desire to be loved in return. She often censures the parent or confessor for being too severe. She believes that the boy has the same innocent intentions as herself. And so she cannot understand what harm there could be in kissing and embracing. She knows that she has no evil intentions. She wishes merely to display her affection. She wishes nothing more, and expects nothing more. This is usually the average experience of the normal girl, who is so eager to have a boy friend and to go out with him. And thus she 'makes dates with him,' as she calls it.
On the other hand, the boy has no knowledge of th e girl's attitude. He does not know or realize that the girl is different from himself. And when the girl is affectionate, he immediately concludes that she is just as passionate as he himself; that she is feeling the same physical urge as he. How many a pitfall, how many a fatal step, might have been avoided, if every boy and girl had known these differences in their sex urge earlier in life! Hence, Pope Pius XI, in his Encyclical on the 'Christian Education of Youth,' warns parents and teachers in these striking words: 'It is no less necessary to direct and watch the education of the adolescent, 'soft as wax to be moulded into vice,' in whatever environment he may happen to be, removing occasions of evil and providing occasions for good in his recreations and social intercourse; for 'evil communications corrupt good manners.'
I trust you will pardon me for my frequent quotations. I am doing this in order to drive home my point more forcibly, by giving you the opinions of other recognized authorities, besides my own. Twenty Catholic doctors, a few years ago, were asked their opinions on various topics in the PeckWell's inquiry. I shall quote them only in part. They declare, that 'love-making, petting and kissing ordinarily arouse passion, few are immune; some get disgusted when the girl makes too ardent advances; extreme liberties cause the height of sexual excitement, in perhaps 15% or 20% of the cases. . . . Mixing socially with the better class of people disturbs the sexual emotion only with particularly sensitive boys; public dances cause much more trouble, both because of loose conversation, and because the girls frequently encourage close hugging, and the like; and the immoral dances, so common today, are nothing more nor less than sensuality set to music.'
These, my friends, are the words of twenty experienced physicians; men who, in view of their profession, certainly cannot be accused of bias or undue sentimentality on the subjects. And yet, there are those girls who persist that they see nothing wrongin kissing and petting, with prolonged embraces in one another's arms. They belong to that class who, in the words of Dr. George W. Sandt (Lutheran), 'paint and powder and drink and smoke, and become an easy prey to a certain class of well-groomed and wellfed high livers, whose chief business is 'to pluck the blush of innocence from off the cheek of maidenhood and put a blister there.' ' It is from this type of girls that the startling evidence came to light a few years ago through judge Fred E. Bale, of Columbus, Ohio, who estimated that in one year 68,000 girls were reported missing in the United States. The majority of these girls, he says, were from good families and had 'got in trouble,' and rather than face their parents or embarrass their families they simply 'dropped from sight.'
And the young boy, too, who boasts of the number of girls he can kiss and fondle, is far from being a gentleman. Dr. Exner sets forth the true character of such a young man, addicted to petting. 'The real lover,' he says, 'aspires to personal development and perfection, in order that he may the more readily contribute to the happiness of his mate in love. The petter, on the other hand, seeks chiefly his own pleasure and uses other persons to that end as he would use a thing, each to be cast aside when it has served his purpose.'
This, my friends, is the sleek sheik who will dash to the curb in his auto and offer to take an innocent, unsuspecting girl for that fatal auto ride. Imagine a girl from a good home, coming to you withthe question: 'Father, is a girl allowed to give up her virtue before marrying the boy she is going with?' These are the scoundrels who try to make a girl believe anything just to attain their evil end. This is the dangerous type of young man, who cannot feel comfortable, or at ease, when he must keep company with his girl friend in the presence of her parents and other members of her family. Of such the poet writes:
Is there, in human form, that bears a heart,
A wretch! a villain! lost to love and truth!
That can, with studied, sly, ensnaring art,
Betray sweet jenny's unsuspecting youth?
Curse on his perjured arts! dissembling smooth!
Are honor, virtue, conscience, all exiled?
Is there no pity, no relenting ruth?
(Cotter's Saturday Night).
Now comes a fair question many a good girl is tempted to ask. It is this: 'Father, can't we girls have any friends at all then? Must we remain 'wall flowers' all our lives?' Our answer is that every good boy and girl should have their friends. In the world of today, as in past ages, as well as in time to come, all good people look for friendship. They pine for lack of it. The pagans held friendship as the very end and purpose of life. They declared it the most perfect gift of God to man. There is nothing else which gives so great joy in life as true friendship. Our Perfect Model had His friends. Jesus has His chosen twelve, including a special three; and of the three, an especial one, John, who is called the 'Beloved Disciple.'
But what is true friendship? It is openness between friends, confidence, the absence of all reserve. Between friends there can hardly be any secrets. With each other, by silence as well as by the spoken word, they exchange their inmost thoughts. Unconsciously, they are allowing each other to enter into the depths of the heart, that is hidden by a thick veil from all others. And, to be genuine, friendship must reveal certain qualities. First, it must be loyal-no fairweather friendship, nor such as allows an attack on one's friend to go unchallenged. Secondly, it must be constant. Those who are always changing friends, one friend today, another tomorrow, know not what true friendship is. They have many acquaintances-yes; many friends-no! Thirdly, it must be frank. It must be based on sincere confidence and trust. Constant correction is not frankness in friendship, but rather an overzealous attempt to reach the results of friendship. Next, it must be ideal friendship; that is, I must see my friend as he is and as I would like that he should be. Lastly, it must be respectful, that is, decent and modest. For passion destroys friendship by destroying respect, and debases the precious signs of love.
Conclusion. -My friends, with these words I conclude my series of discourses on the occasions of sins of lust- or, as another has called them, 'the Devil's methods of approach' in leading people into the sins of impurity. These, we said, were principally through our senses-our thoughts, our desires, our eyes, our speech, and our actions. We included bad literature, theaters and the movies, bad companionship, sinful styles of dress, sinful dancing, and lastly petting parties, or undue familiarities with others. How well Satan succeeds in all these various methods of approach was revealed to St. Teresa, who, in a vision, was permitted by God to get a glimpse of hell. In this vision she saw impure souls fall into hell like flakes of snow in a wintry storm.
Yes, with such an overwhelming flood of temptations surrounding us, with false maxims and false principles of a pagan world confronting us, we may well be induced to cry out: 'Lord help us!' And our loving Saviour replies in the words He addressed to St. Paul, namely: 'My grace is sufficient for thee.' Yes, prayer and the Sacraments are our weapons to safeguard holy purity.
Speaking in the name of every priest, let me close with one more word of advice -never forget it! It is this: no matter what be your temptations, what your difficulties, never be afraid to go to your pastor, your priest, with your difficulties. To run away from our problems, to try to hide them, only makes matters worse. Let us face them together; and you will always find your priest a sympathetic friend. I still have great confidence in our young men and women of today. They have not lost their courage. In fact, they possess a refreshing absence of hypocrisy, unparalleled in earlier times. We admire their frankness and their sense of humor. When confronted with difficult problems, they would rather face and conquer them than try and avoid them. Therefore, when temptations against our holy virtue cross our paths, let us have a like courage, and exclaim with the Patriarch Joseph of old: 'How then can I do this wicked thing, and sin against my God l' (Gen., xxxix. 9). And with St. Paul: 'I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me.' Amen.
VII. SAFEGUARDS TO HOLY PURITY: MEANS OF PRESERVING IT.
'Wherefore, he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed, lest he fall' (1 Cor., x. 12).
Most people are self-centered to a greater or lesser degree. To the extremist, the world appears much like a largespider web. Everything gravitates towards him. He stands in the center, with every pleasure, every comfort, every other creature forming the various strands which constitute the web around him. With him, self and not God is the ultimate end of his ambitions. His law-not God's law-is supreme. For such there is but one law, and that is selfgratification, be it in wealth, in pleasure, in lust, orin any other violation of God's Commandments. In fact, he does not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being. Untold numbers follow these principles, this doctrine.
To the true Christian, on the other hand, God and not the individual is the center of attraction. All other creatures form the various strands of this web, which is world-wide, and everything gravitates toward the center, which is God, the Creator of us all. To hold fast these various strands, God has given us certain laws to follow- to irrational creatures the natural law, and to His rational creatures His positive laws, contained in the Ten Commandments. To safeguard our honor and the honor of our neighbor in relation to God, we have the Sixth and Ninth Commandments. We call this virtue chastity or purity-purity of intention, purity of thought, word and action.
Keeping the two schools of present-day philosophy in mind, one centering everything in self and the other centering everything in God, we can better understand, according to our Christian ideals, the gravity of every sin-and especially of impurity, as we have demonstrated in our preceding sermons. Every Christian and Catholic, then, should desire to know what are the safeguards, what the means, of preserving purity or chastity in thought and deed. This shall be our subject to-day.
With purity all other virtues thrive: without it no others can. Purity is such a beautiful virtue, so delicate in nature, that it precludes any and every tampering with it, lest the lily fade and die.
Knowing this to be true, we must look for all the safeguards with which we may enshroud it and protect it. To discover these safeguards, God has given us understanding and free will.
But there is another modern school of thought which has a large following. Their doctrine originated with the socalled Reformation of the sixteenth century. They deny the freedom of the human will, our freedom to do or not to do a thing. With them there is no such thing as 'safeguards' for holy purity. Reason and free will are mere myths, in their estimation. Martin Luther called reason the 'Devil's Harlot.' Denying the freedom of the will, he wrote to Erasmus: 'The human will is like a beast of burden; if God mounts it, it goes and wishes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it goes and wishes as Satan wills. Nor can it choose the rider it prefers.' In other words, man is not responsible for his actions, be they good or bad. Therefore, there is nothing we can do about it when temptations come.
We, on the other hand, say that we are responsible for our actions. God has given us understanding and free will. He has also given us the Commandments to guide us. When our reason and will act in conformity with these Commands, we say our actions are good. If not, we say they are bad. In regard to holy purity, then, we have two classes of safeguards to preserve it. The first class comprises those means to be used before temptation, or when we are free from temptation; the second comprises those to be used when we are actually tempted.
Before Temptation.-While we are free from temptation, we must prepare and gird ourselves for possible and unexpected attacks. Before Colonel Lindbergh and his wife set out together on their 29,000 miles of perilous journey over land and sea from July to December of 1933, they did not say: 'Everything depends on God or Satan for the success or failure of that flight.' They did not wait until dangers and difficulties confronted them. On every lap of that journey, before setting out, they checked their airplane, every instrument and detail; they prepared to meet any and every crisis.
Over the sea of life, despite the unexpected and dangerous storms and squalls surrounding us, God has given us certain means by which we may secure a safe passage. To safeguard the lily of holy purity before the attack, He has given us four means to ward off the assault: two of these we hold in our own hands; the other two are supernatural. The first two are the avoidance of bad company or occasions of sin and the custody of our senses, especially the eyes. The second two are prayer and the Sacraments.
(1) Avoidance of Bad Company.-We have already seen how easily bad company can lead us into sin; how lack of restraint of the senses, especially of the eyes, gives rise to impure thoughts and desires. Some may say: 'Oh, I'll be careful! God will protect me.' But this is not sufficient. There is something peculiar about temptations against holy purity, which allows no halfway measures. We cannot hesitate. For, 'he who hesitates will perish.' 'He who loves danger will perish therein' (EccIus., iii. 27). Immediate flight is the only alternative. And in this flight, we must-like the aviator-watch every instrument; that is, our senses, so that none fail us.
This is the advice one holy man gave to a boy who came to him for advice after having yielded to temptations against holy innocence. 'There are three things,' he said, 'you must do, if you really desire to overcome these temptations. First, you must fly away; secondly, you must fly at once; and thirdly, you must fly away quickly.' The young man followed this advice and his efforts were crowned with success.
Self-denial or mortification is also a powerful help. This means to deny ourselves some pleasure, some particular dish at table, some tit-bits, and the like, which we might legitimately enjoy, and are allowed. This strengthens our wills so that when the time comes we may deny ourselves the things that are not allowed.
(2) Prayer and the Sacraments.-Secondly, the helps from above, which enable us to overcome temptation, are prayer and the Sacraments.
(a) For the virtue of purity, earnest prayer to God and His Blessed Mother, our Guardian Angel and the Saints, is a notable means of overcoming temptations. We find this promise recorded in the Book of Wisdom(viii. 21): 'And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent except God gave it, I went to the Lord and besought Him.' And St. Augustine, who was a great sinner before his conversion, confirms this, saying: 'I thought that I could lead a pure life bymy own strength; but soon I felt that I was too weak. Then I began to pray.'
Let us mention a few of the prayers we might use. The making of the sign of the Cross, with the word 'Jesus' said three times, is sufficient to ward off ordinary temptations. Then we have the beautiful prayer to our Guardian Angel, which we learnt at our mother's knee, and which should be repeated mornings and evenings, namely:
Angel of the Lord, my Guardian dear,
To whom His love commits me here,
Ever this day be at my side,
To light and rule, to guard and guide.
For the Blessed Virgin, we have the beautiful 'Hail Mary,' and St. Bernard's prayer of consecration, beginning with the words: 'Remember, O most gracious and Blessed Virgin Mary, that never was it known, that anyone who fled to thy protection was left unaided,' etc. Then again, most of you know this little prayer: 'O Mary, my Queen and my Mother, remember I am thine own. Keep me and guard me as thy property and possession. To thee, this day, I consecrate my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, and myself and my whole being.' Then you can add any other prayer you may know.
The Blessed Virgin once said to St. Bridget: 'As a mother who sees her child in danger of being put to death by an enemy, runs forward and does all in her power to save that child; so do I also run to help my children, even those among them who have already yielded to impure temptations, just as soon as they call upon me for help.'
(b) The other helps from above are the Sacraments of Penance and Holy Eucharist. The more we polish a jewel, the brighter its lustre, and the less chance is there for dust to gather. The Sacrament of Penance does a similar thing to the soul, in protecting it from any tarnish against holy purity. And what food is to the body, that Holy Communion is to the soul. Hence, these two Sacraments support us in temptation, raise us when we have fallen, and strengthen us when we are weak. If we cling with all our hearts to the Blessed Sacrament, 'the bread of the strong, the wine of virgins,' then purity is safe.
Thousands of books have recommended these two remedies. The Saints have used Penance and Holy Eucharist as their panacea. Millions through the centuries have tried the same, and with constant success. And today, when men and women, exposed to the allurements of the world and beset at the most dangerous age with temptations of all kinds, have succeeded not only in leading pure lives outwardly, but also in keeping their hearts and their thoughts pure, it is because they have gone regularly to Confession, and received often the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. Such persons, and these only, triumph. And, if even they sometimes fall, what can those expect who without watchfulness, without prayer, without the Sacraments, try to conquer temptations? St. Don Bosco, a holy confessor, says: 'To confess only once every three months, is for young people as little as a drop of water upon a redhot iron.' And St. Francis de Sales advises us: 'You ought not to wait longer than a month, you who love your innocence.'
Means Used When Actually Tempted .-But supposing Satan, with his temptations, has broken through the first line of defense, and the storms of temptation are already upon us, what is to be done then? First of all, resort to flight, if that is possible. If not, then again, turn immediately to prayer: 'Lord, save me, or I perish!' 'O my God, rather let me die than sin!' 'O Mary, help me; do not desert me.' 'How can I do this wicked thing and sin before my God!' Other similar short ejaculations, accompanied by a sign of the Cross upon your forehead, your lips and your breast, will surely help. For the Cross is the sword for all Christians.
Secondly, remember what you sacrifice by a few moments of sensual pleasure.
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.
Thus cries out Sir Galahad. When the morning sun shines into the little dewdrops, we can see some of the glory and splendor of the heavens reflected there. So in chastity. Some of God's glory and beauty is reflected in my soul, for the soul is the image and likeness of God. 'Chastity gives me a memory, prompt and tenacious; thought, quick and abundant; a will, strong and persevering; a character, tempered with a vigor unknown to libertines.'
All this I will sacrifice for a sin that will cover me with shame. My conscience becomes disturbed; my countenance grows pale and wan; the voice grows feeble and hoarse; my memory grows dull; intellectual exertion becomes difficult; and ills without number haunt me as old age creeps over my dissipated and polluted body. What an exchange for so little in return!
Conclusion. -Before closing, let me tell you the story of a beautiful picture. Once described, you may profitably recall it in times of temptation. It is a group-picture, with the Blessed Virgin Mary occupying the center. She is seated upon a throne, wearing a lovely crown, the symbol of royalty. In her arms she holds the Child Jesus, who is distributing four lilies to four Saints. The lilies are symbols of innocence of heart-that virtue which makes a soul especially, dear to Jesus and His purest Mother. On this picture, to the right of Mary, are two figures of the protectors of innocent youth, namely, St. Aloysius and St. John Berchmans. To her left are the two virgins, St. Cecilia and St. Agnes. Immediately in front of these four Saints are four little children, who are stretching out their hands to the Infant Jesus. The four Saints in the picture urge them to do this. For these little children, too, want to receive the lily of purity. Their favor is granted, because they prayed to Mary with Jesus in her arms. Yes, my friends, when temptations come, we are not alone.
SOMEBODY KNOWS
Somebody knows when your heart aches, And everything seems to go wrong; Somebody knows when the shadows Need chasing away with a song;
Somebody knows when you're lonely, Tired, discouraged, and blue;
Somebody wants you to know Him, And know that He dearly loves you.
Somebody cares when you're tempted And the world grows dizzy and dim; Somebody cares when you're weakest, And farthest away from Him;
Somebody grieves when you've fallen, Tho' you are not lost from His sight: Somebody waits for your coming, Taking the gloom from your night.
Somebody loves you when weary; Somebody loves you when strong; Always is waiting to help you, Watches you, one of the throng,
Needing His friendship so holy,
Needing His watch-care so true.
His name? We call His name Jesus.
His people? Just I and just you.
(Fanny Edna Stafford.)
O, how beautiful and pleasing, then, must the virtue of purity be, since it makes a soul the favorite one with Jesus
and Mary! 'O, how beautiful,' says Holy Writ, 'is the chaste generation with glory; for the memory thereof is known both with God and with men. . . . It triumpheth crowned forever, winning the reward of undefiled conflicts' (Wis., iv. i sq.). Amen.
VIII. DUTIES OF PARENTS TOWARDS CHILDREN: INSTRUCTING THEM IN MATTERS OF SEX.
'All things are clean to the clean; but to them that are defiled, and to unbelievers, nothing is clean; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled' (Titus, i. 15).
On April 10, 1907, Pope Pius X gave to the Catholic world a message which at the time seemed strange and startling to many of the older folks of that day. It was that memorable Decree, in which this Holy Pontiff directed pastors and parents to encourage early and frequent Communion. Instead of waiting until the boy or girl had reached the age of 12 or 14 (as had been the custom), he advised that children at the age of seven, or when they have attained the use of reason, should be instructed in the rudiments of our holy religion, and then be permitted to receive their First Holy Communion. The reason this Pope, a great lover of children, gave was that this had been the practice of the early Christians; and that, on account of our times, when the young people are exposed to so many temptations against their holy innocence, Holy Communion is to be the antidote which is to preserve them in their virtue and innocence.
In like manner, in recent years, the thinking minds of the Church have perceptibly changed their attitude in favor of more direct and explicit instructions on the Commandments, and of the Sixth and Ninth Commandments in particular. On account of the many new channels through which a child of today may acquire false ideas on sex matters, the Church counsels especially parents and teachers to be mindful of their sacred duties in these matters. Primarily, however, the duty rests upon parents to impart to their children this necessary instruction on the sacred mysteries of life. This duty of parents is the subject for our discussion to-day.
A few years ago, an experienced missionary (see 'Sex Education,' by Fr. Felix Kirsch, O.M.Cap., p. 146), sent the following questionnaire to 500 pastors in various parts of the country. 'Is it,' he asks, 'your impression that Catholic parents give the necessary sex instruction early enough to their children? If not, why not?' From these 500 pastors, 320 replied 'No,' and only 43 replied in the affirmative,. The principal reasons given by these pastors, for the parents' neglect of their duty, were these: (i) parents do not know how to instruct their children; (2) they do not realize the need of the instruction; (3) they are too timid about discussing the subject with their children; (4) they think that the priest should take care of the matter in the confessional; (5) some parents believe that teachers might give sufficient information in a general way in school; (6) too many parents believe that children may be left to themselves in the matter; that somehow or other they will find a way out of the difficulty themselves.
One old pastor in the East added the following note: 'You will render a much needed service, if you will do something that will make our Catholic parents bestir themselves. Not all parents seem to realize to what frightful dangers their children are exposed at the present time. Children are seduced at an early age, whereas they could be saved if they were instructed betimes at home. They contract the habits of impurity before they are aware of what is happening to them. The confessor cannot do everything.'
In recent years, a number of our public schools introduced in their curriculum a special course in sex hygiene and eugenics, trying to supplement the instructions the child should receive from his parents. But, on account of the unfitness and divided opinions of the teachers themselves, experience has proved that these public school instructions have done more harm than good. These subjects cannot be taught independently of religion. And yet, so many of these teachers begin with the principle: 'Sex and morals have nothing to do with one another.'
Besides, these instructions should begin long before a child is sufficiently advanced in school to receive instructions there. Tennyson was correct in saying that 'we are a part of all we meet.' Other scholars say that the character of a child is formed from birth until he reaches the age of reason, at about the seventh year. Then also, on account of our environment, curiosity about the mysteries of life is aroused at a much earlier age than in the past. Imagine a child of five or six years old coming to his parent or teacher, as has happened, and asking without blush or shame: 'Where do babies come from?' Imagine the statement of Miss Tracy, a policewoman of Worcester, Mass. (October, 1928), where she admits that nine-year-old children have told her things about sex which she did not know at forty.
And just because the age at which the legitimate curiosity of children may be aroused varies so greatly, it becomes all the more difficult for teacher or pastor to give class instructions on this subject. Hence, it becomes evident that father and mother, who are in daily contact with their sons and daughters from birth, have the sacred duty to instruct the child when the opportune time arrives. This is what Pope Pius XI restates in his Encyclical on the 'Christian Education of Youth' when he writes: 'It is no less necessary to direct and watch the education of the adolescent, 'soft as wax to be moulded into vice,' in whatever environment he may happen to be, removing occasions of evil and providing occasions for good in his recreations and social intercourse; for 'evil communications corrupt good manners.' '
But many a father or mother will ask the questions: 'When should I begin with these instructions? How shall I go about it?' The time to begin is when you see that the child grows curious to know what it has a right to know. Our principle is: 'Rather a year too soon than one hour too late.'
When and How to Proceed.-Age and circumstances must determine this to a great extent. Take the little boy or girl, for example, who asks the question: 'Mamma, where do babies come from?' There was a time when the question was answered with a curt reply 'The stork (or the doctor) brings the babies.' Or: 'Little children like you should not ask such questions.' But these answers do not satisfy the mind of the child. They only arouse the curiosity of the child still further. They create a mistrust in the mind of a child towards his parent; and the child quietly awaits the opportunity when he may obtain that information from other sources. Hence the Church discourages-in fact, condemns-such vague and unsatisfactory answers. Alban Stoltz, the writer and author, calls such replies 'lies.' And 'a lie never brings a blessing.'
The same author (Fr. Felix Kirsch, 'Education to Purity,' p. 188) suggests that parents should answer such a child in a more direct manner; yet, with proper delicacy and reserve. For example, when the child is old enough to understand, parents might well begin with the beautiful narrative of the Incarnation and Birth of our Divine Saviour. The Scriptural story of the first Christmas at Bethlehem appeals to the mind of every child. And the part Mary and Joseph played in the birth of the Baby Jesus can be beautifully and effectively retold. As children grow older, more details might be added. Following this, the mother can proceed to tell her boy or girl how they too were formed.
Let us cite an example how other parents proceeded to impart this information. One mother informs us that she found the following method, taken from Good Housekeeping (September, 1911), quite satisfactory and helpful. To the child she spoke somewhat as follows: 'Mother and father love each other very much. Where God is, there is love, and God wants little ones to be. Children are the special proof that God is love. When God wants to send a little child into a home, He fits up, just beneath the mother's heart, a snug nest, not unlike the nests the birds live in. Then out of two tiny eggs the father and mother bring together, in the nest, a little child is hatched just like a little bird. But for months and months helives in his nest in the mother's body. The mother knows the little one is there and loves him dearly. A part of all the food she eats goes to his nourishment. At last when the little one is too big to stay longer in the nest, the doctor comes and helps to bring him out into the world.'
One little boy who fearfully had asked his mother the question, and had received the above reply, hastened to ask: 'That must hurt, mamma, does it not?' 'Sure, my darling,' replied the mother. 'Are you still mad at me?' 'Mad?' replied the mother, as she warmly clasped the boy to her heart. 'No, my dear, that was not your fault.
All mothers, except the mother of Jesus, suffer when their children are born. But they forget all their pains the moment they see their little ones. Now, darling, don't look so sad. Smile and laugh again like mamma.'
The little boy did not laugh for a while. The thought that he had caused his mother pain, made him serious, and haunted him for hours. Later, when mamma kissed him good-night, the little chap flung his arms around mamma's neck, saying: 'Oh mamma, I love you so much more now than ever before.' 'Yes, my boy,' she added, 'these are holy things we talked about. Anything else you wish to know, do not go to anyone else, but come right to your papa or mamma, and we shall gladly tell you anything you wish to know.'
Such parents have won the undying love and complete confidence of their children forever. Such children usually grow up to be good sons and daughters; and nothing could ever shake their reverential love and their unlimited filial confidence in the future. Children from such homes will not come later in life, like the girl who was kept in total ignorance about sex matters, asking the question: 'Father, does a girl become pregnant if she kisses the boy whom she loves?' Or: 'Father, is it all right for a girl to give up her virtue to a boy she loves before she marries him?' and many other similar questions. Nay, but rather will good parents, who know their duties towards their children, inform them still further, as they enter their teens, of the fact that the knowledge of sex matters is not wrong. Only the abuse of such knowledge is bad.
Again, they will take the story of the Incarnation as their guide. When the Angel appeared to the Immaculate Virgin Mary, and told her she should become the Mother of God, she showed clearly from her answer, 'I know not man' (that is: 'I have not done what is necessary to become a mother'), that she was well informed on sex matters. And she was, no doubt, very young at the time when her parents, Joachim and Anna, imparted this knowledge to her. For she was probably only about 16 years old when the Angel appeared. And we do know that this knowledge did not cast the least shadow on her incomparable, spotless chastity.
Often when young people present themselves for holy matrimony, during the preliminary instruction preceding the ceremony, I frequently ask the question: 'Did your parents or anyone else instruct you on the things young people should know before entering holy wedlock?' Repeatedly, the reply is: 'No, neither our parents nor anyone else told us anything about our duties in this regard.' Such young people have never had explained to them the real meaning of the words repeated daily in the Hail Mary: 'Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.'
Such parents are guilty of grave neglect. Following the example of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Blessed Mother, it is the sacred duty of every parent to call son and daughter aside before they have reached the ages of twelve or fourteen, and especially before marriage, and explain to them the nature and purpose of the various organs of the body. Beginning with the various appetites of the senses, as they develop, the appetite we call 'sex instinct' should be properly explained. And it should be made clear that this sex instinct is good in itself; that God has given it for a noble and definite purpose; but that it must be used only according to God's plan and design.
Hence, it would be wrong to speak of it as being 'bad pleasure,' or certain parts of our body as being 'forbidden.' Jesus, when He became man, took to Himself a complete body, with all the organs of man. His Blessed Mother, too, had a complete body, with all the organs of a woman. Hence, no part of our body is 'forbidden' or 'bad.' God made them all. I should rather say, that certain parts of the body are 'too sacred' to be trifled with-to be abused or to be talked about lightly. God could have created the bodies of every one of us, just as He creates every soul-as He created out of nothing our first parents, Adam and Eve, or as He created the Angels. But, by giving man these organs of the body, God made every man and woman a potential co-partner in His work of creating new human beings- creatures who are one day to fill the spaces made vacant by the fallen angels.
Here lies the tremendous responsibility of marriage. It is a partnership, not only between man and woman, but between a man and a woman and God. God is not mocked. Parents cannot leave Him out of the picture of married life. A terrible judgment awaits those who try to cheat God of His share in this partnership. And whoever assumes the responsibility of parenthood, must preserve the life of that child, both for time and for eternity. Parents have a sacred duty to teach that child how to preserve both body and soul pure and undefiled.
Conclusion:-And the easiest way to accomplish this is by leading the way through good example. Remember this point well: in parental teaching it is not so much what parents say, but what they are and do. There is a wise saying: 'Parents may say what they please, but they thunder what they are.' What parents are may speak so loudly that children cannot hear what they say. Therefore, the best parents for training children in chastity, are the chaste parents who set the example first.'Verba docent, exempla trahunt.' 'Words teach, but example draws.' Children see through their parents much quicker and better than parents see through their children. 'Actions speak louder than words.' Hence, the father who says to his son 'Come,' has some influence. But the father who says to his son 'Go,' has much less influence.
I have the greatest sympathy for any boy or girl who may have made a mistake. For we never know how much of the guilt is due to the child and how much to the parent of that child. We know that Scripture tells us that the sins of parents shall pass on to the third and fourth generations. In like manner, we might say, the blessings of good parents pass on to their children and children's children, even to the third and fourth and fifth generations. What tremendous powers and responsibilities, therefore, has God placed in the hands of fathers and mothers, for good or for evil! Truly, then, may every good father and mother address his or her children in the words of the noble Machabean mother, who spoke to her seven sons, about to be martyred, in the following terms: 'I know not how you were formed in my womb; for I neither gave you breath nor soul nor life, neither did I frame the limbs of every one of you. But the Creator of the world, who formed the nativity of man' (11 Mach., vii. 22 sq.). Amen.
Nihil Obstat: Artheu J. Scanlan, S.T.D. Censor Librorum.
Imprimatur: Patrick Cardinal Hayes, Archbishop of New York, New York, September 28, 1935.
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| St. Louis de Montfort: Friends of the Cross |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2021, 09:22 AM - Forum: The Saints
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PREFACE
St. Louis Mary 1716, author of this 'Letter,' is widely known through his treatise on 'The True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary' and its abridgment 'The Secret of Mary.' Well has he merited the title of 'Apostle of Mary' and des ervedly he is called 'Tutor of the Legion of Mary.' Addressing the many pilgrims at the canonization of St. De Montfort, July 1947, the Holy Father calls him 'the guide who leads you to Mary and from Mary to Jesus.' Speaking of St. Louis' 'Prayer for Missionaries,' Father Faber says:
'Since the Apostolical Epistles, it would be hard to find words that burn so marvelously.' He has founded two religious congregations: the priests and the brothers of the Company of Mary (Montfort Fathers) and the Daughters of Wisdom. To his sons and daughters he has left a rich heritage of doctrinal writings.
In this 'Letter' St. Louis manifests his passionate love for the Cross and pours forth the noble sentiments of his ardent soul. Like St. Paul, he is 'determined to know nothing. . . . except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified' (1 Cor. 2-2); 'indeed a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, but to those who are called. . the Wisdom of God' (1 Cor 1-23, 24).
While giving missions in the city of Nantes in 1708, this eloquent preacher of the Cross and devout slave of Jesus in Mary formed, from the most fervent souls among his audiences, an association of 'The Friends of the Cross.' This fraternity or association was established .in the localities evangelized by the holy Missionary to fight against the many disorders and vices of the times and to make reparation for the outrages perpetrated against the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Each time he visited these places he exhorted the members to persevere in their first fervor. Alas! Suddenly he was forbidden to preach to them. Through intrigues, machinations and calumny his arch enemies, the Jansenists, prevailed to have their redoubtable adversary silenced.
During the summer of 1714 Father De Montfort stopped at Rennes. Here, too, with diabolical hate and fury, the Jansenists succeeded in having the saintly Missionary silenced. Welcoming this added humiliation-for his heaviest cross was to be without a cross-he took refuge at his alma mater, the Jesuit College at Rennes, where he was warmly received. Here he buried himself in an eight day retreat meditating on the mystery of Calvary. From an incessant heart-to-heart talk with the Man of Sorrows and His Blessed Mother he received a new light and a more ardent love for the Crucified Savior.
On the last day of the retreat St. Louis, always eager to lead the faithful souls on the Royal Road of the Cross, desired to communicate to his fervent followers the fruits of his sublime meditation and poured forth the burning sentiments of his apostolic soul in the following 'Letter.'
In this epistle he gives us a holy doctrine which he preached and lived all his life thus imitating his Divine Master, Jesus Christ. It is believed that as a seminarian he wrote those two wonderful poems: 'The Strength of Patience' (39 stanzas) and the 'Triumph of the Cross' (31 stanzas) in which we find the elements contained in this 'Letter.' As a young priest he wrote his first book, 'Love of Eternal Wisdom,' and in its beautiful fourteenth chapter, 'The Triumph of Eternal Wisdomin the Cross and by the Cross,' is demonstrated the author's great love for the Folly of the Cross. In his allocution on St. De Montfort, quoted above, the Holy Father said: 'Being crucified himself he has a perfect right to speak with authority on Christ Crucified. . . . He gives a sketch of his own life when drawing up a plan of life in his 'Letter to the Friends of the Cross'' (Cf. 'Letter,' No. 4, 2).
When this 'Letter' appeared St. Louis had already written the 'Secret of Mary' and most probably had fi nished its lucid development 'True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary' to which this 'Letter' is very closely related and is, as it were, the development and completion of the saintly author's 'plan of forming a true client of Mary and a true disciple ofJesus Christ' (True Devotion No. 111).
Although written more than two centuries ago to fight against the evils and vices of those days this 'Letter' retains all its usefulness and freshness. It wages a holy war on the evils, vices, pagan materialism and secularism of the present day. St. Louis gives us a panacea for all these ills: Christian mortification, prayer and a total consecration of ourselves to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In a strong staccato tone he tells us 'to suffer, to weep, to fast, to pray, to hide ourselves, to humiliate ourselves, to impoverish ourselves, to mortify ourselves. He who has not the spirit of Christ, which is the spirit of the Cross, does not belong to Him, but they who belong to Him have crucified their flesh and their concupiscenccs.'
Is this not the message Our Lady of Fatima gave to the world- penance, mortification, sacrifice, prayer and consecration to her Immaculate Heart-in 1917. Is it not Our Blessed Mother who guided and inspired her faithful Apostle to write it!
Thus imbued with a burning love for Christ Crucified, a love born of humiliation, suffering, persecution and contempt, like his Divine Master, St. Louis gives us, at the close of his 'Letter,' some wise, prudent rules that teach us how to suffer and bear our crosses patiently, willingly and joyfully in the footsteps of Our Lord and Crucified Savior. Thus convinced of the necessity of the Cross, stimulated by the happy effects it produces in our souls, and guided by these same rules laid down by St. Louis De Montfort we will more readily renounce Satan, the world and the flesh; we will more patiently bear our trials, crosses and tribulations and we will more carefully heed Christ's admonition: 'If any one wishes to come after Me let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me' (Luke: 8-23).
- The Editor
INTRODUCTION
Dear Friends of the Cross:
1. Since the divine Cross keeps me hidden and prevents me from speaking, I cannot, and do not even wish to express to you by word of mouth the feelings of my heart on the divine excellence and practices of your Association in the adorable Cross of Jesus Christ.
However, on this last day of my retreat, I come out, as it were, from the sweet retirement of my interior, to trace upon paper a few little arrows from the Cross with which to pierce your noble hearts. God grant that I could point them with the blood of my veins and not with the ink of my pen. Even if blood were required, mine, alas!, would be unworthy. May the spirit of the living God, then, be the life, vigor and tenor of this letter. May His unction be my ink, His divine Cross my pen and your hearts my paper.
Part I - EXCELLENCE OF THE ASSOCIATION OF THE FRIENDS OF THE CROSS
1. -Grandeur of the Name, Friends of the Cross
2. Friends of the Cross, you are a group of crusaders united to fight against the world, not like those religious, men and women, who leave the world for fear of being overcome, but like brave, intrepid warriors on the battlefront, refusing to retreat or even to yield an inch. Be brave. Fight with all your might.
Bind yourselves together in that strong union of heart and mind which is far superior, far more terrifying to the world and hell! than the armed forces of a well-organized kingdom are to its enemies. Demons are united for your destruction, but you, be united for their overthrow; the avaricious are united to barter and hoard up gold and silver, combine your efforts in the pursuit of the eternal treasures hidden in the Cross; reprobates unite to make merry, but you, be united to suffer.
3. You call yourselves 'Friends of the Cross.' What a wonderful name! I must admit that it charms and fascinates me. It is brighter than the sun, higher than the heavens, more imposing and resplendent than any title given to king or emperor. It is the great name of Christ Himself, true God and true Man at one and the same time. It is the unmistakable title of a Christian.
4. Its splendor dazzles me but the weight of it frightens me. For this title implies that you have taken upon yourselves difficult and inescapable obligations, which are summed up in the words of the Holy Ghost: 'A chosen generation,a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people' (1 Peter 2, 9).
A Friend of the Cross is one chosen by God from among ten thousand who have reason and sense for their only guide. He is truly divine, raised above reason and thoroughly opposed to the things of sense, for he lives in the light of true faith and burns with love for the Cross.
A Friend of the Cross is a mighty king, a hero who triumphs over the devil, the world and the flesh and their threefold concupiscence. He overthrows the pride ofSatan by his love for humiliation, he triumphs over the world's greed by his love for poverty and he restrains the sensuality of the flesh by his love for suffering.
A Friend of the Cross is a holy man, separated from visible things. His heart is lifted high above all that is frail and perishable; 'his conversation is in heaven' (Phil. 3, 20); he journeys here below like a stranger and pilgrim. He keeps his heart free from the world, looks upon it with an unconcerned glance of his left eye and disdainfully tramples it under foot.
A Friend of the Cross is a trophy which the crucified Christ won on Calvary, in union with His Blessed Mother. He is another Benoni (Gen. 35, 18) or Benjamin, a son of sorrow, a son of the right hand. Conceived in the sorrowful heart of Christ, he comes into this world through the gash in the Savior's right side and is all empurpled in His blood. True to this heritage, he breathes forth only crosses and blood, death to the world, the flesh and sin and hides himself here below with Jesus Christ in God (Col. 3, 3).
Thus, a perfect Friend of the Cross is a true Christ-bearer, or rather another Christ, so much so that he can say with truth: 'I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me' (Gal. 2, 20).
5. My dear Friends of the Cross, does every act of yours justify what the eminent name you bear implies? Or at least are you, with the grace of God, in the shadow of Calvary's Cross and of Our Lady of Pity, really eager and truly striving to attain this goal? Is the way you follow the one that leads to this goal? Is it the true way of life, the narrow way, the thorn-strewn way to Calvary? Or are you unconsciously traveling the world's broad road, the road to perdition? Do you realize that there is a highroad which to all appearances is straight and safe for man to travel, but which in reality leads to death?
6. Do you really know the voice of God and grace from the voice of the world and human nature? Do you distinctly hear the voice of God, our kind Father, pronouncing His three-fold curse upon every one who follows the world in its concupiscence: 'Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth' (Apoc. 8, 13) and then appealing to you with outstretched arms: 'Be separated, My chosen people (Is. 48,20; 52,11; Jer. 50,8; 51,6), beloved Friends of the Cross of My Son, be separated from those worldlings, for they are accursed by My Majesty, repudiated by My Son (John 17,9) and condemned by My Holy Spirit (John 16,8-12). Do not sit in their chair of pestilence; take no part in their gatherings; do not even step along their highways (Ps. 1,1). Hurry away from this great and infamous Babylon (Is. 48,20; Jer. 51,6); hearken only to the voice of My Beloved Son; follow only in His footprints; for He is the One I have given to be your Way, Truth, Life (John 14,6) and Model: hear yeHim' (Matt. 17,5; Luke 9,35; Mark 9,6; 2 Pet. 1,17).
Is your ear attentive to the pleadings of the lovable and crossburdened Jesus, 'Come, follow Me; he that followeth Me walketh not in darkness (John 8,12); have confidence, I have conquered the world' (John 16, 33)?
II-The Two Groups
A-THE FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST AND THE FOLLOWERS OF THE WORLD
7. Dear Brethren, these are the two groups that appear before you each day, the followers of Christ and the followers of the world.
Our loving Savior's group is to the right, scaling a narrow path made all the narrower by the world's corruption. Our kind Master is in the lead, barefooted, thorn-crowned, robed in His blood and weighted with a heavy cross. There is only a handful of people who follow Him, but they are the bravest of the brave. His gentle voice is not heard above the tumult of the world, or men do not have the courage to follow Him in poverty, suffering, humiliation and in the other crosses His servants must bear all the days of their life.
B -THE OPPOSING SPIRIT OF THE GROUPS
8. To the left is the world's group, the devil's in fact, which is far superior in number, and seemingly far more colorful and splendid in array. Fashionable folk are all in a hurry to enlist, the highways are overcrowded, although they are broad and ever broadening with the crowds that flow through in a torrent. These roads are strewn with flowers, bordered with all kinds of amusements and attractions, and paved with gold and silver (Matt. 7,13-14).
9. To the right, the little flock that follows Jesus can speak only of tears, penance, prayer and contempt for worldly things. Sobbing in their grief, they can be heard repeating: 'Let suffer, let us weep, let us fast, let us pray, let us hide, let us humble ourselves, let us be poor, let us mortify ourselves, for he who has not the spirit of Christ, the spirit of the Cross, is none of Christ's. Those who are Christ's have crucified their flesh with its concupiscence. We must be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ or else be damned!' 'Be brave,' they keep saying to each other, 'be brave, for if God is for us, in us and leading us, who dare be against us? The One Who is dwelling within us is stronger than the one who is in the world; no servant is above his master; one moment of light tribulation worketh an eternal weight of glory; there are fewer elect than man may think; only the brave and daring take heaven by storm; the crown is given only to those who strive lawfully according to the Gospel, not according to the fashion of the world. Let us put all our strength into the fight, and run very fast to reach the goal and win the crown.' Friends of the Cross spur each other on with such divine words.
10. Worldlings, on the contrary, rouse one another to persist in their unscrupulous depravity. 'Enjoy life, peace and pleasure,' they shout, 'Enjoy life, peace and pleasure. Let us eat, let us drink, let us sing, let us dance, let us play. God is good, He did not make us to damn us; God does not forbid us to enjoy ourselves; we shall not be damned for that; away with scruples; we shall not die.' And so they continue.
C -LOVING APPEAL OF JESUS
11. Dear Brethren, remember that our beloved Jesus has His eyes upon you at this moment, addressing you individually: 'See how almost everybody leaves Me practically alone on the royal road of the Cross. Blind idolworshipers sneer at My Cross and brand it folly. Obstinate Jews are scandalized at the sight of it as at some monstrosity (1 Cor. 1,23). Heretics tear it down and break it to pieces out of sheer contempt. But one thing I cannot say without My eyes filling with tears and My heart being pierced with grief is that the very children I nourished in My bosom and trained in My school, the very members I quickened with My spirit have turned against Me, forsaken Me and joined the ranks of the enemies of My Cross (Is. 1,2; Phil. 3,18). Would you also leave Me? (John 6,68). Would you also forsake me and flee from My Cross, like the worldlings, who are acting as so many Anti-Christs? (1 John 2,12). Would you subscribe to the standards of the day (Rom. 12,2), despise the poverty of My Cross and go in quest of riches; shun the sufferings connected with My Cross, to run after pleasure; spurn the humiliations that must be borne with My Cross, and pursue worldly honors? There are many who pretend that they are friends of Mine and love Me but in reality they hate Me because they have no love for My Cross. I have many friends of My table, but few indeed of My Cross.' (Imitation of Jesus Christ, Book 2, Chap. 11.)
12. In answer to the gracious invitation which Jesus extends, let us rise above ourselves. Let us not, like Eve, listen to the insidious suggestion of sense. Let us look up to the unique Author and Finisher of our faith, Jesus crucified (Heb. 12,2). Let us fly from the corrupting concupiscence and enticements of a corrupt world (2 Pet. 1,4). Let us love Jesus in the right way, standing by Him through the heaviest of crosses. Let us meditate seriously on these remarkable words of our beloved Master which sum up the Christian life in its perfection: 'If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me' (Matt. 16,24).
Part II - PRACTICES OF CHRISTIAN PERFECTION
The Divine Master's Program
13. Christian perfection consists:
1. in willing to become a saint: 'If any man will come after Me';
2. in self denial: 'Let him deny himself';
3. in suffering: 'Let him take up his cross';
4. in doing: 'Let him follow Me.'
14. If anyone, not many a one, shows that the elect who are willing to be made conformable to the crucified Christ by carrying their cross are few in number. It would cause us to faint away from grief to learn how surprisingly small is their number.
It is so small that among ten thousand people there is scarcely one to be found, as was revealed to several Saints, among whom St. Simon Stylita, referred to by the holy Abbot Nilus, followed by St. Basil, St. Ephrem and others. So small, indeed, that if God willed to gather them together, He would have to cry out as he did of yore through the voice of a prophet: 'Come ye together one by one' (Is. 27,12), one from this province and one from that kingdom.*
I -THE DESIRE TO BECOME A SAINT?
15. If anyone wills: if a person has a real and definite determination and is prompted not by natural feelings, habit, self-love, personal interest or human respect but by an all-masterful grace of the Holy Ghost which is not communicated indiscriminately: 'it is not given to all men to understand this mystery' (Matt. 13,11). In fact, only a privileged number of men receive this practical knowledge of the mystery of the Cross. For that man who climbs up to Calvary and lets himself be nailed on the Cross with Jesus in the heart of his own country must be a brave man, a hero, a resolute man, one who is lifted up in God, who treats as muck both the world and hell, as well as his very body and his own will. He must be resolved to relinquish all things, to undertake anything and to suffer everything for Jesus.
Understand this, dear Friends of the Cross, should there be anyone among you who has not this firm resolve, he is just limping along on one foot, flying with one wing, and undeserving of your company, since he is not worthy to be called a Friend of the Cross, forwe must love the Cross as Jesus Christ loved it 'with a great heart and a willing mind' (2 Mach. 1,3). That kind of half-hearted will is enough to spoil the whole flock, like a sheep with the scurvy. If any such one has slipped into your fold through the contaminated door of the world, then in the name of the crucified Christ, drive him out as you would a wolf from your sheepfold.
16. 'If anyone will come after Me': for I have humbled Myself and reduced Myself to mere nothingness in such a way that I made Myself a worm rather than a man: 'I am a worm and no man' (Ps. 21,7). After Me: for if I came into the world, it was only to espouse the Cross: 'Behold I am come' (Ps. 39,8; Heb. 10,7-9); to set the cross in My heart of hearts: 'In the midst of my heart' (Ps. 39,9); to love it from the days of my youth: 'I have loved it from my youth' (Wisdom 8,2); only to long for it all the days of my life: 'how straitened I am' (Luke 12,50); only to bear it with a joy I preferred even to the joys and delights that heaven and earth could offer: 'Who, having joy set before him, endured the cross' (Heb. 12,2); and, finally, not to be satisfied until I had expired in its divine embrace.
II-SELF-DENIAL
17. Therefore, if anyone wants to come after Me, annihilated and crucified, he must glory as I did only in the poverty, humiliation and suffering of My Cross: 'let him deny himself' (Matt. 16,24).
Far be from the Company of the Friends of the Cross those who pride themselves in suffering, the worldly-wise, elated geniuses and self-conceited individuals who are stubborn and puffed-up with their lights and talents. Far be they from us, those endless talkers who make plenty of noise but bring forth no other fruit than vainglory.
Far from us those high-browed devotees everywhere displaying the selfsufficient pride of Lucifer: 'I am not like the rest!I' (Luke 18,11). Far be from us those who must always justify themselves when blamed, resist when attacked and exalt themselves when humbled.
Be careful not to admit into your fellowship those frail, sensitive persons who are afraid of the slightest pin-prick, who sob and sigh when faced with the lightest suffering, who have never experienced a hair-shirt, a discipline or any other penitential instrument, and who, with their fashionable devotions, mingle the most artful delicacy and the most refined lack of mortification.
* St. De Montfort here speaks of that small group of saintly souls who carry their cross more perfectly. He does not, however, exclude from salvation that vast multitude of less perfect Christians which the mercy of God wills to save.
III -SUFFERING
18. Let him take up his cross, the one that is his. Let this man or this woman, rarely to be found and worth more than the entire world (Prov. 31,10-31), take up with joy, fervently clasp in his arms and bravely set upon his shoulders this cross that is his own and not that of another; his own cross, the one that My Wisdom designed for him in every detail of number, weight and measurement; his own cross whose four dimensions, its length, breadth, thickness and height (Eph. 3,18), I very accurately gauged with My own hands; his own cross which all out of love for him I carved from a section of the very Cross I bore on Calvary; his cross, the grandest of all the gifts I have for My chosen ones on earth; his cross, made up in its thickness of temporal loss, humiliation, disdain, sorrow, illness and spiritual trial which My Providence will not fail to supply him with every day of his life; his cross, made up in its length of a definite period of days or months when he will have to bear with slander or be helplessly stretched out on a bed of pain, or forced to beg, or else a prey to temptation, dryness, desolation and many another mental anguish; his cross, made up in its breadth of hard and bitter situations stirred up for him by his relatives, friends or servants; his cross, finally, made up in its depth of secret sufferings which I will have him endure nor will I allow him any comfort from created beings, for by My order they will turn from him too and even join Me in making him suffer.
19. Let him carry it, and not drag it, not shoulder it off, not lighten it, nor hide it. Let him hold it high in hand, without impatience or peevishness, without voluntary complaint or grumbling, without dividing or softening, without shame or human respect.
Let him place it on his forehead and say with St. Paul: 'God forbid that I should glory save in the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ' (Gal. 6,14).
Let him carry it on his shoulders, after the example of Jesus Christ, and make it his weapon to victory and the scepter of his empire (Is. 9,16).
Let him root it in his heart and there change it into a fiery bush, burning day and night with the pure love of God, without being consumed.
20. The cross: it is the cross he must carry for there is nothing more necessary, more useful, more agreeable and more glorious than suffering for Jesus Christ.
21. All of you are sinners and there is not a single one who is not deserving of hell; I myself deserve it the most. These sins of ours must be punished either here or hereafter. If they are punished in this world, they will not be punished in the world to come.
If we agree to God's punishing here below, this punishment will be dictated by love. For mercy, which holds sway in this world, will mete out the punishment, and not strict justice. This punishment will be light and momentary, blended with merit and sweetness and followed up with reward both in time and eternity.
22. But if the punishment due to our sins is held over for the next world, then God's avenging justice, which means fire and blood, will see to the punishing. What horrible punishment! How incomprehensible, how unspeakable! 'Who knoweth the power of thy anger?' (Ps. 89,11). Punishment devoid of mercy (James 2,13), pity, mitigation or merit; without limit and without end. Yes, without end! That mortal sin of a moment that you committed, that deliberate evil thought which now escapes your memory, the word that is gone with the wind, that act of such short duration against God's law-they shall all be punished for an eternity, punished with the devils of hell, as long as God is God! The God of vengeance will have no pity on your torments or your sobs and tears, violent enough to cleave the rocks. Suffering and still more suffering, without merit, without mercy and without end!
23. Do we think of this, my dear Brothers and Sisters, when we have some trial to undergo here below? Blessed indeed are we who have the privilege of exchanging an eternal and fruitless penalty for a temporary and meritorious suffering, just by patiently carrying our cross. What debts we still have to pay! How many sins we have committed which, despite a sincere confession and heartfelt contrition, will have to be atoned for in Purgatory for many a century, simply because in this world we were satisfied with a few insignificant penances! Let us settle our debts with good grace here below in cheerfully bearing our crosses, for in the world to come everything must be expiated, even the idle word (Matt. 12,36) and even to the last farthing. If we could lay hands on the devil's death-register in which he has noted down all our sins and the penalty to be paid, what a heavy debit we would find and how joyfully we would suffer many years here on earth rather than a single day in the world to come.
24. Do you not flatter yourselves, Friends of the Cross, that you are, or that you want to be, the friends of God? Be firmly resolved then to drink of the chalice which you must necessarily drink if you wish to enjoy the friendship of God. 'They drank the chalice of the Lord and became the friends of God' (Common of Apostles, Lesson 7). The beloved Benjamin had the chalice while his brothers had only the wheat (Gen. 44,1-4). The disciple whom Jesus preferred had his Master's heart, went up with Him to Calvary and drank of the chalice. 'Can you drink my chalice?' (Matt 20,22). To desire God's glory is good, indeed, but to desire it and pray for it without being resolved to suffer all things is mere folly and senseless asking. 'You know not what you ask (Matt. 20,2 2) . . . you must undergo much suffering' (Acts 14,21): you must, it is necessary, it is indispensable!
We can enter the kingdom of heaven only at the price of many crosses and tribulations.
25.You take pride in being God's children and you do well; but you should also rejoice in the lashes your good Father has given you and in those He still means to give you; for He scourges every one of His children (Prov. 3,11; Heb. 13,5-6; Apoc. 3,19). If you are not of the household of His beloved sons, then-how unfortunate! what a calamity!-you are, as St. Augustine says, listed with the reprobate. Augustine also says: 'The one that does not mourn like a stranger and wayfarer in this world cannot rejoice in the world to come as a citizen of heaven' (Sermon 31, 5 and 6). If God the Father does not send you worth-while crosses from time to time, that is because He no longer cares for you and is angry at you. He considers you a stranger, an outsider undeserving of His hospitality, or an unlawful child who has no rightto share in his father's estate and no title to his father's supervision and discipline.
26. Friends of the Cross, disciples of a crucified God, the mystery of the Cross is a mystery unknown to the Gentiles, repudiated by the Jews and spurned by both heretics and bad Catholics, yet it is the great mystery which you must learn to practice at the school of Jesus Christ and which you can learn only at His School. You would look in vain for any philosopher who taught it in the Academies of ancient times; you would ask in vain either the senses or reason to throw any light on it, for Jesus alone, through His triumphant grace, is able to teach you this mystery and make you relish it.
Become proficient, therefore, in this super-eminent branch of learning under such a skillful Master. Having this knowledge, you will be possessed of all other branches of learning, for it surpassingly comprises them all. The Cross is our natural as well as our supernatural philosophy. It is our divine and mysterious theology. It ía our philosopherstone which, by dint of patience, is able to transmute the grossest of metals into precious ones, the sharpest pain into delight, poverty into wealth and the deepest humiliation into glory. He amongst you who knows how to carry his cross, though he know not A from B, towers above all others in learning.
Listen to the great St. Paul, after his return from the third heaven, where he was initiated into mysteries which even the Angels had not learned. He proclaims that he knows nothing and wants to know nothing but Jesus Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2,2). You can rejoice, then, if you happen to be a poor man without any schooling or a poor woman deprived of intellectual attainments, for if you know how to suffer with joy you are far more learned than a doctor of the Sorbonne who is unable to suffer as you do.
27. You are members of Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 6,15; 12,27; Eph. 5,30). What an honor! But, also, what need for suffering this entails! When the Head is crowned with thorns should the members be wearing a laurel of roses? When the Head is jeered at and covered with mud from Calvary's road should its members be enthroned and sprayed with perfume? When the Head has no pillow on which to rest, should its members be reclining on soft feathers? What an unheard of monster such a one would be! No, no, dear companions of the Cross, make no mistake. The Christians you see around you, fashionably attired, super-sensitive, excessively haughty and sedate, are neither true disciples nor true members of the crucified Jesus. To think otherwise would be an insult to your thorn-crowned Head and His Gospel truth.
My God! How many would-be Christians there are who imagine they are members of the Savior when in reality they are His most insidious persecutors, for while blessing themselves with the sign of the Cross, they crucify Him in their hearts.
If you are led by the spirit of Jesus and are living the same life with Him, your thorn-crowned Head, then you must look forward to nothing but thorns, nails and lashes, in a word, to nothing but a cross.
A real disciple needs to be treated as his Master was, a member as its Head. And if the Head should offer you, as He offered St. Catherine of Siena, the choice between a crown of thorns and a crown of roses, do as she did and grasp the crown of thorns, fastening it tightly to your brow in the likeness of Jesus.
28. You are aware of the fact that you are living temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6,19) and that, like living stones (1 Pet. 2,5), you are to be placed by the God of love in the heavenly Jerusalem He is building. You must expect then to be shaped, cut and chiseled under the hammer of the Cross, otherwise you would remain unpolished stone, of no value at all, to be disregarded and cast aside. Do not cause the hammer to recoil when it strikes you. Yield to the chisel that is carving you and the hand that is shaping you. It may be that this skillful and loving Architect wants to make you a cornerstone in His eternal edifice, one of His most faithful portraits in the heavenly kingdom. So let Him see to it. He loves you, He really loves you; He knows what He is doing, He has experience. Love is behind every one of His telling strokes; nor will a single stroke miscarry unless your impatience deflects it.
29. At times the Holy Spirit compares the cross to a winnowing that clears the good grain from the chaff and dust (Matt. 3,13; Luke 3,17). Like grain in the winnowing, then, let yourself be shaken up and tossed about without resistance, for the Father of the household is winnowing you and will soon have you in His harvest. He also likens the cross to a fire whose intense heat burns rust off iron. God is a devouring fire (Deut. 4,24; 9,3; Heb. 13,29) dwelling in our souls through His Cross, purifying them yet not consuming them, exemplified in the past in a burning bush (Ex. 3,2-3). He likens it at times to the crucible of a forge where gold is refined (Prov. 17,3; Eccli. 2,5) and dross vanishes in smoke, but, in the processing, the precious metal must be tried by fire while the baser constituents go up in smoke and flame. So, too, in the crucible of tribulation and temptation, true Friends of the Cross are purified by their constancy in suffering while the enemies of the Cross vanish in smoke by their impatience and murmurings.
30. Behold, dear Friends of the Cross, before you a great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12,1-2) who silently testify that what I assert is the truth. For instance, consider Abel, a righteous man, who was slain by his own brother; then Abraham, a righteous man, who journeyed on the earth like a wanderer; Lot, a righteous man, who was driven from his own country; Jacob, a righteous man, who was persecuted by his own brother; Tobias, a righteous man, who was stricken with blindness; Job, a righteous man, who was pauperized, humiliated and covered with sores from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet.
31. Consider the countless Apostles and Martyrs who were bathed in their own blood; the countless Virgins and Confessors who were pauperized, humiliated, exiled and cast aside. Like St. Paul they fervently proclaim: Behold our beloved Jesus, 'Author and Finisher of the faith' (Heb. 12,2) we put in Him and in His Cross; it was necessary for Him to suffer and so to enter through the Cross into His glory (Luke 24,26).
There at the side of Jesus consider Mary, who had never known either original or actual sin, yet whose tender, Immaculate Heart was pierced with a sharp sword even to its very depths. If I had time to dwell on the Passion of Jesus and Mary, I could prove that our sufferings are naught compared to theirs.
32. Who, then, would dare claim exemption from the cross? Who would refuse to rush to the very place where he knows he will find a cross awaiting him? Who would refuse to borrow the words of the martyr, St. Ignatius: 'Let fire and gallows, wild beasts and all the torments of the devil assail me, so that I may rejoice in the possession of Jesus Christ.'
33. If you have not the patience to suffer and the generosity to bear your cross like the chosen ones of God, then you will have to trudge under its weight, grumbling and fretting like reprobates; like the two animals that dragged the Ark of the Covenant, lowing as they went (1 Kings 6,12); like Simon the Cyrenaean who unwillingly put his hand to the very Cross of Christ (Matt. 27,32; Mark 15,21), complaining while he carried it. You will be like the impenitent thief who from the summit of his cross plunged headlong into the depths of the abyss.
No, the cursed earth on which we live cannot give us happiness. We can see none too clearly in this benighted land. We are never perfectly calm on this troubled sea. . We are never without warfare in a world of temptation and battlefields. We cannot escape scratches on a thorn-covered earth. Both elect and reprobate must bear their cross here, either willingly or unwillingly. Remember these words:
'Three crosses stand on Calvary's height
One must be chosen, so choose aright; Like a saint you must suffer, or a penitent thief,
Or like a reprobate, in endless grief.'
This means that if you will not suffer gladly as Jesus did, or patiently like the penitent thief, then you must suffer
despite yourself like the impenitent thief. You will have to drain the bitterest chalice even to the dregs, and with no hope of relief through grace.
You will have to bear the entire weight of your cross, and without the powerful help of Jesus Christ. Then, too, you will have that awful weight to bear which the devil will add to your cross, by means of the impatience the cross will cause you. After sharing the impenitent thief's unhappiness here on earth, you will meet him again in the fires of hell.
34. But if you suffer as you should, your cross will be a sweet yoke (Matt. 11,30), for Christ will share it with you. Your soul will be borne on it as on a pair of wings to the portals of Heaven. It will be the mast on your ship guiding you happily and easily to the harbor of salvation.
Carry your cross with patience: a cross patiently borne will be your light in spiritual darkness, for he knows naught who knows not how to suffer (Eccli. 34,9).
Carry your cross with joy and you will be inflamed with divine love, for only in suffering can we dwell in the pure love of Christ.
Roses are only gathered from among thorns. As wood is fuel for the fire, so too is the Cross the only fuel for God's love. Remember that saying we read in the 'Following of Christ': 'Inasmuch as you do violence to yourself,' suffering patiently, 'insofar do you advance' in divine love (Bk. 1, Chap. 15,11). Do not expect anything great from those fastidious, slothful souls who refuse the Cross when it approaches and who do not go in search of any, when discretion allows. What are they but untilled soil, which can produce only thorns because it has not been turned up, harrowed and furrowed by a judicious laborer. They are like stagnant water which is unfit for either washing or drinking.
Carry your cross joyfully and none of your enemies will be able to resist its conquering strength (Luke 21,15), while you yourself will enjoy its relish beyond compare. Yes, indeed, Brethren, remember that the real Paradise here on earth is to be found in suffering for Jesus, Ask the saints. They will tell you that they never tasted a banquet so delicious to the soul than when undergoing the severest torments. St. Ignatius the Martyr said: 'Let all the torments of the devil come upon me!' 'Either suffering or death!,' said St. Theresa, and St. Magdalen de Pazzi: 'Not death but suffering!' 'May I suffer and be despised for Thy sake,' said Blessed John of the Cross. In reading the lives of the saints we find many others speaking in the self-same terms.
Dear Brethren, believe the Word of God, for the Holy Spirit says: The Cross affords all kinds of joy to anyone without exception who suffers cheerfully for God, (Jas. 1,2). The joy that springs from the cross is keener than the joy which a poor person would experience if over-laden with an abundance of riches, than the joy of a peasant who is made ruler of his country, than the joy of a commander-in-chief over the victories he has won, than the joy of a prisoner released from his fetters. In conclusion, let us picture the greatest joys to be found here below: the joy of a crucified person who knows how to suffer not only equals them but even surpasses them all.
35. Be glad, therefore, and rejoice when God favors you with one of His choicest crosses, for without realizing it you are being blessed with the greatest gift that Heaven has, the greatest gift of God. Yes, the cross is God's greatest gift. If you could only understand this, you would have Masses said, you would make novenas at the tombs of the saints; you would undertake long pilgrimages, as did the saints, to obtain this divine gift from Heaven.
36. The world claims it is madness on your part, degrading and stupid, rash and reckless. Let the world, in its blindness, say what it likes. This blindness which is responsible for a merely human and distorted view of the cross is a source of glory for us. For every time they provide us with crosses by mocking and persecuting us, they are simply offering us jewels, setting us upon a throne and crowning us with laurels.
37. What I say is but little. Take all the wealth and honors and scepters and brilliant diadems of monarchs and princes, says St. John Chrysostom, they are all insignificant compared with the glory of the Cross; it is greater even than the glory of the Apostles and the Sacred Writers. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, this saintly man goes as far as to say: 'If I were given the preference, I would gladly leave Heaven to suffer for the God of Heaven. I would prefer the darkness of a dungeon to the thrones of the highest heaven and the heaviest of crosses to the glory of the Seraphim. Suffering for me is of greater value than the gift of miracles, the power to command the infernal spirits, to master the physical universe, to stop the sun in its course and to raise the dead to life. Peter and Paul are more glorious in the shackles of a dungeon than in being lifted to the third heaven and presented with the keys to Paradise.'
38.In fact, was it not the Cross that gave Jesus Christ 'a name which is above all names; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of those that are in heaven, on earth and under the earth' (Phil. 2,9-10). The glory of the one who knows how to suffer is so great that the radiance of his splendor rejoices heaven, angels and men and even the God of Heaven. If the saints in Heaven could still wish for something they would want to return to earth so as to have the privilege of bearing a cross.
39. If the cross is covered with such glory on earth, how magnificent it must be in Heaven. Who could ever understand and tell the eternal weight of glory we are given when, even for a single instant, we bear a cross as a cross should be borne (2 Cor. 4,17). Who could ever collate the glory that will be given in Heaven for the crosses and sufferings we carried for a year, perhaps even for a lifetime.
40. Evidently, my dear Friends of the Cross, heaven is preparing something grand for you, as you are told by a great Saint, since the Holy Ghost has united you so intimately to an object which the whole world so carefully avoids. Evidently, God wishes to make of you as many saints as you are Friends of the Cross, if you are faithful to your calling and dutifully carry your cross as Jesus Christ has carried His.
IV -IN CHRIST-LIKE FASHION
41. But mere suffering is not enough. For even the devil and the world have their martyrs. We must suffer and bear our crosses in the footsteps of Jesus. Let him follow Me: this means that we must bear our crosses as Jesus bore His. To help you do this, I suggest the following rules:
II
FOURTEEN RULES TO FOLLOW IN CARRYING ONE'S CROSS 42. First. Do not, deliberately and through your own fault, procure crosses for yourself. You must not do evil in
order to bring about good. You should never try to bring discredit upon yourself by doing things improperly, unless you have a special inspiration from on high. Strive rather to imitate Jesus Christ, who did all things well (Mark 7,37), not out of self-love or vainglory, but to please God and to win over His fellow-men. Even though you do the best you can in the performance of your duty, you will still have to contend with contradiction, persecution and contempt which Divine Providence will send you against your will and without your choice.
43. Second. Should your neighbor be scandalized, although without reason, at any action of yours which in itself is neither good nor bad, then, for the sake of charity, refrain from it, to avoid the scandal of the weak. This heroic act of charity will be of much greater worth than the thing you were doing or intended to do.
If, however, you are doing some beneficial or necessary thing for others and were unreasonably disapproved by a hypocrite or prejudiced person, then refer the matter to a prudent adviser, letting him judge of its expedience and necessity. Should his decision be favorable, you have only to continue and let these others talk, provided they take no means to prevent you. Under such circumstances, you have Our Lord's answer to His disciples when they informed Him that Scribes andPharisees were scandalized at His words and deeds: 'Let them alone; they are blind.' (Matt. 15,14).
44. Third. Certain holy and distinguished persons have been asking for and seeking, or even, by eccentricities, bringing upon themselves, crosses, disdain and humiliation. Let us simply adore and admire the extraordinary workings of the Holy Spirit in these souls. Let us humble ourselves in the presence of this sublime virtue, without making any attempt to reach such heights, for compared with these racing eagles and roaring lions we are simply fledglings and cubs.
45. Fourth. You can nevertheless and even should ask for the wisdom of the Cross, that sapid, experimental knowledge of the truth, which, in the light of faith, shows us the deepest mysteries, among others the mystery of the Cross. But this can be had only by dint of hard toil, profound humiliation and fervent prayer. If you need that perfect spirit (Ps. 50,14) which enables us to bear the heaviest crosses with courage-that sweet, kindly spirit (Luke 11,13) which enables us to relish in the higher part of the soul things that are bitter and repulsive-that wholesome, upright spirit (Ps. 50,12) which seeks God and God alone-that all-embracing knowledge of the Cross- briefly that infinite treasure which gives the soul that knows how to make good use of it a share in the friendship of God (Wisdom 7,14), ask for this wisdom, ask for it constantly, fervently, without hesitation or fear of not obtaining it. You will certainly obtain it and then see clearly, in the light of your own experience, how it is possible to desire, seek and relish the Cross.
46. Fifth. If, inadvertently, you blunder into a cross, or even if you do so through your own fault, forthwith humble yourselves interiorly under the mighty hand of God (1 Pet. 5,6), but do not worry over it. You might say to yourself: 'Lord, there is another trick of my trade.' If the mistake you made was sinful, accept the humiliation you suffer as punishment. But if it was not sinful, then humbly accept it in expiation of your pride. Often, actually very often, God allows His greatest servants, those who are far advanced in grace, to make the most humiliating mistakes. This humbles them in their own eyes and in the eyes of their fellow men. It prevents them from seeing and taking pride in the graces God bestows on them or in the good deeds they do, so that, as the Holy Ghost declares: 'no flesh should glory in the sight of God' (1 Cor. 1,29).
47. Sixth. Be fully persuaded that through the sin of Adam and through our own actual sins everything within ourselves is vitiated, not only the senses of the body but even the powers of the soul. So much so that as soon as the mind, thus vitiated, takes delight in poring over some gift received from God, then the gift itself, or the act or the grace is tarnished and vitiated and God no longer favors it with His divine regard. Since looks and thoughts of the human mind can spoil man's best actions and God's choicest gifts, what about the acts which proceed from man's own will and which are more corrupt than the acts of the mind?
So we need not wonder, when God hides His own within the shadow of His countenance (Ps. 30,21), that they may not be defiled by the regards of their fellow men or by their own self-consciousness. What does not this jealous God allow and do to keep them hidden! How often He humiliates them! Into how many faults He permits them to fall! How often He allows them to be tempted as St. Paul was tempted (2 Cor. 12,7)! In what a state of uncertainty, perplexity and darkness He leaves them! How wonderful God is in His saints, and in the means He takes to lead them to humility and holiness!
48. Seventh. Be careful not to imitate proud self-centered zealots. Do not think that your crosses are tremendous, that they are tests of your fidelity to God and tokens of God's extraordinary love for you. This gesture has its source in spiritual pride. It is a snare quite subtle and beguiling but full of venom. You ought to acknowledge, first, that you are so proud and sensitive that you magnify straws into rafters, scratches into deep wounds, rats into elephants, a meaningless word, a mere nothing, in truth, into an outrageous, treasonable insult. Second, you should acknowledge that the crosses God sends you are really and truly loving punishments for your sins, and not special marks of God's benevolence. Third, you must admit that He is infinitely lenient when He sends you some cross or humiliation, in comparison with the number and atrocity of your sins. For these sins should be considered in the light of the holiness of a God Whom you have offended and Who can tolerate nothing that is defiled; in the light of a God dying and weighted down with sorrow at the sight of your sins; in the light of an everlasting hell which you have deserved a thousand times, perhaps a hundred thousand times. Fourth, you should admit that the patience you put into suffering is more tinged than you think with natural human motives. You have only to note your little self-indulgences, your skillful seeking for sympathy, these confidences you so naturally make to friends or perhaps to your spiritual director, your quick, clever excuses, the murmurings or rather the detractions so neatly worded, so charitably spoken against those who have injured you, the exquisite delight you take in dwelling on your misfortunes and that belief so characteristic of Lucifer, that you are somebody (Acts 8,9), and so forth. Why I should never finish if I were to point out all the ways and by-ways human nature takes, even in its sufferings.
49. Eighth. Take advantage of your sufferings and more so of the small ones than of the great. God considers not so much what we suffer as how we suffer. To suffer much, yet badly, is to suffer like reprobates. To suffer much, even bravely, but for a wicked cause, is to suffer as a martyr of the devil. To suffer much or little for the sake of God is to suffer like saints.
If it be right to say that we can choose our crosses, this is particularly true of the little and obscure ones as compared with the huge, conspicuous ones, for proud human nature would likely ask and seek for the huge, conspicuous crosses even to the point of preferring them and embracing them. But to choose small, unnoticeable crosses and to carry them cheerfully requires the power of a special grace and unshakeable fidelity to God. Do then as the storekeeper does with his merchandise: make a profit on every article; suffer not the loss of the tiniest fragment of the true Cross. It may be only the sting of a fly or the point of a pin that annoys you, it may be the little eccentricities of a neighbor, some unintentional slight, the insignificant loss of a penny, some little restlessness of soul, a slight physical weakness, a light pain in your limbs. Make a profit on every article as the grocer does, and you will soon become wealthy in God, as the grocer does in money, by adding penny to penny in his till. When you meet with the least contradiction, simply say: 'Blessed be God! My God I thank you.' Then treasure up in the till of God's memory the cross which has just given you a profit. Think no more of it, except to say: 'Many thanks!' or, 'Be merciful!'
50. Ninth. The love you are told to have for the Cross is not sensible love, for this would be impossible to human nature.
It is important to note the three kinds of love: sensible love, rational love and love that is faithful 'and supreme; in other words, the love that springs from the lower part of man, the flesh; the love that springs from the superior part, his reason; and the love that springs from the supreme part of man, from the summit of his soul, which is the intellect enlightened by faith.
51. God does not ask you to love the Cross with the will of the flesh. Since the flesh is the subject of evil and corruption, all that proceeds from it is evil and it cannot, of itself, submit to the will of God and His crucifying law. It was this aspect of His human nature which Our Lord referred to when He cried out, in the Garden of Olives: 'Father, . . . not My will but Thine be done.' (Luke 22,42). If the lower powers of Our Lord's human nature, though holy, could not love the Cross without interruption, then, with still greater reason, will our human nature, which is very much vitiated, repel it. At times, like many of the saints, we too may experience a feeling of even sensible joy in our sufferings, but that joy does not come from the flesh though it is in the flesh. It flows from our superior powers, so completely filled with the divine joy of the Holy Ghost, that it spreads to our lower powers. Thus a person who is undergoing the most unbearable torture is able to say: 'My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God' (Ps. 83,3).
52. There is another love for the Cross which I call rational, since it springs from the higher part of man, his reason. This love is wholly spiritual. Since it arises from the knowledge of the happiness there is in suffering for God, it can be and really is perceived by the soul. It also gives the soul inward strength and joy. Though this rational and perceptible joy is beneficial, even very beneficial, it is not an indispensable part of joyous, divine suffering.
53. This is why there is another love, which the masters of the spiritual life call the love of the summit and highest point of the soul and which the philosophers call the love of the intellect. When we possess this love, even though we experience no sensible joy or rational pleasure, we love and relish, in the light of pure faith, the cross we must bear, even though the lower part of our nature may often be in a state of warfare and alarm and may moan and groan, weep and sigh for relief; and thus we repeat with Jesus Christ: 'Father . . . not My will but Thine be done' (Luke 22,42), or with the Blessed Virgin: 'Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to Thy word' (Luke 1,38).
It is with one of these two higher loves that we should accept and love our cross.
54. Tenth. Be resolved then, dear Friends of the Cross, to suffer every kind of cross without excepting or choosing any: all poverty, all injustice, all temporal loss, all illness, all humiliation, all contradiction, all calumny, all spiritual dryness, all desolation, all interior and exterior trials. Keep saying: 'My heart is ready, O God, my heart isready' (Ps. 56,8). Be ready to be forsaken by men and angels and, seemingly, by God Himself. Be ready to be persecuted; envied, betrayed, calumniated, discredited and forsaken by everyone. Be ready to undergo hunger, thirst, poverty, nakedness, exile, imprisonment, the gallows and all kinds of torture, even though you are innocent of everything with which you may be charged. What if you were cast out of your own home like Job and Saint Elizabeth of Hungary; thrown, like this saint, into the mire; or dragged upon a manure pile like Job, malodorous and covered with ulcers, without anyone to bandage your wounds, without a morsel of bread, never refused to a horse or a dog? Add to these dreadful misfortunes all the temptations with which God allows the devil to prey upon you, without pouring into your soul the least feeling of consolation.
Firmly believe that this is the summit of divine glory and real happiness for a true, perfect Friend of the Cross. 55. Eleven. For proper suffering, form the pious habit of considering four things:
First, the Eye of God. God is like a great king, who from the height of a tower observes with satisfaction his soldier in the midst of the battle and praises his valor. What is it on earth that attracts God's attention? Kings and emperors on their thrones? He often looks at them with nothing but contempt. Brilliant victories of a nation's armies, precious stones, any such things that are great in the sight of men? 'What is great to men is an abomination before God' (Luke 16,15). What then does God look upon with pleasure and delight? What is He asking the Angels about, and even the devils? It is about the man who is fighting for Him against riches, against the world, hell and himself, the man who is cheerfully carrying his cross. Hast thou not seen upon earth that great wonder which the heavens consider with admiration? said the Lord to Satan; 'hast thou considered My servant Job' (Job 2,3) who is suffering for Me?
56. Second, the Hand of God, Every disorder in nature, from the greatest to the smallest, is the work of His almighty Hand. The Hand that devastates an army of a hundred thousand (2 Kings 19,35) will make a leaf drop from a tree and a hair fall from your head (Luke 2 1,18). The Hand that was laid so heavily upon Job is particularly light when it touches you with some little trial. This Hand fashions day and night, sun and darkness, good and evil. God permits the sin which provokes you; He is not the cause of its malice, although He does allow the act.
If anyone, then, treats you as Semei treated King David (2 Kings 16,5-11), loading you with insults and casting stones at you, say to yourself: 'I must not mind; I must not take revenge for this is an ordinance of God. I know that I have deserved every abuse and it is only right that God punish me. Desist, my hands, and strike not; desist, my tongue, and speak not; the person who injures me by word or deed is an ambassador, mercifully sent by God to punish me as His love alone knows how. Let us not incur His justice by assuming His right to vengeance. Let us not despise His mercy by resisting the affectionate strokes of His lash, lest, for His vengeance, He should remand us to the rigorous justice of eternity.'
Consider how God bears you up with one Hand, of infinite power and wisdom, while with the other He chastises you. With the one He deals out death, while with the other He dispenses life. He humbles you and raises you up. With both arms, He reaches sweetly and mightily (Wisdom 8,1) from the beginning of your life to its end. Sweetly: by not allowing you to be tempted or afflicted beyond your strength. Mightily: by favoring you with a powerful grace, proportioned to the vehemence and duration of your temptation or affliction. Mightily:-and the spirit of His holy Church bears witness-'He is your stay on the brink of a precipice, your guide along a misleading road, your shade in the scorching heat, your raiment in the pouring rain or the biting cold. He is your conveyance when you are utterly exhausted, your help in adversity, your staff on the slippery way. He is your port of refuge when, in the throes of a tempest, you are threatened with ruin and shipwreck.'
57. Third, consider the Wounds and Sorrows of our crucified Jesus. Hear what He Himself has to say:'All ye that pass along the thorny and crucifying way I had to follow, look and see. Look with the eyes of your body; look with the eye of contemplation, and see if your poverty, nakedness, disgrace, sorrow, desolation are like unto Mine. Behold Me, innocent as I am, then will you complain, you who are guilty' (Lam. 1,12).
The Holy Ghost tells us, by the mouth of the Apostles, that we should keep our eyes on Jesus Crucified (Gal. 3,1) and arm ourselves with this thought of Him (1 Pet. 4,1) which is our most powerful and most penetrating weapon against all our enemies. When you are assailed by poverty, disrepute, sorrow, temptation or any other cross, arm yourselves with this shield, this breastplate, this helmet, this two-edged sword (Eph. 6,12-18), that is, with the thought of Jesus crucified. There is the solution to your every problem, the means you have to vanquish all your enemies.
58. Fourth, lift up your eyes, behold the beautiful crown that awaits you in Heaven if you carry your cross as you should. That was the reward which kept patriarchs and prophets strong in faith under persecution. It gave heart to the Apostles and martyrs in their labors and torments. Patriarchs used to say as Moses had said: 'We would rather be afflicted with the people of God,' so as to enjoy eternal happiness with Him, 'than to have the pleasure of sin for a afflicted with the people of God,' so as to enjoy eternal happiness with Him, 'than to have the pleasure of sin for a 26). The prophets repeated David's words: 'We suffer great persecutions on account of the reward' (Ps. 63,8; 118,112). The Apostles and martyrs voiced the sentiments of St. Paul: 'We are, as it were, men appointed to death: we are made a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men,' by our sufferings 'being made the offscouring of the world,' (1 Cor. 4,9-13), 'by reason of the exceeding and eternal weight of glory, which this momentary and light tribulation worketh in us' (2 Cor. 4,17).
Let us see and listen to the angels right above us: 'Be careful not to forfeit the crown that is set aside for you if you bravely bear the cross that is given you. If you do not bear it well, someone will bear it in your stead and will take your crown. All the saints warn us: fight courageously, suffer patiently and you will be given an everlasting kingdom.' Let us hear Jesus: 'To him only will I give My reward who shall suffer and overcome through patience' (Apoc. 2,6; 11,17; 3,5; 21,7).
Let us lower our eyes and see the place we deserve, the place that awaits us in hell in the company of the wicked thief and the reprobate, if we go through suffering as they did, resentful and bent on revenge. Let us exclaim after St. Augustine; 'Burn. O Lord, cut, carve, divide in this world, in punishment for my sins, provided Thou pardon them in eternity.'
59. Twelfth. Never murmur or deliberately complain about any created thing that God may use to afflict you. It is important to note the three kinds of complaints that may arise when misfortune assails you. The first is natural and involuntary. This happens when the human body moans and groans, sobs and sighs and weeps. If, as I said, the higher point of the soul submits to the will of God, there is no sin. The second is rational. Such is the case when we complain and disclose our hardship to some superior or physician who is able to remedy it. This complaint may be an imperfection, if too eagerly made, but it is no sin. The third is sinful. This happens when a person complains of others either to rid himself of the suffering they cause him, or to take revenge. Or else when he wilfully complains about the sorrow he must bear and shows signs of grief and impatience.
60. Thirteenth. Whenever you are given a cross, be sure to embrace it with humility and gratitude. If God, in His infinite goodness, favors you with a cross of some importance, be sure to thank him in a special way and have others join you in thanking him. Do as that poor woman did who, through an unjust lawsuit, lost everything she owned. She immediately offered the last few pennies she had, to have a Mass said in thanksgiving to Almighty God for the good fortune that had come to her.
61. Fourteenth. If you wish to be worthy of the best crosses, those that are not of your choice, then, with the help of a prudent director, take on some that are voluntary.
Suppose you have a piece of furniture that you do not need but prize. Give it to some poor person, and say to yourself: 'Why should I have things I do not need, when Jesus is destitute?'
Do you dislike certain kinds of food, the practice of some particular virtue, or some offensive odor? Taste this food, practice this virtue, endure this odor, conquer yourself.
Is your affection for some person or thing too ardent and tender? Keep away, deprive yourself, break away from things that appeal to you.
Have you that natural tendency to see and be seen, to be doing things or going some place? Mind your eyes and hold your tongue, stop right where you are and keep to yourself.
Do you feel a natural aversion to some person or thing? Rise above self by keeping near them.
62. If you are truly Friends of the Cross, then, without your knowing it, love, which is always ingenious, will discover thousands of little crosses to enrich you. Then you need not fear self-conceit which often accompanies the patient endurance of conspicuous crosses and since you have been faithful in a few things, the Lord will keep His promise and set you over many things (Matt. 25,21,23): over many graces He will grant you; over many crosses He will send you; over much glory He will prepare for you. . . . .
Imprimi Potest: S. Laurentii ad Separim die 3a Maii, 1950.
A. JOSSELIN, S.M.M., Superior General.
Nihil Obstat: MARTINUS J. HEALY, S.T.D., Censor Librorum.
Imprimatur: THOMAS EDMUNDUS MOLLOY, S.T.D., Episcopus Brooklyniensis.
Brooklynii, XX mensis Octobris 1950.
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| Global financial ‘war game’ simulates potential disruptive impact of cyber attack |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2021, 08:50 AM - Forum: Global News
- Replies (1)
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Global financial ‘war game’ simulates potential disruptive impact of cyber attack
The United States and the United Kingdom were among 10 countries participating in a simulation
that presented scenarios with the potential to cause major chaos for the monetary system.
![[Image: shutterstock_223094779-810x500.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/shutterstock_223094779-810x500.jpg)
Wed Dec 15, 2021 - 6:25 pm EST
JERUSALEM (LifeSiteNews) – Israel led a 10-country initiative earlier this month that simulated a global financial cyber attack aimed at creating a real-life scenario that could ensue from panic and chaos if something like that were to happen.
The exercise was called “Collective Strength” and took place at the beginning of December. The global “war game” included treasury personnel from 10 countries — Israel, United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Thailand — as well as representatives from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Bank of International Settlements.
Reuters reported that the participants were shown a film as part of the simulation. “These events are creating havoc in the financial markets,” the narrator of the film said, and that governments were under pressure to gauge the impact of the global attack as the world financial system was crippled.
“The banks are appealing for emergency liquidity assistance in a multitude of currencies to put a halt to the chaos as counterparties withdraw their funds and limit access to liquidity, leaving the banks in disarray and ruin,” the narrator said.
The event ran through various attacks that included breaches in foreign exchange and bond markets, and the security of data shared between importers and exporters across the globe.
If an attack like this were to take place, the participants warned that people would be unable to access their electronic funds and assets for a period of time, which would lead to a situation where purchasing was effectively stopped. With most financial transactions being tied to internet technology and involving secured information – such as with credit cards and PayPal – any major breach would cause unmitigated chaos.
As potential solutions to such a scenario, participating officials suggested measures such as a coordinated bank holiday, debt repayment grace periods, and coordinated de-linking from major currencies.
One Israeli financial cyber official said that such an attack could only be done by “sophisticated attackers.”
During the simulation film, the narrator said, “The banks are appealing for emergency liquidity assistance in a multitude of currencies to put a halt to the chaos as counterparts withdraw their funds and limit access to liquidity leaving the banks in disarray and ruin.”
Emergency liquidity assistance in a multitude of currencies would entail significant printing of money. Printing money at high rates can contribute to hyperinflation. As a result of lockdown measures and quantitative easing measures that have taken place since the advent of the declared pandemic, record high inflation has been seen in the United States.
In November, the consumer price index (CPI), an important measure of inflation, climbed to 6.8% year-over-year, and the core CPI, which does not include food and energy, rose to 4.9% year-over-year. These rise in these rates are the fastest to be recorded in 39 years.
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| Top Cardiologist tells of "Intentional Plot" to Suppress Early Covid Treatments |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-16-2021, 08:24 AM - Forum: Pandemic 2020 [Secular]
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Top Cardiologist Tells Joe Rogan Of "Intentional Plot" To Suppress Early COVID Treatments
![[Image: peter%20m.PNG?itok=LQSenRR4]](https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/peter%20m.PNG?itok=LQSenRR4)
ZH | DEC 15, 2021
In a recent appearance with Joe Rogan, Dr. Peter McCullough explained that from the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was a concerted effort to instill fear and conceal a protocol for early treatment of the disease in order to justify lockdowns and vaccines.
McCullough, former vice chief of internal medicine at Baylor University Medical Center and professor at Texas A&M University is one of the most widely cited authors of research in his field - and testified before the US Senate in Nov. 2020. Since coming out against the official pandemic response, McCullough has come under intense scrutiny from the left for spreading 'medical misinformation' about the pandemic.
He's also shed light on vaccine-related cardiac events in a recent paper co-authored with Dr. Jessica Rose, a virologist and epidemiologist in Canada reviewing data in the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which he discusses here.
Before we get to the Rogan interview, watch McCullough's March 2021 testimony before the Texas Senate Committee on Health & Human Services to understand more about his position:
Which brings us to McCullough's time with Joe Rogan - where he said that there has been a worldwide effort to suppress early Covid-19 treatments.
"It seems to me, early on, there was an intentional, very comprehensive, suppression of early treatment in order to promote fear, suffering, isolation, hospitalization and death," he said. "And it was completely organized and intentional in order to create acceptance for, and then promote mass vaccination."
"In the U.S. only about 500 doctors really understand what’s going on … and there’s about a million," he added.
Watch:
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| The Christmas Child |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 12:07 PM - Forum: Christmas
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Beyond all else Christmas means children.
And beyond all children Christmas means especially one Child
Even the sad pagans of a modern day, who have rudely excluded that Divine Child from Christmas, have, because of
Him, kept the day sacred to children.
Where the Christ Child is loved for Himself and is seen in the little children, who are beautifully like Him, Christmas is the day, beyond all other days, when love moves over the earth with lighted tapers, and the virtues of childhood make young once more a weary, aging humanity.
Even where the Christ Child is forgotten or ignored, His little ones for a single day waken in human hearts a new tenderness and unselfish affection. And the innocence of childhood, its unquenchable faith in the goodness of others, curve into smiles even the cynical lips that have drunk deep of sin and grown bitter in sneers.
For Christmas begins and ends with a Child. About the Infant in the manger prophecies are fulfilled, and angels sing, and the poor kneel giftless save for the unpurchasable gift of patient affection, and the rich come gilt-laden, but with a strange humility bringing low their heads, and all mankind is reborn to a new era of grace and hope and God's revelation of love and graciousness. 'A child is born to us and a son is given to us, cried Isaias in ecstatic prophecy. In a vision he saw this Child, born of a Virgin, in God's beautiful promise and sign, and his heart burst forth in the first glad Christmas greeting, 'A child is born to us and a son is given to us. And from that joyful prophecy flowed all the joy and peace and Christmas spirit that coursed hopefully through the Old Law unto glorious fulfilment in the New.
Over the heads of the patiently watchful shepherds the glory of a star ripped the satin curtains of night. Then angel hands thrust back the torn shreds of gold and purple sky, and the uncontrollable joy of heaven itself leaped forth to sing of a Child.
'Glory to God in the highest, because of that Child. 'And on earth peace to men of good will, who from that moment would find themselves kneeling in complete happiness beside that Golden Babe.
Startled, the shepherds looked up at the splendour flung unexpectedly into their drab lives. True peasants, they noted with instinctive relief that their lambs upon the hillside grazed unafraid either of the star, the angel messengers, or the swelling chorus. How could these lambs of the poor (later the favourite subject of the Saviour's parables) be flung into confusion by news that the Lamb of God had come to shepherd all His sheep?
'Today is born to you a Saviour who is Christ the Lord. Their slow minds were not too dull to realise that tonight their beloved Scriptures were fulfilled. This was the expected King of whom the angels sang. Startling as were the signs by which they were to recognise Him, swaddling clothes and a manger, they broke into headlong flight down the hill and flung themselves in adoration before the Child held up to them by the sweetest mother in all human history.
The childlike faith and hope of simple peasants found fulfilment in a Child. Christmas came rushing into their eventless lives on the wings of an infant's smile, and the low-voiced gratitude of a mother welcoming these first Christmas guests who, in a beautiful single gesture, adored her Son and filled her day with the sweet fragrance of their Christmas greeting.
'Where is He that was born King of the Jews?'
The question, repeated a thousand times along their tedious way through the desert and sprawling villages and nomadic tribes and smug, white-roofed cities, was answered with shrugged shoulders and cynically turned backs, with significant touching of foreheads and frankly contemptuous laughter.
Undismayed, the Magi were drawn forward on their quest by the vague hope of finding a Child.
More than likely they dreamed of palace gates swinging wide to welcome them as grooms swept forward to catch their camels by their tinkling bridles and pages helped them to dismount.
Surely the child of a king would rest upon the softest down, under coverlets of purple damask. Hushed attendants might permit them a glimpse of newborn royalty between the crossed lances of sleepless sentinels. Yet even this glimpse would be reward enough, they felt, for their weary desert road, the tireless swaying of their camels and the night-long journeys in pursuit of a forward moving star.
For here was a Child tall enough to light a blaze in the heavens. In the ancient papyri written for a mighty Cyrus by a Jew named Daniel, they were assured that this was no ordinary child who was born under a flaming star.
Were they at first, even for an instant, bitterly taken aback? Did they almost turn away in disappointment from the dark mouth of this unguarded stable? Probably they caught up their silken gowns as they stepped through cattle pens and sheepfolds to the dark hill cave, unlighted except for the now motionless star.
But when they saw the Child, all of Christmas welled up in their souls. What did it matter that He lay, not on orient silk, but on crackling straw; that an exquisite maid and a dignified carpenter (strange contradiction, to their aristocratic minds, a carpenter with such poise and dignity) were His only courtiers; that the bleak walls of the stable, rough-hewn from the black earth of the hill, were bare of heraldic standards or banners of scarlet and gold; that no sentries flashed repelling swords to hold back intruders?
Faith swept them forward in its high tide. A Child they had come to seek. Yet in all the world there was no child like this.
He wore His swaddling clothes as if they were Tyrian purple. He lay in a manger that seemed like a conquered world. He opened His tiny arms, and their circle was vast enough to embrace all humanity. He smiled, and the light of a new era dawned.
They had come to find a child king who was to conquer and save the world. Naturally they had dreamed of a kingship proved by files of palace guards and fluttering choirs of nurses, by carved ebony and beaten gold upon his crib, and breathless statesmen adding his name to the line of royal ancestors-he the heir of their greatness and their petty crimes, their occasional acts of kingliness and their frequent baseness and stupid cruelty and criminal lust. They knew no other kings nor sons of kings than these.
They had not dared dream of a Child whose evident kingship made a palace out of a stable and a throne out of straw heaped for oxen. They had not wildly imagined a sovereign who could conquer because he was without weapons and who won His followers, not by the cold aloofness of power, but by the warm approachableness of His weakness and His love.
Before this Child of the poor these rich men eagerly poured the tribute of their gifts. Before this Infant who contained all that the world needed to save it, these wise men bent submissive knees.
Although the shepherds in their simple ignorance and the Magi in their deep wisdom were unaware of it, around the Child, from the very beginning, vortexed the complete drama of humanity's best and basest emotions.
He had been welcomed, as every great benefactor of humanity is welcomed, with cruel indifference and rudely slammed doors. Yet, if the doors of earth were barred in His face, the gates of heaven broken open to welcome Him.
No child had ever felt, even in the heart of the most unselfish mother, the maternal love that cushioned His little body and wrapped securely His soul against the bitter winds of men's careless ingratitude. But from the neighbouring Bethlehem, though song rose, it was not sung to honour His birthday. The hands that clasped in glad welcome to relatives were hands that had recently waved away the mother of the Son of God. The warm love of a mother was never more pitifully needed than on that night, when the stinging winds blew callously and ungraciously, less from the hills than from every door and window in His own city.
If there was quick faith in the adoration of the shepherds, there was another sort of faith in the cruel planning of the king who ruled in Jerusalem. Even as the Magi knelt to adore Him, swords were being sharpened in expectation of His throat. The last traces of rust disappeared from spear points, and brutal hands, already instructed in murder, and waiting for orders, gripped tighter the hefts.
Herod, paying unconscious tribute to the Child he had never seen, paced the floor of his council chamber, hatred eating at his vitals. Soon, he felt, the triumphant faith of these Magi would place the Child within easy reach of sword blade and spear point and death.
The faith of the Magi brought them to their knees in grateful adoration. The faith of Herod brought him to his feet, thirsting for murder.
If Joseph watched against harm, a Roman emperor, long leagues away, issued his orders that there should be no king but Caesar, and bought up in good round gold the loyalty of high priests, who knew well that a Child must be born in Bethlehem who would override Rome and shake them from their secure positions. Even as Christmas dawned, Good Friday was being prepared.
Maternal love and the simple devotion of a gentleman of noble but reduced circumstances; the love of the world's purest hearts and the hatred of its vilest; a wedding of heaven to earth as angels sang of glorious news, and with it the cold uninterestedness of tight little huts and tighter little souls; the romance of a hurried quest across half the known world; murder stalking from a palace and making the first Christian martyrs in the homes of harmless peasants; spontaneous faith eagerly given and hospitality ignobly denied; the surging of heaven itself in a mighty shout of joy and the resentful stirring of earth asleep in its own ugly apathy-all these were present about this Child at the moment of His birth.
Life in its completeness of virtue and vice, enthusiasm and dark contempt, keenest joy and acutest sorrow, sublime love and blackest hate, high adventuring and bleak doubt, circled the crib of the Christmas Child.
Undoubtedly, as the shepherds returned to their flocks, they remembered only that the Babe was beautiful, the mother unforgettably lovely, and the man wonderfully gracious. And they knew that they felt in their souls a joy that they had never known before.
The Magi, however, travelled back by slow stages. They must take time to reason and reflect. And surely their trained minds marvelled at the singular appropriateness of a Child's being sent to save the sad old world and end the wearisome night.
If they had expected to find a great captain at their journey's end, they now knew how sharp would have been their disappointment.
For history had written the record of all too many captains thundering across continents, their progress marked by collapsing cities and the burning huts of farmers, by children whimpering in the shadow of oak trees, and women hiding their faces from the memory of brutal leers and their own shame.
The old world had been magnificent in the flowering of its conquerors. They had clanked triumphantly along a hundred highways. Resistlessly they had piled new empires on the ruins of those they had crushed. Atop these swaggering tyrannies they had sat, demanding the tribute of gold and lives, while slaves toiled to death beneath dark foundations and women stifled their tears lest coursing hounds, mail-clad and erect as men, might find them to their ruin.
No need of captains now! The world needed, and, happily, the Magi remembered, the world had received, a Child.
Great philosophers had solemnly sat in their quiet groves or among their white marble pillars, and twined grape leaves in the hair of truth. The Magi almost shuddered as they remembered these men who had found truth only to mock it.
They had treated philosophy as a tricky game with which to prove one's glib tongue or to sharpen a bitter eloquence. If today they proved that black was black, they tomorrow felt a perverse joy in proving that black was really dull grey, and the next day that it was blood-red or yellow as the hair of a girl or the skin of a tiger. Even they who had seen truth with clear eyes and had written of it with revealing pen had turned from high thought to base living. They had found the one true God and had left Him to burn incense to the gods of lust and thievery, or worshipped their own animal instincts or the vapid applause of the mob.
Truth had been deserted, even by those who knew it best, for the drinking flagon and the dancing girl, for the groves of Venus and the cellars of Bacchus, for the favour of a ruler who played, drunk or sober, at being divine, or for the smelly shouts of a populace who were bored by any truth that was not flattering or amusing.
Scientists, then, as in every other age, were strangely preoccupied, not with giving life, but with teaching men to deal death more effectively. The very roads along which the Magi travelled had been built by scientific men to hasten the conquering march of armies, not to quicken the advance of culture or the sacred progress of God.
The Magi, knowing history, knew these men had not saved, could not save, the world. Knowing nothing of the future, they could hardly guess that in this Child would be revealed the Captain, Philosopher, Guide of the Scientist, Beneficent Conqueror, King of Kings.
'Out of thee, Bethlehem, had sung the prophet, 'shall come the captain who will rule my people Israel.
Even the priests, who through this prophecy sent the Magi forward to Bethlehem while they turned back to count their money or court their wives, had told them this. This Child would some day be the Captain of the armies of the Most High, leading them out to His peaceful conquest of the world.
Under that Captain white uniformed companies of virgins would march with red-caped squadrons of martyrs, while vanguards of apostles would swing in advance of legions of doctors and confessors. And over all, the conquering standard of the cross!
Here was to be a Captain whose conquered victims loved Him with grateful, devoted love. The more completely they were conquered, the more deeply would they love Him. Here was a Conqueror whose pathway would be lined, not with the prostrate bodies of helpless victims, but with the upright figures of the saints.
Later all thinkers were to lift their heads in astonished acknowledgment as He said calmly, 'I am the truth. And the world would sit as children at His feet.
Incarnate philosophy, revealed theology, the sum and circle of all essential truth, this Child was to give to a truthhungry world a knowledge that was more than human, and a wisdom that was divine. For the first time men would learn of a truth that did not merely feed the mind. His was a truth that made the heart glow and the tongue shout for joy.
And, as wise men had knelt, humbly, learning wisdom from a Babe who lay in a rough-hewn manger, so great philosophers would use as their supremest textbook His carved figure fixed upon two crossed sticks.
While scientists with painful searching discovered laws in nature, He was the God who had made those laws. His providence had given to these basic elements their powers and the endless combinations on which science mounts to new achievements. 'By Him and in Him were all things made, and without Him was made nothing that was made.
One of the Magi, according to a tradition, lived to see the Child grown to manhood. If this was so, he saw in Him a poet who spoke poetry in beautiful parables, and lived poetry in every kindly gesture and every loving act.
He saw a King who captured by personal fascination and goodness, and held captive by generous love. He saw the very King of Kings, who walked among His people and won His endless kingdom only when the devastating charge of His enemies scattered His friends at the base of Calvary's hill, flung Him in final assault to its height, and there inflicted on Him the apparent defeat of death.
And if he stood near the cross, that Wise Man could read in the dying eyes of the Saviour the same love and tenderness and pitiful searching of the world that he had seen in the eyes of the Child in the crib.
The Magi rode back happy with a peace they had never known before. From the Child they had drunk deep of the happiness that is Christmas. Yet, as they pondered, they realised that in this Child they had really seen the birth of a new world. Not as Captain nor Scientist nor Philosopher nor Poet nor even as King would they remember Him. He was to them the Child, and, as a Child, the symbol of all that the tired, sick, weary old world needed.
Weary with the sickness of sin, the world needed a new birth. Desperate after centuries of deluding dreams and exhausting struggles, the world needed the dawn of a new hope.
And in the Child whom they had seen and worshipped, and to whom all mankind would return with each recurring Christmastide, was the new life that was so badly needed.
'I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly. In every child that is born lies new hope for each generation. But in this Child lay hope for all mankind. From His infant weakness was to come the renewal of human strength. His young life was hope for the feeble old world. In His eyes was the prophetic vision of a new-born age that would find a new law of life, pledge itself to a new testament, proclaim to the world the fulfilment of a new gospel, announce the good news for which, in darkness and despair, the nations had sat-wearily waiting.
Strangely enough, within His infant soul were the very virtues out of which the new humanity was to fashion itself and the new age to rise: sinlessness and purity, a trusting faith in the heavenly Father, a simplicity more beautiful than all the elaborate dreams of empire builders and the intricate conceptions of artists.
How desperately old had man grown in his sin! Sin had lined his face and bent his back as it urged him relentlessly onward in its stupid, futile treadmill.
Slaves, under the lash of cruelty, grew feeble and broken though their years were still the years of youth. Women looked out from eyes made old by tears and the searing glare of vice. The souls of little children stared out from sadly old bodies, wise beyond their years with a wisdom taught them by sin-stodgy mothers and vice-warped sires.
Old nations crumbled under the weight, not of years, but of tyrannies and ugly idolatries, greed and debilitating lust.
Even the temple of God seemed very old with its crafty-eyed priests stroking long beards amid their ugly haggling over unimportant forms of worship, while wearisome commerce ran the corridors and bleated before the silken curtain of the Holy of Holies. Impurity, that ages as does no other sin, sent world conquerors to early and filthy graves, set to trembling the legs of athletes and philosophers, carved ugly wrinkles into faces that yesterday were fresh as that of the prodigal still in his father's house, or as those of the ladies of pleasure chosen for their youth to hurry him on his road to the pigsty and ageing disillusionment.
Then came this Child with the ageless youth that is sinlessness. Not until the weight of humanity's sin pressed the blood from His crushed body in the agony of Gethsemane would His years be measured except in growth of body, in wisdom of mind, in grace of soul.
His face would be unlined and unwrinkled till the end. His eyes would glow with the quick enthusiasm of youth. Children would flock to Him, loving His eager, youthful response.
Then, through a death brought about, not by ageing body or exhausted strength,but by the external pressure of others' sin that had not touched His own soul, He would enter upon the ageless youth of the Resurrection, and, Himself immortal, pass down sinless youth throughout all time.
From Him this youth flowed as from an inexhaustible fountain to the weary world. The ageing power of sin was thwarted.
Mary, His mother, moved through life always a virgin, always sinless, always young. John, the Beloved, brought Him the quick love of his youth; loved Him in maturity with the undimmed fire of young enthusiasm; and dreamed the glorious dreams of youth even when a hundred years had, with inverted alchemy, turned to silver his yellow-gold hair.
Peter, mature and venerable when we first meet him, grows young in the company of His Master. Like a young man, he races across Jerusalem at news of the Resurrection. Like a young athlete, he leaps into the sea to swim to Christ, revealing Himself upon the shore. With the optimism of youth he faces the task of conquering a world that defies conquest, and youthfully does his accomplished work. Faced with martyrdom, he youthfully begs that the cross be inverted. He died in youthful love, and, by an almost sacred jest, upside down in what he knew to be a topsy-turvy world.
Saints never grow old. Their ageless life flows from the Child of the Christmastide. And though this life first touches their souls, it is reflected beautifully in their bodies. Like Anthony the hermit, they may pass the century mark, yet their eyes are the eyes of youth and their lips curve easily in prayer, in love, in laughter.
Martyrs laughing at threat of death; virgins singing their way through the age-old assaults of temptation; venerable doctors dropping their pens to burst into love songs to Mary; devoted mothers looking upon their petulant children with eyes young and alert and beautiful; brave men, weary with life's bitter relentlessness, yet smiling ecstatically as they kneel before the Tabernacle; pure young men and women, unspoiled and unaged, moving with steady steps and clear eyes among a generation of young people that are sophisticated, bored, old with impurity and soul-sick with cynicism; nuns whose faces are guiltless of wrinkles as their souls are guiltless of sin; old priests dying with calm faith in humanity and the gaiety of a schoolboy bound homeward for the holidays-all these have drunk deep of the inexhaustible youth that flows from Christ the Child.
Ageless, too, is the Church that was born with Christ in Bethlehem. Its enemies are tirelessly predicting its death. Yet it moves on its way, the youngest organisation in the world. Nations totter to their graves; the Church sings its regretful requiem, and turns toward new nations still fighting up from barbarism. Peoples grow weary with the struggle to survive; the Church lays them in their peaceful graves, and speedily baptizes their successors.
Unending youth flows from the Child of Bethlehem to the Church, to the nations that remain faithful, to the individual man or woman who finds the Fountain of Youth that sprang up in the darkness of a hillside the night Christ was born.
The disillusioned world into which Christ was born had lost the child-like gift of faith. There was no Father in heaven watching over a beloved world.
God seemed to the Jews far less a Father than a wrathful Judge. To the pagans heaven was filled with capricious supermortals, greater in their powers, but greater, too, in their callous selfishness. Men felt themselves the playthings of the mocking Fates, who tossed them about like the toys of spoiled children.
Then Christ the Child was born, and all this was different.
Men suddenly knew that they were God's beloved children, for He loved them well enough to give them His only begotten Son to be their brother and their Saviour.
Faith in a provident God was born again there in the shadowy stable of Bethlehem. It was a faith that lifted a supine world to its feet and raised its eyes to the Father, Who watched hopefully from a hill even when His children ran the prodigal ways of sin; Who, like a shepherd, searched for them among the brambles of the mountain-side; Who rewarded with an infinite love those who freely gave Him their love, and Who repaid the puny efforts of His children as the most doting father had never repaid his favourite child.
Faith is Christian. Cynicism is pagan. Trust in God is born of Christ. Despair of the gods is the hopeless blight of the religions that know not Bethlehem. Cynicism, like sin, wearies the heart of man to death. But the reasons for cynicism died when the world was given its vision of the Father Whose Child was born in Bethlehem for love of His brothers and sisters.
All the mystery of childhood was wrapped in the body of the Child of the Christmastide. All of childhood's unfulfilled promise, all of infancy's limitless expectations, rested upon His tiny head.
As His mother dreamed (far all mothers dream the same precious dreams) over the Child against her breast, she alone knew that the fullness of her expectations could not match the fullness of His completed promise. The undeveloped mystery of His infancy would expand into the radiant mystery of His manhood.
Slowly, as mothers will, she uncurled the petal fingers of her Child. Absurd it seemed that these should be the hands of the One who shaped the suns and planets and, with compelling finger, traced the course of every speeding star.
Hardly less absurd, however, was the vision that these hands, wrapped sleepily about her finger, touching warmingly her breast, should become calloused with the hammer and the plane with which He would earn her food. When the fullness of time came, and they had forever dropped the carpenter's tools, these hands (could she, mother-like, foresee all this?) would lift above a tensely eager people, gesturing to the lovely flow of His sermons and His parables, touching sinridden bodies and lifting them to their feet, stroking sin-scarred foreheads until they became virgin white and calm, multiplying bread and changing water into wine, and then, in stranger miracle, lifting the bread and wine into more precious substances.
Of all the instruments of His carpenter's trade, these hands would at the end cling only to the nails, till in his palms red wounds glowed with the glory of the Resurrection.
Sleepily His baby lips curved in a smile against the warm valley in her throat. Silent now, some day, her mother's heart knew clearly, they would utter words that would echo and re-echo endlessly through time and eternity.
First they would speak her name-lovingly. Then they would honour His Father-prayerfully. Then they would bless humanity-tenderly. Then they would call His apostles-compellingly. Then they would pour forth the revelation of His Father's truth-with authority. Then they would plead from the cross-pitifully. And in glorious climax they would speak welcome to the just and judgment to the wicked-unendingly.
Now His eyes, in the vague focuslessness of infancy, are closed. Yet all the glorious promise of those eyes!-lifted gratefully to her face; raised prayerfully to His Father; scanning the young men of the village and the lake shore for possible disciples; waiting intently for signs of faith and acceptance; pleading voicelessly with sinners; glowing with a love that broke the passionate heart of Magdalen and the repentant heart of Peter; blazing with just anger as the whip of cords rises and falls upon the despoilers of His temple; ecstatic as he speaks of unseen truth; prophetic as He gazes into the future, glorious or bloodstained, of His Church; agonised as He faces sin in the garden and falls beneath its blows; pain-tortured as He looked from the cross to see mankind lusting for His blood; immortal, as through them shines His divinity after the Resurrection.
All these unfulfilled but certain mysteries were wrapped round in the sleeping or waking form of the Child of Bethlehem. If in our hearts we always feel that children seem closest to God (and reverently we kneel as we accept this mystery), this time we know that the Child is not merely close to God. He is God.
He is God, and God in His most appealing, most compelling manifestation. The era of the terrifying Jehovah, thundering above His disobedient people and sending the slim shaft of His lightning and the crawling vengeance of His serpents, is over.
After the sadly adult gods of paganism, old in their wickedness and cynical from their personal familiarity with sin, God comes to man as an innocent babe. After the impure animals before whom knelt Egypt and Babylon and Carthage, God manifests Himself as the one irresistible thing in all the world, a child lifting its arms for love and pity and a welcome embrace.
While God was vast and all-powerful, men often sulked under His reign. Angrily they questioned His right. His laws irked them, and they shrank back resentfully from His commands.
Surely, then, this is a new era of God's dealing with men that begins with God's begging of our love and our welcome. Apparently, here in the crib, He needs us more than we need Him. (Untrue, we know, except that in this lovely chapter we see God's insistent wooing of our hearts through the disguise of infancy.) God, Who had promised to be our host in eternity, Who offered us grandly the hospitality of heaven, now of a sudden begs hospitality and shelter from human homes and hearts.
We stand aghast, as all the believing world has stood aghast, before this mystery of the Child. God has emptied Himself of all save love. His power seems gone; for His arms are weak and helpless and His voice is stilled. No longer does He pass judgment on the world; instead the world walks by the crib, passing judgment of acceptance or rejection upon Him.
His majesty is laid aside; the angels have returned to heaven; the star fades and disappears; shepherds, in their smelly garments, kneel unafraid; and a young maid holds Infinity in her arms.
Here, in the presence of this Child, we know that God has emptied Himself of everything except His overwhelming love. Yet, with the eloquence of silence, with the power of weakness willingly assumed, with the majesty of omnipotence made infancy, and in a language so powerful that it needs no words, God, from the crib of a Child, begs for a love men cannot deny to children, and surely will not deny to the Child Who spanned infinity to reach their hearts.
So Christmas will always belong to children, because Christmas belongs to the Divine Child.
Because of Him the day is made glad with lights and music and gifts and laughter and warmth and the enveloping affection of friends and the happy shelter of homes.
Even the orphaned child finds about him on Christmas an almost yearning love he hardly knows for the rest of the year. Men must be sweet to him, as in him they see some slight image of the dear Child who was God.
Love was appallingly denied to the Child of the Christmastide. It must not be denied to the children who have been since His day. Christmas belongs to children, and yet?
Hopefully the Child, grown to manhood, spoke of His followers, who would 'become as little children. 'Theirs, He cried, in glorious climax, 'is the kingdom of heaven.
More than that; theirs, whether they be six or sixty, stumbling in the first steps of childhood or tottering in their last feeble steps toward the grave, theirs is Christmas.
For souls are ageless, souls that have drawn their life from the crib of the ageless Child. Souls are always young if they are unblemished by sin or unwearied by the weight of evil or rejuvenated in the miraculous spring of penance. To them the Christ Child comes as to His beloved playfellows and dear contemporaries. They are young, and Christmas is for them.
In the hearts of these faithful is a deep faith in their Father. They may know themselves wise with all the wisdom of grave science and world literature; in the light of God's omniscience they know they are His little children, playing with sand piles upon a tide-swept shore. Yet they are glad, for their Father will not forget His children, but with tender eyes will hover over their days, guard through their nights, and lead them home with strong and gracious arms. Happily they face all of life; happily they face Christmas. They have the ageless faith of childhood.
Wearily the pagan world, grown old in sin, staggers to its work and sags after its play. Even its Christmas is drear and meaningless and heavily streaked with sin; for though it may gesture toward its human children, it has forgotten the Divine Child. But to us who are His adorers as well as His adopted brothers and sisters, Christmas comes as the birthday we love best. To us it brings back all the thrilling joy of His childhood and our own.
In the glory of the Mass He is re-born.
In the warm shelter of our souls, He finds His eucharistic Bethlehem, not cold now and repelling, but, we hope, warm, hospitable, fragrant with grace.
In the midst of our children He rests, our unseen, but first-honoured, guest.
In church and convent chapel young-eyed priests and never-aging nuns bend tenderly over the Figure in the crib, and then raise joyful heads to the glad Reality within the crib of the tabernacle.
And bells peal forth, and hearts leap up, and children smile, hardly knowing why they smile, and old people yearn for the re-birth that stupidly we call death, and mothers are wearily glad for the anxieties and joys of the day, and fathers touch their children's heads with new reverence, and old wrongs are forgiven, and old songs are sung, and Christmas reigns and peace is everywhere:
Because of a Child who was born to us and a Son who was given to us.
Because we are children of the Father who is His.
Because in a cave we have found the spring of eternal life.
Because divine love has assumed its most attractive form and reached out to us the compelling arms of infancy.
Because we stand in the light that is the unfading smile of the Child of the Christmastide.
Nihil obstat: J. DONOVAN, Censor Deputatus
lmprimi potest: D. MANNIX, Archiepiscopus Melbournensis. 1937
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| G.K. Chesterton: The God in the Cave |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 12:01 PM - Forum: Advent
- Replies (1)
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TRADITIONS in art and literature and popular fable have quite sufficiently attested, as has been said, this particular paradox of the divine being in the cradle. Perhaps they have not so clearly emphasised the significance of the divine being in the cave. Curiously enough, indeed, tradition has not very clearly emphasised the cave. It is a familiar fact that the Bethlehem scene has been represented in every possible setting of time and country, of landscape and architecture; and it is a wholly happy and admirable fact that men have conceived it as quite different according to their different individual traditions and tastes. But while all have realised that it was a stable, not so many have realised that it was a cave. Some critics have even been so silly as to suppose that there was some contradiction between the stable and the cave; in which case they cannot know much about caves or stables in Palestine. As they see differences that are not there it is needless to add that they do not see differences that are there. When a well-known critic says, for instance, that Christ being born in a rocky cavern is like Mithras having sprung alive out of a rock, it sounds like a parody upon comparative religion. There is such a thing as the point of a story, even if it is a story in the sense of a lie. And the notion of a hero appearing, like Pallas from the brain of Zeus, mature and without a mother, is obviously the very opposite of the idea of a god being born like an ordinary baby and entirely dependent on a mother. Whichever ideal we might prefer, we should surely see that they are contrary ideals. It is as stupid to connect them because they both contain a substance called stone as to identify the punishment of the Deluge with the baptism in the Jordan because they both contain a substance called water. Whether as a myth or a mystery, Christ was obviously conceived as born in a hole in the rocks primarily because it marked the position of one outcast and homeless . . . .
It would be vain to attempt to say anything adequate, or anything new, about the change which this conception of a deity born like an outcast or even an outlaw had upon the whole conception of law and its duties to the poor and outcast. It is profoundly true to say that after that moment there could be no slaves. There could be and were people bearing that legal title, until the Church was strong enough to weed them out, but there could be no more of the pagan repose in the mere advantage to the state of keeping it a servile state. Individuals became important, in a sense in which no instruments can be important. A man could not be a means to an end, at any rate to any other man's end. All this popular and fraternal element in the story has been rightly attached by tradition to the episode of the Shepherds, who found themselves talking face to face with the princes of heaven. But there is another aspect of the popular element as represented by the shepherds which has not perhaps been so fully developed; and which is more directly relevant here.
Men of the people, like the shepherds, men of the popular tradition, had everywhere been the makers of the mythologies. It was they who had felt most directly, with least check or chill from philosophy or the corrupt cults of civilisation, the need we have already considered; the images that were adventures of the imagination; the mythology that was a sort of search; the tempting and tantalising hints of something half-human in nature; the dumb significance of seasons and special places. They had best understood that the soul of a landscape is a story, and the soul of a story is a personality. But rationalism had already begun to rot away these really irrational though imaginative treasures of the peasant; even as a systematic slavery had eaten the peasant out of house and home. Upon all such peasantries everywhere there was descending a dusk and twilight of disappointment, in the hour when these few men discovered what they sought. Everywhere else Arcadia was fading from the forest. Pan was dead and the shepherds were scattered like sheep. And though no man knew it, the hour was near which was to end and to fulfil all things; and, though no man heard it, there was one far-off cry in an unknown tongue upon the heaving wilderness of the mountains. The shepherds had found their Shepherd.
And the thing they found was of a kind with the things they sought. The populace had been wrong in many things; but they had not been wrong in believing that holy things could have a habitation and that divinity need not disdain the limits of time and space. And the barbarian who conceived the crudest fancy about the sun being stolen and hidden in a box, or the wildest myth about the god being rescued and his enemy deceived with a stone, was nearer to the secret of the cave and knew more about the crisis of the world, than all those in the circle of cities round the Mediterranean who had become content with cold abstractions or cosmopolitan generalisations; than all those who were spinning thinner and thinner threads of thought out of the transcendentalism of Plato or the orientalism of Pythagoras. The place that the shepherds found was not an academy or an abstract republic; it was not a place of myths allegorised or dissected or explained or explained away. It was a place of dreams come true. Since that hour no mythologies have been made in the world. Mythology is a search . . . .
The philosophers had also heard. It is still a strange story, though an old one, how they came out of orient lands, crowned with the majesty of kings and clothed with something of the mystery of magicians. That truth that is tradition has wisely remembered them almost as unknown quantities, as mysterious as their mysterious and melodious names; Melchior, Caspar, Balthazar. But there came with them all that world of wisdom that had watched the stars in Chaldea and the sun in Persia; and we shall not be wrong if we see in them the same curiosity that moves all the sages. They would stand for the same human ideal if their names had really been Confucius or Pythagoras or Plato. They were those who sought not tales but the truth of things; and since their thirst for truth was itself a thirst for God, they also have had their reward. But even in order to understand that reward, we must understand that for philosophy as much as mythology, that reward was the completion of the incomplete.
Such learned men would doubtless have come, as these learned men did come, to find themselves confirmed in much that was true in their own traditions and right in their own reasoning. Confucius would have found anew foundation for the family in the very reversal of the Holy Family; Buddha would have looked upon a new renunciation, of stars rather than jewels and divinity than royalty. These learned men would still have the right to say, or rather a new right to say, that there was truth in their old teaching. But after all these learned men would have come to learn. They would have come to complete their conceptions with something they had not yet conceived; even to balance their imperfect universe with something they might once have contradicted. Buddha would have come from his impersonal paradise to worship a person. Confucius would have come from his temples of ancestor-worship to worship a child . . . .
The Magi, who stand for mysticism and philosophy, are truly conceived as seeking something new and even as finding something unexpected. That tense sense of crisis which still tingles in the Christmas story and even in every Christmas celebration, accentuates the idea of a search and a discovery. For the other mystical figures in the miracle play; for the angel and the mother, the shepherds and the soldiers of Herod, there may be aspects both simpler and more supernatural, more elemental or more emotional. But the Wise Men must be seeking wisdom; and for them there must be a light also in the intellect. And this is the light; that the Catholic creed is catholic and that nothing else is catholic. The philosophy of the Church is universal. The philosophy of the philosophers was not universal. Had Plato and Pythagoras and Aristotle stood for an instant in the light that came out of that little cave, they would have known that their own light was not universal. It is far from certain, indeed, that they did not know it already. Philosophy also, like mythology, had very much the air of a search. It is the realisation of this truth that gives its traditional majesty and mystery to the figures of the Three Kings; the discovery that religion is broader than philosophy and that this is the broadest of religions, contained within this narrow space . . . .
We might well be content to say that mythology had come with the shepherds and philosophy with the philosophers; and that it only remained for them to combine in the recognition of religion. But there was a third element that must not be ignored and one which that religion for ever refuses to ignore, in any revel or reconciliation. There was present in the primary scenes of the drama that Enemy that had rotted the legend with lust and frozen the theories into atheism, but which answered the direct challenge with something of that more direct method which we have seen in the conscious cult of the demons. In the description of that demon-worship, of the devouring detestation of innocence shown in the works of its witchcraft and the most inhuman of its human sacrifice, I have said less of its indirect and secret penetration of the saner paganism; the soaking of mythological imagination with sex; the rise of imperial pride into insanity. But both the indirect and the direct influence make themselves felt in the drama of Bethlehem. A ruler under the Roman suzerainty, probably equipped and surrounded with the Roman ornament and order though himself of eastern blood, seems in that hour to have felt stirring within him the spirit of strange things. We all know the story of how Herod, alarmed at some rumour of a mysterious rival, remembered the wild gesture of the capricious despots of Asia and ordered a massacre of suspects of the new generation of the populace. Everyone knows the story; but not everyone has perhaps noted its place in the story of the strange religions of men. Not everybody has seen the significance even of its very contrast with the Corinthian columns and Roman pavement of that conquered and superficially civilised world. Only, as the purpose in his dark spirit began to show and shine in the eyes of the Idumean, a seer might perhaps have seen something like a great grey ghost that looked over his shoulder; have seen behind him filling the dome of night and hovering for the last time over history, that vast and fearful fact that was Moloch of the Carthaginians; awaiting his last tribute from a ruler of the races of Shem. The demons, in that first festival of Christmas, feasted also in their own fashion.
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| The World into which Christ was Born |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 11:34 AM - Forum: Advent
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The Gospels: Their Message and Credibility-I.
The main purpose of this series of booklets is to examine two points of particular interest which arise from the study of the four canonical Gospels, or, as they are usually called, the Gospels according to SS. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. What is the specific story or message concerning Christ and His teaching which the Gospels have left us? Are we to accept that story as a trustworthy account of actual events of history, or, on the contrary, to reject it as a fiction and a fraud? It is with these two questions that we shall be chiefly concerned in these booklets.
The importance of determining the correct answer to these questions can scarcely be exaggerated. If, as the Gospels tell us, Christ is the divine Saviour of mankind, no one may adopt an attitude of indifference or neutrality to Him or to His teaching. No event of history is even remotely comparable in significance with the coming of Christ, and upon the attitude which men adopt towards Him depend issues which can be measured only in terms of eternity. For person's who are groping for the light, or for Catholics who are liable to be brought into contact with such people, a general knowledge of the evidence which goes to show that the Gospels are reliable records, is of very considerable importance. Such knowledge will enable Catholics to show the reasonableness of their own position. As St. Peter has it, they will the 'always ready to give an answer to everyone who demands an account of the hope which is in them.' (I Peter. c. 3. v. 15.) If unbelievers, who are seriously engaged in the search for the truth, can be brought to see the reasonableness of the claim that, on purely scientific, literary and historical evidence, apart from other considerations, the Gospels have a solid title to be regarded as trustworthy documents, they will have made a notable advance in the solution of their difficulties.
In the series of booklets here introduced the discussion of the various relevant topics will be necessarily brief. It is hoped, however, that it will be adequate for the immediate purpose of showing that the case for the truth of the Gospels is a strong one; that it is based on tangible scientific evidence of the kind which satisfies scholars in the examination of other ancient documents; that, in fact, the rejection of the Gospels cannot be justified by any allegation of insufficiency, either in the quantity or quality of the evidence, but is due to philosophical prejudice which, from the outset, refuses to admit the possibility of the supernatural and, consequently, rejects as unhistorical the Gospel account of miracles and of the Incarnation of the Son of God.
In order to avoid confusion, it should be noted carefully that we are not here concerned with the general doctrine of biblical Inspiration, nor with its application to the Gospels. We consider the Gospels as documents which have come down to us from antiquity, liable to be subjected to the same rigorous scientific examination as other ancient documents, e.g., The Annals of Tacitus, The Histories of Thucydides, which claim to deal with historical facts rather than with legend, myth or poetic fancy. We claim, however, that the same scientific standards, which are adopted to distinguish fact from legend and myth in other ancient documents, should be applied with equal impartiality in the case of the Gospels. The issue in which we are principally interested, viz., the truth or falsehood of the Gospels, is one which can be discussed quite independently of any theological doctrine concerning the sacred character of these books. All that is needed is an unprejudiced attitude, and a willingness to accept, in the case of the Gospels, evidence which would be considered entirely satisfactory in the case of other historical documents. While no special favour is sought for the Gospels, it must be insisted that they should not be subjected to purely a priori criticism of a kind which finds no place in the examination of other ancient documents which purport to give a narrative of fact.
Most readers will be familiar with the broad outlines of the Gospel story, and will also have some acquaintance with the actual text of the Gospels themselves. Considered as literature they come under the heading of biography. Although they may not conform precisely to the definition of biography as we use that term in modern times, they are definitely biographical in character. They tell much of the Story of the life and teaching of the figure known to history as Christ or Jesus of Nazareth. They do not give a complete, nor a strictly chronological account, but they do give an outline of what may be regarded as the items of greatest significance from that life and history.
This narrative concerning Christ is set against the background of life in Palestine at a time when that country had come under the dominion of Rome. Our knowledge of the general conditions of life, as well as the great figures and events of that age, is extensive, and is constantly being added to as a result of the thorough-going studies of modern scholars. Assuming for the moment the historicity of the Gospels, we can place all the events which they record within the limits of the period 10 a.d. Between these two extremes there is ample room: for some differences of opinion about the exact dates to be assigned for the birth and the death of Christ. The Gospels, therefore, have as historical setting that period of Roman history when Augustus and Tiberius ruled. Both Emperors are mentioned in the Gospels. (Luke c.2. v.1; c.3. v.1.) The same is true of members of the Herodian dynasty of Palestine, rulers whose history is well known to us from the writings of Josephus. The high priests, Annas and Caiaphas, and the parties of the Sadducees and Pharisees who figure so prominently in the Gospel account of the opposition to Our Lord, are also well known to us from contemporary records. In fact, there is scarcely a page of the Gospels which does not reflect in some way the political conditions, or the prevalent social, ethical and religious ideas within the Roman Empire, and more particularly within Palestine and among the Jewish people, at the period to which the Gospel narrative belongs. Time and again, we find that a knowledge of the historical background enables us to understand more fully portions of the narrative, or passages from the teaching of Our Lord, the full implications of which would otherwise escape us, e.g., the question put to Our Lord: 'Is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar?,' the teaching of Christ on marriage and divorce, the account of the trial and crucifixion of Our Lord. These are but a few of the very many instances which might be cited to show how closely the Gospels bring us into contact with the laws, customs and beliefs of the world in which their story has its setting. There can be no doubt, therefore, of the value of a knowledge of the historical background for a thorough understanding of the Gospels. It may be added that belief in the reliability of the Gospels receives no slight confirmation from the accuracy with which they reflect contemporary conditions, as these are known to us from independent historical research.
Some writers, of course, under the influence of the theory of progressive evolution in religious ideas and practices, have ought to show that Christianity is nothing more than an easy natural development from the conditions prevailing at the beginning of the Christian era. This development, they say, would have been accelerated somewhat by the high ethical teaching and personal qualities of Christ, Who is looked upon merely as a man, a distinguished prophet or teacher of a high code of morality, but not the Messiah or the Son of God. According to these writers, the picture of Christ and His teaching which the Gospels give us must be regarded as the result of a period of pious speculation and hero-worship whereby Jesus of Nazareth was transformed (in the minds of his followers) from a mere man into the promised Messiah and eventually into a divine person incarnate. According to this theory, the Gospels are not so much a record of fact as a reflection of popular belief in the period 50-100 a.d.
In order to put the problem in proper perspective, and provide a suitable background for our discussion of the Message and Credibility of the Gospels, the first booklets of this series will be devoted mainly to an outline of conditions in the political, social and religious spheres within the Roman Empire, and particularly in Palestine and among the Jews at the the beginning of the Christian era. This sketch of The World into which Christ was born will pay special attention to those elements which have, or might be considered to have, a particular bearing on the origin of Christianity, or are of interest for the question of the credibility of the Gospels.
At the outset, it may be necessary to rid our minds of some misconceptions. The period to which the story of the Gospels belongs is so far removed from our own age, that we may be disposed to regard it as culturally and intellectually backward as well as historically remote. But the detailed knowledge now available of the Augustan age, and of the men and women who lived in it, tends to show that the Roman Empire bears striking resemblances to some empires of our own day. In fact, it is often helpful to visualize modern imperial methods when we wish to bring home more vividly the conditions of life within the empire of the Caesars. Imperial Rome was distinguished by a unified political administration and an ease of communication which was really remarkable for those days; the educated classes took a deep interest in philosophical speculation; writing flourished; humanitarianism, of a kind, was not unknown; between the upper and lower classes there was a veritable chasm in social conditions. All of these things have a familiar, even modern, ring, and go to show that conditions in imperial Rome are not too remote, nor too primitive, to have any interest for men of the twentieth century.
Political Conditions. -At the period in which we are interested the Roman Empire extended from France to Egypt, and from Spain to the borders of Persia. That great empire had been formed over a long period of time, mainly by wars of conquest. And now, at the beginning of the Christian era, after a long succession of civil wars which had ravaged Italy itself, this vast territory was settling down to enjoy, under the Emperor Augustus, the blessings of a period of calm, in which constructive ideas of order, justice and peace were very definitely to the fore. It was the most brilliant period of Roman history up to that time, an age of really outstanding achievement. Clear proof that the greatness of the political achievement of Augustus and the benefits his rule conferred on the subject territories were recognised and appreciated, is found in that emperor-worship which began during his lifetime and led ultimately to his apotheosis.
The administration of the imperial territories was unified under the supreme power of the Emperor. The personal financial independence of Augustus, combined with the immense power concentrated in his hands, made it possible for him to legislate for the benefit of the empire as a whole. No longer were the subject territories considered merely as convenient places for pillage by Roman officials, or merely as granaries to meet the needs of Rome and Italy. In all subject territories, whether imperial or senatorial provinces, as well as in districts where allied or subject kings were left in control, the power of the Emperor was supreme. Palestine, at the time of Christ, was ruled partially as a protectorate with members of the Herodian family in immediate control, partially as a district of the province of Syria with a Governor to represent the Emperor. The city of Rome was the chief centre of political, administrative and flourishing commercial life. Closely allied with this unity of administration was the excellent system of communication both, by road and by sea. To illustrate the point, there is the story of the merchant from Phrygia in Asia Minor who made no less than 70 business journeys to Rome. This relative ease of communication helps us to understand how St. Paul, later on, was able to cover so much ground on his missionary journeys in a comparatively short space of time.
It is generally agreed that the administrative unity and ease of communication in the Roman Empire had a certain importance by way of preparation for Christianity. The conquests of Alexander, and the Hellenistic movement which he had inaugurated, had broken down the local patriotism and narrow nationalism of an earlier age. The idea of a common culture, a unified civilization with the Greek tongue spoken everywhere as a lingua franca, had been largely translated into reality over the districts conquered by Alexander and ruled by his successors. While this idea of a universal culture is rightly regarded as something distinctively Greek, unified political administration can be regarded as a Roman contribution. Both elements had their importance in the preparation of the world for Christianity. The notion that humanity consisted of isolated groups, with little in common and much to keep them separated and at enmity, had begun to yield to a wider outlook wherein all men were capable of being brought under a single culture and a single governmnent. In this way the world was being prepared for the doctrine of the universal brotherhood of men, a contribution which is, of course, distinctively Christian.
Social and Ethical Conditions. -While the value of the Roman contribution, through its administrative system, to the progress of humanity generally, and also by way of preparation for Christianity, is recognised universally, a survey of social and ethical conditions gives us a picture of more sombre hues. Historians, as a rule, give a very dismal account of the prevailing standards in social and moral matters. There were, undoubtedly, abuses of the gravest character, some of them widespread, others confined mostly to the upper classes and to the wealthy. But there is evidence also that many of the natural virtues were appreciated and practised by that section of the community whieh rarely achieves notoriety or fame in any age. Both sides of the question must be kept in mind if we are to form a balanced picture of the situation as a whole.
In any account of social conditions in the Roman Empire the institution of slavery must hold a prominent place. The population was divided into ‘free' and ‘slave.' The slave, from the legal point of view, was scarcely a person or human being at all. He was a mere chattel or piece of property, just like the irrational animals owned by his master, and was often treated with much less consideration. The greatest rigour and cruelty were permitted in the treatment of slaves. If a master were murdered, all of his slaves could be put to death. In Rome itself slaves outnumbered the free population. Many slaves were persons of culture and education, unfortunate victims of war or piracy sold to masters who, judged by any decent human standards, were, frequently, their inferiors in everything except the possession of wealth and power. It is true that, from time to time, voices were raised against the cruelty of this institution, and that some masters treated their slaves with kindness. Slaves were sometimes granted their freedom, and of those set free some attained the highest posts in civil administration. But it is unquestionable that the system was a degrading one, that it had the most deplorable consequences for morality, and that it contributed in some degree to the disintegration of the empire itself.
Among that section of the population which was classed as free, there were many distinctions based on wealth and social rank. The privilege of Roman citizenship was not enjoyed by all the free population. It was a highly prized and jealously guarded right, which was extended outside Rome and Italy only as a special reward or favour to individuals or communities. Not until the year 212 a.d., by a decree of the Emperor Carcalla, was this right extended to all free subjects of the Empire. St. Paul, a native of Tarsus, had the good fortune to possess this privilege. His citizenship saved him more than once from indignities at the hands of Roman officials, and from the fury of the Jews who sought his death by any means at their disposal.
Next to slavery, possibly the most inhuman and debasing element of life under Roman rule was to be found in the so-called games of the amphitheatre. These gladiatorial shows, in which men fought to the death with beasts or with one another, tended, with the passage of time, to become more and more colossal displays of savagery and inhumanity.
The fact that the passion for these spectacles pervaded every class of society, and that they were one of the recognized methods of keeping the populace contented, gives us an insight into the appallingly low ethical standards of those who provided and enjoyed the shows of the amphitheatre. It is a curious irony of history that among the most tangible remains of an age that was, in many ways, one of great achievement, should be those very amphitheatres, e.g., The Colosseum in Rome, where such senseless carnage often lasted for days. Leaky has said that the continuance for centuries, almost without protest, of these games, is one of the most striking facts in moral history.
Slavery and the amphitheatre are dark blots on Roman history and remind us of the depths to which even a cultured people are capable of descending. They do not, however, exhaust the list of vices and defects which can be placed in the scale against the mighty achievements in practically every field of human endeavour, which have made the name of Rome immortal. Rome had a full quota of the faults which are liable to manifest themselves in a state, flushed with conquest, which is passing from the hard period of establishing its power to the peaceful enjoyment of the fruits of victory. The marriage bond was not universally respected nor adequately protected by law. Divorce was easy and resorted to frequently. With this instability of marriage went a host of other evils. The efforts of the Emperor to secure reform by legal enactments of various kinds are an indication of the extent to which abuses in connection with marriage and family life had begun to undermine society. Unwanted shildren, even those born in wedlock, were often exposed to death. There were frequent instances of other, and even more shameful, crimes. The theatre of the day contributed its quota to the demoralizing influences at work. Secular history thus confirms that account of pagan immorality which St. Paul has left us in his letter to the Romans, c.1. v.32. 'God abandoned them to a reprobate mind so as to do what is unbecoming; being filled with all wickedness, malice, greed, badness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; tale-bearers, slanderers; haters of God, insolent, haughty; pretentious, inventors of vices, disobedience to parents; senseless, perfidious, heartless, merciless;-.'
As a contributory cause to this loss of moral sense, we must attach some importance to the widespread lack of belief in any real survival of man after death. Cicero, Horace, Sallusat, Catullus and other writers give evidence of fairly widely disseminated scepticism on this point. The inscriptions on the tombs of the dead also add their testimony to the fact that many lived for this life and cared but little for the hereafter, e.g., 'I was not, I became, I am not, I care not.' 'While I lived, I lived well; now my little play is ended, soon shall yours be.' 'While I lived, I drank as I pleased; you who live, drink.' 'What I have eaten and drank, that I take with me; what I have left behind, that I have forfeited.' Here we are brought into close touch with one of the reasons for the decline in morality; and we also get an insight into the causes of that feeling of hopelessness and aimlessness which some writers consider to be characteristic of the period in question. Historians also draw attention to the depressing sense of sin and guilt, of which the reflecting minds of the period became increasingly conscious. Seneca, one of the most attractive figures from the pagan world of the first century, has the following striking passage in a work written about the year 60 a.d. : 'We have all sinned: the fashion in vice may change, its reign is as powerful as ever : we are wicked, have been wicked and shall continue to be wicked.' These are the reflections of an enquiring and philosophic mind, the thoughts of a man whose moral sense had not been completely dulled by contract with a corrupt world. The concise expression used by St. Paul to describe the pagan world-'they were men without hope and without God in the world' (Ephesians c.2. v.12)-sums up their condition.
On the credit side, there is considerable evidence of practical civic pride and patriotic devotion to the welfare of city or state. We know also that marital and family affection and loyalty still influenced many lives, and that other natural virtues were esteemed and put into practice. In this connection, it has been noted that the Stoic philosophy, with its insistence on the need for the practice of the virtues and the duty of self-control, had exercised a genuinely beneficial influence, even though Stoicism was, in the last analysis, a philosophy of despair which approved of suicide. The protests made from time to time against the social and moral evils which were undermining society and destroying what was best in the Roman Character, and the various attempts to secure reform, also deserve mention. They show that, despite widespread corruption, there were still some who were neither completely insensitive to moral values, nor blind to the fact that the prestige and continued welfare of Rome were gravely imperilled by the serious disorders in social and individual life.
The last century of the pre-Christian era was one of flourishing activity, a period in which the Roman genius reached a high level of achievemenit in law, administration, literature, architecture and engineering. It is generally recognized that, in these spheres, Rome made contributions of permanent value which have placed the whole civilized world in its debt. The value of the literary and cultural legacy bequeathed to the world by Roman writers of that century is too well known to need extensive treatment here. Virgil and Horace, chief ornaments of the Augustan age of literature, are still, as Mackail notes, 'the schoolbooks and the companions of the whole world; forming the mind of youth, and yielding more and more of their secret to prolonged study and inveterate acquaintance.' The writings of Virgil, 'the noblest poet of the Roman tongue,' give striking expressions to the hopes aroused by the establishment of peace and order. Virgil deserves, in a special way, the title 'poet of Imperial Rome,' because, more than any other writer of the age, he manifests a sense of the high dignity of the Roman state and of the role which Rome should play in the world. It was for Rome 'to rule the nations,' 'to establish the settled ways of peace, to deal gently with subject peoples, to vanquish the proud.' The rule of Augustus marked the return of the golden age, and the beginning of an era of universal peace under the dominion of Rome. A well-known passage from the fourth Eclogue of Virgil, sometimes referred to as the messianic Eclogue, contains a remarkable expression of the poet's hopes, and of his exalted conception of the part which the Roman state was called upon to play in world history.- ‘Now is come the last age of the song of Cumae; the great line of the centuries begins anew. Now the virgin (Justice) returns, the reign of Saturn returns; now a new generation descends from heaven on high . . . And in thy consulship, Pollio, shall this glorious age begin, and the mighty months begin their march; under thy sway, any lingering traces of our guilt shall become void, and release the earth from its continual dread.' (Trans. Fairclough). The optimism of Virgil is a refreshing change from the prevailing cynicism and depression, and sharp contrast to the verdict which, one hundred years later, the historian Tacous passed upon the Imperial rule-'The wrath of the gods upon the Roman State.'
Virgil and Horace stand out from their contemporaries, but they are not the only distinguished authors of an age which produced numerous writers catering in prose and verse for the varied literary tastes of the public. Nor did the cultured and educated classes confine their interest to a merely aesthetic appreciation of literature. From the middle of the second century b.c., philosophy had been enjoying increasing attention. Greece, of course, had been the home of philosophy for centuries, and her thinkers had made a contribution of outstanding merit to philosophical enquiry, showing a capacity for original and profound speculation which the Romans never equalled. The Romans were content, on the whole, to accept their philosophy at second-hand, and in this sphere, more than any other, they remained the disciples and imitators of the conquered Greeks who had become their teachers. With the progressive decline of polytheistic religion, and its manifest inability to give satisfactory answers to vital questions concerning the meaning of life, the regulation of human conduct, the fate of man after death etc., reflecting minds naturally turned to philosophy in search of the light and guidance of which they felt the need. All the well-known schools of philosophy had their advocates and won some measure of support; but it was the Stoic philosophy which had the greatest influence and the largest following. This is not altogether surprising, because the ideal of conduct propounded by the Stoics was one which appeared to be particularly suited to Roman temperament and tradition. The picture of the true Stoic, practising the virtues and capable of rising superior to external changes of fortune, was bound to make a strong appeal to those who revered the traditional Roman virtues of gravity, dignified restraint in adversity as in prosperity, and piety, due discharge of duties to families, kindred, state and the gods. It is not to be supposed that the general body of the population was deeply interested in the teaching of the different schools of thought. While some attempt was made to reach the common people. it was mainly within the fairly narrow limits of cultured Roman society that persons were to be found with the capacity to take an enlightened interest in philosophical discussion. The majority, apart from those who had lapsed into practical atheism or scepticism, held on to the ancient beliefs, or were won over to newer and more seductive forms of religious belief and worship.
This brief sketch is sufficient to indicate that Roman society at the end of the pre-Christian era presented some remarkable contrasts. High ideals and notable achievement in many spheres were to be found side by side with moral degradation and social disorder. But even taking into account every element of good which historians have been able to detect, and making full allowance for the abiding worth of the Roman contribution to human progress, the general picture is not bright. The prevailing standards in ethical and social matters were law, and neither appeals to ancient tradition nor legislative reforms were able to check the steady moral decline and corruption of society.
Religious Ideals and Practices. -The religious conditions which obtained within the Roman empire at this time might be regarded as the root-cause of the widespread corruption of society. In the absence of a firm conviction of the existence of a Supreme Being who sanctions the moral law, it is vain to hope for the general maintenance of high moral standards. Rome was now in a transition period when the traditional beliefs were going by the board. At an earlier stage, religious duties centred mainly on the worship of the domestic gods and the cult of those deities who were looked upon as the founders or protecting patrons of the city or state. But this narrow concept of the deities, as mere domestic or local patrons and guardians, broke down before the philosophy of the Greeks; and the consequent tendency towards scepticism increased with the ever widening horizons opened up by the conquests of Alexander the Great and of Rome.
In the New Testament period the official attitude of the ruling power in Rome was one of tolerance for all religions of subject peoples, provided that these religions were prepared, in turn, to extend similar toleration to other religions. This official recognition of a whole pantheon of deities, however admirable as a political expedient designed to avoid clashes with subject races, inevitably drew attention to the irrational basis of polytheistic religion, and this accelerated still further the disintegrating process which had set in. Moreover, the stories of the exploits of pagan gods, which had become part of mythology and the stock-in-trade of poets, were frequently of a character not calculated to edify. It is true that Stoicism had done something to introduce a purer and more elevated concept of the deity; but it is hardly surprising that, once the essential weakness of polytheism had been brought to light, men tended to atheism and scepticism rather than to the formation of a more correct idea of a Supreme Being who ruled the whole world. There were some, of course, who still clung to the beliefs and rites of their fathers and were encouraged in that attitude by official attempts to give a now lease of life to the ancient religion of Rome. This loyalty, however, and the respect for ancient tradition which inspired it, proved unequal to the task of maintaining the prestige and influence of the ancient cults against the attacks of philosophy and the attractions of newer forms of worship.
As a result of the general policy of tolerance, many new religions found their way to Rome itself. Most notable of these were the mystery religions of the East, e.g., the mysteries of Isis, Cybele, Orpheus and Eleusis. There is considerable uncertainty about the exact history of these cults and the precise nature of their rites; but it would appear that they began as 'fertility rites,' which were concerned with the constantly recurring cycle of death and re-birth in nature. At a later stage of their history they held out to those who had been duly initiated, the prospect of some kind of purification and the hope of happiness after death. This probably goes a long way towards explaining the popularity which they achieved-they provided a way of escape from the depression and sense of guilt which appear to have weighed heavily on many minds of the age. The rites of the mystery religions had, moreover, an emotional appeal not found in the traditional forms of worship. But it is to be remembered that the celebration of the mysteries was often merely a cloak for wild orgiastic ceremonies of an utterly immoral kind. The mystery religions were alien to the Roman character, and their harmful influence was recognised by Augustus, who made a vain attempt to check their growth.
Another factor to note in this rather complicated religious situation is the development of 'emperor-worship.' The first movements appear to have come from the population of certain of the eastern provinces who had long been accustomed to some form of ruler-worship. In Greece, it had long been the custom to speak of men of distinction, or great public benefactors, as somehow equal to the gods. In Rome itself there was a strong tradition of veneration for ancestors and a tendency to exalt the memory of the great heroes of the past. The benefits conferred on the imperial territories by the rule of Augustus were so unmistakeable that it was an easy step to bestow upon him titles such as ‘saviour' and ‘god,' and to found temples and institute worship in his honour. Allowance must, of course, be made for some element of exaggeration and flattery in all this. But it is clear that, in origin at least, the cult of the emperor, far from being mere adulation, was a sincere manifestation of the feelings of hope and gratitude aroused by the restoration of order and peace. Augustus was quick to see the political advantages that might be expected to accrue to the Empire and to himself from this worship. It would serve as a new bond letween the different parts of the Empire; and, when associated with the worship of the goddess Rama, promote the interests of the imperial house. Emperor-worship was at all times largely political in its significance, even though it took on the usual external formalities of religious worship. Many Christians were destined to suffer for their refusal to participate in the usual sacrifices to the divinity of the emperor.
By way of conclusion to this outline it may be appropriate to touch upon the general question of the relation of the Roman Empire to Christianity. Was the empire in any sense a preparation for Christianity? Were conditions in the Roman world such that the Christian economy could have developed naturally from them? What was the attitude of the Roman power to the Christian religion? The thesis that the Roman empire, by its very existence and organization, facilitated the preaching of the Gospel and the growth of the Church is one which few will be disposed to question. Rome had done much to break down national barriers. The system of communications which had been built up within the limits of Roman rule made travel comparatively easy and secure. The widespread knowledge of the Greek tongue was a further advantage to those whose message was for men of every race and nation. In brief, the Roman empire had removed a number of material obstacles to the spread of Christianity; and, moreover, in its political, social and administrative structure, it provided a unique framework for the building up of a supranational Church. It is not surprising that Christian writers have always been attracted by the contention first put forward by Melito of Sardis in the second century, in an apologia directed to the emperor, Marcus Aurelius that it was Divine Providence which had arranged that such a system should have come into existence precisely at the time when the Christian religion was about to be preached.
To what extent was the Roman world mentally prepared for the Christian message? Roman dominion would, no doutht, have suggested to some the notion of a world-wide kingdom, and have strengthened the concept of common bonds between men. Philosophy had shown the weakness of polytheism and of the traditional beliefs, but as an alternative to some form of religious belief and worship, had failed to satisfy men's minds and hearts. Conditions in the ethical sphere served only to show the weakness of men whose only moral guidance comes from tradition and reason. Possibly all this should be regarded as a negative preparation for a religion which would give clear teaching concerning One true God and His relations to men, together with guidance and strength to observe the moral law. Obviously, the Roman world was not one which would take easily to the high moral standards of Christianity. For certain classes, e.g., slaves, the Gospel brought a message of hope, not by proclaiming the immediate abolition of slavery, but by the promise of eternal life, and by teaching that all men, bond and free, are equal as sons of God and brothers of Christ. The Christian doctrine of One God Who lays down and sanctions the moral law would be a light to thinkers who had failed to find in the schools of philosophy a satisfactory answer to any of the great problems of life. The doctrine of the forgiveness of sin was bound to make a wide appeal; and the prospect of eternal happiness would compensate in some measure for the woes of this present life. But the history of the early Church shows that the transition from paganism to Christianity was anything but easy. The fundamental doctrine of spiritual salvation through the death of Christ upon the cross was, as St. Paul tells us, 'a folly to the pagans.' The moral code of Christianity made very serious demands upon persons accustomed to an almost unbridled reign of vice; and the power of Rome was, from an early date, directed to the repression of the new religion. Neither as a system of philosophy, nor as a code of high moral teaching, would Christianity have sufficed to convert the world from paganism. In that process the finger of God, manifested in miracles, and the blood of the martyrs, had to play their part.
It is useful to keep this outline of Roman conditions in mind. The full significance of the Message of the Gospels will be all the more evident when contrasted with the confusion of ideas and the low moral standards, which characterized this great empire, great in its own right and heir to all the glory and achievement of the Greeks.
Nihil Obstat : RECCAREDUS FLEMING, Censor Theol. Deput,
Imprimi Potest: IOANNES CAROLUS. Hiberniae Primas. Dublini, dieº 22 Nov., anno° 1945.
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| Thoughts for the Sundays of Advent |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 11:15 AM - Forum: Advent
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FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT - ON THE GENERAL JUDGMENT
"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves; men withering away for fear and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of the heavens shall be moved." (Luke xxi. 25, 26.)
THESE are some of the signs which are to precede the last day, and to indicate its approach. Now, if the mere signs of that day will be so alarming, as even to make 'men wither away for fear of what shall come upon the whole world; what must be that fearful account which is to follow? It is to this account that our Lord alludes, when, speaking of these signs, that 'they are but the beginnings of sorrows. And it is to the same account that I intend now to call your attention.
POINT I. All mankind most strictly examined
'Oh! terrible hour! exclaims St. Ephrem; 'who shall relate, or who shall bear to hear, this last and fearful rehearsal? For we shall then have to account for our whole life- for every thought, word, and deed; for every omission of duty; for every sin we have criminally caused in others; and even for our very virtues, on account of the imperfections accompanying them.
1. THOUGHTS.- Then will be brought against you all the evil thoughts, which you have wilfully entertained; all those thoughts of pride, by which, like the proud Pharisee, you have raised yourselves above what you are, and despised others; those thoughts of envy, hatred, and revenge, which you have cherished in your mind; those thoughts of groundless suspicion, and of rash judgment, whereby you have put a bad construction even on the innocent actions of others; and those thoughts of impurity, which have been indulged with pleasure, with desire, and perhaps even with the intention of accomplishing what you desired. All these will be strictly examined.
2. WORDS.- Your words also must be accounted for- they will be brought to judgment, all those words of lying by which you have spoken against the truth; of rash judgment, detraction, and calumny, whereby, your neighbouur's character has been destroyed or lessened; those words of injustice, by which you have been guilty of deception in your dealings with your neighbour; those words of contention, quarrelling, and contumely, which have created animosities, disturbed peace amongst neighbours, and been the cause of many other evils; those words of cursing and blasphemy, which you have uttered to the injury of yourselves, and the disedification of others; and those words of indecency and double meaning, whereby you have defiled not only your own soul, but also the souls of them that listened to you. All these will be examined, and set against you.
3. ACTIONS.- Then come your actions: all the thefts and injustices, by which you have taken to yourselves what did not belong to you, or in any other way wronged your neighbour; all the excesses in drinking, whereby you have degraded yourselves, scandalised your neighbour, and grieved and injured your family; and all the improper liberties, and shameful acts of which St. Paul ,says, that they 'ought not to be so much as even named among you, as becometh Saints. (Eph. v. 3.) All these will be brought against you, and put to your account.
4. OMISSIONS.- And not only will you have to account for the evils done, but for the good you have left undone- for all your omissions of duty; for all your omissions of deeds of charity, by refusing alms to the poor, when you ought to have given them; your omissions of prayer, meditation and spiritual reading, and of assisting at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, through negligence, sloth, tepidity, or indifference; your omissions of the means of grace provided for you in the Sacraments by having seldom or never received them, from those like sloth, or tepidity; your omissions of the duties of your state of life, to the disedification and prejudice of your family, or your employers; you neglect of religious instruction, which, by causing you to live in ignorance of your religion, has produced many other omissions and transgressions of duty. All these, with their consequences, will be examined, and added to your account.
5. SINS OF OTHERS.- And you will not only have to account for the evils which you have done yourself, and for your own omissions of duty; but moreover, for all those sins of commission and omission, which you have criminally caused in others. 'Soul for soul will be required from those parents, through whose neglect, or bad example their children have become wicked; heads of families will have many sins of their domestics to answer for, on account of having exposed them to the occasions of those sins, or for not having removed such occasions, when they ought to have done; and those who have withdrawn others from their duty, and seduced them by leading them into evil, will have to answer to their Judge for the long habits of sin, of which they have been the guilty cause. Oh! what an account! Such, indeed, is the perversity of human nature, that scandals will come; and therefore our blessed Lord says: 'Woe to the world because of scandals; for it must needs be that scandals come; but nevertheless, woe to that man by whom the scandal cometh. (Mt. xviii. 7.)
6. DEFECTIVE VIRTUES.- But have you not at least some good works'some virtues, to be put in the scale against so much evil? Alas! even these are to be closely examined'to be nicely weighed; and in how many instances will they be 'found wanting? You have prayed, and, perhaps, frequently; but how? with what attention? with what disposition of heart? You have abstained and fasted; but in what spirit? You have approached the Sacraments; but was it from a pure intention? with due preparation? with proper dispositions? 'And it shall come to pass at that time (saith the Lord), that I will search Jerusalem with lamps. (Soph. i. 12.) What, then, will become of the wicked Babylon? 'If the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (I Peter iv. 18.) And after this fearful examination, where, my Brethren, shall we appear?
POINT 2. Every sin is publicly exposed.
But there is another circumstance in this examination, which will add very much to our distress; for the conscience of each individual will be known, not only to himself and God; but, moreover, to all his relatives, friends, and acquaintances'to the entire world! Oh! what will be the sinner's shame and confusion, at seeing himself thus publicly exposed? You may judge of this by what your feelings would be if an Angel were to descend now into this temple and reveal all your secret sins to the rest of the congregation. What then will be your feelings at the last day, when all those secret sins will be revealed to the whole world? Overwhelmed with confusion, will you not 'call upon the mountains and rocks to fall upon you, and to hide you? (Apoc. vi. 16.) But there is no escape.
POINT 3. The sentence is pronounced.
All mankind having been thus strictly examined, and every conscience exposed to public view, the Judge will pronounce theirrevocable sentence. To the just He will say 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. But to the wicked: 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil andhis angels. 'And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting. (Mt. xxv.)
Thus will terminate the last and fearful day. By these two sentences, the lot of each individual of the human race will be finally and eternally fixed. But oh! what a difference between the lot of the saint, and that of the sinner! The saint in heaven, the sinner in hell; the one perpetually happy, the other perpetually miserable; the one with God in eternal glory, the other with the devils in everlasting flames.
And where will you be, my Brethren? where is it your wish to be? Make now your choice, for you can do so- it is at present in your power; because this life is the time of mercy and grace: 'Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation. (2 Cor. vi. 2.) But if you defer your repentance and amendment of life, and die in the state of mortal sin, then, at the last day, you will receive 'judgment without mercy. (James ii. 13.)
Judge yourselves now, my Brethren, by making a due preparation for the Sacrament of Penance, and you will not then be judged; repent now, and you will not have to repent then. Enter now upon a new life, and you will deprive that day of all its terrors. For then, instead of being banished from God eternally with the reprobate, you will be found worthy to hear from your Judge that consoling sentence: 'Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. (Mt. xxv. 34.)
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT - ON THE VIRTUE OF HOPE
"Now the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in Hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost." (Rom. xv. 13.)
DURING the time of Advent, we have to prepare ourselves for worthily and profitably celebrating the approaching Festival of Christmas, wherein we commemorate the first coming of our blessed Lord, when, in quality of our Redeemer, He came 'to seek and to save the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel.
POINT I. We must fear God.
To guide and assist us in this preparation, the Church directs our attention, on the First Sunday of Advent, to the terrible judgments of God, which, at the last day, or the second coming of Christ, will be executed severely and eternally upon impenitent sinners: 'Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. (Mt. xxv. 41.) And thus we are led to the fear of God, which, according to the Council of Trent, is the first step in the sinner's conversion to God. (Sess. 6, c. 6.) And it is the first step also in his preparation for Christmas.
POINT II. We must also hope in God.
But, on this Second Sunday of Advent, it would seem to be the intention of the Church to lead you on, through this salutary fear of God's judgments, to the consideration of His Mercy and Goodness; that so you may be raised to a firm hope that He will be propitious to you for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Redeemer. This hope, according to the same Council, is the second step in the sinner's conversion to God; and it is the second also in his preparation for Christmas.
God has revealed to us, in the book of Ecclesiasticus (ii. 9), that this is the sure way of escaping His severe judgments, and of drawingdown upon us the consoling effects of His mercy: 'Ye that fear the Lord, He says, 'hope in Him, and mercy shall come to you for your delight. May 'the God of hope, therefore, from the riches of His mercy and goodness infuse bountifully into your souls this necessary, this saving virtue; 'that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost.
We will consider now the powerful motives, which urge us to place all our hope in God; and also the qualities, which our hope should have.
POINT III. Why we must hope in God.
Hope is a theological virtue, which 'helps us to expect, with confidence, that God will give us all things necessary for our salvation, if, on our part, we do what He requires of us. (Catec.) This virtue is of strict obligation'it is absolutely necessary for us, as a means of salvation, and it is grounded on the most solid foundation.
For we have every motive to induce us to hope in God- to place an unlimited confidence in His mercy and goodness.
1. We have the pressing Exhortations, or rather, Commands of God: 'Trust in Him, all ye congregation of people: . . . . God is our helper for ever. (Ps. lxi. 9.) 'Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart; and lean not upon thine own prudence. (Prov. iii. 5.) 'And hope in God always. (Osee xii. 6.) 'Casting all your care upon Him, for He hath care of you. (1 Pet. v. 7.)
2. We have also the infallible promises of God, whereby He has pledged Himself to reward those who 'cast all their care upon Him. For He says 'Because he hath hoped in Me, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he hath known My Name. (Ps. xc. 14.) And consequently He declares, that 'Blessed is the man whose trust is in the Name of the Lord. (Ps. xxxix. 5.) 'Do not, therefore, lose confidence, He says, 'which hath a great reward, (Heb. x. 35.)
We read in the Gospel, that our Lord attributed many of the miracles which He wrought, solely to the great confidencewith which the petition for cure was presented to Him. Thus, He said to the centurion: 'As thou hast believed, so be it done to thee. (Mt. viii. 13.) In like manner, to the blind men, He said: 'According to your faith (that is, your confidence), 'be it done unto you. (Mt. ix. 29.) . The woman, who, for twelve years, had been labouring under an infirmity, which, during that period, had been incurable, 'said within herself: If I shall touch only the hem of His garment, I shall be healed. But Jesus seeing her, said: Be of good heart, daughter; thy faith (that is, thy confidence) hath made thee whole. (Mt. ix. 20.)
3. Other motives of confidence are the great Love of God towards us,- His infinite goodness and mercy in our regard,- and (lest our past sins should weaken our hope) the infinite merits of Christ, which more than supply for our unworthiness.
These are the powerful and solid motives, which should excite our confidence in God'the sure grounds whereon our hope is founded.
POINT IV. How we must hope in God.
And resting, as it does, on sure grounds, it follows, that our hope should be firm and unlimited. FIRM.- It should be firm, because the goodness, power, and promises of God leave no room for the least
diffidence. And hence St. Paul calls this virtue: 'The anchor of the soul, sure and firm (Heb. vi. 19); it being impossible that God should want either the power, or the will, to assist them that trust in Him; or, that He should be untrue to His promises.
2. UNLIMITED.'Our hope must also be unlimited; that is, we should hope for ALL that we need, both for soul and body- we should hope for eternal happiness, and for all the means necessary for obtaining it, if only, on our part, we will do what God requires from us. And nothingshould make us lose our confidence in God. 'For He hath said: I will not leave thee; neither will I forsakethee: So that we may confidently say The Lord is my helper. (Heb. xiii. 5, 6.) And He positively assures us that 'He will not suffer us to be tempted above that which we are able (to resist); 'but that He will make with temptation issue, that we may be able to bear it. (1 Cor. x. 13.) He declares, indeed, that 'the hope of the wicked shall perish ' (Prov. x. 28); but this is to be understood of such only, as will not have recourse to His mercy.
Examine now, my Brethren, whether your hope is such as it ought to be. Is it not weak and languishing? When attacked by temptations, or oppressed with misfortunes, do you not immediately, 'lose confidence, and become dejected and 'sorrowful, even as others who have no hope? (1 Thes. iv. 12.)
By commanding you to pray for salvation, for help in temptations, for pardon, for daily bread, and for all that you stand in need of, God thereby engages Himself to grant these things; and He will grant them, according to His repeated promises, if you pray with an entire confidence in Him, grounding that confidence on His infinite goodness and promises, through the infinite merits of Jesus Christ.
Never fail, therefore, to have immediate recourse to God, with a firm and unlimited hope, in your difficulties, dangers, and temptations, and in all your necessities.
On all occasions, cast yourselves confidently upon Him, for He will not withdraw that you may be left to fall. And let it not weaken or diminish your hope, when He appears to defer the help you crave, or if it should seem to you that He even positively refuses your requests. For He is then only trying your faith, as He tried the Chananean woman, whose faith, or firm, unlimited hope, He afterwards admired and rewarded: 'O woman, great is thy faith: be it done unto thee as thou wilt. (Mt. xv. 28.) 'Do not therefore lose your confidence, which hath a great reward (Heb. x. 35); but 'hope in your God always (Osee xii. 6); because 'mercy shall encompass him that hopeth in the Lord (Ps. xxxi. 10); for 'no one hath hoped in Him, and been confounded. (Eccli. ii. 11.)
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT - ON PRAYER
"In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God." (Philip. iv. 6.)
AT the commencement of the time of Advent, we were led to a fear of God, by the consideration of those eternal judgments, which, at the last day, are to be executed upon all impenitent sinners: 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. (Mt. xxv.) And in the Epistle of the Second Sunday, we were cheered with the consoling prospect, which hope holds out to us: 'The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. (Rom. xv. 13.) For it is the consoling effect of hope, that it gives us an assured confidence of God's being willing, and even desirous, to pardon our sins; through Jesus Christ; and so to avert from us those heavy judgments, to which our sins have exposed us; and that it encourages us, moreover, to apply to Him confidently for these happy effects of His mercy. And hence we see the reason of that tender solicitude and anxious desire of the Apostle, as expressed in the concluding words of last Sunday's Epistle: 'That you may abound in hope, and (also thereby) in the power of the Holy Ghost. (Rom. xv. 13.)
On the present Sunday we are directed to consider, not so much in the feelings of fear as of hope, the destitute state of our souls to which sin has reduced us; to look to our wants and necessities, and to exercise our hope in God, by having recourse to His mercy and goodness for relief. 'In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God.
It is on prayer, therefore, that I intend now to address you'on its Necessity, and its Advantages, and on the Conditions that are required for rendering it effectual in obtaining for us the grant of our petitions.
POINT I. Necessity of Prayer.
WE MUST NECESSARILY PRAY.- And this necessity of prayer arises from our relation to God, from His absolute dominion over us, and our entire dependence on Him for everything. It is from Him that we received and still bold our being; for He created us, and is continually preserving us. We must therefore pay Him the homage of our adoration, praise, thanksgiving, and supplication.
Having created us, God placed us in this world between two extremes; for we must either serve Him while we are here, and thereby come to possess and enjoy him eternally, or else we must neglect His service, and thereby lose that supreme happiness, and be condemned to perpetual banishment from Him in the flames of hell. We have to escape the one by gaining the other. This is a work which every one of us has to accomplish; and no work can be of greater importance to us. But, of ourselves, we can do nothing towards it; at every step, we need God's assisting and protecting grace; but that needed grace cannot be obtained without prayer. Without prayer then we must perish eternally.
We see the reason, therefore, why St. Paul so earnestlyadmonishes us to pray on all occasions 'In everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your petitions be made known to God.
The same Apostle also says: 'Be instant in prayer. (Col. iv. 2.) 'Pray without ceasing. (1 Thess. v. 17.) And our blessed Lord repeatedly commands us to pray: 'Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. (Mt. xxvi. 41.) 'You ought always to pray and not to faint. (Lk. xviii. 1.) 'Ask, and you shall receive. (John xvi. 24.)
It is clear from these, and from many other considerations, that it is necessary for us to pray, and to pray continually; that prayer is the first and most necessary thing for us to learn and make use of; that it is both the key which must unlock for us the treasury of God's graces, and also the channel through which those graces are to be conveyed to our souls. The treasury of graces cannot be unlocked and opened to us, without the proper key; nor will the graces be conveyed to us otherwise than through the appointed channel.
POINT II. Advantages to be gained by prayer.
What has been already said on the necessity of prayer, serves, in a great measure, to show also its advantages, as being the effectual means of obtaining the necessary wants, and of saving our souls. No supply of our employment, therefore, can be more profitable; nor, at the same time, more consoling.
1. PROFITABLE.- For how can we be more profitably employed, than in drawing down upon ourselves the graces and blessings of heaven? and these we can obtain, and do obtain, by prayer. For the truth of this, we have the positive assurance of our blessed Lord Himself: 'Amen, Amen I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it you. Ask, and you shall receive; that your joy may be full. (John xvi. 23.) 'For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. (Mt. vii. 8.)
2. CONSOLING.- What, therefore, can be a source of greater consolation than prayer? St. Chrysostom calls it, 'an angelic occupation; and St. Gregory, 'an anticipation of the joys of heaven. What sweet consolations have not the Saints drawn from prayer? And when God, for their greater good, withdrew those consolations from them for a time, their persevering fidelity to prayer did not fail to afford comfort to their souls.
POINT III. Conditions which must accompany our prayer.
But, in order that prayer may be effectual in drawing down these advantages, it must be accompanied with certain Conditions; it must be offered to God with such dispositions of soul as He requires.
1. We must pray, therefore, with humility- with a deep sense of our nothingness, of our unworthiness, and sinfulness: 'To whom shall I have respect, says Almighty God, 'but to him that is poor and little, and of a contrite heart, and that trembleth at My words? (Is. lxvi. 2.) 'He hath had regard to the prayer of the humble, and He hath not despised their petition. (Ps. ci. 18.) 'The prayer of him that humbleth himself, shall pierce the clouds; and he will not depart till the Most High behold. (Eccli. xxxv. 21.) 'To the humble He giveth grace. (1 Pet. v. 5.) In King Achab, we have a striking example of the advantage of humbling ourselves before God in prayer. For, as soon as he had done so, God said to Elias: 'Hast thou not seen Achab humbled before Me? , Therefore, because he hath humbled himself for My sake, I will not bring the evil in his days. (3 Kings xxi. 29.)
2. We must pray also all with confidence in God. Nothing honours God more- nothing is more pleasing to Him, nor more effectual in drawing down His blessings, than praying to Him with an humble, but entire confidence in Him: 'And Jesus saith to them: Have the faith of God. Amen I say, to you, that whosoever shall say to this mountain, be thou removed, and be cast into the sea; and shall not stagger in his heart, but believe, that whatsoever he saith shall be done; it shall be done unto him. Therefore I say unto you, all things WHATSOEVER you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive and they shall come unto you. (Mk. xi. 23.) When Mary Magdalen, with an humble confidence, prostrated herself at our Lord's feet, He said to her: 'Thy sins are forgiven thee; thy faith (that is thy confidence) hath made thee safe; go in peace. (Lk. vii. 48, 50.) 'If any of you want wisdom, says St. James, 'let him ask of God, who giveth to all men abundantly; . . . . and it shall be given him: but let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, which is carried about by the wind. Therefore, let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. (James i. 5.)
3. We must pray, likewise, with perseverance- we must continue knocking at the door of God's mercy, till it be opened to us: For 'we ought always to pray, and not to faint. (Lk. xviii. 1.)
We must 'be instant in prayer. For God wishes us to constrain Him, as it were, to show mercy: 'The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away. (Mt. xi. 12.)
4. God requires, moreover, that we should pray with attention and fervour; for He looks to heart more than to the lips. 'Prayer is the raising up of the mind and heartto God; and not merely the raising up of the voice to Him. In order that you may pray with attention, put yourselves in the presence of God at the beginning of your prayers. St. Ignatius says you should do so before every prayer, however short. And this is the direction which God Himself gives us, when He says: 'Before prayer prepare thy soul; and be not a man that tempteth God. (Eccli. xvi. 23.)
Humble yourselves, my Brethren, at the thought of not having profited more by this powerful means of grace. Look back, and examine what it is that has rendered your prayers ineffectual. Is it not attachment of your heart to creatures'to some passion, which, producing a want of fervour and attention, has hindered the effect of your prayer or has there not been a neglect of preparation which has produced the same effect? has there not been spiritual sloth; and consequently a want of perseverance? or has not your confidence in God been deficient? Whatever you may find to have been the defect, it must be corrected in future. Resolve therefore to begin, from this present moment, to take the necessary means of correcting it. 'He lives well, says St. Augustine, 'who prays well.
THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT - ON PREPARING FOR CHRIST'S COMING
"A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight His paths. Every valley shall be filled; and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight; and the rough ways plain; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." (Luke iii. 4, 5, 6.)
THE Prophet Isaias, foreseeing the coming of the promised Redeemer, and unable to contain his joy, breaks forth into these fervid exclamations: 'Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God. Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem; . . for her evil is come to an end'her iniquity is forgiven. Get thee up into a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion; . . . say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God. (Is. xl. 1, 2, 9.) Yes, my Brethren, the time is at hand, when we are to celebrate the birth of our Redeemer- of our Saviour- of our God! That happy day approaches, which the ancient Saints so ardently longed for- that happy day, at the prospect of seeing which Abraham rejoiced; and, when he saw it in spirit only, he was glad; that happy day is fast approaching; and the Church now calls upon us to prepare our hearts for celebrating it in a propel manner. Let us do so, my Brethren, by considering, in the first place, why Jesus Christ came on earth; and, secondly, how we are to prepare our hearts to profit by His coming.
POINT I. Why Jesus Christ came upon earth.
Jesus Christ came 'to seek and to save that which was lost. (Lk. xix. 10.) To be convinced of this we need only follow Him from the manger to the Cross. The slightest attention to His life will be a sufficient proof.
1. For, why was He born in poverty, in humiliations, and sufferings? It was to teach us how to avoid and expiate sin. Why did He receive the Name of JESUS, at the same time shedding His blood? An Angel from heaven tells us the reason 'Thou shalt call His Name JESUS, for He shall save His people from their sins. (Mt. i. 21.)
2. How clearly, how forcibly, does His ardent desire for our salvation shine forth in those tender parables, which He delivered to the Jews, during the three years of His public ministry? At one time, He represents Himself as the Good Shepherd going in search of the lost sheep, and coutinuing His search till He has found it (Lk. xv.); at another time, as the kind and compassionate Samaritan, soothing and healing the wounds of one that had fallen amongst robbers (Lk. x.); and again, as the loving and forgiving Father, receiving back His prodigal but repentant son, and restoring him to favour. (Lk. xv.) These parables are so evident in their meaning and object, that they need no explanation. For how clearly, and how forcibly do they show, that 'the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost! (Lk. xix. 10.) And more especially when we consider that the parable of the lost sheep, and that of the prodigal son, were intended by our Lord to answer the objection which the Jews had made against Him: 'This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.) (Lk. xv. 2.)
3. If we still further consider those tender and pressing invitations, whereby He urges sinners to return to Him, how plainly again does he manifest the same earnest desire of our salvation? 'Come to Me, all you that labour and are burdened; and I will refresh you. (Mt. xi. 28.) 'Go and learn what this meaneth: I will have mercy and not sacrifice . . . For I am not come to call the just but sinners. (Mt. ix. 13.) 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered together thy children, as the hen doth gather her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldst not? (Mt. xxiii. 37.)
4. How powerfully, and with what complete conviction, does He still further prove the ardour of His desire of procuring our eternal happiness, by the constant labours which He underwent in teaching us the truths of salvation? 'And Jesus went about all the cities, and towns; teaching in their synagogues; and preaching the Gospel of the kingdom; and healing every disease, and every infirmity; and seeing the multitudes, He had compassion on them, because they were . . . . lying like sheep that have no shepherd. (Mt. ix. 35.) Thus did He go about from place to place, 'to enlighten them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to direct our feet into the way of peace. (Lk. i. 79.)
5. How vividly, moreover, and how strikingly has He exemplified this same earnest desire to save sinners, in the mercy by which He receive and pardoned Magdalen (Lk. vii. 48), and Zaccheus (Lk. xix. 9), the humble publican (Lk. xviii. 13) and the penitent thief? (Lk. xxiii. 43.)
Indeed, so much did He show His tender mercy towards sinners, that the Jews accused Him of being 'a friend of publicans and sinners. (Lk vii. 34.) But, in answer to them, He said: 'They that are whole need not the physician, but they that are sick: I am not come to call the just, but sinners to penance. (Lk. v. 31, 3c.)
6. Only follow Him, my Brethren, through the different stages of His Passion. Contemplate Him, agonizing in the Garden; seized by His own chosen people, and dragged by them from one tribunal to another, amidst insults, injuries, and ill-treatment of every kind; most inhumanly scourged at a pillar, and barbarously crowned with thorns; falsely accused, and unjustly condemned, and thus allowing Himself to be 'reputed with the wicked. (Is. liii. 12.)
Contemplate Him on the Cross, dying the most cruel and humiliating death; and shedding the last drop of His Sacred Blood for our Redemption; at the same time praying for His enemies, that is for sinners. Now, why did He suffer all this, but to atone for our sins, and enable us to obtain forgiveness? Why did He shed the last drop of His Blood upon the Cross, but to wash away the sins of the world, and reconcile lost man to his offended God?
7. If further proof be necessary, consider what takes place on our altars. Why does He daily renew the Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass till the end of the world? Why does He thus continue His presence amongst us; and even feed and nourish our souls with His own Body and Blood, in the Holy Communion? Could He give us stronger testimonies of the tenderest love? of the most ardent desire to save our souls?
8. And, that our sins might not prevent Him from visiting us in the Holy Communion, and enriching our souls with His strengthening graces, He has still further manifested His desire of our salvation, by instituting in His Church a means of pardon- the Sacrament of Penance.
You see, then, His great goodness and mercy towards us. His sincere desire to save, not only the just, but also sinners who return to Him by repentance.
POINT II. How we are to prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ.
Go to Him, therefore, with confidence; be not disheartened at the thought of difficulties; for His mercy will assist you. You see the means of pardon provided for you, in the Sacrament of Penance; and of future advancement and perseverance, in the Holy Communion. It is by preparing for these Sacraments, that you are to 'prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight His paths. For, by taking a review of your past sins, and by the humiliation of confession, 'every mountain and hill shall be brought low; that is, your pride will be humbled. By your contrition and resolutions of amendment 'the crooked shall be made straight; that is, your vicious habits will be corrected; divine grace, obtained by these Sacraments, will make 'the rough ways plain; that is, will smooth down every difficulty.
But you must not only bring down the mountain of pride and make your crooked ways straight by renouncing your evil habits; but you must also 'fill up every valley, that is, your want of virtue must be supplied by religious exercises by good works.
To 'fill up every valley, then, practise 'The Christian's Daily Exercise, which you find at the end of the Catechism. As you are there taught, give the first moments, when you awake, to prayer; adoring God, and offering to him your heart, with all the actions of the day. Reflect, at least for a short time, on some pious subject; resolving to conquer some vice, and to labour for some particular virtue. During the day bear in mind the presence of God; making to Him frequent aspirations of love, conformity, contrition, and patience. Be always intent upon mortifying your passions, receiving, in the spirit of penance, all the crosses, contradictions, and troubles with which you may meet.
At night, make your general and particular examination of conscience; thanking God for the blessings you have received; lamenting your sins, and craving pardon; resolving to avoid them in future, and imploring the graces necessary for that purpose.
Sanctify the Sundays and Holidays; and be regular in approaching to the Sacraments.
Practise these duties, my Brethren; then all your days will be full days'full of merit and good works; for it is by practising these duties, that 'every valley will be filled up-that every vacancy or deficiency of your past life will be supplied; that your souls will be adorned with virtue, and fitted, not only for worthily celebrating our Saviour's coming amongst us, but also for enjoying Him eternally in the Kingdom of His glory.
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| Traditional Catholics Sound Alarm As Rome Suppresses Most Old Rite Sacraments |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 10:42 AM - Forum: Vatican II and the Fruits of Modernism
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Traditional Catholics Sound Alarm As Rome Suppresses Most Old Rite Sacraments
They contend the Oct. 7 pastoral instruction forbidding six of the seven sacraments celebrated according to the extraordinary form is a violation of canon law and will cause spiritual harm.
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Basilica of St. John Lateran, home to the Vicariate of Rome
NCR | December 14, 2021
ROME — Canon lawyers and experts in the traditional liturgy have warned that a pastoral instruction issued by the Diocese of Rome that bans traditional communities and priests from celebrating all the sacraments with the exception of the Eucharist according to the traditional form of the Roman Rite is unlawful and will harm souls if allowed to continue.
The guidelines, issued in an Oct. 7 letter signed by Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, the Vicar of Rome, stated that in light of Pope Francis’ July 16 motu proprio Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of Tradition), it is “no longer possible to use the Roman Ritual and other liturgical books of the ‘ancient rite’ for the celebration of sacraments and sacramentals (e.g. not even the Ritual for Reconciliation of Penitents according to the ancient form).”
These sacraments, he continued, are “expressly forbidden and only the use of the Missale Romanum of 1962 [the form of the Mass celebrated before the Second Vatican Council] remains permitted.” Furthermore, he said those priests — diocesan or religious — who wished to celebrate the old Mass must have written authorization from a bishop of the diocese.
By way of the cardinal’s letter, the diocese has therefore prohibited all traditional sacramental forms of baptism, matrimony, ordination, penance, confirmation, and extreme unction (anointing of the sick) being celebrated in Rome, allowing only the Eucharist in the traditional form. The instruction also stated that the Easter Triduum could no longer be celebrated according to the Roman Missal of 1962 anywhere in the diocese.
Cardinal De Donatis, who as the Pope’s vicar general runs the diocese on the Pope’s behalf, wrote that he was issuing the instruction in order to provide “precise guidelines” for implementing Traditionis Custodes and “for the spiritual good of the faithful.”
Traditionis Custodes, an apostolic letter issued motu proprio (on the Pope’s own volition), aimed to place sweeping restrictions on the old Mass, also known as the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite, the Tridentine Mass, or the Traditional Latin Mass, that was celebrated before Pope St. Paul VI’s liturgical reforms of 1970.
The motu proprio abrogated previous papal decrees of the past 35 years that had liberalized this old form of the Mass, most notably Benedict XVI’s 2007 landmark apostolic letter Summorum Pontificum which acknowledged the right of all priests to celebrate Mass using the Roman Missal of 1962.
One of the main elements of Traditionis Custodes is the stipulation that all priests in a diocese wishing to celebrate the traditional rites must now seek authorization in writing from the diocesan bishop. It also ended the right for groups to have the Mass celebrated in parish churches among other changes.
Francis said he wanted a “return in due time” to the liturgy instituted after the Second Vatican Council, and that he had imposed the decree because some traditional faithful reject Vatican II and claim the reformed liturgy betrays “Tradition and the ‘true Church.’” He therefore said he felt impelled to take such a drastic step “in defense of the unity of the Body of Christ” after previous liberalizations of the old rite had, he believed, been exploited to expose the Church “to the peril of division.”
Exceeding Traditionis Custodes?
But critics say the Rome instruction goes far beyond the Pope’s decree, which did not mention prohibiting the old liturgical rites.
Father Gerald Murray, canonist at Holy Family Church in New York, drew attention to Article 1 of Traditionis Custodes which states that the liturgical books of the new Roman Missal “are the unique expression of the lex orandi [law of prayer] of the Roman Rite,” phrasing that he contends “does not in itself canonically establish that every other sacramental rite in use at the time of the issuance of Traditionis Custodes is prohibited.”
As examples, he highlighted other parts of the Roman Rite (for example the Anglican Ordinariate and the Ambrosian, Gallican, Dominican rites) and yet these are “plainly distinct from the ‘unique expression of the lex orandi’ found in the revised Roman rites.”
Said Father Murray, “Since the prohibition of the more ancient sacramental rites is not expressly stated in Traditionis Custodes, it should not be asserted that this supposed prohibition is, in fact, now in effect by virtue of an identification of what constitutes the ‘unique expression of the lex orandi.’”
Peter Kwasniewski, an author and expert on the traditional liturgy, noted that this absence of a clear prohibition in Traditionis Custodes means that the Rome instruction violates Canon 18 which demands that any law, penalty or restriction of free exercise of rights must be subject to “strict interpretation.”
“In other words, if a sacrament is to be canceled — clearly either a penalty, or a restriction of free exercise of rights — then it must have been expressly canceled. But Traditionis Custodes did no such thing,” Kwasniewski said.
He also said the instruction has other violations, notably Canon 17 which says that if a law’s meaning is “doubtful and obscure,” one should refer to the mind of the legislator. Kwasniewski recalled that in informal comments in September, the Pope has said the motu proprio did not suggest “abolish[ing] the old rites or the Triduum” but established “limits.”
“So either the Vicariate is departing from the mind of the legislator, or there is no clarity we can have about what exactly that mind is, in which case Canon 14 comes fully into play,” Kwasniewski argued. Canon 14 stipulates that regulations “do not oblige when there is a doubt about the law.”
Father Murray agreed, saying that by prohibiting six of the seven sacraments in the old form, the vicariate of Rome has acted “beyond the words of Traditionis Custodes and the intent of the legislator.” He added, “Thus a doubt of law exists and thus the prohibition of such celebrations lacks the force of law until such time that the doubt of law has been resolved.” He also agreed with Kwasniewski on the application of Canons 17 and 18 with respect to the Rome instruction exceeding Traditionis Custodes.
A further violation, traditional Catholics have observed, is that, as with Traditionis Custodes and its banning of creating new traditional rite parishes, the Rome prohibitions threaten to breach the Holy See-approved constitutions of traditional communities such as the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, the Institute of Christ the King, and the Institute of the Good Shepherd — all of which have a presence in Rome.
Father Murray stressed that those constitutions “remain in effect and cannot be overridden by a pastoral letter of the Vicariate of Rome which lacks specific approval by the Pope.”
Priests Express Alarm
Three traditional priests contacted by the Register, but who did not wish to be named due to the current climate of suppression, expressed their alarm at the vicariate’s decision.
Referring to the traditional rite of baptism as an example, they contended that the old rite conveys more clearly truths of the faith such as the reality of Satan, the need to be cleansed of original sin, and the call to holiness (it has stronger and more repeated exorcisms, they argued, and the use of exorcised salt). They also said it imparts additional graces as its extra prayers each call down graces from God and the entire rite is more sacred and solemn.
Father Claude Barthe, an expert author on the traditional liturgy and priest of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon in France, said he believed the doctrinal message conveyed by the modern baptismal rite is “clearly weaker in at least one respect: the aspect of fighting the devil, which so strongly characterizes the traditional form of baptism, and is practically blurred.”
As for the other sacraments in the old form, the traditional priests said the spiritual battle is clearly present in them as well, as is the reality of sin, and that they act as good catechetical tools. For these and other reasons, they believe a ban would be harmful for souls.
Msgr. Charles Pope, dean and pastor in the Archdiocese of Washington, DC and a Register contributor, agreed “to some degree” with the priests and Father Barthe on the baptismal rite. But he hesitated to describe the new baptismal rite as “weaker” as the Sacraments have power ex opere operato (“from the work performed”). He preferred to speak, as St. Thomas Aquinas did, of the “fruitfulness” of the rite.
Msgr. Pope added that he favors speaking of a “mutual respect” between the older and newer forms and likes both for different reasons. The old ones, he said, are “more theologically precise and emphasize the mystery and glory of what is taking place and that we are worshipping and encountering God.” The newer rites, meanwhile, “emphasize an accessibility, are more inclusive of the faithful in the celebration of the rites and are rich in scripture.”
But he supports “reinvigorating the new rite of baptism with a more vigorous exorcism,” saying the current rite is written “more as a suggestion” whereas demons “reply to the voice of command.” The exorcisms of the old form “surely did that,” he said.
Going Underground
As a consequence of the Diocese of Rome’s prohibitions, Kwasniewski believes that adherents to receiving the sacraments in the traditional form will travel to where they can receive them, possibly a parish run by the traditional Society of St. Pius X which is not in full communion with Rome (a move that bishops have cautioned against for a variety of reasons), or watch it on television or online or defy their bishop “surreptitiously.”
Father Barthe said he believed the Rome instruction has “all the appearance of a trial balloon,” and that attempts “will be made to impose this elsewhere.” So far very few other dioceses have followed suit (Le Havre in France is one other), and no bishop is reported to have followed Cardinal De Donatis’ line in the United States.
One major concern, noted Dec. 12 by the French traditional website Paix Liturgique, is that if the prohibitions are extended to traditional communities, it would have a “devastating effect on the vocations that these communities attract.” Father Barthe said if the Rome instruction is repeated elsewhere, “we will have to risk some kind of refusal.”
Msgr. Pope said he “deeply” regretted the vicariate’s decision and feared many bishops “may view it as a model to follow” despite the instruction departing from Traditionis Custodes. He believes both forms of the rite should live peacefully alongside one another, permitting the “diversity and inclusion so often hailed by many.”
“Edging people to the margins does not seem to foster the unity Francis seeks,” Msgr. Pope said. “Holding people close to the heart of the Church who desire only what the Church has done for centuries seems far more unitive.”
The Vicariate of Rome did not respond by press time to these criticisms of the instruction, including the accusation that prohibiting the Triduum in the old rite exceeded Traditionis Custodes.
The Register also contacted for comment Archbishop Arthur Roche, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. Both are handling the application of Traditionis Custodes, in dioceses and in traditional communities respectively.
Cardinal Braz de Aviz declined to comment, while Archbishop Roche directed us to a short Nov. 14 interview with an Italian-speaking Swiss television network, in which he said Traditionis Custodes was issued because the “experiment” to liberalize the traditional rites had “not been entirely successful” and so it was necessary to return to what the Second Vatican Council “required of the Church.” In the comments aired by the station, he did not discuss prohibiting the traditional sacraments.
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| The Roche Christmas Massacre: CDW Instruction on Traditionis Custodes to be issued next week |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 09:00 AM - Forum: Pope Francis
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“The Roche Christmas Massacre”: CDW Instruction on Traditionis Custodes to be issued next week
Rorate Caeli | December 14, 2021
RORATE has learned, and can confirm, that the instruction of the Congregation for Divine Worship (Prefect: Archbishop Arthur Roche) on the application of the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes is to be published next week. (Unless some extraordinary measure prevents the publication of the already approved text.)
The instruction will try (among other things) to impose over the global Church, by violent and illegitimate will of the legislator, the blueprint established for the Diocese of Rome by its Cardinal Vicar months ago regarding all Sacraments other than the Holy Eucharist.
If we gather more details before publication, we will let you know.
***
PRAY FOR THE PROMPT END OF THIS DARK AND SOMBER PERIOD IN CHURCH HISTORY.
RESIST.
SUPPORT ALL CLERGYMEN WHO DARE TO RESIST.
Mater Dolorosa, ora pro nobis!
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| Senior Cardinal Warns Elites Ushering In "Total Control Surveillance State" Through COVID |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-15-2021, 08:48 AM - Forum: Great Reset
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Senior Cardinal Warns Elites Ushering In "Total Control Surveillance State" Through COVID
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ZH | DEC 15, 2021
Authored by Steve Watson via Summit News,
A senior German Cardinal has warned that the likes of Bill Gates, George Soros and Davos Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab are using the coronavirus pandemic to force the world under “total control” of globalist “super-rich elites.”
Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, who also serves as a high ranking judge at the Vatican court, made the comments during an interview with Austria’s St. Boniface Institute.
Mueller urged that “People, who sit on the throne of their wealth,” are seizing an “opportunity to push through their agenda.”
The Cardinal added that the pandemic has led to “chaos” and “turmoil” in part due to elites wanting to “snatch an opportunity to bring people in line” via a global “surveillance state”.
Mueller also stated that globalists are making efforts to bring “a new man” into the world, created “in their own image and likeness,” warning “That has nothing to do with democracy.”
Watch (In German):
The German media immediately dismissed the Cardinal’s comments as “conspiracy theories,” with Der Spiegel magazine also suggesting that his comments could be anti-semitic.
Mueller responded to the German news agency DPA in an email stating that it is wrong to suggest that anyone who “criticizes the financial elite … is automatically on the wrong side,” and further urged that “super-rich elites in various countries” are exerting an “illegitimate influence” over the people of the planet.
Mueller is not the first prominent figure in the Catholic Church to warn about the dark objectives behind the Great Reset.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the most powerful Catholics in the United States, gave a homily in which he savaged “secular forces” who want to “make us slaves to their godless and murderous agenda.”
Quote:“Then there is the mysterious Wuhan virus about whose nature and prevention the mass media daily give us conflicting information,” said Burke.
“What is clear, however, is that it has been used by certain forces, inimical to families and to the freedom of nations, to advance their evil agenda. These forces tell us that we are now the subjects of the so-called ‘Great Reset,’ the ‘new normal,’ which is dictated to us by their manipulation of citizens and nations through ignorance and fear.”
The Cardinal, who sits on the Church’s Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the highest judicial authority in the Catholic Church, also slammed the United States’ fealty to China as a dangerous threat to Christian identity in America.
Quote:“To attain economic gains, we as a nation have permitted ourselves to become dependent upon the Chinese Communist Party, an ideology totally opposed to the Christian foundations upon which families and our nation remain safe and prosper,” he said.
Furthermore, we highlighted last November, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò wrote an open letter to President Trump claiming that the COVID-19 pandemic is part of a plot to impose a “health dictatorship.”
“We see heads of nations and religious leaders pandering to this suicide of Western culture and its Christian soul, while the fundamental rights of citizens and believers are denied in the name of a health emergency that is revealing itself more and more fully as instrumental to the establishment of an inhuman faceless tyranny,” wrote Viganò.
He added that The Great Reset sought to inflict “the imposition of liberticidal measures, hidden behind tempting promises of ensuring a universal income and cancelling individual debt.”
Catholic Cardinal Robert Sarah also recently warned that Christianity is on the decline and western society is “lost” because “if we are cut from God, we are lost and God is silent.”
The Cardinal also cautioned that “western civilization is in a profound state of decadence and ruin” due to people’s obsession with materialism and that the situation is similar to right before the collapse of the Roman Empire.
Quote:“The elites care for nothing but increasing the luxury of their daily lives, and the people have been anaesthetized by every more vulgar entertainments,” said Sarah.
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| Excerpts from the Prophecies of Ven. Bartholomew Holzhauser (1613-1658) |
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Posted by: Stone - 12-14-2021, 02:30 PM - Forum: Catholic Prophecy
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Ven. Bartholomew Holzhauser (1613-1658) - On the Great Monarch and the Angelic Pontiff
Taken from here [adapted].
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VEN. BARTHOLOMEW HOLZHAUSER (1613-1658) was born in Laugna, into the family of Leonard and Catherine Holzhauser, who were poor, pious, and honest people. Leonard and Catherine had eleven children, including Bartholomew. Ven. Holzhauser's father made his living as a shoemaker. Young Bartholomew developed a great love for books and an earnest desire to enter the sacred ministry. At Augsburg, he was admitted to a free school for poor boys, earning his living by going from door to door singing and begging. He fell sick of an epidemic raging at that time. After his recovery, Ven. Bartholomew went home and for a time helped his father at work.
He then continued his studies at Neuburg an der Donau and Ingolstadt, with the aid of kind friends and the Jesuits in particular. His teachers were unanimous in praising his talents, his piety, and his modesty. On July 9, 1636, he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and then studied theology, in which he merited the baccalaureate on May 11, 1639. He was ordained into the priesthood by the Bishop of Eichstätt, and said his first Holy Mass on Pentecost Sunday, June 12, 1639 in the Church of Our Lady of Victory, at Ingolstadt.
He exercised his priestly functions at this place for some time and was soon much sought after as a confessor. In the meantime, he attended lectures at the university and was declared licentiate of theology on June 14, 1640. On August 1 of the same year, he came into the Archdiocese of Salzburg, and was made dean and pastor of Tittmoning. On February 2, 1642, he became pastor of St John's at Leoggenthal, in the county of Tyrol, at the behest of the Bishop of Chiemsee. In the spring of 1655, at the invitation of Archbishop Johann Philipp von Schönborn, he went to Mainz where he was soon appointed pastor at Bingen on the Rhine, and in 1657, dean of the district of Algesheim.
Because the faithful had become lukewarm, and morals and discipline had relaxed not only in the laity but also in the clergy in the aftermath of the Thirty Years War in Europe, Ven. Holzhauser founded an order called the Bartholomites to counteract the moral decline of times. It also became known as the Apostolic Union of Secular Priests promoting an apostolic life in the community and forming models of priestly perfection and zealous leaders of the people. Their principal task was to educate in the seminaries. The members of the secular congregation were expected to live in the seminaries, or in groups of two or three in the parishes, and to follow a set routine of daily prayers and exercises. Funds were to be in common, and all female servants were to be dismissed. No vows were taken, but a simple promise of obedience to the superior was made, confirmed by an oath.
Holzhauser died, aged 45, at Bingen. At the time of his death, the community had members at Chiemsee, Salzburg, Freising, Eichstätt, Würzburg, and Mainz. The institute, however, made many enemies. Unfortunately, at the end of the eighteenth century the community he founded became extinct. On the occasion of the second centenary of his death, a celebration was held at Bingen in the presence of the Bishop of Mainz. The location of his remains was again found and in 1880, a new monument was erected over his grave at the parish church, and Bartholomew was declared Venerable by the Roman Catholic Church.
THE GREAT MONARCH AND ANGELIC PONTIFF
Ven. Holzhauser was a visionary and made several predictions, which he presented 1646 to Emperor Ferdinand III and to Duke Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria. Ludwig Clarus published these visions, along with a commentary showing their partial fulfilment, in German, in 1849. One of the predictions was that England would not have the Mass for 120 years, priest would not be able to say it under pain of death, after which England would convert and help to spread the Faith after its conversion, this seems to have been partially fulfilled for the prohibition of the Mass under penalty of capital punishment was enacted in 1658 and partially recalled in 1778.
He also wrote extensive personal commentaries on the Apocalypse, which include the Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff prophecies. Although they appear to be a personal interpretation, his commentaries were held in great esteem by his contemporaries. Having once been asked where he could have received such extraordinary insight for the interpretation of so difficult a book, with tears in his eyes Ven. Holzhauser answered, “I am nothing but a little child, whose hand and pen his teacher holds and guides to make him write.”
THE SEVEN AGES OF THE CHURCH
Ven. Holzhauser divides the periods and the duration of the Church from Jesus Christ until the end of the world into seven ages or seven different epochs. He founds this seven-fold division on the seven churches of Asia, the seven candlesticks, the seven stars, the seven seals, seven spirits, seven trumpets, seven plagues of the Apocalypse, and also on the seven days of creation mentioned in the first chapter of Genesis. According to him,
1) The first age or special epoch of the Church begins with Jesus Christ and lasts until the first persecution under the pagan emperor, Nero.
2) The second, from Nero to Constantine the Great
3) The third, from Constantine till Charlemagne
4) The fourth, from Charlemagne to Charles V, the pontificate of Leo X., and the heresy of Martin Luther
5) The fifth age, from Luther up until ….
6) The sixth age, which begin with the arrival of the Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff – this will be the Age of Concolation for the Church, the promised Age of Peace. The Age of Peace of the Sixth Age will end with the rise of the Antichrist, but the Sixth Age itself won't end until the Second Coming of Christ.
7) The seventh will introduce the elect to the 'eternal sabbath' – i.e. The Second Coming of Christ when the Last Day occurs, the Last Judgement takes place and Eternity begins with the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Therefore, according to Ven. Holzhauser we are yet in the Fifth Age of the Church and awaiting the Sixth, and we seem very close to it.
Here are his prophecies concerning this era:
“The fifth period of the Church, which began circa 1520, will end with the arrival of the holy Pope and of the powerful Monarch who is called "Help From God" because he will restore everything [in Christ]…”
“The fifth period is one of affliction, desolation, humiliation, and poverty for the Church. Jesus Christ will purify His people through cruel wars, famines, plagues, epidemics, and other horrible calamities. He will also afflict and weaken the Latin Church with many heresies. It is a period of defections, calamities and exterminations. Those Christians who survive the sword, plague and famines, will be few on earth. Nations will fight against nations and will be desolated by internecine dissensions…”
“During this period the Wisdom of God guides the Church in. several ways: 1) by chastising the Church so that riches may not corrupt her completely; 2) by interposing the Council of Trent like a light in the darkness, so that the Christians who see the light may know what to believe, 3) by setting St. Ignatius and his Society in opposition to Luther and other heretics (i.e note the Jesuits were a force to be reckoned with in opposing the Lutheran heresies at the time, hence it is no wonder they came under such attack later) ; 4) by carrying to remote lands the Faith which has been banned in most of Europe…”
(NOTE: while this interpretation starts with the beginning of the Fifth period which means the rise of Luther, Ven. Holzhauser obviously predicted that the heresies Luther started would continue to wreak havoc and grow until the Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff bring about the restoration of the Church hence - the COUNCIL OF TRENT not only was but will continue to be a guiding light in the time of darkness of the Church. According to Ven. Holzhuaser then, those who stay true to the declarations of the Council of Trent will not be led astray from the true Faith. Of interest, Bl. Catherine of Racconigi predicted that the aims of the Council of Trent would be fully accomplished with the arrival of Great Monarch and Angelic Pontiff.)
“Are we not to fear during this period that the Mohamedans (i.e. Muslims and the rise of Islam) will come again working out their sinister schemes against the Latin church…?”
“During this period, many men will abuse the freedom of conscience conceded to them. It is of such men that Jude the Apostle spoke when he said, ‘These men blaspheme whatever they do not understand; and they corrupt whatever they know naturally as irrational animals do… They feast together without restraint, feeding themselves, grumbling murmurers, walking according to their lusts; their mouth speaketh proud things, they admire people for the sake of gain; they bring about division, sensual men, having not the spirit.’”
“During this unhappy period, there will be laxity in divine and human precepts. Discipline will suffer. The Holy Canons will be completely disregarded, and the Clergy will not respect the laws of the Church. Everyone will be carried away and led to believe and to do what he fancies, according to the manner of the flesh…”
“They will ridicule Christian simplicity; they will call it folly and nonsense, but they will have the highest regard for advanced knowledge, and for the skill by which the axioms of the law, the precepts of morality, the Holy Canons and religious dogmas are clouded by senseless questions and elaborate arguments. As a result, no principle at all, however holy, authentic, ancient, and certain it may be, will remain free of censure, criticism, false interpretation, modification, and delimitation by man…”
(NOTE: apparently, Ven. Holzhausuer's comments on the time of corruption before the renewal of the Church. The world will grow corrupt and the Church will also fall into decay as it turns on its ancient Traditions and twists it to suit the times. Note the word 'modification'.)
“These are evil times, a century full of dangers and calamities. Heresy is everywhere, and the followers of heresy are in power almost everywhere. Bishops, prelates, and priests say that they are doing their duty, that they are vigilant, and that they live as befits their state in life. In like manner, therefore, they all seek excuses. But God will permit a great evil against His Church: Heretics and tyrants will come suddenly and unexpectedly; they will break into the Church while bishops, prelates and priests are asleep. They will enter Italy and lay Rome waste; they will burn down the churches and destroy everything.…”
(OBSERVATION: Ven. Holzhauser notes this period of degradation will LAST A CENTURY. He predicts this century of heretical intrusions and moral laxity in the Church will apparently be nearing its climax or basically reaching its end when ROME IS BURNED AND LAID WASTE. In another prediction, Ven. Holzhauser says Satan will be bound for a time when the Great Monarch comes, which means SATAN will be given liberty BEFORE ROME BURNS AND THE RENEWAL BEGINS. So, could this be another prediction of 'SATAN's CENTURY' as foreseen by Pope Leo XIII? If so, re will be nearing the end of Satan's Century when Rome burns and is laid waste.)
“The Sixth Age of the Spirit commences with the powerful Monarch and the Holy Pontiff as previously mentioned and will last until the appearance of the Antichrist. This sixth epoch of the church – “the time of consolation” begins with the Holy Pope and the Powerful Emperor and terminates with the reign of Antichrist. This will be an age of solace wherein God will console His church after the many mortifications and afflictions she has endured in the Fifth period, for all nations will be brought to the unity of the True catholic faith. The sacerdocy will flower more than ever, and men will seek the kingdom of God in all solicitude. The Lord will give good pastors to the Church. Vocations will be abundant as never before and all men will seek only the kingdom of God and His justice. Men will live in peace and this will be granted because people will make their peace with God. They will live under the protection of the Great Monarch and his successors….”
“The Great Monarch will come when the Latin Church is desolated, humiliated, and afflicted with many heresies….”
(NOTE: the one strange contradiction here is he says the Great Monarch will have successors, therefore, possible heirs, but that cannot be possible according to the rest of his predictions, which says the Monarch will reign until the Antichrist appears after which there is the Second Coming, and then, in another prediction by Ven. Holzhauser, the Great Monarch he will continue to rule his kingdom even after the Second Coming with Christ, which is an interesting hint that Ven. Holzhauser believed that Christ will delegate kingdoms of the New Earth to deserving chosen saints. So, it is difficult to know what he means by 'successors' in this instance. It cannot mean an 'heir'.
“The Sixth Epoch of the World, which commences with the emancipation of the people of Israel and the restoration of the Temple and of the city of Jerusalem, will endure until the advent of Jesus Christ…For likewise, in this epoch, the people of Israel will be consoled to a very high degree by the Lord, our God, who will deliver them from the captivity of Babylon. The kingdoms, the nations, and the people will submit to the Roman Empire, furiously vanquished by the very powerful and very illustrious monarch who will govern during fifty-six years, rendering the peace of the universe and reigning alone until the advent of Jesus Christ and even after him. Thus, in the Sixth Age, God will delight his Church with the greatest prosperity…”
Apparently, this is Ven. Holzhauser's interpretation of Chapter 10 of the Apocalypse featuring the great Angel who gives St. John a book to eat:
“The “angel” is the Great Monarch: “from heaven” means he will be a catholic: “clothed in clouds” implies he will be humble and modest; “rainbow” he will bring peace to the world; “sunshine” refers to his wisdom, talents and title; “feet” refers to his power and zeal; “Open book” he will rule with justice “Right and left foot” he will exercise power over all the world; “Lion Voice” he will put fear into the wicked. The “Golden Crown” refers to his Holy Roman Empire; “Cutlass” means his victorious army; the other “angel” refers to the pope (Angelic pastor). “Other angels” are the other helpers of the Great Monarch who will help him crush the Turks…”
“During the fifth period we saw only calamities and devastation, oppression of Catholics by tyrants and heretics, executions of kings and conspiracies to set up republics but by the hand of God almighty there occurs so wonderful a change during the sixth period that no one can humanly visualize it. The powerful Monarch, who is sent from God, will uproot every Republic. He will submit everything to this authority and he will show great zeal for the true church of Christ. The empire of the Mohamedans will be broken up and the monarch will reign in the east as well as in the west. All nations will come to worship God in the true and Catholic Roman faith. There will be many saints and doctors of the church on earth. Peace will reign over the whole earth because God will bind Satan for a number of years before the days of the Son of Perdition. No one will be able to pervert the word of God since during the sixth period there will be an ecumenical council which will be the greatest of all councils. By the grace of God, by the power of the great Monarch, by the authority of the holy pontiff and by union of all the most devout princes atheism and every heresy will be banished from the earth. The council will define the true sense of Holy Scripture and this will be beloved and accepted by everyone.”
“When everything has been ruined by war; when Catholics are hard pressed by traitorous co-religionists and heretics, then the Hand of Almighty God will work a marvellous change, something apparently impossible according to human understanding. There will rise a valiant monarch anointed by God. He will be a Catholic, a descendant of Louis IX, yet a descendant of an ancient imperial German family, born in exile. He will rule supreme in temporal matters. The Pope will rule supreme in spiritual matters at the same time. Persecution will cease and justice shall rule. Religion seems to be suppressed, but by the changes of entire kingdoms it will be made more firm….He will root out false doctrines and destroy the rule of Moslemism. His dominion will extend from the East to the West. All nations will adore God their Lord according to the Catholic teaching. There will be many wise and just men. The people will love justice, and peace will reign over the whole earth, for divine power will bind Satan for many years until the coming of the Son of Perdition.”
“The reign of the Great Ruler may be compared with that of Caesar Augustus who became Emperor after his victory over his enemies, thereby giving peace to the world, also with the reign of Constantine the Great, who was sent by God, after severe persecution, to deliver both the Church and State. By his victories on water and land he brought the Roman Empire under subjection which
he then ruled in peace”
"On account of a terrible war Germany will wail, France will be the cause of all the woe, Germany will be miserably wounded, all will be impoverished. England shall suffer much. The King shall be killed.
"After desolation has reached its peak in England peace will be restored and England will return to the Catholic faith with greater fervor than ever before.
“[After a world war] will come a new period, in which two mighty ones will face each other. The wrangle between these two will begin in the second half of the twentieth century. It will overthrow mountains and silt up rivers. A great change will come to pass, such as no mortal man will have expected; Heaven and Hell will confront each other in this struggle, old states will perish and light and darkness will be pitted against each other with swords, but it will be swords of a different fashion. With these swords it will be possible to cut up the skies and split the earth. A great lament will come over all mankind and only a small batch will survive the storm, the pestilence and the horror. And neither of the two adversaries will conquer nor be vanquished. Both mighty ones will lie on the ground, and a new mankind will come into existence. God possesses the key to everything. Blessed is he who will then be able to praise him, having obeyed all his commandments. And the great monarch of the world will create new laws for the new mankind and will cause a new age to begin, in which there will be only one flock and one shepherd, and peace will be of long, long duration, for the glory of God in heaven and on earth…”
“Now the Great Monarch also will dominate over all the beasts of the earth, that is to say over the barbarian nations, over the rebellious peoples, over the heretic republics and over all men dominated by their evil passions…”
“It is in that age that the relation of the sixth Spirit of the Lord will be known, that is to say the Spirit of Wisdom that God diffuses over all the surfaces of the globes in those times. For men will fear the Lord their God, they will observe the law and serve it with all their heart. The sciences will be multiplied and complete on the earth. The Holy Scriptures will be unanimously understood, without controversy and without the errors of heresies. Men will be enlightened, so much as in the natural sciences and in the celestial sciences…”
“Finally, the Sixth Church, the Church of Philadelphia, is the type of this sixth age, for Philadelphia signifies friendship of brothers, and again guarding the heritage in union with the Lord. Now all these characters convene perfectly in the sixth age, in which they will have love, concord and perfect peace and in which the powerful Monarch will have to consider almost the entire world as his heritage. He will deliver up the earth, with the aid of the Lord his God from all his enemies, of ruin and of all evil…”
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