Serenity and Fidelity in the Combat
Today we are all suffering through a huge ordeal, the ordeal of the Church, because you have to admit that the external situation and in a certain way the juridical situation really is not normal—at least juridical in the sense of purely the letter of the law. So we are not in a normal relation with the bishops and the priests around us, who also have their apostolate. Our relations with them are obviously not the relations we should normally have in the holy Church, so we do not have normal relations with the bishop, normal relations with the priests around us, normal relations with the monks and nuns, with a good number of the faithful, or with Rome itself! It is a terrible ordeal, really painful, because all that is completely abnormal.1
In this time of confusion, we have to keep from taking on extreme positions which do not correspond to reality but to preconceived ideas which are going to trouble souls without helping them see more clearly. We have to avoid that bitter zeal which St. Pius X condemns in his first encyclical: “In order that the desired fruit may be derived from this apostolate and this zeal for teaching, and that Christ may be formed in all, be it remembered, Venerable Brethren, that no means is more efficacious than charity. “For the Lord is not in the earthquake” (III Kings 19:11)—it is vain to hope to attract souls to God by a bitter zeal. On the contrary, harm is done more often than good by taunting men harshly with their faults, and reproving their vices with asperity. True the Apostle exhorted Timothy: “Accuse, beseech, rebuke,” but he took care to add: “with all patience” (II Tim. 4:2). Jesus has certainly left us examples of this. “Come to Me,” we find Him saying, “come to Me all ye that labor and are burdened and I will refresh you” (Mt. 11:28). And by those that labor and are burdened He meant only those who are slaves of sin and error. What gentleness was that shown by the Divine Master! What tenderness, what compassion towards all kinds of misery!” 2
That is why we cannot approve the attitude of those who have only bitter words for their neighbor, who judge him rashly and that way sow division among those who are engaged in the same struggle.
It is likewise true that we cannot understand those who undermine and dissipate their moral and spiritual energy in minimizing the importance of prayer, of true devotion to the most Blessed Virgin; weak in the spiritual combat, always ready for compromise, preferring to please men rather than God. They are not the heirs of the martyrs but prefer to sacrifice the truth and our Lord Himself rather than displease their persecutors, especially if those persecutors are dignitaries of the Church.
How I long for the Society not to let itself be tempted either by the first or by the second tendency. Let us be Catholics, true Christians, imitators of our Lord who shed His blood for the glory of His Father and for the salvation of His brothers. Let us possess our souls in patience, in gentleness, in humility, and also in strength and firmness of faith.3
We cannot be priests only halfway. We cannot have a hesitant, stumbling vocation. To lead this combat, to lead this crusade,4 we need men with profound convictions, men who have the faith, who have charity. We need men who are ready to give everything in order to help bring about the kingdom and the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You are living in a time when you have to be a hero or nothing at all. You have the choice: either to abandon the fight, or to fight like heroes. You are therefore going to need the virtues of those heroes. You cannot compromise or you are going to be struck down in the first engagement; you are not going to be able to resist the repeated attacks of the devil. You can see how the devil tries every possible means to divide us, to corrupt us, to diminish our ranks, even within the Society. He is very clever in creating oppositions, divisions, in order to weaken our forces.5
I beseech you to remain attached to the See of Peter, to the Roman Church, Mother and Mistress of all Churches, in the integral Catholic Faith, expressed in the various creeds of our Catholic Faith, in the Catechism of the Council of Trent, in conformity with what you were taught in your seminary. Remain faithful in the handing down of this faith so that the kingdom of our Lord might come.6
Moreover, you are priests of the Society, in the Society, for the Society. Be faithful to that Society which has truly been blessed by God, it is clear! It is obvious! God has to have blessed all of those seminaries, all of those priories, all of those schools. So ask Him to maintain the spirit which you received in the seminary. Do not stray from that path if you wish to continue the good fight to which God is calling you. That good fight is going to sanctify you because it is the combat of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, that combat by which He won His victory. You are going to continue that combat for yourselves first of all, for your personal sanctification, and also to sanctify others. There is your rule of life: the cross, placed before our eyes at Mass, which only continues the sacrifice of Calvary.7
And so, my dear friends, be faithful. We need you. Our Lord wants you to go and show the example of holiness, to go and preach the Gospel. You have to give faith to souls and all of the other supernatural virtues. Souls are suffering; they are dying of hunger and thirst. We are counting on you.8
Throughout your ministry, you are going to be continuing what the Church has always done in every domain: in the liturgy, in theology, in philosophy, in spirituality, in the direction of souls, in the apostolate. People are going to see and recognize that you are priests of the Holy Roman Catholic Church of all time. That is going to be your strength and it is going to confirm the validity of our position.9
Let us be true sons of the Holy Catholic Church. Let us fear nothing, neither persecutions, nor disdain, nor all of those words which may be uttered against us for being worthy sons of the Catholic Church. Let us not be afraid; God is with us. Our Lord Jesus Christ is with us and so is the most Blessed Virgin Mary. Let us ask the most Blessed Virgin Mary for her help that she might bring us to honor her divine Son as she wishes. That she might make us strong under persecution, in the face of the ostracism of which we are everywhere the object, from our own pastors, who on the contrary ought to be congratulating us and helping us to maintain the Catholic faith.10
Endnotes
1 Sermon, Zaitzkofen, February 26, 1983.
2 Sermon, Albano, December 8, 1980.
3 Retreat, Econe, June 1, 1980.
4 Sermon, Econe, June 27, 1986.
5 Recollection, St. Nicolas du Chardonnet, December 13, 1984.
6 E Supremi, October 4, 1903.
7 Cor Unum, letter to the members of the Society, Christmas 1977.
8 “The priest is the most valorous leader in that crusade of expiation and penance to which We have invited all men of good will. For there is need of reparation for the blasphemies, wickedness and crimes which dishonor humanity today” (Pius XI, Ad Catholici Sacerdotii Fastigium).
9 Sermon, Econe, March 27, 1986.
10 Letter to the future bishops, August 29, 1987.
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