Editor's note. When I uploaded this doctrinal writing by Bishop Marcel Lefebvre, I felt tempted to "touch it up" on the very complicated subject of the Pope, but when I was correcting it in terms of form, not content, I realized that he treats this with great prudence. subject that there is nothing left to correct or add so as not to hurt the feelings of those who do not think like him regarding the PAPACY. On the other hand, who am I to correct a great and courageous prelate that the Church gave us as another gift for the present times? Therefore, he left the text exactly as he wrote it.
It is true that he refers to
the Society of Saint Pius X in terms of the integrity of the doctrine that it
teaches, but those times refer to the times that he lived both in its
foundation, and in his period as general superior of said congregation and
Finally, as spiritual director of the same congregation, but we cannot say the
same of the current Fraternity that already deals with the modernists and signs
agreements with them, although they continue to deny it.
Dear
brothers, dear friends:
Providence has delicacies,
since it has wanted that this beginning of courses, that this new beginning of
seminary courses coincide with the anniversary of my episcopal consecration that
took place on September 19, 1947 in my hometown1. At the request of friends, we
wanted to celebrate this anniversary in a particular way.
Now, this morning we read the
readings from Tobias in the breviary. It was said that young Tobias, when he
found himself surrounded by Jews, by men of his race who worshiped the golden
calves established by the king of Israel himself, he, on the contrary,
faithfully went to the temple and offered the sacrifices foreseen by the law
just as God himself had requested. He was, therefore, faithful to the law of
God.
Well, let us hope that we too are faithful to God, faithful to Our Lord Jesus Christ. And Tobias was later taken captive to Nineveh, and there, says the Holy Scripture, when all his compatriots submitted to the pagan cult that surrounded them, he also kept the Truth: “reünuit omne nem veritatem”. He kept the Truth. I think it is a lesson that Holy Scripture gives us, and we hope that we too will be faithful as Tobias was, faithful in his youth, faithful later in captivity. It is not true that today we are, in a certain way, in a captivity that surrounds us everywhere, manifests itself everywhere, is imposed on us by those who submit to the evil spirit, in the world and even within ourselves. the Church, for those who destroy the Truth, have it in slavery instead of manifesting it, showing it. But we want to keep the Truth, we want to continue manifesting it. And what, therefore, is this Truth? ¿Do we have their monopoly? Are we so presumptuous that we can say: ¿we have the Truth, others don’t? This Truth does not belong to us, it does not come from us, it has not been invented by us. This Truth is transmitted to us, it is given to us, it is written, it is alive in the Church and in the entire history of the Church. This Truth is known, it is in our books, in our catechisms, in all the acts of the Councils, in the acts of the Supreme Pontiffs, it is in our Creed, in our Decalogue, in the gifts that the Good God has granted us: the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments. We are not the ones who invented it. We do nothing but persevere in the Truth. Because the Truth has an eternal character. The Truth that we profess is God, Our Lord Jesus Christ who is God, and God does not change. God remains immutable, Saint Paul is the one who tells us: "nec vicissitudinis obumbratio". There is not even a shadow of vicissitude in Him, a shadow of change in God. God is immutable, “semper idem”, always the same. He is, by the way, He, the source of everything that changes, of everything that moves in the universe, but He is immutable.
And by the very fact that we
profess God as Truth, we enter, in some way, through Truth into eternity. We
have no right to change it, this Truth cannot change, it will never change. Men
have been placed in this world to receive a little of this light of eternity
that descends on them. Somehow they too become eternal, immortal, to the extent
that they get closer to the Truth, of God. To the extent that they cling to
things that change, to mutable things, they are no longer with God. And this is
what we feel the need for. All men feel that need. They have in them an
immortal soul that is now in eternity, a soul that will be happy or unhappy,
but this soul exists, it will no longer die, this is definitive. Men, all those
who have been born, all those who have a soul have entered eternity. And for
this reason they need eternal things, the true eternity that is God. We cannot
deprive ourselves of Him, this is part of our life, it is what is most essential
in us. That is why men seek the Truth, eternity, because they have in
themselves an essential need for eternity.
And what are the means by
which Our Lord has given us eternity, communicates it to us, makes us enter
into our eternity, even here below? Often, when I went through these African
countries, when I was asked to visit the dioceses, I chose a theme that was
dear to me, very simple on the other hand and that you have already heard many
times but that it made concrete, for those simple peoples whom I had to speak,
the Truth. I told them: ¿but what are the gifts that God has given us that make
us participate in divine life, in eternal life and that begin to place us in
eternity? There are three main gifts that God, that Our Lord has given us: the
Pope, the Blessed Virgin and the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
Pope
And, indeed, it is an
extraordinary gift that God gave us by giving us the Pope, by giving us the
successors of Peter, by giving us precisely this permanence in the Truth that
is communicated to us by the successors of Peter, which must be communicated by
the successors of Peter. And it seems inconceivable that a successor to Peter
could fail, in some way, to communicate the Truth that he must transmit,
because he cannot —without almost disappearing from the progeny of the Popes—
not communicate what the Popes have always communicated: the deposit of faith,
which does not belong to him either. The Truth of the deposit of Faith does not
belong to the Pope. It is a treasure of Truth that has been taught for twenty
centuries. And he must transmit it faithfully and exactly to all those to whom
he is in charge of speaking, of communicating the Truth of the Gospel. He is
not free.
And therefore, to the extent
that it happens, due to absolutely mysterious circumstances that we cannot
comprehend, that are beyond our imagination, that are beyond our conception, if
it happened that a Pope, who is sitting in the seat of Peter, came to obscure
in some way the Truth that must be transmitted, or no longer transmit it
faithfully, or allow the darkness of error to spread, to hide the truth in a
certain way, in which case we must pray to God with all our hearts, with all
our souls, so that the truth may be done. light in which it is in charge of
transmitting it. But we cannot change the Truth for that reason, fall into
error, follow the error, because the one who has been entrusted with
transmitting the Truth was weak and allowed the error to spread around him. We
do not want darkness to invade us. We want to remain in the light of Truth. We
remain faithful to what has been taught for two thousand years. Because it is
inconceivable that what has been taught for two thousand years and which is, as
I have told you, a part of eternity, can change. Because it is eternity that
has been taught to us, it is eternal God, it is Jesus Christ the eternal God,
and everything that is fixed in Jesus Christ is fixed in eternity, everything
that is fixed in God is fixed for eternity. The Trinity can never be changed,
the fact of the redeeming work of Our Lord Jesus Christ through the Cross, through
the Sacrifice of the Mass, can never be changed. They are eternal things that
belong to eternity, that belong to God.
How could anyone down here
change these things? What is the priest who would feel the right to change
these things, to modify them? Impossible, impossible! When we preserve the
past, we preserve the present and we preserve the future. Because it is
impossible, I would say metaphysically, divinely impossible, to separate the
past from the present and the future. Impossible! ¡O God is no longer God! ¡O
God is no more eternal! Or God is no longer immutable. And then there is
nothing else to believe, we are completely wrong. That is why, without worrying
about everything that is happening around us today, we should close our eyes to
the horror of the drama we are experiencing, close our eyes, affirm our Creed,
our Decalogue, meditate on the Sermon on the Mount, which is our law likewise,
clinging to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, clinging to the Sacraments, waiting
for the light to be made around us again. That's all. Here is what we must do
and not enter into rancor, violence, in a state of mind that would not be
faithful to Our Lord, that would not be in charity.
Let us remain, let us remain
in charity; Let us pray, let us suffer, let us accept all the tests, everything
that can happen to us, everything that the Good God can send us. Let's do like
Tobias: all his family had abandoned him, they adored the golden calves, they
adored the pagan gods, he remained faithful. And yet, perhaps he himself must
have thought that by being completely alone in fidelity, he risked being
untrue. But no, he knew that what God had taught his parents could not change.
The Truth of God existed and could not change. We too must lean on the Truth
that is God, yesterday, today and tomorrow. "Jesus Christus hurt, hodie et
in saecula". And that is why I would say: we must have confidence in the
papacy, we must have confidence in the successor of Peter, insofar as he is
Peter's successor. But if by chance he were not perfectly faithful to his role,
then we must remain faithful to Peter's successors and not to someone who would
not be Peter's successor. This is all. Indeed, he is in charge of transmitting
to us the deposit of Faith.
The Blessed Virgin Mary The second
gift is that of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Blessed Virgin Mary,
Ella, never changed. ¡Imagine that the Blessed Virgin Mary could have changed
the idea that she could have of the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, his
divine Son, about the sacrifice of the Cross that He had to suffer, ¡about the
work of Redemption! Was the Most Holy Virgin able to change one iota in her
Faith? Could, at any time in her life, have doubts, fall into error? Could he
doubt the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, doubt the Holy Trinity, She who
was filled with the Holy Spirit? Impossible, inconceivable! She was already
down here in eternity. The Most Holy Virgin Mary, by her Faith, an immutable,
profound Faith, could not be disturbed in any way, this is evident. We must ask
this holy Mother that we have her fidelity, “'Virgo fidelis”, faithful Virgin. Let's
not get carried away by the noises that surround us; fidelity, fidelity, like
the Blessed Virgin Mary. And I would add something about the Blessed Virgin
Mary that I think is important for us at the time we are currently living. At
every moment we are told: the Virgin has said this, that, the Virgin has
appeared here, the Virgin has communicated such a message to such a person. By
the way, we are not against the possibility of a word that the Blessed Virgin
can address to people of her choice, obviously. But we are in such a period, at
this moment, that we must be wary, we must be wary. The place of the Blessed
Virgin Mary in the theology of the Church, in the Faith of the Church, is, in
my opinion, infinitely sufficient for us to love her above all creatures after
Our Lord Jesus Christ, and for us to have a devotion that is a deep,
continuous, daily devotion.
It is not necessary for us to
have to constantly resort to messages of which we are not absolutely certain whether
or not they come from the Blessed Virgin. I am not talking about the
apparitions that have been and are openly recognized by the Church. But we must
be very careful when it comes to the rumors that we hear today from all sides.
At every moment I receive people or communications that would be sent to me
from the Blessed Virgin, or from Our Lord, a message received here, another
received there. We want the Blessed Virgin to be among us every day. But She
is, we know, She is with us. She is present in all our Sacrifices of the Mass.
She cannot be separated from the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our devotion
to the Blessed Virgin must be deep, perfect, but it must not depend on any
particular message.
The
Eucharistic Sacrifice
Finally, the third gift of
Our Lord Jesus Christ: the Eucharistic Sacrifice. God, Jesus Christ, gives
himself to us through the Eucharistic Sacrifice. What could he do more
beautiful? And what should we cling to more than the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass? I often say this to seminarians: if the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X
has a special spirituality — I don't want it to have a special spirituality,
it's not that I criticize the founders of orders like Saint Ignatius, Saint
Dominic and Saint Vincent de Paul, etc. ., in a word, to those who have wanted
to give a special seal to their congregation, a seal that was undoubtedly
wanted by Providence at the time they lived—, I think that if there is a
particular seal in our priestly Fraternity of Saint Pio X, is the devotion to
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
May our spirits, our hearts,
our bodies be captivated by the great mystery of the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass, and, to the extent that we will better understand this great mystery of
the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Eucharist, because the Sacrifice and the
Sacramento are united, they are the two great realities of the Sacrifice of the
Mass; To the extent that we deepen these things, we will also better understand
what the priesthood is, the greatness of the priesthood. Because it is closely
linked, I would say metaphysically, to the Sacrifice of the Mass. And this is
very important in today's age. We need this, my dear friends. You need to be
captivated by this spirituality of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Not only the
priests, on the other hand, but also our religious, our brothers, our sisters
and all the laity today, all our dear faithful who are present here. We must
have a greater devotion than ever for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, because
it is the foundation, the cornerstone of our Faith. To the extent that we no
longer have this devotion to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, to the extent that
we make this Sacrifice a mere meal, to the extent that Protestant ideas creep
in among us, to this extent we ruin our holy religion.
I dare not cite the example
of what happened in Chile during the three days I spent there. But,
nevertheless, since that comes to my mind, I say it to you very simply to show
you how far the idea of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has been degraded in the
highest and highest persons of the Catholic hierarchy. During our stay in
Santiago de Chile, a concelebration presided over by the auxiliary bishop of
Santiago de Chile appeared on television, surrounded — I have not seen
television, but I have been told this by numerous people who attended — fifteen
or twenty priests concelebrating with him. During this concelebration, the
Auxiliary Bishop explained to the faithful, therefore to all those who watched
it on television, that it was a meal, and that, therefore, he saw no objection
to smoking during that meal. And he himself smoked during this concelebration. Here's
what it comes to! To what degradation, to what sacrilege can a bishop arrive in
front of all his parishioners! This is unheard of, inconceivable! Similar
things would have to be repaired for years, this is an unimaginable scandal.
But that shows us what level can be reached when you are no longer in the
Truth. Then we must cling to the Sacrifice of the Mass as to the pupil of our
eyes, to what is dearest in us, most respectable, most holy, most sacred, most
divine. It is what this seminar is. All you want will be said about the
seminar, it will be criticized from all sides: the seminar is this, the seminar
is that, this has been decided in the seminar, that has been decided in the
seminar. Nothing at all has been decided. Nothing has been changed at all. The
seminary remains what it is. It continues to be what it was and what it was
founded for. The seminary remains a Catholic seminary. And if God grants me
life, the seminary will not change. I will die rather than change anything to
the Catholic doctrine that must be taught in the seminary. (In fact, he died
excommunicated rather than accept agreements with Rome, agreements that today
the current Fraternity already accepts no matter how much they deny it)
We want to keep the Faith, we
want to make Catholic priests, I have just explained it to you, for the three
main things of the Catholic Church: the Pope, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. These are the foundations of our devotion here at
Ecóne.
And whatever happens we will not change,
with the grace of God. So say what you want; the seminary has changed, the
seminary has taken a new orientation, the seminary has this, the seminary has
that; it is the devil who says it, because he wants to destroy the seminary.
Obviously, he can't stand Catholic priests, he can't stand priests who have the
Faith.
And here it is necessary to say it
clearly: around us, a little in all countries, but particularly in France,
there are such divisions among those who want to keep the Catholic Faith, that
slander breaks out, gossip, exaggerated words, reflections, senseless,
unjustified Let us not concern ourselves with all that, let us speak, let us do
well, let us do the will of God, according to the will of the Catholic Church, continuing
what our predecessors and our ancestors did, what the Council of Trent asked
the bishops to do, continuing the formation that has always been given to
priests and we will have the certainty of being in the Truth. That's all. Let
us remain calm, let us remain in the Faith. And if, by chance, we do not teach
the Faith here, then leave me, if I do not teach you the Catholic Truth here,
leave, dear seminarians, do not stay! It is your duty. But if I teach the
Catholic Faith, if it is taught here—you have the entire library at your
disposal to verify if we give the Catholic Faith or if we don't—then have
confidence in us. But we will do everything so that the Catholic Faith
continues to be taught here, in its integrity, so that you too can bring this truth
that is so fruitful with grace and life, because Truth is also a source of
life, a source of Grace. We need this life, the faithful demand it. Why do we
have requests from everywhere to have priests? Because the faithful thirst for
Truth, thirst for the grace of Our Lord, thirst for supernatural life, thirst
for this divine life, thirst for this eternity to which they are heading. So
let us have confidence in what the Church has always done, not confidence in
Monsignor Lefevbre. I am a poor man like the others, I do not claim to be
better than the others, quite the contrary. I don't know why the Good Lord has
allowed me to have thirty years of episcopate. I think that, if I judged
humanely, he would have preferred to remain as a missionary in the bushes of
Gabon, isolated, and would not have had all the problems that I had during my
thirty years of episcopate.
But the Good God has willed
it and the Good God continues to test us, making us carry the cross. Well, if
it's his will, let it be done. Let's continue to carry the cross. It is not
because the Good God imposes crosses on us that we must abandon him. We do not
have to abandon Our Lord, on the contrary! We must follow it.
So, my dear friends, be
faithful, faithful to Our Lord, faithful to the Blessed Virgin Mary, faithful
to the Pope, successor of Peter, when the Pope shows himself to be truly the
successor of Peter, because that is what he is, we need him. We are not people
who want to break with the authority of the Church, with the successor of
Peter. But neither are we people who want to break with twenty centuries of
tradition of the Church, with twenty centuries of successors of Peter.
Homily by HE Bishop Marcel Lefebvre
on the occasion of the 30.th
anniversary
of his episcopal consecration
Econe, September 18, 1977
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario