A traditional priest sent us the text of a sermon he preached recently and offered it to be shared with our readers.
My brethren, the world in which we live is falling apart. When we look at the political situation that we have in this country right now, or when we look at any other country in the globe, we cannot help but be scared, worried about is coming next.
Things have changed quite a bit in the past year. Well, things have changed a lot. Things you took for granted, like going shopping, or visiting a friend, or even going to church, in some places are now forbidden. Forbidden. You cannot go anymore where you want. Cameras observe people, to see if they comply or not with the “sacred” measures of safety, if they follow or not the ritual of the tribe. And if someone disagrees in any way, suddenly he becomes the enemy of humanity.
So many people were deprived of the right to be with their loved ones in their last moments… so many people had to die alone, and worse, without the sacraments.
People stopped living normally because they are afraid to die. And yet what they don’t realize is that, in giving up their liberties, they have become slaves of fear. The dictatorship of fear. That is where we are.
Who would imagine such a scenario? And yet this is real.
I don’t want to downplay the virus we are battling. I personally know people who suffered complications from it. But what I want to say is that the price we are paying is too high, it is too much... especially if it touches the liberty of the Church, and our own liberty, to give worship to God.
My brethren, what can we expect in the future? Should we be afraid of a persecution? I am sure. I am sure that the persecution will come. It is already here. It was always here. That’s the way the world treats the Church. But one thing is true: perhaps the persecution will intensify, as the authorities in power align more and more with the powers of darkness, as we approach more and more the end of times.
And for us the difficult thing is to know what to do. Don’t we have to obey the civil authorities? Yes, we do. But here we have to specify that there are things which are not under the authority of the civil power, and the most important example is Divine Worship.
The Church and the State are two different entities. And each one is sovereign but in its own sphere. It means that the State has the power to make laws but about matters of its own competence. If the State would try to impose a law forbidding Divine Worship, that law would be unjust because the State has no power to forbid the Church and the faithful to give worship to God.
Sadly, many of our Bishops have been weak, to say the least, in defending the Liberty of the Church in face of those who persecute her. Many have failed in their duties and have not followed the example of the Holy Apostles. You know that the first Christians were under a very hostile government, which forbade and even punished with death the exercise of Divine Worship. Those who would be denounced as Christians would be sent to death. And yet, do we hear that Saint Peter or any other apostle stopped celebrating the Divine mysteries, or giving the sacraments because of the prohibition of the civil authorities? No. Do we hear that they stopped preaching the truth of Jesus Christ because they were afraid of men, of jail, of death? I don’t think so.
They became martyrs because of that. Because they didn’t give up the Truth and the worship of God. And now they are in heaven. Our Brethren in the faith were always good citizens, but when the State tried to go beyond its competence, then they had to say no: “we must obey God rather than men.” And thanks to persecutions, our calendar is full of martyrs, full of saints.
But one thing has to be said here: none of them would be bragging about having Mass underground. They were very prudent and discrete about the way things had to be. Nevertheless, they continued to worship in spite of all the prohibitions from the authorities, risking their own lives.
This is price of our faith! Do you believe or not? At the end, it comes to this question: do we believe or not?
Nowadays, some people, even among the clergy, will say that in fact the sacraments are not that important: “Why bother coming to church, if we can all be friends on Facebook? Isn’t that good enough?” This type of speech shows that these people have lost the faith. Why did the first Christians risk their own lives to go to Mass and to receive the sacraments? The answer is very simple: “because they believed.” And these are the models for us, these are the models for us in these difficult times. Times when we need Our Lord and the sacraments more than ever.
My brethren, to talk about persecution can be frightening, but it is important for us to speak on the subject. Our Faith has implications, and we all know that it requires sacrifices from time to time. And perhaps from now on it will be more difficult to be a Christian, a true Christian. But no matter how difficult it can become, it will never be impossible, because we will always be able to count on the help of the grace of God to bear anything, any suffering that may come our way. And we have to remember that.
And now listen well, because I am going to tell you what you have to do.
First of all, you should try not to worry too much about the future. Our Lord told us to live each day at a time. So one day at a time. And more importantly, be always in the grace of God. Because whatever may happen, as long as we are in state of grace, we will be fine, whether we live or die.
Times like ours should not make us despair… but they should lead us more earnestly to the feet of the tabernacle, they should lead us to Our Lord, where we will find the strength to carry on. Difficult times can bring many blessings, and one of them is that usually people pray more. They wake up. And I think that we all are called to intensify our prayer life in order to be strong enough to face the challenges we will have in front of us.
And in a special way I would like to ask you to pray for us priests, your shepherds, so we may never run away, afraid of the wolves. Sometimes we have difficult decisions to make, and we need prayers to see things the way God sees them. So pray that we may have the strength to give our lives, if needed, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
So, we should not be afraid… This world is falling apart, but remember that our true Homeland is not here below, but it is in heaven, with God. Whatever we may have in front of us, let us face it with courage, with Faith, knowing that the battle can be hard and scary, but we know already who will have the victory at the end. We know who will have the victory at the end: Our Lord Jesus Christ. And no one will be able to steal the victory from Him!
Let us keep the Faith, no matter how much it may cost us.
Amen.
