Sunday June 8, 2025
Les Courlis
Bishop Athanasius Schneider
“Come Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of Thy faithful, and kindle in them the fire of Thy love”.
Pentecost is the day when the Church first manifested Herself to mankind in a startling way. She showed Herself to be Catholic because there is only one Church of God: the Catholic Church. In fact, the Holy Ghost keeps Christ alive upon earth through His mystical body: the Church. At Pentecost, the apostles similar like cells of a (human) body became the mystical body enlivened by the Holy Ghost, and governed by a visible head Peter and an invisible head Jesus Christ. In the same way as a drop of blood cannot remain alive outside the (human) body, so too we cannot survive without being inside the mystical body of the Catholic Church.
The Church then is not just another human organization, an NGO, or an international enterprise but the mystical body of Christ.
St Jean-Marie Vianney, the Curé of Ars, said that “without the Holy Ghost we are like a stone along the wayside. Pick up a sponge full of water in one hand, and a small stone in the other. Squeeze them both equally: nothing will come out of the stone, whereas from the sponge will flow water in abundance. The sponge is the soul filled with the Holy Ghost. The stone is the cold and hardened heart where the Holy Ghost does not dwell”. It is the Holy Ghost that puts right intentions into the hearts of the just, and forms the words that come forth from their lips. When the Holy Ghost is within us, our hearts are dilated and are imbued with Divine love.
The Holy Ghost is the one who helps us to distinguish Truth from falsehood, good from evil. Like those glasses that make objects bigger, the Holy Ghost helps us to see good and evil closer up. “Without the Holy Ghost, there is no substance or savor to anything that we do” the Curé of Ars once said.
We must thank the Spirit of Truth for having allowed us to know the law of the Gospel. What is the law of the Gospel? It is the Catholic Faith in its fullness of Truth promulgated for the first time by the Church on this great feast of Pentecost.
The Traditional Rite of Holy Mass, which we have the joy and grace of celebrating here today, can be called to a certain extent the “Pentecostal” rite because this rite is the true Catholic expression of devotion to the Holy Ghost which consists in sober inebriation. The Traditional Rite of Holy Mass gives us the spiritual atmosphere in which to have ardent hearts whilst remaining sober and ordered, guided by our reason enlightened by Faith as well as by the exterior beauty and dignity (of the rite). The Traditional Rite of Holy Mass reflects all of this in the most impressive way. For that reason, this rite attracts the souls of the young. It is the beloved and treasured rite of innumerable Catholic generations. This is why the Traditional Rite of Holy Mass is the rite that is always new, always up to date, never old hat or outmoded.
This year we celebrate the centenary of the publication of Pius XI encyclical “Quas primas” on the kingship of Christ. Christ is the only true king of all creatures. If the princes of men, the priests and pharisees once said that they “had no other king but Caesar”, on the contrary all those who believe in Christ must say “we have no other king but Jesus Christ”. That is why the Son of God became man, so that He might reign as king, to reign as Truth itself, and to reign as Savior over the hearts of all men, over all nations, societies and human institutions. He does not reign by force but by the power of His love.
Peace worthy of its name will never exist if the doctrines and precepts of Christ are not kept by all (men) in public and private life. That is what we mean in a word by the kingship of Christ. Even though there is so much technological progress today and human brotherhood for world peace, if Christ does not reign as king in our families and in our countries, then our world lacks true spiritual beauty, then our world lacks full divine Truth, then our world lacks supernatural love.
What does it mean to be Christian, to be Catholic? It means that Christ is the king of my life: it means that I am never ashamed to confess Christ and the Truth of the Catholic Faith. It means observing God’s commandments with the help of His grace, purity of soul and chastity of body, mutual forgiveness and tireless charity towards our neighbor.
Let us implore the Holy Ghost saying: come Holy Ghost, fill the field of your Church with the scent and beauty of the flowers of holiness, with zeal for the salvation of souls, particularly among the youth, among families and among the clergy. May we be filled with the joy of our Faith, a joy that nothing can take away. That our Catholic Faith, more precious by far than gold, refined by fire even in our day, may return to its great dilation as the kingdom of Christ, to the honor of the Most Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost, God who reigns forever and ever.
Amen.
