The Sermon of the Episcopal Consecrations
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Your Excellencies,
My dear brethren,
My dear ordinands,
We are gathered here today for an event that is both historic and profoundly supernatural. The act we are performing today is not an act of pride, nor is it an act of rebellion. It is an act of fidelity. It is a work of survival for the Catholic priesthood, for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and for the preservation of the true Faith.
The Duty to Transmit the Faith
We must transmit the Faith. If we truly love Our Lord Jesus Christ, we have an absolute duty to share the spiritual gifts that come to us first and foremost through holy faith. Anyone who lacks this burning desire to pass on the intact deposit of the Faith shows a sign that they themselves are no longer living by it.
We are living through these episcopal consecrations in deep Christian hope. We do not experience them in a spirit of petty controversy, nor in a state of nervous tension, bitterness, or personal resentment. We live them in supernatural joy and in hope. We know that the Church belongs to Our Lord, and that He will never abandon those who seek only to serve Him.
The Mystery of the Cross and True Charity
These consecrations must be understood and lived in a spirit of true charity—charity toward souls who are starving for the truth, and above all, charity toward the Holy Roman Catholic Church. The more souls are confused, scattered, and disoriented by the errors of our times, the more we must seek them out, support them, and provide them with shepherds who will not deceive them. The more the Church is flouted from within, and the brightness of her divine nature is obscured by modernism, the more we must love and serve her.
We must be ready to pay any price to serve the Roman Catholic Church. The greatest of sacrifices that God can ask of us—and indeed, the heaviest cross He lays upon our shoulders—is to be treated as rebels and schismatics by the very authorities we pray for daily, even while we desire nothing more in this world than to serve and love the Church as our mother.
We want to achieve something real through this consecration. We want to continue preaching the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ and, in a sacrificial way, continue pouring it out upon human souls. Our mission is to preach redemption through the Word and to distribute it through the Holy Sacraments.
We must preach the wisdom of the Cross—which is a scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles, and absolute foolishness especially today to an apostate world that cannot and will not understand the language of sacrifice. This wisdom of the Cross is the only real antidote to the plague of naturalism and secular humanism that leads modern souls directly into indifference and final apostasy.
The Bishop as Lamb and Lion
Turning now to you, my dear brothers who are about to receive the fulness of the priesthood: your moral authority will depend entirely on your configurations to Christ.
First, you must preach through the innocence of your own lives. It is the visible purity of your life and morals that will grant divine authority to everything you preach from the pulpit.
You must be lambs. To be a lamb means perfect docility and perfect submission to the sovereign will of Almighty God. Just as Our Lord was constantly submissive to the will of His Heavenly Father, you too—by a greater, deeper title starting today—must always seek His divine will, putting aside your own preferences, your own comforts, and your own fears.
But just as a bishop must be a gentle lamb before the will of God, he must also be a fearless lion before the world. You must constantly claim before secular and ecclesiastical authorities the absolute rights of Our Lord Jesus Christ—not the false "rights of man." As a lion, never flee before the wolf. As a lion, do not retreat when the battle intensifies. And above all, as a lion, do not bend. Never bend to the spirit of this world, nor to the pressures of a compromised theology.
An Uncompromising Legacy
Today, faithful Catholics all over the world are watching you, praying for you, and listening to you. Decades from now, when the history of this crisis is written, people must be able to say of your episcopacy: “They did not bend. They did not bow their knees to the idols of modernism or the spirit of this world. They bowed their knees only before Our Lord Jesus Christ the King.”
That is the most beautiful thing anyone could say about you at the hour of your death, and it is the most beautiful legacy you can leave behind for the generation that will succeed you. Be simple as doves, and wise as serpents.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
[Source, in the original French]
