The Sermon of the Episcopal Consecrations
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Your Excellencies, dear confreres, dear sisters, dear faithful,
I wish first of all to thank the generosity of all those who prepared this day — all those who prepared it materially with such dedication, all the confreres who prepared hearts, minds, and intellects for this day, and all of you who made the effort to come here as pilgrims to this day that is certainly historic.
A Manifestation of Faith
What is the significance of this day? Why are we here? How are we to understand these consecrations?
These consecrations are a divisive event, before which it is impossible to remain indifferent. What does this mean for us?
First and foremost, this ceremony must be a manifestation of faith. That is very important.
We do not choose what to believe or not to believe; we cannot modify, reinterpret, or reconsider — we cannot do so. We simply have the duty to keep the faith that the Church has always taught; we must love it, we must live by it, and we must transmit it.
If we truly love Our Lord, we have the duty to share those goods that come to us first and foremost through faith. He who has no desire to transmit the faith — that is a sign that he himself no longer lives by faith. The more the faith is attacked, the more it disappears, the more pressing this duty becomes, because without faith it is impossible to please God, impossible to live well, impossible to save one's soul. And today we are taking exceptional means, proportionate to this necessity.
A False Dilemma: Faith or the Church
Some might consider that we are faced with a dilemma. We choose the integral faith, but we are separating ourselves from the Church. We would be choosing between faith and the Church. In order to keep the faith, are we breaking with the Church?
That is a false dilemma.
One belongs to the Church first and foremost through faith — through the integral profession of the faith, through the integral profession of the faith of the Church. Just as one belongs to a nation because one speaks the same language, shares the same identity and culture; just as one belongs to a family because one bears the same name and lives in the same house; so too one belongs to the Church because one professes the same faith.
It is therefore a false dilemma into which we cannot enter, because we cannot choose between faith and the Church — no one can. We want the faith of the Church in order to remain in the Church. We want the Church through faith, in faith.
It is very important to understand this, even if those who face us do not wish to understand it. All of this is not an opinion, not a sensibility, not an option — it is a necessity.
We are accused of not loving the Pope, of not respecting him. But it is because we love the Pope sincerely, as Vicar of Christ, as head of the Church, that we no longer wish to see the Pope humiliated alongside false pastors, representatives of false religions. How many times have we seen this over all these years?
It is because we love the Vicar of Christ that we no longer want this humiliation for the Pope — a humiliation that falls upon the whole Church, which is treated on an equal footing with false religions.
We Speak the Language of Faith
But we have explained all of this many times. We have explained it in almost every language that exists on the face of the earth.
Why are we not understood? Why, at bottom, do we speak different languages?
We speak the language of faith; we want the faith in all its simplicity — it is not complicated. The Creed is not complicated; the profession that the future bishops have just made is not complicated; everyone can understand it.
We speak the language of faith, the language of Tradition. And facing us we have a language situated at another level, speaking of other things. It is the language of inclusion, of listening, of dialogue, of accompaniment.
We want the faith. And then, in faith, we accompany people. We listen to people in faith, in order to bring them to the faith and to convert them.
To convert them, one must stop talking for the sake of talking, for the sake of accompanying — that is enough. That is not what men need. Men need Our Lord, and Our Lord is known and reached through faith, and through integral Catholic faith — there is only one.
That is why there is this difficulty in understanding one another. We unfortunately speak different languages — languages that, with time, are becoming increasingly, and unfortunately, distant from one another.
The Supreme Law of God: The Salvation of Souls
We are also living these consecrations in hope.
We are not living them in polemics, nor in tension, nor in bitterness, nor in resentment. We are living these consecrations in joy and in hope.
Why?
In 1988, those who condemned the Society predicted its dissolution. Providence had another plan. Why did Providence have another plan? Your presence here today makes it manifest. God has not abandoned us and God will not abandon us. All these years have shown it, and these consecrations show it once more.
But why can God not abandon us?
The answer is very simple. God has but one idea, one desire, one will: to save souls. If there is someone who applies to the letter the principle according to which the supreme law is the salvation of souls, it is God himself. It is his law, and he applies it to the letter, always.
That is why, against all human imagination and prediction, to save souls he sent his Son. He asked his Son to become incarnate and to die on the Cross.
Why?
Because the supreme law, the law of God, is the salvation of souls. That is why God has not abandoned us and will not abandon us — he will always provide us with means proportionate to our needs.
If the work of Redemption can encounter obstacles on the part of men, it will never encounter obstacles on the part of God. But the more one suffers, the more one struggles, the more one tries to be faithful to him, the more he is with us — and he makes it manifest.
We waver at times; we may have doubts; we may know discouragement. But the promises of Our Lord are all infallible — he always keeps them. And today he gives us a proof of this.
If we continue to seek the will of God and the good of souls, whatever the cost, nothing will ever be lacking to us.
To Serve the Church as a Mother
But above all, these consecrations must be understood and lived in a spirit of charity — charity toward souls, and charity above all toward the Church. The more souls are adrift and disoriented, the more we must seek them out and sustain them.
The more the Church is trampled upon, the more the radiance of her divinity is obscured, the more we must love her, serve her, and be ready to pay any price to serve the Church.
The greatest sacrifice that God can ask of us is to be treated as rebels, when what we want is to serve and love the Church as a mother. What a sacrifice God asks of us — to be treated as rebels, regarded as rebels!
We want to serve her as a mother. A mother in difficulty, overwhelmed and suffering; a mother sometimes betrayed as well; a mother who needs, and who deserves, to be helped, to have something done in the name of all that she has given us.
Everything we have received, we have received through the Church, in the Church. The faith that we wish to bear witness to today and by which we wish to live — it comes to us from the Church.
It is in the name of what we have received from her, and in the name of what she is — the Spouse of Christ, his Mystical Body — it is in the name of all of this that we must do everything possible, as much as possible, to help and sustain her.
Could we remain indifferent, doing nothing? "That is not our problem"? We are not asked to do that. Can the Society remain indifferent? No. That would be to betray the Church, to fail in charity — we cannot do it.
The Most Precious Blood, the Sole Remedy
There will be questions, and the feast of today — the feast of the Most Precious Blood — providentially expresses and perfectly summarizes the significance of these consecrations. This feast allows us to refer everything to a single point: the Blood of Our Lord, the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord.
He who does not know the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord, who does not love it, who does not adore it, does not know Our Lord, does not know the Redemption. And he who does not know Our Lord knows nothing, has understood nothing.
The Most Precious Blood is the unique remedy — the sole, the first, and the last — for all the evils that afflict humanity.
Why?
Because all evils come from sin, and the remedy for sin is the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord.
The Exaltation of Man
All evils come from sin, and from one sin in particular to which I draw your attention. This sin is always the same, from the beginning of humanity to this day: it is the exaltation of man. We are saturated — literally saturated — with this exaltation of man, everywhere.
Man who is all wonder, man who is perfect, man who is astonishing, man who would have an infinite dignity… Well, all of this pushes, in reality, toward pride. And in the long run, it pushes toward contempt for God and toward apostasy — silent apostasy. It comes from there.
And the more one exalts man in a mad, fanatical fashion, the more one ultimately distances him from God and from his perfection and his true good — it is a disaster. Man, full of rights, full of himself, incapable of turning toward God, incapable of recognizing that he is wounded by sin and that he needs the Redemption. He needs Our Lord; he needs his Most Precious Blood.
That is the great evil of today and of all of history: the evil that encompasses all others. This plague — it is a scourge, an obsessive idea that penetrates, it must be acknowledged, penetrates deeply even into the Church. This plague blinds souls and paralyzes them. It is not this that brings souls back to God.
Preaching the Wisdom of the Cross
We wish to accomplish something through these consecrations; we wish to continue preaching the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord, and we wish to continue, in a certain manner, to pour it out upon souls.
It is in this Blood that Our Lord founded his Church, the New and Eternal Covenant — there is only one. He who thinks there are two, or three, in reality no longer believes in the infinite and unique value of the Blood of Our Lord.
In speaking of the value of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord, we cannot forget whence it comes. It was formed, produced, furnished in the most pure blood of Our Lady — it is Our Lady who provides the Word with his humanity in its entirety; it is in her most pure and immaculate blood that, at the moment of the Incarnation, the Blood of Our Lord is formed; it is she who offers it with Our Lord for our redemption.
It is she who offers it; it is she who first sees it flow from the wounds of Our Lord; she sees it pour out beneath the wood of the Cross; it is she who gathers it at the foot of the Cross; it is she who keeps it still today at the altar; it is she who, at Mass, pours out its graces upon souls; it is she who fully grasps its value — always at the side of Our Lord.
What a mystery! What a mystery, this association of Our Lady with her divine Son, always at his side!
See how our entire faith, our religion, our love turn upon the Blood of Our Lord, for everything turns upon the Cross.
There, dear confreres who are about to be clothed with the fullness of the priesthood in a few moments — the fullness of the priesthood of Our Lord — there, in a few words, is what must be defended, what must be preached.
What an honor, and what a responsibility!
To preach the Redemption by word, and to spread it through the sacraments; to preach the wisdom of the Cross — a scandal to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles. Folly, above all today, for an apostate world that cannot understand, that does not wish to understand.
This wisdom of the Cross is the sole antidote to that humanism which leads to indifference and apostasy. This humanism — you must always keep it in your sights.
As Lambs in the Midst of Wolves
And what counsel can be given to you?
Your mission is so delicate, so important, so great — what you are about to do — that I prefer to yield the floor to Our Lord himself by citing the Gospel.
What counsel does Our Lord give you today? What counsel did Our Lord give to the Apostles when he sent them forth to preach?
"Behold, I send you as lambs in the midst of wolves."
The lamb: a beautiful image of Our Lord, a beautiful image of the bishop.
This means that you must preach first by the innocence of your life. It is the innocence and purity of your life and your conduct that will give moral authority to everything you preach.
To be a lamb also means — and above all — perfect docility, perfect submission to the will of God. Just as Our Lord is constantly submitted to the will of his Father, so too you, to an even greater degree from this day forward, must always seek his will.
The Lamb of God and the Lion of Judah
But do not forget one thing: Our Lord, who is the Lamb of God, is also the Lion of Judah.
How can one be both lamb and lion?
It is that Our Lord, as docile as he is to the will of the Father, never bows before the spirit of the world. In serving the Father perfectly, he necessarily comes into conflict with the spirit of the world, with the spirit of the prince of this world.
And likewise the bishop: as docile as he is to the will of God, he constantly asserts before the world the rights of Our Lord — and not the rights of man.
And a lion never flees; a lion does not retreat; and above all, a lion does not bend. Never bend before this spirit of the world; do not waver, do not retreat — the consecration will give you an irresistible strength.
From today, throughout the entire world, there are people who are watching you, listening to you. In thirty or forty years, they must be able to say:
"They did not bend. They did not bow the knee before this spirit of the world. They bowed the knee only before Our Lord the King."
That is the most beautiful thing that will be said of you at your death — the finest memory you can leave behind.
The Prudence of the Serpent
And Our Lord gives you another counsel:
"Be simple as doves and prudent as serpents."
Why must one be like serpents? Why must a bishop be like a serpent?
This is in order to discern, grasp, and detect the duplicity, ambiguity, and cunning that exist in the world and among the enemies of the Cross. Your worst enemies will not attack you head-on — they will try to make you slide gradually into a somewhat more fashionable perception of the faith, of Christian life, of relations with the world. You must know this.
When you feel this danger, step back, pray, observe, take counsel, evaluate, remain still before reacting — like a serpent. When you react, when the Holy Ghost gives you the necessary light to act, do so and never turn back.
That is what it means to be like a serpent: to grasp the duplicity, the ambiguity, the cunning that exist in the world — and to speak and preach like doves: simply, without duplicity and without fear, without equivocation, without ambiguity. The duplicity you must discern in others must never be your own.
The Sword of Faith
And what else does Jesus say? What does Our Lord say?
"Brother will deliver up brother, and the father his child, and you will be hated by all on account of me, on account of my name. Fear not all of this, for nothing is hidden that will not be revealed, nothing secret that will not be known."
Fear not all of this, Our Lord tells us. Let me act; let me judge — I myself will intervene when it is necessary.
He has but one concern. Which?
"Every man who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven."
Every man who acknowledges my rights, my divinity, my Church, my faith.
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth, but a sword."
These are the words of Our Lord addressed to you in particular.
In a few moments, when the consecrating bishop places the crosier in your hands, Our Lord will give you a sword — his sword, the sword of the Gospel, the sword of faith. It is by faith, and by faith alone, that the world can be overcome — and the world is already overcome by faith.
This sword, from today, belongs to you in a special way, and God will give you a special strength to wield it and use it in season and out of season.
"A man's enemies will be those of his own household."
One cannot be understood by everyone; one cannot be in agreement with everyone.
Is that a tragedy? Is it something incomprehensible? No. It is the law of the Gospel; it is the law of the Cross.
Those are the counsels that Our Lord, through the Gospel, gives to you today.
Saint Cyril and Archbishop Lefebvre
And before concluding, we cannot today fail to commend you to all those thousands of holy bishops who have preceded you in the history of the Church.
We shall evoke two of them: one who belongs to Christian antiquity, and one who is much closer to us.
The first is Saint Cyril — Saint Cyril of Alexandria.
The liturgy says of him the most beautiful thing that can be said of a bishop: zelus fidei sollicitus. He had but one concern: the purity of the faith. What a beautiful program of life for a bishop! And he passed into history as the great defender of the divine motherhood, hated by heretics.
The liturgy adds: propter fidem multa perpessus est. And because of this — because of his concern for the faith — he suffered greatly. Prepare yourselves for this: one cannot defend the faith integrally without suffering.
He was accused of every crime; even after his death, he was not ashamed of Our Lord, not ashamed of Our Lady.
Another bishop, who is your model, closer to us and not yet canonized: Archbishop Lefebvre, certainly.
Of him too one can say: zelus fidei sollicitus et multa perpessus. He had but one concern — the faith — and for that he suffered greatly.
This faith, he clearly saw how it is summed up in the holy Mass, in the defense of the holy Mass, of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord. What wisdom!
How was he able, so many years ago, to grasp the causes of the crisis with such clarity, such clear-sightedness, such strength?
It is the wisdom of the Cross — the cross he bore was the source of his wisdom. Today, more than ever, his spirit is among us; he encourages us; he prays for us; he prays for you in particular; he shows us the path to follow, guided by this wisdom of the Cross.
"The disciple is not above his master — it is enough for the disciple to be treated as his master."
These are again the words of Our Lord. Now, thirty-eight years ago, they condemned a saint.
Rejoice and Exult with Joy
Should we expect something different? Should we be afraid? Should we be alarmed?
The question is so important that I again yield the floor to Our Lord himself — it is he who answers you:
"Blessed are you when men insult you, when they persecute you, and when they falsely say every manner of evil against you on account of me — on account of my kingship, on account of my rights, on account of my law, on account of my faith, on account of my commandments. Rejoice and exult with joy, for great is your reward in heaven."
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
[Source, in the original French]
