½Å¾Ó°ú ±³¸®

Home > ½Å¾Ó°ú ±³¸® > ¹Ì»ç°­·Ð

Á¦¸ñ Be Faithful to the Holy Church and The Joy of Heaven
ÀÛ¼ºÀÚ °ü¸®ÀÚ ÀÛ¼ºÀÏ 2015-04-06



Be Faithful to the Holy Church and The Joy of Heaven 

(The Resurrection Day 5th April 2015)


My dear brethren,


 Alleluia! On the day of my ordination, 29th June 1982, Archbishop Lefebvre compared the Church to the body of Christ crucified: the physical body of Christ had been lacerated by the whips, pierced by the thorns and nails, spit upon and hit by the solders, and had become somehow unrecognisable, as Isaias said: ¡°there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised,"(Is. 53:2-3).


 Yet it was the Body of Christ, and there was no other: Our Lady, one apostle St John, and a few holy women remained faithful. And it was THIS BODY that rose again on Easter morning. In a similar way, by the scandals and errors of the modernists the mystical body of Christ has somehow lost its beauty and comeliness, and has become abject and despised. Yet it is the mystical Body of Christ, and there is no other. We must with Our Lady remain faithful to that One True Church, for there is no other mystical Body of Christ! And it will be THIS BODY that will be restored to beauty and vigour by our Lord Jesus Christ!

 At the beginning of the Church, faced with the scandal of the Cross, the sufferings of the Son of God, there were two kinds of heretics; the first denied the divinity of Christ: they acknowledged His human nature, but refused to acknowledge His Divine Nature; thus there was no longer a difficulty with the sufferings of the Son of God, since they no longer believed that Christ was Son of God. These were the Arians.


 And there were other heretics who denied his physical body, saying that he merely seemed to suffer: thus they ended up by saying that he was just a ghost and could not suffer; they denied the humanity of Christ: these were the Docetists. The Church held both truths, that Christ was truly the Son of God, equal with the Father, and truly son of Mary, with a real human nature: two natures, the Divine and the human, in the unity of one Person, the Person of the Son of God.

 Archbishop Lefebvre then went on to develop a parallel with our times: faced with the Passion of the Church, the mystical Body of Christ, there are some who deny that the Church¡¯s Faith is unchangeable, they claim that the Church should change with the world: they are the modernists.


 They practically deny the supernatural dimension of the Church, as Mystical Body of Christ. On the other hand, there are those who, saying that such scandals could not happen to the Church of Christ, conclude to a ghostly church, practically no longer visible, since it would have no pope, no bishop, etc. These are the sedevacantists and all those who leave the suffering Church and want no relation with the suffering Church under the pretext that ¡°all that rot¡± could not be Catholic.

 But as Christ is eternal, the Church has the promises that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her, and the passion never lasts for ever: after the Passion comes the resurrection. And those who have fallen on the left or on the right need to come back.


 The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ gives us hope: we know for certain, with Our Lady, that fidelity will be rewarded and that we will see again the Church come out of this crisis. For instance, if you look at the dates of Saints¡¯ lives in your daily missal, you will be impressed by the number of great Saints after the Council of Trent: there was really a great renewal of Catholic life in the second half of the 16th century, and the beginning of the evangelisation of South America, a new evangelisation of India and as far as Japan.


 Also after the French revolution, there were many Saints in France and France was prominent in the missionary work in the XIX century, in Africa (the Holy Ghost Fathers, the White Fathers, the Missions of Lyon), in Asia (the MEP in Korea and China) and in Oceania (Pacific islands and Australia/New Zealand, evangelised by the Marist Fathers).

 The important thing is to remain faithful during the Passion, in the time of crisis, neither falling on the left nor on the right, neither denying the Divinity of Christ nor His humanity, neither changing the Church nor leaving the Church by refusing relations with the Church.


 God does not change; the Faith cannot change and His Promises are true and reliable. ¡°These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world¡± (Jn. 16:33).


 After each crisis in the Church¡¯s history, there were blessings and Saints IN the Church – and the proud rebels had fallen outside the Church. The bad branches had been cut off, and were decomposing; the good tree survived and was more vigorous. We must at all cost remain in the tree: we would be fool to cut ourselves off under the pretext that there are presently some bad branches in the tree.

 They are not faithful to the Catholic Doctrine, those who do not love the Church and fear not to tear themselves apart from her, refusing communion with her. Our Lord Jesus Christ ¡°loved the church, and delivered himself up for it: That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life: That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any; such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish¡± (Eph. 5:25-27). He shed His most Precious Blood for her! That is how much He loved her.

 The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ gives us hope: there is a reward for virtue! Our Lord Jesus Christ was faithful to His Father up to the death on the Cross, and now He received the reward for His Body: the glorious resurrection! We believe also that for all the members of His Mystical Body, if they are with Him faithful until death, they will also be glorified with Him, will rise glorious in the last day and be infinitely happy with Him in Heaven. Our Lord Jesus Christ ¡°will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of his glory, according to the operation whereby also he is able to subdue all things unto himself¡± (Phil. 3:21).

 This is an article of Faith: ¡°I believe¡¦ in the resurrection of the dead.¡± Yet we need to know what our Lord Jesus Christ said, that there will be two kinds of resurrections: the resurrection of the just will be unto glory, with a glorious body, and our Lord calls it the ¡°resurrection of life¡± because they will have ¡°life everlasting¡±; but there is also another resurrection, the ¡°resurrection of judgement¡± for the wicked: their body will be reunited with their soul, but in order to share the punishment and condemnation of the soul.


 This is perfect justice: indeed the body has shared in the sin, it is just that it shares in the punishment. These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ: ¡°they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment¡± (Jn. 5:29).

 It is worth keeping our body away from all the uncleanness of the world, in order to have part in the glorious resurrection! What does it serve to corrupt one¡¯s body with the false pleasures of the world, if one will have to pay for eternity? Thus consecrated virginity is called an angelic virtue, because it already practices now the risen life: ¡°in the resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married; but shall be as the angels of God in heaven¡±(Mt. 22:30).

 In the Resurrection, one enjoys not only a glorious body, but even more the company of the Angels and of the Saints, and there – in heaven, not on earth – there will no longer be a mixture of good and evil, but there will be only the company of the good ones, of the Saints! This will be truly marvellous: if friendship on earth is already a good thing, that heavenly friendship of the Saints and angels will be a most wonderful thing!

 In the Resurrection, one enjoys the vision of God, which will be a joy infinitely above even that of the company of the Saints. St John says: ¡°Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth not us, because it knew not him. Dearly beloved, we are now the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know, that, when he shall appear, we shall be like to him: because we shall see him as he is. And every one that hath this hope in him, sanctifieth himself, as he also is holy¡± (1 Jn. 3:1-3). And St Paul says: ¡°We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face¡± (1 Cor. 13:12).

 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ has given us a beautiful guarantee of that Resurrection of the body in the holy Eucharist itself: by eating really His Body, which is risen, we have a token and guarantee of rising with Him: ¡°He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day¡± (Jn. 6:55). This must of course be a worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist, because if one abuses of the holy Eucharist, one ends up at the opposite, ¡°for he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord¡±(1 Cor. 11:29).
 
 He also gave us a second guarantee of the resurrection of our body by rising the body of His most holy Mother: in her Assumption, Our Lord has already done for her what He will do for the rest of the Church at the end of the world. She was already the most beautiful woman on earth, she is now even more beautiful, in her body and soul. Because she imitated our Lord Jesus Christ perfectly on earth, she deserved to be glorified with Him in Heaven.

 Let us pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she may obtain for us an increase of the virtue of HOPE, to desire the glorious resurrection similar to hers with confidence in the power of our Lord Jesus Christ. By this power He rose his own body, as He said: ¡°I have power to lay [my life] down: and I have power to take it up again¡±(Jn. 10:18).


 By this power Our Lord rose her body; by this same power He will rise our body. Let us pray to our Lady that she may help us to remain faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ in this time of apostasy and betrayal, faithful to the faith of all times, faithful to the morals of the Saints, faithful to the Liturgy of the Saints as she remained faithful at the foot of the Cross until the end. Amen.


  Fr. F. Laisney (sspxasia)