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The Lord is my light and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid? Mine enemies that trouble me have themselves been weakened and have fallen.”
It is a truth of our faith that those who follow Christ will have to endure persecution. In no uncertain terms, St. Paul wrote in his second letter to St. Timothy, “
All who will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution” (2 Tim. 3. 12). This, says the Gospel, is the way of the Christian religion, for we follow the suffering Christ: “
The servant is not above his master” (Matt. 10. 24).
We should expect nothing more from the world than what the world gave Our Blessed Lord: a ignominious, painful death; buffets, scourging, mocking and jeering, a making into a public spectacle, a nailing to the cross. We should expect from the men of this world, those who seek their happiness from this world, to regard us as fools, as extremists, as public enemies. Make no doubt about it. If one lives his Catholic faith to the fullest, the men of this world will brand that person an intolerant fanatic and public enemy, number one. This is because the principles of this world, the principles espoused by the men of the world, are in direct and irreconcilable contradiction with those of Jesus Christ.
So why, then, bother with Christianity at all? Why follow Jesus Christ, an outcast of the men of this world, and suffer His same fate? Why be persecuted by the men of this world? Why not accept their principles, if it saves us from persecution and the derision of men?
We follow Christ, because the principles of the worldly are a delusion. The worldly look to the riches, honors, power, and pleasures of this present world for their happiness. The reasons for this are manifold. Some are weak minded, and can see little beyond the tip of their own noses. Others are ignorant and unlettered in the ways of the soul. Some have been deadened to lofty ideals by vanity, base entertainment, the crudities of mindless television programs and movies and pathetic, mind killing music, alcohol, drugs and other sinful distractions. Others seek power and prestige to fill a vacuous ego that is in desperate need of the adulation of others.
Still, others are following and obeying the will of their father, Satan, and delight in leading to perdition the rest, those weak in mind and spirit, the ignorant, those deadened by distraction, those who seek power. These men who avow Satan do so under the erroneous assumption that Satan will reward them in hell. These men understand eternity, but they long for an eternity of power in hell. Little do they know that there is no power in hell, not even for Satan. That there can be is a lie of Satan, the prince of lies. Such men do exist, though they have convinced the children of the world that belief in their existence is foolish and superstitious. They are out there. They are members of the secret societies and religions of Freemasonry, bent on the destruction of the Church and the perdition of even the elect, and don’t be surprised that they can be found in the highest places of government, even in our own country. Rest assured that wherever Satan and his demonic minions tempt the hearts of men, there are some who would be fooled into believing his false promise of eternal power in hell.
But these earthly desires of power, riches, honors, pleasures are all of them deceptions. The are like soap-bubbles, which reflect all the colors of the rainbow but are really only drops of water. They are hardly anything of substance, and if they are in the least disturbed, they burst and disappear, and those who depended on them are left with nothing, save regret, sorrow, and anger. At the time of Our Lord’s visitation, the Roman Empire was the most powerful nation on earth, the most wealthy, and her citizens enjoyed the greatest comforts the times could afford. Yet at this very same time suicide, abortion, infanticide, and homicide were common and even prevalent enough to be accepted without question. Among their worldly pleasures of wine and food, unabated sexual license, the distractions of the theater and arena, unmatched political and military power, the Romans were killing themselves, their children and their neighbors.
Why? The end of all worldliness is misery and death. Anyone who puts his trust in the passing and changeable things of this life, places his hope in a fleeting reality, as a result suffers nothing but anxiety and fear in losing what is so fragile. As the spider spins a web out of its own innards and in a moment the broom seeps it all away, so man labors for long years to obtain some honor, possession or office. Then he is taken by sickness, visited with some obstacle, or inflicted by financial misfortune, and all that for which he labored is swept away in an instant. The forbidden pleasures indulged by the powerful, by politicians, and by the elite of the world of entertainment inevitably bring them misery and ruin. All men know what can and probably will happen to whatever possessions, honors or pleasures they have accumulated for themselves in this world.
Ultimately all men know that death ends it all. “
We brought nothing into the world, and certainly we cannot carry anything out of it” (1 Tim. 6. 7). Worldlings indulge in so many distractions, such as somotology, television and other mind-numbing entertainment, drunkenness and drugs, sexual license and hedonism, to distract themselves from the most fundamental fact of their material lives: they will die. The bodies that they so adorned in this life will rot and be food for worms. If those distractions should fail, they are left with utter anguish, psychic madness, suicide and death.
Can anyone convince that our modern world, becoming more and more denuded of true Christianity, is spiraling in a vortex of distraction and worldliness toward this anxiety, anguish, psychic madness, suicide and death? It is sometimes called “the culture of death”, but often this phrase is misinterpreted. The culture of death has more to do with a culture that is spiritually dead because it can no longer see past the fleeting and fragile material things of this world. Take for example the last presidential election in our country. The people of the United States have elected as president of the United States a socialist despot, a man thirsty for the blood of unborn children, a man bent on the destruction of the Church in America and abroad, a man entirely in love with power and prestige. And why? They elected such a man out of anxiety for the worldly things they fear losing due to the economic crisis, a crisis, mind you, engineered to consolidate the power of the worldly and lead away, even if were possible, the elect. If we are not now living in the shadow of the anti-Christ, we definitely are living the shadow of an anti-Christ, and spiraling ever more into the abyss of a madness that comes from living in a world that ignores God and denies the sovereignty of Christ.
This Sunday we beseech the Lord in the Collect to regulate the course of the world by His governance for our peace, and for the tranquility of His Church. In our current world, a world in which we teeter on the verge of the next great persecution of the Church, how urgent this prayer ought to be on our lips and in our hearts. But in the prayer is the realization of God’s providence. We understand that behind the Collect for today’s Mass is our faith in God who governs the world and permits even evil and misfortune to befall His children for their good. In all that happens to us, He has as His intention, our happiness. In this lies the key to happiness in this corrupted world, albeit not a complete happiness, but a far less fragile and maddening one as is the sham of happiness to which worldly men clings.
Our Blessed Lord tells the Samaritan woman concerning the well: “
He who drinks of this water will thirst again.” But He offers her to drink of that which will truly satisfy, a living water: “
He that shall drink of the water that I shall give him, shall not thirst forever” (John, 4. 13). And again Our Blessed Lord says: “
He that cometh to Me, shall never hunger” (John, 6. 35). St. Augustine wrote, “unquiet is the heart of man until it rests in God.” The reason for this is that earthly sufferings do not render unhappy the man who follows Christ.
Our Blessed Lord tells us: “
Every one that heareth My words and doeth them, shall be likened to a wise man, that built his house upon rock” (Matt. 7. 24). The man who trusts in God builds on solid ground. The patriarch Joseph derived advantage, not harm, from being persecuted, and King David was persecuted first by Saul, and then by his own son, Absolom. Despite his persecutions, King David was able to fathom the mystery of the true happiness that is found beyond tribulations when he wrote, “
Many are the afflictions of the just; but out of them all the Lord will deliver them” (Ps. 33. 20).
Perfect happiness can not be achieved here on earth. All men, the good and the bad alike, can not escape sickness, suffering and death. This world, we pray in the Salve Regina, is a veil of tears, and the world contains as many sick men as there are men. Good fortune and misfortune come and go with the frequency and predictability as the storms and sunshine. If one enjoys prosperity now, it is a sure sign that there will soon be adversity and loss. Society, indeed, will be filled with all kinds of misfortunes and miseries. It is a lie of the liberals, like those who currently enjoy so much power in our government, and even in our modern Church, that these miseries can be eradicated or even merely minimized by their social engineering. The lie of liberation theology is the same lie that we are constantly bombarded with by the current power brokers in Washington, D.C. No, the truth is we are not meant for perfect happiness here on earth, and any happiness here on earth comes, not from socialism or welfare or social engineering, but from our total trust in God. Many liberals in religion and government will attempt to sell us on a false god that wants us to be happy in the vagaries, vanities and allurements of this world. The true God Who brings us happiness and true peace in this world is the God we learn about in the teachings of Jesus Christ, handed down to us from Holy Mother Church.
We learn from Holy Mother Church that even evil is permitted to befall the Christian for the Christian’s own good. The persecution of the early Christians in Palestine and in Rome was the means of making known the Gospel in the countries to which the Christians fled or were banished. Imagine Catholicism in America if it hadn’t been for the persecution of Catholics in Ireland. While we endure the evils, misfortunes and persecutions that we meet in our lives, be they trivial, or great, we must realize that we see from a very limited perspective the infinitely greater works of God. We are unable to gauge the depths of God’s judgments, nor discern the goods that will flow therefrom. For “
how inscrutable are God’s judgments and how unsearchable His ways!” (Rom. 11. 33).
For this reason, the pious Christian must resign himself entirely to the will of God. In this is true peace and freedom from anxiety to be found in this world, and a sure means to the bliss of heaven after our sojourn here.
The Gospel from today’s Mass highlights this important fact. The boat in the Gospel reading symbolizes the Church, often tossed about on the stormy seas of this world, from which Our Blessed Lord teaches the multitudes, the nations. St. Peter doubted the words of Our Blessed Lord when he was told to launch out into the deep for a catch. However, the catch of fish was miraculous. St. Peter’s nets were breaking, and he needed the assistance of his partners. The ships were filled so high, that they were on the verge of sinking, and all were wholly astonished. Our Blessed Lord tells those first disciples: “
Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.”
Do not fear. Do not be anxious. We must not allow ourselves to be troubled about the arrangements God has made in His governance of the world and our lives. Who are we to dictate to God how such and such should work out, what desire of ours should be fulfilled or thwarted, what cross we should bear or not. Who are we to condemn God for the suffering of others? So few are those who see the existence of poverty or human suffering as an opportunity to practice charity and thus accomplish the works of salvation by God’s grace. No, they don’t see the suffering of others as opportunities to practice charity because these people are too busy blaming God for injustice. Such people speak platitudes about human suffering from places of comfort, and others (i.e. those who advocate liberation theology) resort to violence against neighbor because they do violence to God in their thoughts.
We can not alter the arrangements of God’s providence, and those who try, be they men of religion or politics, ultimately end in anguish, and lead countless others to the same end. The only means of achieving any degree of happiness in this world it to resign oneself to the will of God, in sickness, misfortune, financial difficulties or ruin, persecution, suffering, and finally death. In order to win the friendship of men, people adapt themselves to the humors and fancies of those men; they strive to find common cause. In order to win the friendship of God, one must adapt himself to what pleases God; to win God’s friendship, one must adapt himself to God’s will. The Christian in this life must strive to find common cause with God’s will. That is done by total resignation to His will.
The phrase, “
be not afraid”, has been misinterpreted by a generation that seeks truth in slogans and emotionalism. Our Blessed Lord isn’t trying to comfort His disciples. He is giving them a moral command. “
Fear not!” Be brave! Put away your anxiety about the things of this world, and look toward your heavenly homeland, toward the “
revelation of the sons of God”, “
for the adoption of the sons of God, the redemption of our body, in Christ Jesus our Lord”! Our Blessed Lord is commanding us to fear not by resigning ourselves to His divine will.
The man who cheerfully resigns himself to the will of God obtains true peace of mind, attains to perfections in this life, and is blessed by God. It is that person who is without fear. We know this from the lives of the saints, so many of whom enjoyed such blessed peace in this world that they were hardly moved even in the face of martyrdom. St. Ignatius of Antioch, and the early Christian martyrs, about to be devoured by the lions, looked up to heaven, and offered prayers to God and gave Him praise. St. Pio of Pietrelcina endured persecution, mocking and unjust censure, yet such sufferings did not dishearten or move him to passion. The meekness of St. Francis de Sales was legendary, and it won over many a heretic, even those who would viciously accosted him verbally. St. Francis of Assisi and his companions were beaten, mocked and humiliated by the Sultan’s men in Eygpt, but their serenity was so unmoved that St. Francis and his companions won the Sultan’s respect and admiration. We could on for hours listing the meekness and inner peace of the saints. Such saints were so meek, so mild, so unmoved, not because of some temperament with which they were born, but by continually striving to resign themselves entirely to the will of God.
Nor is this resignation something that we decide to do at the drop of a hat. One can not wake up in the morning tomorrow and say, “today I will be totally resigned to the will of God in my life.” Total resignation to the will of God is a virtue that must be grown and perfected by continuous practice and careful attention.
Dom Lorenzo Scupoli, in the spiritual classic, The Spiritual Combat, lays out a practical course to attaining the peace of mind that comes with the resignation of oneself to the will of God.
It begins by carefully cultivating a thorough distrust of the Self. “Distrust of the Self is so absolutely requisite in the spiritual combat that without this virtue we cannot expect to defeat our weakest passions, much less gain a complete victory.” Distrust of Self is a gift from heaven, cultivated in the soul by meditating upon our weaknesses, begging God to increase this virtue in us, accustoming ourselves to distrust our strengths, and thoroughly examining our consciences throughout the day, especially after committing some fault.
Distrust of Self naturally takes us, according to Scupoli, to cultivating an complete dependence and confidence in God. “To the distrust of Self, therefore, we must join firm confidence in God, the Author of all good, from Whom alone the victory must be expected,” wrote Scupoli. This confidence and trust in God is cultivated by fervent petition for this virtue, contemplating upon God’s immense power and infinite wisdom, meditating upon Our Blessed Lord’s promises in the Scriptures that no one who puts his trust in God will be defeated, and to recognize before attempting any endeavor our own weakness and the infinite power, wisdom and goodness of God. “Balancing what we fear from ourselves with what we hope from God, we shall courageously undergo the greatest difficulties and severest trials.”
Combining these efforts with ardent prayer, prayer in morning and evening, daily and sincere examinations of conscience, acts of reparation, mortification, and other pious acts as grace inspires, one will be able to execute the greatest plans and gain decisive victories. By frequenting the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confession, resignation to the will of God can become a reality, and serenity can come to reign in the soul even in this world of misfortunes and trouble. In this way we make Our Blessed Lord’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemani our own: “
Father, not My will, but Thine be done.”
Scupoli adds in His Treatise on Peace of Soul:
“It is necessary, however, to undergo much toil before we acquire this serenity, for our inexperience inevitably exposes us to the assaults of powerful enemies. But once acquired, this peace will bring untold consolation to our souls in their fight against the disquieting elements of the world, and daily we shall perfect the art of quieting the turmoil of the spirit.”
How much more rewarding is this peace of soul gained by trust in the Lord than the vanities and anxieties of the worldlings. Worldly men grasp upon the changing and fragile realities of this world, which like so much drowse will be cast upon the fire and burned, reducing them to nothing more than smoke and ash.
So, as we worship according the ancient rites, Holy Mother Church provides us the profound words of our prayer in today’s communion verse. The psalmist, trusting in God, and now we, learning to trust, rightly proclaim this day, “
The Lord is my firmament, and my refuge, and my deliverer, my God is my helper” (Ps. 17. 3).
Christ on the Cross by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, 1632
Pope Innocent X by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, circa 1650
St. John the Evangelist at Patmos by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, 1618
The Adoration of the Magi by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, 1619
The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, 1645
The Immaculate Conception by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, 1618
Christ on the Cross by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, 1632
Pope Innocent X by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, circa 1650
St. John the Evangelist at Patmos by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, 1618
The Adoration of the Magi by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, 1619
The Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, 1645
The Immaculate Conception by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velazaquez, 1618
