THE MERCY OF CHRIST

The All-Merciful Christ

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How will our Divine Lord welcome a heart returning to Him contrite for past disorders and humbled at the prospects of His Justice? With a Compassion befitting the great and merciful God that He is. When the Son of God came down to earth –tanquam sponsus procédens de thálamo suo– from the brightness of His Glory to the obscurity of the Virgin’s Womb, His Divine Immensity “dwindled to human infancy,” He seems to be in a hurry to divest Himself before our eyes of the mantle of His Sovereign Majesty. He speeds to earth, not with thunder and lightnings, not to open the sluices of the ocean—for Sinai and the Deluge were not so effective!... He comes to earth in search, not of the pure and noble remnant of our race, not to a hidden Noe or a persecuted Elias; He comes in search of sinners: “I came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:32); “Christ came into the world to save sinners” (1 Tim. 1:15).

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John the Baptist, the last of the prophets of the Old Covenant, was a second Elias filled with the idea that the Messiah was to come to avenge; One whose axe was put to the root of the tree, Whose winnowing-fan was ready to purge the threshing-floor clean in order to gather the wheat and consume the chaff in unquenchable fire. But no sooner does he set eyes on Jesus than his mind seems to undergo an abrupt change. Who would have imagined that those very lips, which had been preaching punishment and austere penance, would suddenly break out into an expression of the utmost tenderness?

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“Behold the Lamb of God! Behold Him Who taketh away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) – From the rock flowed honey …  

 

The idea launched by the Precursor was well confirmed by Jesus in His actions, His sayings, and His parables. Why not search for them by reading the Gospel? What repentant sinner ever went to Him and was not welcomed with a thrill of fatherly emotion?

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Now it is a woman caught in the act of adultery whom His Mercy shields from the shower of stones prescribed by the implacable Law, and on whom He imposes no other penalty than to allow her penitential future to be steeped in the ineffable sweetness of His parting words: “Neither will I condemn thee; go, and now sin no more” (John 8:2). Now it is the woman notorious for her light conduct, who in anxious fear takes refuge under the shadow of His compassion, and finds herself rehabilitation, and is defended from her accusers by the irresistible eloquence of the Divine Word. Now it is the publican, a public swindler, whom Jesus goes out of His way to meet and welcome an invitation from; the man who receives Jesus with the fragrant kiss of fourfold restitution for any ill-gotten gains.

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Now it is the good thief, who with three words from a cross next to Thine, O Jesus, steals away Thy very Heart, Thy Forgiveness, and Thy Father’s Kingdom… closed until then even to the Just! Prodigious Mercy Thine that would be accompanied, on Thy entry into the Kingdom, by a criminal executed on the public gallows, as if he were Thy knight-companion!

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“I say to you that even so there shall be joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance” (Luke 15:7).

 

The sweetness of these words could melt a heart of stone. They are, dear Lord, the refrain closing those three magnificent stanzas of Chapter 15 of Saint Luke –the sinner’s chapter– wherein, O Sovereign Troubadour of Heaven, Thou hast sung the praises of Thy Eternal Pity!

 

How could I so much as dream that my poor soul’s return to Thee had power to move Thee so deeply, to produce in Thee such intense delight, as to rally all Heaven together to join with Thee in festive thrill and cheer?

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How shall I, who have given Thee so much displeasure throughout my long sinful life, refuse Thee at least this moment of delight? My sincere conversion will be a festive occasion not only for Thee, but for all Thy Angels and Saints as well!  

 

Have words ever sprung from Christ’s lips so revealing of His Love for us? Do I not grasp their meaning? Or do I fail to understand what it is to love?

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Taken from The Priest at Prayer by Fr. Eugenio Escribano (1954)



Portae Inferi Non Praevalevunt

The faith by which we live shall never vary in any age … for one is the faith which sanctifies the just of all ages. ~Pope St. Leo the great

 

Pope Pius XII

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A great safeguard is the entire faith, the true faith, in which neither anything whatever can be added by anyone nor anything taken away; for, unless faith be one, it is not the faith. ~Pope St. Leo the Great

 

Truth, which is simple and one, admits of no variety. ~Pope St. Leo the Great

 

We anathematize those who presume to teach or explain any other creed. ~Pope Vigilius

 

Let nothing of the truths that have been defined be lessened, nothing altered, nothing added, but let them be preserved intact in word and in meaning. ~Pope Gregory XVI

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Pope Pius XII 

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Pope Pius XII

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Pope Benedict XV

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Pope Benedict XV at prayer

 

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If anyone according to wicked heretics in any manner whatsoever, by any word whatsoever, at any time whatsoever, or in any place whatsoever illicitly removes the boundaries firmly established by the holy Fathers of the Catholic Church ... in order to seek for novelties and expositions of another faith ... and, briefly, if it is customary for the most impious heretics to do anything else, should anyone through diabolical operation crookedly and cunningly act contrary to the pious preachings of the orthodox teachers of the Catholic Church, that is, its papal and conciliar proclamations, to the destruction of sincere confession unto the Lord our God, and persist without repentance unto the end: let such a person be condemned forever, and let all the people say: So be it! So be it! ~Pope St. Martin I

 

We declare that no one is permitted to introduce, or to describe, or to compare, or to study, or otherwise to teach another faith. Whoever presumes to introduce or teach or pass on another creed . . . or whoever presumes to introduce a novel doctrine . . . We declare to be anathematized. ~Pope St. Agatho

 

Beyond a doubt, they perish eternally who do not keep the Catholic faith entire and unchanged. ~Pope Gregory XVI

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Pope Pius XII

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Pope Pius XII - Jubilee year 1950

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Pope Pius XII

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Pope Pius XII creating Cardinals

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Pope Pius XII

 

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If anyone says that it is possible that at some time, given the advancement of knowledge, a sense may be assigned to the dogmas propounded by the Church which is different from that which the Church has understood and understands: let him be anathema. ~ Pope Bl. Pius IX

 

The Church of Christ, therefore, is one and the same forever. ~Pope Leo XIII

 

I accept with sincere belief the doctrine of faith as handed down to us from the Apostles by the orthodox Fathers, always in the same sense and with the same interpretation. ~Pope St. Pius X

 

The proposition that the principal articles of the Apostles' Creed did not have the same meaning for the Christians of the earliest times as they have for Christians of our time is hereby condemned and proscribed as erroneous. ~Pope St. Pius X

 

Those wretches tainted with the error of Indifferentism and Modernism hold that dogmatic truth is not absolute, but relative: that is, that it must adapt itself to the varying necessities of the times and the varying dispositions of souls, since it is not contained in an unchangeable revelation, but is, by its very nature, meant to accommodate itself to the life of man. ~Pope Pius XI

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King Henry IV doing penance before Pope Gregory VII 

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Pope Pius XII imparting a blessing

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Pope Leo XIII

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Pope St. Pius V 

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Pope Bl. Pius IX imparting a blessing

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Pope Bl. Pius IX

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Pope Pius XI

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Pope Pius XI

 

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We are not, therefore, teachers of a doctrine drawn from human minds, but-----conscious of our charge-----we ought to embrace and follow that which Christ Our Lord taught and Whose teaching, by a solemn commandment, He committed to His Apostles and to their successors ... Moreover, since We are very certain that this doctrine which we must safeguard in all its integrity is Divinely revealed, We repeat the words of the Apostle of the Nations: "But though we, or an Angel from Heaven, preach to you a Gospel besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema" (Galatians 1: 8). ~Pope Pius XII

 

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Pope Bl. Pius IX

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The preaching of the faith has lost nothing of its relevance in our times. The Church has a sacred duty to proclaim it without any whittling-down, just as Christ revealed it, and no consideration of time or circumstance can lessen the strictness of this obligation. ~Pope Pius XII

 

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Pope Pius XI

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Pope Pius XII

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Pope Pius XII

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Pope Pius XII

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Pope Pius XII

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Pope St. Pius V 

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Pope St. Pius X

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Pope St. Pius X

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Pope St. Pius X at prayer 

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Pope St. Pius X

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Pope Pius XI receiving a gift (a tiara) from the people of Milan

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Pope Leo XIII

The Sign of the Cross IV

PRAYING AND MAKING THE SIGN OF THE CROSS OVER OUR FOOD

Those who abstain from praying before eating dishonor the entire human race. They dishonor the human race because they resemble the beasts. Up to today, in nature it is known of only one species of beings that does not pray before eating. Everyday we know of two: the beasts, and those who resemble them. I say to those (men) who resemble them: Between a dog and a man who eats without praying, what is the difference? I do not see any! And the Academics of Science do not see any more than I do. For them, the first one is a bipede and the second is a quadrupede, but both are beasts nonetheless. Bipede or quadrupede, seated or stretched on the ground, singing, chatting or roaring, with hands or with claws, with eyes, heart and teeth immersed in matter, devouring savagely their nourishment, without raising their heads towards the hand that gives it to them. The man who acts thus puts himself outside his own (human) species. He who eats like a beast remains a beast.

Praying over our food is as old as the world, so extended as the human race. The Jews did it according to the Law of Moses, “Blessed be the Lord Our God Who has created the fruit of the vine.” “Praised and blessed be Our God Who has extracted bread from the earth.” All these rites are more venerable when we consider the fact that our Lord Himself did this. What does the adorable Master of the human race do at the Last Supper? What does He do after Supper is ended? He sings with His disciples hymns of Thanksgiving! In many other instances we see Our Eternal Model, Jesus Christ, praying before receiving or giving food (When He feeds the 5 thousand people). The Incarnate Word has done this to teach us, according to the Church Fathers, to not eat without blessing and giving thanks. In addition, the Apostles and the first Christians did the same in imitation of the God-Man, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Tertullian: “Eating begins and ends with prayer.” Similar quotations could be cited from both the Latin and the Greek Church Fathers. “O Thou Who give nourishment to all that breathes, deign to bless the gifts that we are about to receive…” Even Protestants, despite their attacks on the Church, have preserved similar traditions and prayers. But something that will seem much stranger is that the blessing before eating was practiced even by the pagans. Yes, my friend, the Greeks and the Romans religiously practiced that which many of your friends now are ashamed of. “The ancients,” says Atheneus, “did not ever take any food without having first appeased the gods (through prayer).” He also says of the Egyptians, “After having seated at the table, they stood up, then knelt and the head of the family or a priest began the traditional prayers.”

Those ancient masters of the world did not touch their food without first having it consecrated to the divinity. Even the barbarians imitated the civilized in this practice! So, you see my friend, that to bless our food is a law of the human race. To be ashamed of saying graces before meals, as your peers are, great speakers of freedom and independence that they are, makes them slaves, and slaves of the vilest tyrant: HUMAN RESPECT! Poor creatures! Who, to mask their slavery, end their objections by saying: The Sign of the Cross is a useless practice… and an old-fashioned one. It is my duty, then, to take off the mask with which your friends (or enemies) try to hide themselves.

Three tyrants dispute the freedom of man, mine, yours, and even that of your companions. These tyrants are: the world, the flesh, and the devil. These three tyrants claim a right and power over us that they do not have, and want to make us slaves. They try to keep us from making the Sign of the Cross. We would be so weak and stupid, were we to submit ourselves to them. If we did, we would be committing the sin of greatest ingratitude!!!

The Sign of the Cross - III

A seventh reason why we must make the Sign of the Cross is that It is a treasure that enriches our poverty. A beggar is he who everyday goes from door to door to beg his daily bread. Cresus was a beggar, Caesar was a beggar, the Emperors and Kings were all beggars, Empresses and Queens are beggars, crowned beggars if you will, but always beggars. Man’s indigence is present daily, at every hour, at every moment! From this results the great law of the moral world upon which few reflect. I’m talking about the law of prayer. The pagan world had lost a great part of its patrimony of the traditional truths, but it did not lose the knowledge of the law of prayer. The human race, from the first days of its appearance upon the earth, has observed it, although under various forms. The day in which no person, human or angelic, lift itself towards God in prayer, on that day there will cease all rapport between the Creator and the creature, between the rich par excellance and the beggar. The physical world itself has been organized in view of the perpetual observance of the law that Our Lord gave us: that we must pray always. Thanks to the successive path of the sun over one and the other part of the hemisphere half the human race is always awake to attend to prayer. One of the most potent prayers is the Sign of the Cross.

In the Old Testament, for the sacrifices, the priest first raised the victim, and then he moved it along from east to west. This movement formed the figure of the Cross. The High priest, and all other simple priest, blessed the people after the sacrifice doing the same movements. At the time of Ezekiel, when the abominations of Jerusalem were at its peak, a mysterious person received the order to cross the city and mark with the sign T the foreheads of those who cried for the iniquities of that guilty city. All those who were marked with the Sign of Salvation were spared from death. Tertullian and Jerome say: “The Tau Sign, marked on the foreheads of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who cried for the crimes of that city, protected them against the exterminating angels. The Sign of the Cross on the forehead is an assurance that those who are marked will not be the victims of the devil.” The Philistines had reduced the Israelites to the most humiliating servitude. Samson begins to free them. Unfortunately, the strong one of Israel let himself be surprised, and was chained and blinded. Meanwhile, Samson, meditating on how to take revenge, plans to kill thousands of his enemies in one blow. Providence disposed that he would accomplish his plan making the Sign of the Cross. “Standing in between the two columns that held the building,” says St. Augustine, “the strong one of Israel extends his arms in the form of a Cross. In such an omnipotent attitude, he pushes against the columns, makes them tremble, and destroys his enemies.”

From there and many other examples in the Bible we can see that to pray with the arms extended, forming the Sign of the Cross, has been known from the most remote times of antiquity; and its mysterious omnipotence has been experienced. In a certain sense then, the Sign of the Cross would say what the Savior Himself said: “All power has been given to Me in the Heavens and on the earth.” Heaven itself is disposed in the form of the Sign of the Cross: What do the four cardinal points represent if not the four lines of the cross and the universality of its virtue.

We are soldiers, and the Sign of the Cross is a weapon against the enemy. More than three (3) thousand years ago, Job defined human life as a continuous battle. Centuries have gone by and the definition has remained the same. Life is a battle for you, for me, for your peers, for the rich as well as for the poor. It’s a battle that begins at the cradle and it does not end but at the grave! Such my dear friend is the condition of man, and we can’t do anything to change that. And who are man’s enemy, yours, and mine? Eh! We all know them, not only by their name, but also by their attacks: The devil, the world, and the flesh! Three (3) powers conspiring to bring us to ruin!

Demons are fallen angels. Their intellect, strength, agility, etc., are superior to ours; their number is incalculable. Jealous that the children of Adam were called to eternal happiness, which they had lost, their only aim and occupation is our destruction, increasing or passions, creating dangerous situations, darkening in us the gift of faith, destroying our moral sense, suffocating our remorse, making us accomplices of their rebellion in order to make us their companions in Hell!!! So, as sure as our battles, and man being in so weak a condition, could it be conceivable that Divine Wisdom would not give us a way to defend ourselves? On the contrary, in order to help us in our battles, God has given to man a powerful and universal weapon that is always at the reach of everyone. What could this weapon be???

Let us question every century, above all the Christian centuries. They respond with a unanimous voice that this weapon is the Sign of the Cross! This weapon had been used by the most learned and holy men in the East as well as in the West. St. John Chrysostom says: “Do not ever go out of your house without making the Sign of the Cross. It will be for you a shield, a weapon, an inexpugnable tower. Neither man nor demon will ever dare to attack you, if they see you clothed with this armor.” Origen says: “The Sign of the Cross is the invisible armor of Christians. Soldier of Christ that you are, wear (use) This Armor always during the day, and during the night, and everywhere. Without It do not undertake any task, whether it be sleeping or traveling, resting or working, eating or drinking, be always clothed with This Protective Armor. Adorn and protect every single one of your members with This Victorious Sign. At the sight of This Sign the infernal powers flee scared and stupefied.” St. Augustine used to say to the Catechumens: “We must confront the enemy with the Symbol and Sign of the Cross; so that the Christian vested with these weapons may easily triumph over the ancient and prideful tyrant.” St. Athanasius says: “By means of the Sign of the Cross the works of magic are made impotent; all the enchantments lose their efficacy. By means of It, the impetus of the most brutal will is moderated and pacified.”

The Human Conscience

Pope Pius XII once said: “The great sin of our century is the loss of the conscience of sin;” an eclipse of the moral conscience. People in our times do not believe in sin anymore. They minimize immoral acts to mere choices that according to them, just because they choose them and like them, are O.K…. and should be accepted by everyone else.

There are sane and evil conducts. Our own consciences tell us when we do something that is not right, that hurts us or others, that is not natural, that goes beyond the limits of our rights and freedom.

In the eclipse, or darkening, of the moral conscience, there are three phases:

1) In the first phase, there is sin and there are sinners. In this phase, sin and sinners and their guilt are recognized. The sinner is held accountable for his crime, sin, and/or fault, and is punished accordingly by the law, after being accused by his own actions and conscience.

2) In the second phase, there is sin, but there is no sinner. All crimes, sins, social and moral misdeeds are attributed to the system, the environment, circumstances, needs, weakness, etc., but there is no mention of guilty persons, no sinners, no punishments.

3) In the third phase, there is no sin… and LONG LIVE the sinner! People believe that no one has the right to tell them what to do and how to do it. In the name of distorted freedom, sinners are rewarded for all the time that they were seen and treated as sinners.

Morals are thrown out the window and are replaced by laws that are really usurpers of Divine Truth and true liberty. What was considered sinful becomes a virtue; virtues are belittled, mocked, repudiated. Public sinners are considered heroes, role models of society, and become the idols of the youth.

All of this is a process of a moral involution in which the human conscience is silenced, obscured, and disfigured. According to Pius XII, “the human conscience is the tabernacle of man,” which protects and defends the voice of God in and for man…. so that we may know what we do right and what we do wrong.

In human beings, there are two consciences: the psychological conscience and the moral conscience. The psychological conscience is the indicative perception of what we actually do and feel. For example, when we are hurt, hungry, tired, thanks to our psychological conscience, we feel pain, hunger, and the desire to relax.

The moral conscience is the imperative appreciation of what we should do and feel. Our moral conscience tells us how we should behave in certain situations, how we should respond to certain events, and when we do something that is right or wrong, good or evil. This moral conscience is what makes us, humans, different and even superior to irrational animals because it is superior to the psychological conscience.

For example, during Lent we usually fast. Even though our psychological conscience tells us that we are hungry, after hours without eating or drinking anything, our moral conscience tells us that we should not eat or drink anything so as not to break the fast. This is due to the fact that our consciences are witnesses of our actions; it is the herald or messenger that announces the decrees of the King (according to St. Bonaventure). We are all born with it (moral conscience), and it guides our steps when it comes to deciphering whether what it tells us comes from God (King) or not.

In order to find out, anytime we want, whether what our conscience commands us to do, or not do, comes from God, there are three things that we should always do:

1) To pray sincerely, to immerse ourselves in the depths of God.
2) To apply the holy virtue of Prudence: to use reason, to act with logic, to ask when we do not know or need advice, to anticipate future dangers or obstacles, to be cautious, to analyze circumstances and situations, and to use our intuitions wisely.
3) To exercise ourselves in the virtue of Charity in order to form and reform our moral conscience. We can achieve this by:
a) Doing good and to opposing and resisting all evil.
b) Making the resolution: “I will NEVER do evil under the pretext of getting something good.”
c) Never doing to another person what we would never consent anyone to do to us.
d) Never cooperating voluntarily in evil against another person.
e) Accepting the dictum that there is no liberty of conscience without TRUTH, but only within TRUTH. This last point concerns politicians more than others because they are the ones in charge of making, abolishing or distorting laws that might, and usually do, fall under the turf of morality such as abortion, contraception, capital punishment, stem cell research, etc.

~Fr. Hasbún

The Sign of the Cross II

† The Sign of the Cross †

BUT that’s not all! Take a look at what the Church does through the person of the priest at the Altar. Armed with the Omnipotence that was given to Her, She commands not only creatures, but the Creator Himself; not man, but God Himself. At Her voice the Heavens are opened, the Word incarnates and renews all the mysteries of His life, death, and resurrection! Also, in the course of the Action par excellance, that is the Mass, what does the Church do? More than ever, She multiplies the Sign of the Cross; She surrounds Herself with the Sign of the Cross; She walks by means of the Sign of the Cross; She repeats It so frequently that the number could even seem an exaggeration, if it were not deeply mysterious!!! Do you know how many times the priest makes the Sign of the Cross during the Mass? Forty-eight (48) times! I’m wrong, forty-nine (49) times because as long as the Holy Sacrifice is taking place, the priest himself is a living Sign of the Cross. Would the Catholic Church, the great Instructor of nations, the great Teacher of Truth, would She be amused at repeating so frequently in Her most solemn act a useless, superstitious and unimportant sign? If you or your friends think so, then you are guilty of incredulity.

A fourth motive for making the Sign of the Cross as the first Christians did is those people who do not make the Sign of the Cross.
1) The Pagans: Chinese, Indians, Tibetans, savages, adorers of idols, people completely degraded and unhappy. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.
2) Muslims: pigs for sensualism, tigers for cruelty; these do not make the Sign of the Cross.
3) Jews: deeply encrusted in a dense stratum of ridiculous superstitions, living petrification of a decayed race. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.
4) Heretics: (Protestants) - impertinent sect followers, who in their pride and protests, have lost all trace of Truth. Protestants do not make the Sign of the Cross.
5) Bad Catholics: renegades of their baptisms, slaves of human respect, ignorants and arrogants who speak of everything and know nothing, adorers of their bellies, of pleasure, of materials. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.
6) Beasts: Bipeds and quadrupeds of every species; dogs, cats, donkeys, mules, camels, crocodiles, ostriches, hippopotamus. These do not make the Sign of the Cross.

A fifth reason for making the Sign of the Cross is that we are creatures of dust and the Sign of the Cross ennobles us. We are worms of the earth on the cradle, and food of worms in the grave. We are weak, nothing, shamefully confused as any other animal when we are born. However, we are the image of God; we are the crown of creation! God touches our foreheads and imprints the divine sign that ennobles us! It ennobles us because it comes from Heaven! We know that It comes from Heaven because the earth confesses not to have invented It. Go through every country and every century, nowhere will you find a man who claims to have invented the Sign of the Cross, or a Saint who claims to have taught It, or a council that claims to have imposed It! Tertullian says: “Tradition teaches It, practice confirms It, and the Faith observes It.”

A sixth reason to make the Sign of the Cross is that It is a book that instructs our ignorance. Creation, Redemption, Glorification. These three words are necessary to man more than the bread that nourishes him, more than the air he breathes. What doctor will be charged with teaching the indispensable Truth? St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, or another great genius of the East or the West? No! These doctors die; here, there’s need of one that will not die. There’s need of a doctor that is everywhere, that speaks a language intelligible to all, to the savage as well as to the civilized man. Who will be this doctor? You have already said it: The Sign of the Cross! This and only this sign fulfills all the required conditions. It does not die; It is everywhere; Its language is universal. An instant is enough for It to teach us Its lesson! An instant is enough for everyone to understand Its lesson. Behold the Sign of the Cross! Behold the duly established catechist of the human race!!!

When we make the Sign of the Cross we say In the Name not in the names, which teaches us that there is an indivisible unity of the Divine Essence. Through these words a boy or a girl knows more than the philosophers of the old paganism ever knew! Pronouncing the word of the Father a new and immense ray of light shines in our intelligence. This Sign of the Cross tells us that there’s a Being, Father of all fathers, Eternal Beginning of the Being from which creatures take their origin. As we continue saying: And of the Son, the Sign of the Cross continues giving Its lesson. It tells us that the Father of all fathers has a Son similar to Himself; It teaches us that This Eternal Son once made Himself Son of Man in the Womb of a Virgin to rescue man. Man was lost. Then we end by saying: And of the Holy Ghost. This word completes the teaching of the Sign of the Cross; thanks to It we know that there is in God Unity of Essence and Trinity of Persons.

Based on all this, what does the modern world knows then? This century of intellect, which does not know how to make the Sign of the Cross, knows not more and not less than the pagans knew! This world adores the god-me, the god-commence, the god-vapor, the god-cotton, the god-belly! As means of satisfaction for its concupiscence, it adores the science of matter, of chemistry, of physics, of mechanics, of dynamics, salt, etc. Behold its gods, its cults, its theology, its philosophies, its morals, its life!!!