In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen
My dearly beloved in Our Lord,
Last Sunday we have tried to establish the lines along which the true restoration of all things in Christ can and must happen.
(1) We always need to have before our eyes the end for which we have been created.
(2) God is in charge, not we ourselves. Our human pride and self-will are obstacles, not adequate means of bringing all things back to Christ. God will do His work, with or without us. He can raise children of Abraham from stones…
The Greek word which St Paul uses for “restoring” all things in Christ is “anakephalaiosasthai”. It means “to sum up”, “to bring back to the head” which is Christ.
Right away, then, we see the idea and the implications of the hierarchical order. There is no order without hierarchy. That which is higher needs to be placedat the top, that which is lower needs to be below. Christ is the head, we are the members of his mystical body.
We find this idea or principle of order and hierarchy very difficult. It means that our inborn pride makes us choose the first place, the noblest seat at the banquet. But God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. You can be of very humble origins and destined for the highest charges – like Joseph Sarto who ended up being Pope St Pius X. Or it can be the other way round, think of St Aloysius of Gonzaga who was destined by birth to be a princely ruler, but who gave up his birth-right, went to the Jesuits and died even before he was ordained to the priesthood.
God’s ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. In the present situation of the Church where she has been without a visible head, a Pope, formally speaking, since several decades, the speed with which all order falls to pieces is becoming greater and greater. The same principles which are playing out in the politico-sanitary chaos these days, make it that chaos and anarchy seem to be our lot now as members of the Church militant.
We have said last Sunday that a true restoration therefore does not consist in the attempt to re-establish some kind of Catholic life, ancient or recent. Most “traditionalists” have been, and are misled by this kind of concept or idea.
It is not enough to produce priests who distribute the Sacraments and blessings indiscriminately! Exchanging quality for quantity is never a good idea. “But we cannot survive without the Mass, without Confession…” [Believe me: Most of those who have regular and easy access to the priest, to the Sacraments, live very poorly! “Quotidiana vilescunt – daily things become vile.” Humans are creatures of habits, as we say (“Der Mensch ist ein Gewohnheitstier.”). Therefore it takes a constant effort not to succumb to the devastating effects of routine.] The Church has given clear rules, based on her teaching, practice and experience, with regards to the training of priests. They cannot be laid aside or forgone without serious consequences. In all other aspects of the life of the Church it is the same. Before we seek to know what to do, we need to scrutinize what the Church thinks and teaches.
Here also it is true that there should be no panic, but for the general “traditionalist” crowd this has no importance. The Church and the salvation of souls is God’s work primarily, not ours. We need to co-operate, and not to pretend to be the principal actors. Those who think they have to solve the crisis in the Church, and who are skipping stages to get there, are doing themselves and others no good.
The simple reason for this is: This situation is unprecedented, and God has not, so far, given us the means to solve such a problem.
There is a consistent theological explanation of what this situation means and what it entails, the Cassiciacum thesis of Bp Guérard des Lauriers. But since most people cannot read or think, they jump to conclusions and believe that Bp Guérard is pretending to give a solution which in their eyes is wrong. He explicitly states and writes otherwise! But they insist that the thesis says and means that the occupant of the See of Peter will convert, that then he will be ipso facto the Pope, and that this is the only solution possible. Nothing is further from the truth.
Those who pretended and pretend that a conclave is the solution have been proven wrong many times. They are wrong in principle because how would they even justify that those gathering – be they bishops of the sacramental order – have a valid legal title to be electors? Let them show a divinely signed patent or brief! They have been proven wrong in fact because their attempts have resulted in a good dozen of pretended “popes” over four decades. They have accidentally done a lot to discredit the position which holds that there is no Pope. But since they do not worry about theology, but rather about distributing Sacraments indiscriminately, they do not even realize that they torpedo the foundations of their own house. There is some distance between survivalism and trying to survive in difficult circumstances.
Those who act as if it were enough to ordain priests without having given them ground solid training and formation, are wrong in principle because the Church has clearly indicated the way to be followed. The Council of Trent in particular has established a framework which has allowed the Church to operate well throughout the troubled “modern” times. To pretend that the era of Trent is now revolved (I can give you the name and address of a priest who has affirmed this to me repeatedly…) means that you are half-way at least into modernism. They are wrong in practice because such priests can only cause pity. Often enough they act like the French “working priests” of the 1950s and 1960s who pretended that by living and working among the godless crowd, they would be able to convince souls of the truth. I am not saying that they are working priests – although such ones do exist – but that they lack the basic insight and understanding of what the priest is and always will be, and what he has to do. That our times are more deeply disturbed than before does not, and cannot change the order which God has laid down for the Church, the ark of salvation!
So where is the solution? Who will operate a true restoration of all things in Christ?
Only Christ is able to do so, as has been the case all throughout the history of the Church. He uses the means he chooses. They are human instruments, like the Emperor Sigismund who through prudent diplomacy and sometimes with pressure opened the way for the election of one Pope replacing the three existing claimants, thus ending the great western schism. At other times Christ used miraculous or quasi-miraculous events to restore peace and order in the Church. He made known to St Catherine of Sienna a secret vow which the Pope in Avignon had made to return to Rome. She therefore pressured the Pope to fulfill his vow, and thus the scandal of the Popes residing outside Rome for decades ended.
We should have no doubt that Christ knows what he is doing. “He hath chastised us for our iniquities: and he will save us for his own mercy.” (Tob 13:5) “Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous…” “Be not therefore solicitous for tomorrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.” (Mt 6:25.34) Our solicitude stems from the little trust we have in Christ’s promise. The Church founded by him is the New and everlasting Alliance in His Precious Blood. It is very simple. And it is very stupid of us not to believe wholeheartedly in this extraordinary divine promise!
Today is the “Mission Sunday”. The Church prays that the divine Master may send more workers for bringing in his harvest. Let us humbly make our contribution towards this unchanging goal and necessity.
Next Sunday, which will be the feast of Christ the King, we shall make a few concluding remarks to this brief series of sermons on true restoration of all things in Christ.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski
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