In the life of the Church, we are presently now preparing to celebrate the birth of our Lord and
Savior on perhaps that most glorious day that the earth has ever seen, that is, the day when the Son
of God was revealed to all mankind, first in the shepherds, then in the magi, and then he would be
continued to be revealed by his mother and father as a child. Ultimately, he would come to reveal
himself as that for which he came into the world, that is, that he was loved because his greatest of
all revealings was when he revealed himself to us as the suffering servant on Mount Calvary. And so
that is really the true Christmas gift, that Jesus Christ came in order to deliver us from our sins.
And so, Holy Mother,
the Church, during this season of Advent, focuses on many of what are called apocalyptic texts, that
is, those that refer to the end times. And indeed, no one was more of this ilk than St. John the
Baptist. His constant theme to all was that they were to repent, for he had a great awe and a great
reverence and a great fear of God. And he knew that fallen mankind was fallen because
they were sinners and that there was one who was to come to deliver him. And so, it is very crucial for us,
if we are to truly understand and enter into the Christmas mystery, that we must begin by that healthy fear of the Lord.
For it is often weven amongst men of goodwill, men who seem to live lives by which they seek to please God,
that this is not present. And so, it taints our Christianity, it taints our witness,
to the true Christian mystery. For John says that he baptized in water alone. His baptism was one of
repentance, but there was one to come after him who would baptize in the Holy Spirit. And there, he begins
to point that the one who was to come after him was the Almighty God. And so, we must, as it were, have that
true disposition. We must always reflect upon the almightiness of God. It has become custom within even
Christ and the whole of all of us. But we must always reflect upon the all mightiness of God. It has become custom within even
Christ and the whole of us. But we must always reflect upon the all mightiness of God. It has become custom within even
Christianity to consider God as some type of divine teddy bear that makes us feel good when
we are not feeling good, and we often don't refer to that terrible day that each and every one of us
will experience in one of two ways. That is, the day when we pass from this life in which we will
be judged by Almighty God, and then that day when the second advent comes and the Lord comes in all
his glory to judge the living and the dead. That is, when every rational creature stands before him
and receives that sentence, that sentence by which the Lord will either say, depart from me or come,
blessed of my Father. And so, in being baptized with the Holy Spirit, we are immediately
incorporated within the mystical body of Christ. And so, we must be constantly aware of our dignity
and we must always and every way be aware that,
in this life, we do not see God face to face, and that must be understood by every member of the
mystical body. We do not experience the beatific vision in this life, but often we go about as if
we had. Indeed, we can see, escaping from our lips, all kinds of comments that essentially seem to
declare that we are holy and we have nothing to work out, as St. Paul tells us, in fear and
trembling.
So, this
vision we have, this vision that comes to us under the gospel, is, as St. Paul says, a vision by which
we see darkly as in a mirror. It is only when the Lord gives us the final judgment that we will see
him face to face. And so, during Christmas, we must always and every way be constantly aware that
one day, this child who came to deliver us from our sins, we will stand before him and he will judge
us according to the gospel. And so, in being baptized with the Holy Spirit, we are immediately
reminded of how we have responded to his first advent. He comes in mercy, but mercy is something
that is given not to the sentimental, but to those who show themselves truly repentant of their sins
by trying to live the gospel life. And so, in our present day, in our present age, even within
Christianity, a healthy awe and fear become discarded in our religious practice, and we come
to disown the duty of reverence.
Reverence is that duty that each and every one of us have towards God. Not merely the members of
the mystical body, but every member of the human family must revere the one from whom they have
their very existence. And so, when this awe and fear is eliminated or discarded from the life of
the Christian, then, often, in our manner of speaking of religious things, we maintain reverence
in speech, but have no ability to do so when we are called to do so. And so, in our present day, in our
present day, we are called to resist the customs and the fashions received from our modern society,
and how often we are called to compromise our Christianity in ways that have seemed to become
ingrained in our culture, and in ways that we embrace and even think part of the Catholic
culture. For instance, one very prominent and known by everyone is that notion that Santa Claus,
in some way, is related to the Christian mystery.
For we are afraid to tell our children the truth, but one day, all children will be confronted by their
parents, and they will have to explain why have they, for so many years, fostered what is essentially
a lie in its essence to the child, rather than to explain to them the profound mystery of the Christmas
mystery, the profound reality of what Christmas is. Indeed, in a Catholic world, in a Catholic understanding,
the common custom was to have the exchange of gifts during the Feast of the Epiphany, and Christmas Day
was truly a day given to the Lord, and as Saint Francis would say, on that day, even the beast should be given
meat, for all should rejoice in the incarnate Word visible to mankind. But in our society, in our world,
we have compromise, and that compromise essentially becomes ingrained in a society,
especially a society that has as many Catholics as our society does because of our irreverence,
our lack of awe, our lack of fear. And so, we must have a proper understanding of the fear of the Lord,
for the fear of the Lord is again, not simply a fuzzy feeling, but the fear of the Lord is a gift of the Holy Spirit,
and indeed, it is the basis of all other gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit,
which makes us respect God and fear to offend His Divine Majesty, and which detaches us from evil while inciting us to do good,
and so the fear of the Lord is rooted in a willingness to sacrifice, a willingness to do penance, because we have truly
come to respect and revere the mystery of Christmas. It is rooted around the fact that God, as it were, is the Divine Majesty,
and often that is false.
For we have become accustomed to treat Christ as if he were just a mere man, a pal down the end of the street, someone that we go to visit when we are feeling bad.
But that is not the scriptural account, and it is certainly not who our Lord was.
He came to man in order to humble himself, and he did the things human beings did.
No one worked harder, no one obeyed his parents better than the Lord.
But indeed, he did all things perfectly to show us that he came to truly be amongst us, but always and everywhere at the same time, he was the divine majesty.
And in the holy home of Nazareth, Joseph and Mary always respected that divine majesty.
And while they were truly the ones who commanded him as parents command a child, they always revered him as their good God.
And so we see.
We see in the mystery of the Holy Family, which is essentially the mystery of Christmas, for we often forget that that mystery was not culminated until ultimately St. Joseph was brought into the mystery.
And there he would become the defender and the protector of the Holy Family as he is of the church.
And so he is the defender of the Christmas mystery.
Do we really believe St. Joseph in any way would compromise this mystery?
By trying to incorporate what at best is a combination of a Christian understanding and a pagan understanding, which is the true root and cause of St. Nicholas.
For we all know that jolly old St. Nick comes from the North Pole.
Yeah, just like the God Thor of the Nordic pagan mythology.
And there are many other parallels because at best it is merely a mixture of that.
Which St. Nicholas was and that which Thor was.
It was a compromise and indeed it was not even part of the American culture until the 1800s introduced then by the Dutch Reformed Church.
That Reformed Church that would ultimately come to the point of having drive-in Christianity.
You could literally go on Sunday like you would to a drive-in movie and there fulfill your Sunday obligation.
Is that who?
Is that who we want telling us who Christ is?
While we must always pray for those in error, we must have the courage to recognize it when we see it in all its manner and all its shapes and all its forms.
But we protest.
We do not come to know and recognize error by studying our catechism.
Our catechism will give us the foundation to refute all error no matter how sophisticated.
It may seem because sophistication is merely mystification.
One modernist theologian was mystifying the whole world, Karl Rahner, and who undid his mystification?
None other than that good child of the church, his brother, Father Hugo Rahner, who pointed out that his error was in the first paragraph of the first book he ever wrote.
And then it was all mystification.
And then it was all mystification.
And then it was all mystification.
And then it was all mystification.
And then it was all mystification.
And then it was all mystification.
There are many people who put themselves forth as holy and write flowing words.
But when you really get into it and try to find something concrete, you find nothing.
You find nothing.
You try to delve in to see how can this be explained?
How can I understand it?
And all you get is mystification.
Wonderful words, but clanging symbols.
Our faith is rooted on that soundness.
Our faith is rooted on that sound doctrine.
And that doctrine must be the guiding principle of all we do.
And that doctrine must inform us because it gives us the ability to refute error wherever and however we see it.
And sometimes it is seen in places we do not suspect.
That is within the very bosom of Holy Mother Church.
And so we see in modernism the postulation that is the only result of modifiedory humanism.
And that cannot be realized in concrete scholarship.
And so we see in fabric of the Barizada.
And that cannot be realized in public scholarship.
that no doctrine need to be believed so long as man's conduct is respectable and orderly which
leads to the belief of the universal salvation because it ultimately comes to deny the punishment
of the of the wicked is eternal and it has many forms this denial of doctrine as it has been
pointed out time and time again it has its liberal tyranny and its traditional tyranny and it is
always the same it is tyranny because the two extremes are never the virtue
and we have to get it into our heads that there is absolutely and positively no such thing as a
liberal catholic nor a conservative catholic there is orthodoxy and heterodoxy and no matter how much
a system may appear to look good if it in any way
complicates the system it is always the same it is tyranny because the two extremes are never the
same it is tyranny because the two extremes are never the same it is a doctrine of the church
it is not of the lord it is of the devil and it is the christmas mystery that refutes all things
because the christmas mystery tells us that the word became man and dwelt amongst us and came to
teach us sound doctrine and the only safe god of sound doctrine is the vicar of christ it is not
in the saints
because the saints works can be followed because the church has declared them to be saints and so
even within the mystical body of christ many are led from the divine person jesus christ
because of the cult of personality a charismatic figure some dressed liberally some dressed
conservatively leading thousands perhaps millions astray simply because we have replaced
the cult of christ the worship of the divine majesty with the mere worship of a man and that
is not catholicism it never has been and it never will be and it matters not how appealing their
system is to you or to me if it is contrary in any way by compromising a doctrine of holy mother
church it is simply not of the christ child and it is not of the christ child and it is not of the
Holy See that to think of the devil as according to holyика and we must always be aware of not
random problems represented holy by the creation of God and the purchase of in immorality in the
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incarnation of our programs come from of dutyn what Christ and remember that Jesus came using the
visibly in the fight for the salvation of souls.
She does not fight by retreating
or simply going out and allowing
whatever the culture has.
Both are an extreme reaction to sin.
But in doing so, they ultimately wind up.
Or as one theologian so eloquently puts it,
the playboy of today is the Puritan of tomorrow
and the Puritan of today is the playboy of tomorrow
because they simply bounce between two extremes.
And the excuse is not in the state of the world.
We cannot stand before the Lord and say,
well, I did it because...
because the Lord has one simple answer.
You did it because you did not trust me,
you trusted yourself.
That is the answer.
You didn't do it because you loved me,
you did it because you loved yourself
because liberalism and conservatism
is self-love at its extreme.
That's all it is.
My way or the highway,
both say the same thing.
There are no greater bigots in this world
than the liberals who claim to be for the poor man.
They categorize human beings
by categories of the poor man.
By categories,
that God created.
The color of our skin,
the color of our eyes,
the color of our hair,
whatever it is,
anything you can use to categorize a person.
And the one who goes to the other extreme,
he's more dangerous
because he categorizes people
according to whether he judges them
to be holy or not.
And what's the standard of holiness?
Themselves.
Always and everywhere
becomes the standard of holiness.
And that has nothing to do
with the Christmas mystery.
God came to claim all souls for his kingdom
that all of us may receive his mercy.
That is the point of Christmas.
Not a jolly old fat man
coming down a chimney,
but rather the Son of God
coming into the womb of a woman,
the Blessed Virgin Mary,
born in a cave at Bethlehem
and immediately subjecting that sacred flesh
to the vermin of that cave
and the cold of the night
for our sake.
That child who had already suffered
for nine months
by remaining silent
in the womb of his mother
for he was the Word of God.
And he did so
so that we may fear him,
but that healthy fear,
and that we may be in awe
of his divine majesty.
And if we are not,
then we have no reverence.
We simply become
tyrannical Christians.
Or, as it is properly put
by one theologian of happy memory,
Monsignor Eugene Cavan,
pantheist in Christian clothing.
That is all.
Because that is all it is.
And it is the same thing.
You can take its Christian form,
or its pagan form.
It has its preachers in both places.
Primarily in the secular world,
through the great icon of our society,
those great leaders of the modern world,
Led Zeppelin,
where all are one and one is all,
to be a rock and not to roll.
A perfect description
of pantheism and where it leads.
Perfect description
of what ultimately awaits us
if we fail God
by either one or the two extremes
and persevere in that failure.
Because it describes most perfectly
that torment of hell
which would be the greatest of torments
for a creature created to move.
Mankind is a mover.
But Led Zeppelin tells us
where all are one and one is all,
to be a rock and not to roll.
Is there any more perfect description
of the monotony of hell,
a rock that can't even roll?
And that is contrary
to the nature of man.
For man was called
to move towards God.
And that movement towards him continues
in the joy of heaven
for all eternity.
For we are constantly growing there
in our knowledge,
in our love for God,
in our love for him,
because infinite love
and an infinite being
cannot be exhausted
by finite creatures.
And so,
we need not reflect upon
what the beauty of heaven is
because we are tainted in our vision.
We'll think of it as
a building with pure white walls.
And then as we begin to reflect upon it,
maybe I don't want to go there.
That doesn't sound too appealing.
We simply must trust
what the gospel tells us,
particularly through St. Paul.
I hath not seen,
nor ear heard,
nor has it even entered
into the heart of man
what God has prepared
for those who love him.
Sufficient explanation
by the Holy Spirit
through the words of St. Paul.
That should be sufficient for us.
That in heaven
we are dealing with a mystery
that we cannot penetrate
in this life,
but we go forward
with the hope
as Catholic Christians
that we can attain it.
And not only that,
that all can attain it.
Those caught
in either extreme of error
or not.
For even if we are
in the state of grace,
we are still sinners.
And we have no right
to put ourselves forth
as more holy than thou.
There isn't a human being
in this world,
not the greatest saint living,
wherever he may be,
right now,
who isn't a sinner.
And it is the saint
who recognizes that.
That's why he has that fear
and that awe
and that reverence of the Lord.
Because he recognizes
at all times
he's a sinner
and he never throws
his spirituality
into the face of others.
Or demands from others
that they must do this
or they must do that.
Become angels
in human clothing.
We are not angels.
We will never be angels.
That's a false spirituality.
That is tyranny.
To try to convince
a human being
that he is an angelic being,
pure spirit.
What is it really?
An excuse for laziness.
An excuse for not wanting
to roll your sleeves up
and do the dirty work
that we must do
to work out our salvation
and fear and trauma.
That's all it is.
It's an excuse
to sit around all day long
pretending we love God.
Pretending we love God.
Putting on airs.
You know, walking about
flighty
as if we don't have
anything to do
with the common lot of man.
Or making sure
that our posture is perfect
while we're on our knees
because someone might
come in and see us.
Or to resist
and repeat prayers
over and over
and over and over
and over
like the pagans do
as scripture says.
Like the pagans do.
Thinking that we can
duplicate the mystical gifts
of great saints
like perhaps Saint Pio
who could pray
150 rosaries a day
mystically
because it is not possible
for the rest of us
to do that.
We have work to do.
And that work is for the Lord.
He could pray a rosary
in an instant of time.
A snap of his fingers.
When he prayed
150 rosaries a day
it wasn't the way we do it.
It was in an instant of time.
It was a mystical gift
that is gratuitous.
We can't force God
to give us those kind of gifts
no matter how much
we've progressed
in the spiritual life
because in the spiritual life
at all times
one aspect
is at the forefront.
We have the purgative
the illuminative
and the unitive
and they all are present
at all times
one at one time
may be predominant
but at all times
we must strive
and then realize
that one of them
is a perfectly gratuitous
gift of God
that no one can force him
to give.
The unitive
that we see
in the great mystical saints.
No one can force God
to give them that gift.
You can pray
a million rosaries a day.
That is a free gift from God
and it is not
it doesn't declare
one iota
who is holier.
Free gifts of God
are free gifts of God.
We are all called
to acquire contemplation
but God calls us
from there forward.
Some saints
he leaves at that level
others he doesn't.
That's his call.
That's his work.
It's none of our business
and if we don't think
this is rooted
in the scripture
in the words of the child
didn't he tell the apostles
who proceeded that way
several times
mind your own business.
Mind your own business.
What is it to you?
We're there.
Lord
who loves you more?
The Lord's answer
is very simple.
Never mind.
It's not your business.
I'll determine that.
You do what I ask
and you will become
a great saint
and your glory
may be greater in heaven
even if you don't
have all those
extraordinary
charismatic
mystical gifts.
That's not a sign of holiness
by the way.
There isn't a saint
in the church
not one
who was canonized
because of extraordinary gifts.
And if you can throw
anyone up as angel
well Saint Catherine Laboure
the mother of God.
She rested her head
on the lap of the mother of God.
That's why she was a saint.
No it's not.
She was a saint
because for 40 years
she was thrown up
on every day
by the drunks of Rudabach
and never responded
in an uncharitable way.
Never.
That's why she's a saint.
Her mystical gifts
were a consolation
and a gift given by God.
But they weren't
the cause of her holiness.
It was her response
and her daily begging
the good God
and his mother
as a sinner
for the graces
to endure
courageously
heroically
that which she would experience
every day of her life.
Every day of her life.
What one of us believes
that we are capable
of literally being vomited
upon every day of our lives
for 40 years
and never respond
with some form of hurt
not even an ugh.
She never did.
She never did.
That's heroic virtue.
Yeah, it's concrete Christianity.
It's not appealing.
It's not like flying
with the angels.
But it's true Christianity.
And it's what our Lord
clearly told the apostles
to go forth
and preach all nations.
The ordinary life of man
is difficult enough.
Don't complicate it
by demanding of God
forcing from him
that which no one
can force from him.
Love the Christmas mystery.
Live the Catholic faith.
And if the Lord chooses
to make of you
a great mystic
he'll do it.
Because he does it
whether you're in the cloister
or in the kitchen
as with Blessed Maria Taiji.
There is no limit
or no restriction.
One can't force God.
I can't insist
it must be the cloister
and you can't insist
it must be the kitchen.
Because it is God
who determines these things.
And so,
the mother in the kitchen
and the nun in the cloister
can have those gifts
or not have those gifts.
But to aspire for them
and to demand them
that is in the end
irresponsible.
Highly irresponsible.
And it diminishes
what really transpires
in the cave at Bethlehem
and the mission
of every member
baptized in the Holy Spirit
to go forth
and to show that mystery
in what they do.
Let us resolve simply
to do what the Lord asks
and stop complicating
or simplifying
our faith.
We know where it is.
It is found
in the vicar of Christ
who is the safeguard
and the vanguard
of the Christmas mystery.
Nowhere else
and anyone
works our good
only in so far
as they conform
to the guidelines
of the vicar of Christ.
Period.
He is the only one
our Lord
has guaranteed us
in matters of faith and morals
to be infallible.
And it matters not
if he is a living devil
in his personal life.
It matters not.
So this notion
that the Pope
got these personal foibles
or that personal foible,
they mean nothing
in the eyes of faith.
He still cannot deceive us
in matters of faith and morals.
And if he ever tried
to do so publicly,
it would be a terrible day
for him because
as Saint Alphonsus says,
the Lord would simply
remove him from this world.
That is why
it is not optional
for Catholics to pray daily
for the vicar of Christ
but it is demanded
by filial love.
As every child
is called to pray daily
for their parents,
every member of the mystical body
should pray daily
for the Pope,
the vicar of Christ on earth.
Because he is our only beacon.
He is our only safeguard.
But he is the greatest
of all beacons
and the greatest
of all safeguards
because the armies of the world
may be arrayed around him
and they may be surrounding him
at this very moment.
It matters not
because there are two,
one who stands on his left
and one who stands on his right
that will defend him.
That's Christ and his mother.
And behind him is Saint Joseph
daring the world
to come after him.
Go ahead, attack him.
He will refute all error,
and he will do
what I have commissioned him to do.
Defend the mystical body of Christ.
Defend the babe in Bethlehem.
Defend the Christ
who begins his public ministry in Cana.
Defend the Christ
who taught truth
in his public ministry.
And defend the Christ
crucified for our sins.
And so, that is our hope.
And we must not continue
to seek it outside
by what is ultimately reduced
to the cult of personality
and that, if you want to know,
is the origin
of the pagan gods of old.
Saint Augustine points out
who is Zeus
in one culture,
Jupiter in the other.
None other
than that little character
in the scripture known as Nimrod
who was going to build a tower
and storm the very heavens
and kick God out.
And then God simply changed
the languages of man
so much
for the assault of Zeus,
so much for the assault of Jupiter.
The cult of personality
is none other
than a modern way
of building up
false pagan gods.
You want to see it
very well on a progress
in one who lived,
whom we must pray for,
just look at what transpires
down in Tennessee
in the estate of Elvis Presley
and the reports
that Elvis talks to me
and I see him
and all that spiritual nonsense.
That is none other
than the beginning
of someone who,
if we don't live our message,
will become another false god.
Because that's where
the cult of personality
always leads to,
the worship of a false god.
Because we are called
to fear
and to revere
and to be in awe
of the one true God,
not of any man.
Not of any man.
Our Lord tells us very clearly,
do not be a respecter of persons
but be a lover of him
who in the end
can condemn the soul.
What doth it profit a man
if he were to gain the whole world
and suffer the loss of his soul
in the process?
It profits nothing.
And so let us truly
strive to enter into that mystery
knowing we go to the cave
with great joy,
but we go to be strengthened
for the battle.
For we are members
of the mystical body of Christ,
the militant members,
and we are on the forefront,
the front lines.
And so we must be willing
to fight error
inside the mystical body
and outside of her,
wherever we see it.
And let us often note
that the scripture seems to indicate
that Christ was much more stern
with those who had fallen into error
and had authority
than those who were not.
Much more compassionate,
much different approach.
But in our age,
we say, oh no,
that's not nice.
Was St. John the Baptist nice
when he referred to the Pharisees
and the scribes
as a brood of vipers?
Not only was he nice,
he was exercising charity
at its highest level.
Because that stern correction
was the only thing
that could bring them out
of their arrogance
and their pride.
And arrogance and pride
has nothing to do
with a person's temperament.
It has to do as to whether
they allow God to sanctify
the temperament he gave them.
Our Lord had his Saints Bartholomews
and his Saint James and Johns.
And they were of completely
different temperament.
Because we often like to think
bad person,
because I don't like that temperament.
Too forward or too easy.
That doesn't determine pride or arrogance.
It is determined by whether we
are doing the will of God
or our own will.
And God help us
if we are doing our own will
in claiming God as our author.
Let us simply humbly
present ourselves to him
who is our God
and beg him to deliver us
from our sins
and to deliver every soul
from their error.
For every single one of us
examining our conscience
can find it in us
and probably find too much of it
than we care to deal with.
And the Lord's answer is
then don't try.
Let me deal with it.
That is the ultimate difference
between the Christ child
and the tyrant.
The tyrant simply says
you deal with it or else.
The Lord says I'll deal with it
and there won't be an or else
if you just listen.
Let me in this world
so that you can be with me
in the world to come.
Let me in this world
so that you can be with me
in the world to come.
Let me in this world
so that you can be with me
in the world to come.