January 6th, 2024
Sermon in Avrillé, France
Dear Fathers, Brothers, Sisters,Dear Friends…Today the three kings of Orient looking after the King of the Jews were driven to Jerusalem by a magnificent Star and, among many other considerations, let me apply an important remark on the newborn Infant King founded by them in Bethlehem, namely, the Royalty of the Kingship of Christ, for both the Jews and the Gentiles, as Cardinal Pie declares on the three languages entitling the throne of the Cross: Jesus Nazarenus Rex ʝʊdɛօrum.
Certainly, this ceremony of Mayor Ordinations increases the number of members in the Militant Catholic Church in order to direct these subdeacons and deacon into the ranks of the Priesthood in the Traditional Roman Rite of Ordinations, in order to perpetuate the Holy Sacrifice of the Cross in His conquering Throne, as King of kings and Lord of lords, for the eternal salvation of souls.
Needless to say that the reception of the Subdiaconate and the Diaconate is to participate within the ranks of the Militant Church, whose soldiers and commanders were told to believe to Our Lord Jesus Christ’s words in the Pater Noster prayer, publicly said in the introduction of the sermon of the mountain. In particular, Adveniat Regnum Tuum!! Thy Kingdom come!!
As we believe, a subdeacon entirely consecrates to God his body and soul, as well as his heart and mind, in pronouncing the vow of chastity out of his full will, as a token of his voluntarily offering, as is in the case of religious order candidates who have already made at the solemn profession of their religious vows. The vow of chastity clearly intends to manifest the image of God in which Adam was made, and in which we are baptized. That’s why the new rite of ordination wanted to abrogate the mayor order of subdiaconate by the reform of Vatican II in detriment to the sacredness of the ministers at the altar.
In addition, as we believe as well, a deacon receives an indelible seal in his soul, because the more he approaches to serve the altar at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, next to the tabernacle, the more he participates in a higher degree in the redemptive work of salvation of souls. That’s why a deacon must preach the Deposit of the Faith; he is allowed to baptized by delegation of his Pastor, and he is allowed to give Holy Communion to the faithful, these spiritual powers signify the jurisdiction delegated into the Mystical Body of Christ, which is the Catholic Church.
Hence, in celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany the Catholic Church objectively expresses the meaning of the admirable STAR which guided the three Wise Men from their kingdoms to Bethlehem in order to find the Messiah, the Savior of the world: “O God, Who on this day did manifest Thine only-begotten Son to the Gentiles by the guidance of a star, graciously grant, that we, who know Thee now by Faith, may it lead us AD CONTEMPLANDAM SPECIEM CELSITUDINIS - by contemplating it on the same Faith, we may be led to contemplate our eternal destiny, through the same Jesus Christ Our Lord…”
As Saint Gregory commented in the lessons of the Breviary, the Angels reminded the prophecy to the shepherds who believed in it. However, a Star led the three kings from the Orient because through signs in the elements of nature they were led into the Messiah, Ad Contemplanda Speciem Celsitudinis. Our Catholic Faith indeed is profound; it is not against nature but beyond this terrestrial life leading us into our eternal destiny. Through His infinite Goodness, almighty God transmitted Divine Revelation to mankind, so that we have received Eternal Truth transmitted by Oral Tradition since Adam and Eve, and by Written Tradition through the Holy Scripture from Moses to Saint John the Evangelist.
Within this Deposit of Faith, the Catholic Church has transmitted to us that the Feast of Epiphany is a triple MANIFESTATION of Our Lord Jesus Christ: Firstly, to manifest that He is THE LORD of Lords to the three Wise Men, that is to say to the Gentiles; secondly, to manifest that He is the WORD OF GOD in His Baptism performed by Saint John the Baptist at the Jordan river when the Voice from heaven declared: “This is My Beloved Son”; and lastly, to manifest His MASTERING over heaven and earth by His first miracle of changing water into wine at the Wedding Feast at Cana through Our Lady’s intercession, in the opening of His Public Life.
IN FACT, it is in the performance of the Catholic Liturgy that the Church expresses most perfectly what she not only understands but also believes in Who is Our Lord Jesus Christ, and why she wants to ask us to contemplate in His Divine Person. Certainly, the Liturgy is neither just a reminder of the events of the life of our Lord, of His actions and His teaching, nor a code of regulations for a ceremony. It is above all a life of grace to transform us into the reality of children of God, because by means of the Liturgy Our Lord Jesus Christ communicates to us not only the Faith on His divinity but also the way of our sanctification: He communicates to us His divine grace, in particular His sanctifying grace, by the reception of the Sacraments instituted by Himself. It must be clear for us that the central point of the salutary action that communicates grace to us is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and in order to help us participate more fully in the Mass, the Church has set a cycle of Feast to remind us the life of our Lord and the lives of the saints, as Archbishop Lefebvre said during his conferences: The Mystery of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
So, the more we profoundly believe in the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ through the contemplation and studies of the Mysteries of the Life of our Savior, the more our Catholic Faith will transform us to be ready for eternal life because each event of the life of our Lord brings a particular grace.
That’s why in celebrating the Feast of the Epiphany, the three Wise Men manifested their submission to the Divine Infant as Lord of lords. The presents of Gold, Frank-Incense and Myrrh offered at Bethlehem respectively represent their homage and acknowledgment due to the Messiah: Gold signifies the Royalty as King of Kings; Incense signifies His Priesthood as a High and Sovereign Priest; Myrrh signifies the burial after His dead by which He has redeemed us. This is precisely what Catholic Theology teaches us that Jesus Christ is our KING, PRIEST, AND SAVIOR.
Let me briefly remark only one point in regards to “The Kingdom of Christ, which is the Church..” Regnun Christi, quod est Ecclesia (Cat. Council of Trent IV, 2nd,&73)
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“The Royalty of Christ the King, and in His Kingdom there is no end ”
Our Lord Jesus Christ confided His teachings to the Apostles and the successors of the Apostles. Before their departure from Jerusalem, the Apostles established in writing the Symbol of Faith: THE CREED. Some years later, the Council of Nicaea established in detail the tenants of the Catholic Faith, and asked all priests to publicly profess the CREDO on Sunday Mass. As Catholics, one principle of Divine revelation is firmly in the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ: “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, Our Lord.”
Really, do we Catholics believe so? Who is Jesus? Is He the Christ? Who is Our Lord Jesus Christ? In the Gospel of Saint Luke, we read that the Angel announced the name of Jesus by the command of God (Luke 1,31) What does Jesus mean? That He is the Savior. And to the name of Jesus is added that of CHRIST, which signifies THE ANOINTED, as the Council of Trent testifies. Christ’s word is expressive in honor and office, and since the Old Testament was given to priests, to kings, and to prophets. In the New Testament Jesus Christ our Savior came into the world, assuming these three characters: King, High Priest and Prophet, having been anointed not by mortal hand or with earthly ointment but by the power of His heavenly Father and spiritual oil for the plenitude of the Holy Ghost, and a more copious effusion of all gifts was poured into His soul. To Him therefore God delivered the government of the whole world, and to this His sovereignty - which has already commenced - all things shall be made fully and entirely subject on the last day of judgement. Indeed, Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end: Jesus Christ is the same Yesterday, Today, and through the centuries because He brings us into eternity.
It is important to know Our Lord Jesus Christ, to know His mission, His origin, to understand whence He comes. Our respect for Him will be in proportion to our intimate knowledge and union with Him, said Saint Ignatius in the Spiritual Exercises. To try to know Him better, to meditate in His relations with the Father in the bosom of the Blessed Trinity, both His eternal and temporal missions…. The union with Him has much influence in our own life, in the proportion that we may believe in His divinity. Consequently, If OUR LORD IS GOD, He is the Master of all things, meaning elements, individuals, families, nations, and any sort of societies, because He is the creator and the end of all things.
Otherwise, IF WE DO NOT BELIEVE IN HIS DIVINITY, we will not have the strength to uphold our Faith in opposition to the errors of the false religions in which our Lord Jesus Christ is neither a King nor is acclaimed to be God. Therefore, we will not be able to resist the consequences that our collapsing faith will have upon the morals of our State or Country, of our families or of our friends, or even our own self status.
Exactly, it is what the world is suffering throughout the dramatic crisis of the Faith within the Catholic Church from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy: Whoever opposes to the social reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ, he will accept all religions on a same level, or he will accept that error is in the same level than truth…. because in that scenario Our Lord in not longer considered to be the one Truth and the source of Truth.
If Our Lord Jesus Christ is not the Master of all things, then we lost the very sense of the Royalty of Christ the King. If people do not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then people will lose the Catholic Faith, and will practice any other religion made by men for the cult of Man. And therefore all Nations, families and people will fall into chaos, into immorality, into anarchy as we witness how the modern world and church is rejecting Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord. (cfr, AML sermon on the Epiphany 1986)
For example, what consequences provoked the Phantom Heresy: Americanism? Here is an excerpt of the Letter Testem benevolenciae, written by Leo XIII to Cardinal Gibbons, who was condemned for placing on the same level truth and error: “The principles of their new opinions can be said on these words: in order to bring back those who disagreed with the Catholic truth, we should say that the Church must adapt to the modern civilization which had reached an adulthood, and that relaxing the old time rigorism, she should incline in favor of the aspirations and theories of the modern societies. And another principle which is heard not only in regards to the discipline but also in the doctrinal points which constitute the Deposit of the Faith: They support in fact that it is opportune to keep silent in certain points of Catholic doctrine in order to bring back whoever is astray, like underestimating the importance or minimizing purposely the tenets of the Catholic Faith…”
At that time Catholicism made a large progress in the United States. However, such progress was more spectacular than profound. Some years later, many priests, nuns, and brothers abandoned the priesthood or their religious vocation. Also, many families looked after divorce, many others just became broken families throughout several decades of the 1900s, and after Vatican II Council the annulment of matrimonies have tragically been in a large demand. Certainly, as soon as the rate of divorces increased, not only abortion and euthanasia were legalized but also contraception and concubinage (free union of couples) increased above insanity.
Do we think that today’s Catholics believe in Jesus Christ, His Only Son, our Lord?
Deeds speak louder than words. It is evident that the heresy named after Americanism by Leo XIII has conquered the social, economic and political life of any society. The materialistic life and power of the American Industrial Revolution is mastering all over the world. Why is this heresy so strong? Because it is reconciled with Modernism. The essential element, under the concept of Americanism, is a remark very well descriptive as Liberal-Catholicism, which is essentially Liberalism in action: liberating the creature from His Creator through Industrial Revolution; liberating error from Truth and reality; liberating evil and immorality from good and moral precepts; liberating free-thinking and free-conscience from natural Authority… And all these liberations through the reconciliation between the syncretism of 1965 religious liberty-ecuмenism-collegiality and the modern world with the 1789 revolutionary principles liberty-equality-fraterntiy.
Here Leo XIII continues in his second letter “Longinqua Oceani” , dated on January 6, 1895. “But more (a fact which it gives pleasure to acknowledge), thanks are due to the equity of the laws which are obtained in America and to the customs of the weal-ordered Republic. For the Church among you, unopposed by the Constitution and government of your nation, fettered by no hostile legislation, protected against violence by the common laws and the impartiality of the tribunals, is free to live and act without hindrance. Yet, though all this is true, it would be very erroneous to draw the conclusions that in America is to be sought the type of the most desirable status of the Church or that it would be universally lawful or expedient for State and Church to be as in America, dissevered and divorced.
The fact that Catholicity with you is in good condition, nay, is even enjoying a prosperous growth, is by all means to be attributed to the fecundity with which God has endowed His Church, in virtue of which unless men or circuмstances interfere, she spontaneously expands and is prosperous herself; but she would bring forth more abundant fruits, if in addition to liberty, she enjoyed the favor of the laws and the patronage of the public authority.”
Conclusion
The only remedy is to accept the Social Reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ, not only as persons but also over our families and societies, over in public and private laws. Certainly, if we reject the evangelical law, there will be no other drama but to emerge into the chaos of free-thinking, immorality, error, free-speech in condemning everyone who adhere to Our Lord Jesus Christ’s law. In spite of all anarchy and confusion, let us be faithful to our vocations in the priesthood and religious life, and believe stronger than ever in the Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ: King go Kings, Sovereign High Priest and Prophet.
Let’s be careful and not fall in these traps:
In accepting to fight according to the plan of the adversaries of Jesus Christ, like enrolling us into associations which promote Vatican II false principles.
In speaking the language or words of the modernists.
In believing in God but not in Jesus Christ.
In accepting Jesus but not the Catholic Church.
In looking for an union outside of the doctrine of the Traditional Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
In having a common action with those who are not believers of Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord….
And here are some words of encouragement between Guillaume Aymeri and saint Jean D’Arc at Poitiers:
“ Jeanne, you said that God wants to deliver the people of France from their calamities, but if He wants to do so, it would not be necessary for Him to arrange in battle lines men for fighting. And Jeanne D’Arc replied, in the name of God those men arranged in battle lines will fight, and God will give to them the victory!”
In Mexico during the 1926 Cristeros Crusade, the Cristero General Gorostieta declared that the enemies of Jesus Christ are not the soldiers who they fight in the battle line but the Bishops, “Catholic Bishops” who betrayed not only the tenets of the Catholic Faith but also the soldiers of Christ.
Therefore, let us ask the three Wise Men the grace to profess our Faith in the manifestation on the Blessed Lord offering to Him the Gold of our talents, the incense of our prayers, and the myrrh of our sacrifices, so that we increase our knowledge and love for the Divine Infant, King of Kings, Sovereign High Priest and Prophet.
Viva Cristo Rey!! 
Topic: Bp. Zendejas sermon January 6 2024 (Read 1937 times)