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In today's Gospel, we hear what the fate is of those who turn away from the Lord God—those who reject the Lord God, those who despise Him. It is the fate of both the faithless Jews and, indeed, of all faithless Catholics. Malos male perdet—He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out the vineyard to other husbandmen who shall render Him the fruit in due season.

Dearly beloved, something that contemporary "so-called" Catholics are very, very, very reluctant to think about is the fact that the Lord God punishes for evil. This is one of the fundamental truths of faith: God rewards the good and punishes the wicked. Without reward for good and punishment for sin, there is no morality. But this, my dear friends, is something that a completely "new person," a "new religion," is pushing out. It is something that has completely vanished from our thinking. Who today still thinks that the Lord God could punish anyone for anything? "But He is merciful," they say. "So how, why, for what purpose? How is it possible He would punish someone?"

Yet, for 2000 years, Holy Church taught exactly this, because it is a truth revealed by God. Good is rewarded; evil is punished. Divine punishment is the consequence of sin. Where there is sin, punishment must appear. God grant it be temporal punishment in this life, and not eternal punishment—eternal damnation in Hell.

And dearly beloved, take note: in that beautiful Polish devotion, the Gorzkie Żale (Lamentations), when you take the Second Part and read the intentions, this fundamental truth—from the perspective of morality—is expressed very clearly, very concretely:

    "These wounds, insults, and outrages, let us offer to the same suffering Jesus for all of Christendom... also to implore the forgiveness of sins and the punishment for them, namely: plague, famine, fire, and war."

War, my dear friends, is a consequence of sin. War is a kind, one of the kinds, of Divine punishment. If various discussions are now appearing on the internet, everyone has suddenly become "little Napoleons," strategists explaining to us what we should think. Even in the so-called "right-wing internet," there is a mass of experts on Iranian affairs lecturing on what this is all about. But not one of these commentators will mention this basic truth: War is a punishment for sin. War is a consequence of sin—a punishment, my dear friends, by which the Lord God still tries to shake us, through which He still tries to lead us to conversion, to return to Him.

And we see, my dear friends, quite clearly this connection between sin and the punishment for sin. Look at the history of the 20th century. The more sin overflowed, the more this punishment touched humanity. The First World War, the Second World War... perhaps soon a Third World War will come. This is nothing other than punishment for sin. A punishment that is still a chance for us to come to our senses and return to the Lord God. "For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth: and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth," Holy Scripture teaches—but contemporary Catholics would likely prefer to erase this sentence, as they have many others, from the Bible.

Dearly beloved, look now even at the prayer books published by the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX)—at the Te Deum prayer books—and open the Gorzkie Żale. Surprisingly, in this supposedly traditional prayerbook, you will find a version of the Gorzkie Żale that has been modernized, adapted to the needs, expectations, and vision of the world of modern man. The text is changed—similar, but changed. What is most significant? What disappears from this text in the Te Deum prayerbook? The statement that plague, famine, fire, and war are punishments. We pray for the removal of sins and "temporal misfortunes": plague, fire, famine, and war. But where does this "misfortune" come from? This misfortune, my dear friends, does not come from nowhere; it is a punishment for sin.

When we look into a supposedly traditional prayerbook and notice this omission, a red warning light should go off. For it turns out that even within the bosom of Catholic Tradition, a certain fundamental truth is being hidden—a fundamental truth upon which our eternal salvation may depend. For think: how many people during the First and Second World Wars were saved for eternity? Why? Because when they heard the approaching bombers, when they heard the explosions and the shelling, they remembered the religion of their childhood. They remembered the Savior. They remembered the necessity of doing penance, of awakening contrition for sin. They fell to their knees somewhere in those cellars, beat their breasts, and in this way gained God's forgiveness—the remission of sins through an act of perfect contrition awakened in a life-threatening situation. How many souls during the First and Second World Wars were saved from eternal damnation who, in the absence of war and the punishment for sin, would most likely have gone to Hell? Most likely they would have gone to Hell.

But they were fortunate then that there were priests who preached what the Church has always preached: that sin has its consequences; that "air" (plague), famine, fire, and war are punishments for sin. A punishment meant to lead us to conversion—that is, to a change in our way of thinking, so that we stop thinking in human terms and begin to think in God's terms. Perhaps only in the next life will we learn and see how many souls were saved thanks to war, thanks to Divine punishment.

And now, my dear friends, when we realize this, a sense of dread likely arises within us. For what will happen when a Third World War comes? Do Catholics—even Catholics of Tradition—realize that war is a punishment for sin, or have they already completely forgotten? When the sound of exploding bombs is heard, will there be anyone left to fall to their knees and beat their breast? Are we still able to recognize the value of the punishment that the Lord God sends upon sinful man? Are we still able, my dear friends, to draw the conclusion that if there is a punishment, it means there is a sin for which one must atone? It is not complicated. One only needs to "connect the dots." But contemporary Catholics—even those in Tradition—listening to these various YouTube "Napoleons," seem to have forgotten this entirely. What is worse, there are no longer priests today, as you see, who would remind people of this.

And what are we dealing with instead? Dearly beloved, I observed in passing, to a minimal extent, various comments and analyses of these "little, ridiculous Napoleons" appearing on the internet. For example, a whole mass of positive comments regarding the Islamic Ayatollahs of Iran. And what was given as an example? Various "sages"—right-wing, conservative, traditionalist—wrote that the Ayatollahs stood in defense of our Lord Jesus. Because when that blasphemous depiction of the Last Supper took place in Paris during the Olympic ceremony, they hung banners in Iran with Da Vinci's Last Supper.

Here is another fundamental problem. What was written on those banners? "Jesus, Prophet of Allah." In other words, they are telling us to be delighted that our Lord Jesus was being insulted, just in a different way. The Western blasphemy is worthy of condemnation, but when they blaspheme our Lord Jesus in Iran, it is supposedly something worthy of admiration? Was this not exactly the scene we dealt with when our Lord Jesus was brought before the Jєωιѕн High Priests? He was slapped—hit on one side, and then on the other.

Dearly beloved, we must pray that we see things as they truly are, and not as they are presented to us. We must realize, my dear friends, that blaspheming our Lord Jesus—regardless of who it comes from—is a sin and deserves punishment. We must realize that the conflict smoldering there is not our "Catholic war." It is not our war. Just as what took place in Ukraine did not concern Polish or Catholic interests. But you will see, these various "clever internet heads" will try to involve us in something that does not actually concern us. The trap is already set somewhere.

Meanwhile, as Catholics, we should realize that the solution to this entire situation, to this mess in the world, is not geopolitical analysis, building alliances, mounting missiles, or arming ourselves. There is no peace, and there will be no peace, in a world that is godless, because the Lord God permits war as a punishment for sin. The only foundation on which lasting peace can be built—in your life, in your family, in our nations, and between nations—is the foundation of the true Faith: the Catholic Faith. As long as people do not turn to the true God, as long as they do not begin to do penance for the sin which is the source and reason for war, there will be no peace in the world.

Dearly beloved, let us pray on this Friday of Lent, after the Second Sunday of Lent, that we may never turn away from the true God, and that we may never let ourselves be caught in the trap of some "little Napoleons" who always want to explain to us what and how we should think. The Lord God gave us reason; He gave us reason so that we might use it—so that through this reason we might come to know the reality surrounding us and know the Creator of the whole world, God Himself. He gave us free will so that, using it with the support of Divine grace, we might reject what is evil and choose what is good.

And may we, my dear friends, prove to be people who will "render to God the fruit in due season." That which the deicidal Jєωιѕн nation did not do; that which a mass of "so-called" Catholics also has not done. We are called to render to God the fruit in due season. He knows those seasons in the life of each of us, but it depends on us whether we will bring forth that fruit. We have free will. The Lord God will force no one to do good, just as He forces no one to do evil. Let us use this free will and bring forth fruit; let us prepare fruit for the Lord God as long as He allows us to live here on earth.

Let us listen to the words of today's Prayer Over the People, which will be recited at the end of Holy Mass:

    "Vouchsafe, O Lord, to grant unto Thy people salvation of soul and body: that by the love of good works, they may deserve to be always defended by Thy mighty protection."

Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.