Google translate:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Dear Fathers, dear brothers, dear sisters, dear faithful,
First of all, I would like to express our sincere condolences to the family of Bishop Tissier, to the members who are present here. We share, being the spiritual family of Bishop Tissier, we share their grief.
Yes, the Fraternity is truly in mourning today. It is a significant loss: it is the loss of a bishop. It is the loss, if one can say so, of a page of our history. Of a very beautiful page of our history.
But this loss, and the mourning in which we find ourselves today, are compensated by the consolation of the example he leaves us. Our Lord, who always keeps his word, came to get him "like a thief": we were not prepared for such a sudden death. But in his tact, Our Lord wanted to come and get him at the very moment he was going to celebrate Mass. It was at that moment that Monsignor lost consciousness. His last act was to go and celebrate Mass, and he died after a few days.
It is no coincidence: the Mass was his reason for being. He sought out Archbishop Lefebvre because he sought fidelity to the Mass. He joined him the very year the new Mass was promulgated, and he remained faithful to this Mass of all time. And now, the Good Lord considered him ripe: ripe for this new liturgy, the eternal liturgy, in which priests, bishops, sing without ceasing: “Behold the Lamb who was sacrificed – this Lamb, whom I myself sacrificed throughout my life as a priest – behold the Lamb worthy of receiving glory and honor in eternity.”
1. Saint Paul describes Mgr Tissier
It is not too difficult to sketch the portrait of Bishop Tissier in a few words, because this was already done by Saint Paul 2000 years ago. I quote Saint Paul. What does Saint Paul ask of a bishop? And you will see how this corresponds perfectly to our dear Bishop Tissier. The very circuмstances of his episcopate, of his priesthood, are described by Saint Paul 2000 years ago.
"I charge you before God and before Jesus Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead by his coming and his kingdom: preach the word, be persistent in season and out of season, rebuke, entreat, threaten with all patience and doctrine." Well, that is what Bishop Tissier knew how to do. He was frank, sincere, simple, without duplicity... firm, constant, free, free to preach the truth, to tell the truth, free to serve Our Lord Jesus Christ.
"For," Saint Paul tells us, "the time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine, but will heap teachers around themselves according to their own desires. Having itching ears, and turning away their hearing from the truth, they will turn aside to fables." A very precise description of the situation in which the Church finds itself, where men have turned toward fables, where men of the Church have turned toward fables: ecuмenism is a fable; secularism is a fable; the synod is a new fable, which will produce other fables... What a grace to have understood this in 1969! What a grace to have sought out Archbishop Lefebvre, to have discovered him and to have been faithful to him. What a grace not to believe in fables!
“But you, watch and do not refuse any work. Do the work of an evangelist. Fulfil your ministry, be sober.” “Be generous in your work”: always preach Christ, the truth. “The work of an evangelist”: preach Our Lord as He is, without changing anything, even if it does not please. “Fulfil your ministry”, your duty, until the end. And “be sober” is very interesting: Bishop Tissier leaves us the example of a very poor, sober life. And certainly, this simplicity, this poverty, this childlike soul kept until the end, was the secret, the key to his fidelity.
And it is especially on this fidelity of Bishop Tissier that I would like to meditate with you for a few moments, because his fidelity perfectly sums up his life. Faithful to Archbishop Lefebvre, faithful to the Society and faithful to the Church.
2. The loyalty of Mgr Tissier
Bishop Tissier had a very clear notion that being faithful to the Society means being faithful to the Church. He denounced very clearly this false dilemma, that one would have to choose between fidelity to the Church and fidelity to the Society. No! Being faithful to the Society means being faithful to the means that have been given to us by Providence to remain faithful to the Church. We do not choose. And Bishop Tissier had this very, very clear.
Faithful over time: that’s what’s beautiful! He was one of the very first seminarians who sought out Archbishop Lefebvre, in 1969, even before the Society was founded, without knowing what was going to happen. Guided only by faith and by the desire to serve Our Lord. In 1969! We, with hindsight, know what happened. In 1969, there were only a handful of seminarians, half of whom were going to leave even before the Society was founded. What faith, what fidelity until today, until 2024! Fidelity over time, perseverance… Perseverance is fidelity through time, this unwavering fidelity.
And fidelity in trials: all the trials that he describes in the biography of Archbishop Lefebvre, all these trials of the founder of the Society are described with the eye, and the attention, and the heart of the direct witness and the attentive and faithful disciple, who understands, from the beginning, how the work of God had to be always fertilized by the cross. Yes, this cross that God did not spare the Society, from the beginning; and this cross that we will always encounter, and which is the sign that the Society is the work of God.
And in this fidelity, and by this same fidelity, he has the merit, Bishop Tissier, of having collected, the first, of having studied, ordered all the events of the life of Archbishop Lefebvre, and all his teachings. As a faithful disciple, he did not want anything that Archbishop Lefebvre bequeathed to us, to be lost.
He always had this concern: that this thought be faithfully transmitted to the younger generations, to all of us, to future generations. This is a major concern for a work that seeks to be a work of safeguarding and transmission, like the Society of Saint Pius X. And we can say that, more than any other member of the Society, Bishop Tissier can make his own the words of Saint Paul, which Archbishop Lefebvre himself wanted to make his own: "I have transmitted what I received." Tradidi quod et accepi. I have faithfully transmitted what was given to me, without touching anything, just as I received it, with the delicacy of the disciple, the humility of the disciple: the more humble one is, the more faithful one is in transmitting the treasure that one has received, just as it is, without touching it.
And in this treasure that Bishop Tissier was able to transmit faithfully, like any person of genius, like a true biographer of Archbishop Lefebvre, he certainly knew how to synthesize this thought and this material around a central idea, which systematically came back in his sermons, in his speeches: it is the idea of Christ the King. It is much more than an episcopal motto, for Bishop Tissier. We can say that it was the star of his entire episcopate: the rights of Our Lord over souls, consciences, individuals, the Church, the family and society. How many times Bishop Tissier returned to it! It was truly the central idea around which he had reordered, reorganized everything.
And this loyalty was not only a theoretical loyalty to principles. This loyalty was translated into the accomplishment of his duty of state until the end. And perhaps I am the first witness to be able to say it: Bishop Tissier wanted to serve the Society until the end, beyond his strength. It was incredible, despite his age.
Where did this strength come from? Where did this strength come from? It came from the love of Our Lord and the love of the Fraternity. And I can assure you that every time we tried – I tried, excuse me for using the first person – to invite the Bishop to travel a little less, to make his tasks lighter… it was useless, it was impossible. I didn’t succeed. I didn’t succeed… But now, now, this is the most beautiful memory that I will keep of Bishop Tissier. And it is an example for all the members of the Fraternity: to find strength in Our Lord! To find a strength that goes beyond the physical strength that remains to us. Until the end, until the last minutes of our life. What a beautiful example!
3. The future of the Fraternity
Of course, we are all wondering now: What is going to happen? We have lost a bishop. How is the Society experiencing this moment? And above all, how is it going to experience the future? The near future, with all that this implies? The Fraternity lives this moment in calm, in prayer, in gratitude to Providence for having given us such a bishop. And the Fraternity does not rush. It simply follows the signs of Providence.
This same Providence that has always shown us its help in the most critical, the most difficult moments. This Providence to which this young man of 24 gave himself in 1969, and which has guided him until today. This Providence that led the Fraternity in the midst of the worst storm in the history of the Church… This Providence is not going to abandon us today. This Providence is not going to abandon us tomorrow. It has already shown us more than enough its help, its assistance. And so our mourning today is mixed with a renewed confidence.
So what does that change? Only one thing changes now, only one thing: it is the certainty and the gratitude for having one less bishop on earth, but for having in eternity someone who watches over the Fraternity. We have a new protector, who in eternity continues to watch over us, continues by his prayer to assist us, and continues, by the memories he left, of course, by his example, to show us in which direction we must go. This is what changes for us.
I also take this opportunity to thank you for all the prayers, all the messages that have been addressed to the Fraternity in recent days, which testify both to the great esteem that everyone had for Bishop Tissier, and to the attachment of all to the Fraternity. I thank you for all these prayers, and of course I invite you to continue to pray: and for the repose of the soul of Bishop Tissier, and for the Fraternity in this particular moment.
We entrust all this to the Most Holy Virgin. Bishop Tissier had a great devotion to her. The devotion of the Fraternity was his, and it is especially under his protection that, we are certain, the future will be in continuity with the past, and with the history of the Fraternity as it has unfolded until today, and as Bishop Tissier in particular knew how to embody and represent it.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Topic: Funeral of Mgr Tissier de Mallerais - Ecône 18th of October 2024 (Read 4380 times)