Does anyone know if there is an English transcript available? I would love to read the entire sermon in English, if possible. Thanks.
All power has been given to me in heaven and earth, go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. That is the mission of the Church and the mission of the Society of St. Pius X and the Faith which we have by the power of Jesus Christ, by the power of Christ the King, Christ the priest, who supports us in our task. We have fought for Christ the Priest, for the priesthood and for his priests, for the Church and for Christ the King, that is for a Catholic State. And we shall continue the fight, dear faithful, as did the saints of the first centuries of the Church, confronted with heresy which threatened the Catholic Faith, just like today. There is a comparison to be made between the Aryan errors against the Blessed Trinity and the heresies of today against the priesthood and the reign of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Anyway, I'll start this comparison simply by describing three heresies of the past which were defeated by the saints and by the priests.
And first Arianism. Arius was a priest of Alexandra in Egypt who denied a dogma of the Catholic Faith, saying no,the Word of God, the Son, is not equal to God, He is not God. The Word of God is a creature and he quotes St. Paul, more or less, saying he is the first born of all creatures. St. Paul did write that, Jesus Christ is the first born of all creation, that is in God's plan, God saw him in the first place in His creation, in God's plan He saw His Son incarnate. Arius said no, it's unworthy for God to take flesh, I have found a new doctrine, the Word is not God. Anyway, a council was called, a real council, the council of Nicea to condemn Arius and to declare that the Word of God is equal to God, that the Word of God is consubstantial with the Father and we profess this every Sunday in the Creed, consubstantialem Patri. The Word, God the Son is consubstantial with the Father, they are one substance, one God. And it was a philosophical term which wasn't in the Bible and the Fathers of the Council hesitated to use this term which was philosophical and which came from the pagans and which could mean all sorts of strange things; like for example that God the Father and God the Son are two masks of one person. So, in God there is one person who in turns takes up the mask of God the Father and God the Son. Even St. Athanasius had difficulty adopting this term consubstantial but in the end he used it and St Athanasius used the council of Nicea to fight against Arianism and he suffered for it. He was exiled; he took refuge in the desert etc, because of his Faith in the Blessed Trinity, for defending the absolute equality of the Father and the Son, for defending the divinity of the Word of God. And that's how we must fight, dear faithful, as St Athanasius fought mercilessly against the Aryans. And to a large extent St. Athanasius was successful in his fight against Arianism. So, let us not stop fighting in this struggle which in my opinion will last another twenty years. The crisis which we're going through at the moment is very serious, thus a crisis which will last a long time. The history of the Church shows us that all the long crises of the Church lasted 70 years, Arianism, the Great Schism etc. So the conciliar crisis will probably last around 70 years, that means another 30 years to wait. Let's not expect a quick victory. We will have it, because Our Lord has given all power to his Church, of which we are a part.
The second heresy which arose afterwards was the Nestorian heresy. Nestorius, bishop, Patriarch of Constantinople, declared that the Word didn't become Flesh, as I mentioned just now, it's a scandal that God should have assumed human flesh, that is, the body of Jesus, it's a scandal. God is pure spirit, he can't assume a body, that goes against the philosophy of the time and I, Nestorius, have thought of something else, I think that Jesus the man Jesus by his merits deserved the divinity. So, Jesus became God, Jesus is God. So if Jesus is God, he professed the Catholic Faith, didn't he? Jesus is God. But how did he profess it? Jesus is God but it wasn't God who became man, man became God, the man Jesus became God. Is that Catholic? That Jesus became God? No, it's heretical. And that is precisely what a professor in Regensburg was teaching in his classes thirty years ago [here Monsenor is making an oblique reference to Fr. Ratzinger, the present pope, who while he was a professor openly taught heresy], saying that Jesus so left himself, so went out of himself, that by his charity he united himself to the ONE, that is to God. That is a heresy; a heresy which is very similar to the Nestorian heresy. So let us be very careful, dear faithful to profess the Catholic Faith as we should. It's not enough to say that Jesus is God we must say that he was incarnate. God was made man by the mystery of the Incarnation. And there have been saints, for example, St. Cyril of Alexandria who fought for that. Because he said, if Jesus is not God if he was a man then the Blessed Virgin gave birth to a man. So she isn't the Mother of God. Holy Mary, Mother of God pray for us! No, Mary is the mother of the man Jesus Christ. Ah! Heresy! An insult to our Lady. How can we deny her divine motherhood? And St. Cyril and the council of Ephesus protested saying that the Blessed Virgin is the Mother of God, She gave birth to God, the man God, Jesus Christ. If she gave birth to the man God she is the mother of God. Her child is God, God the Son. There you are, a saint who did not hesitate to refute heresies and for this he was persecuted and nonetheless refuted heresy and explained the Catholic Faith. As we must do today, dear faithful, refuting religious liberty and explaining the Catholic Faith. Religious liberty wants us to respect all those who profess religious error, that the State should give freedom to all false religions to profess error in the name of the dignity of man. And we say no, Jesus Christ must reign. He must reign in hearts and he must reign publicly in the State. The State must be Catholic. So we must refute these errors of the false dignity of man and religious liberty, that the State must tolerate the freedom of all, which is impossible and false and still false today. And instead affirm the opposite - that Jesus has the right to reign publicly in the State. That's what we're going to carry on doing following the example of St. Cyril of Alexandria. And we mustn't fail because Rome is proposing an agreement, a canonical solution to us, an official position in the Church which would mean we have to renounce the proclamation of these strong truths which contradict the council. We are not going to stop fighting against the council and its errors.
The third example which I'd like to give you is of the pneumatomachians. So, after the council of Ephesus, people came saying the Holy Ghost is not God – the third heresy. God the Father, ok; God the Son, ok but not God the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is a creature and the proof is that Jesus sent Him. The paraclete, the spirit of truth which I shall send you from my Father. There you are, if Jesus sends anyone, it's a creature. That's the pneumatomachians. Dear faithful, is it true that the Holy Ghost isn't God? I hope you are ready, ready to profess your faith that the Holy Ghost is God, like the Father and the Son. When you make the sign of the cross it is in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and all three are God. In the name – there is only one name ... of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. One God in three persons. The Holy Ghost is God. Anyway, St. Basil of Caesarea in Pontus arose and protested against this error saying no, the Holy Ghost is truly God. We must adore the Holy Ghost in the same way we adore the Father and the Son. And he fought against those who professed error. And in our situation when we're thinking of resolving the crisis after twenty or thirty years when the heretics are beginning to convert, St. Basil would say, the conciliarists are beginning to convert - but that's simply not true, anywhere, neither in Rome nor in the dioceses, none of them are converting. Anyway, St. Basil seeing that the pneumatomachians, as they were called, were beginning to convert and were returning to the Catholic faith decided not to shock them; he couldn't say the Holy Ghost is God because they wouldn't have liked to have said that. So, he used a softer way of saying it, viz. The Holy Ghost is to be adored with the Father and the Son. He receives the same glory as the Father and the Son. We have to adore the Holy Ghost like the Father and the Son and we give the same glory to the Holy Ghost as to the Father and the Son. A nicer way of saying it but which expresses the Catholic Faith. Unambiguous. If we have to adore the Holy Ghost it's because he's God; if we have to give the same glory to the Holy Ghost as to the Father and the Son it's because he is God. So, St. Basil didn't use ambiguous expressions with those who wanted to return to the Church. He demanded that they profess the entire Catholic Faith but using a nice way of saying it. He was prudent, very good, but in professing the true faith. He was not willing to sign ambiguous texts, dear faithful. That's what we must do today. Refuse ambiguous texts, not stop condemning error and correctly professing the Catholic Faith. And when the conciliarists come back, one day, in twenty five years, repenting of the council, when they see the continual catastrophes, the empty seminaries, the churches in ruins, apostasy everywhere, immorality everywhere, they will repent deeply, and when they do, when they begin to come back, full of repentance we can use formulae to help them. But not now; the crisis is in full swing, now we have to be firm and condemn the errors of the council, especially the denial of Christ the King, the refusal of Christ the King. That, dear faithful, is our plan of action. There's no point in deceiving ourselves, there's no way the crisis is almost over, the crisis is far from being over, the fight is going to last a long time and so we need to get organised, to last out and to continue to profess the whole Catholic Faith in full confidence in the power of Our Lord Jesus Christ. All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me, go ye therefore into the whole world, preach the truth, preach the Blessed Trinity, preach Christ the King, preach Christ the Priest, have likewise confidence in my divine Mother who has all graces, who distributes all graces, it's through her that I will triumph over my enemies, it's through her that I will bring the Catholic Faith back to my Church. Have confidence in my Mother, Immaculate Virgin in her Faith, may the Blessed Mother keep our Faith immaculate. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Topic: Mgr Tissier at St Nicolas (Read 6040 times)