Sermon for Quinquagesima Sunday

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

Dearly beloved, on this Quinquagesima Sunday, we hear from the Savior the announcement of His sorrowful Passion. And despite the fact that nearly 2,000 years have passed since Good Friday, we Catholics living in the 21st century resemble the Apostles described in today’s Gospel. We hear of the Passion of the Lord Jesus, but we understand none of it. Why, precisely, must the Lord Jesus be mocked, scourged, and spat upon? Why does He take the wood of the Cross upon His shoulders and go to Golgotha?

Dearly beloved, the reason for the sorrowful Passion and the death of the Lord Jesus on the Cross was nothing other than the desire to make satisfaction for human sin. Human sin, which offends the Divine Majesty—whether it be mortal sin or venial sin—offends the Lord God. This is a fundamental truth, one of the primary truths that are negated today. And we must, my dear ones, say a few words about this truth today. We must realize that sin—which is a rebellion against the Divine Law—is an offense against the Lord God.

And look, my dear ones, when our first parents, Adam and Eve, received from the Lord God everything they could possibly need; when they lived peacefully in Paradise, they then, tempted by the devil, committed original sin. Original sin, which constitutes the beginning and the cause of the fall of the human race. When we think of original sin, we probably imagine an apple tree from which, despite the Divine prohibition, our first mother Eve plucks an apple and offers it to Adam. But we must realize that the essence of original sin was not that the Lord God was some jealous gardener who did not want to share a particular variety of apples with man.

That tree of the knowledge of good and evil, from which Eve plucks the fruit, symbolizes the Divine prerogative—the Divine right to establish norms. Only the Lord God, as Creator, can decide what is good and what is evil. And our first parents, Adam and Eve, commit original sin because they succuмb to the satanic temptation. What does the devil say to Eve? "Eat of the fruit of this tree, and you shall be as gods." Original sin is a sin of pride. It is the desire to become "as God," the replacement of the Lord God by man. God will no longer decide what is good and what is evil. I can do that. I no longer need God for anything.

This, my dear ones, is the essence of original sin: the rejection and trampling of the will of the Divine Law; the rejection of the Lord God. And the consequence of original sin was the loss of Paradise; it was that humanity, for long millennia, was plunged into the darkness of error and sin. Original sin led to human nature being wounded, and we all perceive the consequences of this original sin in our lives. We perceive our weakness. We perceive the weakness of our nature. We see daily that we are closer to that which is sinful than to that which is holy. We are closer to cowardice than to heroism. We are closer to egoistic self-love than to the disinterested love of God and neighbor.

Original sin, in its essence, was as it were an echo of the cry of Lucifer himself: "Non serviam"—I will not serve. But look, this same echo resounds whenever we commit actual sins, whenever we commit sin in our lives. In every sin, loudly or quietly, we can find the echo of that satanic cry: Non serviam, I will not serve. Every sin is an expression of rebellion against the will of our Father who is in heaven. Every sin brings consequences. Every sin introduces chaos into our spiritual life. Every sin plunges us into a greater or lesser darkness. The longer we persist in sin, the greater that darkness becomes, and the harder it is for man to tear himself away from it.

Dearly beloved, what a great tragedy sin is for man—disobedience to the Divine will. What a great tragedy, which has very concrete consequences for our lives: namely, the plunging into spiritual darkness, into spiritual despair, into spiritual hopelessness. Dearly beloved, the answer to satanic rebellion and pride is Christ’s humility and obedience. The answer to satanic disorder and darkness is Christ’s peace and light. The answer to our human, egoistic self-love is Christ’s Heart, pierced by the lance upon the Cross.

The Savior accepted His sorrowful Passion to make satisfaction to the Most Holy Trinity for our human sins, insults, and for our ingratitude. With His Most Precious Blood, He pays the debt we incurred toward the Lord God and enables us, my dear ones, to exit, to escape from that state of darkness into which we plunge as a result of the sins we have committed. The Savior does not cease to stretch out His holy and venerable hands toward sinful man to lift him up, to bring him to Himself once more, so that man may regain the life of grace—sanctifying grace.

Dearly beloved, how very grateful we ought to be to the Lord Jesus that He did not hesitate to stretch out His hands on the wood of the Cross. And how much, even now, we do not understand or appreciate the value of the Blood shed by the Savior. We have heard of the Passion of the Lord Jesus for 2,000 years, and we understand nothing of it. All the while, my dear ones, we do not realize that without the Cross of Christ there is no salvation; that no one shall enter heaven who has not washed himself in the Blood of the Divine Lamb.

Dearly beloved, we all realize perfectly what a terrible misfortune blindness is. Somewhere in the back of our minds, when we think of the lives of blind people, a thought appears—a feeling of relief: "How good it is that I have my sight. How good it is that I am not condemned to the help of others. How good it is that I see everything." But we must realize today, at the threshold of Lent, that an infinitely greater misfortune than physical blindness is spiritual blindness. And yet, for billions of people living on this earth today, this spiritual blindness does not bother them at all. This spiritual blindness no longer arouses any terror.

And yet, he lives in blindness and darkness who sins, who rejects the Catholic faith, who loses sanctifying grace, in whose soul the flame of Divine life is extinguished. Every sin, even the smallest, constitutes an offense to the Lord God, for which we ought to make satisfaction. Every sin weakens our love for the Lord God and draws us away from the path leading to salvation.

At the threshold of Lent, we ought, my dear ones, to make a firm resolution. A resolution, first of all, to meditate during this Lenten season on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that we may realize and set before our eyes how much the Lord Jesus suffered for us and for our salvation. Holy Mother Church gives us very concrete help: Passion devotions, the Gorzkie Żale (Lamentations), the Stations of the Cross.

Secondly, my dear ones, we must resolve at the threshold of this Lent to undertake a concrete struggle against our weaknesses, a concrete struggle against that which constitutes an obstacle in our lives to drawing closer to the Lord God. And we ought to do this, my dear ones, even today. Do not wait until Ash Wednesday or the First Sunday of Lent, for time flows very quickly. Even today, before Lent begins, we should decide which vice we will fight during this time, what we will work on during this season. Perhaps it is a small thing, but remember, every sin, even the lightest venial sin, should be uprooted from our lives; and we receive grace from the Lord God through the Holy Sacraments to fight against sin and our weaknesses.

Dearly beloved, Holy Mother Church at the threshold of Lent calls us to a true, sincere, and deep conversion and points to the example of the blind man who awaited the Lord Jesus by the wayside. And together with him, we all should cry out today, asking for mercy. We should do penance for our sins before it is too late, so that we too may hear from the lips of the Lord Jesus the words: "Receive thy sight: thy faith hath made thee whole."

And finally, my dear ones, notice one small detail in today’s Gospel. When that blind man cried out for Divine mercy: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me," as we read in the Gospel, "they who went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace." Those who went before—those who were walking with the Lord Jesus. These were not random people; they were people walking with the Lord Jesus, and they silenced this miserable man, rebuking him to be silent, as we read in the Gospel.

And we can apply this small detail of the Gospel also to our own times. How many "so-called" Catholics there are today, "so-called" clergy, who supposedly walk with the Lord Jesus, but who silence and rebuke those who desire to receive Divine mercy today. True Divine mercy has been replaced by a counterfeit. The true Catholic faith has been replaced by a cheap imitation. The Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass has been replaced by a Judaized, Protestantized Novus Ordo.

Do not ever, my dear ones, let yourselves be silenced. Do not let yourselves be silenced by those who appear to be Catholics, who appear to be bishops or cardinals, but who in their essence are traitors acting to the detriment of our Lord Jesus Christ. We saw this past week, on Thursday, the meeting of Cardinal Fernández—who even dressed up as a cardinal for the occasion—with Father Pagliarani, the Superior of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X. A meeting that should never have taken place. Certainly, Archbishop Lefebvre would never have sat at a table with such a persona as Fernández, because we are dealing with a loathsome apostate, with a man who does exactly what we heard in the Gospel. He silences those who still have the audacity today to strike their breasts and ask for forgiveness for their sins.

Fernández explains to us that sin is basically some medieval concept—unnecessary, obsolete. Let us enjoy ourselves; one big carnival. It is terrifying that the Superior of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X decided to undertake any talks with someone like that. What can one talk about with Fernández? What? It would be necessary, my dear ones, to take him firmly by the ear and tell him clearly and distinctly that if he does not come to his senses, if he does not withdraw his heresies, if he does not convert to the Catholic faith, he will go to hell and burn there for eternity.

But did Father Pagliarani say any such thing to Fernández? Well, the joint photograph—smiling gentlemen—indicates that rather nothing of the sort occurred. Instead, we have communiqués—both the Roman one and the one from the Fraternity—emphasizing that the meeting took place in a "friendly and cordial atmosphere," and that alone should terrify us. How can a meeting with such an apostate take place in a "friendly and cordial atmosphere"? It means that not a single word of truth was spoken there; that no one called a heretic a heretic, or evil, evil; that we were dealing with a spectacle of mutual pleasantries.

Is this true charity? Is it charity to confirm someone who is erring in their error? Nothing could be further from the truth, my dear ones. That is a false love of neighbor—a false love of neighbor that pushes him toward the fires of hell. To instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to admonish the sinner. Do not ever, my dear ones, let yourselves be drowned out or silenced by those who will try to convince us of a new, post-conciliar religion, in which sin no longer offends the Lord God, in which there is no need for any penance, in which there is no need for any satisfaction, in which there is no need for a propitiatory sacrifice to exist, because there is no one to apologize to and nothing to apologize for. Everyone is already saved.

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



AI translation and audio.

Original Polish:




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