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Fr. Pivert is a priest of the Resistance.


We are of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, so be it. My dear brothers and sisters, on this feast of Pentecost, I'm obviously going to talk to you about the Holy Ghost and encourage you to let yourselves be guided by the Holy Ghost. Yes, the doctrine of the Holy Ghost is very rich. We could talk about the Holy Ghost in the Holy Trinity, the Holy Ghost's relationship with the Father and the Son, but today I'm going to talk to you about the Holy Ghost's mission in our souls and in the world. This is an important subject, since it will occupy us from this feast of Pentecost until the last Sunday after Pentecost. So we've got half the liturgical year to make the most of all that the Holy Ghost gives us and brings to us. The Holy Ghost's mission can be summed up in one word: sanctify. 

The Holy Ghost was sent into the world to sanctify the faithful and to sanctify the world through the faithful, according to the model of Jesus Christ. And so my sermon will be in two parts, firstly the sanctification of our souls, secondly the sanctification of the world through the Church by Christians. We must be convinced that our life is essentially the life of the Holy Ghost within us. As the soul gives life to the body, so the Holy Ghost gives life to our soul. Our life is essentially interior. Everything external serves our inner life, that is, our life with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost descends into us to bring us back to Himself, to the bosom of the Most Holy Trinity, to live in the holy society of the Father and the Son with Him the Holy Ghost. The doctrine of the Holy Ghost is particularly important today, since God allows trials to purify and elevate our Christian life. God's great glory in the trials of the Church, especially the trials of the last times, will be that which is brought to Him by the faithful, faithful to the Holy Ghost, detached from all reference to the world and all attachment to the world, and having for sole reference only the Holy Ghost and His inspirations. 

Of course, this is done through the Blessed Virgin, and this is why the apostles of the last times will be great devotees of Mary, because there is no way to go to the Holy Ghost other than through Mary. What is the condition for living in the Holy Ghost? There is one, given by Saint Paul, that is practically sufficient. Saint Paul tells us, do not thwart the Spirit of God who is within you. Indeed, on the day of our baptism, it was the Holy Ghost who first came into us, and all we did was respond to his coming. And the Holy Ghost continues to be active throughout our lives, moving us forward. 

Since everything that is of God comes from God and not from us, it follows that God's condition for us is to be faithful to the Holy Ghost. And if we are faithful to the Holy Ghost, then we deserve for the Holy Ghost to continue His work in us and continue to develop His gifts in us. Our Lord in the Gospel says the same thing, of course. "He who keeps my commandments, my Father will love, and we will come into him, and make our abode in him." For it is to the Holy Ghost that all life-giving work is attributed. It's terrible, my dear brethren, when we're not careful not to offend the Holy Ghost. To grievously offend Him through mortal sin is to lose Him. But to offend him to the point of mortal sin means no longer being guided by him, no longer hearing his inspirations. You may ask, but who can guarantee that the inspirations of the Holy Ghost really do come from the Holy Ghost, and that they are not actually inspirations we have suggested to ourselves, self-persuasion? What guarantees this is that we don't upset the Holy Ghost. The more careful we are about not upsetting the Holy Ghost, the more these inspirations will be recognized, and the less likely we are to mix them up with personal inspirations that would distort everything. This presupposes a great delicacy of conscience, a care to love God above all else, and never to defile ourselves with the things of the world. 

This is all the more important today as we no longer have the help of the Church hierarchy, of priests, as we have few good friends, as good friends have often turned, as in Job's case, into persecutors, even dangerous persecutors. We could say that today we are alone in directing our lives, alone in the face of the whole world, but in reality we are not alone, since we are guided by the Holy Ghost. Provided, of course, we don't upset him. The second condition, of course, is prayer. But what we have to ask for in our prayer is not so much that the Holy Ghost come into us, because he wants that. We have to ask him to be faithful. We must ask him to prepare us for his coming by exercising the virtues. And we must ask him that, if by misfortune we have been unfaithful to him, he will kindly convert us and not allow us to be separated from him. This prayer is essential, because without it there can be no good disposition. It gives them. And God has subordinated these gifts to our prayer. Hence the importance of the rosary prayer to the Blessed Virgin, who was covered by the shadow of the Holy Ghost for the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. As for those who claim that the Holy Ghost gives them their own inspirations - that is, opinions that are entirely their own,

they may not realize that they are cheating, but the good can judge them. The good ones know what comes from the Holy Ghost and what does not. You may say, the good ones know and can judge, but they can't stop it. Yes, they can't always prevent it. They can't always prevent the consequences of these bad choices, of those who claim to be inspired by the Holy Ghost, who are not. We must then affirm that the good Lord allows this for their progress in virtue, for the confusion of the bad ones later, when God will show himself to them as he is and show them that they have cheated. The Church has always been in the struggle. There is the crude struggle of those who disregard God's law to oppose the Church. 

There is the more dangerous and higher struggle of those who want to change God's law. And then there is the struggle of those who take themselves for the Holy Ghost. This is the Vatican II Council, the man who takes the place of God, the man who asserts that everything he wants, everything he thinks, everything he does, because he's a good Christian, he thinks, necessarily comes from God. Not only can't we prevent Christians from cheating on the Holy Ghost, we can't even prevent these bad Christians from condemning us, supposedly, in the name of the Holy Ghost. Saint Athanasius was exiled, condemned, excommunicated by a pope who thought he was following the Holy Ghost, Saint-Hilaire de Poitiers by himself, and one could make a long list, the last being Mgr Lefebvre, who was condemned by revolutionaries, allegedly, in the name of the Holy Ghost, of the new doctrine brought by the Holy Ghost. Let this not trouble you, my dear brothers. We are here on earth in the Church militant, "Triumph will only be in heaven, and it is a great danger to desire peace here below, when man's life on earth is but a militia." Job's affirmation. Let this not trouble you, and let it not cause you to abandon the Holy Ghost because of doubts you might have, or distrusts you might have about yourself. The Holy Ghost always knows how to make himself known. He signs his interventions, he signs his inspirations. We know when they are from God and when they are not. Others may claim to cheat, but when we are inspired by the Holy Ghost, we know it comes from the Holy Ghost. Hence, as I said, the jealous care we must take never to contradict Him. Second part of the oath: the sanctification of the world.


We are not, my dear brothers, fish in a bowl. Fish don't make a bowl. On the contrary, wolves make a pack, and bees a hive. And the Christian makes a Christendom, that is, he sanctifies the world through the Church, through the Holy Ghost. Every Christian has a mission in the world. God said to Adam and Eve, "Be fruitful and multiply, and have dominion over the earth. This is obviously not just in the material sense, i.e. to have many children. It's obviously in the spiritual sense, because our works are our true children. Why is there a special sacrament given to us to make us men? After the sacrament of baptism, which makes us children of God, comes the sacrament of confirmation, which makes us men. Because man doesn't just lead himself, he leads others. I was reading in Saint Gregory the Great, in a commentary on Job, that young people live easily in voluptuousness, and that it's up to adults to constrain this voluptuousness by rule. No one can say otherwise. And this is true not only for young people, but also between adults. We have a common destiny, and no one goes to heaven alone, just as no one goes to hell alone. Because of the solidarity, or rather, the charity, the friendship that must unite all men, I've just read a book, L'amitié dans la politique, which shows that in Christian times, political life was seen as nothing other than friendship, the exercise of friendship.

 This friendship is obviously not just a word, it's not just about sensitivity, it's not just a friendship to celebrate, it's not just a friendship to rejoice, it's a friendship to progress in virtue, all together. It's not enough to have faith, my dear brothers. Saint James, in his Epistle, says that faith without works is dead. Well, the same is true of the Church's trials today as it is of each one of us: they are all willed by God for His greater glory. "In the end, my immaculate heart will triumph," says the Blessed Virgin. "Triumph, why?" "Because there will have been a struggle; there can be no triumph if there has been no struggle." And it is because of this common struggle that we have received confirmation, through which the Holy Ghost once again makes himself more present to us than he was through baptism, and comes more strongly, more presently, with the superabundance of his gifts. How does this happen? Through the works of mercy that are the fruit of charity, the fruit of friendship. And this is why we will be judged on works of mercy. "Come to my right hand, you blessed of my Father, for I was hungry, I was thirsty, and so on. And you have helped me." Which, of course, is to be taken in the bodily sense, but above all in the spiritual sense. And among the works of mercy, Saint Thomas Aquinas develops one in particular, which is fraternal correction. He says: "To correct an inferior is a work of justice. To correct a superior is a work of charity. And he explains that this fraternal correction is particularly obligatory, because you know, my dear brothers, that it's not only justice that makes things obligatory, but charity too, and the same makes it even more obligatory than justice. I am bound to return the money I have borrowed, but I am even more bound to help the unfortunate in his distress.


And so, Saint Thomas tells us that fraternal correction is particularly obligatory towards superiors, so when faith is in danger. Because this reflects on the whole Church, and our correction will reflect on the whole Church. You'll tell me that if we correct the Pope, it won't have much effect. On the Pope, perhaps not, and even then, I don't know, but on those who will have heard our correction, yes, it will have a great effect. And since we can't correct all sinners, let's beg God to send laborers into his harvest. Let us pray to God for vocations. Let us ask God for many good holy bishops. Let us ask God for many good priests. Let us ask God for many good holy fathers and mothers. Let me conclude with a final consideration. This fidelity to the Holy Ghost necessarily leads us to the cross. necessarily leads us to sacrifice. For the great work of the Holy Ghost was the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross. And if, out of fidelity to the Holy Ghost, we have to suffer, suffer in silence, suffer alone, suffer abandoned perhaps, it's still a way for us to serve the Church, to serve God, just as our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross served God and saved the Church. This is why the Holy Ghost is particularly manifest in martyrs, as the spirit of truth and the spirit of strength.
Throughout the time after Pentecost, the Church will lead us up the steps of the various virtues by which we become more and more faithful to the Holy Ghost. But right now, let us beseech the Blessed Virgin and, through the rosary, ask her for fidelity to the Holy Ghost who covered her with his shadow for the incarnation of Jesus, the Son of God, the eternal Word. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, so be it. Subtitles Société Radio-Canada Subtitles Société Radio-Canada