Vol 7 Issue 40 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier

October 4, 2014 ~ St. Francis of Assisi, opn!

 

 

1. In Defense of the Faith, Chapter 33b
2. Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost—Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
3. Feast of St Placidus and Companions
4. The Christian Family (22)
5. Articles and notices

Dear Reader:

As the world moves closer to self destruction by moving farther from Christ and His teachings it is tragic that those who claim to follow Christ are in the avant garde of rejecting His teachings by proclaiming He would want it this way. I would have to ask, who of these have such direct access to Christ that they know He would change His mind because this is now the twenty-first century. No! It is because they do not believe in a Christ who is God, but a Christ they make a god that is molded in their own fallen nature, i.e., who understands that man is going to sin (because he wants to) and therefore it is alright for man to sin. With phenomenology, absolute (even though they claim they don’t believe in absolutes) subjectivism has replaced an objective reality. Abbe de Nantes, in his Liber Accusationis, rightly grasped the true nature of the Conciliar Church, which has espoused the world, and its teachings

They are the same as the revolutionary Messianism of Lamennais, and the Christian Democracy of Sangnier, worked into a system by your friend Jacques Maritain to form an “Integral Humanism”.

This system can be broken down into three parts, to which there is to be addedone important corollary:

1) It is not simply the Church and Christendom which form the “unit of Salvation”, but mankind as a whole.

2) The new Gospel of this community is the Declaration of the Rights of Man, with its trilogy of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.

3) The building of a World Democracy is the analogy here on earth of the Kingdom of God, and it is to be attained through the coming of Justice and Peace, in Truth and Love.

And the Corollary: That the function of Religion – by which is to be understood a union of all the existing religions – is to provide inspiration and Spiritual Animation for mankind thus regenerated.

It is evident again when, on the day before the Feast of St. Jerome, the New Rome announced a New Gospel, A New Bible in Italian that was agreeable to “Catholics” and Protestants alike—You can read the notice below.

As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor

A Battle for the Catholic Faith

September 11, 1683

We Came. We saw. God Conquered!

Venimus. Vidimus. Deus Vincit!

September 12, 1683

King Jan Sobieskie’s words sent to Pope Innocent XI on conquering the Mohammedan besiegers of Vienna.

Chapter 33b

After the Battle for Vienna

The losses the Ottoman Sultan was suffering gave an invitation to France and England, like the vultures they were, to pick from the carcass. Louis XIV, even though supposed allies with the Ottomans against the Hapsburgs, took the excuse of fighting Corsairs—sending a message to the Pope that he was taking the call to fight the Turks in the “Crusade” —by sending his emerging navy to attack the Algerian corsairs who were wreaking havoc on the shipping lanes and kidnapping French citizens. St. Vincent de Paul was one such victim who, captured in 1605, he escaped in 1607 and later founded a society to assist the enslaved French Christians numbering about 30,000.

They were treated as veritable beasts of burden, condemned to frightful labour, without any corporal or spiritual care. Vincent left nothing undone to send them aid as early as 1645 he sent among them a priest and a brother, who were followed by others. Vincent even had one of these invested with the dignity of consul in order that he might work more efficaciously for the slaves. They gave frequent missions to them, and assured them the services of religion. At the same time they acted as agents with their families, and were able to free some of them. Up to the time of St. Vincent’s death these missionaries had ransomed 1200 slaves, and they had expended 1,200,000 liveres in behalf of the slaves of Barbary, not to mention the affronts and persecutions of all kinds which they themselves had endured from the Turks. (CE, St.Vincent de Paul)

Till this time, it was the Knights of Malta and the Knights of St. Stephen who were patrolling the Mediterranean.

At the same time he sent his message to Innocent XI, Louis XIV sent a message to the Sultan Mehmed IV in Constantinople that he was simply protecting French citizens from the Corsairs whom he considered were acting without the Sultan’s knowledge. Attacking Algiers in 1682 and 1683 with an attempt to take Algiers, Louis was unable to succeed in establishing a foothold nor end the Barbary piracy. After attacking Tripoli successfully in 1686, he had his navy again attack Algiers in 1688, where the Corsairs agreed to peace as the Sultan needed them in defending the Ottoman Empire from the Venetians, who had joined the Holy League—but Louis XIV lost interest in Algiers, having settled his eyes on Spain.

The English took to the seas and were able to overcome the Corsairs of Alger and of Tripoli and open trade in the Mediterranean unimpeded. They set their eyes on Alexandria (Egypt) and India (Bombay). It seemed the British Navy and Merchants ships were the only English exempt from the tragedy of the Civil Wars England endured during the 1600’s under Cromwell, Charles II, and James II. The East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company were firmly established and English ports or rights of portage were imposed upon the Ottomans and Moguls and the French (in North America).

The Holy League continued its campaign for driving the Mohammedans out of Europe. Taking Simontornya in central Hungary, Siklós and Fünfkirchen (Pécs) in southwestern Hungary, and Szeged  in the south, the Holy League was moving further toward the Balkans. The Ottomans sent a message for terms of peace while claiming to be amassing the largest Ottoman army. Emperor Leopold is said to have placed the conditions accordingly as follows:“… the return of the so-called kingdom of Candia [Crete] to Venice, Podolia to the Polish king, and all the fortresses in Hungary to the Hapsburgs. If the Porte wished to hold Belgrade, it must pay tribute.” (Setton, 285) The Ottoman council rejected the demands and set about to prepare an army. But the army wasn’t the largest and at the Great Battle of the Mohacs on 12 August, 1687, it was defeated. It was a decisive victory for the Holy League as the Ottomans had prepared to meet the Holy League forces and had fortifications ready. It happened that as the Ottomans were pushing the Christian forces back from the Drava and to the plain where the Turks had defeated the Hungarians one hundred sixty years earlier, the Christians were again at a disadvantage. Still, the forces under Max Emmanuel were able to ward off the enemy offense.  While the Turk cavalry was called back to regroup, Max Emmanuel and Eugene of Savoy immediately led a counter-charge. The Turks found they could not ride their steeds up the hill and had to dismount. The Christian army was able to easily kill their opponents in their charge which caused the remaining Turks to flee in panic. The Turks suffered over 10,000 casualties while the Holy League lost only 600. This loss was nothing compared to the break-up of the Ottoman army. Losing 60 cannon and the camp supplies, the soldiers would return to Constantinople leaderless. Sari Suleiman Pasha, the commander and Grand Vizier abandoned his army for fear of his life as the soldiers mutinied. Even though he would be executed, the lost was too great for even the Sultan to retain his regency.

… As usual in a political or military turmoil among the Turks, heads began to fall. Death was meted out in the main encampment, now under the walls of Belgrade, and on the shores of the Bosporus. The army was moving eastward, making for Istanbul. Suleiman Pasha’s head was sent to the rebels along with a letter from the sultan, urging them not to continue on to Istanbul but to take up winter quarters at Sofia and at Philippopolis (Filibe, Plovdiv), for the advance of the Christian enemy was a serious menace to the Porte. As for the new serasker Siavush Pasha, he was soon to die at the hands of the rebellious troops in Istanbul, as he tried to defend the harem which, alas, fell into the hands of the military mob.

Once more Mehmed IV turned to the family of the Köprülüs to help him resolve the crisis,… Mustafa Köprülü was named kaïmakam, and as the insurgent army moved eastward from Adrianople, he summoned the ulema, scholars of Moslem law and religion, to a meeting in the mosque of Hagia Sophia (on 8 November 1687). There he told the silent audience that, as they all knew and as the rebels had insisted, Mehmed the Hunter had no thought of anything but the chase. For some years he had avoided the appointment of men capable of rectifying the defeats of the Ottoman army and the frustrations of government.

… The ulema gave its consent by continued silence… (Setton, 289)

Deposed, Mehmed IV was replaced by his older brother (who had lived most of his life imprisoned in a cage). Suleiman II would become dependent on Mustafa Köprülü.

With the Ottoman army in shambles and the governance in turmoil, the Holy League was able to take the rest of Hungary and Transylvania from the Turks. The Venetians, under the command of Francesco Morosini, who had surrendered Candia in Crete to the Turks in 1669, was extracting more and more of Morea (Greek Peloponnesus Peninsula). The Knights of Malta (St. John’s Order) joined Francesco Morosini in 1687, and, together, took Athens by September 29.

 

At the appearance of the Venetian fleet in the enclosure of Piraeus, the leading Greeks of Athens came down to make obeisance to Morosini in the harbor. They offered their property and their lives… “per le maggiori glorie della Repubulica.” They were benignly received, and assured of defense against the Turks. They told Morosini and von Königsmarck that there were six hundred Turks capable of bearing arms in the fortress, determined to hold out against the Venetian forces, because they believed the serasker in Thebes would come to their assistance… (Setton, 306)

 

The Turks had turned the Acropolis into a fort and stored the munitions in the Parthenon. When the Venetians bombarded the Acropolis, a mortar hit the munitions stockpile, blowing up the Parthenon and those inside. After a few more days, the Turks surrendered. The plague was wreaking havoc on the soldiers, and so the Venetians stayed near Athens and Piraeus (Porto Lion) instead of Corinth, Tripolis and Nauplia. It seemed that the army was on the verge of disbanding, but Morosini was doing everything to keep both the morale and safety of the soldiers—imposing quarantines and demanding more food for the soldiers.

Also, further attempts in 1688 were now being met as Thebes was being fortified. Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha (He would become Grand Vizier from 1689-91) took over the Ottoman forces and was conscripting all available men, as well as enforcing discipline among the ranks of officers.

The effort to take Negroponte (Chalcis) by Morosini failed for two reasons: the succumbing to the plague among the Venetian sailors and commanders; and, because the fortress, Kara Baba, received assistance from the land route, keeping Negroponte supplied with munitions and soldiers. Morosini was a great Naval commander, but Otto Wilhelm von Königsmarck was the master-mind for the successful land attacks by the Venetians. He, too, suffered the effects of the plague, dying on September 15, during the siege of Negroponte. By the 18^th of October, the Venetians, under Morosini, were sailing from Negroponte. The Venetians would not be able to take to the seas to continue their campaign for another 5 years.

While the siege of Negroponte was in progress, the Knights of Malta and the Venetians were also assisting the Imperial army to retake Belgrade. Beginning the siege on July 30, Max Emmanuel finally led an assault on September 6 that ended in a Christian victory.

The Ottomans, under Sultan Suleiman II (1687-91), were being attacked from three sides: The Russians were fighting from the northeast, the Holy League from the northwest and the Venetians from the sea. Innocent XI was never failing to encourage the Holy League to continue the war under the spiritual leadership of Fra. Marco d’Aviano, who eloquently preached to the soldiers. But Köprülü Fazıl Mustafa Pasha was not passive, and was soon named Grand Vizier under Suleiman II.

In 1689, the pope who is credited for this last Crusade, Innocent XI, died. There would be no other Pope leading a Crusade against the Mohammedans. From 1689 to 1699, the Holy League continued under the Cross held by Fra. Marco d’Aviano.

The history of the Crusades is therefore intimately connected with that of the popes and the Church. These Holy Wars were essentially a papal enterprise. The idea of quelling all dissensions among Christians, of uniting them under the same standard and sending them forth against the Mohammedans, was conceived in the eleventh century, that is to say, at a time when there were as yet no organized states in Europe, and when the pope was the only potentate in a position to know and understand the common interests of Christendom. At this time the Turks threatened to invade Europe, and the Byzantine Empire seemed unable to withstand the enemies by whom it was surrounded. Urban II then took advantage of the veneration in which the holy places were held by the Christians of the West and entreated the latter to direct their combined forces against the Mohammedans and, by a bold attack, check their progress. The result of this effort was the establishment of the Christian states in Syria. While the authority of the popes remained undisputed in Europe, they were in a position to furnish these Christian colonies the help they required; but when this authority was shaken by dissensions between the priesthood and the empire, the crusading army lost the unity of command so essential to success. The maritime powers of Italy, whose assistance was indispensable to the Christian armies, thought only of using the Crusades for political and economic ends. Other princes, first the Hohenstaufen and afterwards Charles of Anjou, followed this precedent, the crusade of 1204 being the first open rebellion against the pontifical will. Finally, when, at the close of the Middle Ages, all idea of the Christian monarchy had been definitively cast aside, when state policy was the sole influence that actuated the Powers of Europe, the crusade seemed a respectable but troublesome survival. In the fifteenth century Europe permitted the Turks to seize Constantinople, and princes were far less concerned about their departure for the East than about finding a way out of the fulfilment of their vow as crusaders without losing the good opinion of the public. Thereafter all attempts at a crusade partook of the nature of political schemes. (CE, Crusades)

(To be continued)

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WEEK OF SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Benedict Baur, O.S.B.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord”

1. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord” (Gradual). Christ, enthroned at the right hand of the Father and living in His Church, protects, supports, and guides her with His powerful hand. What have we to fear?
2. “Sit on My right hand” (Gospel). The glorified Lord now participates in the glory of the Father, even according to His human nature, thus sharing with His human and divine nature the majesty and power of the triune God. “All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28:18). He has become “obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross, for which cause God also hath exalted Him and hath given Him a name which is above all names” (Phil. 2:8 f.). He is “the Lord.” But the Church announces throughout all countries and all ages that He has suffered and died, that He rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is now enthroned at the right hand of the Father. In union with the Church we believe in Him and pay homage to Him. We rejoice that the Father has made Him Master and King of the world, of the angels, and of men, Master also of the powers that are under the earth-the devils and the damned. He governs all things; He rules the course of history; He guides the nations and the Church. He permits the evil, injustice, and catastrophes which visit mankind and single nations, families, and individuals, because He has the power to guide everything for the best. We believe in Him and trust His rule of the world, of spirits, and of souls. “Thou alone art the Lord” (Gloria).

“Daniel prayed to God” (Offertory). The liturgy recognizes the Lord in the praying Daniel. The Lord is in His Church, although He sits at the right hand of the Father. He is the same praying high priest who places Himself at the disposal of the praying and sacrificing community. He prays together with the faithful to the Father: “Hear, O Lord, the prayers of Thy servant; show Thy face upon Thy sanctuary, and look down favorably upon this people, upon whom Thy name is invoked, O God” (Offertory). The Lord is united with His people, with His Church, with each one of us, praying, sacrificing, leading us all to the Father, that through the power of the Holy Sacrifice we may receive the forgiveness of our sins, and that the holy and triune God may be merciful to us and pour out the fullness of light and grace into our hearts. It is His great and unspeakable love towards us that does not forget us when He has entered into His glory. He has promised: “I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matt. 28:20). This promise He keeps and fulfills. Invisibly He comes into our midst in the Holy Sacrifice, giving Himself as the food of our souls: He, the Lord, to whom all power is given in heaven and on earth. To such an extent the almighty God humbles Himself-whose power nothing can resist, who is stronger than flesh and passion and the old man within us, stronger than the world and Satan with his pomps –that He dwells in the tabernacle to be near us at all times with the power of His prayers and the wisdom of His Spirit whenever we need help against the enemies of our salvation. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He hath chosen for His inheritance. By the word of the Lord the heavens were established; and all the power of them by the Spirit of His mouth” (Gradual). Should we not in all things depend on Him who is near us with the fullness of His might and His love?

3. We approach “the day of the Lord” when He shall return for judgment. “Thou art just, O Lord, and Thy judgment is right” (Introit). “If Thou, O Lord, wilt mark iniquities, Lord, who shall stand it” (Ps. 129:3). You come down to us in the Sacrifice of the Mass and in Holy Communion with innumerable graces and proofs of charity to bring us Your salvation: a continually repeated granting of grace and mercy. “Deal with Thy servant according to Thy mercy” (Introit). “Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us.” “O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to Thee” (Alleluia verse). “Hear my prayer” for the grace to love Thee, the Lord, with my whole heart, with my whole soul, with my whole mind, and my neighbor as myself (Gospel). Grant, O Lord, that we all may walk worthy of our vocation, in the unity of the Spirit, in humility, patience, and charity (Epistle). “All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth” (Matt. 28: 18), even over our hearts. Penetrate them with Thy Spirit, Thy purity, and Thy power, that they may overcome all things opposed to Thy working within us.

PRAYER

Grant Thy people, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to shun the defilements of the devil and with pure minds to follow Thee, the only God. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Seeking God

1. Viewing the day of the Lord, the Last Judgment, the Church prays for the grace that we may withstand the temptations of the devil and may follow God alone with pure hearts.
2. “Your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour” (I Pet. 5:8). “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Eph. 6:12). The devil “was a murderer from the beginning, and he stood not in the truth;… for he is a liar and the father thereof” (John 8:44). However, his power over sinful mankind has been broken by Christ. “For this purpose the Son of God appeared, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:8). But with God’s permission and subject to His power and will, the devil is still allowed to show us his power in different ways. He does so specially by means of temptations, troubling us with many evil desires. By stirring up our imagination he awakens in us wrong, sinful thoughts. By working on our lower nature he tries to seduce us to sin; he influences our exterior senses by inducing us to see, hear, feel, and experience sinful things. He also tries to harm us by inflicting misfortunes on us through the power granted him by God. To what extent the devil is able to exert his troubling and disturbing influence in this respect, the Church teaches us in her exorcisms and blessings and by her use of holy water.

Sometimes it happens that the devil is given the power to take possession of the bodies of men and to use them as if he himself were the soul of such bodies, or to interfere with a man’s actions. We know of cases in the lives of saints when the devil persecuted and tortured them, trying to wean them from their faithfulness to God and Christ. Thus we are all exposed to the influence of the devil and are always in danger of being deceived by the father of lies and of being dragged into sin. How many have been deceived and misled, thus walking on the road that leads to eternal damnation! Not without reason the Church prays to God for us that He may give us the grace to withstand the temptations of the devil. She does not expect us to escape all temptations, but she prays that we may not be deceived by him and become unfaithful to God.

The only way that we can follow God is through holy love. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment” (Gospel). This commandment contains all other commandments; it is the great duty that includes all other duties. Love is the highest expression of man’s efforts. Whenever I love, I devote my whole being and all my faculties to the service and interests of him whom I love. We are obliged to love. “Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God.” Nothing else matters; all other things are to be loved only in Him and for His sake. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart.” A weak-hearted charity does not satisfy the Lord; we have to love Him with our whole heart and with every part of our being, with our intellect and will, with our heart and all our affections and passions, with all the strength even of our bodies. We have to love God at every moment. He asks for a pure intention, an intention without any selfish consideration of our own profit, honor, or satisfaction. All things that life gives us we are obliged to use for God’s interests and honor. That means we have to love God in all things for His sake; we have to seek Him and do everything for His honor. That is real piety, for it means seeking God aloneone with a pure intention. That we may obtain this grace, the Church this week asks for us the grace to follow God with pure hearts (Collect). It is our duty to seek God with a pure intention and with pure love.

3. The more we seek God and live in accordance with His commandment of love, the safer we are against the temptations and persecutions of the devil. It is not necessary that we see the devil in everything and fear him; we should rather see the Lord in everything and love Him. When we seek only the love of God, we have the power to overcome Satan and his pomps. Therefore we should strive, first of all, to “follow after charity” (I Cor. 14:1). “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God.” We secure the love of God through the Holy Eucharist, which is the sacrament of love, the fire which the Lord brought down from heaven to this earth (Luke 12:49), and with which He wishes to inflame our hearts that we learn to love the Father with the love of Jesus. The liturgy therefore leads us every morning to the Holy Eucharist, the source of divine love.

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind …. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets” (Gospel). Do I love the Lord? Do I love Him in all things with an undivided love? Do I love all other things in Him and for His sake? Love is the measure of our sanctity.

PRAYER

Grant Thy people, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to shun the defilements of the devil and with pure hearts to follow Thee, the only God. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

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OCTOBER 5

St. Placid and his Companions, Martyr’s

 

1. In his Life of Holy Father Benedict, Pope Gregory the Great states that “pious nobility used to come from Rome to St. Benedict at Subiaco and entrust their sons to him to be educated for God. Among others Aequitius and the patrician Tertullus, both prominent men, brought their promising sons, Maur and Placid respectively, who were still children.” Then St. Gregory relates how St. Benedict took the boy Placid with him one night up to the peak of the nearby mountain, and, after praying for a long time, caused a spring to come forth from the rocks to furnish water for the monastery there. Finally, St. Gregory tells how Placid fell into the lake, from which he was dipping water, and was rescued by St. Maur miraculously. Beyond these incidents, nothing is known for certain about St. Placid. Legend adds, however, that he was sent by St. Benedict to found a monastery in Sicily and was martyred there together with his monks.
2. “When affliction comes, the Lord is the refuge and defense of the innocent” (Introit: Mass of Martyrs: Salus autem). This text reminds us of the boy incautiously stooping to fill his jug from the lake, and falling in. As the waves were carrying him farther from shore, St. Benedict in his cell became aware of the danger and quickly commanded Maur to rescue him. Having received St. Benedict’s blessing, Maur hurried to his companion and carried him to shore, without noting the fact that he was walking on top of the water, until after he was on land again. Who had accomplished this miracle? While St. Benedict suggested that it was Maur’s reward for his prompt and unquestioning obedience, the latter attributed the marvel to the blessing that his abbot had given him. Little Placid himself settled this contest of humility, for he said that while he struggled in the water he had seen hovering over him as a sign of protection the mantle of St. Benedict. In the wholly spiritual atmosphere of Subiaco the supernatural was, as it were, the very air that the first Benedictine family breathed freely, children as well as grown monks. This may account as well for St. Benedict’s taking the boy with him when he went to find a supply of water on the mountain. The child’s prayer, united to that of the mature man of prayer, would surely obtain from God the miraculous help of needed springs.

“A grain of wheat must fall into the ground and die, or else it remains nothing more than a grain of wheat; but if it dies, then it yields rich fruit” (Gospel; John 12:24). Even if Placid did not die for Christ by the martyrdom of blood, he certainly embraced the unbloody martyrdom of the perfect monk’s life as St Benedict taught it to him. The fact that the Abbot esteemed this young monk and offered him the distinction of sharing in the miracle on the mountain is proof that Placid had imbibed the spirit of his Father and was prepared to exemplify it. He would “truly seek God; he would be full of zeal for the praise of God and for prayer and obedience, ready for hardships, humiliations, and sacrifices inherent in the life of a monk in the company of his brethren” (d. Holy Rule, chap. 58). St. Placid was a perfect disciple of his great and holy master in fidelity to the monastic vocation: a grain of wheat that had gone down into the earth and died by closely imitating Him who called Himself a grain of wheat, and who had humbled Himself even unto death, bringing forth superabundant salvation for men. “‘If any man has a mind to come my way [St. Placid did, as every monk does], let him renounce self, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).

3. Happy the disciple of St. Benedict who wholeheartedly accepts this teaching as St. Placid did. The Benedictine Order has chosen St. Placid as the model and heavenly patron of its novices. May he obtain for them the grace to grasp the true spirit of Benedictine monasticism and to exemplify it all their lives.

Prayer: O God, for those who renounce the world Thou dost prepare a dwelling in heaven. At the pleading of the merits of St. Placid, do Thou bless the earthly dwelling of this community with heavenly favors. Grant that its members may hold together in fraternal charity, observe Thy commandments concerning moderation, lead a calm, simple, chaste life and acknowledge that Thy grace is a gift of pure love for them. May their lives harmonize with their name of monk, and may their faith manifest itself in good works. Amen.

Collect: Almighty, eternal God, who dost fill our hearts with gladness on the feast of Thy saints, graciously grant that, while rejoicing in their merits, we may be fired by their example. Amen.

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THE CHRISTIAN FAMILY

By MOST REV. TIHAMER TOTH

(1949)

XII

HAPPY MARRIAGES

So much has been said about unhappy marriages and domestic unhappiness, that it is high time to speak of happy marriages and domestic felicity.

“Domestic happiness.” Many cynical persons may take exception to that expression. “Domestic happiness? Oh, yes, I also dreamed of such a thing when I knelt with my bride before the altar, and the priest laid the end of his stole upon our trembling hands. The organ played softly, the altar was adorned with flowers, and life was full of new promise. But today? Today what remains of all that? How few of my hopes have been realized!”

True, true. Yet I am going to speak of happy marriage, and I will ask you, brother, who complain so bitterly, are you not in part to blame that so few of your hopes have been realized? Perhaps you thought that by marrying you received a gift of happiness. But no one receives such a gift. They receive only the possibility of happiness. You, too, received the possibility, which you yourself should have made a reality. But the trouble was that you yourself did not work to make your happy dreams of marriage come true. The trouble was that you thought you had received a finished thing, when you ought to have cooperated in its completion. The trouble was that you did not furnish your new home properly.

“Well, I do not understand in the least,” he replies. “I did not furnish my new home well? Why, every piece of furniture /135/ was planned and made by the very best furniture-maker.”

Yes, yes, I believe all that you say. But I wonder if you have in your home the three pieces of furniture that are indispensable to domestic happiness.

“Three pieces of furniture? I am really curious to know what three pieces you mean.”

Dear brethren, I am going to speak of them in today’s sermon. Many suggestions are made to young married people, as to what furniture they should buy. I, too, am going to recommend three pieces of furniture to them. Three pieces of wonderful power. However poor the young couple may be, they will be able to afford these three things; and if they possess them their married life will be happy. On the other hand, however wealthy they may be, if these three pieces of furniture are lacking in their home, their married life cannot be happy.

Now what are these three pieces of furniture without which there is no domestic happiness? The family table, the family crucifix, and the cradle. Today I will speak about the first two.

I

THE FAMILY TABLE

1. I think there is no need to mention specially that when I call the first necessary piece of furniture the “family table,” I am thinking of all the problems that may beset a married couple during their life together.

1) The family table, then, means not only the physical place where the whole family lovingly congregates. It means rather the spiritual unity, the complete spiritual harmony and fusion that form the indispensable basis of happy matrimony, which is erected on the two pillars: authority and love. On a right concord of these two, family happiness depends. /136/

2) The family is not a combination, a joint-stock company, a confederation, but a living organism. The life of an organism has fundamental laws that are unalterable. Living organisms can be strengthened, their development can be assisted, their labors can be lightened, but on one condition only: that we do not disturb the foundations on which their entire life is erected.

In marriage this foundation is the permanence of the bond. Without this quality of permanence, it is no marriage at all.

That married life should flow without a hitch, that in its soil should bloom all the happiness and joy that are contained within the ideal of Christian marriage, the realization of another fundamental proposition is necessary, and this is: a rightful order and division of work among the members of the family; in other words, the necessary validation of authority and love.

 

1. So one firm leg of the family table may be called the principle of authority.

1) This principle is dearly proclaimed by St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, when he gives this command: “Let women be subject to their husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church” (Eph, 5: 22 f.).

Of course when the women hear this command of St. Paul, they may say: “Does Christianity not acknowledge that women are on a level with men? Is it not an old-fashioned notion to require a wife to be obedient to her husband? And will husbands not take advantage of their right to command?”

Sad to say, we must acknowledge that there are men whose behavior and way of thought make them unworthy to be the heads of families. We must also acknowledge that a man may abuse his right to command. Yet, despite this, we can see that the demands of Christianity are not humiliating for /137/ women. On the contrary, they are a guaranty of domestic happiness, if we understand what a wife’s obedience means and what it does not mean.

2) First of all, what do we not mean when we say that a woman has not the same rights as a man? We do not mean that a husband is allowed to treat his wife as if she were an immature child.

Then what does St. Paul mean when he requires women to be obedient to their husbands? His words mean that order and domestic felicity cannot conform to the so-called “emancipation of women,” whether the phrase is understood to mean physical or economic, or social emancipation.

Physical emancipation would mean that a woman has the right to avoid the burdens that go with the dignity of wife and mother. Such a view Christianity condemns.

Economic emancipation would mean that a wife has the right to pursue an independent business career without her husband’s knowledge or sanction, caring nothing for her family. Such a view Christianity condemns.

Social emancipation would consist in a woman’s having the right to regard the realm of the home as too narrow, the right to neglect her domestic duties, to have no care of her husband and children, to engage rather in public affairs. Such a view Christianity cannot approve.

Christianity cannot approve it. Although the husband is the head of the family, the wife is its heart; to separate the heart from the head, the one from the other, without mortal danger, is impossible.

Where two people live together, one must lead, direct, we may even say “command.” The family where this “commanding” and obedience are lacking will sooner or later disintegrate.

Young women often think of marriage as a grand wedding /138/ celebration, following which they “will live happy ever after.” But in real life this is not the case. Nowhere in the world do we find complete harmony. Sooner or later differences of opinion may arise between the most understanding life-companions. Then someone must yield. And this someone must be the woman. If any marriage is ideally happy, you will notice that the wife is the cleverer, and she smooth’s away troubles. It is dangerous for young women to fancy that they will command their future husbands and that everything will happen according to their own wishes.

3) However, brethren, St. Paul takes care that obedience should not be confused with servitude unworthy of mankind, when he says: “The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church.” This thought plainly shows that a wife’s obedience is not toward man, but toward Christ. A wife obeys her husband for Christ’s sake. Therefore it is quite natural that she obeys him only in things that Christ approves and allows.

If we consider all these statements, every shadow of anxiety must fade, as to whether obedience is humiliating for a wife. Is it humiliating for the Church that she obeys Christ? Yet word for word St. Paul writes: “As the Church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things” (Eph. 5: 24)

Only with such an exalted concept can the “sanctification” and “honor” be realized that St. Paul plainly demands when he writes: “Every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles that know not God” (I Thess. 4: 4 f.).

Alas, how many modern families would St. Paul call Gentiles or pagans! How sternly he demands that a Christian shall live with his wife in such a manner that their relations shall manifest sanctity and honor, that is to say, that both shall /139/ render to each other the respect, love, and fine feeling that make family life a sanctuary.

 

1. What we have thus far said refers to but one leg of the family table that is necessary to happy married life: authority. That the table may stand firmly, it needs the other leg, too: love.

1) Those women who are still thinking of St. Paul’s words about obedience; will be reassured when they read the continuation of the Apostle’s words. St. Paul addresses the husbands with these words: “Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it” (Eph. 5: 25 f.).

Now we see the Christian idea in all its fullness. Christianity, as the chief guardian of social order, condemns tyranny just as it condemns rebellion; it condemns it in national life and also in family life.

Obedience and authority are important foundations of domestic life, but love is equally important. Obedience is the safeguard from rebellious confusion; love is the safeguard from tyranny.

2) If, therefore, St. Paul proclaims that the man is the head of the family, he does not proclaim that he is the family tyrant. The man is the head of the woman only as Christ is head of the Church. The husband must show the same self-sacrificing, boundless love toward his wife that Christ showed when He gave up His life for the Church. A husband must be as ready to sacrifice his life for his wife’s sake, if need be, as Christ sacrificed His life for the sake of His Church.

This exalted view of a married couple’s relations is far removed from what is described in novels and sung in love-songs. How different is this truly Christian love! The one is the love of the senses that is exhausted in sweet words, pleasing Batteries, and what I may perhaps call the pyrotechnic displays /140/ of eloquence, and which dies out like an expiring rocket in the sky. The other, Christian love, is deep, pure, sacred, enduring, not overflowing in a torrent of words, but manifested in deeds.

3) Many more marriages would be happy if we did not forget that only this mutual self-sacrificing love ensures a happy marriage.

Unfortunately, people too often ignore this truth. Ask anyone before marriage, why he wishes to get married. Probably he will answer: “That I may be happy.”

Would not most people answer so? But this shallow idea of marriage is the cause of most domestic tragedies. Only those have the right idea of marriage, who realize that they must include the thought of suffering in their thoughts of marriage. The Persian rug of happy matrimony is not woven of the bright threads of joy and pleasure only; the more sedate colors of suffering, self-discipline, forbearance, and pardon also belong to it.

You must understand that you will be happy if you make your spouse happy, if you forget what is pleasing for you and consider what is pleasing for your other half. You will be happy if you remember that where two people live together, friction will sometimes be felt, and you must then be prepared to pour out the oil of forbearance generously.

Have you forgotten that marriage is contracted at the altar, and the altar is the place of sacrifice, an eternal admonition to both husband and wife: Without mutual sacrifice there is no happiness?

“Loving one another . . . with honor preventing one another” (Rom. 12: 10), says Holy Writ in one place. Anticipating the needs and wishes of each other with tender love, by tactful attention, by discovering each other’s hidden desires, perhaps by sacrificing one’s own wishes. If both of you think /141/ thus, then the first piece of furniture, the family table, will stand firm, and true happiness will be realized.

To be continued.

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To the members of the United Bible Societies: “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ”

Vatican City, 29 September 2014 (VIS) – “Yours is the fruit of a patient, careful, fraternal, competent and, above all, faithful work. If you do not believe, you do not understand; if you do not believe, you cannot stand firm”, said the Holy Father to the members of the United Bible Societies, whom he received this morning in the Consistory Hall for the presentation of the Italian language Bible, “Parola del Signore – La Bibbia Interconfessionale in lingua corrente” (“The Word of the Lord – The Interconfessional Bible in current language”). “I hope that this text, which is presented with the blessing of the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, will encourage all Italian-speaking Christians to meditate on, life, bear witness to and celebrate God’s message”.

“I would very much like all Christians to be able to learn ‘the sublime science of Jesus Christ’ through frequent reading of the Word of God, as the sacred text offers nourishment for the soul and is the pure and perennial source of the spiritual life of us all”, he added. “We must make every effort so that each believer may read God’s Word, because as Saint Jerome says, ‘ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ’”. The Pope offered his heartfelt thanks to those present for their valuable work, encouraging them to “continue on the journey you have undertaken, so as to allow for the better and deeper comprehension of the Word of the living God”.

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Father Krier will be in Los Angeles October 7 and the San Diego area October 8. He will be in Eureka, NV, onOctober 14.

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