Vol 10 Issue 8 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
February 25, 2017 ~ Our Lady on Saturday
1. Is the Chair of Peter Vacant? An Argument for Sedevacantism
2. Quinquagesima Sunday
3. Saint Nestor
4. Family and Marriage
5. Articles and notices
Dear Reader:
This week Catholics throughout the world will be commanded to observe the Lenten Fast and Abstinence as the Church turns toward concentrating on eliminating sin from among her children. The world will grieve the Sacred Heart dreadfully with its carnivales and mardi grascelebrations that only draw people into sin without repentance. It is the sad spectacle of this world that what is intended to prepare Catholics for holiness is perverted into an evil occasion of sin. Perhaps it expresses the fallen nature that is prone to sin from its youth (cf. Gen. 8:21 and Exod. 32:22). This is why Holy Mother Church calls her children to penance, knowing that if her children are not commanded to do penance they will fall from grace because human weakness is unable, of itself, to resist temptation. The Church, appropriately, introduces the call to Penance to her children by mentioning in the Prayers for the Blessing of the Ashes, the command by the King of Nineve found in the Book of Jonas, to receive ashes. The grace, therefore, of this season is expressed by taking the ashes from the palms the faithful received on Palm Sunday in their cry to follow Christ as King, that the promises were not kept by His people, the Church; and all the members of the Church receive the ashes so Christ will spare the Church. This thought is brought out in Christ cursing the fig tree, for after Christ told the people, but except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish.
He spoke also this parable: A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none. And he said to the dresser of the vineyard: Behold, for these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it done therefore: why cumbereth it the ground? But he answering, said to him: Lord, let it alone this year also, until I dig about it, and dung it. And if happily it bear fruit: but if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. (Luke 13: 5-10)
This parable addresses not only the Jews, whom Christ taught and worked miracles for three years but who refused to repent and be converted, wherefore Christ allowed the Romans to dig a ditch about Jerusalem and showing the fulfilment of the previous warning therefore giving them a final chance to repent—but they didn’t and were cut off from grace—but the parable is also directed to everyone in general. May this Lent be productive of fruit in the Catholic life in a world that is sterile and spiritually starving from lack of grace (Not that it is not available, but because it is not asked.)
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor
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Is the Chair of Peter Vacant?
An Argument for Sedevacantism
by Rev. Courtney Edward Krier
2. The Catholic Church is One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic
(Continued)
The Unity is also in Communion (Charity)
I therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, With all humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity. Careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One body and one Spirit; as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism.(Eph. 4:1-5)
That they all may be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee; that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, as we also are one: I in them, and thou in me; that they may be made perfect in one: and the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast also loved me. (John 17:21-23)
Ludwig Ott in Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma:
This consists, on the one hand, in the subjection of the members of the Church to the authority of the bishops and of the Pope (unity of government or hierarchical unity); on the other hand, in the binding of the members among themselves to a social unity by participation in the same cult and in the same means of grace (unity of cult or liturgical unity). The unity both of faith and of communion is guaranteed by the Primacy of the Pope, the Supreme Teacher and Pastor of the Church (centrum unitatis: D 1960). One is cut off from the unity of Faith by heresy and from the unity of communion by schism. (Part 2, chapt. 3, p. 15; cf. Noort, op. cit., p. 128)
It can be summed up in the words of Saint Thomas Aquinas, in his work, The Apostles’ Creed:
The unity of the Church arises from three sources:
(1) the unity of faith. All Christians who are of the body of the Church believe the same doctrine. “I beseech you… that you all speak the same thing and that there be no schisms among you” [1 Cor 1:10]. And: “One Lord, one faith, one baptism”[Eph 4:5];
(2) the unity of hope. All are strengthened in one hope of arriving at eternal life. Hence, the Apostle says: “One body and one Spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling” [Eph 4:4];
(3) the unity of charity. All are joined together in the love of God, and to each other in mutual love: “And the glory which You hast given Me, I have given them; that they may be one, as We also are one” [Jn 17:22]. It is clear that this is a true love when the members are solicitous for one another and sympathetic towards each other: “We should in every way grow up in Him who is the head, Christ. From whom the whole body, being joined and fit together, by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and builds itself up in charity” [Eph 4:15-16]. This is because each one ought to make use of the grace God grants him, and be of service to his neighbor. No one ought to be indifferent to the Church, or allow himself to be cut off and expelled from it; for there is but one Church in which men are saved, just as outside of the ark of Noah no one could be saved. (Art. ix.)
In the previous section a review of the Church’s teaching on possessing the mark of being one was provided. The other marks, holy, catholic and apostolic will now be examined to clarify that the understanding Sede Vacantist bishops and priests have is not erroneous.
b. The Church must be holy. The holiness of the Church is not in that all her members are holy, for it is evident that there are saints and sinners within her bosom. Christ speaks of the wheat and the cockle to express the condition of the Church:
The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seeds in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. And the servants of the goodman of the house coming said to him: Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence then hath it cockle? And he said to them: An enemy hath done this. And the servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go and gather it up? And he said: No, lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it. Suffer both to grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into my barn (Matt. 13, 24-30)
This teaching of His was repeated by Matthew in recording that of the gathering of the fishes (Matt. 13, 47-50), the invitation to the wedding feast (Matt. 22, 1-14), and the wise and foolish virgins (Matt. 25, 1-13). It is applied by Paul who admonishes the Corinthians with these words:
But let a man prove himself: and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of the chalice. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not discerning the body of the Lord. Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and many sleep.(I Cor. 11:28-30)
Sanctity is union with God (cf Ott, II, 4, 16; Noort, p. 135 ). Therefore, as a visible Church, this sanctity, or union with God, must be visible to those observing the Church. Matthew quotes Christ as saying: You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is good for nothing any more but to be cast out, and to be trodden on by men. You are the light of the world. A city seated on a mountain cannot be hid. (5:13-14)
Ott sets these signs of holiness:
The Church is holy in her origin, her purpose, her means and her fruits.
She is holy in her Founder and Invisible Head of the Church, Christ the Lord; in her inner life-principle, the Holy Ghost; in her purpose which is the glory of God and the sanctification of men, in the means by which she attains her purpose, in the teaching of Christ with its propositions of faith, commandments and counsels concerning morals, in her liturgy especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in her laws, in her institutions, such as the Orders and Congregations, the institutes of education and of charity, in the sacraments, the sacramentals and the liturgical prayers, the gifts of grace and charisma given by the Holy Ghost. Many members of the Church are holy in the ordinary sense of holiness (possession of the state of grace). The Church has never lacked examples of heroic holiness and marvellous manifestations of holiness. Of the kinds of holiness named, however, only the last two, holiness of the means and heroic holiness of the members, are perceptible to the senses, and only these may be regarded as notes of the Church of Christ. (Ott, II, 4, 16)
The Roman Catechism (I, ix) teaches that the holiness of the Church is in her members through baptism in which they are united with God, as in the words of St. Peter (ii.9): “You are a chosen generation, a holy nation.”
The Church is called holy, because she is consecrated and dedicated to God; [Lev. xxvii.28, 30] as other things, such as vessels, vestments, altars, when appropriated and dedicated to the worship of God, although material, are called holy; and, in the same sense, the first-born, who were dedicated to the Most High God, were, also, called holy. [cf. Exod.13:12]
. . . She is, also, to be called holy, because, as the body, she is united to her head, Christ Jesus, [Eph. iv.15, 16.] the fountain of all holiness, from whom flow the graces of the Holy Spirit, and the riches of the divine bounty S. Augustine interpreting these words of the prophet : “Preserve my soul because I am holy,” [Ps. lxxxv.2.] thus admirably expresses himself: “Let the body of Christ boldly say, let also, that one man, exclaiming from the ends of the earth, boldly say, with Christ his head, and under Christ his head; I am holy: for he received the grace of holiness, the grace of baptism and of remission of sins.” [St. Aug. in Psalm lxxxv. 2.] . . . the Church alone has the legitimate worship of sacrifice, and the salutary use of the sacraments, by which, as the efficacious instruments of divine grace, God establishes us in true holiness; so that to possess true holiness we must belong to this Church. . .
Van Noort teaches:
Christ willed that His Church be holy as to its members (or its effects).
That is, that in every age very many of the Church’s members be brought to a state of ordinary holiness, and at least some be shining examples of outstanding or heroic holiness. This harvest of holiness may be quite abundant at one time, less satisfying at another. . . .
A harvest of even outstanding holiness can never be wanting in the Church.
From Christ’s purpose in founding the Church and the aid He promised. He founded the Church that it might lead men to even perfect holiness; besides, He promised it effective and perpetual help (Matt. 28:20) for the attainment of this purpose. Therefore the Church can no more fail in producing holiness than it can in preaching truth . . . .
Christ willed that His Church be holy as to its charisms, that is, that the Church in every age be enriched with certain miraculous gifts through which God manifests its holiness.
Charisms have an essential relationship to holiness, both because they are signs that the Holy Spirit dwells in the Church, and because ordinarily they are enjoyed by those who are outstanding for perfect holiness.
That Christ willed His Church to be favored with charisms in all ages is proved by His unqualified promise:
“Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to all creation. . . . And in the way of proofs of their claims, the following will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will take up serpents in their hands, and if they drink something deadly, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and these will recover (Mark 16:15-18; see John 14:12; I Cor. 12:4-11).
This promise is general, restricted by no time limit, and therefore it cannot be confined to the apostolic age. And Christ added nothing about the measure in which the promise (which was made to the Church, not to individual Christians) should be fulfilled. Consequently there can be a profusion of miraculous gifts in one age and a relative scarcity of them in another, in accord with the needs of the Church or with the decrees of divine Providence, but they will never be totally lacking. . . .
Pius XII concludes also that there should be evident holiness visible in the lives of Catholics at all times:
Moreover He conferred a triple power on His Apostles and their successors, to teach, to govern, to lead men to holiness, making this power, defined by special ordinances, rights and obligations, the fundamental law of the whole Church.
But our Divine Savior governs and guides the Society which He founded directly and personally also. For it is He who reigns within the minds and hearts of men, and bends and subjects their wills to His good pleasure, even when rebellious. “The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord; whithersoever he will, he shall turn it.” [Prov. 21:1.] By this interior guidance He the “Shepherd and Bishop of our souls,”[cf. I Peter ii.25.] not only watches over individuals but exercises His providence over the universal Church, whether by enlightening and giving courage to the Church’s rulers for the loyal and effective performance of their respective duties, or by singling out from the body of the Church – especially when times are grave – men and women of conspicuous holiness, who may point the way for the rest of Christendom to the perfecting of His Mystical Body. (Mystici Corporis, par. 38, 39)
The holiness of the Church is seen, therefore, in those members who avail themselves of the means, of which it will be noticeable that these members are living a life of union with God and through those most conspicuous in holiness the Holy Ghost manifests His charisms or works miracles.
(To be continued)
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Fr. Leonard Goffine
The Ecclesiastical Year (1880)
The Introit of this day’s Mass is the sigh of an afflicted soul confiding in God: Be thou unto me a God, a protector, and a place of refuge, to save me: for thou art my strength and my refuge: and for thy name’s sake thou wilt be my leader, and wilt nourish me. (Ps. xxx. 3. 4.) In thee , O Lord, I have hoped, let me never be confounded: deliver me in thy justice, and set me free. (Ps. xxx. 2.)
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH. O Lord, we beseech Thee, graciously hear our prayers, and unloosing the bonds of our sins, guard us from all adversity. Through our Lord, etc.
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