Vol 14 Issue 45 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
November 6, 2021 ~ Our Lady on Saturday

1.      Sacrament of Penance
2.      Twenty Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
3.      Saint Willibrord
4.      Family and Marriage
5.      Articles and notices
Dear Reader:

As we enter the month of November, which is dedicated to the Holy Souls, it may be a time to think of our own mortality and that of our own preparation for death. Saint Alphonsus Ligouri wrote a book with that title: Preparation for Death. It might be a good read during this month. There is another book just republished, Ars Moriendi—The Art of Dying—that was produced in the Middle Ages. I do not want to spend a long time here considering the topic, but it is front and center when we pray for the Souls in Purgatory. Purgatory is something that is superficial and placating to nostalgics in the Conciliar Church because it is otherwise no longer preached as everyone goes to heaven according to the Conciliar Church, including non-Catholics—and since apparently Protestants don’t believe in Purgatory they will not go there in that false belief of universal salvation they now teach. But death also brings up a further aspect—that of awaiting the resurrection of the body. Even though it is set in the words of the Apostles’ Creed, this is also not preached and the setting of the funerals today are all about the celebration of a life that contradicts reality—a reality people do not want to acknowledge: death! I mean, it would be one thing to eulogize the life of a saint with the life lived to live eternal life; but these celebrations are a life lived that is no longer lived and therefore indicates eternal death—not of the present life they are now living—which means if they are in Purgatory we want to pray for their release! Of course, such irreligious celebrations correspond with the cremation that follows—the burning now prefiguring the burning of the body eternally. I pray that Catholics take this month in which they are praying for the souls of their loved ones as an opportunity to consider what it will be like when they will be on their death bed, when they will be dead to this world, when they will stand before their Judge, and where they will spend eternity. Remember, faith directs how one lives and our faith should indicate that we are living for eternal life, not eternal death.

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

________________

WHAT IS THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE

What is the Sacrament of Penance?

An Outward Sign, Instituted by Christ, to Give Grace

The Matter of the Sacrament

Saint James includes Confession in Extreme Unction in dealing with the sick these words:

Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess therefore your sins one to another: and pray one for another, that you may be saved. (5:14-16)

Though one need not take it as addressing both spiritual and physical sickness, joining the two cannot but raise the correlation. The Fathers of the Church used the term of physician in speaking and writing of the Sacrament of Penance. Pohle (209-210), in speaking of the practice of auricular confession quotes St. Pacian of Barcelona (+391) speaking of those who grievously sinned that they should cease to hide their wounded conscience” and to follow the prudent example of  the sick who do not fear the physician, though he cut and burn even the secret parts of the body.” (Paraenes. ad Poenit., n. 6, 8) And continues:

Lactantius (+ about 330) says that “the true Church is that in which there is confession and penance, which applies a wholesome remedy to the sins and wounds whereunto the weakness of the flesh is subject.” (Div. Instit., IV, c, 30)

The so-called “Penitential Letters” of St. Basil (+ 379) contain many references to auricular confession. The question whether a sinner “should reveal forbidden deeds to all, or merely to some men, and to whom,” he answers thus: “In confession we must observe the same order as in revealing bodily diseases. As men do not make known their bodily ailments to anybody and everybody, but only to those who are skilled in healing, so confession of sins ought to be made to those who can cure them.” [Regula Brev., 229 (Migne, P. G., XXXI, 1235).]

Origen writes in his second Homily on the Psalms (Psalm 37):

Consider, therefore, that Scripture teaches we must not inwardly conceal sin. For as those who, having undigested food or an ulcer in the stomach, find relief in vomiting, so those who have sinned are distressed and almost choked by the slime or phlegm of sin if they conceal and keep it within themselves. But if a man accuses himself and confesses, he vomits up his crime and casts out every cause of disease. Now take care to whom thou shouldst confess thy sins. First prove the physician to whom thou art obliged to explain the cause of thy weakness, who knows how to be sick with the infirm and weep with the sorrowing, who is familiar with the practice of sympathy and compassion, in order that, following the word of him who has proved himself to be an experienced physician, thou comply with his advice and follow it. When he perceives and counsels that thy illness is such that thou must confess it before the face of the whole congregation, whereby perhaps the others are edified and thou thyself canst be easily healed, this should be done with due deliberation and according to the prudent advice of the doctor. (Quoted by Pohle, 212-13)

The Council of Trent includes the confessor in the role of physician, when speaking of satisfaction. It rejects the notion that satisfaction is not necessary—only a vague “newness of life”—that the Protestants introduced; but the Council Fathers also understood that satisfaction in this life was not an end, but a means of sanctification, that is, as health is to the body, so holiness is to the soul. Sin is a sickness to the soul as disease is a sickness to the body. Just as one attempts and takes every means to rid all disease from the body to guarantee its healthiness; so one must attempt and take every means to rid all sin from the soul to guarantee its salvation. The satisfaction, therefore, should be a means to take sin from the life of the soul as well as atone for the offense. The following is the teaching of the Council from the Fourteenth Session:

The priests of the Lord ought, therefore, so far as the spirit and prudence suggest, to enjoin salutary and suitable satisfactions, in keeping with the nature of the crimes and the ability of the penitents, lest, if they should connive at sins and deal too leniently with penitents, by the imposition of certain very light works for grave offenses, they might become participators in the crimes of others [cf.1 Tim. 5:22]. Moreover, let them keep before their eyes that the satisfaction which they impose be not only for the safeguarding of a new life and a remedy against infirmity, but also for the atonement and chastisement of past sins; for the ancient Fathers both believe and teach that the keys of the priests were bestowed not only to loose, but also to bind [cf. Matt. 16:19; John 20:23; can. 15]. Nor did they therefore think that the sacrament of penance is a tribunal of wrath or of punishments; as no Catholic ever understood that from our satisfactions of this kind the nature of the merit and satisfaction of our Lord Jesus Christ is either obscured or in any way diminished; when the Innovators wish to observe this, they teach that the best penance is a new life, in order to take away all force and practice of satisfaction [can. 13]. (Chapter 5; cf. DB 905)

And the Catechism of the Council of Trent, in speaking of the qualifications of the Confessor, instructs:

Besides the power of orders and of jurisdiction, which are of absolute necessity, the minister of this sacrament, holding as he does, the place at once of judge and physician, should also be gifted with knowledge and prudence. As judge, his knowledge, it is evident, should be more than ordinary, for by it he is to examine into the nature of sins, and, amongst the various sorts of sins, to judge which are grievous and which are not, keeping in view the rank and condition of the person. As physician, he has also occasion for consummate prudence, for to him it belongs to administer to the distempered soul those sanative medicines, which will not only effect the cure of her present malady, but prove preservatives against its future contagion.\ The faithful, therefore, will perceive the great importance to be attached to the choice of a confessor, and will use their best endeavours to choose one who is recommended by integrity of life, by learning and prudence, who is deeply impressed with the awful weight and responsibility of the station which he holds, who understands well the punishment due to every sin, and can also discern who are to be loosed and who to be bound. (II, 5)

Satisfaction for sin is seen in the role of the Confessor as judge. But the satisfaction is to also be understood as medicinal as seen in the role of the Confessor as physician. Since satisfaction is an essential component of Penance, the priest must impose some act of satisfaction, not merely to punish, but to heal. Unfortunately the penances now imposed are not indicative of the seriousness of the sins committed. This is because of pride and vanity. No one wants to be pointed publicly as a sinner and because auricular confession is to be secret, the imposition of a severe penance would reveal the sinner—therefore penitents would stay away if it would mean giving the slightest occasion for others to recognize them as having committed a grievous sin. Too, fewer would perform the lengthy penance and would avoid confession lest they receive one from a confessor and the Church sees here that the role of physician is lost. Therefore, one should see that the penance, though seemingly insignificant, is to encourage the penitent to return frequently to confession in the spiritual effort to heal the soul, to cure one of a life of sin while also making atonement for one’s sins.

The absolution is given by the priest without which there is no forgiveness and expresses then that of loosing, or, if the absolution is denied, binding. The absolution is called the form of the Sacrament.

The Form of the Sacrament

The form of the sacrament are the words mentioned above: I absolve thee from thy sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The form, also, because well calculated to excite the faithful, to receive with fervent devotion the grace of this sacrament, the pastor will not omit to explain. The words that compose the form are: “I ABSOLVE THEE,” as may be inferred not only from these words of the Redeemer: “Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven;” [Matt. xviii. 18.] but also from the same doctrine of Jesus Christ, as recorded by the Apostles. That this is the perfect form of the sacrament of penance, the very nature of the form of a sacrament proves. The form of a sacrament signifies what the sacrament accomplishes: these words “I absolve thee” signify the accomplishment of absolution from sin through the instrumentality of this sacrament; they therefore constitute its form. Sins are, as it were, the chains by which the soul is fettered, and from the bondage of which it is “loosed” by the sacrament of penance. This form is not less true, when pronounced by the priest over him, who by means of perfect contrition, has already obtained the pardon of his sins. Perfect contrition, it is true, reconciles the sinner to God, but his justification is not to be ascribed to perfect contrition alone, independently of the desire which it includes of receiving the sacrament of penance. Many prayers accompany the form, not because they are deemed necessary, but in order to remove every obstacle, which the unworthiness of the penitent may oppose to the efficacy of the sacrament. Let then the sinner pour out his heart in fervent thanks to God, who has invested the ministers of his Church with such ample powers! Unlike the authority given to the priests of the Old Law, to declare the leper cleansed from his leprosy, [Levit. xiii. 9 et xiv. 2] the power with which the priests of the New Law are invested, is not simply to declare that sins are forgiven, but, as the ministers of God, really to absolve from sin; a power which God himself, the author and source of grace and justification, exercises through their ministry. (Roman Catechism, II, 5.)

(To be continued)

————————–

The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers

M. F. Toal

MATTHEW xiii. 24-30

At that time: Jesus proposed to the multitude this parable, saying: The Kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed 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 good man 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.

ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, BISHOP AND DOCTOR

On the Gospel

Synopsis:

I. The difference between the two parables concerning the good seed.

II. The artifice of the devil in leading men into error.

III. Heretics should not be put to death.

1. What is the difference between this and the preceding parable?

In the first He speaks of those who hearkened not to Him, turning away, and rejecting the good seed. Here He speaks of heretics. He foretold this also lest later His Disciples might be troubled regarding this very matter. The parable that precedes this refers to those who did not receive His Word. This speaks of those who receive the corruptors of His Word. For it is the guile of the spirit of evil to commingle his own errors with the sowing of the truth, so that they have the shape and colour of truth, and so deceive the trusting. He then here speaks not of any seed, but only of tares, which resemble wheat.

Then He speaks of the manner of this guile, while men are asleep. Here lies no small danger of headlong disaster for the rulers of the Church, to whom has been confided the care of the field; and not only to the rulers, but to the subjects as well. He shows here very clearly that wherever the seed of truth has been sown, error follows after, as events have truly confirmed. For after the Prophets have come the pseudo-prophets; after the apostles the pseudo-apostles; and after Christ anti-Christ. For the devil, except he sees what he can imitate, or against whom he may plot, knows not what to do, and neither does he attempt anything. But since he has learned that of the seed that was sown some brought fruit a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty, he tries yet another stratagem. Not being able to carry off what has taken firm root, nor choke it, nor wither it, he conspires against it by oversowing it with his own evil seed.

But what difference, you may ask, is there between those that sleep, and those who are signified by the wayside? There is this. That in the latter case the devil immediately snatched away the seed, not permitting it to take root. But in this case he has need of greater cunning. And Christ tells us this in order to teach us of the need for unsleeping vigilance. For though, He says, you escape these snares, you are not yet safe and secure; yet others remain. For as in the preceding parable disaster came to some by the wayside, to others because of stony ground, to others through being smothered by thorns, so here it came because of sleep. There is need therefore for continual watchfulness. Because of this He has said: he that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved (Mt. x. 22).

Something of this evil happened in the beginning of the Church. For many among the bishops, not being vigilant, received into the Church men who were evil and unworthy, secretly heretics, and gave them authority and opportunity to lay snares of this kind. The devil has no further need to labour after he has planted in our midst such men as these. But, you may ask, how is it possible that we are never to sleep? As to natural sleep, it is indeed impossible; but it is otherwise with the sleep of the will. So Paul has said: watch ye, stand fast (I Cor. xvi. 13).

2. How does the devil uses his cunning to lead men into error?

He shows that this artifice of the devil is not alone injurious, but wanton. For when the tilling of the field is completed, and no more toil remains, then last of all he sows his seed, which also the heretics do, who for no other cause than vain glory scatter abroad their poison. That this the manner of their acting appears not alone from His words, but also from what follows. And when the blade was sprung up, He says, and had brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. This undoubtedly is the method of the heretics; at first concealing their true selves, then, having acquired boldness, and after being entrusted with the teaching of the word, they boldly pour out their poison.

But why does He here bring in the servants, hastening to tell what has happened? That He may thus have an opportunity of declaring that such heretics are not to be killed. He calls the devil an enemy because of the injuries he ever strives to inflict on all men. Though the ill will of the devil is directed against us, in its beginning it was not directed against us, but against the divine majesty. Hence it is apparent that we are loved more by God than we are loved by ourselves. See likewise the craft of the devil. For he did not sow his seed before, when there was nothing he could destroy, but only when he saw that the work of the sowing was completed, so as the more thoroughly to undo the work of the Husbandman. And with such malevolence of mind has he ever worked against Him.

Note in the parable also the zeal and affection of the servants. They are eager to root out the tares, though in this they are not wise, yet their concern for the good seed is very manifest, and they have thought only for this, not that someone be punished, but that the seed that was sown be not lost. And so they hasten to find out how the evil may be undone. Neither do they themselves decide what to do, but they look to the word of the Lord, asking: Wilt Thou that we go and gather it up? But the Lord forbids them, lest you root up the wheat also; which He also said in order to forbid wars and slaughters. For if men were to be killed for heresy it would lead to interminable war throughout the world.

3. How we are to act regarding heretics—The Forbearance of Christ.

The Lord forbade this for two reasons. First, lest the wheat be injured; second, because whoever has a disease that is not cured, will not escape punishment. Therefore if you desire to see them punished without injury to the wheat, then you must wait for the due time. What else does He mean when He says lest you root up the wheat also together with it, unless that if you take up arms, and kill heretics, it must also follow that many of the sanctified will fall with them. And even of many from among the tares it is likely that they will be converted into wheat. If therefore you now uproot them, you will also destroy the wheat they would become, should they be converted. He did not however forbid us to reprove heretics, to silence their mouths, to restrict their liberty of speech, to scatter their assemblies; but He forbade that they should be killed

But observe His gentleness and forbearance. He not alone forbids, but He also gives His reasons. What if the tares continue till the end? Then He says I will say to the reapers, gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn. He recalls to their minds the words of John speaking of Him as the Judge (Mt. iii. 10), and says: we must spare the tares as long as they stand close to the wheat in the field, for it is possible that they too may become wheat. But when they have been cut down, and have not profited from the forbearance of the Lord, then must they receive their inevitable chastisement. For I will say to the reapers, He says, gather up first the cockle. Why first? Lest the good be anxious, fearing that the wheat will be carried off with the cockle. Let the cockle first be burned, He says, and then let the wheat be gathered into my barn. Amen.

———————–

November 7

ST WILLIBRORD, BISHOP OF UTRECHT (A.D. 739)

ST WILLIBRORD was born in Northumbria in the year 658, and placed before he was seven years old in the monastery of Ripon, which was at that time governed by St Wilfrid. In his twentieth year he went over to Ireland, where he joined St Egbert and St Wigbert who had gone thither to study in the monastic schools and lead a more perfect life among their monks. In their company he spent twelve years in the study of the sacred sciences. St Egbert was anxious to preach the gospel in northern Germany but was prevented, and his companion Wigbert came back to Ireland after spending two fruitless years on this mission. Thereupon Willibrord, who was then thirty-one, and had been ordained priest a year before, expressed a desire to be allowed to undertake this laborious and dangerous task, and was accordingly sent out with eleven other monks, Englishmen, among whom was St Swithbert.

They landed in 690 at the mouth of the Rhine, made their way to Utrecht, and then to the court of Pepin of Herstal, who encouraged them to preach in Lower Friesland, between the Meuse and the sea, which he had conquered from the heathen Radbod. Willibrord set out for Rome and cast himself at the feet of Pope St Sergius I, begging his authority to preach the gospel to idolatrous nations. The pope granted him ample jurisdiction and gave him relics for the consecration of churches. He then returned and with his companions preached the gospel with success in that part of Friesland that had been conquered by the Franks. St Swithbert was consecrated as bishop  by St Wilfrid in England, but perhaps Pepin did not approve of this, for Swithbert soon went off up the Rhine to preach to the Boructvari; and Pepin soon sent St Willibrord to Rome, with letters of recommendation that he might be ordained bishop. Pope Sergius still sat in. St Peter’s chair and he received him with honour, changed his name to Clement and ordained him bishop of the Frisians in St Cecilia’s basilica on her feast-day in the year 695. St Willibrord ‘stayed only fourteen days in Rome, and coming back to Utrecht built there the church of our Saviour, in which he fixed his see. The bishop’s indefatigable application to the conversion of souls seemed to prove that, with the new obligation he had received at his consecration of labouring to enlarge the kingdom of his Master, he had acquired fresh strength and zeal. Some years after his consecration, assisted by the liberality of Pepin and the abbess St Irmina, he founded the abbey of Echternach in Luxemburg, which soon became an important centre of his influence.

Willibrord extended his labours into Upper Friesland, which still obeyed Radbod, and penetrated into Denmark, but with no more success than to purchase thirty young Danish boys, whom he instructed, baptized and brought back with him. In his return, according to Alcuin, he was driven by stress of weather upon the island of Heligoland, revered as a holy place by the Danes and Frisians. It was looked upon as a sacrilege for anyone to kill any living creature on that island, to eat anything that grew on it, or to draw water out of a spring there without observing strict silence. St Willibrord, to undeceive the inhabitants, killed some of the beasts for his companions to eat and baptized three persons in the fountain, pronouncing the words very loudly. The idolaters expected to see them go mad or drop down dead, and when no such judgement befell could not determine whether this was to be attributed to the patience of their god or to his want of power. They informed Radbod, who ordered lots to be cast for the person who should appease the god, so that one of Willibrord’s company was sacrificed to the superstition of the people and died a martyr for Jesus Christ. The saint, upon leaving Heligoland, went ashore on Walcheren and his charity and patience made considerable conquests to the Christian religion there. He overthrew and destroyed an idol, whereupon he was attacked by its outraged priest who tried to kill the missionary, but he escaped and returned in safety to Utrecht. In 714 Charles Martel’s son Pepin the Short, afterwards king of the Franks, was born, and baptized by St Willibrord, who on that occasion is related by Alcuin to have prophesied that the child would surpass in glory all his ancestors.

In 715 Radbod regained the parts of Frisia he had lost, and undid much of Willibrord’s work, destroying churches, killing missionaries and inducing many apostasies. For a time Willibrord retired, but after the death of Radbod in 719 he was at full liberty to preach in every part of the country. He was joined in his apostolical labours by St Boniface, who spent three years in Friesland before he went into Germany. Bede says, when he wrote his history in 731, “Willibrord, surnamed Clement, is still living, venerable in his old age, having been bishop thirty-six years, and sighing after the rewards of the heavenly life after many spiritual conflicts”. He was, says Bd Alcuin, of a becoming stature, venerable in his aspect, comely in his person, graceful and always cheerful in his speech and countenance, wise in his counsel, unwearied in preaching and all apostolic works, amidst which he was careful to nourish the interior life of his soul by public prayer, meditation and reading. By the prayers and labours of this apostle and his colleagues the faith was planted in many parts of Holland, Zeeland, and the Netherlands, whither St Amand and St Lebwin had never penetrated; and the Frisians, till then a rough and barbarous people, became more civilized and virtuous. He is commonly called the Apostle of the Frisians, a title to which he has every claim; but it must not be lost sight of that in the earlier days of the mission St Swithbert also played a very considerable part and seems in some degree to have been its leader. And the Frisians, like other nations, were not converted with the speed and in the numbers that medieval hagiographers would have us believe. “Willibrord was to England what Columbanus had been to Ireland. He inaugurated a century of English spiritual influence on the continent” (W. Levison).

It had always been St Willibrord’s habit to go from time to time to his monastery at Echternach for periods of retreat, and in his old age he made it his place of permanent retirement. There he died at the age of eighty-one on November 7, 739, and was buried in the abbey church, which has ever since been a place of pilgrimage. In connection with the shrine there takes place every Whit-Tuesday a curious observance called the Springende Heiligen, the Dancing Saints. Its true origin is unknown, but it is known to have taken place regularly (except from 1786 till 1802) from at least 1553 until the present day. It consists of a procession from a bridge over the Sure to St Willibrord’s shrine; The participants, four or five abreast and hand-fasted or arm-in-arm, proceed with a hopping or dancing motion, in which for ,every three steps forward they take two back, in time to a traditional tune played by bands. Priests, religious, and even bishops take part, and the ceremony ends with benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Whatever its origin, the procession is now penitential in character and intercessory on behalf of those suffering from epilepsy and similar maladies. St Willibrord’s feast is kept in the diocese of Hexham as well as in Holland.

(Butler’s Lives of the Saints)

_______________

LETTERS TO JACK

WRITTEN BY A PRIEST TO HIS NEPHEW

By the

RIGHT REV. FRANCIS C. KELLEY, D.D., LL.D.

(1917)

XVII

CRITICISM

MILD and pleasant criticisms might accomplish something; but not enough to justify their existence.

THE gossiping neighbors of a country village have a great deal more to do with keeping the village highly moral, and filling the churches on Sunday, than they get credit for.

THE less criticism you get the harder will be your road to success.

My dear Jack:

The most irritating thing in the world is a toothache; but I saved nearly all my teeth by heeding the first twinging warning of that kind. The only tooth I lost forever went because I too long neglected such a warning, using palliatives for the pain rather than a prompt remedy for the disorder that caused it. Criticisms are like toothaches—unpleasant, even painful; irritating, even maddening; but they help us and they help us very materially. If there possibly could be such a thing as a pleasant toothache, I think that the object of the infliction could not be attained. It is only natural that we should ask why a warning of decay might not be given without the pain; but would we heed such a warning? It usually takes a hard-gripping toothache to drive us to the dentist’s chair, where we should have gone months before. It is the same way with criticisms. There are no pleasant ones, and I am glad of it, though I have suffered my share of the pain of them. Mild and pleasant criticisms might accomplish something, but not enough to justify their existence.

There are, however, toothaches of all degrees of painfulness; and there are critics of the same kind. Some critics are vicious; some are gentle. Both have their uses. They all make us stop and think. If there were no critics in the world, there would be little, if any, progress; and very much sin. The gossiping neighbors of a country village have a great deal more to do with keeping the village highly moral, and filling the churches on Sunday, than they really get credit for; and, while gossiping hurts the gossiper, it is one of those evils which God confounds by drawing good out of them. More than once the fear of criticism has kept young people from rushing into danger. It is wise always to be on the alert to catch every breath of criticism directed your way, because it is always well to see yourself as other people see you.

The right way to receive criticism is as you receive a toothache—suffer it, but do not suffer it any longer than you have to. Remove the cause, if you can, and remove it quickly; thus will you draw your good out of the evil. As a man rarely thinks of a toothache after it ends, in the joy of having gotten rid of it, so hasten yourself to forget criticism and the critic, that you may not lose the good both have done you.

I counseled you to be sensitive to criticism; but what I meant, was to make only your ears sensitive to it. I did not mean that you should make your heart so. Steel yourself against criticism. Be prepared to turn it into an advantage, but never let it make you bitter; and, above all, never let it make you revengeful. Critics are not always enemies; but much that I said of the critic applies to the enemy. A mean critic is not worth being revenged upon. The critic who is not mean is usually quite honest and worth attention. One of the differences between criticisms and toothaches lies in the fact that we ought, within reason, to go out looking for criticisms. No man can be successful without his critics; and therefore even the saints had them. No one profited more by criticisms than did these saints. Your school days were made up of hour after hour of criticism. Your business career will be the same. You will be criticised until the day you die. The less criticism you get, the harder will be your road to success.

But fear much to criticise others. You may get yourself into the position of being hardened to criticism, and even of welcoming it; but do not presume that others will have been successful in like manner. The average man does not take kindly to criticism; therefore, for your own personal comfort, if for no other reason, give your opinion when it is asked and not before.

I am afraid that the most sensitive people to criticism are Catholics. The reasons for this are many, but one in particular: Catholics know the perfection of the divine side of the Church, and instinctively conclude that all criticism of her is unfounded. They forget that there is a human side to the Church as well as a divine side, and that the human side needs criticism. This, our peculiar sensitiveness, extends to everything that is Catholic. Taught by bitter experience, we are always looking for insults; and we consequently often imagine them where there are none. We too frequently fail to allow for inherited prejudices, and above all for a very natural frailty in ourselves—the frailty that comes out of our very strength. A man who has outstanding ability above all other men in some branch of endeavor, is likely to think that he cannot be very weak in anything. For example, an extremely wealthy man is a miracle if he recognizes his own follies. He is flattered and fawned upon until he thinks he is a demigod. It is easy then for the astute time-server to catch him on the weak side; to the time-server’s gain. The trouble is that the rich man has been ignoring criticisms, or has bought off his critics. Catholics are very much like that. The very perfection of the divine side of the Church is their weakness in the face of criticisms of the human side. It is no attack against our faith, for example, to have the flaws in our educational system pointed out. There is really no reason why we should be sensitive if we are told of lapses in the conduct of some individuals, or a body of them. It does not really hurt us if we are truthfully told that our social works are too much neglected. We ought to listen to and profit by these things. A professor of Sociology told me a few days ago, that it is refreshing to meet a lot of non-Catholic social workers at gatherings where all are brought together for discussion. “They go at each other hammer and tongs,” he said. “They attack, defend and attack again. I never enjoy myself so much as at one of these meetings. Why can’t we do it? It would benefit us.” The reason we can’t do it is because we are too sensitive to criticism. We have gotten into the habit of defending the Church at all risks, and doing it at prices we cannot afford to pay. Let us not be too sensitive to such criticisms. After all, we must see our faults in order to correct them.

Though I know that, in the majority of cases, personal criticisms injure the one who makes them, and benefit the one who receives them, nevertheless I say: God bless the critics. They stimulate enough to keep us moving onward and upward. They impede just enough to prevent our speeding too fast. They irritate just enough to make us careful. They sting just enough to make us watchful. They are a constant invitation to the practise of humility, and a consequent antidote to pride. Cherish your critics—and to the same degree that I advised you to cherish your enemies.

(To be continued.)

————————-

Father Krier will be in Pahrump, Nevada, (Our Lady of the Snows) November 11. He will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico, (Saint Joseph Cupertino) November 16. On November 18, he will be in Eureka, Nevada (Saint Joseph, Patron of Families).

————————-

The topics of Faith and Morals will correspond to the Roman Catholic Faith in Tradition and the Magisterium. The News will be of interest. The commentaries are for the reader to ponder and consider. The e-mail address will be for you to provide thought for consideration. The donations will be to support the continuation of this undertaking.

While the Newsletter is free of charge it is not free of cost. Please consider supporting St Joseph’s Catholic Church with a tax – deductible donation by clicking the secure link: Donate

  Or if you prefer send a check to

Catholic Tradition Newsletter

c/o St Joseph’s Catholic Church

131 N. 9^th St

Las Vegas, NV 89101

Visit us on the Worldwide Web: http://stjosephlv.org

e-mail news and comments to: tcatholicn@yahoo.com