17 May 2024
16 May 2024
The Long Term Ramifications of Dignitas Infinita?
Dr Casanova looks at the false theology, the false philosophy, and the false history that went into the blasphemous heresy of Dignitas Infinita.
From One Peter Five
By Carlos A. Casanova, Abogado, PhD
As readers are aware, last month Dignitas infinita was published. I do not wish to enter into a systematic critique, which Edward Feser, Jeanne Smits, and Peter Kwasniewski have already done very well. Rather, today I want to look at the method, the aftermath, the grounds (for that aftermath), and the motivations.
In terms of method, I must highlight the strange hermeneutic Fernández applies to the previous magisterium cited by him. A paradigmatic example is John Paul II’s 1980 Angelus homily. In that homily, the Pope, addressing the handicapped, says that God has shown us in Jesus Christ such a love that He has conferred on each man an infinite dignity (“unendliche Würde” is the phrase he uses in German). Víctor Manuel Fernández cites that document to claim that human beings have an infinite and inalienable dignity because of their own ontological structure. In other words, he has taken a Christian truth—that is, that by virtue of God’s love, and also by virtue of the end to which we are destined if we respond to God’s love, it can be said that each of us has infinite dignity–and turned it, fundamentally, into an expression that is difficult to reconcile with God’s Majesty. For no one except God has infinite dignity by virtue of His own ontological structure. That God’s Majesty seems to be offended here will perhaps become clearer when we analyse the aftermath of this document.
With regard to the aftermath, it should be noted that the document contains a clear heresy: the alleged absolute unlawfulness of the death penalty. Victor Manuel Fernández completely ignores the teachings of the Bible, the patristic tradition and the entire magisterium of the Church over the centuries.
In the press conference at which he announced the publication of the document, other related issues arose. Firstly, he takes a 15th century papal declaration allowing the Portuguese to buy and sell Gentile slaves, and another from 1537 in which the pope forbids the trade in Gentile slaves. On this basis he argues that the ecclesiastical Magisterium can change and that the faithful are obliged to obey the pope in whatever he says. Fernández ignores on this occasion that Christianity is not a revolutionary doctrine, that the New Testament did not declare slavery abolished (as Benedict XVI beautifully showed in his encyclical Spe Salvi[1]), and that Christian doctors have held that slavery can be imposed as a penalty on criminals and prisoners of just war. It is therefore possible that in various historical circumstances one pope may judge, rightly or wrongly, that the conditions for justified slavery exist, and that in other historical conditions another pope may judge that they do not.
Finally, in the same interview, he maintains that the magisterium on homosexuality can also change, as it did in Fiducia supplicans, and announces that it seems to him that n. 2357 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not express well the respect due to homosexuals when it teaches that homosexual tendencies are “intrinsically disordered”;[2] he proposes that it needs to be reformulated. In fact, in the document Dignitas infinita itself, one can find very dubious statements on this matter according to which people should not be criminally punished for their sexual orientation as is done “in some places.” One might ask, in those places where paedophile pornographers are punished, or where punishments are legally established for bigamists or adulterers, is human dignity being violated? For these are all examples of “sexual orientation” (towards persons to whom they are not married, towards more than one person of the other sex, towards children). Can the legal system punish disorders that threaten the family structure? Again, in Scripture God commands punishments, indeed the death penalty, for incestuous, adulterous, same-sex sexual intercourse, bestiality. Was God violating human dignity in the law of Moses?
In the aftermath of Dignitas Infinita we see a mixture of two striking views of Fernández’s. The first is that, according to him, Catholic doctrine can change in its essence. If one looks closely, this is nothing but a formulation in vulgar language of Walter Kasper’s very dangerous theological principle: “The God who sits on a throne over the world and over history, as if He were an immutable being, is an offence to man.”[3] In this context it makes sense to say that human dignity is infinite. Indeed, it is man who is the true subject of “infinite dignity,” not God. A certain kind of Gnostic “process theology” has this feature, the hatred of God as transcendent Creator, which leads to the attempt to dethrone Him, to force Him to change along with the spirit of man. Is it possible that a Gnostic school has crept into the Church and is now seated in high offices?
The second thesis is that the pope should be obeyed by accepting whatever new doctrine he proposes, and that the cardinals who have criticised the pope have violated their oath taken in the Profession of Faith.[4] Oh, but obedience in the Church is not like that. Indeed, it is in the Communist Party where members must believe as true whatever the party hierarchy says in its daily line, even if it contradicts the line given the day before. Catholics, on the other hand, believe in the teachings of Christ, and in the Revelation before Christ, contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. The First Vatican Council and the Council of Trent taught us that the main criterion for knowing the content of Tradition is the unanimous testimony of the Fathers. All magisterial documents in the history of the Church are to be believed as guidelines that enable us to understand Revelation, not as substitutes for Revelation. This is why the Second Vatican Council said in its Constitution Dei Verbum, n. 10, that “This teaching office [the Magisterium] is not above the word of God, but serves it.” The structure that Christ gave to his Church is contained in that Revelation, which is why we accept the pope. Not vice versa: we do not accept Revelation because it is given to us by the pope.[5]
But enough about the aftermath and its grounds. Now we must take a look at the motivations. At the press conference at which he presented Dignitas infinita, Victor Manuel Fernández acknowledged that when Archbishop Bergoglio wanted to appoint him Rector of the Catholic University of Argentina, the Congregation for Catholic Education stopped his appointment, precisely because of an article Fernández had published on the blessing of homosexual couples. Incidentally, the person who notified the Congregation was Bishop Aguer. These facts are very interesting for those who wish to understand. A few years ago, the venerable Bishop Aguer was removed from the Diocese of La Plata in a manner truly “unworthy” (in Spanish “indigna”, pace “dignitas infinita”), in order to replace him with none other than Victor Manuel Fernández; and shortly after being appointed Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Fernández sought to make his former opinion on the blessing of homosexual couples, for which he was punished not many years ago, official Catholic doctrine. Interesting.
Photo by René DeAnda on Unsplash
[1] See, in n. 4, the following fragment: “Christianity did not bring a message of social revolution like that of the ill-fated Spartacus, whose struggle led to so much bloodshed. Jesus was not Spartacus, he was not engaged in a fight for political liberation like Barabbas or Bar-Kochba. Jesus, who himself died on the Cross, brought something totally different: an encounter with the Lord of all lords, an encounter with the living God and thus an encounter with a hope stronger than the sufferings of slavery, a hope which therefore transformed life and the world from within. What was new here can be seen with the utmost clarity in Saint Paul’s Letter to Philemon. This is a very personal letter, which Paul wrote from prison and entrusted to the runaway slave Onesimus for his master, Philemon. Yes, Paul is sending the slave back to the master from whom he had fled, not ordering but asking: “I appeal to you for my child … whose father I have become in my imprisonment … I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart … perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for ever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother …” (Philem 10-16). Those who, as far as their civil status is concerned, stand in relation to one another as masters and slaves, inasmuch as they are members of the one Church have become brothers and sisters—this is how Christians addressed one another. By virtue of their Baptism they had been reborn, they had been given to drink of the same Spirit and they received the Body of the Lord together, alongside one another. Even if external structures remained unaltered, this changed society from within. ”
[2] So reported Nestor’s blog in Infocatólica (https://www.infocatolica.com/blog/praeclara.php/2404100256-la-dignidad-infinita). I have not wanted to speak in this note about the problem of just war, whose treatment in Dignitas infinita is also very problematic.
[3] “Gott in der Geschichte,” Gott heute: 15 Beiträge zur Gottesfrage, Mainz, 1967.
[4] See note on the VMF interview, published in La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana by Tommaso Scandroglio on 13 April 2024.
[5] Even if one takes the neoscholastic position that the proximate rule of faith is the magisterium in its interpretation of Revelation, nevertheless this cannot be understood to mean a contradiction of what the same magisterium has consistently and solemnly taught before, or of the plain meaning of Scripture (e.g., that Christ actually rose from the dead, as opposed to a modernist view that his memory was cherished as alive by his disciples). I thank Peter Kwasniewski for this observation and for the correction of the translation.
St Paschal Baylon, Confessor
Today's Holy Mass from Corpus Christi Church, Tynong, VIC, Australia. You may follow the Mass at Divinum Officium.
St Paschal Baylon, Confessor
From Dom Prosper Guéranger's The Liturgical Year
The Seraph of Assisi was sure to depute some of his children to pay their court to his Risen Master. The one he sends today is the humblest and most unknown of men; another will follow, three days hence, powerful in word and work, and holding a palm in his hands, as a most devoted preacher of the Gospel. Paschal Baylon was a simple peasant. He was a shepherd-boy; and it was in tending his flock that he found the Lord Jesus. He had a great love for contemplation. Forests and fields spoke to him of their great Creator; and in order that he might be the more closely united with him, he resolved to seek him in the highest paths of perfection. He was ambitious to imitate the humble, poor and suffering Life of the Man-God; the Franciscan Cloister offered him all this, and he flew to it. On that blessed soil, he grew to be one of heaven’s choicest plants, and the whole earth has now heard the name of the humble Lay-Brother of a little convent in Spain. Holy Church brings him before us today, and shows him enraptured in the contemplation of his Jesus’ Resurrection. He had trod the path of humiliation and the cross; it was but just, that he should share in his Master’s Triumph. It was of him, and of such as he, that this Divine Savior spoke, when he said: Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations; and I dispose to you, as my Father hath disposed to me, a Kingdom; that ye may eat and drink at my table, in my Kingdom, and may sit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:28-30)
The account given by the Liturgy of the angelic life of this illustrious son of St. Francis, is as follows.
Paschal Baylon was horn of poor and pious parents, at Torre-Hermosa, a small town of the Diocese of Seguenza, in Aragon. Even from his infancy, he gave many signs of future sanctity. Being endowed with a good disposition, and having a great love for the contemplation of heavenly things, he passed the years of boyhood and youth in tending flocks. He loved this kind of life more than any other, because it seemed to him best for fostering humility and preserving innocence. He was temperate in his food, and assiduous in prayer. He had such influence over his acquaintance and companions, and was so dear to them, that he used to settle their disputes, correct their faults, instruct their ignorance, and keep them out of idleness. He was honored and loved by them as their father and master; and even then, was often called the Blessed Paschal.
Thus did this flower of the valley bloom in the world, that desert and parched land; but once planted in the house of the Lord, lie shed, everywhere around him, a wondrous odor of sanctity. Having embraced the severest sort of life, by entering the Order of the Discalced Friars Minor of strict observance, Paschal rejoiced as a giant to run his way. Devoting himself wholly to the service of his God, his one thought, both day and night, was how he could further imitate his Divine Master. His brethren, even they that were most advanced, soon began to look upon him as a model of seraphic perfection. As for him, he put himself in the grade of the Lay-Brothers. Looking on himself as the off-scouring of all, he, with humility and patience, cheerfully took on himself the most tiring and menial work of the house, which work he used to say belonged to him by a special right. He mortified and brought into subjection his flesh, which, at times, would strive to rebel against the spirit. As to his spirit, he, by assiduous self-denial, maintained its fervor, and daily stretched himself forward to the things that were more perfect.
He had consecrated himself, from his earliest years, to the Blessed Virgin; he honored her, as his Mother, by daily devotions, and prayed to her with filial confidence. It would be difficult to describe the ardor of his devotion to the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist. Even after his death, this devotion seemed to linger in his body; for when laid in his coffin, his eyes were seen to open and shut twice during the elevation of the sacred Host, to the astonishment of all that were present. He publicly and openly professed before heretics his faith in the dogma of the Real Presence, and had much to suffer on that account. His very life was frequently attempted; but, by a special providence of God, he was rescued from the hands of the wicked men who sought to kill him. Frequently, when at prayer, he was in ecstasy, and swooned away with the sweetness of love. It was on these occasions that he was supposed to receive that heavenly wisdom, whereby he, though uneducated and illiterate, was enabled to give answers upon the profoundest mysteries of Faith, and even write several books. Finally, being rich in merit, he happily took his flight to heaven, at the hour which he had foretold, in the year of our Lord 1592, on the sixteenth of the Calends of June (May 17), and on the Feast of Pentecost, (the same on which he was born,) being in his fifty-second year. These and other virtues having procured him great reputation, and being celebrated for miracles both before and after his death, he was beatified by Pope Paul V, and canonized by Alexander VIII. Lastly, Leo XIII declared and appointed him the special patron in heaven of Eucharistic conferences, and of all sodalities of the Holy Eucharist now existing or to be instituted in the future.
Heaven opened to receive thee, Paschal! Even when here below, the fervor of thy contemplations often gave thee a foretaste of the delights of eternal bliss; but now, every veil is drawn aside, and thou art face to face with Him thou so ardently desiredst to possess. Thou hast no further need to unite thyself with him by humiliation and suffering; what thou enjoyest, and what he, for all eternity, will have thee to enjoy, is his own glory, his own happiness, his own triumph. Deign to cast an eye of pity on us, who have not the eagerness thou hadst to walk in our Redeemer’s footsteps, and who, as yet, have but the hope of being united with him for eternity. Get us courage. Get us that love which leads straight to Jesus, which surmounts every obstacle of flesh and blood, and gives to man an admirable resemblance to his Divine Model. The pledge of this happy transformation has been given to us by our being permitted to partake of the Paschal mystery; oh! that it might be perfected by our fidelity in keeping close to our Divine Conqueror and Lord! Though he leave us, sometime further, in this vale of tears, his eye is ever upon us, he longs to see us persevere in our loyalty to him. Yet a little while, and we shall see him! Behold! says he, come quickly; hold fast that which thou hast. Behold! I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Apocalypse 3:11, 20) Thus will the Pasch of time be changed into the Pasch of eternity. Pray for us, O Paschal, that, like thee, we may hold fast that which, by the grace of our Risen Jesus, we already possess.
Friday After the Octave of the Ascension
.jpg)
From Dom Prosper Guéranger's The Liturgical Year
O King of glory, Lord of hosts, who didst this day ascend in triumph above all the heavens! leave us not orphans, but send upon us the Spirit of truth, promised by the Father, alleluia.
The Octave is over; the mystery of the glorious Ascension is completed; and our Jesus is never again to be seen upon this earth until he come to judge the living and the dead. We are to see him only by faith; we are to approach him only by love. Such is our probation; and if we go well through it, we shall, at last, be permitted to enter within the Veil, as a reward for our faith and love.
Let us not complain at our lot; rather let us rejoice in that Hope which, as the Apostle says, confoundeth not. (Romans 5:5) And how can we be otherwise than hopeful when we remember that Jesus has promised to abide with us even to the consummation of the world? (Matthew 28:20) He will not appear visibly; but he will be always really with us. How could he abandon his Spouse, the Church? and are not we the children of this his beloved Spouse?
But this is not all: Jesus does something more for us. One of his last words was this, and it shows us how dearly he loved us: I will not leave you orphans. (John 14:18) When he used those other words, upon which we have been meditating during the last few days—It is expedient for you that I go—he added: For if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you. (John 16:7) This Paraclete, this comforter, is the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Father and Son; he is to descend upon us in a few short hours hence; he will abide with us (making us feel his presence by his works) until Jesus shall again come from heaven that he may take his elect from a World which is to be condemned to eternal torments for its crimes. But the Holy Ghost is not to come until he be sent; and as the sacred text implies, he is not to be sent until Jesus shall have been glorified. (John 7:39) He is coming that he may continue the great Work; but this Work was to be begun by the Son of God, and carried on by him as far as the eternal decrees had ordained. (John 17:4)
Jesus labored in this Work, and then entered into his rest, taking with him our Human Nature, which, by his assuming it, he had exalted to the Divine. The Holy Ghost is not to assume our Humanity; but he is coming to Console us during Jesus’ absence; he is coming to complete the Work of our sanctification. It was He that produced those prodigies which we have been admiring—the faith and love of men in and for Jesus. Yes, it is the Holy Ghost who produces Faith in the soul; it is the Holy Ghost who pours the Charity of God into our hearts. (Romans 5:5)
So, then, we are about to witness fresh miracles of God’s love for man! In a few hours hence, the Reign of the Holy Ghost will have begun on earth. There is but the interim of this one short day—for tomorrow evening, the Solemnity of Pentecost will be upon us; — let us then linger in our admiration of our Emmanuel. The holy Liturgy has daily gladdened us with his presence, beginning with those happy weeks of Advent, when we were awaiting the day on which the Virgin Mother was to give us the ever-Blessed Fruit. And now, he is gone! — O sweet memories of the intimacy we enjoyed with our Jesus, when we were permitted to follow him, day by day—we have you treasured within us! Yea, the Holy Spirit himself is coming to impress you still deeper on our hearts! for Jesus told us that when the Paraclete should come to us, he would help us to remember all that we have heard and seen and felt in the company of the God who deigned to live our life, that so he might teach us to live his for all eternity. (John 14:26)
Neither let us forget how, when quitting this his earthly home—where he was conceived in Mary’s Womb, where he was born, where he spent the three and thirty years of his mortal life, where he died, where he rose from the grave, and from which he ascended to the right hand of his Father—he left upon it an outward mark of his love. He left the impress of his sacred Feet upon Mount Olivet, as thou he felt separating himself form the earth to which so many years and mysteries had endeared him. St. Augustine, St. Paulinus (of Nola), St. Optatus, Sulpicius Severus, and the testimony of subsequent ages, assure us of the prodigy.
These venerable authorities tell us that when the Roman army, under Titus, was encamped on Mount Olivet, while besieging Jerusalem, Divine Providence protected these holy marks, the farewell memorial left by our Lord to his Blessed Mother, to his Disciples, and to us: it is here that he stood when last seen on earth, it is here that we shall again see him when it comes to judge mankind. Neither the rude tramp of the soldiers, nor the ponderous chariots, nor the horses’ hoofs, were permitted to efface or injure the sacred Footsteps. Yes, it was on this very Mount, forty years after the Ascension, that the Roman Banner was first unfolded, when the time of God’s vengeance came upon the City of Deicide. Let us call to mind, firstly, how the Angels announced that the same Jesus who had just ascended would again come to judge us; and secondly, how our Lord himself had compared the two awful events, the Destruction of Jerusalem, and the End of the World. These sacred marks of Jesus’ Feet are, therefore, the memorial of his affectionate farewell, and the prophecy of his return as our terrible Judge. At the foot of the Hill lies the Valley of Josaphat, the Valley of the Judgment; and the Prophet Zacharias has said: His feet shall stand, in that day, upon the Mount of Olives, which is over against Jerusalem, toward the East. (Zacharias 14:6)
Let us humbly give admission to the feeling of fear, wherewith our Lord thus inspires us, that we may be more solidly grounded in his love; and let us affectionately venerate the spot on which our Emmanuel left the impress of his Feet. The holy Empress St. Helen, entrusted with the sublime mission of finding and honoring the objects and places that our Redeemer had sanctified by his visible presence, Mount Olivet was sure to elicit her devoted zeal. She ordered a magnificent Church of a circular form to be built upon it: but when the builders came to pave the Church with rich marble, they were prevented, by a miraculous power, from covering the spot on which were imprinted the holy Footmarks. The marble broke into a thousand pieces, which struck them on the face; and after several attempts, they resolved to leave that part of the rock uncovered.
This fact is attested by many holy and creditable authors, several of whom lived in the 4th century, when it occurred. But our Lord would do more than keep open to our view these his last Footprints, which seem to be ever saying to us—“Your Jesus is but now gone, and will soon return:” he would, moreover, have them teach us that we are to follow him to heaven. When the time came for roofing the Church, the men found that they had not power to do so; the stones fell as often as they attempted to put them up, and the building was left roofless, as though it had to be our reminder that the way opened by Jesus on the summit of Mount Olivet is ever open for us, and that we must be ever aspiring to rejoin our Divine Master in Heaven.
In his first Sermon for the Feast of the Ascension, St. Bernardine of Siena relates an edifying story, which is in keeping with the reflections we have been making. He tells us that a pious nobleman, desirous to visit the places that had witnessed the mysteries of our Redemption, passed the seas. Having reached Palestine, he would begin his pilgrimage by visiting Nazareth, and there, on the very spot where the Word was made Flesh, he gave thanks to the infinite love that had drawn our God from heaven to earth, in order that he might save us from perdition. The next visit was to Bethlehem, where our Pilgrim venerated the place of our Savior’s Birth. As he knelt on the spot where Mary adored her new-born Babe, the tears rolled down his cheeks and, as St. Francis of Sales says (for he also has related this affecting story), “he kissed the dust whereon the divine Infant was first laid.” (Treatise on the Love of God. Book vii Chap xii)
Our devout Pilgrim, who bravely traveled the country in every direction, went from Bethlehem to the banks of the Jordan; he stopped near Bethabara, at a little place called Bethany, where St. John baptized Christ. The better to honor the mystery, he went down into the bed of the River, and entered with much devotion into the water, thinking within himself how that stream had been sanctified by its contact with Jesus’ sacred Body. Thence he passed to the Desert, for he would follow, as nearly as might be, the footsteps of the Son of God; he contemplated the scene of our Master’s fasting, temptation, and victory. He next went on towards Thabor; he ascended to the top, that he might honor the mystery of the Transfiguration, whereby our Savior gave to three of his Disciples a glimpse of his infinite glory.
At length, the good Pilgrim entered Jerusalem. He visited the Cenacle, and we can imagine the tender devotion wherewith he meditated on all the great mysteries that had been celebrated there—such as Jesus’ Washing his Disciples’ feet, and the Institution of the Eucharist. Being resolved to follow his Savior in each Station, he passed the Brook Cedron, and came to the Garden of Gethsemani, where his heart well-nigh broke at the thought of the Bloody Sweat endured by the Divine Victim of our sins. The remembrance of Jesus’ being manacled, fettered, and dragged to Jerusalem, next filled his mind. “He at once starts off,” says the holy Bishop of Geneva, whom we must allow to tell the rest of the story: “he at once starts off, treading in the footsteps of his beloved Jesus; he sees him dragged to and fro, to Annas, to Caiphas, to Pilate, to Herod; buffeted, scoffed at, spit upon, crowned with thorns, made a show of to the mob, sentenced to death, laden with a Cross, and meeting, as he carries it, with his heart-broken Mother and the weeping daughters of Jerusalem.
“The good Pilgrim mounts to the top of Calvary, where he sees in spirit the Cross lying on the ground, and our Savior stretched upon it, while the executioners cruelly nail him to it by his hands and feet. He sees them raise the Cross and the Crucified in the air, and the Blood gushing from the Wounds of the sacred Body. He looks at the poor Mother, who is pierced through with the sword of sorrow; he raises up his eyes to the Crucified, and listens with most loving attention to his Seven Words; and at last, sees him dying, and dead, and his Side opened with a Spear, so that the Sacred Heart is made visible. He watches how he is taken down from the Cross, and carried to the Tomb; and as he treads along the path all stained with his Redeemer’s Blood, he sheds floods of tears. He enters the Sepulcher, and buries his heart side by side by his Jesus’ Corpse.
“After this, he rises again together with him; he visits Emmaus, and thinks on all that happened between Jesus and the two disciples. Finally, he returns to Mount Olivet, the scene of the Ascension; and seeing there the last footprints of his dear Lord, he falls down and covers them with untiring kisses. Then, like an archer stretching his bowstring to give his arrow speed, he concentrates into one intense act the whole power of his love, and stands with his eyes and hands lifted up towards heaven: ‘Jesus!’ he says, ‘O my sweet Jesus! where else am I now to go on earth seeking thee? Ah Jesus! my dearest Jesus, let this heart of mine follow thee yonder!’ Saying this, his heart kept darting upwards to heaven, for the brave archer had taken too sure an aim to miss his divine object.” (Treatise on the Love of God. Book vii Chap xii)
St. Bernardine of Siena tells us that the companions and attendants of the noble Pilgrim, seeing that he was sinking under the vehemence of his desire, hastened to call a physician, that they might bring him to himself again. But it was too late; the soul had fled to her God, leaving us an example of the love that the mere contemplation of the divine Mysteries can produce n man’s heart. And have not we been following all these same Mysteries, under the guidance of the holy Liturgy? God grant that we may now keep within us the Jesus whom we have had so truly given to us! and may the Holy Spirit, by his coming, visit, maintain and intensify in our souls the resemblance we have thus received with our Divine King!
In order the more worthily to celebrate the great Mystery which closed yesterday, and the equally glorious one which begins tomorrow—we place between the two the sublime Canticle, wherein the Royal Psalmist prophesies both the Ascension and the Christian Pentecost. The 67th Psalm (composed for the reception of the Ark of the Covenant on Mount Sion) is, as St. Paul himself has interpreted it, (Ephesians 4:8) a prophecy of Jesus’ triumphant Ascension into heaven. It begins by celebrating the victory gained by Christ over his enemies by his Resurrection; it proceeds to speak of the favors bestowed upon the Christian people; it shows us the combats and triumphs of the Church; in a word, it puts before us the commencement of the work of our Emmanuel, and its consummation by the Holy Ghost. With a view to facilitating the understanding of this mysterious Psalm, we give a commentary rather than a translation; and in doing so, we offer to our readers the interpretation given by the early Fathers. (Haydock’s Biblical Commentary)
Let God arise, and let his enemies be scattered: and let them that hate him flee from before his face.
As smoke vanisheth, so let them vanish away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
And let the just feast, and rejoice before God: and be delighted with gladness.
Sing ye to God, sing a psalm to his name, make a way for him who ascendeth upon the west: the Lord is his name. Rejoice ye before him: but the wicked shall be troubled at his presence,
Who is the father of orphans, and the judge of widows. God in his holy place:
God who maketh men of one manner to dwell in a house: Who bringeth out them that were bound in strength; in like manner them that provoke, that dwell in sepulchers.
O God, when thou didst go forth in the sight of thy people, when thou didst pass through the desert:
The earth was moved, and the heavens dropped at the presence of the God of Sina, at the presence of the God of Israel.
Thou shalt set aside for thy inheritance a free rain, O God: and it was weakened, but thou hast made it perfect.
In it shall thy animals dwell; in thy sweetness, O God, thou hast provided for the poor.
The Lord shall give the word to them that preach good tidings with great power.
The king of powers is of the beloved, of the beloved; and the beauty of the house shall divide spoils.
If you sleep among the midst of lots, you shall be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and the hinder parts of her back with the paleness of gold.
When he that is in heaven appointeth kings over her, they shall be whited with snow in Selmon.
The mountain of God is a fat mountain. A curdled mountain, a fat mountain.
Why suspect, ye curdled mountains? A mountain in which God is well pleased to dwell: for there the Lord shall dwell unto the end.
The chariot of God is attended by ten thousands; thousands of them that rejoice: the Lord is among them in Sina, in the holy place.
Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts in men. Yea for those also that do not believe, the dwelling of the Lord God.
Blessed be the Lord, day by day: the God of our salvation will make our journey prosperous to us.
Our God is the God of salvation: and of the Lord, of the Lord are the issues from death.
But God shall break the heads of his enemies: the hairy crown of them that walk on in their sins.
The Lord said: I will turn them from Basan, I will turn them into the depth of the sea:
That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thy enemies; the tongue of thy dogs be red with the same.
They have seen thy goings, O God, the goings of my God: of my king who is in his sanctuary.
Princes went before joined with singers, in the midst of young damsels playing on timbrels.
In the churches bless ye God the Lord, from the fountains of Israel.
There is Benjamin a youth, in ecstasy of mind. The princes of Juda are their leaders: the princes of Zabulon, the princes of Nephthali.
Command thy strength, O God: confirm, O God, what thou hast wrought in us.
From thy temple in Jerusalem, kings shall offer presents to thee.
Rebuke the wild beasts of the reeds, the congregation of bulls with the kine of the people; who seek to exclude them who are tried with silver. Scatter thou the nations that delight in wars:
Ambassadors shall come out of Egypt: Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands to God.
Sing to God, ye kingdoms of the earth: sing ye to the Lord: Sing ye to God,
Who mounteth above the heaven of heavens, to the east. Behold he will give to his voice the voice of power:
Give ye glory to God for Israel, his magnificence, and his power is in the clouds.
God is wonderful in his saints: the God of Israel is he who will give power and strength to his people. Blessed be God.
St Paschal Baylon ~ Saint of the Eucharist
A sermon for today's Saint. Please, remember to say 3 Hail Marys for the priest.
St Possidius
HE was a native of the proconsular Africa, and had his education under the great St. Austin. In 397 he was chosen bishop of Calama in Numidia which diocese he found distracted by the factions both of heathens and Donatists. In 404, a party of the latter dragged him out of his house, beat him, and threatened his life. All the revenge he took of them was to obtain their pardon from the emperor. Four years after this, the idolaters, in a riotous festival on the 1st of June, had the insolence to dance round the church, throw stones into it, and set it on fire, wounding several of the clergy, and killing one upon the spot. Nectarius, a principal person among the heathens, who had no share in this tumult, wrote to St. Austin to beg him to intercede with the emperor for the pardon of the rioters, observing to him that it is the duty of the Christian pastors to employ themselves in works of mercy and peace. By the interposition of Possidius their punishment was only an order which the emperor sent for the breaking down their idols, with a prohibition of their abominable festivals and sacrifices. When the relics of St. Stephen were brought into Africa, about the year 410, our holy bishop was careful to enrich Calama with a portion of them, by which several miracles were there wrought, as St. Austin informs us.1 St. Possidius was doubtless one of those bishops who established among the clergy of their cathedrals a monastic regularity in imitation of St. Austin, and according to the rule by him instituted, as our saint mentions in the life of that great doctor; and St. Austin speaks of the poor religious men of Calama. The Vandals passed over from Spain into Africa with an army of fourscore thousand veteran soldiers, long accustomed to blood and plunder; and made themselves in a short time masters of Mauritania, Numidia, and the proconsular province, except the strong fortresses of Carthage, Cirta, and Hippo. They pillaged the whole country and the towns which lay in their way; and among others Calama, which seems to have never since lifted up its head. St. Possidius took refuge in Hippo with his dear master, St. Austin, who soon after died in his arms in 430, during the siege of that city, which some time after fell into the hands of the barbarians. These were severe trials to our saint, who from that time lived in perpetual banishment from his flock. He wrote the life of St. Austin, with a catalogue of his works. The Italians say, that from Africa he came into Italy, and died at Mirandola. That city and Rhegio in Apulia honor him as patron. The regular canons keep his festival on the 17th of May, and regard him as one of the most illustrious fathers of their order. See the life and works of St. Austin and Papebroke, who show that it is a mistake to confound St. Possidius with Possidonius, another African bishop sometimes mentioned with him in the same councils, t. 4, Maij, p. 27. See also Ceillier, t. 12, p. 261.
St Paschal Baylon
From Fr Alban Butler's Lives of the Saints:
From his two lives, one written by John Ximenes, his companion; the other, In order to his canonization See other monuments in Papebroke, t. 4; Maij, p. 48.
A. D. 1592.
THE state of poverty was honored by the choice of our blessed Redeemer, and hath been favored with his special blessing. It removes men from many dangers and temptations, and furnishes them with perpetual occasions for the exercise of self-denial, patience, penance, resignation to the divine will, and every other heroic Christian virtue: yet these great means of salvation are by many, through ignorance, impatience, and inordinate desires, often perverted into occasions of their temporal and eternal misery. Happy are they who, by making a right use of the spiritual advantages which this state, so dear to our divine Redeemer, offers them, procure to themselves present peace, joy, and every solid good; and make every circumstance of that condition in which providence hath placed them a step to perfect virtue and to everlasting happiness. This in an eminent degree was the privilege of St. Paschal Baylon. He was born in 1540, at Torre-Hermosa, a small country town in the kingdom of Aragon. His parents were day-labourers, and very virtuous; and to their example our saint was greatly indebted for the spirit of piety and devotion, which he seemed to have sucked in from his mother’s milk. Their circumstances were too narrow to afford his being sent to school; but the pious child, out of an earnest desire of attaining to so great a means of instruction, carried a book with him into the fields where he watched the sheep, and desired those that he met to teach him the letters; and thus, in a short time, being yet very young, he learned to read. This advantage he made use of only to improve his soul in devotion and piety: books of amusement he never would look into; but the lives of the saints, and, above all, meditations on the life of Christ, were his chiefest delight. He loved nothing but what was serious and of solid advantage, at a time of life in which many seem scarce susceptible of such impressions. When he was of a proper age, he engaged with a master to keep his flocks as under-shepherd: he was delighted with the innocent and quiet life his state permitted him to lead. That solitary life had charms for him. Whatever he saw was to him an object of faith and devotion. He read continually in the great book of nature; and from every object raised his soul to God, whom he contemplated and praised in all his works. Besides external objects, he had almost continually a spiritual book in his hands, which served to instruct and to inflame his soul in the love and practice of virtue. His master, who was a person of singular piety, was charmed with his edifying conduct, and made him an offer to adopt him for his son, and to make him his heir. But Paschal, who desired only the goods of another life, was afraid that those of this world would prove to him an incumbrance; he therefore modestly declined the favor, desiring always to remain in his humble state, as being more conformable to that which Christ chose for himself on earth, who came not into the world to be served, but to serve. He was often discovered praying on his knees under some tree, while his flocks were browsing on the hills. It was by this secret entertainment of his soul with God, in the most profound humility, and perfect purity of his affections, that he acquired a most sublime science arid experience in spiritual things at which those who were the most advanced were struck with admiration He could truly say with David: Blessed is he whom thou thyself shalt instruct, O Lord.1 He spoke of God and of virtue with an inimitable unction and experimental light, and with sentiments which the Holy Ghost alone forms in souls which are perfectly disengaged from earthly things, and replenished with his heavenly tire. Often was he seen ravished in holy prayer; and frequently was not able to conceal from the eyes of men the vehement ardor of the divine love with which his soul melted in an excess of heavenly sweetness. He felt in himself what many servants of God assure us of, that “the consolation which the Holy Ghost frequently infuses into pious souls, is greater than all the pleasures of the world together, could they be enjoyed by one man. It makes the heart to dissolve and melt through excess of joy, under which it is unable to contain itself.”2 In these sentiments did this servant of God sing with David: My soul shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall be delighted in his salvation. All my bones shall say, O Lord, who is like to thee!3 The reward of virtue is reserved for heaven; but some comforts are not denied during the present time of trial. Even in this vale of tears, God will make its desert as a place of pleasure; and its wilderness as the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of praise. Isa. 51:3. It is sufficiently understood that the saint did not receive these heavenly comforts without severe interior trials, and a constan practice of self-denial, by which his heart was crucified to the world. The dew of extraordinary spiritual comforts never falls on unmortified souls, which seek the delights of this world. St. Paschal in his poverty joined alms with his continual prayer; and not having any other means to relieve the poor, always gave them a good part of his own dinner which was sent him into the fields.
How great soever his love was for his profession, he found however several difficulties in it which made him think of leaving it. He was not able, notwithstanding all the care he could take, to hinder a flock of goats he had in charge from sometimes trespassing on another’s ground. This occasioned his giving over the inspection of that flock. But he found other troubles in taking care of other cattle. Some of his companions, not having the same piety with himself, were but too much addicted to cursing, quarrelling, and fighting; nor were they to be reclaimed by his gentle rebukes on these accounts. He was therefore determined to leave them, not to participate in their crimes. And to learn the will of God in this important choice of a state of life in which he might most faithfully serve him, he redoubled his prayers, fasts, and other austerities. After some time spent in this manner, he determined to become a religious man. Those to whom he first disclosed his inclination to a religious state, pointed out to him several convents richly endowed. But that circumstance alone was enough to disgus him; and his answer was: “I was born poor, and I am resolved to live and die in poverty and penance.” Being at that time twenty years of age he left his master, his friends, and his country, and went into the kingdom of Valentia, where was an austere convent of barefoot reformed Franciscans, called Soccolans, which stood in a desert solitude, but at no great distance from the town of Montfort. He addressed himself to the fathers of this house for spiritual advice; and, in the mean time, he entered into the service of certain farmers in the neighborhood to keep their sheep. He continued here his penitential and retired life in assiduous prayer, and was known in the whole country by the name of the Holy Shepherd. To sequester himself from the world, he made the more haste to petition for the habit of a lay-brother in the house above-mentioned: and was admitted in 1564. The fathers desired to persuade him to enter himself among the clerks, or those who aspired to holy orders, and sing the divine office in the choir; but they were obliged to yield to his humility, and admit him among the lay-brothers of the community. He was not only a fervent novice, which we often see, but also a most fervent religious man, always advancing, and never losing ground. Though his rule was most austere, he added continually to its severity, but always with simplicity of heart, without the least attachment to his own will; and whenever he was admonished of any excess in his practices of mortification, he most readily confined himself to the letter of his rule. The meanest employments always gave him the highest satisfaction. Whenever he changed convents, according to the custom of his order, the better to prevent any secret attachments of the heart, he never complained of any thing, nor so much as said that he found any thing in one house more agreeable than in another; because, being entirely dead to himself, he everywhere sought only God. He never allowed himself a moment of repose between the Church and cloister duties, and his work; nor did his labor interrupt his prayer. He had never more than one habit, and that always threadbare. He walked without sandals in the snows, and in the roughest roads. He accommodated himself to all places and seasons, and was always content, cheerful, mild, affable, and full of respect for all. He thought himself honored if employed in any painful and low office to serve any one.
The general of the order happening to be at Paris, Paschal was sent thither to him about some necessary business of his province. Many of the cities through which he was to pass in France, were in the hands of the Huguenots, who were then in arms. Yet he offered himself to a martyrdom of obedience, travelled in his habit, and without so much as sandals on his feet, was often pursued by the Huguenots with sticks and stones, and received a wound on one shoulder of which he remained lame as long as he lived. He was twice taken for a spy; but God delivered him out of all dangers. On the very day on which he arrived at his convent from this tedious journey, he went out to his work and other duties as usual. He never spoke of any thing that had happened to him in his journey unless asked; and then was careful to suppress whatever might reflect on him the least honor or praise. He had a singular devotion to the mother of God, whose intercession he never ceased to implore that he might be preserved from sin. The holy sacrament of the altar was the object of his most tender devotion; also the passion of our divine Redeemer. He spent, especially towards the end of his life, a considerable part of the night at the foot of the altar on his knees, or prostrate on the ground. In prayer he was often favored with ecstasies and raptures. He died at Villa Reale near Valentia, on the 17th of May, in 1592, being fifty-two years old. His corpse was exposed three days, during which time the great multitudes which from all parts visited the church, were witnesses to many miracles by which God attested the sanctity of his servant. St. Paschal was beatified by Pope Paul V. in 1618, and canonized by Alexander VIII. in 1690.
If Christians in every station endeavored with their whole strength continually to advance in virtue, the Church would be filled with saints. But alas! though it be an undoubted maxim, that not to go on in a spiritual life is to fall back, “Nothing is more rare,” says St. Bernard, “than to find persons who always press forward. We see more converted from vice to virtue, than increase their fervor in virtue.” This is something dreadful. The same father assigns two principal reasons. First, many who begin well, after some time grow again remiss in the exercises of mortification and prayer, and return to the amusements, pleasures, and vanities of a worldly life. Secondly, others who are regular and constant in exterior duties, neglect to watch over and cultivate their interior; so that some interior spiritual vice insinuates itself into their affections, and renders them an abomination in the eyes of God. “A man,” says St. Bernard,4 “who gives himself up entirely to exterior exercises without looking seriously into his own heart to see what passes there, imposes upon himself, imagining that he is something while he is nothing. His eyes being always fixed on his exterior actions, he flatters himself that he goes on well, and neither sees nor feels the secret worm which gnaws and consumes his heart. He keeps all fasts, assists at all parts of the divine office, and fails in no exercise of piety or penance; yet God declares, ‘His heart is far from me.’ He only employs his hands in fulfilling the precepts, and his heart is hard and dry. His duties are complied with by habit and a certain rotation: he omits not a single iota of all his exterior employments; but while he strains at a gnat, he swallows a camel. In his heart he is a slave to self-will, and is a prey to avarice, vain-glory, and ambition: one or other or all these vices together reign in his soul.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)