The time of Advent takes us back to the expectation of the Messiah in the ancient law; the time of Christmas celebrates His most holy Incarnation; Holy Lent and Passiontide take us back to the times that preceded the Sacrifice of the Cross; the time of Easter celebrates the Resurrection and the Ascension of the Lord into heaven; the time of Pentecost retraces the earthly life of the Savior, His miracles, and His teachings; and at the end of the liturgical cycle – just as at its beginning – we are projected to the End Times, to the Universal Judgment, to the reward or condemnation of each and every person.(…)
Those whom we thought should defend the truth and proclaim the Gospel of Christ are now revealed as the followers of error and lies. And the authority that Our Lord, King and High Priest, has granted to our rulers – both civil and religious – has been used for the very opposite purpose of that for which He established it.
In the face of this global rebellion, and especially in the face of the betrayal of those who hold authority, we must return with greater conviction to clothing our souls in ashes and sackcloth, to prostrating ourselves before the Lord and repeating the cry of our fathers:
Flectamus iram vindicem, ploremus ante Judicem; clamemus ore supplici, dicamus omnes cernui: Parce, Domine; parce populo tuo: ne in æternum irascaris nobis. — “Let us appease the vengeful wrath, let us weep before the Judge; let us call upon Him with a supplicating voice, let us prostrate ourselves and say all together: Forgive, Lord, forgive Your people, and do not remain forever angry with us.”
The truth is of God; indeed, the truth is God.
However, precisely because of the enormity of our sins and the horror of the public sins of nations and of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, our penance must be accompanied – and preceded, I would say – by the proclamation of the truth against lies. Because the truth is of God; indeed, the truth is God; and lies are the cursed mark of Satan. Let all the veils and artifices that seek to conceal sin and vice, to deny it, to give it the appearance of good and virtue, come crashing down. Let all the masks that hide heinous crimes and evil doing in a network of shameful complicities among lost souls – crimes against God and against the little ones, first of all – all fall off. Let the fictions of a rebellious world, the lies of a perverted authority, of an infernal system that denies, offends, and fights against Christ and His children all crumble.
Let the lies and deceptions of a hierarchy and a papacy held hostage by the enemies of Christ who are enslaved to Satan all be exposed. Let the arguments and excuses that we give all too often to justify our laziness, our spiritual inertia, and our inability to take sides and remain under the banner of our divine King all come tumbling down. Let all the pretexts that we know how to find in order to postpone our conversion and our progress in holiness all fall down.
This is the hour of darkness, probably. But it is a darkness that is destined to be pierced by the Light of Christ, before which everything will appear as it truly is, and not as we would like it to be, not as would be more convenient to indulge our laziness.
And the first truth to proclaim, to shout from the rooftops, is that we are sinners, that there is a certain death, an irrevocable judgment, a hell to punish the wicked, and a paradise to reward the good. And that this ultimate and indefectible truth is part of our very being is inscribed in our heart as a law of nature, is revealed in the Scriptures, and delivered by Our Lord to His Church so that She may faithfully preach it to all peoples.
Let us proclaim this truth without fear of contradiction, remembering the words of the Book of Ecclesiasticus: Memorare novissima tua, et in æternum non peccabis (Sir 7:40) — “Consider what awaits you, and you will never sin.” And so may it be.
