Benedictus Qui Venit in Nomine Domini, Hosanna in Excelsis, part fourteen

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was slapped, spat upon, mocked, reviled, scourged at the pillar, crowned with thorns, treated roughly on the Via Dolorosa, and was mocked even during His Crucifixion on the Holy Cross on Good Friday.

We know, of course, that our own sins, having transcended time, helped to motivate this cruelty and contempt, this revulsion and torture, this rejection by His own people and the mockery of the pagan Roman soldiers. We did this to Our Lord in His Sacred Humanity once in time and we do it to His Mystical Body today in so many ways that might, God forbid, be revealed to us only at the Particular Judgment when we die if do not have the spiritual integrity to be a thorough Examen of Conscience every night before we go to sleep.

This having been noted, however, it is also important to note that the mockery Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ underwent at the hands of the Pharisees and even ordinary Jews was indicative of the hatred that they had for Our Lord in spite of the fact that He had clearly shown Himself to be God in the very Flesh. They did not want to admit this as to do so would mean that they would have to bow down to Him, and it is difficult for those filled with disordered self-pride to bow down to anyone else other than the visage they see in the mirror each morning.

Herod the Great did not want bow down before the Infant Jesus and his son, Herod the Tetrarch, openly mocked Christ the King when Pontius Pilate had been sent to him for an examination, and the leaders of the Jews could stand no rival to themselves, not even to the Divine Redeemer Who is the very embodiment of the Suffering Servant song in Isaias 53:

Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him: Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, and he shall not open his mouth. He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him. And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth. And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.

Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, and hath prayed for the transgressors.  (Isaias 53: 1-11)

This is a clear prophecy of the fact that the long-awaited Messias was to atone for our sins by offering Himself up to His Co-Equal, Co-Eternal God the Father in Spirit and in Truth on the wood of the Holy Cross to free us from captivity to the devil and thus to make possible for us an unending Easter Sunday of glory in Heaven.

Nonetheless, though, nothing that not all Talmudists are Zionists, contemporary Judaism of every stripe rejects the concept of a humble Messias born of a virgin and thought to be of lowly estate. Their concept of “salvation” is, as mentioned earlier, political and territorial, not spiritual.

Thus, just as the Jews, acting as our agents, treated Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ with manifest harshness, hatred and cruelty before launching vicious persecutions against the Apostles and disciples after Pentecost Sunday, so do the Talmudists and Zionists today treat Christians in the Holy Land with contempt and make it a blood sport to target Christian-operated hospitals in Gaza on Palm Sunday, to prevent both Latin Rite and Maronite Rite Catholics from going to church on Palm Sunday, and to actually target and destroy a statue of Saint George outside on the same day, April 13, 2025, Palm Sunday:

Early Palm Sunday morning the Israeli army bombed the last functioning hospital in Gaza City, the al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, which is managed by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.

As reported by Middle East Eye, the missile strikes brought about “the destruction of the surgery building and the oxygen generation station for the intensive care units.” The attacks damaged other buildings as well including the adjoining St. Phillip’s Church.

According to eyewitnesses, the bombing assaults occurred just 18 minutes following the Israelis issuing orders for all staff, patients and sheltering people to evacuate immediately or risk death.

Also damaged or destroyed by the missile strikes were other essential departments of the hospital including the emergency care ward, laboratory and pharmacy.

Critically ill patients were evacuated in a rush out into the cold deprived of proper care. At least three of them, including one child being treated for head injuries, died as a result.

The attack on the hospital, which has been operating for 143 years, comes in the seventh week of an Israeli blockade of all humanitarian aid – including food, water, energy and medical supplies – to the enclave where approximately two million Palestinians (one million children) remain confined.

And with continual bombing campaigns since Israel restarted its genocidal massacres on March 18, the health care system is incapable of treating the wounded with most medical supplies being completely out of stock.

The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem issued a statement on Sunday condemning the missile attacks “in the strongest terms” which it marked as the “fifth time since the beginning of the war in 2023” that the facility has been bombed – “and this time on the morning of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.”

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem released a stirring statement condemning the attack upon the hospital, “a place consecrated to healing and long rooted in the Christian vocation of mercy.”

“This hospital, already strained by months of siege, stood as one of the last beacons of medical hope in Gaza, where dozens of healthcare institutions have been systematically destroyed,” the statement reads. “The stripping away of such sanctuaries of life and dignity is a tragedy that transcends all boundaries of politics and enters the realm of the sacred.”

The Israeli army claimed the strike on the hospital was against “a command-and-control center used by Hamas” without providing any evidence for this allegation. Hamas denied the charge.

Similar Israeli claims in dozens of attacks on medical facilities have been debunked as false narratives in the past by journalists and medical professionals.

Just last week the Israeli government was caught lying about the circumstances surrounding its army’s execution and burial of 15 Palestinian paramedics and first responders in Gaza, an apparent war crime.

Expelling the Palestinian people from their indigenous land has long been a goal of religious Zionists, whose rabbis have often provided counsel to Israeli soldiers and government officials that civilians, even children, can and should all be directly killed by the Israeli army.

In late October 2023, a group of 43 rabbis issued a religious opinion claiming there was no moral prohibition in “Jewish religious law” for the Israeli army to bomb and destroy hospitals in Gaza where Hamas is present if they provide prior evacuation warnings to civilians.

By April 2024 alone, reports from Save the Children and others indicated that 30 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals had been bombed by the Israelis. Such attacks often utilize 2,000 pound bombs manufactured in the United States.

The cumulative effect of such attacks has been the near-total collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system, with only a few hospitals remaining partially operational, contributing to hundreds of thousands of indirect deaths of Palestinian civilians.

Under international law, the targeting of health facilities, medical personnel and patients is classified as a war crime, and if such attacks are systematic and widespread, they may also constitute crimes against humanity.

Additionally on Palm Sunday, the Israeli army demolished a statue of Saint George in the town of Yaroun in southern Lebanon, violating their ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah along with the religious rights of local Christians, constituting another possible war crime.

Along with the rest of Palestinians, religious Zionist Jews, who have acquired governmental power in Israel since December 2022, intend to expel Christians from their region with at least one of their prominent rabbis calling them “blood sucking vampires” and advocating for the burning of churches.

Following such mass expulsions, these religious Zionists aim to build a third temple for animal sacrifice in Jerusalem and welcome their Moshiach (Messiah) of whom their expectations share a close alignment with what Catholic authorities expect from the Antichrist. And from Jerusalem, these religious Zionists anticipate this figure to subject all other peoples under Noahide Laws, vanquishing Christianity as “idolatry,” and even executing the death penalty against Christians for this supposed crime.

On March 20, two days into Israel’s present resumed genocidal bombing campaign against Palestinians in Gaza, which to date has killed at least 50,983 (~15,600 children) and injured 116,274, the White House affirmed that President Donald Trump “fully supports” the Israeli offensive and blockade of humanitarian aid from the strip.

In the short span of Trump’s current term, he has signed off on over $12 billion in new military aid for Israel and emboldened the religious Zionists who have taken power in that government by repeatedly calling for the expelling of the Palestinians from the land of their forefathers.

In an open letter to Trump on March 28, Bishop Joseph Strickland admonished that in Gaza, “the indiscriminate killing of civilians – including women and children – has reached an intolerable scale. The people of Palestine, many of whom have no affiliation with terrorist organizations, suffer immensely. War cannot be waged without regard for the innocent.”

“I call upon you to seek diplomatic solutions, (and) to demand an immediate end to the destruction in Gaza … lest the fires of war consume even more innocent lives,” the bishop concluded.

The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem echoed this sentiment in its Sunday statement: “We call upon all governments and people of goodwill to intervene to stop all kinds of attacks on medical and humanitarian institutions. We pray and call for the end of this horrific war and the suffering of so many.” (Israel bombs Christian hospital, destroys St. George statue as Holy Week begins.)

• Israeli restrictions at checkpoints around Jerusalem require Palestinians to obtain security permits to access religious sites
• Only 6,000 permits were issued this year to the West Bank’s 50,000 Christians

LONDON: Israeli authorities prevented Palestinian Christian worshippers from entering Jerusalem from the occupied West Bank to participate in Palm Sunday.

Israeli authorities imposed strict restrictions on Jerusalem over the weekend, limiting the access of Palestinian Christians to the city, the Wafa news agency reported.

Only a limited number of worshippers, primarily residents of Jerusalem and Palestinian citizens of Israel, were able to attend religious services at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Wafa added.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week leading up to Easter. It commemorates the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem and is observed by Eastern and Western Christian churches.

On Sunday, Patriarch Theophilos III of the Greek Orthodox Church and Latin Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa led liturgies attended by the clergy and a small group of worshipers.

Israeli restrictions at checkpoints around Jerusalem require Palestinians — Muslim and Christian — to obtain permits to access religious sites, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Father Ibrahim Faltas, Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land, noted that only 6,000 permits were issued this year to the West Bank’s 50,000 Christians. Permit issuance requires a security clearance and often asks that applicants download a mobile application managed by Israeli authorities.

“This is the second consecutive year that only a small number of pilgrims are able to participate in Holy Week and Easter celebrations in Jerusalem due to the ongoing conflict (in Gaza),” Faltas told Wafa.

“Churches would continue to pray for peace, justice, and freedom for all people in the Holy Land,” he added.

The Catholic Palm Sunday procession took place on Sunday afternoon, starting from Jerusalem's Church of Bethphage and ending at the Church of Saint Anne.

Christians gathered for services at the Holy Family Catholic Church and Saint Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing Israeli attacks since late 2023. In the West Bank, Palm Sunday services were held in churches throughout Bethlehem, Jericho, Ramallah, Nablus, and Jenin. (Israel denies entry to Jerusalem for Palestinian Christians marking Palm Sunday.)

This makes a mockery of the Holy Week message that the White House issued in the name of President Donald John Trump and his wife, Melania Knauss Trump. Trump has enabled this genocide and, when meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday, April 7, 2025, reiterated his imperialistic plan to take over Gaza while expelling the Palestinians who live there and who have been subjected to the American subsidized ethnic cleansing that the Israelis are committing against them even as these words are being written:

"We're committed to getting all the hostages out, but also eliminating the evil tyranny of Hamas in Gaza and enabling the people of Gaza to freely make a choice to go wherever they want," he said.

Netanyahu said he had also discussed with Trump the U.S. president's "bold vision" for the future of Gaza, a reference to a proposal for the U.S. to take over the enclave that Trump put forward multiple times during the opening weeks of his administration. Trump's plan has been globally condemned as a proposal for ethnic cleansing.

Trump on Monday said having "a peace force like the United States there controlling and owning the Gaza Strip would be a good thing" and once again suggested that Palestinians from Gaza could be moved to different countries. (Trump, hosting Netanyahu, urges end to Gaza war, thinks that is not 'too distant' .)

Despite that Holy Week message, of course, neither President Trump nor his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, have uttered a word of criticism about the bombing of hospitals and churches, the destruction of a statue of Saint George, and the restriction of Palestinian Christians observing Holy Week services in Jerusalem. They are Netanyahu’s lapdogs and their silence about these atrocities betokens their consent, if not their actual approval.

Remember this and remember it well: Jerusalem Belongs To Christ the King and His Catholic Church.

The Israeli targeting of Christian churches and institutions of mercy is no accident as contemporary Talmudists and Zionists have the same contempt for the Prince of Peace’s followers as the Biblical Jews had for Him when He walked amongst them and as they arranged for Him to be arrested, tried, condemned, scourged, crowned with thorns and Crucified:

The significance of Jewish teachings – known severally as the Talmud, the Midrash, and the Torah – may not be immediately obvious. Yet, on closer examination, this Jewish tradition of learning has exerted a powerful anti-Christian influence in our modern world. From wars through war crimes and the subversion of Christianity to support its horrendous crimes, the hatred of Christ and Christian values has combined with the liberal-global tradition to produce much of the hell on earth we inhabit today.

In recent days, a video from 2023 has resurfaced in which the president of the European Commission explains the idea of the Europe she leads: “Europe is the values of the Talmud,” she says, claiming the central text of Rabbinic Judaism records the “Jewish sense of personal responsibility, of justice—and of solidarity.”

Ursula von der Leyen spoke in 2022 at Ben Gurion University in Israel. What was she talking about – and why does it matter?

What is the Talmud?

The Talmud – meaning “study” or “learning” – is the written oral tradition of Rabbinic Judaism, second only in its significance to the Old Testament in Jewish “religious” teaching.

The Talmud began around the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD and has been formalized into Jewish religious law—or halacha—“the laws of Jewish life” that “governs daily Jewish practice.”

Today, many in Israel, including in its government, call for this to be the law of the state of Israel. Yet its influence has shaped our world far beyond the undefined borders of the Zionist state.

Its teachings inform the political decision-making of Israeli, American, and now European leaders, legitimizing regime change wars abroad and sanctifying the persecution of Christians – such as the “ancient Jewish custom” of spitting on Catholic priests, Christians, and churches in the birthplace of Christianity.

So, what are the values of the Talmud, whose inspiration guides the “religious” and secular Zionists of today?

Sanctifying desecration

Von der Leyen accepted her honorary degree with praise for Yitzhak Rabin, the former prime minister of Israel. A religious Zionist assassinated him, and his life was threatened by current National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir – who attacked Rabin’s car weeks before he was murdered.

Ben-Gvir is also the man who defended the routine spitting on Catholic monks and priests, committed by “religious” Jews.

As Haaretz reported in 2023, a “prominent Jewish settler” said, “It’s a good time to mention that spitting near priests or churches is an ancient Jewish custom, and there’s even a special blessing in Jewish law that should be recited when you see a church.”

This custom comes from the Talmud. It was observed in Jerusalem in May 2023, where naive Evangelical Christian Zionists were spat upon by a mob led by the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Arieh King.

He said, “It is the duty of every Jew to save all Jews from descending into the Christian cult … we came here to protest in front of them.”

King led protesters in “chanting insults, spitting on participants and smashing windows at the center” which hosted a prayer meeting, as Haaretz recorded, while “hundreds of Christians attended the event, including Evangelical supporters of Israel.”

A question to Grok 3 on the phenomenon of Evangelical Christian Zionism, which many Christians consider to be heretical, returns the following:

Regarding the conversion of Jews to Christianity, beliefs vary among evangelical Christian Zionists. A significant subset, influenced by dispensationalism, holds that the return of Jews to Israel sets the stage for apocalyptic events, including a period of tribulation described in the Book of Revelation. Some interpret passages like Romans 11:25-26 (“a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved”) to mean that a mass conversion of Jews to Christianity will occur either before or during Christ’s return. In this view, the Second Coming involves Jesus reigning from Jerusalem, often after a battle at Armageddon, and many believe that Jews will recognize Jesus as the Messiah at that time.

However, not all Christian Zionists emphasize conversion as an immediate goal. Some, like Pastor John Hagee of Christians United for Israel, focus on supporting Israel out of a perceived biblical mandate without actively pushing for Jewish conversion, arguing that their support is a way to honor God’s covenant with Abraham’s descendants.

Bethlehem Palestinian Christian Pastor Munther Isaac charges that “the Christian Zionism movement weaponizes the Bible and says John Hagee and others are engaged in a political movement that leads to great suffering for the Palestinians.” In a YouTube interview, he responding to a question about what he would say to Hagee if he met him, he said that he

…would call Hagee to repent from his obsession with power, with a militant solution to everything, and his unwavering and uncritical support to an apartheid regime, for his constant dehumanization of Palestinians and for refusing to open his eyes to the suffering of Palestinians for 75 years. I would challenge him to rediscover the way of Jesus, the way of peace, the way of compassion. I don’t recognize the Gospel in many of these leaders, who openly have called for Israel, some of them, to turn Gaza into a parking lot. It is shocking to us how distant they are from the very same teachings of Jesus…That is why we talk about the weaponization of the Bible.

On October 4, 2023, “religious” Jews were filmed spitting on Christians in Jerusalem during a parade for the Jewish festival of Sukkot.

In February 2024, the Catholic abbot of the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem was filmed being spat on and attacked by “religious” Jews, who cursed “f****ing Jesus” as they did so.

Abbot Schnabel said in an interview following the attack that he is “spat on practically daily.”

The author of this custom, known as “The Maharil,” is described as “the foremost Talmudist of his generation” by the Jewish Virtual Library.

Yet spitting on Christians is not the only anti-Christian message it teaches.

The cursing and damnation of Christ

Just as the “religious” Jews cursed “Yeshua” when spitting on the abbot, the Talmud refers to Christ as Yeshu.

Why does it do so?

The three consonants j s (shin) v, with which the name Jeshu was written, are here explained as being the first letters of the three words: /=jimmach, sh = sh’mo, v = v’zichro, i.e., may be blotted out his name and his memory.

The very name of Christ is expressed as a curse in the Talmud, as the Lutheran Bernhard Pick explained in his 1910 essay, “The Personality of Jesus in the Talmud.”

Pick examines the traditional Talmud, which he says has been censored “by the Jews themselves” to remove the most damning passages about the Lord. “In our days, such accusations against the Talmud were impossible because all these offensive passages have been removed … by the Jews themselves.”

This, he says, is “a fact only very often overlooked by controversialists. In the Jewish year 5391 (i.e., A.D. 1631) a Jewish synod held at Petrikau, in Poland, issued a circular letter to the effect that all such passages in the Talmud which refer to Jesus, etc., should be omitted in the future.”

In brief, the Talmud says Jesus Christ was a bastard, His mother a whore, and He was a sorcerer in league with the devil who died the deserving death of a common criminal.

Organizations such as Los Angeles-based “Jews for Judaism” say the passages cursing Christ are misinterpreted or point to omissions from texts, which Pick reminds us were removed by “the Jews themselves” to appease Christians.

It is to be remembered that the Talmud also says it is just for Jews to deceive non-Jews and that legal disputes should always be framed to exonerate Jews of wrongdoing.

A 2009 book documenting the mention of Our Lord, titled “Jesus in the Talmud,” states:

The Talmudic stories make fun of Jesus’ birth from a virgin, fervently contest his claim to be the Messiah and Son of God and maintain that he was rightfully executed as a blasphemer and idolater.

They subvert the Christian idea of Jesus’ resurrection and insist he got the punishment he deserved in hell – and that a similar fate awaits his followers.

What punishment does the Talmud say Christ received in hell?

He is in the “Tzoah Rotachat” for eternity – “boiling in excrement.”

The Zionist mindset

The Talmud directly inspires the Zionist mindset of the government of Israel. Its finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, says the “Greater Israel” project to expand Israel’s borders through war – with the direct assistance of the United States – is prophesied in religious texts.

“It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus,” he says.

Where is it written? The Greater Israel movement arose to claim Israel should retain all the territory it took in the 1967 Arab-Israel war – its goals in annexing the West Bank and Gaza promoted by Smotrich today.

In addition, it draws on interpretations of the Old Testament to say Israel has a right to annex parts of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. There are at least three versions of “Greater Israel” in the Bible, but Smotrich does not explain to which of these writings he refers.

Smotrich uses this heresy to justify his plan – currently underway – to violently annex the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and promote the extermination or expulsion of the entire population of Gaza.

The project of “Greater Israel” has been served by the “regime change” or “forever” wars urged by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States Congress in 2002, and pursued on the Jewish traditional principle of “striking your enemy first” – the concept of “pre-emptive war.”

The “interpretations” of the Old Testament form the Midrash Raba, which, along with the Talmud, the Hebrew Old Testament, and the five books of Moses, comprise the traditions of Jewish teaching known as the Torah, but which by no means do all Jews interpret or accept in the same way, disregarding many of the worst, horrific Talmudic teachings.

The Midrash Raba has inspired the doctrine of pre-emptive war, pursued by Israel “since day one,” and injected into the national security strategy of the United States in 2002 – following the advice of Netanyahu.

A million historic Christians with their roots in the time of Christ have been killed as a result of this warmongering, inspired by the “religious” teachings which shape Israeli and U.S. policy.

How do these teachings justify these actions? The Talmud provides more insights.

“The best of Gentiles [non-jews] should all be killed”, it says in Soferim 15, “even if we are not in war.”

Further, the Talmud states, “God has permitted all the possessions of the Gentiles to the Jews” – meaning land and property of non-Jews can be seized under Halachic Law, which many in the Israeli government say should be the legal code of the state of Israel.

Netanyahu has made much use of the Hebrew name “Amalek” – a term meaning the enemies of Israel – who are, as former IDF Chief Yoav Gallant said of the Gazans, “human animals.”

The Talmud says that non-Jews are not human.

“Goyim [Gentiles] are considered beasts, and only Jews are human.” (Bava Metzia 114b). This explains how the state of Israel can justify its horrific crimes against the non-Jewish population, as well as those against the United States – such as in the USS Liberty attack or the theft of U.S. nuclear material and secrets. (The 'Judeo-Christian' lie is destroying the Christian West.)

The Talmudic and Zionist hatred for Christians is palpable, it is ongoing, and it is relentless. Yet is that so-called “Christian Zionists” give their full support to the murderous policies of the Zionist State of Israel because of their own heretical beliefs about Divine Revelation.

There is no such thing as Judeo-Christian “values,” but there is no such thing as a generic Christianity as, to quote Father Frederick William Faber. “Where there is no Mass there is no Christianity,” a truth that Father Robert Mader reiterated seventy years later:

That we are vitally permeated with the actual presence of our King is characteristic of our religion. Catholicism is not merely a marvellous teaching, a wonderful moral system, an unexcelled organization. It is more. It is the real, living, present Jesus with His Mystical Body, i.e., the faithful united with Him. It is not so much a theory as it is something living. A Catholicism that would not be united with Jesus would be nothing but a phantom in the mist, a soulless shell with another name and another outlook than its own.

That is why it is perhaps dangerous to faith if we use misunderstood words like Christianity and Catholicism somewhat too often. Let us repeat: Catholicism is not a theory, not a teaching, Christianity is the invisible but truly living presence of Christ among us, the Kingship of Jesus. To be Catholic means to stand in vital communication, through faith, hope and love, with the invisibly present Redeemer, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

Thus it is that there, where Jesus is not present in the Host and no living communication with Him takes place, there can be no living Christianity. In that moment when Luther rejected the Sacrament of the Altar and therewith Christ present, he rejected Christianity.

Christianity equals Christ with the Christians! What does Jesus do when He is with the Christians? The same thing he did for three years in Palestine: be King. We often have no real concept of the life and the effectiveness of Jesus in the tabernacle. We think that because our eyes and ears are too weak to observe the divine-human activity of Jesus in the tabernacle, only the stillness of death reigns there. That is a gross deception.

His activity depends neither upon the greatness of his work room nor the loudness of sounds. What gigantic work is done by sun and nature, although no eye and ear can observe its progress! The Jesus of the tabernacle is the same as the Jesus in the Gospels, the same in Holiness, in Might, in Wisdom, in Omniscience, in Mercy and in Love. St. Paul writes in Hebrews (13:8) that "Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to-day; and the same for ever."

So what is Jesus doing in the tabernacles? He exercises His priestly office. The King prays. He holds perpetual adoration. He holds services in the name of the parish. He celebrates the Holy Mass. The visible Mass is over with the Ite missa est. The invisible Mass continues day and night since Jesus is present in the tabernacle, as an offering of praise and thanks and reparation. The parish priest is obliged by canon law to "read" Holy Mass for the congregation every Sunday. That is called "application." Jesus does more than the visible priest. He prays and makes application for HIs people continually.

What else Jesus do in the tabernacle? He exercises His office Shepherd. He does pastoral care of souls. The King keeps watch. The eyes of the Good Shepherd never sleep. They see everything that happens in the parish, in the houses and in the hearts. The eyes of the Good Shepherd take note of every longing for help and every danger. The Heart of the Good Shepherd beats for all with unending love, and that is the soul of pastoral work.

What else does Jesus do in the tabernacle? He exercises the preaching office, a preaching that penetrates deeper than just to the ears and without the preaching of the clergy in the pulpit remains nothing but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. The King speaks. The angels are His parish helpers. They visit the individual souls of the parishioners on assignment from the Saviour and with the power of the Holy Spirit. That proves what ought to be proven: that Christianity is not empty theory. Christianity is Christ with the Christians! The King lives!

Christianity should not be anything for us than it was for the Apostles: a living relationship to Jesus present. This personal relationship expresses itself in faith, hope and love for Jesus the King. Above all it is the Christian with Christ through love! Take for example in thought. Love expresses itself in its domination of the entire world of our thoughts. The world of thoughts usually is preoccupied with business, pleasure, the latest sensation, exaggerated worries and often just dirt. It is materialistic, money-grabbing, sensual, alcoholic, worldly. It is the thought of a baptized heathen. If we want to call ourselves Christians, then we ought to think of nothing but Christ Who is present among us. Neither work nor politics, neither the press nor sports ought to occupy us in the least in comparison to the occupation of our memory and our understanding by Jesus. That's Christianity!

The same applies to the world of feelings. Measure your temperature in Church, near to Jesus. It is much lower than when you are in a theater, a restaurant, in the office. That's not normal. You must have a heart defect. And today it seems that cardiac defects have become the mass epidemic of Christianity. We love everything, only not for Jesus. I repeat: that's not normal! A patient whose temperature has sunk so low is very ill. Christianity is the Christian with Christ. Not only with his thoughts and his feelings, but in all his doings must he be with Him. The church, the house where Jesus lives, ought to be a stronger attraction for every genuine Christian than any other house in in town, even during the week. Tell me where I can find you most often, and I will tell you who are are.

We want to be Christians again! Yet a little while, and we shall see Jesus. The Invisible will become visible. The hidden King of the tabernacle is Judge over punishment or reward for eternity! The great movement of decision over heaven and hell has come. What is heaven? The place of blessed happiness in love. It is clear that whoever does not know the great law of Christianity, the law of love between the Christian and Christ, cannot enter into heaven. Not want to love Christ, Who is Love, is the sins of sins! Whoever does not love will be damned. We want to become Christians again. We want to love again, love and die for Christ the King. (Father Robert Mader, Cross and the Crown, edited and translated by Dr. Eileen Kunze, Sarto House, 1999, pp. 92-94.)

As we know, the ineffable Sacrifice of the Cross is not offered universally today as it was when Father Mader wrote eighty-five years ago. Our Lord is not present in His Real Presence in most tabernacles in the world today. The new religion wrought by conciliarism has reduced the days of mandatory fast and abstinence during Lent to two, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. That’s it. Forty days of Lent. Only two days of mandatory fast and abstinence under penalty of sin. A religion that eschews the necessity of fasting and abstinence during Lent has nothing to do with Catholicism. Nothing. The lack of sacrifice in the conciliar sect has led to a loss of faith in the souls of millions and to the actual celebration of sin in one conciliar-controlled parish, school, university and seminary after another. The “popes” of the conciliar sect have celebrated “religious liberty” and the “separation of the Church and State,” which were the goals of Protestantism and Judeo-Masonry, and had already produced a mess in the world by the time that the “Second” Vatican Council took place.

Father Mader explained how things had degenerated in his own time from 1914 to 1934 because nations had revolted against Christ the King and His true Church:

What happened? World War I began in 1914. In the whole world there was no Catholic government. All of them without exception had become more or less liberal. It seemed as though Jesus Himself had become "liberal" in order to punish the nations. He did not "interfere in the political affairs of the nations." He apparently did what all the popular assemblies and the newspapers had been demanding of Him for more than a hundred years. And now look at the paradox! The nations which had been liberal for a century and which had given themselves liberal constitutions and elected liberal representatives now accused God of committing a crime, because He did not want to interfere in politics! If one is liberal, then one has no right to accuse God of non-intervention. If the liberals want to be consistent, then they have to keep silence on our question.

A word to the sentimental souls: The World Wars and the revolutions with all their injustices that cry to heaven and their cruelties are supposed to be proof that there is no God, and that Jesus is a failure. Answer: The world has not only become unbelieving and liberal; it is godless. Of course there have always been godless individuals. But it has been reserved to modern times to raise godlessness to public power. And what is worse, godlessness had turned into actual glowing hatred of God. It became a fury. Mankind fell upon God in order to strangle Him, kill Him and eradicate Him.

Whoever casts a glance into the secrets of modern Freemasonry knows that we are not exaggerating. Freemasonry is the secret government behind most of the earth's governments. What we are experiencing since the French Revolution is the radical, implacable, irreconcilable war against God, the revolution of earth against heaven.

If this is the case, what did God have to do? All graces had been thrown to the wind, all warnings were ridiculed. The world had become unteachable and incapable of conversion. God's mercy and patience were taken as an excuse for more impertinence and new ridicule. And it must be emphasized that we stood it! We watched the outbreaks of hatred against God and had no laws and no courts with which to defend the rights of God and His Christ. We made ourselves accomplices. (Father Robert Mader, Cross and the Crown, edited and translated by Dr. Eileen Kunze, Sarto House, 1999, pp. 63-64.)

The same can be said of Catholics here in the United States of America. We have been accomplices to placing the godless in power, those who curse and who revile their opponents as they seek to revenge every slight and injustice, whether real or imagined. We have trusted in the ability of politics to keep “bad guys” out even though anyone who does not acknowledge Christ the King is advancing evil whether or not they realize it. Even fully believing Catholics

Following the destruction of Jerusalem, the Romans covered the places of hallowed memory to the Christian with rubble. The cave of the Holy Sepulchre was buried under such rubble, and over as well Golgotha pagan images and temples were erected in honor of Venus and Jupiter. For this reason the Christians did not go there anymore, in order not to be mistaken for idol-worshippers. Emperor Constantine ordered the temples and images torn down and the rubble carried away. After long and hard work the cave of the Holy Sepulchre was found. Not found away three crosses with nails were discovered, and along with them the superscription, which, however, lay separate from the cross.

Without doubt one of the these must be the Cross of the Savior, but there was no certain sign that would differentiate it from the crosses of the two thieves. This was given when a mortally il woman was suddenly cured by touching the true Cross. The Holy Cross was then encased in silver and precious gems, and a church was built over it, which according to Emperor Constantine's order was to be more magnificent than anything ever seen before. In memory of these events, the Church recalls the Finding of the Most Holy Cross on May 3, in order that on every day until the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14), land and people with be blessed with a splinter, a particle of the Cross.

We have every reason to remember these events. Christianity is the religion of the Crucified One. In his first letter to the Corinthians the Apostle of the Nations, St. Paul, declares: "For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). St. Paul's preaching, no matter how many-sided it appears, always returns to the central Sun of Christendom: Jesus on the Cross, King of the World! Everything else is either a ray from this Sun, or it is nothing. In the Crucifix lies our entire dogmatic and moral theology, our entire teaching on faith and morals, our catechism. The Cross is our library. Every other book has value only inasmuch as the spirit of the Cross speaks in it.

Modernists have attempted to ban the old preaching of St. Paul, the Gospel of the Cross, to oblivion. The Cross means the teaching of the necessity of sacrifice and of grace, and this now lies under the rubble on which a new paganism has erected once again the pagan images and temples of Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Bacchus--in other words, the absolutist state, capitalism, immorality, and addiction to pleasure. A certain superficial Christianity, which puts more value on being modern than on being Catholic and Biblical, and for which the imitation of the spirit of the times is more understandable than the imitation of Christ, has made itself a willing accomplice.

We have lost the Cross. We have a Christianity that no longer understands sacrifice and there is no Christianity or only a soulless version of Christianity. We need Constantines and Helens who will once again dig out the the Cross from under the rubble and make it their shrine and their sign, and who believe that the King's throne is the Cross.

The crucified King! In the family we must have a Finding of the the Most Holy Cross! The modern family has lost the crucifix, and in its place it has raised up the political hero, the artist, old pagan gods, nudity and the prostitute. The crucifix does not fit into the modern home. The modern living room preaches money-grabbing, pride, vanity, lasciviousness, laziness. The modern living room is the exaltation of the seven deadly sins. At least one is honest enough to feel the Cross no longer fits into this milieu and has got rid of it because in the long run the crucifix can only remain there where the spirit of the Crucified One remains, and the spirit of the Crucified is no longer there.

The spirit of the Crucified is the spirit of love and sacrifice, but the spirit of the modern family is the spirit of selfishness and enjoyment. The speech of the Crucified says: First the others, I come last! The speech of selfishness is: First I, then again I, the others come last! The Christian family is built on the notion of sacrifice and devotion. The concept of the Christian father is: Work from morning to evening for others. The concept of the Christian mother is: Care for others! Let the self always come last! The concept of the Christian child is: Respect, love, obedience. Father and mother first, only then I!

The notion of sacrifice is dying out in the modern family. The modern family is built upon the law of egotism. The modern family takes as its motto: "As much enjoyment and as little sacrifice as possible!" This is the source of Malthusianism. That is where characterless education comes from. And that is the doom of the family. Only the Cross and its sermon of self-discipline, self-denial and devotion can save the dying family. . . .

If one knows Who Jesus is: the Creator and the Conserver, the Savior, the Owner of the earth, then one must regard the liberal sin, that of fundamental social refusal to recognize the spiritual monarchy of Christ over society, as the most grievous sin committed since Good Friday. It is deicide, God-murder, committed in the name of law and of Satan, true Antichristianity. Cardinal Mercier therefore rightly called the official apostasy of the nations the greatest crime of our times.

At present this is the situation of the Sign of the Son of Man. They do not want it to shine in the heavens. Just like back then on Good Friday: We will not have Him reign over us! (Father Robert Mader, Cross and the Crown, edited and translated by Dr. Eileen Kunze, Sarto House, 1999, pp. 117-119.) 

Yes, the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King wrought by the Protestant Revolution and institutionalized by the religiously indifferentist Judeo-Masonic civil state of Modernity is indeed the “most grievous sin committed since Good Friday.” The world today like the Jews of Jerusalem on Good Friday “will not have Him reign over us.”

Ah, but how is it with us?

Will we have Christ the King reign over us and every aspect of our lives?

Do we have Christ the King reign over us and every aspect of our lives, including how we view the world and the events that take place therein?

Today, Wednesday, April 16, 2025, is Wednesday of Holy Week, but it is also known as Spy Wednesday, the day on which Judas Iscariot betrayed Our Lord to the Jews for thirty pieces of silver:

The Judas, who betrayed him, seeing that he was condemned, repenting himself brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and ancients, – 3. Saying: “I have sinned, in betraying innocent blood.” But they said: “What is that to us? Look thou to it.” – 5. And casting down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and went and hanged himself with an halter. – 6. but the chief priests having taken the pieces of silver, said: “It is not lawful to put them into the corbona; because it is the price of blood.”  – 7. And after they had consulted together, they bought with them the potter's field, to be a burying-place for strangers. – 8. for this cause that field was called Haceldama, that is, the field of blood, even to this day. – 9. then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet saying: “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the prices of him that was prized, whom they prized of the children children of Israel; – 10. And they gave them unto the potter's field, as the Lord appointed to me.” (Matthew 27:3)

How Judas Repents of His Deed

It was the condemnation of Jesus by the Great Council and His being led away to Pilate (Matt. Xxvii. 3) which brought Judas to repentance. He now saw with his own eyes the terrible consequences of his treachery, and began to repent of his deed.

As regards the nature of his contrition and penance, it seems to have been perfect in many respects – at all events exteriorly. He recognizes the infamy and horror of his crime, and repents of it. He openly confesses it before the chief priests and ancients, who had perhaps remained behind in the house of Caiphas to transact other business, or had gone into the Temple (Matt. Xxvii. 3). He testifies in their presence to the innocence of Jesus, as opposed to the verdict of “guilty” which they had pronounced upon Him, and acknowledges his own guilt, saying that he has betrayed innocent blood and thereby sinned (Matt. Xxvii. 4). Lastly, he tears himself away from his idol, the money that had seduced him to sin, and casts it down in the Temple (Matt. Xxvii. 5). What, then, was wanting to his contrition and penance? It was the important – nay, essential – virtues of hope, confidence, and love. He saw only the magnitude and dreadfulness of his offence, and not the possibility of pardon, and so he despaired, as Cain had once done (Gen. iv. 13). His sorrow was therefore not a sorrow unto life, but unto death (2 Cor. Vii. 9 seq.).

And how was this? Some are of opinion that Judas had thought our Saviour would certainly not be killed, but would contrive to escape from the hands of His enemies, as He had so often done before; but this expectation had not been fulfilled, and so he was the first to be guilty of the blood of our Lord. And therefore he despaired. – But even apart from this, the whole course of what passed in his soul is very natural. At first, blinded by passion and tempted by the devil, he had only seen in the deed the enticing prospect of fain, and now it was accomplished he saw only the horror of it. A complete reaction set in, and so now he could not even endure to keep the money that had had such an attraction for him before. Such is the natural interior course of every sin, and in this case his own fickle, unstable character together with the influence of the devil contributed to bring it all about.

How Judas Was Received By The Priests.

The way in which the priests received Judas is odious for two reasons.

The first of these is their callousness and heartlessness. They meet Judas' repentance and confession of guilt with the answer: “What is that to us? Look thou to it!” (Matt. Xxvii. 4.) they do not comfort him by saying that our Saviour is a blasphemer and false Messias. They throw all the responsibility on him, and leave him to despair. Thus do evil communications bring about their own punishment.

The second odious feature in the conduct of the priests is their hypocrisy. They do not accept the money, in order not to appear to repent of their deed and thus contradict themselves. As a matter of fact, they had not bought Jesus, but had only pain for the act of treachery. On the other hand they will not put the money into the Temple treasury, because it is blood-money and the price of sin (Deut. Xxiii. 18). They reckon this as sin, and take care not to commit it; but they do not hesitate to take upon themselves the actual blood-guiltiness and retain it (Matt. Xxvii. 6 25), although Judas' repentance was an impressive warning to them not to commit the crime. For he did not repent of his deed after the Resurrection, but at the time of the deepest humiliation of Jesus. So at length they hit upon the expedient of purchasing with the money a piece of land known as the “potter's field,” whether because it belong to a potter, or because potter's clay was to be found there. This field was to serve in future as a burying-place for strangers (Matt. Xxvii. 7 8). It was called the “field of blood” (Haceldama), and retains the name to the present day (Matt. Xxvii. 8. Acts I. 19). The place is still distinguishable by the many vaults there. Thus the Jews set up a perpetual memorial of their crime, and fulfilled the prediction of the prophets Jeremias and Zacharias. The latter foretold the price for which the Messias would be sold. (Zach. xi. 12), and the former indicated the field that was to be purchased with the money (Jer. Xviii. 1-3; xix. 1-2; xxxii. 8-14)/ St. Matthew combines both prophesies, because they now found their complete fulfillment (Matt. Xxvii. 9  10). (The words: “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremias the prophet” etc. appears to refer to the purchase of the field, of which Jeremias alone speaks.)

The End of Judas

After Judas had cast the pieces of silver into the Temple he fled, driven by despair and the Evil One, out of the city to the vale of Hinnom. What a terrified glance would he not cast at the Mount of Olives, at the foot of which the Garden of Gethsemani lies! Would he not think of those words of our Saviour's: “Friend, whereto art thou come?” and: “It were better for him, if that man had not been born!” Did he not think too of Absalom, who expired hanging on a tree? Did not the Evil One shout into his ears the terrible execrations and curses that the prophet (as it appears, with reference to him) had foretold: “They repaid Me evil for good, and hatred for My love . . . . May the devil stand at his right hand. When he is judged, may he go out condemned; and may his prayer be turned to sin . . .  May there be none to help him . . . . He loved cursing, and it shall come unto him . . . It went in like water into his entrails, and like oil in his bones . . . . May it be unto him like a garment which covereth him and like a girdle with which he is girded continually” (Ps. cviii. 4 seq.). Overpowered by remorse of conscience and despair, this unhappy wretch hanged himself. The body burst asunder in the midst and fell to the ground. (Acts i. 18).

What an example, and what a terrible lesson! An Apostle ends his days as a suicide – the impeacher and avenger of his own crime! What more is needed to teach us how fatal it is not to resist our evil passions? Is not every passion a very Satan, that can make us miserable for time and eternity? But still even passion and its bitter fruit, sin, could not have compassed his ruin if only he had not lost confidence and despaired. Peter had fallen, too. But he seized the saving Hand of Jesus by his love and trust. How very differently Judas would have been received by Peter, John, and Mary, if he had fled to them in his contrition and cast himself into their arms, instead of going to the chief priests! How great is the evil of losing confidence and falling into despair! (Father Maurice Meschler, S.J., The Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, The Son of God, in Meditations, Volume II, Freiburg Im Breisgau 1928 Herder & Co., Publishers to the Holy Apostolic See, pp. 416-420.)

There is no “hope” for Judas to be found except in the minds of heretics who are likely to join the traitor in hell for all eternity.

Although Bergoglio “wondered” what might have happened if Judas had met Our Lady after he had betrayed her Divine Son, we do know that she did meet him after he had resolved to do so. Here is the account provided in Venerable Mary of Agreda’s The Mystical City of God:

423. The demons, in despair of ever being able to influence Judas, went to the Pharisees. By many suggestions and arguments they sought to dissuade them from persecuting Christ, our Lord and Savior. But the same happened with them as with Judas, and for the same reasons; they could not be diverted from their purpose, nor from the wicked deed which they had planned. Although some of the scribes, from motives of human prudence, were led to reconsider whether what they had resolved was advisable, yet since they were not assisted by divine grace they were soon again overcome by their hatred and envy of the Savior. Hence resulted the further efforts of Lucifer with the wife of Pilate and with Pilate himself. The former, as is recorded in the Gospels, they incited to womanly pity so she might urge Pilate to beware of condemning that just man (Mt. 27:19). By these suggestions and by others which they themselves made to Pilate they induced him to resort to so many different schemes in order to evade passing the sentence of death upon the innocent Savior; of these I shall speak in their proper place (597, 611, 635, 638). Since Lucifer and his satellites were entirely frustrated in their efforts they again changed their purpose, and in their fury now resolved to induce the Pharisees, executioners, and their helpers to heap the most atrocious cruelties upon the Lord, and by the excess of torment to overcome the invincible patience of the Redeemer. All these machinations of the devil the Lord permitted so the high ends of the Redemption would be attained; however, He did not allow the executioners to execute on the sacred Person of the Savior some of the more indecent atrocities to which they were incited by the demons (579).

 424. On the Wednesday following his triumphal entry into Jerusalem Christ our Lord remained in Bethany without going to Jerusalem, and on this day the Pharisees and scribes met at the house of Caiphas in order to plan the death of the Savior of the world (Mk. 14:1). The welcome which the Redeemer had met with among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and which had followed so shortly upon the resurrection of Lazarus and the many other miracles of those days, had excited their envy to the highest pitch; besides, they had already resolved to take away his life under the false pretext of the public good, as Caiphas had prophesied so contrary to his intention (Jn. 11:49). The demon, who saw them thus determined, suggested to some of them not to execute their design on the feast of the Pasch lest the people who venerated Christ as the Messiah or a great prophet cause a disturbance. Lucifer sought by this delay an opportunity to hinder the death of the Lord altogether. Yet since Judas was now entirely in the clutches of his avarice and hatred, and altogether deprived of any saving grace, he came to the meeting of the priests in great disturbance and terror of mind, and began to negotiate with them concerning the betrayal of his Master. He closed the deal by accepting thirty pieces of silver, contenting himself with such a price for Him who contained within Himself all the treasures of heaven. In order not to lose their opportunity the priests put up with the inconvenience of its being so near the Pasch. All this was so disposed by divine Providence directing these events.

 425. At the same time happened what our Savior is recorded as saying in St. Matthew (26:2): You know that after two days shall be the Pasch, and the Son of man shall be delivered up to be crucified. Judas was not present when these words were uttered by Christ, but in the fury of his treason he returned to the Apostles and perfidiously began to inquire of his companions, and even of the Lord and his Blessed Mother, where they intended to go from Bethany and what the Master was to do on the following few days. All this was merely a treacherous preparation of the perfidious disciple for the betrayal of his Master to the chief Pharisees. By these pretenses and concealments Judas, as a hypocrite, sought to palliate his premeditated treachery. But both the Savior and his most blessed Mother well understood the purpose of his feverish activity, for the holy Angels immediately reported to them his shameful contract to which he had bound himself for thirty pieces of silver. On that very day, when the traitor approached the great Lady to ask Her where the Lord proposed to partake of the Pasch, She answered him with ineffable meekness: “Who can penetrate, O Judas, the secret judgments of the Most High?” With that She ceased to warn him against committing the sin, but both She and the Lord tolerated his presence until he himself despaired of his remedy and eternal salvation. But this meekest Dove, now certain of the irreparable ruin of Judas and the delivery of her most holy Son into the hands of his enemies, broke out in most tender lamentations in the presence of the Angels, for they were the only ones with whom She could confer about her heartrending sorrow. In their presence She permitted the sea of her sorrow to overflow, and She gave expression of words of greatest wisdom and affection. She excited the wonder of these holy Angels, who saw such an exalted and new perfection practiced by a mere creature in the midst of most bitter sorrows and tribulations.

INSTRUCTION GIVEN ME

426. My daughter, all thou hast understood and written in this chapter contains great and instructive mysteries for mortals who shall meditate upon it. First, thou must ponder with discretion how my most holy Son came to undo the works of the demon (I Jn. 3:8) and vanquish him so he would not have such powers against men, and for this intention leaving him in the condition of his nature of an angel and the habitual knowledge corresponding to it, nevertheless concealed many things from him (as thou hast already recorded in other places [Inc. 501, 648; Tran. 356, 413]), so by not attaining such knowledge the Most High could restrain the malice of this dragon in the manner most appropriate for the sweet and strong providence of the Most High (Wis. 8:1). Thus the hypostatic union of the divine and human natures was concealed from him, and he drifted into such hallucination regarding this mystery that he confused himself, and was involved in varying discourses and fictitious determinations until in due time my most holy Son made him understand it, and that his divinized soul had been glorious from the instant of his conception. Likewise He permitted the demon to witness some of the miracles of his most holy life, yet concealed from him many others. And the same happens now with some souls, for my most holy Son does not permit the enemy to know all their works, though naturally he could know them; His Majesty hides them in order to attain his high ends for the benefit of souls. Afterwards He allows him to find them out for the greater confusion of the demon, as happened regarding the works of the Redemption, when for his torment and greater oppression the Lord permitted him to become aware of them. For this reason the infernal dragon, the serpent, is continually prowling around souls in order to search into their works, not only the interior ones but also the exterior ones.

427. Such is the love my most holy Son has for souls after He was born and died for them. This benefit would be more general and continuous with many if they did not make themselves unworthy by delivering themselves over to the enemy, listening to his false suggestions and counsels full of malice and error. As the just and chosen ones in sanctity become instruments in the hand of the Lord, who governs and controls them Himself and does not allow another to move them because they submit entirely to his divine disposition, so on the contrary many of the reprobate and those who are forgetful of their Creator and Redeemer, and who deliver themselves into the hands of the demon by repeated sins, are moved and drawn into all kinds of wickedness and are mere tools of his depraved malice. An example of this we have in the perfidious disciple and in the murderous Pharisees persecuting their Redeemer. No mortal has an excuse if they suffer this damage, for just as Judas and the priests by the use of their own free will refused to follow the good advice of the demon and desist from persecuting Christ our Savior, so they could much more easily have refused to join him in persecuting Christ when they were first tempted, for then they were assisted by grace if only they wished to use it, while afterwards they were assisted only by their own free choice and led by their bad habits. That they were in the second instance deprived of the grace and assistance of the Holy Ghost was only just, because they had given themselves up and subjected themselves to the demon in order to obey him in all malice and allow themselves to be governed only by his perverse will, without consideration of the goodness and power of their Creator.

428. Hence shalt thou understand that this infernal serpent can have no power to lead anyone toward the good, but very much toward leading those souls into sin who are neglectful in issuing from their evil state. Truly I say to thee, my daughter, that if mortals would thoroughly understand this danger they would be struck with great terror, for there is no created power which can prevent a soul who has once yielded to sin from casting himself from abyss to abyss. Since the sin of Adam the weight of human nature, burdened with the concupiscible and irascible passions, is drawn toward sin as the stone toward its center. Joined to this tendency are the bad habits and customs, the power of the demon over those who have sinned, and his unceasing tyranny. Who is there who is so much an enemy of his own welfare as to despise these dangers? The Almighty alone can free him, and to his right hand is reserved the remedy. In spite of all this mortals live as secure and forgetful of their ruin as if each one had it in his own power to prevent and repair it at his pleasure. Though many know and openly confess they cannot rise from their own ruin without the help of God, yet they allow this consciousness to become a mere habit and a vague sentiment, and instead of lovingly seeking his aid they offend and irritate God, expecting Him to wait upon them with his grace until they are tired of sinning or are unable to continue their abominable wickedness and ingratitude.

429. Do thou fear, my dearest, this formidable danger, and guard thyself against the first sin, for after the first sin thou shalt be less able to resist the second, and thy enemy acquires strength against thee. Remember thy treasure is most valuable, and the vase in which thou dost carry it most fragile; by one fall thou canst lose it all (II Cor. 4:7). Great is the cunning and sagacity which the serpent uses against thee, and thy insight is but small. Therefore thou must collect thy senses and close them to all outward things; thou must withdraw thy interior within the wall of protection and refuge raised for thee by the Almighty, from whence thou canst repel all the inhuman assaults of thy enemies. To excite this fear in thee it shall be sufficient to consider the punishment of Judas, which has been made clear to thy understanding. In regard to thy imitation of my behavior in other matters, how thou must act toward those who hate and persecute thee, love them and bear with them in charity and patience, and pray for them to the Lord with true zeal for their salvation as I did for the traitor Judas, in all this I have previously often exhorted thee. I desire thee to excel and distinguish thyself therein, and to instruct thy religious, and all those with whom thou hast communication, in this manner of acting, because in view of the patience and meekness of my most holy Son and my own example, the wicked and all mortals shall be covered with unutterable confusion because they have not pardoned each other with fraternal charity. The sins of hatred and vengeance shall be punished with greater severity than other sins on Judgment Day, and in this life these vices shall most quickly drive away the infinite mercy of God and cause eternal punishment of men unless they amend in sorrow. Those who are kind and sweet toward their enemies and persecutors, and who forget injuries, resemble on that account more particularly the incarnate Word, for Christ always went about seeking to pardon and load with blessings those who were in sin. By imitating the charity and meekness of the Lamb the soul disposes itself to receive and maintain that noble spirit of charity and love of God and neighbor which makes it fit for all the influences of divine grace and benevolence. (New English Edition of The Mystical City of God, The Transfixion: Book 6, Chapter VIII.)

Yes, we must pray to Our Lady the consecrated slaves of her Divine Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, to help us never to despair of our own salvation as we seek to make reparation for our sins, especially by praying the Sorrowful Mysteries as we enter into the Paschal Triduum with the office of Tenebrae this evening. 

We must also pray constantly for the conversion of heretics such as those in the conciliar structures so that they will not join their beloved Judas in hell for all eternity, remembering as well to offer ready forgiveness for those who we believe have injured us in some way. Nothing anyone does or says to us or causes us to suffer is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Lord to suffer during His Passion and Death on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday and that caused those swords of sorrow to be plunged into the Immaculate Heart of His Most Blessed Mother.

We must also pray for the conversion of the Jews as, even though they hate Our Lord and His true Faith, they have immortal souls made in the image of likeness of God that have been redeemed by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood of the very Second Person of the Most Blessed Trinity made Man, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in Our Lady’s Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of God the Holy Ghost. Our Lord wants us to pray and to sacrifice for the conversion of all non-Catholics, including Jews and Mohammedans, who also hate, mock, and revile Him and His true Church, so that they can join with us at all at Holy Mass as we pray:

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dóminus, Deus Sábaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra glória tua. Hosánna in excélsis. Benedíctus, qui venit in nómine Dómini. Hosánna in excélsis.

May Our Lady, to whose Immaculate Heart the cause of world peace has been entrusted by her Divine Son, help us to be at peace always with her Divine Son by making a good, integral Confession of our sins to a true priest (if one is available where one lives in this time of apostasy and betrayal) and to be earnest in our efforts to reform our lives as we grow in our love for her and her Most Holy Rosary with every beat of our hearts, consecrated as they should be to her Divine Son’s Most Sacred Heart that her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar, pray for us.

Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, pray for us.

Appendix

Dom Prosper Gueranger on Wednesday in Holy Week

The Chief Priests and the Ancients of the people are met today, in one of the rooms adjoining the Temple, for the purpose of deliberating on the best means of putting Jesus to death. Several plans are discussed. Would it be prudent to lay hands upon him at this season of the Feast of the Pasch, when the City is filled with strangers who have received a favorable impression of Jesus from the solemn ovation given to him three days back? Then, too, are there not a great number of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who took part in that triumph, and whose enthusiastic admiration of Jesus might excite them to rise up in his defense? These considerations persuade them not to have recourse to any violent measure, at least for the present, as a sedition among the people might be the consequence, and its promoters, even were they to escape being ill-treated by the people, would be brought before the tribunal of the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate. They therefore come to the resolution of letting the Feast pass quietly over, before apprehending Jesus.

But these blood-thirsty men are making all these calculations as though they were the masters. They are, if they will, shrewd assassins, who put off their murder to a more convenient day, but the Divine decrees, which from all eternity, have prepared a Sacrifice for the world’s salvation, — have fixed this very year’s Pasch as the day of the Sacrifice, and, tomorrow evening, the holy City will re-echo with the trumpets, which proclaim the opening of the Feast. The figurative Lamb is now to make way for the true one; the Pasch of this year will substitute the reality for the type; and Jesus’ Blood, shed by the hands of wicked priests, is soon to flow simultaneously with that of victims, which have only been hitherto acceptable to God, because they prefigured the Sacrifice of Calvary. The Jewish priesthood is about to be its own executioner, by immolating Him, whose Blood is to abrogate the Ancient Alliance, and perpetuate the New one.

But how are Jesus’ enemies to get possession of their divine Victim, so as to avoid a disturbance in the City? There is only one plan that could succeed, and they have not thought of it: it is treachery. Just at the close of their deliberations, they are told that one of Jesus’ Disciples seeks admission. They admit him, and he says to them: What will you give me, and I will deliver him unto you? They are delighted at this proposition: and yet, how is it that they, doctors of the law, forget that this infamous bargain between themselves and Judas has all been foretold by David in the 108th Psalm? They know the Scriptures from beginning to end—how comes it that they forget the words of the Prophet, who even mentions the sum of thirty pieces of silver. Judas asks them what they will give him; and they give him thirty pieces of silver! All is arranged: tomorrow, Jesus will be in Jerusalem, eating the Pasch with his Disciples. In the evening, he will go, as usual, to the Garden on Mount Olivet. But how shall they, who are sent to seize him, be able to distinguish him from his Disciples? Judas will lead the way; he will show them which is Jesus, by going up and kissing him!

How terrible is this our Defender, who tramples his enemies beneath his feet, as they that tread in the wine-press; so that their blood is sprinkled upon his garments! But is not this the fittest time for us to proclaim his power, now that he is being treated with ignominy, and sold to his enemies by one of his Disciples? These humiliations will soon pass away; he will rise in glory, and his might will be shown by the chastisements, wherewith he will crush them that now persecute him. Jerusalem will stone them that shall preach in his name; she will be a cruel step-mother to those true Israelites who, docile to the teaching of the Prophets, have recognized Jesus as the promised Messias. The Synagogue will seek to stifle the Church in her infancy; but no sooner shall the Church, shaking the dust from her feet, turn from Jerusalem to the Gentiles, than the vengeance of Christ will fall on the City, which bought, betrayed, and crucified him. Her citizens will have to pay dearly for these crimes. We learn from the Jewish historian Josephus (who was an eyewitness to the siege) that the fire which was raging in one of the streets, was quenched by the torrents of their blood. Thus were fulfilled the threats pronounced by our Lord against this faithless City, as he sat on Mount Olivet, the day after his triumphant Entry.

And yet the destruction of Jerusalem was but a faint image of the terrible destruction which is to befall the world at the last day. Jesus, who is now despised and insulted by sinners, will then appear on the clouds of heaven, and reparation will be made for all these outrages. Now he suffers himself to be betrayed, scoffed at, and spit upon; but when the day of vengeance is come, happy they that have served him and have compassionated with him in his humiliations and sufferings! Woe to them that have treated him with contempt! Woe to them who, not content with their own refusing to bear his yoke, have led others to rebel against him! For he is King; he came into this world that he might reign over it; and they that despise his Mercy, shall not escape his Justice.

Again it is Isaias that instructs us, not indeed upon the triumph which our Emmanuel is to win over his enemies, but upon the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows. So explicit is his description of our Lord’s Passion that the holy Fathers have called him the fifth Evangelist. What could be more sublimely plaintive than the language here used by the son of Amos? And we, after hearing both the Old and New Testament upon the sufferings which Jesus went through for our sins—how shall we sufficiently love this dear Redeemer, who bore our infirmities and carried our Sorrows, so as to look as a leper, and as one struck by God, and afflicted?

We are healed by his bruises! O heavenly Physician, that takes upon himself the sufferings of them he comes to cure! But not only was he bruised for our sins; he was also slaughtered as a lamb: and this not merely as a Victim submitting to the inflexible justice of his Father who hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all, but (as the Prophet here assures us) because it was his own will. His love for us, as well as his submission to his Father, led him to the great Sacrifice. Observe too how he refuses to defend himself before Pilate, who could so easily deliver him from his enemies: He shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearers, and he shall not open his mouth. Let us love and adore this divine Silence, which works our Salvation. Let us not pass over an iota of the devotedness which Jesus shows us—a devotedness which never could have existed, save in the Heart of a God. Oh! how much he has loved us—his children, the purchase of his Blood, his Seed, as the Prophet here calls us. O Holy Church! thou long-lived Seed of Jesus, that laid down his life!—thou art dear to him, for he bought thee at a great price. Faithful Souls! give him love for love! sinners! be converted to this your Savior; his Blood will restore you to life, for if we have all gone astray like sheep, remember what is added: The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all. There is no sinner, however great may be his crimes; there is no heretic, or infidel, who has not his share in this precious Blood, whose infinite merit is such that it could redeem a million worlds, more guilty even than our own. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Wednesday in Holy Week.)