When "Boys Will Be Boys" They Grow Up To Be Men Like Joe Biden

by Thomas A. Droleskey

The following passagges are being recycled from an article three years ago that dealt with the serial blasphemer named Don Imus, who was then in a bit of trouble for having disparaged members of a college's women's basketball team. All manner of people, including Patrick Joseph Buchanan, rose to Imus's defense even though Imus, who has spent over forty years on the radio, regularly uses the Holy Name of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ in vain. This is part of what I wrote three years ago about the matter of blasphemy over the airwaves:

Apologists for the English-Dutch Protestant version of "America" that is the United States of America endlessly extol the "virtues" of living in a "pluralist" society, one in which no particular religion or "opinion" predominates and one in which people are "free" to "think" for themselves as they pursue the American "dream" of material well-being. The blindness caused by this religious indifferentism and naturalism results in the passive acceptance of actual blasphemies against Our Lord and Our Lady and Holy Mother Church as just part of the "freedoms" (speech and press) "guaranteed" by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Even many believing Catholics just shrug their shoulders and sigh a diffident "ho-hum" when it is pointed out even the phrase "Oh, God!" and "Oh my God" are s blasphemous and that it is indeed the goal of anti-Catholic screenwriters and producers to work these phrases into so-called television "programming" and motion picture productions so as to desensitize everyone, especially Catholics, about the binding precepts of the Second Commandment. This is to say nothing, of course, about overt blasphemies which feature expressions of the Holy Name of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour and/or associate the Holy Name of God with a curse word. Most Catholics just go about their business of making money and/or indulging in a variety of "bread and circuses" without giving a moment's thought

Living in a land of pluralism is deadly for a Catholic's sensus Catholicus, especially when the "normative" "Mass" that Catholics in the conciliar structures "experience" is founded in the belief that it is "necessary" to "inculturate" the "values" of various "peoples" into the liturgy so as to make it "relevant" to the "needs" of the mythical entity known as "modern man." This makes it very difficult for the average Catholic to understand that the true Mass of the Roman Rite communicates the immutability of God and His transcendence over time and space, re-presenting the Sacrifice of the Cross in an unbloody manner that is not tied to any one time or place but transports us at one and the same time back to Calvary and ahead to the glories of Heaven. Indeed, as I noted in Easy for Blasphemers to Endorse Blasphemy and Conciliarism's Blindness Inducing Acid four months ago, the Novus Ordo Missae desensitizes Catholics to blasphemy as it blasphemes God by not rendering unto Him the worship that is His due and by omitting references to the miracles He wrought through the centuries at the hands of canonized saints and by including such blasphemies as "Jewish table prayers" in the place of the Offertory, among many other things. Catholics who are fed a steady diet of this over the years will think of nothing of "commonly accepted" blasphemies, especially when they are uttered by "funny" men and women who are simply exercising their "free speech" rights as citizens of the United States of America.

Thus we have the strange situation of conciliar Catholics using the self-made crisis that radio talk show host Don Imus has plunged himself into at the present time to compare the way he is being treated for his racially offensive comments to the way in which those who attack the Catholic Faith are treated as heroes in the mainstream media who are never forced to pay any penalty for their anti-Catholicism. Dr. William Donohue, the President of Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, has, for example, denounced Imus's racially offensive comments that have caused such a firestorm but noted the "free pass" that has been given to those who have insulted Catholics and mocked the Faith. This is all very well and good. There is certainly a "double-standard" in the media, something that Cincinnati attorney Thomas W. Condit and I tried to point out in 1999 when Major League Baseball Acting Commissioner Alan H. "Bud" Selig refused to publicly censure Ted Turner, then the single-largest shareholder in Time-Warner, Inc., the corporation that owned the Atlanta Braves at the time, for anti-Catholic comments while the late Mrs. Marge Schott was forced to sell the Cincinnati Reds after she had twice made what were deemed to be offensive to blacks and to Jews. No one disputes that there is a "double-standard" in the popular media: offending certain groups of people can cost one his career while offending Our Lord and Our Lady and the Catholic Church is defended as a matter of an American "civil right."

Alas, there is also a double-standard with respect to how some Catholics deal with blasphemies uttered against Our Lord by media figures. Don Imus would not be on the airwaves if we lived in a Catholic nation, one that submitted itself in every aspect of its popular culture (law, economics, politics, governance, entertainment, sports, education, family life) to the binding precepts of the Divine positive law and the natural law as they have been entrusted exclusively to the Catholic Church, which would be recognized by that nation's constitution as the official religion of the civil state. You see, Don Imus blasphemes Our Lord regularly, using His Holy Name as an epithet by which to express his disgust with this or that event or person or comment made by his equally blasphemous colleagues. This seems to escape the notion and attention and Dr. Donahue, who is every bit as duplicit  on occasion as those he criticizes. The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights blasted, for example, the play Late Night Catechism when it was produced Saint Luke's Lutheran Church in the City of New York in 1996, summarizing its efforts in its annual report of activities for 1996:

The off-Broadway play Late Night Catechism premiered at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. The play ridiculed virtually every aspect of Catholicism including Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the Saints, the sacraments, Catholic schools, and Catholic customs. In particular, the sexual statements that the play made about Catholic beliefs and practices were unusually coarse. 1996 Report on Anti-Catholicism

 

Dr. Donohue, however, and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights was rather mute when the same play was produced at Maria Regina Church in Seaford, New York, in 1997, which came a few weeks after it had been produced in a parish when a conciliar auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Emil Wcela, who was created as a conciliar bishop by John Paul II in 1988 even though it was well-known that he was an open supporter of women's ordination, was in residence in Suffolk County, New York. Similarly, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights took no stand against the blasphemous portrayal of the Immaculate Mother of God, she who had perfect integrity of a human nature that was unstained by sin and thus had no disorderly passions or inclinations, in The Nativity Story. Well, yes, their hands were rather tied on that one even if they did see the blasphemy contained in that motion picture. After all, Benedict XVI had endorsed the blasphemous film and gave his blessing for its world premiere to take place at the Paul VI Audience Hall on November 26, 2006.

Double-standards abound in life, yes, even at the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which should be making an issue of how Don Imus, a product of the lie of so-called "right" to "free speech and press" that is of the essence of Modernity in the world and Modernism in the conciliar church, thinks nothing of blaspheming Our Lord's Holy Name on a regular basis while none of his advertising sponsors have ever raised a single word in protest. That is the real story about what is happening with Don Imus right now. How can a man who regularly blasphemes Our Lord's Holy Name be permitted to stay on the air as Catholics, including Dr. Donohue and Patrick Joseph Buchanan, have gone on his program and given him further credibility in the eyes of Catholics?

Alas, here we see once again how Catholics across the ecclesiastical fault-lines, conciliar and traditional ("resist and recognize" and sedevacantist) alike, have been coopted by an uncritical acceptance of the naturalistic, religiously indifferentism basis of the American founding, believing that everyone has a "right" speak their "minds" and that it is not possible or even desirable to seek to eliminate the promotion of heresies and the utterance of blasphemies in public. As sensible beings, however, we are indeed influenced by what we see and hear in ways that may not be readily apparent to us at first blush. We tend to imitate--or least not be scandalized by--things that should offend our sensus Catholicus if we are exposed to them on a regular basis and do not make acts of reparation and flee from these occasions of grave offenses to God, which are also the near occasions of sin for those who can become all-too-accustomed to the ready acceptance of blasphemy and error as "natural" and "normal" parts of everyday life in a "free" society. We tend to forget that Our Lord Himself would not subject His Holy Ears to listening to blasphemies uttered about His Holy Name and His Most Blessed Mother. Who has given us permission as members of His Mystical Body, the Catholic Church, outside of which there is no salvation, to act in ways that He would not? Would He be tolerant of "casual" and regular blasphemies uttered against Him? Why should we?

Mind you, this is not to beat up on Don Imus. Yes, he is sixty-six years old, no youngster to be sure. Who has ever taught him what is right and just and acceptable in the eyes of God? Who in the Catholic hierarchy, conciliar or authentically Catholic, has ever sought to correct him, no less to seek his conversion to the Catholic Church? The late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen explained in his autobiography, Treasure in Clay, that he was once asked if he had ever tried to convert the famous journalist Heywood Broun. The then Monsignor Sheen said that he had not, whereupon he telephone Broun and said that he wanted to meet with him at 3:00 p..m. the next day. Broun asked what the subject of the meeting would be. Monsignor Sheen replied very directly, "Your soul." Broun converted to the Faith at the hands of Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen. Who has done this with Don Imus, who grew up with an alcoholic father in a country where each person has to fend himself without the Holy Cross serving as a constant signpost to direct men and their nations as was the case during the Christendom of the Middle Ages and when a substantial part of the Americas, including large parts of what is now the United States of America, was Catholic?

No, men like Don Imus have permitted to drift and to fend their entire lives because so many Catholics have not been challenged to think and to act and to speak as Catholics, causing them to be rather blase and passive in the wake of regular, repeated blasphemies spoken by public figures. This is not only true of Don Imus. It is true also of many "conservative" figures in the media who get a "free pass" from Catholics across the ecclesiastical fault-lines despite blasphemous speech, immodesty of attire or promotion of evils such as abortion, both chemical and surgical, under cover of law. Rush Limbaugh gets a free pass when he makes sophomoric, scatological remarks and references. Bob Grant, a talk show pioneer known for his caustic, combative style, got a free pass from many believing Catholics even though he supported the slicing and dicing of little babies in their mothers' wombs under cover of law. Indeed, Grant, whose real name is Robert Gigante, was feted by a group that included a prominent Catholic "conservative" and a Catholic priest in early-2006 upon his retirement from WOR Radio in New York. How can believing Catholics celebrate the career of a man who believed in abortion under cover of law as a woman's "right"? How many women who were wavering about whether to keep or to kill their children wound up killing their babies because they listened to Bob Grant telling them that it was their right to do so? If it was wrong for the man Grant criticized regularly and rightly as the "Sfachim," Mario Matthew Cuomo, to support abortion, then how could Catholics look the other way as Bob Grant did so? Does the naturalistic, religiously-indifferentist, multi-layered and sometimes mutually contradictory term of "conservatism" trump Catholicism?

Once again, you see, we are face to face with the fact that most Catholics in the United States of America do not understand the simple fact that each and every aspect of their lives--and of the lives of their nations--must be Catholic without any exception or equivocation whatsoever. There is no such thing as "free speech" and "free press." These are lies from the devil. Anyone who promotes these lies is, whether or not he realizes it, doing the work of the devil. This is what Pope Gregory XVI wrote in Mirari Vos, August 15, 1832:

Now We consider another abundant source of the evils with which the Church is afflicted at present: indifferentism. This perverse opinion is spread on all sides by the fraud of the wicked who claim that it is possible to obtain the eternal salvation of the soul by the profession of any kind of religion, as long as morality is maintained. Surely, in so clear a matter, you will drive this deadly error far from the people committed to your care. With the admonition of the apostle that "there is one God, one faith, one baptism" may those fear who contrive the notion that the safe harbor of salvation is open to persons of any religion whatever. They should consider the testimony of Christ Himself that "those who are not with Christ are against Him," and that they disperse unhappily who do not gather with Him. Therefore "without a doubt, they will perish forever, unless they hold the Catholic faith whole and inviolate." Let them hear Jerome who, while the Church was torn into three parts by schism, tells us that whenever someone tried to persuade him to join his group he always exclaimed: "He who is for the See of Peter is for me." A schismatic flatters himself falsely if he asserts that he, too, has been washed in the waters of regeneration. Indeed Augustine would reply to such a man: "The branch has the same form when it has been cut off from the vine; but of what profit for it is the form, if it does not live from the root?

This shameful font of indifferentism gives rise to that absurd and erroneous proposition which claims that liberty of conscience must be maintained for everyone. It spreads ruin in sacred and civil affairs, though some repeat over and over again with the greatest impudence that some advantage accrues to religion from it. "But the death of the soul is worse than freedom of error," as Augustine was wont to say. When all restraints are removed by which men are kept on the narrow path of truth, their nature, which is already inclined to evil, propels them to ruin. Then truly "the bottomless pit" is open from which John saw smoke ascending which obscured the sun, and out of which locusts flew forth to devastate the earth. Thence comes transformation of minds, corruption of youths, contempt of sacred things and holy laws -- in other words, a pestilence more deadly to the state than any other. Experience shows, even from earliest times, that cities renowned for wealth, dominion, and glory perished as a result of this single evil, namely immoderate freedom of opinion, license of free speech, and desire for novelty.

Here We must include that harmful and never sufficiently denounced freedom to publish any writings whatever and disseminate them to the people, which some dare to demand and promote with so great a clamor. We are horrified to see what monstrous doctrines and prodigious errors are disseminated far and wide in countless books, pamphlets, and other writings which, though small in weight, are very great in malice. We are in tears at the abuse which proceeds from them over the face of the earth. Some are so carried away that they contentiously assert that the flock of errors arising from them is sufficiently compensated by the publication of some book which defends religion and truth. Every law condemns deliberately doing evil simply because there is some hope that good may result. Is there any sane man who would say poison ought to be distributed, sold publicly, stored, and even drunk because some antidote is available and those who use it may be snatched from death again and again?

The Church has always taken action to destroy the plague of bad books. This was true even in apostolic times for we read that the apostles themselves burned a large number of books. It may be enough to consult the laws of the fifth Council of the Lateran on this matter and the Constitution which Leo X published afterwards lest "that which has been discovered advantageous for the increase of the faith and the spread of useful arts be converted to the contrary use and work harm for the salvation of the faithful." This also was of great concern to the fathers of Trent, who applied a remedy against this great evil by publishing that wholesome decree concerning the Index of books which contain false doctrine."We must fight valiantly," Clement XIII says in an encyclical letter about the banning of bad books, "as much as the matter itself demands and must exterminate the deadly poison of so many books; for never will the material for error be withdrawn, unless the criminal sources of depravity perish in flames." Thus it is evident that this Holy See has always striven, throughout the ages, to condemn and to remove suspect and harmful books. The teaching of those who reject the censure of books as too heavy and onerous a burden causes immense harm to the Catholic people and to this See. They are even so depraved as to affirm that it is contrary to the principles of law, and they deny the Church the right to decree and to maintain it.

 

Pope Leo XIII reiterated and amplified those points in Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885:

To hold, therefore, that there is no difference in matters of religion between forms that are unlike each other, and even contrary to each other, most clearly leads in the end to the rejection of all religion in both theory and practice. And this is the same thing as atheism, however it may differ from it in name. Men who really believe in the existence of God must, in order to be consistent with themselves and to avoid absurd conclusions, understand that differing modes of divine worship involving dissimilarity and conflict even on most important points cannot all be equally probable, equally good, and equally acceptable to God.

So, too, the liberty of thinking, and of publishing, whatsoever each one likes, without any hindrance, is not in itself an advantage over which society can wisely rejoice. On the contrary, it is the fountain-head and origin of many evils. Liberty is a power perfecting man, and hence should have truth and goodness for its object. But the character of goodness and truth cannot be changed at option. These remain ever one and the same, and are no less unchangeable than nature itself. If the mind assents to false opinions, and the will chooses and follows after what is wrong, neither can attain its native fullness, but both must fall from their native dignity into an abyss of corruption. Whatever, therefore, is opposed to virtue and truth may not rightly be brought temptingly before the eye of man, much less sanctioned by the favor and protection of the law. A well-spent life is the only way to heaven, whither all are bound, and on this account the State is acting against the laws and dictates of nature whenever it permits the license of opinion and of action to lead minds astray from truth and souls away from the practice of virtue. To exclude the Church, founded by God Himself, from life, from laws, from the education of youth, from domestic society is a grave and fatal error. A State from which religion is banished can never be well regulated; and already perhaps more than is desirable is known of the nature and tendency of the so-called civil philosophy of life and morals. The Church of Christ is the true and sole teacher of virtue and guardian of morals. She it is who preserves in their purity the principles from which duties flow, and, by setting forth most urgent reasons for virtuous life, bids us not only to turn away from wicked deeds, but even to curb all movements of the mind that are opposed to reason, even though they be not carried out in action.

 

A purely naturalistic system of person or social life leads to ruin, both personally and socially. Man needs the authority of the Catholic Church to guide him in his individual and social lives, one of those perennial teachings that has been eclipsed in the lives of most Catholics because of the very Judeo-Masonic, naturalist ethos of conciliarism, enshrined in Gaudium et Spes and Dignitatis Humanae. Pope Leo XIII wrote in Tametsi Futura Prospicientibus, November 1, 1900, that personal and social life must be subordinated to the true Faith. Nothing that leads away from the pursuit of virtue and thus to Heaven has any "right" to be promoted or uttered in any medium of communication, as he had noted in Immortale Dei exactly fifteen years to the day before:

From this it may clearly be seen what consequences are to be expected from that false pride which, rejecting our Saviour's Kingship, places man at the summit of all things and declares that human nature must rule supreme. And yet, this supreme rule can neither be attained nor even defined. The rule of Jesus Christ derives its form and its power from Divine Love: a holy and orderly charity is both its foundation and its crown. Its necessary consequences are the strict fulfilment of duty, respect of mutual rights, the estimation of the things of heaven above those of earth, the preference of the love of God to all things. But this supremacy of man, which openly rejects Christ, or at least ignores Him, is entirely founded upon selfishness, knowing neither charity nor selfdevotion. Man may indeed be king, through Jesus Christ: but only on condition that he first of all obey God, and diligently seek his rule of life in God's law. By the law of Christ we mean not only the natural precepts of morality and the Ancient Law, all of which Jesus Christ has perfected and crowned by His declaration, explanation and sanction; but also the rest of His doctrine and His own peculiar institutions. Of these the chief is His Church. Indeed whatsoever things Christ has instituted are most fully contained in His Church. Moreover, He willed to perpetuate the office assigned to Him by His Father by means of the ministry of the Church so gloriously founded by Himself. On the one hand He confided to her all the means of men's salvation, on the other He most solemnly commanded men to be subject to her and to obey her diligently, and to follow her even as Himself: "He that heareth you, heareth Me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth Me" (Luke x, 16). Wherefore the law of Christ must be sought in the Church. Christ is man's "Way"; the Church also is his "Way"-Christ of Himself and by His very nature, the Church by His commission and the communication of His power. Hence all who would find salvation apart from the Church, are led astray and strive in vain.

As with individuals, so with nations. These, too, must necessarily tend to ruin if they go astray from "The Way." The Son of God, the Creator and Redeemer of mankind, is King and Lord of the earth, and holds supreme dominion over men, both individually and collectively. "And He gave Him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve Him" (Daniel vii., 14). "I am appointed King by Him . . . I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession" (Psalm ii., 6, 8). Therefore the law of Christ ought to prevail in human society and be the guide and teacher of public as well as of private life. Since this is so by divine decree, and no man may with impunity contravene it, it is an evil thing for the common weal wherever Christianity does not hold the place that belongs to it. When Jesus Christ is absent, human reason fails, being bereft of its chief protection and light, and the very end is lost sight of, for which, under God's providence, human society has been built up. This end is the obtaining by the members of society of natural good through the aid of civil unity, though always in harmony with the perfect and eternal good which is above nature. But when men's minds are clouded, both rulers and ruled go astray, for they have no safe line to follow nor end to aim at. . . .

God alone is Life. All other beings partake of life, but are not life. Christ, from all eternity and by His very nature, is "the Life," just as He is the Truth, because He is God of God. From Him, as from its most sacred source, all life pervades and ever will pervade creation. Whatever is, is by Him; whatever lives, lives by Him. For by the Word "all things were made; and without Him was made nothing that was made." This is true of the natural life; but, as We have sufficiently indicated above, we have a much higher and better life, won for us by Christ's mercy, that is to say, "the life of grace," whose happy consummation is "the life of glory," to which all our thoughts and actions ought to be directed. The whole object of Christian doctrine and morality is that "we being dead to sin, should live to justice" (I Peter ii., 24)-that is, to virtue and holiness. In this consists the moral life, with the certain hope of a happy eternity. This justice, in order to be advantageous to salvation, is nourished by Christian faith. "The just man liveth by faith" (Galatians iii., II). "Without faith it is impossible to please God" (Hebrews xi., 6). Consequently Jesus Christ, the creator and preserver of faith, also preserves and nourishes our moral life. This He does chiefly by the ministry of His Church. To Her, in His wise and merciful counsel, He has entrusted certain agencies which engender the supernatural life, protect it, and revive it if it should fail. This generative and conservative power of the virtues that make for salvation is therefore lost, whenever morality is dissociated from divine faith. A system of morality based exclusively on human reason robs man of his highest dignity and lowers him from the supernatural to the merely natural life. Not but that man is able by the right use of reason to know and to obey certain principles of the natural law. But though he should know them all and keep them inviolate through life-and even this is impossible without the aid of the grace of our Redeemer-still it is vain for anyone without faith to promise himself eternal salvation. "If anyone abide not in Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither, and they shall gather him up and cast him into the fire, and he burneth" john xv., 6). "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). We have but too much evidence of the value and result of a morality divorced from divine faith. How is it that, in spite of all the zeal for the welfare of the masses, nations are in such straits and even distress, and that the evil is daily on the increase? We are told that society is quite able to help itself; that it can flourish without the assistance of Christianity, and attain its end by its own unaided efforts. Public administrators prefer a purely secular system of government. All traces of the religion of our forefathers are daily disappearing from political life and administration. What blindness! Once the idea of the authority of God as the Judge of right and wrong is forgotten, law must necessarily lose its primary authority and justice must perish: and these are the two most powerful and most necessary bonds of society. Similarly, once the hope and expectation of eternal happiness is taken away, temporal goods will be greedily sought after. Every man will strive to secure the largest share for himself. Hence arise envy, jealousy, hatred. The consequences are conspiracy, anarchy, nihilism. There is neither peace abroad nor security at home. Public life is stained with crime.

So great is this struggle of the passions and so serious the dangers involved, that we must either anticipate ultimate ruin or seek for an efficient remedy. It is of course both right and necessary to punish malefactors, to educate the masses, and by legislation to prevent crime in every possible way: but all this is by no means sufficient. The salvation of the nations must be looked for higher. A power greater than human must be called in to teach men's hearts, awaken in them the sense of duty, and make them better. This is the power which once before saved the world from destruction when groaning under much more terrible evils. Once remove all impediments and allow the Christian spirit to revive and grow strong in a nation, and that nation will be healed. The strife between the classes and the masses will die away; mutual rights will be respected. If Christ be listened to, both rich and poor will do their duty. The former will realise that they must observe justice and charity, the latter self-restraint and moderation, if both are to be saved. Domestic life will be firmly established ( by the salutary fear of God as the Lawgiver. In the same way the precepts of the natural law, which dictates respect for lawful authority and obedience to the laws, will exercise their influence over the people. Seditions and conspiracies will cease. Wherever Christianity rules over all without let or hindrance there the order established by Divine Providence is preserved, and both security and prosperity are the happy result. The common welfare, then, urgently demands a return to Him from whom we should never have gone astray; to Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,-and this on the part not only of individuals but of society as a whole. We must restore Christ to this His own rightful possession. All elements of the national life must be made to drink in the Life which proceedeth from Him- legislation, political institutions, education, marriage and family life, capital and labour. Everyone must see that the very growth of civilisation which is so ardently desired depends greatly upon this, since it is fed and grows not so much by material wealth and prosperity, as by the spiritual qualities of morality and virtue.

 

Our cause is not the "conservative" cause. Our cause is not the "American" cause. Our one only cause is the Catholic cause, the cause of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen, the cause that prompted so many missionaries to give up their lives of creature comforts in Europe and to sail to the New World to win new souls for the Catholic Church to seek to plant the seeds for the Catholicization of the Americas. It was to promote the Catholic cause that Our Lady, the Empress of the Americas, appeared to the Venerable Juan Diego in Tepeyac Hill in 1531. To be a patriotic American is to seek the conversion of every country in the Americas to the Catholic Faith. Such a conversion would therefore produce a civil state that recognizes the true Church, thereby affording its citizens with more of a possibility to subordinate every aspect of their daily lives in light of their Last End, as Pope Saint Pius X noted in Vehementer Nos, February 11, 1906.

As noted before, a civil state that is founded on the rejection of the necessity of recognizing the one and only true Church, the Catholic Church, as its official religion is bound to degenerate over the course of time into the abyss of naturalism, where people believe that everything is "up for grabs" in social life, including First and Last Things, which require no respect or reverence for us has having been revealed by God, giving vent to the anti-Incarnational thrust of Judeo-Masonry. Those of us who are Catholics, however, have the obligation to plant the seeds for the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King and of Mary our Immaculate Queen as the totally consecrated slaves of Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

It cannot matter to us that the conciliarists have made their own accommodation to the allegedly "irreversible" nature of the "secular" or "lay" state, claiming so gratuitously that the time of Christendom has passed and is never to be recaptured. This is to imply the graces that won for us by the shedding of every single drop of Our Lord's Most Blessed Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into our immortal souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces, are simply no longer as efficacious as they were when the Apostles left the Upper Room in Jerusalem to seek the conversion of everyone, including Jews and Gentiles, to the true Church, that those graces are no longer as efficacious as they were when Christendom was built and re-built over the centuries in Europe, that Our Lady was wasting her time with Juan Diego, that the Church should have engaged the Mayans and the Aztecs in "inter-religious" dialogue rather than seeking their unconditional conversion to the true Church and the eradication of everything in their demonic cultures that was alien to the Deposit of Faith and thus to the eternal and temporal good of souls.

 

Blasphemies uttered publicly over the air waves were unheard of fifty years ago. There were still the residual after-effects of Catholicism abroad in the world. There was still an outpouring of Sanctifying and Actual Graces from true offerings of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass that kept ordinary Catholics on the straight and narrow path to salvation. What we have seen, however, since the barren liturgical rites of conciliarism have been foisted upon most of the Catholic faithful is a gradual acceptance of blasphemies uttered against the Holy Name of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His Most Blessed Mother and many of the saints, including Good Saint Joseph, as "no big deal." A coarsening of every day life has occurred to such a widespread extent that it is no longer safe to take one's family out to eat in even the best of restaurants without some fear that someone within your earshot will utter a heretofore unthinkable expletive that will be pick up by your children.

I have related on several occasions, I believe, an incident that occurred at the now demolished William A. Shea Municipal Shea Stadium in 1998 or 1998 when several Spanish-speaking patrons were sitting behind my season-seat as they demonstrated their proficiency in "English as a Second Language" by uttering every profanity they knew in their second language. I felt as though I was under demonic assault, leaving in utter disgust as the ushers were powerless to do anything to stop the constant dream of profanities, which were never heard from patrons who used those same premium box seats back in the 1960s when they cost $3.50 a game.

There was also the time at Shea Stadium when an unruly and liberally soused spectator was uttering expletives within the earshot of children during the tenth inning of the fifth game of the National League Championship Series between the senior circuit's incarnation of all evil, the Atlanta Braves (a close second in evil, of course, to the world's champions of evil, the New York Yankees). Costumed in the garb that was familiar to many Mets' fans between May 4, 1976, and July 16, 2002, I turned around to the man and reminded him that there were children present, that he ought to refrain from uttering such words in front of them. Amazingly, the man complied very meekly and apologized. It never dawned on him to think in this way. (This caught the attention of columnist Bill Reel, who wrote about the incident in a very nice column in Newsday a few days later.)

To be sure, even practicing Catholics have, most unfortunately, demonstrated themselves to be past masters of uttering blasphemous and profane remarks even in the presence of children. Fallen human nature is what it is, and it was thus in the year 1858 that the newly ordained Father Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, the future Pope Saint Pius X, used gentleness and a promise to teach the men of the rough and tumble cow town of Tombolo, Italy, to stop their use of profanities and blasphemies. And, sadly, I have been in the presence of  handful of true priests who swore like sailors. Two of the worst offenders in this regard were the late Monsignor George Kelly of the Archdiocese of New York and Jackie Boy, the late Father John Joseph Sullivan, who was oblivious back in 1997 as he used every profanity imaginable at a Ground Round restaurant in Rocky Hill, Connecticut, in the presence of a a former student of mine and her husband and their then three year-old daughter. Others of us, to our utter shame, may have picked up bad language at one point or another in our lives from companions or relatives and used it in order to "fit in" better, caving to the dictates of human respect rather than to observe the binding precepts of the moral law.

There does come a point in the growth of one's interior life when one is supposed to recognize that profane language is incompatible with discipleship in Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who would never issue such language from His Holy Mouth. We are, as Saint Paul teaches us, the temples of God the Holy Ghost. We are not to profane our bodies with impure conduct or speech:

From whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly joined together, by what every joint supplieth, according to the operation in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in charity. This then I say and testify in the Lord: That henceforward you walk not as also the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. Who despairing, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, unto the working of all uncleanness, unto the working of all uncleanness, unto covetousness. But you have not so learned Christ;

If so be that you have heard him, and have been taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. To put off, according to former conversation, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desire of error. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind: And put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth. Wherefore putting away lying, speak; ye the truth every man with his neighbour; for we are members one of another.

Be angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger. Give not place to the devil. He that stole, let him now steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have something to give to him that suffereth need. Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth; but that which is good, to the edification of faith, that it may administer grace to the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God: whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, and anger, and indignation, and clamour, and blasphemy, be put away from you, with all malice. And be ye kind one to another; merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you in Christ. (Ephesians 4: 16-32.)

 

Hey, you, Catholic fraud and supporter of baby-killing, yes, you, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. Do you see what Saint Paul the Apostle wrote about you? "Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth; but that which is good, to the edification of faith, that it may administer grace to the hearers." How does the vulgar, vile profanity you spoke on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, administer grace to your hearers? Yes, of course, you have the enthusiastic approval of President Barack Hussein Obama:

Biden said President Barack Obama told him his salty comment was the best part of the ebullient ceremony in the East Room of the White House, and had tried to get him a tee-shirt bearing his now famous remark.

The vice president delivered a gushing tribute to Obama at the ceremony, then told him, in a comment meant to be private "This is a big f(expletive) deal."

The White House quickly dismissed the incident and Biden told supporters at a fundraiser in Baltimore late Wednesday that Obama was not mad at what he delicately termed his "faux pas."

He quoted the president as saying at a morning conference "You know what the best thing about yesterday was? Joe's comment."

Biden said he shot back: "If you thought it was so good, why didn't you say it?" adding that his first thought when he heard about the commotion was "Thank God my Mom's not ......"

The vice president's remarks were drowned out by laughter, but he was apparently saying he was glad his beloved mother, who died in January, had not heard what he said. (See AFP article)

 

Isn't that just swell? The pro-abortion president of the United States of America, who is surrounded with users of profanity in his administration (White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who also approved Biden's expletive), thought Biden's remark was the "best thing" about the signing ceremony at which he, Obama, signed the hideous ObamaCare into law. So what? Biden and Obama have the disapproval of God Himself, Who speaks to us through His Sacred Scriptures and His Sacred Tradition that have been entrusted to the authority of His Catholic Church for their eternal safekeeping and infallible explication. "Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth; but that which is good, to the edification of faith, that it may administer grace to the hearers."

Sure, the late John Fitzgerald Kennedy and the late Lyndon Baines Johnson and the late Richard Milhous Nixon and others, including former Vice President Richard Bruce Cheney, used similar language on a regular basis. So what? "Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth; but that which is good, to the edification of faith, that it may administer grace to the hearers." Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., and his fellow front man for the New World Order, Barack Hussein Obama, like all of the petty Caesars of the past whose names are long forgotten save for serious students of history, believe themselves to be exempt from the laws of God as they speak in coarse terms and promote public policies that mandate ordinary citizens to fund abject evil under cover of the civil law by the use of the confiscatory taxing power of the Federal government of the United States of America.

The shame of all of this is that Biden will be reaffirmed by many conciliar "priests." They will agree with him that what he said was "no big deal," that it is not a sin to speak in such a way. If Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., is afraid of what his late mother would have thought of what he said publicly on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, what about the Blessed Mother? Isn't Biden afraid of how such vile, vulgar language offends her? Of course not. Biden is a thorough-going naturalist, enabled by conciliar "bishops" and "priests" aplenty, who has now grown up and uses locker-room language at the age of sixty-eight without a moment's worth of remorse.

Yes, when "boys will be boys" (see School Dazed Revisited, Part 6 and Open Letter from Janet Gaye) they grow up to be men like Joe Biden, who has never grown up. Priests who love God and His Most Blessed Mother are supposed to recognize the vulgar nature of profane speech and seek to denounce it publicly and to correct it in the lives of those who are afflicted with it. Boys aren't supposed to grow up to be like Joe Biden. They are supposed to grow up and act and speak like saints, having been exhorted by their priests to understand the grave seriousness of letting profanities and blasphemies issue from one's mouth.

Instead, of course, Joe Biden has grown up to be a virulent supporter of baby-killing, using his role as the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1987 to oppose the nomination of United States Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert H. Bork to the United States Supreme Court because Biden thought that Bork might be a "sure vote" to overturn the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States of America in the cases of Roe v. Wade and and Doe v. Bolton, January 22, 1973. There are some occasions when Biden, who was originally "pro-life" in his public career before he flip-flopped after Roe and became one of the first to mouth the slogan "I am personally opposed to abortion but can't impose my morality upon others," has said that the law should be "neutral" about baby-killing, neither endorsing it or outlawing it. This is a joke from a joker who hasn't a single Catholic bone in his body no matter how many Rosaries he purports to pray.

The truth of the matter, ladies and gentlemen, is very simple: No Catholic can be "neutral" about the advance of evil under cover of law and in every aspect of popular culture.

Would Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., claim that the civil law should be "neutral" about racial segregation?

Would Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., who supports legislation that would confer "civil union" status on those engaged in unrepentant sins, whether unnatural or natural, against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments, claim that the civil law should be "neutral" about the rounding up an execution of those who adhere to various false religions, including those based in the Talmud or the Koran?

If not, then, why must the civil law be "neutral" about the slicing and dicing of little babies in the wombs of mothers?

Or is Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., "neutral" about the fact that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ sanctified the womb of every mother when He was conceived as a helpless embryo in His own Blessed Mother's Virginal and Immaculate Womb by the power of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost, at the Annunciation?

Mrs. Judith Sharpe of the In the Spirit of Chartres Committee has put the matter very well in an e-mail she sent to Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.:

March 23, 2010

Vice President Biden:

You are one rotten example of a Catholic.

Sincerely,

Judith Sharpe

 

As our birthday girl, Lucy, said yesterday, "She really sent that note? That's really brave." Indeed. This is true Catholic Action in action.

What more needs to be said save for the fact that one can never take one position in private while taking another publicly?

Hence, lest concord be broken by rash charges, let this be understood by all, that the integrity of Catholic faith cannot be reconciled with opinions verging on naturalism or rationalism, the essence of which is utterly to do away with Christian institutions and to install in society the supremacy of man to the exclusion of God. Further, it is unlawful to follow one line of conduct in private life and another in public, respecting privately the authority of the Church, but publicly rejecting it; for this would amount to joining together good and evil, and to putting man in conflict with himself; whereas he ought always to be consistent, and never in the least point nor in any condition of life to swerve from Christian virtue. (Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei, November 1, 1885.)

 

Today is Palm Sunday. The crowds in Jerusalem welcomed Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as he rode astride a donkey, lining His path with palm fronds and olive branches. Most of those in that crowd would cry out for His Crucifixion as they called for the insurrectionist Barabbas, who was promising them political liberation from the oppression of Roman occupation of Palestine at the point of the sword, to be released. Most of those in the crowd that welcomed Our Lord today in Jerusalem were blaspheming Him, mocking Him, jeering Him and taunting Him as He hung on the gibbet of the Holy Cross to redeem them, to redeem each of us. (For a detailed reflection on the events of the first Palm Sunday as recounted in The Mystical City of God, please see the appendix below.)

Our Lord knew the fickle nature of the crowd that cheered him but who would cry out for His Crucifixion and rejoice in It just five days later. He knows our own fickle nature, which is why we must be mindful, therefore, to make reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary of the times in which we may have been all too casual in our own speech and actions.

I am not blameless in this regard, especially in the early days of my teaching career thirty years ago when I had permitted myself to be influenced by the terrible speech of colleagues. It took a stern tongue-lashing by a Catholi colleague of mine to remind me what was appropriate and what was not appropriate, that "everything" was not acceptable in order to get a laugh. Some of you may have had the same experience. It is easy to be influenced negatively by those around us. It is easy to be influenced negatively by listening to the mindless blathering of radio and television talk show hosts, which is why we have no need of such blathering, especially since it relates not one whit to the pursuit of sanctity and thus to the pursuit of our Last End.

It is, however, one thing to be sorry for one's past sins and to ever-mindful of making reparation for them after they have been confessed and Absolved by an alter Christus in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance. It is another to persist in sins unrepentantly, worse yet to promote them in every aspect of popular culture and/or to be indifferent to them as they assault our senses on a daily basis. The conciliar revolution has helped to reaffirm people like Joe Biden in the commission of sins of the mouth by telling them that such sins are "no big deal"--if they even admit that they are sins at all.

The Catholic Church so forms her children that no one would think of uttering blasphemies casually and publicly as he would corrected on the spot by his fellow Catholics if he did so. Popular culture in a Catholic world enhances and support the Faith, not attacks it. Those who believed in false religions and ideas would have no civil right to promote them publicly. And although fallen man would sin with his tongue in the midst of heated debates on those things open to legitimate discussion in the civil realm and in the realm of legitimate speculative theology, he would recognize that he was wrong on his own. He would have what the ancients called a Catholic conscience, one informed by the true Faith, and would seek to do better for the sake of his own soul and for the souls of those whom God had placed in his life to help him get home to Heaven.

Until the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, however, I am afraid that the use of blasphemies and vulgarities will be par for the course in the Pluralist States of America. We must simply avoid all contact with these blasphemers, praying for their conversion as we pray in reparation for our own sins and that we might seek ever more fully on a daily basis to conform every aspect of our lives to the standard of the Holy Cross, upon which our salvation was wrought for us, by keeping Our Lady company every day in the offering of the Immemorial Mass of Tradition in our time before her Divine Son's Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament. We must remember also to pray her Rosary daily for our own daily conversion and that of the whole world, including of the conciliarists, to the liberating joy that comes from living as Catholic for the honor and glory of Christ the King and Mary our Immaculate Queen, at which point men will welcome Christ the King with the palm fronds and olive branches of souls in whitened states of Sanctifying Grace.

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon.

Viva Cristo Rey! Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of Fatima, 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 Balthasar, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints

 

Appendix

From The Mystical City of God on Palm Sunday

On the morning of the next day, which corresponds to our Palm Sunday, the Lord proceeded with his disciples toward Jerusalem, being accompanied by many angels, who sang hymns of praise at seeing Him so enamored of men and so solicitous for their eternal salvation. Having walked more or less of two miles and arrived in the village of Bethphage, He sent two disciples to an influential man of that neighborhood. From him they brought two beasts of burden, one of which had not yet been used or ridden by any one. The Lord progressed on his way to Jerusalem while they spread some of their cloaks and other garments both upon the ass and her colt. The Lord was to make use of both of them according to the prophecies of Isaias (Is. 62, 11), and Zacharias (Zach. 9, 9), who had foretold these particulars many ages before, in order that the priests and scribes should not be able to allege ignorance as an excuse. All the four Evangelists describe this wonderful triumph of Christ and relate what was seen by the bodily eyes of those present. As they proceeded on their way the disciples, and with them all the people, the infants as well as the grown persons, hailed Jesus as the true Messias, the Son of David, the Savior of the world and as their legitimate King. Some of them ex claimed : "Peace be in heaven and glory in the highest : blessed be He that cometh as the King in the name of the Lord"; others : "Hosanna to the Son of David : save us, Son of David : blessed be the kingdom which now has arrived, the kingdom of our forefather David." Some others lopped branches from palms and other trees in sign of triumph and joy, and spread their garments upon the ground to prepare a way for the triumphant Conqueror, Christ our Lord.

411. All these demonstrations of worship and admiration, which these men gave to the divine and incarnate Word, were calculated to manifest the power of his Divinity, especially at this time, when the priests and pharisees were watching Him and seeking to put an end to his life in that very city. For if they had not been moved interiorly by a divine power, above and beyond that of their admiration for the miracles wrought by Him, it would have been impossible to draw such a gathering. Many of them were heathens and his declared enemies, who nevertheless hailed Him as the true Messias, Savior and King, and subjected themselves to a poor, despised and persecuted Man, who came not in triumphal chariots, or in the prancing of steeds and ostentation of riches, but without any show of arms or outward human power. Outwardly all this was wanting, as He thus entered seated on a beast contemptible in the sight of human vanity and pretension. The only signs of his dignity were in his countenance, which showed forth the gravity and serene majesty of his soul; while all the rest fell far short and was opposed to what the world is wont to applaud and celebrate. Hence the outward happenings of this day proclaimed his divine power, which directly moved the hearts of men to acknowledge Him as their Christ and Redeemer.

412. In order that the promise of the eternal Father might be entirely fulfilled, He not only moved the hearts of men in the city of Jerusalem by his divine light, to acknowledge Him as Redeemer, but He caused his triumph to be felt among all creatures especially those who were capable of reasoning (No. 408). For the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem was announced by the archangel Michael to the holy Fathers and Prophets in limbo; and moreover, by a special vision, they were made to see whatever happened on this occasion. From those cavernous abodes they acknowledged, confessed and adored Christ, our Lord and Master, as their true God and as the Redeemer of the world. They composed new hymns of praise in honor of his admirable triumph over death, sin, and hell. The divine influence was also active in the hearts of many of those yet living in the world. For those that had faith or knowledge of Christ our Lord, not only in Palestine and its surroundings, but in Egypt and in other countries, were moved to adore the Redeemer in spirit; and this they did with unwonted joy, caused in them by the divine visitation of grace, although they did not expressly know the cause or the object of this movement in their hearts. But it came to them not without profit for their souls: for they were confirmed in their faith and in their well-doing. In order that the triumph of our Savior over death might be more glorious, the Most High ordained, that on that day death should have no power over any of the mortals, so that, although in the natural course many would have died, not one of the human race died within those twenty-four hours.

413. To this triumph over death was added the triumph over hell, which, though it was more hidden, was even more glorious. For as soon as the people began to proclaim and invoke Christ as their Savior and King who came in the name of the Lord, the demons felt the power of the right hand of God, and all of them, in whatever place they lurked throughout the world, were hurled into the dark caverns of the infernal abyss. During the short space of time in which Christ proceeded on his triumphal march, not a demon remained upon the earth, but all of them were trembling with wrath and terror in the depths of hell. Hence they began to be filled with a still greater dread, lest the Messias be already in the world, and they immediately communicated their suspicions to each other, as I shall relate in the next chapter. The Savior proceeded on his triumphal way to the gates of Jerusalem, while the angels, who witnessed and followed his march, chanted new hymns of praise and glory in wonderful harmony. Having entered the city amid the jubilee of all its inhabitants, Jesus dismounted from the foal, and directed his divinely beautiful footsteps toward the temple, where He roused the admiration of all the multitudes by the wonders, which, according to the Evangelists, He wrought on that occasion (Matth. 21, 12; Luke 19, 45). Burning with zeal for the house of his Father, He overthrew the tables of those that bought and sold within the sacred precincts and cast forth those who made it a place of business and a den of thieves. Yet with the triumphal march the Lord suspended also the divine influence, which had disposed so well the hearts of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Although the just had been much benefited, and many others had been justified, others returned to their vices and imperfections, because they did not profit by the light and inspiration sent to them from on high. Though so many had hailed and acknowledged Christ our Savior as King of Jerusalem, not one tendered Him hospitality or received Him in his house (Mark 11, 11).

414. The Lord remained in the temple teaching and preaching until nightfall. Wishing by his own example to confirm his teaching in regard to the veneration and worship due to that place, He would not permit even a glass of water to be brought to Him, and without having partaken either of this or any other refreshment, He returned that evening to Bethany (Matth. 21; 17, 18), whence He daily made his way to the city until the day of his Passion. The heavenly Mother and Mistress, most holy Mary, remained that day in Bethany, where from her retirement She saw by a supernatural vision all that happened in the wonderful triumph of her Son and Master. She witnessed all the doings of the sovereign spirits of heaven and of the mortals upon earth, and what befell the demons in hell; and how in all this the eternal Father merely fulfilled the promises, which He had made to his incarnate Son in giving Him command and power over all his enemies. She saw also all that the Savior did on this occasion and in the temple. She heard the heavenly Father s voice answering the prayer of Christ, our Redeemer: "I have glorified, and will glorify again"; By these words He gave men to under stand that besides the glory and triumph conceded to the incarnate Word on that day and on other occasions, as described in this history, He would glorify and exalt Him after his Death, for such was the meaning of the words of the eternal Father; in this sense also it was understood and fully comprehended by the most blessed Mother in wonderful exultation of her spirit.

INSTRUCTION WHICH MARY, THE MOST BLESSED MOTHER, GAVE ME.

415. My daughter, thou hast partly described, and hast understood much more concerning the mysterious triumph of my most holy Son on his entrance into Jerusalem and its preparations; but thou wilt understand much more of it, when thou shalt come face to face with the Lord, for as pilgrims, mortals cannot penetrate into such secrets. Nevertheless thou canst learn and under stand enough from what thou hast written to perceive how exalted are the judgments of the Lord and how far removed from all the thoughts of men (Is. 55, 9). The Most High looks into the hearts of men and at the interior, where is hidden the beauty of the King s daughter (Ps. 44, 14); while men look only at the exterior and at what is perceived by the senses. On this account the just and the chosen ones are highly esteemed by the Lord in their humiliation and self-abasement; while the proud are cast down and rejected by Him in their self-sufficiency. This truth, my daughter, is understood by few, and therefore the children of darkness know not how to strive after any other honor or exaltation than that of the world. Sad to say, also the children of the Church, although well knowing and confessing that this worldly honor is vain and without substance, and that it does not have any more stability than the flowers or herbs of the field, do not live up to this knowledge. As their conscience does not give them witness of faithful co-operation with the light of grace and the practice of virtue, they seek after the false and deceitful applause and commendation of men ; whereas God alone can truly honor and exalt those, who merit his regard. The world ordinarily and fraudulently misjudges true merit, lavish ing its honors upon those who least deserve it, or upon those who know how to solicit and strive after it most cunningly and inconsiderately.

416. Fly from this deceit, my daughter, and let the praise of men make no impression upon thee; repel its flatteries and compliments. Give to each the importance and consideration due to it; for the children of the world are very much blinded in their judgments. None of the mortals could ever merit the honor and applause of men so much as my most holy Son; yet He readily yielded it up and judged at its true worth that which the people gave Him at his entrance into Jerusalem. He permitted it merely in order that the divine power might be manifested and in order that his Passion might afterwards be so much the more ignominious. He wished to teach men, that no one should accept honors for their own value, but in order that the higher end, that is the glory of God and the exaltation of the Most High, might thereby be advanced; that without this object in view they are altogether vain and useless, void of profit or advantage of any kind; for they can never procure the true happiness of a creature capable of eternal glory. Since I see thee desirous of knowing why I was not present at this triumph of my most holy Son, I shall fulfill thy desire, and I refer thee to what thou hast often related in this history about the clear vision of the interior of my Son, which was always present to me. By this vision I was enabled to perceive, when and why He wished me to absent myself from Him. On such occasions I would throw myself at his feet, beseeching Him to declare his will and pleasure in regard to what I should do. Then the Lord would sometimes give his orders plainly and in express commands; at others He would leave it to my own discretion and choice, permitting me to act according to my prudence and divine enlightenment. This was the course He pursued at the time, when He resolved to enter in triumph the gates of Jerusalem. He left it altogether to my own judgment, whether I should accompany Him or remain in Bethany. Thereupon I asked his permission to absent myself from this mysterious event, begging Him to take me with Him to his Passion and Death. I thought it more befitting and more pleasing in his eyes to offer myself as participant in the ignominies and sorrows of his Passion, than to share in the outward honor given to Him by men. For, as I was his Mother, some of this honor would certainly have devolved upon me, if I had shown myself to those who were praising and blessing Him. I knew that this triumph, beside its not being desired by me, was ordained by the Lord for the manifestation of his infinite power and Divinity, and therefore in no wise pertaining to me; nor would the honor, which they would have extended to me, augment that which was due to Him as the Savior of the human race. At the same time, in order that I might properly rejoice in this mystery and duly glorify the Almighty for these wonders, I was made to see by divine enlightenment and especial vision all that thou has already written concerning this event. This behavior should instruct thee and teach thee to imitate me; follow thou my humble footsteps, withdraw thy affections from all that is earthly, lift thy aspirations on high, despising and fleeing all human honors and in divine enlightenment esteeming them as vanity of vanities and affliction of spirit (Eccles. 1, 14). (Venerable Mary of Agreda, The Mystical City of God, Volume III: The Transfixion, pp. 397-404.)