Courage in the Immaculate Heart of Mary

There’s a lot of people on the good side of the Church crisis who strangely still choose silence under pretext of prudence.   Decent priests may say things like, “I won’t preach against the heresy coming from the Vatican because I don’t want to be removed from my congregation,” or “I’ll offer the Traditional Latin Mass secretly, but I can’t be public about it because then it will harm my parish in the long run,” or “I’ll be suspended if I really say what I think about the papacy.”

Lay people may say things like, “I know I should correct my boss for taking Our Lord’s name in vain, but I can’t lose my job,” or “I know my priest preached against the true faith but I don’t want to correct him because it will harm my family’s long-lasting legacy at the parish.”  Yes, even traditional Catholics engage in the moral theology heresy of proportionalism by saying, “Archbishop Viganó was right in everything he said, but should have left out the papacy part,” or maybe, “Viganó was correct on all he said, but should have left out his criticism of Vatican II.”

All of this is strategic thinking based on man’s battles, not God’s.  I understand there is a time and place for correction, and another time for silence.  I understand there’s a time for prudence.  But that day has passed.  The human aspect of the Church is being destroyed while most traditional priests care only about their own particular congregations.  Today is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and we need to start thinking about what was meant at Fatima about her Heart triumphing on earth for an era of peace.  This would only happen after Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart so as to crush the “errors of Russia.”

Still, what can we do ourselves before a Pope consecrate Russia accurately?  We need to start putting obedience to God ahead of obedience to man, especially when we’re discussing the notion of obeying imposters.   In a couple paragraphs, we will consider two heroines of the Old Testament (both types, or foreshadowings, of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and the courage they showed, regardless of outcome.

Today, too many people on the right side of the Church crisis erroneously believe that the end justifies the means in terms of sins of omission.  Too many traditional Catholics today give strategic reasons for their cowardice.  Strangely, it usually comes in the form of putting the sacraments ahead of doctrine (a dilemma that God would never have us choose between if we have found the right premises leading to our conclusions.) While it appears as very pious to refrain from correcting heresy when it seems to come at the cost of losing the TLM, it’s not Biblical.  And we’re going to lose doctrine, liturgy and souls if traditional Cardinals and bishops don’t start calling out that imposter for who he is.

In the 6th century Before Christ, King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon (modern day Iraq) dispatched his military general to totally crush Israel.  The Magistrate of Israel, Uzziah, is very much like a decent Republican today:  He is on the right side of the battle.  He says something semi-courageous, but can’t bring his flicker of courage to a full flame.  Facing siege and imminent destruction of the Hebrew people, Uzziah kind of puts his trust in God as he says to all the people: Have courage, my brothers! Let us hold out for five more days; by that time the Lord our God will restore to us his mercy, for he will not forsake us utterly.—Jud 7:30.

Uzziah (the least-bad Magistrate of his day) is basically saying we’ll trust God for five more days and then we’ll do human strategizing about how to handle the Babylonians.  Somehow, he thinks the end will justify the means in his sins of omission.  Enter: Judith.  This great heroine of the Old Testament directly calls out Uzziah (who—by the way—quickly and ironically supports her in her correction of him) for his mealy-mouthed idea that Israel will trust God for only five days and then have to act on their own.  She knows this is a preposterous idea when they could side with the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

Her rebuttal is an encouragement to all of Israel:  “Listen to me, rulers of the people of Bethulia! What you have said to the people today is not right; you have even sworn and pronounced this oath between God and you, promising to surrender the city to our enemies unless the Lord turns and helps us within so many days. Who are you, that have put God to the test this day, and are setting yourselves up in the place of God among the sons of men? You are putting the Lord Almighty to the test—but you will never know anything! You cannot plumb the depths of the human heart, nor find out what a man is thinking; how do you expect to search out God, Who made all these things, and find out His mind or comprehend His thought? No, my brethren, do not provoke the Lord our God to anger. For if He does not choose to help us within these five days, He has power to protect us within any time He pleases, or even to destroy us in the presence of our enemies. Do not try to bind the purposes of the Lord our God; for God is not like man, to be threatened, nor like a human being, to be won over by pleading. Therefore, while we wait for his deliverance, let us call upon him to help us, and he will hear our voice, if it pleases him.—Jud 8:11-17.

Notice that Judith reveals that God will not endorse the notion of pious strategy if it includes sins of omission. We also as trads facing modernists (who seem to have power) are called to be entirely and faithful and totally courageous—regardless of consequences. Even then, “God doesn’t own us a living, ” so to speak.  Even if our courage bears no fruit, we are still called to be faithful to God.  But God will be faithful, and that is why Judith then reveals she is not only going to lead Israel in the trust-aspects of life, but also lead her people in the action-aspects of life.

She explains:  Listen to me. I am about to do a thing which will go down through all generations of our descendants. Stand at the city gate tonight, and I will go out with my maid; and within the days after which you have promised to surrender the city to our enemies, the Lord will deliver Israel by my hand.—Jud 8:32-33.

You know the rest of the account:  Judith smiles her way into the tent of Holofernes and cuts off his head before he can touch her in any inappropriate way.  Of course, in crushing the head of the enemy, she becomes a prototype of the Blessed Virgin Mary who would be born to Israel 600 years later.  In fact, Mary smooshed the head of Satan at her very Immaculate Conception, even before the Incarnation of the Eternal Logos.

There’s perhaps some traditional bishops and Cardinals who are called to keep their heads down to keep the sacraments going, but I suspect a lot more are called to speak up in courage.  They should remember the words from another woman heroine in the Old Testament.  Esther’s uncle Mordecai said to her about saving Israel instead of herself:  “Think not that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”—Esther 4:13-14.

Today, traditional priests in congregations both canonically-regular and canonically irregular strangely believe if they keep silent, the modernists in the Vatican will leave them alone.  It’s not true.  Rather, think not that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s house will perish.

Notice Mordecai’s message is not all negative, for he then gives an encouragement which echos today to all traditional priests who know the right thing to do, but seem to be afraid of their own ecclesiastical shadows:  Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

Yes, every saint teaches us we are not to strategize, but just trust in God and then act in great boldness without thinking too much of consequences.  As St. Ignatius of Loyola said, we are called “to give without counting the cost” (dare nec computare.)  And this goes for the little guys standing up against the modernist-heretics, no matter how much power the bad guys seem to have.  God will act when we are courageous.  But probably not before then.