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Catholics Without a Priest
God's Providence Will Provide
by
Fr. Demaris
Professor of Theology
Missionary of St. Joseph at Lyon, France
1801
Editor's Preface
During the French Revolution very
many Bishops and priests were martyred for their faith as were many outstanding
laymen also martyred. Church property was seized by the Masonic government.
That left the people without their priests and without a place to go to Mass
and receive the sacraments. It was during that period that a Father Demaris
wrote the following letter to the concerned Catholics of his day. At the
present time (the year 2004), the Church is in a situation which is EXACTLY
parallel to the time of Fr. Demaris. If he were writing this letter today,
he would in all probability write exactly the same words. Hence, Fr. Demaris’ letter
is given below in its entirety. Read it with an eye to history and an eye
to the present. May it bring you courage and consolation.
Letter from Fr. Demaris to Catholics
Who Have Been Deprived
of a Priest
Dear Children,
1. In the midst of human vicissitudes and the havoc of shock to the feeling,
you voice your fears to your Father and ask for a rule of conduct. I’m
going to show you and try to instill into your souls the consolation you need.
2. Jesus Christ, the Model of Christians,
teaches us by his conduct, what we must do in the painful situation in which
we find ourselves, and St. Luke
tells us (Luke 13:31) that some Pharisees, coming to Our Lord, said “Go
away from here, Herod wants to have you put to death.” He answered, ‘Go
tell that fox that I have yet to chase out demons and give health to the sick,
today and tomorrow and the third day my life shall be finished. Anyway, I must
carry on today and tomorrow and the next day and a prophet must die only at
Jerusalem.”
3. You are frightened, my children, at what you see: all that you hear is
frightening, but be consoled that it is the will of God being accomplished.
Your days are numbered. His Providence watches over us.
4. Cherish those men who appear to
you as savages. They are the means which Heaven uses in its plans, and like
a tempestuous sea, they will not pass the
prescribed line against the countering and menacing waves. The stormy turbulence
of revolution which strikes right and left, and the sounds which alarm you
are the threats of Herod. Let it not deter you from good works, nor change
your trust, nor wither the shower of virtues which tie you to Jesus Christ.
He is
your model, The threats of Herod do not change the course of his destiny.
5. I know you can be deprived of your
freedom that one can even seek to kill you. I would say to them what St. Peter
said to the first faithful, What pleases God is that with a view to pleasing
Him, we should endure all the pain and suffering given to us unjustly. What
glory would you have if it were for your sins you endured maltreatment? But if
in doing good, you suffer with patience that is pleasing to God. For this is why
you have been called, since Jesus Christ has suffered for us, leaving you an
example to follow ... He, who had committed no sin; Whose mouth no wrong had
spoken: When heaped with curses gave none in return; when ill-treated made no
threats, but gave Himself into the hands of one who judged Him unjustly.” (1
Peter 2: 19-23).
6.The disciples of Jesus Christ in their
fidelity to God are faithful to their country and full of submission and respect
for all authority - adoring the will of God, they must not coward-like flee persecution. When one loves
the Cross, one is fearless to kiss it and even enjoy death. It is necessary
for our intimate union with Jesus Christ. It could happen any instant but it
is not always so meritorious or glorious. If God does not call you to it, you
shall be like those illustrious confessors of who St. Cyprian said, That without
dying by the executioner, they have gained the merits of martyrdom, because
they were prepared for it.
7. The conduct of St. Paul mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, tells us
how one must model oneself on Jesus Christ. “Going to Jerusalem, he learnt
at Caesarea that he would be persecuted there.
The faithful besought him to avoid going, but he believed himself called to be
crucified with Jesus Christ if such was His wish. His only reply to them was,
“Stop softening my heart with your tears. I tell you, I am prepared to suffer at
Jerusalem, not only prison, but even death for Jesus Christ.”
8.There, my children, such must be your dispositions.
The shield of faith must arm you, hope must sustain you and charity guide you in everything.
If, in all and always we must be simple as the doves and prudent as the serpents.
I will recall for you here a maxim of St. Cyprian which in these times must
be the rule of your faith and piety: “Do not seek too much,” said
this illustrious martyr, the chance of a fight, and do not dodge it either.
Let us await God’s command, and let us hope for His mercy alone. If God
asks of us a humble confession rather than a fierce protestation, then humility
is our greatest strength.”
9. This saying invites us to meditate on
the strength, the patience and the joy with which the saints suffered. Look at
what St. Paul said, and you will be convinced that when one is animated by
faith, troubles only afflict us outside and are but an instrument of battle
which victory crowns. (Acts 5)
This consoling truth can only be appreciated by the righteous, and do not be
surprised if in our own time, we see that St. Cyprian saw in his - that most of
the faithful succumbed.
10.To love God and fear Him alone, such is the lot
of a small number of the elect. It is this love and this fear which makes martyrs
by detaching the faithful from the world and attaching them to God and His holy law.
To support this love and this fear, in your hearts, watch and pray. Increase your good works
and join to that the edifying act of which the first faithful have given us
an example. Mix with followers of the faith, and then glorify the Lord as did
the first Christians whom we retrace in the fourth chapter of the Acts of the
Apostles.
11. This practice will be much more salutary seeing that you are deprived
of ministers of the Lord who nourished your souls with the bread of the word.
You weep for these men precious to your piety. I appreciate all your loss.
You feel lonely by yourselves, but could not this loneliness be salutary to
you in the eyes of faith? It is by faith that the faithful are united in probing
this truth, we find that the absence of the body does not break this unity,
since it does not break the ties of faith, but rather augments it by depriving
it of all feeling.
12. If you were united by those ties to the ministers of the Lord whom you
regret, console yourselves; their absence purifies and enlivens the love which
united us. Faith gives us eyes so piercing that we can see them wherever they
are, when they are at the ends of the earth, and when death has separated them
from the world. Nothing is far away in faith. It plumbs the depths of the earth
as the heights of the heavens. Faith is beyond the senses, and its empire beyond
the power of men. Who can prevent us loving whom we wish? Who can steal from
us memory? Who can prevent us from presenting to God those we love, and asking
Him for our daily bread, by prayers in union with those whom we love? It is
not enough, my children, to console you on the absence of the Lord’s
ministers and to dry the tears you shed on their chains. This loss deprives
you of sacraments and spiritual consolation; your piety takes flight; it sees
itself alone. However, through your desolation, never forget that God is your
Father, and if He permits your deprivation of the dispensation of the mysteries,
that does not mean that He shuts off the means of His graces and mercies. I
am going to offer them to you as the only source to which you can possibly
go for purification. Read what I write with the same intention that I have
in writing them. Seek nothing but the truth, and our salvation is self-denial,
in our love for God and a submission to His holy will.
Sacraments
13. You know of the efficacy of the sacraments; you know of the obligation
imposed on you to have recourse to the sacrament of Penance to cleanse us of
our sins. But to profit from these channels of mercy, it requires ministers
of the Lord. In our position without worship, without altar, without sacrifice,
without priests, we only see Heaven and no longer have mediators among men.
Let this abandonment not deject us! We offer faith to Jesus Christ our Immortal
Mediator. He reads our hearts. He understands our desires. He will crown our
faithfulness. We are in the eyes of His all-powerful mercy. The sick one of
eighty-eight years of age, whom He is said to have cured, not to get someone
to put him in the bath, but to take up his bed and walk. If life’s events
change the position of the faithful, the events change our obligations. Once
upon a time we were the servants who received five talents, we had the peaceful
exercise of our religion. Today, we have but one talent - our heart. Let us
make it fruitful and our recompense will be equal to that of five. God is just.
He does not ask of us the impossible. Respectful to the Divine and Ecclesiastical
laws which recall us to the sacrament of Penance, I must tell you, that in
these circumstances, these laws do not oblige. Listen to what I tell you. It
is essential for your learning and consolation that you should know these circumstances,
in order to not accept your own mind for that of God’s. The circumstances
where these laws do not oblige, are those where Gods Will manifests itself
to obtain Our salvation without the intermediary of man. God needs nobody but
Himself to save us when He so desires. He is the source of life, and He gives
to everyone the ordinary means that He has provided to effect our salvation
by extraordinary means that His mercy dispenses us according to our needs.
He is a loving Father Who by ineffable means helps His children, when believing
themselves abandoned, they seek Him and yearn for Him. If in the course of
our lives, we had in the least neglected the means which God and His Church
had provided for our sanctification, we would have been ungrateful children,
but if we were to believe that in the extraordinary circumstances we could
not do without even greater means, we would be forgetting and insulting the
Divine Wisdom Who puts us to the test, and Who, in wishing us to be deprived
of it, makes up to us with His Spirit.
Rule-Of-Conduct
14. To show you, my children, your exact rule of conduct, I am going to apply
to your situation, the principles of faith, and some examples of the history
of religion which should develop all the senses and console you in the use
you are able to make of them. It is of faith, the first and most necessary
of all sacraments, Baptism! It is the doorway to salvation and eternal life.
However, the desire, the wish for Baptism suffices in certain cases. Catechumens
who were surprised by persecution, only received it in blood which they spilt
for the faith. They found the grace of all the sacraments in the free possession
of their faith, and they were received into the Church by the Holy Ghost, Who
is the tie which unites all the members to the Head. It was thus that the martyrs
saved themselves, their blood serving as Baptism (the Holy Innocents). It will
be thus that you will be saved. Baptism of Desire is for all those who, instructed
in our mysteries, shall desire, according to their faith, to receive them.
Such is the law of the Church, founded on what St. Peter said that one cannot
refuse the water of Baptism to those who have received the Holy Ghost. When
one has the spirit of Jesus Christ, one cannot be separated from Jesus Christ.
When we are persecuted for love of Him, deprived of all help, heaped with captives
chains, when we are led to the scaffold, we then have all the sacraments in
the Cross. This instrument of our redemption embraces all that is necessary
for our salvation. The tradition and history of the better days of the Church,
confirm this dogmatic truth. The faithful who desired the sacraments, the confessors
and martyrs were saved without the sacraments since they could not receive
them. From that it is simple for us to conclude that no sacrament is necessary
when it is impossible to receive it, and this conclusion is the belief of the
Church ... St. Ambrose regarded the Pious Emperor Valentinian as a saint, although
he died without the Baptism of water although he desired to do so, but which
he had not been able to receive. “It is the desire and the will which
saves us in this case.’ Said the doctor of the Church, “He who
does not receive the sacraments from the hand of men, receives them from God
who is not baptized by his piety and desire, is baptized by Jesus Christ.”
15. What this great man said of Baptism, let us say of all the sacraments,
of all the ceremonies, and all the prayers that we can be deprived of at the
present time. He who is unable to go to confession to a priest, but who, having
all the necessary dispositions for the sacrament, the desire, and in form the
most firm and constant wish, hears Jesus Christ Who, touched and witnessed
to his faith, says to him or her what He once said to the sinning women, ‘Go,
it is forgiven because you have loved much.” St. Leo said that love of
justice contains in itself all apostolic authority, and in that he has expressed
the belief of the Church.
Confession
16. The application of this maxim has
place for all, like ourselves, who are deprived of apostolic ministry by
persecution which removes or incarcerates all true ministers of Jesus Christ
worthy of the faith and piety of the faithful. It has place above all if we are
stricken with persecution; we suffer then for justice. The Cross of Christ
leaves no blemish when embraced and carried as it should be. Here, instead of
reasoning, let us listen to the language of the saints. The confessors and
martyrs of Africa, writing to St. Cyprian, said boldly that one renewed ones
conscience pure and spotless in the courts when one had confessed the name of
Jesus Christ. They did not say that one went there with a pure conscience.
Nothing silences scruples like the Cross. Surrounded by drastic measures which
are the tests of saints if we cannot confess our sins to priests confess them to
God. I feel my children, that your worry and scruples are vanishing and that
your faith and love of the Cross increasing. Say to yourselves, and by your
conduct say to all who see you, what St. Paul said: “Who can separate me from
the love of Jesus Christ? Shall it be tribulation, hunger, nakedness, etc.” (Romans 8)
St. Paul then, was in your position, and he did not say that any minister of the
Lord, where he was able to find one, would be able to separate him from Jesus
Christ and change his love for Him. He knew that, robbed of all human help and
deprived of an intermediary between himself and Heaven, he found in his love,
his zeal for the gospel and in the Cross, all the sacraments are means of
salvation, necessarily.
17. From what I have just said, it is easy
for you to see a great truth, proper to your consolation and to give you courage.
It is that your conduct is a true confession before God and before men. If confession
must precede absolution, your conduct here, precedes the graces of holiness and
Justice which God gives you and is confession, public and continuous. Confession is
necessary,’ said St. Augustine, because it embraces the condemnation of sin.”
Here, we condemn it in a manner so public and so solemnly, that is known by all,
and this condemnation is why we cannot go to a priest; is it not more satisfactory
and edifying? The secret condemnation of our sins to a priest costs us little,
while this which we make today is supported by the general sacrifice of our
possessions, of our liberty, or our rest, of our reputation and perhaps even
our life! The confession we would be making to the priest would only benefit
ourselves, while that which we presently make is useful to our brothers and
can serve all the Church. God confers on us, unworthy as we are, the grace
of wanting to use us to show that it is an enormous crime to offend against
truth and justice, and our voice shall be much more intelligible when we suffer
greater evils with more patience. Our example tells the faithful that there
is more good than one thinks in doing what is the truth, which is the most
noble confession, and the most necessary in these circumstances. We do not
confess our sins in secret, we confess the truth in public. We are persecuted,
the truth is not captive, and we have this consolation in the hope that we
suffer. That we will not hold back God’s truth and justice, as the apostle
of the nations says, and that we teach our brothers not to hold it back.
18. Finally, if we do not confess our sins, the Church confesses them for
us. Such are the admirable rules of Providence, which allows these trials to
make us obtain merit and make us reflect seriously on the use we have made
of the sacraments. The habit and ease that we had for confession often made
us lukewarm. Instead of as at present, deprived of a confessor, one turns in
on oneself, and the fervor increases. Let us look at this privation as a fast
for our souls and a preparation to receive the bread of penance which, greatly
desired, will become a more salutary nourishment. Strive to banish from our
conduct, which is our confession before men and our accusation before God,
all the faults which might have crept into our ordinary confessions; above
all, aim for interior humility. What I have said is more than sufficient. However,
I am not sure that I have been able to tranquilize you on the anxieties and
scruples which are conjured up in a soul which has to judge itself, and to
follow its own directions. I sense, my children, all the importance of your
solicitude, but when one trusts in God, one must not do it by halves, as this
would show lack of confidence, looking at the extraordinary means by which
God calls and keeps His elected in justice. You found in the wisdom, maturity
and experience of ministers of the Lord, advice and wise practices for avoiding
sin, to do good and gain in virtue. All that was not of a sacramental character,
but of private enlightenment. A virtuous, zealous, enlightened, charitable
friend, could on this point be your judge and guide. Pious persons did not
go the tribunal of penance only for instruction and enlightenment. They opened
their hearts to illustrious people by their holiness in their intimate discussions.
Do the same, but let the most discreet charity reign in these mutual interchanges
of your souls, of your wills and desires. God will bless them, and you will
find there the guidance you need. If this means is not open to you, rely on
the Mercy of God. He will not abandon you. His spirit itself will speak to
your hearts by holy inspirations which will inflame and direct them towards
the high objectives of your destiny.
19. You are finding me concise on this subject, your desires go well beyond,
but have patience and the rest will thoroughly answer your expectations. One
cannot say everything at once, especially on such a delicate matter which demands
the greatest exactitude. I am going to continue talking to you as I talk to
myself. Removed from the resources of the sanctuary, and deprived of all exercise
of the priesthood, there remains no mediator for us, save Jesus Christ. It
is to Him we must go for our needs. Before His Supreme Majesty we must bluntly
tear the veil off our consciences, and in the search of good and bad that we
shall have done. Thank Him for His graces; confess our sins and ask pardon
and to show us the direction of His minister, whenever we are able to do so.
There, my children, is what I call confessing to God! In such a confession,
well made, God Himself will absolve us.
20. It is the Gospel which teaches this to us, in giving us the example of
the publican, who, humiliating himself before God, went away justified; since
the best sign of absolution is justice, which cannot be tied, because it unties.
So in the total isolation in which we find ourselves, that is what we must
do. Holy Scripture here outlines our duties. All which attaches to God is holy.
When we suffer for the truth, our sufferings are those of Jesus Christ, Who
honors us then with a special character of resemblance to Him with His Cross.
This grace is the greatest happiness which could possibly happen to a mortal
in this life. It is thus in all painful situations which deprive us of the
sacraments. The carrying of the cross like a Christian is the source of the
remission of our sins; such as once carried by Jesus Christ; it was for the
sins of the whole human race. To doubt this truth is to wound the Crucified
Savior. It is to confess that one does not realize deeply enough, the virtue
and merits of the cross. Tell me, would it be possible that the Good Thief
received on the cross the forgiveness of all his sins, and the faithful one
who gives up everything for his God should not be forgiven his? The Holy Fathers
observed that the thief was a thief right to the cross to show he was faithful;
what they must hope for from this cross when they embrace it, and remain attached
to it for justice and truth. Jesus ending His sufferings entered Heaven by
the Cross. To be sanctified by the cross, our actions must reflect the virtues
of Jesus. It is not sufficient in these times, that animated with His love,
like St. John, you rest your head on His breast. You must serve Him with firmness
and constancy, on Calvary and on the cross. There, in confessing to God, if
your confession is not crowned by the imposition of the hands of the priest,
it will be by the imposition of the hands of Jesus Christ. See those adorable
hands which appeared so heavy by nature, and which are so light to those who
love Him. They are spread over you from morning to night, to heap you with
all sorts of blessings, if you do not reject Him yourselves. There is no blessing
like that of Jesus Crucified, when He blesses His children from the Cross.
21. The sacrament of Penance is for us at this moment like the well of Jacob,
whose water was pure and salutary, but the well is deep. Without assistance
we are unable to make entry. That is the picture of our position. Look at the
action of our persecutors as a punishment for our sins. It is certain that
if we could approach the well with faith, we would find Jesus there talking
to the Samaritan woman. But be not discouraged, let us go down in the valley
of Bethulie where we will find several springs which are not guarded, where
we can leisurely quench our thirst. Let Jesus Christ live in our heart and
His Holy Spirit inflame it, and we will find for ourselves the spring of living
water which gives life and makes up for Jacob’s well. As Sovereign Pontiff,
Jesus Christ Himself, does, in an ineffable manner in the confession which
we make to God, that which men cannot take away. So carrying Jesus in us, Who
looks after us continually, we can do it any time, any place and in any disposition.
It is something worthy of admiration and recognition to see that what the world
does to us to drive us away from Him, only brings us closer. Confession must
not be only a remedy for past sins, but must be a preservative from sins to
come. If we seriously reflect on this double efficacy of the sacrament of penance,
we are able to have much to humiliate us and to bewail, and we shall be so
much better founded in it, that our advancement towards virtue shall have been
slower, and that we shall be founded the same, still, before and after confession.
We are able now to repair the faults, which come from too great a trust in
absolution and that one did not examine thoroughly enough ones weaknesses.
Obliged to bewail now before God, the faithful soul considers all its deformities.
And there at the feet of Our Savior, stricken with grief of repentance, it
remains there silent, only speaking with tears as did the sinning woman of
the Gospel. Seeing on the one hand all her wretchedness and on the other, the
goodness of God, she prostrated herself before His Majesty until her sins were
cleansed by one of His looks. That is how the Divine Light enlightens a contrite
and humble heart, right to the particles which can darken it. Let this confession
to God be for you a short daily practice, but fervent, and that from time to
time you do it from one epoch to another as you have been doing it daily. The
first fruit you will draw from it, apart from the remission of your sins, will
be to learn to know yourself and to know God, and the second will be, to be
ever ready to present yourself to a priest, if you are able, enriched in character
by the mercy of the Lord. I think I have said all that I should have, my children,
on your actions during privation of the sacrament of Penance. I am going to
discuss the privation of that of the Eucharist and after that all those things
you mentioned in your letter.
The Holy Eucharist
22. The Holy Eucharist had for you many joys and advantages when you were
able to participate in this Sacrament of Love, but now that you are deprived
of it for being defenders of the truth and justice, your advantages are the
same. For who would have dared approach this fearsome table if Jesus Christ
had not given us a precept, and if the Church, which desires that we fortify
ourselves with this Bread of Life, had not invited us to eat by the voice of
its ministers, who re-clothed us with a nuptial dress. All was obedience, but
if we compare obedience by that which we are deprived of, with that which led
us there, it will be easy to judge the merit. Abraham obeyed in immolating
his son, and in not immolating him, but his obedience was greater when he took
the sword in his hand than when he returned it to its scabbard. We are obedient
in going to Communion, but in holding ourselves from the sacrifice we are immolating
Ourselves. Quenched of the thirst of justice and deprived of the Blood of the
Lamb which alone can slake it, we sacrifice our own liking as much as it is
in us to do. The sacrifice of Abraham was for an instant, and an angel stopped
the knife, ours is daily, renewing itself everyday, every time that we adore
with submission the Hand of God which drives us away from His altars, and this
sacrifice is voluntary. It is to be advantageously deprived of the Eucharist,
to raise the standard of the Cross for the cause of Christ and the Glory of
His Church. Observe, my children, that Jesus, after having given His Body,
found no difficulty in dying for us. There is the action of a Christian in
the persecutions; the cross follows on from the Eucharist. Let not the love
for the Eucharist drive us away from the cross. It is to arise and make glorious
advance in the grace of the gospel, to go out from the Cenacle, to go to Calvary.
Yes, I have no fear in saying it. When the storm of the malice of men roars
against truth and justice, it is more advantageous to the faithful to suffer
for Christ than to participate in His Body by Communion. I seem to hear the
Savior saying to us, Do not be afraid to be separated from My table for the
confession of My Name: it is a grace I give you, which is very rare. Repair
by this humiliating deprivation which glorifies Me, all the Communions which
dishonor me. Feel this grace. You can do nothing for me, and I put into your
hands a means of doing what I have done for you, and to return to Me with magnificence,
that which I have given you in the greatest measure. I have given you My Body,
and you give it back to Me. since you are separated from It in My service.
You give back the truth which you have received from My love. I could not have
given you anything greater. Your gratitude matches that; the grace I have given
you - the greatest of the Gifts I made to you. Console yourselves if I do not
call upon you to pour out your blood like the martyrs; there is mine to make
up for it. Every time that you are prevented from drinking It, I regard it
the same as if you had spilt yours; and Mine is more precious.”
23. So that is how we find the Eucharist, even during the deprivation of the
Eucharist. From another viewpoint, who is able to separate us from Christ and
His Church in Communion in approaching its altars by faith in a much more efficacious
manner since it is spiritual and further from the senses. It is what I call
communicating spiritually in uniting oneself with the faithful who are able
to do it in different places on earth. You were familiar with this sort of
Communion in the times when you were able to go to the Holy Table. You knew
the advantages and the manner of it, so I shall not discuss it with you, but
I am going to show you what Holy Scripture and the annals of the Church offer
in reflections on the deprivation of the Mass, and the necessity of continual
sacrifice for the faithful in times of persecution.
24. Give particular attention, my children, to the principles I am giving
to recall. They are for your edification. Nothing happens without the Will
of God! Whether we have a worship which allows us to assist at Mass, or that
we be deprived of it, let us submit to His Holy Will, but in all circumstances
let us be worthy. The worship which we owe to Christ depends on the assistance
which He gives us and the necessity we have of His help. This worship outlines
for us our duties as isolated faithful just as it was outlined for us before,
in the public exercise of our religion. As children of God, according to the
witness of Sts. Peter and John, we participated in the Priesthood of Jesus
Christ to offer prayers and promises. If we are not entitled to sacrifice on
visible altars, we are not without offering, since we can offer it in worship
by our love in sacrificing Christ ourselves to His Father on the invisible
altar of our hearts. Faithful to this principle, we shall gather all the graces
that we would have been able to gather had we been able to assist at the Holy
Sacrifice of the Mass. Charity unites us to all the faithful of the universe
who offer this Divine Sacrifice, or who assist at it. If we lack a material
altar and sensible species, there are no longer any in heaven where Jesus Christ
is offered in the most perfect manner. Yes, my children, the faithful who are
without priest, offer their sacrifices without temple, without minister and
without anything sensible. It needs only Jesus Christ to offer it. ‘For
the sacrifice of the heart, where the Victim must be consumed by the fire of
love for the Holy Ghost, it requires to be united to Jesus Christ,” said
St. Clement of Alexandria, ‘by words, by deeds and by heart. We are united
to Him by words when they are true, by our actions when they are just, by our
hearts when charity inflames them. So, let us speak the truth, follow nothing
but the truth, love nothing but the truth. Then we shall render to God the
glory which is His due. When we are true in our words, just in our actions,
submit to God in our desires and thoughts, in speaking for Him alone, in praising
Him for His gifts, in humiliating ourselves for our sins, we offer God an agreeable
sacrifice, and which cannot be taken from us. It remains for me to consider
the Eucharist as a last sacrament. You could be deprived of It at death, so
I must enlighten you and caution you against so terrible a deprivation.
Last Sacrament
25. God, Who loves and protects us, wishes to give us His Body at the approach
of death -- to take away our fear on this last journey. When you look to the
future and see yourself on your own deathbed, without the Last Sacrament, without
Extreme Unction and without any help on the part of the ministers of the Lord,
you see yourself abandoned in the most sad and terrible way. Console yourselves,
my children, in the trust you have in God. This tender Father will pour on
you His graces, His blessings and His mercies, in these awful moments which
you fear, in more abundance than if you were being assisted by His ministers
of whom you have been deprived only because you would not abandon Him Himself.
The abandonment and forsakenness which we fear for ourselves, resembles that
of the Savior on the Cross when He said to His Father: My God, My God, why
have You forsaken me? (Psalm 21)
Ah! How constructive and consoling are these words! Your pains and abandonment
lead you to your Glorious Destiny in Ending Your Life like Jesus ended His.
Jesus, in His sufferings, His abandonment and His death, was in most intimate
union with His Father. In your pains and abandonment, be to Him likewise united,
and let your last sign be like His, that God’s will be done. Being deprived of
Extreme Unction, and in the hands of persons, who not only do not help, but also insult
me, I shall be much happier that my death shall have more conformity with that
of Jesus Who was a spectacle of opprobrium to all the world. Crucified by the
hands of His enemies, He was treated like a thief and died between two thieves.
He was wisdom Itself and was taken for an idiot. He was truth, and He was taken
for a cheat and deceiver. The Pharisees and scribes triumphed over Him and in
His presence. They were finally sated with His Blood. Christ died in the torture
and excruciating pains of the Cross. Christians, if your last moment and death
are an occasion for your enemies to treat you with insults and disgrace, what
were those of Jesus? I am not sure that the angel who was sent to make up for
the hard heartedness and callousness of men was not to teach us, that in similar
circumstances, we receive the consolation of Heaven when that of men is missing.
It was not without a special plan of God, that the Apostles who ought to have
consoled Jesus, remained in a deep sleep. So the faithful should not be
surprised to find himself without a priest in his last moments. Jesus reproached
His apostles that they slept, but He did not say that they left Him without
consolation, to teach us, that if we go into the Garden of Olives, if we climb
up to Calvary, if we die alone and without human help, God watches over us,
consoles us, and that suffices. Faithful, you are afraid of what follows the
present time. Lift your eyes up to Jesus; keep them on Him; contemplate Him. He
is your Model.
26. After having contemplated on Him,
could you still fear the deprivation of prayers and ceremonies of the Church which
was established to sanctify and honor our last moments, our death and burial?
Remember that the cause for which we suffer and die gives to this deprivation a
new glory and gives to us the merit of the last bit of resemblance we can have
to Jesus Christ. Providence has wished and permitted for our instruction, that
the Pharisees should put guards at the Sepulchre to guard the Body of Jesus Crucified.
It has even wished that after His death His Body should remain in the hands of His enemies,
and that in order to teach us that however long the domination of our enemies be, we
must suffer it with patience and pray for them. St. Ignatius, the Martyr, who had so
much ardor to be eaten by wild beasts, did not he prefer to have them for a sepulchre
than the most beautiful mausoleum? Even the first Christians who were delivered to the
executioner, all the confessors and all the martyrs, never worried about their last
moment nor their graves. None of them worried on what should become of their bodies.
Yes, my children, when one has trusted Jesus Christ all his life, he still trusts
Him after his death. Jesus on the Cross and near to death, saw the women who had
followed Him from Galilee. His Mother and Mary Magdalene and His beloved Apostle were
near the Cross in sorrow, silence and grief. There, my children, is the picture you
shall see, Most Christians feel sorry for those among the faithful who find themselves persecuted, but
they keep themselves apart, while some like the Mother of Jesus go to the innocent,
which wickedness strikes down. I remark with St. Ambrose, that Jesus’ Mother,
who stayed at the foot of the Cross, knew that her Son was dying for the redemption
of mankind, and wishing to die with Him for the accomplishment of this great
work, she did not tear to annoy the Jews with her presence and desired to die
with her Son. When you see someone die all forsaken, my children, or by the
sword of persecution, imitate the Mother of Jesus, and not the women who had
followed Him from Galilee, but kept back at the foot of the Cross. Be pierced
with this truth: that the most glorious and salutary time to die is when virtue
is strongest in our heart. One must never fear for a friend of Jesus Christ
when he is suffering. Help him even by our looks and our tears. That, my children
is what I believe I had to tell you. I believe it sufficient to answer your
questions and calm your fears. I have put the principles without going into
detail, which appears useless. Your reflections will certainly make up for
it, and our conversations if providence ever permits, shall be on what you
have done and what will inspire you to new desires.
27. I must tell you, my children,
not to worry at what you are witnessing. Faith is not allied to these terrors.
The number of the elect was always small.
Only fear that God does not reproach you for lack of faith, and for not having
been able to watch an hour with Him. I admit, however, that humanity can grieve,
but in so saying, I shall add that faith must gladden. God does all. Bear this
judgment. It is the only one worthy of you. The unbelievers themselves delivered
this judgment when the Savior was making miraculous cures. What He is doing
now is far greater. In His mortal life He cured the body, but now He cures
souls and completes by trials the number of the elect.
28. Whatever are God’s plans for us, let us adore the depth of His judgments
and put all our confidence in Him. If He wishes to deliver us, the time is
near. Everything turns against us, our friends oppress us; our relations treat
us like strangers; the faithful who used to worship with us are turned away
with a single look. We do not fear to say that they are not only unlike us,
they are faithful to their country and submit to its laws (right or wrong)
and also claim to be faithful to God. They fear to say that they love us, or
even know us. If we are without help along side men, we are assured of Gods
help, who according to the Prophet King, will deliver the poor from the powerful,
for they have no other help.
29. The universe is the work of God. He reigns over it, and every happening
is according to the plans of His providence. When we believe that desertion
is going to be general, we forget that a little faith is enough to give faith
to the family of Jesus - like a little leaven makes all the dough rise. These
extraordinary events where the mob wields the ax to undermine the work of God,
serve marvelously to show His omnipotence. In every country will be seen what
the people of God saw. When the Lord was wanted by Gideon to show His power
against the Midianites, He had him send back most of his army. Three hundred
men only and those without arms in order that it could be seem that the victory
was God’s. This small number of Gideon’s soldiers, is the number
of the faithful elect of this century. You have seen with the saddest astonishment,
my children, that out of all those called, since all of France was Christian,
the greater part, like Gideon’s army, remained weak, timid and fearing
to lose their temporal interests. God sends them back, for use in His justice.
God only wants those who give themselves to Him entirely. Do not be surprised
at the great number who quit. Truth wins, no matter how small the number of
those who love and remain attached to Him. For my part I nave only one wish,
the desire of St. Paul. As a child of the Church, as a soldier of Christ I
wish to die under His standard.
30. If you have the works of St. Cyprian, read them, my children. One must
go back to the first centuries of the Church to find worthy examples to serve
as models. It is in these holy books and in those of the first defenders of
the faith that one must form a precise idea of the object of martyrdom and
of the confession of Jesus Christ. It is truth and justice. These are the august,
eternal and unchangeable objects of the faith which one must confess. It is
the gospel. For human instructions, however wise they may be, they are temporary
and changeable. But the gospel and the law of God holds for eternity. It is
in thinking over this distinction that you will clearly see what is God’s
and what is Caesars. As by the example of Christ you must render to One with
respect, and to the other that which is his due.
31. Every century, the Church is in agreement, that there is nothing more
glorious and holy than to confess the Name of Jesus Christ. But remember, my
dear children, to confess it in a manner worthy of the crown which we desire.
It is during the time one suffers most that one must have the greatest holiness.
I can find nothing more beautiful than the words of St. Cyprian when he praises
all the Christian virtues in the confessors of Jesus Christ. “You have
always observed,” he says to them, “the command of the Lord with
a severity worthy of your firmness, you have conserved simplicity and innocence,
charity and concord, modesty and humility. You have carried out your ministry
with care and exactitude. You have been vigilant to help those who need help,
to have compassion for the poor, of constancy in defending the truth and discipline,
in order that there be nothing wanting in these great examples of virtue which
you have till now given. It is by your confession and generous sufferings that
you highly animate your brethren to martyrdom and to show then the road.”
32. I hope, children, although God does not call you to martyrdom nor to a
distressing confession of His Name, to be able to speak to you one day as in
the example of this illustrious martyr when he spoke to the confessors Celerius
and Areie, and to praise in you your humility rather than your steadfastness
and to glorify you more for your holiness than for your sufferings and wounds.
In looking towards this happy moment, profit from my advice and sustain yourselves
by my example, if necessary.
33. God watches over us; our hope is justified. It shows us either that the
persecution stops, or the persecution will be our crown. In the alternative
of one or the other, I see the accomplishment of our destiny. Let God’s
will be done, since in whatever manner He delivers us, His eternal mercies
pour into us. I end, my dear children, in embracing you and praying to God
for your as my faith and as my sincere resignation is to have no other will
than that of God.
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