“Fully live the Christian and priestly kingship and lordship”
Constitutions, 214
“We want to form priestly souls of priests who are not ‘tributaries,’[1]”[2] our proper law declares with all firmness and clarity.
What does it mean to be a tributary? Our documents also explain this: “Tributary […] is the one who recognizes the lordship that the other has over him and pays something as a manifestation of it. Tributary means: ‘to offer or manifest veneration as a proof of gratitude or veneration (…) and means the one who subordinates himself—unduly—, to temporal powers, to cultural modes, to the spirit of the world, as though they were the ultimate end, instead of God.’”[3] Thus understood, when the priest is tributary, he turns into a vassal who gives something to his master in recognition of his lordship. And as the Mystical Doctor of Fontiveros, Saint John of the Cross, magnificently explained: “thus, he that loves a creature becomes as low as that creature, and, in some ways, lower; for love not only makes the lover equal to the object of his love, but even subjects him to it”[4] and all “temporal dominion and temporal liberty, […] in God’s eyes, is neither kingdom nor liberty at all.”[5]
1. Tributaries: incapable of coherence
Let us give some more specific examples, since, historically, there have been various forms of tributarism on the part of some members of the Church. As an illustration: “Within the Protestant movement this became evident, because they had to pay the concessions made to the temporal power in order to triumph in its rebellion against the Church. In this way, they remained subject to the prince, who took advantage of the situation to take control of the riches of the Catholic Church and of the consciences of their subjects.”[6]
But even more recently, “the progressivists, who try to reconcile their supposed Catholic faith with modern ideologies, are tributary. ‘Supposed Catholic faith,’ because the one who adheres to principles and norms that are not in consonance with the faith and tradition of the Church is not Catholic; nor is he who tries to subject the Church to civil authority.”[7] Therefore, tributaries are also those who, in an effort to attract vocations, propose a ‘mitigated’ way of life, until becoming accustomed to a worldly lifestyle that leaves aside the radicality of the beauty and worth of following Christ Crucified. Or those who take away force and solidity from the doctrinal formation that they offer, watering it down in order to adapt themselves to passing doctrines, or better, embracing a doctrine that “shies away from all classification and has only one distinctive mark and characteristic, which is the mark of perfect and absolute incoherence,”[8] and which seems rather to pay homage to dilogy,[9] to ambiguity, to the multiplicity of meanings, to the equivocal, and to amphibology.[10]
These people are astonished, considering that “it’s not normal” that an Institute flourish in vocations precisely because it offers a “testimony of the Transcendent,” because of its austerity and way of life, because of the spiritual atmosphere and that of serene joy in which its communities live, because of its fervor in apostolic works, because of the solidity of its formation that is rooted in the most absolute faithfulness to the Tradition of the Church and to the teachings of the Pontifical Magisterium. Vocations are precisely a concrete proof of God’s goodness, and the works of religious who live in communion with their legitimate Pastors and are faithful to their vocation in the Church are a manifestation of the kingdom of peace that the Lord promised us and won by His cross and resurrection.
They also act like tributaries those who make use of “excuses” to “impede evangelization,” as St. John Paul II astutely taught: “Nor are difficulties lacking within the People of God; indeed these difficulties are the most painful of all. As the first of these difficulties Pope Paul VI pointed to ‘the lack of fervor [which] is all the more serious because it comes from within. It is manifested in fatigue, disenchantment, compromise, lack of interest and above all lack of joy and hope.’[11] Other great obstacles to the Church’s missionary work include past and present divisions among Christians,[12] dechristianization within Christian countries, the decrease of vocations to the apostolate, and the counter-witness of believers and Christian communities failing to follow the model of Christ in their lives. But one of the most serious reasons for the lack of interest in the missionary task is a widespread indifferentism, which, sad to say, is found also among Christians. It is based on incorrect theological perspectives and is characterized by a religious relativism which leads to the belief that ‘one religion is as good as another.’ We can add, using the words of Pope Paul VI, that there are also certain ‘excuses which would impede evangelization. The most insidious of these excuses are certainly the ones which people claim to find support for in such and such a teaching of the Council.’”[13]
In the same way, tributaries are those who try to twist the prescriptions of Canon Law, or of proper law, trying to protect their own comfort, and by doing this, they make it true again that the “difficulties within the People of God, are the most painful of all.”[14] Do they perhaps not realize that “the number of those awaiting Christ is still immense”[15] and that “without missionaries there can be no missionary activity”[16] and that there will be no missionaries if there is no one to send them?
No less tributaries are those who criticize what is in fact being done for evangelization: now they criticize the lack of means, now the shortage of missionaries, now the “quality of the work”; they criticize everything, forgetting that God is the Author of the mission. Not making the proper distinctions, they criticize God and vainly oppose God’s plans, but God laughs at them.[17] A last example: tributaries are those who consider it recklessness to take on works, trusting in Divine Providence. And for fear that they will lack the necessary, or hungering after material security, they entrust their works to civil organizations or to the State, corrupting Catholic institutions and abandoning the reality of trust in Divine Providence.[18] They forget that “bodily danger does not threaten those who, with the intention of following Christ, abandon all their possessions and entrust themselves to Divine Providence.”[19]
We, not only as priests and members of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, but also as simple Christians, have “not only the right and the duty, but also the satisfaction and the honor of confessing the sublime lordship of God over all things and over all men.”[20] For this reason, we are explicitly told: “A priest should not be a tributary by reason of his investiture and his ministry. He should pass on God’s truth, even at the cost of his blood. He should pass on God’s holiness, even if that means being a sign of contradiction. He should transmit God’s will, even to the point of giving his life for the sheep.”[21]
To be sure, being tributary implies losing one’s Christian identity in some way, which makes him get carried away by worldliness and yield to the discourse of those who suggest that he renounce the existential recognition of God’s lordship over all things, over society and its intermediate bodies, becoming incapable of coherence. The Holy Father, Pope Francis, strongly warned us about this when he said: “worldliness leads to a double life, one that is seen and one that is true, and it distances you from God and destroys your Christian identity.”[22]
Therefore, our proper law continues to teach: “The priest (and any Christian) is a man of two kingdoms. He is a citizen of the Kingdom of God and he is a citizen of the kingdom of the earth. When the priest becomes tributary, he becomes doubly a traitor: he betrays the Kingdom of Heaven, and he betrays the kingdom of the earth, because he does not give it what it demands: the truth and freedom that only come from the Kingdom of Heaven.”[23] In effect, the Christian and priestly lordship asked of the members of the Institute requires them—out of loyalty to the world and out of loyalty to God—to be “indifferent to the maxims, jeers and persecutions of the world, depending only on our good conscience illuminated by faith, ready for martyrdom—the full and total rejection of the evil world—for fidelity to God.”[24] That is why our responsibility is subjection and “generous surrender to the service of Jesus Christ, the only King that deserves to be served,”[25] in order to achieve, in this way, “effective, though spiritual, royalty over men, even over those who have power and authority, and even over those who abuse it.”[26] To act in any other way is to be tributaries and to be tributaries is a counter-testimony, an incoherence.
Why are we saying this? Because “all anti-testimony, all incoherence between expressing values or ideals and living them, all looking out for oneself and not for the Kingdom of God and its justice[27] all falsification of the word of God,[28]”[29] involves some agreement, compromise, capitulation, negotiation, concession, or compromising with the spirit of the world.
In this sense, “hypocrites live by ‘appearance.’ And like ‘soap bubbles,’ they hide the truth from God, from themselves, showing a ‘holy card face’ in order to ‘paint on holiness’.” “They make themselves be seen as just, as good persons” and they do this often in order to win the world’s applause, to promote themselves, if not for some financial interest… “they are hypocrites.”[30] That is why we say that tributarism, in addition to being an incoherence, is a counter-testimony.
Throughout the short existence of our Institute, many, “under the color of zeal”[31] and “under the appearance of virtue,”[32] have objected, criticized, obstructed, ridiculed, accused without motive, prohibited, and it even seems that they have suggested “dynamiting”[33] the little work of our Institute. These hypocritical persons—within and outside the congregation—are those who “always accuse others, but they have not learned the wisdom of accusing themselves.”[34] And it is that hypocrisy has the appeal of not saying things clearly; the allure of lies, of appearances, is a spirit of revolt and confusion that “in our ordinary vernacular signifies the spirit of misunderstanding.”[35]
This hypocrisy sows division, and the Gospel is full of examples. One of them is of the Pharisee and the tax collector: The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous—or even like this tax collector.’ [36] Then the Pharisee declares his separation: this tax collector, he says derisively. It is that the hypocrite tries to do away with—or at least denigrate as much as he can—the one whose virtue, holiness, or good works make him uncomfortable; the radicality of the other disturbs him, and in his effort, he does nothing but emphasize even more his own little virtue and twisted interests.
Another beautiful passage from Sacred Scripture teaches us about the hatred of the impious for the just man: “Let us lie in wait for the righteous one, because he is annoying to us; he opposes our actions, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. […] To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, because his life is not like that of others, […] For if the righteous one is the son of God, God will help him and deliver him from the hand of his foes.”[37] It is a passage that applies to Christ: With violence and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”[38] Pope Francis commented: “This prophecy is very detailed. This plan of action of these wicked people is truly one detail after another. It does not spare anything. Let us put Him to the test with violence and torments, and try His spirit of gentleness…. Let us sneak up on Him, let us lay a trap for Him [to see] if He falls…. This is not simple hatred. This is not a plan of action that is bad—certainly—of one party against another. This is something else. This is called hounding: when the demon, who is always behind every type of hounding, seeks to destroy and does not spare any means. […] But the devil, this is what he does: hounding. Always. Behind every form of hounding, the devil is there to destroy God’s work.”[39]
Deceiving themselves in their hypocrisy, and in their intention of doing away with this person, with this Institution that calls their way of living into question, tributaries carry out the “small everyday lynchings that seek to condemn people, to create a bad reputation […], to discard and condemn. The small daily lynchings of gossip, which create an opinion; […] and with that “I heard that…,” an opinion is created that can finish a person. […] And in our Christian institutions, we have seen many everyday lynchings born out of gossip.” In fact, “gossip is also a form of hounding.”[40]
We well know that “even before having begun—on March 25, 1984—our Congregation, we already had people were against us, and not in just any way, but with anger.” How many threatening voices were raised throughout these years with pitiful slander: that we were more Lefebvrists than Lefebvre—they said to us—, that we were disobedient to the Pope, that we were closed to dialogue, that we were without sensus ecclesiae…. And how many accusations without foundation: that we do things without permission; that there is no selection, and that is why we have so many vocations (or if not, they accuse us of “brainwashing” them); that we have many foundations because we sometimes send one religious alone…. With what outrage they have wanted to “change” us, they have wanted to “convince” us of the contrary: change this, write this, sign here and your problems will be over…. With what astuteness they have formed “groups” to orchestrate perverse machinations and to block noble projects, pastoral initiatives, and governmental decisions, and to bring some good ones into revolt….
We should not be surprised that, almost exclusively, these attacks come from consecrated persons. “This is a disorder of the Church,” said the Holy Father, “a disorder that is born of ideologies, […] [of] a worldly spirit that then interprets the law.”[41]
For this reason, we venture to say that behind all these accusations there is a nihilistic indignation like of one who is seeking annihilation. The conflict is ultimately theological. One who gives radical, explicit—positive and negative—testimony to Jesus Christ, our Lord, cannot not be attacked—that is to say, the one who gives testimony to the light that came into the world—and the darkness continues to hate the light for the same reasons: people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.[42] Jesus prophesied it: If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first; [43] Saint Paul said it: all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.[44] Almost every page of the Gospel teaches it, in which the Lord Himself calls blessed those who suffer for his sake.[45]
We would like to recall once again that always, “for persecution to be blessed, it must fulfill two indispensable requirements: first, that we may be ‘persecuted for the sake of Christ,’ and second, that what is said against us is false.[46] We must be very careful not to return to our burdens, nor to spend time taking pleasure in them, nor to succumb to the ‘self-complacency of Lucifer which makes you imagine you are somebody,’[47] and that we are suffering a great deal.”[48] Therefore, and within this framework, we would like to warn you that we have to guard greatly against falling into the mistake of assuming in our hearts that those contradict us are persecuting our virtue, or have little experience with spiritual things, or are envious, or have similar faults, in order to excuse ourselves from receiving any correction from anyone. There have been many who, tempted by vainglory or moved by who knows what passion, pretended that they were persecuted for their virtue and did not understand that no, but rather for their “worldliness”; and “believing themselves to be great”—since according to them, they were persecuted for their virtue—an idol of their own esteem was being secretly nourished in their hearts, and even though it seemed that they sporadically humbled themselves in their thoughts and words, in reality, they were not humiliations before God’s Majesty with holy fear of offending Him, but rather before the secret and hidden idol that they had made of themselves. May this not happen to us, like to those who clothed their self-love with a virtuous garment and then wanted to be adored. And if someone did not adore their statue, they judged him a persecutor of their virtue and contrary to their law. Because they made “the rule of virtue” out of their own likes, criteria, and conduct. Thus, they condemned all who departed from it, they condemned and despised them, and even boldly sought to do away with them. About them, Saint Peter Julian Eymard said: “Remember that all who have abandoned their vocation had little esteem for the Rule. They wanted to add to it or retrench from it. But Our Lord rejected them, because He does not want two laws, nor a will contrary to His own, which He has indicated to the founder.”[49]
We must open our eyes and “not be weakened by the worldly spirit, but live Christian life coherently, without giving in or compromising.” Pressures, that they will take you aside and try to convince you, offering you a comfortable solution, uncertain situations, the risk of seeing yourself enveloped in gossip, the risk of losing everything and that our works will come to nothing, the risk of exposing yourself to unpleasant consequences, degradation, persecutions… all this is always on the horizon. For this reason, we have to consider intimately as our own the exhortation of Saint John Paul II, who said to us: “Show by the depth of your convictions and by the consistency of your behavior that Jesus Christ is our contemporary.”[50]
Saint Alphonsus of Liguori put it well: “he who wishes to share in the glory of the saints, must suffer in this life as the saints have suffered. None of the saints has been esteemed or treated well by the world—all of them have been despised and persecuted. In them have been verified the words of the Apostle: all who want to live religiously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”[51]
2. Solid in our convictions
If we say that tributaries are “incapable of coherence,” in order for us to not be so, what is asked of us is precisely coherence, avoiding all false duality, and as a dimension of faithfulness. “To live in accordance with what one believes. To adapt one’s own life to the object of one’s adherence. To accept misunderstandings, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practices and what one believes: this is consistency. Here is, perhaps, the deepest core of faithfulness.”[52] Because this implies being conscious of one’s own identity and showing it, with full respect, but without vacillations or fears.
“But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test: that of duration. Therefore [another] dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one’s whole life. It is easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm, it is difficult to be so in the hour of tribulation. And only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole of life, can be called faithfulness. Mary’s fiat in the Annunciation finds its fullness in the silent fiat that she repeats at the foot of the Cross. To be faithful means not betraying in the darkness what one has accepted in public.”[53]
What is asked of us is a coherence that is not ephemeral, but rather constant and persevering. Belonging to the Church, belonging to the Institute, serving the Church, being faithful to the charism we have received, is something very demanding today. Perhaps shedding blood is not difficult, but contempt, indifference, injuries, marginalization, and even prison could be hard. The danger of fear, fatigue, and insecurity is therefore likely and frequent. But we must not let ourselves be dominated by these temptations. We should not let the vigor and spiritual energy of our being “of the Incarnate Word” and servants of His Church evaporate.
“The tributary priest is an aberrant being that has ceased to be salt and has ceased to be light, and like salt that has lost its flavor, it is no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.[54]”[55] Far be it from us to be so.
Because each one of the members of the Institute has been called to imitate the Incarnate Word, in whom “everything […] is transparency, authenticity, sincerity, coherence and truth.”[56] We must be firmly rooted in this conviction. We must show nobility of soul, faithfulness to our consciences, acceptance of God’s merciful plans—individually speaking and as an Institute—which also includes its risks, of course, but convinced that they are worth dying for. Acting in another way, that is to say, straying in any point from this transparency, authenticity, sincerity, coherence, and truth, is straying from the Ideal, and—to a greater or lesser extent—will also be a betrayal of our consciences, of Truth itself, of the vocation we have received, and of the principles instilled in us.
Our convictions tell us that “in our spirituality we should never dialectically separate teaching from work, nor work from teaching. We must always unite the integrity of doctrine with an upright life, and orthodoxy with orthopraxis.”[57] It is also our firm conviction “that the strongest, liveliest, freshest, and most grace-filled originality can be found only in the strictest fidelity to the doctrine of Jesus, as understood in the Church.”[58] These expressions all come from our proper law. We are also convinced that the contemplated truth makes us “teach with astonishing certainty and authority—according to the degree of theological certainty of that truth—participating in the authority of Christ,”[59] and that, therefore, “teaching one’s own doctrines, demanding undue consent, emphasizing the accidental, having a doubtful attitude concerning everything, remaining in insinuations or approximations, making problems out of the simplest things, overshadowing the clear points and not clarifying the dark ones, seeking oneself when teaching, […] being embellished instead of sober, opaque instead of transparent, confusing instead of precise, […] churning the waters so that others believe they are deep… is not to have the spirit of Christ who said: Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.[60]”[61]
We are convinced of the immense value that the apostolate has for the Church’s life[62] and that “the best way to develop an efficient apostolate is to live in intimate union with the Incarnate Word and to love souls to the point of sacrificing ourselves with heroism and without reserve.”[63] And so we go to this mission with the impetus of the saints,[64] trusting only in God’s Providence.[65]
We are convinced that “the riches that the Holy Spirit has conferred upon the Institute for the good of the Church, are contained in the spirit passed on by its Founder and in the observance of the Constitutions, that is to say, in the patrimony of the Institute.”[66] Therefore, to the extent that we offer a radical testimony to Christ Crucified to the world—in contradiction to the spirit of worldliness—we can say that our collaboration with the cause of evangelization is effective, because only in this way will we be useful to the master of the house,[67] since we will be “fully living the Christian and priestly kingship and lordship.”[68]
For this reason, a moment of crisis is a moment of choice, a moment that puts us before the decisions that we have to make. In these moments, the Incarnate Word could also ask us, as He asked His apostles: Do you also want to leave?[69] “In my land there is a saying: ‘Don’t change horses in the middle of the river,’” commented the Holy Father. “In moments of crisis you need to be very steadfast in your convictions of faith. Those who left, changed horses, they sought another teacher who was not so “hard,” as they said to Him. Moments of crisis demand perseverance, silence; staying where we are, steadfast. It is not the moment to make changes. It is the moment of fidelity, of faithfulness to God, of faithfulness to the things [decisions] we had made before. […] May the Lord give us the strength not to sell out our faith in moments of crisis.”[70]
To make it even clearer, we think it is important to emphasize the contrast that our proper law makes in two of its paragraphs about the great disparity that exists between being a tributary and not being one, and points out the fruits that follow from each:
| The Directory of Spirituality, 293, identifies the characteristics if the “tributary” |
The Directory of Works of Mercy, 249, establishes the parameters for not being one |
| Anti-testimony | The priest must not be tributary by virtue of his investiture and ministry |
| Incoherence between
expressing values or ideals and living them |
He must transmit God’s holiness by accepting to be a sign of contradiction |
| Looking out for oneself and not for the Kingdom of God and its justice | He must transmit God’s will, even to giving his life for the sheep. |
| Falsification of the word of God | He must transmit God’s truth, even at the cost of his blood. |
The fruit of infertility follows from being a tributary: “they are often strong obstacles for those who feel the call of Christ: Come and follow me.”[71] They also seek to break up; they sow division. From not being one follows precisely the fruit of fertility, since these religious, “by their example, spur on many to embrace the charism of the vocation in their hearts,”[72] as well as the fruit of unity: “A deep understanding of the charism leads to a clear vision of its proper identity, around which it is easier to create unity and communion.”[73] The choice is ours.
If we really have to be coherent in order to not be tributaries, we must therefore, “even at the price of personal renunciation and suffering, always seek the truth that we must transmit to others, [and] never betray or hide truth out of a desire to please men, in order to astonish or to shock, nor for the sake of originality or a desire to show off.”[74] Because “unity cannot exist at the cost of truth.”[75] Indeed, “submissiveness and servility are also destructive of this union. These traits sacrifice truth and one’s own conscience by seeking a false peace, either by not admonishing a friend, or by avoiding some problem, or, on occasion, by taking advantage of a situation by silence or applause.”[76]
Therefore, the cohesion of all our members, always based on truth, becomes imperative. “The Congregation’s welfare or misfortune concerns all of us,”[77] Blessed Giuseppe Allamano said to his religious, and the same applies to us. For this reason, our proper law tells us: “in our communities, which must demonstrate a unity among people and a body full of thinking members—no one should behave as if he is all on his own, as a self-sufficient “nomad.” We should learn to act like the parts or members of a whole.”[78]
We will have many difficulties, we will have plenty of defects and weaknesses, but if we stay united, each of us giving coherent testimony from where he is, contributing, not criticism, not fictitious plans, but rather practical solutions, initiatives in accordance with our spiritual patrimony, devoting ourselves fully to the mission, with complete forgetfulness of self, God will protect His work, the work of the Institute.
“Do not let yourselves be tricked by breaths of wind that pass and sweep everything along with them,”[79] said our Spiritual Father. Let us defend, with total freedom of spirit, the great good of unity that tributarism and hypocrisy hope to destroy; let us work in unity of purpose, making of our communities, of every province, and of all the provinces together of one heart and mind.[80]
It does not matter how many mortal blows they throw at us, how many lynchings of gossip they organize around us, with how many incoherencies they try to accuse us of, with how much hounding they try to make us disappear; let us persevere in a “a perfect spirit of unity and self-abnegation,”[81] solid around the charism. That is to say, living it without trimming it, zealously conserving it, studying it in depth, and developing it over time, in a homogeneous continuity, whatever the historical circumstances may be.[82] And all this in the most absolute faithfulness to our Mother, the Church.
It would be a serious error to want to level out our charism or standardize it according to pastoral needs concentrated on a unilateral goal,[83] or even worse, to want to modify it in order to please some “worldly criteria.” It is proper to us to give unequivocal testimony, with the dignity and nobility of soul that come from a coherent life, that the Word became flesh, even though many come to try to “buy” us, telling us: “be a little more normal, like other people, sensible…”
We must not tire of insisting on the fact that “it redounds to the good of the Church that institutes have their own particular characteristics and work,”[84] and for this reason, we have to strive always to diligently conserve the place that divine Providence has assigned us in the Church, of which we are honored to be children, responding, insofar as it is possible, to the new needs that arise in the Church, without ever drifting away from our patrimony and sound traditions. Great must be our respect for the riches that have been bequeathed to us in the charism as it was conceived and has been approved by the legitimate authority of the Church.
Let us be persuaded that “unity is life, and dualism is death; because unity is virtue, and dualism is sin and disorder. Because unity is strength, prosperity, and progress, and dualism is weakness, decadence, and nothingness. […] Unity strengthens families.”[85] And “if unity in a religious family is a powerful evangelical witness, division among brothers is a stumbling block for evangelization.”[86]
Therefore, it all comes down in some way to our personal faithfulness. This faithfulness implies, in the first place, seeking the Will of God, since we cannot speak of faithfulness if, instead of seeking God’s Will, we are seeking to follow our own. Faithfulness also implies—in addition to the coherence and constancy we have already mentioned—taking a stance and accepting the risks that must follow. We should not be naive: crosses will not be lacking, nor does God want them to be lacking. Strength and courage are needed in order to live out our identity as religious, and religious of our beloved congregation of the Incarnate Word, without compromises, without a double life. But we need even more fortitude in moments of greater combat, a combat that God allows in order to purify our souls and raise them to the highest heights of heroism, as it could happen when an entire Institute is shaken and buffeted by a storm, in order to uncover all the beauty of the patience, faithfulness, and subjection of its members.
As you know well, “fortitude is a firm disposition of spirit to valiantly withstand any type of evil, even the worst and most continuous.”[87] For this reason, fortitude “always calls for a certain overcoming of human weakness and particularly of fear. Man, indeed, by nature, spontaneously fears danger, affliction and suffering. […] Fear sometimes deprives of […] courage men who are living in a climate of threats, oppression or persecution. The men who are capable of crossing the so-called barrier of fear, to bear witness to truth and justice, have then a special value. To reach such fortitude, man must in a certain way ‘go beyond’ his own limits and ‘transcend’ himself, running ‘the risk’ of an unknown situation, the risk of being frowned upon, the risk of laying himself open to unpleasant consequences, insults, degradations, material losses, perhaps imprisonment or persecution. To attain this fortitude, man must be sustained by a great love for truth and for good, to which he dedicates himself.” Let us understand this well: “The virtue of fortitude proceeds hand-in-hand with the capacity of sacrificing oneself.”[88] “This is the resounding idea: to sacrifice oneself. This is the way history is directed, yet silently and in secret,”[89] even if we lose our lives doing it.
Therefore, listen carefully: We need strong men! Because only the one who has the virtue of fortitude is truly a just man. Let us ask of God for all our members, for the current ones and for future generations, the gift of fortitude so that, when we lack the strength to overcome ourselves, in view of higher values like truth, justice, and vocation, this ‘gift from above’ may make each of us a strong man and, at the right moment, say to us ‘deep down’: Courage! [90]
[1] Cf. Nm 18:24; Gen 47:26; Saint John of Avila, Sermons, quoted from Saint Vincent Ferrer, Opusculum de fine mundi.
[2] Constitutions, 214.
[3] Cf. Directory of Works of Mercy, 245.
[4] Cf. Saint John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 1, Ch. 4, 3.
[5] Cf. Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Ch. 19, 8.
[6] Cf. Directory of Works of Mercy, 246.
[7] Ibidem, 247.
[8] Louis Cardinal Billot, El error del liberalismo, Cruz y Fierro, Buenos Aires 1978, p. 93.
[9] 1. An ambiguous speech; a figure in which a word is used an equivocal sense (Webster’s 1913 Dictionary).
[10] 1. A phrase, discourse, or proposition, susceptible of two interpretations; and hence, of uncertain meaning. It differs from equivocation, which arises from the twofold sense of a single term (Webster’s 1913 Dictionary).
[11] Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii nuntiandi, 80.
[12] Cf. Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Decree Ad gentes, On the Mission Activity of the Church, 6.
[13] Cf. Redemptoris Missio, 36; op. cit. Evangelii nuntiandi, 80.
[14] Redemptoris Missio, 36.
[15] Ibidem, 86.
[16] Ibidem, 61.
[17] Cf. Ps 2:4.
[18] Cf. Directory of Works of Mercy, 255.
[19] Constitutions, 63; op. cit. Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th., II-II, 186, 3 ad 2.
[20] Saint John Paul II, Homily in the Mass of Christ the King (11/23/1980).
[21] Directory of Works of Mercy, 249; op. cit. Fr. C. Buela, IVE, You Are Priests Forever, Part 1, Ch. 6, 7.
[22] Cf. Pope Francis, Daily Meditation (11/17/2015).
[23] Directory of Works of Mercy, 248.
[24] Directory of Spirituality, 36.
[25] Ibidem, 35.
[26] Ibidem.
[27] Cf. Mt 6:33.
[28] Cf. 2 Cor 4:2.
[29] Directory of Spirituality, 293.
[30] Pope Francis, Daily Meditations (10/20/2017), Ibidem.
[31] Saint John of the Cross, Precautions, Third Precaution Against the World, 8.
[32] Directory of Spirituality, 214.
[33] Someone said, regarding our Institute, “The only solution is to throw a bomb at them.”
[34] Pope Francis, Daily Meditations (10/20/2017).
[35] Saint John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book 2, Ch. 21, 11.
[36] Lk 18:11.
[37] Wis 2:12, 14-15, 18.
[38] Cf. Wis 2:19-20.
[39] Pope Francis, Daily Meditations (03/27/2020).
[40] Ibidem (04/28/2020 and 03/27/2020).
[41] Cf. Ibidem (05/04/2020).
[42] Jn 3:19.
[43] Jn 15:18.
[44] 2 Tim 3:12.
[45] Mt 5:11-12.
[46] Saint John Chrysostom, Homilies on Saint Matthew, 15, 5.
[47] Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, Letter to the Friends of the Cross, 48
[48] Directory of Spirituality, 37.
[49] The Divine Eucharist, Fourth Series, Retreat Preached to the Religious of the Society of the Most Blessed Sacrament, p. 390.
[50] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 115.
[51] The Saint Alphonsus de Liguori Collection, (London: Catholic Way Publishing, 2016), Sermons for all the Sundays in the Year, Sermon II: Second Sunday of Advent, “On the Advantages of Tribulations,” 14.
[52] Saint John Paul II, Homily in the Cathedral of Mexico City (01/26/1979).
[53] Cf. Ibidem.
[54] Cf. Mt 5:13.
[55] Directory of Works of Mercy, 264.
[56] Directory of Spirituality, 55.
[57] Ibidem, 109.
[58] Ibidem, 111.
[59] Ibidem, 112.
[60] Cf. Ibidem; op. cit. Mt 5:37.
[61] Cf. Directory of Spirituality, 112.
[62] Cf. Constitutions, 176.
[63] Cf. Ibidem, 182.
[64] Directory of Spirituality, 216.
[65] Cf. Directory of Works of Mercy, 251; 257.
[66] Cf. Directory of Consecrated Life, 327.
[67] 2 Tm 2:21. Quoted in the Constitutions, 217.
[68] Constitutions, 214.
[69] Jn 6:67.
[70] Cf. Pope Francis, Daily Meditations (05/02/2020).
[71] Saint John Paul II, Discourse to the Bishops of the United States (02/22/1989). Quoted in the Directory of Spirituality, 293.
[72] Cf. Saint John Paul II, To members of the National [Italian] Council for Vocations (02/16/1980), 3. Quoted in the Directory of Spirituality, 292.
[73] Directory of Fraternal Life, 26.
[74] Cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi, 78.
[75] Directory of Spirituality, 47.
[76] Ibidem, 253.
[77] This I Want You To Be, Ch. 1, 18.
[78] Directory of Spirituality, 252.
[79] Saint John Paul II, To the Religious of the Diocese of Albano, Italy (09/19/1982).
[80] Cf. Acts 4:32.
[81] Saint Marcellin Champagnat, Opinions, Conferences, Sayings and Instructions, Ch. 33.
[82] Cf. Saint John Paul II, To Women Religious in Florianópolis, Brazil (10/18/1991).
[83] Ibidem.
[84] Perfectae Caritatis, 2.
[85] Cf. Saint Marcellin Champagnat, Opinions, Conferences, Sayings and Instructions, Ch. 33.
[86] Saint John Paul II, To representatives of the Conference of Major Religious Superiors in Europe (11/17/1983).
[87] Directory of Novitiates, 91.
[88] Cf. Saint John Paul II, General Audience (11/15/1978).
[89] Directory of Spirituality, 146.
[90] Cf. Saint John Paul II, General Audience (11/15/1978).
