Quam ergo mercedem accipias?
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Vetustatem novitas, umbram fugat veritas, noctem lux eliminat.
The new puts the old to flight, truth routs the shadows, light erases the night.
Sequence Lauda Sion
Today, the Holy Church rejoices to adore and celebrate Her Eucharistic King, the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament—the Most Holy Eucharist, in which the Incarnate Word is present in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. The Divine Office for Corpus Christi, composed by the Angelic Doctor, is a treasure of faith and charity—a song of the soul for the magnum Mysterium, et admirabile Sacramentum.
At the Convent of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples, one can still visit the cell where Aquinas lived from 1272 to 1274 and see the altar in the Chapel of Saint Nicholas; it was at this altar’s tabernacle that Saint Thomas would draw near to hear the words whispered to him by the Divine Prisoner, words that would later become part of the Proper of this feast. Upon that very altar, housed within a niche, stood the icon of the Crucified Christ that miraculously spoke to him, saying: Bene dixisti de Me, Thoma. Quam ergo mercedem accipias? “You have written well of Me, Thomas: what do you wish for as a reward?” The holy theologian replied: Non aliam nisi Te, Domine! Nothing other than You, O Lord!
Quam ergo mercedem accipias? What do you want as a reward? If the Lord were to ask us this question, too, what would we answer Him? And, even before that: could we hope to hear Him say: Bene dixisti de Me, for the way we have put to use the gifts so generously bestowed upon us by divine magnificence?
Of course, none of us can rival Saint Thomas Aquinas in learning and doctrine. Yet, by the grace of God, we can certainly look to him as an example of holiness, humility, and love for the Incarnate Word present in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Let us always answer Him: Nothing but You, O Lord! I do not want success. I do not want honors. I do not want money, nor pleasures, nor worldly illusions. I do not want to please the world. I do not want the approval of the powerful. I want only You, O Lord. Only You. I want You, Supreme Truth; I want You, Infinite Charity. I want You as Altar, as Priest, and as Victim. I want You as Food and as Guest—cibus et conviva.
Panis angelicus fit panis hominum; dat panis cœlicus figuris terminum; o res mirabilis! Manducat Dominum pauper, pauper servus et humilis. The Bread of Angels becomes the bread of mankind; the Bread of Heaven fulfills the ancient prefigurations—what a marvel! The poor, the servant, and the humble are nourished by their Lord, who gives Himself as food: Ego sum panis vivus qui de cœlo descendi (Jn 6:51). “I am the living bread that came down from heaven” – so the Divine Master declared to the crowds by the Sea of Tiberias, after miraculously multiplying five loaves and two fish to feed five thousand people. Those five loaves were not enough: Non in solo pane vivit homo sed omni verbo, quod procedit de ore Dei (Mt 4:4). And it is precisely the Word proceeding from the mouth of God who communicates Himself in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
If this rebellious world has not been swept away by the wrath of God, it is because there are still those who show adoration and gratitude for this miracle of Charity and Faith, gathering in prayer before the tabernacle or prostrating themselves before the radiant Host in the monstrance. They are unknown people who do not appear in parish bulletins or diocesan weeklies because they “do not make news”; because they claim no rights other than that of remaining Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman, despite their unworthy Shepherds.
For more than sixty years, the permanent revolution of Vatican II has dealt a devastating blow to the very life of the ecclesial body. The loss of Faith among the Christian people is the direct consequence, planned and obstinately pursued, of a scheme of dissolution that was intended to strike against the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Holy Mass, and the Priesthood. This crisis, dearest brothers, is the poisoned fruit of decades of systematic demolition by those who ought instead to have fought and died to defend the Depositum Fidei. And this has multiplied sacrileges and profanations of the Most Holy Eucharist, to the point where the Sacred Host is even fed to dogs without this entailing any reparation, let alone excommunication. Non mittendus canibus—we sang those words a few moments ago.
The Conciliar revolution has destroyed the Catholic Mass; it has erased respect for the Tremendum ac vivificum Sacramentum; it has imposed the sacrilegious administration of Communion in the hand while standing; it has obscured the dogma of the Real Presence; it has relegated the Tabernacle to a corner of the church and demolished altars and communion rails; it has led the faithful to view the Eucharistic King as a symbol of human fraternity—a pretext for the community to celebrate itself; it has emptied seminaries and churches, de-Christianized society, and demolished the Faith of Catholics.
Yet, while the Conciliar and synodal church tolerates—and indeed encourages—the most irreverent liturgies and authorizes Communion for the unworthy living in a state of public sin in the name of inclusivity and dialogue, no such leniency or understanding is extended to Catholics. They are reduced to begging for a Mass celebrated worthily by a priest who actually believes in the Holy Sacrifice—as if this were merely an eccentricity to be pitied, or even a sign of dangerous sedition.
That is why we are gathered in this private chapel, in this “domestic church” that I blessed today before Mass. That is why we are striving to ensure the administration of the Sacraments, dispensed by priests who are persecuted and cancelled.
We have seen public sinners admitted to the Sacred Table through Amoris Laetitia and Fiducia Supplicans—documents championed by Bergoglio, who, back in Buenos Aires, had the Host from a Eucharistic miracle locked up so it would not be exposed for adoration. And just recently, the Archbishop of Milan cancelled the Corpus Christi procession through the city streets, citing—on flimsy pretexts—traffic issues and the presence of tourists as insurmountable obstacles to bringing the Eucharistic King out into a world that, now more than ever, ought to return to its knees before the Lord. All this while Milan—like every city across our Old Continent—has turned into an encampment for hordes of migrants who are mostly Muslim, violent, and often criminal; while we have seen the very forecourt of the Milan Duomo [Cathedral] transformed into an open-air mosque; while the Diocese of Milan works with ecumenical zeal to build a polytheistic temple (the so-called “Ambrosian Monastery”); at this very moment, the Successor of Saint Ambrose and Saint Charles, Mario Delpini, repeats the words Simon used when answering the servant girl who recognized him as a disciple of the Nazarene: “I do not know Him” (Mk 14:67).
It is obvious to all just how grotesque and revealing is the behavior of unworthy shepherds, for whom any excuse suffices to deny divine honors to the Blessed Sacrament. They prostrate themselves before Pachamama, yet woe betide anyone who bends the knee—veneremur cernui—to the Bread of Angels. Delpini suppresses a procession that took place even during the years of World War II, but which now must respectfully step aside in the face of the pandemic farce or tourism. Milan: from Ambrose to Montini, from Schuster to Delpini, from Our Lord to Muhammad, from Corpus Christi procession to Gay Pride. It is a betrayal that cries out to Heaven for vengeance.
But when the Son of Man comes, will He still find faith on earth? (Lk 18:8) Will He find those who still believe in the Most August Sacrament, who still adore Him, who still receive Him worthily—having confessed their sins and being in the state of grace? Will He still find those who profess and celebrate the Holy Sacrifice, who recognize its ends—adoration, thanksgiving, propitiation, and petition? Yes, dearest faithful: and they will be the few who have remained faithful—those who today are branded as rebels and excommunicated as heretics and schismatics, while an unfaithful Hierarchy admits to Holy Communion Anglicans and Protestants, those living in concubinage, and even sodomites. That is why the preservation of the Catholic Mass is so important. That is why it is so important to perpetuate the Priesthood and multiply apostolates in these times of persecution. That is why it is so important that each of us approaches the reception of the Lord in the Most Holy Eucharist with the proper dispositions.
Let us make our own the prayer of the Angel of Peace, who appeared to the three shepherd children of Fatima in 1916: My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You. Most Holy Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—I adore You profoundly and offer You the most precious Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, present in all the tabernacles of the world, in reparation for the outrages, sacrileges, and indifferences by which He Himself is offended. And through the infinite merits of His Most Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I ask of You the conversion of poor sinners. And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
4 June MMXXVI
In festo Ss.mi Corporis D.N.J.C.
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