Weather forecast: heavy weather with strong waves! Peter's ship is in the midst of a great tempest. It is prey to the attacks and deceptions of its enemies, who go after Christ's Vicar with a ferocious glee, describing him as an old, senile man who has lost any contact with reality, a recluse lost in his dreams, lost in his intellectual musings and in the sonatas that he plays on his piano.
Dear Friends and Benefactors,
Weather forecast: heavy weather with strong waves! Peter's ship is in the midst of a great tempest. It is prey to the attacks and deceptions of its enemies, who go after Christ's Vicar with a ferocious glee, describing him as an old, senile man who has lost any contact with reality, a recluse lost in his dreams, lost in his intellectual musings and in the sonatas that he plays on his piano.
What has the Pope done to deserve this kind of treatment? Quite simply, he asked Cardinal Re to sign, on the feast of St. Agnes, the lifting of the decree of excommunication that, since 1988, has struck the bishops of the Society of St. Pius X.
We do not want to consider here this decree and its consequences, but we will do so when the dust settles and peace returns. For the time being, we only want to emphasize that all the uproar that surrounds this simple lifting of excommunications shows us - if there was any need - the soundness of this courageous gesture of the Holy Father: the devil is not happy.
As the fallout from the uproar surrounding the lifting of the excommunications coincides with Lent, we would like to make some suggestions and observations arising from this linkage. The first suggestion is that we detach ourselves from the Internet - a manly resolution that will help us not to be unduly dissipated and... to make a good Lent! We would thus even find the time to improve our formation by reading some good book.
It would be also judicious, during our Lent, to increase our fraternal charity by not criticizing those around us or, at least, simply to stop mocking them, as we usually do with morbid delight... Because mockery is a wounding and despicable insult.
Fruit of a totally gratuitous malice, mockery violently attacks its target and pitilessly brings him down by ridiculing him. Betraying a malevolent will that takes pleasure in leaving destruction in its wake, it enjoys accumulating trophies and, as soon as it leaves its half-dead prey behind, is already looking out for new victims.
The mocker is never satisfied. As soon as his sharp and expert tongue has just completed its sordid work, he sets out once more, rapidly finding his next victim, who will be ripped apart with an evil glee.
Mockery is the deed of a despicable soul that carefully chooses its victims or its audiences.
The mocker is a hypocrite and usually waits until his prey is absent to pour out his caustic and cruel irony, covering his victim with his contemptuous sarcasm. He only risks confronting his prey when he is assured of victory, when his target is overwhelmed by the cutting remarks and even made more ridiculous by his awkward attempts to defend himself.
Mockery is an undermining that favors the workings of Satan, who loves sowing discord among souls of good will. It is easy to destroy someone by means of some gratuitous assertions that permanently ruin a reputation by inordinately enlarging the defects inherent in any human being.
In fact, mockery turns against those who use it and their surprising dexterity in handling it closes upon them like a trap. It is a terrible accusation that betrays them, as mockery is the clearest proof of a mean and jealous spirit. Incapable of doing anything great, the scoffer shines forth only in an equally petty company. He believes himself to be indispensable and likes to prove it by witty remarks, which actually reveal only his own outrageous pride. Mockery wounds its author more than it does his unhappy victims.
The scoffer is the kind of person that must be avoided at all costs. Having a spirit of rare baseness, he will never stop spreading the bile that fills his soul. Evil contaminates everything that approaches it. The mockers lose themselves along twisted paths, unfortunately dragging along some weak souls who, unable to resist their attractions, thus enlarge their ranks.
In Christo sacerdote et Maria,
Fr. Yves le Roux