September 2008 - "Dear Father, You Exaggerate!"

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

Saint Theresa of Avila used to compare the devil with a hidden file that silently, imperceptibly blunts the soul. Living habitually in a world of impressions and images, we indeed have great difficulty in paying attention to this pernicious action of our most frightening enemy — an enemy who attacks us, with all impunity, without risking failure, because we are not ready to avoid his fearsome assault. The best weapon of the devil still is his silence and it pleases him to remain in the shadows, cunningly working there, as there is no greater trap for man than Satan's apparent absence. Isn't our greatest danger today that we hardly ever hear news of the devil? Everyone, or almost everyone, declares himself a believer! But the simple mention of the existence of the devil and of his action on men brings a smile of condescension and pity to the lips of our interlocutors - that is, if we have dared to confront human respect and timidly talk about the possibility of a habitual intervention of the supernatural order in our world.

We often reduce satanic interference to its most spectacular events, those that require the recourse to solemn exorcisms. The devil is cunning and likes to encourage our disproportionate attention to these exceptional circumstances, because he can then act freely in other domains. We must not fall into this crude snare and must keep a clear head: the action of the devil is a present and ordinary reality in our lives, but this action is poorly known. We restrict it to some impressive manifestations that strike our imagination and blind our intelligence. When we are unable to distinguish the hidden, but real, causes of evil, we cannot find out where the true danger resides. Catholic souls must awaken and shake the tragic sloth in which they often find themselves.

The ordinary action of the devil is initially deployed in the political and religious domains and after, but only after, at the personal level. The devil knows that a great attack requires a meticulous strategy where nothing is left to chance. He knows especially that the success of an army is assured if the commander launches his battalions on the battlefield with cold-blooded precision. He takes great care in perverting political institutions and in corrupting them with his revolutionary spirit. Then morals will be irremediably wounded, because the institutionalized disorder will become a habit and will have the force of law, deeply impregnating the souls of those who cannot avoid being men of their times.

Little by little, men acquire the wrong reflexes and, subjected to false instruction, they drift away from sound principles. They lose their strength and reason and give themselves to the highest bidder, delighted by empty speeches. The spirit of criticism dies, supplanted by an alarming conformism over which shamelessly reigns a common lack of thought. Slogans flourish, real thinking wanes, the intelligence fails and Satan rakes in souls simply because of the environment in which they are plunged.

When the political order has totally fallen into the hands of the master of eternal darkness by means of revolutions, the attacks of hell concentrate against the Catholic Church. In the name of the erroneous principles of corrupting liberalism, the Church is summoned to be united to the Revolution and become its active propagandist. Orders given in the depths of hell have led vile souls to assume the noble priestly garb and enter the militia of consecrated souls in order to skillfully spread, under the appearance of a return to apostolic times, a disastrous doctrine imposed at the Second Vatican Council. And this, while the worst enemies of the immaculate Bride of Christ applaud frantically. Since this ruinous moment, Holy Mother Church is in mourning, but does not fall into despair because she carries, from now on in a visible way, the stigmata of her Bridegroom. The devil, blinded by his hatred, crucifies the Bride after the Bridegroom and thus unites her more intimately with Him.

In spite of this, the Passion of the Church is nonetheless the source of the ruin of many souls. It cannot be otherwise: the See of Rome is the teacher of truth but today what comes out of her are strange teachings that disturb and confuse souls. Satan has taken up church vestments and souls listen to those who seem to be pastors who care for them - and perhaps some of them, individually, do care - but they are, in fact, the disguised wolves of whom Our Lord Jesus Christ has spoken. The evil is immense. Who can measure its consequences? They are many: social, domestic, personal. Souls drift away and perish as ships on a stormy sea, carried away by any supposedly doctrinal wind. Intelligences are perverted, wills weakened, common sense is lost: we live amidst the ruin of the splendors of the Church. And men go in great numbers to their damnation.

We should also draw up a picture of contemporary morals - at least, of what remains of them! - to condemn the prevailing baseness of the moral order. But we are so used to it that we are not even aware of it any more. We also have an intelligence, a will, a common sense denatured by force of habit. We do not realize that we are too close to the evil not to be contaminated by it. A simple photo of people leaving Mass taken a few years ago, when compared with another taken more recently, would be enough to convince us that we are in decline. We could also consider the ease with which today we speak of subjects like abortion, euthanasia or abominable sins against nature, and thus realize that indeed we have been affected by this terrifying decay.

We must have the clarity of mind and the courage to condemn this lethal world in which we live, not to lose ourselves in a sterile criticism (which would be only a feeble manifestation of a pathological bitterness), but to be able to distance ourselves from this degrading world and then rebuild a society worthy of the name.

Obviously, such criticism often causes a certain skepticism and we are all too easily pictured as cynical pessimists or accused of being narrow-minded fanatics. We must then remember these words of Saint Paul: "For there it will come a time when they will not endure sound doctrine: but, according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." "Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine." And we would like to add: even when we are told "Dear Father, you exaggerate!" - a phrase that allows our interlocutor to remain comfortably installed in his profitable mediocrity.

"Dear Father, you exaggerate!" Really? It seems to us that in this combat for the honor of Christ and for the salvation of souls, our warning cries will be never strong enough. Should we keep silent while souls live in a state of perdition? But this sort of indignation disturbs; isn't it a reminder that truth endures and that it is out of the question to talk of an evolution of morals that would justify any depravity? Our times are not a reason to prevent us from fighting against decay. Truth is eternal and cannot compromise with evil.

"Dear Father, you exaggerate!" Thus we are told by all those who think that one should not see the devil everywhere and our times are not so terrible after all. Such people are only poor victims of the orchestrated decay of politics and religion. Raised in a world whose principles are revolutionary, they have embraced them without being aware of it. The disorder, institutionalized and baptized, disguises itself with the mask of order and deceives many, whose thoughts bear the mark of their blindness. We must persist, because errors and evils in politics and religion are deeply anchored in the souls of men - and these are the breast from which man continuously nourishes himself. Their milk is spoiled, and it poisons whoever feeds from it. Man must be warned.

"Dear Father, you exaggerate! The evolution of morals has advanced so much, the corruption is so great, that it is impossible to go back. The combat that you want us to carry out is a totally useless battle." Wrong! History teaches us, indeed, that changes may happen rapidly and that it is then necessary to be able to count on well-formed intelligences and strong wills to rebuild upon the ruins. Moreover, it is by no means a question of going back, but of keeping as principles of reflection and action the rules which always governed the establishment of societies. Societies rest upon immutable principles and only these can give them life and prosperity. And if we are not mistaken about the extent of the task ahead of us - it is very difficult to work the conversion of an intelligence! - we know that grace is still very powerful and that truth keeps its intrinsic force. Our combat, although full of obstacles, leads to victory. As the painful road to Calvary, it is nonetheless a royal way.

"Dear Father, you exaggerate! Your combat demands such great attention to a multitude of details. It is impossible to remain always on the alert." Those who speak thus do not know what they are saying. Attention to detail is, indeed, the mark of those who love, attentive in their loving impulse to the thousand considerations that reveal the soul. Souls who live in charity propagate the apostolic fire of their consecration.

"Dear Father, you exaggerate because you ask too much!" Finally we come to the truth! We are too cowardly to speak our reasons openly and we prefer, to save face, to cover others with our sarcasm. Our vain evasions cannot last. In the grave times in which we live, we must stifle these cowardly arguments that sterilize our noblest impulses, and act in accordance with our honor as baptized and confirmed men. Washed in the Blood of Christ, we are obliged by our oaths. Our souls will find in our combats a grave joy, happiness. We will know, indeed, that the forgetfulness of ourselves and our total dedication to the establishment of the Reign of Christ are the keys for eternal happiness. Soldiers of Christ by His Blood shed for us, called to be engaged in a battle in which eternity is at stake, we will answer like Samuel: "Speak, O Lord, your servant listens", and we will understand, then, that there is no exaggeration for a soul that loves and knows that it is loved.

Sursum Corda,

Fr. Yves le Roux