|
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
"Legionario", 21st July 1940 |
|
|
A
friend of mine Fr. Pedro Keep, along with his bothers in religion, are
spearheading a campaign to erect a beautiful church to Our Lady of the
Sacred Heart. I would like to help them by paying my own homage to this
most beautiful invocation of the Queen of Heaven. If
there is an age whose sole hope lies in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it is
our own. The evils committed by mankind today can scarcely be exaggerated.
As Pope Pius XI once said, the contemporary world is so morally depraved
that at any moment it could be plunged into a deeper spiritual misery than
that reigning in the world when Our Blessed Redeemer was born. The
accumulated errors of past centuries have brought universal corruption
resulting in the disorders, catastrophes, and unrestrained concupiscence
we see today. The abyss of iniquity into which we have fallen is so
profound that Pius XI feared that, for the great majority of mankind, the
benefits of the Redemption that Our Lord Jesus Christ brought to the world
would be cancelled out. In
consideration of so many crimes, the idea of divine vengeance naturally
comes to mind. When we view this sinful world, groaning beneath the weight
of a thousand crises and a thousand afflictions but nevertheless
unrepentant; when we consider the alarming progress of neo-paganism, which
is on the verge of conquering humanity; and when, on the other hand, we
consider the lack of resolve, foresight, and unity among the so-called
remnant, we are understandably terrified at the grim prospects of
catastrophes that this generation may be calling upon itself. There
is something liberal or Lutheran in imagining that so many crimes do not
deserve punishment, that such a widespread apostasy of humanity is merely
the fruit of some intellectual error without moral guilt. The reality is
otherwise, for God does not abandon His creatures. Rather, He continuously
assists and supports them with sufficient grace to aid them in choosing
the right path. If they choose to follow a way other than His, the
responsibility is theirs. Behold
the grim picture of the contemporary world: on one hand, an iniquitous and
sinful civilization and, on the other, the Creator holding high the divine
scourge. Is
there nothing left for mankind but fire and brimstone? Can we hope for a
future other than the scourge foretold by Sacred Scriptures for the final
impenitence of the last days? Were
God to act solely according to His justice, there is no doubt what we
should expect. Indeed, could we even have made it as far as this twentieth
century? Nevertheless, since God is not only just but also merciful, the
gates of salvation have not yet been shut against us. A people unrelenting
in its impiety has every reason to expect God’s rigor. However, He Who
is infinitely merciful, does not want the death of this sinful generation
but that it “be converted...and live” (Ezech.18:23). His grace thus
insistently pursues all men, inviting them to abandon their evil ways and
return to the fold of the Good Shepherd. If
an impenitent humanity has every reason to fear every catastrophe, a
repentant humanity has every reason to expect every mercy. Indeed, for
God’s mercy to be poured on the contrite sinner, his repentance need not
have run its full course. Even while still in the depths of the pit, if
the sinner but sincerely and earnestly turn to God with a budding
repentance in his heart, he will immediately find help, for God never
disregards him. The Holy Ghost says in Sacred Scripture: “Can a woman
forget her infant…. And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee”
(Isa. 49:15). That is, even in such extreme cases where even a mother
gives up, God does not. God’s mercy benefits the sinner even while
divine justice cuts him down on the way of iniquity. Modern
man cannot lose sight of these two basic concepts of divine justice and
divine mercy—justice lest we dare presume that we can save ourselves
without merits; mercy, so that we do not despair of our salvation as long
as we repent and start anew. God
is charity, so the simple mention of the Most Holy Name of Jesus evokes
love. It is the infinite, limitless love that drove the Second Person of
the Most Holy Trinity to become man. It is the love expressed in the utter
humiliation of a God Who comes to us as a poor infant, born in a cave. It
is the love shown in those thirty years of hidden life spent in the
humility of the strictest
poverty, in the three gruelling years of evangelization, when the Son of
Man travelled highways and country roads, climbed mountains, crossed
valleys, rivers and lakes, visited cities and villages, walked through
deserts and hamlets, spoke to rich and poor, dispensing love and, for the
most part, reaping ingratitude. It is the love manifested in that supreme
moment of the Last Supper when, after generously washing the feet of His
apostles, He instituted the Holy Eucharist. It is the love of that last
kiss bestowed on Judas, of that poignant look at St. Peter, of those
insults received and born patiently and meekly, of those sufferings
endured until the last drop of blood was shed. It is the love in that last
pardon to the good thief that enabled him to steal heaven. Finally, it is
the love manifested in the supreme gift of a heavenly mother for a
wretched humanity! Each of these episodes has been painstakingly studied
by the learned, wondrously reproduced by artists, devoutly contemplated by
saints, and, above all, incomparably celebrated in the Divine Liturgy. In
venerating the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Church specially praises the
infinite love demonstrated by Our Lord Jesus Christ to men. Since His
heart is the symbol of love, by venerating His Heart, the Church
celebrates Love. Our
Lady of the Sacred Heart Many
and beautiful are the invocations used by Thus,
on invoking Mary as Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, we make a beautiful
synthesis of all the other invocations; we recall the purest reflection of
the Divine Maternity; we simultaneously strike all the chords of love in
beautiful harmony, the same chords we strike when we recite her litany or
sing the Salve Regina. Yet,
there is one other invocation of Our Lady that I especially wish to recall.
It is “Advocate of Sinners.” Our Lord Jesus Christ is our judge, and
as great as is His mercy, He nevertheless remains our supreme judge and
cannot fail to exercise His judicial duty. But Our Lady is our advocate
and does solely what an advocate is supposed to do—defends the accused.
Do we not have in Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, the Advocate of Sinners,
an all-powerful advocate before the bar of divine justice whose pleas for
mercy will not be refused? To say then, that Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
is our advocate is equivalent to saying that we have an omnipotent
advocate in heaven who holds the golden key to an infinite store of mercy. So what better solution for a sinful humanity, a humanity that falls deeper into sin if justice is not mentioned, but despairs of salvation if it is mentioned? By all means, let justice be mentioned. It is a duty; its omission has produced only sorry fruits. But right alongside justice, which targets the sinner, let us never forget mercy, which helps the seriously repentant sinner to abandon sin and thus be saved. (*)
Britain Needs Fatima Members’ Newsletter is a publication
of the Tradition, Family, Property Bureau for the Direct
all enquiries to: Britain Needs Fatima, Tel:
(0141) 956 7391 – Fax (0141) 956 6978 – editor@tfpuk.org.uk ©
June 2011,
|
|
