The Catholic Church: The Source of All Majesty

Saint of the Day, November 27, 1982

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

“A Roman and Apostolic Catholic, the author of this text submits himself with filial devotion to the traditional teaching of Holy Church. However, if by an oversight anything is found in it at variance with that teaching, he immediately and categorically rejects it.”

 The words “Revolution” and “Counter-Revolution” are employed here in the sense given to them by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in his book Revolution and Counter-Revolution, the first edition of which was published in the monthly Catolicismo, Nº 100, April 1959.

If something on earth deserves to be called majestic it is only because it participates in something of the Church.

Here is a tricky objection: There were many states with legitimate, broad and elevated powers in the temporal order that did not emanate from the Church. Roman emperors and Pharaohs had an important dose of majesty before the time of Jesus Christ. Since they existed before the Church, how can one recklessly sustain that their majesty emanated from the Church? All majesty emanates from religion and there is no majesty in secularism. Atheism exudes the prison-grade vulgarity of a concentration camp, perfectly expressed on the faces of Brezhnev and Andropov.

Once the Church was founded, majesty belonged only to the peoples that allowed themselves to be touched and influenced by Her, and they attained the pinnacle of majesty. Those who left Her slowly lost their majesty; and the supreme powers of the State gradually lost their loftiness to become no more than the little king of Sweden, Norway or Denmark—nothing more than the decorated director of a dairy cooperative. They have some majesty to the extent that they are religious states and recognize royal power as having a religious essence because majesty is combined with religion. This is because religion can only be derived from profound reflection. Only a profoundly reflective man can be profoundly religious, for one who does not reflect and is imprudent has no religion and is secular to the degree he is unwise. True majesty is born from pain and is expressed and maintained by grace.

When I see a person that may even receive Communion daily but spends the rest of the day playing around, I feel like telling him: You can wear a chain laden with medals, own a rosary with all kinds of indulgences and receive communion as often as you like, but you are secular! Your laughter and funny actions, done in jest to entertain others, is secular and contains no reflection or religion and therefore, has no distinction. My dear friend, you are not distinguished, you are not serious and you are not a man! That is how far my reproach goes. It is proper for a man to have something that participates in majesty regardless of his social or economic condition. To the extent that he is a man, he is serious and tends toward something majestic, without which, he is not entirely serious.

When leaving the Church of Our Lady Help of Christians as a boy, I would pass by the Garden of Light Park and remember the house near where I had played. That house was the residence of the park director. Fraulein Mathilde, who took us there, had great conversations in German with this director. I understood German perfectly and grasped large chunks of their conversation. He was actually an Austrian called Antonio Andrea Etzel. Herr Etzel was only a technician that understood gardening, an average man of median height without being mediocre and an average education. From what I saw, he had a little culture to take care of a big garden, but was no botanist, scientist or artist and had none of the great qualities he would need to be a great garden director. He was a good garden director and the Garden of Light was very well taken care of.

Even though he was an average man, he would take on an air of authority when talking to Fraulein Mathilde about the garden. Referring to distant parts of the garden he would say, “I had them do this there and am ordering something planted there,. I’ve ordered seeds from this place, and I there want to plant…” He would take on a commanding air with reflection and then point to the gardens and flowerbeds like a general indicates battlefields or a statesman points at the boundaries of his kingdom. This garden was large, but became as small as the field of influence of one man. With his large red mustache, abundant hair combed to the side, large eyebrows, a rather dull gaze and a hollow voice, he loomed as the highest figure in the garden because he was imbued with his authority and the spirit of reflection with which he directed the garden. This gave him a commanding stance with a grain of majesty.

When I saw Fraulein talking to Herr Etzel, I always thought, “I’ll find an excuse to get near them.” So I said to myself, “I’ll find a pretext to talk to her but keep a respectful distance until she tells me, ‘Plinio, you may come.’ During that time I will be listening to Herr Etzel, as I like to listen to men that think and command.” Considering its provincial dimensions and the limited resources, this garden was a masterpiece. Herr Etzel knew how to cultivate flowers that blossomed with an unusually profound blue and swans that lived well in the pond. He lived in a nearby house, and I thought: how well does he live? I wanted to see what it was like inside, but could not because the Fraulein wouldn’t allow but I saw that he lived well. Today the house is still there but everything has changed. It’s still charming but has become dilapidated as if it was a storage depot for old things. It has become hollowed it out by the Revolution and pollution, not old age.

Why did Herr Etzel remain in my memory for so long and in others for such a short time? Because Herr Etzel had a fullness of manliness that gave him a kind of majesty. Majesty involves reflection and there is no majesty without much thought. We could say that majesty is not defined only as a supreme power but as a reflected and willed supreme power. In other words, reflection is needed for a person to exercise a supreme and majestic command. It would be worthwhile to view some photographs of certain kings to see their faces. They absolutely lack reflection even though they are very well educated, consistent with their lineage. If you examine them closely you see they have no reflection, and having no reflection, they actually have no majesty.

They need more than just any reflection. They need an understanding of what it means to have supremacy. Majesty is a major state of being upon a summit and if a person is on a high pinnacle, but has poor vision of only a few clouds around him, he might as well be at the bottom of a chicken coop! Now a king that is endowed with great power who should reflect about his majestic position, gauge all that it symbolizes, understand what he has to reflect upon in order to coordinate everything, move it toward its highest symbolic and supernatural purpose and not only a common, administrative order. If not, he has no authentic majesty. This is also true if he fails to reflect upon what weapons and willpower he will need in order to command.

Majesty supposes a reflection that descends from heaven, is enlightened and elevated by grace to reach its loftiest peak. Without this, there is no majesty; and this is why some people don’t like to reflect. Reflection makes man conscious of his duty, risk and pain. To have majesty is to accept this even if it’s only to be the director of the Garden of Light. Because understanding the risk and pain that reflection causes for proper administration causes one to say, ‘I will do it!’ Such a man is a great garden director because he has a grain of majesty. Now if he is a jovial, happy-go-lucky Hollywood type, he has no majesty at all. He is incapable of majesty and unable to be entirely a man in the majestic sense. The contemporary world is secular par excellence and cannot but oppose this notion of majesty. It is superficial, hostile to reflection and logic by definition, fond of all things soft and easy, and loathes pain and suffering. This will continue to be the order of things till the end of the world. It is more or less like a ship that gradually sinks into the depths. The ship gradually distances itself from the sun, but it would be a mistake to think that the sun is sinking. It’s the ship. The sun remains high in the sky!

My mentality is diametrically opposed to a stupid flirtatious behavior. Great truths, principles, maxims, standards, characters, willpower, resolution, plans and great executions are aspects whereby a man can have majesty however average he may be. Every man should desire majesty, and in doing so he does not clash with humility. This is because majesty is not living to impress others one might put on fine clothes to show off. “Look at this tie, it came from Paris.” Majesty is not adornment; it leaves us humble because there is a distinction between an individual and his majesty. One with majesty always feels small before his own majesty; he always understands that however majestic he may be, he does not possess majesty inherently. It comes from his faith and the influence of the Church; he always wonders if he has taken his majesty to its apex.

What is this apex? Consider that all blessed souls in heaven sit upon thrones left empty by devils. All of us are called to shine in that assembly of kings who have a throne in heaven. This makes it easier to understand how the Church displays Her beauty throughout history from the moment that Our Lord Jesus Christ died until the end of the world. She is a continuous source of majesty and beauty that shines in every century and communicates majesty to temporal society that becomes inspired and adorned with it as it receives it as from a grandmother. The highest and most majestic temporal institution in Christendom, the Holy Roman German Empire, was nothing but a brilliant light of the grandeur of the Papacy. If there were no Popes we would have tyrants rather than emperors. “Catholic kings,” “Most Christian King,” “Catholic King,” “Most Faithful King” and so on… poor kings of England, who before the apostasy were called “Defenders of the Faith.” What a majestic, wonderful and stupendous brilliance! Because supreme Majesty is the brilliance that emanates from the Holy Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Church history.

First, there was the majesty of Our Lord, convicted, sentenced and nailed to the Cross. He was execrated by His country, rejected as no other. In His public life, He did nothing but good for others with a wisdom that will be recognized as unfathomable for all eternity. He approached a graveyard manifesting His power and crying out to a man that had been buried for four days and decomposing: “Lazarus, come out.” Storms raged and He commands them to stop! Wine is lacking and He tells water: Change into wine, and it’s the highest quality wine! A large crowd lacks bread, and His disciples gather only seven loaves and fishes, and He says: Let the crowd eat at will! The leftovers fill bags and baskets of bread and fish that people take home. He displayed enormous power, great wisdom and boundless kindness. No one could have been kinder or have had such unlimited tenderness. He sought His people with hands full of gifts. He pursued people with His divine countenance promising and distributing gifts. His very presence was a gift coupled with His gaze, and we know that even brushing against His tunic could heal someone.

There could never be anything remotely like Him. He seeks a defeated, crushed and disunited people. They had been great under His ancestor Solomon and later decayed to the point of becoming a Roman protectorate, and the people of Israel basically became a colony. These downcast Jews become enraptured with Him, proclaimed Him king and then later they choose the monster Barabbas and rejected Him completely. One of the features I like about the crucifix at the top of the stairs in the Seat of the Reign of Mary is that it shows how Our Lord preserved His majesty to the end. Anyone who looked at Him crucified without prejudice would kneel down and say, my King! He showed that grandeur when He was arrested, making Himself a slave of bandits: I surrender, but let these men go! It was He who was in charge. When they asked Him, art thou Jesus of Nazareth? He said: “I am”, they all fell face down on the ground. What king in all of history ever did anything like that? Our Lord’s majesty on the Cross is very apparent on the Shroud of Turin, where you see a dead King in the splendor of His power, Who judges those who killed Him and crushes those who fought Him.

Painters have attempted to re-create the reality of the descent from the Cross, where as a cadaver, Our Lord’s holy body subject to gravity as it is taken lifeless from the cross, to be placed on the most sublime lap of Mary to be anointed and prepared for burial. They depict that complete abandonment illustrating that the Son of God really died on the cross. Though subject to gravity, I’m sure that He controlled every movement of His dead body to have been consistent with a sublime, awesome and terrifying majesty. Painters have long depicted only Our Lady’s pain and annihilation as He lay upon her sacred lap while she gazed upon His tortured corpse. That’s good, but how I ardently desire that an artist would find a way to present the extreme simplicity of the relationship between the Mother and her convicted Son, executed under the legitimate authority of Pontius Pilate, and how both Mother and Son found themselves in the ultimate state of misery and annihilation, and how dignified Our Lady felt with that treasure in her lap by the royal grandeur and majesty displayed by the Divine Body!

These are reflections on grandeur and are the treasure of the Reign of Mary. Unfortunately, this point has not been understood because of the Revolution, and it’s now part of the hope of the Reign of Mary. These reflections, so according to Catholic piety, will be incorporated in general meditations on the Way of the Cross in a profound Counter-Revolutionary consideration on the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This whole meditation addresses the very first splendor of majesty. A Sepulcher dug into a rock, a funeral stone placed outside and two agents of Pilate standing guard to prevent the Corpse from being “stolen.” Soldiers standing guard outside, represent the domineering severity of the Roman Empire. Imagine two brutes armed to the teeth, casually looking at passersby and clearly seeing that there was no conspiracy to steal the Corpse. Inside the tomb there is profound darkness, and more majestic than all of heaven and earth, the Divine Body.

Imagine for example, at one point the most holy soul of Our Lord Jesus Christ returns to His most holy body through the stone and the mountain and the soul of God-Man at that majestic moment returns into His Body eager to liberate His corpse and animate it again to avenge death. Can you imagine the ambience of grandeur and majesty inside this cave? It was God’s own majesty working there. If thunder and the sun are so majestic, can you imagine what it was like for Christ’s soul to return to His body? This topic is way too immense for us to comprehend and no artist could possibly paint that scene.

Now the stone is moved away and He appears! It is the first Easter in the history of the Church, one that will last until the end of the world. Majesty, majesty, majesty! The next scene filled with majesty: In a modest bedroom, a widow who lost her son and prays all alone. Suddenly He arrives, and this encounter between the abandoned and isolated Mother and the Son that arrives has something like the meeting of a soul returning to its body. He was her life and soul. No words can describe the emptiness of life when one is the Mother of Christ and He is no longer present. Everything is bland, stupid, meaningless and a painful resignation as God has taken the One who was the center around which everything revolved. Now He returns and she rises like a queen meeting the king. There will never be any encounter in history with majesty as the one between our risen Lord and Our Lady.

Then comes Pentecost with the descent of the Holy Ghost bringing a cascade of grandeur that flows throughout History. Our Lady is praying at the Cenacle with the Apostles and everyone feels that something extraordinary is about to happen. They don’t know what it is, but flashes of light and majesty run through the night. The ambience waxes grandiose, awesome, most elevated and they are filled with lofty thoughts, amazed at what they see. Our Lady appears with a grandeur that reminds them of Her Divine Son. In their eyes, She is raised to some kind of spiritual Tabor, and they are at a loss for words. Only one word attempts to describe this: Majesty! Suddenly, when they think it has reached its apex, the Holy Ghost appears and the Dove issues a series of lights in a perfect example of majesty.

Imagine the majestic death of the Apostles, all of whom died as martyrs except for St. John. The death of St. Paul is full of majesty, immortalized in his words; “My Lord, I have fought the good fight and come to the end of the race, now give me the prize of Thy glory.” What could be more majestic than for a man to present himself before his Judge with such grandeur and self-assurance about the cleanliness of his soul? He does not ask for forgiveness or mercy; he says, “Lord, here I am, shining in thy light; Thou, Who lovest Thy light, receive it in Thy bosom.” How majestic! Who cares in the least about what the lunatic executioners were thinking? They represented worldly public opinion and only pygmies care what they think because men who have majesty only look at the profound order of things. If Our Lord were to care for worldly public opinion, Jerusalem would have been His milieu and what did they do to Him? Worldly public opinion is worth nothing and what truly matters is the profound order of things that we grasp with our mind, intellect and faith.

The Church has gone through the catacombs, and this is a significant part of the long road of Her majestic history. Papal majesty is its highest and most sacral aspect. The catacombs were cemeteries where the early Christians would bury the martyrs. The pagans made fun of them because many were injured, maimed, blind and most were commoners with precious few illustrious persons. The pagans would scoff: “Is this the rabble the Church rallies? This riffraff of society can dig a hole in the ground and bury themselves.” Now it’s Christmas Eve, a night customary for the Romans to have their usual bloodthirsty, lustful parties. Underground in a small chapel with a very rudimentary painting made by the hands of a slave in primitive colors trying to express something of the Faith, a Pope is about to celebrate Mass. A few small candles shine discreetly, for fear that through the dark corridor, despite all of its zigzags; some light might catch the attention of the Roman police.

They attend in fear, because if the police arrive they will all be killed. However, they are imbued with such a profound faith that everyone is ready to be martyred. On the walls, niches fill with the corpses of those murdered and abandoned with contempt at the Circus Maximus and the Colosseum. Those bodies were stolen during the night and taken to the catacombs and interned with an epitaph showing their names. They were often slaves of immigrants from Spain, Portugal or the outer Easter limits of the Roman Empire between Syria and Persia. Still others were from some desert in Egypt or Namibia who had converted and were now buried there. A small bell rings, and they all gather and pray. One senses great order, peace and tranquility. The head of the universal Church comes to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice, and they worship Our Lord Jesus Christ, whose bloodless sacrifice is repeated there. They have such a respect for the Mass, priesthood and the papacy with a profound understand of the source of grandeur in everything, that when the Pope enters, donned in second-rate vestments and begins to celebrate Mass, all of them rise with deep veneration.

The respect they have for the Pope ennobles their ambience. One realizes from their attitude of veneration Who the invisible King is that they are worshiping and how important is Vicar of that King, the Pope. No future ceremony will outdo this one in grandeur, not even in the splendid ancient Vatican Basilica or the new Renaissance Basilica. This is the majesty of the Faith and the supernatural showing forth even in the hostile and adverse conditions of the catacombs, challenged by martyrdom and death and defying the most powerful empire on earth. They affirm this by standing before a Roman citizen who will be seen the next day doing some shopping, walking into a store and talking to people like anyone else. Yet they know that he is the Vicar of the Christ Whom they adore; and their reverence for him is so great that it illuminates the entire catacomb. The majesty of God is somehow communicated to them and shines in their reverence. That early majesty of the Church was the germination of all majesties that would unfold in throughout history.

Rome was the capital of the world where everyone gathered. Slaves were brought as trophies, soldiers and inhabitants of conquered countries and nobles reduced to slavery were taken to Rome for menial work. Rome’s imperial power dominated every country in the world. They called the shores of the Mediterranean the ‘world’.  They dominated every country in the world at the time but the Church did not live only in Rome but also in areas such as the Holy Land. It was a trip that was longer than going around the world today; it posed colossal risks; navigation was complicated and there could be attacks, robberies and shipwrecks. Upon landing, you could be attacked by Barbarian peoples who would loot and destroy everything. It was the end of the world and the Church had already gone there.

We also see the majesty of the Church expressed in another way concerning the Syrians, Greeks, Egyptians, Carthaginians, Spaniards and Gauls from the other side of the Rhine and the Danube, the Church started to conquer barbarians among whom the balsam of the Faith was beginning to spread and harmonize a racial environment that was difficult to overcome. The faith blossomed everywhere, but each of those dioceses lived by itself, revolved around itself and received news, teachings and guidelines from the representative of St. Peter’s successor like letters from an angel. When the persecution came to an end, those living in broad daylight constituted a Church similar to a young girl that begins to play with things she finds and instinctively adorns herself with them. Thus, charming and smiling with all her promises of a bright future and the majesty of a king’s daughter, the nascent Church begins to play the rich chords in the souls of the various peoples among whom she flourishes. She goes on building, elaborating rites, liturgies, churches, sacred vestments, sacred vessels, sacred furniture and forms of civility. Based on Scripture, she gradually finds praise to consecrate and raise temporal authority; she influences all civil life with the life born from her own grace, teaching and liturgy.

The Church gradually adorns herself with the various rites that begin to appear, each with its own language taken to an apex of perfection and each with his own chant. The Church models those chants to harmoniously express the teaching that she gives all peoples. Each people has its own ethnicity and the Church develops suitable vestments suitable. She shrinks from nothing, disdains nothing and elevates everything.

After a few centuries, she has spread a mantle of her own beauty throughout the world, a mantle whose train follows her throughout history. She has solemnly entered the world and her liturgies and history are a train of beauty that follows her, and vested in that majesty of history, she marches toward the future. This is the majesty of the Church.