Unless your justice abound more than the Scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter the
Kingdom of Heaven.
Your Father, Son, Holy Ghost, and I, dear friends, today.
I wanted to address a question often asked me in the last few years, particularly as
things get worse in the world and in the Church.
The question is, Father, how come in our time, particularly, we don't see the abundance of
great saints that we read about in the lives of the saints, in the history of the Church?
Great men who were giant figures, greatly known for not only the holiness,
the wisdom, the learning, the modification, the great miracles that they were working.
Where is this in our church today?
And it seems then, were these things that we read about in the past,
were they just exaggerated?
So, how to answer this question in its proper context and honest assessment?
Well, firstly, these things of the past, what we read of the lives of the saints, were not
exaggerated.
They were factual events that were witnessed and recorded by those many often who witnessed
them.
And the world would not have been converted.
simply by the words of Catholicism, by the preaching of Catholicism.
Because, as you know, in every generation, there are very few people who love the truth.
Most people, by nature, we love ourselves more than we love the truth.
What converted them to the Catholic faith, to the true faith,
was the fact that they saw the power behind this faith.
the holiness and the miracles that they witnessed, they saw in their time.
So these things were not fables.
But how do we address this point?
Well, this question was already answered.
back in the 5th century by Pope St. Gregory the Great.
In his commentary on the book of Job,
he goes at length and explains this point.
I'm only going to cite a few words of his,
but he explains to us that
The life of the world, the history of the world reflects some of that of our own human body.
Human body, you're born in your youth, you've got all the vigor, and you grow, and you become
healthier and stronger in the normal course of things, but as you get older your body
starts to wane, becomes weaker, starts to feel the aches and pains.
of life as it starts to deteriorate.
So he says the course of the world is going to take somewhat this fashion.
But he says in the last days more particularly is the world going to endure suffering and
persecution because the anti-Christ devil will be leashed upon the world.
and the world will be made to suffer greatly.
And here he says,
as the duration of the world increases in years,
it suffers under increased evils
and it feels a loss of its health
as it obtains increases.
increase of age, for its tribulations increase together with its years, and it endures with
great weakness the losses of life, the more it lasts on, as it were, to a more advanced
age, for the ancient enemy is let loose against it with all of his strength, who, although
he has already perished as having lost the happiness
of his heavenly condition is yet at that time more fully extinguished when he is deprived
of his permission to tempt.
and is fast bound in eternal fires.
He is about, accordingly, to assail the ends of the world with severe temptations, because
he becomes more raging in his cruelty the nearer he perceives himself to punishment.
For he considers that he is just about to lose his privilege of most fatal liberty.
And the more he is confined by the shortness of the time, the more does he spread forth
with multiplicity of cruelty, as is said of him by the voice of the angel to John in
the Apocalypse, Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil is about to come down
upon you, having great wrath.
knowing that he has but a short time.
So the devil is going to attack the earth with greater intensity.
And we see this taking place already in our time.
But as a preparation, he points out, as a preparation for the time of the Antichrist,
the church's voice will be silenced.
The Church is public manifestation of its works, not in its juridical reality, the Church
will always maintain its power of jurisdiction, there will always be priests and bishops and
in the world, but the church in its, we can say, what we call the Grazia Grazi Stata,
its charism of miracles, of prophecy, all these things in preparation for the time of
Antichrist will be full silent.
And so he explains to us, and the beautiful words, he explains not only what will happen,
but why.
What's the motive?
What's the wisdom of God that worked in this?
He explains by the awful course of the great secret dispensation, God allowing evil to
grow until the end of times, before this antichrist appears in that accursed man whom he assumes,
signs of power are withdrawn from the holy church.
For prophecy is hidden, the grace of healing is taken away.
The power of longer abstinence is weakened.
The words of doctrine are silent.
The prodigies of miracles are removed.
And though the heavenly dispensation does not entirely withdraw them,
yet it does not manifest them openly
and
manifold ways as in former times and this is so caused by a wonderful
dispensation in order that the divine mercy and justice may be fulfilled
together by one
one and the same means? And what does he mean by this? How is that that divine
justice and mercy are at work together at the same time in allowing this
withdrawal of these heavenly assistances?
He says, for when the Holy Church appears as if she were more abject, more despised,
on the withdrawal of her signs of power, both the reward of the good increases, who reverence
her for the hope of heavenly things, and not on account of the present signs they see.
And the mind of the wicked is more quickly displayed against her, who neglect to pursue
invisible things which she promises, when they are not constrained by visible signs.
When, therefore, the humility of the faithful is deprived of the manifold manifestation
of wonders by the terrible judgment of the secret dispensation, there is heaped up more
abundantly mercy for the good.
and just anger for the evil by the same means, because these signs of power cease in great
measure in holy church before the Antichrist manifestly and visibly comes, as is now rightly
said, want will go before his face," quoting the Apocalypse.
In other words, like we are seeing today, today because there's no manifest signs of
the power of the church.
The wicked are taking advantage of that, to attack the church, to betray the church, to mock the church, to insult the church, and many of those are the bishops and the priests in the church.
They're taking advantage of the fact that there is no voice today in the church, there is silence on the question of doctrines today, and they are using that to abuse their authority and to undermine and attack the church, and then the world, of course,
comes and steps in and adds the boot, so to speak, on the church.
But the good faithful, it requires on us a greater faith.
It requires on us a greater confidence in trusting God,
and therefore there is a greater merit on our part.
There is a greater merit.
on our patience and our enduring in these times, where, if you want, really, the Church
is, we can say, already underground.
The fact that we have to celebrate here, Mass, basically independent from the Diocese.
It's a sad reality, but it's a reality because
that most churches today stand for nothing and it's a point I said last Sunday, think
about it for a second, we have many Christian churches both in Australia, Christian or Catholic,
whatever you want, there's only one true Christian and that's the Catholic Church,
the rest are false Christians anyway, but the point is many so-called Christian churches,
even Catholic churches, the cathedrals, Australia, Europe, worldwide and
the world is paganized, secularized, anti-Christ, because the churches, even the Catholic Church,
stand for nothing. We speak about nothing of any real value, and even if I can say,
even within my own congregations,
Sometimes our superiors have remained.
The last few years, very silent.
And that's sad, but it's part of the mystery.
And you know, even if someone sent me something the other
day, and I said, well, this priest, he was a priest of
the fraternity of St. Peter.
This priest was probably the greatest preacher I've ever
heard, and they silenced him.
His own superiors silenced him.
Why?
because he started to sound too much like the Society of St. Pius X.
And he was just talking about the events of the world, what was going on.
But he was quoting the Church's constant teaching.
The Archbishop, he said to us,
you don't follow me because I'm Archbishop Lefebvre.
You follow me because what I'm teaching is the teaching of the Church.
And he says, you can verify that. How? How do you verify that?
Well, go and look in the books, go and look in the monions.
All that's come before me for 2,000 years.
If what I'm saying is in conformity with that, then you have an obligation to conform
to that, to respect that, to reverence that, to support that.
But if it's not, then you have a duty to depart from that.
And, and that is, that is how we know, how we know something is right or wrong.
What's the church, the wisdom of the church, and what am I quoting for you today?
Already the church fathers already warned us, told us that as a preparation for the
time of the Antichrist, not the time of the Antichrist.
Preparation, the church would remain silent. Men would remain silent. Doctrine would remain
silent. It's not that it's not there, but the voices would fall silent.
speaking in the four or five hundreds already were forewarning us that even
the miracles even the the great saints like a padre pio is not not even it's
hidden from us not to say that there are not and I do I know many saintly men who
do do miraculous things don't get me wrong but they are hidden they are
silenced as I was saying to someone I met met a hermit hermit in
the village in Lebanon and he was from Colombia and I said to him what are you doing here?
He said to me I was a surgeon in Colombia and I got a call to become a hermit.
I said yeah but it doesn't explain why he said well there are only three real hermits
real hermits
Left in the world and there in this country a real hermit is not somebody I decided
I want to live by myself and pray my prayers a real hermit in the past and the teaching of the church
Was somebody who was tested by superiors and had to get permission
To live a life of seclusion on his own because the church knows that a total life of seclusion
Is someone was either a saint or someone who is mad?
And in speaking with him, I noticed a person came to him and said,
Father, can I go to confession? And he said, sure.
Would you like me to tell you your sins or would you like to confess them?
And he proceeded to tell that person all their sins.
He lives a holy life, mortified, dead to the world, prayer, penance and fasting.
But there are very few and far between in our time, that's all that I'm saying.
And this was foretold, and it is part of the divine mystery of God at work.
And we have to reverence that mystery.
I know we can be frustrated, we can be angry, we can blame, we can point the finger.
And it's not and it's very important for you to understand the danger. I see today
We sometimes with us traditional Catholics is the personality cult mentality. We're not following our Bishop Lefebvre
We're not following this priest that following that priest not that superior. We're following God in the faith. The priest is
Irrespective, it's not a personality cult
And also, you know, it's not a, I follow this cult club, for example, I know when I was
in America, you would say to the Americans, you know, I know you love your constitution
and your country, I'm very glad for that, but your founding fathers were either dais
or freemasons.
Your American constitution, it's not Catholic, there are things in there which no good Catholic
in good conscience can accept and embrace.
But it's not to say that we despise the country, we don't agree with the country, no.
But that we have to say it's not about America right or wrong, it's about what is true.
And how can we become better Americans by having a better Catholic perspective on this?
And I think that's important, that we don't follow our personality, we don't follow our call,
we follow what is the truth, and how do we know what is the truth?
The truth is never going to be hidden from us.
Because we can find the truth, we can discover the truth.
The Catholic truth, you know, when you're instructing a convert, one of the things I
say to them is that, you know, you're not going to find at the end of our lesson
end of our discussion that there are some hidden fine prints, you know that, oh we forgot
to tell you that, no, we're upfront with everything you believe, but with time as a Catholic you
will learn more, you will understand more, you'll develop more your knowledge of these
minimal basic truths that you have learned in this lesson.
And it's like that with our faith, not that you're going to, as we become Catholic we
have hidden truths, no, they are there.
Also, to be fair to individual priests or bishops, as Catholics, there are secondary truths in
our faith that are not necessarily doctrines.
They can have a different view upon, they're not essential parts of our faith.
So we can have different views, there are many different theologians, different church
fathers have different views on secondary issues of our faith.
and they're certainly entitled to that, different views, but when it comes to the
doctrines of our faith, those we must have
unity upon. But even there, when the archbishop was speaking in the 50s, 60s, 70s, some of
the things that he was condemning were not necessarily defined truths that are being attacked
in communism, religious liberty. These things are not necessarily dogmatic aspects of our
faith, but when those false ideas are embraced, they are going to have impacts.
They are going to have impacts on the doctrines of our faith.
And so he was even already speaking about things which may not have been necessarily
directly dogmatic, but could have implications if you think that all religions are good.
Well then what does that do?
He says to the missionary,
spirit of the church and it gives the impression that these other religions are
means of salvation and they're not there's only one means of salvation it's the
Catholic Church so they indirectly attack the truths of our faith
And there, sometimes even secondary things that are not necessarily
dogmatic facts can be harmful.
So we must understand more even if they're secondary,
sometimes they cannot be put forward without harming the
faith as well.
So again, but that requires that we make an effort to study our
faith.
to study our faith, to love our faith, and of course the consequence should be to live
our faith. Because this is the witness that we are going to be called to give. But what's
interesting here?
is that in these times, God will send, God says, sangreggary, God will send men adequate
to the task for the time. And God has given us the task for our time, given us the means
and in many ways, as though we live in difficult times, there are many helpful things that our
forefathers never had.
in their time. The technology, you can, you know, the mass centers are far away, but you can drive in
a roughly comfortable car to get here. You can find out about what's going on, you can learn your
faith by means of the internet as well, not necessarily relying just on a one-on-one conversation with
the priest, we can upload our sermons, you can hear them worldwide basically. So there are many
means that are helping us in ways that our forefathers never had.
and this is God's way of helping form us,
helping prepare us, assisting us in our time of difficulty.
But it requires that we have the ability to see.
But what's interesting that Gregory points to us is that in that time,
many will say we are fine. Things are okay.
We are doing well and you know I hear that when the archbishop was speaking
If we look back we think hold on those days were point that bad really
And we get to the days that he was seeing could be coming and we think, well, it's not too bad today.
And that's because we've made people come comfortable with the poison around us.
And we don't even sometimes notice it.
We don't see how bad, and especially the young people, I don't blame them.
And I was not brought up in a time when the world was once Catholic.
When the rules of the faith are informed politics and law, I was never brought up in that time.
So I'm used to what's going on around us as being normal, but it's not, it's not.
Those older amongst us may still remember those days.
When the priests were respected, police authority was there for the helping of the people.
They were part of the...
the community where people respected each other and took time to say greet each other.
This is a loss in our societies today.
We're becoming more and more pagan, idolatrous and godless.
And we are seeing this.
But he says that people will say that they are.
fine. We don't need anything. We're doing well." And he says, and it is frequently
their law that when, from being lifted up by the madness of pride, they consider not
the losses of their form. They discern not that they are poor and also poor in good deeds.
Once it is said by the voice of the angel to the preacher of Laetitia,
which is in the apocalypse,
thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods,
and have need of nothing,
and thou hast not that thou art wretched, miserable and poor,
and blind and naked.
And he explains, he is lifted up through pride and his sanctity declares himself as it were to be rich but he is proved to be poor, blind and naked.
Poor assuredly because he has not the riches of virtues, blind because he sees not the poverty which he is suffering, naked because he has lost his first garment.
of grace. But in a worse way, because he knows not that he has lost it. And today
But most people are in the world today, don't see the state that they're in.
Not only that they're not in the state of grace, but how spiritually poor they are.
Mathematically, they are content.
We've got the food on the table.
We've got entertainment on the push of a bottom.
But as far as far as...
the poverty, mental poverty, spiritual poverty, the state of our souls, hardly a person sees
recognises grasps. Because we have been blinded by the sense of the materialism. Materialism
has eaten, blinded our hearts, and we no longer see. And this is a danger for us.
for us in the tradition, no longer ability to see because we have become dangerously
comfortable with the world and the state of the world and maybe even the state of our
soul.
And we don't even see the state of our soul clearly, very, very
superficial examination of our conscience.
And that's a danger for us.
So Will was St. Gregory correct in this assessment,
already writing almost 1600 years ago,
telling us the state of the world
before the coming of the Antichrist.
the blindness and the, you might say the silence on part of the church and that's
what is we are listening today and what is he concluding then he says well this
is going to mean
There is going to be a rule battle between the friends of Christ and the enemies of Christ.
And I will say there not everybody who appears to be a friend is going to be a friend and
not everybody who appears to be an enemy is an enemy.
Most pagans are generally ignorant and sincere in their ignorance.
So they're not necessarily an enemy by the fact that they are pagan.
But there's enemies by the fact of the choices they make.
the decisions they make in their life and we are seeing this as the world is going in
upheaval around us. In Europe we see they are attacking the farmers. The farmers are raising
a –
rising up, Sri Lanka, all these countries now up in arms, and they yesterday assassinated
the day before the former Japanese Prime Minister who was outspoken against the Chinese Communist
Party.
And we in Australia, while our prime minister says I want to show Mr Putin the contempt he deserves.
is sending ambassadors to make a reconcile with the Chinese Communist Party.
The biggest destroyers of human liberty and rights and destroyers of the environment yet
were put on this hypocrisy of their our friends.
We see the wickedness rising up on a global scale
and we see the illusion of
of liberty that is promoted by those with the left-wing agenda, all at the expense of destroying
the order established by God and the Church throughout the centuries. And this is going to mean
As a consequence for those who can see a battle, a battle with those who are out to destroy
Preparing the way for the Antichrist. He says for the riches of miracles are first withdrawn from the faithful and then that the ancient enemy displays himself
against them with visible projudges, powers.
In order that as he boasts himself on his wonders,
he may overthrow more mightily and more honorably
by the faithful without wonders.
For though, science will not be wanting to the faithful in their contest with him, God will assist him, yes,
yet his will be so great that those of our people will seem to be rather few.
or none at all. But their virtue doubtless becomes mightier than all signs. When it
crushes with the heel of inward resolution all his terrible deeds with
which it beholds. But the malignant enemy displays
himself against them with so much the fissa cruelty, the more he grieves that he is despised
even with the brightness of his miracles.
He therefore gathers himself together for their destruction and unites all the reprobate,
whether it's nations or leaders or...
politicians, with unanimous cruelty for the death of the faithful, in order that he might
put forth his cruelty with so much greater power in proportion as all the members of
his body agree with him in the things he seeks perversely to effect.
What's important to understand is that the enemies of our faith are almost never fully united in their agenda.
They have some things in common, some things they certainly agree upon that they, for example,
their dislike for the Catholic Church or its doctrine, or even certain basic things that are not necessarily
a question of doctrine simply just so we don't like the Christian order of life, we don't
like the labelling of genders as they are, we have things, we have our own ideas, but
to say that they are all united would be false, would be a lie, it wouldn't be true.
They're not perfectly united, but they are united in the sense of the old saying, you
are familiar with the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
In other words, they united in what they agree that they hate.
not necessarily in every detail.
And that's also important for us to grasp.
But what's interesting here is a good number
of the church fathers, both Saint Augustine,
Saint Hippolytus and others,
mentioned that while it's true that these things,
the church will be at silence in this time,
but at the same time, God will raise up great saints,
perhaps as never seen before,
to combat these times. And there are two particularly sense that that will come and do battle with
the Antichrist. They are Enoch and Elijah and that is part of the teaching of our church. They will
rise up. They have not died. God has taken them to some paradise. They will come back for the for
the combat and mainly to be a witness to their own people. But that's for a time we may not see,
but that is soon.
part of the contest. But here, some encouraging words from Saint
Hippolytus who says, God will impart greater light into the minds
of the faithful of these times. He will fortify their rules and
give them a patience, which Saint John points out in the
apocalypse. He is the patience and the faith of
the saints. Oh, happy those, he says, who will conquer such time. They will certainly
be far and more illustrious than their fathers were in the faith. For first, the martyrs
had to contend only against satellites or of the demon, while they will be victorious
over the son of perdition.
what praise, what crown shall be awarded them by our Lord.
If the church be compared to an army drawn out in battle array,
we have reason to believe that Jesus Christ, its captain,
of the best soldiers to last.
Senator Guston commenting on this says,
who are we compared to the saints
and the faithful of those latter times,
who shall be called on to resist the attacks
of an enemy unchanged?
whom we can but feebly resist while he is yet in chains.
So God will raise up saints for our time.
Just as we can say, thank God that our Bishop, the Fev, was raised up,
was raised up by providence to prepare us for what was coming ahead.
And we are beneficiaries of that reality and the whole church,
not just the society, but the whole church.
his beneficiaries of that, and thanks to his stance, particularly on the mass, but on everything
else that comes with it, many of the other groups that exist in the church, they exist
precisely because of the courageous witness of Archbishop of Fair, Bishop Castro de Mayo.
who together performed the consecration of the Vishops in 1988 and continued to grow and expand worldwide.
Even to this day, we cannot keep up with the demands of the faithful, both in Australia and abroad,
who call upon us for priests, for mass centers, thanks to the Archbishop and the traditional movement worldwide, not just the society.
grows, continues to grow, leaps and bounds, despite the fact that it's attacked and hampered
by the mainstream authorities. God finds the means for his faithful. For those who seek
him, he is never short-handed. And that's an encouraging thing. In our time, no matter
the conflict, no matter the battle, no matter what's at stake, God will give us the means.
Saint Hippolytus explains the people who know and serve the true and living God shall be victorious.
God shall send them teachers to instruct his people.
They shall be made prisoners and their possessions.
Yes, they will be confiscated, a part of the purifying process for us, detaching us, but
at the same time, giving us the necessary teachers, and not only teachers, not only
just doctrine.
but also the sacraments, the means of living out the grace.
And you even saw during the lockdowns, the priests,
we traveled to your homes. God did not leave you without the means.
the sacraments. God is not going to leave you shortchanged. God does not put us in a corner
we cannot get out of unless it's that corner he wants us to die in. But outside of that
God is not going to shortchange us and I use this sermon also. Not only to give you an insight
into the answering that question that I originally explained is a difficulty for our time,
but also to encourage you in our time that God is also raising up saints and the foundation of
the saints is their life not only of grace but of virtue and so important as we approach
these next few weeks the sacrament of confirmation for some of you it's a profound strengthening
grace and most of us here have been confirmed we can rely on the grace of confirmation.
to give us the courage, the strength, not only to understand what's going on,
but also to be that witness for our Lord.
In a time when many are embarrassed of their faith.
And let's be honest again.
The greater bulk, and correct me if I'm wrong,
the greater bulk of politicians in our time are baptized.
They're Christian, if not they are Catholic.
and yet they stand for nothing. We should not be in the situation we're in. Most of the politicians,
even I think our current prime minister is a Protestant baptised, he's baptized, he's
Christian. I think he rejected his Catholic faith, he was one's Catholic, but again,
no sense of the faith. And yet, Catholics.
Christians, most politicians in the world in the European English-speaking world are either Christians or Catholic.
That's a sad reality to see the state of the world, and yet it just makes us more culpable.
makes us more wicked because we know better.
And as traditional Catholics, when we know better,
our Lord expects more from us.
Then, and I've probably made this point before,
for me, when a traditional Catholic comes to me and complains about something,
I'm actually more upset when they do, because
My answer to them was, what are you going to do about it?
Well, you know about it, what are you going to do about it?
Our Lord isn't looking to ask to complain how bad the things are.
He's saying, well, what are you going to do?
Saint Francis said, will you build my church to him?
Saint Francis took it literally.
But our Lord was talking spiritually.
And then he did.
He worked to rebuild the mystical body of Christ.
And that's what the archbishop did.
and the Archbishop would want that to do that, to rebuild, to extend the church in our time,
to be the light, not to be afraid, not to be fearful, not to worry what we're going to lose,
what we're going to gain.
but to be that light because we have the truth and we don't need to reinvent,
we don't have to, how do I solve the political problems of our country?
Pretty simple. So we've been solved. We just need to re-tap into the ancient wisdom.
When I have to invent things, it says, St Pius X, we just need to restore what was already there
before us and we have that wisdom for 2,000 years now and we just simply need to restore
and then from there obviously build on that but we need to have that courage and
We so recently celebrated the beautiful feast of St. Peter and Paul, they went out into a
godless pagan world with the courage and the conviction of the gospel. And they transformed,
not in their time. When they died, they were both beheaded.
It was generations to come, but they laid the foundation work.
We may not see the good of our work, but we certainly know that God will bless our work
if we work for him with faith.
And what's interesting here is that, and I'm going to conclude here, is that St Gregory
the Great concludes, how do we distinguish the two groups, the Friends of Christ?
And the enemies of Christ, he says, by one main character.
And that is that of pride or humility.
The humility are the friends of Christ, and the pride are the friends of the Antichrist.
Because then our Redeemer rules the hearts of the humble, and this that the Antichrist is called the king of the proud.
We know plainly that pride is the most evident token of the reprobate.
But humility on the contrary is a mark of the elect.
When it is known then which anyone possesses,
It is found out under what king he is fighting.
For everyone bears as it were a kind of inscription or mark in his work
to show whereby easily under the power of what ruler he is serving.
Once it is also said by the gospel, you shall know them by their fruits.
Less than the members of this Antichrist should deceive us
by performing even
wonders or miracles, the Lord has pointed out a plain token by which we can be detected.
saying, he is a king over all of his children of pride.
For though they sometimes assume a pretended appearance of humility,
yet they cannot conceal themselves in every point.
For since then, pride cannot bear to be long concealed.
When it's concealed by one action, it is exposed by another.
But they who wore under the king of humility,
who wore under the king of humility.
ever fearful and circumspect on every side fight against the darts of pride and especially guard
as it were the eye only of their body against the coming blows when in themselves they principally
defend their humility. Jesus meek in humble of heart make our hearts like unto thy other son, I guess.