The Feast of the Holy Family

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
12th January 2014

Dear Friends,

With the new year upon us, let us stop and reflect upon the year gone. Has it not been a year of great graces? How have we profited from it?

As time goes on, many seem to get disheartened by the present situation both in the Church and the world, and seem to look for all sorts of excuses and sorts of people to blame; the Pope, the masons, the bad music, the TV. etc., etc. but I think this in part is not only false but can almost be blasphemous if taken to its logical extreme. We seem to take away the reality of free will, of the power of God, who is in charge of all things, and the fact that ultimately what got us in this mess is the neglect or failure of so many good men, or should I say apparently good men, who have failed to do what God has asked of them.

You all know well, that St. Pius X pointed out during the canonisation of St. Joan of Arc namely that 'It is sufficient for good men to remain silent, for evil to triumph'. And alas, we often remain silent amidst real abominations around us, because we are overly focused upon our own comforts. It is easy to blame others without looking into ourselves.

I am often impressed by the zeal of so many worldly men who have a conviction for wrong things, such as 'human rights', 'animal rights' and who are willing to go to such extremes as risking their lives for the sake of such convictions. Convictions for things which in themselves are insignificant since here on earth, to expect, peace, joy or justice without it being founded upon Jesus Christ is but an empty illusion. And yet, we Catholics who have the true solution, the true vision for the world, seem to have little to no zeal at all. We are so pre-occupied in so many insignificant and silly things that it seems that the devil has succeeded in deluding so many Traditional Catholics from the true path by keeping their focus on things that ultimately have nothing to do with the real task that they should be focusing on.

To exemplify my point, it is sufficient to cite St. Cyprian who explained well the cause for the crisis and persecution of the Church in the third century in the following words: - "If the cause of the terrible persecution is recognised, there is at once found a remedy for the wound. The Lord has desired His family to be proved; because a long peace had corrupted the discipline that had been divinely delivered to us Each one was desirous of increasing his estate; and forgetful of what believers had either done before in the times of the apostles, or always ought to do, they, with the insatiable desire of covetousness, devoted themselves to the increase of their property. Among the priests there was no devotedness of religion; among the ministers there was no sound faith: in their works there was no mercy; in their manners there was no discipline. . . The faithful, they united in the bond of marriage with unbelievers. They would swear not only rashly, but even more, would swear falsely; would despise those set over them, would speak evil of one another with envenomed tongue, would quarrel with one another with obstinate hatred." - In short the cause is sin; the remedy is charity of Christ!