Father Voigt: Exaltation of the Holy Cross
Have you heard of the epidemic that has crossed all borders, all nationalities, all
sexes young and old? Have you heard the name of this disease? The Greek term says it all: STAUROPHOBIA.
It is formed by combining two Greek words (stauros = Cross) and phobia
which we know is a fear. Fear of the Cross is rampant in the world of
the twenty first century and it is destroying everything we know and love. What are the signs of this disease in your own life?
First,
the fear of silence marks the individual with the constant desire to
hear something. We cannot fill up our gas tanks without being subjected
to hard rock and other bass rhythms. No one can flee the twenty four
hours of FOX news. Everywhere headsets are becoming a fixed commodity
on the human head. Cell phones, boom boxes, airport announcements; it
just does not end. Without silence no man can come to know who he is
and what his life is meant to be.
Fear
of silence yields to a fear of discipline. Fear of discipline is
exemplified in the gratification of the senses of which we have all
become subject. The modern phrase is repeated ad infinitum: just do it. Entertainment calls us to consume more and more of the "needed" goodies of the manufacturing crowd from Nachos to beer we must indulge of be considered a "party pooper". Discipline has become the dirty word that should simply be eradicated from the dictionary. We need to be happy through the goods of the earth. We need not fast, nor chastise the body as St. Paul encouraged.
Fear of discipline leads us to fear of humiliation. Pride, greed, lust are the virtues of our modern society.
Get as much as you can and lord it over the other person. Humility is
not the virtue that society wants but it is the virtue each of us needs
in order to put our lives on the track to eternal happiness.
Humiliation develops the humble man who seeks in silence to discipline
that physical nature which constantly wants more and more attention.
This
concludes the signs of the disease and now we wish to consider the
antidote that is presented by the Cross of Christ. We turn to the very
first paragraph of Pope Pius XI encyclical, Quas Primas, which states:
"We remember saying that these manifold evils in the world were due
to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and His
holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private
affairs or in politics: and We said further that, as long as individuals
and States refused to submit to the rule of our Saviour, there would be
no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations."
We must take the antidote: Lift up the body of Christ upon the Cross for when He is lifted up He
shall draw all unto Himself. Therefore we must claim the Cross as our
only way to the kingdom of God. We must elevate the four marks of the
true Mystical Body. It is one in its sacrifice
and in its teaching; It is holy in every aspect of its life in this
temporal world; It is Catholic for it calls all men and women to accept
the path of Christ Himself; and it is apostolic for it goes for to all
nations to baptize them in the waters of salvation.
Now
there is one other mark of the true Church of our Lord that seals all
the rest with authenticity. The Church, the Mystical Body, is
persecuted, ridiculed, murdered, bombed and whatever
else Satan can employ to kill It. Recognize this mark in every one of
the martyrs of the Catholic Church. Recognize this mark in the very
resistance you place in your life to hold
up the true faith. The Cross is ours to embrace and in its embrace we
find the rejection of the world and its allurements, the rejection of
Satan and his desire to make us grasp at equality with God. We will find the desire for Silence, the courage to Discipline the body and the humility of following the Master.
O
Cross of Christ we rejoice in you. O Cross of Christ we lift you up.
O Cross of Christ conquer Satan and all his modernist henchmen. God
forbid that we should glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which we are crucified to this world and this world is crucified to us.
In the hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Fr. Richard Voigt
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