Second Sunday after Pentecost

Thoughts for the Week - Fr. R. Taouk 
3rd June 2018

Winning Souls in the Spirit of Christ
by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre

It is not true charity to be a party to leaving minds in error and souls in sin. It is one thing to have an understanding of souls and to realise the path which brought them to error and sin; it is something else entirely to give error a semblance of truth and sin the appearance of virtue, making the person we are speaking to imagine that he has found the truth and that he is in the right. Obviously, it is a question of nuance, but true charity, made up entirely of faith in Jesus Christ, knows what it is about and will never put its light under the bushel-basket. It is easier never to contradict, always to approve and to create for ourselves an easy popularity at the expense of truth, that is to say, at the expense of Our Lord Himself; when we do so, we are seeking ourselves and we are not practicing true charity.

St. James poses the question, "Who is wise and instructed among you? Let him by his good behaviour show his work in the meekness of wisdom". Otherwise, he adds, "it is not true wisdom, it is not true charity, which descends from Heaven. It is bitter zeal. If you are always looking for contentious conversations in your hearts, do not glory and be liars against the truth. For that wisdom does not come from God, but it is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where there is bitter zeal and contentiousness, there is instability and every wicked deed. True wisdom that is from above is first of all chaste, then peaceable, moderate, humble, it persuades" (James 3:14).

True wisdom is not contention, it is not in that kind of personal pride which wants to get its ideas across, which does not understand other people, which has no mercy, which has no comprehension for others. In order to convert someone, we have to try to see him, to hear him, to know exactly what his path has been. And so we have to wait, be patient. How did he reach that point? So we cannot right away launch into opposition, go on the offensive, or we will just be pushing him away.

To convert souls to the Catholic faith or to bring them from a lukewarm faith to a living faith, an ardent faith, it takes the grace of God, which you will only obtain by prayer, by sacrifice, by mortification, by a living holiness.

We cannot consider this combat simply as a pure combat against error, against difficulties, against what keeps the Church from spreading. Certainly we have to fight against errors, but we cannot be first and foremost anti-reformers, our primary and principal objective cannot be the counter-revolution, anti-liberalism, anti-communism. To chase away the darkness we have to be in the light, and that comes from the grace of God. Grace will illumine you, enlighten you, fortify you, and will also be manifest to the eyes of others. It is very difficult to convert others if we ourselves appear in everyday life as somebody weak. The Saints converted many more people by their example, by prayers and mortification, than they did by their words. Of course words are necessary. We have to convince, to preach, obviously! But if the Saints convinced people by their preaching, it is indeed because they were Saints. People need that holiness. This is something that we have to remember and have constantly before our eyes.