Truth Does Not Change

Rush Transcript

Announcer: From the Housetops: Catholic spirituality, doctrine, history, apologetics, and current events. From the Housetops. Coming up next.

Brother Matthew: Welcome to From the Housetops. I’m your host, Brother Matthew.

For an accurate description of the decline of faith and morality we witness today, read Saint Paul’s epistle to the Romans, right there in the first chapter. While commending the first Christians of Rome for their steadfast adherence to the truth of the gospel, he warns them of the ungodliness of those who reject the truth, whose lack of faith and humility leads them to shameful sins. Those who, verse 22, professing themselves to be wise, become fools, who instead of glorifying God have worshipped and served created things, verse 25.

The apostle explains that because of their pride and wilful blindness, God punishes them by allowing them to continue on the path they have chosen. By withdrawing His grace, God allows them to fall deeper and deeper into unnatural lusts, men for men, women for women.

Many in the Church today have rejected the clarity of Saint Paul’s apostolic doctrine and, like the ancient pagans of Rome, profess themselves to be wise, but in fact have become fools. They claim that what was taught back in Saint Paul’s day needs to be updated, that our perception of things changes over time, including what is true and not true, what is morally acceptable and what isn’t morally acceptable. This type of relativism stands in defiant opposition to reality and truth. Relativism is a convenient tool in the hands of those who reject the authority of divine revelation and the Church’s infallible teaching authority.

We must be very grateful that there are still shepherds of Christ’s flock devoted to defending the Church’s sacred deposit of faith. Five years ago, in May of 2019, a document was published entitled “Declaration of Truths Relating to Some of the Most Common Errors in the Life of the Church of Our Time.” It was written and signed by Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, Cardinal Janusz Puchat, Archbishop Tomasz Peta, Archbishop Jan Pawel Lenga, and Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider.

This declaration gives a clear analysis of the heresies plaguing the Church today. In forty short articles, it concisely explains the main errors challenging:

• First, the fundamentals of faith
• Second, the Creed
• Third, the Law of God
• Fourth, the Sacraments

The document can be found online, for example at roratecaeli.com and other websites, and as an appendix in Bishop Schneider’s book Christus Vincit: Christ’s Triumph Over the Darkness of the Age, published by Angelico Press, Brooklyn, New York. That’s angelicopress.com.

Summary of the Declaration of Truths

The following is a summary of some of the main points from the document.

• Number one: The same doctrines of the apostolic tradition are to be taught without any change of meaning. New insights or theological developments cannot be contrary to what the Church has always taught.
• Article two: Dogmas therefore are not “changeable approximations” of what the Church teaches.
• Article four: Without faith in Christ as true God and the only Savior, no one can attain salvation.
• Article six: Spiritualities and religions that promote any kind of idolatry or pantheism cannot be considered either the seeds or as fruit of the divine Word.
• Article seven: True ecumenism intends that non-Catholics should enter the unity which the Catholic Church already possesses.
• Article eight: Hell exists. Eternally damned human beings will not be annihilated, since their souls are immortal.
• Article nine: The only religion positively willed by God is born of faith in Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church. It is therefore false to believe that God positively wills the diversity of religions.
• Article eleven: God’s gift of free will grants to man the natural right to choose only the good and the true. No one has a natural right to offend God by choosing sin, the errors of idolatry, blasphemy, or a false religion.
• Article fourteen: All the commandments of God are equally just and merciful. No one may claim that by obeying God’s commandments, for example the sixth commandment, he sins or morally harms himself or sins against another person.
• Article fifteen: What is by nature contrary to the law of God, that is knowable by reason and proclaimed by the Church, such as killing a child in the mother’s womb, can never be justified by a good intention or a good consequence. So in other words, the end never justifies the means. This is certainly the case not only with abortion, but euthanasia, mentioned in Article eighteen.
• Article nineteen: Marriage is by divine ordinance and natural law an indissoluble union of one man and one woman, and the references given are Genesis 2:24, Mark 10:7-9, and Ephesians 5:31-32.
• Article twenty-three: Homosexual acts under no circumstances can be approved. It is therefore a grave error to maintain that God intends such acts for some people.
• Article twenty-four: No human law or power can give two persons of the same sex a right to marry one another or to declare two such persons to be married.
• Article twenty-seven: It is a rebellion against natural and divine law and a grave sin for a man to attempt to become a woman by mutilating himself or declaring himself to be such, or likewise for a woman to attempt to become a man.
• Article twenty-eight: In the most holy sacrament of the Eucharist, bread and wine cease to exist after the consecration, so that from then on the adorable body and blood of Jesus Christ are really before us under the appearance of bread and wine.
• Articles thirty-two and thirty-three: In the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, a true and proper sacrifice is offered to the Blessed Trinity, the very same sacrifice of Calvary rendered sacramentally present on our altars.
• Article thirty-four: The holy sacrifice of the Mass, with its unbloody immolation of Christ at the words of consecration, is performed by the priest and by him alone, as the representative of Christ, and not as the representative of the faithful.
• Article thirty-seven: The sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist may not be given to those who are in a public state of objectively grave sin, and sacramental absolution may not be given to those who express their unwillingness to conform to divine law.

This has been necessarily a summary of this excellent document, Declaration of Truths Relating to Some of the Most Common Errors in the Life of the Church in Our Time. We encourage all who have not read this document to do so. The complete text is found in an appendix to the book Christus Vincit, Bishop Athanasius Schneider’s conversation with Diane Montagna, published by angelicopress.com, and you can also find this same declaration on many websites, including roratecaeli.com.

From the Housetops Magazine and Pamphlets

From the Housetops Radio features the same Catholic doctrine, spirituality, Church history, and apologetics published for over forty years in From the Housetops magazine. This program, dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, promotes her cause in the age-old conflict with the powers of darkness. From the Housetops on WQPH 89.3 FM.

The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary have published two excellent pamphlets for basic Catholic apologetics: The One True Church and The Church or the Bible, Mission Sermons by Father Arnold Damen.

Father Damen was born in the province of North Brabant, Holland, in 1815. He was admitted to the Society of Jesus in 1830 and was one of the band of young novices brought over to this country by Father De Smet, renowned Jesuit missionary to the American Indians. In his illustrious career, which spanned some fifty years of apostolic work before his death on January 1, 1890, Father Damen and his companions conducted missions in nearly every principal city of the United States. He is said to have been more widely known in this country and at one time to have exercised personally a greater influence than any bishop or priest in the Catholic Church. Little wonder, for by his majestic presence and force of eloquence, Father Damen, as a missionary, rose to a success that surpassed anything ever before or since known in America.

The fiery apostolic zeal of this beloved priest can only scarcely be measured by the twelve thousand conversions to Catholicism for which he was responsible, often receiving as many as sixty or seventy souls into the Church in one day. It must be noted too that amidst all of this remarkable apostolic labor, he managed to found the first Jesuit parish in Chicago and the first college, which later became Loyola University.

The One True Church explains clearly and charitably that the only Church established by Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church. In The Church or the Bible, Father Damen proves without any doubt that the Bible cannot be the sole rule of faith which is claimed by Protestantism.

For your free copy of The One True Church and The Church or the Bible, contact us at info@saintbenedict.com, or write to us at Saint Benedict Center, PO Box 1000, Still River, Massachusetts 01467.

We’ll be back with more from the Housetops after this break.

True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Brother Matthew: We continue now True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary by Saint Louis de Montfort.

Chapter Two: Fundamental Truths of Devotion to the Blessed Virgin

The First Truth: Jesus Christ Is the Last End of Devotion to Mary

Jesus Christ our Savior, true God and true man, ought to be the last end of all our other devotions, else they are false and delusive. Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. We labor not, as the apostle says, except to render every man perfect in Jesus Christ, because it is in Him alone that the whole plenitude of the divinity dwells, together with all the other plenitudes of graces, virtues, and perfections. It is in Him alone that we have been blessed with all spiritual benediction, and He is our only Master who has to teach us, our only Lord on whom we ought to depend, our only Head to whom we must be united, our only Model to whom we should conform ourselves, our only Physician who can heal us, our only Shepherd who can feed us, our only Way who can lead us, our only Truth whom we must believe, our only Life who can animate us, and our only All in all things who can satisfy us. There has been no other name given under heaven except the name of Jesus by which we can be saved. God has laid no other foundation of salvation, our perfection or our glory, than Jesus Christ.

Every building that is not built on that firm rock is founded upon the moving sand, and sooner or later, infallibly, will fall. Every one of the faithful who is not united to Him as a branch to the stock of the vine shall fall, shall wither, and shall be fit only to be cast into the fire. Outside of Him there exists nothing but error, falsehood, iniquity, futility, death, and damnation. But if we are in Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is in us, we have no condemnation to fear. Neither the angels of heaven, nor the men of earth, nor the devils of hell, nor any other creature can injure us, because they cannot separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ, in Jesus Christ, we can do all things. We can render all honor and glory to the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost. We can become perfect ourselves and be to our neighbor a good odor of eternal life.

If then we establish solid devotion to our Blessed Lady, it is only to establish more perfectly devotion to Jesus Christ, and to provide an easy and secure means for finding Jesus Christ. If devotion to Our Lady removed us from Jesus Christ, we should have to reject it as an illusion of the devil. But so far from this being the case, devotion to Our Lady is on the contrary necessary for us, as a means of finding Jesus Christ perfectly, of loving Him tenderly, of serving Him faithfully.

We Belong to Jesus Christ and Mary as Their Slaves

We must conclude from what Jesus Christ is with regard to us, that is, as the apostle says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, we do not belong to ourselves, but are entirely His, as His members and His slaves, whom He has bought at an infinitely dear price, the price of all His blood. Before baptism, we belonged to the devil as his slaves, but baptism has made us true slaves of Jesus Christ, who have no right to live, to work, or to die except to bring forth fruit for that God-Man, to glorify Him in our bodies, and to let Him reign in our souls, because we are His conquest, His acquired people, and His inheritance.

It is for the same reason that the Holy Ghost compares us:

• First, to trees planted along the waters of grace in the field of the Church, who ought to bring forth their fruit in their seasons
• Second, to the branches of a vine of which Jesus Christ is the stock and which must yield good grapes
• Third, to a flock of which Jesus Christ is the shepherd and which is to multiply and give milk
• Fourth, to good land of which God is the husbandman, in which the seed multiplies itself and brings forth thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold

Jesus Christ cursed the unfruitful fig tree and pronounced sentence against the useless servant who had not made any profit on his talents. All this proves to us that Jesus Christ wishes to receive some fruits from our wretched selves, namely our good works, because those works belong to Him alone. “Created in good works in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:10), which words of the Holy Ghost show that Jesus Christ is the sole beginning and ought to be the sole end of all our good works, and also that we ought to serve Him, not as servants for wages, but as slaves of love.

By slavery, a man is entirely dependent on another during his whole life, and must serve his master without claiming any wages or reward. There are three types of slavery:

• A slavery of nature
• A slavery of constraint
• A slavery of will

All creatures are slaves of God in the first sense; “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 23). The demons and the damned are slaves in the second sense; the just and the saints in the third, because by slavery of the will we make choice of God and His service above all things, even though nature didn’t oblige us to do so. Slavery of the will is the most perfect and most glorious to God, who beholds the heart, claims the heart, and calls Himself the God of the heart, that is, of the loving will.

There is an entire difference between a servant and a slave. The servant demands wages for the services which he performs for his master, but the slave can demand nothing. There’s nothing among men which makes us belong to another more than slavery. There is nothing among Christians which makes us more absolutely belong to Jesus Christ and His Holy Mother than the slavery of the will, according to the example of Jesus Christ Himself, who took on Himself the form of a slave for love of us (Philippians 2), and also according to the example of the holy Virgin, who called herself the servant and slave of the Lord. The apostle calls himself, as by a title of honor, the slave of Christ. Christians are often so called in the holy Scriptures, and the word for “servus” signified in olden times a slave in the completest sense, because there were no servants then like those of the present day; masters were served only by slaves or freedmen. In order to leave no doubt about our being slaves of Jesus Christ, the Catechism of the Holy Council of Trent calls us “Mancipia Christi,” the slaves of Jesus Christ.

We ought to belong to Jesus Christ and to serve Him not only as mercenary servants, but as loving slaves, who, as a result of their great love, give themselves up to serve Him in the quality of slaves simply for the honor of belonging to Him. Before baptism, we were the slaves of the devil. Baptism has made us the slaves of Jesus Christ. Christians must be either the slaves of the devil or the slaves of Jesus Christ.

What Is Said of Jesus Christ Is Said Relatively of Our Lady

What is said absolutely of Jesus Christ is said relatively of Our Lady. Since Jesus Christ chose her for the inseparable companion of His life, of His death, of His glory, and of His power in heaven and upon earth, He gave her by grace, relatively to His Majesty, all the same rights and privileges which He possesses by nature. All that is fitting to God by nature is fitting to Mary by grace, say the saints, so that according to them, Mary and Jesus, having but the same will and the same power, have also the same subjects, servants, and slaves.

We may therefore, following the sentiments of the saints and of many great men, call ourselves and make ourselves the loving slaves of the most holy Virgin, in order to be, by that very means, the more perfectly the slaves of Jesus Christ. Our Blessed Lady is the means our Lord made use of to come to us. She is also the means which we must make use of to go to Him, for she isn’t like all other creatures, who if we should attach ourselves to them, might rather draw us away from God rather than draw us near Him. The strongest inclination of Mary is to unite us to Jesus Christ, her Son, and the strongest inclination of the Son is that we should come to Him through His Holy Mother. It is on this account that the holy fathers and Saint Bonaventure after them say that our Lady is the way to go to our Lord; the way of coming to Christ is to draw near to her.

Moreover, if, as we have said, the Holy Virgin is the Queen and sovereign of heaven and earth, has she not then as many subjects and slaves as there are creatures? Saint Anselm, Saint Bernard, Saint Bernardine, Saint Bonaventure say: all things, the Virgin included, are subject to the empire of God. Behold, all things, God included, are subject to the empire of the Virgin. Is it not reasonable that among so many slaves of constraint, there should be some of love, who of their own good will, in the quality of slaves, give themselves entirely to Mary? Are men and devils to have their voluntary slaves, and Mary to have none? Are we to think that our Lord, who as the best of all sons has divided His entire power with His holy Mother, shall take it ill that she too has her slaves? Has He less respect and love for His Mother than Esau had for Rebecca, or that Solomon had for Bathsheba? If we don’t wish to call ourselves slaves of the Blessed Virgin, let us make ourselves and call ourselves slaves of Jesus Christ, for that is being the slave of the Holy Virgin, inasmuch as Jesus is the fruit and the glory of Mary.

The Manual for Total Consecration to Mary

This book contains the readings and prayers for Saint Louis de Montfort’s thirty-three days of preparation for consecrating oneself to Jesus through Mary. This manual includes complete texts from Holy Scripture, the Imitation of Christ, Montfort’s writings and prayers used for total consecration, all in this one handy volume.

The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary of Saint Benedict Center are pleased to make this manual available for those committing themselves to Mary for the first time, or for those who wish to renew their consecration previously made. Available exclusively from Saint Benedict Center. Go to saintbenedict.com gift shop and order your copy of the Manual for Total Consecration to Mary.

From the Housetops is produced by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Still River, Massachusetts.