Right Order vs. Demonic Anarchy
Part One
God is a God of right order. The peace of heaven is the happiness of right order. When the Garden of Paradise was created and placed in the hands of Adam, all was well ordered: the rest of creation recognized man, made in the image and likeness of God, as its lord and master and obeyed him. Not only inanimate creation and the non-rational animals, but even the heavenly angels stood ready to assist and serve man. Adam was placed in charge not only to preserve this wonderful right order, but also to extend it throughout the rest of the world; when he was given the order to "increase and multiply. " (Gen 1, 28) Many only see in this a command to bring forth his children. This command included this, but also much more: Adam was to increase all the good things and all the right order that he was given; he was to increase in the love of God; to multiply in a physical world the right order of heaven. We see that this command entails so much more than the begetting of children to give greater honor and glory to God. All was perfect and the plan was set. There was: right order, peace that comes from right order; happiness that comes from peace, and ultimately love that reciprocates toward God in response to all the love God has showered upon man.
We learn in the book of the Apocalypse that prior to the creation of Adam and this paradise there was a major battle in Heaven when Lucifer and some other angels became filled with pride and vanity and rebelled against God. (Apoc. 12, 7) These rebel angels (devils) were cast down out of heaven by St. Michael and the other good angels. After this battle right order continued to reign in heaven. The problem now was that these demons took up residence in the physical world and sought to disturb the right order in the physical world.
In the Garden of Paradise we see that God reserved a place for man that was untouched by these devils and was guarded by angels to preserve it from their assaults. The devils saw man in this physical world that was so like and so close to God and Heaven by the right order that reigned there, and became filled with a rage of envy and jealousy. The battle that they lost in the spiritual world was now to continue in the physical world. The demonic plot of anarchy was made and put into effect. The demons sought to seduce men and draw them away from the blissful paradise and drag them into the misery and suffering of anarchy; because their envy filled them with hatred for men that God loved so much.
The devils seduced man to destroy him. Adam, and in him all men, chose anarchy over order; rebellion over obedience. Paradise was not destroyed, but man was now barred from it by the same angels that were guarding it against the devils.
Man now found himself in rebellion against God and right order; and also found that all the rest of the physical creation was in rebellion against him. He must suffer in a similar manner just as the devils: separated from God, Heaven, and paradise; and suffering the pain and misery of disorder and lack of peace and love.
But, all was not completely lost: God had mercy on man and promised to send a redeemer (Jesus Christ, the Son of God) to save man from this state and restore him to love and right order; and therefore to peace, and happiness. All the rest of the history of man is nothing more than the continuation of this battle of order against disorder; love against hatred and envy; life against death.
The foundation for the saving of man and returning him to Paradise where he was originally destined to be, was laid out in the Old Testament principally in the Law of Moses where right order was commanded and imposed under penalties of punishment. When Jesus Christ came He built the Church upon this foundation. He came to fulfill the Old Law not destroy it. That fulfillment we see clearly established in the Catholic Church; the true (One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic) Church.
Each of us have come into this world outside this Church; enemies of God; born to damnation; suffering, and misery that comes from the disorder of anarchy. In the mercy of God we are invited in baptism to renounce this world of disorder along with the devils that maintain it with their envious hatred of us and our calling of happiness in the love of God. The true Catholic Church therefore is the Kingdom of God here on earth. She is our safe abode from the anarchy of this world until we can be reinstated body and soul in that Paradise that was originally prepared for us. At the end of time this world will be purified and renewed, all the evil will be eternally banished and good men will enjoy the heavenly paradise forever.
Until that time we must constantly fight and struggle against the demonic anarchy of this world and the disorder of our souls inherited from Adam. We find relief, succor, encouragement and nourishment to do this only in the true Church. The holy Sacraments were given to us by Christ to give us the grace we need throughout our lives. Each Sacrament is made for the various stages of our spiritual lives to give us all that we need to lead us back to God, bringing us closer and closer, grace by grace; perfecting our love toward the goal of reaching perfect love in eternal union with Him.
The Church; Mystical Body of Christ; the Kingdom of God on earth, is Mistress of these graces of order, harmony, and love. She is still in this disordered physical world; as the ordered physical world is reserved for us at the end of time; but She holds the door for all who will enter. As no one gets into Heaven except through Jesus Christ, likewise no one comes to Christ except through His bride the Church. She is the channel of all of God's graces. She is commissioned to establish order for all who will be saved by Her threefold power of teaching, governing, and sanctifying. She, like Her Spouse, Heaven, and Paradise, is a Kingdom of right order. So we find in Her a Divine order established by God (Jesus Christ) maintained by God (Holy Ghost). This Divine Order is manifested in Her hierarchy: deacons, priests, bishops, and pope. The pope is the visible head here on earth and maintains the visible order established by Christ, but he is not the essence of the Church or Her sacred order. Otherwise the Church would have died with St. Peter or any of the other interims between the death of one pope and the election of another. We know from the doctrines of our basic Catechism that the essential marks of the true Church are: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Papal is not one of these marks, but Apostolic is. We can logically and orderly conclude that there must of necessity always be successors to the Apostles (bishops) but not necessarily must there always be a pope. The Church does not die with a pope but continues on in the bishops. The bishops are not agents of a pope but: teach, govern, and sanctify in their own right by the powers given them by the Holy Ghost when they were elevated to the High Priesthood. All power in Heaven and on earth has been given to them.
In striking the Shepherd (Jesus Christ) or the visible representative of the Shepherd (the pope) the sheep are scattered; unity and right order are attacked but cannot be destroyed. Unity and right order continue in the true shepherds (the bishops) who remain faithful to their calling. Where the bishop is, there is the Church.
St. Ignatius relates in a letter to the Smyrnaens: "See that you all follow the bishop, even as Jesus Christ does the Father, and the presbytery as you would the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as being the institution of God. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the people] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast; but whatsoever he shall approve of, that is also pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be secure and valid. "
Every true Catholic knows his bishop and the bishop knows him. (The bishop may only know him through his agents the priests, but he knows them none the less.) Some may object that the priests are not agents of the bishop because with his ordination he receives the power to perform all his priestly functions, and is in fact an alter-Christos. This is true, but the priest is not a shepherd as the bishop is. A priest can only minister to the flock with the shepherd's permission. For theological discussion and legal arguments this authority to shepherd or minister to the flock is called: "Jurisdiction. "
A simple and logical consideration of jurisdiction shows us that the true Church must always have it. It cannot be completely dependent only upon one man (even the pope), but must of necessity be dispersed among all the true successors to the apostles. It must as all order and grace, come from God not one man; otherwise it could be destroyed with the death of that one man; the Church would fall into anarchy and die. The True Church therefore continues in the true bishops with or without a true pope. True bishops must have all their power and authority from God not man. For right order, peace, and happiness they must work in union with a true pope (vicar of Jesus Christ) but when there is no true pope they must carry on the mission entrusted to them by the Holy Ghost on the day of their consecration. And to do this they must have all power and authority over the flock including jurisdiction.
In theological studies we see jurisdiction divided into "ordinary " and "delegated ". Bishops hold ordinary (non-delegated) power given them by God. Priests have delegated jurisdiction and must answer to the bishop who gave them this authority.
Theology also speaks of "supplied " jurisdiction. The Church supplies in certain situations the right to minister to a member of a flock some spiritual aid (sacrament). The Church is the bishop, so what is being related here is the fact that for the good of a member of the bishop's flock, the bishop grants to any valid priest for that instance alone the right to administer a sacrament. Supplied jurisdiction is of necessity not an ongoing or boundless permission. To continue beyond the immediate necessity a priest must present himself to the shepherd of the flock (the bishop) and obtain proper permission, otherwise his efforts are rendered illicit (illegal — without merit or value). This is the necessary right order that must always remain in the true Church.
The devils are forever envious of the Church just as they were of Adam in the Garden of Paradise, and so are constantly tempting and attacking Her. To maintain Her right order, peace, and happiness, it is necessary that She have a mechanism in place to exclude some from her membership — barring some, and expelling others — just as the angels barred and expelled sinful man from the Garden of Paradise. The popes have taught us infallibly as head of the Apostolic college (college of bishops) what excludes people from her membership.
Heresy is one very important thing that cuts off, bars, and excludes one from membership. A heretic is therefore by definition outside the Church — a non-Catholic. It is therefore absurdly ridiculous and illogical to state that a man can be both a heretic and pope at the same time. A heretic is not a member of the Church, so obviously he cannot be the head of the Church because the head is a member of the Church.
Pope Leo XIII speaking on "Unity of the Church " says: "'There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by Our Lord and handed down by apostolic tradition.' The practice of the Church has always been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium. "
It is anarchy that the Lefebvre sects and spawn are promoting when they twist reason and logic trying to prove that the heretic in Rome claiming the title of pope is truly a heretic but is still a pope. What is even more shocking is that there are a good many people swallowing these lies. Perhaps, though, it is not so surprising when we consider the history of men and their eagerness to believe the lies of the devils rather than the Truth of God.
In a supplement from the Lefebvre sect's magazine ( "Angelus ") titled: "Supplied Jurisdiction and Traditional Priests, " they attempt by twisting reason and logic, to prove that their "priests " have "supplied " jurisdiction. In stretching the term "In articulo mortis " (at the moment of death) to include "spiritual death " (which we assume is used in its traditional sense of mortal sin.); and "the Church " to mean some ethereal being rather than the ordinary pastor (bishop); they leave a wide path of anarchy where no right order is left standing, and all true authority is completely emasculated. In a strange twist of logic the authority of the bishop is replaced by a democratic movement of the flock. They thus conclude that it is the people that supply them with jurisdiction. Their supplement says: "But in order that such a ministry and such admonitions be fruitful it is necessary that the faithful in question accept them willingly. It is inasmuch as you do not refuse to receive from your priests the ministry which they have the right to exercise for your good, that is to say for the good of the Church, that the jurisdiction that you in a certain way give them will be able to be fruitfully exercised. " (emphasis added)
It is only with the grace of God and a sincere pursuit and love of the truth that the absurdity of this Lefebvre sect position can be seen in its true heinously evil colors. Many are swallowed into this anarchy because of their pride. It is the same type of pride that seduced Eve and then Adam. The Lefebvre sect promises not to be like God, while directly disobeying Him; but rather to be like His bride, the Church, while directly disobeying Her. They pretend to honor Her by fawning obedience to a false semblance of Her, but even in this they simultaneously openly disobey. They denounce the authority of Modernist Rome while feigning submission to the same. They promise their victims (followers) that they (the followers) are the Church and they (the followers) give jurisdiction to their "priests. " These followers now are promised that they are like bishops and popes granting jurisdiction to the "priests. " These "priests " promise to obey and serve these people just as the devils promise to obey and serve the men who will enter into a compact (contract) with them. The tragedy is in the fact that pride has so blinded these poor followers that they cannot see the absurdity and anarchy that this "offer " has in store, much less the eternal suffering that awaits them in Hell as payment for the compact.
As we feel the hatred and odium from these deceived souls for pointing out the simple truth, may we not reciprocate; hatred for hatred; evil for evil; but rather let us return love for evil. Let us weep over their folly as Jesus wept over the folly of Israel when She refused to hear Him. Let us pray with Jesus when they persecute us: "Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing. " (St. Luke 23, 34) In this love let us ever remain humble, realizing that we too may have fallen for the same snares if it were not for the grace of God. It is truly the grace of God that has preserved and continues to preserve His remnant from Paganism, Islam, Judaism, Protestantism, Novus Ordo Modernism, Lefebvre type Traditionalism etc., and every other form of heresy and schism. May we ever strive to grow in love, humility and obedience: to both God and His Church that resides in the remaining true bishops.