Sunday Meditation: Never Forget: The True Shepherds Celebrated Mass in the Meadow

This photo shows Fr. Reuter celebrating Mass at the fairgrounds during COVID. He was our first SSPX pastor when the chapel was established several years ago. We first met him when he came from the seminary to celebrate Mass at the fairgrounds while all the churches were closed. The diocesan bishops all bent the knee to Caesar. A few priests around the country celebrated Mass in their parking lots. One rented a U-Haul and drove around his diocese with his portable sanctuary. But for most Catholics in the country, their shepherds locked the churches and delivered a stone instead of bread to the faithful. They could have appealed the government lockdowns which left abortion businesses and liquor stores open. They did not. Their actions said, "We have no king but Caesar." I'm still waiting for an apology! They save that for other folks, like those angry over Pachamama being thrown in the Tiber.

And now, the powers that be want everyone to just forget that it was the SSPX who remained vigilant and zealous for souls during the pandemic. They tell us these good shepherds are excommunicated and in schism and if we go along with them we laity are too. How can I believe it? How can anyone believe it? 

I love the Church and I pray for the pope every day. But my intellect and will, which I believe are well formed, find the DDF's condemnation, not just unconvincing, but ridiculous. How can a Cardinal who believes no one can go to hell because God won't allow it have any power of persuasion over the faithful? If no one goes to hell then schism and excommunication are meaningless! And how can one trust a pope who leaves such a man running one of the most important offices of the Church. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith should uphold the faith as taught by the apostles. Instead, novelties and statements that contradict past teachings of the Church cast confusion everywhere. Confusion is never a sign of truth, but is the calling card of Satan.

Had COVID never happened with the betrayal of the bishops, my husband and I would still be attending our local Novus Ordo parish. It was our gratitude to the SSPX that led us to return whole-heartedly to the Traditional Latin Mass and sacraments of our youth and remain when the churches re-opened. We could not repay our debt of gratitude to these priests if we lived another entire lifetime. 

I will never forget the laity kneeling in the field to confess to these men who drove two and a half hours one-way from the seminary near Charlottesville to bring us Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. I will never forget Fr. Reuter shivering in the rain, wind, and cold on Holy Thursday to bring us the Mass of the Lord's Supper. And no amount of fulminations from Cardinal Fernandez whose faith is obviously questionable, will convince me that those of us who continue to attend the SSPX are "out of the boat." As I've told several people, we are down in the bowels of the ship trying to plug up the holes and bail water while those in charge take an axe to the lifeboats.

No crisis in the Church? Do you have eyes? No state of necessity? Do you have ears? May we all defend Holy Mother Church from the Judases within. Jesus knew Judas would betray Him. His presence among the apostles was God's way of telling us that those closeted in the Church can be traitors and we have abundant examples. Our response must be to grow ever more faithful through prayer, penance, and study. In times of trial the graces flow more abundantly. Let us beg for them and be open to them that we might become more zealous soldiers in the Church Militant.

May Jesus Christ be praised.