"Where Christ does not reign, the dictatorship of Satan prevails"
-Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano
The
school of the Holy Liturgy repeats cyclically, year by year, the
Mysteries of the Savior’s life, showing them to us in the threefold
light of the Old Law that prefigured them, the New Law that fulfills
them, and the End of Time that leads them back to their
eschatological and eternal dimension. Like the wheel of a chariot or
the orbit of a planet, the liturgical year turns on its axis as it
moves along an ever wider path, so that with each turn it has made
the final goal come closer and closer and, in some ways, clearer. The
Mysteries of Holy Week respond to this highly pedagogical approach,
recalling the figures of the Old Testament, manifesting the reality
of the New Testament, and progressively thinning out the fog that
envelops the future of the Church and of all humanity.
In
this light, Our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which
repeats the royal liturgical ceremonial of David’s coronation (1
Kings 1:38-40), fulfills Zechariah’s prophecy (Zech 9:9) and
anticipates the return in glory of the Supreme Judge, when He will
reveal himself on the day of judgment (Zech 14:4). The cloaks spread
by the people as the Messianic King passed, and in particular along
the steps of the temple (2 Kings 9:13), also allude to the accession
to the throne and perfectly fulfill the words of the Psalmist:
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, we bless you from
the house of the Lord. The Lord is God and enlightens us. Celebrate
the solemn day with thick branches, up to the corners of the altar.
(Ps 117:26-27).
In
the economy of Salvation, everything is recapitulated in Christ the
King, He who is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End: Heri,
hodie et in sæcula. Our society’s contemporary mentality,
narrow-minded in its ignorance that uproots it from the past and
deprives it of a future, does not tolerate the possibility of
acclaiming a King today. It does not tolerate it because every
sovereign, especially if he is a Christian, brings to mind the One
Universal King, from whom all earthly authority emanates. It does not
tolerate it because all earthly Monarchy – both the temporal and
the spiritual – is intrinsically consistent with the divine κόσμος
[order], to the point that even animal creatures organized in
society, such as bees, have their own queen. It does not tolerate it
because kingly power is necessarily of divine origin: regnum meum
non est de hoc mundo (Jn 18:36), the Lord says to Pilate,
signifying not that His authority is not exercised over human
societies, but that the origin of this authority is supernatural and
therefore superior. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants
would have fought that I should not be handed over to the Jews; but
my kingdom is not of this world (Jn 18:36).
That
is why the Revolution, which is the earthly realization of the
infernal χάος [chaos], imposes “democracy” as a model: not
because it is not lawful for men to give themselves a regime in which
the multitude governs, but because precisely in proclaiming that the
people are “sovereign” it intends to dethrone Our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Divine King. And the people who delude themselves into
thinking they are masters of themselves and their own destinies
inexorably end up being slaves of potentates and tyrannical lobbies,
devoted to evil. Because where Christ does not reign, the
dictatorship of Satan prevails. Temporal power, which in the order
willed by God is the vicar on earth of His power, once it has been
torn from its origin and perverted in its ultimate end, becomes
illegitimate, because it is exercised against the Divine Majesty and
against His Law.
The
Revolution has also entered the Catholic Church, and with it the
blasphemous idea that even the Papacy can be distorted in its
essence, “reinterpreted” – as the Bergoglians hypocritically
like to say – in a “synodal,” that is, democratic, key. It was
all anticipated in the texts of the Second Vatican Council, in which,
like those who poison wells, the neo-modernists poured out their
heresies, allowing the passage of time to bring them back at the
right moment in their devastating destructiveness. The collegiality
of Lumen Gentium is nothing but the infected seed of
Bergoglian synodality. The usurper who impiously occupies the Throne
of the Prince of the Apostles knows well that the premises laid down
by the Renunciation of Benedict XVI and the creation of an “emeritus
papacy” allow him to hypothesize a “president” of the Papacy
who holds the munus petrinum, and a college of Cardinals –
and Cardinalesses, why not – who exercise the ministerium.
In this case too, papal authority, separated from Christ the Eternal
High Priest, becomes illegitimate.
The
vacancy of both civil and religious authority is a recurring element
in sacred history. When Our Lord became incarnate and was born of
Mary Most Holy, both the High Priests Annas and Caiaphas and King
Herod had come to power through fraud and manipulated appointments
and therefore did not represent legitimate power. When Jesus Christ
returns to take possession of what is His by Divine Right, by
lineage, and by conquest, both civil and religious authority will
also be vacant. And behold, this situation, for those who know how to
read the events sub specie æternitatis, is already present
before our eyes.
To
place one’s hopes in men, however well-intentioned, is always a
deception: maledictus homo qui confidit in homine, says the
Prophet (Jer 17:5); and he continues: I will make you a slave to
your enemies in a land you do not know, because you have kindled the
fire of my anger, which will burn forever (Jer 17:4). Today we no
longer recognize our land, devastated in nature, invaded by hordes of
barbarians, devastated by crimes and sins that cry out to Heaven for
vengeance. We are strangers in our homeland and enemies of those who
claim to govern us. To think that salvation comes from men is
illusory and blasphemous. Our only salvation, in fact, is the Cross
of Christ: O Crux, ave, spes unica! A salvation that the Lord
grants us only on condition that we follow Him, until we reign with
Him in eternity.
In
the Lord welcomed triumphantly into Jerusalem, we see the fulfillment
of Zechariah’s prophecy: Behold, your king is coming to you. He
is just and victorious, humble, he rides on a donkey, a colt son of a
donkey (Zech 9:9). Humble, he rides a donkey. Because the divine
Kingship of Christ wants to be recognized in humility: in the
humility of the One who, out of obedience to the Father, became
incarnate, propter nos homines et propter nostram salutem, for
us men and for our salvation, offering himself as a divine Victim. If
Christ had not been recognized as King and High Priest in the supreme
act of His Sacrifice, He would not have represented before the Father
either the individuals or the nations that are the object of the
Redemption. But, at the same time, if we want to reign with Christ,
we must also with Christ ascend the Throne of the Cross. Saint Peter
reminds us of this: For you were called to this, because Christ
suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow in his
footsteps (1 Pt 2:21).
He is just and
victorious, humble (Zech 9:9). The justice violated by our sin
demanded reparation: He is just. Reparation required the
Passion and Death to overcome death: He is victorious. His
throne is a scaffold, his crown is one of thorns, his scepter is a
reed, his robe the clothing of fools: He is humble.
In
this royal humility we cannot fail to recognize Mary Most Holy as Our
Lady and Queen, the Regina Crucis. Let us take her as our model, in
these hours of darkness which, just as in the darkness of Good
Friday, are a prelude to the triumph of the Resurrection. Let us
never forget it: it is at the foot of the Cross, the throne of the
Lamb, that the Divine King established the Most August Virgin as our
Mother, and we as Her children. And so may it be.
Carlo
Maria Viganò, Archbishop
