SSPX resistance : Fr Pfeiffer's sermon : IF THE SALT LOSES ITS FLAVOR

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IF THE SALT LOSES ITS FLAVOR
Fr. Joseph Pfeiffer
November 24, 2012

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.

Today is the feast of St. John of the Cross but it is a time to say, "Blessed is the mouth of the just man who contemplates wisdom." We say often this Mass of the Doctor of the Church, Teacher of the Church—who contemplates wisdom. And also, we speak of the priest: "You are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world. If the salt loses its savor, wherewith can it be salted? And what is the purpose of the light—the light of the world? The light is placed up on a lamp stand and the duty of the priest in all times, in all places, is to preach the truth in season and out of season. To preach the truth is our duty! We are the followers of Christ and have the obligation to preach the truth, and the truth is something which is meant to be communicated. For the teacher who does not teach, he is not fulfilling his office.

We are now at a time in which Our Lord says "You are the light of the world." The light has no value in itself, and the salt has no value in itself. If you eat salt, you eat salt, then you will not have a very healthy life. Salt is not something that you can eat directly. But if you have meat and if you have food, if you put salt on it, it makes the food taste good and it preserves it that it does not become poisonous and make us sick. Salt is not good by itself, but salt is very good if it is keeping food from being corrupted and if it is making that food to have a better taste so that we can eat it.

The priest is the salt of the earth. He brings with him Jesus Christ and he brings with him the Catholic truth and he has to "salt" the world. One of the things that Elizaeus the prophet found was that there is water that was filled with evil. There was water that was poisonous and bitter and could not be drunk. He took salt and put it into the water and this salt that he put into the water—the priest does that--whenever we bless Holy Water we do what Elizaeus did—we put salt in the water and it makes that which is bitter taste sweet. And so, the salt also is a reminder to us that in this world ever since Adam and Eve committed the original sin, the whole world is given over to corruption and we bring salt to a corrupted world. And salt goes into the corrupted world and salt preserves it. If you put salt on a wound, it causes great pain but it may also purify the wound, but it causes pain. So salt has the power to cause pain when it touches wounds. But salt is what the priest is about! And when the priest is no longer salt, he has lost his savor.

And this is the greatest attack of the devil against the Church. How does he destroy the Church? If there are only wicked priests, and there will always be wicked priests such as Judases throughout the whole history of the Church, there will always be wicked bishops, there will always be wicked men and Our Lord guaranteed that there would be wicked men from the beginning of time until the very end. "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a field which has cockle in it" so we know there are always going to be wicked men inside of our Church, not only wheat. There are going to be laborers and enemies that enter into our Church in the middle of the night and that sow the weeds amongst the wheat. There will always be wicked men in our Church. This is one of the reasons why Our Lord allowed Judas to be amongst the apostles, and not only Judas but at one point all 12 of those apostles were wicked, all 12 of them turned away from God; all 12 of them ran away in fear the night He was about to be crucified. So we are not to be overly disturbed at wicked men. But what DOES cause disturbance is when the salt loses it savor.

A wicked man has salt, but it is a wicked salt—it is a poison. As they say, the wicked man is like poison; the good priest is like salt. But when the Church is destroyed is not when there are wicked men but rather when there are priests and when there are bishops and when there are Faithful as well but especially priests and bishops and popes who have lost their savor. It is not that they have become wicked; it is that they are no longer salting, they are no longer putting salt upon the meat and so the meat tastes bland and the meat corrupts too quickly. The meat turns into Botulism and other diseases and the Faithful eat this meat and they become sick but it's not because of a wicked priest but because of a priest who is like Heli.

Heli was a priest who did not do great evil in the sight of the Lord but he was a priest who allowed great evil to be done because he didn't correct his sons. He himself was a man of prayer but he did not correct his sons. He did not fulfill the duties he should have fulfilled as High Priest and therefore God told the boy Samuel that Heli would die on the same day as his wicked sons. His two sons were wicked and Heli was not wicked. But how did these two wicked sons become wicked? Because their non-wicked father did not fulfill his duty. And this is perhaps one of the reasons why we have the common saying, I don't know who is the origin of this saying, but we have the common saying that evil is not spread because of wicked men doing wickedness but because of good men doing nothing. THE POWER OF THE DEVIL IN THE CHURCH WAS NOT THAT THERE WERE SOME MASONS THAT GOT IN. IT WAS NOT THAT THERE WERE SOME WICKED MEN WHO GOT INTO HIGH PLACES AND CHANGED THE LAWS AND STARTED TO PUT HERESIES INTO THE CHURCH. THE TROUBLE WAS THAT THE GOOD MEN LOST THEIR SAVOR. THE GOOD PRIESTS AND THE GOOD BISHOPS DID NOT ANYMORE WANT TO OFFEND.

St. John Chrysostom says, "THE MAJORITY OF PRIESTS GO TO HELL." Why do the majority of priests go to Hell? says St. John Chrysostom. "IT IS NOT BECAUSE OF THE WICKED THINGS THEY DO." Priests are sinners. Many priests will do during their lives some wicked things. But St. John Chrysostom says, "THE MAJORITY OF PRIESTS WILL GO TO HELL NOT BECAUSE OF THE WICKED THINGS THEY DO BUT BECAUSE OF THE GOOD THAT THEY DO NOT DO."

Imagine that there are many, many patients who need surgery and who need medication who are all lying on the floor and dying in this room and there is a doctor. The doctor did not spread the disease and the doctor has some medication and the doctor knows what to do but instead of doing something he says, "Well, you know, I have other things to do" and he leaves and those people die. The doctor is guilty and priests are doctors!

Now you will say that that doctor who did not cause the disease, that doctor who did not do a wicked thing, that doctor is guilty and should be punished because he did not administer medicine to those who were in need when he had the means to do so and this shall be the cause of punishment for many good priests, many good bishops, many good popes. They will find themselves in grave danger of losing their souls because though they are good in themselves, they have lost their savor. They are no longer putting the salt into the wounds or the salt into the meat. They are no longer acting as salt, no longer acting as light, no longer fulfilling their duty as priests.

The candle was not meant to be put under the bushel. And remember, in the old days you put a candle under the bushel—it was not like a light bulb under the bushel—you put a candle under the bushel and there's going to be a fire and the house is going to burn down! But the candle is meant to go on the candle stand. When the candle is on the candle stand, then we can see and we can work in the night.

THE PRIEST IS A MAN WHO WORKS IN THE NIGHT. WE WORK IN THE NIGHT OF THIS WORLD. And the great tragedy of what is happening right now in the Catholic Church is that many, many good priests who are good men with good hearts—they do not want to offend; they do not want to experience the cross; they do not want to do anything bad.

It is like the general who goes into battle and he doesn't want any of his men to die and he doesn't want to lose, and so he sits there. He gets ambushed. He gets destroyed and fails in every battle he will ever fight because the general was not made to just protect his men. A general wasn't made to be secure and safe. A general was made to go out and win a war! A general is made to go out and kill the enemy! A general is made to protect his homeland! He was made to do something!!!

And the great tragedy of what's happening right now in the Church, now it is happening to us inside of Catholic Tradition, and it has been happening over the last 40 years in a very visible way outside of Catholic Tradition in the mainstream Church in which many priests who don't like the altar being taken away from the wall in the 1960s, who don't like the altar girls, who don't like Communion in the hand, who don't like being told they can't preach about Hell anymore, who don't like these things—but, to keep their positions, to do good within, they decided, "Well, I guess I have to make sure the Eucharistic Ministers are properly dressed. I'll tell the good people: You go to Communion to me only. Don't go to Communion to the Eucharistic Ministers, and I highly encourage all of you to kneel down when you receive Holy Communion." In this way, he will subtly bring the people back to God.

BUT THE DUTY OF THE PRIEST IS TO SAY THE TRUTH!!!

Fr. Hannifin, my old pastor, in 1970 he was a Catholic priest in a liberal parish and they came out with the New Mass in 1969 and they said, "Father, are you going to say the New Mass?" and he said, "No! We don't like it. Okay, too bad! Go to some other church but it's not happening in THIS church." And they wanted to bring in the lay board, and he threw the lay board out! And he said the Latin Tridentine Mass and he refused the lay ministers, he refused the New Mass, he would not allow it in his church—St. Michael's in Fairfield, Kentucky—and until 1973 there was not a New Mass. And the people—the head of the choir, the head of the church—they were all angry. They didn't like the old, crotchety Irish priest but Faithful from around the diocese including my family knew that Fr. Hannifin was very far away and saying the True Mass and teaching the True Faith and so they came from other places and THEY PRESERVED THEIR FAITH BECAUSE THE PRIEST DIDN'T CARE WHAT THE OTHERS THOUGHT. HE KNEW THAT AS I STAND BEFORE GOD, IF I SAY THIS NEW MASS WHETHER EVERYONE ELSE IS SAYING IT OR NOT, I WILL NOT SAVE MY SOUL AND I MUST DO THE RIGHT THING.

And now we are in a similar situation inside of the Society of St. Pius X right now. There are many good priests. A new directive just came down from Menzigen in the last few weeks to all the superiors throughout the Society of St. Pius X: "No district superior, no priors and no priests are to speak about the SSPX relations with Rome. Only Menzigen will give the official communications. If someone asks you about it, then tell them nothing. 'we will get the official communications from above.'"

But what are our dealings with Rome? OUR DEALINGS WITH ROME ARE DEALINGS WITH WOLVES--our dealings with Rome and the dealings with those who are working for the damnation of the souls in our care. And when the shepherd meets the wolf, he does not meet him with love. When the shepherd meets the wolf, he combats the wolf. And when the shepherd meets lies, he directly attacks the lies. And when the shepherd sees that his flock is in danger, the shepherd must protect the flock!

Fr. Chazal told Bishop Tissier and Bishop Tissier said, "I agree with you and Fr. Pfeiffer. I agree with what you are teaching but you should be silent! You should be silent and wait until I the bishop and we the captains decide to speak!" And so Father told him, "Well, you say that you agree that we are teaching the truth, that we must beware of this liberal movement towards Modernism in the SSPX, we must beware of this false deal with Rome which destroys our flock, and we must be silent about it. Well, we will NOT be silent! Because when the shepherd refuses to defend the flock, the dog is the next line of defence. And so, when you are ready to join us, we will be there barking. And when the dog gives up, then it is the male sheep with his little horns who is the next line of defense."

But the fact is that we must fight against the enemies of God and to recognize that in our present crisis if we make this present deal with Rome, which they now say is off and yet they still want it—they say it is off because they don't think it is going to happen or at least not now in order to placate the enemies of the deal but they want it; they want to be under Modernist Rome. The six conditions which are wicked conditions still stand as the official conditions that we are willing to accept, NONE OF WHICH ARE THE CONDITIONS LAID DOWN BY OUR FOUNDER, WHICH IS SIMPLY ONE PRINCIPLE CONDITION: THAT ROME RETURNS TO GOD, THAT ROME RETURNS TO THE FAITH, THAT ROME RETURNS TO HERSELF.

St. Bernard used to say it like this: He said, "Whenever you sin, you are not yourself." He used to speak to people and say, "Come, be yourself. You are not yourself." Whenever we sin, we are not ourselves and the truth is also regarding Rome. When Rome goes against God and when Rome sins, Rome is not being Rome! We are waiting for Rome to come back to its senses.

Remember the great King Nebuchadnezzar. Sacred Scripture tells us that he was the greatest of kings but one day he went nuts because he was too proud. So God wanted to let him know that he was not so powerful on his own and he thought he was a cow for seven years. He didn't know he was a king. For seven years he ate grass. And during those seven years he wasn't able to rule and so he ate grass and the people of Babylon had to wait until he came to himself. And after seven years of being humbled and eating grass, God took him out of his humility and made him a great king again and he was a great king again but for seven years he was eating grass.

And so likewise, for 40 years our Roman Church in Rome, the Seat of the Holy Roman Catholic Church has lost its head and is acting like a beast. Therefore, we wait patiently for It to come to Itself. And when Rome comes to Herself, then we are ready to obey Rome and follow Rome. But as long as Rome is acting like a cow and as long as Rome is eating grass, as long as Rome is not acting like Rome, as long as Rome is acting like the seat of the Anti-Christ as the Blessed Virgin said it would act like when She said at La Salette, "Rome shall become the seat of the Anti-Christ. Rome shall lose the Faith and become the seat of the Anti-Christ." The seat is the place of power. In other words, from Rome Itself will come the wicked commands. From Rome Itself will come the direction and the coordination and the preparation for the Anti-Christ and the spreading of his kingdom.

We see that clearly in October of last year just a few weeks after Assisi Pope Benedict XVI said, "We will encourage a one-world economy. We want a one-world currency. We need a one-world government" and that's NOT a government under Christ. It's a government to obviously destroy the rights of man that they have before God and the rights of God are already gone. We have a world that is preparing for the Anti-Christ. And who is the one who tells us we must have this world? The pope.

And so what has happened? And also, it says in the Mass today that "Heaven and earth shall pass away but My word shall not pass away. Amen, amen I say to you not one jot nor tittle shall be—every single element of the prophecies made in Scripture shall be fulfilled" but two weeks ago or three weeks ago on November 14th, Pope Benedict XVI said in his weekly address of the Angelus, he referred to the Mayan Calendar; and the Mayans said that the world is coming to an end on December 21, 2012. And he says that, you know, we shouldn't worry about gloom and doom. And when Our Lord Jesus Christ said the sky will be darkened and the moon will no longer give its light and the heavens shall fall, and He said all those negative things—according to Pope Benedict XVI Jesus Christ was not being a prophet! He was not trying to prophesy. He was just saying, "Be good, be nice, and get ready for Heaven." He wasn't trying to be a prophet and yet, Jesus Christ said, "Every prophecy in this book shall be fulfilled" for Jesus Christ has one idea about His prophecies and Pope Benedict XVI has another. And the Traditional teaching of Our Holy Roman Church has one idea about Jesus Christ and His prophecies and Pope Benedict XVI and Modernist Rome has another! THEY ARE NOT THE SAME!

And St. Paul says, "If an angel from Heaven teaches you something different than what I have taught you; if we ourselves [Paul himself] or an angel from Heaven teaches you something different than what we have already taught you, let him be anathema.

Remember the wisdom of Ulysses. Ulysses, when he was going by the sirens told the Greeks, "Tie me to a tree or tie me to the mast and whatever orders I give you, whatever commands you hear, do not listen! I will probably be so done in by the sirens that I will command you to stop the ship, to turn the ship towards the sirens and then we will all be killed and so I command you that when the sirens are singing and as long as the sirens are singing, do NOT obey me" and that was a wise command from Ulysses.

And this is our command also. The sirens of the Modernists are singing in Rome. No matter what wonderful commands and what beautiful Gregorian chant they play at the modern Mass (I say prayers often in the Novus Ordo churches, seeing now the priests come out in Roman vestments with beautiful chalices and during the New Mass they sing, 'Kyrie....'—it is very beautiful). Only, the Mass is still a sacrilege. It's STILL THE NEW MASS. "But it looks so much better! Shouldn't we give in?" As long as the sirens are singing, you keep the captain tied to the mast and you don't listen to him. Until such time as he no longer hears the sirens' song, and this time has not yet come and therefore we do not change our stance.

They are telling us that there is a new era in Tradition. Things aren't the same as before. Bishop Fellay told us in his March 18th letter of 2012, the letter that was sent to us priests and is not yet published to everyone else; it's the letter of our Cor Unum, our internal, official bulletin of the Society of St. Pius X—he says, "Things are so different now than what they were in 2006! In 2006 the General Chapter said we cannot make a deal with Rome or even consider a deal with Rome until Rome converts but now in 2012 the situation is different. In 2006 we saw the Church collapsing. In 2006 we saw everything going down but now we see it is undeniable that the old, Vatican II bishops are dying, and the young ones want to go back to Tradition and there is a movement back to Tradition in the Church even though it is not fully visible. It is undeniable that the situation in the Church in 2012 is different from the situation in 2006." That's what he said on March 18th to us priests, preparing us for a new direction and a new attitude of Tradition. DO NOT BELIEVE IT!! THINGS HAVE NOT CHANGED!!! The siren is still singing and they are still trying to pull us up against the rocks so that our ship sinks. And in order that we remain faithful to Christ, we cannot listen to the sirens' song. We must remain faithful against the Modernism that is going on in the Church and we cannot play games with it.

Now the desire is to play games with it--We think that when we go inside Rome, we go next to the rocks, we are so good like Mark Twain working in the shallow waters that we won't sink. Everyone else has sunk. Everyone else has gone down, but we are going to be different. Why? Because we are the Society of St. Pius X and we are unsinkable. But the fact is, all creatures of God who have Original Sin are sinkable. WE CANNOT ALLOW OURSELVES TO FALL INTO THIS TRAP. WE MUST CONTINUE TO SPEAK BOLDLY.

Many priests tell me, "Well, it's not my time yet. I'm just going to work from the inside right now. I'm not going to speak out boldly yet but will wait until there is a more clear sign, will wait until there is a more clear sign." It is like Our Lord Jesus Christ performing a miracle and He performed thousands and thousands and thousands of miracles and the Jews said, "Show us a sign!"

How many signs to you want? We have seen signs every day! We find liberal statements. We find Modernism replete in Pope Benedict XVI and every day he says something new that is wrong: On November 14th that Jesus Christ didn't intend to prophesy. He wants to make more cardinals. Today in the news he wants cardinals from Muslim countries to feel out, to have a greater appeal to Muslims or something like that; so somehow, I don't know—he's going to have Catholic/Muslim cardinals—cardinals from Muslim countries so that the Muslims will like us more because, you know, they like red or something. But this is insane!!! He is NOT speaking as the Vicar of Christ! Asking that mosques should be build—there should be more mosques built—THE POPE ASKS THAT THERE BE MORE MOSQUES BUILT!!!!!! This is in 2012. THE POPE TELLS US THAT JESUS CHRIST DIDN'T MEAN ANY OF HIS PROPHECIES. THIS WAS ON NOVEMBER 14, 2012.

Where is the sign that this man has turned away from Modernism? It isn't there! Therefore, we stay the same course. And do not believe the false teaching, the false modern teaching that the situation has changed. It has NOT changed. We maintain the same course that we have always maintained until Rome converts. It is very simple and God will bring about the conversion in His own due time. Our Lady will bring the victory in Her own due time and we await for Our Lady to bring the victory. In the meantime, we keep doing our work and we do NOT bow down to the Modernists and we must act as salt; we must act as light. Light is for others. If you want to see things better in your house, you take the light and shine it in your eyeballs and you will go blind. The light must be shown on the object that you want to see. The light must be shown on the object we want to see. If the light is not shown on the object we want to see, the light is useless.

AND THE PRIEST MUST SHED THE LIGHT ON THE COCKROACHES IN THE CHURCH SO THAT THEY RUN AWAY AND GO AND HIDE. IT'S THE BEST WAY TO GET RID OF COCKROACHES: TURN ON THE LIGHT!

HE MUST SHED THE LIGHT ON THE EVIL. HE MUST SHED THE LIGHT ON THE GOOD. HE MUST SHED THE LIGHT ON THE TRUE AND ON THE EVIL THAT IS GOING ON IN OUR CHURCH TODAY. THIS IS WHAT THE DUTY OF THE PRIEST IS: TO TURN ON THE LIGHT! NOT THE LIGHT OF HIS OWN EYEBALLS BUT THE LIGHT ON THE CANDLE STAND THAT ENLIGHTENS THE WORLD.

AND SO, WE MUST BE THE SALT OF THE EARTH AND THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD AS CHRIST COMMANDS OF US AND HE WILL BLESS US.

We will close with that. God bless you all In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen.