Synod of Filth...
Trial of St. Joan of Arc: History brings
clarity with what's happening at the Synod
The
following is a sermon delivered today, on the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, by a
traditional mission priest. We provide you with the text of the sermon below, and
you may click here to listen to the audio.
"...
this second synod broke nearly every law known at the time, both canonical and
civil, on how trials are conducted. Methods used against Joan included among
other things, packing the court, confusion tactics and false contradicting
statements, as well as a sort of shadow synod."
“There
was a man in the land of Hus, whose name was Job, simple and upright and
fearing God; whom Satan besought that he might tempt: and power was given him
from the Lord over his possessions and his flesh; and he destroyed all his
substance and his children, and wounded his flesh also with a grievous ulcer”—
Offertory Antiphon
There
was a man named Job. St. Zeno of Verona (d. 380) and other fathers say Job is a
type of Christ. St. Gregory the Great goes one step further in stating: “Holy
Job is a type of the Church.” In other words, Job acts as a prefigurement of
the future Passion of the Christ as well as His Mystical Body, the Church. We
are now in one of the Job-moments of our Holy Mother, the Church.
Recall
that a TYPE is a historical person, thing or event that really happened, but,
at the same time, mysteriously prefigures a future reality that is bigger than
itself. Our God is the Lord and Master of all History. Only He can work things
out at one moment in time… such that it foreshadows another later moment. This
is especially seen in the link between the Old and New Testaments. Listen to
the Church Father St. Melito of Sardis: “It is [Christ] who endured every kind
of suffering in all those who foreshadowed Him. In Abel He was slain, in Isaac
bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was
sacrificed in the Passover Lamb, persecuted in David, dishonored in the
prophets.” And so on with the entire Old Testament. (By the way, there are no
such types to be found in any other writings. They are not in the Koran… nor in
the book of Mormon. What does this mean? We are in the right place!)
John
Henry Newman with keen insight observed the deeper nature of types for all
time, teaching: “In truth every event in the world is a type of those that
follow, history proceeding forward as a circle ever enlarging… For every age
presents its own picture of those future events which alone are the real
fulfillment of the prophecy which stands at the head of them all” (The
Antichrist, Miceli, p. 106). What prophecy is that? The end! This amazing
insight explains why the saints could see the connectivity of all time!
Starting with the Apostles themselves, the saints considered their own day to
be those of the end time. Why so? They could see, taste and smell the “mystery
of iniquity” that will come to its culmination in the last days … they could
see it already at work before their very eyes by way of types. E.g., St. Thomas
More considered Martin Luther to be the antichrist or least his prophet. This
means all the “revolutionary men” … heretics, apostates, tyrants, traitors,
godless men of all time act as types of the antichrist… some more so than
others. So, history is connected by way of types from beginning to the very
end.
This
is important because the faithful living at the latter moments will find
comfort in how the former saints passed through their trials. If they could do
it, so can we. If God was there for them, He will be here for us too!! Also, no
matter how strange or new something may seem in the present, we have somehow
been here before somewhere along the line in a type.
Using
this most valuable insight of how God arranges the train of history, let us go back in time to find comfort, hope,
and even reasons for rejoicing at this trying moment. One place we find a clear
type of our time is in the life and death of St. Joan of Arc.
This
young virginal woman typified the virginal Bride of Christ, Who is without spot
or wrinkle. Like Her Lord and His Church, Joan rose up out of the backwaters of
her kingdom, from a border area whence no one expected anything good. Joan the
leader of armies, the deliverer of France, trained by St. Michael Himself,
shows forth the Church Militant. Still a teen, she wondrously raised up a king.
The girl from Domremy, the town named after the bishop St. Remigius, who
baptized Clovis, the first Catholic King of France, along with 3000 of his men
(making France the Church’s eldest daughter), … this little girl lifted the
despairing siege of Orleans in the length of a novena, blazed a trail to Rheims
to crown the dauphin Charles VII in a matter of months. His father had fallen
into madness, his Bavarian queen mother disowned him and sold him for a worldly
political alliance. Through a woman France was betrayed. This all too familiar
type of Adam and Eve would not be allowed to remain. And so, through a virgin,
God would save His eldest daughter. With Joan the tides of the 100 years war
suddenly reversed.
As
everyone knows, after St. Joan performed her duties, those loyal to the English
cause, namely the Burgundians, most especially the bishop of Beauvais, Pierre
Cauchon, cried out, “We will not have this man rule over us!” Before long, Joan
was betrayed at Compiegne and sold for a king’s ransom, being more valued by
her enemies than her friends.
It
is important to recall that before Joan could carry out her saving work, she
was examined by a council or synod of bishops and priests and found to be pure,
spotless, and holy. They sent her back to the King as one whose help should not
be despised. After her capture, as everyone knows, she was again put on trial
by a second synod of bishops and priests who had already concluded ahead of
time that she and her king were schismatic, heretical and of the devil. A fait
accompli, this second synod dismissed the findings of the first, pressured its
participants to go along or else, and
exiled others. Synod against synod, council against council, Cardinals against
Cardinals, bishops against bishops. Hmmm.
What
is more, this second synod broke nearly every law known at the time, both
canonical and civil, on how trials are conducted. Methods used against Joan
included among other things, packing the court, confusion tactics and false
contradicting statements, as well as a sort of shadow synod. In the end, unable
to make anything of substance really stick, they finally just ordered her to be
killed. Joan died without an official judgment being declared or read aloud.
As
she was consumed by fire, she spoke the Holy Name of Jesus with such fervor
that nearly everyone, both friend and foe alike wept, walking away beating
their breasts. When the executioner came to dispose of the ashes he found her
heart unburned and still bleeding. Because of the work of St. Joan, most
especially this her Passion, some 20 years later the 100 years war came to an
end in 1453… the very year the Muslim Turks captured Constantinople. Not long
afterward, the English fell into schism and heresy over the Sacrament of
Marriage, unwilling to allow Christ the King to rule over them.
We
are now drawing neigh to the end of another 100 years war between heaven and
hell requested by the devil within the hearing of Pope Leo XIII. Satan has been
unleashed and permitted to do to the Church what He did to Job and to Joan. It
is not just the Sacrament of Marriage that is on trial at this second synod
going on in Rome. Rather this is just one of the more recent battles for the
Church as a whole. Like Joan, no final judgment will be easily reached… but
they will order Her to be done away with regardless. This moment is not only a
Job moment, it is also a Joan moment.
What
should also be of interest to us today is this: the armies sent against Joan
were supposed to go on Crusade against the Muslim Turks and heretical Hussites.
Instead they fought fellow Christians in France, thereby allowing the Muslims
to overthrow Constantinople. There is more than one reason why the Muslims are
beginning to rise up in force once again.
But
we must take heart. Just as the passion of Joan ultimately saved France, so the
Passion of the Church will deliver the world. Come what may, like Job and Joan,
the Mystical Body cannot be totally destroyed… Her heart will remain, bleeding
out blood and water… such that She will rise up again… victorious when the
chalice has been filled.
Let
us end today with this very important point of hope for our present crisis. In
the official statement referring to Joan’s rehabilitation, after considering
all the collected data in toto, we find these edifying words in regards to the
trial, judgments and final demise of St. Joan which surely typify a future
truly Catholic council that will rule definitively on what is taking place at
this moment.
“We
declare, that on certain points the truth of [Joan’s] confessions has been
passed over in silence; that on other points her confessions have been falsely
translated—a double unfaithfulness…
“We
declare, that even the form of certain words has been altered, in such manner
as to change the substance [of their meaning]. [mercy, love, marriage, spouse,
natural law…]
“For
the which, these same Articles, as falsely, calumniously, and deceitfully
extracted, and as contrary even to the Confessions of the Accused, we break,
annihilate, and annul; and, … we ordain, by this present judgment, that they be
torn up.
“We
say, pronounce, decree, and declare, the said Processes and Sentences full of
cozenage (trickery and deceit), iniquity, inconsequences, and manifest errors,
in fact as well as in law; We say that they have been, are, and shall be… null,
non-existent, without value or effect.
“we
break them, annihilate them, annul them, and declare them void of effect; and
we declare that the said Jeanne and her relatives… have not, on account of the
said Trial, contracted nor incurred any mark or stigma of infamy; we declare
them quit and purged of all the consequences of these same Processes…” (cf.
Jeanne D’Arc: Maid of Orleans, Deliverer of France, ed. By T. Douglas Murray,
pp 303-307).
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