Second Epistle to the Church.

[thesmellypocket 1859]

I.My Search for the Divine. I Have Found Rest in the Church. 

 

TO His Holiness Jacobus II, most venerable Pontiff, to Bishop Benedict, and to all the souls who find refuge in that indefatigable barque, our Holy Mother the Church, scattered across the face of the earth, greeting. 

 

I, Pius Sheen of Sutica, have, through the merciful providence of God, come through a long journey to be where I am now, writing this letter to sweetly console my dear brothers. For I grew up, like most High Elves, with no religion at all. When I reached my youth, for all my studies of science, I began to ask myself “How is man the richer for all that toiling of his, here under the sun?” It was all, I saw, vanity and labour lost. At length, I gave up my work, and instead to  a dissolute life of partying and drinking, until I found that this too, was vanity and labour lost. Transitory pleasures proved to be a vain illusion.

 

Then I put myself to the accumulation of wealth, and status, and honour. But I asked: “Will heir of mine succeed to all this that I build up? And would he be wise man or fool? None could tell, but he would be the beneficiary of all my toil, here under the sun.” I found that one thing man could never find, and that is this: a true-hearted woman. I saw that history was ever-repeating itself, with the Descendants hurtling from continent to continent every two centuries, the prideful memorials that their fathers built abandoned in heartless panic. There is nothing new, here under the sun. What, should I labour to build town-house, establish mills and charter a marketplace? But the marketplace I plant in Arcas will be abandoned and forgotten as quickly as those of Atlas.  And so I saw that the memory of today’s doings will be longer than yesterday’s - all is vanity, all is labour lost; all is black abyss.

 

Around my one hundredth year, I resolved that I could not rest until I found where the true Good of the sons of Malin lay. I went to Sutica, and there met an Akritian philosopher called Pythagoras. I told him that I was a true philosopher, that is, a lover of truth. And he taught me to look beyond the vanity of the material senses but instead cling to pure reason. I knew now that there existed one true God, the Good to which all incline. But can reason alone tell us what we need to know, here under the sun? I saw that the Akritian himself was full of many errors, such as a belief in Pantheism. Man’s own efforts, I could see, quickly lead him astray, and, moreover, he is blinded by senseless passions. The Silver Laws of my people say “our ancestors strove for purity” (Eltiran’thilln, 1.1.4), but it seemed to be perfectly impossible that even the sons of Malin, long-lived and knowledgeable above all other races, should be able to pull themselves up by the lobes of their own ears and achieve perfect Good, Truth and Purity (That is, God), especially when, on our own account, we fall into so many errors. We attempt to purify ourselves from passion and embrace reason, but we do not scourge our egos and defend ourselves from the most impure passion of them all - pride, self-will and self-love. We need help from Him.  I became convinced that God had sent us some kind of message and rule for life, and began to search it out.

 

Around this time I read Cardinal Boniface’s letter regarding the Conduct of War, and with the beauty and courage of its moral character, was enamoured. So I began to read about the Prophets and Saints and talk to Canonist priests, and found that all the truths that had taken centuries to find of itself, and more besides, to have been given to these Prophets by God. All I had toiled for so senselessly for many decades was to be found in its fullness in Holy Church. I began to pray the Rosary and Office, and was baptised by Bishop Benedict into the True Faith. 

 

The day of my Baptism was a passionless passion, a foretaste of paradise, like a ship serenely coming into harbour after surviving a storm. This has been the state of my soul ever since I submitted my will and intellect to the Revelation of God. This is why Bishop Benedict ordered me to change my name to Pius. Therefore, I say to you Canonists: never despair. I tell you that I have done all manner of worldly things and been to all places you can name, and found nothing there. The ineffable sweetness of God, that Most True Wealth, is the only thing worth possessing, the only that that suffices. Lay not your treasures on earth, but enthrone God in your hearts. Do all you do with love, and trust in God. Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you. All things are passing: God alone remains.

 

“Miss no single opportunity of making a small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for Love.”-Ven. Humbert, O.S.J.

 

“I resolved that I could not rest until I found where the true Good of the sons of Malin lay.” (An Akritian Philosopher)

 

II.God’s Mercy Throughout History.

 

Friends.

 

Must not it have seemed a time of universal despair, treachery and ruin when the forces of Schism and heresy seemed to be on the verge of destroying the Church during the Pontificate of Saint Daniel the Reader? 

 

Observe this: that it is not the masterful scholarship of St. Daniel, the doubtless courage of Ven. Olivier de Savoie or the manly conduct of St. Jude that has most captured the hearts of the faithful. These factors must have seemed to man to the decisive factors. But no. We know, and history knows, and the faithful know, that the piety of one little girl is what turned the course of the war. Yes, it was the miraculous providence of God that secured this maiden the generalship in the war, the miraculous providence of God that filled the enemy with the foolish desire to give battle at Milvian Bridge, and the miraculous providence of God that won the day. From the very heights of victory, the heretics were beaten down by humble piety, rather than awesome strength. As St. Julia was supposed to have said, “He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble.” (Proverbs of Godfrey, 2:16.)

 

It could not have been easy to live in those times. There was a temptation to despair, and yet God raised up a Saint to bridge His marvelous Light into view, which He did in his own good time. Now this seems so obvious to us now, but must have seemed impossible at the time. God raised up a generation of marvelous Saints to revive the Church, and with it, truth, justice and beauty. Therefore, be constantly reading the lives of the Saints, and find in them consolation in any present ill you should find yourself in. Read them prayerfully and meditate on them, and see that we see as ants compared to Him. It is all in His plan. God calls. Posterity lives. Truth reigns. Put not your trust, therefore, in worldly politics, but cling to God with all your heart and strength, and know that, if we are faithful to Him, He will vindicate the right in us.

 

“...The piety of one little girl is what turned the course of the war.”

 

III.His Benevolence and Power.

 

“I am your Father, and the Father of all things.”-Virtue 1:6.

 

“My power is the only power, and My eternity is the only eternity…”-Virtue 7:9.

 

Why is it that we continue to worry and be anxious over tomorrow? Friends, tomorrow is not in our control. Tomorrow belongs to God. Now hark to what the Scripture saith, when God calls Himself our Father. What an ineffable sweetness! He who simply Is, Goodness itself, the Creator of all things, deigns to crown us wayward creatures with the crown of being His children. 

 

And He Is. What was it that the Prophet said to the Jorenites? “[He] is as He was and shall be.” (Spirit 2:18) Being therefore what the philosophers call Pure Act, He is omnipotent and omniscient. So when we know that God is not only all powerful, but desires our good and loves us as the most benevolent Father we know. When “the world is become paradise” (Auspice 2:49) it will be to dwell as His Love forever as His children: this is true paradise. 

 

Therefore, no man will advance in spiritual matters who refuses to abandon himself into the loving arms of God, his Father. For he will be full of worldly worries and be in a constant state of anxious unease over what will happen in the morning. He will be a coward. But the true son of God knows that God is his Father, and does not worry about tomorrow, but in perfecting virtue, just for that day, flings himself into the mantle of Providence. And holy men go even further by abandoning themselves to a Saint, having a mediator between him and God. In that way he humbles himself and surrenders himself to God without reserve. In this consists true happiness. 

 

“Abandon all worry and resign yourself to God’s care. Say three words in all things: ‘Fiat voluntas Tua.’”-Ven. Humbert, O.S.J.

 

“Therefore, no man will advance in spiritual matters who refuses to abandon himself into the loving arms of God, his Father.”

 

IV.His Governorship: The Church as our Mother.

 

But to have God as his true Father, he must have the Church as his Mother. Any man who does not have the Church for his Mother does not have God for his Father. Many Pontiffs have supported this title of the Church being our Mother. To give one example, our present Pontiff, who used this term in his thirteenth Golden Bull. 

 

Why is it that we call the Church our Mother, or call her “Holy Mother Church?” It is because she nurses us like a Mother. So a Mother cares for her children under her husband’s watchful eye, the Church, the bride of God, the Father of all things, nurses us in truth. We, the faithful, needs must suckle at her breasts, to gain that milk which is true doctrine. We must live like driftwood, confident that God will never forsake His bride or give her up to falsehood, and therefore we must not become prey to anxiety.

 

Now I am not saying we should not fight corruption in the Church where we find it, but I am saying that we should be certain of final victory in fighting it. It is God’s will that we have bad Pontiffs as well as good Pontiffs, Saints as well as sinners, Blesseds as well as blighters to succeed the Prophets. For as I unfolded, Owyn’s office remains in any case. Therefore, cling to the Church as to your Mother, rejoicing in confidence, and acting in total obedience, for it is a fool that scorn’s his mother’s teaching. God is in control, and He neither sleeps nor slumbers, who keeps the Church. 

 

 

“...Our present Pontiff used this term in his thirteenth Golden Bull.”

 

V.Conclusion. Trust in God.

 

In short, trust in God. In good times, trust in God. In bad times, trust in God. In foreign lands, trust in God. And in your native land, trust in God. When the sun rises, trust in God. When the sun sets, trust in God still. Rejoice in the Lord always: again I say, rejoice. Be ever reading the lives of the Saints and the Scrolls, pray without ceasing, and rejoice. Aye, I say: rejoice. In corruption, rejoice. In good times, rejoice. In bad times, rejoice. Among foreigners and your own peoples, when the sun rises and when it sets, do not cease to rejoice.

 

For to trust in God is joy, and helps us humble ourselves. We surrender to Him, knowing that we see merely as men do, whilst He sees, considers and knows all, and orders it for the good of those that love Him. Therefore, let Him melt your hearts and resign yourself to His will, and earnestly begging for those graces of courage and charity which are His to give, all will be well, and we shall find ourselves rejoicing together in our heavenly home. For you sons of Horen, know ye this: the world’s your ship and not your home. 

 

May the blessing of Almighty God, our loving Father, in the tender care of our Holy Mother Church, rain down upon you and remain with you forever and ever.

 

God love you.

 

“...again I say, rejoice.” (Saint Kristoff receives the acolytes. Reza, 1730.)