On December 28 of last, year, Pope Francis sent a so-called apostolic letter commemorating the death of papal saint Francis de Sales. This letter can serve as reliable proof that, contrary to the ignorant assertions of the editors of The Lutheran Difference, Vatican II did not bring any substantial changes in the Roman Church. To this end, I bring forth a few excerpts from the letter of Antichrist:
By experience, Francis had come to realize that desire is at the root of all true spiritual life, but also the cause of its debasement. Drawing abundantly from the spiritual tradition that had preceded him, he recognized the importance of constantly testing desire through the exercise of discernment. He found the ultimate criterion for this assessment in love. In that final conference in Lyon, on the feast of Saint Stephen, two days before his death, he had said: “It is love that grants perfection to our works. I will tell you much more. Take a person who suffers martyrdom for God with an ounce of love; that person merits much [obviously, given when Francis lived, and that he drew “abundantly from the spiritual tradition that had preceded him,” the Tridentine-scholastic merit is meant], since he could give nothing greater than his own life. Yet another person who has only suffered a scratch with two ounces of love will have much more merit, because it is charity and love [faith may be absent] that give value to our works”.…
“The power of grace” – Francis continues, surely thinking of the many life stories he had encountered – “does not constrain the heart, but attracts it. Grace possesses a holy violence, not to violate our liberty but to guide it to love. Grace acts strongly, yet in such a pleasing way that our will is not overwhelmed by so powerful a force; while pressing us, it does not oppress our liberty. Consequently, we are able, before all its might, to consent to or resist its promptings at our pleasure” [God forbid that I or any Christian should speak in such an antichristian, heathenish manner, as befits the apostles of Satan].…
This, then, is how God’s grace comes to us: by “cords of Adam”, bonds of humanity and love. God’s power can always lift us up to take flight, yet his douceur, his loving kindness, is such that he respects our freedom. It is up to us either to take flight or to remain on the ground. [Then we must always remain on the ground, if it is truly “up to us.”] Even as he bestows his grace, God would not have us rise without our consent. Francis can thus conclude: “God’s inspirations, Theotimos, anticipate us and make themselves felt before we are even aware of them, but once we become aware of them, it is up to us either to consent and follow their lead, or to refuse and reject them. They make themselves felt by us without us; yet without us they do not bring about our consent”. In our relationship with God we always experience a gratuitousness that testifies to the depth of the Father’s love for us.
At the same time, this grace never makes us passive. It leads us to realize that God’s love radically precedes us, and that his first gift consists precisely in our acceptance of that love. Each person therefore is responsible for cooperating with his or her own fulfilment, with spreading his or her wings with confident trust before the gust of God’s wind. Here we see an important aspect of our human vocation. “In the Genesis account, God commands Adam and Eve to be fruitful. Humankind has a mandate to change, to build, to master creation in the positive sense of creating from it and with it. So what is to come doesn’t depend on some unseen mechanism, a future in which humanity is a passive spectator. No: we are protagonists, we are – if I can stretch the word – co-creators”. That is what Francis de Sales recognized and sought to pass on through his ministry of spiritual guidance.… [Up to this point, the Roman abomination’s praise of Francis de Sales — and what pitiful praise it is — has been based on nothing but the Roman doctrine of synergism, opposed by the Church in all ages. That is why he has included this explicit rejection of monergism: “grace never makes us passive.” Here a Christian can only pray: “Come, Lord Jesus; destroy this false prophet by your return, throwing him and his brood into the lake of fire! Amen.]
May the celebration of the fourth centenary of his death help us to venerate Saint Francis de Sales with devotion, and through his intercession [definitely not Christ’s intercession, for that would damage the papacy mightily] may the Lord bestow the abundant gifts of the Spirit upon the journey of his holy and faithful People.
Altlutheraner 