From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 31st - Pope St. Sylvester   
      
   Although the place of honor in the service of the King belongs to the   
   Martyrs,   
   the Confessors also fought manfully for the glory of His name and the   
   spreading   
   of His Kingdom. They are crowned with the crown of justice, and Jesus, who   
   gave   
   it to them, has made it part of His own glory that they should be near His   
   throne.   
      
   The Church would, therefore, grace this glorious Christmas Octave with the   
   name   
   of one of her children, who should represent at Bethlehem the whole class of   
   her   
   unmartyred Saints. She chose St. Sylvester, a Confessor who governed the   
   Church   
   of Rome, and therefore the universal Church; a Pontiff whose reign was long   
   and   
   peaceful; a Servant of Jesus Christ adorned with every virtue, who was sent   
   to   
   edify and guide the world immediately after those fearful combats that had   
   lasted 300 years, during which millions of Christians had gained victory by   
   martyrdom under the leadership of 30 Popes - predecessors of Sylvester - and   
   they, too, all Martyrs.   
      
   So it is that Sylvester is a messenger of the peace which Christ came to   
   give to   
   the world, of which the Angels sang on Christmas Night. He is the friend of   
   Constantine; he confirms the Council of Nicaea; he organizes the discipline   
   of   
   the Church for the new era in which she is now entering; the era of peace.   
   His   
   predecessors in the See of Peter imagined Jesus in His sufferings; Sylvester   
   represented Jesus in His triumph. Sylvester's feast during this Octave   
   reminds   
   us that the Divine Child who lies wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and is the   
   object of Herod's persecution, is, notwithstanding all these humiliations,   
   the   
   Prince of Peace, the Father of the world to come.   
      
   From The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   In this beautiful commentary by D. Guéranger. The example of St. Sylvester   
   is   
   quite opportune for the sad days in which we live. He was the Pope who lived   
   in   
   the time of Constantine and, therefore, presided over the transformation   
   through   
   which the Church passed. She was in the darkness of night and came to live   
   in   
   the full light of the sun; she was persecuted as a slave and became the   
   Queen;   
   she left the catacombs and began to dwell in the palaces. Under St.   
   Sylvester's   
   inspiration and command, the great work began of building the Church as an   
   institution, as a sovereign religious society, the work which some call the   
   "constantinization" of the Church.   
      
   The progressivists created the term "Constantinian Church," and from the   
   adjective "constantinian" other words came, such as "constantinization,"   
   "de-constantinization," and even the verb "to constantinize." What do the   
   progressivists mean by these neologisms?   
      
         o First, Emperor Constantine made a decree giving liberty to the   
   Catholic   
   Church; then he issued another decree forbidding the false cults to carry on   
   openly.   
      
         o Second, wanting to repair for the unjust persecution the Church had   
   undergone, Constantine gave his mother-in-law's palace to the Church. This   
   was   
   the palace of the Laterani, and it became the first basilica of the Pope. It   
   is   
   the Basilica of St. John Lateran.   
      
         o Third, he began to bestow special honors on the Bishops and treat   
   them   
   as official representatives of the Church.   
      
         o Fourth, the acts of Catholic worship became more solemn because   
   Constantine's presence at such ceremonies lent them the prestige of the   
   Empire.   
      
         o Fifth, he considered the Church to be united to the State.   
      
         o And, sixth, when he changed the capital of the Roman Empire to   
   Byzantium, soon called Constantinople, the Pope remained in Rome, and became   
   the   
   virtual sovereign of the city. The Pope still did not have official temporal   
   power, but practically speaking he became the temporal lord of the city.   
   These   
   privileges with which Constantine honored the Catholic Church, and the   
   natural   
   development she experienced thenceforth, signify what the progressivists   
   mean   
   when they say the "Constantinian Church."   
      
   Therefore, the process of "constantinization" of the Church is two-fold:   
      
   In the political sphere, it pronounced the Catholic Church as the only true   
   Church. As such, the Church deserves to be protected, supported, and   
   respected   
   by the State. Therefore, the Church is an entity more noble than the State   
   and,   
   at depth, given the fact that she is divine, more important than the State.   
   From   
   this principle came the medieval metaphor that the Church is like the sun,   
   and   
   the State like the moon that turns around the sun and depends on it.   
      
   In the religious sphere, it manifested that the most splendid and   
   magnificent   
   earthly things and most beautiful works of art were made first and foremost   
   for   
   the worship of God. So, man should make and reserve the most magnificent   
   incenses, the purest gold and silver, the most splendid fabrics and clothing   
   for   
   the service of God.   
      
   This is the concept behind the "Constantinian Church." Thus, the term   
   circulated   
   by the progressivists is in a certain sense objective, and we can understand   
   it   
   as standing for the temporal character of the Church, with her correlated   
   richness and solemnity in worship, her sacral buildings, the pomp of her   
   dignitaries, etc. So, on one hand, we have the progressivists attacking the   
   "Constantinian Church," and on the other, we have us defending it.   
      
   When St. Mary Magdalene used a splendid perfume to wash the feet of Our Lord   
   and   
   dry them with her hair, the first seed of the splendor of the future worship   
   of   
   Jesus Christ was sown. When Judas revolted against such an act, saying that   
   the   
   perfume was too expensive and should be sold and the money given to the   
   poor, he   
   also was planting a seed, the seed of the progressivist position, which   
   hates   
   the solemn and rich worship. Notwithstanding, Our Lord argued against Judas   
   by   
   saying that we will always have the poor with us, and He defended the   
   position   
   of Mary Magdalene.   
      
   The position of the progressivists, therefore, is one that opposes temporal   
   splendor for the Church. They call their ideal "miserablism" or the   
   "miserablist   
   Church." According to this concept, the Church of Jesus is the church of the   
   poor, a church made for the poor, and when she displays pomp and solemnity,   
   she   
   affronts the poor.   
      
   Further, she should be not only poor, but also miserable; she should present   
   herself in a kind of misery. Therefore, the religious edifices should   
   resemble   
   the most miserable abodes so that the poor do not feel uncomfortable in   
   them.   
   According to this mentality, Jesus Christ would have hated luxury and   
   wealth;   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)