Meditation: Agony In The Garden and The Chivalrous Spirit of Activism

As a meditation, I propose the agony in the garden, particularly how the apostles slept while Our Lord agonized in prayer in preparation for his Passion and Death. One of the antiphons sang on Maundy Thursday says, "Un hora non posuistes vigilare mecum qui exhortabamini mori pro me." (Could you not watch with me for one hour, you who claimed would die for me?)

These are moving words from Our Lord to the apostles. The apostles slumbered. It was probably not the best of sleep. How can it be if they were in the middle of the garden. Many grown men are picky about the sleeping arrangements. A month ago, we went camping in Big Bend, TX and I had nothing but a sleeping mat. I tossed and turned all night long during the three day hike. The apostles didn't even have a sleeping mat. Most likely, they sat against a rock or maybe even abandoned all propriety and just sprawled right on the ground.

At any rate, whatever their comfort level was, they were not being "vigilant," or "watchful" as some translate it. It's important to get some perspective on the word Our Lord used. Vigilare is not simply to watch, as in to see something that is happening. The word can denote the attitude of a nightwatchmen as he watches over the walls of the city for all possible dangers. 

The response to this antiphon drives this point home. "Can you not see Judas? How he sleeps not, but rushes to deliver Me to the Jews?" 

Why is it that the good are always tempted to slumber or to be inactive while the Judas' of this world are capable of depriving themselves of rest and comfort.

It is the opinion of Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira, arguably the greatest counterrevolutionary of the 20th century, that if the apostles had done as Jesus had requested, they would not have fallen into temptation. This means they would have been arrested with Jesus, scourged with Him, condemned with Him, crucified with him and perhaps resurrected with him. How different the beginning of the Church would have been?

With vigilance comes other corollary virtues like heroism, courage and activism. We argue this because it is proper for the nightwatchmen to be alert when all others slumber, to defend the weak, to anticipate all dangers, to unravel every plot, to outsmart the enemy, and to defend the  city if need be with his life.

 The nightwatchman is the first line of defense.

By asking the apostles to be watchful, he wasn't asking for the "innocence" of the dove. He was asking them to be more cunning that the serpent.

There is a corollary point that is essential to the virtue of vigilance. It is the recognition that evil exists and it is constantly plotting against Christ.  The Judases of this world do not slumber. They care not for the comforts of life and the pleasures of the world.

Unfortunately, modernism has led is to believe that real evil does not exist, that no one could possibly be evil enough to plot against the Church. This denies that the serpent is always striking at Mary's heel.

Well, it is. And constantly.

The connection between Jesus' agony in the garden and the spirit of chivalry id's the virtue of vigilance.

It is curious that today much has been focused on the virtue of prayer. Even though  Our Lord's request was bi-fold: pray and be vigilant.

The spirit of chivalry focuses on this specific virtue. 

The Concept Of The Spearpoint

In every battle, there is a front line. In every front line, there is the point man who leads the charge. Every point man carries weapon. In every weapon, there is the very tip which signifies the vanguard of the vanguard.

In the TFP, we call this the concept as the cutting edge or the spearpoint of the Revolution. As explained by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira in his book, Revolution and Counterrevolution, the Revolution is the unity of a thousand different battles, like a forest fire consists of a thousand individual trees all in flames. Winning enough battles will mean winning the whole war. Sometimes it boils down to fighting one significant figure in the battlefield.

[Get your digital copy of this book here: http://www.tfp.org/revolution-and-counter-revolution/]

Historically, attacking the figurehead has proven the most effective in destroying a movement. As an example, Francois Mitterand was the leading figure to promote socialism in Europe. Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira launched an international campaign against him by publishing a full two page advertisement analyzing the decline in popularity of self-managing socialism as well as exposing its radical programs. A second leading figure promoted a lot by the Revolution was Mikael Gorbachev. He was the apple in the eye of the Revolution. World leaders gave him honors and prestige. Gorbachev charmed his way to the top of the platform receiving almost unfettered adulation from the public. Never had the Soviet Union received so much respect in world public opinion as with Gorbachev. Along with the person came the Revolutionary ideology being promoted. It was again, self-managing socialism. Once again, the TFP, under the direction of Prof. Plinio attacked this movement by collecting 5.2 million signatures in a matter of months. This signature gathering gave Lithuanians the encouragement to lay down their lives to defend their borders against Soviet tanks. Because of the lost of prestige brought about by this one single event, Gorbachev soon lost influence in the world event. He went down in flames and most young people today don't even know who he is. Consequently, his cause, a transformed form of Self-managing socialism, also suffered a huge blow.

These are one of the few lessons we have learned in the TFP regarding fighting a monolithic movement as the Revolution is.

One of these battles is against the LGBT movement, or the promotion of the sin of homosexuality in the Church, or more properly the drive to make this sin acceptable in the Church. There are many figureheads leading this charge. Right now one of the most prominent is Fr. James Martin. His spearpoint is the talk he gave at New Ways Ministry, a liberal movement of dubious Catholic spirit condemned by the USCCB. This talk is the very basis of his book, Building A Bridge. In fact, it is practically its transcript.

It is sad that the Jesuit order has not taken the time to reel him in. He has become the LBGT champion in the Jesuit order that the monicker of the Rainbow Jesuit is sticking to him. It is difficult to find another personage in the Church who is doing more to promote the full acceptance of the LGBT community as part of the flock.

He is leading the charge on behalf of the LGBT community. This is where Church teaching and morality is being attacked. This is where we will need to be.

Our rosary rally on March 22, 2018 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. across the street from Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago, IL is the TFP's effort to face-off against this attack. This rosary rally is the clash of two forces. One, under the banner of Fr. Martin, is promoting homosexuality in the Church. The other, under the banner of Mary, is defending Catholic teaching and morality

Will you please join us in this face off against the onslaught of the Rainbow Jesuit? We will simply pray a rosary and sing a few songs. Hopefully, this act will be enough reparation to this travesty.

St. Ignatius of Loyola would be ashamed of these liberal Jesuits. Have they already forgotten that one of the first meditations in St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercise is about the two banners? One is the banner of the serpent. The other is the banner of Jesus.

For more information, please call me at 717-903-5874 or email me at rexteodosio@gmail.com.