“Who Will Stand Up for Me against Evildoers?” by Plinio Correa de Oliveira

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‘Who Will Stand Up for Me against Evildoers?’

Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

I found this beautiful phrase in a psalm filled with evocative thoughts: Who will stand up for me against evildoers? (84:16) It is a question posed as a most bitter complaint.

Often this phrase has come to my mind when I see the isolation of the Counter-Revolution, which receives no assistance from those who normally should support its action. For example, the many farmers whose rights we defended in the fight against the Socialist Agrarian Reform did not lift a finger to help us. Nor did the many priests who know that we are right in fighting Progressivism but nonetheless do not support us or even take a position against Progressivism. We have to fight practically alone, bearing the enormous weight of the fight plus the isolation. We have to fight alone because almost no one stands up and joins forces with us.

Today's suffering of the Church repeats His Passion

In my view, this situation repeats the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. In some way it sheds light on His Passion for us. There was a moment when He was abandoned by the Apostles themselves and had only Our Lady, the Holy Women and St. John the Evangelist at His side. At that moment this lamentation the psalm prophesied was fulfilled: Who will stand up for me against evildoers? All the evildoers joined forces together to rally the population of Jerusalem against Him, but the good were not there to support Him.

There is another prophecy that also laments His isolation in a very beautiful way: I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me (Is 63:3). The winepress refers to the place where the wine makers smashed the grapes. They filled a container with grapes and workers would enter to step on them and smash them. As a result the garments of these workers were tinted red, as if they had shed their blood. So, the verse prophetically describes Our Lord who went to the winepress – Calvary where He shed all of His blood – and He found Himself alone except for a few.

At this present time in History, the Counter-Revolution is also accompanying Our Lord to the winepress. Who else is keeping watch on the plot of His enemies and watching with Him in His abandonment? Who is considering His wrath that is growing so much that even Our Lady, who is the most powerful intercessor, will be unable to contain it? Very few souls, I would say, truly offer consolation to Our Lord and Our Lady. Most of these souls ignore the source of their own suffering, which is caused by the plot of the evildoers, the Revolution.

Very few souls are measuring the full extent of the crime being committed and are following its execution step by step. Only those souls who do so offer a true reparation - standing at the foot of the Cross collecting each drop of blood, each tear, each sob, each one of His sufferings and sorrows. Such souls become duly indignant over each new blow inflicted by the Revolution to destroy the Church, over each fresh blasphemy committed against Our Lord and Our Lady.

The willingness to sacrifice all to stand watch over the Church in her passion

Our Lady seems to be giving us the lucidity to see these things and discern the evildoers. The latter are the agents of the Revolution in the temporal order and the agents of Progressivism inside the Church. She gives us this grace so that we might act accordingly and combat those enemies. This we should do as far as we are able. Meditations like this are useful because they prepare us to act in accordance with those graces. These actions demand a complete dedication and the sacrifice of our entire lives.

St. Therese of Lisieux used to say that for love nothing is impossible. I believe the moment is coming when these words will be key. Should a group of counter-revolutionaries, even if they are few in number, have so profound a conviction, so great a love, and so complete a compassion, nothing will be impossible for them. This meditation will prepare us to acquire the mentality and spirit of an Apostle of the Latter Times, who, moved by his love, will be capable of anything.

It is clear Our Lady gives us this grace to inspire us to act: to act in the temporal sphere, as mentioned before, but above all to take a religious stance. If a few souls would be convinced of this and feel this way, this disposition of soul would bring the day of the wrath of God nearer. The psalm invites us to this dedication. We should ask for this with an ardent desire. This is part of our obligation of reparation, our obligation of piety.

Praying with contrition and humility

To ask for this grace we should know how to offer Our Lady a humble and contrite heart while meditating on these points:

1. The first thing that should raise a true contrition and sense of humiliation in us is to witness the humiliations of the Holy Catholic Church today. She is alone in the worst of solitudes. Her eyes are covered and her hands tied like Our Lord during the crowning of thorns. Surrounding her are those who strike her and ridicule her, asking: “Tell us which one hit you.” She has become the object of mockery of all peoples.

Amidst this usurpation of Progressivism in the Church she has been betrayed, disfigured, broken and vilified by her very members. One could say that there is no institution more scorned on earth today than the Church. Notwithstanding this deplorable condition, she is our Queen, our Mother, the Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Church, duly described in the liturgy as a woman without stain or wrinkle. This situation in which she finds herself today should raise a feeling of humiliation in us. We should humble ourselves and have contrite souls.

Pilate orders Our Lord to be scourged at the pillar, Duccio di Buoninsegna

The powerful and prestigious ones joined forces against Him

2. To be alone is a sorrowful thing, but to be alone amidst enemies, to be surrounded only by enemies, is the apex of solitude. Indeed, the solitude of a man in a desert is one thing; the solitude of a man persecuted by the whole world, having only enemies around him, is another. The latter is the solitude of the Catholic Church. All are plotting against her. Everything powerful, rich, prestigious and triumphant in the world has joined forces against her. This is not the solitude of Our Lord retiring to pray in the desert and then to be tempted. It is His solitude during His Passion.

3. To be alone among these enemies is not all. These enemies are still active; they are plotting the final blow against the Church. This causes not only a great bitterness, but also anguish and constant apprehension.

4. What does Our Lady ask from us at the foot of the Cross when she sees this solitude of the Catholic Church? She asks us to relieve this isolation, to be one with the Catholic Church in everything with the sacrifice of our whole lives, with the complete dedication of all our work. The more alone the Church is, the more she relies on those few who are still with her. It is an appeal to a complete dedication, to a commitment without limits.

5. The only act of reparation worthy of this situation is for each one of us to say to Our Lady: “My Mother, you gave me the grace to gauge the depth of the solitude of the Church and, therefore, your solitude and that of your Son. The Church is not just an institution that is isolated, but she is also persecuted, and now she is asking for total dedication to the fight. Hence, My Lady, grant me the grace to give everything, do everything, renounce everything, sacrifice everything with this sole objective of fighting in this calamity for your victory.” This total allegiance is what constitutes our reparation.

6. Finally, we should consider that we are not capable of being the grand souls capable of making true reparation. Given our infidelities and shortcomings, we are incapable of this. So we should ask Our Lady to accept at least our desire to become those souls, and we should ask her to transform us into them. For this purpose we should say that ejaculation of St. Louis of Montfort: Opus tuum fac. And we should pray:

“My Lady, you yourself must achieve this work in me. Here I am, with the desire to be a reparatory soul, an Apostle of the Latter Times. Unfortunately, I am far from able to do this! By the Precious Blood of your Son, by the tears you shed at the foot of the Cross, change me. Take my soul. Transform this stone into a son of Abraham. Complete in me all that you began to do when you called me to the Counter-Revolution. Doing this, you will accomplish two things. You will resurrect the soldiers you first inspired, and then you will use us to win this war. Resurrect us, give us the spirit of the Apostles of the Latter Times described in the Fiery Prayer of St. Louis Grignion de Montfort!’

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Posted March 21, 2011

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