Well done, good and faithful servant

Matthew 25:21, Euge, serve bone, in modico fidelis, intra in gaudium domini tui.
                         Well done, good and faithful servant, because thou hast been faithful over a few
                         things, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Alleluia.

   April 21 is the Feast of St. Anselm, Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church.  I choose to speak  about him today, because he is an example of courage and faith. He fought for the freedom of the Church, even as some of our Bishops today are doing.  There have always been traitors within the Church and dangers besetting it from without, from its very inception.  Judas, who was privileged to be one of Christ's chosen, was the first example of that treachery from within. Our Lord knew he would be betrayed by one of His own. It should serve as a lesson to us today. We are betrayed from within and threatened without.

   At the end of the 11th Century, the Church passed through one of the gravest crises of her history. The historical notes in my missal talk about the forces of Islam in the East, which were becoming more and more threatening. In the West there was struggle between spiritual and temporal power, even as today. Simony and laxity were prevalent among clergy. Controversies about the Eucharist were in play. 

   In the 12th century, St. Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109) carried on that struggle, as did, sixty years later, St. Thomas of Canterbury (died 1170).  St. Anselm was a native of Aosta (Italy) and a monk of the Abbey of Bec in Normandy. He became its abbot and later, in England, Archbishop of Canterbury.

   Anselm endeavored to develop the science of God by a rational method, which cleared the way for later scholastic theologians (Faith and Reason).  He said, "I do not try to understand in order to believe; but I believe in order to understand."  The Gospel of the Mass in honor of a Doctor of the Church, has in its Gospel (Matthew 5: 13-19) "You are the light of the world."  Pope Urban II said of Anselm, "A hero for doctrine and virtue, he was equally intrepid in fighting for the Faith."  Like a courageous pastor he defended "in season and out of season," (2 Timothy 4:1-8) against the tyranny of William Rufus, the sacred liberty which Jesus had bought for His flock with His blood.  Pope Urban affirmed, "Christ loves nothing so much in this world as the liberty of His Church."

   In this Epistle to Timothy, St. Paul says, "...preach the word: be instant in season, out of season: reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth.....But be thou vigilant, labor in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry." See how many supposed faithful today have, because of their own desires, turned away from hearing the truth. Even more, observe how they speak out against the truth.

   St. Paul knew that his time was coming to die for the Faith. "For I am even now ready to be sacrificed, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the Faith. As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just Judge, will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but to them also that love His coming." 

  Again, St. Matthew's Gospel quotes Our Lord: "So let your light shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven." It is my firm prayer that our Bishops follow in the footsteps of St. Anselm "in fighting for the Faith,"  so that the just Judge will render to them a crown of Justice.