On this
date, February 9, 1936, Bishop Von Galen delivered The First Sermon, preached in Xanten.
We, the
comrades of Unit 1012, remember this sermon every year on this date. We believe
that Von Galen would most likely speak out against the ACLU Demons and show support for those victims’
families. Please hear these three other sermons by him on July 13 and 20, and also August 3, 1941.
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The Official Portrait Of Blessed Clemens
August Graf Von Galen (1878 - 1946).
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://nobility.org/2013/03/21/clemens-august-von-galen/]
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I have just consecrated a new altar in
your venerable and splendid cathedral, in a small space deep beneath the choir.
But why? Your church is already so richly endowed with altars.
You know the answer. The researches of
the past few years have given proof that there below us lies a holy and
particularly venerable place. Not only has the tradition been substantiated,
according to which several previous churches were said to stand on the site of
this present church, the oldest of them dating back to the time of the martyrs,
to the fourth century A.D. We are also provided with fresh evidence that holy
martyrs, who with their blood bore witness to Christ, were interred here, to
await the resurrection. We believe in the resurrection of the body. Christ’s
words have given us this promise: The hour is coming, in the which all that are
in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. Whosoever does not believe
in the independent life of the individual soul, in its continued existence
after the death of the body, in its reunification with the body and in life
everlasting, this man is no true Christian. We hold these beliefs, because
we believe in Christ, who is the truth. Because we hold fast to the beliefs of
the Apostles and of our Christian forebears. The entire history of your city,
speaking to you through the its towering churches, which are monuments in
stone, proclaiming itself in the stones found lying beneath them, is evidence
of our faith.
In confession of that faith St. Victor
and his companions, and likely also those men whose mortal remains have now
been found, shed their blood. It is clear that their grave has not been opened,
has been disturbed by nobody, since the wooden coffin in which, notably, both
bodies were laid was interred, around sixteen hundred years ago. Thus it has
been possible to establish „with a probability bordering on certainty“,
according to the testimony of highly respected and expert scholars at the
University of Bonn, that the two men died a violent death, and that what
remains for us to see of the wounding and shattering of their limbs is in the
main attributable to wounds and torture inflicted before their deaths, which
led to their deaths. Above this ancient and newly discovered double grave,
lying deep beneath the floor of the present Cathedral, you, out of love, have
erected an altar, which I have just now consecrated, and upon which the
sacrifice of the New Covenant has just been celebrated for the first time. We
have offered it up to the glory of God, in thanks for His Divine favours, in
atonement for our sins, to beseech Him for His blessing upon us, upon your
town, our diocese, the German people and our country. We have also offered it
up in remembrance and adoration of the beloved saints, especially those who
found in this spot their last earthly resting place, and who slumber here
awaiting the glorious resurrection. The glorious resurrection. “The hour is coming,
in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come
forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that
have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.“ (John 5, 28) Will these
two men rise again at the resurrection?
Had we been present at their martyrdom
and torture, and at their terrible death, and had we been able to ask those who
sat in judgement upon them, and their henchmen who with their iron clubs broke
their bones and perhaps with one terrible heave struck the deathblow, if these
men had done good or done evil, we would have received the answer that they had
to die, at the Emperor’s command, because they stubbornly refused to honour and
worship deities created by men and acknowledged by the state; because the only
God of whom they would confess their recognition was a transcendent God who
reigned in fatherly love over all earth’s people.
Perhaps it was feared that these men, who
were probably, like St. Victor, soldiers serving under Roman command, here to defend the Rhine border
against Germanic tribes pressing in from the east, would not be sufficiently
dependable fighters against the German enemy, seeing them also as children of
the same heavenly Father, made equally in the image of God. Foolish fear! For
genuine Christians have always been the most loyal of citizens, the most
reliable public servants, the most courageous soldiers among their people.
Their loyalty, their reliability, their courage is not only founded upon a
naturally good predisposition, upon goodwill, be it ever so weak, upon
conscious efforts to guard their honour in the sight of other men, to avoid
punishment on this earth, perhaps to gain of others respect, recognition and
reward. True Christians are aware that loyal fulfilment of their duty as citizens,
as public servants, as soldiers, is an exercise of virtue which God, our
supreme Lord, demands of them unreservedly, regardless of witness, recognition
or reward by other men, but throughout which they are supported by God in his
goodness, with the help of His divine grace. The Christian looks beyond reward,
praise and fame after death, all be they worthy worldly possessions, because he
knows all these to be small and slight and undependable and finite compared to
the hundredfold reward, the honour and glory which God almighty bestows upon
them who in accordance with Christ’s word have been found faithful in the face
of the ephemeral.
Thus did the Christian confessors and
martyrs think and act. You know that many martyrs of the Catholic church have
been drawn from the ranks of brave soldiers: St. Theodore, St. George,
St.Sebastian, St. Mauritius, Cassius and Florentinus, Gereon, and your own St.
Victor, with whom according to legend all the officers and men of their legion
suffered martyrdom for the sake of Christ. They allowed themselves to be mown
down by their heathen comrades, without defending themselves or offering
resistance. The swords which they had so heroically wielded in the heat of
battle for their emperor and their fatherland they did not draw against their
comrades who on the orders of the emperor fell upon them like enemies, to
massacre them. In them they saw not enemies, but misguided friends. They did
not fight the emperor, rather they obeyed the emperor unto death. For it was
the emperor who ordered that they must either sacrifice to the idols or die.
Because they could not offer up that sacrifice without sinning, they chose to
die, in order not to sin. Is that not faithfulness? Is that not heroism? Is
that not courage in the service of the emperor, and in the service of God even
unto death?
Christ our Lord, the King of kings,
and Ruler of rulers, our only judge and He who shall mete out our eternal
reward, declared them saints, these warriors loyal unto death. For he says:
“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for their’s is
the kingdom of Heaven.” Theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
From the torture bench, from their
place of execution, from the hands of their bloodstained executioner, where
they left behind their transitory, mutilated, lifeless bodies, their souls
ascended and were taken up into Heaven, into the eternal realm of the living
God. On the Day of Judgement they will also once again take possession of their
mortal dust, the sometime habitation, place of work and place of suffering of
their heroic souls, their bodies, their bones and relics, because these too
shall be rewarded, transfigured, granted eternal bliss. “The hour is coming, in
which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the son of God.
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life.”
In this place also, in this Cathedral,
shall this wonder come to pass. The saints will arise in glory. That was their
belief, their faith, and their sure hope of victory during their torture and
death. That was also the belief of the Christians of that time who, with deep
emotion and joyful solemnity, witnessed that martyrdom, and who afterwards
collected up the bloody, shattered, disfigured remains, bore them away, and
reverently interred them in a common shrine. That was the belief of the
Christian era that followed soon after, of the Christianised Romans, and even
more so of your forefathers, the Frankish Germans, who settled here and erected
one church after the other, each more magnificent than the last, over these
martyrs’ graves. That is why they called this place “Ad sanctos”, “by the
saints”, Xanten. Here, for more than fifteen hundred years without
interruption, the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass has been offered up, the renewal
of Christ’s most sacred, obediently suffered sacrificial death, whence all
martyrdom, all Christian devotion, courage, self-sacrifice, have gained their
worth and effect. The love of Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, and the
devotion of the martyrs, who gave themselves for Christ, have in this place
throughout the ages roused and inspired your forefathers to devotion, courage
and self-sacrifice for God and the highest good. Emulate them!
Yes, emulate them! For the sake of
your souls, of your children, of our people. We too are called, are bound
through the faithful fulfilment of duty to our family, our occupation, our
community, based upon the fear of God and the love of God, to serve God and the
kingdom of God on earth, our fellow beings, our nation and the state, as did
the holy martyrs. We have been chosen to swell the glorious ranks of the
saints, one day to belong with them in Heaven. And if in consequence we are
misjudged, despised, slandered, reviled, even persecuted, tortured and killed,
“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say
all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding
glad: for great is your reward in heaven.”
Yes, rejoice and be exceeding glad!
You know that the time is come when not a few of us will be granted such a
portion. How are the holy church, the Pope, the bishops, the priests, the
members of religious orders, how are the faithful children of the church in
Germany disparaged, defamed, derided, publicly and without sanction. How many
Catholics, priests and laity, have been attacked and abused in newspapers and
in meetings, have been driven out of their professions and positions, and have
without due process of law been imprisoned and maltreated. The head of the
episcopal information service in Berlin, Canon Dr. Banasch, has for months been
languishing in prison, and at no stage have his superiors the Bishops been
informed of any charges against him. The Bishops’ appointed leader of the Young
Men’s Association, Msgr. Wolker, was arrested three days ago, and how long will
it be before he is able to prove his innocence before an independent German
court? There are in Germany fresh graves, in which rest the ashes of such as
the Catholic people hold to be martyrs of their faith, because their lives are
a testimony of the most faithful fulfilment of duty to God and the fatherland,
nation and church, and because their deaths are shrouded in closely guarded
mystery. And how often does the heaviest burden of conscience weigh upon public
servants and employees, parents and teachers, who are faced with having to
chose between faithfulness to God and their Christian conscience and winning
the pleasure and favour of those upon whom their position and whole livelihood
depend!
Do not be surprised if the good Lord
sends us times of trial. Our church is the church of martyrs. If you question
how matters can come to such a pass, the answer lies in the words of our
Saviour when he said: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before
it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but
because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The
servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will
also persecute you.” (John 15, 18). “The time cometh, that whosoever killeth
you will think thathe doeth God service. And these things will they do unto
you, because
they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.”(John 16, 2).
they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them.”(John 16, 2).
The answer to this question lies also
in the sacrificial death, the death by martyrdom, the heroic death of Jesus Christ, who submitted himself
obediently to an earthly judge, acknowledging before him that the power authorized
him by his position stemmed from God; and who then, in order that the truth he
preached, that his claim to be the Son of God and the King of Creation, might
be recognized, freely accepted the death sentence, humiliation and prison and
captivity and the crown of thorns and finally crucifixion. We celebrate his memory,
and the bloodless renewal of his self sacrificial and bloody death, in every
holy mass said over the relics of holy martyrs, who, like St. Stephen, gave
thanks with their deaths unto him who, through his death, purchased life for us
all. Since then the sign of the cross, once a sign of ignominy, has become a
symbol of victory and triumph; yea, a pledge of God’s grace and of His
choosing of us for Heaven. For St. Paul assures us: “If so be that we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified together.” (Romans 8, 17).
Like Christ, like the Apostles, like
the holy martyrs, we are obedient to authority, loyal to our nation,
conscientious in our occupations, at work, in our families, in the community,
willing to sacrifice ourselves, even to give our lives, like St. Victor and all
soldiers, like our brave soldiers who in the World War by the thousand staked
their lives and sacrificed them for the German fatherland. But when we, like
those saints, are confronted with the choice between earthly happiness and
confession of the faith, the choice between the service of God and death, then,
like our brave exemplars, we will with God’s grace stand fast in our faith, for
like them we would rather go to our deaths than commit a sin. May today’s
celebration and the memory of the holy heroes of our faith whose remains are
enclosed in this cathedral, may the power of the holy sacrifice on the cross,
which we now reverently celebrate together in the holy mass, strengthen us all
in this sacred resolve, so that one day that which Christ promised those who
follow him on the glorious way of the cross shall be true for us all: “Blessed
are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner
of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for
great is your reward in heaven.”
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Bishop
Von Galen stared Hitler in the face.
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Clemens
August Graf von Galen’s quote
[PHOTO
SOURCE: http://izquotes.com/quote/275846]
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