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Dr. Roberto De Mattei about

‘The Judgement of God in History’

The following talk was given on 21 May 2020 at the online Rome Life Forum with
several speakers on a number of topics. Food for thought gives Roberto de Mattei’s
treatise on whether and how God judges. After all, that judgment of God is denied by
many within the Church today, despite the countless statements of Scripture and the
continuous Tradition of the Church.

“Terra infecta est ab habitatoribus suis, propter hoc maledictio vastabit terram.” (The
earth has been contaminated by its inhabitants; because of the curse, the earth is des-
troyed.) – Isaiah 24:6. In the era of the coronavirus, everyone is talking about all sorts of
things, but there are certain topics that remain forbidden, above all in the Catholic world.
The primary forbidden topic is that of judgement and divine retribution in history. The
fact of this censure is a good reason for us to consider the argument.

The Kingdom of God and his Justice

We begin not in the Old Testament, where there are numerous references to divine
chastisements, but with the very words of Our Lord himself who says to us: “But seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to
you.” (Mt. 6:31-33) These words of the Gospel are a program of life for each of us and
they remind us of one of the beatitudes: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Mt. 5:6)

The sense of justice is one of the first moral senses of our reason: philosophers define it
as the inclination of the will to give to each one his due. The yearning for justice is in
the heart of every person. We do not seek only what is true, good, and beautiful, but also
what is just. Everyone loves justice and detests injustice. And because the world is full
of injustices, and human justice as it is administered by legal courts is always imperfect,
we aspire to a perfect justice – a justice that does not exist on earth and may be found
only in God.
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The most celebrated trial in history, the trial of Our Lord Jesus Christ, sanctioned the
most egregious injustice of all time. But God is infinitely just, because he infallibly gives
each person his own justice. The beauty of the universe consists in its order, and that
order is the kingdom of justice, because order means putting each thing in its place and
justice means giving to each his own: unicuique suum (each his), as is established by
Roman law.

The infinite justice of God

The infinite justice of God has its supreme manifestation in two different judgements
that await man at the end of his life: the particular judgement, to which every soul is
subject at the moment of death, and the universal judgement, to which all men will be
subject in body and soul, after the end of the world. This is the faith of the Church: every
human being will appear before God at the end of his life to receive either reward or
punishment from the Lord and Supreme Judge. For this reason, Sirach says (Eccl. 38):
“Memor est judicii mei, sic enim erit et tuum.” (Remember my judgement if you also
want to learn to judge well.)

Father Garrigou-Lagrange explains that in the particular judgement the soul understands
spiritually that it is being judged by God, and in that divine light his conscience
pronounces the same divine judgement. “This happens in the first instant in which the
soul is separated from the body, for which reason it is true to say that if a person is dead,
then that person is also judged. The sentence is definitive and the execution of the
sentence is immediate.” (a)

The judgement of God is different from that of men. There is the famous case of Ray-
mond Diacres, the esteemed professor at the Sorbonne, who died in 1082. A multitude
of people attended his funeral at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, including his
student Saint Bruno of Cologne. During the ceremony, a disturbing thing happened,
which was examined in all of its particulars by the Bollandist scholars. The body of
Diacres was laid out in the middle of the central nave of the church, covered only by a
simple veil, as was the customary practice at that time. The funeral rites began and pro-
ceeded to the point where the priest said the words of the rite: “Answer me: how many
iniquities and sins do you have...?” Just then a sepulchral voice spoke from under the
funeral veil: “By the just judgement of God I have been accused!” The funeral cloth was
immediately taken off the body, but the dead man lay there cold and motionless. The
funeral rite, which had been unexpectedly interrupted, was immediately recommenced
amid the uproar of the entire congregation. The question was repeated, and the dead man
cried out with a voice even louder than before: “By the just judgement of God I have
been judged!” The terror of those in attendance reached its peak. Some doctors
approached the body and confirmed that he was really dead. Amid the general fright and
bewilderment, the ecclesiastical authorities decided to postpone the funeral until the
following day. The next day the funeral ceremony was repeated, but this time when they
reached the same question in the rite: “Answer me: how many iniquities and sins do you
have...?” The body sat up under the funeral veil and cried aloud: “By the just judgement
of God I have been condemned to Hell for ever!” (b) Faced with this terrible testimony,
the funeral was stopped. It was decided that the body should not be buried in the common
cemetery. On the coffin of the damned man the words were written that he will speak at
the moment of the resurrection: “Justo Dei judicio accusatus sum; Justo Dei judicio
judicatus sum: Justo Dei judicio condemnatus sum.” (The accusation, the condemnation,
the sentence – this is what will await the reprobate on the day of the Universal
Judgement.)

For this reason, Saint Augustine says in “The City of God”: “All those who necessarily
will die ought not to worry so much about how they will die as about the place where
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they will be forced to go after death.” (c) And this place, we should add, is either Heaven
or Hell.

The Message of Fatima opens with the terrifying vision of Hell and reminds us that our
life on earth is very serious, because it places before us a dramatic choice: Heaven or
Hell, eternal happiness or eternal damnation. According to how we choose, we will be
judged at the moment of our death, and the sentence, once it is pronounced, will be
unappealable.

The Universal Judgement

But there is a second judgement that awaits us after death: the universal judgement. The
existence of a universal judgement that will follow the particular judgement is an article
of faith. Saint Augustine synthesizes the teaching of the Church in these words: “No one
can place in doubt or deny that Jesus Christ, as the Scriptures proclaim, will pronounce
the final judgement.” (d) It will be the Last Judgement, which no one can escape.

In the hour of the Universal Judgement, Jesus Christ, the Man-God, will appear in the
heavens, preceded by the Cross and surrounded by hosts of Angels and Saints, seated on
a throne of majesty. (Mt. 24:30-31, 25:30) The role of Judge has been given to him by
his Father, as Jesus himself reveals to us in the Gospel: “By myself I can do nothing. I
judge according to what I hear, and my judgement is just, because I do not seek my own
will but the will of Him who sent me.” (John 5:30)

But why is a universal judgement necessary, since God judges every soul immediately
after death and the universal judgement will simply confirm the sentence already given
in the particular judgement? Isn’t one judgement enough?

Thomas Aquinas responds: “Every man is a person in himself and is at the same time a
part of the entire human race; therefore he ought to have a double judgement: one that
is particular, after his death, when he will receive according to what he did in life,
although not entirely, because he will receive not as regards the body but as regards the
soul; but there must also be another judgement in accord with the fact that we are part
of the human race: the universal judgement of the entire human race through the
separation of the good from the wicked.” (e)

The Angelic Doctor explains, in another passage, that although the temporal life of man
ends with death, it is prolonged in a certain way in the future, because he continues to
live in the memory of men, beginning with his children. Furthermore, the life of man
continues in the effects of his works. He says: “As a result of the imposture of Arius
[who denied the teaching of the Holy Trinity] and other impostors, unbelief will teem
until the end of the world; and likewise up to this same point faith will expand thanks to
the preaching of the Apostles.” (f)

The judgement of God thus does not conclude with death but extends to the end of time,
because the good influence of the saints and the evil influence of the reprobate extends
until the end of time. Saint Benedict, Saint Francis, and Saint Dominic will merit to be
repaid for all the good that their work continued to do until the end of the world, while
Luther, Voltaire, and Marx will be punished for all the evil that their works have brought
about until the end of the world. For this reason, there must be a final judgement, in
which everything concerning each man in any way whatsoever, [which only God can
see in consideration of the unrealized deeds], will be perfectly and clearly judged. In the
particular judgement each person will judged above all as regards the rightness of
intention with which he has worked [for good or bad]. [When doing good with the wrong
intention this shall not contribute to our eternal salvation, and doing bad with a good
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intention might be meritious.] In the universal judgement, however, his works will be
judged objectively, above all for the effects that they have had on society at large.

After the immediate judgement before God at the moment of death, it is necessary that
there shall also be a public judgement not only before God but before all men, all the
angels, all the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary, because, as the Gospel says: “There
is nothing concealed that will not be revealed; nothing secret that will not be known.”
(Luk. 12:2) It is right that those who have gained Heaven thanks to sufferings and per-
secutions will be glorified, while the many wicked and perverse people who have led a
happy life in the eyes of men will be publicly dishonored. Father Schmaus says that the
final judgement will reveal the truth or falsehood of the cultural, scientific, and artistic
works of men: the truth or falsehood of the philosophical guidelines, political institu-
tions, and the religious and moral forces that have moved history; the significance of the
various sects and heresies, of wars and revolutions. (g) The bodies of Arius, Luther,
Robespierre and Marx are already turned to dust, but on the day of judgement their
books, statues and names will have to be publicly execrated.

We add that each man is born and lives within a nation, and his action contributes to
transform the nations and peoples in which he lives for good or evil, and these peoples
and nations will be judged in their culture, institutions, and laws. For this reason the
Gospel says that when the Son of Man comes in his glory “all the nations will be
assembled before him. And He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd
separates the sheep from the goats. And He will place the sheep on his right and the
goats on his left.” (Mt. 25:31- 46)

Thus the judgement will not be pronounced only over individual men and individual
angels. Nations are also called to fulfill the designs of Divine Providence and therefore
must conform themselves to the divine will that rules and governs the universe. At the
universal judgement it will be revealed if and how much each people has fulfilled the
task assigned to them by God. (h) Monsignor Antonio Piolanti writes: “Reasons of wisdom
keep secrets over the course of time, but, in the end, time will have to pour out its treasure
before the eyes of the universal assembly. All the masks will fall and the happy
Phariseeism will bear the mark of an indelible infamy.” (i) The judgement will extend
to all of human history, which will be publicly unveiled to the greater glory of God. It
will be the triumph of Divine Providence that over the course of history guides the
destinies of men and nations in an invisible and impenetrable way [yet leaving the free
will unaffected]. In the presence of this unappealable sentence everyone gathered in the
valley of Jehosaphat will proclaim the great verdict: “Iustus es Domine, et rectum iudi-
cium tuum.” (You are just, O Lord, and your judgement is full of equity.) – Ps. 118:137.

The particular judgement and the universal judgement are the two supreme moments in
which the judgement of God is manifested over men and nations. This divine judgement
is followed by a reward or a punishment. For individual people, the reward or
punishment may apply either during their earthly life or in eternity, but for nations, which
do not have an eternal life, the reward or punishment can be applied only within the
course of history. And because the universal judgement brings history to a close, in that
moment Jesus Christ will not condemn the various nations to eternal punishment, but
rather He will open the eyes of all humanity that has been gathered together to see how
each nation has been rewarded or punished throughout the course of history according
to its virtues or its sins.

It is important to understand that, both for individual men as well as for nations, the
universal judgement is the culminating moment of divine judgement, but God does not
limit Himself to judging only in that hour: we may say that He judges from the moment of
the creation of the universe [which is the beginning of history]. At a point in history,
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there is a judgement – the judgement made by God against Lucifer and the rebellious
angels – just as at the beginning of creation of man there is a judgement made against
Adam and Eve. From that time on until the end of time, the judgement of God does not
cease to apply to his creatures, because Divine Providence sustains the entire created
universe in being [and other worlds, like Heaven] and directs them toward their final
destination. All the movements of the physical world, the moral world, and the super-
natural world are willed by God, excluding sin, which can only be created by the free
creature.

Jesus says that all the hairs of our head have been counted. (Luk. 12:8) Even more so is
it true that every one of our actions, even the smallest, is judged by God. But God is not
only infinitely just, he is also infinitely merciful, (j) and there is no divine judgement
that is devoid of mercy, just as there is no expression of divine mercy that is without the
most profound justice. Perhaps the most beautiful example of this embrace of justice and
mercy is given to us in the great gift of the Sacrament of Penance. In this sacrament, in
which the sinner is judged and absolved, the priest, who acts in Persona Christi, exercises
the judicial power of the Church but also exercises the maternal mercy of God, absolving
us of our sins. The justice of God intervenes to reestablish order by means of the penance
that the fault merits, and Divine Mercy manifests itself by means of the forgiveness of
our sins by which God frees from eternal punishments.

The Chastisement of the Nations

What applies to men also applies to nations. God is not absent from history; He is also
always present in it with his immensity, and there is not a point or moment of created
time in which He does not manifest his divine justice and mercy over all peoples. All the
misfortunes that strike the nations over the course of their history have a signifycance.
Their causes sometimes elude us, but it is certain that the origin of every evil permitted
by God lies in the sin of man. Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, a student of Saint Augustine,
says that “often the causes of the divine operation remain hidden and only the effects
are seen.” (k) One thing is certain: whatever the secondary causes may be, God is always
the first cause: everything depends on Him. At this point we should ask ourselves in
what way God judges and punishes the behavior of various peoples and nations in
history. The response of Sacred Scripture, of theologians, and saints is univocal: “Tria
sunt flagella quibus dominus castigat.” (The Lord scourges with three afflictions.) With
war, plague, and famine, Saint Bernardine of Siena explains, (l) God punishes the three
principal vices of men – pride, opulence, and avarice: pride, when the soul rebels against
God, opulence when the body rebels against the soul, avarice when created things rebel
against man. (Rev. 12:7-9, Gen. 6:5-7, Ps. 96:3) War is the punishment for the pride of
the peoples, epidemics are the punishment for their luxury, and famine is the punishment
for their avarice.

The Signs by which we know that the Divine Judgements are Near
In his Sermons, Saint Bernardine analyses Psalm 119, which says: “Tempus faciendi
dissipaverunt legem tuam.” (It is time for the Lord to act, for they have dispelled your
Law.) – Psalm 119:126. In this expression of the psalmist, Saint Bernardine distinguishes
three stages:

• Tempus – the time that the mercy of God gives to people to change their ways. In this
space of time God offers sinners the possibility of suspending the sentence, revoking the
penalty, remitting the offense, or receiving grace. God waits because He desires the
conversion of sinners. The time of waiting may be long, but it has a limit. If during this
time there is no repentance, punishment is logical and necessary.
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• In the second stage, God prepares punishment for the impenitent sinners: a time that is
expressed by the words “faciendi Domine” (God’s active intervention), which summa-
rises, according to Saint Bernardine, “the bitter revenge and the harsh punishment of
God”, if the people do not wish to change their ways. (m) The punishment, however, is
an act of the Father’s mercy. He does not wish the eternal death of sinners but their life,
and through the scourges He inflicts on them He still tries to obtain their conversion. It
is the time in which the axe is placed at the root of the tree: “Securis ad radicem arboris
posita est.” (Mt. 3:10)

• Stage three commences when the violation is completed: “dissipaverunt legem tuam”
(they are breaking your law). It is the hour of taking up the sickle and reaping the harvest
as the angel says in the Book of Revelation: “Use your sickle and reap the harvest for
the time to reap has come, because the earth’s harvest is fully ripe.” (Rev. 14:15)

What are the signs that indicate the harvest is ripe? Saint Bernardine lists seven: (n)
1. The existence of many horrendous sins, like in Sodom and Gomorrah;
2. The fact that the sin is committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent;
3. That these sins are committed by the entire people as a whole;
4. That this happens in a public and shameless manner;
5. That it happens with all the affection of the heart of the sinners;
6. That the sins are committed with attention and diligence;
7. That all of this is done in a continuous and persevering way.

This is the hour in which God punishes the sins of pride, luxury, and avarice with the
scourges of plague, war, and famine. “Tempus faciendi Domine, dissipaverunt legem
tuam.” (It is time to act, O Lord, for they have violated your law.) Another great saint
with a prophetic voice that echoes Saint Bernardine, Saint Louis Marie Grignon de
Montfort, exclaims in his “Fiery Prayer for the Apostles of the Latter Times”:
«« It is time to act, O Lord, they have rejected your law. It is indeed time to
fulfil your promise. Your divine commandments are broken, your Gospel is
thrown aside, torrents of iniquity flood the whole earth carrying away even your
servants. The whole land is desolate, ungodliness reigns supreme, your sanctuary
is desecrated and the abomination of desolation has even contaminated the holy
place. God of Justice, God of Vengeance, will you let everything, then, go the
same way? Will everything come to the same end as Sodom and Gomorrah?
Will you never break your silence? Will you tolerate all this for ever? »»

Grignon de Montfort wrote these words at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Two
centuries later the Blessed Mother appeared at Fatima to announce that if the world con-
tinued to offend God it would be punished through war, famine, and persecutions of the
Church and the Holy Father (the Pope) and that “various nations will be annihilated”.

But today, one hundred years after the apparitions at Fatima, three hundred years after
the death of Grignon de Montfort, has the world ceased offending God? Is the divine law
perhaps less transgressed, the Gospel less abandoned, the sanctuary less profaned? Do
we not see sins that cry out for vengeance before the face of God such as abortion and
sodomy justified, exalted, and protected by the laws of nations? Have we not seen the
Pachamama idol welcomed and venerated even within the holy precincts of the Vatican?
Should all of this not be judged by God by now? And should not whoever loves God
also love and desire the hour of his justice, so as to respect, as on the day of the final
judgement: “Iustus es Domine, et rectum iudicium tuum.” (You are just, O Lord, and
your judgement is full of equity?) – Psalm 118:137. Why the peoples do not realize that
God’s punishments are looming over them?
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Among Catholics, whenever an affliction happens to a certain people or nation, there are
those who say that they do not know if this is a punishment or a trial. But in contrast to
trials that befall individual men, evils that afflict nations are always punishments. It may
happen that a virtuous man must suffer much in order to be proven in his patience, as
happened to Job. The sufferings that individual men encounter in their lives are not
always a punishment; more often they are a trial that prepares them to gain eternal
happiness. But in the case of nations, the sufferings due to war, epidemics or earthquakes
are always a punishment because nations do not have an eternal existence. To say that a
scourge could be ‘a trial’ for a nation does not make sense. It could be a trial for the
individual men of a particular nation, but not for the nation as a whole, because nations
receive their punishment in the given time on earth, not in eternity.

The punishments of a nation increase in proportion to the sins of that nation. And in
proportion to the increase of their sins, the wicked also increase their rejection of the idea
of punishment, as Voltaire did in his blasphemous Poem on the Disaster in Lisbon, written
after the terrible earthquake that destroyed the capital of Portugal in 1755. The Church has
always responded to the blasphemies of the atheists by recalling that everything that
happens depends on God and has a meaning. But when it is the very men of the Church
who deny the idea of divine punishment, this means that the punishment is already
underway and is irremediable. In the days of the coronavirus outbreak [in 2020],
Archbishop Mario Delpini of Milan even went so far as to say that “it is a pagan idea to
think that God sends scourges”. In reality, thinking that God does not send scourges makes
someone not a pagan but an Atheist [or rather an agnost]. The fact that this is exactly what
many bishops throughout the world think, means that the Catholic episcopate throughout
the world is immersed in atheism [or agnosticism]. And this now is sign of a divine
chastisement that is already underway.

Saint Bernardine explains that the more the punishment of God draws near, the less the
people who deserve it are aware of it. (o) The reason for this blindness of the mind is
pride: “initium omnis peccati” (the beginning of all sin) – Ecclesiasticus 10:15. Pride
darkens the intellect, prevents it from seeing how near the destruction is, and God desires
by this blindness to humiliate the proud. With the help of Bernardine we can also
interpret a line from the Book of Psalms that was incorporated by Pope Leo XIII in his
“Exorcism Against the Rebel Angels”: “Veniat illi laqueus quem ignorat, et captio quam
abscondit, apprehendat eum et laqueum cadat in ipsum.” (Ps. 35:8). The free translation
of this passage could be: “Let the snare come, the trap he is not thinking of. Let the
maneuver he is hiding seize him and let him fall into his own snare of death.”

Saint Bernardine says that this passage of the Psalms can be interpreted under three
aspects. First, from God’s point of view: “Veniat illi laqueus quem ignorat.” (Let him
be catched in a snare that he suspected not.) – Psalm 35:8. The first cause of this igno-
rance comes from God, who in order to conceal his plans uses epidemics and famines.
“Laqueus est pestis vel fames et consimilia”, says Saint Bernardine: “The snare consists
of plague or famines and such like.” (p) First of all, God takes away the people’s guides,
not only their political and spiritual guides, but also the angels who preside over nations.
God then takes away the “lumen veritatis” (the light of truth), which is a grace like every
good that comes from God. Finally, God permits the sinful people to fall prey to their
own vices, of demons who replace the angels, and of the wicked, who lead them towards
the abyss. “Et captio quam abscondit, apprehendat eum.” (Let the net that they hid
ensnare them.) – Psalm 35:10. Once every guide has been taken away from them and
also the light of truth, the impenitent people not only do not change when God announces
the chastisement, but they actually increase their sins. And this multiplication of sins
augments the blindness of the peoples. “Et laqueum cadat in ipsum.” (May they fall into
their own pit.) The sinful people are unaware of the hour of punishment, which comes
upon them suddenly and unexpectedly. The maneuvers with which they attempted to
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destroy the good turn against them. They are not only punished but also humiliated. Thus
the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: “Evil shall come upon you and you will not know from
where it arises. Trouble shall fall upon you and you will not be able to put it off.
Desolation shall come upon you suddenly, of unimaginable proportion.” (Is. 47:11)

The Fear of God and Human Terror

When then the chastisement begins, the demon, seeing his plans being upset, spreads the
sense of terror among the peoples, the antechamber of despair. The wicked deny the
existence of the catastrophe; the good understand that it has arrived, but instead of the
wicked seizing the opportunity of their rebirth in Christ Jesus, they are tempted to see in
it only the hour of their own ruin. This happens because they refuse to see behind the
events the wise hand of God and they chase therefore after the recovery efforts of mortal
men. An author dear to the heart of Grignon de Montfort, the Archdeacon Henri-Marie
Boudon writes: “Dieu ne frappe que pour être regardé; et l’on n’arrête les yeux que sur
les creatures.” (God strikes so as to be contemplated, but instead of turning our gaze to
Him, we turn it to creatures.) (q) This does not mean that the maneuvers of the
revolutionary forces should not be observed, analysed and combated, but never
forgetting that the Revolution is always defeated in history by the self-destructive nature
it intrinsically possesses, while the Counter-Revolution always wins because of the
fruitfulness of the good which it likewise possesses within itself [a fruitfulness that, of
course, comes from God].

Atheism [c.q. agnosticism] is the expulsion of God from every aspect of human activity.
The great victory of the enemies of God does not lie in suppressing our lives or restricting
our physical liberties, but rather in removing the idea of God from our minds and hearts.
All human reasoning and philosophical, historical, and political speculation in which
God does not hold the first place is false and illusory. Bossuet says: “Toutes nos pensées
qui n’ont pas Dieu pour objet sont du domaine de la mort.” (All of our thoughts that
have not God for their object belong to the domain of death.) (r) This is true. We can
also say that all of our thoughts that do have God for their object belong to the domain
of life, because Jesus Christ, the Judge and Savior of the human race, is “the Way, the
Truth, and the Life”. (John 14:6) To speak of the judgement of God in and over
history is therefore not speaking of death but life, and so whoever speaks of divine
judgement is not a ‘Prophet of Doom’ but rather a ‘Herald of Hope’.

Those who today with ever greater force reject the idea of divine punishment are the
men of the Church. They reject punishment because they reject the judgement of God,
which they replace with the judgement of the world. But the fear of God is born from
humility, while the fear of the world is born from pride. To fear God is the highest
wisdom: “Timor Domini initium Sapientiae.” (The fear of God is the beginning of
wisdom.) says the Book of Ecclesiastes, which concludes with these words: “Deum time,
et mandata ejus serva: hoc est enim omnis homo.” (Fear God and observe his
commandments, for this is everything for man.) – Ecclesiasticus 12:13. Whoever does
not fear God replaces the divine commandments with the commandments of the world,
for fear of being isolated, censured and persecuted by the world. The fear of the world,
which is a consequence of sin, drives men to run away from battle, while the fear of God
incites men to engage. A great French author, Ernest Hello, says: “Fearing the name of
God means not being afraid of anything.” (s) And Hello also reminds us of a word of
Sacred Scripture whose depth we will never succeed in fully understanding: “Laetetur
cor meum ut timeat nomen tuum.” (My heart rejoices that it may fear your name.) –
Psalm 85:11. Joy exists only where there is the presence of God, and God cannot be
present if the fear of the Lord is not present. The Holy Spirit says that there is nothing
greater than the fear of the Lord: “Nihil melius est quam timor Domini.” (Eccl. 23:27).
The Holy Spirit calls the fear of the Lord the fountain of life: “Timor Domini fons vitae.”
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(Prov. 14:27), as well as jubilation and joy: “Timor Domini gloria, gloriatio et laetitia
et corona exultationis!” (De vreze des Heren is eer en roem; zij is blijdschap en een
vreugdekrans!) – Sirach 1:11. It is this fear of the Lord that leads us to recognize the
divine hand in the tragic events of our time and to enter into the battle with tranquil
courage.

The Knight, Death, and the Devil

“The Knight, Death, and the Devil” is a copperplate engraving by Albrecht Dürer from
1513. The work shows a horseman with a helmet on his head, armed with a sword and
lance, riding on a majestic steed, defying death, who shows him an hourglass containning
the timespan of life that is fleeting, and then there is the devil, depicted as a horned
animal holding a halberd. Almost seventy years ago, in an article published in the journal
Catolicismo of February 1951, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira used this image to illustrate the
clash between the Revolution that cannot go back and the Church that, despite
everything, has not managed to triumph. He wrote:
«« War, death and sin are preparing once again to destroy the world, this time
in greater proportions than ever. In 1513 the incomparable talent of Dürer
represented them in the form of a knight that is leaving for war, fully dressed in
his armour, and accompanied by death and sin, the latter portrayed by a unicorn.
Europe, which was even then immersed in the disturbances that preceded the
Pseudo-Reform, was heading for the tragic age of the religious, political and
social wars that Protestantism triggered off.
The next war, without being explicitly and directly a war of religion, will
so affect the sacred interests of the Church that a true Catholic cannot fail to see
in it mainly the religious aspect. And the devastation that will be unleashed will
certainly be incomparably more destructive than those of the past centuries. Who
will win? The Church? The clouds we have before us are not rosy. But they
animate us with an unconquerable certainty and that certainty implies that not
only the Church – which is obvious, given the divine promise – will not disappear,
but in our days it will obtain an even greater triumph than that of Lepanto.
How? When? The future belongs to God. Many reasons for sadness and
anxiety appear before us, even when we look at some of our brothers in faith. In
the heat of the struggle it is possible and even probable that there will be terrible
defections. But it is also absolutely certain that the Holy Spirit continues to
inspire in the Church admirable and indomitable spiritual energies of faith, purity,
obedience and dedication, which at the opportune moment will once more cover
the Christian name with glory. »»

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira concluded his article with the hope that the twentieth century
would be “not only the century of the great battle, but above all the century of the
immense triumph”. We ourselves echo this hope, that extends into the twenty first
century, our century, the era of the coronavirus and of new tragedies, but also the time
of a renewed faith in the promise of Fatima, a faith that we wish to express with the
words that Pope Pius XII addressed to Catholic Action in 1948: (t)
«« You know, beloved sons, the mysterious horsemen of which the Book of
Revelation speaks. The second, third, and fourth horsemen are war, hunger, and
death. Who is the first horseman on the white steed? “Its rider had a bow, and he
was given a crown, and he rode forth victorious.” (Rev. 6:2) He is Jesus Christ.
The visionary-evangelist did not see only the ruin caused by sin, war, hunger, and
death; he also saw first and foremost the victory of Christ. And indeed the path
of the Church down the centuries is but a via crucis, but it is also in every age a
triumphal march. The Church of Christ, the men of faith, of Christian love, are
always those who bring light, redemption and peace to humanity that is without
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hope. “Iesus Christus heri et hodie, ipse et in saecula.” (Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever!) – Hebrews 13:8. Christ is your guide, from victory
into victory. Follow Him! »»

Translated by Giuseppe Pellegrino

Notes:
a. “La Vita Eterna e la Profondità dell’Anima” Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange (Italian translation)
– Fede e Cultura, Verona # 2018 (p. 94).
b. “Vita del Gran Patriarca” S. Bruno Cartusiano – Dal Surio, & altri …, Alessandro Zannetti,
Roma 1622 (II, p. 125).
c. “De Civitate Dei” Augustinus (10:11).
d. “De Civitate Dei” Augustinus (20:30).
e. Thomas Aquinas: in IV Sent. 47, 1, 1, ad 1.
f. Thomas Aquinas: in Summa Theologica, III, q. 59, art. 5
g. “Le Ultime Realtà” Michael Schmaus (Italian translation) – Edizioni Paoline, Roma # 1960
(p. 247).
h. Ibid. (p. 248).
i. Antonio Piolanti, “Giudizio divino” in Enciclopedia Cattolica (VI, 951, col. 731-32).
j. “Dieu, son existence et son nature” Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange – Beauchesne, Paris # 1950
(I, pp. 440-43).
k. “De vocatione omnium gentium” Prosper van Aquitaine – Città Nuova, Roma # 1998 (p.74).
l. “Opera omnia” St Bernardine – Ad Claras Aquas, Florence # 1950, Feria quinta post
dominicam de Passione (Sermo 46, II, pp. 84-8).
m. Ibid. Feria secunda post II dominicam in quadragesima (Sermo 19, III, p. 333).
n. Ibid. (pp. 337-8).
o. Ibid. (pp. 340-50).
p. Ibid. (p. 341).
q. “La dévotion aux saints Anges” Henri-Marie Boudon – Clovis, Cobdé-sur-Noireau # 1985
(p. 265).
r. “Oraison funèbre de Henriette-Anne d’Angleterre (1670)” Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet –
Outhenin-Chalandre Fils, Paris # 1836 (in Œuvres complètes, II, p. 576).
s. “L’homme” Ernst Hallo – Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris # 1911 (p. 102).
t. Discourse of Pius XII on Sept. 12 1948 to the Youth of “Catholic Action” (in “Discorsi
Radiomessaggi 1948-1949”, X, p. 212).

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Comments by Hubert Luns:

The chapter on the general judgement refers to the effects of the works that con-
tinue to have an effect even after someone has died. Saint Augustine speaks of the
good influence of the saints and the evil influence of the reprobate. I would like to
add that the sin of negligence also plays a role here. Negligence is missing our God-
given life mission and missing what was within our power at specific moments in
our lives but what we failed to do, which can have far-reaching consequences.
For example, there is the flight crime after a car accident that otherwise might
have saved someone, but has now died on the spot. In many instances, only God can
see the consequences, also in the long run, of ‘doing nothing’. The French say: “Le
possible non réalisé ne se discute pas.” (The unrealized possibility is non-
negotiable.) But things are different for God. He can weigh up the realized against
the unrealized. Our given talents and the social position reached, incurr a certain
responsibility that will be taken into account in the general judgement.
An interesting case of the sin of negligence is not informing someone who is
insufficiently aware of a particular situation. Take the case of the softenon drama
(thalidomide) that came on the market in the 1950s as a remedy for morning sick-
ness, which at one point was almost as common as aspirin. In pregnant women, it
caused miscarriages and children with missing limbs. It is estimated to have led to
about 100,000 miscarriages and 10,000 deformed children, of whom many are still
alive. Before the drug came on the market, an employee of Chemie Grünenthal had
had a deformed child. A hundred employees then asked the director not to market
the drug yet and to investigate the effect of the drug on pregnant women – precisely
because the trial size for testing a new drug is always small, each serious harm has
be taken extremely seriously. Well, these petitions have not been followed up, with
disastrous consequences. Financially, however, it was a resounding success.
We might conclude that the employee might as well have done nothing with the
knowledge of having a deformed child because of the medication. Well, in that case,
that director could have argued before God’s throne for his innocence because he
was unaware of the negative effects of the drug in pregnant women (only for a short
period of time during pregnancy did it lead to malformations, so it was not so
obvious). However, in that case it would have made the woman jointly responsible
for the catastrophe. His release from guilt would then have been on her shoulders.
Another instance of the sin of negligence is when a priest fails to point out to his
churchgoers their wrongdoing, pointing out that if they persist, they invoke God’s
righteousness upon them. How many souls the Pastor of Ars has not saved by
pointing at God’s righteousness… and forgiveness through confession! Well, that
negligent priest will face a heavy judgement for avoiding a confrontation with his
churchgoers. Likewise, parents are also to blame for not wanting to correct their
children when they should have. Well, the list is endless.