THE TWENTIETH CENTURY CRUSADE.

ByPlinio Corrêa de Oliveira (*)

In theMiddleAges the Crusaders shed their blood to free theSepulcherof Our Lord Jesus Christ from the hands of the infidels and to establish a Christian kingdom in theHoly Land.
Today the blood of the sons of the Church again flows inPolandandHungaryas well as inCzechoslovakiaand inChina.But for what?To free Christendom from the yoke of the Communist Anti-Christ and to restore theKingdomofChrist, the supreme ideal of Catholics and, therefore, our constant aim.
That is what I will attempt to define through the explanation of the principles presented here, as a preliminary outline of our activities.

TheKingdomofChrist

The Catholic Church was founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ to perpetuate the benefits of Redemption among men. Thus, its ultimate end is identical with that of Redemption itself: to atone for the sins of mankind through the infinitely precious merits of the God-made-man; to restore to God the external glory that sin had bereft Him of, and to open the gates of Heaven to mankind. This purpose is entirely achieved on the supernatural level, aiming at eternal life. It transcends absolutely whatever is merely natural, earthly,perishable. That is what Our Lord Jesus Christ affirmed when he said to Pontius Pilate, “My Kingdom is not from hence” (John18:36).
Earthly life differs thus and thoroughly from eternal life, but these two lives do not constitute two planes absolutely isolated one from the other. In the designs ofProvidencethere is a close connection between earthly life and eternal life. Earthly life is the way; eternal life is the goal. Though theKingdomofChristdoes not belong to this world, the way to it lies in this world.
Just as the military school is the way to the military profession, or the novitiate is the definitive way to enter a religious order, so is this earth the way to Heaven.
We have an immortal soul created in God’s image and likeness. This soul is created with a treasure of natural aptitudes for good and enriched by Baptism with the invaluable gift of the supernatural life of grace. During our lives we have to develop to their fullness these aptitudes for good. Therewith our likeness to God, still to a certain extent incomplete and potential, becomes full and actual.
Likeness is the source of love. By becoming fully similar to God, we become capable of loving Him fully and of calling down upon us the fullness of His love. Consequently, we are prepared to contemplate God face to face in Heaven for that eternal, totally blissful act of love for which we are called.
Earthly life is therefore a novitiate wherein we prepare our souls for their real destiny, that is, to see God face to face and to love Him for the whole of eternity.
If we present the same truth in other words, we can say that God is infinitely pure, infinitely just, infinitely powerful,infinitelygood. In order to love Him, we must love purity, justice, fortitude, goodness. If we do not love virtue, how can we love God who ispreeminentlyGoodness? On the other hand, if God is the Supreme Good, how can He love evil? Likeness being the source of love, how can He love one who is entirely unlike Him, who is voluntarily unjust, cowardly, impure, bad?
God must be adored and served above all in spirit and in truth (John4:25). Thus itbehoovesus to be pure, just, strong, and good to the depths of our souls. If our souls are good, all of our actions must be necessarily so, because a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit (Matt.7:17-18). Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for us, in order to conquer Heaven, not only to lovegoodand hate evil inwardly, but to do good deeds and avoid bad ones.
Yet, earthly life is more than the way to eternal bliss. What are we going to do in Heaven? We shall contemplate God face to face, in the light of glory that is the achievement of grace and we shall love Him fully and forever. Man, however, is already possessed of supernatural life here on earth through Baptism. Faith is a seed of the beatific vision. The love of God man exercises by progressing in virtue and avoiding evil is already that supernatural love with which he will adore God in Heaven.
TheKingdomofGodwill attain itsfulfillmentin the next world. For all of us, however, it already begins to existgerminallyin this world – just as in a novitiate the religious life is already put into practice, albeit as a preparation, and in a military school a young man trains for the army by living a military life.
The Holy Catholic Church in this world is already an image of Heaven, and more than that, a real anticipation of Heaven. Everything, therefore, that the Holy Gospels tell us about theKingdomofHeavenapplies most properly and exactly to the Catholic Church, to the Faith She teaches us, and to each one of the virtuesSheinculcates.
This is the meaning of the Feast of Christ the King. He is Heavenly King above all, but a King whose rule is already exercised in thisworld,and a King Who possesses by right full and supreme authority. A king legislates, rules, and judges. His royalty becomes effective when his subjects recognize his rights and obey his laws. Now, Jesus Christ has all rights over us. He promulgates laws, rules the world, and will judge mankind. It falls to us to make His Reign effective by obeying His laws.
This reign is an individual fact insofar as every faithful soul obeys Our Lord Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, Christ’s Reign is exerted on our souls; therefore, the soul of each of us is a part of Christ the King’s scope of jurisdiction. The Reign of Christ will become a social fact if human societies bear Him obedience.
It can thus be said that the Reign of Christ becomes effective on earth, in its individual and social meaning, when men both in the depths of their souls and in their actions, and when societies in their institutions, laws, customs, cultural, and artistic manifestations comply with Christ’s Law.
However actual, brilliant, and tangible it be, the earthly reality of Christ’s Reign is nothing but a preparation and a prologue. In its fullness theKingdomofGodwill be achieved in Heaven: “My Kingdom is not of this world…” (John 18:36).

Order, harmony, peace, perfection

Order, peace, and harmony are essential characteristics of every well-formed soul, of every well-constituted human society. In a sense, these are values that merge with the very notion of perfection.
Every being has its own end and a nature appropriate to obtaining this end. Thus a part of a watch is intended for a special purpose and is suited by its shape and composition to serve that purpose.
Order is the arrangement of things according to their nature. A watch is in order when all of its parts are arranged according to the nature and the end peculiar to them. It is said there is order in the sidereal universe because all celestial bodies are arranged according to their nature and their end.
There is harmony between two beings when their relations agree with the nature and the end of each of them. Harmony is the working of things in relation one to another according to order.
Order generatestranquility. Thetranquilityof order is peace. Not anytranquilitydeserves to be called peace, but only the one resulting from order. Peace of conscience is thetranquilityof the righteous conscience; it must not be mistaken for the lethargy of the benumbed conscience. Organic well-being produces a feeling of peace that cannot be mistaken for the torpor of a coma.
When something is entirely disposed according to its nature, it is in the state of perfection. Someone with a great ability to study, a great desire to study, when placed in a university where all resources exist for the studies he wants, will be in a perfect position in regard to studies.
When activities of a being are entirely true to its nature and are wholly directed towards its purpose, these activities are in some way perfect. Thus the trajectory of the stars is perfect because it agrees fully with the nature and the end of each one.
When the conditions in which a being finds itself are perfect, its operations also are perfect and it will necessarily tend towards its end with maximum firmness,vigor, and skill. Thus if a man is in the condition to walk, that is to say, can, may, and wants to walk, he will walk impeccably.
The real knowledge of what perfection is for man andsocieties dependson an exact notion of man’s nature and end. The righteousness, the fruitfulness, and thesplendorof human actions, either individual or social, also depend on the knowledge of our nature and of our end.
In short, the possession of religious truth is the essential condition for order, harmony, peace, and perfection.

Christian perfection

The Gospel shows us the ideal of perfection: “Be ye therefore perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt.5:48). Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us this advice, and He Himself taught us to carry it out. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ is the absolute similitude of the heavenly Father’s perfection, the supreme model we all have to imitate.
Our Lord, His virtues, His teachings, His actions, are the defined ideal of the perfection to which man must strive.
The rules of this perfection are found in the Law of God, which Our Lord Jesus Christ did not come “to destroy but tofulfill” (Matt.5:17). They are the evangelic precepts and counsels. And in order that man should not fall into error in interpreting commandments and counsels, Our Lord Jesus Christ established an infallible Church that may reckon with divine assistance never to err in matters of Faith and morals. Faithfulness in thought and deeds to the teaching of the Church is thus the way every man can know and put into practice the ideal of perfection that is Jesus Christ.
This is what the Saints did. Heroically exercising the virtues the Church teaches, they achieved the perfect imitation of Our Lord Jesus Christ and of the heavenly Father. It is so true that the Saints attained the …