Satan Vanquished: The Glory of the Resurrection Gained Through Holiness

Satan has been vanquished by the Cross. He has been vanquished by the Resurrection of Our Lord, but he is still here. And since the world still exists, he is still present and will continue to fight and to deceive. He will say that Our Lord did not rise from the dead, that Our Lord was not God, that His body had been stolen. He will continue to deceive throughout time, and from this will come schisms, heresies, persecutions against the Church, persecutions of priests, persecution against all those who believe in the Resurrection of Our Lord, and, because of this, we live in a world at war. We must not forget this. Satan is still here. He continues his work, as he continued it immediately after the Resurrection of Our Lord, even though at that moment, everyone should have believed. The fight has not ended. We should never say, “Glory be to God, the Resurrection has come, everyone is saved.”

Alas, alas! We too have gained from this resurrection. We have gained from it through holiness. This is why all the spiritual authors say that our spiritual life is a combat, a day-to-day spiritual combat, a combat against the powers of darkness, a combat against all of our evil instincts, also against the sin that is in us. We must fight. Let us fight courageously, let us fight with the conviction that one day Our Lord will give us the victory, but let us take the means. Let us take the means that are found in the holiness and especially in the Cross of Our Lord which, itself, is the way of the Resurrection. It is through the Cross that Our Lord arrived at His Resurrection. If we too want to come to the Resurrection of Our Lord, we must go through the Cross; we must go through suffering; we must go through sorrow. We must pass through the combat and as a result this Cross, His disciples will know it. So the way that leads to God is open, the way of God is found here at the altar. Our resurrection passes through the altar, passes through the holy Mass, passes through the sacrifice of the Cross.

We must attach ourselves to Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is thanks to the Eucharist, thanks to Our Lord crucified and to Our Lord now resurrected that we will place in us, in our bodies, in our hearts, in our souls, the guarantee of resurrection, because this is really what the Eucharist is: the guarantee of our resurrection. If we want to resurrect our souls so that our bodies will resurrect as well, we must nourish ourselves with the Body and Blood of Our Lord and know that we will have to fight against the powers of darkness throughout our lives. That is what we must do today and the resolution that we must make, and we must not simply bask in an agreeable sentiment of pleasure, of joy, of glory. Certainly, it is a joy for us to know that the good Lord is resurrected, that Our Lord is resurrected, and that He has opened the way to Heaven for us, and that from this point forward we have only to follow it—follow the way that He has traced for us in order to arrive at the Father’s house and be happy together! But we must walk step-by-step, courageously, every day to gain our homeland.

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, April 11, 1971