a saint for our times

From the blog of the Chelmsford Norbertine fathers:

Antwerp was a very large and populated city in which there was only one priest who had the care of all the souls living there. Because of the great multitude, and his constant negligence, he was unable to do so, however. Neither was he trusted, because he had made his niece a partner in his crime by taking her as a carnal companion. For this reason, the people, like a flock without a shepherd, wandered about in many false errors.

Hence it happened that a heretic, a seducer by the name of Tanchelm, who was remarkably shrewd and cunning, came there and found a place among these people for his false teaching. He was the most evil of all men, an enemy of God and His sacraments. He opposed religion and the Christian faith to such a degree that he declared that obedience to bishops and priests was not necessary, and he denied the reception of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ was a benefit to eternal salvation. And he led the people in the same error, and about three thousand armed men followed him. There was neither duke nor bishop nor any priest who dared to resist or go against him. This most foul and detestable abomination of seduction could not be wiped out even after the death of this heretic, even though twelve clerics were sent there by the bishop.

These clerics, out of charity and forced by necessity, gave their church to Father Norbert and his confreres. They trusted that God, through the merits of Norbert and his confreres, would remove the fury of the deadly plague and, with the darkness of ignorance dispelled, would restore the light of truth.

Father Norbert applied life-giving medicine to the deadly wound. They began to sow the Word of God and offered the people words which were sweeter than honey. To the sick they served delicate food, and to the weak a bread that strengthened their hearts, and offered eternal life. Norbert told them: “Brothers, do not be afraid! Unwittingly you have pursued falsehood thinking it to be the truth. If you had been taught the truth first, you would have been found effortlessly tending towards salvation, just as you now effortlessly lean towards perdition.”

Some of the men and women, therefore, hearing these words and seeing the works which followed, were repentant, and returned bringing back the Body of the Lord which they had kept in little boxes for ten or fifteen or more years.

Who would not be astonished by this detestable crime? Who would say that it should not be committed to memory that the depraved seducer falsely led this people astray and that the pious preacher, Norbert, through his own work and that of his confreres, led them back to the way of truth and justice?

How is this crisis to be resolved?

Simply, with the Truth of Christ, pronounced fearlessly.

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