Tea at Trianon: Alain Besançon on Benedict XVI, the "Glory of the Olive"

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Alain Besançon on Benedict XVI, the "Glory of the Olive"

L'Osservatore Romano quotes French historian and author Alain Besançon:

“John Paul II fought against a monstrous political regime: Communism, but he had society and all of humanity on his side. Benedict XVI has the whole of modern society, born out of the crisis of the 60s, with its new morality and new religiosity, against him.”

Pope Benedict “finds himself in a situation similar to that of Paul VI after Vatican II, in confronting what he called ‘the self-destruction’ of the Church. This time the self-destruction is of all of society, nature and reason. The glory of his pontificate is not visible: it is that of martyrdom.” (Read entire article.)

Dr. Taylor Marshall discusses Pope Benedict's agony and the agony of the Church and how it ties in with the St. Malachy Prophecy of the Popes. To quote:

But Why is Benedict XVI the "Glory of the Olive"?

Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night He was betrayed, after the Last Supper, went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. We Catholics know this as the First Sorrowful Mystery, the Agony in the Garden.

The word Gethsemane in Hebrew is: גת שמנים‎ and it means "olive oil press." In fact, the Garden of Gethsemane is located at the Mount of Olives.

The Agony of the Garden among the olive trees is the prelude to the Passion of Christ! The episode at the Mount of Olives is the beginning of the redemptive sorrows ending in the crucifixion and death of Christ.

So likewise, Pope Benedict's sorrowful agony as Pope may be the prelude to the final Passion of Christ's Church. His papacy is the glory of the olive because he was placed in the Agony of the Garden for the Church. All have fallen asleep. He is betrayed by his closest friends and counselors. He is all alone. He is staring into the chalice of God's wrath and he is asking that it be taken from him!

“And they came to a farm called Gethsemani. And he saith to his disciples: Sit you here, while I pray. And he taketh Peter and James and John with him: and he began to fear and to be heavy. And he saith to them: My soul is sorrowful even unto death. Stay you here and watch. And when he was gone forward a little, he fell flat on the ground: and he prayed that, if it might be, the hour might pass from him. And he saith: Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee: remove this chalice from me; but not what I will, but what thou wilt.” (Mark 14:32–36, D-R)

Pope Benedict is alone and he may know that we are about to enter into the Passion of the Catholic Church. The abdication may confirm that Pope Benedict is the Glory of the Olive. He is asking God to "remove this chalice from me." (Read entire post.)