https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/fr-ripperger-defines-the-greatness-of-manly-virtue-and-fatherhood-at-his-dads-funeral/




Tue Aug 1, 2023 - 8:51 pm EDT
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(LifeSiteNews) — Father Chad Ripperger, an exorcist known for his defense of Catholic tradition and excellent sermons, spoke of the virtues of true manhood and the greatness of fatherhood at the funeral Mass for his own father, Charles Anthony Ripperger.

Lamenting the way in which today “fathers are excoriated, rejected, reviled, denigrated at every turn,” Ripperger said, “there’s a nobility about fatherhood that cannot be fully grasped without taking a look at some of our great fathers.”

Citing St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, the priest continued, “‘For this cause, I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom all paternity in heaven on Earth is named.’ How can paternity fatherhood or even authentic Christian manhood and masculinity be evil if it is modeled after God the Father? Only a truly evil age would label fatherhood, which is rooted in authentic manhood, as something evil.”



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6t2X45w-D0

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Referring to heaven under a title used in literature throughout history – the hall of our fathers – Ripperger went on, “But my point is not to criticize the modern age but to talk about how the hall of the fathers, our fathers, is described, so that we may see the glory of fatherhood.”

“It is a hall where only those with honor can enter. St. Thomas defines honor as praise for excellence, and every true father just by being a father possesses that quality of excellence. But excellence is also in virtue. As one of our fathers in the faith tells us, St. Thomas Aquinas, that excellence is in virtue and no man enters the hall without virtue. It would be a point of shame to stand in the hall with great men fathers, those who went before us, such as St. Peter, who was crucified upside down, or St. Paul.”

Enumerating the sufferings St. Paul endured for the sake of the faith as an example of true masculine virtue, Ripperger affirmed, “This gives you a sense of… a guy that was a real man. He was beaten, kidnapped, threatened, arrested many times; he was accused in lawsuits, he was interrogated, ridiculed, ignored, shipwrecked, bitten by vipers, and eventually beheaded. He obviously had the excellence of fortitude and perseverance.”

“But true excellence is in sanctifying grace, that is, the indwelling of God in our souls. One time a soul said to a saint, he said I would rather spend an eternity in purgatory than a single instance in the sight of God, our true Father, with the slightest blemish on my soul.”

“It is the hall of sacrifice. No one enters who has not given up everything save God alone. St. Paul says God is all in all for everybody in heaven. He is everything, and everyone else is seen in the context of Him. But many of those in the hall of our fathers are known for their deeds and valor in this life, [in] which they sacrificed themselves.”

“The hall is filled with men who died to themselves through the daily grind. They showed us the nobility of work, regardless of how lowly that work might be viewed within our society. Greatness is shown in even the ordinary life. Men who never achieved riches status, prestige, or fame in this life are known in the hall among their peers who died in battle as men of magnanimity, greatness of soul, through the daily grind, through the daily toil of raising ordinary families, through providing their children with the opportunity not so much of careers, because those will end in this life, but to stand on their shoulders to gain greater heights in knowledge, sanctity, and greatness.”

“The father’s greatness is known through their willingness to do the lowly tasks in this life for the good of their wives, their children, and for others. Their greatness is known through their humility and assuming the place that God had intended for them in this life, rather than in vain ambition, which we see too commonly today. Their greatness was not seen in this life, but it is known in the hall by their undaunted determinism to continue moving forward regardless of what physical ailment, what debilitation, what hardship they encountered. They did this as if it was the proper course in life to keep moving forward.”

“The hall of fathers is the hall of integrity. Integrity is the lack of anything that ought not be there… They never wavered in their commitment to the truth. They followed the truth regardless of the personal cost, regardless of the emotional cost. They conform themselves to truth rather than expecting the world and everything in it to conform to them.”

“It’s a hall where there are no riches, no earthly fame, no mundane power… but only faith and the deeds that they did in this life alone. The hall is filled only with men who would not compromise their virtue for gain, their integrity for security, or their principles for comfort. It is the hall of those who died in battle, but above all for the faith. They were willing to suffer defamation… They were willing to lose life or limb rather than fail to do the right thing. They were willing to lose family, country, and life rather than deny a single teaching of the faith.”

“The hall is a place of quiet, because it is a place of seriousness and gravitas. For this is the hall of men, men who know what they are about and therefore do not have to talk about their thoughts and deeds, men who keep their course without complaint of hardship, whether from nature, government, man, or those chosen even by God to chasten and strengthen the soul. They were men of silence, often not knowing their true inner greatness; it was often not even known even to those around them but now seen by all in the hall, men whose faith, devotion, integrity in religion and principle was ever present in their lives.”

“The hall is full of men who were reviled, left bereft of every earthly possession, who suffered scandal of destroyed reputations in this life, who [were] proclaimed as evil, and who enjoyed not the respect of men but now walk in complete honor and respect among the most gallant of the hall.”

“It is the hall of the fathers, that is, fathers of children, men who took the formation of their children and the raising their children as their solemn duty, men who exercised authority within their family in perfect humility and self-denial, purely for the sake of those under them, men who sacrificed all created good, turned away from any earthly honor or suffered any evil to see the moral safety and bodily integrity of their children.”

“It is the hall of real men, who forged forward despite exhaustion. The hall is filled with men who carried heavy emotional burdens for family and country, men who gave themselves to their family despite the exhaustion of work, the mental depletion of battle and the innervation of old age.”

“What a wonder it would be to be in a hall of such men, our fathers, but especially our fathers in faith, without shame, clothed in honor.”

“We cannot expect to enter this hall without mighty deeds and magnanimity, to be able to converse and walk among the ranks of the seraphim, the greatest minds of history, the greatest saints and mystics, without fear of being perceived as lowly or out of place in their midst. [This] requires that we too achieve this magnanimity. What greatness are we to desire for ourselves in this life? To achieve greatness of soul through virtue and grace so as to enter into the company of such great men, again with no fear of being perceived as lowly.”

“For is this not what a true father inspires in his children? In a word, to be in the hall with our fathers we had on earth, whom any true son sees as greater or more magnificent than themselves, is a true honor.”

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