[Question:]{.underline} Ought I to move my family to live in the country?
[Answer:]{.underline} The Catholic, who is not of this world, automatically feels an aversion for big cities, their greed, materialism, individualism and selfishness. He longs to live away from the influence of this world, constantly corrupting our fallen human nature by its promotion of the three concupiscences: of the flesh, of the eyes and the pride of life. Moreover in his well-known Golden Jubilee sermon of September 23, 1979, Archbishop Lefebvre himself called on families to live in the country: “I wish that, in these troubled times, in this degenerate urban atmosphere in which we are living, that you return to the land whenever possible. The land is healthy, the land teaches one to know God, the land draws one to God, it calms temperaments, characters, and encourages the children to work.” (in Michael Davies, Apologia Vol. II, p. 341).
However, there is a problem. Modern means of communication and transportation bring the city very effectively to the country, so that it is just as possible to live a degenerate life in the country as in the city. A family can very easily move its worldly life style from the city to the country, including TV and internet, fashions and parties, video games and ipods; drawing little or no advantage from living on land that it does not work.
Let us have a little closer look at this magnificent discourse given by Archbishop Lefebvre. It is in fact a call to a Crusade, a Crusade “of sacrifice, in order to recreate Christianity, to re-establish a Christendom such as the Church desires, such as she has always done, with the same principles, the same Sacrifice of the Mass, the same sacraments, the same catechism, the same Holy Scripture. We must recreate this Christendom!” (Op. cit. p. 340). The Archbishop then enumerates the means by which this is to be accomplished: Sacrifice, the Cross, the sacrament of Matrimony, Christian families that pray together, home-schooling, heads of families who defend “the politics of the Royalty of Our Lord Jesus Christ”, and the priesthood: “Keep the Sacrifice of Our Lord Jesus Christ! Keep the Mass of all time!. And you will see Christian civilization reflourish, a civilization which is not for this world, but a civilization which leads to the Catholic city, which is Heaven.” (Op. cit. p. 343).
It is crucial to note that this entire Crusade is a supernatural one, for the work of the Church is a supernatural one. Why, then, does he include the return to the land? Because living off the land is a life of hard work and penance, eating our bread by the sweat of our brow, as was promised to our first father after his original sin. Cultivation of the land is a life of self-sacrifice, based upon the reality of orginal sin, and man’s dependence upon the Creator. It is consequently a life that predisposes and prepares our souls to profit from the Church’s supernatural means to sanctification.
Consequently, let us move to the land, not to live there as landed gentlemen, but as farmers who cultivate God’s earth, as souls dependent likewise upon the cultivation of holy Mother Church, as sinners willing to live a life of penance. Likewise, let us not think that by moving to the land to live a life a comfort and ease, as in the city, or by moving away from the true Mass, we will in any way contribute to a crusade.
Furthermore, there is a grave danger of some persons, who have a romantic attitude towards living on the land, placing this desire above the higher priority of the supernatural life of grace. Getting away from the city, they also abandon regular attendance at Sunday of weekday Masses, regular Communion and Confession, participation in parish devotions, holy hours and organizations, the possibility of their children being enrolled in a truly Catholic, traditional school, and the support for their prayer life given by visits to the Blessed Sacrament, or Third Order meetings and the like. There is, then, in the desire to leave the city, and own a little piece of land (not sufficient to earn a living by farming), a danger of a subtle naturalism and of personal individualism, placing a naturally attractive personal life style above the Crusade for sanctity that Archbishop Lefebvre called for in this time of crisis.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.