St Joan of Arc Feast Day 30 May

Today we celebrate the feast of the, well not the feast, but the vigil of Pentecost, which feast is tomorrow. Hence the liturgical colors, red, signifying the fire of the Holy Ghost, the blood of the martyrs, which would inspire them to shed. And so today I would like to speak not so much about this this feast itself, but the effects of the Holy Ghost in the soul. Particularly one soul individual whose feast day is sort of today, should be today, and that is Saint Joan of Arc. She's not in the universal calendar anymore, but she was canonized in 1920 and had briefly enjoyed a universal feast, and then it was removed actually prior to the reforms of, I think sometime in the 40s or 50s, something like that. But even in our calendar, 62, her feast day was removed before that. But I will speak about her today and the power that God can work in anyone, as you will see. You don't have to be a fitting instrument. God will make you a fitting instrument. So Saint Joan of Arc, she was born in the year 1412, and during the Hundred Years' War, which is going on between France and England, and she is one of the most widely known saints in the world. I mean people know, they know Saint Francis of Assisi generally, Catholics know that, Saint Dominic, okay we got it, but even non-Catholics, like the whole world knows about Saint Joan of Arc. And so she was just, her life was really extraordinary, and even though it was very short, she died when she was only 19, you know, put to death by English heretics, we could say. But she was born to a poor peasant family in the town of Domremy, France. She was a very pious young girl, and often be seen kneeling in the church, had a great love for the poor. And at the age of 13, she began to hear heavenly voices speaking to her. She did not know who these were, but later on she would identify them as Saint Michael the Archangel, Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and Saint Margaret of Antioch. These three saints would be, we would see, they weren't just like random saints, they actually had a specific mission that they helped to win. But anyways, in, let's see, 1428, 16 years of age, became clear these voices were urging her to rise up and save France from the English invasion. This had been going on for quite some time, I think 50 or some years by this point, it was kind of in the thick of it, and it was a dynastic dispute as to who could lay claim to the throne. It was just this royalty arguing about who was going to control the title of king, and so on. And it was just tearing the country apart. The English were practicing like this scorched earth policy, you know, burning crops and raising down villages. It was a very bitter war. So Saint Joan is called by these voices to do something about this, because everybody else is failing. And so she travels to the military commander of a nearby town. She takes one of her cousins with her, and she didn't exactly tell her parents where she was going. She didn't describe what she was doing, but she didn't lie, but she just kind of went. And the commander told her cousin who was with her to take her back home and see that she was soundly whipped. She had requested, I need to see the king, and the commander was like, get out of here, little girl, go home. So she returned home, but she was urged and even threatened by the heavenly voices that we need to do this. So she went back one month later, and this time she predicted a great military defeat for the French. And the commander was like, well, we'll see if it comes to pass. And sure enough, three days later, it was confirmed. And so the military leader believed her, and then sent her off to the king with her cousin. And so she arrived, and the king knows that she's coming to speak to him, this young girl with some kind of message. So to test her, he hides in a group of courtiers. He dresses himself up just like anybody else, and he hides in a crowd. And then Saint Joan, who's never seen him, never even seen a picture of him, arrives and spots him and goes right up to him, salutes him as the king, and delivers her message. Furthermore, she tells him the answer to a secret he'd been thinking to himself. He hadn't told anybody, and she tells him the answer to it. So he was immediately, we would say, disposed to believe her. And, you know, the world, although it understands, or rather it accepts Saint Joan of Arc, does not understand how this was possible. And their explanation is schizophrenia, or mental illness, right? Saint Joan of Arc was mentally ill, and somehow she was having hallucinations, and, you know, somehow she led these military, you know, forces to victory, which to me would seem like a greater miracle than believing in God. But one of the things against that is Charles VII, this is Charles VII, his father, Charles VI, was also called Charles the Mad, because his father was insane. He understood psychosis. The king that she went to, he'd seen mental illness firsthand. His father believed at one point he was Saint George, at another point he believed he was made of glass, and he had rods of iron sewn into his clothes so that he wouldn't break when he came around other people, right? That was Charles VII's father. So Charles VI, who met Saint Joan, understood mental illness. He understood psychosis. He would have been able to spot it in Saint Joan. There's a little apologetics note for us. That's an absolutely absurd claim by the world that she was schizophrenic. And furthermore, another disproof of that claim is the fact that the French had been losing, losing, losing, losing. That didn't surprise anybody in military endeavors. And so she's put in charge of the French army at the age, this time she's 17 at this point. Imagine a 17-year-old girl going to the Pentagon and saying, I'm going to win the war on terror. And she starts to win. That's what happened. So Saint Joan sends a message to the English that they need to leave the country of France. And she called them invaders and ordered them to depart. And they were infuriated at this audacity, this girl, this non-military person telling them what to do, giving them an order. It was just an insult. They were going to teach her a lesson. So eight days later, she captured Orleans, which was unheard of. Like the French hadn't been able to do that in like, I don't know, years. And she does it in eight days. And this is continued. She continued to have these victories over and over and over again, where the French had not had any. And her battle cry was forward boldly. And being asked if she was afraid or experienced any fear, she says, I am not afraid. I was born for this. And so we can see this is where one of her heavenly voices was Saint Michael the archangel. This is why he was one of her voices. He was giving her special helps and prowess in battle. And she herself, Saint Joan, she wore armor. She dressed in men's clothes. She was surrounded by them. But interestingly, the soldiers said that it was impossible to feel any kind of impurity in the presence of Saint Joan of Arc. They said lust or impurity just absolutely died in her presence. And Saint Joan, for her part, she did carry a sword, but she never used it in battle. The only time she ever used her sword was the flat of the blade of the blade to beat the backs of prostitutes who were following the army around. She told them to be gone, either marry a soldier or leave. That's the only time Saint Joan ever used her sword. And she continued these victories. And she didn't really want to do this. It wasn't like she was taken with the adventure and excitement of it. She longed for home. She longed for the day when she said she could return to her spinning wheel. That's what she wanted to do. And it was infuriating for her to be surrounded by the French military generals because they were so slow, so cowardly, and so timid. She could see very clearly, we won this victory, we need to move forward. She saw very clearly where to go, what to do, how to do it. And the French military generals just wouldn't respond. It was very frustrating for her. So she continued these victories for about, I think, a year. And then she was finally wounded in battle. And she was shortly thereafter captured. And I believe she may have been indicated that this was going to happen to her. So she had won. At this point, she was captured. She won a brilliant series of victories for the French king. She had ensured his coronation. She had struck terror into the hearts of the English. She had inspired the French troops with courage and zeal. And after she was captured, which happened by a French traitor. A French traitor sold her into captivity. And then the French king, for whom she'd done all this, did nothing for her. Nothing. Didn't try to rescue her, didn't send a military campaign, didn't negotiate. He had political prisoners he could trade. He didn't do it. He didn't offer to buy her back. Nothing. Absolute cowardice. She's tried in France, but in an English-controlled territory. And she was tried by English and French clerics who were sympathetic to the English cause. Her trial was a mockery. It was a sham trial. And she was eventually condemned. Although they tried for, again, I think it was nearly a year of false trials, false witnesses, starting and stopping. And they just couldn't drum up any charges. And she really displayed, this would have been the wit and the wisdom of St. Catherine, one of her voices was St. Catherine of Alexandria, patron saint of philosophers. Her intercession came out during this trial because these theologians, these clerics, tried to trap her in her words to have some charge of heresy against her. That's what they were trying to get, to charge her as a heretic. And so she was asked these very difficult questions, like Christ is asked by the Pharisees, is it lawful to pay tribute to Caesar? And Christ, of course, gives these brilliant answers. So we see the Holy Ghost and St. Catherine, the intercession of St. Catherine, with the patron saint of theologians, intercessing for her. So she's asked if she knew she was in a state of grace. And that's a clever question if you know theology. Do you know you're in a state of grace? And she's trapped. There's no right way to answer this question the way they were putting it to her. So St. Joan answers, if I am not in a state of grace, may God put me there. If I am, may he keep me there. And that's actually the perfect theological response. Another time, she was asked whether God hated the English or not. Does God hate the English? And she says, of God's love or hatred for the English, I know nothing. But I do know that they will all be thrown out of France, except those who die there. Again, she was asked a complicated question about the church, the identity of the church and our Lord. And again, this is attempted to trap her. She says, about Jesus Christ and the church, I simply know that they are one and the same, and we shouldn't complicate the matter. Again, that's a brilliant theology. And this is from an uneducated peasant. But notwithstanding the absolute, the nothingness of the charges, their failure to trap her in anything, she was accused of heresy and cross-dressing, because she continued to wear the clothes she'd worn in the military. And they did burn her at the stake. Her executioner later stated that he greatly feared damnation for having burned a holy woman. And now, this is a great grace of God, is that even though, and she was burned at the stake as a heretic, but the great grace of God is that the day that she was martyred, she was allowed, and she was burned as a heretic, but she was allowed to go to confession and receive holy communion. So it's a great mercy of God that he allowed her despite that. In fact, the Inquisition, only a few years later, with the permission of Pope Calixtus III, the Inquisition examined the trial and cleared her of charges, pronounced her innocent. And in fact, the head, who was a cardinal who was in charge of the trial, the mock trial, he was charged with heresy instead by the Inquisition. So she was cleared only a few years later. But present at her death, she was a Dominican priest, and she asked him to hold high a crucifix so she could see it. And her last words as she was burning were the name of our Lord. She repeated that over and over, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, as she was being burned. You know, so she is a Christ figure, right, for this reason, in that her life, and especially at the end of her death, very, very much closely imitates our Lord. She sacrificed her life and everything she had for her country, France, for her fellow man, and then those very ones she sacrificed for turned on her and sold her out, didn't help her, and left her to die, and in fact, even accused and condemned her. Her own church, right, the bishops and the priests responsible for praising her condemned her, just like Christ was condemned by the Pharisees. The ones who should have proclaimed him as a Messiah, those are the ones who condemned him to death. Same thing happened to Saint Joan of Arc. And as she's being put to death by the people she's saving, she gives her her soul over to God. So a great honor for Saint Joan, and really, you know, she is also, we could say she's patron saint of France, you know, patron saint of military persons, but also we could say she's the patron saint of victims of church abuse, because she herself was. And that continues in that it took her, this happened in the 1400s, it wasn't until 19, when is it, 1909 she was beatified, in 1920 she was canonized by Benedict XV, and then again a little bit later, her feast day was removed from the calendar. Why? Too many French saints was the claim. That's bogus. That's what a effeminate homosexual person says, who's a masculated man, who's intimidated by her strength and masculinity. I don't know. In any case, it was, as one priest said, Saint Joan got burned by the church twice getting her feast day removed like that. Needs to be back in. If I have anything to do about it, she's going to get her feast back. But she is the perfect tool. As I mentioned at the beginning, the Holy Ghost, he can inspire anybody, anytime, in any way. And Saint Joan is the perfect proof of that, in that she was the opposite of everybody who should have been doing something. She was the exact opposite. The men failed, so God chose a woman. The adults failed, God chose a child. The nobility failed, he chose a peasant. The clergy failed, he chose a laywoman. The educated failed, he chose someone ignorant. The rich failed, he chose a poor person. The military failed, he chose a civilian. Everybody, every single person who failed, God was shaming them by choosing the opposite to accomplish the job. Because you all failed, I'm going to do it myself, and I'm going to choose this particular person to show you I'm doing it. You failed. The one thing that Saint Joan had in common with them is that she was French. That was the only commonality. But this is, you know, I could go on. I should probably stop now. But, I mean, just one of the most amazing saints. I don't think there's never been anybody like her before or after. And, you know, the church is full of that. There are so many saints who are completely unique in their sanctity, in the way that the Holy Ghost filled them, and the mission they had, and what they accomplished. And that really just shows us the inexhaustible richness of God, and his power, and his mercy. And I tell you, we're going to see it again. We're going to see saints like this, like Saint Joan of Arc, like Saint Padre Pio, like Teresa of Avila, just these saints that did these incredible things. And we're going to see that again, because God is infinite, right? And it's still going. And the church needs saints like that these days. Mark my words, don't doubt. The Holy Ghost is still active. If we have faith, it's going to happen. But it won't happen without us in the world responding to God's call, just like Saint Joan did. It wasn't easy for her. She went, and she came back, and she got failed the first time. She was almost threatened by God. She went again, right? Forward boldly. That needs to be our ringing in our ears. We need to say our prayers, receive the sacraments, don't doubt, have the faith, and do whatever God asks us to do, right? However hard or difficult or whatever, we need to just do it. Not my will be done, but thine. Let us pray for the intercession of Saint Joan of Arc. May we have that courage. God bless you all. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.