THE CROWING ROOSTER: THE VOICE OF THE SAINTS AND A TESTIMONY TO TRUTH

In the stillness of the night, when darkness seems to reign endlessly, the crowing of the rooster rises with strength, breaking the silence like an unexpected light piercing through the shadows. Just as the rooster’s crowing awakened the conscience of Saint Peter in his denial, the true Christian is called to raise his voice, to proclaim truth and faithfulness to Christ in a world that denies Him. The saints of the Church have been like that rooster, watchful, tireless, warning and awakening the souls that, like Peter, sometimes stray.

Saint Augustine reminds us that the rooster’s crow announces the awakening, not only of the day, but of slumbering consciences: “The rooster crows, and the soul awakens from its slumber of error.” The soul, in its frailty, often resembles Peter, who promises to follow Jesus to the end, but in the moment of trial, collapses. “You will deny me,” Jesus says to him tenderly, knowing that the denial is not the end but the beginning of repentance. Saint John Chrysostom teaches us that Peter’s fragility is the fragility of all, but his tears, his bitter tears, are the path to redemption. “Peter wept, and in his tears he washed away his fault. The Lord looked at him, not to condemn him, but to remind him that His love is stronger than betrayal.”

That same rooster still crows today, not to shame us, but to awaken us. How many today, within the Church itself, deny Jesus? They deny Him whenever they reduce Him to just another leader among many, whenever they ignore the Most Holy Eucharist, forgetting that it is not a symbol, but the Body and Blood of Christ. As Saint Pius X says in his encyclical Pascendi, “the Church is not here to conform to the world, but to transform it through the truth of the Gospel.” Today, many men in the Church have succumbed to the desires of the world, lowering the faith to mere sociology, speaking of sins not as offenses against God, but as mere “frailties.” But the truth does not change: “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” says Christ, and Saint Athanasius teaches us that the Christian must proclaim this truth, even when the whole world denies it.

How brave Saint Athanasius was, who in the midst of the Arian crisis, when it seemed that the whole Church was leaning toward error, stood firm! “Athanasius contra mundum” —Athanasius against the world— he is known as such because he did not fear proclaiming the truth even when he seemed alone. And us? Are we willing to be that rooster crowing in the middle of the night, reminding the world that Christ is King? Saint Vincent of Lérins exhorts us: “Hold fast to the faith that has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.” We cannot change it to please the world, because it is not ours, it belongs to Christ, and to Him we must be faithful.

The rooster crowed, and Peter remembered. We also need that constant reminder. We need saints who awaken us with their example and their word. Saint Pius X, the defender of the purity of doctrine, warns us in his encyclical Pascendi about the dangers of modernism, which seeks a “new church,” a church without the cross, without sacrifice, without Christ. But such a thing does not exist. The Church of Christ is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic, and nothing and no one can change it.

As Saint Gregory the Great tells us: “It is better to be persecuted for proclaiming the truth than to be applauded for hiding it.” Today, those who openly speak of Christ, who defend the faith of old, are ridiculed, slandered, set aside. But what does it matter? As Saint Ignatius of Antioch says, “I prefer to die for Christ than to reign over the ends of the earth.” This is the faith we must proclaim, this is the truth the rooster crows every time its voice is heard.

The Gospel, the Catechism of Saint Pius X, the Sacraments of the Church, these are our lessons. How great it is to be that rooster crowing in the dark night of the modern world, reminding everyone that Christ is the only Savior! Crow not to receive applause, but to be faithful. Saint Peter, redeemed by his repentance, teaches us that even the weakest can come to love Christ above all.

Today, the rooster crows again, as on that first morning of repentance. May it not find us sleeping. Let us crow with it, with our eyes closed, because we know the lesson by heart: Christ is our Lord, and outside of Him, there is no salvation. We may not be many, but we will be faithful. As Saint Paul reminds us: “If God is with us, who can be against us?” Let the darkness come, let the trials come. We will be the rooster that crows in the heart of the night, proclaiming the light of Christ, the Son of God made man, the only Savior of the world.

Be encouraged to be that rooster that crows loudly when all others are silent, to be faithful when all others bow, to proclaim the truth when everything seems lost! Christ lives, His Truth remains, and His Church, our Church, the one from time immemorial, will continue to proclaim His name until the end of time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. SAINT AUGUSTINE. Confessions. Editorial Gredos, Madrid, 1996.

2. SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew. Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, Madrid, 1955.

3. SAINT PIUS X. Pascendi Dominici Gregis. 1907. Available online at: Vatican.va.

4. SAINT LEO THE GREAT. Sermons and Letters. Editorial Ciudad Nueva, Madrid, 2004.

5. SAINT VINCENT OF LÉRINS. Commonitorium. Biblioteca de Patrística, Madrid, 2000.

6. SAINT ATHANASIUS. Letters Against the Arians. Editorial BAC, Madrid, 1994.

7. SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT. Homilies on the Gospel. Editorial BAC, Madrid, 1996.

8. SAINT IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH. Letters. Editorial Ciudad Nueva, Madrid, 1999.

9. SAINT PAUL. Epistle to the Romans, in Holy Bible. Editorial Rialp, Madrid, 1996.

10. SÍ SÍ NO NO. Where the Rooster Crows. 16/09/2019. Available at: https://adelantelafe.com/donde-el-gallo-canta/.