Feast of Saint Nicholas - defend Truth with a more masculine Catholicism

Justin Haggerty | The Daily Knight

Today we celebrated the Feast Day of St. Nicholas of Myra, whose resume boasts enough miracles for him to be called the “Wonderworker” by most of Christendom. The Feast is one of the great celebrations, accompanied with St. Andrew, the Immaculate Conception, and St. Thomas, during the Advent season as we approach Christmas. Even before he became the Secular-Commercial, Coca-Cola chugging world-traveler and reindeer master, he was known for his compassion for children and his sacrificial generosity. According to one story, he saved three daughters from a life of prostitution by dropping three balls of gold down their chimney. Some accounts say they landed in shoes; others assert they fell into stockings laid out to dry; hence, the tradition of stuffing gifts in stockings above the fireplace. But above all that, St. Nicholas is revered as a staunch defender of Catholic Truth for confessing the Apostolic Faith and defeating Arianism at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.

In today's feminized and emasculated society, the defense of Truth, Faith, and the Natural Order is considered fascist and racist. "Toxic Masculinity" is a fabricated charge to diminish the case for conservative virtues and flip the social order, constructed in the image of the Holy Family, into something unstable and chaotic.

To be clear, my use of the term masculine is not reserved to the male gender. Masculinity, as attributed to the Holy Trinity, illustrates the power to create and the defense of the creation. It was the masculinity of God that created Heaven and Earth. It was the masculinity of God that created Adam and Eve. It was the masculinity of God that administered the judgement of the Fall and the Flood. It was the masculinity of God that created the patriarchy of Abraham. It was the masculinity of God that rescued the Israelites from Egypt. It was the masculinity of God that created His Commandments. It was the masculinity of God that created the Kingdom of David. It was the masculinity of God that spoke through the Prophets. It was the masculinity of God, the Holy Ghost, that conceived the Incarnate Word with the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was the masculinity of God that founded the Holy Catholic Church. It was the masculinity of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, that ministered Divine Truth and Revelation on Earth. It was the masculinity of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ, that sacrificed his Flesh and Blood for the forgiveness of sins. It was the masculinity of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, that conquered death and hell. It is the masculinity of God, the Father, that will judge the living and the dead during the first judgment. It is the masculinity of God, the Son, that will judge the living and the dead during the final judgement.

Our Lord Jesus Christ defended His Father's Temple, in a most masculine action, by casting out the money lenders and overturning the tables outside the Temple in Jerusalem. Our Lord was not afraid to publicly identify the errors of the Pharisees and Sadducees, knowing that the most merciful action is to correct sin and save souls. In a public rebuke to St. Peter, the Rock of the Church, for challenging Our Lord that He will never be crucified by the hands of the elders in Jerusalem, Jesus Christ said, "Get behind me, satan, thou are a scandal to me; for thou dost not mind the things of God, but those of men," in Matthew 16:23.

The Catholic Church destroyed the pagan world by the public confessions of the Apostles and Church Fathers. We are most familiar with St. Paul's letters to the Romans and multiple Greek city-states, denouncing the pagan gods as demons and fallen angels. It was the masculine confessions and defense of Truth that led all the Apostles, albeit John, to their martyrdom. St. Augustine's extensive research and successful narrative in City of God, as a reinforcement to St. Paul's epistles, clearly illustrated the fallacies and fabrications of false religions and declared the Supernatural Faith of Christianity. Lastly, one can not fail to mention St. Benedict's destruction and exorcism of pagan statues and St. Boniface's chopping down of the pagan thunder tree in Germany.

There are thousands of examples of the early public confession and defense of God's Truth and Faith; the above list are only a few. The spirit of St. Nicholas, to defend the divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ at the Council of Nicaea, is no different and is a spirit and mentality that is greatly needed in the world today.

In the 4th century, Arius, a priest from Baucalis in Alexandria, Egypt, where St. Mark was martyred, challenged the full divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Arianism, the popular theological heresy that descended from his teachings, spread throughout the Roman Empire and greatly threatened the Church, so much that Emperor Constantine and Bishop Hosius of Corduba called a meeting of all 1800 bishops in the Eastertide of 325 AD to canonize the theological doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

During the council, it is told that Arius had argued his heretical belief that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son, was not co-eternal with the Father, had a beginning, and that the Father permits that the Holy Ghost transcends from the Son. Church Fathers like Sts. Alexander of Alexandria and Athanasius showed great leadership in debate against the heresy and in drafting the Nicaean Creed that is proclaimed today. In addition to their efforts, it was St. Nicholas, in observing the heretical blasphemy and belittling of the infinite omnipotence of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who rejected it to his face and slapped Arius in front of the council fathers.

I'm not advocating violence; in fact, one must read St. Thomas Aquinas' Just War Theory on the permittance of violence in defensive situations. However, St. Nicholas' zeal and courage to defend the One True Faith and the full divinity of Our Lord, is a masculine characteristic that Catholic men must learn from. The state of the Church and Christian society would be very different if Catholic men would stand their ground and defend God's commandments and creations.

Remember, it is the masculine trait of the divine Holy Trinity that illustrates the power to create and the defense of the creation. All Catholic men should consider that Truth and how it pertains to their relationship and role within their family, society, and the Church. The next time secular socialism and demonic heresies try to feminize and emasculate you, publicly rebuke their teachings and slap them in the face.

In Christ Crucified and the Most Victorious Heart of Jesus.