He will convict the world of sin, because they do not believe in Me

"For the Modernist believer, it is an established and certain fact that the reality of the divine does really exist in itself and quite independently of the person who believes in it. If you ask on what foundation this assertion of the believer rests, he answers: In the personal experience of the individual. On this head the Modernists differ from the Rationalists only to fall into the views of the Protestants and pseudo-mystics. The following is their manner of stating the question: In the religious sense one must recognize a kind of intuition of the heart which puts man in immediate contact with the reality of God, and infuses such a persuasion of God's existence and His action both within and without man as far to exceed any scientific conviction. They assert, therefore, the existence of a real experience, and one of a kind that surpasses all rational experience. If this experience is denied by some, like the Rationalists, they say that this arises from the fact that such persons are unwilling to put themselves in the moral state necessary to produce it. It is this experience which makes the person who acquires it to be properly and truly a believer.
How far this position is removed from that of Catholic teaching! "

Pope Saint Pius X: Encyclical Letter Pascendi Dominici Gregis

Sermon for the 4th Sunday after Easter

Hearing the news that Our Lord has to leave them, the disciples were filled with sadness. We can perfectly understand this sadness as a feeling that all of us have at one time experienced. Losing someone that you love is a terrible trial of this life. It gives an impression of emptiness that is sometimes hard to heal. But in certain cases, it can be a good thing and a good lesson in life. It is true on a natural level. It is even better on a supernatural level. It is expedient for you that I depart. (Jn.16:7)
Our Lord gives the reason of the necessity of His departure: If I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. (Jn.16:7) The Paraclete will come as a comforter and a counselor for those who believe in Jesus Christ. For the others, He has another mission: He will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. (Jn.16:8)
As Saint Augustine points out, He will convict the world through the Apostles who will soon preach the Gospel throughout the world. This will be the work of charity that banishes all fears. Look how the Apostles changed after they received the Holy Ghost! Nothing could stop them. The love of God was so strong and so deep in their souls that they did not even fear death.
Now, how will the world be convicted? Of sin, because they do not believe in me; of justice, because I go to the Father, and you will see Me no more. (Jn.16:9,10) It is necessary that Our Lord return to His Father, so that we can have faith in Him. Remember what Jesus told Thomas – it was in the gospel three weeks ago – Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed. (Jn.20:29) Faith, indeed, supposes that we do not see, as we can read in the Epistle to the Hebrews: faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that appear not. (Heb. 11:1) We have to believe without seeing in order to be convicted of justice. Saint Paul says that the just man lives by faith. (Rom.1:17)
Then, the world conspires against faith. From the very beginning, many heresies arose here and there, each time giving opportunity for the Church to clarify her doctrine in order to defend her faith. One of the major strikes came in the XVI century. Its strategists were Luther, Calvin and Zwingli. Their attacks opened a huge breach in the edifice that was Christendom. Then came the philosophy of the so-called “Enlightenment” which would bring the Revolution. It has undermined the temporal order which was the foundation of a strong spiritual order. The century of rationalism – the XIX century – continued the work of destruction. It has generated the greatest heresy within the Catholic Church. It has been well described and firmly condemned by Pope Saint Pius X in his encyclical letter “Pascendi Dominici Gregis” in 1907. One century later, this encyclical letter is still topical, because modernism is still within the Church.

Pius IX already had written this in 1846: “The enemies of Divine Revelation extol human progress to the skies, and with rash and sacrilegious daring would have it introduced into the Catholic religion as if this religion were not the work of God but of man, or some kind of philosophical discovery susceptible of perfection by human efforts.” Yes today, Divine Revelation is misunderstood by many believers or simply rejected by the atheists and rationalists. Even for many Catholics today, faith is not a strong adherence to the truth divinely revealed but rather a feeling, expressed by a ‘liturgy’ which hardly expresses the essence of our Religion.
Dear Brethren, you have to understand how necessary it is to consider faith as real and objective as it is, not according to your own sensibility, perception or feeling. It is quite a paradox that those who proclaim the importance of reason give up their reason when it is about faith, as if theology was not a science. But truly, it is a science, and even the most excellent science because of its object, its principles and its origin. And the act of faith is an act of our intelligence, certainly enlightened by grace, but truly an act of our intelligence.
Our faith is constantly challenged, and for that reason I insist again on the importance of a good and strong doctrinal formation in order to protect it. You have to believe first, and then good feelings will result accordingly. But if you think that your feelings are more important, then I am afraid that you will not believe according to sound truth. The priests of the Fraternity of Saint Peter have no other desire than to sustain your faith by the Sacraments that they offer according to the liturgical books prior to the last reform and as such are guardian of the orthodoxy of the faith. They also want to help you by giving a good doctrinal teaching, which is more than ever necessary in our time. Do not neglect such a grace!
The Advocate will convict the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. May Our Blessed Mother help us to be found just, when the time of our judgment comes!