– Léo Bourget –
From his residence,
Raoul appreciated looking out onto this pond or Lozère "lake"
of which he was a co-owner.
Raoul Auclair has just departed from us during the octave of the Epiphany, a feast for which he had a great love, the feast of Kings as we used to call it. For Raoul Auclair, the feast of the Epiphany was the manifestation, the upcoming realization of one of the greatest mysteries of the Good News, that of the Father's reign "on earth as in heaven", as we say in the Pater. Of course, it was the feast of the Kings, of the Magi, of the wise kings, of the king-priests of the royal priesthood for the Kingdom of a thousand years (one day) of the Seventh Day. It was also the feast of the KING, of CHRIST THE KING. And again, it was the feast of the KING's secret: Mary, Mary-Queen, the celestial Jerusalem come from heaven to earth in order that the kingdom to be found within us finally exist between us so that we may enter the Kingdom of final glory, the one which lasts for ever and ever, in a purified state, gathered together and pardoned.
Already in 1949, as he finished his book Le Crépuscule des Nations ["the twilight of the nations"], Raoul had added a little laconic sentence which was full of hope: "On January 6, in the desire and the wait for the Great Epiphany." This desire of the great knight of the rosary, of the great Knight of Mary, has finally been fulfilled.
But how did he know that the Kingdom was near? Here is his thought on the matter:
"The sense of history? Yes. But on condition of restoring to those words their double definition of direction and significance, and that is eschatology. Under the apparent anarchy of history, there reigns a deep order. On the one hand we have the determinism of the actions taken by men, but on the other hand, there is the inflexible pivot of divine Resolve. The confrontation of these two elements produces the evidence of the cyclical laws which are expressed symbolically and numerically in Sacred Scripture. However, this synoptic look is only possible once history has reached an end. And we are precisely at one of these ends, a most solemn and most decisive one: the end of the times. The end of the world? No, the end of a world.
"Each one, in a more or less confused manner, experiences this anguish and senses this mystery; however, it is possible to perceive the supernatural rigor reigning beneath this human chaos, the light to be found in this darkness, the hope rising above so many threats.
"To the biblical exegesis upon which rests the fundamental basis of this book, the author has confronted the various traditions, demonstrating how all the cycles meet together in the end, in order, together, to converge on our time.
"Our world has six thousand years, six days of a thousand years (Ps 89:4;2 P 3:8); therefore, there still remains one day (Apoc 20:2) to complete the Week of the present era. But, before we reach this great Sunday, the temporal image of the eternal Jerusalem, we must traverse the painful and terrible hours of the judgment and the purification. Such are the times of the End of the times."
In order to have a "vision" of time, one needs Revelation. The eagle's view of earth measures space. The eagles of Scripture fly over the time of the river of time. In the Bible, there are three eagles which have been "taken hold of" by the Spirit in order to fly over the river of time and to describe the events preceding the Reign: Daniel, Ezekiel and the Great Eagle John. Each one has a book: a closed book, a rolled book and a little book. The first two cover the time of ourgeneration, the last, the time of the Day of Yahweh, or of the Apocalypse. When these books are opened and read, it is because the Spirit of the Lord breathes where He wishes, when He wishes and over whomever He wishes.
Time cannot be measure without a term of reference and the only valid reference is Revelation. Christ's birth is the fixed, unshakeable pivotal point from which time is measured both before and after it. Time is measured in cycles. A cycle is complete in itself and must link up with the next. It is not linear. However, in order for us to be able to understand it with our human senses, we must spread a cycle out, which can cause us to read it from left to right or right to left. Tradition indicates that God speaks to men in order that they may read from right to left
The last vision which Lucy of Fatima had in 1929 at Tuy gives a synthesis of the week of our Generation, a synthesis given by Mary herself for Russia to begin with and then in a second homothetic (amplified) manner regarding the complete mystery. In order to penetrate more deeply into the full meaning and the symbolism of the crown of stars, one must read Raoul Auclair's "La Fin des Temps" ["the end of the times"] .
The "eagle" we loved departed quietly, going into the light of the Kingdom. However, his work will always be with us and, at the time willed by God, it will be like a clap of thunder. Seven thousand pages of concise biblical exegesis extending from Genesis to the Apocalypse represent a lot of reading for many generations of exegetes. But a "ton of annotations" will not succeed in offering a better understanding than what has already been grasped today by the little shepherds: "This is not a new revelation but simply the discovery of that which had been sealed seven times over and thrice covered with a veil." All these works are written in an incomparably clear style, filled with precision, simplicity, poetry and sublime lyricism. But, let us leave such reflections to others, his peers, who have the required competence to evaluate his work. Doubtless, they will render him a just homage. It is up to his friends to render to this spiritual accelerator a homage of gratitude. He had a host of friends and some, not without cause, found him to be a difficult man. These latter were unaware of Raoul Auclair's impatience with those whom he considered "not simple enough to be shepherds and not wise enough to be magi". Today, it is a well-known fact that shepherds are rare and magi even more so. What was the secret of his many friendships? It is to be found in the book of Proverbs and in the Gospel: "And I found delight in the sons of men" (Prv 8:31) and "Let the little children come to me" (Lk 18:16). The little children... and here you have an open secret, normally known by all, but here only by the children. Yes, the children, those who had the heart of a child and either preserved or regained it. Not a puerile heart, but one devoid of artifice, a heart open to the great eternal truths of Love and Wisdom. A heart capable of looking in wonderment at a simple flower, the humble reflection of the beauty and harmony present in creation. A heart which in the end was capable of letting burst forth spontaneously the song of the grateful soul of all the children of God, thus joining with Mary in the singing of her Magnificat: "The Lord has done great things for me; holy is his name". And this has nothing to do with the fantastic.
An opened or closed heart, a sensitive or indifferent heart, these were the signs which allowed Raoul Auclair to discover his friends. Raoul Auclair, in the preface to his book La Fin des Temps, mentions that he is letting the pearls run through his fingers while he eats his apple – his talent as a writer. He knew very well what the Gospel forbade him from doing with pearls. His friends knew that, besides his talents, he possessed the Spirit of God.
Léo Bourget, Charlesbourg
© 1998 - All rights reserved : PAVILLON RAOUL AUCLAIR INC., Quebec, Canada
