The Catholic Response to Chaos in Our Midst
I, like everyone, have struggled with a wide range of emotions since the last presidential election. If there is a human emotion to be had, I have had it.
As a life-long student of history, I know well, things can easily get out of control with a mob mentality and manipulation of the masses through disinformation campaigns. Do you take to the streets, retreat, start throwing things, or say to the Lord, “This is your mess, you figure it out?” People are asking two things. What is going on, and what should I do? People are trying to figure out which way the fox is going to go, and our personal anxiety is really about our welfare going forward. Will I have a job, will my financial safety net be there to catch me, or will the country frankly go broke? Profligate government spending and the horribly destructive domestic and foreign policies of government cannot go on much longer before we fall into a heap of ashes. At the moment we are on the precipice. We are at a critical juncture in world history. These are valid issues that concern all of us.
The American Civil War was North v. South, and fought primarily over the perennial issue of state rights. The South didn’t want to be told what to do by a North looking to take away their state rights as they saw fit for self-governance. Slavery was the vehicle for war. The upcoming conflict that is escalating is going to be Blue State v. Red State. Communism versus the principles of a Republic. We will shortly see a bifurcated country along the ideological lines of the role of government and enforcement of its laws. The ramifications of these differences will be more profound than most people think.
Relationships are fracturing at an alarming rate now. Believers and conservatives in general feel as if they have been pushed too far, and are simply not bothering with liberal friends who shoved their ideology down their throats for years. No one is listening to the other now, and that too, will escalate furthering breaking apart families and friends. Neutral or middle ground is now hard to find. Neutrality has ended, and that is troublesome for societal stability.
The Example of Jesus
This begs the question, what is the response of the believer to navigate the shoals that are now roaring in our hearts at close range? The answer is found in many places of Scripture. One that is most poignant is when Jesus was captured by Roman soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane, due to the betrayal of Judas (John 18). Jesus came to the earth to die. He was the only person in the history of the world to fulfill a mission to die for the redemption of all mankind. Jesus said several times, “My hour has not yet come.” Hour always referred to evil. Until Jesus was ready for the completion of His mission, He was untouchable. Going to Gethsemane, He knew the final act of His mission was about to unfold, and His apostle Judas was about to betray Him with a pre-arranged sign of a kiss on his Savior’s cheek.
All of the apostles were with Jesus in the Garden but Judas. Prayer was absent from his life as he never grasped the true mission of Jesus. The other eleven fought staying awake, and Jesus rebuked them asking them for not giving Him one hour of prayer. Jesus sweat blood while in agony knowing Calvary awaited Him. His hour had now come. At the moment of arrest, Peter drew a sword, and showing himself a swordsman, struck the high priest’s servant Malchus, cutting off his ear. Jesus then said to Peter, “Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup which My Father has given to Me”(John 18:11). Literally hours away from death, Jesus tells Peter if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. Violence begets violence. That is not the prescription for peace that Jesus came to give.
Before His trial, Jesus prayed alone and asked others to be with Him in prayer. Their human nature and lack of resolve got in the way, and they failed to be with Jesus in His darkest hour falling asleep. Jesus was all alone. To a great degree, many of us are alone today. The overwhelming majority of humanity is insensitive to the cry of prayer, the power of Eucharistic Adoration, the rosary, the Mass, confession, redemptive suffering, fasting, building of local community, and understanding what Jesus wants from us. The greatest sin of all may be our indifference.
Now is the time to double down in the above spiritual exercises. It is not a time to be a doormat and lay down in surrender, but we are asked to be the light on a hill echoing the words of Jesus, “put your sword into its sheath.” It is a time of nonviolent noncooperation to tyranny and a state hell bent on pagan practices with an overt agenda to crush the believing population. Your silence is consent to tyranny, and for your own welfare, you must now speak up or you will be involuntarily silenced. We have lived for millennia without social media, and maybe Heaven is saying, it is time to put it away. Six plus hours a day staring at a screen for anyone is excessive. Most of the information traded on social media, is insipid, inane, and banal anyway. It is a giant time sapper from what is most important in life. Is Jesus asking now, “Can you not pray with Me one hour?”
One of the brightest stars in the ecclesiastical world is Archbishop Vigano. He recently said that, “The Kingdom of Satan was upon the world.” That is an amazing statement from a man with his pedigree as a voice of reason in a world gone mad.
We are told through the Marian Movement of Priests the Blessed Mother said, “you will know you are in the times spoken of, by the events themselves.” Repeatedly, we are told the refuge is in her Immaculate Heart. You will find safety no where else. Does being a believer in times of crisis and turmoil mean you turn into a mouse, or a swordsman? There is great room in between those two concepts to show your dissent from tyrannical rule, and your ability to do something spiritually constructive.
If you think we have reached a crescendo of evil you would be wrong. The coming forced Covid 19 vaccine will separate the men from the boys, and the girls from the women. When various forms of commerce are precluded, such as flights, entry into buildings, shopping at your local grocery store, credit card use, the paying of your water and electric bill, the ability to register and drive your car, entry into schools, to name just a few. Unless you can show your Digital or Immunity Passport you will be barred from many things shortly. The passport is about the size of a credit card, and will show if you have all the necessary vaccines required by the state to show compliance and good standing with the state. It will be the same as the social credit score that is used by the Communist Part of China to determine if someone is in compliance.
Be a voice, time is short. Evil exists because good people do nothing. The silence of the believer has brought us to this place at his very moment in history. If you continue to live in fear of what others think of you, you will not have a voice that can bring a remedy to this mess we find ourselves. If not you, who? If not now, when?
“For the power of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord supports the just.”
Psalm 37:17
JESUS I TRUST IN YOU
