In the end, no matter how bruised and battered Holy Church will be, she shall not fail.
No matter how forgetful or vile we creatures sink to be, finally Christ will take all things to Himself, submit them to the Father and God shall be all in all.
No matter what we may suffer in the near future, the only hope and love that lasts is that which we place in unfailing and loving God, who alone creates from nothing.
Since the legions of hell and their dupes seem to be on the offensive at the moment, let’s look at a very cool video and remember the majesty and goodness of our God who made us in His image, free to love Him, serve Him and be happy with Him… or not.
Temporal Distortion from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.
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Yes, never fear. “Fear is useless,” as Christ said.
I recall some blogger comments wondering if we are in the final days or if the chastisement has arrived. Please remember folks that things were much, much, much worse in years past: Queen Elizabeth in England killing Catholics and their priests by having them hung, drawn and quartered. And then there was the persecution in Mexico in the 1920’s, and the persecution of Catholics in France in the late 18th century and so on and so on. Also, it is worth noting that more Catholics died as martyrs in the 20th century than in all the previous centuries combined!
My world doesn’t look anything like this.
Thanks for the timely reminder lesson on love for us in the Catholic Church taught by Jesus, scourged, beaten and crucified for our immortal souls. We have to return that love to withstand this raging all around us. – and not be too tired and sickened to remember always.
The Democratic National Convention will take place the week of Sept. 3, why don’t we organize a MASSIVE protest the entire week of their convention?
acardnal, there are 42 million abortions per year world-wide, or approximately 115,000 per day. How were things “much, much, much worse” in years past?
And the Church doesn’t resemble herself in many parts of the world. As Dr. Dietrich Von Hildebrand, we are living in the Devastated Vinyard. At least Edmund Campion and Thomas More were martyred when the Church had the right praxis.
“And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul…” Matt 10:28.
And though the gates of hell will never persevere against her, the current praxis of the Church is leading to a loss of souls she might have otherwise saved. Though she remains the only source of salvation, at least according to three dogmatic statements, that is, extra ecclesiam non salus; even if you believe in baptism of desire or blood, you still must admit this dogma.
After watching that video I’m spaced out.
“I say to you that he will quickly revenge them. But yet the Son of man, when he cometh, shall he find, think you, faith on earth?” (St. Luke 18:8, DRV)
The Lord’s question here isn’t answered, but the implied answer seems to be “No.”
I know the Lord said that the gates of Hell would not prevail against the Church, but I think about His question here more and more often, and I think about how the Church has disappeared in some nations over the centuries. I think it is quite possible for the Church in the United States to cease to exist, especially in light of what has been happening over the past several years.
I have also wondered how small can the Church become for the Lord’s promise that the gates of Hell would not prevail to still be true. My conclusion – and anyone can correct me, please – is that the existence of the Church on earth depends only on the existence of the pope. Therefore, most or all of the Faithful can disappear, via apostasy or martyrdom; as long as there still is a pope on the earth when the Lord returns, Hell will have not prevailed.
None of that is comforting, and it really does keep me up at night sometimes because I cannot escape my conclusion that the Church can be whittled away to only one man, the pope, and the Lord still has kept His promise.
For Maltese: you make a valid point regarding abortions.
Nobody is afraid the Church will end… The Church obviously won’t.
However the presence of the Church could in fact disappear entirely from the U.S. and other Western Nations, and those left behind, as is consistent with all times of persecution and in Passages of Scripture, will suffer. And this suffering on our parts is desirable by God in order for us to share in His passion.
So I, rightly fear the trails ahead. I fear being alone in this fight. I fear that I’d be inadequately equipped to fight it. I fear being deserted by my allies. I fear… my lack of faith… to persevere… And this is what the Apostles tell us to pursue out of constant fear for our salvation. I fear my weaknesses, I fear that under pressure I may give in and even deny my Lord… I fear ‘fear’ itself. This is the paradoxical part of the Christian life… That we must have faith in God to make us strong in our weaknesses, but knowing that simply having faith in Him for this is itself a difficult thing… how can one accomplish this in a secure manner? Thus we pray to God to help our unbelief, and to turn away from our weaknesses and depend and trust instead in His mercy more so than whether He’ll provide what we ‘expect’ to make us heroes, rather than what we in actuality ‘need.’ And that need may well be suffering and hardship, not only for ourselves but for the sake of the world to mitigate sin, that may be desired of us so that we may be given greater reward in heaven.
We may fear the future, in the same way that Christ was also fearful of what lay ahead, but nevertheless in faith we press on ahead, and know that despite it all, He walks with us… And this is reassuring…
… reassuring. When He went to the garden of Gethsemane to pray, he asked some to watch with Him, but they slept. They slept. I fear tonight that – unless informed of quickly coming persecution from pulpits and friends of the Church – people will do the same.
“That we must have faith in God to make us strong in our weaknesses, but knowing that simply having faith in Him for this is itself a difficult thing… how can one accomplish this in a secure manner?” Secure seems hour to hour, I don’t know. The Prayer Jesus taught us and For Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory Forever. For Thine is … The mindset of serving in the Kingdom sort of like what Mary said about according to Your will. Hands and feet on the earth and ever mindful of the eternal – we have no lack of how-to (hard) lessons in Sacred Scripture.
The Church has survived the Arians, the Muslims, the Protestant Revolt, the French Revolution, Masonry, Marxism, Modernist Heresies, and stupidity. I trust in the Holy Spirit and the One, True, Holy and Apostolic Church. I am so happy I am a member, according to God’s Mercy.
Supertradmum-Amen to what you said!
I’m happy to be a member of the ‘One, True, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’, too!
I rely on Our Lord’s promise, that the gates of hell will not prevail against His [not ‘our’] Church.
Supertradmum
Thanks for reminding us of that. Indee it goes back to the second century. Persecution of Christians began during the Ministry of Jesus and continued intermittently over a period of
three centuries until the time of Constantine when Christianity was legalized. Christianity itself, after all is founded upon an archtype of religio-political persecution with the execution of Jesus by the Romans the earliest Chrisitans routinely identified with suffering persecution. Remember, ‘A servant is not greater than his master, If they persecuted me, they will persecute you.’ (John 15.20)
Pax
This guy, Paul A. Rahe, wrote this essay/article called American Catholcism’s Pact with the Devil. In the first paragraph, he writes: “At the prospect that institutions associated with the Catholic Church would be required to offer to their employees health insurance covering contraception and abortifacients, the bishops, priests, and nuns scream bloody murder. But they raise no objection at all to the fact that Catholic employers and corporations, large and small, owned wholly or partially by Roman Catholics will be required to do the same. The freedom of the church as an institution to distance itself from that which its doctrines decry as morally wrong is considered sacrosanct. The liberty of its members – not to mention the liberty belonging to the adherents of other Christian sects, to Jews, Muslims, and non-believers – to do the same they are perfectly willing to sacrifice.”
I would like to know what Father Z.’s response to this it.
Maltese…this is off of the top of my head. All occuring in or about the Middle Ages:
People had hard, short and basically humorless lives; On and off famine and plagues (half of Europe killed by disease); Constant war (Franks, Lombards, Saracens, Sicilians, Germans, Normans, Ottomans, Angles, Finnish, Barbarians, etc.); The city of Rome was in a near constant state of disaster; As many as 4 men laid claim to the papacy at any given time; Emperors were constantly changing; Constant excommunications and interdicts of leaders, emperors, bishops and patriarchs of one another; The Babylonian Captivity of Rome; The Western Schism; The East and West battling for theological bragging rights; The EastWest Schism; The fall of the holy land; The Fall of Constantinople….
I could go on, but you get my drift. and this doesn’t even include the early church (examples: Arianism which had a hold of 90% of Catholic bishops, and 300 years of near relentless persecution).
neat video. Thanks.
I’d say it is much more likely that the United States will cease to exist than it is that the Church will disappear. Political entities that commit themselves to violations of the natural law have set themselves on a course that leads to their own disintigration. In part, that is what natural law means – that there are certain moral truths that are necessary for human flourishing, and denying those moral truths does not mean the truth ceases to exist. It was Toynbee, I believe, who said that great civilizations only die because they commit suicide, by abandoning the virtues and disciplines that made them great in the first place. I think that there is a spirit abroad even among non-believers that recognizes this reality. It can be seen in so many “apocolyptic” fears we see in the news, movies and books, scientific theories, and on and on. Look at the spread of a “survivalist” sub-culture who are actively preparing for surviving the break down of civilization. These are not signs of a healthy and thriving culture. But the Church has ridden out many such storms in the past, and we should cleave to her all the more closely in these manic times.
sallyr, I agree. We could be headed for a civil war, and the union would never be the same. Virginia State House, not Senate, passed a law protecting a person in law from conception. This is were it all started before. Vote is on my blog. Praise God and…..
guatadopt,
You make some valid points and interesting observations. The Church has always had turmoil
in it`s midst. God always sends some to bring His Church back, as it is made up of imperfect human beings and constantly needs to be rescued from itself. There were countless saints that fought the many heresies in the beginning. St. Athanasia St. Crysostom, St. Hiliary, St. Antony, St Basil, and, the list is of course endless. During the time of the disintegration of Rome there was St. Benedict, the father of European civilization. At the same time there were Popes who fought to correct the Church, St. Gregory VII comes to mind and there were saints the Lord sent to guide the Church and lay foundations such St. Peter Damien and St. Romuald, and lets not forget the humble mediator between popes St. Catherine of Sienna. In the middle ages when things looked their darkest, the Lord sent St. Francis of Assisi when he said, ‘Francis, rebuild my Church.’ And of course many others St. Dominic and two hundred years before him there was the Benedictine Abbot who St. Dominic was named after, St. Dominic of Silos who rebuilt an abandoned abbey and worked to convert many muslims and pagans. The list, again is endless, and always seems to come in time. We will, make it through all this, there is no doubt in my mind. We will, even to the end of time be saddled with evil and divisions and uprisings and scandals. In the end, all we really have, in my view, is hope. Pax