Scripture – Who Are We Again?

There is a story in salvation history that continues to repeat itself, a story that goes back to the beginning of time: man forgets who He is before His Creator — and then reaps a world of sorrow. It happened with Adam; it happened with the Israelites; it happened with David; and it is happening again with the Catholic Church today. Whenever this story has repeated itself, the Lord has delivered His People into the hands of their enemy, not by way of forsaking them, but chastising them…

…for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges. (Hebrews 12:6)

In today’s first reading, we hear the priest and Scribe, Ezra, cry out:

My God, I am too ashamed and confounded to raise my face to you,
O my God, for our wicked deeds are heaped up above our heads
and our guilt reaches up to heaven.
From the time of our fathers even to this day
great has been our guilt,
and for our wicked deeds we have been delivered up,
we and our kings and our priests,
to the will of the kings of foreign lands,
to the sword, to captivity, to pillage, and to disgrace,
as is the case today.

Anyone with eyes can clearly see that the Church has been handed over to the enemy — to the State who now liberally dictates how, when and if the Church will ever open her doors to the public. Under the false guise of public “safety”, draconian measures have been imposed, often without any basis in science, such as masking people during Mass;^[1]How is it that no bishop has challenged that complete lack of scientific data that would force the faithful to have to wear masks, thereby hiding the “image of God”? See the studies: Unmasking the Facts in some places, singing has even been forbidden; names must be collected at the door and may have to be turned over to the government; in fact, one bishop even agreed with the State to ban the “unvaccinated” from all Masses.^[2]Only “doubly vaccinated” may attend all Masses; diomoncton.ca Who are we kidding? When the People of God are forbidden to praise their Creator or even attend Mass — and we go along?? This is the end of the Church as we know it in Western civilization.   

And thank God for that. 

The Church by and large has forgotten her mission. As such, she has become almost completely irrelevant to this generation — and the cost of that can be counted in souls. While Vatican II was a great opportunity to renew the evangelical fervor of the Gospel… instead, a bizarre movement of modernism seized the Church that watered-down the Gospel, drained the mysteries of God of all mystery, relaxed discipline, white-washed our walls of sacred symbolism, trashed our statues and art, and transformed our music from the sublime into melodies suitable for a children’s puppet show. The miracles of Jesus were explained away, the supernatural was neutered, and rationalism began to possess the mind of the clergy to the point where anything mystical, anything transcendent, anything that bore the fragrance of the divine was to be regarded with suspicion if not outright mocked.

I’ll never forget a young priest who told me that he and his other friends all wanted to be priests. He attended a seminary in his Latin American country that was orthodox while his friends decided to study in Rome. While he went on to become a faithful priest, by the time his friends graduated, he said, they had all lost their faith! That, my friends, is the proven fruit of modernism that has possessed the interior of the Church! 

Hence, is it any surprise that we reached the point where some priests were literally hiding in their rectories, terrorized by a virus with a 99.7% survival rate?^[3]cdc.gov As one priest said to me recently, disgusted with this mindset among some of his brethren: “We are a Church of martyrs — priests who would crawl on their hands and knees on the battlefield, dodging bullets and bombs just to bring the Sacraments to dying soldiers… and now these men today shrink in terror? I don’t understand.”

Who are we anymore? What is our purpose? Why does the Church exist in the first place? Where is the heroism that has marked her life since the first hours of Pentecost? Where are those who would give their lives for the sake of the sheep?

A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. (John 10:11)

As I have said before, if priests do not want to bring the Body of Jesus to the sick, then give Him to me! I will go! I am not afraid to die! Is not death the Great Doorway that even the saints sought in order to be with their Lord forevermore? There is no pride and arrogance in my words. I am serious. Let me take Jesus to the sick if you are going to hide in your rectory! What an honor. What a privilege! For there, I would meet Christ in personi!

‘Lord… When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ …Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me. (Matt 25:39-40)

But here is a better way. Let the Church rouse herself again and recall who she is and what her mission is. As St. Paul urged Timothy:

I remind you to stir into flame the gift of God that you have through the imposition of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. So do not be ashamed of your testimony to our Lord… (2 Tim 1:6-7)

Today’s Gospel tells us who are to be in the face of this “pandemic”:

Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (Luke 9:1-2)

When the faithful are sick and dying, that’s when they need the hands of Christ; when the flock is scattered and lost, that’s when they need the feet of Christ; when the flock are mired in sin and in need of mercy, that is when they need the Heart of Christ. We have done the opposite! We have let the State bind His hands, chain His feet, and obscure His Heart — all in the name of “health care” and “public safety.” Really? The very State who is the facilitator of the “culture of death”, who demands we kill our unborn and euthanize our elderly, are now the same ones we give full subservience to, as if they suddenly “care” about our health?  They care about controlling our lives, and every aspect of our freedom and movement: enter the “vaccine passport”. 

…the future of the world stands in peril unless wiser people are forthcoming. —POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II, Familiaris Consortio, n. 8

Watch out!… warned St. John Newman. This adulterous relationship of the Church and the State, on a global scale, is itself a harbinger of that worst of enemies, the “antichrist”:

Satan may adopt the more alarming weapons of deceit—he may hide himself—he may attempt to seduce us in little things, and so to move the Church, not all at once, but by little and little from her true position. I do believe he has done much in this way in the course of the last few centuries… It is his policy to split us up and divide us, to dislodge us gradually from our rock of strength. And if there is to be a persecution, perhaps it will be then; then, perhaps, when we are all of us in all parts of Christendom so divided, and so reduced, so full of schism, so close upon heresy. When we have cast ourselves upon the world and depend for protection upon it, and have given up our independence and our strength, then [Antichrist] will burst upon us in fury as far as God allows him. Then suddenly the Roman Empire may break up, and Antichrist appear as a persecutor, and the barbarous nations around break in. —Blessed John Henry Newman, Sermon IV: The Persecution of Antichrist

The second aspect that draws the discipline of God, and is closely linked to adultery, is idolatry. It is remarkable, in fact, that within days of the Vatican’s startling ceremony, where people bowed to mounds of dirt and Pachamama statues,^[4]cf. The New Paganism – Part III that the “pandemic” began to spread. I noted back then that we were Putting the Branch to God’s Nose. Not a few clergymen were rightly scandalized.

Participants sang and held hands while dancing in a circle around the images, in a dance resembling the “pago a la tierra,” a traditional offering to Mother Earth common among indigenous peoples in some parts of South America. —The Catholic World Report, October 4th, 2019

The syncretism evident in the ritual celebrated around an immense floor covering, directed by an Amazonian woman and in front of several ambiguous and unidentified images in the Vatican gardens this past October 4, should be avoided… the reason for the criticism is precisely because of the primitive nature and pagan appearance of the ceremony and the absence of openly Catholic symbols, gestures and prayers during the various gestures, dances and prostrations of that surprising ritual. —Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino, archbishop emeritus of Caracas, Venezuela; October 21, 2019; lifesitenews.com

After weeks of silence we are told by the Pope that this was not idolatry and there was no idolatrous intention. But then why did people, including priests, prostrate before it? Why was the statue carried in procession into churches like St. Peter’s Basilica and placed before altars at Santa Maria in Traspontina? And if it isn’t an idol of Pachamama (an earth/mother goddess from the Andes), why did the Pope call the image “Pachamama?” What am I to think?  —Msgr. Charles Pope, October 28th, 2019; National Catholic Register

All of this is to say… have we not, as a Church — and all of us to one degree or another — lost sight of the inheritance, great privilege and mission which we bear as baptized sons and daughter of the Most High? 

[The Church] exists in order to evangelize… —POPE PAUL VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 14

I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. (Rev 2:1-5)

…the threat of judgment also concerns us, the Church in Europe, Europe and the West in general… the Lord is also crying out to our ears the words that in the Book of Revelation he addresses to the Church of Ephesus: “If you do not repent I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” Light can also be taken away from us and we do well to let this warning ring out with its full seriousness in our hearts, while crying to the Lord: “Help us to repent! Give all of us the grace of true renewal! Do not allow your light in our midst to blow out! Strengthen our faith, our hope and our love, so that we can bear good fruit!” —BENEDICT XVI, Opening Homily, Synod of Bishops, October 2nd, 2005, Rome.

We exist to bring light where there is darkness, hope where there is hopelessness, and Christ’s power where there is weakness and slavery. We exist to show the Way to eternity, the Truth that sets us free, and the Life that we all desire. 

…we must rekindle in ourselves the impetus of the beginnings and allow ourselves to be filled with the ardour of the apostolic preaching which followed Pentecost. We must revive in ourselves the burning conviction of Paul, who cried out: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16). This passion will not fail to stir in the Church a new sense of mission, which cannot be left to a group of “specialists” but must involve the responsibility of all the members of the People of God. —ST. JOHN PAUL II, Novo Millennio Ineuente, n. 40

At this hour, it is fair to say that most of us who are trying so hard to be faithful are, nonetheless, exhausted, tired, and discouraged. But this is not an excuse to surrender to the powers of evil which advance, precisely because good men do nothing. Rather, it is the moment to “stir into flame” the gift that God has given us. How?

• Make daily prayer, an intimate time with the Lord where you speak to him “from the heart”, an appointment you refuse to break
• Enter the “upper room” of the Immaculate Heart of Mary by praying the Rosary daily, as she has asked us repeatedly
• Take off the dust and ashes smothering the fire of divine love by frequent and sincere confession — not just saying your sins, but actually leaving them behind
• Receive Jesus Christ, the Living Bread, as frequently as possible in the Holy Mass
• Read the Word of God, which is the”sword of the Spirit” (Heb 4:12)
• Turn off the noise of Satan and read a really good spiritual book 
• Live the Gospel right where you by becoming the servant in your home, workplace, and school. There is power in the Gospel to transform you and those around you! 

I’m sure I could add to this list. But these are the bare minimum that will help you to “stir into flame the gift of God” that was infused in you at your baptism, namely, the Holy Spirit. 

If you are waiting for the calvary to come, or waiting for the “Warning” or “Illumination”, or waiting to go to a “refuge”, etc. your priorities are messed up. The mission of the Church is to evangelize. It is to be Jesus to the world. And it is to, if necessary, give up our lives so that others may know the love and mercy of God. 

Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matt 16:24-25)

…it is not enough that the Christian people be present and be organized in a given nation, nor is it enough to carry out an apostolate by way of good example. They are organized for this purpose, they are present for this: to announce Christ to their non-Christian fellow-citizens by word and example, and to aid them toward the full reception of Christ. —Second Vatican Council, Ad Gentes, n. 15; vatican.va

 

—Mark Mallett is the author of The Final Confrontation and The Now Word blog, and a cofounder of Countdown to the Kingdom.

 

Related Reading

Rationalism and the Death of Mystery

On Weaponizing the Mass

The Place for Cowards

A Gospel for All

Defending Jesus Christ

Recovering Who We Are