Fight Or Surrender?
It always seems that we are at the threshold of something terrible. Now, more than ever. I’m not talking about nuclear war, nor an alien invasion. Our Lord told us there would always be wars and rumors of wars, so I’m not here to contribute my own insignificant views to the rumor mill. But there is evidence piling up that something far worse is about to happen. Something not of the physical realm, but a spiritual catastrophe that will surely result in the loss of millions of souls.
So what is this terrible thing that is about to happen? I refer, my dear friends, to the coming Synod on Synodality. While its very name may sound like a joke, it unfortunately masks a very dire and serious threat to the Mystical Body of the Church. In this modern day and age, more and more people are affected by the incessant clamoring for change. Basically, they want more immorality. Now, their focus of attack is within the Church. At this synod, they will be pushing for a married priesthood, the ordination of women, and the inclusion of homosexuals into the bosom of Holy Church. All these are slated for discussion at this Synod, as though there is anything to discuss. Nevertheless, they will dialog their little hearts out, rending their garments and weeping over the inability of priests to have wives, or even husbands! They do so because have been systematically brainwashed by the Church of Vatican II, ably supported by the onslaught of propaganda from the mass media and other influential elites of society. The ultimate plan of freemasonry is coming to fruition, and the Devil has never been so sure of his success since the day when they nailed Christ to a cross. Well, we saw how that turned out for him, and surely this latest assault on Christ’s Mystical Body will meet with a similar result. Anything the Devil does to attack God ultimately backfires on him and his fallen angels, and on the poor deluded men and women who dare follow him. One day they too will have to answer for their actions.
Unfortunately, we faithful Catholics must endure the terrors and sufferings of the Church’s new Good Friday before we can enjoy the glory of the new Resurrection. Our hearts are filled with dread at the approaching upheaval that must take place. But as our Lord admonished us, “we of little faith” must not let our hearts be troubled. Our role in what is to come is clear, and our faith, if we keep it, will see us through whatever happens.
St. Paul, in today’s Epistle to the Ephesians, tells us clearly: “Be ye angry and sin not… neither give place to the devil.” Here is our brief but clear blueprint for how we must react as things go from bad to worse. We are not forbidden to be angry, you’ll notice. Many of us feel deep anger at what is happening in the Church and in the world around us. It’s not only normal and permissible to be angry, it would probably be sinful if we were not angry. For who among us should not feel anger at the hate-filled attacks on the Church and on God himself? Who among us does not experience terrible frustration that we can’t do anything to stop this onslaught of falsehood, wokeness, and masonic humanistic heresy that has infiltrated into the very papacy itself? So yes, be angry!
“Be ye angry and sin not!” While we experience, and rightly so, a deep anger at all this, we must not let our anger be the cause of any sinful reactions on our part. While we may have profound hatred for the Devil, we must not give way to hatred of our fellow human beings. They may have differing degrees of guilt, depending on their motivations for what they do. But who are we to pretend we can discern those variations and level our condemnations at the right people? God will judge them when the time comes, and nothing we can do to them through hatred, detraction or violence will ever come close to the punishment God has reserved for those who deserve it. They claim the Synod is being “led by the Holy Spirit.” To invoke the Holy Ghost as leading the Church into heresy is a blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, and we are told that such a sin cannot be forgiven. We absolutely must leave judgment to God when it comes to avenging the wrongs done to him. While we may correctly judge the actions of the wicked, it is not for us to usurp the privileges of our divine Judge when it comes to the punishment for those actions. We must leave that to our blessed Lord in full confidence that he knows what he’s doing. Abandoning our own will to God’s in this way should not be yet another reason for frustration, but rather the source of a profound peace in our hearts as we acknowledge our own inabilities and unload our burden to the Almighty.
Any anger we feel must not provoke us to sin. That doesn’t mean it should provoke us to total inactivity. If there’s something we can do to make the situation better, then we should do it. Look at what St. Paul says next, “Be ye angry and sin not… neither give place to the devil.” We should not meekly stand by and surrender ourselves to whatever the devil manages to accomplish, whatever evils are thrust upon us.
In a recent address, Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, former papal nuncio the United States, gives us some idea of what we can do to avoid giving place to the devil in these serious times. He acknowledges that it’s relatively easy for us to “organize the clandestine celebration of the Catholic Mass.” But what, he asks “can a priest or a layman do when a subversive group of Bishops maneuvered by Bergoglio is preparing to introduce unacceptable doctrinal changes through the Synod on Synodality? And what can they do when in their parishes a deaconess blesses the ‘wedding’ of two sodomites?” The answer, he says, is “to accept our duty and prepare ourselves spiritually for moments of great tribulation and of true and proper persecution. But it will be precisely by retracing the Via Dolorosa of the Cross that the ecclesial body will be able to purify itself from the filth that disfigures it and merit the supernatural help that Providence reserves for the Church in times of trial: where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more.”
These words of Archbishop Vigano echo those of St. Paul. Be angry, yes, but don’t let our anger drive us into sin. Rather, let it prepare us for the coming chastisement, which, when it comes, will be the source of great personal graces granted to us by God to see us through it. Let’s start by a good Confession and then maintaining our state of grace. We read in today’s Gospel about the man at the wedding feast who is kicked out because he isn’t wearing the right garments. We too are called to a great celebration, that of eternal life in heaven. God forbid we should show up without the garment of sanctifying grace. So step one is to rid ourselves of any stain of mortal sin, and step two is to remain free of any future stain. “God help us”, we say, and we know he will!
Once in the state of grace, we can then “retrace the Via Dolorosa of the Cross.” Read through the Stations of the Cross, meditate on each one and apply each event in our Lord’s cruel journey to the various sufferings we’re asked to endure. It is now the solemn duty of every Christian worthy of the name to prepare, first by embracing the cross we’re asked to carry, and in whatever form it takes, and then to persevere in carrying it all the way to the summit of our Calvary. We might fall a few times on the way, like our Lord did, but we must resolve now to get back on our feet, confess our sins, and persevere to whatever end God has in store for us. The graces will be there when we need them the most. Lord, have mercy upon us.