Interesting Times

There’s an ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”  I think we’d all agree that we do live in interesting times, much too interesting.  Both Church and State give us cause for great anxiety.  First, we get the news that Archbishop Vigano is being excommunicated for having called out Bergoglio as the apostate usurper he is, and for identifying Vatican II as the underlying problem in the Church.  For the Vatican, this is called being “schismatic.”  Then, what we thought would be just another of those boring Presidential debates turned out to be the signal for Democrats to throw their leader under the bus.  They now have the problem of dealing with a man who is too senile to know he’s senile and who still believes he is the best man in the race to beat Trump in November.

Two situations that occupy our thoughts and worries.  We live through the routine of our normal lives with these fears always in the back of our mind.  What will be the consequences for us of these momentous events occurring in the world around us.  Will conservative Catholics finally depose Bergoglio and denounce Vatican II, restoring the Church to her former true faith?  Or will Bergoglio succeed in restricting the Latin Mass this month, taking us one step closer to the total abolition of Catholic worship within the Catholic Church?  Meanwhile, we wonder if we will even make it to the November elections in our own country.  After all, a leaderless United States is probably the best opportunity China, Russian, Iran and North Korea have ever had to beat us in open warfare.  Even discounting the foreign foe, we must wonder what extreme measures the Democrats are likely to adopt in order to prevent a Trump victory?

And so we step gingerly through each day, our minds preoccupied with fantasies good and bad.  We feel disoriented and unsettled, we have a hard time concentrating on our daily tasks, perhaps experiencing a lack of incentive in doing them at all.  What we must realize is that this lack of peace we’re feeling makes the Devil about as happy as a devil can be.  We ask God for peace at Mass, at the Agnus Dei (Dona nobis pacem) and then again in the first of the priest’s three Communion prayers (Grant us that peace and unity that is according to thy will).  Peace, at any level, comes from unity—it’s pretty obvious when you think about it.  Where there is no unity, there is no peace, only strife and discord, tools of the Devil.  And when we are finally at peace with our neighbor, when the Church is truly “One”, when America is truly the “United” States, there will be none of the present atmosphere of never-ending conflict, which upsets our equilibrium and takes away our peace of mind.

We should not be confused about what is required to achieve this peace and unity.  It is not about “compromise.”  There can be no compromise between good and evil.  True unity on the human level can only be between men of good will (“Peace on earth to men of good will” sang the herald angels at Bethlehem).  And who are these men of good will if not men who seek to do God’s will?  If we want to restore peace to the world, each of us must restore God to our lives.  If we have any peace left within ourselves, it is only to the extent God is already in our lives.  For the whole world (Church and State) to be at peace, there are untold millions who need to find that God we know and love.  Pray for the salvation of all.  It will be infinitely better to live in peace and concord than in these “interesting times.”