“But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh” (Letter of St. Jude 1:17-23).
St. Jude is the Patron Saint of Lost Causes. With rampant division in the world, our Church and in our homes, maybe it’s time we lean on St. Jude a bit more today.
Why is there so much division today?
In the past few days, the Mass readings from St. John has Jesus exhorting us to be united and to remain in the truth, even when the world will hate us for it:
“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one …I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth” (John 17:11, 14-17).
In an earlier passage, Jesus says,
“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you” (John 15:18-19).
Why is there so much division today? Because we live in an information age, and the vast majority of those who “control the message” seem to either ignore, or even have disdain for, traditional values. In other words, we are being “programmed by the worldly.” Those who live on a steady diet of television and movies that herald such things as fornication, sodomy and adultery, are especially prone to this indoctrination.
The rate of speed as to how fast our culture has turned its back on God and His truths, as revealed through scripture and tradition, seems to run concurrent with the advance of communication technology. While the government held strict moral decency laws early on, efforts to “push the envelope” have been relentless over the years. Now, any child who can work a cell phone can access the most egregious pornography imaginable.
A recent Pew Reseach study shows that Christianity has seen a dramatic drop from their ranks. The most significant drop is among Millennials, who happen to be the most “tuned in” to pop culture. As more and more people fall prey to this indoctrination, “traditional” folks become fewer and fewer and, therefore, seen as “out of touch with the times.” We truly are becoming a “remnant.”
But, I am particularly concerned with the accelerated rate of this indoctrination in just the past few years. With the advent of high speed internet, the indoctrination is in hyperdrive.
Consider the change of attitude of our country toward gay marriage. In just 2008 – and the presidential election – both Democrats and Republicans ran “in favor” of DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act). Just 7 short years later, the Democrats see their support of Gay Marriage to be a make or break issue that could win them the 2016 election. Republicans, and even most leaders within the Catholic Church, are choosing to remain mostly silent on the issue. Why? According to a Pew Research study, in 2001 Americans overwhelmingly opposed same-sex marriage by a 57% to 35% margin. Just a few short years later, we now see a majority of Americans (52%) supporting same-sex marriage, compared with 40% who oppose it. Literally overnight, the country has flipped on this issue and Americans are now willing to allow the redefinition of marriage … something that has not occurred since the dawn of civilization.
Listen, in spite of the increasing ridicule we receive as our numbers grow smaller, what does it really mean to be “traditional?” It simply means we are “staying home” while others are “moving away.” We are remaining in God’s truth, as revealed through His word – scripture and tradition. Many believe the “same page” that will bring unity is to “go with the majority.” Venerable Fulton Sheen once said, “Moral principles do not depend on a majority vote. Wrong is wrong, even if everybody is wrong. Right is right, even if nobody is right.”
Remain strong, remnant! We are in for a rough ride!
“Compromise is a word found only in the vocabulary of those who have no will to fight” -St. Josemaria Escriva
Originially published at RomanCatholicMan.com. Reprinted with permission.
We are in for a rough, very rough ride because the USA showed both God and the Bible the front door.
In 1938, Hilaire Belloc’s book “The Great Heresies” was published. The last great heresy in his book he gave the title of the “Modern Attack”. Basically, this attack is atheistic and materialistic, and being atheistic, it is necessarily indifferent to Truth for God is Truth.
He says: “But there is (as the greatest of the ancient Greeks discovered) a certain indissoluble Trinity of Truth, Beauty and Goodness. You cannot deny or attack one of these three without at the same time denying or attacking both the others. There is, in this modern attack, not only a contempt for beauty, but a hatred of it; and immediately upon the heels of this there appears to be a contempt and hatred for virtue.”
This modern attack he says: “is the fruit of the original break-up of Christendom at the Reformation. It began in the denial of a central authority, it has ended by telling man that he is sufficient to himself, and it has set up everywhere great idols to be worshipped as gods.”
It is a loss of Faith and with the loss of faith, we are returning to the pagan social system in which slavery was everywhere, in which the whole structure of society reposed upon the institution of slavery.
The most insidious part of the modern attack is the attack on reason. Belloc says: “But reason today is everywhere decried. The ancient process of conviction by argument and proof is replaced by reiterated affirmation; and almost all the terms which were the glory of reason carry with them now an atmosphere of contempt….The speech of men is becoming saturated with expressions which everywhere connote contempt for the use of the intelligence.”
He goes on to say: “When reason is dethroned, not only is Faith dethroned (the two subversions go together), but every moral and legitimate activity of the human soul is dethroned at the same time. There is no God. So the words “God is Truth” cease to have no meaning. None can analyze the rightful authority of government nor set bounds to it. In the absence of reason, political authority reposing on mere force is boundless. And reason is thus made a victim because Humanity itself is what the Modern Attack is destroying in its false religion of humanity. Reason being the crown of man and at the same time his distinguishing mark, the Anarchs march against reason as their principle enemy.”
Even in 1938 Belloc could say the Modern Attack was far more advanced than it was generally appreciated. In fact, he said it had advanced so far that it was clear that one of two results must become definite in the modern world. Either the Catholic Church will be reduced by her modern enemies to political impotence, to numerical insignificance, and so far as public appreciation goes, to silence; or the Catholic Church will, in this case as throughout the past, react more strongly against her enemies than her enemies have been able to react against her; she will recover and extend her authority, and rise once more to the leadership of civilization which she made, and will thus recover and restore the world. In a word, either we of the Faith shall become a small persecuted, neglected island amid mankind, or we shall be able to lift at the end of the struggle the old battle-cry, “Christus Imperat!”
Belloc, The Great Heresies
To know the TRUTH of what Christ and His Church teach (even when some Clergy are errant), and for true UNITY –
read
1) a Catholic Bible, and
2) the “Catechism of the Catholic Church, second edition” (of 1997; aka CCC).
These are the two most important books in the Catholic Faith. Give copies of them to others.
Help those in poverty of the Soul.