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| Noah's Sacrifice (1847-53) by Irish painter Daniel Maclise |
Remember when God lost His patience with the sinful world and told Noah to build an ark? He sent a flood which, like baptism, cleansed the world for a time. He set the rainbow in the sky as a sign of his never-ending love. But nothing surprises God. He knew man would continue to rebel.
Remember when God confounded the languages of the people because they were building a monument to their pride? The unfinished Tower of Babel instead became a reminder of their sin. Sin always divides and their sin divided them not only from God, but from each other.
Remember the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah that cried out to God like the merriment of the Israelites in the camp called out to Moses as he returned from the Mount? Abraham begged God to spare the cities if only ten just men dwelled in the cities. Unfortunately, they could not be found, and the angels unleashed the cleansing fire that turned the cities to ash. Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt for turning back, whether from curiosity or pining for her lost, comfortable life. We are called to a single-minded pursuit of God's holy will.
What percentage of the population here is necessary to represent the ten just men sought by Abraham?
I have no idea, but I sure hope we have the equivalent of many more praying for the mercy of Christ and begging the intercession of the Queen of heaven. Mary is a much more powerful intercessor than Abraham and Moses! We need her guidance and Christ's deliverance. What fools we are if we fail to seek her help!
Which brings me to part 2 of the series on pornocracy.
A comment on the first article took issue with the term, so I'll begin with the author's statement about it:
The term “pornocracy” is brutally grotesque, and yet it is honest. It is helpful, I believe, because the term truly describes the reality of how bad the corruption is. But it also reminds us that the Church has been through two other times of at least similar corruption and ultimately prevailed.
Further, each of these two pornocracies in the past were unprecedented at the time and worse than the last. So we should not be surprised that the Church crisis is now unprecedented in certain ways but also the worst that it’s ever been. Practically every Church crisis in history is the worst crisis it’s ever been up to that point.
Flanders makes the point that every crisis in the Church is accompanied by doctrinal corruption. Francis is not a trailblazer in the assault on doctrine, but he has certainly taken it to new levels. God allows it.
Outside of...the Church’s infallibility, God does not prevent error, ambiguity and scandal to the faith coming from the words and deeds of men, including the pope....Here we need to come back to that critical theological truth about Church corruption: Christ loves His Church and makes her pure, no matter what. This is the reality that we must put our faith and hope in, for this is what animated our fathers to fight for the Church even in the darkest times. It is the love of Christ which vindicates His Church at the end of time against Antichrist. Yet this love of Christ begins with every soul.
Flanders doesn't mince any words about the crisis and our role in it. We are the problem, not God and his permissive will that allows us to defy him.
This reminds me of a discussion with a friend of mine who attended Georgetown back in the 1960s, During her time there, the university, which had a core Theology requirement of four courses, revamped its program. The first course which had previously been named, Life in Christ, was perverted to what is the arguably blasphemous course title, The Problem of God. Now while it's true that some people have "a problem with God," God is not the problem.
Who is the problem? Flanders makes it clear. We are! Every one of us who rebels agasint God is the problem and our sins cause all the unhappiness in the world. The crisis in the Church is a judgment against all sin and sinners who reject the love of God and embrace the world, the flesh, and the devil. Our sin convicts us:
For the pornocracy and the reign of Antichrist are ultimately an accusation against every soul and against the Church herself. The Protestants dared to attack the mercy of Christ in the Sacraments. They dared to attack the honor due to Our Lady, and the honor due to the Bride of Christ. They failed to see how Christ could make a spotless Bride out of an adulterous, New Israel. They lost faith in the Church and thus accused her and her purity.
But this is ultimately the work of the Devil, for it is an accusation against the love of Christ Himself for His Bride. It is an act of distrust in His promises.
Obviously Protestants are not the only ones guilty of attacking God and Our Lady. Even worse than their material heresy inflicted on them hundreds of years ago, are modern cafeteria Catholics who have "lost faith in the Church." They are the more dangerous enemies, because if you're in the boat, you can do a lot more damage drilling holes in the hull than anyone outside.
Flanders offers a prescription for handling the crisis of the third pornocracy:
Each one of us must accept this love of Christ which is most perfectly expressed in the Blessed Sacrament of His Sacred Heart. Or again in the Sacrament of Penance, in which we are cleansed from our sins. Our Lord “forgets,” as it were, all the pornocracy in your soul.
In an instant the evil is swallowed and disappears in the Precious Blood of Jesus, and the soul returns to the beauty and purity of the state of grace. It is impossible to overestimate the glory and the spotless character of sanctifying grace. Thus does the prophet express the mystery: thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow (Ps. l. 9).
There have been many antichrists throughout history and many Catholics have presumed that they lived in the end times because of the level of evil. God, however, instructs us that we will not know the day or the time. We are called only to be faithful, to embrace God's will, and do "the next right thing" in the present moment as a priest said recently during a day of reflection. Seeking God's will is the answer to everything. May God give us the wisdom to do it and the hope to persevere.
Thank you, Mary Ann.
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