Stay Strong Rather Than Stay Safe? - Part 2
We're just going to jump into my old acquaintance's words as we begin Part 2 of "Stay Strong Rather Than Stay Safe?" Read our last post if you haven't already done so, or you won't understand the immediate use of the term "quackery."
"It will take calm study when and if this pandaemonium ends to determine the full genesis and complexity of the quackery involved, but it certainly is clear that all of the destructive forces that play a role in the modern world, along with all of those who have voluntarily succumbed to them, have had their unfortunate part in it."
So right away, we see that our current mess wasn't the inevitable result of the sudden appearance of COVID-19 late 2019/early 2020. It goes much deeper than that: "all the destructive forces that play a role in the modern world." And it includes us - or at least some of us: "those who have voluntarily succumbed to them."
Before we continue, a confession: As I read through the whole email a couple of times, I felt some pangs - both of pain and guilt. Modernity clearly has scraped some cracks onto my "Catholic shell." Of course, that's what happens to shells over time. That's why none of us can rely on them. Outward displays of piety without inner conversion will not stand the normal test of time.
Anyway, besides those of us regular folks who must shoulder some responsibility for this mess, let's review some other suspects, beginning with the media, followed by the political establishment, their bureaucratic medical "experts" and the corporate interests looking to turn a profit:
"These include the media, which have far surpassed their traditional display of criminal irresponsibility by whipping the world into a state of mass hysteria and terrorized paralysis. The media have been accompanied in their work of diabolical disorientation by a political establishment that permits the cowed masses to venture forth from their cells only under the condition of donning the current yellow Star of David: the face mask. Both serve the cause of vaccine mad ideologues who smell a profit to be made from the panicked mob begging for its supposed physical salvation at any cost. So effectively has this work of unleashing a pandaemonium been accomplished that it is now hard to determine whether it is the terrorized masses themselves or the actual purveyors of the great dread who are most vigorously encouraging the chaining of men and women to the dark, back wall of Plato’s cave."
Strong words. But perhaps just the tonic some of us need to rouse our intellects. Too many of us have been lulled into an infectious slumber by modernity. And we Catholic men at work can't use the diligent pursuit of our chosen work as an excuse to ignore such words. At the very least, I'm looking in the mirror here. Without minimizing the frequently pressing tasks that must be addressed every day, the fact is our every thought, word, and deed ought not to revolve around our work. The practical necessities of our personal lives require attention, of course, no matter how busy we might be at work. But what about our spiritual lives?
Any Catholic worth his or her salt knows we must not give our spiritual lives short shrift. Pious practices such as attending Mass, receiving Holy Communion, going to Confession may have been taken away from many of us, but we can still pray, study Scripture, read good spiritual works, and take some time alone, in meditative silence.
But even with all that, can we afford to remain ignorant of history and the specific issues raised here?
I'm not suggesting we dwell on what's wrong with the world. But can we possibly live our lives ignorant of what's occurred since the Protestant Revolution and the Enlightenment? And lest we fall into the trap of thinking that such concerns are beyond our pay grade or that we can rely on our Catholic leaders to provide us busy working stiffs with the guidance we need to pick our way through the distractions and obstacles to our spiritual lives imposed by modernity, well, think again:
"...it is urgently incumbent...to note and to lament how much this pandaemonium has been voluntarily and quite pathetically accepted by the shepherds of the Church, who have taken flight and allowed the sheep to be handed over to the will of ideological fanatics and their power or money hungry global accomplices."
Talk about being thrown to the wolves! In light of this, can we really claim we're too busy with our work to see past our noses? Is there any doubt that we must take the time to understand what has happened and what is happening to us? How these two "modernizing" movements (Protestantism and the Enlightenment) have consistently and persistently attempted to rip the guts out of our Holy Catholic Faith? How our accession to the secularism and mindless pluralism they have wrought (e.g., all faiths are the same/I'm OK, you're OK) has deadened our true, real Catholic sensibility?
This pandemic and its accompanying shut-downs, lock-downs social distancing, and self-quarantining (How I've grown to dislike those last two phrases!) have numbed, worn down, and, yes, terrorized too many of us. While there may indeed be an immediate threat to our health, if not our lives, from COVID-19, we cannot afford to lose sight of the existential threat to our souls that so much of modernity has visited upon us. Sadly our current crop of shepherds have done little to spark a vigilant in defense of our Catholic faith and traditions.
"In our lectures through the last twenty-eight years we have recounted the way in which the French and Russian Revolutions have secularized society and contributed mightily to the destruction of Christendom. Our shepherds in the past suffered and were martyred to try to fend these horrors off. But now the believing population has been deprived of its right to worship openly and to gain access to the sacraments not through the guns and whips of the oppressors, but with the full agreement of the successors of the Apostles."
And to really emphasize the contrast between shepherds of the past vs. today's breed:
"These sad and lamentable prelates have made it crystal clear to the entire globe that laundromats and abortion mills are more “essential” to the life of man than the grace of Christ. Why would the world possibly take their “magisterial” teaching seriously after that kind of confession? How much of the spiritual literature of the Church must be rewritten to justify their new mentality? How foolish must we consider the priests of the Black Death who perished to give last rites to the sick in comparison with the sensible bishops of the present, huddled in their pointless palaces, warning the clergy of the physical dangers of shepherding the sheep? Admittedly, they are filled with a kind of “holy terror”: the fear that, should they open the doors of the generally empty churches of the “renewal”---where social distancing is actually simple to maintain, even under normal circumstances---someone who enters might claim to have fallen ill and litigate. At that point a true disaster would ensue! The last pieces of property, whose material accumulation has always been the real pride and joy of much of the business minded American Hierarchy, might then be taken away from them."
Whew!
Well, as was the case last time, we've gone "over" again, so it's time to sign off for now. I thought we could concentrate the relevant points in two posts, but as I go through this each time, it becomes ever-clearer how our immediate mess keeps pointing us to deeper problems that will not go away when our churches finally reopen and we access the Mass and the Sacraments.
So...more next time!
Meanwhile, let's not forget that today is Ascension Thursday. And while most of us cannot attend Mass on what should be a holy day of obligation, we can try to keep this feast as best we can in our own way, given our individual circumstances. What else can we do?
(Some Ascension Thursday thoughts HERE.)
"It will take calm study when and if this pandaemonium ends to determine the full genesis and complexity of the quackery involved, but it certainly is clear that all of the destructive forces that play a role in the modern world, along with all of those who have voluntarily succumbed to them, have had their unfortunate part in it."
So right away, we see that our current mess wasn't the inevitable result of the sudden appearance of COVID-19 late 2019/early 2020. It goes much deeper than that: "all the destructive forces that play a role in the modern world." And it includes us - or at least some of us: "those who have voluntarily succumbed to them."
Before we continue, a confession: As I read through the whole email a couple of times, I felt some pangs - both of pain and guilt. Modernity clearly has scraped some cracks onto my "Catholic shell." Of course, that's what happens to shells over time. That's why none of us can rely on them. Outward displays of piety without inner conversion will not stand the normal test of time.
Anyway, besides those of us regular folks who must shoulder some responsibility for this mess, let's review some other suspects, beginning with the media, followed by the political establishment, their bureaucratic medical "experts" and the corporate interests looking to turn a profit:
"These include the media, which have far surpassed their traditional display of criminal irresponsibility by whipping the world into a state of mass hysteria and terrorized paralysis. The media have been accompanied in their work of diabolical disorientation by a political establishment that permits the cowed masses to venture forth from their cells only under the condition of donning the current yellow Star of David: the face mask. Both serve the cause of vaccine mad ideologues who smell a profit to be made from the panicked mob begging for its supposed physical salvation at any cost. So effectively has this work of unleashing a pandaemonium been accomplished that it is now hard to determine whether it is the terrorized masses themselves or the actual purveyors of the great dread who are most vigorously encouraging the chaining of men and women to the dark, back wall of Plato’s cave."
Strong words. But perhaps just the tonic some of us need to rouse our intellects. Too many of us have been lulled into an infectious slumber by modernity. And we Catholic men at work can't use the diligent pursuit of our chosen work as an excuse to ignore such words. At the very least, I'm looking in the mirror here. Without minimizing the frequently pressing tasks that must be addressed every day, the fact is our every thought, word, and deed ought not to revolve around our work. The practical necessities of our personal lives require attention, of course, no matter how busy we might be at work. But what about our spiritual lives?
Any Catholic worth his or her salt knows we must not give our spiritual lives short shrift. Pious practices such as attending Mass, receiving Holy Communion, going to Confession may have been taken away from many of us, but we can still pray, study Scripture, read good spiritual works, and take some time alone, in meditative silence.
But even with all that, can we afford to remain ignorant of history and the specific issues raised here?
I'm not suggesting we dwell on what's wrong with the world. But can we possibly live our lives ignorant of what's occurred since the Protestant Revolution and the Enlightenment? And lest we fall into the trap of thinking that such concerns are beyond our pay grade or that we can rely on our Catholic leaders to provide us busy working stiffs with the guidance we need to pick our way through the distractions and obstacles to our spiritual lives imposed by modernity, well, think again:
"...it is urgently incumbent...to note and to lament how much this pandaemonium has been voluntarily and quite pathetically accepted by the shepherds of the Church, who have taken flight and allowed the sheep to be handed over to the will of ideological fanatics and their power or money hungry global accomplices."
Talk about being thrown to the wolves! In light of this, can we really claim we're too busy with our work to see past our noses? Is there any doubt that we must take the time to understand what has happened and what is happening to us? How these two "modernizing" movements (Protestantism and the Enlightenment) have consistently and persistently attempted to rip the guts out of our Holy Catholic Faith? How our accession to the secularism and mindless pluralism they have wrought (e.g., all faiths are the same/I'm OK, you're OK) has deadened our true, real Catholic sensibility?
This pandemic and its accompanying shut-downs, lock-downs social distancing, and self-quarantining (How I've grown to dislike those last two phrases!) have numbed, worn down, and, yes, terrorized too many of us. While there may indeed be an immediate threat to our health, if not our lives, from COVID-19, we cannot afford to lose sight of the existential threat to our souls that so much of modernity has visited upon us. Sadly our current crop of shepherds have done little to spark a vigilant in defense of our Catholic faith and traditions.
"In our lectures through the last twenty-eight years we have recounted the way in which the French and Russian Revolutions have secularized society and contributed mightily to the destruction of Christendom. Our shepherds in the past suffered and were martyred to try to fend these horrors off. But now the believing population has been deprived of its right to worship openly and to gain access to the sacraments not through the guns and whips of the oppressors, but with the full agreement of the successors of the Apostles."
And to really emphasize the contrast between shepherds of the past vs. today's breed:
"These sad and lamentable prelates have made it crystal clear to the entire globe that laundromats and abortion mills are more “essential” to the life of man than the grace of Christ. Why would the world possibly take their “magisterial” teaching seriously after that kind of confession? How much of the spiritual literature of the Church must be rewritten to justify their new mentality? How foolish must we consider the priests of the Black Death who perished to give last rites to the sick in comparison with the sensible bishops of the present, huddled in their pointless palaces, warning the clergy of the physical dangers of shepherding the sheep? Admittedly, they are filled with a kind of “holy terror”: the fear that, should they open the doors of the generally empty churches of the “renewal”---where social distancing is actually simple to maintain, even under normal circumstances---someone who enters might claim to have fallen ill and litigate. At that point a true disaster would ensue! The last pieces of property, whose material accumulation has always been the real pride and joy of much of the business minded American Hierarchy, might then be taken away from them."
Whew!
Well, as was the case last time, we've gone "over" again, so it's time to sign off for now. I thought we could concentrate the relevant points in two posts, but as I go through this each time, it becomes ever-clearer how our immediate mess keeps pointing us to deeper problems that will not go away when our churches finally reopen and we access the Mass and the Sacraments.
So...more next time!
Meanwhile, let's not forget that today is Ascension Thursday. And while most of us cannot attend Mass on what should be a holy day of obligation, we can try to keep this feast as best we can in our own way, given our individual circumstances. What else can we do?
(Some Ascension Thursday thoughts HERE.)
Happy Easter!
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