Resurrection, not Reform…

…the Church is in such a state of crisis, such a state of needing massive reform…
—John-Henry Westen, Editor of LifeSiteNews;
from the video “Is Pope Francis Driving the Agenda?”, Feb. 24th, 2019

The Church will enter the glory of the kingdom only through this final Passover,
when she will follow her Lord in his death and Resurrection.
—Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 677

You know how to judge the appearance of the sky,
but you cannot judge the signs of the times. (Matt 16:3)

AT all times, the Church is called to announce the Gospel: “Repent and believe the Good News.” But she is also following in her Lord’s footsteps, and thus, she will also suffer and be rejected. As such, it is imperative that we learn to read the “signs of the times.” Why? Because what is coming (and is needed) is not a “reform” but a resurrection of the Church. What is needed is not a mob to overthrow the Vatican, but “St. John’s” who through the contemplation of Christ, fearlessly accompany the Mother beneath the Cross. What is needed is not a political restructuring but a conforming of the Church to the likeness of her crucified Lord in the silence and seeming defeat of the tomb. Only in this way can she be effectively renewed. As Our Lady of Good Success prophesied several centuries ago:

In order to free men from the bondage to these heresies, those whom the merciful love of my most Holy Son has designated to effect the restoration, will need great strength of will, constancy, valor and confidence of the just. There will be occasions when all will seem lost and paralyzed. This then will be the happy beginning of the complete restoration. —January 16th, 1611; miraclehunter.com

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Jesus rebuked Peter for a worldly mindset that resisted the “scandal” that Christ must suffer, die and be raised from the dead.

He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are an obstacle to me. You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do.” (Matthew 16:23)

In other words, if we are dwelling upon the problems of the Church “in the flesh,” as Peter did, we may also inadvertently become an obstacle to the designs of Divine Providence. Put another way:

Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build. Unless the Lord guard the city, in vain does the guard keep watch. (Psalms 127:1)

It is noble and necessary that we defend the truth, of course. But we must always do so “in the Spirit” and as the Spirit leads… unless we find ourselves working against the Spirit. In Gethsemane, Peter thought he was “guarding the city”, doing the right thing when he drew his sword against Judas and a band of Roman soldiers. After all, he was defending He who was Truth itself, wasn’t he? But Jesus rebuked him again asking, “then how would the scriptures be fulfilled which say that it must come to pass in this way?” ^[1]Matthew 26:54

Peter was reasoning in the flesh, by “human” wisdom; thus, he could not see the big picture. The big picture was not the betrayal of Judas nor the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees nor the apostasy of the crowds. The big picture was that Jesus had to die in order to save mankind.

The big picture today is not the clergy who have betrayed us, the hypocrisy of the hierarchy, or the apostasy in the pews—as serious and sinful as these things are. Rather, it is that these things must come to pass in this way: 

Lord Jesus, you foretold that we would share in the persecutions that brought you to a violent death. The Church formed at the cost of your precious blood is even now conformed to your Passion; may it be transformed, now and eternally, by the power of your resurrection. —Psalm-prayer, Liturgy of the Hours, Vol III, p. 1213

AND SO IT COMES…

The Passion of the Church appears imminent. The Pope’s have been saying it for over a century, in one way or another, but perhaps none as clearly as John Paul II:

We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through… We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel, of Christ versus the anti-Christ. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine Providence; it is a trial which the whole Church, and the Polish Church in particular, must take up. It is a trial of not only our nation and the Church, but in a sense a test of 2,000 years of culture and Christian civilization, with all of its consequences for human dignity, individual rights, human rights and the rights of nations. —Cardinal Karol Wojtyla (JOHN PAUL II ), at the Eucharistic Congress, Philadelphia, PA; August 13, 1976 

And again,

We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and for Christ. Through your prayers and mine, it is possible toalleviate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it, because it is only in this way that the Church can be effectively renewed. How many times, indeed, has the renewal of the Church been effected in blood? This time, again, it will not be otherwise. —POPE JOHN PAUL II; Fr. Regis Scanlon, “Flood and Fire”, Homiletic & Pastoral Review, April 1994

Fr. Charles Arminjon (1824-1885) summarized:

The most authoritative view, and the one that appears to be most in harmony with Holy Scripture, is that, after the fall of the Antichrist, the Catholic Church will once again enter upon a period of prosperity and triumph. —The End of the Present World and the Mysteries of the Future Life, p. 56-57; Sophia Institute Press

He Will Reign, by Tianna (Mallett) Williams

THE TRIUMPH, THE RESURRECTION, THE REIGN

It is the “triumph of the Immaculate Heart” since Mary is “the image of the Church to come.”^[4]POPE BENEDICT XVI, Spe Salvi, n.50 She is the “woman” of Revelation labouring to give birth to the reign of her Son, Jesus Christ, in His Mystical Body, the Church.

Yes, a miracle was promised at Fatima, the greatest miracle in the history of the world, second only to the Resurrection. And that miracle will be an era of peace which has never really been granted before to the world. —Mario Luigi Cardinal Ciappi, papal theologian for Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, and John Paul II, October 9th, 1994, The Apostolate’s Family Catechism, p. 35

From the crisis of today the Church of tomorrow will emerge — a Church that has lost much. She will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the
beginning. —Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT), “What Will the Church Look Like in 2000”, radio sermon in 1969; Ignatius Press; ucatholic.com

This simplification through the instrument of Antichrist is also confirmed by numerous Catholic mystics, such as Alicja Lenczewska (1934 – 2012), a Polish seer and saintly woman whose messages were authorized by Bishop Henryk Wejmanj and granted an Imprimatur in 2017: 

It was through Mary’s “fiat” that the Divine Will began its restoration in mankind. It was in her that the Divine Will began to reign on earth as it is in Heaven. And it is through Mary, assigned beneath the Cross as the “new Eve” and thus the new “mother of all the living”, ^[5]cf. Gen 3:20 that the Body of Christ will be fully conceived and born as she “labours to give birth to a son.” ^[6]cf. Rev 12:2 She is thus the dawn itself, the “Eastern Gate” through which Jesus is coming again. 

The Holy Spirit speaking through the Fathers of the Church, also calls our Lady the Eastern Gate, through which the High Priest, Jesus Christ, enters and goes out into the world. Through this gate he entered the world the first time and through this same gate he will come the second time.—St. Louis de Montfort, Treatise on True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, n. 262

His coming this time, however, is not to end the world, but to configure His Bride toward the prototype, the Virgin Mary.

The Church, which comprises the elect, is fittingly styled daybreak or dawn… It will be fully day for her when she shines with the perfect brilliance of interior light. —St. Gregory the Great, Pope; Liturgy of the Hours, Vol III, p. 308

…when the Church, too, becomes “immaculate.” Thus, it is an interior coming and reign of Christ in His Church before his final coming in glory to receive His purified Bride. And what is this reign but that which we pray for each and every day?

…every day in the prayer of the Our Father we ask the Lord: “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:10)…. we recognize that “heaven” is where the will of God is done, and that “earth” becomes “heaven”—i.e., the place of the presence of love, of goodness, of truth and of divine beauty—only if on earth the will of God is done. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, General Audience, February 1st, 2012, Vatican City

In his first coming Our Lord came in our flesh and in our weakness; in this middle coming he comes in spirit and power; in the final coming he will be seen in glory and majesty… —St. Bernard, Liturgy of the Hours, Vol I, p. 169

Thus, wrote the late Fr. George Kosicki:

We believe that consecration to Mary is an essential step toward the sovereign act needed to bring about the new Pentecost. This step of consecration is a needed preparation for Calvary where in a corporate way we will experience the crucifixion as did Jesus, our Head. The Cross is the source of the power both of resurrection and of Pentecost. From Calvary where, as the Bride in union with the Spirit, “together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and guided by blessed Peter” we will pray, “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20) —The Spirit and the Bride Say, “Come!”, Mary’s Role in the New Pentecost, Fr. Gerald J. Farrell M. M., and Fr. George W. Kosicki, C.S.B

Just as Jesus “emptied himself” ^[7]Phil 2:7 upon the Cross and “learned obedience through what He suffered” ^[8]Heb 5:8 so too, the Passion of the Church will empty and purify His Bride so that His “kingdom come and will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This is not a reform, but a Resurrection; it is the Reign of Christ in his saints as the final stage of salvation history before the culmination of time. 

Thus, it is the Hour to lean our heads upon the breast of Christ and contemplate His face like St. John. Like Mary, it is the Hour to journey alongside the battered and bruised Body of her Son—not attack it nor try to “resurrect” it through worldly “wisdom.” Like Jesus, it is the Hour to lay our lives down as a witness to the Gospel that He may raise it again on the “third day”, that is, in this third millennium. 

…we hear today the groaning as no one has ever heard it before… Pope [John Paul II] does indeed cherish a great expectation that the millennium of divisions will be followed by a millennium of unifications. —Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (BENEDICT XVI), Salt of the Earth (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997), translated by Adrian Walker

A closing prayer:

It is indeed time to fulfil your promise. Your divine commandments are broken, your Gospel is thrown aside, torrents of iniquity flood the whole earth carrying away even your servants.  The whole land is desolate, ungodliness reigns supreme, your sanctuary is desecrated and the abomination of desolation has even contaminated the holy place.  God of Justice, God of Vengeance, will you let everything, then, go the same way?  Will everything come to the same end as Sodom and Gomorrah?  Will you never break your silence?  Will you tolerate all this for ever?  Is it not true that your will must be done on earth as it is in heaven?  Is it not true that your kingdom must come?  Did you not give to some souls, dear to you, a vision of the future renewal of the Church?… All creatures, even the most insensitive, lie groaning under the burden of Babylon’s countless sins and plead with you to come and renew all things. —St. Louis de Montfort, Prayer for Missionaries, n. 5; www.ewtn.com

RELATED READING

The Popes, and the Dawning Era

Francis, and the Passion of the Church

Silence, or the Sword?

Is the Eastern Gate Opening?

The Resurrection of the Church

The Coming Resurrection

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