In the Land of Guadalupe

soupkitchen1

A rather unexpected invitation to build a soup kitchen, followed by several remarkable confirmations, came rolling my way earlier this week. And so, with that, my daughter and I have abruptly left for Mexico to help complete a little “diner for Christ.” As such, I won’t be in communication with my readers until I get back.

The thought came to me to repost the following writing from April 6th, 2008… God bless you, pray for our safety, and know that you are always in my prayers. You are loved.

DOES HE HEAR THE CRY OF THE POOR?

“YES, we should love our enemies and pray for their conversions,” she agreed. “But I am angry over those who destroy innocence and goodness. This world has lost its appeal to me! Wouldn’t Christ come running to His Bride who is increasingly abused and crying out?”

These were the sentiments of a friend of mine whom I spoke with after one of my ministry events. I pondered her thoughts, emotional, yet reasonable. “What you’re asking,” I said, “is if God hears the cry of the poor?”

DO THE UNJUST PREVAIL?

Even with the brutal upheaval of the French Revolution, generations since then have essentially held at least a modicum of respect for human life, even in warfare. After all, it was during the French Revolution that the concept of a “charter of human rights” was born. However, as I’ve explained in my book and numerous writings here, the philosophies that helped bring about the French Revolution were, in fact, paving the way, not for a progression of human dignity, but for its degeneration.

The Revolution marked the beginning of a separation between Church and State. While proper on one level—for the Church is not a political kingdom—the separation became dysfunctional on another, such that the State was no longer to be guided by divine and natural law, but by the ruling elite or acting majority. ^[1]watch Church and State? Thus, the past two hundred years have accommodated a now gaping gulf between Church and State to the extent that belief in God has been all but discarded. In direct correlation, so too has the belief that we are made in His image. Thus, man has lost the “sense of himself,” devolving to a mere by-product of evolution, dispensable even, in an increasingly individualistic and materialistic society.

It is true that every generation experiences upheavals in society to one degree or another. But the long shadows stretching over our culture today portend something never seen before in the history of the world.

I know that all times are perilous, and that in every time serious and anxious minds, alive to the honor of God and the needs of man, are apt to consider no times so perilous as their own… all times have their special trials which others have not. And so far I will admit that there were certain specific dangers to Christians at certain other times, which do not exist in this time. Doubtless, but still admitting this, still I think… ours has a darkness different in kind from any that has been before it. The special peril of the time before us is the spread of that plague of infidelity, that the Apostles and our Lord Himself have predicted as the worst calamity of the last times of the Church. And at least a shadow, a typical image of the last times is coming over the world. —John Henry Cardinal Newman (1801-1890), sermon at opening of St. Bernard’s Seminary, October 2, 1873, The Infidelity of the Future

Since Blessed Newman spoke those words, human life has been devalued to such a degree that hundreds of millions have now died through the evils of Communism and Fascism, two world wars, and the term “ethnic cleansing” has become commonplace. Those are revolutions, fomented on a political level, that have presently taken a more grave and insidious form: genocide by the judiciary.

With tragic consequences, a long historical process is reaching a turning-point. The process which once led to discovering the idea of “human rights”—rights inherent in every person and prior to any Constitution and State legislation—is today marked by a surprising contradiction. Precisely in an age when the inviolable rights of the person are solemnly proclaimed and the value of life is publicly affirmed, the very right to life is being denied or trampled upon, especially at the more significant moments of existence: the moment of birth and the moment of death… This is what is happening also at the level of politics and government: the original and inalienable right to life is questioned or denied on the basis of a parliamentary vote or the will of one part of the people—even if it is the majority. This is the sinister result of a relativism which reigns unopposed: the “right” ceases to be such, because it is no longer firmly founded on the inviolable dignity of the person, but is made subject to the will of the stronger part. In this way democracy, contradicting its own principles, effectively moves towards a form of totalitarianism. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Evangelium Vitae, “The Gospel of Life”, n. 18, 20

Socially, the erosion of human dignity cultivated the perfect conditions for the sexual revolution to germinate. In fact, it’s really only been in the past forty years or so that we have seen abortion, pornography, divorce, and homosexual activity essentially explode into culturally accepted practices.

That’s a very short time relative to two millennia since Christ’s Ascension.

But my friends, the world cannot exist without the cohesion of grace binding its structures together. As St. Paul remarked,

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Col 1:17)

Speaking of the times that would come directly before an “era of peace” in the world, Church Father Lactantius wrote:

All justice will be confounded, and the laws will be destroyed. There will be no faith among men, nor peace, nor kindness, nor shame, nor truth; and thus also there will be neither security, nor government, nor any rest from evils. —Lactantius, Fathers of the Church: The Divine Institutes, Book VII, Chapter 15, Catholic Encyclopedia; www.newadvent.org

How can one not see in our time those words fulfilled in an unparallelled way? From the loss of faith spreading throughout the world, to unrest, unkindness, shameful entertainment, and copious lies; to the phenomenon of “terrorism” to corruption within the highest levels of governments and economies?

But understand this: there will be terrifying times in the last days. People will be self-centered and lovers of money, proud, haughty, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, irreligious, callous, implacable, slanderous, licentious, brutal, hating what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, as they make a pretense of religion but deny its power. (2 Tim 3:1-5)

What I hear in my heart is that God is not overlooking these injustices that have burst upon us in a relatively short time—particularly that of the corruption and slaughter of the innocent. He is coming! But He is being patient, because when He acts, it will be swift, and will change the face of the earth. ^[2]cf. Creation Reborn!

God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few persons, eight in all, were saved through water. (1 Pet 3:20)

THE MYSTERY OF EVIL

In 1917 an angel was about to chastise the earth, according to the visionaries of Fatima. But our Blessed Mother—the Ark of the New Covenant ^[3]cf. The Great Ark and The Great Gift—intervened. And thus began the “time of mercy” we are presently living in.

I am prolonging the time of mercy for the sake of [sinners]. But woe to them if they do not recognize this time of My visitation. —Jesus, to St. Faustina, Diary, n. 1160, c. June, 1937

Think of the numerous souls who have been saved during this period!

Yet, since 1917, there have been unspeakable horrors and injustices. In this regard, one is faced with a mystery… did God not hear their cry, such as the cries in Hitler’s death camps?

In a place like this, words fail. In the end, there can only be a dread silence—a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God: Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this? —POPE BENEDICT XVI, at the death camps in Auschwitz, Poland; Washington Post, May 29th, 2006

Yes, the blend of Divine Providence and human free will is at once an awesome yet troubling tapestry of time. ^[4]cf. The Stones of Contradiction But let us not forget that it is human will that continues to eat of the forbidden fruit; it is man who continues to destroy his brother “Abel.”

The Lord’s question: “What have you done?”, which Cain cannot escape, is addressed also to the people of today, to make them realize the extent and gravity of the attacks against life which continue to mark human history… Whoever attacks human life, in some way attacks God himself. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Evangelium Vitae; n. 10

How long can mankind continue to attack God?

SCARY?

Occasionally people write to me saying that they find my messages too scary (regarding the prophetic words of a coming persecution and chastisement etc.).

But what, I ask, is more scary than a generation that continues to destroy thousands of babies every day—a torturous procedure that the unborn feel because no anesthetic is used? What is more alarming than those “scientists” who are genetically modifying our vegetable and seed crops with unforeseen consequences, while modifying our weather patterns? What is more horrifying than those who, in the name of “medicine”, are creating animal-human embryos? More disturbing than those who wish to teach kindergarten children the “virtues” of sodomy? More sad than one in four teenagers contracting an STD? More troubling than a “war on terror” that is preparing the ground for a nuclear confrontation?

The world has lost its innocence, in the sense that we are moving beyond humanly irreparable boundaries ^[5]see The Cosmic Surgery.

Foundations once destroyed, what can the just do? (Psalm 11)

They can cry out. God hears. He is coming.

When the just cry out, the LORD hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. Many are the troubles of the just man, but out of them all the LORD delivers him. (Psalm 34)

Come Lord Jesus! Hear the cry of the poor! Come and renew the face of the earth! Remove all wickedness so that justice and peace may prevail! We also ask, God our Father, that as you purify the cancer of sin, that you will also purify the sinner. Lord have mercy upon us! You willed that all should be saved. Then save us all, and leave the ancient serpent without a single soul to devour. Let the heel of your Mother crush his every victory, and grant to every sinner—the abortionist, the pornographer, the murderer, and all sinners, including I, your servant, Lord—your mercy and salvation. Come Lord Jesus! Hear the cry of the poor!

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice; they shall be satisfied. (Matt 5:6)

Knowing how to wait, while patiently enduring trials, is necessary for the believer to be able to “receive what is promised” (Heb 10:36) —POPE BENEDICT XVI, encyclical Spe Salvi (Saved In Hope), n. 8

First published April 6th, 2008.

Footnotes

Footnotes
↑1	watch Church and State?
↑2	cf. Creation Reborn!
↑3	cf. The Great Ark and The Great Gift
↑4	cf. The Stones of Contradiction
↑5	see The Cosmic Surgery

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