Weeds among the wheat…
IS division always bad?
Jesus prayed that we would “all be one.”[1]cf. John 17:21 So it would seem on its face that division is a terrible thing. Indeed, we see the fruits of a fractured world all around us as civil discourse is rapidly disintegrating, racism is reappearing, and individuals and nations are becoming increasingly polarized under new threats of violence. There is a spirit of revolution in the air, a spirit of upheaval. It appears as a good, tolerant, and just spirit, but really, it is the spirt of anti-Christ because it rejects truth (and Jesus said, “I am the truth”). It is a spirit intent on overturning the entire political and religious order. This is exactly what Pius XI warned was coming, and that is now in plain sight of us all—an…
…iniquitous plot… to drive people to overthrow the entire order of human affairs and to draw them over to the wicked theories of this Socialism and Communism… —POPE PIUS IX, Nostis et Nobiscum, Encyclical, n. 18, December 8th, 1849
For example, this past weekend, actress Ann Hathaway attacked the “myth” that we are made either male or female, adding:
I appreciate this [LGBT] community because together we are not going to just question this myth, we are going to destroy it. Let’s tear this world apart and build a better one. —speech at the National Equality Award at the Human Rights Campaign’s National Dinner, New York Post, September 16th, 2018
If this sounds intolerant and divisive, that’s because it is.
A new intolerance is spreading, that is quite obvious. …a negative religion is being made into a tyrannical standard that everyone must follow. That is then seemingly freedom—for the sole reason that it is liberation from the previous situation. —POPE BENEDICT, Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, p. 52
What is the “better” world Ann wants to build? It’s irrelevant, because if truth can be redefined from one day to the next, the world that Ann might choose today, may very well be destroyed by someone else tomorrow, who has more power, money, or influence. What we are witnessing at this hour is essentially a race between nations and ideologies to overthrow the present order and remake it one’s image. And thus, we are increasingly becoming a divided, fractured mess, warned Pope Benedict, since the future is no longer being built on a moral consensus based on absolutes.
To resist this eclipse of reason and to preserve its capacity for seeing the essential, for seeing God and man, for seeing what is good and what is true, is the common interest that must unite all people of good will. The very future of the world is at stake. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Address to the Roman Curia, December 20th, 2010
Those opposed to Jesus Christ know this. Ordo ab chaos: “order out of chaos.” That is the motto of that secret sect of Freemasons that the popes have warned about for over a century.
Yet, division is not strictly a bad thing; in fact, it is sometimes necessary. As St. Paul said in today’s first Mass reading:
I hear that when you meet as a Church there are divisions among you, and to a degree I believe it; there have to be factions among you in order that also those who are approved among you may become known.
Since the pontificate of Francis, a great testing has begun to reveal those who are being faithful to Christ, and those who aren’t (cf. The Testing). Echoing the letters to the seven Churches in the Book of Revelation, Pope Francis revealed at the last Synod the temptations that both “conservative” and “liberal” Catholics face today (see The Five Corrections). As such, we are witnessing the emergence of the weeds among the wheat—those who are shepherds and those who are wolves in sheep’s clothing; those who are promoting a kind of Anti-Mercy and those who are spreading The Authentic Mercy of Christ… those who are disciples of Jesus, and those who follow themselves.
Indeed, while praying that we would “all be one,” Jesus also knew that every man, woman and child has been given the gift of free will. And we must choose
whether we will indulge a life of sin, or become the “image of God” that the Lord created us to be. As such, Jesus makes this sobering admission:
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. (Luke 12:51-53)
The Scriptures tell us that there will come a time in the world when the “harvest” will be ready. When God will sift the weeds from the wheat. When men will collectively seek to topple the throne of Christ and erect their egos in His place. St. Paul warned of this coming “apostasy” and time of lawlessness:
Let no one deceive you in any way; for [the Day of the Lord] will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. (2 Thess 2:3-5)
This Antichrist, as tradition has described the “man of lawlessness,” is ultimately the threshing instrument at the end of this age whom God will permit particularly for those who reject the truth. He will be an instrument of division whom the Catechism states will deliver “a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth.” [2]Catechism of the Cathlic Church, n. 675
The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are to perish, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends upon them a strong delusion, to make them believe what is false, so that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thess 2:9-12)
Where are we now in an eschatological sense? It is arguable that we are in the midst of the rebellion and that in fact a strong delusion has come upon many, many people. It is this delusion and rebellion that foreshadows what will happen next: and the man of lawlessness will be revealed. —article, Msgr. Charles Pope, “Are These the Outer Bands of a Coming Judgment?”, November 11th, 2014; blog
As the Great Storm we are entering intensifies, so too will division. It is necessary in order to purify the world for the next age. “Watch and pray”, brothers and sisters, that you may be found on the right side…
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