An ancient text keeps coming to mind this past week. In light of current events, does it sound familiar?
Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself prey.”
Isaiah 59:14-15
In our public square today, is this not the case? Opposing voices are silenced. Gas lighting is the norm. And the unquestioning willingly follow. Those who refuse to believe (those who choose to depart from evil) the narrative are condemned and prosecuted, defamed as “nut cases who need reprogramming to conform”.
Why?
Because we are engaged in idle chatter, pleasures without discipline, and have discarded the God Who created us all. Especially those who claim Christianity as their Faith.
Shopping on Sundays is not considered a problem. But others are made to work to serve them on a day that is supposed to be set aside for rest. And we aren’t talking about the occasional emergencies (no, forgetting to buy Orange Juice for Sunday breakfast isn’t an emergency), or those engaged in emergency/necessary services, such as transportation or medial practitioners.
At one time not long ago, shops were closed on Sundays. Against all the modern ideas that shops must remain open to gain profits and equal competition against the online marketplace, stores such as Hobby Lobby and Chick-fil-A have proven the assumption to be non-applicable in reality.
Sports games take precedence to Mass or church services. Profane and coarse language is considered normal. Embracing ideas openly antagonistic to Catholic teachings is becoming acceptable.
Idols have filled the marketplace of ideas. From internet and YouTube, to the latest and greatest electronic gadget are acquired, disposing the old for the new several times a year. Yet claiming to be “green” when the discards fill the dumps with toxic batteries and un-recyclable waste.
To give it all up for the sake of what we believe is unreasonable and untenable. Increased dependence on government supplied income (not including retirement or disability assistance), free medical drugs and services, year-around available foods, and inexpensive, disposable clothing and household items have filled the void and provide an exhausting dopamine rush to the empty heart.
But…
If you turn your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My Holy Day and call the Sabbath a delight, and the Holy Day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it, not going your own ways, or seeking your own pleasure or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth…”
Isaiah 58:13-14
In my head I hear the scoffing. I see the very hierarchy and those who claim Catholicism cherry picking what teachings they wish to accept and what they wish to discard. Those who choose to try to include the errors of the world into Her doors and force the Faithful to accept the untenable.
The Church is in a crisis…
…my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
Jeremiah 2:13
The 2000 years of teachings are suddenly being challenged by shepherds who no longer have the desire to adhere to the Magisterium. And their rebellion is being embraced by those who are under their leadership.
Not unlike the Isrealites who repeatedly bucked the “constraints” of God’s guidelines instead of abiding within their safe boundaries.
But when the hardships come…
The hardships are already in motion. But they will get worse in short order. Time is quickening, and the
close of evil is rapidly coming to a close. Evil is fighting for its life and stranglehold on mankind. That last gasps are going to be horrendous.
But what of those who think prayer is silly, and Faith in God is an antiquated notion? What of those who have put material things, distractions, and eastern meditation practices based on Hinduism (Buddhism originates in the Hindu religion)? To whom will they turn when times get hard?
Themselves? Their distractions? Nature?
Certainly not Nature. She is in rebellion against the wickedness of man. And she, too, will, play a part in purging evil from her.
Then what?
As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Isreal (the Church in the New Testament) shall be shamed: they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, who say to a tree, ‘You are my father’, and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth’. For they have turned their back to me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us!” But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise, if they can save you, in your time of trouble, for as many as your cities are your gods, O Judah (the Church and Her modernist priesthood).”
Jeremiah 2:26-28
Those who choose their idols must be willing to lean on them when times get tough.
To what will you cling when the hardships come? To whom will you turn when you must choose to do that which you don’t believe, or forsake all for something higher?