"...where sin abounds, grace overflows all the more..."
(Romans 5:20)
It blows my mind how quickly our world has gone into a downward spiral in just even a decade. How have we come to this point in human history where...
...a person cannot distinguish if someone is a boy or a girl and that we need to put an end to this "sex-segregation" of bathrooms and facilities (love the deceptive twist of language they use to help brainwash people)
...where school shootings are just another news story
...where you get fined $250,000 dollars in NYC for calling a transgendered person by the wrong pronoun
...where the sacred bond of sex and marriage is discarded and destroyed
...where pornography is nothing short of an epidemic and continues to threaten the innocence of youngest.
I could go on but it's just getting depressing.
My thoughts? This is crazy and I feel like we live in a world that's gone mad and lost all possible sense of reason. How did this happen in just one generation and so quickly??
One word: Sin. Our generation flaunts and boasts of sin. Not only that, but the gravest and most serious sins: Abortion, pornography, fornication and sexual impurity, immodesty, perverse and foul language, homosexuality, and the like.
We are undergoing what one of the seers of Our Lady of Fatima, Sr. Lucia, called a diabolical disorientation. The very fabric and cell of society is being dismantled and shaken to the core - the very meaning of our sexuality, marriage and family life are being torn apart violently.
We also live in a time of a great apostasy as many people have lost their faith and do not believe in God. God has been replaced by secularism, atheism, and the New Age - horoscopes, "higher powers of consciousness," fortune tellers, tarot cards, witchcraft, and the like. These things are nothing short of Satanic, just in disguise. The idolatry of sports, entertainment and pleasure is its own religion. Then, if any do have faith, they are just as worldly as those who do not believe. We are to be Christians in the world, not worldly Christians!
What concerns me most though is this perversion of sexuality, marriage, and family life. These sacred and holy things are most violently being attacked because they are the things which most closely make us resemble the God in His image and likeness; they are being assailed because they are the pillar of creation, as St. John Paul II put it. So therefore, the devil wants to destroy them. And although he can't, he can make perverted counterfeits of what sex is, what love is, what marriage is and what family is.
"The final battle between the Lord and the reign of Satan will be about marriage and the family. Don’t be afraid because anyone who works for the sanctity of marriage and the family will always be fought and opposed in every way, because this is the decisive issue. However, Our Lady has already crushed its head." [Sister Lucia dos Santos of Fatima in a letter written to Cardinal Carlo Caffara]
We are in these times. While the sins of our time have always existed in some form, today is different in that we now have complete and entire structures and globalized industries dedicated to perpetuating and promoting grave and serious sins and evil. We have established international "structures of sin" that perpetuate these grave sins either through a manufacturer, advertisements, music, movies, the internet, and other technologies. On top of that, there have been more Christian martyrs in this past century than in all centuries combined. This is not the end of the world though, no. It's the coming to a head of an era of lawlessness and grave error.
Anyway, my point is not to be prophetic but just shortly point out the signs of the times because....we're raising children in them. And this frightening in a sense, and yet hopeful.
A strong word to young families & those starting out
I will pass on a word of warning to young families (which of course includes me and my family because we're a young family too!) and those starting families just starting out. Father John Hardon said it boldly:
First: Ordinary Catholic families cannot survive. They must be extra-ordinary families. They must be what I do not hesitate to call heroic Catholic families. Ordinary Catholic families are no match for the devil as he uses the media of communication to secularize and desacralize modern society. No less than ordinary individual Catholics can survive, so ordinary Catholic families cannot survive. They have no choice. They must either be holy -- which means sanctified -- or they will disappear. The only Catholic families that will remain alive and thriving by the year 2000 are the families of martyrs. Father, mother and children must be willing to die for their God-given convictions. Back in the second century, the Fathers of the Church scoffed at her persecutors who were trying to crush Christianity by fire and sword. The persecutors were told. “The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.”
What the world most needs today is families of martyrs, who will reproduce themselves in spirit in spite of the diabolical hatred against family life by the enemies of Christ and His Church in our day.
[Father John Hardon, talk from National Marian Year Symposium, 1988]
Now of course, it's 2016 and he mentions the year 2000 but it makes no difference because it's just as true today - if not truer.
I will elaborate a little...
First, he said "ordinary Catholic families cannot survive." Being nominally and culturally Catholic anymore doesn't work in our anti-Christian, specifically anti-Catholic, society. Our culture is ravaging wolves against the Church and all she stands for. Just going through the motions and being nominally Catholic doesn't cut it in this day and age. Going to church regularly on Sundays is not enough either (although of course this is good). But if we don't live and breathe our Catholic faith, we'll get sucked in to the worldliness and lies just like everyone else. Your faith will fizzle and die easily. We have to be "extraordinary, heroic Catholic families." There's another word for that: saints. We have to strive to raise holy families and we must be striving for holiness ourselves. Period. It doesn't matter where we are at on our journey, but being Catholic has to be intentional, wholly committed to Christ and all the Church professes (not just those things we agree with). If it's not, then our Catholic family and the faith will not survive - at least spiritually it won't survive. It will either be lost or compromised with the world. So if we want to safeguard the faith we are passing to our children, we better be intentional about letting God make and mold us into saints, we better be intentional in loving Him, intentional about being obedient to what we as Catholic really stand for, and intentional about following Christ even unto death.
"They must either be holy - which means be sanctified - or they will disappear." Those are strong words. But we need to take them seriously. We need to be in an authentic relationship with Christ. We need to live and breathe Catholic, not just pass down customs. We need to teach our children how to pray. We need to teach them virtue. We need to teach them about the spiritual life. We need to enlighten them with the truths of our Catholic faith and why we believe them. Simply put, we need to be willing to become saints and we need to be willing to cooperate with God's graces in nurturing them to become saints. Give God the desire and He will give you the grace! It is that simple, really.
"The only Catholic families that will remain alive and thriving...are the families of martyrs. Father, mother, and children must be willing to die for their God-given convictions." Are you preparing for martyrdom? It may not be by blood but at least by spirit. A complete death to self in order to let Christ live in you. But also, we cannot ignore the bloodshed of Christians going on in the world today, especially by Muslims in the middle east. Are we telling our children from time to time the stories of the martyrs and speaking of how noble a thing it is to die for Christ? We need to prepare for martyrdom of either sort. Martyrdom and persecution.
So as parents, we need to take our Christian duty very seriously and very intentionally now more than ever. We cannot rely on homilies during Mass, religion classes, CCD classes or even youth groups to teach our children. This is primarily our responsibility.
Times of great grace
Second, I can't help but think of the words of Saint Paul...
"...where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more." [Romans 5:20]
Yes, we need to remember that when we see a world entrenched and saturated in sin, that God intends to entrench and saturate us in His grace all the more. He wants to infuse and fill us with His very life a hundredfold. This includes our children! Amen and praise God to that!
"For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age, as we await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to deliver us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good." [Titus 2:11-14]
For as much as you and I sin and as much as you and I witness and see the darkness of sin around us, so does God desire to pour out to overflowing His grace upon us and our families. We need not feel hopeless or defeated because our victory is in Christ and He has already won. We need to just choose His side.
"For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith." [1 John 5:3-4]
As St. John Paul II loved to say, "Be not afraid!"
I really am struck by St. Louis de Montfort's words in True Devotion to Mary where he describes the saints of the end times, which would be words we can take for ourselves in these apocalyptic-like times...
47. I said that this will happen especially towards the end of the world, and indeed soon, because Almighty God and his holy Mother are to raise up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints as much as the cedars of Lebanon tower above little shrubs. This has been revealed to a holy soul whose life has been written by M. de Renty.
48. These great souls filled with grace and zeal will be chosen to oppose the enemies of God who are raging on all sides. They will be exceptionally devoted to the Blessed Virgin. Illumined by her light, strengthened by her food, guided by her spirit, supported by her arm, sheltered under her protection, they will fight with one hand and build with the other. With one hand they will give battle, overthrowing and crushing heretics and their heresies, schismatics and their schisms, idolaters and their idolatries, sinners and their wickedness. With the other hand they will build the temple of the true Solomon and the mystical city of God, namely, the Blessed Virgin, who is called by the Fathers of the Church the Temple of Solomon and the City of God . By word and example they will draw all men to a true devotion to her and though this will make many enemies, it will also bring about many victories and much glory to God alone. This is what God revealed to St. Vincent Ferrer, that outstanding apostle of his day, as he has amply shown in one of his works.
[True Devotion to Mary, #47-48]
Consecrate yourself and your children to our Lady. Try ardently to live the Marian consecration and give all to Her.
For...
...the greatest saints, those richest in grace and virtue will be the most assiduous in praying to the most Blessed Virgin, looking up to her as the perfect model to imitate and as a powerful helper to assist them. [True Devotion to Mary, #46]
Yes, we live in very dark times but also times of great grace, for us and our children! Nothing is greater than God and His grace conquers all and will banish all darkness. Therefore, we must be intentional about not only becoming saints by God's grace, but about raising them too, all by His grace alone. This is what St. Therese of Lisieux's parents, Zelie and Louis Martin wanted; they ardently desired to raise saints for the Lord and His glory. It is not a vain desire when we want it for God's glory.
Yes, as St. Louis de Montfort said...
...towards the end of the world, and indeed soon, Almighty God and his holy Mother are to raise up great saints who will surpass in holiness most other saints...
So great is the darkness of our times yet so much greater and immense is the grace for us and our families! Let us "tap into" this wellspring of grace which the Lord desires to pour out upon His faithful in order to renew and sanctify this world once again...
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
(Ephesians 3:14-19)
Amen! Be not afraid!
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