Monday, May 9, 2011

God's Answer to World Revolution


God's Answer to World Revolution was originally posted in May of 2010. If you wish to read the second and the third blog, go to the pages section in the righthand column (at the bottom) and click on God's Answer to World Revolution II.

In 1917, when our Lady paid three children a visit in Fatima, Portugal, she brought eternity with her. Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco were privileged to experience, in a profound way, heaven and hell. The children’s foretaste of heaven and the glimpse of hell has a great deal of historical significance, considering that Western Civilization had already begun to close in on itself. Indeed, modern man had ceased to see his life within the backdrop of eternity. In part, this was due to great technological achievements and its consequent prosperity. Of course, when conditions are comfortable it is harder to see life as a pilgrimage to heaven.

Just one month after Our Lady appeared in Fatima on May 13th, 1917 Pope Benedict XV wrote an encyclical entitled, On the Preaching the Word. In this encyclical he made the following observation: If people honestly considered “the state of public and private morals, the constitutions and laws of nations, we shall find that there is a general disregard and forgetfulness of the supernatural, a gradual falling away from the strict standard of Christian virtue, and that men are slipping back more and more into the shameful practices of paganism.” Indeed, in 1917 there was a lot of soul searching among Christians and Westerners. After all, World War I was still raging and the Russian Revolution was just getting underway.

What led up to this new chapter in world history? For one, Christian civilization had gradually been chipped away over four centuries. The Protestant Reformation in 1517, the French Revolution in 1789, and the revolt of many European States against the Catholic Church, i.e. the annexation of the Papal States (territory belonging to the Holy See) by Italian nationalism, were just a few historic turning points in which the Western world declared its independence from God. This movement away from the Christian religion then culminated in the twentieth-century with World War I, the Russian Revolution, World War II, the Holocaust, and the Sexual Revolution.

At the onset of these unfortunate events in the twentieth-century, we find Pope Benedict XV, in so many words, asking Catholics to do an examination of conscience. He proposed the following question to them in his encyclical: “Has the Word of God then ceased to be what it was described by the Apostle, living and effectual and more piercing than any two-edged sword? Has long-continued use blunted the edge of that sword?” He then answers his own question: “If that weapon does not everywhere produce its effect, the blame certainly must be laid on those ministers of the Gospel who do not handle it as they should. For no one can maintain that the Apostles were living in better times than ours, that they found minds more readily disposed towards the Gospel or that they met with less opposition to the law of God.”

Therefore, with regard to the ever increasing movement of mankind away from God and the world revolutions which followed, the blame- at least in part -must be attributed to the dereliction of Catholics. What were twentieth-century Catholics lacking as compared to their spiritual ancestors of the early Church? Why did they not, up to this point, enjoy the same success of converting the world to Christ like the early Fathers of the Church? This is where Our Lady of Fatima comes in. Her appearance to three Portuguese children in Fatima gives a profound and yet subtle answer to these questions.

Next two blogs- righthand column in the Spirituality, Social and Church section.

2 comments:

  1. I don't understand why Catholics use the supposed 'visitation' of 'catholic Mary' to base any argument on. An entity appears and everyone believes it's Jewish Miriam that has been made a goddess by the Roman Catholic church, making her the "Queen of Heaven" The Queen of Heaven in the book of Jeremiah (44:19) was prayed to by the Jewish people. The Lord destroyed them for this and punished them severely. Yet the RCC calls simple Jewish Mary the same title and tells their members to pray to her. This is a grave sin.
    Jeremiah 44:19
    The women added, "When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands know that we were making cakes like her image and pouring out drink offerings to her?"
    Mary is being used to join all religions as one. The "inter-religious" dialogue between Muslims and the Vatican and all other religions will eventually merge into a one world religion. The RCC catechism even says that Muslims are in God's plan of salvation even though they reject Jesus as God. They also refer to them as their brothers. In fact 2 days ago, they stated common values between Muslims and Catholics.
    The pope also wants a divided Israel and a Palestinian state. Since they believe that the RCC is the now the chosen people (replacement theology) they have little regard for Israel and their woes.Soon all will go against Israel as scripture says and a peace plan will be enacted. The pope will again try to gain control over the temple mount so that he can have control over the one world religion to come.
    I would advise you not to pray to the Queen of Heaven and instead follow Jewish Yeshua. Constantine, who remained a pagan until death allowed paganism into the church. Our Christian faith and all of it's roots are Jewish. Not Roman.
    Peace in Messiah Jesus.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous- There is a lot to untangle in your comment.

    Let me just say this: The same Church that gave you the New Testament also says that invoking the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary is totally consistent with God's plan for our salvation.

    I want to ask you a question anonymous. This question, if followed to its logical conclusion will lead you to the Catholic Church.

    Here is the question: How do you know that the 27 books in the New Testament are inspired by God? Did the canon (i.e. list) fall from the sky directly from the hand of God? Did a group of anonymous fallible men decide the canon? Or did an infallible Church decide which books belonged in the NT canon and which books did not?

    Be courageous and follow the logic.

    ReplyDelete

Please feel free to comment (I welcome critical feedback). Thank you.