Just two months before his death in 1900 and 17 years before the Russian Revolution of 1917- the Communistic revolution which inaugurated the persecution of Christians and extermination of millions people -Vladimir Soloviev wrote the following to a friend (this, during a time when the general sentiment among the people was one of optimism and great expectation): "Chaos reigns,
Sleep is no longer the same:
Something is happening,
Someone is coming...
You may guess that by this 'Someone', I mean the Antichrist himself. The end of the world is coming and I feel it blowing in my face, clear but elusive, just as the traveller, nearing the sea, senses the sea air before he actually sees the surging waves...
"The current state of the Church leads me to expect a terrible disappointment. I would be surprised even to see the liturgy remaining safe and triumphant. I sense the coming of a time when Christians will have to meet for prayer in the catacombs [he wrote this seventeen years before the Bolshevik Revolution!]. Everywhere the faith will be persecuted, perhaps less brutally than in the days of Nero, but more subtly and cruelly: through lies, deception and misrepresentation. And that is hardly an overstatement. Can you not see what is afoot? I see it clearly and have done so for a long while now."
-Vladimir Soloviev's, Russian philosopher and convert to the Catholic Church
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Preface:
Meet Vladimir Soloviev. Just as Alexis de Tocqueville was prophetic in his foresight about the challenges America would eventually face, Soloviev was equally prophetic in his foresight about the challenges Russia would face. His writings are every bit as relevant to America as Tocqueville's was.
Vladimir was a Russian philosopher who lived from 1853 to 1900. Like Tocqueville, his foresight about the future would come to pass.
We can compare Soloviev to yet another famous Catholic: Blessed John Henry Newman (1801-1890). Like Newman, one of a very few in England that converted Catholicism, Vladimir Soloviev was among the few who converted to Catholicism in Russia. I admire these two men because in both countries there was a strong- very strong! -prejudices against Catholics. Yet, Soloviev and Newman followed the truth where it led them. And the truth led them to the Catholic Church! No doubt, they paid a price for the traveling down that road which led to Rome. Quite often they felt like a stranger in a foreign land.
It is important to keep in mind that both of these men converted from churches that were inspired by the narrow interests of nationalism. Just as the Anglican Church was the official church of England, Russia had its own national church known as the Russian Orthodox Church. And like the Anglican Church, the Russian Orthodox Church was under State control. It just so happen that in the 18th century it became a government department called the Holy Synod.
Hence, due to its nationalistic character and its very close alliance with the State, the church in Russia was not in a position to effectively counter the Russian Revolution when it broke out in 1917. Soloviev warned the Russians about this very thing. In his book, Russia and the Universal Church, he warned that a nationalistic church- tied so closely to the government -was in no position to check such a government if it should become despotic. Furthermore, a nationalized church could not be universal in its appeal nor could it fully carry out Christ's commission of making disciples of all nations! Its vision and evangelization would be too limited by nationalism. As we shall see below, the Catholic Church in America would be burdened with a similar handicap.
The State: What you are!
In an essay, Soloviev wrote about how Christianity revolutionized politics. In ancient times, the pagan State existed for itself just as Communist, Socialist and secular regimes do in modern times. In a word, paganism turned the very purpose of government upside down to mean that citizens exist to serve the State. But with the revelation of Jesus Christ, the truth of the State was also revealed. Indeed, political truth was made known because God, the nature of man and his eternal destiny was made known.
Soloviev said, "Christianity, coming into the world in order to save the world, also served the supreme manifestation of the world- the State -having revealed to the State the true goal and meaning of its existence...A Christian state acknowledges over itself a higher goal, which is given by religion and is represented by the Church, and a Christian State finds its higher meaning and purpose in voluntary service to this goal, that is to say, the kingdom of God." For this reason the Christian State by the virtue of its purpose has limited power. And those who govern under its influence are tempered by the divine and natural law. Moreover, they are reminded of this admonition from the book of Wisdom: "Hearken, you who are in power over the multitude and lord it over throngs of peoples! Because authority was given you by the LORD and sovereignty by the Most High, who shall probe your works and scrutinize your counsels!" (6:2-3) This is why it is important that our elected officials be inspired by Judeo-Christian principles.
The State: What you are not!
The Russian philosopher then goes on to caution his readers about the absence of considering that Higher Authority: "The difference between a Christian and a pagan State consists in the latter thinking it had a purpose in itself, and therefore turned out to be aimless and meaningless."
Today, as governments drift further from the light of the Gospel, they become an end in themselves; or, to say it another way, they become aimless and meaningless. But State authority is not without aim and meaning. It was created to serve humanity and certainly not the other way around. As St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been established by God." Without this vision, without this revealed truth, the State is apt to see itself as the supreme authority. Instead of the minority (i.e. government officials) serving the majority (i.e. the people), under the pagan or secular-liberal ideology the majority inevitably end up serving the minority. And with this, political power becomes an object of ambition and greed for rulers and those who want to rule.
It cannot be emphasized enough that if political power is not seen as coming from God to be used for the benefit of the people, then it is, in the mind of the one who governs, "mine!" But as Vladimir Soloviev warned , this political attitude of "mine" creates the conditions for an all-powerful State. He said, "Once the supremacy of one's own interest is recognized and legalized in politics only as mine, then it becomes absolutely impossible to point out boundaries of this mine..."
Russia, Maybe America:
Have we not witnessed the same thing in our country? The government has grown by leaps and bounds because it is believed to be the personal possession of politicians, a divine right, if you will. As the notion of separation between Church and State became more perverted and less Christian in its application, Christianity grew less influential in the political world. And as for Catholics in America- both clergy and lay -over these five decades, there were not a few who had a special affinity to the Democratic Party; the political party where militant secular-liberalism has found a home. However, in the latter part of 2011 and in early part of 2012, it has become evident that the big players in the Democratic Party took off their gloves and began to manhandle the Catholic Church on what it could or could not do. Many Democrat-Catholics are now discovering what others have known for decades- that the Democratic Party, at least on the national level, is no friend of the Catholic Church. Sure, they may pay lip service for political reasons. But Democrats who seek to silence and compel her to provide services against her own teachings are never censored or discouraged to leave the Democratic Party. This Catholic bias- even by those politicians who call themselves Catholic -has been boiling beneath the surface for quite some time. What started out as a denial of human rights for the unborn has now turned into a campaign against the rights of the Catholic Church. One thing leads to another!
It needs to be said that because of this political attachment to the Democratic Party, Catholics in high places- both in the Church and in the secular world - have been slow and reluctant to denounce immoral policies. As it regards to religious liberty, it started with the secular State prohibiting prayer and taking down religious symbols in the public square. But what began in public square has arrived at the doorsteps of Catholic agencies with this recent federal mandate for healthcare coverage. And it won't stop there.
Keep in mind that secular-liberalism knows no bounds. Because it thrives on political expediency and not principle, it will make its way into the sanctuary of the Catholic Church. As Soloviev maintained, there are no limits to the political agendas that are inspired by the political attitude of "mine." The only remedy against this "mine" factor is that citizens ought to be governed by those elected officials who embrace Christian principles. In the absence of faith, the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of Christian principles, the political attitude of "mine," so conducive to tyranny, will reign supreme.
