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These are surreal days. Even for me, after writing about these things for 20 years, it’s surreal to see them being fulfilled in real time.
For instance, in 2007 I sensed the Spirit warning of The Great Vacuum the Church has largely left in the world by a lack of true shepherding and public sins. That article spoke of how the youth are being prepped to follow a false gospel, if not become violent persecutors, through a barrage of propaganda and corrupt entertainment. A revolutionary spirit was being stirred in them. That article also spoke of how God is simultaneously forming an Army of Light — if not martyrs — for these times and ultimately predicted the hour through which we are now living. It’s a warning that has come to fruition as the armies of light and darkness have been formed, for the teenagers of yesterday (when I wrote that) are now the young adults of today.
The Army of Darkness
I felt led to watch several videos this morning of Charlie Kirk debating students on campus. What struck me most was the degree of hostility and rage in his opponents. You could summarize most of their sentiments as anger as Kirk dared to uphold the sanctity of life, of godly sexuality, and responsible governance — a position that apparently infringes on his opponents desire to violate these. In one of my very first writings some 20 years ago, I wrote of ‘the intolerance of “tolerance!”’ and how curious it is that those who accuse Christians of hatred and intolerance are often the most venomous in tone and intent. In the words of Benedict XVI:
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. —Light of the World, A Conversation with Peter Seewald, p. 52
Kirk was willing to engage this new intolerance face to face, until it cost him his life.
It reminds me of St. James who wrote:
What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. (James 4:1-2)
Tyler Robinson, the 22 year old College student from Utah who assassinated Kirk, is exactly what I was warning about in The Great Vacuum. He’s not some jihadist or barbarian from another country. He is seemingly an average young American college student who had been utterly radicalized by the Marxist and amoral dogma of his generation. His actions are consistent with the culture of death that he was raised in where human life can and should be eliminated whenever it is an inconvenience — whether it is an unwanted pregnancy, an unwanted senior citizen, or an unwanted voice of truth.
This anti-Gospel, which seeks to elevate the individual’s will to consume, to pleasure and to power over the will of God, was rejected by Christ when tempted in the wilderness. Disguised as ‘human rights,’ it has reappeared, in all its luciferian hubris, to promulgate a narcissistic, hedonistic attitude that rejects any constraint except that imposed by man-made laws. —Fr. Linus Clovis of Family Life International, talk at the Rome Life Forum, May 18th, 2017; LifeSiteNews.com
The Army of Light
At the same, God has quietly been raising an Army of Light, of men and women who are committed to the fullness of the Gospel. St. John Paul II’s pontificate was an immeasurable force that attracted millions of youth around the globe, spawning countless vocations to the priesthood and religious life. My own apostolate is a direct response to John Paul II’s call to the “new evangelization” and to become…
…watchmen who proclaim to the world a new dawn of hope, brotherhood and peace. —POPE JOHN PAUL II, Address to the Guanelli Youth Movement, April 20th, 2002, www.vatican.va
When will that day come?
After purification through trial and suffering, the dawn of a new era is about to break. —POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II, General Audience, September 10, 2003
In fact, when speaking to the youth at a World Youth Day, the Pope did not hesitate to describe what he meant by “trial and suffering”:
I wish to invite young people to open their hearts to the Gospel and become Christ’s witnesses; if necessary, His martyr-witnesses, at the threshold of the Third Millennium. —BLESSED JOHN PAUL II to youth, Spain, 1989
While some clergy may frown at these words, dismissing them as “doom and gloom” and “scary,” what is truly scary is that the hierarchy —preoccupied with climate change, eco-spirituality, and promoting the UN’s agenda — has done little in the past decade to prepare and form our Catholic youth to be apostles of truth. While I don’t agree with everything Kirk has said or the way he said it, he has nonetheless been filling the vacuum on college campuses that the Church by and large has not. Moments before his assassination, Kirk professed his faith in Jesus Christ, there on a secular college campus in front of thousands of students. It’s strange… but I have almost the sense that he is the first of a new era of martyrs on North American soil. Until now, the martyrdom of Christians here has been mostly a “white” martyrdom of exclusion, intolerance, and mockery (while in other parts of the world, such as Nigeria, China, and India, the violent persecution of Christians has been well underway).
In our own time, the price to be paid for fidelity to the Gospel is no longer being hanged, drawn and quartered but it often involves being dismissed out of hand, ridiculed or parodied. And yet, the Church cannot withdraw from the task of proclaiming Christ and his Gospel as saving truth, the source of our ultimate happiness as individuals and as the foundation of a just and humane society. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, London, England, September 18th, 2010; Zenit
But it seems that has now changed. The hatred being expressed on social media toward Christians has reached a demonic pitch. But if you dwell upon this, you will become afraid. In truth, it is only by grace that any of us will have the strength to pass through this purification. And Jesus is ready to pour it out upon you in superabundance! The Divine Mercy Image (which is notably under attack now by radical traditionalists), is Christ’s promise to you that His Heart is wide open to pour out an ocean of graces upon you. He wanted the words “Jesus I trust in You” inscribed on the image. I think you can understand why now…
Nor am I talking about merely rattling off words on a devotional card. Rather, one must truly draw close to Jesus, entrusting your whole life to Him as to a friend. It means being close to Him in prayer, in the Eucharist — the way that St. John laid his head upon the breast of Christ moments before the Passion was to break out in all its hostility and rage. If you are terrified of martyrdom, you need to hear this: I believe it’s precisely because St. John was so intimately close to Jesus, listening to His heartbeats rather than the noise around him, that he was the only one of the Apostles to stand courageously before the foot of the Cross. It could have cost his life, but he received the grace to stand there when he needed it — not a minute too soon or too late. Thus, John was able to rise above the mockery, hatred, and violence toward Jesus because the echoes of Divine love were louder.
In the days to come, the threats against Christians will likely grow louder; the lies will become bigger, more outrageous; the hatreds may boil over. Dialectical Marxism, which has been pumped into the education system for the past two decades or more, has been wildly successful in order to divide people against each other. It has produced a diabolical revolutionary spirit in those deceived by it.
As I said in my last video, the answer is to love our enemies as Christ loved us to death. For those who think this is passivity, it actually takes the greatest strength of all to remain silent, to forgive, and bless those who curse us. “Love never fails,” wrote St. Paul.[1]1 Cor 13:8
Perhaps Charlie Kirk, a man of many words, is now a sign to us all of the greatest form love must take…
If the word has not converted, it will be blood that converts. —ST. JOHN PAUL II, from poem “Stanislaw”
…we will not be swayed from our path, though the world seduce us with its smiles or try to terrify us with naked threats of its trials and tribulations. —St. Peter Damian, Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. II, 1778
The Church… intends to continue to raise her voice in defense of mankind, even when policies of States and the majority of public opinion moves in the opposite direction. Truth, indeed, draws strength from itself and not from the amount of consent it arouses. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Vatican, March 20, 2006
Related Reading
Exposing This Revolutionary Spirit
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Footnotes
| ↑1 | 1 Cor 13:8 |
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