The Time of No Room

 

 

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I am reading the latest Michael D. O’Brien novel about a letter found in the future Era of Peace. The letter was written and then buried at the time of the collapse of civilization, a time that essentially describes our present era. This one particular line jumped off the page as I read it…

…there really is no place to run and hide. The time of the end is the time of no room. —Letter to the Future, p. 138, Ignatius Press

It spoke to me in light of my recent reflections on the prophet Daniel’s and St. John’s vision of the “beast” (see The Wearing Down of the Saints and When Christ’s Kingdom Comes) — a beast that is allowed to “wear down the holy ones of the Most High” (Dan 7:25) and “wage war against the holy ones and conquer them” (Rev 13:6-7). So overwhelming, totalitarian, and all-encompassing is the beast’s power that the “whole world” cries out:

Who can compare with the beast or who can fight against it? (Revelation 13:4)

Indeed, seemingly just a handful of technocrats will soon have the power to force everyone to “buy and sell” through their system once digital currency and digital IDs are imposed on the global populace. Then there will truly be nowhere to run, nowhere to hide (see The Final Revolution). 

 

Where Can You Run?

So many of us are growing very tired and weary as we watch a system fall into place that we feel helpless to stop. Even though we have “filled our lamps with oil” as best we can to prepare for these days, we find the increasing evil, lukewarmness, blindness, cowardice, and political correctness of both secular and church authorities exhausting. As such, not only the unwise but the wise “virgins” are becoming weary:

The foolish ones, when taking their lamps, brought no oil with them, but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps. Since the bridegroom was long delayed, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. (Matthew 25:3-5)

It’s true — many Christians today no longer want to be confronted with the “signs of the times.” In fact, because the Bridegroom has indeed been long delayed, and prophecies of these times have been coming at us from various corners of the earth for over a century, we can start to become numb, complacent, cynical, even angry at the incessant prophets who remind us that the world is mortally sick.

I think of Noah who took roughly a hundred years or less to build the ark. At first, people would have been intrigued, but after a hundred years, it was yesterday’s news. And then the storm came. That story, as well as Gethsemane, is a reminder to us to remain vigilant, even should God delay.^[1]2 Peter 3:9: “The Lord does not delay his promise, as some regard “delay,” but he is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.”

It’s our very sleepiness to the presence of God that renders us insensitive to evil: we don’t hear God because we don’t want to be disturbed, and so we remain indifferent to evil… the disciples’ sleepiness is not a problem of that one moment, rather of the whole of history, ‘the sleepiness’ is ours, of those of us who do not want to see the full force of evil and do not want to enter into his Passion. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, Catholic News Agency, Vatican City, Apr 20, 2011, General Audience

To “enter His Passion” is not to become negative and depressed, spending one’s day doom-scrolling. On the contrary, it is a clarion call to enter into the battle as a protagonist. This is why Jesus told the sleepy apostles in the garden to “watch and pray.” Watching tells you who and what to pray for; for whom and what to do battle with. 

For, although we are in the flesh, we do not battle according to the flesh, for the weapons of our battle are not of flesh but are enormously powerful, capable of destroying fortresses. We destroy arguments and every pretension raising itself against the knowledge of God. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)

Now, either Paul’s words are true or not. Either we live in fear, believing we are helpless against the Prince of Darkness, or we clap on the armor of God and go into battle as part of Our Lady’s Little Rabble.^[2]cf. Our Lady’s Wartime

The elect souls will have to fight the Prince of Darkness. It will be a frightening Storm — no, not a storm, but a hurricane devastating everything! He even wants to destroy the faith and confidence of the elect. I will always be beside you in the Storm that is now brewing. I am your mother. I can help you and I want to! —from the approved revelations of Our Lady to Elizabeth Kindelmann (1913-1985), The Flame of Love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary: The Spiritual Diary (Kindle Locations 2994-2997); approved by Cardinal Péter Erdö, primate of Hungary

Now, let me be straight up for a moment. After having dedicated myself to sitting on the watchman’s wall for some 20 years, having listened to what both Heaven and the popes have been shouting for over a century, I am convinced that we are seeing the rise of this beast in our generation, however long that takes to unfold. As such, Mr. O’Brien is right: There really is no place to run and hide. “The time of the end is the time of no room.“

For instance, many in my country (Canada) have talked about leaving, or are actually fleeing, as the neo-communist totalitarians in the nation’s capital grow in power and aggression. But where do you go? Where can one run? The U.S. is one election away from the Socialists taking over that country, if not one war away from devastation;^[3]cf. The Coming Collapse of America post-Christian Europe is firmly in the grasp of the globalists; the Middle East is slaying and driving out its Christians; India has begun persecuting believers; Russia is at war; and the godless Chinese Communist Party seems poised like a red dragon to pounce upon everything.^[4]cf. China and the Storm and China Rising

Here again, despite the rather unsettling and negative prognosis, I am not saying anything that the popes have not said, and often more pointedly (see Why Aren’t the Popes Shouting?). 

So, where do we turn?

 

The Divine Refuges

Our Lady said to Elizabeth Kindelman, “I can help you and I want to!” At Fatima, at the Divine Command, Our Lady announced:

My Immaculate Heart will be your refuge and the way that will lead you to God. —Our Lady of Fatima, June 13, 1917

In fact, Jesus told Elizabeth:

My Mother is Noah’s Ark… —The Flame of Love, p. 109; Imprimatur from Archbishop Charles Chaput

Just stop, and think about that.

So, there is a place to run: to the heart of a mother. Just exactly how the Blessed Mother cares for and looks after her children is a mystery in the order of grace and Divine Providence. All we know is that it pleases God to give her to us: “Behold, your mother” (Jn 19:27). Nor does this promise of divine protection mean that we will not suffer, even suffer martyrdom. Rather, it implies that our spiritual welfare and salvation will be safeguarded, despite the persecutions and blows of the enemy, of the Antichrist.

Moreover, Our Lady of Fatima says that her heart will lead us to God. That’s why she continually calls us to remain faithful to the Truth, to her Son’s Church, and to prayer for the shepherds appointed over us. For she is, in fact, a mirror of the Church herself^[5]“Holy Mary… you became the image of the Church to come…” (POPE BENEDICT XVI, Spe Salvi, n.50; “Mary figured profoundly in the history of salvation and in a certain way unites and mirrors within herself the central truths of the faith.” Among all believers she is like a “mirror” in which are reflected in the most profound and limpid way “the mighty works of God.” (POPE JOHN PAUL II, Redemptoris Mater, n. 25) and it would be a contradiction to deny her Son’s mystical body:

According to another image dear to the Church Fathers, she [the Church] is prefigured by Noah’s ark, which alone saves from the flood. —Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 845

Finally, according to the mind of the Church Fathers — even should the Beast reign over the world for a time — God will still provide physical “solitudes” to at least a remnant of believers.^[6]cf. Rev 12:6

It is necessary that a small flock subsist, no matter how small it might be. —POPE PAUL VI, The Secret Paul VI, Jean Guitton, p. 152-153, Reference (7), p. ix.

That will be the time in which righteousness shall be cast out, and innocence be hated; in which the wicked shall prey upon the good as enemies; neither law, nor order, nor military discipline shall be preserved… all things shall be confounded and mixed together against right, and against the laws of nature. Thus the earth shall be laid waste, as though by one common robbery. When these things shall so happen, then the righteous and the followers of truth shall separate themselves from the wicked, and flee into solitudes. —Lactantius, The Divine Institutes, Book VII, Ch. 17

The revolt [revolution] and separation must come…the Sacrifice shall cease and…the Son of Man shall hardly find faith on earth… All these passages are understood of the affliction which Antichrist shall cause in the Church… But the Church… shall not fail, and shall be fed and preserved amidst the deserts and solitudes to which She shall retire, as the Scripture says, (cf. Rev Ch. 12). —St. Francis de Sales, Doctor of the Church, The Mission of the Church, ch. X, n.5

While the world cries out in despair: “Who can compare to the beast?”, the faithful Christian ought to respond:

We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (2 Corinthians 4:7-10)

The beast conquers by force and coercion; the Christian conquers by love, for “God is love”^[7]1 John 4:8 and “love never fails.”^[8]1 Cor 13:8 As O’Brien writes in his novel — writes to us:

Though the darkness deepens around us… and the malice in men’s hearts is no longer restrained, we must not let hatred have a place in our hearts. Fear of evil can drive us to hatred of evildoers, and then this hatred, once it gains ground within us, breeds more evil, and thus evil wins a double victory. Instead, let us permit the Lord to fight for us in His way. —”Fr. Peter”, Letter to the Future, p. 138, Ignatius Press

 

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The Refuge of Our Times

 

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