{"id":37870,"date":"2019-11-02T12:57:23","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T18:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=37870"},"modified":"2022-10-08T17:13:44","modified_gmt":"2022-10-08T23:13:44","slug":"putting-the-branch-to-gods-nose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/putting-the-branch-to-gods-nose\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting the Branch to God’s Nose","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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I<\/strong> have heard from fellow believers all over the world that this past year in their lives has been an unbelievable <\/em>trial. It is no coincidence. In fact, I think very little happening today is without enormous significance, especially in the Church.<\/p>\n

I have focused recently on what took place in the Vatican Gardens in early October with a ceremony that many cardinals and bishops have lamented as being, or at least appearing to be, pagan. I think it would be wrong to see this as a single isolated event but rather the culmination of a Church that has moved little by little from her center. A Church that, one could say, has generally<\/em> become desensitized to sin and casual in her mandate, if not aloof to her responsibilities to one another and the world.<\/p>\n

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\u2026as the Church\u2019s one and only indivisible magisterium, the pope and the bishops in union with him carry<\/strong> the gravest responsibility that no ambiguous sign or unclear teaching comes from them, confusing the faithful or lulling them into a false sense of security. <\/strong>\u2014Gerhard Ludwig Cardinal M\u00fcller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; First Things<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>April 20th, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We laymen are no less culpable. I stand convicted. When we consider the heroism of the early Church, the martyrdoms of the first centuries, the generous sacrifices of the saints… has not \"\"the Church of our day become generally lukewarm? We seem to have lost our zeal for the name of Jesus, the focus of our mission and the courage to carry it out! Almost the entire Church is infected with a trepidation whereby we are more concerned with offending others<\/a> than offending God. We keep silent so as to keep our friends; we avoid standing up for what is right in order to “keep the peace”; we withhold the truth that would set others free because our faith is a “private thing.” No, our faith is personal <\/em><\/a>but it is not private. Jesus commanded us to be “salt and light” to the nations, to never hide the light of the Gospel beneath a bushel basket. Perhaps we have arrived at this moment because we have come to embrace, either consciously or subconsciously, the falsehood that what’s most important is that we simply be kind to others. But Pope Paul VI shattered that notion:<\/p>\n

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\u2026the finest witness will prove ineffective in the long run if it is not explained, justified\u2026 and made explicit by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the Lord Jesus. The Good News proclaimed by the witness of life sooner or later has to be proclaimed by the word of life. There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.<\/strong> \u2014POPE ST. PAUL VI,\u00a0Evangelii Nuntiandi,\u00a0<\/em>n. 22; vatican.va<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I believe, in fact, that St. John Henry Newman’s prophetic words about what will happen to the Church prior to the coming of Antichrist have become a concrete reality in our times:<\/p>\n

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Satan may adopt the more alarming weapons of deceit\u2014he may hide himself\u2014he may attempt to seduce us in little things, and so to move the Church, not all at once, but by little and little from her true position. <\/b>\u2014St. John Henry Newman, Sermon IV: The Persecution of Antichrist<\/em>; <\/em>see Newman’s Prophecy<\/a><\/em><\/span>
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What happens next, according to the Apostle John’s vision in Revelation, is that God begins the purification of His Church, and then the world:<\/p>\n

So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, \u2018I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,\u2019 and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked… Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. (Rev 3:16-19)<\/span><\/p>\n

Divine Mercy, like an elastic band, has stretched and stretched for this generation because God “wills everyone to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth.” <\/em>[1]<\/sup><\/a>1 Timothy 2:4<\/span><\/span>