No matter how converged the institutions become, God can always renew the human heart and rebuild new ones. A reader writes of attending Mass this weekend.
I have recently made small efforts to attending the Mass again after a long layoff. I found a parish here in my Florida diocese that happens to administer the pre-Vatican Latin Mass after attending one for the first time on Easter in Germany. Talk about a night and day difference between services.
Anyways, to the point… I was floored when the celebrating priest stepped up to give his Homily and focused on this particular Mass’ Introit prayer, an excerpt from Psalm 53: “the Lord is the protector of my soul; turn back the evils of mine enemies, and cut them off in Thy truth.” He spoke frankly about the… unsuitability of this exhortation for Godly vengeance for the modern sensibilities of the Church and related it to the recent revelations of an American cardinal who has been in the news for abusing seminarians for years, and yet continuing to rise in the Church hierarchy.
To hammer it home even more, the priest spoke of how – at least in the States – the Conference of Catholic Bishops has put zero tolerance rules in place that effectively deflect blame away from themselves down to the priests and parishioners in cases where abuses are brought to light, saving their own asses while offering up those of the flocks they ought be tending to. He even uttered those three magic words – Social Justice Warrior – and excoriated them from the pulpit for separating Christian charity from their works while putting all of their efforts into grandstanding and focusing on the worldly aspects of said works (i.e. politics) This is a far cry from a mass I attended some months ago where the Celebrant was urging us all to call our representatives and cry a river over the Dreamer babies amongst us because – well, because.
This Sunday’s priest said, specifically, “If you open your eyes, and begin to pay attention, and learn what to look for, you will not like what you see.
“And many Christians must be prepared – and yet will not be – to learn just how deep the darkness runs.”
I was brought immediately back to a Darkstream you recently posted, speaking on the depths of depravity of the power brokers in our world and in our institutions, and how few people are truly prepared for the revelations to come about said institutions. God Bless this guy for having some balls to speak truth to power when it seems like all of Christendom has been castrated.
The darkness runs deep. But it does not run deep enough to escape the light of Truth or the sword of Justice. Even the noble pagans knew this.
When you close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; nay, God is within, and your genius is within. And what need have they of light to see what you are doing?
– Epictetus
Be free. Be fearless. And when the Day of Deus Vult arrives, be ferocious.