For more than a century the Sisters of St. X served Catholics
and non-Catholics alike as teachers and nurses and then in the mid-sixties they
embarked on a journey where today many of the schools and hospitals are closed,
their order has had to combine with several others in order to finance care for
an ever aging and ever dwindling number of Sisters. The healthier among them,
all having decades ago abandoned their distinctive habit, community life, the
charism of their Foundress, now mostly live in their own apartments, wear
makeup and jewelry, dress like any lay woman and on their web site they stress
personal choice in apostolic activity [i.e. join us and you can do your own
thing] and state as well their main focus is ecology and mother earth.
Not to be outdone many religious orders of men have gone the
same way.
I used to visit in my own diocese, and those I would travel
to for lectures or missions, the monasteries of a contemplative order of Nuns
dedicated to the mission of prayer for priests, but they too took a turn and
soon were leaving the enclosure to get their hair done, had a tv in the
refectory so they could watch their programs during meals.
Little by little this international order has closed most of
its monasteries.
As dioceses throughout North America and Western Europe in
particular have watched vocations drop among the above consequences also included
that of closing or twinning parishes: often times to settle arguments about location
a new church building is built and these are notable by three things commonly
missing: 1] central placement of the Blessed Sacrament; 2] a dearth of stained
glass windows and statues; 3] rare if ever Exposition, Benediction, Forty
Hours, use of incense.
Finally the poverty of liturgical celebration is exacerbated
by the far too often wimpy, politically correct, let’s not upset anyone
homilies.
Perhaps it can be argued that before the sixties religious
Priests, Sisters, Brothers, Nuns did lead very strict lives, sometimes did wear
habits that were either too cumbersome or flashy; perhaps churches were overloaded with
statues; perhaps all sorts of things needed reform and updating.
Perhaps.
However we have gone very, very, very, very far down a road
wherein ignoring the wisdom of St. Paul we find ourselves under attack from all
sides NOT because of the quality of our holiness and courage in face of the
world, the flesh and the devil, but BECAUSE our hesitancy to be holy makes our
moral stances opaque and this simply enrages the world and its media all the
more against Christianity.
St. Paul tells us clearly, definitively: You must live your whole life according to
the Christ you have received – Jesus the Lord; you must be rooted in Him and
built on Him and held firm by the faith you have been taught, and full of
thanksgiving. Make sure that no one traps you and deprives you of your freedom
by some secondhand, empty, rational philosophy based on the principles of this
world instead of on Christ. [cf. Col. 2:6-8]
Consider, not what radical Islamists think but what the
ordinary Islamic believer thinks about modesty, drugs, abortion, homosexuality,
pornography, just as a few examples, not to mention the priority given to
family life, and then think when was the last time any bishop or priest you
know had the courage to speak clearly, with the authority of a true father,
about such matters.
Pope Paul VI warned about the smoke of satan penetrating
into the Church and as serious as the sins of abuse are, in many ways we have
allowed that to distract from the other tentacles of the smoke strangling
courage out of the ministerial lives of our bishops and priests.
How often when some American or Canadian young man is
reported killed on some mission for the Islamists are they identified as former
Catholics and yet who has heard a bishop or priest address this issue and why
these young men allowed themselves to be seduced by an empty pseudo religious
philosophy filled with hatred and violence?
Too many current politicians and supposed religious leaders,
too many media pundits operate as if the majority of people want to live in
nations filled with the chaos and disorder of easy access to drugs, no limits
on sexual behaviour, the breakdown of family life, political correctness run
amok.
None of our governments seem to have the courage to rein in
the courts and remind them they may interpret the law but they cannot make law. At the same time politicians need to be
reminded they are NOT elected to be some power elite, rather their job is to be
our servants, ensuring our safety and right order in our nations. Being an
elected representative of the people is NOT a licence for any politician to
attempt to reshape the nation according to their own personal whims, which
increasingly in our days means doing so by pandering to small pockets of noisy
and well funded people with very personal and self-serving agendas that have
total disregard for the Christian roots of Western democracies.
When you see young people tattooed to the hilt, body pierced
to the point it looks as if they have been subjected to some form of torture,
when you have a society whose members increasingly refuse to comprehend male is
male and female is female; a society so disordered that parents now identify
and demands rights for their allegedly transgendered pre-adolescent children
and a culture where more and more children have two ‘moms’ or two ‘dads’, who
should be surprised if the young look at the namby-pamby play it safe
liturgical bankrupt Catholic life that silently ascents to such disorder and
chaos and so they say “I’m outta here!”, leave in search of something/someone
promising moral clarity, stability, acceptance.
Street gangs and Islamists, like the Hitler Youth of another
era, share a common trick: give the lost youth a sense of purpose and belonging
and in time you can get those young to do whatever you want.
That happens to be the old adage: “Give me the boy and I will
give you the man.”
If we Christians could rediscover truth-speaking courage in
our homes, parishes, schools; if bishops and priests could become anew true
fathers with courage and compassion, shepherds willing to be martyrs for their
faith and flock, then the young would not lose faith or hope, would not be
seduced by the diabolical evil of Islamism.
Our political systems, our very culture have become
disordered; our priests, sisters, brothers have become invisible; our churches
lack passion and life so our parishes are wilting on the vine.
We need to wake up!
When I was at Ground Zero with a New York Firefighter friend
a few months after 9/11, standing and praying at the edge of that immense wound
in the heart of New York, I was profoundly aware we had been given a warning, and
not by the terrorists, and a call to repentance, not by them either.
Have we been listening?
It is far too easy to blah-blah about historic grievances
among Islamic peoples or the failures of Christianity, to blah-blah about
rights while being silent about responsibility all the while ignoring the inner
rot and disorder all around us which is the fault of no one but ourselves.
Salt deteriorates cement and rust weakens steel and bridges
eventually collapse; viruses like Ebola devastate with painful rapidity.
There are attitudes and choices deteriorating more effectively
than salt the religious, moral, political structures of our nations and they
are rusting away to the point of collapse and a virus of religious and political
cowardice is rapidly infecting the entire body of faith.
We need to wake up!
We need to convert!
We need to repent!
There is little time left.