“STRIKE
A BLOW FOR JESUS!”
Part
1 – The Darkness Before the Dawn of Easter
“Strike
a blow for Jesus!” Those were the words I would so often hear from Fr.
O’Halloran at Holy Cross in the late sixties and really right up to his passing
in February, 2008. How different Holy Cross was when I went there from 1965 to
’68. There were so many truly holy priests there, Jesuits even, who witnessed
to nothing less than a bold proclamation of Jesus by their words and by their
lives. Fr. O’Halloran, or “OH” as we called him then, Fr. LeBran, Fr. Brooks –
all of them were courageous for Christ.
What
would they say now about a “Holy Cross” that has removed the Cross from its
college insignia in so many of its college mailings and online posts? And more
than that what would those holy priests say about the removal from that emblem
of the words “In Hoc Signo Vinces”? What incredible words! “In Hoc Signo
Vinces!”, or in English, “By This Sign you will conquer!” - incredible words that
the Lord spoke to Constantine during his vision of the Cross. Oh sure, one can
still see the true emblem on the college’s official website, but more often
than not an enclosure now from the college will come in the mail with some
silly insignia devoid of the Cross. To specifically describe this now
politically correct and non-offensive logo, it is a little circle with tiny
rays protruding from it, and that’s it! The logo looks like the emblem
emblazoned on the Japanese Zeroes that attacked Pearl Harbor.
Yet
for me, “Lift high the Cross!” and restore to the college emblem the awesome
words of the Lord to Constantine! How much today an ever-deepening dark world
and an increasingly sinister society need to hear those words. Yet at Holy
Cross, and in so many Catholic colleges and high schools today, that message of
the Cross and the power of the full Gospel of Jesus is snuffed out, covered up,
and even replaced by liberal blather – by secular and progressive bombast where
the sum total of the Gospel message is simply compassion, tolerance, and
diversity - and nothing more. Gone is the proclamation of Paul and the Apostles
– a proclamation of conversion to God through the Risen Jesus alive and still
with us, now present in power to our lives through the transforming Love that
is His Holy Spirit.
Where
even is there any bold proclamation of Jesus today from our Pope and Bishops?
The Holy Father comes to the United States and there is no mention of Jesus and
the power of His Gospel aside from what is read during the Mass in the
Scriptures and Liturgy. Instead we get this grave concern about completely opening
our borders and a totally nonsensical focus on “the bogus gospel of global
warming”.
In
the meantime the “War on Christians” (Quoting cover of “Newsweek”, February
12, 2012) going on for years and years throughout the Middle East - and
really throughout the Moslem world - gets no mention. Where if anywhere in
media – or for that matter, in Church preaching, proclamations, and
publications - can you find any continuing coverage of the theme in the lead
article that “Newsweek” edition, written
now over four years ago: “The Rise of Christophobia – From One End of the
Muslim World to the Other, Christians Are Being Murdered For Their Faith”. Is this
is the “great tribulation”, the beginning of the “great tribulation” of
biblical proportions spoken of by Jesus to come before the End of times? I believe
so.
Yet
in the face of this tribulation, the Christian Holocaust – the persecution,
torture, murder, and crucifixion of Christ in His people – the “Christian West”,
her pastors, priests, bishops and pope, remain largely silent. “Nothing to see
here… Move on!” It is sheer lunacy for the Church to give a sense of urgency
and alarm to bogus science, to unfounded fears of global warming, while
ignoring the horror of the current Christian holocaust. Why does the ludicrous
image occur to me now of Nero fiddling while Rome burns? It is because to Our
Lord and His Mother the true crisis of our times is not climate change but the
tragedy of Jesus, in the person of thousands of people of Christian Faith,
being slaughtered, crucified and killed by the enemies of Christ.
But
perhaps the “times they are a changing” once again for the better. At least I
feel it. How about you? And shouldn’t it be so? For where sin and darkness
abound, do not Grace, Light, and the Power of Christ’s Love draw near and even
abound all the more? (Romans 5:18) And for a fact the signs are there that this
is very much what is happening in our contemporary world. I see and hear and
feel so many signs of the wind and light of Christ’s Spirit once more moving
“all over this land”. In fact, there is a palpable sense of the Lord and
especially Mary, His Holy Mother, “on the move” in America as well as
everywhere in the world beyond our shores.
It
is so evocative really of the story line in C.S. Lewis’ “Lion, Witch, and the
Wardrobe”. There, Aslan, the Great Lion, is an unmistakable Christ figure and
type of our Lord. And even from the outset of the story, Aslan is “on the move”
throughout the Land of Narnia. That growing sense of His Presence, intensifying
by the moment, is for Narnia’s citizenry exciting beyond what words can
express.
Why?
Narnia you see has been for ages mired in a deep freeze, a deep freeze where it
is “always winter, and never Christmas” – if you will, a dramatic metaphorical
parallel to the direction of America since the ban on prayer in public schools
in 1963, with a deeper thrust and cut into the heart and soul of our country
with the Roe v. Wade abortion decision in 1973.
In
the land of Narnia the deep freeze and the winter without end is due to the
power of an evil Queen, the White Witch. She is mean and cruel, an evil Beast
if you will, cold, ruthless, without heart, soul or humanity. In the thought of
C.S. Lewis, the Witch has brought to Narnia what is to this author the essence
of Hell, a place without Joy or Love or Christmas, a place that knows only the
coldness of stone and the silence of death.
But
now her wicked spell is unraveling as Aslan, the Great Lion, is on the move. Like
a Bridegroom coming to claim His Bride, Aslan is coming to reclaim His land and His throne, and as He
draws ever nearer the signs of spring “appear upon the earth.” “Vines are in blossom”; flowers “give forth
fragrance”, and the sound of birds singing echo throughout the land. (Song of
Songs 2: 12 and 13)
The
parallel to our own day and time cannot escape my notice. The “deep freeze” of
Narnia is so evocative of the coldness, the demonic darkness and decadence that
has over the last fifty years spread like a disease across our country, metastasized
like an ever-expanding cancer throughout the U.S. and even throughout the world
beyond.
Consider
just the silent scream of over fifty million infant deaths in our country from
the horror of abortion. Their silent scream is before the throne of God the
thunderous roar of millions of human heartbeats, heartbeats that cried out to
Heaven for vengeance before they were silenced in the culture of death
entrenched all over America.
And
what of the heartless people, many devoid of all humanity, who have legalized
such atrocities, and even performed them? Like the White Witch in Narnia, these
people have had their way in this country for decades now. They have their way
with U.S. courts, with Congress, and for eight years now even with our
country’s executive branch. Like a virus they have entrenched themselves in our
schools and universities, and even in our churches. They have infected the
young all over our country with tainted thinking, with ideas that somehow
infants are less than human and people less than sacred. Barring God and His
word from the public forum, they have worked to eradicate any and all reference
to the idea of humanity’s God-given dignity – to humanity as the children of
God, with human souls made in the divine image.
The
result of their deadly infiltration and indoctrination? A sick society filled
with depravity and debauchery, a diseased culture inhumane and Godless, a
society without a soul, a society that less and less knows Joy, Peace, Love,
and Christmas; a society that gives us “things”, every “thing” in fact, but
leaves our heart empty and unfulfilled, cut off from the “Bread of Life” that
is Jesus; a society that offers more and more only a foretaste of Hell – or to
use the image once more of C.S. Lewis, a
society that offers only the coldness of stone and the silence of death.
So
sin abounds in our midst today. But I can say with Faith to the point of
unshakable conviction Grace abounds all the more. Grace, God’s Life, the Spirit
of His Son, is more and more “on the move” all over the U.S. today. The Spirit of
His Love, a Love like only God can Love, surrounds us, anoints us, and like an
intensifying Light of dawn is working to dispel the demonic darkness that for
too long has cursed our culture. You might say that Aslan is “on the move”
throughout our country today, and as His Presence draws near the spell of the
White Witch can do nothing but unravel, and her power finally can only diminish
and fade.
Yes,
I believe that an intensifying Fire of God’s Love more and more present in
power is casting out the demons among us. I believe that an awesome Light of
God in the Spirit of his Son is dawning anew among us in decisive and dynamic
ways. Throughout our society and even in our larger world, so many occurrences,
so many happenings – some small and some large - lead me to believe that “yes!”
the Spirit is alive and moving powerfully among us. And as with the citizenry
of Narnia there is excitement for me as well in the face of my Lord and King
drawing near. There is excitement beyond what I can express in words or tears.
There is Joy that knows no bounds, the Joy of Resurrection when Jesus shows us
that He is alive and still with us; the Joy of Pentecost - the Joy of His
Presence once more filling out lives to the point of overflowing, once more
anointing our lives to the point of “abundanza!” (Jn. 10:10) Yes, today we
“…see Him again, and our hearts rejoice, and no man can take our Joy from us.”
(Jn. 16:22)
[Keep in touch with my websites and blog sites for
Part 2 of this reflection: “The Signs Today of Jesus and Mary On The Move”. It
should be finished in no more than a week or two. God bless you my friends,
Doug M. +]
