In the last two years or so, I have spent a fair amount of time and
energy attempting to combat the rapid promulgation of liberal irrationalism.
The forum? Facebook
The audience? Either
people who get it, click “Like” and move on…
Or people who don’t get it: men and women who are “lovers of themselves, covetous,
haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers,
incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasures more than of God…”[1]
My intentions? Pure. I
refuse to hide my lamp under a bushel basket.[2] I want to bring others to
Christ.
Fraternal correction and instruction of the ignorant are two of
the most important (and perhaps most abandoned) spiritual works of mercy. The
zeal for souls is a hallmark of a true Christian, the persecution that comes
with this effort a blessing.[3]
The fruits of these debates? Zero. Zilch. Nil. Trying to sway a person on Facebook is like
trying to walk through a wall.
On multiple occasions I have had to heed
the words of St. Paul, of St. John, of our Lord Himself:
- “A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition,
avoid:”[4]
- “If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive
him not into the house nor say to him, God speed you.”[5]
- “Whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you; going forth from
thence, shake off the dust from your feet for a testimony to them.”[6]
These people, as the Psalmist wrote, “have ears and hear not: they
have noses and smell not”[7] because “the sensual
man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is
foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually
examined.”[8] “These men blaspheme
whatsoever things they know not: and what things soever they naturally know,
like dumb beasts, in these they are corrupted.”[9]
So it is that I have more recently chosen to bite my tongue as we
continue to witness the abandonment
of reason in favor of madness.
And yet…
Did not the prophet Jeremiah, in spite of so few who would listen
and with full knowledge of the psalms, persist none the less? “Hear, O foolish
people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and
hear not.”[10]
Though our present pontiff would that I shut my mouth and be
tolerant while he continues to scandalously endorse the sins of our day, the
voices of his holy and courageous predecessors oblige me to opposite:
- Pope St. Leo the Great, “He that sees another in error, and
endeavors not to correct it. testifies himself to be in error.”
- Pope St. Felix III just the same, “Not to oppose error is to
approve it; and not to defend truth is to suppress it, and, indeed, to neglect
to confound evil men—when we can do it—is no less a sin than to encourage
them.”
- Pope St. Pius V, “All the evils of the world are due to lukewarm
Catholics.”
- Pope St. Pius X, “All the strength of Satan's reign is due to
the easygoing weakness of Catholics.”
Most clearly our Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed, “Blessed are they
that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.”[11]
Quite clearly, it is decided.
No longer will I remain silent. No longer will I hide my love of
Jesus Christ, of the Truth. A sworn and consecrated Knight of the Immaculata, I
am henceforth resolved to wage war against error and darkness. In public on my
feet and in private on my knees, I will raise my voice and lift my soul to
heaven while humbly and faithfully acknowledging that “with men this is
impossible: but with God all things are possible.”[12]
But Facebook is still not the desired forum. While it may be the modus operandi of millennial
communication, I for one will no longer exclusively hide behind my keyboard.
Instead, I will offer live conversation: a call, a Skype, a coffee.
A conversion starts in the heart, and few hearts have ever been penetrated
by polemical Facebook exchanges.
Dear friends, dear readers of my blog, will you join me?
Will you have the courage to engage people personally, in all
patience and meekness, to try to win more souls for heaven?
The peace of Christ is unlike anything the world can offer. The love
and mercy which God has shown us through the passion and death of His only
begotten Son is unmatched by that which Satan offers each of us in the desert
of our own self-love.
Arise, arise, stand up, O Jerusalem![13]
Go forth with the light of Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost
and bring souls to the redemptive font of Almighty God.
~Lumen Christi sit semper vobiscum~
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