IN EVERY GENERATION ^_[1]

POWER AND GRACE

1.  It is God, not man, who consecrates the temple and the Holy of Holies.  [cf. 2Chr 36:14]  Without God, nothing is made holy, for God is the origin of all sanctity. God's holiness may be illustrated by the act of consecration in the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass. The miracle of transubstantiation, that is, Christ made truly present in the species of bread and wine, is effected by the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of the Sacrament of Holy Orders. It is not dependent upon the creaturely merits or abilities of the imperfect man who has been called to be a priest. The light of God reveals the good deeds and exposes the bad deeds of all persons, believers and non-believers. We may be frightened, for when a judge condemns, it is too late to save. Yet Christ, our saviour, has not come to condemn anyone. He is our advocate, our intercessor at the right hand of God, manifesting himself to us in an acceptable time, in the hour of need. Sadly, many of us draw near to faith, while at the same time drawing back from true belief. Many live in a twilight of doubt and distrust. They are afraid of darkness and afraid of the light. In the end, it is fear that judges and condemns them. When we are not strong spiritually, whether as individuals or as a nation, exterior trials and threats acquire the power to break our will and confidence. It is not because the greatest evil is stronger than our smallest good. Our will and confidence collapse because of a steady erosion of the knowledge of right and wrong and our will to live it out. We are consoled that simple ignorance or error of leaders, clergy and citizens do not in themselves arouse God's displeasure. However, God's wrath is provoked by willful, stubborn ignorance and error. We speak of the obstinate, egregious refusal to repent, to learn, and to change. Used in this sense, obstinacy means taking immense satisfaction, even pleasure, in being a liar. Who is a liar? A liar is a person who exempts himself from full responsibility for performing an action that is morally wrong. When a person refuses to fully acknowledge or correct a grave wrong, then the magnitude of his sin increases. It becomes a crass offense, meaning a blatant provocation to man and God alike. Further, such hardness of heart is characterized as supine, meaning that one has fallen as flat as he can go. Leaders and priests will fail. Ironically, the pagan King Cyrus of Persia was a greater instrument of the Lord than all the Jewish leaders and priests living in Jerusalem shortly before their exile to Babylon. In pre-exilic Jerusalem, that is, prior to the fall of Judah and the capture of Jerusalem, the leaders and priests lived a life of privilege and wealth. Gorging on excess and comfort, this ruling class devolved into a culture of arrogance. Over-weaning pride led to their collective spiritual blindness and intellectual pollution. Their nation, rotten at its very center, collapsed the day that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his army stood outside the great walls of Jerusalem to fulfill the Lord's justice. The Old Testament scripture asserts that God's chosen people, languishing in captivity in a foreign country, cannot return to their homeland "until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths".  [2Chr 36:21]  From this we learn a two-fold lesson:  1.)  Although made for man  [cf. Mk 2:27], proper Sabbath worship also consecrates the nation, indeed it confers a blessing upon the land whose people follow God faithfully, and  2.)  the Lord would rather have no ritualized worship, even the Sacrifice of the Holy Mass, than to be offended by worship which is polluted and filled with abominations. It is possible that the Lord will hold back a flowering of religion in a faithless generation. Our own generation shows unmistakable signs of being faithless.

ILLUMINE A MODEL OF LIFE

2.  At the heart of obstinacy and impenitence is the fiction that human society is exempt from the natural law, the Word of God, and certain judgment. Many Christians lament that the soul-eating disease of pride is devouring our people at this very moment. God will never allow stubborn and persistent error to prevail. For grave personal sins, and the sin of nations, there must be appropriate atonement. Ancient Israel acknowledged its sin only after the devastation of Jerusalem and Babylonian exile; a traumatic event may be the only means by which the unrepentant sinner is humbled enough to undertake an examination of conscience.  For the Israelites, it was seventy years of exile; note the multiple of seven, indicating completion or perfect fulfillment of satisfaction. It is painfully clear that over the centuries of salvation history, the human cycle of remorse, repentance, and relapse could never be broken without a decisive intervention on the part of Our Heavenly Father. Christ is the Father's decisive intervention. We fear for the sake of our children that this generation may leave them a legacy of profound spiritual darkness. The full merits and grace of the Mass can be lost to us if man and nation stubbornly refuse to reform. If we do not  ...allow (our) spirit to be overturned in order to make it turn towards God".^[2] In every generation, people must learn for themselves that great wealth consists in unseen things. Although life itself is a magnificent gift, it is incapable of achieving its own end. In the beginning, the Lord willed that man's life be directed to a spiritual end. Hence, a life endowed with spiritual meaning is a worthy offering to the God-of-Eternity:  "I am the Alpha and the Omega, (says the Lord), the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the fountain of the water of life without payment."  [Rev 21:6]  Genuine love and life are inseparable. From the inner life of God pours forth a fountain overflowing with love. His love is a life-giving force. Not by compulsion or necessity does God save our lives. The Creator-of-All calls to us, He walks with us, He uplifts us, by the gratuitous gift of his steadfast love and divine favor. What shall we say, then, about the "good works, which God prepared beforehand?"  [Eph 2:10]  God is Lord of every blink of your eye; He is the Lord of every beat your heart. A single tear on your cheek causes the good God to shower you with tenderness and consolations. No matter how great or small, the hand of God is sovereign in every event of your life. Let us not be seduced by the Word of the World. Make certain that your deeds are done in the name of God's only-begotten Son.  Not all good deeds can be said to advance His purpose and plan. Those performed without active collaboration with God are often a hindrance. Works that are not the works of God, and we speak in spiritually terms now, are works of darkness. They may indirectly reflect divine light, but they are works which glorify our heavenly father. To honor God by your actions, consecrate your intentions to His divine will in unceasing prayer. God proved his immeasurable love by giving mankind the gift of his only Son. This is so that God's revelation of glory might be revealed in the ages to come. Christ, the Son, is the light shining in the twilight of a disbelieving generation, in a world which has lost its way. Christ came into the world  [cf. Jn 1:1-18]  to illumine a model of life which, if lived faithfully, would lead mankind to the Father. How then, do we, for our part, prove our faith and love to God? By what other means may we show God our gratitude than by our good works? Know then that your good works must collaborate with Faith, and both must be aligned with God. Our Lord, Who loves a cheerful sinner, is won over by our exercise of humility and our sincere, good-natured return to his forgiving heart. One begins to act in truth while leaving the darkness. Acting in truth is the journey from evil to good, from darkness to light. Let us not tarry with the souls of this generation who have chosen a path of ruin. Let the People of God, whose first and lasting citizenship is in the Church, advance steadfastly along the pilgrim way so that heavens gate will not close just as we are poised to mount its threshold.  [cf. Gen 28:17]