“Do you think the Lord is trying to tell us something?” my husband asked after we heard about power outages in Texas and winter storms from the Gulf to Maine. Meanwhile we in the Northern Plains “warmed up” to -18F in time for morning coffee. I’m surprised hellfires hadn’t resumed in California.
“If He is,” I replied, “No one is listening.”
In fact, several months ago, I had asked if any bishops had gone out and from the cathedral steps proclaimed the need for repentance. Still waiting for that one.
There is evil all around, not just on the political scene, but in cities where groups of feral teens are hijacking cars; murders are increasing; and who can forget riots and burning cities and islands of anarchy from the summer? Governors control lives, opening and shutting businesses, and churches, and even deciding who gets vaccinated and who does not (e.g., developmentally delayed individuals in some states like Minnesota are really not on any list for the covid vaccine, or even the vaccine lottery the state instituted).
This stuff isn’t a passing phenomenon, agitation has been swirling like a nest of vipers for nearly a year. And no one has – or wants – an answer other than control.
Look at what we Catholics have lost:
- Perpetual adoration chapels, something we desperately need, are minimally open;
- Masses still have limited attendance;
- Some families have not sacramentally received the Holy Eucharist in a year; and,
- Those in nursing homes, the hardest hit population of all, are just now having mere Communion Services.
- Devotions are nonexistent as are confessions – who wants to walk into a little box, for fear of the virus!
Our spiritual tools have been taken away!
For what purpose? There is very little benefit for these measures in the physical realm but in the spiritual realm, destruction of souls.
“Put not your trust in princes, in mortal men in whom there is no salvation,” the psalmist wrote (Ps. 145:3) — Of course there is no help on that end, we are but dust, that flutters away as did the characters in the last Avenger movies. Our situation is beyond mortal repair.
It’s time to break our arrogance, our hearts of stone and admit no executive order on earth can stay the hand of God. It’s time to beat our breasts and ask for His mercy. The Gospel of Mark for the First Sunday of Lent says it all:
“The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.”
This article, Dust is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
https://bellarmineforum.org/dust-ash-wednesday-repentance/
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