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| They have no eyes and see not, They have no ears and hear not. |
“And that no man might buy or sell, but he that hath the character, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:17
“It was almost impossible to procure the necessaries of life, without exposing themselves of committing some act of idolatry. In the public market small images of the gods were placed, and no one was allowed to buy or to sell anything unless he had first burnt incense before them.” The Life and Martyrdom of St Sebastian.
“The Democratic bill, which was supported by the Obama administration, would make it clear that any employer providing health insurance would have to pay for any type of coverage specified by federal law.” From Effort to Override hobby lobby ruling fails.
Personally, I find the idea of threatening strange Gods as something more worthy of fear then the feminist demographic. I am sure that the Romans would have had no problem accepting the Christians worshiping Jesus as long as they did not neglect to worship the other Gods as well. Equality and everything you know! I must say that our pagan opponents have gone backwards from their ancient forefathers, in the past the Romans built great temples to the Gods, performed rituals with Priests, and offered incense. Instead of worshiping a piece of pretty stone, they demand that we have to worship silly pills, and not even by taking the little soul destroyers, but by paying for someone else's coverage to maybe use them.
They failed this time, but our current freedom from such force participation without incurring the wrath of the state may be coming to an end. We should not despair of this fact, rather we need to prepare for it. It is true that humility, a love for contempt, a hatred for human respect, love of simplicity, detachment from kin, land and property should always be things that we are trying to grow in. Are soldiers more diligent in training when they know that they may go into battle soon? Our Faith should always drive us to struggle manfully against the principalities and powers, but when we dull our spiritual vision through sin and neglect seeing a visible threat can perhaps spur us to the amendment of life that we need just to be saved from hell. Perhaps, these threats of future trials may not come to pass from the hands of God, if we all return more to the fear of God and good living.
“Let your Excellency consider, therefore, that your high dignity obliges you to do many things inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity: you have to be present at public shows, which are offensive to modesty, to charity, in a word to good morals, you have to preside at trials, where it is a foregone conclusion that innocent Christians be condemned. Wherefore, permit me to suggest, under the plea of ill health, or of advanced age, it would be proper to ask for a successor.” St Sebastian from The Life and Martyrdom of St Sebastian on Audiobook
Another thing worthy of comment is that in the future, as society goes more and more pagan, certain prevailing attitudes may be expected for certain positions of power and participation in certain evils. If we inoculate ourselves now with true wisdom, we will not have to agonize later. We all know it would be better to not have a Catholic president, than to have one who approved abortion and the resulting scandal arising from it. The same goes at smaller appointments, to the bench, to political offices, to the military and the corporate world. These things are not worth selling our souls for, they are trivial compared to the nobility of the adopted sons of God, they are served by men and deal with the dealings of men. Christians are served by Angels and deal with the divine law.
If we have not meditated on the possibility of losing our job and suffering poverty for righteousness sake, we should. Whether our bellies are filled with dread, or we rejoice for the possibility to suffer with Christ we should ask God to prepare our hearts to suffer for His sake.
My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready: I will Sing, and rehearse a psalm. Psalm 57:7
1 comment:
I also attended the homeschooling conference which was talked about in an earlier entry. But you've articulated it quite well as to why I decided to homeschool when you talked about the real potential future of Catholics in this country.
I want my children to know that they may need to suffer for Jesus.
And I want them to know that they may be the only Catholics they know who are suffering for the kingdom. Their brothers and sisters in Christ very likely will not take the time necessary to fully learn their faith and will be swayed easily. It's all a sad state of affairs. Even within our own family their are striking differences.
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