A few days ago, I was invited to a preview of the new movie For Greater Glory about the Christero resistance during the Mexican war on faith. It's got me thinking . . . and that's always dangerous.
There's much bad news out there today: Congress is voting on whether or not a person should be able to kill their baby based on its gender; Obama has revealed his stance in opposition to the measure (ie, he's ok with killing a baby because it's a girl when you wanted a boy); religious freedom is still under attack and the President shows no hint of that "great compromiser" he promised to be; a woman in North Dakota has "married herself"; and worst of all, so many of us Americans are fed up, tired, and simply seem not to care anymore about any of these issues.
Such apathy would be normal and, frankly even healthy, if its object were the issues of the cost of milk in China or the "alarming rate of change" of people preferring decaf over regular at Dunkin Donuts. But these are issues that are not merely about individual preference or even political right vs political left; these are issues concerning right vs wrong. Fundamental issues. Matters of principle, not just personal persuasion.
Make no mistake about it . . . we are at war. And many of our troops are drugged up on the anesthesia of political correctness and relativism. People want to take a stand. They feel their conviction inside burn like the sting of fire ant, but when it comes time to act, they think, "Better not say anything, this might offend somebody." And this is how lies persist over truth. As Edmund Burke put it: "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing."
Yet none of this is news, in the sense that it's not "new". Christianity always has been at war, and, until the Lord comes again in glory, it always will be. Also not new is the tendency for persons to slouch into a comfort zone and resist the urge to upset the applecart.
Yet Jesus himself proclaimed: "If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you" (John 15:19).
The world does not love me, and I'm OK with that. As a priest, it's easier than easy to tend toward the walk-on-egg-shells approach to truth-proclaiming. How nice it is to have everyone like you! How good that feels! Yet what good is it to gain the respect of this world if it means compromising, or even worse, selling out your soul?
Will you stand for something? Will you stand for babies who will never see the light of day simply because they are girls? Will you stand in defense of our right to worship our God as he has asked us to? Will you stand for the dignity and sacredness of marriage as a covenant between a man and woman, especially when nonsense like "self-marriage" is touted as a personal triumph?
We are at war. Make no mistake about it. What Jesus Christ brings to the table is that Truth is absolute, it must not be compromised, yet it must always be shared and witnessed to by sacrificial love. This war will be one by loving witness, by persistance and perseverance.
Go see For Great Glory. You'll get my drift.
Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy
Our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
To thee do we cry, the poor banished children of Eve,
To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning, and weeping
in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate,
thine eyes of mercy toward us,
and after this our exile,
show unto us the blessed Fruit of your womb,
Jesus.
O Clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary!
