Another Bloody Christmas
The Christmas season is quite different to live as a Catholic, particularly in a few ways. While the culture at large begins disassembling any indications of Christmas on Boxing Day (December 26th), we celebrate a series of martyrs. We continue festivities at least through the 12 days of Christmas, beginning on Christmas Day. Those embracing tradition don't take decorations down till Candlemas (February 2nd).
The liturgical calendar makes frequent mention of Christian martyrs during the Christmas season. We recently celebrated the feast day of St. Thomas Becket (Dec. 29th), killed by order of the English king, Henry II, for resisting the king’s attempts to usurp Church authority. He was murdered by knights who cut him down in his cathedral, killing him between the altar and the bishop's chair.
Standing in holy vestments, Thomas Becket's last words were, “For the name of Jesus and the protection of the Church, I am ready to embrace death.” In our time of so much capitulation, it is almost alien to us to hear of people who would give their lives so willingly. He had spent years in France, in exile, knowing of his likely death at the hands of the power-crazed monarch. Yet, he returned to England anyway, to do his duty.
We also rarely get statesmen in our age who are willing to kill clergy, but that's not because temporal powers have grown more moral. Rather, the modern Church simply isn't considered a threat to state power. Even Christians as a voting bloc don't bear much thinking about now. Politicians care less about them with each election season.
Those running for office without claiming to be Christian of some stripe are no longer de facto disqualified — a massive change from 50 years ago. To be Christian has been reduced to a status, not something that binds one's conscience, requires certain actions, or even compels his voting, but merely an attribute analogous to one's favorite music. It matters, because I like mine, but you can have yours and we needn't care about where the truth is, because it’s just an opinion. And people don't die for an opinion.
But in an age in which the only dogma is that nothing can be dogmatic, nobody sees anything worth dying for. It's a repulsive devaluation of values. Under the pretext of tolerance, man cares for nothing. Don't misunderstand — I don't want more dead faithful — but we need a people who would be willing and who care enough to see beyond themselves, into the Transcendent. It's then that state actors will begin to pay attention and that severe persecution will take place, because our state and culture are much departed from a rightful order. As it stands, our enemies merely think that they have no need to kill the impotent. That's not a victory, but a loss.
The recent commemoration on December 28th of the Holy Innocents (those killed by Herod) ought to remind us of the innocent children being killed in our own society. While that continues, we cannot even pretend that the culture at large is moral. It's not trying to be. To be moral, one must be willing to give up what we want for that which is good. Pro-abortion arguments are based on worldly difficulties, which is to say, on what we want, rather than on what is right. The “morality” of today is consent-based morality, summarized as, “If I am a consenting adult, then it is okay”. That’s the morality, and degeneracy, of pagan Rome.
A war for souls is on, as in every era, and we're losing. We must start by being more vocal, by not separating our faith lives from who we are (“I keep my religion separate from my family, work, etc.”), and being willing to accept the consequences thereof. We must say with Thérèse of Lisieux, “I have to do my duty, come what may.”
Sad the Roman Catholic Church has lost to its lack of Morality.
This would have been a great essay if it referred (even a little) to the martyrdom of real modern day “saints”—those who are born again Christians as is occurring repeatedly and increasingly in Nigeria and other places where islamists roam free doing the bloody savagery their “holy book” orders them to do. For those who haven’t studied this book and accepted the great lie that islam is a “religion of peace” like that told to us by every president in modern history, this merciless cruelty is actually the real islam. Those “moderate islamists” trotted before the cameras to support this great lie are actually regarded as “apostates” by “practicing islamists” and their “holy book” clearly says they should be murdered just like infidels. There simply can be no compromise or peaceful coexistence with islam and any appearance of that by them is pure deception to buy time until they have infiltrated their target through immigration (jihad by Hijrah) enough to impose sharia law. Their ultimate goal is a global caliphate where all apostates and infidels will be killed or enslaved, mainly to be sexually abused by islamists.
These real born again Christians who were murdered for their faith (not merely their land as the Propaganda Ministry would have us believe) stand in stark and convicting contrast to the majority of those now identifying as or playing at being “christian” by such false bases as their denominational or church affiliation or relying on false premises such as their religiosity, like those “holy days” as those mentioned, and even fervent or pious rituals as practiced by catholics and other “high church” sects and denominations.
Apostasy, as reflected in the recent actions by the marxist pope accepting all manner of perversion condemned by Scripture and the increasing accommodation of such perversion and other sin by “christian” denominations and nondenominational churches, is steadily increasing worldwide as God warned us in His Word would occur.
It would do all of us well who claim to be true spiritual followers of Christ (without regard to their denomination etc. which are irrelevant to being born again) to return to the simple Gospel without the false crust of human doctrine and ritual. Time is short—as Christ himself said , He will come as a thief in the night and chillingly that many will come to Him at the Judgment proclaiming their faithfulness by citing their religiosity, even in Jesus’ name, only to be told to depart from Him as He never knew them.
The narrow gate requires that one be born again. Are you?