Monday, June 29, 2009

It's over.


What's over?
.
It's over. We are definitely in the post-Christian era. Even Fr. Blake seems to have noted it (Although not quite in the same sense I have.):
.
"I had to concede the battle is lost in the UK, and for that matter most of Europe, over abortion, over the family, over adoption. Catholics are increasingly finding it difficult to work in the health service, in certain areas of social services, soon maybe in education. Many of our flagship charities seem to be less than faithful to the magisterium. We are fighting a rear-guard action to save our schools, if militant secularists remain in government that battle could soon be lost too." - Source
.
They have legislated morality while they were telling Christians morality can't be legislated. They say there is a generation gap now. A recent poll suggests most young people (18-29) have no use for religion, It appears they have been educated to reject the old morality and social conventions regarding lifestyle, definition of family, and so on - in other words, the revolution of my generation worked. Same-sex marriage will be universally legalized, abortion will remain an option in birth-control and gender selection, and for those to whom religion is a "nice thing" - barring any intervention by Islam - it will be remain the relativistic version of neo-Pantheism modern culture and religion has evolved towards. In the U.S. it is reported the 18-29 year old demographic is largely responsible for putting Barack Obama in office, which may indicate they must agree with his policies. (So they must be the new they now.)
.
So anyway. The old saying appears to apply here; the genie is out of the bottle - it has been for quite sometime - society and culture is on its own trajectory. The dividing lines have fallen, the sheep and the goats are taking their places. This isn't meant to be defeatist however, I think it is great that Catholics work to try to take back culture and tradition, but I can't help think back to the early Christians in pagan Rome, conversion happened one person at a time, one family at a time, one community at a time. It was the fire of divine love, burning in the hearts of the laity, that contributed to the spread of Christianity - accompanied by martyrdom - that was how they evangelized culture. As a commenter stated on Fr. Blake's post:
.
"I think if we could be transported back to the 1st or 2nd century Roman Empire, we would find our fellow Christians not even attempting to convert the whole empire by changing its laws and culture. I think their emphasis may have been more individual-to-individual contact, converting individual Romans, until the Christian "salt" had seasoned so many people that the empire, as a whole, could change. In other words, conversion of a culture is from the bottom upward." - Source

.

So. As for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.

5 comments:

  1. There is a saying, "God has no grandchildren".

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carol1:26 PM

    Polls are what sent 3 men to Golgotha one day -- one of them Innocent, and one, redeemable.

    The world's problem is this: JP II has been dead a few years too long.

    "Be not afraid." He tried to say it one last time, and if he could've smacked the something that stole his voice at that moment, I'm sure he would've. The reason we cried with joy over the name "Ratzinger" announced not long after was because we were suddenly afraid, but now, we were not to be left orphans after all.

    We're not.

    Be not afraid. The world was once changed by 11, then 12 good men of Christ's, and by those who followed their lead. There are many more than 12 among us.

    Let us continue to confront the bastards who confront them.

    I read something of M. Scott Peck's that scared me into laying the book down. "It's not impossible that we may be martyred.." Well, do I want to die in a nursing home with 18 meds coursing through me so I can't even pull up my socks, or do I want my anointing as a soldier to bring honor to God and the faith to others?

    Keep fighting, and praying. Be not afraid.

    ReplyDelete
  3. God never said how many would be in the Church at the end. It might be one person - He just said it would last.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just returned from Bishop's ordination. Standing room only. We were lucky to get parking only a few blocks away, to get seats on an aisle in the 2nd section to the selby-side of the main aisle, and to be sufficiently familiar with the area to have plotted an effective escape route.

    Unfortunately could't go to reception afterward.

    ReplyDelete
  5. +JMJ+

    When I was studying Latin in uni several years ago, my textbook said that our modern world has more in common with Late Antiquity than with the Middle Ages. The catacombs are going to be making a "comeback."

    ReplyDelete


Please comment with charity and avoid ad hominem attacks. I exercise the right to delete comments I find inappropriate. If you use your real name there is a better chance your comment will stay put.