St. Hildegarde and Dr. Marshall and Fr. Z's Theories On the Katechon

 Representation of Antichrist in Hildegard of Bingen’s Scivias

“'The last act of the Holy Spirit', the discovery of its constructive mystery in history." 

Many today, even Fr. Z, are thinking about the Antichrist. I mention Fr. Z because he recently wrote a post wondering who or what the restrainer is, which restrains the Antichrist.

St. Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 2 about an eschatological concept, “the restrainer”. 

According to Paul, before the “Day of the Lord” comes the “Son of Perdition” or “Antichrist” must show up. Hence, if we haven’t seen the Son of Perdition, then the end is not upon us. Therefore, we must conduct ourselves not as if the world is about to end, but rather as if we are in it for the long haul. 

But wait, there’s more. Paul says that before the Son of Perdition comes, that which restrains him must be removed. The word Paul uses for this “restrainer” is katechon. Paul uses this in two forms, masculine and neuter. 

Alas, Paul doesn’t describe the katechon. We are left to speculate. What is “that which restrains” or “the restrainer”? - Fr. Z

Fr. Z seems to think the traditional liturgy may be the 'restrainer', as well as the contemplative life of nuns and monks.  You can read his post, but I was fascinated by the concept of the 'restrainer'.  Most Christians would probably say it is the Holy Spirit, and therefore the life of the Spirit living in the Church, with all his gifts at work in those who believe.  I think.  I don't know much about it, except for what the catechism teaches.

It also seems to me the Blessed Virgin might well be the restrainer.  As spouse of the Holy Spirit and Mother of the Church, she seems the likely candidate to me, especially since in numerous private revelations she is alleged to have stated 'I cannot hold back the hand of the Lord much longer' - or something to that effect.  In the last book of the Bible we read, "The Spirit and the Bride say 'Come!'"  This is the Church, isn't it?

St. Hildegarde's Vision of the Church

Giovanni Gasparro.

"The katechon is a biblical concept which has subsequently developed into a notion of political philosophy."

Some people - perhaps many traditionalists, see the restrainer in terms of the Church and Western Civilization.  I came to that conclusion with regard to Bannon and his political philosophy regarding the rise of militant Islam and its threat to European culture.  To a great extent it is a politicized, ideological point of view, which is very rad-trad - a place many of the end-timer theories tend to lead - if not originate from.  I'm not well read on the subject and believe it to be a distraction from trying to lead a devout life, so I'll leave it to scholars to figure out.  Just beware those who with no authorization from the Church make claims that they have figured it all out.

I was curious to read what others may have said regarding the identity of the 'restrainer'.  Searching online, I came across a comment on another blog, taken from the Scivias of St. Hildegarde, describing some details of her vision of the Antichrist, which are quite weird, BTW.  After reading Hildegard's vision of the Church and the imagery she used, I was reminded of Dr. Taylor Marshall's vision of the Church, thinking to myself - maybe he wasn't so crazy? Or maybe Hilde was bingein'? Just joking.  Although, perhaps it's possible that Marshall was influenced by the imagery in St. Hildegarde's writings?  I don't know.

Below is a section from St. Hildegarde, followed by Dr. Marshall's account of his vision.

Hilde's:

"The image of the woman before the altar in front of the eyes of God that I saw earlier was now also shown to me again so that I could also see her from the navel down. From the navel to the groin she had various scaly spots. In her [genitalia] there appeared a monstorous and totally black head with fiery eyes, ears like the ears of a donkey, nostrils and mouth like those of a lion, gnashing with vast open mouth and sharpening its horrible iron teeth in a horrid manner.

From that head to the knees the image was white and red, bruised as with many a beating. From the knees to the two white transverse zones which crosswise seemed to touch the bottoms of the feet from above, the image appeared to be bloody. Lo, the monstrous head removed itself from its place with so great a crash that the entire image of the woman was shaken in all its members. - (Scivias 3:11; Translated by B McGinn, Visions of the End, pp101-102) - Source

Taylor's:

"I was doing an examination of conscience before bed. and I was thinking on that point of being worried… about the Holy Catholic Church, Mother Church."

And as I was, suddenly I saw this beautiful woman. She had blond hair, she was perfect, no wrinkles, no spots, and I immediately discerned that this was Holy Mother the Church.

And she was writhing in pain. She was in a bed, there were sheets on her, and she was very sick. And I noticed that her breasts were engorged with milk, tons of milk. And there were babies and children crying out to her that were hungry. And she wanted to feed them, and she was upset, but she was so sick she could hardly sit up from her bed.

And then I thought to myself, ‘Oh she’s poisoned, she doesn’t want to nurse the children because then she’ll give them the poison.’ And then there was this voice, it was like God or an angel, I don’t know, and it said, ‘No, the milk is still pure.‘

“And so I saw her there in all of her beauty, but so sick and struggling and loving those children and seeing all that milk stored up there. And I realized that the sacramental graces, the dogma, the doctrine, the morality, all of that in the Church is pure.

There’s poison in the Church, the Church is hurting, there’s always been some poison in the Church. And Mother Church still loves us and Mother Church still wants to give us milk, and she will, but it’s a difficult time. But the milk is pure. The sacramental graces of Holy Mother Church is pure. She’s still beautiful, she’s still immaculate, there’s still nothing sinful, wrong, or broken with Mother Church. But there has been introduced something into her that is poisonous, and so she’s struggling a little bit.

So we just need to love Mother Church, and we need to be fed by Mother Church, and be patient, and know that any incorruption that enters the Church does not affect the milk flow. The nutrition that Mother Church gives us is always pure, it’s always unadulterated, we can always trust that until the end of time." - Taylor Marshall

"With a number of the ancients, many of God's prophecies and locutions did not turn out as they had expected, because they interpreted them with their own different and extremely literal method." - John of the Cross

I would recommend Catholics keep their catechisms and the Scriptures close by, and pray - especially the rosary.  Cardinal Sarah writes realistically and quite well about our times, with no need to cite visionaries and doomsday speculation.  I especially like this quote from him:

I believe that we are at a turning point in the history of the Church. Yes, the Church needs a profound and radical reform that must begin with a reform of the way of being and the way of life of priests. The Church is holy in herself. But we prevent this holiness from shining through our sins and worldly concerns. - Cardinal Sarah

These matters are far above my competence to discern or interpret.  I think we need to be cautious, especially when one uses visions and speculative interpretation of scripture to denigrate the Novus Ordo and Pope Francis.

I always keep the following in mind when reading about private revelations and apparitions, especially regarding the end times - from St. Annibale Maria de Francia:

“Being taught by the teachings of several mystics, I have always deemed that the teachings and locutions of even holy persons, especially women may contain deceptions. Poulain attributes errors even to saints the Church venerates on the altars. How many contradictions we see between Saint Brigid, D’Agreda, Emmerich, etc. We cannot consider the revelations and the Locutions as words of Scripture. Some of them must be omitted, and others explained in a right, prudent meaning.” - Source