In the face of impending chaos, it is through the help of Divine Grace that man will be able to overcome it, despite the advancing wolf…
Newsroom(11/18/2021 8:30, Gaudium Press) There is a certain Latin proverb which says that “He who loves the virtues of others has virtue to spare“[1]. In this sense, human acts can be compared to a certain chain that links together various virtues, or, on the other hand, various vices, as these virtues and vices always go together, since they are inseparable.
In this way, the attitudes of men unequivocally reflect their intentions, because one can well know the character of persons by the fruits of their deeds.
Recall, for example, the devastating blow to liberty by its protagonists when, on 17 July 1794, the beheading of 16 virgins of the Carmel of Compiègne was promoted during the French Revolution: because these Carmelite Sisters remained faithful to the monastic observance and their religious vows, they were beheaded.
Despite the harmless life of these pious women, whose search for contemplative religious orders was a barrier to the unleashing of the monstrous events that took place in that historical period, such souls are a source of blessings for the Mystical Body of Christ. They were like lightning rods of Divine Justice,[2] drawing upon themselves the suffering that others rejected. They were heroic in the most literal sense of the word, making it their glory to take upon their shoulders the crosses dropped by deserters along the path that leads to Heaven.
As if this reliving of the times of the Terror – in which moral values are subverted – were not enough, at present other perplexities cause concern for even the holy and innocent Season of Christmas, so near in days.
Of the beautiful, joyful, and pious images that annually make up the Nativity Scenes, which cause our prayers which we unite with the Holy Family to be more blessed, these perplexities seem to have a singular trait which lacks all Christian characteristics, certainly according to what we see in the media.
But the grace and innocence so characteristic of the period that inaugurates the advent of the Baby Jesus this year cannot fail to cloud conscientious souls when the worries of war appear on the horizon, whether because of the anti-migrant stance of Catholic Poland towards the neighbouring Communist giant, or because of the rationing of gas in Europe from Russian territory.
How long before the “Fortress of Europe”, Poland, will be at peace? The pressure among Belarus, Ukraine, and the European Union is growing day by day, despite France’s Macron appealing to Putin’s influence to stop the unstable situation…
On the other hand, the openly amoral policy of the United States, continued by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, is taking on increasingly universal proportions, often backed by a certain current which prefers to empanel the sacred by focusing the spotlight on matters which are sometimes ecological, sometimes sociological, but much often less Catholic.
What will remain? At a glance, for those devoid of faith, only a secularized world, which has brought the sacredness of the Church and the world into chaos.
But it must be clear that the great hours of humanity are marked precisely in those historical periods in which man’s efforts are ineffective in the face of the ravenous wolf that is being exposed.
Is our only solution to flee before the ferocious wolf?
Human free will, aided by grace, can overcome any crisis; it can stop any war, or even halt the very onslaught of the wolf. It is therefore necessary to will, pray, and act for this: that in the face of the oncoming attack, the wolf will be revealed to humanity.
If those who have plenty of virtues will love the virtues of others, then shall those who do not have virtues love the vices of others?
Boniface Sylvester
[Abundat virtutibus, qui virtutes alienas amat.
[2] The renowned author, Joris-Karl Huysmans, has referred to these contemplative vocations in this way.
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
