“The world is on fire; they want to condemn Christ again; they want to bring down the Church.” (Saint Teresa of Jesus)
Newsroom (01/09/2021 20:45, Gaudium Press) We are often deluded into thinking that the course of events is determined by rulers, by the leaders of finance, or by propaganda.
But the real leader of history is found in a much higher sphere, one inaccessible to man: in the mysteries of Providence.
It is a question, then, of knowing the hours of God’s mysterious clock. What judgment is the Creator of humanity making in our days? Are we moving in the direction of fulfilling God’s plans? If not, are we nearing the moment of a decisive intervention from Heaven?
These are the great questions to which men should pay attention, today and always. Everything was created in Christ and for Christ. And since the Son and the Mother are part of the same divine decree, Jesus being the centre of Creation, Mary Most Holy is also at this summit.
As Mother of men and Queen of Hearts, She is at the helm of all events; sometimes distancing Herself and leaving men to their free will, and sometimes intervening through the power of Her Supplicant Omnipotence to change the course of history.
In a profoundly real manner, everything occurs as a result of the fidelity or infidelity of mankind to act “for the greater glory of God”.
For this supreme objective to be attained, there must be a correspondence to grace on the part of those most called – those key souls who have received a more outstanding vocation to lead the world along the paths of salvation – and on whose zeal an entire historical era sometimes depends.
Thus, for example, Pope Innocent III saw in a dream the Basilica of St. John Lateran about to collapse, supported only by a humble religious man, whom he interpreted to be St. Francis of Assisi.
Providence had decided that the spiritual progress of the whole of society would depend on the sanctification of St. Francis, the Poverello.
And for the good success of their mission, men of Providence are subject to the graces infused by the Holy Spirit, always through the intercession of His most faithful Spouse.
We must consider life from this perspective of eternity: a perspective viewed through the virtue of wisdom by which we see everything as God sees it.
So many apparently impregnable kingdoms have been reduced to dust! How many potentates, declaring themselves gods, have been consigned to the dust heaps of history, unable to survive for even a few generations!
Ultimately, the realization of the Kingdom of God on this earth is subordinate to the designs of the Most High. In other words, if He floods mankind with graces, as He did at Pentecost, men will not be able to resist.
But for this, the hands of God’s clock await, by mysterious design, a request from the Sweet, Wise, and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
This, indeed, is the true centre of events on earth, to the extent where one can say, paraphrasing the motto of the Carthusians: “While the world turns, the Heart of Mary remains!”
Text extracted from the magazine Heralds of the Gospel n.129, September 2012.
Compiled by Sandra Chisholm
