The Battle Is On

The results of our presidential election were unfortunate... and as much as our flesh doesn't want to admit it, the persecution of the Church is imminent.
Our religious freedoms are already being 'whittled away' (to quote Archbishop Chaput), and it’s only going to continue. Religious Liberty is quickly disappearing in our country which no longer has room for God. Christians are being be persecuted, and the more our rights are stripped, the more persecution we will endure. The Church is entering Her purification.
The fervency of our prayers and sacrifices leading up to the election, need to continue. We have to keep praying & sacrificing for our country - for the sake of our children, our family, our priests, our Church, for the salvation of souls. Now, more than ever, do we need to live a life of prayer & sacrifice. The window of Mercy is closing... we have to pay for the sins of our nation. And we need to do all that we can to strengthen & prepare ourselves, our friends, & our families; to mitigate as much as possible in a spirit of contrition and reparation.

"If you are not willing to die for your faith, you will not persevere." (Servant of God Fr. John Hardon to a local Michigan priest)

The freedom to worship as we do will not always be. We take advantage of our ability to choose which one out of six Sunday Masses we can go to, when one day we might just be lucky to have one Mass in a clandestine place. Nothing in this life is certain; what we think will always be available to us, will not always be at our disposal. That’s true for everything - our money, our possessions, the Sacraments of the Church. We need to cherish what we have in a spirit of detachment, because things will not always be 'just-so'. We need to spend time fortifying ourselves with the sacraments while we are still free to receive them; to prepare ourselves, to strengthen ourselves, so that our faithfulness to God will not grow weary in times of hardship. We need to have a deeper personal conversion and begin reform in our own lives. Everything that we say & do needs to revolve around One Thing - Jesus Christ. Our prayers and sacrifices need to be redoubled, because it is through our prayers and sacrifices that we will change the events of human history. Now is the time.

"Prayer joined to sacrifice constitutes the most powerful force in human history."

-Blessed John Paul II

Yet in all of this, we need not have a spirit of fear, but a spirit of courage. The Lord God will take care of us and our reward is Himself; it is His Kingdom. We are pilgrims on a journey toward the Beatific Vision. We shouldn't get too comfortable here - we aren't staying! We are living here on this earth as the Church Militant, living & fighting for His Kingdom. "For we are not contending against flesh & blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness..." (Ephesians 6:12). But we are not alone in this fight. We are united to the Church Triumphant in Heaven, and the Church Suffering in Purgatory. We fight the good fight with the aid of our brothers and sisters who are interceding for us before the throne of God.

We are not a people of fear, but of hope. An 18-year old young catholic in southeast Michigan opened his Bible the morning after the election and began to read, in search of some consolation or explanation from God for our country. He read from the Book of Baruch and found that five times in this book God says, “…they are not gods, do not fear them…” (Baruch 6:16, 23, 29, 65, 69*) and five additional times, “…they are not gods…” (Baruch 6:40, 44, 52, 56, 72*). We have nothing to fear, for only God has the ultimate power. Though there is much evil done through people and evil spirits in this world, the Lord tells us not to fear because ‘they are not gods’! Do not be afraid!

Furthermore, battle heroes are not timid - they are courageous. They go forward in confidence for the defense of their kingdom. We - called to be battle heroes of the Church Militant - are commissioned to fight with courage, with confidence, in defense of our Kingdom - the Kingdom of God. We already know who wins this fight! We are part of the triumphant army, but the war still needs to be fought and Jesus Christ and His Immaculate Mother will win. "In the end, My Immaculate Heart will Triumph" (Our Lady at Fatima). We are the body of Christ, so our Triumph is His Triumph as long as we are united to Him. The weapons of this battle are spiritual weapons, the greatest of which are the Holy Mass, praying the daily Rosary, wearing the Scapular, and receiving sacramental confession. Let us arm ourselves well that we will have Christ's power to disarm the principalities and powers of darkness. May God grant us the grace to remain united with Him in all things so that when the war is over, we will live triumphant with Him - the battle heroes of the Church Militant.

*Bible verse references are according to the Revised Standard Version (RSV). Verse numbers differ slightly in the New American Standard and other translations.