On The Eve
As a woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pains, so were we in your presence, O LORD. We conceived and writhed in pain, giving birth to wind… (Isaiah 26:17-18)
… the winds of change.
ON this, the eve of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, we look toward her who is the Star of the New Evangelization. The world itself has entered upon the eve of a New Evangelization which in many ways has already begun. And yet, this new springtime in the Church is one which will not be fully realized until the harshness of winter is over. By this, I mean, we are on the eve of a great chastisement.
THE EVE OF CHANGE
Many of you have written over the course of the past three years, awakened in your hearts by the Spirit of God. You wrestle as I do with the stark warnings which have been fired across the bow of the Church time and time again. The peoples of the formerly Christian nations cannot persist in this apostasy without the merciful hand of God acting in justice. Why are you looking out the window at the world? Indeed, you see deplorable crimes everywhere. The face of the world is barely recognizable as man has embarked on a voyage of experimentation with life that even the most liberal of his ancestors would look upon with horror. Natural law has given way to the unnatural; good is now called evil. But as Christ, crucified once again in our hearts, looks upon the world, does He not utter the same words He did on Golgotha?
Father, forgive them. They know not what they do!
But the same cannot be said for His Church whom for two millennium He has taught, formed, and breathed His Spirit upon. If the world is lost today, it is because His Church in many nations has become lost, disobedient, wandering and irresolute. For the Body of Christ is also the Star which has risen in the world to guide the nations to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. But what is this we see! What is this rebellion within her own ranks! What is this corruption which has reached to the highest echelons of her ranks?
Does not the Lord cry out to us:
My Church, My Church! It is barely recognizable. Even my most precious children have lost their innocence! How far you have fallen from your first love! Where are my bishops? Where are my priests? Where is the voice of truth raised against the roar of the lion? Why this silence? Have you forgotten why you exist; why my Church exists? Is the salvation of the world, of lost souls, no longer your passion? It is My passion. It is MY PASSION—the blood and water which I shed, and shed again this day upon your altars. Have you forgotten your Master? Have you forgotten that no slave is greater than his master? Are you not called to lay down your life for your sheep, for me, for the Mission I gave you 2000 years ago? Are you not counting the cost? Yes, it is your very lives! And should you preserve them for your sake, you will lose them. And thus we have arrived at the Great Hour which I have foretold from the beginning of time! The Hour of Choice. The Hour of Decision. The Hour of blood, and glory, and justice, and mercy. IT IS THE HOUR! IT IS THE HOUR!
As for myself, as a lay evangelist, I have struggled terribly, often tempering the words which I am so often given to speak. I want to cry peace! But all I see are the storm clouds of destruction gathering day by day, moment by moment upon the horizon of this civilization. Do I need to say it? Do I need to convince any longer? Look with your own eyes. See with your own soul. Can such hatred, and perversion, and corruption continue? Morever, can the death-slumber of so many, many in the Church continue while the prowling lion stalks and preys the children of the world at will?
IT BEGINS WITH THE CHURCH
The Cup of Justice is overflowing. With what? With the blood of the unborn. With the cries of the hungry. With the wailing of the oppressed. With the sorrow of those lost souls who are lost because they had no shepherds. The eve now upon us is, surprisingly, not the eve of judgment of a crooked world, but God’s judgment of the Church which has allowed wild animals and thieves into her vineyards.
For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, how will it end for those who fail to obey the gospel of God? (1 Peter 4:17)
God is Love. He always acts in love. And the most loving thing to do, for the sake of His Bride and out of mercy for a dying world, is to intervene in power and might. But what is this intervention? Surely it is to allow the sons of Adam to reap what they have sown!
It is time for the axe to be laid to the root of the Tree. The season of the Great Pruning is here. That which is dying will be pruned, and that which is dead will be severed and thrown into the fire. And that which is alive will be prepared for the New Springtime when the branches of the Church will expand like a mustard tree to cover the four corners of the earth. Her fruit will drip with honey—the sweetness of purity, love, and truth. But first, the firebrand of the Refiner’s Fire must be laid to the Body.
In all the land, says the LORD, two thirds of them shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left. I will bring the one third through fire, and I will refine them as silver is refined, and I will test them as gold is tested. They shall call upon my name, and I will hear them. I will say, "They are my people," and they shall say, "The LORD is my God." (Zec 13:8-9)
THE WARNING SHOT
Few realize that Our Lady appeared in Rwanda as Our Lady of Kibeho before the genocide there in 1994, in apparitions which were later accepted by the Pope himself. She showed the young visionaries with horrifying precision images of what would happen if the country did not repent of the evil they held in their hearts. So too today, Our Lady continues to appear, but we continue to ignore her. And like she did in Africa prior to the slaughter, she wept, and wept, and wept.
Mother, please! Why don’t you answer me? I can’t bear to see you so upset… please don’t cry! Oh, Mother, I can’t even reach up to console you or dry your eyes. What has happened that makes you so sad? You won’t let me sing to you and you refuse to talk to me. Please, Mother, I have never seen you cry before, and it terrifies me! —visionary Alphonsine, Our Lady of Kibeho, by Immaculée Ilibagiza, pg. 146-147
Our Lady responded, asking the visionary, Alphonsine, to indeed sing: "Naviriye ubusa mu Ijuru" (I Came From Heaven for Nothing):
People are not grateful,
They don’t love me, I came from heaven for nothing,
I left all the good things there for nothing.
My heart is full of sadness,
My child, show me the love,
You love me,
Come closer to my heart.
COME CLOSER TO MY HEART
And so she asks us, this weeping Mother… those who will listen… Come closer to my heart. Those who do, she promises, will find refuge in this Storm about to be unleashed—I believe, the Breaking of the Seals. 
God willing, I will be with you in this hour as long as He permits, to pray for you and prod you on as many of you do for me. God’s timing, however long it takes to unfold, is unknown to us. And so we watch, and we pray, and we hope together… for all that is here and coming lies within the plans of divine providence.
When the earth had become hardened in evil, God sent the flood both to punish and to release it. He called Noah to be the father of a new era, urged him with kind words, and showed that He trusted him; He gave him fatherly instruction about the present calamity, and through His grace consoled him with hope for the future. But God did not merely issue commands; rather with Noah sharing the work, He filled the ark with the future seed of the whole world. —St. Peter Chrysologus, Liturgy of the Hours, pg. 235, Vol I
We do not of course desire the end of the world. Nevertheless, we do want this unjust world to end. We also want the world to be fundamentally changed, we want the beginning of the civilization of love, the arrival of a world of justice and peace, without violence, without hunger. We want all this, yet how can it happen without Christ’s presence? Without Christ’s presence there will never be a truly just and renewed world. —POPE BENEDICT XVI, General Audience, "Whether at the end of time or during a tragic lack of peace: Come Lord Jesus!", L’Osservatore Romano, Nov. 12th, 2008
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