By Tom Klocek

We are in for dark times. Throughout the history of Israel, she suffered when she turned away from God. (See Chronicles chapter 36, for example.) When the Israelites turned back to God, He restored his blessing upon them. We, the United States and the world, have turned away from God as a society. We have turned instead to the altars of “science” (even though we act contrary to science in our national policies), “right reason,” and “absolute relativism.” Pope Francis noted, “We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35) has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.” (Evangelii Gaudium, 2013.) We deny the existence of evil and sin, which in itself is a denial of God.

Only God can save us. As Robert Cardinal Sarah has said, “How I wish that a profound uninterrupted prayer would rise up from the whole world: adoring praise and supplication. On that day when this silent song echoes in hearts, the Lord finally will be able to make himself heard and to act through his children.” (The Day is Now Far Spent.)

The world needs God. The world needs Jesus Christ. When Pope St. John Paul II made a visit to his homeland of Poland, the crowd shouted, “We want God! We want God!” The world leaders, however, want to keep God away from the people. The leaders and politicians know that they cannot compete with God, so they do everything to keep us separated from Him. The COVID pandemic gave them a great opportunity. That they were more afraid of God is shown by them closing churches while keeping tools of the devil such as strip joints, casinos, and abortion facilities open.

Unfortunately, too many prelates, bishops, and so on went along, helping the secular hierarchy keep Christ from His people (and the people from Christ). I am sure these Church leaders thought they were doing the right thing in trying to protect their flocks from disease. Instead, they put obstacles between God and His people. Even now, with the pandemic waning and knowing after a year of watching it that it has greater than a 98% survival rate and that younger people are less susceptible, they still have not fully opened the churches. They keep in force the suspension of the Sunday mass obligation when it would make more sense to allow that dispensation for those at high risk, e.g., seniors over age 75 with several other complications (comorbidities).

I was listening to an audio book of St. Mother Theresa of Calcutta and a few things came through loud and clear — people need and desire God. They need to see Jesus in all those around us, especially the suffering. Jesus suffered for us more than we can imagine, and we desire to ease His suffering if we can. We do this by helping others, and by doing so we not only see Jesus in them but they see Jesus through us.

Our “job” as Christians is to bring Jesus to others and to bring others to Christ. As C.S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity, “The state exists simply to promote and protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. … And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc. are simply a waste of time. In the same way the church exists for nothing else but to draw man into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy missions, sermons, even the Bible itself are simply a waste of time.”

The world and the Church are in crisis, crying out for reform. It is our task as Christians to help bring about that reform, to come back to the basics of our Christianity. However, in order to do so we must first reform ourselves. It is no mistake that the Church calls us to constant conversion. But in order to change the world, we must first change ourselves. We must turn away from the moral relativism that acts contrary to God’s will — going along to get along will take us down the wrong path. Just as Peter, when walking on water, began to sink when he took his eyes off Jesus, we must return our focus to Jesus and away from worldly things. Jesus wanted us all to be one in Him, as the body of Christ. For Catholics, the Magisterium and the Catechism of the Catholic Church provide that unity of faith by providing clear, firm, stable teaching.

One of the best ways to turn away from this secular humanist relativism is PRAYER! Prayer brings us back to God. We must pray for others as well as ourselves, for our enemies as well as friends, for those estranged from us as well as those we hold close. As the deacon in our parish said, “It will not change them, but it will change you.” That change can manifest itself in our attitude and actions toward others, and maybe they can begin to see Jesus in us. And, if we cannot change ourselves, how can we hope to change others and, by extension, the world?

C.S. Lewis also said in Mere Christianity, “Aim at heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in;’ aim at earth and you will get neither.”