Prophets In Our Age: How To Speak The Truth When People Don’t Want To Hear It

The harvest is plentiful. The workers are hiding in the barn. (via Golberz)

Well, anyone who’s been following me personally knows that I’ve had a bit of a paradigm shift in the past year or so. I’ve always been a people-pleaser. Not that I’ve ever been that great at it, but I’ve never been all that inclined to stand up for myself or what I believe in. I hate conflict. I really do.

But there are times when it really cannot be avoided. When being nice becomes the enemy of being virtuous. And when being kind is actually worse than being blunt. And this is never more true than when it comes to questions of morality and doctrine.

We are in an age of half-truths, where the greatest “virtue” is being tolerant. Ok. I’m all for treating people with respect, insofar as they are all children of a God who loves them so deeply that the human mind cannot even contain the magnitude of his sacrifice for us. This is an unbelievably powerful thing, and something that cannot be denied. We must love our fellow men with everything we have, because they are our kin.

But anyone with a large family will tell you that love doesn’t always mean being polite. Sometimes our brothers and sisters just act stupid. And it’s our job to pull them back from the brink by whatever means necessary. I’ve discussed this before, but I will say it again: to watch another person sin and to not speak up because you are afraid of being “intolerant” of their life choices is worse than merely letting them go. It is a silent nod of assent. You are not only letting them sin, but you are shoving them down the road to Perdition.

So it’s time to knock it off, and fight for what’s true and virtuous.

This is a hard thing to do. People don’t like being told that they’re committing acts of evil. They tend to react badly. This is doubly true if they are aware of this fact (having not completely drowned their consciences yet). People who know better always fight back the hardest. But we’ve got to be strong.

My dad once told me that the scariest thing he ever had to do as a corpsman in the Coast Guard was to deal with an officer going through withdrawal. My dad had to babysit him to make sure he got through it. And this man was threatening him, telling him how he was gonna get loose and elaborately describing what he’d do to my dad when he got free. Not a cozy evening, by any means.

That’s what it’s like dealing with hardened sinners. Vice is a drug that twists the human heart into something evil. And the withdrawal is terrible. I can tell you that firsthand. I have been to that place. I lived there for years. And I hated everyone who tried to show me the light. So I can tell you truly that people will resist you for telling them the truth. They will hate you. And they will make your life hell.

But we are all called to be prophets. We have a duty to our Master to proclaim His kingdom. And He never, ever said it was going to be fun. He told us that the world would despise us, because the world despised Him. We know where we stand. Now what do we do about it?

It’s this simple: we have got to suck it up and be heroes. This is no small task, given what I’ve just said. This isn’t a costume party. It’s war. And there will be casualties: mostly our pride. But to run from the fight is to lose it. And to sacrifice the kingdom for comfort is to trade all the riches of the universe for a pile of sand. It is to look into the eyes of the one who loves us above all else, who wants to spend eternity with us, and to say, “You know what? You’re great, but I’m going to go hook up with this prostitute instead. It’s less work.” Who does that? (Sadly, metaphorically, we all do. But we seriously need to knock it off. Sin is easy, but it’s no good for us.)

There is no middle ground. We must offer sin no quarter. We must be beacons of love among the lustful, truth among the deceivers  and hope among the hopeless. Ours is the land between the trenches. Our mission is to bring a lost people home. No more mincing words. Speak the truth. Consequences be damned.

Now here, a word of caution: all our actions must come from Love, for Love and Truth are one in God. Love does not mean letting sin run free. But it also means not condemning those who have not yet condemned themselves. God is Judge. We’re more like bounty hunters, bringing in those fugitive souls. It’s not our job to decide if they’re innocent or guilty. Only to make them stop running from the truth. We are to be forceful, but not violent. We are to be stalwart, but not malicious. And we must hate the sin, but the sinner we must lead with love to Love, or else the bit will cut and they will never be bent to God’s will.

It’s a difficult balance. But balance there must be, else no good can come of it. Tolerance cannot be the enemy of Truth. Truth cannot be the enemy of Love. Love and Tolerance are not the same thing. And it is in the Magisterium that we learn how to walk this tightrope.

So read your Catechism, prophets of the Lord. Read your Bible, warriors of Divine Truth. Those are your tools, given you by God. Without them, no good can come of your words.

Now get out there and get to work. There is much to do.

-E. G. Norton

Our Lady, Mystical Rose

In honor of May being Mary’s month in Church tradition, I’ll be writing all my blog posts this month about Our Lady.

(via Catholic-Church.org)

We’ve already discussed one flower in relation to the Blessed Virgin when we looked at her as the Lily Among Thorns. And yet, this is only one aspect of Our Lady’s relation to flowers. While the lily denotes purity and innocence in a world cruel and twisted from sin, the rose symbolizes the fire of love, and it is in this velvety richness of Charity that we observe Our Lady today.

As with the lily, the rose has been associated with Our Lady from the earliest days of the Church. In fact, she appears with roses in many apparitions, most notably in the miracle of Our Lady of Guadalupe, when she appeared to St. Juan Diego amid a splendid field of out-of-season roses. It is in gathering these roses for him and arranging them in his tilma to bring as proof of his vision that her image became imprinted upon the garment. The scent of roses is said to follow her by some who have experienced a mystical encounter with the Mother of God, and thus it is generally accepted that the rose is her favorite flower.

But the association of Our Lady with the rose goes far beyond her partiality towards them. As a symbol, the rose has three main parts, and each of these parts is significant to an understanding of Our Mother.

The first aspect of the rose is the Stem. It is the conduit that brings life to the plant, moving water and nutrients to every part of it. All flowers have stems, but some are fragile and easy broken. If you have ever held a rose, you know the stem to be sinewy and tough, notoriously hard to cut through. So the Stem of Mary’s rose is her relationship with God, the source of all Grace, all Life, all Salvation. These flow through her, infusing her with the light of Grace, nourishing her as she nourishes us. This bond is resilient and cannot be broken, for she is forever connected to God, the Source of all Good. As a rose eventually fades and dies when severed from the earth, so Our Lady would be so wilted when separated from her Source and held in reverence apart from Him. It is the same with us. We cannot be without God, or all that we are and are made to be is lost. Like Our Lady, we must pray for stronger stems so that Satan cannot easily remove us from God’s loving care.

Attached to the Stem is the Thorn. Unlike the fearsome barbs of Sin that assail the Lily, this Thorn is not a trap to catch the unwary. This is a defensive weapon, with which Our Lady protects her children. This is the Heel with which she crushes the serpent’s head. This is the Club with which she conquers the demons of Heresy. This is the Sword, too, which pierced her heart at the death of her Son, as his death pierced the veil between Time and Eternity and un-wrote what was inscribed by sin at the heart of Time itself. Mary is no weakling. She is armed, and she fights for us.

Finally, we come to the Bloom. The blossoms of the Mystical Rose are both red and white. The red symbolizes the fire of God’s Love, and her unfailing commitment to that Love and his Divine Plan brought forth within her. The white symbolizes her purity and humility, her eternal virginity unstained by sin. It is here we find comfort, here we find meekness, gentleness, and feminine sweetness. It is the Bloom which most think of when they reflect on Our Lady.

And yet are not all aspects important? Is not the strength of her bond with God as important as her perfumed innocence? Is not her fierce protection as great a comfort as her warm embrace? Truly, we need her help in all things, not only in gentility, but in courage. Not only in humility, but in unflinching devotion. Not only in charity but in defense of Truth.

Our Lady, Mystical Rose, pray for your children, that we may through your intercession unite still more passionately with our most Loving, most Mighty, most Just God. Amen.

-E. G. Norton