We hear slogans all the time. “Coexist.” “Be the Change.” “If you want Peace, work for Justice.”
The interesting thing about slogans is that their catchiness is often based on how close a facsimile they sound to the Truth. Their job is to frame the argument in a way that makes it nearly impossible to argue with. I mean, who can argue that they don’t believe we should all coexist? And yes, I do want to be the change. And sure, both peace and justice are ideals we should all strive for. But the slitheriness of these slogans is that they don’t really mean what they pretend to mean…and you know what I mean.
Of course, slogans are really just a form of advertising, and if you have The Truth, you shouldn’t really need advertising. But we humans are so very susceptible to this form of persuasion, and no one knows this so well as the devil.
In my favorite book, The Soldier of Christ, Mother Mary Loyola talks about how the devil has had the opportunity to study human nature for millennia. He knows our every weakness and how to exploit it. It’s rather unfair, really, when you think about it: he’s got quite a leg up on us, considering that we only have one lifetime to figure out how to resist his time-tested tricks.
Christ himself dealt with these wily tricks throughout scripture. “Who is my neighbor?” “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar?” “Which is the greatest of the Commandments?” But He who is the Word of God and Truth itself could not be trapped by words.
We have only to look around us for a few moments to see all the myriad ways in which we are steered around by slogans. This is especially true in our culture, because if any group of people has perfected the use of sloganeering to control the way we think, it is the Cultural Marxists whose thought has now become pervasive in every level of our society.
If you’ve never heard of Cultural Marxism, don’t bother googling it; all you’ll find are articles which are the equivalent of saying “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.” Read the actual articles for its main proponents and you will get actual facts. Look up Antonio Gramsci, Herbert Marcuse, Erich Fromm, Wilhelm Reich, Georg Lukacs. While you’re at it, thank them for the hate-fest that is today’s racial and gender politics. It was their idea to use these to “divide and conquer” Western Civilization. It seems they’re doing a fabulous job.
Most importantly, I recommend that you read Bella Dodd’s explosive exposé of early American Communism, School of Darkness. I have just finished this book and it was truly an eye-opener. And it’s the conclusion to her book that prompted this post.
This quote, which comes toward the very end of the book, particularly struck me [emphasis mine]:
“I believe that the primary requisite for a sober appraisal of the present challenge of communism is to face it with a clear understanding of what it is. But it cannot be fought in a negative manner. Man must be willing to combat false doctrine with the Truth, and to organize active agency with active agency. Above all there must be a new birth of those moral values that for the past two thousand years have made our civilization a life-giving force.”
It is important to be able to see that the sloganeering in which we are drowning today, both in society and in our Church, is all part of a manufactured crisis, for crisis’ sake alone. But this knowledge, and the anger and frustration it is bound to engender, is not enough, because wrath cannot fight evil, for as Christ himself said, “How can Satan cast out Satan?” (Mk 3:23)
We must carefully read the Beatitudes and note that if we would gain heaven—and show others the way there too—our justice must “abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees.” (Mt 5:20) Our way of taking arms against this menace must be by lifting the Cross and standing meekly at its foot. “For when I am weak, then am I powerful.” (2 Cor 12:10)
Only through a vibrant rebirth of Christian virtue will we become impervious to the sloganeering and the evil that comes in its wake. And that rebirth will not come through anger, blaming, accusing, and strife. It will come when we start ignoring the slogans, and reading scripture instead. It will come when we stop flaming each other in comboxes and start praying for one another instead. And it will come when we stop blaming the problems of the Church on weak and silly men, and follow Christ’s most powerful exhortation:
“Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust.”
The next time you see or hear about some Church figure that really makes you mad, stop for a moment and remember what Christ told us about anger:
“But I say to you, that whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council. And whosoever shall say, Thou Fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath any thing against thee; Leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother: and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift.”
Stop and pray that God may give you the gift of true charity toward those who make you angry. Yes, even those who really, really deserve it. Pray for them very earnestly, that God may give them the grace they need to follow him in Spirit and in Truth.
This doesn’t mean that we have to be starry-eyed idealists who think they can change Hitler into Tinkerbell by just praying really hard. If we offer our prayers in true charity, God will make use of them in the way He knows best. Prayers are never wasted.
If we stop letting Satan fool us into expending all our energies in useless, self-consuming anger and frustration, and instead find ways of turning this energy toward the task of rebuilding “…those moral values that for the past two thousand years have made our civilization a life-giving force,” then we will have done the most we can toward building the City of God here on earth. And if we do our part, we can be assured that God will do His.
This is the reigning philosophy behind our project to bring the love of Tradition to those who are in Rome during the Synod. Rather than focusing our anger and spite toward those who are seeking to irreparably change the Church, our focus will be threefold:
- To spread knowledge and love for the beauty of our Faith and its traditions to those who would otherwise never have come into contact with this knowledge;
- To offer our prayers and fasting in reparation for the harms being done to the Church; and
- To give all of those who are supporting our “active agency” the comfort of knowing that through their prayers and assistance, we are working toward rebuilding our Faith one brick at a time.
If you have been nodding your head as you read this post, I would ask that you consider how best you might be a part of this “active agency.” Is God calling you to come to Rome and take part in this effort? That is too heavy a sacrifice for most…so could you make a donation to sponsor a stranger’s copy, knowing that through your contribution, someone in the world will receive this great gift of Faith? And if you cannot do any of these, please join us in prayer during October, and look for small ways in your own life of letting the light of your Faith “shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (Mt 5:16)
May God bless you.
Discover the Roots of Our Faith 