“A man who governs his passions is master of his world. We must either command them or be enslaved by them.” St Dominic
G.K. Chesterton once said that Original Sin is the easiest doctrine to prove because evidence of it is seen in every street. Presumably, he included Canadian streets.
Canada right now is the most dangerous country in the world for an unborn child, and rapidly adding the elderly and mentally ill to that list. While some nations are beginning to introduce heartbeat laws and legislation to stop mutilating the youth, in Canada, it’s a race to see who can kill or maim the most people. It’s the Tru(deau) North, wrong and freak, a dark caricature of a country that only 10 years ago stood as perhaps the best place to live on earth in material terms. The reality though is that the country has been dying in spiritual terms for much longer than that, and what we are experiencing now is the political reflection of an old theological statement: Life and Truth are not the Way or “I will not serve”. Rather, we changed it to “you have your truth and I have a mine” and now reached the logical conclusion of that idea to “there is no truth”.
Once you lose truth, what follows is not just lies, it’s death. This is articulated at first by stating all religions are all the same, then second, accuse religion as a whole to be the root for all suffering present or past, or at best, nothing more than an “opium to the people”. If religion then is a cancer or a drug, then the best way to “treat it” is by getting rid of it or burning it perhaps. No safe or free “injection” sites for this type of opium, especially not the Christianized one.
The streets of course, are a reflection of the courts, the classrooms, and sadly, the dining rooms, which are increasingly broken, dysfunctional, and lonely. This is why no matter who holds political power, in a world of broken families and weakened churches, it’s who controls the courts and classrooms that controls the actions and minds of the street. It’s interesting that already back in 1934, G.K.Chesterton complained that “Our particular corner of Christendom can now be taught the history of every civilization except its own”. He referred to public education as “simply conscription applied to culture” and said calling birth-control to something “where there is no birth nor control” is like calling “assassination or massacre Life-control”. It’s a time when men believe they can reconcile nations, but can’t reconcile with their neighbours.
Human experience has taught us that it is not possible to mandate kindness, wisdom, or courage because coercion robs the individual of the freedom necessary to carry out the act of his own accord. It’s a case of not his will but D.I.E. will. Therefore, if an act is done out of coercion or fear rather than love, it’s just the taking and fulfillment of an order out of self-preservation not for the good of the other, and that makes all the difference to the recipient. Think of a child that hears his father say “I will feed you because otherwise the government will garnish my wages” versus “You are my son, and I will give you food before I eat”. No wonder St Paul reminds the Corinthians, “Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed…there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity” 1 COR 13:8-13
In his famous book, author John Steinbeck had one of the characters say, “Maybe ever’body in the whole damn world is scared of each other.” In Canada, we got a little taste of that during COVID, where like the lepers of old, anyone with so much as a runny nose was labelled unclean and had to be quarantined. All religious institutions, with some minor individual exceptions, accepted the label of “non-essential” and closed the doors to their inn… all for “pastoral” reasons. This new pastoral approach to vice doesn’t cross the line of denying doctrine verbally, but rather through practice. It’s like having a speed limit of 40Km/hour, backed by visual signs and written codes, but cops never enforce it until driver goes beyond 80K. The law says 40 but the speed limit in effect is 80. The Law says life begins at conception for “Todos todos todos”, it’s written in the Scriptures and shown in the stained glass of many a cathedral, but don’t breed like rabbits, wink wink. Vice is found in every street, even cobblestones ones. St John Paul II in his encyclical, The Splendour of Truth (56), had this to say about clergy or laypeople trying to circumvent doctrine through pastoral practices:
“A separation, or even an opposition, is thus established in some cases between the teaching of the precept, which is valid in general, and the norm of the individual conscience, which would in fact make the final decision about what is good and what is evil. On this basis, an attempt is made to legitimize so-called “pastoral” solutions contrary to the teaching of the Magisterium, and to justify a “creative” hermeneutic according to which the moral conscience is in no way obliged, in every case, by a particular negative precept. No one can fail to realize that these approaches pose a challenge to the very identity of the moral conscience in relation to human freedom and God’s law.”
Waiting for vice to stop so our lives can get back to normal, is like sheep waiting for wolves to stop killing so they can graze again in peace. The wolves might pause for a little awhile, but they never stop and it’s never their fault. Hitler with an entire country in ruins blamed the German people for being weak, Stalin after his army marched to Berlin blamed his generals for being traitors, Mao after starving nearly 100MM Chinese with his “Great Leap Forward” policies blamed the workers for failing to produce. These are extreme examples of course, but the tyrants of today are no different: repeat offenders repeating crimes but it’s racists the problem says the judge. Youth identifying as furries, some of the lowest scores in reading, writing and math in recent memory, this is largely the fault of systemic transphobia says the teacher. High taxes and no jobs? well that’s because the climate is changing, says the scientist that got the weather wrong 20 hours before, but is absolutely certain what it will be in 20 years. Wolves do not stop, they are stopped.
Jesus did not tell a parable of the good sheep, but rather of the Good Shepherd (John 10:1-18). The word pastoral comes from pastor, which means literally shepherd. In the words of the Good Shepherd Himself, this is what being a good pastor looks like:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
Do you listen to the Lord’s voice or the world’s vice? King David responded with a song, “The Lord is my Shepherd…Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me”. I join the choir.
St Michael, pray for us.
Roberto Freire
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