Babylon Rising?

Nolite interficere nuntius

Many good folk have well-founded suspicions about public health policies that allow drunkards to freely associate in bars while docile church-goers are prohibited from attending services. Churches, it has been said repeatedly here and elsewhere, are better organized and more responsible than most other public institutions at encouraging responsible behaviour among their constituents. Seniors' care homes - for all the talk of concern by government health officials - have become death traps. How is the disease being transmitted between facilities and among residents?

In any society that values free and responsible speech it is never unreasonable to draw attention to events which suggest a common cause. Individuals and groups that challenge the uncritical acceptance of policies that contradict reason are doing society a favor by exposing political and social non sequiturs. Unchecked, repeated attempts by governments to modify behaviour without providing substantive proof of benefit can become as much a plague upon a society as any virus. The lasting effects (a 'new norm'?) can solidify into horrifying trajectories from which societies recover only after being reduced to a complete and utter shambles. The human toll can be staggering: seventy-plus years of Soviet socialism, for example, and its innumerable casualties.

Societal decay is hastened by attempts to manipulate public perceptions, attempts such as those identified by "legislators in New York (who have rejected) Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s explanation (...) as to why he refused for months to release a true accounting of nursing home residents who died from the coronavirus (NYP 15FEB2021)."

Plausibility. A lesson that can and should be learned from these unusual times is the absolute necessity that all policies that claim to serve the common good be thoroughly vetted. No one should comply with a social program that does not preserve and serve the inherent dignity of all human beings.

• "Science informed policy" is too often a tactic of rhetoric merely camouflaging a hollow slogan that is deafening people to the necessity to apply critical thinking in order to stop the erosion of fundamental freedoms by those who attribute to the state the power to give and take away inalienable rights.
• Slick sounding slogans can become the chants of bullies who, incapable of addressing in a reasonable manner any challenge to their attempts to reengineer society in their own twisted image, use the strong arm of law enforcement, the courts and "human rights" tribunals and a press cowed by woke activism to marginalize legitimate dissent.
• Societies are showing many signs of being suffocated by inane social policies. People are being robbed of their material and emotional resources as they are asked to prop up policies that are ruining national economies and that deprive free citizens of their right to assemble for religious purposes.

Sons of Ares

• Phobos (fear, panic). Phobia - Greek: φόβος (phóbos), meaning aversion, fear or morbid fear.
• Deimos (terror, dread).

Idolatry is committed, not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils; by making men afraid of war or alcohol, or economic law, when they should be afraid of spiritual corruption and cowardice. – G.K. Chesterton, Illustrated London News, Sept. 11, 1909

Fearmongering and coerced compliance enacted by public officials is reinforcing a spiritual crisis. This crisis is a culmination of relativistic thought which, because it only mimics reason and thus distracts from reasoned thinking, relies on coercion to produce disciples. The disciples of relativism cannot be anything but bullies because they are the intellectual children of coercive ideology.

The expulsion of religion and moral discourse from the public square has contributed to a spiritual vacuum for which the social sciences cannot adequately provide a meaningful alternative. The increase in support services being offered by community health departments and the pervasive advertisements offering counseling support on the internet indicate point to a crisis. Not surprisingly, there is a conspicuous silence among major news organizations about the 'other' pandemic - the mental health pandemic.

Despite the apparent lack of a visible "Cuomo" who can be identified as the cause behind so many ill-effects, the conspiracy which Catholics identify as the culture of death does seem to have a rotten core to it all.

Decoding the Demon

An obvious tactic employed by the devil is to use deception to magnify fear and despair. For all the language about caring and sharing, people have surrendered their fundamental freedoms. Common conversations in this blogger's experience confirm many people are emotionally numbed by forced isolation. The situation is ripe for false saviours to appropriate people's allegiance. Those who believe in nothing are prone to believe in anything. If our sense of safety depends on pretense, a pretense without foundation, then such safety is an illusion. If we accommodate ourselves to that illusion, we should not be surprised that, after a series of incremental accommodations, we buy into a much more egregious error that discards inalienable rights and destroys our souls.

1. Misrepresentation

Thou shalt not bear false witness. To lie is to attack one's conscience and to lead others into error. A liar fails to acknowledge the truth. To lie is to attack the Author of Truth, and thereby become a child of the father of lies.

The Spirit of Anti-Christ. To disable and dislodge people from happiness, the devil engages in subversion. Any act that subverts the truth is thus allied to the work of the devil, to Satan himself.

2. False Justice

The measure of any movement is whether or not it frees all, not merely a few, constituents from injustice. One man's liberty cannot come at the expense of another man's freedom. Anything less than respect for the integrity of the person, from conception to natural death, is a sham and of the devil.

3. The Hare of Deceit and the Turtle of Truth

Evil upends patience. It makes empty promises but, because the promises appeal to our need for approval, for security and pleasure, the devil lobbies souls by suggesting life should be easy. The problem is that life is not easy. The devil promises an easy relief from suffering; instead, his shortcuts magnify suffering. Curiously, people blame God for their own allegiances to the devil's agenda of tolerance, a tolerance that narrows the heart into a consuming isolation. The descent into alienation (mortal sin) and spiritual death is most often a series of tiny slips (venial sins) that grease each step.

By contrast, God moves us toward healing and peace by offering opportunities for incremental adjustments to our thinking and behaviour. He never forces us; He lobbies us with truth, goodness and beauty. God is a kind and gracious lover of souls. He seeks to wed us in His embrace; there is no coercion, only love. He entices us with His own life, His own Spirit Who enters into our lives and draws us into communion.

The devil seeks to distract us from true communion by slicing away at the flesh of our relationships, by introducing cheap versions of human warmth and compassion. The result of joining the devil's party is a deadly satisfaction with replacement therapies that are merely "click bait", leading nowhere, starving us of our ability to identify with others.

Toward Restoration

The recognition that there is a problem or deficit moves the sufferer halfway toward a solution.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but having itching ears, they shall heap to themselves teachers in accordance with their own lusts. - 2 Timothy 4:3

When people consume ear candy instead of truth, they shrink into a personal comedy, a caricature of honest living. They are living dislocated lives teetering on whimsy with no way forward. They toss themselves farther away from authentic living by ingesting one form of toxic medication or another - drugs, pop psychology, the accumulation of material objects to distract themselves away from acknowledging the emptiness of their souls, a substitute persona, etc.

It is very important that the Church's charitable activity maintains all of its splendour and does not become just another form of social assistance. [...] The Christian's programme —the programme of the Good Samaritan, the programme of Jesus—is “a heart which sees”. This heart sees where love is needed and acts accordingly. - Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus caritas est, December 25, 2005

Catholics promote a health plan of faith, hope and love. Who offers us this treasure? Jesus. For many enlightened moderns salvation in a name is folly. They insist on fabricating their own deities that - need it be said? - are bound to let them down sooner than later. These modern Pelagians work hard at inventing their own religions while blinding themselves to wisdom that can relieve them of walking in circles in the desert of their own egos. Many so-called christians have departed from the ranks because their "Jesus" is not the Jesus of the Gospels. Their Jesus is, for example, curiously silent on the matter of disordered love. They have relegated the Physician of Souls to the role of a giddy cheerleader or beer buddy. The marquees in front of their buildings mimic every empty slogan. If they were honest, their billboards would read 'We the woke, in order to forge a more perfect self righteousness... .'

Once abolish the God, and the government becomes the God. – G.K. Chesterton, Very Christian Democracy, Christendom in Dublin.

Substitution solution. A most curious contemporary construction is the assertion 'my personal truth'. Here the word truth really refers to one's 'god' or 'idol'. One might as well be saying 'my personal fad'. Such "truth" has no staying power; hence, the designation 'fad'. Substitute 'passing' for 'personal' and the lie is exposed.

Authenticity. If we who are blessed with divine knowledge are to help others enter into a loving communion with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we must embody the Gospel in every respect. We must become transparent to the Presence of Christ and bring Jesus to everyone through our willingness to listen and by sharing the love of God through the practice of authentic mercy. We must not resort to trickery such as watering down the Gospel or by turning Jesus into a caricature of Himself. Jesus does not ask 'Who do you want me to be for you?' He asks 'Who do you say I am?' The Apostle Peter answered correctly (St Matthew 16:16). "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!" Others, giving a different answer, may be surprised to learn they've created a god in their own image, a god who is entirely satisfied to let them continue in a fantasy world.

In his weekly Angelus address, the Pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading from St. Mark, which says “the Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan.”

During these 40 days, which take place immediately after Christ’s baptism, “the ‘duel’ between Jesus and the devil begins, which will end with the Passion and the Cross,” Francis said Feb. 21. “Christ’s entire ministry is a struggle against the Evil One in its many manifestations: healing from illnesses, exorcising the possessed, forgiving sins. A fight.”

“Every year, at the beginning of Lent, this Gospel of the temptations of Jesus in the desert reminds us that the life of the Christian, in the footsteps of the Lord, is a battle against the spirit of evil,” he underlined.

“It shows us that Jesus willingly faced the Tempter, and defeated him; and at the same time it reminds us that the devil is granted the possibility of acting on us too, with his temptations,” he added.

According to Pope Francis, “we must be aware of the presence of this astute enemy, who seeks our eternal condemnation, our failure, and prepare to defend ourselves against him and to combat him. The grace of God assures us, with faith, prayer and penance, of our victory over the enemy.” - https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/pope-francis-christian-life-is-a-battle-against-the-spirit-of-evil/72977

What, then, is this Babylon in question? Babylon is anything that pretends to be saviour - the Saviour. For those who do not know and embrace Jesus, the state - and perhaps some hobby - is all they have. Contrary to what socialists would have us believe, there is no creating a paradise on earth. No state or government, local or otherwise, can provide what the human heart really needs.

The first part of this post brings into question the assumptions being hurled at us by well-intentioned servants of the state who are, perhaps, unaware of the degree to which they promote a culture of death. The second part of the post, Decoding the Demon, is intended to expose the architect of those assumptions. Lastly, Toward Restoration directs readers toward the one thing necessary and the One Who offers that necessary thing.

Now it came to pass, as they went, that (Jesus) entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. - St. Luke 10: 38-42.