Church, Will You Awaken Even Now?

I consider it divine intervention that Donald Trump, and not Hillary Clinton, was elected President last November. I prayed, like never before, for His intervention in that election, and against all “odds” (if you believe in “odds” in human affairs – which I do not), he won. Without the majority of voters voting for him, against opposition within his own party, and in spite of predictions by all the pundits, experts and many TV talking heads, Trump won. I can only believe God could do this.

And I think – believe – that God did this for a reason: to give the Church one more chance, one more opportunity to wake up and be Church! The forces of darkness in America were doing very well with either party in power! The evil one had been bending the culture of America toward the dark side for sometime now, and “successfully.” But God intervened. God held back the slide toward Sodom and Gomorrah, the drunken abandonment in America of reason and human dignity in preference for drugs, lust and lives of fantasy. Although His Church continued to busy herself with lesser things, God stepped in and intervened where she, by neglect, was not standing strong.

My question is, will the Church awaken even now? Though the bullet has been dodged and the train brought to stop inches before the cliff, I do not see her stirring even yet. The cancer has been held in remission, the execution was stayed, the evil plot foiled at the last minute – but I do not see the Church arising yet. Yes we can take a big deep breath that America is not yet irrevocably transformed into the child of the Culture of Death, but the danger is not eliminated. It is one battle surprisingly won, in a long war that is not over. And the evil one by no means is going to surrender!

As this long war has continued to rage, darkness has been advancing in our homes and schools, colleges and businesses, government offices and courthouses.  In the streets and cities and towns across America moral darkness has been unashamedly advancing. And through all this the Church mostly has been quiet, content with compromise, passive to the point of complicity. She has not taught her own, her little ones, the holy truth of real, eternal, victorious life. She has not led them to see and to know the life – here and now – of Christ the Lord. Entrusted with the Bread of Heaven, the Blessed Sacrament, she has not taught her own how to receive such a holy Gift, that they might be made strong, maturing in the power of the Sacrament. She has not led them to the personal encounter with Christ the Lord!  Entrusted with the riches and knowledge of the Kingdom, she has let her children feed themselves junk food, fast and easy food, food of this passing and confused world.

Church, when will you awaken? When will you recognize the enemy attacking your people at every turn, in their homes, in their schools, in their hearts and minds? They need the solid food of Truth! They need the potent power of Grace! They need communion with our Lord in Prayer! They need to hear evil called evil, and sin called sin, and lies called lies, and deceivers exposed as the mortal threats that they are! Enough, please, of frills and lace, of pomp and platitudes, of sweet lullabies while the enemy is gathering at the gates! They are dead-serious, and we are dozing in complacency.

Those who call themselves moral liberals or progressives, promoting their “new way,” are seething with rage in their unexpected defeat in the elections. They have money, they have many supporters, they have the long view. They are sincere, and committed! They lack something essential, something that the Church has, if she will awaken to it, and summon the courage to proclaim it and to live it. But if she will not awaken, here in America they will win.