Trying Times of Faith…
(from an October 5, 1986 conference)

We are living in a period of time when the Church of Christ is under an unprecedented, subtle attack from the forces of spiritual evil led by Satan, and as members of the Church, even if by God’s grace we have remained faithful, nevertheless we are under attack, each of us.  When there is an attack to beat off and overcome, it is absolutely essential to be aware of that attack and to take up the necessary weapons with which to fight it off. . .

The most subtle attack these days is an attack on our virtue of faith, that gift from God which enables us to believe the truth Jesus taught.  It enables us to see things in the light of God, to see them as they are in reality, and to face up to our responsibilities as Catholics and to realize the grave damage we do to the Church, to the cause of Christ, and to God’s honor if we are unfaithful.  Good people are not directly tempted to deny the faith as a rule.  What the devil does is to keep pointing out to us the troubles in the Church and the false teachers.  He reminds us of the modern outlook on life and moral behavior.  He helps the climate of the permissive world to undermine our clear judgment as to how evil sin is and how clear are the teachings of the Church about right and wrong.  He succeeds with many Catholics in blurring the distinction between what is natural and what is supernatural and persuades many to live according to nature and not according to grace.  He gets people to lose the vision of faith and so leads them to downgrade the things of the spirit and regard natural good works, such as social work, as the primary activity of Christians.

The greatest need of our times in the Church is prayer, and not just prayer for temporal welfare, but prayer of adoration of God, of reparation for sin against God, of thanksgiving for the coming and the terrible suffering for sin of Christ.  What Our Lord asks of us in these times of very great loss of faith . . . and of unprecedented spread of positive denial not only of God’s rights but of His very existence by atheism and agnosticism is that we live very intensely by faith and not by nature.  We must stir up our personal faith and take special delight in doing things that are expressions of supernatural faith.  Of course good works of a practical kind are as necessary as ever they were, and we must love our neighbor, but many good works are done without being expressions of faith.  Genuine prayer is obviously due to faith and not just to our natural likes and dislikes or natural inclinations.  Prayer is the most direct expression of faith and the best way to increase that faith.  A supernatural outlook, which is so essential in the modern environment if we are to be faithful to God, will only be retained and increased by a great deal of prayer of one kind or another. . .

While in one sense these modern times are very tragic, with something approaching a mass apostasy from the Christian faith, at least in the West, it is also a time of remarkable opportunity for growing in faith.  When you live in a social setting where everyone goes to Mass and, even when not living a very good life, admits the existence of sin and the truths of the faith, it is possible to drift along in a very weak way.  But today to live up to our faith demands a definite stirring up of the gifts God has given us and a positive decision to hang on to the truths we have been taught, come what may.  We have to pit our faith against all the persuasions of not only non-Christians and their experts in various fields, but even against many so-called Christians or even theologians.  We have to treat what we read even in the Catholic press with considerable reserve and reject it outright if it goes against the faith as we know it and especially as the Pope presents it.
           
Let us fan into a flame the supernatural gifts that God gave us when we received the Holy Spirit.  Let us take positive satisfaction in exercising our faith against opposition either from outside ourselves or from temptations within.  We must crush all doubt as soon as it tries to weaken us.
                                                         

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