Canada falls to 14th place. Read the headlines.
It used to be that Canada was way up there
in at least 5th place when we were a proud people. But “Canada has again
slipped, this time to 14th place, on an international index of ethical
governments because of a "marked increase" in the perceived level of
corruption in the government.”
When you see headlines like this, what do
you think?
Do you say to yourself, what’s Canada
coming to with so much corruption?
It’s the fault of the politicians…they’re
all alike…lies and greed.
What we need is a full slate of new
politicians to completely clean house.
As
true as these things might seem to be, it misses one crucial factor…the
spiritual factor.
As I more or less said in my “political
theory” posting some time ago, a nation or society achieves a certain degree of
order and strength by virtue of its Christian population. Let’s call that it’s
spiritual temperature. ‘White Hot’ would be a society entirely influenced and
swayed by a Christian population living in near total obedience to God. This is
as close as it gets to Jesus’ prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.”
The opposite extreme we might call ‘Ice
Cold,’ and it would be a society practically void of Christians, or totally
unaffected by the spiritual practice of its Christian population. For practical
purposes we could consider such a Christian population (if present) as almost
completely apostate.
The white hot society is incredibly
powerful and well ordered. The ice cold society is fragile, unjust,
superstitious and precipitously close to being vanquished and assimilated into
a society of stronger individuals.
It should be obvious then that a strong
society does not happen by chance, nor does it happen merely by the wit and
strategy of man. It is indeed a question of power. Power is required to order
and strengthen any society. Societies must “drink” or access their power from
outside themselves, much like a person depends on a spring or a well for water
and for life.
The Greeks, the Romans, and others had
somewhat powerful societies because they drank from the well of truth in
nature. The thinkers of these societies recognized certain “divine” principles
which existed in nature for all to see, i.e. truth, justice, honour, etc. and
more or less fashioned their societies around these truths. As they set about to
lay and maintain such a foundation God allowed them a measure of generous
drink. Yes, they became strong societies. True power is always linked to God.
Then came Jesus, God in the flesh. Ultimate
power is God’s. But the Father gave it all to Jesus, the Son. Jesus said, “All
power (authority) is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” The Son gave it to
His Bride, the Church, through the person of Peter. “And I will give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall
be bound in heaven…” Matt. 16:19
Since the decree of Jesus the Church and
the Church only, has the power of heaven and earth in its hands. Jesus gave it
to no other agency or individual, including government or family. Societies
throughout the world now have the privilege of drinking for power and strength
from the spoons, ladles, buckets and barrels which the Church draws from the
well of Christ. They can have as much of it as they like.
There’s only one condition and limitation:
the Church must hold forth to the society the entire truth of God’s revelation
to man, which is wholly contained in the Magisterium of the Catholic Church,
the repository of the true Faith.
To the degree that the Pope and Bishops are
faithful as apostles and successors of Peter, holding forth to society the
buckets of truth and power entrusted to the Church, society can grow strong and
well ordered. If the Church fails in this duty, society will weaken and falter,
as does a man dying of thirst.
The power that is held by any group or
organization derives directly or indirectly from its connection with the
Church. The Protestant groups for example are direct beneficiaries of this
power, having come forth out of the very bowels of its Mother, and brought with
them the unique identity inherited from her. All power, truth and order which
they possess and dispense has derived from their Mother, although the cost of
separation over the centuries for many of these groups has been decline,
division and apostasy.
The “glory” (in the truest sense) of our
Western civilization has been the glory of Christ shining through a Christian
populace by the daily dosage of power and authority meted out to willing souls
by the Church. We won’t get theological here but ordinary folks might identify
that power as “grace.” But our glory is rapidly departing.
Needless to say, our dosage and schedule
has long since been disrupted. The responsibility for all such significant
disruptions and failures rests with the Bishops who have failed to reach
society with these necessary provisions.
This problem is further exacerbated by the resultant growing population
of mal-ordered and weakened individuals, whose continued scandalization lowers
their expectations of Church and alienates them further.
Without address by the Bishops, the cycle
continues and society deteriorates. What gave power and stability to
yesterday’s society cannot sustain it into the future. It needs replenishing,
just as the man needs a fresh drink of water each day.
Which more or less brings me back to the
news story. Why is Canada continuing to slip backwards, now in 14th spot?
Don’t think of politicians or elections,
nor even of corruption itself. True, these things all have their place in
understanding what’s happening, but do not offer any hope for solutions.
Do not think of public education or even
private school education, although these things if done well can change certain
standards of a person’s life significantly.
Do not even think that a powerful
evangelistic campaign or switching to regular attendance at a Latin Mass will
resolve Canada’s problem, even though it might well be the thing that God is
asking of an individual at the moment.
The condition is more entrenched and
pervasive than that. Nothing but member as well as whole body repentance from
the Christian populace will suffice, most especially from Bishops, if for no
other reason than that large sections of society can be impacted very quickly
by their repentance.
To keep proper perspective here though, I
have to say I don’t think it’s any easier for a Bishop to repent than it is for
you or I.
So what’s holding you back? Canada is
waiting.
posted
by islandcatholic on October 21, 2005
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