A real Apocalypse will come; but it won’t be Green!
A new call has arisen. It is championed by devotees and zealots of what seems to be a new religion who say we need to save the planet. But if you ask, to save the planet from what? Apparently, we need to save it from human beings! The rise of a Green Nazism may indeed lie in the heart of some of these devotees and zealots. They seem to have come to a belief that human beings are a deadly virus on planet earth.
The antidote to this deadly virus is to force human beings to become free of carbon and carbon generating food, take a constant stream of serums, eat bugs, have cold showers, get rid of cars and planes for the common people, make all the common people get on bikes connected to the Grid to save the Grid and send the elderly to hospitals and care homes for end of life care to save the hospitals. In the words of Scrooge and in the spirit of the super-rich, this will reduce the surplus population…and save the planet! Save it for whom, we ask?
It has an urgency overlaid with apocalyptic overtones and decorated with threatening undertones. But to raise questions and seek out the data for all these claims is to invite the charge of heresy and so be accused of being a climate denier, a planet killer! Yes, it’s yet more crazy stuff from the crazies!
Crazy stuff that seems to occupy the corridors of power, the channels of Mass Media and now it is permitted to block our motorways, highways and spill out even on to our buy-ways - upmarket supermarkets, where the passive, compliant and well-to-do frequent. Clearly the pampered, protesting, young defenders of the planet have the common sense to avoid supermarkets that are frequented by the ordinary working families who are struggling to heat and feed themselves; men and women who, like the people of Essex, would not stand idly by when milk is poured out and spilt over the floors of supermarkets!
Those who have succumbed to the new green apocalyptic religion seem to have this idea running through them, indeed shouting through them:
YOU DON’T HAVE TIME TO THINK ABOUT OR DISCUSS THESE PROBLEMS! WE ALL NEED TO ACT NOW! YOU NEED TO ACCEPT OUR SOLUTIONS OR YOU WILL DESTROY THE PLANET!
However, the word ‘apocalyptic’ does not mean end of world scenarios. It actually means ‘the unveiling’; the unveiling brought about by the truth of our real state before the ultimate truth, God himself. But if people keep demanding the truth about things but constantly suppress debate, discussion, reasoning and the search for truth then the truth will come searching for them and fall upon them like fire and brimstone. If people and leaders keep demanding the death of farming, the starving of millions, the freezing of homes to save the planet when the planet does not need humans to save it then the doom so proclaimed will come upon them for the hubris of this Big Lie. For as the ancients said about human beings who challenged them ‘those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad!’ And madness abounds among the many leaders of the Western world whose countries are now being torn apart by a green dictatorship that passes oppressive laws against dissent and protest as we see in Germany, UK, France, New Zealand and the US and seems to be running in joy towards economic collapse of money, jobs, house prices, food production, fuel and energy supplies.
Today, we are led by Mad Elites whose arrogance and hubris rises to the heavens as they overthrow real science, the moral law and human nature itself - that order of creation that has creatures made in God’s image at it’s centre. It is a hubris of the world’s powerful elites (and the useful idiots who serve them) that is now poking, taunting and provoking the true ruler of this planet, the Creator, to let fall a raining down of, what the ancients called, the wrath of the Lord! For ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’, if these elites continue with this madness [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zwBHd4kll0&ab_channel=BryanFerry]. The catechetical tradition warns such powers that there are “sins that cry to heaven” - read Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 1867 - and these elites are committing them.
However, in this month of November there is unveiled the truth that we will all die and we will all come before the Judgment seat of God to give an account of our lives. But many try to avoid thinking about such certainties as death and judgment. Instead, they want to think about the death of the planet.
The reason why the scriptures are chosen from the eschatological chapters of Our Lord’s teaching is that the Church wants us all to do a bit of spiritual stock-taking. To help us to be honest with ourselves in our stock-taking we are reminded by Luke 21:5-19 that this world will come to an end one day. We do not know when or how, but that end will come. The end of the world will follow the Second Coming of Christ who will come in power and glory to judge the living and the dead. It will be the General Judgment when every human being will be raised up from the dead and stand before the Judgment seat of God and receive in their resurrected bodies either the blessedness of Heaven or the damnation of Hell. Each one will receive the sentence he merited while on earth. The Blessed will enter with Him into eternal glory and share the beatific vision of seeing God face to face. The Damned will go to Hell where there will be eternal loss and sorrow, weeping and nashing of teeth, and where the worm does not die.
Yet, long before that day comes, each of us here today will already have faced his or her own Particular Judgment. It is this judgment which will seal our eternal fate. It is on this judgment that we should try to concentrate on during this month of November. It is to help and encourage us to do just this that the church brings the thought of the end of the world before our minds. The end of this world will come for each one of us when we draw our last breath. How will we stand in God's sight when that moment comes? An eternity of happiness or grief will depend on our spiritual state at that moment - did we die in a state of grace or did we die in a state of unrepented mortal sin? Did we die a friend of God or an enemy of God?
The thought of death is a frightening thought for most of us. We would rather put it far from our minds, but of all the other things that can possibly happen to us on this earth, death is the one and only certainty. It would be utter folly then to try to ignore it or forget it. It is not the moment or the circumstances or the fact itself of death that matters. The vast majority, even of those dying of a slow illness, do not know that they are on the point of death. What matters is the judgment which follows death. How will we fare in that judgment?
Each one of us can put the following simple question to ourselves this very moment. How would I fare if I were called before the judgment seat of God today? The best of us would certainly prefer to be better prepared. There is so much good I have left undone, so many faults for which I have not atoned properly, so many uncharitable thoughts about my friends and neighbours in my mind, so many acts of charity I kept postponing, so many acts of thanksgiving and praise I have not made to my loving God.
What of those who have even more serious sins on their consciences? Over two hundred thousand people will leave this world between now and midnight. If we were called, and we have no guarantee that we will not be called today, could we dare to face our judgment in our present state? "Today, if you hear God's voice harden not your heart" the scripture warns us.
Now, you have heard Him speak to you. He has reminded you that your end is coming, that you should put your spiritual house and put your accounts in order. This is an act of God's mercy. God does not need you, it is you who need Him. Your eternal future will depend on whether you listen to His call today, as tomorrow may be too late. You can put your accounts straight this very day. Why take a risk with your own eternal welfare?
The Christian who wants to die in the state of grace, that is, in the friendship of God (and can there be any real Christian who would not want to?) has but one way of making sure of this. He is to repent of his sins and try to live always in God's friendship, especially aided by the Sacraments which requires it all to begin with the necessity of Baptism, the strengthening of the Sacrament of Confirmation, the medicine of mercy that is the Sacrament of Confession and the Food of eternal life that is the Holy Eucharist, given in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
For Our Lord has said to each and every one of us:
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel” [Mark 1:15] - Repentance;
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” [John 3:5] - Baptism;
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you [John 6:53] - the Eucharist in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The man who does this by living his Christian life daily, need not fear death. It may be a sudden death, but it will never be an unprovided for death. For that purpose may be the Bona Mors [Litany for a happy death] may help us not to fear death, not to be controlled by the fear of death, not be controlled by those weilding the fear of death but instead to hope and to pray to have a good and holy death.
Bona Mors - Litany for a Happy Death
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy
Holy Mary, Pray for us (him or her) *
All ye holy Angels and Archangels, *
All ye choirs of the Just, *
Holy Abel, *
Holy Abraham, *
Saint John Baptist, *
Saint Joseph, *
All ye holy Patriarchs and Prophets, *
Saint Peter, *
Saint Paul, *
Saint Andrew, *
Saint John, *
Saint Jude, *
All ye holy Apostles and Evangelists, *
All ye holy Disciples of Our Lord, *
All ye holy Innocents, *
Saint Stephen, *
Saint Lawrence, *
All ye holy Martyrs, *
Saint Sylvester, *
Saint Gregory, *
Saint Augustine, *
Saint Basil, *
Saint Ambrose, *
Saint Francis of Sales, *
Saint Bonaventure, *
All ye holy Bishops and Confessors, *
Saint Benedict, *
Saint Francis of Assisi, *
Saint Dominic, *
Saint Ignatius, *
Saint Philip Neri, *
Saint Camillus de Lellis, *
Saint John of God, *
All ye holy Monks and Hermits, *
All ye holy founders of Religious Orders, *
Saint Mary Magdalene, *
Saint Lucy, *
Saint Scholastica, *
Saint Teresa, *
Saint Clare, *
Saint Angela Merici, *
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, *
All ye holy Virgins and Widows, *
All ye men and women, Saints of God; Intercede for us (him or her).
Be merciful: Spare us (him or her), O Lord.
Be merciful: Graciously hear us, O Lord.
From Thy wrath, Deliver us (him or her), O Lord. **
From the peril of death, **
From an evil death, **
From the pains of hell, **
From all evil, **
From the power of the devil, O Lord, deliver him (or her). ***
Through Thy Nativity, ***
Through Thy Cross and Passion, ***
Through Thy Death and Burial, ***
Through Thy glorious Resurrection, ***
Through Thine admirable Ascension, ***
Through the graces of the Holy Ghost the Paraclete, ***
In the day of Judgment, ***
We sinners: Beseech Thee to hear us.
That Thou spare us (him or her) : We beseech Thee, hear us.
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy. Christ, have mercy
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy
Let us pray:
We beseech Thy clemency, O Lord, that Thou wouldst vouchsafe so to strengthen Thy servants in Thy grace, that, at the hour of death, the enemy may not prevail over them, and that they may deserve to pass with Thy angels into everlasting life. Amen.
