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We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel. (Pope St. John Paul II, 1976 Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia)
We are a nation that is polarized. The literal street battles that have taken place over the last weeks, since the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, is a visceral reminder of such a division. We have seen over 75 attacks on Catholic Churches and pro-life pregnancy centers since the initial early-May leak of the final verdict. The division in our nation is deeper, though, than Republican vs. Democrat, or pro-life vs. pro-choice, or religious vs. secular. It’s not even a “culture war” issue. It is a more fundamental and utterly irreconcilable division between the Gospel and the Anti-Gospel (to quote the words of Pope St. John Paul II).
In college our professors always told us, “Ideas have consequences!” And the vitriol in our nation stems from the fundamental question: is Jesus Christ the Lord of the universe, or are we?
It really comes down to this, with all of its consequences. If Jesus Christ is Lord, and if He has revealed His plan and His purposes through the Scripture and through the teachings of His Church, then we don’t get to decide when life begins. We don’t get to redefine marriage or gender, because God has already defined it and revealed it to us. There is an objective purpose to life, and eternal consequences to our actions. If Jesus Christ is Lord, then we owe Him our worship and to conform our life to His teachings.
If we are lords of the universe, then we get to define anything and everything for ourselves. We get to chart our own path, make up our own morality (usually dependent upon what the majority thinks), and find our own happiness in the things of this earth. As one celebrity once tweeted, “Live your truth!” – if we are the lords of our own life, then we get to make up our own truths and live according to them.
But interestingly, this idea that we are the kings of our own lives is the original temptation back in Genesis. What was it that Satan tempted our first parents with? He promised, “If you eat this fruit, you will be like gods, determining right from wrong.” It’s a temptation as old as time – the refusal to submit to the authority of God and to the Scriptures He inspired and the Church He founded. Satan’s motto is non serviam! (“I will not serve!”). And this seems to be the motto of many people in our world today.
We must realize that we live in a battlefield – not of flesh and blood, but against the “powers and principalities of darkness” (Ephesians 6:12). Our weapons are not guns and protests but prayer, the Rosary, the Eucharist, repentance, and love. Rather than fighting those who oppose Christ and His Church with vitriolic words on social media, we respond with love, forgiveness, charity, and praying for our enemies.
But even as we pray for them, we cannot compromise the Truth of the Gospel! Unity and peace will only come when all submit to the merciful rule of Jesus Christ. Until then, we will have to live in a world and a nation that is painfully divided, sometimes within one’s own household.
In the end, the true Gospel – where Jesus is Lord of all – will win out. Many people talk about wanting to be on the right side of history, but I would rather be on the right side of eternity!
“The race of mankind, after its fall from God, separated into two diverse and opposite parts: of which one steadfastly contends for truth and virtue; the other strives for things which are contrary to virtue and truth. One is the Kingdom of God on earth, namely, the true Church of Jesus Christ; and those who desire from their heart to be united with it so as to gain salvation must necessarily serve God and His Son with their whole mind and will. The other is the Kingdom of Satan, in whose possession and control are all who follow the fatal example of their leader and of our first parents, who refuse to obey the divine and eternal law.” (Pope Leo XIII, Humanum Genus Encyclical, 1884, paragraph 1).
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