Recently, I came across an old book written by Fr. John Hardon, SJ, and sadly, even the reprint of All My Liberty is long out of print. Knowing Fr. Hardon’s solid and trustworthy teaching, I spent more than I ever have for a used paperback book. In All My Liberty, Fr. lays explains the theology of St. Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises.
I’m only in the beginning pages, but something he wrote really struck me, as I and many others sense the rapid and disturbing changes occurring in our culture and country right now. Fr. Hardon references a document from the US Bishops, which had recently been issued (1948), over seventy-five years ago. I doubt those bishops realized how prophetic their pastoral letter would be. Sadly, we did not heed their warning.
In their national pastoral letter of 1948, the American bishops warned against the prevalent tendency “to teach moral and spiritual values divorced from religion and based solely on social convention. Unless man’s conscience is enlightened by the principles that express God’s law, there can be no firm and lasting morality. Without religion, morality becomes simply a matter of individual taste, of public opinion, or majority vote.” Once God is removed from the concept of morals, sin becomes a label for superstition or an name for divergence from accepted custom.
And now, in May of 2022, it appears that’s what many people (but not all) in our county, including many of our leaders (but not all), have come to believe.
Friends, we need to step up our prayer. God has put us on this earth now, for such a time as this. Let’s get in the game, remembering that God is still on the throne, and He has already secured the victory.
Lord, have mercy on us!