The Age Of Godlessness And Its Consequences

Awful lot of reprobates...

 

 

It is abundantly clear that we live in an age of unprecedented crisis of faith. If we compare our times with every past generation in Europe in the last many centuries and until very recently, we must admit that our forefathers would even struggle to agree that we live in Christian Countries. Our forefathers would, in fact, struggle to recognise as Catholics even many of those who unhesitantly define themselves as such (and then pick and choose their beliefs).

It is not only the sinfulness per se (I am pretty sure fornication and drunkenness have been popular sins in any age), it is the way people deal with their own sinfulness that is utterly scary. Once upon a time sinners were certainly easy to find, but the lines at the confessional were long, too. Abortion was a rare event. Fear of hell was much more widespread. A strong Church provided Catholics with a robust barque to safely sail through the weaknesses and the sinfulness of their life.

Today, many of your friends and colleagues are probably not even baptised and if they are, their children possibly aren't. The very basis of Christianity is crumbling under our eyes. Europe at least (and part of the US and Canada) are simply deChristianised, they have become frontier territory!

We, who live in this context, cannot kid ourselves that, for our generation, “everything will be fine”. If it is true that everything will be fine, then Francis is right. If an age of astonishing irreligiousness does not lead to an age of great reprobation, then there is no need to deal with any of that Catholic stuff.

The (earthly) Church herself is now being raped by Satan. If the desertion or evil doing of countless priests and almost all bishops and cardinals has no meaningful consequence, what is the use of the Church? Why pray for holy priests and bishops? Heck, why have them in the first place? If the sheep are saved anyway, why have shepherds at all?

It is obvious that, if Christianity is to make sense, the contrary must be true. We must live in an age of reprobation. Satan must be having a wonderful time. A generation rejecting Christ must perforce be rejected by Him.

If you live in Northern Europe, and have a feel for history, you can see history being made under your eyes. The English Countryside has hundreds, probably thousands, of beautiful churches now empty. Those who even define themselves Christian are merely a plurality. Many of them would be unrecognisable as Christian to every generation of their forefathers, Catholic or Protestant, until a very recent time. The Country has become largely heathenish or atheist, with merely a Christian presence. Habits previously considered typical of heathens have become commonplace or largely tolerated and even celebrated (tattoos, cohabitation, abortion, divorce, even sodomy). France and Italy are not much better, Germany and Spain might not be better at all, Belgium and the Netherlands are certainly worse, the Nordic Countries are just appalling.

If we look at it in the great numbers, we must recognise that loss of Christianity means reprobation in great numbers, or else the entire Christian Faith makes no sense. If we look at our own Catholic world we must recognise that an age of astonishingly lax, by now barely understood Catholicism must do great damage to souls even among Catholics.

This can only have one consequence: that many of us – and certainly yours truly – live, walk, work, breathe in the midst of reprobates like pretty much none of our ancestors for possibly forty or more generations. It is fair to say that whenever you find yourself in a crowded train, underground carriage, cinema or restaurant, you are surrounded by a great number, and very possibly a majority, of reprobates. Scary, I know. It goes to show what madness V II and the generalised loss of faith all over Western Europe and parts of North America was.

Yes, we can and should pray for our friends and beloved ones. But prayers are no enchantments, and we cannot force our friends – much less God – to do what they do not want to do.

“But wait! Are you saying that my friends are not going to be saved? They are such fun guys and gals! How could God not do me this favour? I am so prayerful, you know!”

Well, good for you. But unless you are one in the mould of Padre Pio it is unlikely that you will change the life of dozens, or that God will grant all your such wishes.

The brutal reality is that your prayers for your friends will, besides benefiting you, providentially give them a help, a prop; which, if they – again, as it is providentially decreed – do not take, will not profit them.

As I have written many times, God on the one hand decides and decrees infallibly what our destiny is, and on the other hand leaves us still wholly free to make the decisions that lead us in the one or other direction (search this blog for “physical premotion”, “providence” or “reprobation”). Decisive here is – besides God's will – the free will of the person, not the prayer of his friends.

So yes: with Western Europe rapidly dechristianising, Satan is scoring a small jackpot every day, and I am sorry to say that – unless you are another Padre Pio – God is not going to spare your friends because of you. It was given to you, to us, to live in the midst of heathens, very possibly with some of your beloved ones not even baptised. You know what will happen to them if they die in their error.

Naturally, the temptation is strong to think: “I know that I live in an age of reprobation. But God will listen to my prayers and allow me to, one day, enjoy Paradise with all the people I love”. The questions here are: why would He do it for you and not for everyone else, thus saving a couple of dozen for the prayers of one? (This means universal salvation merely for the prayers of 3 or 4 percent). Also: Why would He not respect the will of those who choose to behave in a way that will merit them hell?

We already have the answers to these questions: if it were so easy to be saved Christianity – and certainly orthodoxy and perseverance in faith – would be pretty useless, giving right to the Francises of the world that salvation is, basically, automatically built in in the Gospel; and, on the other hand, the fact that we know as a truth of faith that God respects the will of His creatures.

The Age of Godlessness will demand that a terrible price in souls be paid. Not as terrible as deserved by strict justice, but terrible nevertheless.

This does not mean that we need to pray less; it means that we need to pray more as we recognise a greater danger for our beloved ones than the one faced by our grand-grandfathers.

What we should not do is to think that things are easy, and that an age of apostasy will receive the same treatment as an age of devotion merely for the sake of the few devotees.

M

 

 

Dies Irae, Or: Reprobation In The Time Of Godlessness

But... I was such a nice guy....!!

I have written many times about Garrigou Lagrange's affirmation that it is reasonable to suppose that the majority of those living in Catholic Countries avoid hell. Very reassuring, for sure.

However, Garrigou Lagrange was writing this in the Fifties, when Catholic Countries or territories like France, Italy, Spain, Austria or Bavaria were almost totally, and extremely solidly Catholic.

Nor were those the Catholics of today. Very many of them not only went to Mass at least every Sunday, but stood pretty near to the Sacraments, knew about salvation more than Francis ever imagined and had, crucially, a great fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.

If we compare them with today, we see how Catholicism has today become such a thin varnish that I seriously, seriously doubt Garrigou Lagrange would make the same claim today.

Today's “catholics” not only don't go to Mass, but they consider it utterly normal to call themselves (if they must) Catholic whilst making their own religion. They tattoo themselves (grave matter!) without a second thought; try to tell them this is grave matter and you will likely be insulted. They contracept, fornicate, often abort. They distance themselves from everything of the Church past and present that does not square with their own personal theology. Most importantly, they have no compunction about any of this.

In all ages, people have sinned. But in a strong Catholic culture with a strong fear of the Lord, repentance followed the sin, and most people were reasonable enough to be afraid of what a sudden death might do to them.

Perhaps even more importantly, a strong Catholic culture naturally enforced Catholic behaviour in the public square. When I was in grade school, not one of the pupils either in my or in my siblings' classes was the son of concubines (this was very easy to see then, because the wife had to take the family name of the husband). Not one. The scenario is inconceivable today even in once Catholic Italy. You want more? I knew the first guy who lived more uxorio when I was fifteen (a young teacher at my school). I knew of the first non Jewish boy who was not baptised when I was nineteen, and I still remember mine and my classmates' shock. I never had a school mate with tattooes.

It was all normal then, but it seems unbelievable today. Today we live in an age of mass rebellion. Still, we think that we should have access to the same mercy our forefathers (who would have been terrified I do not say of concubinage, but of a tattoo!! Something considered the preserve of godless Mariners, Pirates and jail inmates) earned with their fear of the Lord and their access to the Sacraments.

There is a big difference between, say, the girl who sleeps with her bethroted and is afraid of hell for that and the girl who sleeps with her boyfriend and thinks that she is right, because lurv. The first one is, clearly, also in danger of damnation, but she will always have access to a mercy the second one has cut herself out of. Still, there seems to be this thinking according to which God's mercy is something due to us, whilst we rebel to Him not out of weakness, but of sheer hubris. This thinking is so spread today that it is, actually, the default position among many who call themselves Catholic, let alone those who don't.

Fools, all of them. Fools in this generation as in every other before or after, because the rules don't change according to what you think about them. And yes, let us hope that the Lord will look with more mercy on the poorly instructed; but don't expect Him to have the same attitude with those who thought they had no need of, or even resented the instruction.

If we asked our Grand-Grandmother what the probable destiny of a person is who never darkened a church in decades, lived in sin and boasted of it, and died suddenly or anyway unrepented, said grand-grandmother would think we are pulling her leg, and we certainly weren't born Sherlocks. She might dismiss our statement as a bad joke. She might even (if she takes us seriously) slap us in the face for our obvious lack of fear of the Lord. Interestingly, it is very reasonable to assume that our Grand-grandmother would refuse to recognise the vast majority of our Catholic neighbours as Catholic in any way, shape or form. She would, on the whole, be pretty right.

Heck, I wonder how many children in once Catholic Italy are today actually not even baptised, as their vaguely deist parents think that 'ceremonies are not important' and 'God does not care for formalities'. These are, of course, the offspring of parents who did not believe fornication can lead you to hell if there is lurv, and such rubbish.

Let's get rid of the rules. I want to have it my own way. Father Faggot, whom I still despise, seems to think the same anyway. I think him an idiot, but I will use his godlessness whenever it's convenient to me.

Does it mean, then, that we live in a time in which the majority are Reprobates? I cannot see how it could be any other way, and it seems to me that those born now are in a much worse situation than those born only 20 or 30 years ago. Logically, it really cannot be any other way.

If the difference between a strong Church which rigidly enforces Catholic living and the pathetic, effeminate church of today showering her mercy talk on every fornicator is non existent or very little, then the Church has no importance. If a life of fornication gives me the same chances of salvation as a life of abstinence, let me grab those titties! If salvation is showered in the same way on a faithless and on a faithful generation, we and all our forefathers are idiots.

However, we aren't idiots. We are, actually, pretty smart; because we have the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. A wisdom of which most of this generation seems utterly deprived. It was this wisdom that kept old sinners near the Sacraments and, in the end, out of hell. The current crop of heathens and self-appointed mini-messiahs has nothing of it. They march toward their judgment in the utter persuasion of their goodness, and in the entitled expectation of whatever salvation they think might exist. They literally think that if there is a God they deserve salvation because they love polar bear cubs.

This is the the thinking of heathens. We know (or do we know it still?) where most of them end.

So yes, we are probably living in an age of mass Reprobation; and this mass Reprobation is made evident to us every day, in that we see that very many around us actually live like picture book reprobates: fornication, concubinage, rejection of the sacraments, tattooes , abortions, soon euthanasia….

and not a care in the world beside climate change.

M

 

[Reblog]: Salvation, Predestination, Reprobation, And Free Will.

I wrote this comment very late at night, reacting to the request of a reader. It being very late, and not wanting to write a complicated piece, I managed to say all that is – I think – important in a way that can be read and digested rather rapidly. The advantages of being tired, and not having time.

I have re-read this, and found it in order. So much so, that I have decided to post it as autonomous post, and put it in my “Vademecum” (see the bar above). 

I hope you’ll find it useful. The text follows below, with little modifications for comprehension. 

————————————————————————————–

Ah, that’s a complicated issue. I have wanted to write very often, but it’s very complex. It’s also very late, so forgive me if I say something stupid.

In three words, Calvinists (and in a way their Catholic fans, the Jansenists) believed that God makes some **to be damned**. Once born a reprobate, one is irresistibly screwed. End of story. There’s nothing he can do. He will go to hell, period. Sorry mate, yes, please go down that warm corridor…

Catholicism believes that God makes, said very brutally, two kind of people: the predestined and the reprobates. To the first He gives **efficacious** grace, meaning that they will be irresistibly led by Him toward salvation. To the seconds He gives **sufficient** grace, that is: a grace really sufficient to be saved, but that the reprobates nevertheless do not use, choosing of their own will to behave and think in a way that ends up meriting them hell.

No one, therefore, goes to hell who really has not himself to blame for it. At the same time, no one who avoids hell can boast of his goodness. All graces and all goodness come from God, so for every prayer, for every work of mercy, for every salvific act we do not really have the right to boast that “we did it”, though in a way we do really want to pray etc.

What happens is that we do want to act freely, because God inspired us to, freely, act in that way. Think of a mother who knows her child so well she knows what she must do to motivate him to do his homework, though in the end the child really is the one who wants to do his homework. This subtle, but irresistible influence of the efficacious grace is called, if memory serves, “physical premotion” (in the sense, always if memory serves, that it prompts to real, physical action on our part).

The mystery of predestination (one flip of the coin) is therefore fairly easy to grasp: God gives us efficacious grace, and this grace – like the mother above – irresistibly motivates us to, so to speak, do our homework. We do want, because God wants. Still, we do fully want. When God wants one to be saved, He will take care that the chap does not die in a state of mortal sin, giving him the efficacious grace necessary to the purpose. Again, he (the chap) will have nothing to boast about: without God’s help, he would have been nowhere, or rather in hell.

Things become far more terrible when we see the other flip of the coin: the reprobates. The reprobates freely choose (operative word here is “freely”) to think and behave in a way that merits them hell (though they might not even believe in hell); and they do so notwithstanding the fact that they have sufficient graces (the operative words here is “sufficient”; actually, more than sufficient) to avoid hell. But they do not do it and God **allows** them not to do it, and to deserve their punishment. Punishment that is, then, fully deserved, and entirely merited by their own thoughts, actions or omissions.

Why does God do this? Why does he infallibly decide, out of all eternity, that Titius *has to* be saved and will therefore irresistibly be attracted toward salvific acts, and Caius will, out of all eternity, be **allowed** to damn himself? Why one is born a reprobate, and another a predestined? This is a mystery we will only know – and not in its entirety, not in the way God knows it – when we die.

Still, we can throw some light on it even in this life. St. Thomas Aquinas said that every goodness comes from God, because God is the very source of everything that is good. Therefore, those who are exceptionally good (like St. Francis, or Padre Pio) are exceptionally loved. Conversely, there is no other reason why some are better than the fact that they are more loved. Some, God loves so much that he will never allow them to go to hell (giving them efficacious graces), or He will in rare cases even allow them to become, **out of their own will**, great saints; some others, he will still love enough to give them more than sufficient graces to save themselves, but he will **allow** them to choose evil instead. St. Thomas said that this must be so in order for the goodness of God to be revealed. God’s goodness is both mercy and justice. In those whom he saves, he shows His mercy (remember: the graces are unmerited, and purely due to God’s love), and in those whom he damns, he shows His justice. He does not do any injustice to anyone, he simply gives more than it is just to the predestined, without being unjust in any way to the reprobates. Difficult to chew for our egalitarian society, but that’s how it is.

Think to David Cameron. He has all the instruments to decide. He freely chooses the path to hell. Unless he repents, hell is what he will have freely chosen and fully merited. But if he repents, this is because of the efficacious grace of God. If he doesn’t, this is notwithstanding the (fully, and more than) sufficient grace he has received.

“Fine (or rather not!)”, you will say. “How can one know whether he is a predestined or a reprobate?” Well one can’t, of course. If we could, we would know for certain who is sent upstairs and downstairs. But as we are each and every one of us fully in charge of our own destiny (herein lies the real, ultimate crux: that one is full in charge, and STILL nothing happens against the divine decree: the reprobates will go to hell, and the predestined to purgatory or straight to heaven) we can see in our lives signs of predestination, or signs of reprobation, that are indications as to the possible destination of a person. Being born and baptised a Catholic has always been considered a great sign of predestination, which is probably why Catholic countries have historically always been more relaxed about hell than Protestant ones. Praying every day is another sign. Having masses said for one is another one. Having prayers said for one’s own salvation is another one, as are works of mercy. Praying the Rosary devoutly every day is a great sign of predestination (which is why I always insist on it), and so on.

In the end, we are in full control of our destiny, but at the same time everything is already preordained by God from all eternity; then otherwise, God wouldn’t be God: he would be determined by our actions rather than decide himself things of infinite importance like the salvation or damnation of souls. If we are predestined God, like an omnipotent mother, will steer us toward salvation, motivating us to perform salvific acts, etc. In turn, one that performs these acts can see them as a reasonable indication that he is being steered toward a good death (“final perseverance”, the grace of all graces).

Yes, a mother would not allow her child to freely choose hell. But then, this is why we say “God the Father”, and know that the God of the Christian isn’t the sugary “get-out-of-jail-card for everyone” some Proddies would want us to believe He is. God is terrible in his punishment, and wonderful in His love. His justice and His mercy, together, are His goodness. We can’t fully understand the inner working of this goodness, because we … aren’t God. But that’s what it is. God never told us we only have to “luv” and everything will be fine. Actually, Christianity shows that the contrary is the case.

Mundabor

Eating And Drinking Their Own Damnation

I read around about more and more Dioceses issuing “instructions” about Fornicationis Laetitia which, in so many words, instruct sacrilege.

We see here the way the Evil Clown and his satanical helpers are proceeding: first you open the door for sacrilege in “exceptional” cases, then the exceptions become less and less exceptional, then you end by “a bit of bread can do no harm”.

There is nothing new, or genial, or even intelligent in this. It’s how it’s always done. Abortion and euthanasia were/are also promoted in the same way.

What surprises here is the stunning amount of Reprobates that must be walking on this vale of tears as I write this.

Reprobates are, by definition, those of whom the Lord has decreed, from all eternity, that they will freely choose to reject the graces offered to them. It is already established that they will rot in hell forever. However, it is also already established that they will be the ones meriting their horrible destiny.

The Lord has decreed that there be such. There is nothing you or I can do to change this, though of course it is our duty to collaborate with Grace to help the Elect (and hopefully, ourselves with them) toward salvation. But reprobates will be reprobates.

The apocalyptic events we are living seems to me like a movie the Angels and Saints are watching now, and all humanity will be watching one day; the movie showing how an astonishing number of sinners choose to damn themselves by doing, for reasons of pure love of self, what they jolly well know to be sacrilegious. Yes, these reprobates will choose to lie to themselves by saying that if the Bishop says they are fine (hey, it’s so difficult to be a proper Catholic, you know?) then who are they to judge? But again, they will think in this way exactly because they are Reprobates! I do not think there is one sinner who went to hell without a long list of excuses for his behaviour. However, he jolly well knows that they are excuses, no matter how hard he tries to persuade himself. The route of easy excuses has always been the route to damnation. Francis is nothing new in this, nor his being Pope has any bearing on the blatant promotion of sacrilege in which he is engaging.

Try to watch the movie from this earth, and observe the terrifying scene of so many adulterers marching toward hell together with their priests and bishops; with the cardinals in tow and, leading them all, the Pope. Certainly, the one or the other will repent in time and avoid the abyss; but vast majority of them will, thinking logically, not make it.

This Pope and those Reprobates are the sides of the same coin: Providence has disposed that a disgraceful generation be punished with a disgraceful clergy, the former and the latter helping each other to go to hell.

The amount of evil coming out from the mouth of the very Pope is a pretty good indicator of the scale of Reprobation in our generation. If it is decreed that so many will choose to damn themselves, it is fitting that this damnation be merited by them; and that, therefore, the reprobates be allowed to avail themselves of ample means to choose, with their actions and excuses, to damn themselves in huge numbers. This combination of widespread immorality and easy sacrilege is exactly what will damn many of them; together with countless priests, bishops, Cardinals and, methinks, the Evil Clown himself.

A strong, solidly Catholic clergy would allow many, even in corrupted times, to see the light by the grace of God. It appears this generation will, in great part, not have this grace. Reprobates must be very many, as we hear a Pope saying “she who is now he”.

M

 

Maria Miller Goes To Hell

Woof, woof!

Like many slow people, Maria Miller must think herself inordinately smart. The so-called same sex “marriage” legislation, now undergoing the final stages of a pretty undisturbed legislative procedure, will be hailed as a great victory, and a measure possibly fitting to catapult her to the real positions of power, instead of simply being the token woman of a token ministry.

I do not know, and I do not care to know, whether the female professes to believe in God. Her actions speak very loudly, and surely show that she doesn’t. She must think – whatever she will say in public – that there is no God and when she’s gone, she’s gone, no fear of hell coming in the way of her self-sale. Alternatively, – and only if she is vastly thicker than expected – she might be one of those very deluded beings who think that there might be some kind of environmentally friendly, vegetarian, pacifist, “inclusive” Super Duper Entity over there; an Entity (probably called Super Miller) who will certainly look with sympathy at a bit of political prostitution for the sake of ego gratification and professional advancement.

This will not be sufficient – says the God of the Christians – to allow her to escape hell; she ignores Him at her peril, and the peril is huge. It is an illusion to think only Sodomites lived in Sodom. No doubt, there were a lot of Maria Millers there. Sodom and Gomorrah were, no doubt, both very progressive and inclusive.

Refusal and trampling of God’s laws will clearly not be forgiven in a woman who most certainly cannot claim ignorance of Jesus. Similarly, the open defiance of God’s laws in matter pertaining to natural law – a law that God has written in every heart, so that no one, no matter how stupid or self-deluded, can ever claim not to know that sexual acts against nature are intrinsically and gravely evil – do not allow her to hide anywhere.

No, let us not kid ourselves with non-judgmental rubbish, then we know the rules as well as she does: Maria Miller marches towards hell; she teaches her sons to do the same; she encourages her voters to follow her there; and there will she end one day, unless she repents. No more smug smiles on that podgy face, then.

She doesn’t see it, of course; or if she has a vague inkling of what would happen to her if the proverbial bus were to hit her she certainly doesn’t care. She will enjoy her three minutes of popularity in the shadow of her Prime Pimp and her stupidly smiling face will be in every trendy women’s magazine, whilst the men will very well know she is merely Cameron’s quota bitch: the overeating, tail-waggling lap dog of her coalition masters. She will enjoy her moment of popularity, though; and perhaps, perhaps, she will even think she is on her way to becoming relevant in the cabinet.

Maria Miller is, by way of her father, a daughter of privilege. Whether she knows suffering and humiliation is not known; that she does not know the fear of the Lord, is certain. She isn’t old yet, but like many of her age she is certainly set in her ways. Being Cameron’s bitch has brought her some advantages, and she must therefore think this is the way to go for the rest of her life. Stuff Christianity, she must certainly think. Let’s suck up to David and the electorate, whatever absurdity the former may want to order, and the latter swallow.

The clients come first, and the Prime Pimp must be made happy.

So Maria Miller will continue to march happily towards hell, probably leading there those she loves most in the process. All this, for the dubious satisfaction of being a very small, and in the end insignificant footnote in British history; a foot soldier remembered most probably for the absurdity, the ridicule and most importantly the impiety of the measure she sponsored, than as the smart woman she must think she is.

I must disagree. Bar an always welcome repentance, she will feel very stupid when the Big Drip catches up with her. There are no smarties in hell, then going to hell is the epitome of stupidity.

Therefore, smile your podgy face to hell, Maria Miller, if this is what you want.

You will see neither the oldest, nor the second oldest profession are of much use once you have died.

Mundabor

Salvation, Predestination, Reprobation, And Free Will.

Dies irae, dies illa…

I wrote this comment very late at night, reacting to the request of a reader. It being very late, and not wanting to write a complicated piece, I managed to say all that is – I think – important in a way that can be read and digested rather rapidly. The advantages of being tired, and not having time.

I have re-read this, and found it in order. So much so, that I have decided to post it as autonomous post, and put it in my “Vademecum” (see the bar above). 

I hope you’ll find it useful. The text follows below, with little modifications for comprehension. 

————————————————————————————–

Ah, that’s a complicated issue. I have wanted to write very often, but it’s very complex. It’s also very late, so forgive me if I say something stupid.

In three words, Calvinists (and in a way their Catholic fans, the Jansenists) believed that God makes some **to be damned**. Once born a reprobate, one is irresistibly screwed. End of story. There’s nothing he can do. He will go to hell, period. Sorry mate, yes, please go down that warm corridor…

Catholicism believes that God makes, said very brutally, two kind of people: the predestined and the reprobates. To the first He gives **efficacious** grace, meaning that they will be irresistibly led by Him toward salvation. To the seconds He gives **sufficient** grace, that is: a grace really sufficient to be saved, but that the reprobates nevertheless do not use, choosing of their own will to behave and think in a way that ends up meriting them hell.

No one, therefore, goes to hell who really has not himself to blame for it. At the same time, no one who avoids hell can boast of his goodness. All graces and all goodness come from God, so for every prayer, for every work of mercy, for every salvific act we do not really have the right to boast that “we did it”, though in a way we do really want to pray etc.

What happens is that we do want to act freely, because God inspired us to, freely, act in that way. Think of a mother who knows her child so well she knows what she must do to motivate him to do his homework, though in the end the child really is the one who wants to do his homework. This subtle, but irresistible influence of the efficacious grace is called, if memory serves, “physical premotion” (in the sense, always if memory serves, that it prompts to real, physical action on our part).

The mystery of predestination (one flip of the coin) is therefore fairly easy to grasp: God gives us efficacious grace, and this grace – like the mother above – irresistibly motivates us to, so to speak, do our homework. We do want, because God wants. Still, we do fully want. When God wants one to be saved, He will take care that the chap does not die in a state of mortal sin, giving him the efficacious grace necessary to the purpose. Again, he (the chap) will have nothing to boast about: without God’s help, he would have been nowhere, or rather in hell.

Things become far more terrible when we see the other flip of the coin: the reprobates. The reprobates freely choose (operative word here is “freely”) to think and behave in a way that merits them hell (though they might not even believe in hell); and they do so notwithstanding the fact that they have sufficient graces (the operative words here is “sufficient”; actually, more than sufficient) to avoid hell. But they do not do it and God **allows** them not to do it, and to deserve their punishment. Punishment that is, then, fully deserved, and entirely merited by their own thoughts, actions or omissions.

Why does God do this? Why does he infallibly decide, out of all eternity, that Titius *has to* be saved and will therefore irresistibly be attracted toward salvific acts, and Caius will, out of all eternity, be **allowed** to damn himself? Why one is born a reprobate, and another a predestined? This is a mystery we will only know – and not in its entirety, not in the way God knows it – when we die.

Still, we can throw some light on it even in this life. St. Thomas Aquinas said that every goodness comes from God, because God is the very source of everything that is good. Therefore, those who are exceptionally good (like St. Francis, or Padre Pio) are exceptionally loved. Conversely, there is no other reason why some are better than the fact that they are more loved. Some, God loves so much that he will never allow them to go to hell (giving them efficacious graces), or He will in rare cases even allow them to become, **out of their own will**, great saints; some others, he will still love enough to give them more than sufficient graces to save themselves, but he will **allow** them to choose evil instead. St. Thomas said that this must be so in order for the goodness of God to be revealed. God’s goodness is both mercy and justice. In those whom he saves, he shows His mercy (remember: the graces are unmerited, and purely due to God’s love), and in those whom he damns, he shows His justice. He does not do any injustice to anyone, he simply gives more than it is just to the predestined, without being unjust in any way to the reprobates. Difficult to chew for our egalitarian society, but that’s how it is.

Think to David Cameron. He has all the instruments to decide. He freely chooses the path to hell. Unless he repents, hell is what he will have freely chosen and fully merited. But if he repents, this is because of the efficacious grace of God. If he doesn’t, this is notwithstanding the (fully, and more than) sufficient grace he has received.

“Fine (or rather not!)”, you will say. “How can one know whether he is a predestined or a reprobate?” Well one can’t, of course. If we could, we would know for certain who is sent upstairs and downstairs. But as we are each and every one of us fully in charge of our own destiny (herein lies the real, ultimate crux: that one is full in charge, and STILL nothing happens against the divine decree: the reprobates will go to hell, and the predestined to purgatory or straight to heaven) we can see in our lives signs of predestination, or signs of reprobation, that are indications as to the possible destination of a person. Being born and baptised a Catholic has always been considered a great sign of predestination, which is probably why Catholic countries have historically always been more relaxed about hell than Protestant ones. Praying every day is another sign. Having masses said for one is another one. Having prayers said for one’s own salvation is another one, as are works of mercy. Praying the Rosary devoutly every day is a great sign of predestination (which is why I always insist on it), and so on.

In the end, we are in full control of our destiny, but at the same time everything is already preordained by God from all eternity; then otherwise, God wouldn’t be God: he would be determined by our actions rather than decide himself things of infinite importance like the salvation or damnation of souls. If we are predestined God, like an omnipotent mother, will steer us toward salvation, motivating us to perform salvific acts, etc. In turn, one that performs these acts can see them as a reasonable indication that he is being steered toward a good death (“final perseverance”, the grace of all graces).

Yes, a mother would not allow her child to freely choose hell. But then, this is why we say “God the Father”, and know that the God of the Christian isn’t the sugary “get-out-of-jail-card for everyone” some Proddies would want us to believe He is. God is terrible in his punishment, and wonderful in His love. His justice and His mercy, together, are His goodness. We can’t fully understand the inner working of this goodness, because we … aren’t God. But that’s what it is. God never told us we only have to “luv” and everything will be fine. Actually, Christianity shows that the contrary is the case.

Mundabor

Reprobation In Action

St Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, knew a thing or two about Reprobation.

 

The mystery of reprobation is one of the darkest but profoundest aspects of Christianity; one in which, as it has been beautifully written, the light of God is so powerful that the human mind cannot grasp it, and therefore perceives it as obscurity. At the same time, this obscurity allows us to better grasp – at least confusedly – the vastness of God’s infinite power, and to better abandon ourselves to God’s mercy.

Still, the observing mind cannot avoid looking around and seeing how the world around him corresponds in actual fact to what he has learnt.

We are, then, infallibly taught God allows a number of people sufficient grace (hence the name) to attain salvation, but without giving them that kind of gentle but factually irresistible grace (called efficacious grace) able to infallibly lead them toward salvation.

This means that those provided merely with sufficient grace all (as in: all) end up in hell, because in God what is willed is realised also, and therefore once God has decreed that Titius will be saved, said Titius will be provided, in addition to the sufficient grace given to all, with that efficacious grace that will infallibly lead him to salvation.

This simple concept leaves one initially rather baffled: God wants all to be saved (in abstract) but allows some to merit damnation out of their free will, by actuating a behaviour and espousing a way of thinking that is entirely of their own doing, and for which therefore they themselves, and not God, are entirely responsible.

Would not an infinitely merciful God allow all to be saved? No, because the goodness of God is revealed both in His mercy and in His justice. At the appointed time, everyone will see God’s mercy and justice perfectly explained and put in practice in himself as well as everyone else: that those who have been saved have been saved because of God’s mercy, and those who have been damned have been damned because of God’s justice, in a punishment they have completely deserved and, so to speak, made entirely out of their own hands.

How can, therefore, people choose in such a way as to merit reprobation? Well, look around you! Think first of all those who very openly and very publicly defy God’s laws, and you’ll have few doubts. But please think further. All those people who think it “cool” to have “gay friends” and can’t avoid mentioning them in the usual non-judgmental context, what are they doing if not entirely espousing perversion in their heart, if admittedly not in their physical behaviour? Have they not already turned their back to God in the most grievous way? Are they not accessory in sin, and very consciously so, every day of their life? How many of them are aware – at least with a sufficient degree of discernment – that the God of the Christians is completely opposed to such perversions, and considers them abominations, but insist in thinking God’s laws rather stupid, “outdated”, plain wrong, or entirely bonkers? Have they not made a choice; a fully conscious one; one taken in the full, or at least sufficient awareness of it being in frontal conflict with the God of the Christians? Where will they hide when the time comes?

The list of such people is very long, and is becoming longer by the day as Satan’s deadly virus of “inclusiveness” metastasises and spreads into the very fabric of our once Christian societies. Nor can in this matter be opposed the argument that “invincible ignorance” is at play: firstly because Christian opposition is still spread enough that almost no one could claim lack of awareness of it – actually, even all Hindu and Muslim colleagues I ever had were perfectly aware of that – and secondly, but crucially, because in such matters we have to deal with natural law, that is: with notions of what is right and wrong that God has put in everyone of us, and that do not admit a plea of ignorance. Everyone who is not eked by perversion is, to a degree, already perverted; better said, has already allowed himself to be so.

Now, think again of what we have reasoned above: that a number of people are provided by God with sufficient (actually: more than sufficient) grace to avoid damnation; but that they, entirely out of their own will, put themselves in a position of such opposition to God’s law that, unless repentance occurs (because of God’s grace: the source of all good) they will merit hell and experience God’s justice for everyone to see. Again, the reprobates deserve their punishment entirely. Millions do it daily, entirely out of their own free will. When confronted with God’s teaching they will insist, in more or less eloquent words, that God is wrong and they are right. They will, every day of their lives, worship the golden calf of the secular societies, “inclusiveness” and “acceptance” of every perversion in a twisted – nay, perverted – concept of tolerance, and a cruel parody of charity. It’s not necessary to attend to black masses to go to hell. Being in agreement with Satan at the moment of death is more than sufficient.

Reprobates are all around us, and in this generation it appears they are taking the upper hand in many Western, and certainly in almost all Anglo-Saxon societies (this means, seen from the other side of the coin, that God allows many reprobates to operate in these disgraceful times). We have no certainty about who is going to be saved or damned and can therefore – in the individual case – not have any certainty of any one person’s damnation, or of our own very much hoped, and daily prayed for, salvation come to that. Still, the Church teaches that there are signs of reprobation and signs of predestination, and it isn’t difficult even for an atheist to grasp the fact that if God exists, then Padre Pio always was a safer bet for salvation than Gore Vidal.

Every day now I see reprobation in action, as the number of those not caring to openly deny or defy God’s laws reaches the millions only in this once great United Kingdom. Some of them will, no doubt, be saved by a merciful God who will efficaciously help them to repentance at some point before they die; but it is a very reasonable assumption (and consistently supported by the smartest theologians before V II) that a great number of those who live in defiance of God and have not shown any sign of reformation also die in the same defiance (a defiance entirely chosen and willed in its content, though certainly undesired in its consequences), and pay the price of their folly.

Satan will get a huge harvest out of this sudden love for sodomy the West has developed in its madness. At the same time, ultimately not one of those who God wills to save will be lost because of the snares of the devil, and those who damn themselves will be the sole responsible for their own destiny.

We, who hope to be saved one day, will continue to fight our battle and stick to the Faith of our fathers, in the very reasonable hope that the words of the Dies Irae will be true for us:

Confutatis maledictis

Flammis acribus addictis

Voca me cum benedictis

Mundabor