If the prophetic circumstance has seemed stuck for a long while–like a great wheel of jammed gears–the cogs appear to be loosening and gaining momentum.
The situation in the current world was perhaps best expressed in the roar of weather that caused festivities for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral last weekend to be altered in Paris. The cathedral, praise God, as it has through the centuries, through plague, paganism, and irreverence, through attack, prevailed. As a report noted:
“Howling winds couldn’t stop Notre Dame Cathedral’s heart from beating again. The ceremony, initially planned to begin on the forecourt, was moved entirely inside due to unusually fierce December winds sweeping across the Île de la Cité, flanked by the River Seine.
“Yet the occasion lost none of its splendor. Inside the luminous nave, choirs sang psalms, and the cathedral’s mighty organ, silent for nearly five years, thundered to life in a triumphant interplay of melodies.”
Remarked one of the attendees, President-elect Donald J. Trump, upon arrival in France, “It certainly seems like the world is going a little crazy right now.”
Much is in motion. Drones hover mysteriously. Taiwan braces. There is upset in South Korea. And in Ukraine, in Israel. And now the specter of a dramatically changed Syria.
That could be good or bad for the U.S. (depending on how it affects a Russian port), but many are asking if a third world war is already in progress.
We can also look to metaphor when it comes to Syria and one of its ancient demon-gods–“Mammon.”
That was the Syriac word for an idol worshiped as the god of riches. This too is afoot in the world.
Not to be trifled with, that “god,” which in the Middle Ages was sometimes included in the hierarchy of Hell, meaning, in Hebrew (ממון), “money.”
Gregory of Nyssa asserted that Mammon [pictured below] was another name for Beelzebub.
In the fourth century, Cyprian and Jerome related Mammon to greed and greed as an evil master that enslaves, and John Chrysostom also personified Mammon as greed.
Descriptions of Mammon closely resemble those of Lucifuge Rofocale as a demon who delivers wealth (in The Grand Grimoire).
The word was adopted to modern Hebrew to mean wealth and never before has the world been so inundated and obsessed with this.
The Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke both quote Jesus Christ using the word in a phrase often rendered in English as “You cannot serve both God and mammon.”
Never has there been more greed and gouging, never more money. Billionaires populate the landscape.
But there at Notre Dame was the humility of Mary and a grand confirmation–at this cathedral that replaced a sacred pagan grove or temple–of the potency bequeathed her by Jesus.
One also notes that the cathedral was completed in the twelfth century, just before the great bubonic plague (or “Black Death”) that cost the lives of a quarter to a third of those living in Christian Europe.
A sign, is she.
During the plague, Masses and vigils were likely more frequent, as people sought Divine intervention and solace.
Is that time upon us again?
[resource: The Last Secret]
[A look at the apparitions of the Virgin Mary throughout Church history, from the year 40 A.D. to present! You’ll be astonished at the number. This is the first comprehensive history of Mary’s apparitions — how they helped form history, how Mary intervened to institute the Church, to heal, and to save her people from war and plague — to the current day. Originally released in 1997 and now newly republished, this book is historical but will amaze you with the way the Blessed Mother helped build up what is now the oldest institution on earth! Heavy on history, it’s a work meant to be a reference guide as well as a vehicle for long-term mediation.]