(Today’s Gospel):
Jesus said to the crowds,
“When you see a cloud rising in the west
you say immediately that it is going to rain–and so it does;
and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south
you say that it is going to be hot–and so it is.
You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky;
why do you not know how to interpret the present time? (Luke: 12:54-59)
Let’s take a quick whirl through the news (such tumult!) and its spiritual implications.
Encouraging it was, the attitude of an abuse survivor in New York, Thomas McGarvey, who told The Times that he still attends Mass weekly at Our Lady of the Cenacle Church despite a devastating series of incidents that lasted for fourteen years. Though he remains skeptical of clergymen and the Vatican hierarchy, Mr. McGarvey said he has never allowed the abuse to damage his faith in God. To do so, he said, would let evil win. “God gave the devil over a hundred years to try to destroy his Church,” he said. “The best way that he’s going to try to do that is within. I’m not going to let the devil get the best of me.”
There is that migrant “Caravan.”
This is of particular note not only as regards politics but because it dramatically falls into line with prophecies we have posted from several sources for years — predictions that if the U.S. didn’t tend to the needs of of the Third World, in their native lands, the Third World — those lands — would come to us. And of course, they are knocking on our door. It also falls into place as far as the prophecy given Dr. Howard Storm that if the U.S. hoarded resources, and didn’t morally reform, it would be turned into “a Third-World country.” Glimmerings?
Most interesting, as far as prophecy and “invasion,” is how many through the years have foreseen future incursions by Russians and/or Chinese. Glimmerings of this are espied in the rampant computer hacking (Russia and China are attacking many websites; they have been suspected of attacking even Catholic ones, including here); eavesdropping (most recently of President Trump’s iPhone); attempts to disrupt the U.S. via false stories on social media; and so on. The tensions — from trade to espionage — are growing.
If one believes certain 
prophecies, natural disasters or some form of collapse will open the way to an actual military invasion by one or both of those powers, and so it was a bit disconcerting to hear recent words from the Kremlin, where Vladimir Putin, who advertises himself as Christian Orthodox, has boasted of a new missile that can take out Florida without our ability to do anything about it — and has threatened to reignite the arms race, saying that there would be no survivors in the U.S. if an all-out war erupted, and that Russians would be ready to be “martyrs.” (Would he?) Meanwhile, in the U.S. itself, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, Lt. Gen. Bill Hodges, told a forum less than two weeks ago,”I think in fifteen years — it’s not inevitable — but it is a very strong likelihood that we will be at war with China.”
Another frail relationship: Saudi Arabia, which has long been brutal, saturated in mammon (at least those princes), and until further notice should be held at arm’s length. It is obvious that Saudi Arabian operatives heinously murdered an Arab journalist who is now situated in the U.S. — by some accounts by sawing off his limbs while he was still alive. It reminds us of how the early Church martyrs were tortured/killed. All this has reached a peak in the headlines the same day a Mass reading from Matthew 10:28 said: “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Fear not.
As for other prophecies of civil war — this is also bursting into mainstream discussion. Never in the lifetimes of anyone reading this has there been such division and vitriol in North America. And now: bomb scares (and months before that, white powder sent to the opposite party). Both sides of the political debate are living in media bubbles — separate realities. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll out last week found that “an overwhelming majority of Americans say the United States is greatly divided. Few Americans believe those stark divisions will get better anytime soon. The newly released survey found that more than 8 in 10 Americans think the country is greatly divided about important values. Just 20 percent of Americans say they think the country will become less divided over the next few years, and 39 percent think things will get worse. A strong majority of Americans, 77 percent, say they are dissatisfied with the state of politics in the country.”
In one article about the current divide, Tim Leatherby, 57, a former Marine, said he was concerned the country was plunging toward a “civil war.” We are currently living in media bubbles, almost in states of hypnosis — separate realities, with little common ground. “I did my time in the fight and I don’t want to fight again here,” said Leatherby.
Memo to the mainstream Church: in light of what unfolds, those who have spurned or even scorned prophecy would best take a second look. As for anger: how often, let us ask ourselves, is it rooted in hatred?
Let’s not undersell materialism as cause for chastisement. Dollar bills –mammon — fly in the wind. Lotteries have reached $1.5 billion. You can gamble anywhere from a gas station to a supermarket to a Las Vegas-Atlantic-City-Mississippi–offshore casino. Or the largest of them all: the stock market. Here’s an item: “China produced two new billionaires a week last year as the fortunes of the world’s ultra-rich soared by a record amount, Swiss banking giant UBS and auditors PwC said Friday (Oct 26). Billionaires’ wealth enjoyed its greatest-ever increase in 2017, rising 19 per cent to US$8.9 trillion shared among 2,158 individuals, said the report.”
Money in torrents. A house in California is up for sale at $245 million and a three-bedroom apartment in an unexceptional neighborhood of Manhattan is $2.5 million.
Recent Mass readings come into play here, also, such as the one October 22 that said (Luke 12) “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.’”
Yet in the midst of it, miracles. Christ shows through all. A 150-year-old church in Wakefield, Massachusetts, is struck by lightning and about everything burns, but a large portrait of Jesus.
[resources: Where the Cross Stands]
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