Malaise is back and perhaps worse yet to come

Malaise is back.  And something worse lurks.

Pollster John Zogby, reporting last week on his reading of the "mood of the country," says that the American public is increasingly disgruntled over economic and political news.

"The public mood is not just dark. What's darker than dark?" Zogby said. "The mood is getting ugly."

Getting ugly?

Not very reassuring words at a time when conditions and events seem to be lining up in ways that would indicate certain prophetic warnings could be on their way toward fulfillment.

But should we be surprised?

"People just don't have faith that anybody is solving their problems." Zogby said. An interesting choice of words.  A lack of faith.

Onlookers try to fathom a meteor crater in Peru that has emitted noxious gases that have sickened some and baffled scientists.

In that comment, perhaps, lies the root of the problem.  Too many of us today expect other people to solve our problems when traditionally we have looked upon problems as something that we should try to solve on our own initiative, given God's blessing and the skills He has bestowed upon us.  And when solutions did not appear self evident, we asked for divine assistance or, at the least, that God's will be done.

We have traded faith in God with faith in humanity, or human science.  And many are, perhaps wisely, questioning that faith.

Too often it appears that we've morphed into a culture of people who no longer believe that we have a) any real control of events in their lives and/or b) no particularly responsibility for the actions they take.  As for the former, it's little wonder. The headlines on a recent morning, if viewed with eyes seeking "signs of the times," are not encouraging.  "Iran draws up plan to bomb Israel."  "Zionist allies will get answer on October 12," warns an Iranian government spokesman. " "Wheelchair bound woman dies after being shocked with a Taser 10 times."  "U.S. attorney busted after going to Detroit for sex with 5 year old." "Catholics more concerned with climate change than Protestants."

We see uncertainty in global politics and markets, and discouraging indications at home that immorality and senseless violence are still on the rise.  There are sharp disputes on what immigration should be permitted, and whether open borders are permissible given the today's security threats, while there is increasing evidence that an elite quasi-governmental organization is moving to erase borders with Canada and Mexico without bothering to seek public approval or constitutional change.  There is an unhealthy fascination with celebrity, especially when well-known individuals flaunt the rules, indulge in abusive behavior and push the boundaries of decorum to further extremes.  Up is down, black is white, good is often called evil, and evil is too often called good.

Not a day, nay, not an hour goes by without another scare headline or newscast on global warming or rapid climate change.  No doubt this contributes to a significant amount of concern among many.  There is little doubt that we are seeing unusual weather patterns and even an inordinate amount of ice melt in the Arctic. What is less certain is what is causing it.  Is it human interference with nature, or is it something a bit more difficult for people to grasp: could it be that the earth itself is reacting to the selfishness, greed and carelessness of humankind?  In simpler words, does global climate change have, at its roots, a spiritual cause?

We ask this because no less than Pope Benedict XVI has begun to issue a plea that humanity cooperate with the environment for the common good. "I desire that, on the part of everyone, cooperation intensify to the end of promoting the common good, development, and the safeguarding of creation, returning to the alliance between man and the environment, which must be a mirror of God the Creator, from whom we come and toward whom we are journeying," he said Sunday, echoing a theme he has touched on several times this year.  Sometimes it is difficult to know when the pope is speaking on a diplomatic or political levels and when he is touching upon more spiritual topics, which is why we must pray for discernment and watch for other relevant "signs" that may give us insight.

We felt led recently to read the 24th chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, and were struck by the immediacy of its words and the relevance they may have for us.  It is a portion of the book that is called "the apocalypse of Isaiah," and it refers to the events leading up to and including the End Times though, as we must point out, not necessarily the very End of Time.  A sample:

"Lo, the Lord empties the land and lays it waste; he turns it upside down, scattering its inhabitants;...

"Layman and priest alike, servant and master, The maid as her mistress, the buyer as the seller, The lender as the borrower, the creditor as the debtor. ..."

"The earth is polluted because of its inhabitants, who have transgressed laws, violated statutes, broken the ancient covenant.  Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants pay for their guilt." (Is.24: 1-2, 5-6)

There is no doubt that our culture is seeing the transgression of laws and the violation of statutes at an historically unprecedented rate.  But what is the ancient covenant? Adam and Eve were commanded to go forth and till the earth, to be fruitful and multiply.  This stewardship command was reiterated to Noah and his descendents, and for thousands of years since it has been more or less obeyed.

Or at least until recently.  Earlier this year there was a report that, for the first time in human history, more people live in cities than in the countryside.  There are very few people who "till the earth."  Most of the earth's inhabitants work in factories, offices, small shops and schools.  The people of the earth rely on technology and big corporations to produce most of the food, no more so than here in the U.S.

At least in the West, that part of the world whose culture is rooted in Christianity, our fruitfulness is in question, and our multiplication has instead turned to subtraction (and division).  Birth rates are historically low. Europe's native populations are imploding.  Russia even declared an unprecedented Day of Procreation last week in a bid to avoid population oblivion, its populace encouraged to stay home and attempt to make new Russian babies.  A modern culture of contraception and abortion - praised by secularists as a new nirvana for the last half century - has instead led to declining populations and worries that the next generation will have insufficient numbers to handle the retirement needs of the previous ones, not to forget the enormous debt service left by decades of profligate public and private spending.  These, indeed, are the Wages of the Culture of Death.

If this is the "ancient covenant" - and you are free to decide for yourself if the shoe fits - then we have indeed broken it, and for this the earth itself may choose to rebel against us.

And how about the heavens?  Scientists visiting the site of a meteor strike in Peru, near Lake Titicaca, are amazed at the magnetic activity and the unusual pattern of the crater.  Earlier there were reports of scores of villagers near the site who were overcome by noxious gases, something that scientists immediately said could not happen as science understands it.  But in Revelations there is the vision of the seven angels who hold the bowls of the plagues, including pestilence.  Could it be that this strange incident is, if not one of the seven, perhaps a foreshadowing of what is yet to come?

These are tumultuous times.  There are unresolved, and apparently unsolvable conflicts in the Middle East that appear to be building to a climax.  There is a growing awareness of a scarcity in important resources, chief among them oil, and oil is the engine that drives our modern consumer world.  There are emerging new alliances among nations, and we can't think of a one of them that is good news for traditional Christian-centered civilization.  We stand on the brink of war once more.

And yet a major American university welcomes to its campus one of the leading voices of anti-Semitism in that part of the world, and its students cheer him as he declares that he is there fighting for “freedom of expression.”  The head of the university declares that even Hitler would be invited under today’s relaxed rules of political debate.

Is it any wonder people have a dark view of things?

Yet as Christians we are not meant to live our lives with a spirit of fear but rather a spirit of love and anticipation of the fulfillment of promises God has made long ago.  To develop this spirit it is important that we can interpret and understand the signs of the times, and that instead of despair and malaise we find that our faith leads us to hope, and hope to divinely-inspired love and charity. And the foundation for this faith must begin and end with prayer.

Prophecy, as it is understood by most orthodox Catholic scholars now as it was in the past, does not say that the Antichrist and the End of Times is right around the corner.  Instead there is another period of trial, the Minor Chastisement, which we may well already have entered.  It will involve earth movements and climate upheaval, as well as war.  This period will end in triumph for the Church and usher in an age of peace such as the world has not seen.  Later - much later - comes the apostasy and Antichrist.

Our challenge is to recognize this time, if it indeed is upon us, and be strong in our faith so that we can become beacons of Christ's light to others, and emerge, if God wills it, on the other side of the chaos and confusion with our faith intact.

Let us return to the practice of our faith and keep the ways of God.  Let us pray and be not afraid!