Novus Ordo “Newspeak”
On
the Sunday after Corpus Christ we contemplate the mystery of the Holy
Eucharist, pondering the words of Our Lord: “Amen, amen I say to you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you
shall not have life in you” (Jn.6:54). Jesus does not speak of the
natural life shared by every descendent of Adam and Eve, but of the
supernatural life, the spiritual life, the life that comes with
Sanctifying Grace through Baptism. We are sons of God by adoption,
sharing His life through grace. We are made holy, united in a holy union
with the angels and the saints. We are alive! And this life is
sustained in us by eating the Bread of Life in the Sacrament of the Holy
Eucharist. This life is not given to those who have refused the Lord’s
invitation to the Wedding Feast.
The
natural man knows nothing of this life. After Jesus offered His
disciples His flesh to eat and His Blood to drink many of them walked
away. Jesus explained to the Apostles, “This is why I have said to you,
‘no one can come to me unless he is enabled to do so by my Father’”
(Jn.6:66). When He asked the twelve if they would also leave, Peter
answered: “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast words of everlasting
life, and we have come to believe and to know that thou art the Christ,
the Son of God” (Jn.6:69,70).
The
Apostles had faith, but the natural man, the man without faith, cannot
understand the things of the spirit. Those who do not have faith are
like zombies, who do not know they are dead. Not only do they not
understand spiritual things, but they oppose them, persecuting the
children of God. As Jesus says, “He who is not with me is against me;
and he who does not gather with me scatters” (Lk.11:23).
George Orwell - Newspeak - 1984
The
natural man plans our lives for us – our education, our family life,
our work, our clothing, our leisure, our entertainment. Few people are
left who can even think for themselves, because he has also taken
command of the language, “dumbing it down”, and loading it with words
and phrases that disguise the greatest evil as something good, phrases
like “pro choice”. Does a woman have a right to choose to kill her
unborn child? The Lord’s Commandment says: “Thou shalt not kill!” The
child in the womb is a precious human being who may someday be led to
the Font of Baptism and be fed with the Bread of Life. But those who
can’t get beyond the words “pro choice” cannot see the truth. Those who
control our language control our thoughts.
Almost
seventy years ago George Orwell wrote his prophetic novel, “1984.” In
1948 he wrote an appendix in which he explained the principles of
“Newspeak”, the language which, in the novel, was being created to
replace traditional English, which was being abandoned in the new world
of English Socialism (IngSoc): “The purpose of Newspeak was not only to
provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits
proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought
impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once
and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought – that is, a
thought diverging from the principles of IngSoc – should be literally
unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words.” The
great works of English literature would have to be translated into
Newspeak, a task which “meant that no book written before approximately
1960 could be translated as a whole” (The Principles of Newspeak, newspeakdictionary.com).
“George
Orwell saw not only the poverty but the danger of a language that had
become purely contemporary. A language without roots, without the
authority of generations implicit in its usages, is the perfect
instrument for tyranny” (Joe Sobran, We’re Losing Shakespeare).
Does
mention of the year “1960” ring a bell? In that year preparations were
in progress for the planned revolutionary council, Vatican II, which
specialized in “doublespeak.” It would rewrite Church history and
doctrine, downplaying practically everything written before 1960, and
imposing the Church’s variety of Newspeak upon unsuspecting Catholics
throughout the world. As a result, most Catholics who follow the
Newchurch speak a new impoverished language which renders them incapable
of understanding traditional Catholicism. No longer able to think for
themselves, they have become the brainwashed drones of Orwell’s novel.
Who
has done this? God knows who they are, and they must face His judgment.
Jesus speaks of those who have been the cause of scandal: “But whoever
causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it were better
for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck, and to be
drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of scandals!
For it must needs be that scandals come, but woe to the man through whom
scandal does come!” (Mt.18:6,7).
And
are we going to let them do this to us? How about a little righteous
indignation against those who are harassing our souls! There is a place
for just anger – not the irrational anger that causes us to lose control
of ourselves and strike out at someone – but righteous anger, Godly
anger. Should we not be angry when confronted with their odious work –
their ridicule, their lies, their blasphemies, their allurements, their
seductions, their lewd performances, their satanic music, their places
of carnal delights? Are we going to let them destroy our souls? That
moral monster at the other end of the shameful image that flashes upon
our computer screen is no friend, but an agent of Hell. May St. Michael
and the Heavenly Armies strike at such and send them reeling into the
bottomless pit where they belong!
But
we have true friends with whom we share a spiritual language which is
hidden from the worldly. That language is prayer. We can call upon Holy
Mary, the Mother of God, to go to war for us against the Dragon, and
upon a host of Heavenly Angels and Saints to pray without ceasing for
our victory over the powers of Hell.