Fr. Campbell- “Children of Light” (Eph.5:8)
The
world desires to have power over us. It seeks to disturb our peace –
the peace of soul that should be there, since we are temples of the
Living God. St. Louis, King of France, believed so much in the presence
of God within the soul, that he used to kneel to adore the Holy Trinity
at the bedside of his sleeping son. If God dwells within our souls, then
there should be perfect order there, and perfect peace, since “peace is
the tranquility of order” (St. Augustine).
Those
who allow the world to have power over them often say with the
philosopher, Jean Paul Sartre, “Hell is other people.” Human nature is
so fragile and vulnerable. Sin has made us that way, the sin of our
first parents – Original Sin – which weakened our human nature
spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically. Then there is
personal sin, which has weakened us further, and sometimes almost
destroyed us.
And
as if we were not paranoid enough already, many are becoming convinced
that Big Brother is indeed watching us, just as George Orwell warned in
his novel, 1984. Who would have thought that “Big Brother” would
turn out to be our own governmental system, under the ultimate control,
of course, of a far more intelligent and sinister power? The words of
Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of England under Queen Victoria, are
often quoted: “The world is governed by very different personages from
what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.”
But
though we live in this world, we are not of this world, and we don’t
have to fear “Big Brother.” We are a different generation, “a chosen
race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people” (1Pet.2:9).
We are the generation born of water and the Spirit—the Holy Spirit of
God, the Holy Ghost. That is, we belong to the Holy Family. By grace we
are a new creation. The natural man is a victim of his genes, his
personal and family history, and his environment. But by grace man
transcends nature and becomes a new creature, begotten of God. We are
members of the Holy Family – Jesus, Mary, and Joseph – God’s family on
earth, which is, in fact, the Church. Our Brother, Jesus, is bigger and
stronger than any power on earth.
The
‘old man’ still tries to enslave us, but he is a liar. He tries to
convince us that we are incapable of avoiding sin by making us think:
“Oh, I’ve always been this way; I never really had a chance; the
temptations are too much for me; I have to do this; I’m too old to
change now.” These are the lies of the “old man”, the natural man,
actually the lies of the devil. But the word of God tells us:
“Now
we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is
from God, that we may know the things that have been given us by God.
These things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in
the learning of the Spirit, combining spiritual with spiritual. But the
sensual man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God,
for it is foolishness to him and he cannot understand, because it is
examined spiritually. But the spiritual man judges all things, and he
himself is judged by no man. For ‘who has known the mind of the Lord,
that he might instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ”
(1Cor.2:13-16).
The
contemporary church has given up judging according to the Spirit, and
it allows itself to be guided by the world, and judged by the world. It
speaks piously about human solidarity and the brotherhood of man.
Solidarity with the Herods, and the Hitlers, and the antichrists of this
age? Solidarity with the Margaret Sangers, and the New Worlders, and
the “Pro Choice” crowd? I think not!
Our
solidarity is with Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and with all who are signed
with the seal of the Living God through Baptism, and are fed with the
True Bread from Heaven, the Body and Blood of Christ. Here is the true
“civilization of peace and love” in which the unbelieving world can have
no place. There are still Philomenas and Maria Gorettis, Dominic Savios
and Don Boscos. There are still Augustines and Aquinases, Teresas and
Joans, Thomas Mores and John Fishers, waiting to be revealed by the
Spirit of God, living lives of intense faith like the saints of old,
ready to defend the faith of their fathers before the judges, or to
surrender their lives to the persecutors. (We know you’re out there!)
We
must stop defining ourselves in our own minds by what nature has given
us, and begin to see ourselves as sons and daughters of God, a new
creation. If our image of ourselves is that of the natural man, the
unregenerate man, we will go on behaving as natural men. But if we see
ourselves as children of God we will grow in wisdom and grace, as Jesus
did, under the careful guidance of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St.
Joseph.
These words of St. Paul are for us:
“This,
therefore, I say and testify in the Lord, that henceforward you are not
to walk as the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind, having
their understanding clouded in darkness, estranged from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their
heart. For they have given themselves up in despair to sensuality,
greedily practicing every kind of uncleanness. But you have not so
learned Christ – for surely you have heard of him and have been taught
in him (as truth is in Jesus) that as regards your former manner of life
you are to put off the old man, which is being corrupted through its
deceptive lusts. But be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on
the new man, which has been created according to God in justice and
holiness of truth” (Eph.4:17-24)… For you were once darkness, but now
you are light in the Lord. Walk, then, as children of light (for the
fruit of the light is in all goodness and justice and truth), testing
what is well pleasing to God; and have no fellowship with the unfruitful
works of darkness…” (Eph.5:8-11).