Will God allow world war to chastise us for sins?
In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the Lord’s temple, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem. Early and often did the Lord, the God of their fathers, send his messengers … But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the Lord against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy.
– The Second Book of Chronicles, 36:14-16
MOST readers would turn the page after reading the headline. For them, there’s no such thing as sin, let alone fear of it and its eternal punishment. Even priests hardly discuss sin and hell.
Four out of five American Catholics used to regularly go to confession, monthly for 20 percent. Today, estimates go as low as 2 percent. And only half of the Filipino faithful regularly confess to priests, according to the Veritas Truth Survey done from January 1 to February 9 by the Archdiocese of Manila’s Radyo Veritas.
But as March 10 Mass readings on the Fourth Sunday of Lent warn, we, the faithful, must turn from sin, and He allows chastisements to awaken and lead us to repentance, reparation and redemption. And as this column shall ponder, the world may face grave chastisement to awaken and veer us away from hell-bound ways.
Wake-up call to sinners
Partly quoted above, the first reading from the Second Book of Chronicles (2 Chr. 36:14-16. 19-23) recalls Israel’s hardness of heart, committing grave transgressions and disregarding prophets calling for repentance. Thus, God’s Chosen People were punished: exiled to Babylon for 70 years.
That chastisement is also lamented in the Responsorial Psalm 137 (Ps 137:1-6): “By the streams of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. … And our despoilers urged us to be joyous: ‘Sing for us the songs of Zion!’ How could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?”
The second reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (Eph 2:4-10) extols God’s infinite love in forgiving our colossal transgressions: “God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ … that in the ages to come He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.”
Of course, His boundless love and mercy led God in His Son and Second Person to share our earthly life and suffer His Passion and Death for our salvation. So said our Lord Jesus Christ in the Mass Gospel reading from St. John (Jn 3:14-21), recalling the brass serpent nailed to a pole to save Israelites bitten by snakes for their idolatry in the Book of Numbers (Num 21:5-9):
“Jesus said to Nicodemus: ‘Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.’ For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
Is there ‘no remedy’ today?
For the faithful, the Third Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, and the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday, are days of joy with pink, not purple vestments, amid penitential preparations for our Lord’s Nativity and Resurrection.
But what gives pause in the Laetare or “Rejoice” Sunday readings on March 10 are Biblical punishments for faithless sinners: foreign conquest and exile, death from sin, the darkness of unbelief, and everlasting damnation.
Is our world set for similar chastisement? For sure, humanity has committed worse transgressions than Israel, from worldwide idolatry of wealth, fame, pleasure and power to wanton violence, oppression and war with distress, atrocities and death inflicted on the poor and the helpless dearest to God.
We bow to leaders commanding awesome armies, armaments and assets. And like ancient Israelites, our world has mocked and disdained voices calling for reverence, righteousness, repentance and reform. As history shows, nations lose faith and disdain religion as they get wealthier.
The question then is: Has our world’s faithless descent to ungodliness reached the point where, as the first Mass reading said of ancient Israel, there is “no remedy”? That is, the planet’s potentates and populaces are implacably serving worldly goals and idols and disregarding divine edicts and admonitions.
That may well be happening, with once-Christian nations leading self-centered, worldly ways. America proclaims itself the greatest country and, with nucle
ar-armed Western forces, aims to maintain global dominance against Orthodox Christian Russia and its allies China and Iran. Today’s Israel is decimating Hamas, but tens of thousands of women and children join even more Palestinians killed or injured since 2000.
The West is also bulldozing Christian family values and spreading divorce, abortion, contraception and sex outside Church marriage. Once called the “first daughter of the Church” as the first nation to become Christian after the fall of the Roman Empire, France amended its constitution on March 5 to make abortion a human right — the first country to do so. Meanwhile, Catholic conservatives decry Vatican actions and statements seen as watering down commandments against contraception, adultery, idolatry and apostasy.
With the former Christendom turning away from Christ, we recall Mary’s warnings in Fatima, La Salette and other apparitions: Without repentance, humanity faces severe chastisement if only to turn us from sin and damnation.
Today, after the pandemic’s ravages, God might just let global powers wage the war they have relentlessly armed for. But will it awaken us?
A Pew survey of 14 rich nations with fading religion found that global contagion strengthened faith for 10 percent (Germany) to 28 percent (America) of people. And Google searches for “prayer” rose 30 percent to record levels and have stayed 10 percent higher than pre-pandemic.
But don’t wait for pain before gain. Repent now. Then, hopefully, God may see less reason to chastise.