Summary of Headings
- G.K. Chesterton: A Prophetic Author
- The Villain of Modernization
- Faith as the Enemy of Modernity
- The Perception of Tradition
- The Struggle and the Badge of Honor
- Moral Indifference and Leadership
- Standing Firm in Faith
- Obedience to God's Command
- The Call to Action
G.K. Chesterton: A Prophetic Author
Most all of you know that one of my favorite authors is G.K. Chesterton. And actually, I consider him perhaps the greatest author of the 20th century. Certainly close to it, if not, actually. Oh, I also consider him something of a prophet. If anyone doubts that, you can look up what's going on in England right now with the with the Muslims in the government and then read his book, The Flying In. And it's pretty spot on terrifyingly spot on. So please appreciate Chesterton's prophetic nature.
The Villain of Modernization
I don't want to talk too much about it about that when I do want to talk about one of his other books called The Ball in the Cross. The villain in the story is aptly named Dr. Lucifer. So you know right away that he's a bad guy. If he wants to fix Britain, he thinks it's outdated. He thinks it's left behind the rest of the world. So he wants to fix it and modernize it. Bringing it up to date with everybody else. But he has three main enemies who fight against this, and he are who he perceives as enemies to this. The two that the for the story follows more closely are a fervent atheist and a passionate and fervent Catholic who are willing to and desire to fight a duel for their face to prove. The the conviction that they have their face and they go through many adventures.
Faith as the Enemy of Modernity
The government and Dr. Lucifer and others are always trying to get them to stop fighting over over these truths that they are holding so closely to them memory. And unfortunately, they can't ever fight their duel. They're chased from one spot to the other until eventually they end up accidentally trapped in an insane asylum. One of Dr. Lewis offers insane asylum because it turns out that he has turned the entire island of Britain into essentially one big loony bin. And everybody has to prove their sanity in order to leave, in order to be able to go outside the walls. And the way that you prove your sanity is to have no convictions whatsoever. And believe it or not, I am going somewhere with this. This is not a book report, but this is the great enemy of the modern world that we see.
The Perception of Tradition
Anybody who actually has faith, faith, not just faith, but faith enough to live their faith and to die for their faith and to profess their faith publicly and unequivocally, to have no difficulties whatsoever, to stand for their faith, to defend their faith, to fight for their faith. That is the thing that the modern world hates, above all things. And as a who was the inspiration for this little this little anecdote is that the pope's autobiography came out not too long ago. And he refers to traditional Catholics, essentially as people who are psychologically disturbed, people who have an unhealthy obsession with the past, who have an inability to move forward, and inability to see progress and inability to actually deal with the real world and therefore live in a sort of fantasy.
The Struggle and the Badge of Honor
Now, I'm paraphrasing, but these are very close to the words that he actually said. He doesn't come out and say directly that we're insane, but the implication is there. And you can hear the words of Dr. Lucifer from the book in his words, Why are traditional Catholics such an enemy? Why is tradition such an enemy to the modern world and the modern church? Conviction. Faith. Truth. Things which are directly from God. But like the heroes of the story, the ball and the cross, it is important for us to accept the title. Yes, we are insane according to the rest of the world. So what? We are different. We are outcasts. We are cultish weirdos on the fringe of society. That's a badge of honor.
Moral Indifference and Leadership
It's lamentable that the rest of the world sees this as a problem. First they're going to treat us with indifference as they already do, as kind of just, well, you know, they're the the scraps, the refuse of the world, and they can just kind of form the little groups off in the corner. And provided they don't actually push their agenda, we'll just leave them alone. But we treat were treated with a sort of indifference, a condescension that we are the idiots, we are the we are the town fools that run around babbling all the time. Making no sense whatsoever. And that's how they see us. And so as an act of condescension, they don't bother with us.
Standing Firm in Faith
But the problem is they can't ignore us. And so the next step is persecution, incarceration, whatever. Just get us away. Get us away from the rest of society so we don't infect anybody else with our passion and our love for truth or anything else. And that is where persecution comes in. That is where incarceration comes in. That is where getting locked away in loony bins comes in, whatever else it may be. Whatever shape that may take. You've already been treated like this for a long time now. Remember, Chesterton wrote this book back in the early 1900s when the entire world had a concept of faith. Now we are living in a world that has completely rejected the very idea of faith. Right up to the very highest seats in the Vatican.
Obedience to God's Command
The moral indifference is. The theological turpitude of just not being able to define what is truth or what is good or what is evil, but rather to imply that all faiths can lead to God, to imply that there is no black and white right and wrong, that there is no way for us to determine what is good, what is evil. Who am I to judge? We have loads and loads and loads of comments like that, which can clearly indicate the moral indifference to some, that is from the very leaders of our church who are supposed to be the ones guiding us and leading us. Now, this sermon is not about attacking them. It's about what we need to do, regardless of who tells us that we are behind the times where regressive moves.
The Call to Action
We're moral retards or whatever else. It doesn't matter again where those things as a badge of honor because as Christ said, what they do to you, they have done to me first any sort of persecution or condescension that we have to put up with, with the rest of the world for being different, for standing out and for actually believing what we believe is a good thing. Because we are supposed to be witnesses to our faith. We are supposed to be the ones who are revealing our Lord Jesus Christ to the rest of the world who so desperately need it. The laziness of the modern world, not caring enough about their faith, not caring enough about God and their salvation to just let themselves be lulled to sleep by the promise of absolute indifference to some.
The acedia that comes from just simply accepting everybody as they are the so-called theology of niceness. That cannot be who we are. While we do not condemn anybody to hell, and while we do not attack anybody for anything else, we simply cannot stand by and let everybody go down that path. We must stand strong. We must profess our faith clearly and unequivocally. Without fudging around to try to not to insult anybody else. Our faith must be lived. Our faith must be real. But we must be passionate and absolutely convinced of it. And guess what? We are going to be considered insane. We are going to be considered disturbed. Dangerous to the state. Dangers to society. Dangers to ourselves.
Cult members on the brink of mass suicide or whatever else. They're going to say whatever they want to say about us. And it's not going to make any difference if the world in this world declares us as being unfortunately insane. It's because they have lost their mind. They have lost their way. They have lost all sight of the truth. If they claim that we are overly rigid and too scrupulous and whatever else it is, because they have lost all moral principles. We are all still sinners and we need to fix our sins. And we need to correct ourselves with God. We need to find our way to heaven. But the fact of the matter is, we cannot do so unless we are absolutely convinced that we are going to fight for our Lord Jesus Christ and His rights no matter what.
And why do we do this? Why do we prefer to stand out? Why do we accept to be different? Why do we accept to be persecuted and marked and accused of just being insane and condescended to by the by the populace outside? Why do we prefer to do that? Because our lady asked for it. Our mother commanded it. Whatsoever. He asked you, do you? He didn't think I was going to wrap it around back to the gospel, did you? Whatever he asks of you, too. He. That is the command from Our Lady herself, and that is the only thing that matters to us. That is why for us, there can be no indifferent ism. There can be no criticism. There can be no acedia. There can be no laziness. In our faith and how we practice our faith. It must be absolute. Whatever it is he asks of you, we must do.
Why? Because he is God. The rest of the world may think that the Ten Commandments are not written in stone, but we know better. They may think that it's all pretty squishy and can be fudged around here and there. They may think that religion is a nice little hobby for people to get together on Sundays. But keep it hidden. Keep it tucked away. Don't demonstrate. Don't stand out. But we know better. They may think that none of this is worth dying for or changing our lives for. We know different. But now we must live that way. We must obey this command. We must follow the advice of Saint Paul throughout that beautiful epistle.
What whatsoever? He tells you. Do you? You can imagine the face on the people who are the people who are serving at that wedding when. They are there to get more wine and our Lord is telling them to fill these pots full of water. You can imagine their face like, where is this going? But they followed and obeyed and the fruit is there. We also must have the same reaction. We don't understand why God lets things happen or why we have to go through certain things, or why we don't always get our way or whatever else would be the case. But whatever he asks of us, we must do as obedient children to our mother.
The Ten Commandments. We must obey the law. Four commands of authorities. We must follow. We must continue to follow our Lord Jesus Christ because we know Him to be God and because our mother, who is His mother, has commanded it. We must make sure that we have given all of ourselves to this fight, because that is what it means to be faithful Catholics and what it means to be faithful to tradition. We can be labeled as insane. That's a small price to pay for holding the truth and standing for Christ. We can be persecuted and even martyred. That's a small price to pay to be true witnesses of the faith that we have received. We can deny ourselves those creature comforts and the things that that that the supper forks that dull our senses. But that's a small price to pay to fervently live our Catholic faith because our mother has commanded it. And we will be obedient children to our mother. We must dedicate ourselves to this fight, whatever it is that he asks, We will obey because we wish to obey our mother and to please her.
In this exploration of Chesterton's prophetic insight and the clash between traditional Catholic values and modern indifference, we delve into the narrative of "The Ball in the Cross." The story highlights the struggle between faith and modernization, where conviction becomes the enemy of the modern world. Chesterton's portrayal of Dr. Lucifer's attempt to fix Britain by eradicating conviction reflects the contemporary challenge faced by those upholding their faith amidst societal pressures to conform.
The text illustrates how traditional Catholics are often perceived as outcasts by a world that resists conviction, truth, and faith. Despite facing condescension and potential persecution, the narrative urges believers to embrace their distinctiveness as a badge of honor. It emphasizes the importance of standing firm in faith, even when labeled as insane or dangerous by society. The call to action is clear: to live passionately and unequivocally, witnessing to Christ and obeying the commands of faith, regardless of external pressures.
Ultimately, the message calls for unwavering dedication to faith and tradition, guided by the commands of Our Lady and the teachings of Christ. It is a reminder that true adherence to faith may lead to societal rejection but remains a small price to pay for the pursuit of truth and the fulfillment of divine commands.