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Fr. Jordi Rivero  | August 12, 2021 | Audio 

 

We are living in decisive times
 

A person’s time on earth has always been decisive because it determines our fate for eternity. But our times are decisive in a particular way: It will not be possible to remain as Christians simply based on family tradition. We have entered a new stage of the spiritual battle, a new world order with an aggressive anti-Christian ideology. As we are pressured to accept immoral practices, each person will have to decide: Christ or the world.

 

We will be tempted to capitulate and justify it, saying: “I had to do it, or I would be fined,” or “I would lose my job”… Let us not fool ourselves. We make a choice. There is no discipleship of Christ without the Cross.

 

Christians have come to this crossroads since the beginning. When Jesus was taken prisoner, Peter followed Him at a distance. His love was still imperfect, and he could not overcome his fear.[1] Another crossroad was when Henry VIII of England declared himself the head of the Church. Only one bishop in all of England, St. John Fisher[2], remained faithful. He was martyred. The acquiescence of the other bishops sealed a division in the Body of Christ that remains today. Yet, a remnant of faithful priests and laypersons held to the faith, and many were martyred in the ensuing years.

 

History gives us a vital lesson: Few remain at the Cross. Will we? Only if our love, like Peter’s, is perfected through suffering. It is for these decisive times that the Lord has been forming us in Love Crucified. We need to live our identity and mission and deepen our response every day.

 

 

What are we facing?

 

Cardinal Karol Wojtyla visited the USA in 1976, two years before being elected pope. His words were like a lightning bolt amidst the festive spirit of the Eucharistic Congress. He said:
 

We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel versus the anti-Gospel.

We must be prepared to undergo great trials in the not-too-distant future; trials that will require us to be ready to give up even our lives, and a total gift of self to Christ and for Christ. Through your prayers and mine, it is possible to alleviate this tribulation, but it is no longer possible to avert it… How many times has the renewal of the Church been brought about in blood! It will not be different this time[3].
 

Cardinal Wojtyla had personal experience of the horrific suffering caused by the Nazis and Communists and the subsequent enslavement of many countries. He was not speaking lightly when he told us that we are facing “the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through,” that it is now “inevitable” and will be “brought about in blood.”

 

 

The confrontation is between the Church and the anti-Church.

 

The battle lines are drawn. We are either the Church or the anti-Church. Now the Church appears weak and infiltrated by the anti-Church, but it will be purified by fire. We must remain humbly united with Mary in obedience at the foot of the Cross. One with Him in suffering. Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) wrote:

 

The church will become small… The real crisis has scarcely begun.

We will have to count on terrific upheavals...[4]
 

The book of Revelation portrays this battle as the confrontation between the Church and the evil demands of the pagan state. The state is under the power of the “Red Dragon” (Rev 12) and functions as a godless anti-Church. This secular religion, formed by the enemies of God, worships the emperor and persecutes the Woman (The Church, Mary). The same Scriptures warn us that the Anti-Church appears to be invincible and multitudes bow to its demands; therefore the faithful are encouraged to persevere when threatened with martyrdom. Christ will conquer the anti-Church through a faithful remnant with Mary. Those are the victims of love of the faithful Church who shed their blood and persevere through the tribulation. The blood of the martyrs united to Christ’s wins the victory (See the last secret of Fatima[5].)

 

 

The enemy works while we sleep

 

The Popes, Mary, and the saints[6] have warned us about the battle but were mostly ignored. Meanwhile, the anti-Church works tirelessly to control the vital elements of society: government agencies, the media, schools and universities, corporations, sports, and even the so-called fact-checkers.

 

How can so many diverse institutions work in unison to effectively impose the anti-Gospel? Saint Paul tells us who is at the helm there:

 

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph 6,12)
 

Satan needs relatively few in his inner circle of collaborators, those who sell their souls for power and money. To these few, he gives the power to deceive vulnerable multitudes because their hearts did not receive God.

 

An example: On Good Friday, the main plotters were religious men attached to their power and positions. Satan used them to mobilize a mob to cry out, “Crucify him.” Many of them had walked with Jesus and welcomed Him in Jerusalem, but their hearts remained closed.

 

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. (Mt 23:37)

 

We must be immersed in the Word and the Path that the Lord has given us. Seek to repent and go deep, avoid being distracted by the anti-Gospel that is all around us. 

 

The Passion continues throughout history. We are seeing it now: A powerful elite is deceiving the multitude around us, pressuring us to think and act as they do. In other words, to yield to the pressure of the anti-Church. The multitude is mixed: Some are aggressive, while others think that we are foolish and are trying to “help” us.  

 

 

The anti-Church gains control through deception

 

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ”. (2 Cor 4:4).
 

Blinded minds do not love the Gospel’s truths and moral principles. They fall for the anti-Gospel because they offer what they crave. The anti-Church adopts exalted ideals as bait to deceive and enslave: The French Revolution promised “liberty,” “fraternity” and “equality”; the Communist claim to be for social justice. 
 

Journalism has been replaced by propaganda. Lies are repeated until they are accepted as dogmas that determine what is right and wrong. The anti-Church tells us to “follow the science” but shuts down qualified persons that do not support its agenda. No honest discussion of facts is allowed. They say that data does not lie, but those who work with it can.

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St. John Paul II warned us about this agenda 28 years ago:

 

Vast sectors of society are confused about what is right and what is wrong, and are at the mercy of those with the power to “create” opinion and impose it on others[7].” 
 

“Progress”, for the anti-Church, means dismantling everything Christian by portraying it as oppressive. Example: The cancellation of St. Junipero Serra. Their priority is to destroy what is most sacred: human life, the family, sexuality. Having legalized the massacre of the unborn, it goes after the children, overriding parental authority[8] to impose LGTB indoctrination, gender theories and to advocate for the right to surgical gender “transitions[9].

 

The anti-Church exploits the evils of the past to condemn the entire history of the nation. It re-writes history books to cancel or distort all that does not fit their narrative. It promises to fix all problems through revolution. It exploits anger and frustration to incite riots. It calls for defunding the police. It violates our God-given constitutional rights to religion and free speech.
 

Those who object are labeled as terrorists, hate mongers, agents of misinformation, radicals, homophobes, sexists, and bigots. They are excluded from society. They are stripped of professional credentials, lose employment, fined, defamed, censored, canceled from social platforms, even brought to court, and imprisoned.
 

 

The Great Reset

 

The Great Reset [here] [video] is one of the objectives of the oligarchy of the anti-Church to establish a New World Order. Here One of their many organizations, the World Economic Forum (WEF), offers a glimpse of their objectives on their website:

 

The world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions. Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a “Great Reset” of capitalism as the way to make this world a better place.[10]”

 

Cardinal Muller has warned that it aims to control “all aspects of society, including religious practices and ownership[11].”

 

Is it crazy to think that a few hundred or thousand ambitious and wealthy elites are conspiring to control the world? If you think so, you do not know world history. The Great Reset is well documented. It appears in many publications, such as Time magazine.

 

Others dismiss the danger, saying: “it cannot happen here.” They trust that the Constitution, our system of government, and the good sense of the people will prevail. They are optimistic. But optimism and pessimism only reflect wishful thinking, our human expectations.

 

 

Optimism vs. Faith

 

Christians are optimistic only if we understand it in light of faith: All things will be for the good of those who trust in the Lord. But we should have no illusions about an easy path.  Jesus could be viewed as pessimistic when he foretold His passion and Peter as the optimist who said: “This shall never happen to you!” (Mt 16,22). Jesus was demolishing our old way of thinking, our deceptive optimism so that we can face the Cross with faith and conquer with it.

 

Without faith, the natural response is to deny the reality of the Cross, and when that is no longer possible, we fall into fear and despair. Fear allows the devil to weaken us and confuse us because we lose sight of God.

 

Do not be afraid of Satan’s “Great Reset.” It is a parody of God’s Great Reset that will be manifested through Jesus: “He who sat upon the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new’[12].” This is the great reset that we must keep our eyes on while we suffer through the other.

 

 

Scripture teaches us that God’s ways are not our ways.

 

God calls us to trust Him and renounce our plans, even when they seem most secure and logical to us. But, like the Jews, we sometimes despair when we see the Pharaoh’s chariots, we forget the miracles and want to return to Egypt. Jesus often tested His disciples, so they would grow in faith. He sleeps through the storm, tells them to feed a multitude with five loaves, tells them to cast their nets when there were no fish, to follow Him to the Cross.
 

The Lord has called the Community of Love Crucified to be His warriors, along with all those who are willing to listen. These are just two of His messages that sum up what I have shared with you.

 

April 10, 2012:

Satan is working to bring forth his new world order of destruction, but My crusade of victim souls will possess the power of God to crush the head of Satan. You are the heel of the Queen of Heaven and Earth. Continue giving your life daily for the mission I have entrusted to you... Do not lose hope in all that I have placed in your heart. My crusade of victim souls will have to suffer greatly and be formed to perfection in love to fight this fierce battle, but know that My Cross has triumphed. Now, through this crusade, it needs to triumph in the hearts of My people. Persevere in love. Persevere in trust.

 

April 30, 2012:

My people are vanishing in the trap of Satan as fish accumulate in the fishermen’s nets to be brought out of the waters of life. My people are perishing as they accumulate by the multitudes in the net of Satan’s deception. I have given you, My little ones, the treasures of heaven contained in My simple path to freedom, and you persist in your stubbornness. For 40 years, My people persisted in their stubbornness as I led them to new life... You must be bold, My little one, for the justice of God is now upon you... A time of great darkness is approaching; life as you know it will cease to exist. It is only My victim souls that have entered the safety of the Cross who will be in peace, and it is only they, My victim souls, who will be able to fight this battle with My Mother. My priests who do not become one with the Word of the Cross will perish with the multitudes. Your mission is to raise up My victim souls for this decisive battle. If you do not respond to this desire of My Sacred Heart, you will have forsaken Me

 

[1] The Simple Path p. 130.

[2] https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/controversy/marriage/only-one-man-bishop-john-fisher-and-christian-marriage.html

[3] Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, address to USA bishops, 1976. Reprinted Wall Street Journal, 9 Nov. 1978.

[4] Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and the Future, 1969 (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2009), p. 114.

[5] Cited in The Simple Path to Union with God, p. 143.

[6] The Simple Path to Union with God, Chpt. 8. 

[7] Homily, Solemnity of the Assumption, 8th World Youth Day, Cherry Creek State Park, Denver, Colorado, USA, 15 Aug. 1993), w2.vatican.va

[8] https://parentalrightsfoundation.org

[9] https://www.christianpost.com/news/parents-protest-medicalized-gender-transitioning-of-kids.html

[10] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/now-is-the-time-for-a-great-reset/

[11] Card. Muller https://www.infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=39772

[12] Rev 21:5.

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