Last week I was talking with an old friend about skiing this winter. He told me that he didn’t think there would be enough snow. He went on to tell me that a drought was paralyzing the nation. When I got home I googled “drought.” All of mainstream news had alarming reports of “extreme” drought across the nation, proof of climate change. And I mean change for the worse.
I’ve been on this planet 61 years and seen dry spells come and go. We had a seven-year drought a few years ago and the reservoirs went empty. The next winter five good rains filled them back up again. But let’s say that the climate is going haywire. I don’t think it will, but it could happen—it’s happened at various times in history and will probably happen again. What should be our reaction to changing climate?
In 1846 Our Lady visited two poor children in a French alpine village. She was weeping because the people of that village routinely broke the second and third commandments: blaspheming God’s name and refusing to worship him on Sunday. “If the harvest is spoilt,” she told them, “it is all on your account. I gave you warning last year … but you did not heed it. On the contrary, when you found the potatoes spoilt, you swore, you took the name of my Son in vain. They will continue to decay, so that by Christmas there will be none left.” The villagers worked seven days a week, but the harder they worked, the less money they had. “I have given you six days to work. The seventh I have reserved for myself, yet no one will give it to me. Only a few rather old women go to Mass in the summer. During Lent, they go to the butcher shops like dogs. There will come a great famine. The walnuts will become bad, and the grapes will rot.”
Are there droughts in some areas and floods in others? Is the climate unbalanced? Is mother nature outraged? If she is, it is partly because we have outraged her by outraging her Maker. We commit all manner of unnatural acts. We kill our own children by the millions and call it “reproductive freedom.” The liberal synagogue up the street has hung a banner claiming that “reproductive freedom” is a “Jewish value.” Everybody knows perfectly well that this is a lie, that the Old Testament expressly forbids murder, not to mention the fornication that leads to this particular kind of murder. Our Catholic-educated governor has put campaign ads on midwestern state billboards with the blasphemous claim that Jesus commands us to abort our children (“Need an abortion? California is ready to help. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.’ Mark 12:31.”) But nature is not mocked. We mutilate adolescent girls after convincing them that their natural sexual organs were a mistake of nature. We reject nature’s gifts and expect nature to be kind to us? The vast majority of Christian churches in San Francisco, including many Catholic parishes, promote unnatural sexual acts, and then we complain that it doesn’t rain?
The first step to restoring order to the planet is to worship its creator, to render what is simply God’s due: making public thanksgiving and praise to the divine beneficence. In 520 BC, the Jewish people were returning from Babylon, from 40 years of slavery that had ineluctably resulted from their rejection of God. Many them wanted to rebuild the temple immediately, but the wealthier ones said they should rebuild their own homes first. Haggai the prophet spoke these words of God to them:
“Is it time for you to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies in ruins? You have sown much, but have brought in little; you have eaten, but have not been satisfied. Why is this?—it is because my house lies in ruins. Therefore, the heavens withheld the dew, and the earth its yield. And I have proclaimed a devastating heat upon the land and upon the mountains.”
Two things will happen if we refuse to worship God and submit to His laws. First, we will begin to see disaster, “extreme conditions,” and crisis all around us. We will become afraid of everything, even the natural gifts of God. Every little storm will terrify us, and we will hate and fear our own bodies. Resentment will replace gratitude and anger will replace joy among us. We will cling to human authorities and the technologies they provide for safety because we will have lost faith in God’s providence. Second, the natural order really will become unbalanced to some degree because of our outrages against nature. We will upset the natural order, both physical and societal, by our unnatural lifestyles.
The good news, all through the bible and throughout human history, is that we can restore the balance of nature by returning to a humble reverence for the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Harmony will return both to individuals and to communities to the degree that we respect God’s natural order. We will not be afraid of every little “act of nature” because we will appreciate the big picture, the beneficent authority behind all of nature. If we keep attuned to this natural order by keeping our eyes on Nature’s God, we will be plenty strong enough to weather any type of storm. We will not be afraid, but the praise of God will be our strength and our joy. The will of God will be our delight.
The above comes from an Oct. 9 posting on Father Illo’s blog. Father Illo is the pastor of Star of the Sea parish in San Francisco.
Abortion is a “Jewish Value”.
But only for Gentiles.
Excellent sermon. Most excellent. Hits the nail right on the head. Jew and Gentile need to listen.
By the way, I know a family that was blessed this year with oranges, pomegranates, lemons, tangerines from their own small properties. Enough to give to many others. At least one of the members asked for rain and got it every time needed.
The more you honor Him, the more He blesses you.
I do not like the personification of nature.
There is only God.
Agreed; however it is common parlance to speak of “Mother Nature” without any real personification intended. I trust there is no confusion in those listening to the sermon.
Yes, Nature is God’s instrument, but I would be wary of drawing Father’s conclusions.
Iceland was settled by Norse pagans around 900 AD. In 1000 AD, the Althing (parliament) adopted the Catholic Faith by a narrow margin. Almost immediately afterwards there was a great earthquake.
“See!” said one old pagan to another. “That shows the gods are angry!”
The second man pointed to evidence of a far older earthquake, long before the Norse settlement.
“With whom were the gods angry then?” He demanded.
One would have thought that killing preborn babies would be unthinkable to all Jews, given Auschwitz.
Sad to say there are abortionists of Jewish descent. When I was young and abortion was illegal, a woman in my hometown told me she and another woman had gone to a doctor there for aborfions. It was not to save the woman’s life either. The doctor had a Jewish last name. Whether or not he went to synagogue, I do not know.
Sadly, there are many so-called “secular Jews” who are sort of agnostic or atheist, and have left the Jewish faith, and only consider themselves Jews by their family background– being “born Jewish.” Many of these people have been cynical and corrupt, and have boldly ignored and disobeyed good Judeo-Christian beliefs and morality. Many of these “secular Jews” have done much harm in our society.
I would say Harvey Milk of San Francisco who encouraged so many young men to continue in their unbiblical, unhealthy behavior, which led to their deaths of AIDS, was one of them. Orthodox Jews do not encourage that type of behavior since it is absolutely forbidden by the Torah and the prophets. Others have contributed to atheist Communism.
Let’s be clear. Harvey Milk did not die of AIDS. He died of hatred from a practicing Irish Catholic San Franciscan.
No one said Harvey Milk died of AIDS, but many of the young men who admired him while he was encouraging the bathhouses be kept open DID die of AIDS and other related diseases. All that time Surgeon General Koop was telling the nation that that part of the body was not made for sexual activity and the diseases that could be gotten from such behavior. Milk also took money for his union from the notorious “Rev.” Jim Jones of the death camp Jonestown. Jones was also “bi-sexual”.
Milk was shot after some homosexuals stripped off their clothing off in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York and went in and desecrated the Blessed Sacrament. Milk and Moscone were shot after the murder of Congressman Ryan and others in Gyanna. To me they were all connected.