Easy Prey
This
past weekend at Mass we heard the story of the feeding of the five thousand as
recounted by St. John in his Gospel.
This, of course, is when Jesus fed 5,000 men with five barley loaves and
two fish, leaving twelve baskets of leftovers.
There is plenty that can be written on this event, and it is worth hours
of mental prayer on topics such as the Eucharist, the divinity of Christ, the
New Covenant, and much more.
But
what struck me this past Sunday was how the story ends. The people wish to carry Jesus off and make
Him king, so He departs from them. Why
did they want to make Jesus king? Because
they recognized Him as the Son of God, and Prince of Peace? No, He says later that they are following Him
because He filled their bellies, not because they have faith.
Imagine
a leader who could multiply food at will.
Hunger and poverty would be a thing of the past for his nation. We can easily relate to the sentiments of the
men whom Jesus fed that day. And yet,
they were only thinking in material and temporal terms. They missed the bigger picture and they kept
closed the eyes of faith. Jesus came as
a man from God, and yet they seemingly did not consider His message or
teaching; they wanted Him to be king because he healed the sick and fed the
masses.
The
Roman emperors tapped into this weakness of human nature. Give the people bread and they will accept
all forms of tyranny. It reminds me of
what the Catechism teaches about the coming of the Antichrist: a religious deception that will offer people
apparent solutions to their problems at the price of apostasy from the Truth (paragraph
675).
The
people in Sunday’s Gospel were blessed because they had Jesus, who refused an
earthly kingdom so that He could prepare a place for us in his Heavenly
Kingdom. But when Antichrist comes, that
will not be so. There will be no such
restraint and those who remain faithful to Christ will be persecuted, until
Christ comes in glory, and brings with Him the final victory.
What
does that have to do with us? I believe
we are like those people in the Gospel, willing to proclaim as king anyone who
will give us bread, and missing what else he brings besides. We live in a world that has completely shut God
out of public life. Our pagan culture
has completely turned its back on God’s Law, and natural law, when it comes to
life and marriage. And now those human
constructions that were meant to protect our freedom (i.e. the Constitution)
are being set aside.
Anyone
who speaks in defense of God’s Law or argues in the public debate from the
basis of natural law is dismissed as a bigot, and subject to penalties, either
legal or social.
Preachers
are being arrested in Canada for teaching God’s plan for sexuality. Chick-Fil-A is being demonized because its
CEO believes in traditional marriage.
The Catholic Church is being forced to provide contraception or face the
wrath of the federal government. And
babies are still slaughtered by the thousands daily. And this is on what is supposedly the freest
continent on Earth.
As
our society crumbles around us, in the midst of a Presidential election, what
do we hear? This election is about one
thing: the economy. Does anyone believe
that we will be slow to accept any leader who can solve our economic woes? A culture war is raging around us, and the
vast majority of American voters are just trying to figure out whether Barack
Obama or Mitt Romney is more likely to lower the unemployment rate. Yes, I would suggest that we are easy prey
for the Antichrist. May God protect us
and bring us back to our senses before it is too late.
