Discerning the Body: The Bishops, The Politicians, and The Eucharist

      It is now abundantly clear to all of us, I hope, that St. Paul's warning about the eternal battle "against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12) is not just a rhetorical trope.  It's raging all around us with a palpable intensity.  One of the clearest signs is that more and more of our institutions are taking up and loudly proclaiming the ancient lie first whispered by the Father of Lies to our first parents: "your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5) The New Orthodoxy, in fact, goes beyond determining good and evil for ourselves: even external realities like male and female must bow before the the power of the "awakened" human will.  Anyone with the temerity to question the new teachings will be told, as Lot was by the men of Sodom:  "This fellow came to sojourn, and he would play the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them." (Genesis 19:9)

  
  When you consider the nature of the current struggle, it seems clear that language is one of the main fronts in the war right now.  Above I referred to Satan as the "father of lies".  That title is bestowed on him by Jesus himself: "When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But, because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." (John 8:44-45) To the extent that we're wading through a sea of lies, we're fighting on the Enemy's chosen ground.  We need to find a way to move the battle back to dry land, to the truth . . . 

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