ELEISON COMMENTS DCCCXX (April 1, 2023) : PROSPERITY ? BEWARE !
If godlessness is the great plague from which the world is now suffering, one remedy is to read not only the New Testament of the Bible but also the Old Testament, because one and the same God was the main writer (using the human writers as instruments) of both Testaments, and both together constitute, so to speak, His one autobiography. His enemies try to drive a wedge between the justice of Jehovah in the O.T. and the mercy of Jesus in the N.T., but His friends have no difficulty in showing how one and the same God Incarnate is implicit in the O.T, explicit in the N.T.. Nevertheless, it is surely true to say that Jehovah is in the forefront of the Old Testament while Jesus is in the forefront of the New Testament. If then one can also say that today’s worldwide godlessness consists not so much in the rejection of Christ as in the materialistic denial of the very existence of God (Jehovah), then here lies the interest of knowing the Old Testament, where Jehovah thunders, in a manner of speaking, on every page. Take for instance this passage from Deuteronomy VIII, 11-20 : —
[11] “Take heed lest you forget the LORD your God, by not keeping his commandments and his ordinances and his statutes, which I command you this day: lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built goodly houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, who led you through the great and terrible wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna which your fathers knew not, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end.
[17] Beware lest you say in your heart, `My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth; that he may confirm his covenant which he swore to your fathers, as at this day. And if you forget the LORD your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you this day that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the LORD makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
Almost the whole book of Deuteronomy is taken up with the last instructions of the great man of God that was Moses. He has led the Israelites out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, through 40 years in the desert, and now they are on the brink of entering the Promised Land, which he himself will not enter. As he is 120 years old and about to die, he is giving to the Israelites his very last instructions. Read the whole Book of Deuteronomy to see how his immense preoccupation is to prevent the Israelites from turning away from God, after they had been privileged by God with the special mission of preparing for the coming of the world’s Messiah. Again and again Moses warns them of how they will be punished by God if they are unfaithful, but specially blessed and protected by God if they are faithful. In the passage above, Moses is warning of the particular danger of material prosperity making them forget the Lord their God.
Now apply Moses’ warning to the New Testament. Ever since the death of Our Lord on the Cross, which instituted the New Testament, Catholics know that by faith they are the real People of God, and no longer the Israelites by race. Over Catholics’ 2,000 years of history, have Catholics not been entrusted by God with bringing all peoples of the world to believe in Christ ? When they were faithful, did they not spread “Christendom” far and wide ? But from the end of the Middle Ages onwards they began to be unfaithful, culminating in Vatican II, in a process of turning from things spiritual to things material, which did achieve worldwide an unprecedented material prosperity. For never before have so many men been so well fed, so well housed, so well provided with material goods. But where is the Lord their God in their lives ? Virtually nowhere. And instead, where are we ? On the brink of nuclear Armageddon. God, have mercy !
Kyrie eleison
Moses is out of date, long gone. Farewell ?
Whoever thinks so, wends his way to Hell !