Getting Used to Snowless Winters
The first snow came late this winter in the Metro DC area last night after much anticipation from the weather forecast. But it fell just a little over a couple of inches on the car tops and the grass and did not even stick on the pavement.
We barely had snow the past several winters. Many probably have gotten used to snowless winters, such that now we are afraid or lazy to deal with snow -- cleaning the cars, shoveling the driveway and driving on the wet roads.
The church was almost empty today at the Sunday Masses but not because of the pandemic restrictions on houses of worship but because of the thin snow. Some have theorized that Mass attendance will not go back to pre-pandemic days because many people will have gotten used to watching it on TV or on their computers and being dispensed of the Sunday obligation.
I think that in life, there are situations or changes that we can get used to but some we definitely cannot unless we become untrue to ourselves, are coerced, and thus suffer unwillingly. I guess it all depends on one’s deeply held values, on what is truly important to each of us. However, what is important to one may not be to another. People think differently. There are conservatives and liberals, believers and unbelievers, principled and unprincipled, freedom-loving and tyrants, good and bad.
The beauty of a free society is that people of whatever persuasion or beliefs have the right to express their views and opinions, even if they differ from yours, without fear of persecution, or of being canceled. Even God gave His human creatures free will that allows them to choose between good and evil, between Him and the Devil. There are corresponding consequences either way, of course.
When elite groups in power curtail or suppress speech, religion and other freedoms, that is something that people cannot get used to. People naturally abhor being forced by the dictates of a few ruthless men or an oppressive political regime.
People in this country are used to living in freedom. The Founding Fathers made that clear. But the signs and events are emerging that those who benefited from this freedom when pushing their quest for power now want to deny this same freedom to others. The will of the people is what democracy is all about. Communism is the rule of a few over the great majority. No one can get used to not living free. Communism has no place in America founded under God. Socialism is a little step closer to Communism.
These two “-isms” are faces of atheism and secularism. Atheism posits not only a denial of God’s existence but the need to stamp Him out from the minds of those who believe He does exist.
Theism, on the other hand, is the belief in a Supreme Being who is the Creator of all there is. Theocracy (from “Theos”, God) is His rule, but humans and even angels can either accept or oppose it. A glaring example is the taking of innocent helpless human life in their mothers' wombs, promoting it around the world, and making it the unchangeable law of the land. Many have gotten used to it, it is clear. But not all.
We are still free to choose the Creator or His Enemy. We can get used to His rule even with some of its hard demands. For God does not coerce. He does not oppress. He wants us to be free to choose Him, or ignore Him, or reject Him.
This is not true of godless ideologies. Nazi Germany and Communist China are prime examples. The former maintained death camps and slaughtered millions. The latter has exterminated dissenters, destroys Christian crosses, punishes priests and the faithful, sends millions of Uighurs to labor and re-education camps, and commits other forms of atrocities. There is no freedom in those regimes.
Choosing God is the best decision we can make, not a few men who want to force themselves on us.
I believe most of us cannot get used to being without God in our lives. Men and women of goodwill seek Him because He is our only hope to have true never-ending happiness that we cannot ever find on this earth.
But we must be vigilant. We must think. We must pray. We must be wise. #
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16)
