What Are We Gonna Do About That Black Mass?
Some of you may not follow the Catholic internet
media or follow the blogs. One of the big stories over the past week is that a
student group from Harvard University was to host a Black Mass “reenactment” performed
by the members of the Satanic Temple this past Monday. I suppose that to write about it the following
Wednesday makes me a Johnny come lately, a couple of days late and a couple of
dollars short. Then to ask what we are going to do about it after we have
already done it just seems ridiculous. Well, all I can say is wait for it,
because there is relevance for us as Catholics even after the fact. We may have
successfully come against that Black Mass, but I think that we are being called
to something beyond a particular event. We are being called to a continuing
task.
It seems to me that there is some significance in
the fact that this event was scheduled to occur on the eve of the Feast of Our
Lady at Fatima and that one of the messages of Fatima was reparation for the
outrages, sacrilege and indifference that offend our Lord. Our Lady first
appeared to the children of Fatima on May 13, 1917. Actually, I have had a lot
on my plate lately and I was not aware of that anniversary until yesterday. I
can’t say that the students that sponsored the Black Mass were aware of this
anniversary, nor can I say that the members of the Satanic Temple who were
performing the event were aware of it. Satan was aware of it. It is unlikely
that the timing of when he decided to stir things up had nothing to do with it.
It could be that he wanted us so involved in the Black Mass that many would pay
no mind to that feast. Or that we would get so angered by it that we might
repay evil with evil rather than repaying evil with good and forget the
messages of Our Lady.In a nut shell, a group of students at Harvard University distributed fliers announcing that they would be hosting a reenactment of a Black Mass with a preceding lecture, on campus, performed by a group called the Satanic Temple. It was promoted as an historical and cultural event, equating it to the Shinto Tea, Shaker exhibition and Buddhist presentation on meditation that they were also sponsoring. It is quite possible that if things had been left at that it would have garnered little attention outside of Cambridge Massachusetts, attended by a handful of people with an interest in the occult, possibly with another handful that might have protested it. The Satanic Temple, however, had other ideas. They have an agenda that would include media mongering to call attention to those agendas. The Satanic Temple issued a press release saying that they would be using a consecrated host for their enactment. Well, now you have just gone and done it, haven’t you? This can no longer be viewed as an innocuous lecture and reenactment for historical and cultural purposes but more as a blasphemous sacrilege against our Lord Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Catholic bloggers and media sources began to pick up on the event and the ensuing controversy. The representative of the Satanic Temple then said that they would not be using a consecrated host but even if it, by chance, had been “accidently” consecrated, it wouldn’t really be because they didn’t believe in the supernatural. Finally they said that they would not be using a consecrated host but only a stunt host that would be representative of a host. Either way, it was now a problem. The use of a consecrated host would truly be blasphemous and sacrilegious. The use of a representative host would still be highly disrespectful to the Eucharist, would bring about the same emotional response as if it were consecrated and the intent would be to represent the profanation of the Body of Christ. It would still be an offense before God and of grave concern regardless. The Father of Lies and confusion has certainly given a stir to this pot to create an ambiguity that the Catholics were not willing to take a chance on. The Catholics were buying none of it, and having none of it. The Catholic bloggers put out the word. I am proud of how we responded. We circulated and signed petitions, we voiced our abhorrence and defended our faith, we prayed, we peacefully protested. Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, Archbishop of Boston spoke out strongly, organized a counter prayer service with Eucharistic adoration and procession. Thousands of Catholics and non-Catholic supporters showed up for it. We showed up and showed up Catholic.
You
know, people sometimes discount a prayer response. Many find it just too
passive. The bible tells us, however, that it is one our mightiest weapons.
And
we have this confidence in him, that if we ask anything according to his will,
he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, we
know that what we have asked him for is ours. 1 Jn 5:14-15“Before they call, I will answer; while they are yet speaking, I will hearken to them. Is 65:24
"For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope. When you call me, when you go to pray for me, I will listen to you. When you look for me, you will find me. Yes, when you seek me with all your heart, you will find me with you, says the Lord, and I will change your lot… Jer 29:11-14
Well, lo and behold, the lot indeed did change. The Harvard Extension Cultural Studies Club and the Satanic Temple lost their venue at the last minute. So they decided to move the Black Mass off campus but negotiations for a new venue broke down. At this point the students sponsoring the event withdrew their sponsorship and cancelled the event. The president of Harvard, who previously had defended the student’s right to hold the event, though not going so far as to cancel the event herself, released a statement against it. It has also been reported that she planned to attend the prayer vigil. A representative of the Satanic Temple reportedly said that people had been scared by threatening and vitriolic emails. Me? I am thinking that they got a spiritual glimpse of St. Michael and some pretty burly archangels because, trust me, St. Michael and the heavenly hosts were harkening before we even called, while we were yet speaking. The Satanists were left to wander Harvard square until they settled on the Hong Kong restaurant and lounge. They sent out a message that the Black Mass was under way. Some reports say that it was performed on the second floor of the Hong Kong. I have read that the manager of that restaurant was unaware of the incident. An employee is quoted as saying that he saw no ritual performed and that the Satanist spent their time drinking at the bar. A post on the Satanic Temple Facebook page said that there was a lecture. I have checked the Facebook and webpage of the Satanic Temple and there are no follow up reports. You would think there would be, if it had indeed been performed. You would expect an official report from them, at least on their socials, of how it went, how many had attended or some pictures. Really? No pictures? Nothing but crickets. I am going with that they drank at the bar. Even if a ritual of some sort was performed, it was countered by the prayers of the faithful and by the power of the Eucharist itself.
So why am I asking what we are going to do about that Black Mass when it is quite obvious that we did do something about it? And succeeded by the way? Because. If the Satanist Temple had not bit its nose off to spite its face by media mongering with their press release, most people would have not even known about that Black Mass and it probably would have occurred as scheduled. Because there are Black Masses and rituals using consecrated hosts happening that we don’t know about. There are people who profane the Eucharist all of the time. There are Catholics that receive it unworthily. This time they waved a red flag in front of a bull…they messed with the bull and they got the horns. Most of the time, however, they go about with their blasphemy and sacrilege while the bull peacefully grazes in the pasture. This incident merely lets us know that it is not enough to show up for the big events but to be in constant and ongoing prayer.
One of the first things that Our Lady said to the children of Fatima was:
“Are you willing to offer yourselves to God and bear all the suffering He wills to send you, as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended, and of supplication for the conversion of sinners?”
Are we
willing to offer ourselves to God, bear suffering, make sacrifices, pray
prayers of reparation for all of the sins that so offend him. Will we
supplicate for those who commit these offenses? Jumping on the bandwagon is all
well and good but then what are we willing to do every day about the
blasphemies and sacrilege that is occurring. Are we supplicating for those
students who sponsored the Black Mass, for the Satanists, for those who puts
their souls in such danger by attending occult rituals, for each and every person
who is so lost to the truth that they believe that this was merely an issue of
freedom of speech and expression? When we see someone at Mass receive the
Eucharist without reverence and respect we can correct them. But we cannot
force them. If they do not accept our correction will we bear the suffering of
seeing these things at Mass? Will we then turn to prayer and acts of
reparation? Will we supplicate for them? Or will we merely get on our socials
and our blogs and gripe about the abuses we see? Worse yet will we criticize
the Mass and stop going?
Woe to the world and woe to those who bring
such things into the world. All sin impacts our world, it opens the door for
evil to enter in. It curses us as a whole. I call heaven and earth today to witness against you; I have set before you the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then that you and your descendants may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. Deut 30:19-20
For
I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their
fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and
fourth generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on
the children of those who love me and keep my commandments Ex 20:5
At each and every moment these choices of
life and death, blessing or curse are set before us. The blessing is greater
and reaches further than the curse. We can bring sin and curse into the world
or we can bring blessing and life.
Our Lady of Fatima gave us a way to bring
such blessing into the world, to make reparation for the offenses and to
supplicate for the souls of those who offend Our Lord. Satan wanted a Black
Mass to bring sin into the world on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
We know that all thing work for good for
those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Rom 8:28 What
was meant for evil has already been turned to good. But let us always be cognizant
of the fact that it is not enough to step up for one single event, but to be aware
and diligent every day. We cannot go back to grazing in the pasture until the
next red flag.
In three years we will commemorate the 100th
anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima. What a wonderful gift it would be for
our Lady to give her the things she asked for. To pray the rosary, to observe
the five first Saturdays, to spread the devotion to the Immaculate Heart, to
offer ourselves to God and bear all suffering in reparation and to
supplicate for the conversion of sinners.
So what ARE we gonna do about that Black
Mass? Not just for one day in a big way,
but every day in every way.
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