Our country is experiencing extraordinarily difficult times. Many are unemployed, our national debt now exceeds the value of our assets, we are at war on several fronts and there are grave moral challenges before us. More than a few in government advocate solutions contrary to human dignity and God’s moral law. Health care legislation before Congress supports government funding of abortion.
An observation that Pope Pius XII made shortly after his election caught my eye recently.
“Exactly in times like these, he who remains firm in his faith and strong in his heart, knows that Christ the King is never so near as in trial, which is the hour of fidelity. With a heart broken by the suffering of so many of her children, but with the courage and firmness that come from faith in the Lord’s promises, the Spouse of Christ (the church), advances toward the approaching storm. She knows that the truth she announces, the charity she teaches, and its practice will be the unique counselors and collaborators of men of good will in the reconstruction of a new world, in justice and love, after humanity, weary of running in the way of error, will have tasted the bitter fruit of hatred and of violence.”
While his words were written at the beginning of World War II, are conditions any less critical today? Not only is our nation at war again, this time against world-wide terrorism, but we are also engaged in a war of values with those in our own country who support the “culture of death,” advocating abortion, fetal stem cell research and euthanasia.
A great crisis lies ahead for all America. The World War II generation rose to the challenge. Those persons are now our senior citizens.
Many chant the mantra of “change you can believe in,” but experience shows us that government programs are not the only answer. As the Holy Father observed, the work before us is spiritual — “the reconstruction of a new world, in justice and love.”
Will our young people rise to the challenges now before us? Will they be the next “greatest generation” as described by Tom Brokaw in his best-selling book?
Time will tell!