St Thomas Aquinas tells us: “If the earth is not cultivated, it brings forth thorns and thistles. In like manner, the sinner’s soul, unless it is cultivated by grace, brings forth nothing but thistles and thorns of sins”.
If Europe rejects God, its very soul will dry up like that uncultivated soil- Margaret Bianchi, St Julians
With an increasing loss of faith, sin is losing its meaning. Its very mention has become outdated, old fashioned and offensive. However, no one can deny that there are basic standards of good and bad. We know better than to place thorns and thistles in a fruit bowl.
A distinction is therefore necessary and standards of good and bad need to be universally accepted. This is where our present world is weltering. The belief in relativism has confused these standards.
Good and bad standards became known when God gave Moses the tablets with the 10 Commandments inscribed on them. For thousands and thousands of years these social norms were accepted. They were the law. You either chose to follow them or not to follow them but there was no question about right and wrong. Further to that, St Paul tells us in his letter to the Hebrews 8 v10: “…The Lord said – I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts”. So we are able to understand why even those who do not know and recognise God are able to do good works without acknowledging that the good that is within them is coming from God’s laws written in their hearts.
However, there is a difference between those who do not know God nor recognise Him and those who know Him and freely decide to seperate themselves from Him. This is where sin enters the picture. There is a deliberate choice to be made and we are free to make it. When we deny sin it does not mean that it does not exist. By choosing to live in denial we are in reality fooling ourselves.
Does the shame of sin still exist? I don’t know, but the younger generation are less concerned with it and seem to admit to apostacy with an alarming and increasing frequency. What is happening and what will the consequences be if this haemorrhage continues? Some obvious signs are already staring us in the face: division; intolerance; rude and coarse behaviour; broken relationships. Also hatred which includes hatred for the Church.
Hilaire Belloc in his book Europe and the Faith, speaking about European unity, states that it is because of… the same sacraments, the same morals, and all those same conceptions of human life as bound Europe together. In other words, God’s laws and the grace of the Sacraments helped to cultivate the European ethos (as expressed widely in art, letters and architecture). In spite of The Enlightenment, Humanism and other movements opposing the Church, the doors of our churches are still open.
The model of life which is being presented by both national parliaments and the European Parliament neither protects not encourages our spiritual heritage. It is a shame that those who are resposible custodians are destroying it rather than defending it. They seem to be incapable of looking at the big picture.
If Europe rejects God, its very soul will dry up like that uncultivated soil. Parliaments may choose to reject Him but the individuals’ choices to remain faithful are what will determine Europe’s fate in the end. As long as our churches remain open and The Sacraments are available to those who want them, there will be grace enough to overcome the forces of darkness.