Probably my most outlandish opinion on anything is: In the West, there will be a large-scale conversion to Roman Catholicism during the next century.
Having traveled to the deepest depths of secular nihilism and been betrayed by its false promises, I say this: The world of pure rationalism that “secular fundamentalists” claim to live in is Dead The universal impulse of life live The belief in living beautifully is silenced, buried and discarded.
When man finds himself standing naked, and his faith in the little things of our time is shaken and lost, he cannot help but draw near to the cathedral and to Christ in the flesh.
Man cannot long live in such a world. In the end, he will have to face the ugliness that is produced by this way of thinking, living and believing. “for a moment.”
They retreat, they are canceled, they become disgusted and disillusioned with the very beliefs that they once shouted so passionately in the streets. Such a person knows from what he has observed that the depravity of man may well be true, and if he has any sense at all, he realizes that every soul on earth needs guidance in struggling against its own fallen nature.
And where better to find such guidance than from an organization that has weathered all the storms of the West’s tumultuous history, an unbroken lineage of wisdom dating back to the time of Christ? That authority was not invented or improvised. It was not created on the spot on a particular day by a false prophet. It came into being by the word of the Lord, live.
And what is the antidote to human beings’ wayward nature other than selfless love for others? Isn’t this often the original driving force behind many humans’ yearning for “social justice”? Was the secular vision of this complete? Was it effective?
It was not, and one soon realises that only by sacrificing one’s life for one’s friends can one unlock the beauty of human life and explore the flavour of divinity denied to one by the secular, rational world and its radical faith.
In other words, the wise man begins to realize that Christ’s life and holy sacrifice must represent an ideal vision of human life, that there is a good reason why his way of life has survived so tenaciously. When man finds himself standing naked, and his faith in the trivialities of modernity wavers and is lost, he cannot help but draw near to the cathedral and to Christ in his flesh. He cannot help but long to witness the miracle of Eucharist, and in time to receive the Lord into his body as completely as humanly possible.
I don’t consider myself particularly biased in making this assessment. I simply believe that history teaches that when false systems die a merciful death, from their ashes rise solid, enduring, and continuous lineages of faith and wisdom. False cults and sects are temporary, fanatical attempts to rationally control life are doomed to failure, and perpetual hedonism is mind-numbing.
When it is all over, the Church will be there, and the Church will receive all who come. You may not believe what I am writing here is true. You may think it cannot be true. But I have an unshakeable faith that it will be proven true in time. I have probably never been more certain of anything in my life.
