Blog:Visions of Modernism Part 1: Fátima & sins of the flesh

From Rejoice in the Catholic Faith
Miracle of the Sun: The crowd at Cova da Iria looking towards the Sun on 13 October 1917 (wikipedia)

As I start to write this a few days past the May 13 anniversary, and considering the world about us, one can hardly think that Our Lady of Fatima's 1917 warnings of the Father's wrath expired with two world wars and the fall of Soviet communism. Likewise, it is difficult to imagine that God is any less offended by our sins today than in 1919, when Our Lady told the young Jacinta that "sins of the flesh[1]" were condemning more souls to perdition than any other form of sin.[2]

While we have progressed materially since then, I am hard put to think of more than a single way we have advanced spiritually, and that can only be through the purifiying effect of our general depridation upon a faithful core. The Church today is proportionately smaller than even four years ago, pre-COVID, much less a hundred, but, I believe, it is stronger spiritually within its traditionalist[3] remnants.[4] If anything, Our Lady of Fatima's warnings illuminate the standards against which we must measure ourselves today. Following the patterns of Salvation History, God always brings better from worse, more from less -- although, as Our Lady warns, woe to those in the way.

So where are we compared to 1917?

"But I'm a good person"

One way to look at it is to measure the extent of modern "spirituality" against Christian holiness.[5] Through mortifications and service, which are denial of the world for focus on God, the Saints demonstrate for us the rewards of total devotion to God. But even the common worshipper can experience this life through ecstactic moments, when a state of Grace descends and the Holy Spirit fills us. All faithful experience it, and it steadies our hands and "girds our loins," even as we fall back into daily life and, yes, sin. And when that does happen, the Sanctifier (Holy Spirit) guides us back to the Lord through the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist.

"Inspired" by the Holy Spirit, and blessed with his Fruits, we proceed in our lives with greater love and charity, words "the world" completely misunderstand and misuse: there is no "love" for the unnatural, "charity" for self-service, or "peace" in hate. And there is no changing human nature. We are created to glorify God, which is why, though detached from and in denial of the Divine, the modern world[6] yearns for "something."

Jesus prayed for the disciples,

"If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you."(Jn 15:19)

Indeed, "the world," instead of loving God, loves "its own." Thus when it turns, as humans do naturally, to the spiritual, it finds only itself to love and worship. So we see how modern "spirituality" is entirely self-centered in love or hate of self. Radical environmentalism, for example, seeks "oneness" with a supposedly "natural" world that denies man's presence. It's an entirely "spiritual" outlook, as it denies the body and works of man (good or bad), and seeks immersion in an animated earth. Or, our overwhelming culture of sexuality, which has replaced the purpose of sex with its act, and then elevates to the "sacramental" the necessary prescriptions to liberate it from that purpose (contraception, abortion), and redefines "holy" ("set aside") from God-like to man-like, and however one may choose that to be or to be described.

From there, the redefinitions of truths flow forth. "Gender" no longer conforms to its etymological orgin in the root -*gene for "to give birth"[7]; the world is perfectable; truth is subjective; and so on. Man reshapes himself, and right and good are bound only to what does not offend the dominant culture.[8]

Contrast that to the vision of hell given the children at Fatima, a vision that haunted little Jacinta[9]. In it, Our Lady has given us a blunt, and scary, tool to understand ourselves.

Charity starts where?

But... but... What about serving the poor? What about social justice?

Haven't we created a far more caring and just society since 1917? In many ways we have. But to measure it properly, we must distinguish welfare from charity, and justice from love.

Volunteers sweep the boardwalk in Brooklyn after the 2012 Hurricane Sandy (wikipedia)---- Michael's note: God bless these volunteers. I did similar service to the community after Hurricane Andrew, but it was for the community, not God. Today, when I pick up trash, it is to praise God, with any benefit to my brothers and sisters on the side. See WorkCamp for Christ-centered community service.

Objectively, the poor are far better off materially today than ever before, and not just in the first world. But religiosity in charity runs the inverted path to government spending.[10] Distribution of wealth is not charity; it's moving dollars around. Charity starts with the first dollar, not the ones left over or set aside by an employer. And please understand that the welfare state is about power, not charity. There's no doubt as to the high motives of social reformers whose hearts were wrenched by poverty and injustice, especially in immigrant, industrial early 20th century America or the Great Depression, but if government was sufficient to resolve it, why does poverty still exist? Clearly, as Jesus told us, government is not sufficient to resolve poverty. Instead, the government has grown while true charity and love have diminished.

As for social justice, one must ask, does law follow the hearts, or the other way around? De jure discrimination in whatever form is unjust. But there is also no question that de facto equality must arise before laws are enacted to remedy inequity. (Look up the "Tocqueville paradox.") Again, we're talking legal justice, which can never precede or supplant God's justice. As the Catechism explains,

When [the Church] fulfills her mission of proclaiming the Gospel, she bears witness to man, in the name of Christ, to his dignity and his vocation to the communion of persons. She teaches him the demands of justice and peace in conformity with divine wisdom.(CCC 2419)

If schools and welfare supports fulfill God's plan, why, then, the violence that permeates urban America?[11] If the rule of law ensures equity, why then the "disparate impacts" that so offend the church of man? It's obvious, but when I point out to my RCIA students that free will and social justice are irreconciable, they look at the ceiling, around the room, then sigh, "Oh, wow." Of course not, dear friends, which is why God loves us so much that he gave us free will, and not an unfallen world.

Jesus' warning wasn't just for the wealthy:

"What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?" (Lk 9:25)

Charity is for God alone, and its fruits wither when we assume it for ourselves:

Charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God. (CCC 1822)

External v. internal service to God

Lúcia (standing) with her cousin, Jacinta Marto, 1917 (Wikipedia)

From my short view as a young Catholic, just over a year now as I write this, it is clear to me that Church leadership is more concerned with our external than internal holiness: I hear far more about serving and not judging others than in meeting our own internal need to avoid sin and hell. Over my eight-years as a non-Catholic teacher at a Catholic school, my experience was the same: we taught service, not virtue, and I never heard the words "sin" or "hell" once.

Not that external obligations are less important, but virtue is external habit guided by internal disposition[12]

Our Lady of Fatima instructed the children,

Pray, pray a great deal and make many sacrifices for many souls go to Hell because they have no one to make sacrifices and to pray for them

On her last visitation at Fatima, she added,

I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and ask for pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men.

Later, apparently at the instigations of others who wanted to know,[13] Jacinta asked what kind of sins, and Mary replied,

The sins which cause most souls to go to hell are the sins of the flesh.

The immediate aim of the original instructions at Fatima was to end the ongoing war, but, along with "conversion of sinners", the ultimate goal of her instructions was

reparation for the countless sins by which He is offended

All sin offends and separates us from God, but it is worth considering "sins of flesh" in 1917, given today's world so dominated by them.

Scandal, 1917

The "Great War" was simply murderous, as was the subsequent Russian Revolution (upwards 5-10 millions killed from 1917 to 1922). We can barely imagine the treatment and sufferings of the poor and displaced during this time,[14] and the multiple horrors attached to every one of the millions of deaths. Nevertheless, life went on back home, a daily life that was, indeed, replete of sin.

To read a daily newspaper from the period, one finds all manners of sin, especially robbery, murder, divorce, fighting, drunkenness, prostitution, maltreatment, and so on. Same as it ever was, that is. What one will not find is explicit imagery, much less it's use as a commercial lure in entertainment and advertisements. The most scintillating stories of 1917 involve lovers and elopers, and the most revealing images are of fashionable women with low-cut dresses or bra advertisements.[15] Graphic imagery existed, certainly, but was limited to particular corners, not broadcast nationally.

Nevertheless, if lewd imagery is what distinguishes us now from 1917, then not a lot has changed. The cut of a dress or the show of an ankle tintilated then as flat nudity may today. The difference is in today's surrender to indecency. In 1884, American painter John Singer Sargent presented a painting, Portrait de Mme ***," to the Paris Salon. It was scandalous, as her right dress strap was fallen off her shoulder. The artist was compelled to repaint it with the strap properly secured.[16]

A random search for "scandal" in 1917 newspapers yields a sad, but typical story of a car, a crash, and "damaged gowns." Seems a millionaire's son had an affair with a society "young widow, living in luxury", which ended in a tiff and, somehow, a two a.m. crash of the society lady's limousine, from which escaped into the cold night the millionaire's son, an undesignated female, and a known "high police official."[17] Nothing new there, and neither anything new in an accompanying article on a couple who were acquited of "contributing to the delinguincy of Hattie Porozoski, a fiftteen year old Gary girl"[18] -- except that these events were scandalous and not entertainment or vicarious prurience.[19]

From the Presbyterian of the South, Aug. 1, 1917

"Scandal" is that which causes others to sin, and in 1917 the word retained its original meaning. Today, it merely means "that which causes public outrage," its Godly meaning stripped, of course. Jesus spoke of scandal and its consequences most explicitly:

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe [in me] to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." (Mk 9:42)

Therein lies the difference between 1917 and today: scandal is precisely the point of so much of modern popular culture whose effect is to corrupt and not offend, and thereby assumes scandal as its very purpose. By contrast, in 1917, we find a Presbyterian newspaper speaking about gossip and scandal as a warning to young men.[20] City newspapers regularly published sermons from Sunday services. The Christian point of view, such as that of G. K. Chesterton, were published in the New York dailies.[21] Today we can find wholesome news reporting, starting with my own Diocene newspaper, the Catholic Herald, but we have to go looking.

Then again, we have glimmers of modern culture back in 1917. For example, the film The Sin Woman recounted the life of a vampire woman, a descendent of Eve, who seduces a married man. It ends with the vampire tarred and feathered and the wayward husband repenting and recieving forgiveness from his wife -- so, all good, a moral tale from early Hollywood, albeit a hardly disguised vamp -- yes, that's where the word comes from, "vampire," a reference originating in Kipling's 1897 poem, The Vampire.

That a vampire is an expressly sexual reference would seem obvious, although I hadn't much thought about it, other than to find the recent vampire genre rather annoying.[22] They're all doing the same thing as in 1917's vamp: scandalizing deliberately -- only with a much larger audience.

Quantity versus quality

Thus it is scale, not kind, that distinguishes 1917 from today -- which tells us that Our Lady's warning at Fatima was not for that day alone. If we compare our world to 1917, "scandal" then seems almost quaint -- but our Lord and his Mother are anything but, so the warning remains current:

The sins which cause most souls to go to hell are the sins of the flesh.

So how did we get here?

In Part 2: Prophesies & Warnings of this discussion on "Visions of Modernism," I will review the sources of our current mess -- nothing new, actually, but in new forms and at far greater scale.

May 22, 2024 by Michael

St. Joseph, pray for us!


Here to go back to Blog roll

Sources

Fatima in Lucia's own words (book) from:

References

  1. ↑ Sometimes translated as "sins againts chastity," which would more explictly include such sins as vanity, dress, attitude, pride, etc., which would be included in a broader reading of "flesh."
  2. ↑ From a later vision of Jacinta c. 1919-1920: "More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason" See The Miracle Hunter : The Messages of Fatima. 18th Century Saint Alphonsus Liguori called "impurity," by which he meant sexual sin, "Hell's Widest Gate" (see alphonsushellswidestgate-impurityetc..pdf (onesaint.org)
  3. ↑ By "traditionalist" I mean merely those who adhere to Church dogma (including Vatican II) and are not agitating to change it, as we have as of 2024.
  4. ↑ See Father Ratzinger's 1969 interview on a smaller but stronger Church.
  5. ↑ For us mortals, holiness, or the state of being "holy," I would define as "separation from the world" and living with "nearness to God." The glossary in the Catechism doesn't give an outright definition, but we know that God is "holy" because he is "set apart" without imperfection.
  6. ↑ I'll focus here on Western, formerly Christian society.
  7. ↑ See *gene- | Etymology of root *gene- by etymonline The page has a fascinating list of words that dervice from "to give birth," including "engine," "gentle," "indigenous", etc.
  8. ↑ Only God measures "good," and we put ourselves above him when we redefine it to meet our own self-declared needs.
  9. ↑ In her memoirs, Lucia wrote, "The vision of hell filled her with horror to such a degree, that every penance and mortification was as nothing in her eyes, if it could only prevent souls from going there." (p. 125)
  10. ↑ See the article, Amid record chronic homelessness, advocates and experts say there is a solution from the National Catholic Reporter that mentions "Christ" zero times. Let's just say that if my wife suceeds in converting a school we supoprt in LIberia into a Catholic parish, the impoverished villagers around that little school have a far greater chance of finding salvation in Christ than the homeless living in far better conditions here in Washington, D.C., and that includes those in the tents that line parks and roads around the city.
  11. ↑ Crime statistic hide the impact of crime on individuals. We can blandly say that Baltimore, MD has 2,027.01 violent crimes per year per 100,000 people, and 4,928.11 property crimes per 100,000 people, which seems like a lot. But run the numbers and that's 12,429.96 violent crimes and 30,220.01 property crimes. Worse, those crimes are centered around neighborhoods, which suffer them the most. As for correlations between welfare supports and crime rates, research is inconclusive (see 2011 paper reviewing the research) Logically, most crimes are committed by younger people who have less direct dependency on welfare (i.e. receive it through secondary means such as living with someone else who receives welfare), which doesn't seem well accounted for in these studies. From the paper, ". The demographic variable age dependency ratio marginally increases violent and property crime rates. An increase in age-dependency ratio implies an increase in the number of non-working individuals dependent on working individuals, either directly or via state welfare programs, for livelihood. This increases the economic burden on the existing workforce, which unless accompanied by economic opportunities may lead to increase in the occurrence of crimes" (p 19).
  12. ↑ See CCC Glossary
  13. ↑ See Lucia's Memoirs, p. 126
  14. ↑ Though today we teach our children more clearly the iniquities of class and racial divides back in the U.S. at the time, as if we have no human connection to death in overseas war.
  15. ↑ If you must, you can see an add for a brassier from a 1915 newspaper
  16. ↑ See Portrait of Madame X - Wikipedia for the story and Madame X (portræt) - Da.Wikipedia for an unfinished version with no strap on her right shoulder. The painting had other sexually suggestive elements, including her pose, her expanse of exposed skin against a dark background, and the color of her skin, all of which deeply offended critics. One observed, "One more struggle and the lady will be free."
  17. ↑ "MIDNIGHT JOY RIDE MAY END IN SCANDAL FOR RICH MAN'S SON," The Day Book, Chicago, IL, Jan 3, 1917. Must have been quite the event, as the occupants of the car ran off from the accident in likely 10-degree weather.
  18. ↑ "Another Tale of Night Life," ibid, p2
  19. ↑ Moderns have a hard time understanding that in the past scandal was scandalous. We seem to think that all offense was hypocritical or even prurient unto itself. For example, think of Saturday Night Live's (SNL) "church lady" character. These early 20th century news items did carry a degree of prurience, or offered it, but the outrage was real.
  20. ↑ With a circulation of 15,000, this was not a small publication. See About The Presbyterian of the South (Library of Congress, loc.gov) The paper exists today as the Presbyterian Outlook.
  21. ↑ See The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, August 18, 1918, Section 6 Books and the Book World, Page 7, Image 55 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress (loc.gov)
  22. ↑ An outlier sentence at the end of the section on "Film and television" from the Vampire entry in Wikpedia actually, or mistakenly, as happens on the site, lands on the truth that, "The continuing popularity of the vampire theme has been ascribed to a combination of two factors: the representation of sexuality and the perennial dread of mortality"
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