Other Infiltrations

“Communism is an international criminal association led by individuals whose main objective is to gain political power to establish totalitarian rule and ransack the riches of the nation foolish enough to believe their lies or weak enough to fall under their sway.” (My own definition)

The same can be said of any other of the collectivist ideologies: Socialism, Fascism, Nazism, etc. since they are diverse excuses aimed at achieving the same objectives. Many have used those ideologies throughout history to instigate popular revolts against what they call the ‘oligarchic’ order. Once the revolution is achieved, the instigators become the new oligarchy. At that point, all who expected to gain some ‘social justice’ from the revolt are left holding the bag. They soon realize they have jumped from the pan to the fire. Karl Marx tried to make the revolutionary idea more palatable by creating a ‘scientific’ version of it. In time, his ´scientific materialism´ resulted in the killing of well over 100 million people. So much for that kind of ´science´!

As I write this article, a number of riots have exploded all over the United States and even some European countries, violently demanding a change in the political system. Those revolutionaries identify themselves by various names affirming the Socialist/Communist inspiration of their ideology. In the US in particular, they have managed to infiltrate the education system, a good part of the civil administration at various levels, and also the media among other important institutions and groups useful to control public opinion. The timing and modus operandi of those revolutionaries suggest that this is definitely not a spontaneous popular uprising but a revolt perfectly organized by hostile nations of the communist block and their operatives within the US. They have been planning and preparing for this for a long time.

The resurgence of Communism in the world has been predicted by many saints and visionaries. Many well intentioned and studious Catholics have confected various schedules of the End Times where the reemergence of Communism appears sometimes here and sometimes there. Personally, I do not like schedules. While it is true the “Those that are learned among the people shall teach many …” (Daniel 11:33) it is also true that God made it impossible for mere men to figure out the entirety of His plans. He allows us to know enough to be prepared by trusting ourselves to Divine Providence. If pious men could guess the game plan, so could God’s eternal enemy, the devil. We have one sad example of misusing prophecies: those who were waiting for the Messiah at the time when Jesus began his ministry. A dear reader sent me this interesting insight a few days ago:

“See, God does things in a kind of ironic manner. The Messiah comes as a penniless nobody. No wonder the elite missed the signal. They were looking down the track for the streamlined express. The basket of deplorables got the message though because he was right at their level looking them right in the eye. There is no question in my mind that evil is on the rise and that evil people are in a kind of energized panic for time. They want it all right now and they don’t care anymore for the optics. Now that the mask is off everyone has to wear a mask. Irony! But I think they have a sense that they have to work fast. The other way of saying that is that they may suspect they are running out of time.”

Truly, one cannot deny that God has a wry sense of humor! Isn’t the time we are living in the Apocalypse? meaning “the removal of the veil” at a time when almost all mankind walks around wearing a surgical mask? One can’t make this stuff up! The Argentine writer, J.L. Borges said once that all meaningful conversations are a continuation of the dialog between Plato and Aristotle. In that sense, I do believe every person on earth is a form of echo or avatar of either Christ or the devil.

Now, going back to the riots. How could a person who wants to improve the lot of man believe not in small reforms to make things better but in total destruction to make room for something that he does not even have a clear idea of what it is? There is something behind that wanton destruction and that is the archetypal evil, the first liar and assassin. He knows the time is short. He must sense in a spiritual way that the brutal ignominious end of his disruption is close at hand. So he inspires his followers. We have been warned:

“Therefore be full of delight, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great rage, knowing he has a short time.” (Revelation 12:12)

Is this the announced return of Communism or not? To answer my own question, I believe it is possible that the return of Communism happened long ago. See, Communism did not fall with the demise of the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s. It had been falling for a long time. When the USSR ended, it was just a dry, empty husk that crumbled under the weight of history. Seasoned Communists old enough to have read about the Great War of 1914-1918 (now commonly referred to as World War I) know that Communism was one of the casualties, perhaps one of the most important casualties of that conflict. In reality the workers of the world never united. When the Great War came the workers of the world simply stood behind their national leaders and fought for their national interests under their old banners.

The war of 1914-1918 was a complete defeat for Marxists because the workers of the world paid no attention to these new ideas and decided to go to war in defense of their traditions, monarchs, churches, etc. paying no attention to the nebulous abstractions of Karl Marx. The Marxist proposal fell into deaf ears. It is true that it was imposed in Russia right after the war but that was not the result of a popular reaction. It was the work of very astute political opportunists that managed to manipulate the chaotic circumstances in Moscow to seize power. There was no marching of the proletariat to impose a classless society, and that did not result in a worker’s paradise either.

The resurgence of Communism came from the minds of the School of Frankfurt, conveniently transferred to the United States to avoid the Nazi concentration camps of World War II, and also from a rather unknown Italian ideologist called Antonio Gramsci.

The fact that the workers of the world did not have any interest in uniting but were willing to go to war for the traditional national order was a serious defeat for international Marxism but they did not give up. It was obvious that the workers were not going to unite to give the Marxists control over the world and a classless society. At this point a new actor entered the scene, Antonio Gramsci who wrote a number of plans while in prison. Those writings were gathered and published as a book titled Quaderni del Carcere  [The Prison Notebooks] where the author presents his idea of “the long march through the institutions.”

That “long march” was nothing more than the Communist infiltration of entire institutions, most especially those important in the formation of public opinion or the education of young minds. Now we know that even the Catholic Church was a target! It was as early as 1924 when Stalin personally directed the Communist foreign intelligence assets of the Soviet Union to infiltrate the Roman Church with young homosexuals. Bella Dodd, a Communist operative who converted to Catholicism, reported that four of those infiltrates were already Cardinals by 1954. Other important targets of Communist infiltration were American colleges and universities, news media, and the bureaucracies at federal and state levels.

So, one could argue that there has already been one reemergence of Communism and these riots, political impasses, and media partiality are simply the fruit of Communism’s second assault on Western societies.

This long story serves to teach us that sometimes we can misinterpret the signs presented to us. We create schedules of events in our own minds even when we have been warned that we can’t figure out God’s moves in advance. The religious leaders of Christ’s time tried very hard to identify the main characteristics of the long expected Messiah. They were right about one thing:  the Messiah would appear suddenly within the clear time frame that the prophets had announced. But they were also wrong about many other things: they were expecting a military commander, God’s response to Alexander the Great and the great Roman generals. It was not to happen that way. Their schedule and their list were completely flawed. The Messiah walked by them, right under their nose. What is even worse: they thought he was a nuisance, a dangerous madman and they ended up handing him to the Romans for crucifixion.

We don’t want to fail like they did. Humility is of the essence. If I think things like “the Jews will be converted first, then the Antichrist will raise, and then this followed by that, etc.” I may fall in the same error of the Pharisees and Sadducees and be disappointed to find out later that the things I was waiting for were already behind me.

I am convinced we are living the last days of this crooked age. I expect to see more evidence of the approaching Kingdom of God in the months and years to come. I know the current crisis is a sign that the present age has its days counted. I rejoice in the news because they announce the nearness of our redemption just as Our Lord announced it. One thing I do not dare to do: I will not build a schedule, I won’t make a list of “must-have” signs.

“But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.” Micah 7:7

Or, as Our Lord said once to St. Pio of Pietrelcina:

“Your confidence obliges me to help you” …

May that move us to respond:  “I trust in You, Lord.” Maranatha.