The Lord says to my lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. ’  The Lord has lifted from Zion your mighty scepter: “Rule in the midst of your foes!” Your people will offer themselves willingly on the day you lead your forces on the holy mountains. (Psalm 110:1-3)

I apologize for the two “second parts” I owe you. Inspiration is not coming easily to yours truly. In the meanwhile, I offer you a short reflection on “rule in the midst of your foes” a phrase that has inspired many to imagine strange scenarios of the long-awaited parousia of Our Lord.

We have a divinely written promise that the forces of evil shall not prevail upon the Church. In 1054 and later during the 15th century a number of men decided not to believe in that promise and they proceeded to separate themselves from the See of Peter first, and then some others decided in fact, that Jesus had not done a good job in launching His Church into eternity and they decided to “reform” it, adapting the Church to the “present times”. According to them, the times required a modified Church and reformed it they did until, divided ad infinitum the Church became unrecognizable to those who had seen her in happier times.

Today, the ever reforming reformers are advancing at a speed that make some believe that perhaps Christ truly forgot about His Church and its eternal destiny. Emptied of its essence by its enemies in connivance with some infidel sons and daughters, the Church seems to be turning into a sort of testimonial husk.

Those who have climbed to the high echelons of the hierarchy seem to believe that a Church more agreeable to the spirit of the present times will survive better than a Church more agreeable to the spirit of Christ. Well, we are all entitled to our opinion aren’t we? I for one believe it is time to bring back the words of Archbishop Zumárraga, who wrote a short secret message to the King of Spain and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V: “Unless there is supernatural intervention, the country is lost!”

In 1531, Zumárraga was facing a three-way civil war and the end of Mexico, the young Christian country in the Americas. The Church is facing an even worse situation today. We can echo the dictum of the good Archbishop today: “Unless there is supernatural intervention … we’re toast!”

Paradoxically, Heaven has been promising that intervention for a few centuries now. The problem is that many of our priests and bishops choose not believe neither in the messages nor in the messengers (seers, prophets, etc.) because they believe only in themselves. Unable to see beyond the material world surrounding them they have been blinded into believing that their own efforts will save the Church and anything else is a waste of time, a silly belief in things beyond their brilliant intellects. And brilliant they are, greasy surfaces are sometimes brilliant enough to blind the simple onlooker.

So let us recap and see if we can shake off the present age of mediocrity and dullness. First, the Church was created by Christ. When he ordered Peter: “Duc in altum” the one giving the order was the very Logos who made the words “Let there be light” produce the first light. So … the creative force of the Logos is ordering the Church to go to the deepest part of the sea, where the enemies of God reside. Remember the possessed pigs of Gerasa diving into the Sea of Gennesaret? Well, that was a prophetic figure. We are seeing it fulfilled today. The barque of Peter is getting close to the deepest, darkest, most dangerous part of history. Just like it was in the first century it is today: the dawn of a new world is upon us and the barque is filled with immature, mediocre men of little faith. Faced with the miraculous catch, they will be converted and transformed not by a command of God but moved by the testimony of nature responding miraculously to the voice of the Logos.

We are witnessing the greatest rebellion against the Law of God in all history. Such is the present darkness, the darkness of the deep, the Neptunian darkness of the slimy bottom of human history where those awful evil ugly blind creatures crawl. Some of them will soon be turned into beings of light, others will perish as the glory of God’s light shines on them as they reject it and try to return to the familiar obscurity of the depths.

It is morning. We have been fishing all night and nothing much has turned up. Our nets are empty. Yet, the seers and prophets of this time keep reminding us of God’s promises: this is the end of times, not the end of the world but the end of man’s imaginary self rule. In fact, this is the end of the devil’s rule over mankind. We have been told, century after century that a new world is coming, a world that will be purified by God. Tremendous upheavals are beginning to happen, most of us can hear the rumbles. As promised to a humble nun in the 16th century, Our Lady will trample the ruler of this world under her feet. He will descend to hell humiliated by the fact that he was defeated by a lady form Nazareth. What about that for feminism! “Thug beat up by girl goes to jail” I can see the newspaper titles. Eternal shame on that bully!

St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Monfort predicted that the triumph of Our Lady, the triumph of her Immaculate Heart was going to happen in the end times, our times if you ask me. Some time later, St. Catherine Labouré predicted the “era of peace” a time when Christ will reign upon this world. Our Blessed Mother will have a very important role at that time: to prepare mankind for the final arrival of Christ in glory. The age of peace, if I understand it correctly, will be a better age than this (not hard to do, once can imagine) in which evil will be removed to some degree. I imagine that as a clean up that will improve the lot of mankind but not a “heaven on earth” solution, not a materialistic worker’s paradise but a decent world, decent enough for Christ to rule in the midst of his enemies. Some will remain enemies of Christ no matter what blessings are poured upon them but one can hope that a good number of God’s enemies will change and save themselves. During that time the nets will be filled with teeming fish but will not burst.

The enemies of God will not surrender this world without a fight. It will be short and bloody but it will be an epic battle. In the end, Mary’s Immaculate Heart will triumph.

Now the words of Christ to St. Faustina Kowalska make sense: “Before coming to you as a righteous judge, I will open wide the gates of Divine Mercy.” Now, that makes a lot of sense. Much more sense than the cheap mercy proclaimed by the “God does not punish” crowd. God punishes those who stubbornly resist His mercy. Ask any of the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, or any of those who perished in Noah’s flood.

Unless there is supernatural intervention, we are lost. But we are not lost. We are in hands of God. We are in good hands.