Latest / The Catholic Current / LTACL: France—Renounce the Revolution (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.)

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LTACL: France—Renounce the Revolution (Fr. Robert McTeigue, S.J.) · The Catholic Current

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  Let me ask you this. How do you know when it's time to get out
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  and go home? Now, from my college days back in the day, I observed
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  that it was time to go home when the bartender yelled, last call!
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  Because we know that shortly after last call would be closing
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  time, and you wanted to be out the door and well on the way home
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  before closing time arrived. Why? Because that's when
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  the bright lights would come on. There'd be some obnoxious song
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  to drive you out. And that's when you realize as you're squeezing
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  towards the exit, you're surrounded by people who can't believe the party's
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  over, who don't realize how drunk they are, and they think
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  that right now might be a good time to start a fight
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  or start a romance. That can't end well for a college student.
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  It also can't end well for a nation.
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  You guessed it, I'm still talking about France. France has
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  been at the bar doing shots and dancing on the pool
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  table since 1789. Right now
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  it's last call. Closing time is gonna hit hard,
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  and France needs to admit that she's drunk,
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  she's broke, and right now nobody thinks she's pretty.
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  It's time to sober up and come to Jesus.
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  It's time to come back to to Christ,
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  and it's gonna hurt, but it's your only shot. Stay with
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  me, I got a story to tell. Hi, I'm Jesuit Father Robert McTaggart, your host
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  every day at The Catholic Current, coming to you from the Station of the Cross
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  Catholic Media Network. Let's take a closer look.
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  Glad you're here. 1789, the French Revolution was the
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  mother of all no kings rallies. It was soaked in blood,
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  and a lot of ink was spilled too. A lot of ideas were bandied about.
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  But a lot of people said, you know, it'd be really great if we organize
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  public and private life without Christ. We're all going to live happily ever
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  after. Well, some people figured out even while it was taking
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  place that this was a bad idea. My fellow
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  Irishman Edmund Burke wrote this regarding
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  the French Revolution. He says, the age of chivalry is gone.
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  That of sophisters, economists, and calculators has
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  succeeded and the glory of Europe is extinguished
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  forever. Now that's dark even by, uh,
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  this dark Irishman's standards, but it wasn't just the
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  Irish, it was the Scots as well. Uh, historian Thomas
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  Carlyle saw the disaster coming too because
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  people didn't see the danger they were in,
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  number one, for rejecting Christ, And number 2, for listening
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  to clowns like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who's considered
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  the intellectual architect of the French Revolution.
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  Carlyle wrote this: There was once a man called
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  Rousseau who wrote a book containing nothing but ideas.
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  The second edition was bound in the skins of those who
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  laughed at the first. Ouch,
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  that hit hard. People ignored the warning signs, thought they could safely
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  reject Christ. And lots of people paid in blood.
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  Now, the immediate aftermath of the French Revolution,
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  even when the guillotines were put away for a while, that ultimate
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  No Kings rally, in less than 100 years, they had 2 kings
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  and 3 emperors. But one of the things everybody seemed to
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  agree on was there was no reason to return to Christ.
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  We need to leave him out of at least the public picture. Well,
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  Cardinal Pie, who was very much admired by Pope Leo XIII,
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  confronted Emperor Napoleon III. Napoleon III
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  had claimed that it wasn't time for Christ to reign. And His Eminence said
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  this. He said, the time has not come for Jesus Christ
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  to reign? Well then, the time has not come for
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  governments to last. Pow. There it is.
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  He said it out loud. France cannot last as
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  France in any meaningful sense unless
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  and until she comes back to Christ.
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  This illusion of secularism where everybody
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  can get along, that's not even a house of cards. That's an insult
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  to houses of cards. You know who knew this?
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  The bishops of France in 1925.
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  The Assembly of Cardinals and Archbishop of France denounced
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  the Republic's commitment to secularism, and they denounced it as
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  a total disregard of our Lord Jesus
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  Christ. That was in March of 1925.
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  Several months later, Pope Pius XI,
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  in declaring the Solemnity of Christ the King, said this
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  was the opportunity to come
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  back to sanity and to find true peace. And he spoke of the peace
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  of Christ in the kingdom of Christ.
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  Christ is King first by his divinity.
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  He's the eternal Word of the Father, through him, through whom all
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  things were made. All meaning, value,
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  and truth, all beauty and goodness found in creation originates
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  in Christ, points to Christ, who is the meaning and
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  measure and authority of what is true and good
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  and beautiful in creation. And he's also
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  King of all creation by conquest.
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  When we sinned, we rejected the authority of
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  God Almighty and handed it over to God's enemy,
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  Satan. And Christ won back creation
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  on Calvary. St. Augustine said,
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  peace is not the absence of conflict. It is the tranquility
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  of order. It is the office of the wise man,
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  Aquinas said, to order things to their proper ends.
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  And that only happens in unity with Christ
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  the King, not only in our hearts, but in our communities
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  and even in the lives of nations. This is
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  what the Church has always taught. This is what France
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  has rejected since 1789.
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  France, you're broke demographically.
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  Time is not on your side. This is last
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  call. Closing time is going to hit very hard
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  unless and until you renounce the revolution.
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  And come back to Christ the King.
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  I don't know how many of my listeners are French. Maybe you can pass that
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  on to your French family and friends. Meanwhile,
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  Americans who are going to be voting soon, they might have a
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  few things to consider as well. Meanwhile, everyone, please think on
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  these things today. Take them to prayer and talk about it with those you love.
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  Go in peace, and please do pray for me, for I
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  am a sinner.