“And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Isaiah 35:10)
The kingdoms of man, global or local, are simply bad copies of God’s Kingdom. Politicians and wanna-be kings appeal to the people by promising grandiose benefits. Very rarely does a leader promise “toil, blood, sweat, and tears.” Now we know those words are usually the hallmark of a sincere man although there are exceptions. The pattern repeats throughout history: good men build kingdoms with great sacrifice only to raise new generations who grow up weak an take order and prosperity for granted. Since wisdom is not fostered by weakness sooner or later the old serpent appears, enticing the fools with future delights if only –if only!– they would surrender their will and possessions for “just for a short time” and make the serpent king. What follows is misery and strife, the loss of peace and liberty until fools die in chains. The children of those fools are forced to live a life of hardship and that makes them grow in wisdom, and courage. Future generations eventually produce leaders able to build everything anew through toil and sacrifice. And so the cycle begins again.
I am quite sure the cycle will continue to repeat until we learn the lesson. The rise and fall of kingdoms is one of the grand themes of mankind. If history teaches anything is that all human efforts are a grand exercise in futility. Our happiest and more lasting achievements are always small; God does not expect us to conquer the world but to conquer ourselves. But we are now suffering a new and more dangerous batch of fools who want to conquer the world. They are well on their way to do it by using a powerful cocktail of weaponized financial and technological tools, microbes, politics and information. The world was not prepared for this kind of assault. The attack flew over national defenses like the Wehrmacht passed over the Maginot line. Some people are stupid when it comes to understanding their mission in life but quite smart at creating trouble but these fools are not geniuses of evil, they are simply fools being used by a macrobe, an intelligent being from outside this world whose identity is surely about to be revealed to the world.
This macrobe is the ancient serpent, the devil. His followers have unleashed on the world this unexpected attack. Their objective is to impede the arrival of the Kingdom of God and to establish a global kingdom of their own, the ape of the real kingdom and, at the same time, it polar opposite. Christ’s Kingdom will come to give us life in abundance but the devil’s global nightmare comes to kill as many of mankind as needed to abort God’s Kingdom. The plan of the ancient serpent is simple: kill everyone, even those “useful idiots” implementing the plan for him.
“A great portent appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pangs, in the agony of giving birth. Then another portent appeared in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, so that he might devour her child as soon as it was born.” (Revelation 12:1-4)
I believe we are seeing now a desperate last attempt to establish the fake globalist kingdom, kill as many humans as possible, and prepare the nations for the last battle against God and his King. The efforts of the devil’s forces will come to naught but there will be much evil before we see the end of the battle.
“So when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle, so that she could fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to her place where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. Then from his mouth the serpent poured water like a river after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman; it opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth.” (Revelation 12:13-16)
The woman is the Church. This age of the Church was typified by the flight of the Holy Family to Egypt. It all starts with the visit of the three mysterious magi from Orient. You can read the whole story in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2.
The story in Matthew 2 is a sequence of prophetic models one can easily decipher:
The Orientals arrive in Jerusalem and visit King Herod. They inform Herod of the signs in the Heavens, indicating the birth of the Messiah. The signs they had observed are a series of astronomical phenomena involving a conjunction of the star Regulus (meaning ‘little king’), the planet Jupiter (king of the planets known in antiquity), the planet Venus (the Virgin) and a whole symbolic show involving also the constellations of Virgo and Leo. The drama unfolding in the night skies of that age was clear: The Almighty God had caused the Virgin to give birth to a Little King, the Lion of Judah. For those unaware of the difference: this is not astrology but astronomy. The magi knew about the prophecies involving a King of Judah who would rule the world one day. They also knew that God communicates knowledge through celestial signs as expressed in Psalm 19.
The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours forth speech,
and night to night declares knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
their voice is not heard;
yet their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
The magi likely knew the ancient proverb of Solomon: “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings.” (Proverbs 25:2) The Kingdom of God was entering the world in a humble manner “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field . . .” (Matthew 13:31) The prophetic plot unfolds . . . this is a representation of the events we have before our eyes:
Signs are revealing to those paying attention that the Kingdom of the Heavens is at hand. That Kingdom will come from the Church symbolized by Mary, the mother of Jesus. She is the Mother of the Christ, the Messiah, the baby destined to rule the world forever!
Herod tries to kill the New King by ascertaining the time and place of birth of the Messiah. He orders the killing of the Little King but Mary, Joseph and the Royal Babe are warned and flee to Egypt. That symbolizes the last persecution of the Church and the flight to the desert-like condition where the Church is now or is about to enter. The demonic forces ruling the world tried to prevent the birth of the Kingdom by killing many, especially the unborn who are destined to see the arrival of Christ the King.
The Wise Men of Orient adore the King and give him presents, precious gifts that will sustain the family in the desert. In the mystery of the life of the Church, those presents are the doctrines that the Apostles, those other ‘men of the Orient’ left with the faithful to sustain them through the ages to come. Now that the Church is under attack, we can live off the deposit of faith trusted to us. That will sustain us until we can return from exile. We will “return by another road” to Nazareth, the town of Mary. Before Christ returns to Jerusalem as a king (think Palm Sunday) he must grow in Nazareth. That is a precious image, Nazareth may symbolized a Marian preparation of the Church before the glorious arrival of Christ. Certainly a rich image to meditate upon.
The Holy Family returns from Egypt instructed by the angel of God who tells them “the enemies of the child are dead.” In my view, that is an apt illustration of what is going to happen to the would be conquerors of the world. Words of Jesus in a similar parable: “But as for these enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and slaughter them in my presence.” (Luke 19:27) The end of the modern imitators of Herod will not be pleasant. Christ will make them feel the edge of the sword that they so generously used on the poor and the innocent. Population reduction done God’s way.
We are facing difficult times. The enemies of the faith are, like Herod, ruthless and brutal. That should not intimidate us but excite us. This is a great opportunity, perhaps one of the final opportunities to proclaim our faith and give witness of Our King. The time comes when we will change the words of the ancient prayer to “Thy kingdom has come, thy will is done” but for a little while we must continue praying:
“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10)
It is coming. Even His enemies know it.
