There is another consideration. The peculiar nature of the gesture—kneeling to receive Communion—enters the memory as specifically bound up with the act of the Sacrament and with the place where you receive. Again, it is not like anything else we do during the week. To kneel at the rail is to be at a certain place, not for a mere moment, but perhaps for a minute or so, long enough to say a prayer, long enough to think of something you ought to have done, or something you ought not to have done, long enough—and if it is every Sunday, frequent enough—to make that place, that rail and no other, filled with significance. I mean the word in its precise sense: the place becomes a sign.
The only way to evangelize the modern pagan world today would be once again through the family. If we do not realize this, then our enemies do—and that is why they are trying to undermine and destroy the family which stands in the way of the neo-pagan world they want to reconstitute. Here, selflessness is replaced by selfishness, love is replaced by lust, and doing God’s will is replaced by doing your own will: doing whatever you want, in whatever way you want, whenever you want. It may be too late for the wild geese to save Rome this time round, for the barbarians are already within the gates! But it is not too late for the families who once transformed a pagan world into a Catholic world to do so once more—and this time to make sure that the forces of evil do not reemerge to destroy it, or at least distort and disunite what once had been one in Christ.
What’s happened to our first freedom, especially the rights of morally traditional believers who have given so much to our nation? Their religious beliefs are portrayed as hateful, and their religious freedom as a front for bigots, racists, and theocrats. This slander has been embedded in all our institutions – our schools, the media, Big Tech, the sports and entertainment industry, the medical profession, our foreign policy, and even our military.
This is a threat not only to the religious, but to the Constitution, and to America’s singular role in the world. The recent election results may blunt this threat, but political change alone cannot defeat it. It’s too deeply rooted in our cultural institutions.
The only question that matters this Advent is whether Jesus Christ is really who the Epistle of James claims he is: the center of history, the Lord of creation, the God of life who warrants the passion of our hearts. In the time we’ve been given, are we living in AD 2024 or 2024 CE; in Anno Domini, “the year of Our Lord,” or just another 12 months in a morally vacant “Common Era.”
We each get to choose – and to act accordingly.
We must be under no illusions as Christians. It is not business as usual, keeping quiet, keeping our heads down, hoping none of the encroaching darkness will overwhelm us. What if you are a doctor, or nurse, or some other kind of medical professional, and you are expected to participate in this? What if you get sick or incapacitated and your relatives decide it’s time for you to go? It won’t happen, we are told. But something has happened that is very bad. When we need roaring bishops, like lions, all we get are meows from kittens.