Concerning the End TImes, Jesus once said, “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son”. (Mt24:36)  I take that as the cue that we regular Joe Catholics (or anyone for that matter), aren’t supposed to know when the world will end.  Sure, there will be signs, but Adventism has a bad track record.  Why concern ourselves with Judgement Day when anyone of us could face our respective personal judgements on any day?

Even when living in the crazy times of today, in the days of AI, Agenda 2030, Davos, the WEF, and the Nerolink, we shouldn't jump to conclusions.  It's easy to predict a day where only those who accept some bio-techno “mark of the beast” can trade and do business.  But why go there?  Besides, Adventist predictions, by their nature can only end either really horribly (the end of the world) or in emabarassment (not the end of the world).  Just say no.

Nevertheless, many respectable Catholic historians and theologians have posited that details of the book of Revelation make for themes that recur throughout history.  There have been many "antichrists" (lower case "a") in the history of the Church.  Various Roman emperors who persecuted the Church were antichirists, Napoleon was an antichrist, Stalin was an antichrist, etc...  An evil man ("man of sin") who has led millions to sin and hostility against the Church would certainly qualify.  History has seen plenty of "antichrists".   For more, click here.

What about “The Beast of the Apocalypse”?

Biblical scholars have interpreted, ever since John wrote the book of Revlelation, that John was talking in code to an audience who needed hope during Roman persecution against the Church.  The mark of the Beast, "666", was a numeric way to refer to Nero.  Those who had some understanding of Hebrew would have easily caught that.  The seven heads of the Beast, have been classically understood to refer to the seven hills on which Rome was founded. 

When John wrote about "The Beast", he was refering to an emprie that was as anti-culture and anti-Christianity as one could experience.  But just as there are recurring "antichrists" throughout history, are there "beasts" that parallel the menacing anti-culture that the Roman empire was in John's day?  Is there a beast of today?  Are people so absorbed into the anti-culture of today that they don't even know that have fallen victim to it?

Let's observe...


Breathing Down our Necks

We see beasts that man serves, zeitgeists that become idols themselves, many times in history.  The Roman empire, ruled by emporers who persecuted Christians, was a “beast”. The Nazis made a beast anti-culture that many were frothing at the mouth to serve.  And its antichrist leader (who dabbled in the occult) loved showing his followers how to feed it.  The Carthagenians fed their beast (Moloch).  Religions that can only grow by violenct coercion are beasts.  Communism is a beast, Post-Modernism is a beast, etc...

As Post Modern day Americans, we have a unique beast we love to feed.  While I am not sure that we can merely starve the beast out of our society and culture, I think it's imperative that we not be the ones throwing meals to it. There’s a moral satisfaction that comes along with that.

This last Sunday's Super Bowl displayed the post-modern American beast, about as well as any other tribute to avarice, debauchery, and frivolousness out there.   To varying degrees, we all seem to know that we are participants in the Post WWII Ameican Consumer Industrial Complex, but do we really care? 

So many Americans stopped watching the NFL when the National Anthem kneeling started, and now many of those same people have gone back to the same league that  plastered the logos of self-proclaimed Marxists in NFL stadiums in 2020, forced vaccinations on personnel in 2021, then literally called football gay in an official NFL advertisement.  I think many are simply victims of programming.  It's hard to blame them really, when decades of intense effort and billions of dollars have been invested into making them addicted to the thousands of ads they happily endure during each football season. 

As Americans crack open their bottles of Dylan Mulvaney light beer and hoot and holler during the sparse real playing time during an NFL game, they also eagerly celebrate Super Bowl commercials.  Yes, somehow they find themselves thankful for donut ads staring awful liberals from Boston whom none of us have anything in common with.  Hey Dunkin Donuts, the 2000's called and said they want their washed up entertainment stars back!

According to a study done by Cross Screen Media, the average NFL game viewer watches 100 plus ads per game (63 total minutes). The NFL watcher sees an average of 3,000 ads per season, and ads account for 33% of the content displayed on screen throughout an NFL game. The rest of the pie is pretty interesting: 35% (1 hr and 7 min) of what is displayed on screen is players standing around on the field or sidelines, 9% is replay, and only 6% is actual game plays.  Oh, and 18% is in this category called “Other”, which includes things like shots of Taylor Swift, PSAs for LGBT teenager awareness, and footage of a disgruntled Jerry Jones in his pressbox.

This year the Super Bowl had a “Pride Night” (brought to you by Smirnoff) as part of the Super Weekend line up.  Another "Theatre of the Absurd" style halftime show graced millions of American eyeballs.  Leading up to the Super Bowl, Americans chatted up the Kelce/Swifty dynamic on morning shows, late shows, Twitter, and all the other important public forums of speech on and off the tv and internet. 

Apparently, “FanDuel” doesn't allow you to make prop bets on things that don't directly affect the outcome of a game.  Nevertheless, Forbes provided a niffty Taylor Swift prop bet sheet that you could have used at your Super Bowl party amongst your friends.  Maybe you could have turned it into a drinking game.  It included how many times Taylor would appear on screen and what style of jersey she would wear.

In fairness, the Super Bowl is just a microcosm of what levels we have desecended to. Drive down highway 60 and observe the billboards: Injury Attorneys, Valentines Day deals at “Fascinations”, beer adverts, Draft Kings sports betting, and $12 “eighths”.   Anyone here like cake?  No, not the kind you eat, silly.  Don't you know; "Health for Life" Dispensary is offering a BOGO on birthday cake flavored marijuana vape pen juice!  As the billboard says, "Cake! She hits different!”  It's a good thing children don't like birthday cake.  It would be horrible if they were influenced by any of this advertising. 

Remember, the Soviets were given a chicken and a handle of vodka in their bread lines.  Afterall, it’s hard to stand up to a beast when you can hardly stand.

Somedays I don’t know what movie we are closer to: Idiocracy, or Back to the Future II.  Remember when Marty woke up to find that Biff was the mayor in a horrible parallel future?  It really feels like that some days.  Well, whichever movie our times most resemble now, it probably doesn't matter much.  We are soon headed for Mad Max Thunderdome at this rate.

 

You Vill Eat Zie Bugs!

And let's be clear, the beast of our current age is found beyond the circus.   It's found in the bread too.  Or should I say, in the bugs, 3D printed "meat", and "meat" product engineered from human feces that the overworld wants to feed us.  The beast is found in the presentations the overworld made at the recent Davos summit.  It's found in the propertyless, tiny home, no children "smart planet" that they keep forcing onto us.  It's found in the European policies that are strangling farmers, all in the name of "environmental sustainability."  But hey, speaking of poop, it's encouraging to see farmers in France strike back with their recent spreading of manuer on the government buildings of their overlords.   Apropos.

It’s a beast system that the overworld class of Davos and their ilk push upon us.  It’s been discussed by the UN even long before Agenda 21 and it is always advanced in the name of “environmental sustainability".    There are three possibilities for how this ends.   We all end up eating bugs and living in pods, the beast is someday starved out by people who love freedom more than having 25 flavors of oreos to choose from, or the actual end of the world comes.  Pick which one of those options you want to be a part of!

How about our current border crisis?  When we start getting emails form Senator Kyrsten Sinema acknowledging that we have a full on “Border Crisis” (her words), then we have a legtimate border crisis.  And we have this, not because of “stupid” politicians and their “stupid” policies, but because useful idiot politicians serving Sorosian bad actors are advancing deliberately bad political policies.

As America collapses, it yields opportunities for the wealthiest international bankers, foregin enemies of America, and even the most casual curency traders beyond what this world has ever seen.  The Open Borders Society Foundation is feeding the beast with lots and lots of money.  Sorosian investors are feeding the abortion up to birth ballot initiatives with millions right now as well.  Collapse always yields the changing of money and assets from one hand to another.  It yields opportunity.  Sorosian bad actors are presently building and cashing out on short positions on our collapse.  Our nation's proverbial gut is being punched everyday, so that, the only thing our nation will soon be able to do is lie on the floor and cough up every last dollar in agony.

 

Lent

G.K. Chesterton once wrote a book titled, What’s wrong with the World.  HIs book philosophized on the various threats to Western Civiliization in his own day (there is a lot of interesting perspective on women's suffarage in there, if you are interested). Ultimately, Chesterton answered the title of his own book by saying that what was wrong with the world was himself.  The larger message behind that answer was to say that all of us contribute, in one way or another, to the evils of our respective times. 

It’s a common attitude to face the errors of the day with quips of "They did this!"  We read this on bumber stickers that say, “Not my president”.  I have a neighbor who has been raising a flag that reads, “Don’t blame me, I voted for Trump” for the last three years.  I love this neighbor of mine; he's a gem of an old man who just misses simpler times.  But if only our political and moral obligations to our cherished native land could come down to proclaiming the message of that flag.  If only that were all it would take for us to protect and preserve such a valuable prize as our great free nation.

The liberals haven’t done this.  Not by themselves, they haven't.  Your average meme worthy “snowflake” is a victim of marxist public schooling and a broken family.  Yeah, they have their own guilts about them, but so do I.  We all fail regularly and need to come back to grace and the sacraments, right?

In a famous interview that preceeded the release of The Passion, Dianne Sawyer asked Mel Gibson if he thought his movie was insensative to the Jews.  Ultimately, Dianne asked him, "Who killed Jesus Christ?"  His answer was, "Big picture, answer is: we all did.  I'll be the first in the culpability stakes here."  GIbson even made a point to have his own hand filmed when the nails were being driven into Christ's hands.  Each one of us have done our fair share in driving in those nails through our sins.  This theory is well supported by the Church (CCC 598).  Most "Way of the Cross" publications require that we reflect upon the guilt we all share when we do Stations of the Cross.

So what are we going to do about all of this?  Let’s starve the beast where we can, but let’s implement some other tried and true tactics as well.  Christ said that some demons can only be expelled by prayer and fasting (Mk 9:29).  What a perfect time for Lent!  Let’s keep doing the active things we are doing as the “boots on the ground", as we all do our parts in "the breach".   Yes, let's porter, pray outside the abortion clinics, engage in street evangelization, etc… but let’s also take this moment, while we are looking at the beast up close, to strengthen ourselves and our resolve.  This year, let's have our best Lent yet.

Every time you mortify yourself, you add armor to help you resist the devil and “the beast”. When you fast and pray throughout lent, you strike the beast.  Say no to the bread and circus this Lent, rid yourself of excessive media consumption and “Fatboy” branded ice cream sandwiches (that last one is a presectiption for myself, by the way).

Even if you aren’t going full Exodus 90, that model is a great template for Lent.  Media and television fasting, suspending unnecessary purchases, cold showers, meatless Fridays and Wednesdays, and the elimination of snacking… that’s a man’s Lent!  Talk about putting on some armor.

I don’t need to do any more preaching, not that I’m qualified anyway.  Let’s let Ash Wednesady's mass collect speak for itself:
 

Grant, O Lord, that we may begin with holy fasting, this campaign of Christian service, so that, as we take up battle against spiritual evils, we may be armed with weapons of self-restraint.
 

Do you need some armor to fight the beasts of today, whether they are within our culture, within our homes, or within ourselves? Good news... the time is here!

Let’s have a strong and Holy Lent.
 

God bless,
 

Gadfly