Much is Required
In Luke chapter 12, our Lord tells us that “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.” We most often interpret this to teach that, in proportion to the spiritual and material blessings we have each been given, we are to be generous and charitable in our actions towards and for others. That is of course one part of this teaching, but it is not all.
It is a warning and a notice to us as to what we should expect.
What people, after all, has been given more than we have been given, in all the recorded history of Earth? This nation was built, as much as many of our political opponents may wish to deny it, on Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian foundations. Those principles, enshrined in our founding documents, have worked well because we were also a nation built by a people who lived by those principles and took them seriously. John Adams is quoted to have said “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” The runaway amorality of our elites is underlining that truth.
Society is Unrecognizable
Those of us who have reached even early middle age look around and do not even recognize our society anymore. The attacks may seem to many of us to have arrived almost simultaneously and from every direction, against virtually every institution, be it our schools, our businesses, our government, our churches and even reaching now to our families. These attacks have enjoyed almost uninterrupted success.
Are We Too Comfortable?
We have been given so much, and we thought we could enjoy the blessings of material prosperity and rule of law without further effort. We enjoyed our inheritance and went to sleep. We wished only to be left alone and we avoided uncomfortable conflict, for we valued peace, empathy, and generosity above all else. We hoped that if we just gave the loudest and most extreme elements of our society what they were asking for, they would be content and join us in our pleasant repose. They did not, but instead were encouraged by their success and demanded ever MORE.
We have been fortunate to have lived in a strange moment of relative tranquility. It is now obvious that the forces who hate our society, our culture, our values and our faith were not at rest, but were working diligently to undermine and ultimately overturn everything. We must recognize that the time of passivity is over, and that we must once more step up to the line of battle, and head directly to where the fighting is most fierce.
The Option to Sit Out is No Longer Available
“Much will be required.” Does this simply mean discipline from our eternal Judge for lack of good works in return for our blessing? It does not. It means much vigilance, courage, effort, and endurance will be required to defend, to maintain, and to reclaim those blessings that have been given. It means conflict. We may be thankful that for us this conflict yet remains in the public political arena. Let us pray that it remains there. If we care about succeeding generations, the option to sit this out is no longer available. We must choose a side.
~ unum de multis
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