None Dare Call This A Chastisement

American society faces many grave problems: the election results, the storming of the Capitol, Antifa, civil unrest and the coronavirus politics. The one thing these problems all have in common is that they are the result of a moral crisis. The error they all share is that they seek political solutions to these moral problems.

Indeed the complexity of the overall crisis leads one to ask if these times correspond to the chastisement foretold by Our Lady of Fatima if men did not repent.

The situation calls to mind an analogy written by a Spanish Catalan Discalced Carmelite priest named Blessed Francisco Palau y Quer, (1811–1872). He commented on the revolutionary unrest in Spain that led to disaster. He likened the situation to that of a train on a crash course.

Blessed Palau wrote of a society “led en masse by the powers of darkness and the political powers that has boarded a train. The engineers of this train are taking it to Hell. The station of departure is called Revolution, and the next stop is Social Catastrophe!”

“While the train is traveling, its unthinking passengers ignore Our Lady’s pleas, ‘Stop! Go back!’ This voice, the voice of Catholicism, is drowned out by the noise of the train. However, up ahead a storm has washed away a bridge and it was already night time.”

“On it went, its passengers completely unaware of the danger. The bridge was gone, but on they went into the darkness that hid the danger. They arrived to the washed out bridge. The locomotive flew into the air. It has no bridge; it has no track, for the raging water obliterated it.”

“The engine falls, dragging with it the railcars and those inside, and the waters below swallowed up the passengers. They did not believe in the danger, but it existed; it was a reality. Their lack of belief did not save them, but rather destroyed them. The engineers and conductors of the train of today’s society are inebriated with evil; they are out of their minds.”

“Can’t you see that our conductors have it all wrong? Then get off the train if you can and cast yourself into the arms of Holy Mother Church if you want to be saved.”

The allegory of Blessed Palau applies to the present times with some modifications. Our Lady gave a solution to the occupants of this train to the seers at Fatima, Portugal in 1917—and people have not heeded that message.

Instead of converting, the moral depravity of society increases and dominates every aspect of life. On the train of modern society, a great party is taking place. There is a party-atmosphere of drugs, pornography and free love. There is abortion, euthanasia and sodomy. Every fantasy is supported by the complicity of education, big business, politicians and clergy. Blasphemy, sacrilege and Satanism also have their place on the train.

Adding to the confusion on board the train is the COVID-19 virus. It interrupts the party and provides many sufferings. However, people still continue sinning and do not convert. Draconian measures imposed by tyrannical politicians make life miserable for so many but there remains the distant hope that the party might later continue with the right political leadership.

Civil unrest is yet another danger that disrupts the party. People come to fear for their safety, as riots are the new normal.

Despite all the chaos aboard the train, few listen to those who call for conversion as it becomes increasingly evident that humanity is heading toward disaster.

Society faces problems that are beyond partisan politics. People need to see that the events on board are already part of the chastisement that leads to complete disaster. Politicians have failed them. Society has failed them. They need to appeal to God who will not fail them. It is time to get off the party train, which has lost all its false pleasures and promises.

With the suffering caused by these events, God is calling America back to Him. It is necessary to turn back as the Prodigal Son turned back to his father after realizing the profound malice of his sin. We have become victims of our own follies and are eating the husks of swine. God is allowing the situation on the train to worsen as a chastisement but also as a mercy so that people might wake up from their comfortable sleep before it plunges into the river. Indeed, none dare call the present plight what it is: a chastisement!