01-28-2021, 11:51 PM
ESTIMATE OF THE PROPHECIES
It will be noted by the reader that the private oracles recorded herein do not always agree. This could mean that one or other is not genuine, but it could also indicate that we err in relating them to the same event.1
It is also worthy of remark that frequently there is a relationship between Scripture and private prophecies in that the latter seem to make an effort at particularizing prophecies of the Sacred Text which are in themselves quite general. Not infrequently a private prophet assigns a date often vaguely but now' and again quite precisely. Some of these precise dates have passed but so far as we can see the event has not occurred. Unless, there be reason to suppose such oracles conditional it seems better to reject them.
A great number of statements seem to fit persons, events and conditions today but very often there are in the very same oracle ideas which do not fit. While this might mean that two events are considered without temporal perspective, it could also mean that the whole text despite its partial description of the present may refer to events still far in the future. l As a matter of fact parts of many of these prophecies have in times past been referred to Napoleon or the French Republican disorders and one or other of them to the First World War.
This merely means that caution must be used about even the value of any particular private prophecy and that we should not be too hasty in interpreting beforehand even the oracles of Sacred Scripture.
Despite this there is true value for every generation in all genuine prophecy. The burden thereof is always the same,
namely: Organized evil cannot truly harm the elect nor even bring them any sorrow but the sorrow of Christ which is joy; no human, natural or preternatural agency can destroy the Church or Christian civilization; when evil becomes unbearable to the individual who trusts God, or to society, God will work a miracle if necessary to overcome it; physical and mental suffering exists for the perfection of the good and the conversion or destruction of the wicked.
As has been evident to the reader, the prophecies of Sacred Scripture seem not to apply to our modern conflict any more than they do to any other in the past where the Christian cause has been involved.
With a bit of imagination on the other hand the private oracles can be marshalled into a fairly good description of the present war to date and then taking the unfulfilled portions we can make a forecast of the future which would seem quite logical in the circumstances. But we must remember, too, that without prophecies and with a history of the combat to date we can also make a fairly logical estimate of the future course of events. At any rate the author is no better equipped than is the reader. Wishful thinking often plays so great a part in the application of prophecy that it is sometimes better for one to keep his own interpretations to himself.
Whether this war be a particularly crucial one in Christian history or not makes little difference, for this much is certain: if a powerful anti-Christian force should emerge victor from this or any other conflict and its victory be anything like universal it may take one of two courses: Either it will throw off its anti-christian character, which is unlikely, or it will endeavor by force to destroy Christianity. In this latter event, we may lay aside all private prophecy and use just Scripture and Tradition. These tell us with infallible truth that when universal control means Christianity or Anti-Christianity the victor is Christianity, and this irrespective of what miracles may be needed or what blood may be shed. "I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it."
1 Prophetic texts are sometimes changed in transmission and in translating.