Substitute computer games for his call to break away from
dancing; substitute television watching, or eating to much, or wasting money
shopping all the time.
From St. John Vianney:
“Oh my friends, unless you want to stop up your ears, you
will hear the voice of God, which follows you unceasingly. Tell me, my friends,
then, what is this remorse of conscience which overwhelms you in the midst of
sin? Why do these anxieties and storms agitate you? Why this fear, this dread that you are in , when you seem to be forever
expecting to be crushed by the thunders of Heaven? How many times, even when
you were sinning, have you not
experienced the touch of an invisible hand which seemed to push you away, as if
someone were saying, ‘Unhappy men, what are you doing? Unhappy man, where are
you going? Ah my son, why do you wish to damn yourself…?”
I am surrounded in this small city by people who are unhappy
or unpeaceful. They complain almost constantly. They gossip about the flaws of
others. They become steeped in bad news by watching horrific news shows
glorifying death and destruction.
These are Christians who simply are not listening to the
voice of God.
Why?
They have lost their faith. They do not believe St. John
Vianney when he writes that, “All creation demands vengeance it is, in fact,
God alone Who wishes to save this soul and Who is opposed to all that could be
prejudicial to it. He watched over its salvation as if it were the only soul in
the world.”
Americans seem healthy and wealthy, but are walking around
with dead souls. These dead souls have completely forgotten that God is in
daily life around them, desiring to show them His love and mercy.
If they keep ignoring His constant calls for love, these
souls will only meet justice, and the justice will be an answer to their own
choices.
John Vianney could not be clearer: “Either you will be
religious or you will be damned. What is a religious person? This is nothing
other than a person who fulfills his duties as a Christian. You say that I
achieve nothing to you about dances and that you will indulge neither more nor
less in them. You are wrong again. In ignoring and despising the instructions
of your pastor, you draw down upon yourself fresh chastisements from God, and
I, on my side, will achieve quite a lot for fulfilling my duties. At the hour of my death, God will ask me not
if you have fulfilled your duties but if I have taught you what you must do to
fulfill them. You say too, that I shall never break down your resistance to the
point of making you believe that there is harm in amusing yourself for a little
while in dancing (computer games, movies, TV, eating out all the time, buying
more and more stuff, listening or watching sport daily), You do not wish to
believe that there is any harm in it? Well, that is your affair, As far as I am
concerned, it is sufficient for me to tell you in such a way as will insure
that you do understand, even if you want to do it all the same. By doing this I
am doing all that I should do. That should not irritate you; your pastor is
doing your duty. But, you will say, the Commandments of God do not forbid
dancing, (or computer games, or television, or eating out all the time, or
going to the Mall weekly, listening or watching sports daily), nor does Holy
Scripture either. Perhaps you have not examined them very closely….It is
impossible to please God and the world….These children (who go to the dances,
or play computer games or watch movies and television daily, or eat out daily
or shop weekly) are no longer Heaven-bent, but are fattening for Hell.”
“Go on, shameless fathers and mothers, go on into Hell,
where the fury of God awaits you, you and all the good actions you have done in
letting your children run such risks. Go on, they will not be long in joining
you, for you have outlined the road plainly for them. Go and count the number
of years that your boys and girls have lost, go before your Judge to give an
account of your lives….”
I pray for God’s forgiveness in my own life for lost years
and for not being even more strict than I seemed, by the world’s standards,
with my own son. I pray that God shows parents daily how they teach their own
children how to waste time and not pray or reflect or read the Scriptures.
We are too wealthy, too complacent, too easy with our selves
and with our children. We say to ourselves, “Oh I want him or her to be just
like other kids, normal, socialized, part of the culture.”
The new vanities and pleasures of the world have been
rationalized into being “down time”, “cooling off time”, rest from pressures.
Instead, we have allowed satan to weave a web of lies that
entertainment is a right.
God forgive us Catholic moms and dads in this century. St. John
Vianney saw what dancing did to his own community and rightly spoke against it.
I have never heard one priest from the pulpit talk about the
evils of television, computer games, eating out all the time, listening to
sports daily, shopping for unnecessary things.
Never have I been in a church where a priest has said that
we Americans waste time and that we shall be responsible for teaching our
children to waste time.
One of my best friends said to me today that there was a
reason why the holy fathers and women fled to the desert in the ancient world.
We need to create new deserts, in our homes, in our hearts. St. John Vianney today would be addressing us with the
subjects I added to his sermons.
Would we really listen?