Great scene from Casablanca (1942). We forget how grim most of the film was because of its eventual happy ending. The movie came out in November 1942 shortly after Operation Torch. On the whole 1942 had been a grim year for the Allies, but with Midway, El Alamein, Guadalcanal and Stalingrad, 1942 also marked the turning point of the War. However let us imagine a less happy reality in which Japan retained much of its new found empire and the Third Reich held on to much of Europe. Tyranny forever? No, because tyranny tends to raise up unremitting foes and because the chief enemy of all tyrannies cannot be beaten: Time. All despotisms are a more or less futile attempt to call a time out on History. Hitler talked about his thousand year Reich. The Japanese imagined that their Emperor was destined to rule the four corners of the globe. Today we have truly foolish individuals who speak about being on the right side of History and work feverishly and futilely to make that category error a reality. One of the few truisms of Man’s journey in this Vale of Tears is the impermanence of “permanent” institutions with the Catholic Church, so far, being an exception to this rule. Mere human contrivances are erected in one historical moment and in the next change, and in the next fall to pieces. Human tyrannies are not immune to that rule, no matter how formidable they appear, or how ghastly they are to the people with the misfortune to live under them.
The Limits of Tyranny
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
“Or wait until all these current tyrants have been called by their Father in a year of Our Lord. From where they are now, Nero, Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Hugo, Pol and Fidel can no longer tyrannize anyone.” https://the-american-catholic.com/2021/02/15/ii-sic-semper-tyrannis-all-in-gods-time/
and
Ozymandias
BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
“so far”?
Our Lord gauranteed that the Catholic Church will endure on earth until the Last Day.
Our Lord gauranteed that the Catholic Church will endure on earth until the Last Day.
Yep, but He gave no promise that the institution calling itself the Catholic Church would remain the Catholic Church. After what I have observed in this pontificate I am far less confident that this will remain the case, particularly in the End Times. The Church was the Church when she had Christ and the Apostles as members, and that Church will endure. If the public institution goes into mass apostasy, a remnant will take up the mantle.
You are correct, Donald, that no such promise was ever given to the institutional church — but that’s not what we were taught growing up, is it? We were taught that the pope and the bishops would always be a reliable source of Christian teaching. Clearly and obviously, we were taught wrong.
Actually I recall one of the nuns teaching catechism mentioning that in the End Times even the elect would not be safe, based upon a Fatima prophesy. There was also a fair amount of talk about the Saint Michael Prayer.
The Real Presence will endure until the End of Time. How can Jesus Christ not?
In the Old Testament the House of Eli was allowed to fall, the kingdom of Israel to be divided, and both the Northern and Southern kingdoms to be sent into exile. The Northern kingdom never returned from their exile and is called the Lost Tribes of Israel. In the New Testament God let the Second Temple and Jerusalem be destroyed and the people sent into exile.
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To me the Protestant Reformation/Revolt resembles the division of ancient Israel.