I’ve heard from an exorcist priest that particular times have particular demonic spirits promoting particular sins… ‘the spirit of the age’. . . one of the most recent ones was rebellion against authority.
It doesn’t matter what such people are told to do, by the very fact they were told to do it they will not do it. And they admire this spirit in others. And hate any idea of law simply by its very fact, that they feel constrained the minute they have anything to live up to. This shows how interiorly sick they are, what is good medicine, they find bitter, what is poison and self destructive, sweet.
So only by following the model of Christ who obeyed even unto death on the cross is there hope.
They think it debasing that others sacrifice their wills to Christ, when they think about it. They admire themselves and their own will vainly, it does not matter what is done, they simply love that they can do all sinful things if they so decide. They do not see the beauty and purification of the will gained through obedience and self sacrifice, and how sin chains the will to enslavement to impure desires.
They do not see that there are only two Masters, one is either in the service of one or the other, that their freedom to sin is a temporary state and the value they place in it an illusion of degradation.
Of course we have more than one source of testimony about the rebelliousness of these times and its source.
Ask yourself what people in Heaven do, live by self-will, or by the will of God, by what you exalt, or what the saints exalt, then decide if you would even like to live there the way you are. If you would not like to live there, will you go?
‘Oh! how meritorious in the sight of God is prompt obedience. He has several times shown, even by supernatural prodigies, how acceptable it is in his sight. St. Mark, a monk, while engaged in writing, was called by his Superior, the Abbot Silvan; the saint left unfinished a word which he had just begun, and instantly obeyed. On his return he found the remainder of the word written in letters of gold. Blosius relates that a nun to whom the infant Jesus appeared, being summoned at the moment of his appearance to a certain duty, instantly obeyed the call. On her return she found him grown up to the age of manhood, and was addressed by him in the following words: “My child, your ready obedience has made me grow thus in your heart.” Jesus appeared to another religious, who on hearing the bell for Vespers left him, and went to the choir. When she returned to her cell, he appeared to her again and said: “Because you left me, you have found me again; had you not obeyed the call of duty, I should have departed from you.” To try the obedience of some of his monks who were confined to bed by sickness, St. Columban commanded them to rise, and go to the barn to thrash corn. As many as were filled with the true spirit of obedience instantly arose, and were suddenly restored to health. The others, because they were weak in spirit as well as in body, remained in bed and continued in their infirmities.’
St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori
‘An ordinary action, performed through obedience and love of God, is more meritorious than extraordinary works done on your own authority.’
St. Louis de Blois
‘Love alone leads to perfection, but the three chief means for acquiring it are obedience, chastity, and poverty. Obedience is a consecration of the heart, chastity of the body, and poverty of all worldly goods to the Love and Service of God. These are the three members of the Spiritual Cross, and all three must be raised upon the fourth, which is humility.’
St. Francis de Sales
‘Obedience will open for us, beyond a doubt, the portals of Heaven, which were formerly closed against us by the breaking of a Divine commandment, and which still are shut to whomsoever is guilty of the same crime.’
St. Ignatius of Loyola
