"In a dark and pathological times, when the better parts of the human spirit are on the wane and love grows cold, everyone wants to have power. Power becomes the standard of value, the coin of the realm in a deeply fallen world. And in such a perverse world the only virtue is greed.
Those who serve the world want to be tough guys, unafraid, quick and intemperate on the attack, harsh. Yes that is the mark of power, the formidable wielders of weapons not for a higher purpose, but for their own ends and pleasures. As if there can be any just weapon that we may take up on our own, that is not given to us by the Lord.
Those who seeks power may desire to take up the sword like an avenging angel, and smite their enemies, who are all too often those who merely annoy and offend them. This is because their idea of what it is to be a human being has been subtly poisoned by the times; in their brokenness they exalt themselves.
Too often that feeling of offense simply becomes a blind hatred of 'the other.' The other may merely be the different, and often the weak. The will to power despises weakness. Those who take up the sword for their own purposes, even in God's name, will die by it in a death without redemption.
This desire to be among the avenging angels is not service, or greatness. This is a willfulness and a destruction of the self that comes from sin, but that in its own insidious way may encompass many of the trappings of a religion: the ornaments of ritual, and symbols, the language and initiation into the mysteries, the noise and pomp of human office — but remarkably devoid of God's love.
Worldly power in excess is a perversion of heavenly power in that it expresses itself in the ability not to create and fulfill life, but to diminish and destroy it. And it exults in what it thinks is its power over life, which is death.
How much money, how much power is enough? The will to power is a pathological sickness, that becomes insatiable and all consuming. And thereby it anoints its own angels of death. Be on your guard, and do not allow yourselves to be among those simple ones who will be taken in during the dark times, as the love of many grows cold. Stand humbly, but firmly, to the end. And you will have your greatness."
Jesse, Preserving Sanctity in Times of Darkness, 6 July 2017
"Leur aveuglement est le châtiment du crime d'idolâtrie.”
Simone Weil, L'enracinement 1943
Typically I start working on the theme for my blog either in the early morning or even the night before. But I was sidetracked with a few personal tasks, and after a few false starts after lunch I just decided to leave it up to God.
So about three PM I put a general search for the word 'sanctity' on my site, and voilà, the quote from my site above appeared.
It gave me a chill, and I almost didn't use it. I realized that I had written this sitting in my chair while I kept watch over my wife as she slowly approached her passing at the end of August.
This was indeed the darkest time of my life. And I was struggling with the notion of standing firm in the faith during times of extreme hardship and trial, and found some comfort in reading and writing. After she passed I fell apart from exhaustion, and when I stopped moving, a tidal wave of grief rolled over me.
Big cap tech flopped today. It is surprising that tech keeps leading the markets lower while the rest of the markets seem to be holding up in the form of the SP 500 and Russell. This is the lull before the storm. I suspect that the powers that be are pouring oil, made of paper, on troubled waters, as it were, to continue the collection of their booty.
Gold and silver were slammed lower in observance of their August futures contract option expiration on the Comex. It is customary to give the new holders of positions a gut check.
Tomorrow is an FOMC rate decision.
VIX fell as the bulk of the market felt buoyed that Armageddon has been kicked like a can down the road.
The Dollar declined a bit.
When the reckoning comes, the crème de la crème will jet off to their bunkers with a vanguard of lawyers and private security. But the lower echelons of the power elite are going to hit the wall, and fairly hard. They have given themselves up to a blind faith in the world, and their reckoning is going to be biblical.
"And at this point they exceed the measure of the force that is actually at their disposal. Inevitably they exceed it, since they are not aware that it is limited. And now we see them committed irretrievably to chance; suddenly things cease to obey them. Sometimes chance is kind to them, sometimes cruel. But in any case there they are, exposed, open to misfortune; gone is the armor of power that formerly protected their naked souls; nothing, no shield, stands between them and tears." Simone Weil, L'Iliade ou le poème de la force, 1939
Keep the faith. The loving kindness and tender mercies of the Lord make all things new — and sin turns even the most extravagant luxuries to bitter ashes.
Have a pleasant evening.
