The Consecration of Russia

Hear ye! Hear ye! For if you don't understand this, then you don't understand Christianity. Indeed, Jesus pronounced this among the Beatitudes — that is, the "Second Giving of the Law," the "Christian Ten Commandments."

He also said,

"They will revile you and persecute you." "They persecuted the prophets." "It hated Me before it hated you." Well, who are they? And what is it?

This is information of towering importance. It is the great boundary drawn across the Creation by God. They and it are the world. Which world? Those who are not the friends of God, those who reject the Gospels as the incommensurably holy revelation of God, those who do not seek God's will for their lives and live it — this is the world.

"But, Father, aren't you going too far? That would include most people!"

I cite the Master:

Few there be that find it. And that is a catastrophe. For this Way leads to Life. You see, God alone is Life. And His Way is the only Way to Life.

That which is not of God is eternal death. And what is eternal death? It is a place or state of unbridled passions, where everyone does what seems right to them, of ultimate liberation, where no one and nothing can restrain or govern. Naturally, this place, which we call Hell, is utterly devoid of decency. For goodness belongs to God alone. And the Kingdom of Heaven alone is the place of mutual love — that is, of moderation and restraint for the sake of others, for our own sakes, for the sake of God.

Rebellion is the essence of life without God, from the War in Heaven to transgressions of His Holy Will this afternoon. This is why at the founding of the Church, which He breathed upon the Apostles, the first sacrament He bestowed was Reconciliation:

For the Way to Life is narrow. Therefore, the first thing you need to know is how to return to it once you have strayed. You must sincerely regret your rebellion against God. You must confess it fully to a priest or bishop. It will not do to have a "heart-to-heart chat" with God. You must receive absolution. And you must come to the sticking point of not returning to it, which is a far deeper rebellion.

Do you see? Jesus founds His Church as our Refuge, as our Sanctuary from the furious world. The world must always be for the Christian a place of implacable hatred, of persecution, of reviling. As it is the place of rebellion against God, all those who love God must also be hated.

As children we all recited the words

And we perceived a natural and wholesome connection between God's Kingdom and the nation in which I lived. But then we grew up. We matured. And we plainly saw that this was not the case, nor can it ever be. Indeed, God counsels us to abandon any such idea. He said,

The world despises God. And those who follow the trend of the world are obliged to spit on Him, too, lest they be shunned by worldlings "who matter."

We say that we are living through a time of culture wars. Those of bolder temperament see a civil war in contemporary America. The forces of so-called liberation are pitted against those who would be the friends of God. The issues give the game away:

The list goes on and on, for it is co-extensive with humankind's pridefulness and insolence.

To be sure, both warring parties claim God as their ally. So-called progressives will say that it is God who has willed their manner of life and living. "God made me this way." But there is only one God. And invented religions will avail you nothing at the time of Judgment. One of the oldest of the infallible teachings is

There is one Church. And that is the One founded by Jesus Christ upon the Apostles. There are no other church than that One.

All of this is to say, that basic to Christian life is to be surrounded by anarchy and rebellion, hatred and persecution, suffering and martyrdom. It cannot be avoided. From the beginning this has been built into the Christian experience as the Master taught us. And the Object of Adoration, our Ideal, hangs upon a Cross, murdered by the world.

From time to time, the hatred of God is distilled into a highly concentrated form. One such distillation appeared in the early twentieth century in the form of atheistic anarchists who succeeded in toppling the Russian Empire. Astonishing! Yet, never underestimate the power of God-haters, for their friends are many. And God gave the world into the control of His human creatures (Ps 114/115:16-18): "the Heavens, the High Heavens, belong to God, but the earth has given into the hands of men." He will not intervene.

The land mass these atheists conquered stretched over twelve timezones. By 1914, three years before the Bolshevik Revolution, Russia had become overwhelmingly Orthodox: The numbers are breath-taking. 55,173 churches; 29,593 chapels; 112,629 priests and deacons; 550 monasteries and 475 convents with a total of 95,259 monks and nuns (statistics from the Moscow Patriarchate). To scale this fantastic number, let us compare it to the Roman Catholic Church today in America, which numbers 20,000 buildings including administrative offices and schools.

No one had ever seen (nor shall ever see) church-crushing secularism on such a scale. The furious onslaught of atheists seized control of the government, murdered the Tsar's family, and began a bloody campaign seeking to erase the Russian Orthodox Church from history. In a two-year period alone (1937-1938), 168,300 Russian Orthodox clergy were arrested and over 100,000 executed according to records of the Moscow Patriarchate. Many more were executed or sent to prison camps during the long, bloody decades of Soviet oppression. Again to scale this, let us contrast the Great Persecution of Christians of the third and fourth centuries, which saw between 3,000-3,500 martyrs. That is, the twentieth-century martyrs of Russia were 50 times more numerous than those of the Early Church. When the dust cleared by 1975, only 7,000 churches remained.

No less a Friend of God than the Mother of our Lord (who was witnessed by 100,000 people including skeptical reporters and photographers) said in Fátima that it is crucial that Russia be consecrated to Her heart.

I confess that in my ignorance I never understood this detail. I asked myself, "What country could possibly be more devoutly committed to the Mother of God than Russian?" As life-long Western Catholics, who grew up saying the Rosary and saw statues of Our Lady in many living rooms and on many lawns ..... the Sisters and I can tell you that we never saw such devotion to the Mother of God as we now see among the Russian Orthodox. No comparison. I do not mean to depreciate those who love the Mother of God, but the fact remains: the Russian Orthodox experience in every detail is soaked through with love of the Mother of God.

What, therefore, could this holy declaration mean, that Russia must be consecrated to Her heart? Now, the Mother of God visits earth. Those who were assembled before Her were truly multitudes. They beheld sublime spectacles. She says very few things. Among them is this declaration: it is vital that Russian be consecrated to her heart. But wasn't this already true?

But, you see, I was not paying attention to one detail. Her final miracle in Fátima occurred on October 13, 1917. Twelve days later, the Bolshevik Revolution began. A revolt in St. Petersburg is now recognized as the inauguration of the Soviet Union.

I ask you, which human on earth could possibly know this? Not Vladimir Lenin, not Leon Trotsky .... that these events on the 25th would develop into the Soviet Union. Who could possibly grasp that a mob in distant St. Petersburg would morph into the greatest concentration of hatred towards God the world has ever seen?

With this knowledge, the Holy Mother's declaration becomes blindingly clear. It takes hold of you and sends shivers down your spine.

A declaration of the Society of Militant Atheists in 1937 read,

Icon-painting was made illegal under Article 152 of the Soviet Criminal Code and punishable by four years in prison. Even venturing to paint the Mother of God would make you a felon, a convict, sentenced to four years hard labor.

Yet, twelve days before it began, She saw all of this in a fearful clarity.

Today, we set aside a Sunday in June to commemorate Her fearful vision. No one disagrees with the estimate that at least 3 million red martyrs died by the Soviet fury directed against God. (Some set this number much higher.) So let us remember those millions upon millions of red martyrs. Let us commemorate their clear-eyed vision. For they never took their eyes off God. Their eyes did not stray from the narrow way to eternal life. And they faithfully lived out their friendship with God until their last earthly breath.

What better advice can I give anyone? Keep your eyes fixed upon our Lord and God and Savior. Rid your homes of television — that cruel re-programming machine broadcasting the drum beat of woke values. Even the things on it that profess to be Christian are not Christian. Limit internet use and then only for godly purposes. Present before your children a model of godly life.

You are not being asked to spill your blood. You are not being asked to suffer exile or imprisonment. The only things you are asked to do is the things that come naturally to a friend of God.

Russia paid an incalculably greater price that her heart be unwaveringly consecrated to the Mother of God and to Her Son. Truly, sacred consecration occurs all too often in blood, usually in the blood of the faithful. Is it too much for God to ask that we simply live unwaveringly faithful lives — that we not betray Him, that we not be treacherous. And if our lot should be martyrdom, if we should have tribulation, be of good cheer, for He has overcome the world (Jn 16:33).

The world is a formidable adversary. We do well to implore prayers of the saints that preceded us. And what better saints than those who know the world and its ways well enough? You see, the New Martyrs of Russia faced precisely the same adversaries that we do now. Their tormentors were not the Roman Empire or some Visigoth kingdom, but the same God-hating secularists bent on "liberation" that we now see.

The Russian saints before us are our saints, for such are commended and set apart by no less a Figure than the Mother of God.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.