The Rainbow, the Maple Leaf and True Repentance
R.R. Reno is onto something with his claim that the ‘rainbow flag’ means far more than tolerance and all getting along, but an entire new regime, a metaphysical revolution, a transvaluation of all values – the only ‘value’ being an vague and vacuous tolerance, and a hedonistic pursuit of pleasure and one’s own view of the universe.
I predict that the time is coming, perhaps soon, when our elites will suppress the American flag and wave all the more insistently the rainbow substitute.
There was a time, even a couple of years ago, this prophecy would have seemed unhinged. But here we are in Canada, with many municipalities choosing to forego Canada – or, more properly, Dominion – Day.
As I wrote recently, there are many things for which to be sorrowful in this Dominion, but all in perspective, proportion, and, as Saint Thomas would put it, for the right object, in the right way, and for the right purpose. Injustices were certainly done, and the death of children is always tragic. But how much penance and reparation are requisite, and who’s to say? Justin Trudeau? We should remember that the residential schools ran all the way through the reign of his own father, and it was his own government’s policies the Church was instantiating, and often mitigating.
And it was the same Trudeau senior who legalized abortion – free and untrammelled access to which Trudeau junior will brook no opposition right up to the moment of birth, and even beyond. We can scarcely count the number of children lost to this far graver and more immediate evil. And, unlike whatever malfeasance happened in the past, we can do something about the death of unborn.
While we should all repent of wrongdoing, Canada Day is a day on which should remember, and rejoice in, all that was and is good about our nation, and work to preserve these, to ‘stand on guard’ for the ‘true, north, strong and free’. In the words of an underrated Beatle, it has been ‘long, cold, lonely winter’, and the we should welcome the sun, and, more to the point, the Son. For there is a deeper point in all of this, that the the only path to true and lasting repentance and reconciliation is through Christ and His Church. Our Dominion is Christian, or it is not much of anything at all.
Canceling Canada Day seems just one more insidious step towards canceling Canada. So rejoice in what we have been given, and let us use it all for the good of all.
I will leave you with an excerpt from a homily of Pope Saint John Paul II, on his apostolic visit to Canada in 1984:
We give thanks for all the richness of creation.
In particular for the richness that has been shared in by the succeeding generations in Canada. Both by the generations that lived here in the past, according to the principles of their original culture, and also by the generations that have come here from beyond the sea, gradually building up the structures of a new civilization and Canadian culture. We give thanks to the Lord for the opportunities that countless families have found here over the years, and for the freedom and hope that they have enjoyed.
And so we cry aloud with the Psalmist: “How good is the Lord to all, / compassionate to all his creature. / All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord, / and your friends shall repeat their blessing. / They shall speak of the glory of your reign and declare your might O God” (Ps. 145 (144), 9-11).
And as we praise God for the beauty of nature found in this island and throughout all Canada let us reread with eyes of faith the testimony borne by created things: in this way our minds and hearts turn to him who on the seventh day saw what he had made and “it was very good” (Gen. 1, 31).
Carney’s Amoral Majority
After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→
Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress
This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→
A Tale of Two Benedicts
A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→
My Name is Bernadette
April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully
Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→
The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus
As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→
Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów
We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→
Saint Gemma Galgani
On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→
An Ideological and Improper Translation
I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→
Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers
Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→