Entitled: AD LAUDEM VERBI AETERNI *

Verse 414
...So ended Christian Europe's unity
They dared deny the voice of Christ on earth.
His Church, His Bride rejected, man was left
No beacon to mark out the channel safe.
A Book alone** was given him to read,
But no sure guide to trace its mysteries.
The Shepherd silenced, who would fight the wolves
Or keep the flock from error's baneful weeds ?
So, chaos came.
The Church was rent, and cults
Were multiplied. All claimed the Christian name,
But taught conflicting things, of God and man.
With Babel tongues, while truth was undermined
Till many asked, like Pilate, "What is truth?"

A new society arose, without
The Gospel's leaven. Christ was barred from school
And factory, tavern, market-place and play ,
From lit' rature and arts and family love.
A King had lost His kingdom. So, the sweet
And gracious things the Faith bestowed on man
Went winging. Evil specters came: the scourge
Of ruthless wars. These chastisements left man
Still heedless of his God.

O restless mind,
Dynamic will of man, that craves for grist!
The true God he rejects, and in His place puts idols.
One is Nature, and her laws .
He holds these sacred, changeless, absolute.
He takes the handmaid for the Master, makes
Divine routine a god. He sees a world
With purpose sown, but will not see a Mind.
Himself a spirit, why should man abhor
A Spirit for his Maker and his Lord?
Perhaps it irks to have a Will above
His own. Once more, the cry, ' 'Non Serviaml'?
Man makes another god, humanity,
That by some mystic law, its pontiffs say,
More perfect ever grows. They bid men to strive
To make this earth their Paradise. To speed
That day, man must foreswear the Cross, and hope
Of Heaven, the Ancient Sacrifice, the fact
Of sin and pain, a God of love. For these,
They say, are priestcraft's myths. And if he
will not? Then the conqu'ring army must be rid
Of all who slow its progress. Mankind is
Their god; and man, of flesh and blood, a pawn.
Ah! cruel, cold, despotic, loveless creed!
Who wants your nightmare world that puts the mind
And heart of man in chains! Who heeds your cry,
"Away with Christ! Hail! Deity of Man ! "

More than new creeds that claimed the
Christian name
Emerged from that revolt when Christ was riven.
Their conflicts brought confusion, skepticism,
A pride of mind, a love of novelty
That brooked no curb. There seems a progress
here in unbelief, each age more distant from reality,
Each holding less of truth.

The mason puts a keystone in the arch
To bind the whole together. That removed,
The cracks appear, the stones fall, one by one,
Till all is ruins. The keystone of the Faith,
And first to go, was Peter's Chair, the Voice
Of Christ on earth. There followed Sacraments and Mass.
She had no place in meeting-house
Or home who gave us Christ . It was not strange
The Son withdrew from those who would not have
The Mother . So, they came, in time, to doubt
That Christ is God. ('Tis truly Mary's arms
That hold the Lord to earth.) So error strides
Along. With Christ reduced to man, they made
God's visit to our planet but a myth,
Redemption but a dream, man still in sin.
Indeed, the concept of the Father's love
Grew dim, for no man comes to Him except
Through Christ . The heav'nly Father came to be,
For these, a fate inexorable, deaf
To prayer. Man fled from such dread Deity.
Verse 490
He looked for crusts in skepticism's wastes .
In vain! The next to fall was mind and truth:
"We can know nothing; all may be a dream",
They said, 'and I a wraith that, cloud-like, float
In awful loneliness'
Now comes the last Apollyon. His to strike the very source
Of life.
They speak of war and crime and death,
They throw God's bounty in His face, and choose
To walk with evil spirits 'mongst the tombs,
They slay the child unborn God sends from Heaven.
Thus Demolition's Force pursues its task,
Each century one pillar overturned,
Of truths by which man fitly lives and grows:
First Rome, then Christ, then God, then truth,
then life.
Behold the ruin!

My mind was weary with this long review of history.
I was sore in need of guide.
And Lo! the Angel was beside me, smiled
In sweet encouragement.
It heartened me! I tried to form my thought,
"O spirit blessed,
God's goodness lets me see these past events;
They frighten me with hint of worse to come .
It seems Christ's cause is losing, and the Foe
Gains ground, and takes a harvest passing great,
The more, in these last times. Must earth and man
Endure worse things before God smiles on us?"

The Angel spoke, "Some things arcane you ask
That 'tis not given to man to know. As to
The first: you see vast projects spawned in hell;
In these are blended pride and hate and lust
And greed; they traffic both in wealth and souls.
These enterprises, huge, and organized
With all techniques of commerce, draw acclaim,
And seem unconquerable, like the sweep
Of mighty rivers.
But  a second stream,
Not seen by all, deep down, flows on, the stream
Of grace.
Its conquests, oft in hour of death,
Remain unknown . O signal triumphs of
The Blood of Christ! It takes from Satan's grasp
His prize! Exalted be the Savior's grace,
Who said, 'Have confidence in Me, for I
Have overcome the world '". No more he said.

I turned my eyes to earth. It seemed the storm
Must worsen ere it mends. And man will need
The faith in God, and fortitude he gained
In these last horrors that have scourged the
world ,
The race. Aye! evil days are here! We see
This judgment on the world, this monstrous thing,
A vast conspiracy that bears the mark
Of hell. Its Chief finds men to carry out
Titanic war on God, His Christ, and man .
They make the State his god. They promise him
The fuller life, abundance, freedom, peace;
They give him fear and want and bonds. They make
Huge engines of destruction for the world
That will not take their chains and blasphemy .
Behold the master, and the signs of this
Last war. Man loved the darkness rather than
The light, and God releases darkness, nay,
Its Prince. We see a mounting wave of sin
Like none before: new heights of wickedness,
Satanic things: pride, hate and perfidy,
The lie perfected, murder, cruelty,
The dread charismata of hell that show
A more than human mind directing all.
The Angel spoke, "In common sins, man takes
A seeming good, against His Maker's law,
A pleasure, prize, that has its rightful use.
The gift he takes, but not the Giver's plan.
He turns from God to creature. These the sins
Of weakness. But a deeper malice comes
In these last days. They make a formal war—
O monstrous thing! — on God in Whom they believe !

I pondered on. My thought began to trace
A parallel in two activities,
One, blessed of Heaven, fruit of Father's love;
The other, dealing death and woe to man,
Comes from the Pit. Behold the Ape of Christ!
Verse 565
...
From the booklet 'Song of Hope'.by Fr. John McFadden
...to be continued

* Loose translation: Praise for the Eternal Word.
** Sola Scriptura / Bible alone