The state of mankind today is desperate. The mass of human beings in the nations that – alas! - lead the world are living not in God’s reality but in a dreamworld of their own making, which they then impose on reality. There will soon be a hefty reality check, and it is one check that will not bounce!

Take for instance how Western women who can – and men - fight the reality of their aging. While God certainly designed the beauty of youth to ensure that marriages would continue the human race, he never designed this beauty to last into middle – or old! – age as an ongoing temptation. Is there not something pathetic about how wives – and parents, grandparents – can feel forced to look as young as possible, as long as possible ?

Or take finance, a reality now looming. All the Western nations are deeply in debt. The United States in particular was technically bankrupt in the early to mid-nineties, yet its insane borrowing has gone on and on. On June 7, the US national debt stood at 8.86 trillion dollars. The annual interest on that debt is 406 billion dollars a year, or well over one billion dollars every day. The debt is increasing at the rate of 1.38 billion dollars every day.

Within the USA, here summarized is how one realist describes the financial situation: “The Credit Market has dislocated, liquidity has evaporated, and if the Federal Reserve intervenes once more in an effort to save the Bubble Economy, the day of reckoning may be delayed but it will only be the harsher. Confidence in “Wall Street finance” has been shattered because the manic bubble in Credit Insurance, derivatives and guarantees is bursting, the manic bubble in leveraged speculation is in serious jeopardy, and the currency markets are a derivative accident waiting to happen. It has been a senseless Credit and speculative orgy. There will be a very, very heavy price to pay.”

By whose fault? That of the money-men and their hidden masters? Of course. But who allowed themselves to be suckered into believing in easier and easier money? Unreal investors!
By the fault of the politicians and the same masters ? Of course. As one US Congressman recently said, he and his colleagues are unhappy because they deep down know they have heavily indebted their children tomorrow to get reelected today. But who did the reelecting of such free-lunch politicians? Unreal electors!

So what should Catholics (and not only Catholics) do? Get real. Fasten seat-belts. Get out of debt (Rom. XIII, 8) as far as possible, as soon as possible, though it may be too late. And prepare to thank God for the coming reality check, because it will be rather healthier for the salvation of souls than today’s Goldilocks economics. Kyrie eleison.