This past Thursday at SJAC’s Rosary prayer time, I had remarked to our little group that the recently concluded Golden Arrow Project, despite being only modestly attended, will have an impact on this country. It is not about numbers. It is about doing the will of God and letting Him sort out the details. In fact, this realization is exactly what has sustained the pro-life communities in Canada and around the world from their inception. It has been Faith and not sight which has guided us.
Even though there were signs that abortion was going to take a major hit, we have been bitterly disappointed in the past, so there was no guarantee of victory in this kingdom of darkness. I cry out sometimes to God and I challenge Him: “Are you not sovereign? Is this not your Creation? How long are you going to allow this evil to reign before people start to wonder if You are who You say You are?“
Yesterday, Roe v. Wade finally fell. And I got my answer – at least in part. Why does God take so long to act at times? Because He must allow the evil and filth to rise to the top and have its full measure and power before decisively defeating it — otherwise how could it really be a victory? It’s not at all dissimilar to a situation where a top athlete is unable to compete in the Finals of his event and his main opponent wins the title. There will always be a question whether the putative winner was really the best. There’s always an asterix * by the winner’s name. There’s always a question, a doubt if he really is the best. And so too is it like with God who will not permit that asterix or doubt to linger. He will ensure that man’s freedom to choose evil is permitted to its fullest extent within His divine providence in order to thoroughly defeat it.
Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” (Matthew 13:24-30)
This is true not only in the culture at large but also within the Church Herself. Today, the rise of evil in the political and social culture of our society is matched with the rise of the rot to power and influence in the Catholic Church. As an aside, that is why Our Lady’s role in salvation history is so critical because within the plans of divine providence, she is necessary to bring about the fitting victory of God over Satan’s Kingdom. The victory may be Christ’s alone, but “alone” in Catholic understanding includes the full mystical body of Christ, including the neck. Our Lady, whose merits and immaculate nature is owing completely to Christ’s merits and being a mere human creature, represents the most profound humiliation to the Devil that even Jesus (being God) cannot (by His own Will) directly provide.
For me personally, the Roe v. Wade decision is a bit of a milestone. In my previous life, I stood publicly in defense of the Unborn (3 Provincial elections and 1 Federal election). Was it because I was a politician? No. Did I seek power? No. I only did it because I had no one to vote for, and there was no one else to speak up for the defenseless. In my last Ontario provincial campaign in 2007 here in Ottawa, I had already been to the rodeo a few times before so I was under no delusion that I would win or even gather any significant number of votes to sway anything. I could count on about 500-1000 votes. So I said to myself: “I’m going to play this game differently this time around and focus almost exclusively on the unborn and give the other issues second fiddle.” And that’s what I did. I used my campaign money and erected 50 of these signs in my electoral district:
The top portion read: “20weeks.ca” with a picture of an unborn child at 20 weeks.
Every second day, I would head out in the evenings (because I was working during the days) and repair, re-erect, and replace the signs which would be attacked and destroyed. Every day for a month I did this. At the end of the campaign, I was spent. During one of the last days, I was almost finished my route and nearing the end of the evening. I saw the last sign on my route down on the ground. As I got out of my minivan, and approached the mangled sign, I happened to notice that someone took a knife and scratched the image of the unborn child many times. I remember sitting on the ground and crying for about 5 minutes – alone, on the grass, near midnight, as cars passed by.
So, although Roe v. Wade is a decision that affects the U.S. directly, all of us who have
sacrificed – whether in hidden ways or publicly – can take solace in the fact that God is now starting to use those sacrifices to defeat the abortion dragon whose time is coming to an end. The great reaping has begun. The kingdoms of darkness are now shaking. There will be ramifications of this ruling throughout the world, and the abortion strongholds which currently exist in western countries in particular will begin to shake.
The fall of Roe v. Wade is first and foremost a spiritual sign. Consider that yesterday, June 24, was the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart and normally the Feast of John the Baptist. How fitting it is that God reminds us that the human heart and His divine heart, which is the center of love and life, should triumph over a heinous act which seeks to stop a unborn child’s beating heart and deny it life. Significant too is the place of John the Baptist whose first encounter with the unborn Christ came within his own mother’s womb, and whose martyrdom came as a result of challenging the corrupt political power of his day. Both of these facts are not insignificant to the overturning of Roe. Another “coincidence” is that Roe has been overturned after Pope Francis’s Act of Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Do you recall the date of that Consecration? It was March 25 of this year, the Solemnity of the Annunciation.
Or, as we may say, the day when Jesus was conceived in Our Lady’s womb. That is the day Mary’s Immaculate Heart would begin to form and nourish Our Lord’s Sacred Heart. What did she promise at Fatima? “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, I am telling you: we are now living in the era of the Triumph of Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, and this Triumph is intimately involved in the Triumph over abortion. Today, one day after Roe was overturned on Her Son’s Solemnity of His Most Sacred Heart, is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Kingdoms and powers and principalities now will begin to fall in rapid succession.
Even in Canada, this barren and enslaved country, where you might not see a political, legal, or cultural opening for abortion to fall, I am telling you we are not that far away. Because nothing is impossible for God. With Roe’s fall, the horse, as they say, has now left the barn. There is nothing the devil can do to stop it. Our liberation from the plague of abortion is coming…even here in Canada. I have another personal story to share with you one day. It’s not today, though. Things are in motion and they need to happen first before we can understand the greater significance of our own personal experiences of this battle.
I will leave my Canadian brothers and sisters with this one final and hopeful observation. In 1968, when Humanae Vitae was issued, the Canadian bishops responded with their infamous dissent which became known as the Winnipeg Statement. It became the most traitorous ecclesial document in modern church history which has never really been retracted or repented of. And our country has been paying the price for it ever since, despite our efforts to get this infernal document retracted. Following that episcopal betrayal, then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (Justin’s father) was able to successfully pass legislation that legalized contraception and abortion on May 14, 1969. It is not a coincidence that his son is Prime Minister when the first major blow to abortion happens in the Western world, nor should it be a surprise if abortion should begin its fall in this country while he is still prime minister. God, after all, is the Lord of surprises and fitting justice.
Humanae Vitae was issued on July 25, 1968. The Pope is going to be in Canada on this July 25 during his Papal visit. Although abortion seems very far from the purpose of the trip, there is a significance here that is hidden. It involves not the Pope’s person, but his Office. It also involves Our Lady. The story can only been told in hindsight but there are clues even now which should inspire us with great hope.
Kingdoms are falling as was prophesied all those centuries ago:
Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:34-35)
In her Immaculate Heart,
John Pacheco
Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
June 25, 2022
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