It is a cold, windy, gray winter evening here by the shores of our wide river. The streets of Buenos Aires are empty for the most part except for a few poor souls hurrying to fulfill their duties. This city has one of the coldest winters known. The temperature can be warm as far as degrees go but the humidity coming from the river (and from the humid plains surrounding us) can get into one’s bones. I’ve been to the Patagonian mesa, I’ve been fairly close to the North Pole. I can assure you I have never experienced cold as the cold this city has to offer.

Perhaps it was the weather, the dim light of this southern eve, or perhaps it was my own inner landscape that moved me to meditate on some of the news that have been reaching me lately. Ominous news about powerful groups of men advancing towards a form of control unknown to mankind. Chip implants to eliminate personal thoughts, for example. There are those who dream to convert mankind in a huge army of drones controlled by artificial intelligence or rather, something that some insist in calling artificial intelligence. The next step is synthetic telepathy. Something that crudely imitates the kind of communication that exists between God and His holy angels. But these men are not God, they want to be gods. Like the schizoid characters in some minor terror film, they seek to exert total control over their subjects. How boring.

So, that hideous strength that has been surrounding mankind since ancient times is now practically inside us. It reminds me of the Apocalypse of St. John:

They marched up over the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down out of heaven from God and consumed them. (Revelation 20:9)

I like that final part, by the way. The force that opposes the Kingdom of God is now close to its final objective: total control and perfect enslavement of everyone alive. The dark predictions of Huxley’s Brave New World  are about to be fulfilled. Or so we are told.

Christ seems to have had a different idea when He warned us:

So when you see the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place […]  if those days had not been cut short, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. (cf. Matthew 24)

The geniuses that led us to the present state of the world have their own ideas. Their plans appear to be perfectly executable now. Dark clouds are gathering at the “end of history” and freedom appears about to be defeated.

Appearances can be deceiving. The roar of the lion can be deafening (but the lion is chained securely and can only wander so far.)

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven” with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

I read those verses and I hear Christ assuring us that the oppressors will be taken care of. Those whom Christ sees a His own He will gather “from one end of Heaven to the other” —that is a rather strange figure of speech— Why not from one end of the Earth to the other? I believe Christ is talking about all those who are His from the beginning of time. The Great Harvest is at hand. (cf. Revelation 14)

Scary as it is (at least for me!) Christ’s description of the final days of mankind’s self-rule is full of hope. Christ is minding this process. We have nothing to fear. Confidence is the name of the game.

We will see strange things in the months and years to come. To prepare myself I always remember the words of St. Teresa of Avila:

Nada te turbe, nada te espante todo se pasa,
Dios no se muda, la paciencia todo lo alcanza,
quien a Dios tiene nada le falta sólo Dios basta.

Let nothing trouble you, let nothing frighten you, everything passes,
God never changes, patience achieves all things,
whoever has God lacks nothing, only God is enough.

And when one thought the money weirdos had done all they could, we learn this:

Secretive Billionaire Plot to Dim the Sun Exposed