Is It Millenium Fear?


by Father Bob Papi

May 13 1998

Dear Peter and Catherine,

Since the wonderful visit I have been pondering in my heart your question: HOW TO BALANCE, IF YOU NEED TO, MILLENIUM FEAR AND PRUDENT PREPARATION?

What I am about to write to you must be taken within a critical context and that is: GRACE OF STATE.

You, as husband and wife, have particular grace of state for each other and, as father and mother of your children, likewise a particular grace of state for your family.

Hence my own grace of state is that of shepherd, of priest, your servant, but whatever I say you must listen to in and with the Holy Spirit who speaks to your own covenant heart.

Fear, as we know, is satan's most effective weapon and one which he uses most frequently it conjunction with the influence of the world, for example while we may have some fear about the future because we 'fear' beig labelled by the world as fanatics, or whatever, we fail to listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to exercise prudence...a type of paralysis then sets in and when the disaster strikes we are like the foolish virgins of the Gospel having no oil for their lamps.

Jesus gives us many such examples in the Holy Gospel of prudent preparation which while it may not totally eliminate fear, because a degree of fear is normal human preparatory emotion, a sort of keeping your wits about you like the fear of toe-stubbing which makes us move prudently in the dark as we raid the fridge, nevertheless calms our hearts because once we have done the prudent thing we can then leave all else in His Providential and Tender Hands.

Ultimately we should not fear the future, no matter what the future maybe, because CHRIST IS RISEN!, the victory has been won, satan, sin and death have been overcome. True we have not yet fully accepted that in the tota1 depths of our being, which is why the Holy Spirit is still at work within us, the Church and the world, hence in truth our fear is not so much per se about what is to come but about how we will be, or not, faithful to the Gospel, to Christ, when events occur.

Thus we turn, among other texts, to the writings of Pope John Paul about the coming Great Jubilee and prepare for the year 2000 in the manner he suggests, that is, for a Holy Year, a year of grace.

Above all do not be afraid, the will of God never invites us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.

We must pray to be spared persecution and disaster, confident that He knows what we can bear and that His will always is that we be saved, for this He has redeemed us.

Read the signs of the times in which we live and clearly things can go either way … towards an extreme period of persecution and purification OR towards a golden age of faith and peace … which depends in part on His Providential Will, always directed towards our good, and in part upon our willingness to repent and believe and live out the Holy Gospel.

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