Elizabeth Scalia on Reading the Data of This Age and Preparing for Exile

"One day at Mass, a favorite priest remarked on the whole of John 10:30-42. I took notes, but still am paraphrasing a little:

"'I think the men who wanted to stone Jesus were offended that he would come in their era, that he would intrude on their time with his messianic talk. Because it's one thing to look for and hope for Messiah, and quite another to have to encounter Messiah, which demands an interior, real, and lifelong change, a delivering up of self.

"'But we cannot chose the time of God's coming; all we can do is learn to read the data and then respond in a right way, understanding that many, many will seek the world and its answers, because the way of the world appears easier. The world can be touched, seen, smelt; it seems like the reality, and they cling to it.

"'For the rest of us, all we can do is be faithful. Will it be scary? Yes. Will we be abandoned? Not on your life.'

". . . She never heard my priest's adjuration to 'read the data,' but Peggy Noonan recently did just that. Observing the galloping social media movement to silence 'offensive' viewpoints, Noonan compared the trend to Mao's 'Cultural Revolution,' which would haul dissenters before the jeering crowds before imprisoning and often torturing them. . . .

"The powers currently dominating academia and media seem to approve of the Maoist trajectory, so we may be riding it for a while until it either peters out on its own or is shot down. As variations in view become less tolerated from all corners, we should remember how one man bore up against such oppression, and perhaps even take him for our patron.

"Cardinal Ignatius Kung Pin Mei spent more time in prison, mostly in solitary confinement, than Nelson Mandela, but his story is not well known. His crime was keeping fidelity to his faith. . . .

"Someday, we may be asked to bow before something other than a Tabernacle, and we’ll either comply and then have to live with ourselves, or refuse and then live with the consequences."

In a recent commentary, writer Elizabeth Scalia, content editor at Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, reflected on the challenges facing Christians during this age and on the importance of prayer ("the most subversive of liberties") and keeping the faith.

To access Ms. Scalia's complete post, please visit:

Word on Fire: Elizabeth Scalia: Reading the Data and Preparing for Exile (14 MAR 19)