"In a nation, or a state, or a family, or community, where religion is despised and allowed to perish, there the process of disintegration will invariably occur. It was in the year 1789 when this process was very evident in the State of France. After the holy Catholic faith had been derided and scoffed at for many years, in word and picture, in writings and plays, in public lectures and so-called clubs, and after unbelief and licentiousness had been given full sway, the French revolution broke out. All religion was considered a mortal crime. Priests were killed when they could not flee or hide themselves. Churches were robbed and desecrated; in some places the wickedness went even so far that a lewd woman was placed upon the altar, and mock ceremonies carried on before her as the goddess of reason. When the strong barriers, religion and conscience, which keep man from all wickedness, had been removed throughout the whole country, a new power, as it were, the raging of the devil, broke loose all over the land...
"...My friends! the world is round and there is nothing new under the sun; it has never been possible to gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles. What a man sows, that will he reap. We, also shall have the same experience, we shall have to suffer for what we ourselves or for what others have sown in fatal self conceit; with us also the same causes will produce like results, and the laws of nature and necessity, bearing the testimony of the history of 7,000 years, will be confirmed in the future as they have been in the past...
"...Let us then open our eyes; for it is high time that we awake from sleep. The enemy stands before us in full power, and it seems to me as if I could hear our Saviour repeat the words which he once spake in the garden of Gethsemani when he was taken prisoner: 'This is your hour and the power of darkness.'
"Oh! let each one ask himself in earnestness and sincerity today, at this holy hour, 'Whither goest thou?'"
From_Sermons for the Sundays and Feasts of the Year by the Ven. Cure of Ars (Jean Baptiste Marie Vianney)_, "Sermons for the Feast Days of the Year," pp. 36-37, The Neumann Press, 1995 reprint of 1901 edition.
