A few days ago, a friend of mine sent me an email message about several visionaries who have predicted that our world will soon experience three days of darkness and that all of the world will either be converted or killed.
I receive two or three such messages each week with varying cataclysmic scenarios painted. The premonitions of some visionaries could be true, but we wouldn't know until it happened. They come under the heading of “private revelations,” to which no Catholic is obligated to give the assent of faith.
We do not need a visionary to see that this world is already in darkness. The culture we live in is dominated by lies and deception. God is not in first place for most of us. He isn't even in second place. In many cases, God gets one hour of consideration a week.
We do not need a visionary to see the crimes of darkness such as murder and abortion, as well as a complete disregard for the holy sacramental nature of marriage. We do not need to be a visionary to see families who do not pray together, go to church together, or even discuss their faith with each other.
We do not need to have a visionary to tell us that pornography is a deadly scourge. The dignity of the human being and our souls are being violated every day and are under constant attack. We need no visionary to tell us these things.
We, who are faithful, must realize that we are called by our Lord Jesus Christ to be the light of this world. Where we see darkness, we must bring the light of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Our world is filled with people who are catechized by the media and other unholy influences. We must do all we can to bring them light, starting with our personal attention to prayer.
Examining our consciences, we begin understanding our own personal darkness (the plank in our own eye), then the darkness in our families, with whom it is our responsibility to share our faith. This charity begins at home and extends out to our neighbor.
As Jesus said, we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our might. We must think of Him when we go to bed and when we rise. Jesus tells us that this first commandment is the most important thing and the second is like the first: We must love our neighbor as ourselves. Do this, and we will live forever.
If we all follow the words of Jesus, we will have a chance to change the world, to bring light where there is darkness. We can read and discern all the information being fed to us by “visionaries” that we want, but it is by following the instructions of our Lord that many souls will be saved, maybe even our own.
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Greg Wunderle is the father of four and teaches fourth grade PSR at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Norton, Ohio. After Greg's youngest son, Anthony, died of leukemia, he and his wife Lori founded Anthony's Angels to help critically-ill children and their families.
