CONSPIRACY
To most, conspiracy means roughly, a plot, or plan, usually with nefarious intent. But if we consider the Latin roots, we see that “conspiratio” is basically a breathing with, that is, breathing in unison. Solange Hertz explains that the original conspiracy, “derives from that ineffable cooperation of divine persons in the Most Holy Trinity, where the Father and the Son act as one in the bond of the Holy Ghost. Through the mediation of the Son made man, the trinitarian cooperations have been projected into, nay, actually joined with those of mankind.”
‘”A mystical transubstantiation of human society, as it were, not only became possible, but actually began. Human society would be changed, not in its form, which remains the same, but in its substance. This plan of heaven’s to take over the world by super-naturalizing its inhabitants may properly be called the Holy Ghost’s Conspiracy. Like the devil’s, it is something only faith can explain. Unlike the devil’s, however, it will succeed, and it will have no end. It began with natural creation, when as yet “the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep,” when “the spirit of God moved over the waters.” (Gen. 1:2). This life giving breath of the Father and the Son, which produced everything that exists, has never ceased its divine action and is at work even now. The first natural creation in the beginning was merely a foundation for the transcendent supernatural creation which was to follow and is still in progress. The Psalmist, foreseeing the “mighty wind coming” which would reach a climax with the birth of the Church at the first Pentecost, uttered in prophecy the verse (the church) would pray ever after, all over the world, for the commemoration of this feast: Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae! “Send forth Thy spirit, and they shall be created: and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth!” (Ps. 103:30).
Scripture tells us the promised renewal began in Jerusalem, only ten days after our Lord’s Ascension, when the sound of a gale blowing from heaven ‘filled the whole house.’ Dispatching this mighty gust to the earth was our Lord’s first official exercise of the royal power He assumed when He mounted His throne in heaven. The Vulgate calls it a spiritus vehemens, a spiration so violent and fiery, that all who breathed it began prophesying on the spot, being ‘filled with the Holy Ghost.’ And with that the Christian Conspiracy was underway. Under the headship of St. Peter, God’s one, holy, universal and apostolically stable world government was inaugurated on earth. It is indefectible and will continue eternally, for it is the Church. The satanic forces have every reason to tremble before its advance, for the business of the Church is not confined to piety in the private sector. Nor is it exclusively spiritual. It threatens the princedom of this world with dissolution down to its roots, materially, visibly, really, politically…”
THE STRUGGLE – A CHRISTIAN CONSPIRACY
Hertz reminds us that, “History is the record of an apocalyptic struggle between those two primordial kingdoms – that of God and that of the devil.” And so,
“The devil likewise seeks adoptive progeny among those allowing themselves to be led by his inspirations into conspiring with his breath. Today the Holy Ghost’s Conspiracy seems actually to be withering under (Satan’s) assaults, some of its key positions occupied by hell’s henchmen. Obviously the trouble cannot lie with the high command in heaven and must be looked for in the lower echelons. There, as with all conspiracies, the causes of recreance are pretty much always the same: breakdowns in communication, relaxation of discipline, supply failures or outright insubordination and defection.
“Supernaturally, these translate easily enough into insufficient prayer and mortification, neglect of Mass and the Sacraments, and flouting the commandments and counsels of God or His Church. Deficiencies in any of these areas are sufficient to explain corporate loss of morale, social failures ultimately resting as they do on those of individuals. There can be no conversion of society where men do not conform their wills to God’s.”
Satan tirelessly labors to build his earthly kingdom by man-made democracies and then, by socialist tyrannies independent of God. Ever the master pitchman, he sells licentiousness as liberty, and enslavement as freedom. But against this sham of satan’s earthly kingdom, the Holy Ghost continues even in the darkest times to breathe forth His vivifying Spirit…pursuing His eternal work.
A Tree Falling . . .
Hertz quotes an Indian saying, “A tree falling makes more noise than a forest growing.” Indeed, today, once mighty trees are falling and we tend to allow that calamitous racket to obscure the beautiful forest which grows silently, for God’s mighty kingdom proceeds by sacrifice even to martyrdom and there abides this silent but powerful growth amidst the confusion and despair of the kingdom of the deceiver.
Hertz notes of these tress falling, ,”(These) failures serve only to clear the way for the living wood. Amid the din of crashes, the Holy Ghost’s Christian Conspiracy pursues its eternal work. Without Him who established the very heavens “by the breath of His mouth” (Ps.32:6), no organized endeavor comes to fruition. With Him, no endeavor can fail.”
She continues,
“Propelled by that gentle zephyr with hurricane force we call the Spirit of God, the Conspiracy spread over the earth like wildfire as soon as it was loosed among men. Beginning with the Roman Empire, it effected exactly what conspiracies are supposed to effect: a world takeover. Transforming every obstacle in its path, it eventually left Byzantium to its errors and established in the west upon the Rock of Peter that incomparable new world order known as Christendom. As an empire it was not perfect, but it disseminated the seeds of the divine Conspiracy everywhere, even discovering on its way another whole hemisphere in America for future operations. At that first Pentecost “the multitude of believers had but one heart and one soul” (Acts. 4:32), who drew the divine breath in common, and despite all appearances to the contrary, they still do.
“Inevitably the universal kingdom under Christ the King for which their conspiracy was forged will succeed. They can be certain of this, for God promised it to His Mother. Before the King was born she was told:”He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the most High; and the Lord God shall give Him the throne of David His father; and He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever. And of His kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:32-3).
Mrs. Hertz wrote the above a generation ago, and since her time, many traditional Catholics have watched with an increasing feeling of helplessness as the situation in the Church has gone into ever deeper apostasy and darkness deepens over us all. But even as the Passion of Christ’s Bride, the Church, continues to its bitter end, and we continue with her, we await the coming of the Spirit – beyond the bitter end – the infinitely tender, infinitely loving Spirit. (Much of above thanks to Hertz, Utopia Nowhere, Kindle Edition here.)
Fragments from Little Gidding
And all shall be well, and
All manner of thing shall be well
By the purification of the motive
In the ground of our beseeching
The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre–
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by fire or fire.
(T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets, Little Gidding)
Only poetry can jump the vast chasm at times like these. All things are rushing to a precipitous conclusion. In the beginning there was darkness “upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.” Again, “from the sixth hour there was darkness over the whole earth, until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying: “Eli, Eli, lamma sabacthani? that is, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”“
After the dark cold tomb, a burst of intolerable light and then, in due time, the mighty wind and tongues of flame. What shall we see? What think you?
Previously posted on June 9, 2019.
Pray the Rosary!
Remember – Our Lady needs us to obey: First Saturdays of Reparation, daily rosary, at least 5 mysteries, wear her brown scapular and live your Total Consecration to her Immaculate Heart, offering daily duties in reparation and for the conversion of poor sinners.
Open your hearts to the Lord and serve Him only: and He will free you from the hands of your enemies. With all your heart return to Him, and take away from your midst any strange gods” (I Kings 7:3)
† Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of our hearts, Mother of the Church, do thou offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the conversion of poor sinners, especially our Pontiff.
† Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come! Viva Cristo Rey!
† St. Joseph, protect us, protect our families, protect our priests.
† St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
~ by evensong for love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, King.
Vouchsafe that I may praise thee, O Sacred Virgin! Give me strength against thine enemies!