EDITOR:

Guilty! I am the guy who occasionally writes a letter to the editor, attempting to encourage everyone’s return to church. Given the times we are currently living in, believing our country has lost its moral compass, many Christians believe we enter times like these because God is attempting to “get our attention.”

Many readers will scoff at this notion, crumbling up the newspaper, mumbling some non-printable words under their breath and swear, “this ‘nut-job’ has completely lost it!”

Perhaps not. I stumbled across the following prediction, spoken by Fr. Michael Scanlan in 1976. When he spoke these words, I am sure many people called him a nut-job as well.

“Son of man, do you see that city going bankrupt? Are you willing to see all your cities going bankrupt? Are you willing to see the bankruptcy of the whole economic system you rely on now so that all money is worthless and cannot support you?

Do you see the crime and lawlessness in your city streets, and towns, and institutions? Are you willing to see no law, no order, no protection for you except that which I myself will give you?

Do you see the country which you love and which you are now celebrating, a country’s history that you look back on with nostalgia? Are you willing to see no country, no country to call your own except those I give you as my body? Will you let me bring you life in my body and only there?

Do you see those churches which you can go to so easily now? Are you ready to see them with bars across their doors, with doors nailed shut? Are you ready to base your life only on me? Are you ready to depend only on me and not on institutions or schools and parishes that you are working so hard to foster?

I call you to be ready, for that is what I am telling you about. The structures are falling and changing. It is not for you to know the details now. Do not rely on them as you have been. I want you to make a deeper commitment to one another. I want you to trust one another, building an interdependence that is based on my Spirit. It is an interdependence that is no luxury. It is an absolute necessity for those who will base their lives on me and not the structures from a pagan world. I have spoken and it will take place. They may hear and they may not. I will respond accordingly.

Look about you. When you see it all shut down, when you see everything removed which has been taken for granted, and when you are prepared to live without these things, then you will know what I am making ready.”

Forty-four years ago…and you would have thought, “never in a million years would these things happen.” Yes, I think God is trying to get our attention. Will we let Him? I pray so.

Mike Cousineau

Escanaba