What does COVID along with all the chaos we experienced over the past year and sexual sin have in common? The common denominator is the darkening of the intellect.
The bottom line is that the world is accepting, with open arms, the destruction of western Christendom and openly and willingly subscribing to the communist influenced Great Reset—a techno-globalist takeover designed to impose a new world order. The breakdown of the rule of law easily observed by the arbitrary and capricious “quarantine” measures imposed on healthy people and destruction of cities along with entire sectors of the economy is the just the beginning. And yet, there seems to be little or no resistance from corporate and government leaders.
We see it at the micro-level too as our friends and family—in the name of charity! —stopped worshiping God, pulled their kids from schools, cancelled family holidays, and left elderly relatives to die in the company of complete strangers wearing face masks. Now our friends and family are lining up to inject themselves with a relatively untested gene manipulation potion sold as a “vaccine” with long term consequences completely unknown other than they certainly will make billions of dollars for big pharmaceutical companies.
It is obvious as the sky is blue that what is happening to the world and our society has been done intentionally with malice under the guise of artificially created crises to stoke fear and cause chaos. Yet, very smart people that we respect, know and love are going completely along with the insanity without the slightest ounce of hesitation.
Why has the world fallen into such a state of delusion and obvious denial of reality? Why does it seem like we are living a nightmare that could only be dreamed up in dystopian novels of the past or imagined in movies like the Matrix—an artificially created reality in which the majority of society are completely oblivious to what is actually going on? It’s almost as if the national intellect has been completely darkened.
St. Thomas Aquinas and Darkening of the Intellect
Saint Thomas Aquinas tells us why the intellect may become eclipsed. It’s due to sin. Not just any sin, but sin particularly related to intemperance. Intemperance is the inability to control the desire for pleasure.
Aquinas tells us that intemperance is the most disgraceful of sins,
“because [intemperance] is most repugnant to man’s clarity or beauty; inasmuch as the pleasures which are the matter of intemperance dim the light of reason from which all the clarity and beauty of virtue arises: wherefore these pleasures are described as being most slavish (emphasis added). (Summa Theologiae, II of II, Q. 142, Art. 4).
Interestingly, it is not just intemperance in general that causes the darkening of the intellect, but sexual sins in particular that tend to enslave our minds and souls. Aquinas says, for example,
“In the sin of fornication the soul is the body’s slave in a special sense, because at the moment of sinning it can think of nothing else: whereas the pleasure of gluttony, although carnal, does not so utterly absorb the reason…”(Summa Theologiae, I of II, Q. 72, Art. 4).
Sexual Sin Saturates the Culture
Let’s assume Aquinas is right about this and uncontrolled sexual sin darkens the intellect and enslaves the rational mind to our carnal appetites and desire for pleasure. Is there seriously any question that the entire world, but certainly America in particular, is ripe for the darkening of the intellect on a mass, overwhelming scale?
“Now, wait one second!”—you may say. “Most of my family and friends who are irrationally and deathly afraid of COVID and are willing to surrender all their rights to an evil global elite of communists are not sexual perverts and maintain health marriages and good family lives. What could possibly be the connection between their darkened intellects and sexual sin?”
As members of a culture and society that openly promotes sexual sin in numerous forms, even those who personally may live chaste lives and avoid Sixth Commandment issues, nevertheless, are likely participating and cooperating with mass sexual sin on a large scale.
The acceptance of legalized abortion and contraception are perfect examples. Although abortion is obviously a violation of the Fifth Commandment against killing the innocent, abortion is also a violation of the Sixth Commandment because abortion is used primarily as a method of birth control. The legalization and cultural normalization of killing the unborn has made sex outside of marriage attractive, popular and mainstream because it provides a means of extinguishing the result of such behavior—the creation of a new life. No longer is there fear, apprehension or a stigma associated with getting someone pregnant or becoming pregnant outside of marriage (or even within marriage) because if it happens, there is always Planned Parenthood to “fix the problem.”
“But my family and friends are pro-life Christians!”—you may reply. While that may be true, the reality is many in our society openly and actively contribute to the abortion culture on a daily basis. What else could explain why so many are willing to take the COVID “vaccines”—you know the ones Francis told them was “okay” to receive. The vaccines were tested on aborted baby cell lines as part of the production process. Is there anything else you need to know? Notice how society is totally willing to overlook that reality and rationalize away the evil of abortion to justify their receipt of the “vax”? Even if there is a sound moral reason for receiving the “vax”, are the millions lining up to get it even remotely bothered about the fact that it was developed using cell lines derived from killed babies?
Still not a good example? Okay, how many of your pro-life Christian friends voted for Joe Biden because their conscience (and probably their pastor) told them it was okay to vote for him as long as they did it for reasons other than his position on abortion? They oppose abortion, but just not quite enough to avoid filling in the ballot circle for Biden. Putting aside the openly obvious election fraud that most people cannot admit (due to darkened intellect), these folks who actually did vote for Biden set back the pro-life movement immeasurably. To them, abortion may be bad, but they accept it, cooperate with it, and refuse to actually change the way they live to do much about it.
How about contraception? When over 98% of child-bearing age Catholic women have used contraception at some point and 99% of all child-bearing age women have used contraception, that is a major sexual sin problem. The fact most couples see absolutely nothing wrong with using contraception, despite the Church’s crystal-clear teaching to the contrary on the subject, further shows the severity and depth of sin this nation finds itself in. A significant majority of the nation has become apathetic to the reality of abortion and actively participates in using contraception so they can satisfy their passions without suffering the “consequences”—also known as children.
I haven’t even touched on the crisis of unmarried couples, even some of the same sex, living together as if they were “married.” Or how about the millions of civilly “divorced” folks who found new spouses or those who don’t even bother with the second marriage and just openly live with “new partners”. What was condemned as perverted and immoral only fifty years ago is now considered acceptable and normal in society. Yes, we have a sexual sin problem in this culture.
For many Americans, it is the passive acceptance and willingness to accept evil practices and perversion, especially when it is “other” people doing it in the privacy of their own homes or medical clinics, that sets the environment and tone of the culture. Refusing to recognize and condemn immorality in society numbs the conscience and trains the mind to shut down in the face of other types of obvious evil.
Connecting Sexual Sin to Society’s Reaction to COVID
Given the ubiquitous nature of sexual sin throughout all segments of our society, is there any wonder that the nation’s intellect is darkened, just as Aquinas predicted? When otherwise intelligent people label killing a live baby “reproductive health,” it is not hard to see that they are willing to call anything they are told on television news “science.”
When “normal” people who seem well balanced routinely consume hormones or install devices in their bodies to prevent the natural creation of children so they can have as much sex as possible without producing children as God intended, is it a stretch that they would be willing to inject their bodies with an almost completely untested foreign RNA gene manipulating therapy to avoid a Virus with a 99% survival rate?
Is there any point in trying to convince someone who lives a promiscuous perverted lifestyle that wearing a mask in public is not only a pointless gesture of public virtue signaling and submission, but is obviously dangerous to his own health and a disgusting practice? Of course not.
In normal times, we would rely on the Church to take a leadership role in this instance. Unfortunately, as further proof of my thesis, it is undeniable that the Church itself is mired in sexual and perverted sin. Of course, so many bishops and prelates are actively participating and promoting the Great Reset.
No, I think St. Thomas Aquinas was on to something when he said sexual sin darkens the intellect. We are seeing this reality play out on a local, national, and global scale to the extent never seen before in history.
In all of my attempts to understand the reality we live in, the answer to so many problems always seems to go back to repentance, conversion and offering our complete submission to our true Sovereign, Christ the King. After that, a correct and authentic understanding of the natural and divine law will also serve to correct many of the errors in the world, and enlighten the intellect, rather than darken it. Hopefully then, the eyes of our national leaders and even our friends will be opened to see the battle that we face to restore Western Civilization and Christendom.