On this Tuesday within the Octave of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it is worth recalling that the Christian Faith has never been defended primarily by committees, consensus, or carefully managed language as we see it being done in today’s modern hierarchy. It has been defended by bold men–rough men and sometimes even women–willing to clear the way for truth, and by a God who acts decisively when His people refuse to listen.

The prophet Jeremias describes the repeated pattern of how God handles a wayward and stiff-necked people:

For the house of Israel, and the house of Judah have greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.

They have denied the Lord, and said, It is not he: and the evil shall not come upon us: we shall not see the sword and famine. The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of God in them: these things therefore shall befall them. Thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: Because you have spoken this word, behold I will make my words in thy mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them. Behold I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou shalt not know, nor understand what they say. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant. And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trustest. – Jeremias V.11-17

This is what the consequences and divine reckoning for spiritual complacency sound like. It is the belief that order can be preserved without obedience, and protection maintained without repentance–abhorred by God. The people of the Old Testament–stunningly time and time again–trusted their structures, their cities, their idols, their own wills. God warned them that those very things would become instruments of judgment, and when they kept putting off repentance until tomorrow, that warning came knocking like a thief in the night.

That “nation of afar” may, in the reverse good way, remind my followers of when that far off nation was Spain in its conquest of the diabolical Aztec Empire, not as a defense of every man involved, but as a reminder that God has often used deeply imperfect instruments to dismantle openly demonic orders.

History confirms the pattern. The Faith advances not through abstraction or ecumenism, but through confrontation with error, paganism, heresy, and apostasy. In the New World, before the miracle of Guadalupe transformed millions of souls, Spanish men first confronted a demonic order built on blood sacrifice. They cleared the way not because they were flawless, but because they understood that neutrality in the face of evil is itself a lie. It’s as though a force inside them were moving in spite of their fallen nature, and isn’t that how all of us carry out our callings?

Only after men moved first did Heaven intervene like the dewfall.

Thus, a few years later, Our Lady appeared not to negotiate with false gods inside a violent atmosphere, but to replace them inside the relative peace that followed that violence. Defense of the Faith and a clearing of the way always precedes renewal, grace, and conversion. Conversion cannot happen through dialogue without truth.

We should follow the example of those who spread Christendom, not those who ignored Jeremias.

Every age is tested this way. When State protection becomes control, when State unity replaces truth, when the State religion is reduced to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness–judgment arrives quietly at first.

Then all at once.

Grace still warns before it burns. The question is, are we allowing ourselves to be warned today?

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FURTHER READING: Church Militant No More: The Revolutionary Coup Against Christ’s Kingship