By Brian Festa
Vice-President & Co-Founder, We The Patriots USA, Inc.
These days, it’s easier than ever to lose hope. Every day our organization is flooded with messages from people all across the country desperate for help. A single mother of four writes that her religious exemption to the covid shot has been denied at work, and she will be fired in two weeks’ time with no other source of income to support her family. A combat veteran with disabilities writes to say that he is facing the same fate, despite the fact that he works 100% remotely, with zero chance of infecting anyone with anything. A father of eight (with a ninth on the way), tells us that he too is the sole provider for his family, and is facing certain termination simply for voicing an objection to his employer’s shot mandate, on the basis that he is an orthodox Roman Catholic who cannot in any way participate in the taking of innocent life, no matter how far removed, and not even in the name of a supposed “greater good” for public health.
As a traditional Catholic Christian myself, I share that objection to the covid shot, as do many of you reading this today. I also share in the frustration you feel every time you read another headline, or watch another dystopian press conference from a power-hungry government official, making an unconvincing yet forceful appeal for just a little less freedom in exchange for a lot more health and safety. This time, he assures us, we will finally slay this beast. This time, we will stop this monster from devouring us whole, clearing the way for those of us who have accepted the Faustian (or, more appropriately, the Faucian) bargain to rise up victorious, and return to our old way of life. Except that the shadow puppet crouching over the microphone is the real monster, and the price we are called to pay, far more a beast than the one from which the world has convinced itself it’s running.
And worst of all, the victory never comes. There is never a return to the old way of life. In the last 21 months, we have gradually (though at the same time, oddly enough, rapidly) lost more freedoms than we had in the previous 21 years. We live in a world where we are met at every turn with a sign demanding that we conform to the maxims of a new and fearsome republic, one that derives its power not from the people, but from rulers who present fear as if it were a gift to be thankful for this Christmas season, and hysteria as a saving grace.
But wait – this is supposed to be a post about hope, right? None of this sounds very hopeful, I know. But if what you just read you already knew, there is hope. You are one of the millions of God-fearing Americans who know that freedom can never be sacrificed at the altar of the greater good, and you will never participate in the rituals of a religion founded not on faith, but on fabricated statistics and flawed “science.” If what you just read you didn’t know, there is hope. You have just learned that the narrative you’ve been spoon fed for nearly two years now is nothing more than a vicious lie, one that has stolen from you and your loved ones the very essence of the human experience: communion. Gathering together, creating shared experiences of love and joy that can never be replicated on a glowing screen of blue light, is so essential to human existence that its absence has, predictably, left a devastating and tornadic path of depression, broken homes, and suicides.
And for those ignorant of this truth, still there is hope. For there is always hope in Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is Himself THE TRUTH, if only they answer His call. We know how this story ends. The dragon will not prevail, the beast will indeed by slayed, and not by the sorcery of scientific “progress.” As we celebrate this season of the Divine Infant’s humble entry into this broken world, taking on our humanity in all things but sin, let us remember also that Our King will return again in glory. With sin and death already conquered on the cross, once and for all, He now stands ready to vanquish evil from this weary world, once and for all (see Hebrews 9:28). And it is readily apparent that those doing the bidding of the Enemy know this full well. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be racing to accomplish the diabolical at such a breakneck pace. They know their time is short, and that “soon and very soon, we are going to see the King.” Let us welcome Him into our lives and our hearts now by obeying all of His precepts, turning our eyes away from sin and toward Heaven, for “from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.”
And in the meantime, we will continue to “fight the good fight,” to paraphrase the Great Apostle. With each lawsuit we file or fund, we are proclaiming that the Truth is greater than the lies of our oppressors. We stand proudly in defense of freedom, in defense of our country, and in defense of our faith. We are “holding the line” as we await our ultimate victory, one that we know cannot be won without our Redeemer.
This darkness is momentary. This pain, like this earth, will soon pass away. In this seemingly hopeless world, hope persists, and in abundance.
The views expressed herein are solely those of the author, and do not represent the views of any other person or organization.