The number one trusted online resource for Catholic values
Menu
A+ A A-

Interpreting the Present Time

  • ROBERT CARDINAL SARAH

A Godless society, which considers my spiritual questions a dead letter, masks the emptiness of its materialism by killing time so as better to forget eternity. 


sarah31The farther material things extend their influence, the more man takes pleasure in sophisticated, narcissistic, and perverse amusements; the more man forgets God, the more he observes himself.  In looking at himself, he sees the deformations and the ugliness that his debauchery has encrusted on his face.  Then, to delude himself that he still shines with the original splendor of a creature of God, he puts on his make-up.  But the hidden evil is like the glowing coal beneath the ashes.

Without God, man builds his hell on earth.  Amusements and pleasures can become a true scourge for the soul when it sinks into pornography, drugs, violence, and all sorts of perversions.

There is great sadness in claiming to want to indulge in limitless pleasures, whereas the most beautiful joy is to remain simply with God, allowing him to clothe us in light and purity....

The man who ignores God and turns his own instincts into godlike standards for all things is headed for destruction.  Today we are confronted with one of the last stages of the civilization of diversion.  The alternative is simple: if mankind reforms itself, it will live, but if its headlong flight persists, civilization will become a hell.

This is Meaghen Gonzalez, Editor of CERC. I hope you appreciated this piece. We curate these articles especially for believers like you.

Please show your appreciation by making a $3 donation. CERC is entirely reader supported.

dividertop

Acknowledgement

sarah Cardinal Robert Sarah "Interpreting the Present Time" from God or Nothing, A Conversation on Faith (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2015).

Reprinted with permission of Ignatius Press. 

The Author

sarah sarah1Robert Cardinal Sarah (born 15 June 1945) is a Guinean Cardinal Prelate of the Catholic Church. He was appointed as Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments by Pope Francis on 23 November 2014. He previously served as Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum. He is the author of The Day Is Now Far Spent, The Power of Silence Against the Dictatorship of Noise and God or Nothing: A Conversation on Faith.

Copyright © 2015 Ignatius Press