Prepare
for Trials, but Also for Glory
by Bruce
Yocum
Introduction to “Reading the Signs of
the Times”
by Bernhard Stock
Under this headline,
“Reading the Signs of the Times”, we
want to sporadically publish articles,
book reviews and other material which
have a prophetic orientation: reading
the signs of the times and trying to
understand what the Lord is telling
us, or has already told us as the
Sword of the Spirit. He has called us
to be a prophetic people and to “build
a bulwark against the tide of evil” –
for this, we should learn to
understand what the evil tides are and
how we can be equipped to counter
them.
The following article was written by
Bruce Yocum for a Catholic audience
and was first published in “Good
News” November 2012
Issue, the magazine for Catholic
Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in Britain
and Ireland. Used with permission.
As the Sword of the Spirit, we are
an Ecumenical Community of
Communities, but precisely because
of that, the things happening in the
Catholic Church of today cannot
leave us untouched. “If one member
suffers, all suffer together with
it” (1 Corinthians 12:26). And what
is described in the article is, of
course, something happening with all
Christian Churches and
denominations, and not only with
Catholics.
[Bernhard
Stock was the long-term Senior
Coordinator of Brot des Lebens in
Munich, Germany and Regional
Coordinator for Leaders Training in
the European Region. He
is currently the director of the
Catholic Teaching Institute, an
institute which develops and provides
teaching for Catholic Members in the
Sword of the Spirit.] |
"And so it
seems certain to me that the Church is facing
very hard times. The real crisis has scarcely
begun. We will have to count on terrific
upheavals"
(Joseph
Ratzinger)1
Whether Joseph Ratzinger would have considered
these words prophetic when he wrote them in 1969,
or whether he viewed them as merely a prediction I
do not know. My guess is that Joseph Ratzinger was
predicting, but predicting confidently and on
theological and sociological grounds. He says "One
may predict that all of this (the changes he
describes) will take time" and he opposes that
prediction to "the big talk of those who prophesy
a Church without God and without faith."
Whatever the theologian Joseph Ratzinger thought
he was doing at the time, I believe that we can
now confidently say that these words were
prophetic. Probably no one would have been bold
enough in 1969 to predict, or prophesy, that
Joseph Ratzinger would one day be Pope, and be
Pope in a time of profound crisis in the Church.
But he is2, and his words from 1969
have thus received a sort of second life, and can
be found in scores, perhaps hundreds of places on
the internet. He may not have been
self-consciously prophesying in 1969, but events
have made clear that these words were prophetic.
A few years later the Catholic Charismatic
Renewal, a thoroughly unexpected, rapidly growing
phenomenon in the Church, held an international
Conference in Rome. The surprising culmination of
the Conference was the address of Pope Paul VI
after the celebration of the closing Mass of the
Conference on Monday 19th May, 1975. The Pope's
address signaled a cautious but very genuine
acceptance of the charismatic renewal by the
highest leadership of the Church. That this new
phenomenon in the Church should have received such
encouragement a bare eight years after its first
appearance was remarkable.
Permission to exercise
prophetic gifts at a papal Mass
The Mass which preceded this address by Paul VI
also brought surprises. Cardinal Suenens
celebrated, by exception, on the Papal Altar above
the tomb of St. Peter, with over 10,000 Conference
participants present. Not only was it a typically
noisy and enthusiastic charismatic assembly, but
we were given permission to have a time after
communion for the exercise of prophetic gifts. The
time after communion, or in fact as the
distribution of communion was taking place, was
somewhat chaotic. Paul urges us in his letter to
the Corinthians to do everything in the assembly
"decently and in order" but with ten thousand
highly charged charismatics surging around, well,
the "order" aspect was a bit of a challenge.
Furthermore, just at the moment when it was
needed, the sound system failed. A quick
assessment revealed that the only microphone which
worked was that on the Papal Altar itself.
Ralph Martin and Bruce Yocum
give prophetic words from the Papal Altar
At that very moment Ralph Martin told me that he
believed he had a somewhat urgent prophetic
message. As there appeared to be no alternative, I
told Ralph to use the microphone on the papal
altar. Thus it was that his prophecy had a
dramatic setting. What Ralph prophesied was
equally dramatic:
"Because I love you, I want to show
you what I am doing in the world today. I want
to prepare you for what is to come. Days of
darkness are coming on the world, days of
tribulation ... Buildings that are now standing
will not be standing. Supports that are there
for my people now will not be there. I want you
to be prepared, my people, to know only me and
to cleave to me and to have me in a way deeper
than ever before. I will lead you into the
desert … I will strip you of everything that you
are depending on now, so you depend just on me.
A time of darkness is coming on the world, but a
time of glory is coming for my Church, a time of
glory is coming for my people. I will pour out
on you all the gifts of my Spirit. I will
prepare you for spiritual combat; I will prepare
you for a time of evangelism that the world has
never seen ..."
The minor chaos going on around the altar
prevented me from hearing what Ralph said, but I,
like Ralph, felt a strong and urgent sense that I
should prophesy. As soon as Ralph had finished I
went to the microphone and prophesied:
"I speak to you of the dawn of a 'new
age' for my Church. I speak to you of a day that
has not been seen before ... Prepare yourselves
for the action that I begin now, because things
that you see around you will change; the combat
that you must enter now is different; it is new
… You need wisdom from me that you do not yet
have. Open your eyes, open your hearts to
prepare yourselves for me and for the day that I
have now begun. My Church will be different; my
people will be different; difficulties and
trials will come upon you. The comfort that you
know now will be far from you, but the comfort
that you will have is the comfort of my Holy
Spirit. They will send for you, to take your
life, but I will support you. Come to me. Band
yourselves together, around me. Prepare, for I
proclaim a new day, a day of victory and of
triumph for your God. Behold, it is begun".
In the years that followed the 1975 Conference
those prophecies were much discussed. "Days of
darkness" and "hard times" became common terms in
discussions of what the Lord was saying and doing
in the Church and in the world.
"I
speak to you of the dawn of a 'new
age' for my Church. I speak to you of
a day that has not been seen before
... Prepare yourselves for the action
that I begin now, because things that
you see around you will change; the
combat that you must enter now is
different; it is new …
Bruce
Yocum 1975
|
What do the Days of Darkness
and Hard Times mean?
These prophetic words were not universally
accepted. I recall a conversation with a
university chaplain in Dublin, just before the
Charismatic Conference held there in 1978. He was
brimming with confidence over the future of the
Church in Ireland. "Our Masses are full of young
people, many of them serving enthusiastically in
the parish." "But do you not think," I asked,
"that there are signs that may not continue? In
many places - France, Belgium, the United States -
there has been a serious decline in recent years,
and there are few signs of any improvement." His
confidence was undiminished. "Perhaps in those
countries, yes. But here in Ireland the faith is
deep, and I do not see any reason to believe that
we will experience such a decline."
Twenty years later that same priest approached me
at another conference and told me that he recalled
our earlier conversation. The recent, and for him
shocking changes in the condition of the Church in
Ireland had opened his eyes. "Perhaps," I
ventured, "the change was not in the condition,
but in the appearance of the Church." Probably
that priest had never heard Ratzinger’s words, or
if he had would have considered them, like the
1975 prophecies, applicable somewhere else. But if
he had listened well he would have been warned,
for Ratzinger said "We will have to count on
terrific upheavals."
“Because
I love you, I want to show you what I am
doing in the world today. I want to
prepare you for what is to come. Days of
darkness are coming on the world, days
of tribulation … l want you to be
prepared, my people, to know only me and
to cleave to me and to have me in a way
deeper than ever before. I will lead you
into the desert ...”
Ralph
Martin 1975
|
Ratzinger’s prediction for
the Church
We certainly have seen "terrific upheavals"
and doubtless will see many more. Ratzinger’s
description of what will soon happen is
startlingly accurate, and if we take it seriously.
should help us see what we can expect as the
"upheavals" continue.
"The Church will become small and will have to
start afresh more or less from the beginning. She
will no longer be able to inhabit many of the
edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of
her adherents diminishes ... she will lose many of
her social privileges. … As a small society. [the
Church] will make much bigger demands on the
initiative of her individual members...."
Yet it would be wrong to view either Joseph
Ratzinger's prediction or the 1975 prophecies as
"pessimistic." First of all, Ratzinger describes a
"process" through which the Church must pass, a
process that is difficult, but by no means bad.
"It will be hard-going for the Church, for the
process of crystallization and clarification will
cost her much valuable energy. It will make her
poor and cause her to become the Church of the
meek ... The process will be long and wearisome as
was the road from the false progressivism on the
eve of the French Revolution - when a bishop might
be thought smart if he made fun of dogmas and even
insinuated that the existence of God was by no
means certain ... But when the trial of this
sifting is past. a great power will flow from a
more spiritualized and simplified Church."
This description of the "process of
crystallization and clarification" bears striking
resemblance to the prophecies of 1975. These are
indeed words of warning, calls to be ready for
suffering. to be ready to endure a "process ...
long and wearisome." But this process has a
purpose, it is a "trial of ... sifting" which God
brings about so that "... a great power will flow
from a more spiritualized and simplified Church."
Thousands of years ago the Lord told Israel "The
former things I declared of old, they went forth
from my mouth and I made them known: then suddenly
I did them and they came to pass ... I declared
them to you from of old. before they came to pass
I announced them to you... You have heard; now see
all this; and will you not declare it?" (Isaiah
48:3-7)
Joseph Ratzinger - Pope Benedict XVI - has given
us not only a warning, but a description of what
to expect. We need not be unprepared or shocked or
taken by surprise.
Prepare for trials but also
for glory
Nor need we be discouraged. The prophecies of 1975
tell us to prepare, to prepare not only for
trials, but to "prepare, for I proclaim a new day,
a day of victory and of triumph for your God."
They tell us that a time of darkness is Coming,
but "... a time of glory is coming for my Church,
a time of glory is coming for my people. I will
pour out on you all the gifts of my Spirit ... I
will prepare you for a time of evangelism that the
world has never seen."
Benedict XVI has also told us that his conviction
is not only that the Church will face trials, but
that those trials will lead to a renewed Church.
"But I am equally certain about what will
remain at the end: not the Church of the political
cult, which is dead already, but the Church of
faith. She may well no longer be the dominant
social power to the extent that she was until
recently; but she will enjoy a fresh blossoming
and be seen as man's home, where he will find life
and hope beyond death."
Notes:
[1] Joseph Ratzinger, Faith and the
Future. first published
in 1969 and re-published by
Ignatius Press in 2009
[2] This article
was first published in 2012
This article was first
published in “GoodNews”
November/December
2012 Issue, the magazine for Catholic
Charismatic Renewal (CCR) in Britain
and Ireland. Used with permission.
Bruce Yocum has been
involved in leadership and teaching in
the Catholic charismatic renewal from
its earliest years, and has served in
the Sword of the Spirit for many years
in North America, Europe and the Middle
East, Latin America and the South
Pacific. He was Presiding Elder of the
Servants of the Word for thirteen years.
illustration
above by (c) Kevin Carden
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