"...this desire to stifle the voice of God is rather carefully planned.."

John Henry Cardinal Newman, who was truly a prophet, warned more than a hundred years ago of the desolation which we are experiencing today: "Surely there is at this day a confederacy of evil, marshalling its hosts from all parts of the world, organizing itself, taking its measures, enclosing the Church of Christ in a net, and preparing the way for a general apostasy from it..."


It is no secret today that the enemies of the Church want to destroy belief in the divinity of Christ. For, as Fr. Vincent Miceli, S.J., explained, "Once the liturgy is humanized, Christ the Center and Object of it becomes the humanist par excellence, the liberator, the revolutionary, the Marxist ushering in the millenium; he ceases to be the Divine Redeemer. We must be alerted to those who plan, by convincing us to abandon our sacred forms, at length to seduce us into denying our Christian faith altogether. The Church is attacked by these Sons of Satan, in and outside her fold, because she is a living form, the sacrament - sign and instrument - of communion with God and of unity among all men; because she is the visible body of Religion. Hence these shrewd masters of sedition know that when her sacred forms go, religion will also go. Violate the lex orandi and you must inevitably destroy the lex credendi. That is why they rail against so many devotions as superstitions, why they propose so many alterations and changes, a tactic cleverly calculated to shake the foundations of faith...."

The Devil hates the Eucharist and never ceases to attack Our Eucharistic Lord.  He uses variations on gnosticism, symbolism and modernism to attack the authentic teaching of the Magisterium on the Holy Eucharist.  As the spiritual war continues to escalate all around us, Satan's attacks against the Eucharist will multiply.  There will even be physical manifestations of this hatred.  These attacks will intensify and reach a crescendo with the Man of Sin.  St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Doctor of the Church, explains that: "The devil has always managed to get rid of the Mass by means of the heretics, making them precursors of the Antichrist who, above all else, will manage to abolish, and in fact will succeed in abolishing, as a punishment for the sins of men, the Holy Sacrifice of the altar, precisely as Daniel had predicted." ("Le Messa e l'Officio Strapazzati" in Opere Ascetiche).

The Devil hates the Eucharist because, as St. Francis de Sales said, "Our Savior has instituted the most august sacrament of the Eucharist, which contains his flesh and blood in their reality, so that whoever eats of it shall live forever.  Therefore, whoever turns to it frequently and devoutly so effectively builds up his soul's health that it is almost impossible for him to be poisoned by evil affection of any kind."  The Devil hates the Eucharist because, "Surely such a stroke of love should be enough to awaken anyone from the slumber of indifference.  Let such a one reflect upon this Mystery and say to himself: 'It is God Almighty who will come down upon the altar at the words of consecration; I shall hold Him in my hands, and converse with Him, and receive Him into my breast.'" (St. John of Avila).  The Devil hates the Eucharist because, "The proper effect of the Eucharist is the transformation of man into God." (St. Thomas Aquinas).

It was Pope John Paul II who wrote, in Crossing the Threshold of Hope, "What else are the sacraments (all of them!) if not the action of Christ in the Holy Spirit?  When the Church baptizes, it is Christ who baptizes; when the Church absolves, it is Christ who absolves; when the Church celebrates the Eucharist, it is Christ who celebrates it: 'This is my body.'  And so on.  All the sacraments are an action of Christ, the action of God in Christ.  And therefore it is truly difficult to speak of the silence of God.  One must speak, rather, of the desire to stifle the voice of God...this desire to stifle the voice of God is rather carefully planned.  Many will do just about anything so that His voice cannot be heard, so that only the voice of man will be heard." (p. 126).

That certain men should strive to stifle the voice of God should not surprise us. Such men are only carrying out the wishes of their master (John 8: 44).