Chateau Lloyd

I've said before that we are in a time of heightened spiritual warfare, but while the Enemy has increased his activity, God has not been idle.

Amidst the terrible news from Maui, there is an unmistakable sign that God is still with us.

The town of Lahaina was almost entirely destroyed by fire, a level of destruction comparable to fire-bombing in World War II.  However, amidst the devastation, the local Catholic church and its rectory survived the inferno unscathed.  The photographs are striking - a scene of total devastation and in its midst, there sits the parish.  The hedge is even still green.  How is the possible?

In my younger years, I would have groped for some "scientific" explanation, seeking to determine if there was a micro-climate, a timely eddy in the winds that somehow spared the property.

But I now understand that larger forces are at work and that when God decides to give a sign, He can be embarrassingly obvious about it.

Indeed, part of my path of conversion was recognizing that I was the one who was being irrational, desperately trying to find a way to explain away things in plain sight.  Our entire culture has for some time been conditioned into the thinking this way, even those who consider themselves religious.

Amidst the growing chaos in the world, I am comforted and encouraged to see more people of faith casting aside their reflexive skepticism, and accepting things for what the are.  After all, if one believes that Christ was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, died and was buried only to rise on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, things like a church surviving a wildfire are pretty small beans.