Marxism in America
Marxism
In articles, meditations and homilies, St. Maximilian Kolbe constantly explained and vigorously fought against the rise of Marxism because he knew its evil roots and evil fruits.
In 1917, Mary came at Fatima to warn us against the errors of Russia, Marxism, which would annihilate nations if we did not respond to her call for personal conversion, consecration to her Immaculate Heart, the daily praying of the Rosary penance or reparation. Dr. Troy Hinkel prepared this meditation to help us understand the evil we are facing in our country today.
For Marx, history is a never-ending sequence of battles between the oppressed and the oppressor. Life is a battle between those who have and those who don’t have. And the reason that those have is because they have taken it unjustly from those who don’t have.
The only solution is for that unjust division to be eradicated so that everyone would be equal materially and economically. So that there would not be an owning class and a working class.
The Marxist worldview asserts that the cause of suffering is social injustice. Salvation or utopia comes not through Christ and conversion but by changing the economic conditions, then all suffering would go away.
Social injustice can amplify suffering
But it is not the root cause. Sin and vice are the root cause of all problems in the world. That is why Jesus came to conquer Satan, sin and death.
The Marxist idea that the world can be divided into two camps, the oppressed and the oppressor, and that all the suffering in the world comes from that division is false and dangerous. Marxism is motivated by resentment and hatred, not empathy for the oppressed. How do I know? By the murders. This is the case Solzhenitsyn made in the Gulag Archipelago which is a book every US citizen should read.
When Marxist idea of sympathy for the working class was put into practice in the former Soviet Union, Korea, China, Viet-Nam, Cambodia it resulted in 100s of millions of murders.
Without virtue
Government is not capable of making people peaceful and good without virtue. And virtue is not possible without grace. Our first and primary mission is to proclaim salvation and happiness in Christ alone! For those who have confused government with religion, they challenge this, and they argue for salvation of a different sort—the salvation of the purely worldly order. They say the universal call for every human being is to become a champion of the oppressed which equals being committed to restoring a balance of worldly resources, not to overcome sin in their hearts.
There are times when we must defend workers, farmers, and the poor from unjust exploitation. When workers are exploited or people are treated unjustly, it is our duty to speak out on behalf of the oppressed and the challenge laws, corporations and systems that ignore the plight of their workers.
However, THE danger is the temptation to see that earthly fairness is the primary and most important battle to which we should commit ourselves, rather than the battle against sin and personal corruption. No government system works when its citizens or politicians live selfishly and/or godlessly!
Without Christ’s love, the world becomes unbearably vicious and WILL destroy itself.
“But I tell you love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven…Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:43-48)
Do we love those who oppose the way we think? Love, even to the point of suffering for another, even and especially when that other is an enemy, is THE POWER of Christ.
This is the power to overcome the world, and no systemic change can occur for the better without the love of Christ either explicitly or implicitly animating those who work for social change.
Change myself
The best and only true way to change society is to change myself, seeking to become a saint. It means that I want love to reign in my heart and that I want to turn away from and fight every form of evil and sin, first in me and then in the world.
How different the doctrine of Christ, which is true, good, and beautiful. Christ and Christ alone unifies us into one Body, His own! He teaches us about sin and redemption through embracing Him in friendship and drawing close to His way of the Cross.
The oppressor/oppressed model sees the problems of humanity as being an imbalance in material possessions between rich and poor.
However, the lust for material possessions and power is in your heart and not your pocket.
Systems aren’t evil in and of themselves; people are evil, and they make up the system. Marxism lays the blame primarily on social structures, and not the abuse of personal freedom.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains ... an un-uprooted small corner of evil.”