Kingdoms and Empires Have Passed Away…

The most popular post on this blog by far was the one I wrote for the passing of two institutions, the last Hapsburg prince and the space shuttle program. While of course, I happen to think it’s one of my better posts, a poetic elegy to the passing of years, the fact is that most people who come to the page are looking for photos of the space shuttle. Ah, well.

I was reminded of this particular post while mucking about with the back end of this web site and looking at the the various stats that WordPress dishes up for my edification. As I said, the stats of this particular post are quite impressive compared with the rest of the pages here.

Reading it again, I was particularly struck by the aptness of the following quote in light of today’s manic political battles:

Kingdoms and empires have passed away; peoples once renowned for their history and civilization have disappeared; time and again the nations, as though overwhelmed by the weight of years, have fallen asunder; while the Church, indefectible in her essence, united by ties indissoluble with her heavenly Spouse, is here today radiant with eternal youth, strong with the same primitive vigor with which she came from the Heart of Christ dead upon the Cross.

Men powerful in the world have risen up against her. They have disappeared, and she remains.

Philosophical systems without number, of every form and every kind, rose up against her, arrogantly vaunting themselves her masters, as though they had at last destroyed the doctrine of the Church, refuted the dogmas of her faith, proved the absurdity of her teachings. But those systems, one after another, have passed into books of history, forgotten, bankrupt; while from the Rock of Peter the light of truth shines forth as brilliantly as on the day when Jesus first kindled it on His appearance in the world, and fed it with His Divine words: “Heaven and earth shall pass, but my words shall not pass” (Matt. 24:35).

(Source: Pope Pius X, Encyclical Iucunda Sane, 1904)