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Jeremiah 19:7. "And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth." God is telling Jeremiah to say these words to the elders and priests of Jerusalem in the Valley of Topheth, which He says will now be called the Valley of Slaughter.

 

Why would a loving God be promising such destruction and slaughter on His people? What did His people do to deserve this? God says it is because they have forsaken Him for other gods, and have filled this valley with the blood of innocents, erecting "the high places of Ba'al to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Ba'al." (Jeremiah 19:5)

 

God does not take the slaughter of innocents lightly. When that slaughter is done or condoned by his chosen people in service of other gods, He will visit justice upon his people, and that justice can look very ugly indeed. But how ugly is the burning of children alive? In the moving Nefarious, the demon describes these ancient sacrifices, and says they used to heat the hands of the statues, and place the babies in those red hot hands. The babies would naturally roll themselves off, and into the fire below, all while people played loud music to drown out the screams. Nefarious says the music isn't necessary anymore, since the priests now wear scrubs, and no one can hear the screams from the womb.

 

Our current society is no less barbaric than the Jews had become in Jeremiah's time. We, too, are slaughtering and mutilating children in the name of other gods - gods of the secular world like politics, "choice," and transgenderism. I don't know how much time we have before God visits justice upon us, but it feels like it is beginning, and I can't say we don't deserve it.

 

Unlike the Jews of Jeremiah's time, though, we are living in the time after Christ, our true King (and today is the feast of Christ the King!). He has paid the price for our sins, and He wants to save us all, even those of us who have fallen under the sway of the false gods of our time. So we have hope, always, and we work, pray, and sacrifice tirelessly to convert hearts and minds. We are still, it seems, in the time of mercy, but the time of justice is coming, just as Jesus promised St. Faustina! It would behoove us to prepare ourselves.

 

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