We are out of balance when we focus too much on evil, at the same time that we are in peril when we ignore it.

There is but one recourse: the Holy Spirit.

At Christmastime, we think (or should think) of Christ; in our time we are also forced to ponder the opposite spirit (for the spirit of anti-christ is rising).

Just what is the "spirit of anti-christ"? How, in our special times, is it manifesting? How do we detect it?

More than anything, the spirit of anti-christ is in those who show direct vitriol toward religion and specifically Catholicism and Christianity. Simply put, it is truculence aimed directly at Jesus.

Day after day, this time of year -- as a new "tradition" -- there are stories about the Infant kidnapped from a Nativity here, or a Nativity disallowed there, or a statue of Jesus found hanging. There are the anti-Catholic jokes. There is the bias. There are universities where they won't even allow Santa! The spirit of anti-christ is the spirit of militant secular humanism, and finds its extreme in satanism.

Anti-christ is most manifest in atheism but is not confined to non-believers. Those of religious faith who bristle at the mention of Christ are obviously of this spirit -- or at least influenced by it. Direct animosity toward Christians (as seen currently and urgently in India) is what would balloon into a challenge unlike any seen since the early-century martyrs.

It is one thing to see the rise of homosexual rights; it is another to watch radical gay demonstrators with signs that display stark anti-Christian hatred.

That spirit extends across sexual, economic, and cultural boundaries.

In Mexico, Playboy magazine came out with a cover depicting a nude model but for a Virgin-like veil (on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which of course is centered in Mexico). That is the spirit of anti-christ because it went beyond the prurient and into the realm of the blasphemous, which spells hatred. Anti-christ is the spirit of lust where Christianity is the spirit of love. Catholics are disdained by certain writers in magazines like Time while a hard-core pornographer is exalted as a nice old man when he dies. The spirit of anti-christ reverses everything, so that good is evil and evil is good. It spells the word "live" backwards.

"Want proof that hate is driving this assault?" asks a group that fights Catholic bigotry. "The head of the ACLU in New Hampshire, Claire Ebel, advises that if crèches are allowed in parks, it is permissible 'for a display of satanic ritual.' And this hatred of Christmas is not exclusive to the U.S. In England, Muslim preacher Anjem Choudary called Christmas 'evil' in a recent sermon. No wonder they are banning words like 'bishop,' 'chapel,' 'monk' and 'nun from the Oxford Junior Dictionary. And all of this is being endorsed, if not promoted, by self-hating Christians."

Scientists in America and politicians in the new, unified Europe, especially, are hankering for the day when they will be able to exert a coordinated purge of Jesus. They are refashioning nature. They are redefining spirit. The confessional has been replaced by the couch of the psychiatrist.

At the same time, there is an unprecedented eruption of those claiming to see peculiar images of Jesus.

Is Heaven countering the attempt to purge Him? Is it hinting at a coming large manifestation?

"An unusual phenomenon occurred at my kitchen sink," wrote Antoinette Santangelo of Cedar Knoll, New Jersey. "On this day, before I left my house at one o'clock in the afternoon, I filled my one-year-old grandson's bottle with milk at the sink. I rushed out without noticing that I had dropped a 'clump of milk' on the ledge of the front of the sink, discovering it only upon my return four hours later. Since I had left a pot in the sink, I set out to wash it; however, before I could do so, I felt a strong force pushing me back from the sink. I wondered why this was so strong. After the strong force subsided, I attempted to wash the pot.

"It was then that I noticed the small drop of milk on the front of the sink. Upon closer examination, I was filled with emotion to see the suffering Face of Jesus on this drop of milk. [The next morning] after Mass I showed my father the picture and he immediately saw the image of Jesus' Face clearly and asked if he could follow me home so he could see the sink and picture in the drop of milk. He found it incredible and believed when he saw was truly the face of Jesus."

It is difficult to discern: are these reports -- so numerous -- pareidolia (the imagining of images into natural, coincidental formations), some other type of deception, or signs from Heaven to offset the attempts at stripping Christian supernaturality from the public square? Why does it happen so often -- with the same frequency as statue beheadings, Nativity controversies, and satanic graffiti?

It is a question this hour -- this late hour, at this late time of the year. "Earlier today, a bus taking members of a heavy-metal band, the Red Shore, veered off the Pacific Highway north of Sydney," wrote a viewer at this time precisely a year ago. "The bus rolled several times and slammed into a tree, killing the lead vocalist and one of the road crew. They were on their way to a performance at Sydney University in a double-header with a U.S. 'death-metal' outfit call 'All Shall Perish.' They had called their tour, 'Christmas Carnage.'

"Sadly, this title has turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Coincidence speaks to us. It heralds. It tries to warn. In the quiet of night, in the silence, we take it to the Infant.

[resources: Onward Catholic Soldier and Catholic Warrior]