Pilgrims

It was after the Easter Vigil. It was late, and yet I couldn't fall asleep.

So, as I am wont to do, I got out of bed and started reading. I had a book club in a week, and I hadn't started this month's book yet. Usually, we do old books, but we decided to pick up a new one this time, M.R. Leonard's Pilgrims, an alien invasion novel where the aliens turn out to speak Latin and be devout Catholics, having embarked on a 1000+ year pilgrimage simply to see the Pope and receive the Eucharist. It was a page turner, so I read about a third of it before I finally fell asleep, and finished it while relaxing with my family after Easter dinner. It was delightful, but it didn't sink into me, besides the highly risible premise.

Then I woke up the next morning and the pope was dead.

Surprised but not shocked (he was 88 and in poor health, after all), I was most interested in how the rest of the world was taking it. As I scrolled through the hot-off-the-press reactions, they all started to seem rather familiar. Almost everything being said mirrored an opinion found in Pilgrims.

Then, on May 8th, when Pope Leo XIV was elected, I did the same thing. Once again, they seemed rather familiar. Everything mirrored Pilgrims once again.

Over the summer, watching news of the Church and the world, I kept seeing the same thing. The worldly kept acting in their worldly way, acting with their worldly tendency, and as I read and watched, I kept thinking "Pilgrims, Pilgrims, Pilgrims"

*There will be extensive spoilers from here on, so fair warning*

The Pilgrims, what the alien invaders are called, had been monitoring Earth for many millennia, we apparently being the only other sentient species they had discovered. They were therefore able to RECORD the life, ministry, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ.

Their philosophers had long since settled the question of whether there was a God, in the affirmative, but they were stuck as deists, as are all who lack positive revelation.

But once the records from Earth traveled the hundred light years to their home system, they had proof that God had intervened in His creation. So they set out as soon as they could to reverence the ground upon which He became incarnate. They brought all the data they gathered of Jesus' ministry and miracles with them and released them to the public.

A major theme of the book, therefore, is what people do when confronted with absolutely incontrovertible evidence of the truth of Catholicism. What happens when the excuse of "I'm not sure" or "well, if it even happened" goes away, or is at least made much less credible.

Many people return to faith. But many more do not.

They claim it must be some trick, some deception. The aliens are up to something, even though it is repeatedly demonstrated that they are highly logical and completely able to destroy us on a whim if they so desired, so there is no reason for them to deceive.

Believing, therefore, becomes the default, the most logical thing to do. And yet many do not. Why? What other options are there? And what does this have to do with Pope Francis' death and Pope Leo XIV's election?

The worldlings of Pilgrims cannot accept that the Pilgrims are telling the truth about their motives for coming. They see them only as grasping after power, without the possibility of admitting that they are actually as they appear to be. In fact, the main avatar of the worldlings (General Fergusson) in the book says so outright to the main avatar of the the Church (Father Ambrose):

It's power, Father. Pure power. Power is the reason the cat plays with the mouse before devouring it, why the pharaoh builds the pyramids, and why the alien drops a pillar of steel down from the sky. … Compassion and mercy? Those are mere luxuries for those at the top of the food chain.

He, and the worldly with him, see simplicity as naiveté and belief as gullibility.

So too did I see in the hubbub over Pope Francis' death and Pope Leo XIV's election.

The world immediately started seeing it all through the lens of ideology, where the most important thing about the Pope was whether he personally liked JD Vance or his thoughts on immigration policy.

There were rumors of intrigue and politicking by people who run their mouths all day, as if merely by saying something it becomes true, while taking no account of the possibility that the Pope really is chosen according to the Providence of God.

But the Church, both in Pilgrims and in reality, has an answer:

"I know all about lies. I also know devious men have a tendency to see lies wherever they look, all the more so when the truth is smacking them right upside the face."

Just because you live a life of craftiness and carnal prudence does not mean that it is the only way to live. Sincerity is possible, and the simple truth has a power to it that cuts through every artifice.

The Pilgrims, on their approach to Earth, were visible for five years, as they decelerated from 20% of light speed. In that time, every nation on earth tried to hail them, with no response. Well, every nation but one. As a result, society on Earth degraded into tyranny.

When asked why they never responded to hails, the representative of the Pilgrims, Virgil, responds that the Pope never reached out, and no one else had the authority to negotiate with them, so they disregarded it.

The Pilgrims do not acknowledge temporal rulers, and only by the explicit request of the Pope allow any temporal ruler (in this case, General Ferguson) to speak with them at all. The temporal rulers, of course, respond with anger, unable to acknowledge that they aren't actually very important to the Pilgrims, nor are the glories of the world particularly enticing to those who are solely focused on God.

Do we not see this happening now, as well? So many demanded to know the details of the conclave, or think they have the right to condemn people they have never met, nor spoken to, as heretics. Even this past week, people fret about what Pope Leo talked about with this person or that person. Indeed, there are many who refuse to believe at all because God has not manifested Himself to them personally in a way that they approve of. None of this is our right to demand.

Indeed, Our Blessed Lord himself told us so. When speaking to Thomas after His resurrection: "Do you believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." When, after His resurrection, Peter inquires about John's status, He replies "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!" And when asked if many will be saved, he refuses to answer, but says "strive to enter by the narrow gate."

We do not have the right to knowledge that does not pertain to our state in life. Indeed, striving to possess knowledge that is not ours to possess is a vice, called curiositas. Yes, we are afraid of the future, yes, we are worried about the stratagems of our enemies, yes, we are curious about secrets that we may use them for profit. All of this is a diseased lack of Faith.

There is one thing needful, to know the Will of God for us this day, and to do it. He do not wish us to know more than that, and so we should not pry.

Although the powerful projected to the masses the "Premise" that the aliens were peaceful, since they did not just release a meteor traveling at 20% of light speed towards earth, they also used the approach of the aliens to institute a social credit system with a digital currency, suspend due-process rights, and establish a secret police with summary executions.

Indeed, Austin got involved in this whole affair in the first place because he himself was condemned to execution. General Ferguson used the threat of fulfilling the sentence and the promise of its remission as leverage over Austin throughout the book. Yet he does not deal in good faith with him.

General Ferguson repeatedly betrays him, and yet each time he explains it away as a stratagem to manipulate the Pilgrims into trusting Austin. He treats Austin horribly, and yet Austin keeps listening to him and following his directives, locked into the manner of a mind curved inwards , unable to see another way.

The Pilgrims and the Church provide that other way. With them, there is no stratagem. They say what they will do, and they do it, regardless of the consequences. This leads to no end of difficulties with the rest of the world, as what they will do without regard for consequences involves broadcasting Catholic calls to prayer at deafening volumes over major cities, including Mecca and Jerusalem, and visiting the Dome of the Rock to pray at the site of Solomon's Temple.

They are also punctilious about law. They came over a hundred light years because they knew that only through the line of Apostolic succession could they worship Almighty God as He desired them to worship Him. Most of the negotiations that the Pilgrims have are about what Austin sees as minor issues of canon law, specifically whether the Pilgrims can repose the Blessed Sacrament aboard their spaceship. Finally, due to reasons of plot which I will not spoil, a main character is bound in justice to sacrifice his own life, which he does quite straightforwardly.

How different this is to the way of the world. The world sees things in terms of consequences and contracts. Consequences, for we attempt to predict what will follow from our actions, as if the omniscient and omnipotent God will not bring to perfection all things offered to Him in faith. Contracts, for we think that if the other party does not fulfill their obligations to our liking, then that removes our obligation to fulfill ours, as if the contract is not before the almighty and just God who will bring to all men their right judgement, either to punishment or to reward.

This is not the Catholic way. For the Church, if something is demanded, no matter how impossible or inconvenient it appears to the world, it shall be done. Yet in even the smallest things, we must seek after perfection. There is no compromise, no consideration of consequence, no plotting after doubtful ends. Nor is there contingency, after the matter of a slave or a workman, looking only for our payment. We see the thing that God wills us to do, right now, and we do it. If that means we die, then we die, so long as we do not sin.