Today the West lives as if God did not exist . . . This estrangement from God is not caused by reasoning but by a will to be detached from him. The atheistic orientation of a life is almost always a decision by the will. Man no longer wishes to reflect on his relationship to God because he himself intends to become God.

Cardinal Robert Sarah offered this stark analysis of the present crisis of the West in his 2015 book God or Nothing, in which he zeroes in on the nature of the contemporary loss of faith. It is, he says, the result of the choice to replace the worship of God and obedience to his law with self-worship and the anarchy-producing rejection of any limits upon one’s actions.

Of course, when man tries to become God, he always fails. No one can make himself into the Supreme Being and Creator. But he can attempt to give the impression of omnipotence by disregarding God’s law and daring anyone to stop him. Thus, people exempt themselves from the Seventh Commandment as they pile into duffle bags items they are stealing from CVS or Walmart. Crime and social anarchy are the predictable outcome when people are emboldened to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong.

Cardinal Sarah observes that “the eclipse of God leads toward practical materialism, disorderly or abusive consumption, and the creation of false moral norms. Material well-being and immediate satisfaction become the only reason for living. At the end of this process, it is no longer even about fighting God; Christ and the Father are ignored.”

Ignorance is not bliss, and a conscience deadened by willful sinfulness can, by the effect of God’s grace, respond to salutary qualms. The misery and unhappiness that inevitably result from turning away from God serve as providential reminders that there must be a better way to live.

Cardinal Sarah’s prescription for countering the current slide into despair is a call to action for believers: “In season and out of season, the Church must recall that life cannot be summed up in terms of the satisfaction of material pleasures, without moral rules. At the end of the journey without God there is only the unhappiness of a child deprived of his parents. Yes, hope abides in God alone!”

The Easter Season is a good time to reflect on the ways in which we may be trying to live as if God did not exist. Christ’s victory over sin and death is ours for the taking. We can go to God confident that he never fails to hear and answer our prayers. The happiness of the saints is a shining invitation to overcome the temptation to “do it my way.” God’s way is really the only way. Everything else is a plunge into darkness and fear.

Our confidence in God’s goodness as we listen to his word and put it into practice will radiate to others who have chosen to live under the shadow of the supposed eclipse of God. Those who close their eyes to God may pretend He is not there. Societies can do the same. Yet self-imposed spiritual blindness is about as rational as thinking that taking narcotics will make one a happy and fulfilled person who has successfully chosen for himself what is good.

Let the Divine Light be our guide. No eclipse can overcome God.