Hey, Buddy, Don't You Know That There's A War Going On Now?

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Hey, Buddy, don't you know that there's a war going on now?

No, I am not referring to George Walker Obama's own war of choice that was discussed, if ever so briefly, in Refusing to Read the Signs of the Times two days ago. That war has now taken on a life of its own as a strange coalition of neoconservative war hawks such as Paul Wolfowitz, who, as United States Deputy Secretary of Defense, helped to plan the economic, moral and sociopolitical disaster known as the American invasion and occupation of Iraq, who are always eager to to the bidding of the State of Israel and who believe in a concept of social-engineering called "nation building" that is premised upon the falsehoods of Americanism and internationalists such as Caesar Obamus himself who believe that their naturalistic concept of "human rights" must be defended against nogoodniks such as Moammar Qaddafi Some very fine commentaries on the madness of this new war, which appears to hold out the potential of becoming yet another prolonged quagmire without any clearly defined objectives, have been written by, of all people, George Will and, as one could expect, Patrick Joseph Buchanan.

I will, however, reiterate once again what I wrote in Blood Flows Freely in America and Libya on February 23, 2011:

“Now is the time to stop this unacceptable bloodshed,” said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in a statement. (Chaos Grows in Libya; Defiant Qaddafi Vows to Fight On.)

 

Yes, Madam Secretary Clinton, now is indeed the time to stop this unacceptable bloodshed.

Although the Secretary of State of the United States of America, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was referring to the bloodshed that has been unleashed by Libya's madman of a dictator, "Colonel" Wilhelm Klink, I mean, "Colonel" Moammar Qaddafi, who has been engaged in a scorched earth policy to kill anyone and everyone who is protesting against his tyrannical regime in the streets of Tripoli, Libya, I am referring to the innocent blood that is shed right here in the United States of America on a daily basis, a bloodshed that has been promoted and enabled by the administration of President Barack Hussein Obama and Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr.

Yes, as pro-abortion officials in the United States of America and the elsewhere in the world most justifiably decry the bloodbath that has been engendered by "Colonel" Qaddafi's desperate attempt to retain power in the fiercely tribalized nation that is Libya, the daily bloodbath engendered by the chemical and surgical assassination of the innocent preborn and by the silent slaughter of the terminally ill in hospices in the name of provide "palliative relief" as they are given increasingly higher doses of medication that winds up stopping their hearts and by the starvation and dehydration of brain-damaged human beings under cover of the civil law continues unabated in the "civilized" West, including right here in the United States of America. While the bloodthirsty, amoral tactics of "Colonel" Daffy Qaddafi are indeed reprehensible and to be condemned in no uncertain terms, the slaughter of the innocent preborn and the elderly and the chronically and/or terminally ill in Western countries is no less reprehensible. Yet the slaughter of the innocent in the West is accepted with perfect aplomb in the false name of "human rights" and as various slogans ("choice," "liberty," "dignity," "compassion") are used to anesthetize the reality of the simple truth that willful, one of the four crimes that cry out to Heaven for vengeance, has made supposedly "civilized" nations slaughterhouse where the blood the innocent is shed with perfect impunity under cover of the civil law and without a qualm of conscience. (See also Foggy Bottom's Bloody Tradition.)

 

As I have noted on many other occasions, if we lived in a world informed by the Catholic Faith, leaders of Catholic nations would reflect upon the precepts of the Just War Theory to determine whether it was prudent or advisable to undertake military action against the United States of America to stop the shedding of innocent human blood in this country at American killing centers where preborn babies are slaughtered daily. More human being die each day in this country by means of chemical abortifacients and surgical executions that are killed by tyrants such as Qaddafi (and yes, the transliterated spelling of his name does vary). The United States of America is the last nation on the earth to possess any moral right to even speak of protecting innocent life abroad, no less undertake military action that is fraught with all manner of foreseen and unforeseen evil consequences,. when its civil laws have permitted the executions of over fifty-three million babies by surgical means alone since 1967 (countless millions more, of course, have been killed by chemical abortifacients). Charity begins at home. No nation that kills the innocent at home has any right to intervene in the affairs of another sovereign nation on the grounds of "protecting" innocent human life there.

All right. All of this having been noted and reiterated for the few people who remain on this site, this article does not deal with the new war that is now ongoing in Libya. No, this article deals with the daily spiritual combat for which we have been regenerated in the Baptismal font and fortified by means of the reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Pope Leo XIII explained in Sapientiae Christianae, January 10, 1890, that Catholics are not pacifists. We are not namby-pamby in the face of evil. We do not turn our heads in the name of "keeping everybody happy" when we are face to face with grave offenses committed against the honor and glory and majesty of God. Disciples of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ are born, Pope Leo XIII reminded us, precisely for combat because we are indeed soldiers in the Army of Christ the King:

But in this same matter, touching Christian faith, there are other duties whose exact and religious observance, necessary at all times in the interests of eternal salvation, become more especially so in these our days. Amid such reckless and widespread folly of opinion, it is, as We have said, the office of the Church to undertake the defense of truth and uproot errors from the mind, and this charge has to be at all times sacredly observed by her, seeing that the honor of God and the salvation of men are confided to her keeping. But, when necessity compels, not those only who are invested with power of rule are bound to safeguard the integrity of faith, but, as St. Thomas maintains: "Each one is under obligation to show forth his faith, either to instruct and encourage others of the faithful, or to repel the attacks of unbelievers." To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe. In both cases such mode of behaving is base and is insulting to God, and both are incompatible with the salvation of mankind. This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good. Moreover, want of vigor on the part of Christians is so much the more blameworthy, as not seldom little would be needed on their part to bring to naught false charges and refute erroneous opinions, and by always exerting themselves more strenuously they might reckon upon being successful. After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted. Christians are, moreover, born for combat, whereof the greater the vehemence, the more assured, God aiding, the triumph: "Have confidence; I have overcome the world." Nor is there any ground for alleging that Jesus Christ, the Guardian and Champion of the Church, needs not in any manner the help of men. Power certainly is not wanting to Him, but in His loving kindness He would assign to us a share in obtaining and applying the fruits of salvation procured through His grace.

 

Each of us faces a daily spiritual combat over and above the combat that we must do with the falsehoods of Modernity in the world and Modernism in the counterfeit church of conciliarism. The devil hates us because we are made in the image and likeness of the One He hates, Almighty God. Having rebelled against God and lost, the devil and his demons prowl about the world like roaring lions seeking souls to devour, something that our first pope, Saint Peter, taught us in no uncertain terms:

[8] Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. [9] Whom resist ye, strong in faith: knowing that the same affliction befalls your brethren who are in the world. [10] But the God of all grace, who hath called us into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will himself perfect you, and confirm you, and establish you. (1 Peter 5: 8-10.)

 

We must be on guard constantly against the onslaughts of the adversary, who sometimes uses direct, frontal assaults for us to imagine as a perceived "good" something that is objectively evil and who also uses a variety of more insidious means to convince us that we are "special," that we are "exceptions" to God's immutable truths, that a "loving" God would never send anyone to Hell (which is, properly understood, correct as souls who go to Hell send themselves there by having refused to seek out the mercy of the Divine Redeemer in life by dying in a state of final impenitence), that it is all right to "bend" the "rules" just a bit because we have the "purest" of all possible motives.

Our fallen human natures incline us to sin. Our fallen human natures incline us to make excuses for our sins:

Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips. [4] Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins. With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them. [5] The just shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head. For my prayer also shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased:  (Psalm 140: 3-5.)

 

It is to fortify us in our daily spiritual combat against the forces of the world, the flesh and the devil that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ instituted the Sacrament of Confirmation, in which we receive the Seven Gifts and the Twelve Fruits of the Third Person of the Most Blessed Trinity, God the Holy Ghost.

Fifty years ago yesterday, March 21, 1961, on the Feast of Saint Benedict, the founding Bishop of Rockville Centre, the Most Reverend Walter P. Hellene, administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to fourth and fifth grade students at Saint Aloysius School in Great Neck, New York. I was among the fourth graders to be confirmed. I was just nine years, 116 days old.

Although only in the first third of my tenth year, I understood what I had been taught prior to the reception of the Sacrament of Confirmation, namely, that I was being confirmed to be a solider in the Army of Christ to do battle with the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil, thus better equipping me to defend the truths of the Catholic Faith in the midst of a world that is manifestly hostile to the Faith. 

Yes, as noted  just above, each of us is confirmed to do battle in the midst of our daily lives for Christ the King, recognizing the devil might win some perhaps, including some fairly significant ones, now and again, but ever resolving to rise up once more and to cooperate with the graces received in the Sacrament of Penance to persevere despite our battle wounds as soldiers in the King's Army until the moment of our dying breaths. Our King is a forgiving commander Whose own wounds make it possible for us to be healed of our offenses against Him, of the many times we have deserted His holy service to do the bidding of the false allurements of the world, the flesh and the devil.

It was through no merits of my own that I received the Sacrament of Confirmation from a true bishop in the true rite of the Catholic Church before the lords of the counterfeit church of conciliarism, doing the bidding of the devil himself, instituted novel rites that are devoid of validity and are thus sacramentally barren. One of the reasons that so many Catholics today who were born too late to receive the true Sacrament of Confirmation persist in their attachment to the falsehoods of the false church of conciliarism is that they have not been fortified by the Gifts and Fruits of God the Holy Ghost to recognize the truth that the conciliarism is indeed a false religion and is as much from the devil himself as any other false religion (see Embracing The Faith No Matter the Consequences, Bookended From Birth to Birth and Chastisements Under Which We Must Save Our Souls, part three).

The age at which the Sacrament of Confirmation has been administered has varied.

It has long been the practice in the Eastern rites of the Catholic Church that the the Sacrament of Confirmation to be administered at the same time as infant Baptism. The Council of Trent recommended that it be given shortly after the age of reason, that is, seven years of age. Pope Leo XIII was in favor of the administration of the sacrament as soon as possible after children had reached that age of reason.

The Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches us the following about the Sacrament of Confirmation:

First, it is necessary to teach that this Sacrament is not so necessary as to be utterly essential to salvation. Although not essential, however, it ought to be omitted by no one, but rather, on the contrary, in a manner so full of holiness through which the divine gifts are so liberally bestowed, the greater care should be taken to avoid all neglect. What God has proposed in common unto all for their sanctification, all should likewise most earnestly desire.

St Luke, indeed, describing this admirable infusion of the Holy Ghost, says: And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house, where they were sitting; and a little after: And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. From these words we may understand that, as that house was a type and figure of the Church, the Sacrament of Confirmation, which took its beginning from that day, appertains to all the faithful.

This may also be easily inferred from the nature of the Sacrament itself. For they ought to be confirmed with the sacred chrism who have need of spiritual increase., and who are to be led to the perfection of the Christian religion. But this is, without exception, suited to all; because as nature intends that all her children should grow up and attain full maturity, although she does not always realize her wishes; so the Catholic Church, the common mother of all, earnestly desires that, in those whom she has regenerated by Baptism, the perfection of Christian manhood be perfected. Now as this is accomplished through the Sacrament of mystic Unction, it is clear that Confirmation belongs alike to all the faithful.

Hence it is to be observed that, after Baptism, the Sacrament of Confirmation may indeed be administered to all; but that, until children shall have attained the use of reason, its administration is inexpedient. If it does not seem well to defer (Confirmation) to the age of twelve, it is most proper to postpone this Sacrament at least to that of seven years.

Confirmation has not been instituted as necessary to salvation, but that by virtue thereof we may be found well armed and prepared when called upon to fight for the faith of Christ; and for this conflict no one assuredly will consider children who as yet lack the use of reason to be qualified.

From this, therefore, it follows that persons of mature age, who are to be confirmed, must, if they desire to obtain the grace and gifts of this Sacrament, not only bring with them faith and piety, but must also grieve from their hearts for the serious sins which they have committed.

The pastor should take care that they have previous recourse to the confession of their sins; should exhort them to fasting and other works of piety; and admonish them of the propriety of receiving that laudable practice of the ancient Church, of receiving this Sacrament fasting. It is to be presumed that to this the faithful may be easily persuaded, if they but understand the gifts and admirable effects of this Sacrament.

Pastors, therefore, should teach that, in common with the other Sacraments, Confirmation unless some obstacle be present on the part of the receiver, imparts new grace. For we have shown that these sacred and mystical signs are of such a character as to indicate and produce grace.

But besides these thins, which are common to his and the other (Sacraments) it is peculiar to Confirmation first to perfect the grace of Baptism. For those who have been made Christians by Baptism, still have in some sort the tenderness and softness, as it were, of new-born infants, and afterwards become, by means of this Sacrament of chrism, stronger to resist all the assaults of the world, the flesh, and the devil, while their minds are fully confirmed in faith to confess and glorify the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, also, originated, the very name (Confirmation), as no one will doubt. for the world Confirmation is not derived, as some not less ignorantly than impiously have pretended, from the circumstance that persons baptized in infancy, when arrived at mature years, were of old brought to the Bishop, in order to confirm their faith in Christ, which they had embraced in Baptism, so that Confirmation would seem not to differ from catechetical instruction. Of such practice no reliable testimony can be adduced. On the contrary, the name has been derived from the fact that by virtue of this Sacrament God confirms us in the work He commenced in Baptism, leading us to the perfection of solid Christian virtue.

But not only does it confirm, it also increase (divine grace), as says Melchiades: The Holy Ghost, whose salutary descent upon the waters of Baptism, imparts in the font fulness to the accomplishment of innocence, in Confirmation gives an increase of grace; and not only an increase, but an increase after a wonderful manner. This the Scriptures beautifully express by a metaphor taken from clothing: Stay you in the city, said our Lord and Saviour, speaking of this Sacrament, until you be clothed with power from on high.

If pastors wish to show the divine efficacy of this Sacrament--and this, no doubt, will have great influence in affecting the minds of the faithful--will be sufficient if they explain what occurred to the Apostles themselves. So weak and timid were they before, and even at the very time of the Passion, that no sooner was our Lord apprehended, than they instantly fled; and Peter, who had been designated the rock and foundation of the Church, and who had displayed unshaken constancy and exalted magnanimity, terrified at the voice of one weak woman, denied, not once nor twice only, but a third time, that he was a disciple of Jesus Christ; and after the Resurrection that they all remained shut up at home for fear of the Jews. But, on the day of Pentecost, so great was the power of the Holy Ghost with which they were all filled that , while they boldly and freely disseminated the Gospel confided to them, not only through Judea, but throughout the world, they thought no greater happiness could await them than that of being accounted worthy to suffer contumenly, chains, torments and crucifixion, for the name of Christ.

Confirmation has also the effect of impressing a character. Hence, as we have said before of Baptism, and as will be more fully explained in its proper place with regard to the Sacrament of Orders also, it can on no account ever be repeated.

If, then, these things be frequently and accurately explained by pastors, it will be almost impossible that the faithful, having known the utility and dignity of this Sacrament, should not use every exertion to receive it with purity and devotion. (Confirmation.)

 

Pope Leo XIII wrote the following in his encyclical letter on God the Holy Ghost, Divinum Illud Munus, May 9, 1887:

 

The beginnings of this regeneration and renovation of man are by Baptism. In this sacrament, when the unclean spirit has been expelled from the soul, the Holy Ghost enters in and makes it like to Himself. "That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit" John iii., 6). The same Spirit gives Himself more abundantly in Confirmation, strengthening and confirming Christian life; from which proceeded the victory of the martyrs and the triumph of the virgins over temptations and corruptions. We have said that the Holy Ghost gives Himself: "the charity of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us" (Rom. v., 5). For He not only brings to us His divine gifts, but is the Author of them and is Himself the supreme Gift, who, proceeding from the mutual love of the Father and the Son, is justly believed to be and is called "Gift of God most High."  (Pope Leo XIII, Divinum Illud Munus, May 9, 1887.)

 

The true Sacrament of Confirmation, which is to be found in the Roman Rite only in our underground Catholic chapels during this time of apostasy and betrayal, noting a few exceptions here and there, is so necessary to be fortified against the wiles of the devil and his minions. We live in the midst of a culture of religious indifferentism and cultural pluralism that has been reinforced the evil ethos of the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo service with which no Catholic must ever make any kind of compromise or concession whatsoever. We need the help of the Seven Gifts and Twelve Fruits of God the Holy Ghost to persevere in our defense of the true Catholic Faith despite our own sins and failings, showing ourselves to be soldiers in the Army of Christ the King who will not be deterred by the pressures of human respect into accepting conciliarism because "everybody else does" in order not to appear "outside of the mainstream" (see Gatekeepers of the Mainstream, part one and Gatekeepers of the Mainstream, part two).

Obviously, even the true sacraments are not guarantors of our salvation. We must pray to Our Lady to send us the graces that we need to cooperation with the graces that we receive in the sacraments.

Many Catholics fell by the wayside in the decades prior to the "Second" Vatican Council as they succumbed to the falsehoods of Protestantism and other forms of naturalism, which is one of the reasons that the death of my late father's brother is an occasion of sadness as he, having been Confirmed in the 1920s, left the Holy Faith to marry outside of It, refusing all entreaties to return, including one made by Sharon just twenty-three days before his death (our trip to Texas, made while my feet were recovering from frostbite, was undertaken principally to make one last effort to perform this Spiritual Work of Mercy for my uncle). We must have the desire to cooperate with the graces that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ won for us by the shedding of every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross on Good Friday and that He sends into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces.

We must remember that suffering is the only path to eternal triumph, and that we are called in these days of apostasy and betrayal to suffer all manner of humiliation and rejection not only from the world but from our closest relatives because we, sinners who are not one whit better than they are, refuse to compromise to "get along," refuse to go along with diabolical slogan of trying to "make everyone happy," refuse to relent in the face of the prevalence of sin in the world as we recognize that Catholicism and Catholicism alone is the only means of personal salvation and sanctification and hence of all social order.

The graces we receive in the true Sacrament of Confirmation will help us to pray and work ceaselessly for our own salvation as Catholics and to help us to be used as instruments, consecrated to our Divine Commander, Christ the King, through His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, to restore all things in Him, taking to heart the words of Pope Saint Pius X in his first encyclical letter, E Supremi, October 4, 1903:

But, Venerable Brethren, we shall never, however much we exert ourselves, succeed in calling men back to the majesty and empire of God, except by means of Jesus Christ. "No one," the Apostle admonishes us, "can lay other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ." (I. Cor., iii., II.) It is Christ alone "whom the Father sanctified and sent into this world" (Is. x., 36), "the splendor of the Father and the image of His substance" (Hebr. i., 3), true God and true man: without whom nobody can know God with the knowledge for salvation, "neither doth anyone know the Father but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him." (Matth. xi., 27.) Hence it follows that to restore all things in Christ and to lead men back to submission to God is one and the same aim. To this, then, it behoves Us to devote Our care -- to lead back mankind under the dominion of Christ; this done, We shall have brought it back to God. When We say to God We do not mean to that inert being heedless of all things human which the dream of materialists has imagined, but to the true and living God, one in nature, triple in person, Creator of the world, most wise Ordainer of all things, Lawgiver most just, who punishes the wicked and has reward in store for virtue.

Now the way to reach Christ is not hard to find: it is the Church. Rightly does Chrysostom inculcate: "The Church is thy hope, the Church is thy salvation, the Church is thy refuge." ("Hom. de capto Euthropio," n. 6.) It was for this that Christ founded it, gaining it at the price of His blood, and made it the depositary of His doctrine and His laws, bestowing upon it at the same time an inexhaustible treasury of graces for the sanctification and salvation of men.

You see, then, Venerable Brethren, the duty that has been imposed alike upon Us and upon you of bringing back to the discipline of the Church human society, now estranged from the wisdom of Christ; the Church will then subject it to Christ, and Christ to God. If We, through the goodness of God Himself, bring this task to a happy issue, We shall be rejoiced to see evil giving place to good, and hear, for our gladness, " a loud voice from heaven saying: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ." (Apoc. xii., 10.) But if our desire to obtain this is to be fulfilled, we must use every means and exert all our energy to bring about the utter disappearance of the enormous and detestable wickedness, so characteristic of our time -- the substitution of man for God; this done, it remains to restore to their ancient place of honor the most holy laws and counsels of the gospel; to proclaim aloud the truths taught by the Church, and her teachings on the sanctity of marriage, on the education and discipline of youth, on the possession and use of property, the duties that men owe to those who rule the State; and lastly to restore equilibrium between the different classes of society according to Christian precept and custom. This is what We, in submitting Ourselves to the manifestations of the Divine will, purpose to aim at during Our Pontificate, and We will use all our industry to attain it. It is for you, Venerable Brethren, to second Our efforts by your holiness, knowledge and experience and above all by your zeal for the glory of God, with no other aim than that Christ may be formed in all.  (Pope Saint Pius X, E Supremi, October 4, 1903.)

 

This charge, given us by the last true pope to be canonized, is as valid today as it was in 1903 as the truths of God, Who lives outside of time and space, are as timeless and they are immutable. We must never fear what others think about us or the consequences that will occur for our rejecting the lies of the Novus Ordo and the ethos of conciliarism and the "magisterium" of the conciliar "popes." It is enough for us to be faithful to the end.

For, you see, the service we spend as foot-soldiers in the Army of Christ the King has an excellent retirement and pension program, eternal life in the glory of the Beatific Vision of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Let us, therefore, continue to be earnest about the work we have been assigned to do, praying fervently that there will be, perhaps in our own lifetimes, the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the restoration of the Social Reign of Christ the King in the world and of the Church Militant on earth, which is why we should be praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits, especially during this penitential season of Lent.

Yes, Buddy, there is a war going on here now. The war that each of us wages against Christ the King by means of our sins make more possible the wars waged by men upon each other within their own nations and among the nations of the world. It is bad enough that we sin. It is worse yet that nations base their laws and public policies in sin and expect that they can be instruments of social order at home and peace in the world.

May Our Lady and her Most Chaste Spouse, Saint Joseph, who is the Terror of Demons, and Saint Michael the Archangel and our own Guardian Angels help us to persevere in battle in the spiritual combat that faces us every day of our lives as we shield ourselves in the Brown Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and use the weapon of her Most Holy Rosary.

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

 

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Isidore the Farmer, pray for us.

See also: A Litany of Saints