by
Thomas A. Droleskey
Although those of us who have forsaken the devil's toolbox known as television to which I was glued for the first fifty years of my life (which, of course, is nearly five-sixths of my life) do not have access to all of the nonstop news coverage of catastrophic disasters such as the one that is unfolding right now in Japan, it is nevertheless true that one does not need such nonstop news coverage to be numbed by the unfathomable toll on human lives that takes place when the natural forces of the earth that have been altered by the effects of Original Sin and our own Actual Sins are unleashed. Indeed, I will assert that nonstop television news coverage of such events, although a reality today that is not going away any time soon (or is it?), is not a good thing as the mesmerizing nature of this coverage that makes it difficult for people to break away from their television screens keeps those Catholics who might otherwise be praying Rosaries for the victims and survivors of tragedies such as the one that continues to unfold in Japan from doing so.
True, the images from the areas in Japan affected by the earthquake and its aftermath that one can view online by means of various multimedia displays are staggering. mind-boggling. As a former news junkie who was indeed transfixed by coverage of such tragedies in past decades, I can understand full well how people can be captivated by a nonstop dose of images and reports such as are being transmitted now.
I will also admit that it is the case that some people who may not be inclined otherwise to pray--or have not done so for a very long time--might be prompted to do so as a result of viewing these images and reports. It might very well be that it is such a tragedy as the one in Japan that prompts a lost or a strayed soul to seek out the true Faith after having been the gratuitous recipient of Actual Graces to see that there is much about the world that scientists and physicists and geologists who specialize in the study of earthquakes do not understand precisely because they do not understand that the earth has been created by the infinite intelligence of God and that the forces within the earth have been altered by the effects of Original Sin and our own Actual Sins.
Even some of the "experts" themselves are beginning to realize the limitations of their "science" after lifetimes of research with what they have believed until now have been the most sophisticated computer models to extrapolate the lessons of past seismological catastrophes in order to predict locations and even the approximate periods in time of future earthquakes:
What is perhaps most surprising about the Japan earthquake is how
misleading history can be. In the past 300 years, no earthquake nearly
that large — nothing larger than magnitude-eight — had struck in the
Japan subduction zone. That, in turn, led to assumptions about how large
a tsunami might strike the coast.
“It did them a giant disservice,” said Dr. Stein of the geological
survey. That is not the first time that the earthquake potential of a
fault has been underestimated. Most geophysicists did not think the
Sumatra fault could generate a magnitude-9.1 earthquake, and a
magnitude-7.3 earthquake in Landers, Calif., in 1992 also caught
earthquake experts by surprise.
“Perhaps the message is we should re-evaluate the occurrence of superlarge earthquakes on any fault,” Dr. Stein said. (Quake Alters Earth’s Balance and Widens Japan.)
Dr. Stein, you do not know how much you do not know.
Not having access to such coverage and without any desire to have such coverage, it is enough for some of us to thank God that we are Catholics, that we can move beyond the horrific natural consequences of such a tragedy as has befallen so many hundreds of thousands of people in Japan to view it through the supernatural eyes of the true Faith.
While taking not a thing away from the physical and emotional suffering that has afflicted so many in Japan at this time, a suffering that must be relieved by our prayers and by whatever temporal assistance can be rendered unto them, we must recognize that no suffering, not even that which has afflicted the Japanese nation now, is the equal of what one of our least Venial Sins caused Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to suffer in His Sacred Humanity during His Passion and Death and that caused His Most Blessed Mother's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart to be pierced through and through with those Seven Swords of Sorrow.
Catholics who love God as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through His Catholic Church give thanks to Him for each and every cross and humiliation that He sees fit to fashion for the.
Each and every cross that the good God sends us is the means by which we are meant to give Him honor and glory through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Each and every cross that the good God sends us is the means by which we are meant to make reparation for our own sins and those of the whole world, praying with urgency for the unconditional conversion of all non-Catholic to the true Church before they die and praying for the return of lapsed Catholics to the bosom of Holy Mother Church before they die.
Each and every cross that the good God sends us is the means by which we can give salutary example to lukewarm Catholics and to all non-Catholics that God never permits us to endure any cross that is beyond our capacity to carry by means of the graces that His Co-Eternal and Co-Equal Son, Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, won for us by the shedding of each and every drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into our hearts and souls through the loving hands of His Most Blessed Mother, she who is the Mediatrix of All Graces.
Catholics rejoice in their crosses.
Catholics rejoice when they are castigated and humiliated and misunderstood and calumniated.
Catholics rejoice when they are denied temporal honors and worldly success.
Catholics rejoice when they are deemed worthy to suffer some terrible physical or emotional affliction as this means that God has seen fit to make it more possible for them to pay back what they owe for their sins in this passing, mortal vale of tears and thus to do their Purgatory on earth.
Mind you, by way of reiteration, this is not to denigrate or to minimize in any way the tremendous suffering that is taking place in Japan at this time. This is, however, remind the very few readers of this little-read website that we are supposed to look at each of the events in our own lives and in the world through the supernatural eyes of the Holy Faith.
The loving hand of the good God is seeking to chastise us.
God is seeking to humiliate us in order that we might rely more fully upon Him as He has revealed Himself to us exclusively through the Catholic Church.
God is seeking to remind the creature that He, the Creator, has created the laws and the properties of the universe and that no amount of human planning, no matter how sincerely motivated or how carefully implemented, can probe the depths of the creation that came into existence at His mere willing it so.
The earth itself will end in God's good time. He is, I believe, seeking to remind us that no created thing on this earth will last forever, that the end of our own particular lives can occur at any time. We are not to take even our next breath for granted. Everything good thing that we have, starting with the Holy Faith Itself, is His gratuitous gift to us.
Catholics must, therefore, have the same sense of detachment from as did holy Job after Satan was permitted by God to deprive him of everything he had, including his life and children, willing to bend under the mighty arm of God as He seeks to rid us of our disordered self-love to have a pure love of Him and His Holy Will:
[12] Then the Lord said to Satan: Behold, all that he hath is in thy hand:
only put not forth thy hand upon his person. And Satan went forth from
the presence of the Lord. [13] Now upon a certain day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their eldest brother, [14] There came a messenger to Job, and said: The oxen were ploughing, and the asses feeding beside them, [15] And the Sabeans rushed in, and took all away, and slew the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell thee.
[16] And while he was yet speaking, another came, and said: The fire of God
fell from heaven, and striking the sheep and the servants, hath consumed
them, and I alone have escaped to tell thee. [17] And while he also was yet speaking, there came another, and said: The
Chaldeans made three troops, and have fallen upon the camels, and taken
them, moreover they have slain the servants with the sword, and I alone
have escaped to tell thee. [18] He was yet speaking, and behold another came in, and said: Thy sons and
daughters were eating and drinking wine in the house of their elder
brother: [19] A violent wind came on a sudden from the side of the desert, and shook
the four corners of the house, and it fell upon thy children and they
are dead, and I alone have escaped to fell thee. [20] Then Job rose up, and rent his garments, and having shaven his head fell down upon the ground and worshipped,
[21] And said: Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I
return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: as it hath
pleased the Lord so is it done: blessed be the name of the Lord. [22] In all these things Job sinned not by his lips, nor spoke he any foolish thing against God.
We must never murmur against the will of God. Not once. Not ever. None of us ever suffers truly as his sins deserve. God is merciful even in the administration of his chastisements to those who love Him.
The chastisement that has afflicted the Japanese at this time is meant not only for them. It is for us all.
Although Japan has had decriminalized surgical baby-killing under cover of the civil law for various reasons since 1948, the United States of America was only around two decades behind it in this regard.
Although paganism is rampant in Japan, it is rampant here in the United States of America as naturalism, which is really the state religion, if you will, of this country, has convinced even traditionally-minded Catholics that men do not need to pursue the common temporal good in light of man's Last End as they submit with humility and docility to the Catholic Church in all that pertains to the good of souls.
Yes, the chastisement that has afflicted the Japanese is meant for us all.
Time will tell whether the continued explosions at the nuclear power plants in the areas of northern Japan affected by the earthquake and tsunami will mean large-scale radiation poisoning here and elsewhere.
So what if it does result in such poisoning?
So what?
Deo gratias.
Deo gratias.
Deo gratias.
The tsunami of sins that cry out to Heaven for vengeance that are protected under cover of the civil law and promoted all throughout what passes for "popular culture" in the United States of America and elsewhere in the "civilized" West must be punished. What a privilege it is for us, sinners who have helped to cause this tsunami of sins by our own infidelities and lukewarmness and inattentiveness to our interior lives of prayer and so unwilling to engage in voluntary acts of fasting and mortification and self-denial, to suffer here in this life so that we will be ready at all times to die a good death as we make sure to start each morning with our Morning Offering and our Acts of Faith, Hope, Charity and Contrition, mindful that each day God sees fit to give us might be our very last.
Thank God upon arising in the morning that you are a Catholic, able to see the world through the eyes of the true Faith.
Thank God throughout the day that you are a Catholic, willing to accept each bit of suffering and difficulty and rejection and humiliation as the means by which you can give Him honor and glory and to sanctify your immortal soul as a member of the Catholic Church and the consecrated slave of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Christ the King, through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of His Most Blessed Mother, Mary our Immaculate Queen.
Never be afraid of natural disasters and catastrophes. Never be afraid of who has criticized you or who has rejected your friendship or who has made life difficult for you. Indeed, be grateful to those who criticize you and reject you and make life difficult for you as they are the means sent to you by God to sanctify and save your souls.
Fear only to die in a state of final impenitence:
The brother also shall deliver up the brother to
death, and the father the son: and the children shall rise up against
their parents, and shall put them to death. And you shall be hated by
all men for my name's sake: but he that shall persevere unto the end, he
shall be saved. And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee
into another. Amen I say to you, you shall not finish all the cities of
Israel, till the Son of man come. The disciple is not above the master,
nor the servant above his lord. It is enough for the disciple that he be
as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the
goodman of the house Beelzebub, how much more them of his household?
Therefore fear them not. For nothing is
covered that shall not be revealed: nor hid, that shall not be known.
That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light: and that which
you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops. And fear ye not them
that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear
him that can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows
sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground
without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not therefore: better are you than many
sparrows. Every one therefore that shall confess me before men, I will
also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. But he that shall
deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in
heaven. Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not
to send peace, but the sword. For I came to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the
daughter in law against her mother in law
And as a man's enemies shall be they of his own
household. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of
me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of
me. And he that taketh not up his cross, and followeth me, is not worthy
of me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose
his life for me, shall find it. He that receiveth you, receiveth me: and
he that receiveth me, receiveth him that sent me. (Mt. 10: 21-40)
Consider how Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ Himself told Mother Mariana de Jesus Torres that the sins of men in Ecuador, a country favored with the visits of Our Lady of Good Success and ruled for twelve years (1859 to 1865 and 1869 to the time of assassination in 1875) by that great exemplar of the Social Reign of Christ the King, Gabriel Garcia Moreno, would diminish the luster of the sunsets in that country on the equator:
She saw that when this would happen, the beautiful dawn that each morning would break forth with refulgence over this land--so enchantingly spectacular that some persons would rise at daybreak just to see the day break--would lose some of its brilliance. Thus does earth reflect Heaven, and the earth's beauty and vitality diminish with sin and infidelity to grace. This favor of beautiful dawns should cease, Mother Mariana was given to understand, because the Republic [of Ecuador, which was then only a Spanish colony] would become corrupt and ungrateful for the benefits it received from God. (Marian Therese Horvat, Ph.D., Stories and Miracles of Our Lady of Good Success, Tradition in Action, Inc., 2002, p. 68.)
Men must quit their sins and repent of them in the Sacred Tribunal of Penance. They must treat each other as they would treat Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who was made Flesh in Our Lady's Virginal and Immaculate Womb, where He spent nine months growing to the point of His Nativity in poverty and anonymity in Bethlehem on Christmas Day. No one can say--that he loves Our Lord and yet supports His dismemberment mystically in the persons of innocent preborn children. And it is impossible to provide for any element of the common temporal good on an enduring basis as long as the innocent preborn are attacked with legal impunity, as long as the Sovereignty of God over the sanctity and fecundity of marriage is denied by means of contraception, as long as perversity is promoted under the slogans of "diversity" and "human rights," as long as men live as though there is no true Church and that they do not have to face Christ the King as their Judge at the moment of their Particular Judgments.
We do not know how long it will be until Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Second Coming at the end of the world, which is why we must be prepared at all times for the end of our own lives. We do not know if the signs of natural disasters and cataclysms that are occurring at the time signify the nearing of Our Lord's Second Coming. What we can say for sure, however, is that truly extraordinary things are happening in our midst as a world that has gone mad with the conceits of the deification of man and his "rights." It is up to those of us who have the Faith to see the deeper supernatural significance of these events and to make more and more reparation for our sins, especially by praying as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits.
It is my belief, far from infallible, that God is indeed speaking to us through the events of nature, trying to demonstrate what appears to be some to be a terrible inconvenience and a source of material loss is symbolic symbolic of the horror of our own sins and the devastation that they wreak in our own souls and in the world-at-large. At the same time, however, God is also demonstrating the wonder of His creative handiwork, showing forth His own righteous power that baffles scientists and medical doctors who think that they have "answers" to even the physiological aspects of human existence.
As I noted a few weeks ago now, we should take heed of the fact that natural disasters and other calamities are a sign of our own morality and of our utter dependence upon God as He has revealed Himself to us solely through the Catholic Church and upon the supernatural helps that are available to souls only through that same Church. Again, to Saint Alphonsus's Preparation for Death:
The Lord does not wish us to be lost; and therefore, by the threat of chastisement, he unceasingly exhorts us to a change of life. Except you will be converted, He will brandish His sword. Behold, he says in another place, how many, because they would not cease to offend me, have met with a sudden death, when they were least expecting it, and were living in peace, secure of a life of many years. For whey they shall say: Peace and security: then shall sudden destruction come upon them. Again he says: Unless you shall do penance, you shall likewise perish. Why so many threats of chastisements before the execution of vengeance? It is because he wishes that we amend our lives, and thus avoid an unhappy death. "He," says Saint Augustine, "who tells you to beware, does not wish to take away your life." It is necessary, then, to prepare our accounts before the day of account arrives. Dearly beloved Christians, were you to die, and were your lot for eternity to be decided before night would your accounts be ready? Oh! how much would you give to obtain from God another year or month, or even another day, to prepare for judgment? Why then do yo not now, that God gives you this time, settle the accounts of your conscience? Perhaps is cannot happen that this shall be the last day for you? Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and defer it not from day to day; for His wrath shall come on a sudden, and in a the time of vengeance He will destroy thee. My brother, to save your soul you must give up your sin. "If then you must renounce it at some time, why do you not abandon it at this moment?" says Saint Augustine. Perhaps you are waiting till death arrives? But for obstinate sinners, the hour of death is the time, not of pardon, but of vengeance. In the time of vengeance He will destroy thee.
Our Lady explained Our Lady of La Salette told Melanie Calvat and
Maximin Giraud
about the terrible effects of sin in the world on September 19, 1846:
The Church will be in eclipse, the world will be in dismay. But now Enoch and Eli will come, filled with the Spirit of God. They will preach with the might of God, and men of good will will believe in God, and many souls will be comforted. They will make great steps forward through the power of the Holy Spirit and will condemn the devilish lapses of the Antichrist. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth! There will be bloody wars and famines, plagues and infectious diseases. It will rain with a fearful hail of animals. There will be thunderstorms which will shake cities, earthquakes which will swallow up countries. Voices will be heard in the air. Men will beat their heads against walls, call for their death, and on another side death will be their torment. Blood will flow on all sides. Who will be the victor if God does not shorten the length of the test? At the blood, the tears and prayers of the righteous, God will relent. Enoch and Eli will be put to death. Pagan Rome will disappear. The fire of Heaven will fall and consume three cities. All the universe will be struck with terror and many will let themselves be lead astray because they have not worshipped the true Christ who lives among them. It is time; the sun is darkening; only faith will survive.
Now is the time; the abyss is opening. Here is the King of Kings of darkness, here is the Beast with his subjects, calling himself the Savior of the world. He will rise proudly into the air to go to Heaven. He will be smothered by the breath of the Archangel Saint Michael. He will fall, and the earth, which will have been in a continuous series of evolutions for three days, will open up its fiery bowels; and he will have plunged for all eternity with all his followers into the everlasting chasms of hell. And then water and fire will purge the earth and consume all the works of men's pride and all will be renewed. God will be served and glorified."
As recorded in The Mystical City of God, Our Lady explained to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, the earth itself will be shaken of the work of the devil to inspire us to commit unrepentant after unrepentant sin, and that she, Our Lady, will make possible our salvation by her perfect fiat to the will of God the Father at the Annunciation:
"Woe to the earth, and to the sea, because the devil is come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time." Woe to the earth, where so many sins and such wickedness shall be perpetuated! Woe to the sea, which refused to pour forth its floods and annihilate the transgressors at the sight of so great offenses against its Creator, and to avenge the insults against its Maker and Lord! But more woe to the profound and raging sea of those that follow the demon, after he had descended in their midst in order to war against them with great wrath and with such unheard of cruelty! It is the wrath of the most ferocious dragon, and greater than that of the devouring lion (I Pet. 5, 8), who attempts to annihilate all creation and to whom all the days of the world seem a short time to execute his fury. Such is his hunger and thirst to do damage to mortals, that all the days of their life do not satisfy him, for they come to an end, whereas he desires eternal ages, if possible, in order to wage war against the sons of God. But incomparably greater than against all others is his rage against that most blessed Woman, who was to crush his head (Gen. 3, 15).
Yes, our trust must be placed totally in Our Lady to help us save our immortal souls. Saint Alphonsus wrote in Preparation for Death of the confidence we must place Mary our Immaculate Queen , the Mother of God:
Oh! how great will be our thankfulness for the mercy of God, for having given us for our advocate, Mary, who, by her prayers, can obtain for us all the graces we stand in need of. "Truly wonderful," exclaims St. Bonaventure, "is the bound of our God, who has given thee, O Lady, to his guilty subjects as their advocate, so that thou art able to obtain for them by thy assistance whatever thou wilt." Sinners, brethren, if we find ourselves debtors to the divine justice, and commended to hell by our sins, let us not despair; let us have recourse to this divine mother; let us put ourselves under her protection, and she will save us. But we must have a sincere purpose of amending our lives. If we have such a purpose, and place confidence in Mary, we shall be saved. And why? Because Mary is a powerful advocate, a merciful advocate, an advocate that desires to save all."
Our hope must then be in Our Lady, to whom we commend the particular needs of those who have been rendered refugees by earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. We trust in Our Lady to help us to save our own souls, nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. We must trust in Our Lady to save our souls from the destruction power of sin, even venial sin, in our own souls, which shone so brilliantly at the moment of our baptism but. We need to ask Our Lady every day to help us to be prepared for the moment of our own deaths, recognizing that we live at a time in salvation history when the forces unleashed by the social toleration and promotion of sin are exacting a heavy toll on us all and might take us from this mortal life when we least expect it.
We do indeed need Our Lady's help so that our souls will not be lost for all eternity, which is why, of course, we must pray our Rosaries every day without fail and to pray them so very well. We never know when our next Rosary will be our last Rosary. And one way to avoid being burned for all eternity in the flames of Hell that emit sulphur dioxide is to pray our Rosaries well as we meditate upon the mysteries contained therein, making sure also to be enrolled in and to wear and to fulfill the conditions of her Brown Scapular of Mount Carmel that protected four priests from the atomic blast in Hiroshima, Japan, on August 6, 1945. May it protect us today from nuclear contagion and, much more importantly, from the contagion of sin that can rob us of eternal glories in Heaven for all eternity.
May we keep Our Lady's Fatima requests so that the day will soon arrive when all hearts in this country and around the world, consecrated to Our Lord through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, will exclaim:
Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!
Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?
Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!
Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
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, especially on your feast day today!
Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.
Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.
Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.
See also: A Litany of Saints
