WE'VE DONE THIS TO OURSELVES
by Thomas A. Droleskey
A flume of smoke was visible thirty-five miles east
of lower Manhattan. My wife Sharon and I were driving
back from a 5:15 p.m. Mass at Saint Matthew's Church in
Dix Hills, Long Island, when we saw the flume of smoke
clearly visible from the direction of where the twin
towers of the World Trade Center stood until early on the
morning on September 11, 2001. It is one thing to hear
reports of the act of warfare launched against this
nation by disciples of Osama bin Laden (does anyone
believe bin Laden is not responsible?). It is quite
another to see the remnants of the carnage rising from
the ground more than 35 miles away from the scene.
The mind cannot even begin to fathom the thousands
upon thousands of lives affected by the cowardly acts
perpetrated by the suicide attackers. If an anecdotal
sampling of a few Catholic parishes on Long Island is
accurate, it does appear as though a number of ordinary
people are directly affected by the loss of loved ones in
the attacks on the World Trade Center. Scores of people
are on their knees in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament
and in lines to go to Confession. Special Masses are
being celebrated this very evening for the repose of the
souls of those killed and for the recovery of survivors.
After giving a few remarks on the matter to students at
the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University this
morning, I went back to get my wife to go to Confession
ourselves. For there is nothing to fear from any act of
war or terrorism as long as we are in a state of
sanctifying grace.
A believing Catholic knows how to respond to acts of
warfare and terrorism. Indeed, it is only a believing
Catholic who has the ability to see the world clearly
through the eyes of the true Faith, thereby permitting
him to step back from the specifics of a horrific tragedy
in order to understand the remote and proximate causes of
the terror and destruction which have visited the United
States of America with such fury. A review of these
causes is important to help us realize that there is
nothing we can endure in this passing vale of tears,
including such wanton acts of destruction, which is the
equal of what our sins did to our Lord and Savior in His
Sacred Humanity on the wood of the Holy Cross, and that
it is precisely the promotion of sin under cover of law
in this country and in the world which is what makes
people believe that they can avenge injustices, whether
real or imagined, by killing and maiming those they blame
for their problems.
The Remote Causes
1. Original Sin. All of the problems of the world
are caused by Original Sin. Human nature was irreparably
wounded by Adam's sin in the Garden of Eden. Although
human beings are not evil, they are inclined to do that
which is evil. The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity
became Man in our Lady's virginal and immaculate womb to
pay back in His own Sacred Humanity the blood debt of
Adam's sin. Our Lord's redemptive act on the wood of the
Holy Cross makes it possible for sinful men to overcome
the vestigial aftereffects of Original Sin (the darkened
intellect and the weakened will) to scale the heights of
sanctity by cooperating with the graces He won for us by
the shedding of His Most Precious Blood and administered
to us by the working of the Holy Ghost in the sacraments
Jesus Christ entrusted to the Church He created upon the
Rock of Peter, the Pope. There is no programmatic or
ideological solution to the problems which face us.
Individuals must endeavor on a daily basis to live in
such a way so as to be prepared to die a holy death,
seeking to please God with every beat of their hearts by
adhering to the revelation He deposited in His true
Church.
2. The ramifications of sin. If human beings do not
see themselves and the world through the eyes of the true
Faith, then hardness of heart inevitably results. Those
of us who have been the unmerited beneficiaries of Divine
Mercy understand that we have the obligation to extend
that mercy to all others, including those who have
injured us or our loved ones. We have the obligation to
pray for the conversion of our persecutors, praying
especially that our Lady's Immaculate Heart will triumph
and that everyone on the face of this earth will come to
see in her Son's Sacred Heart the fountain of mercy from
which we must drink. If people do not see themselves in
this light, however, then they seek to exact revenge upon
others. A person whose soul is captive to the Devil by
means of Original Sin is therefore especially prone to
calculated violence (as is a person whose soul is dead by
means of mortal sin). Although those who fomented the
violence on September 11, 2001, may have believed they
were involved in a holy cause, the plain truth of the
matter is that they were seeking to avenge injustices by
spilling the blood of the ones they blame for their
problems.
3. A culture of death begets death. There are
unspeakable truths which must be spoken. A nation which
kills more than 4,400 human beings under cover of law by
means of surgical abortion, to say nothing of the
thousands of others which are killed by means of chemical
abortifacients, cannot escape having death visited upon
it by others. If we devalue the sanctity of innocent
human life in the womb, then why should it surprise us
that others devalue the lives of ordinary Americans as
they go about their business in their workplaces? We
cannot continue to take innocent human life under cover
of law and be immune from the attacks of others who view
Americans in the same utilitarian manner that many
Americans view innocent life in the womb.
4. The overthrow of the Social Kingship of Jesus
Christ. The modern nation state was born in a specific
rejection of the Social Kingship of Jesus Christ and the
authority of His true Church. The belief that it is
possible to pursue justice in the framework of religious
indifferentism and cultural relativism and legal
positivism is delusional. A world which rejects the
Social Kingship of Jesus Christ and the authority of His
true Church descends into abject barbarism. Just as our
Lord submitted Himself in humility to the authority of
His own creatures in the Holy Family in Nazareth, so is
it the case that all men and all nations are called to
submit themselves in humility and in docility to the
authority of the Catholic Church for the sanctification
and salvation, as well for the right ordering of human
societies by the subordination of human law and human
culture to the immutable precepts of the Divine positive
law and the natural law.
5. Abandonment of devotion to the Blessed Mother.
Our Lady told us at Fatima that we had to be consecrated
to her Immaculate Heart in order to make reparation for
our sins and those of the whole world. St. Maximilian
Kolbe stressed the importance of Mary Immaculate as the
key to restoring all things in Christ. It is necessary
for souls to consecrate themselves to our Lady in order
for them to understand that authentic peace, the peace of
Christ, consists of being in a state of grace. Souls
which are not in a state of grace are in a state of
warfare against the Blessed Trinity, predisposing them to
acts of violence and warfare against others. "In the end,
my Immaculate Heart will triumph." The fact that many
priests and dioceses do not promote devotion to our Lady
by means of her Most Holy Rosary and total consecration
to her explains to a very large extent why many Catholics
embrace the culture of death which has taken so many
innocent lives in the womb and has now reached the lives
of ordinary citizens.
The Proximate Causes
Fallen human nature manifests itself in many ways.
Although we may never know the exact number of the
proximate causes which resulted in the attacks on the
World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11,
2001, it is certainly possible at this early stage to
list some of those causes.
1. Lax immigration laws. Patrick J. Buchanan has
been warning us for more than a decade about the laxity
of our immigration laws. He has been denounced as a
racist and xenophobe. However, Patrick Buchanan has been
right all along. One of the terrorists convicted in the
1993 bombing of the World Trade Center listed his
occupation as "terrorist" when he presented his A-95
immigration card to officials at Kennedy International
Airport in Queens, New York, when he entered this
country. No one bothered to look at his card. There is a
network of terrorists well in place in this country.
We've done this to ourselves. Disciples of Osama bin
Laden and other terrorist masterminds are everywhere in
this country. Alas, a country pledged to pluralism and
religious indifferentism lacks the political will to do
such politically incorrect things as to say that certain
people are in se undesirable and threats to the national
security and that they should not be admitted to this
country (or deported out of this country if they are
already here).
2. Lax airport security. A lot of the personnel who
man airport security counters in this nation are recent
arrivals to this country. Could it be that the
well-orchestrated attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon were made possible by confederates who were
placed in security positions at Boston's Logan Airport
and Newark International Airport? Could it be that these
putative confederates were given the signal that
September 11, 2001, would be the day of the long-awaited
jihad against the dreaded Satan, the United States of
America? And if this scenario proves to be correct, we
have to face the rather uncomfortable fact that the
infrastructure of this nation has become dependent upon
immigrant workers as a direct result of contraception and
abortion. There are not enough native-born Americans to
staff the American labor force, including security
counters at our airports. True, human sloth could be at
work here. Some security personnel might have been asleep
at the switch. However, circumstantial evidence militates
against that as the sole explanation. Either the suicide
murderers devised clever ways to conceal their weapons or
they had help on the ground.
3. American intelligence is in shambles. It is never
possible to protect a free society completely against
acts of warfare and terrorism. However, American
intelligence should have done a better job of gathering
the information about bin Laden's activities. The plan
executed on September 11, 2001, had to be a year or more
in the making. The timing was coordinated and exquisitely
accurate. Answers will have to be sought as to how an
attack which involved such planning and coordination
occurred under the radar screen of American intelligence.
4. The iron will of those who reject the Mercy of
Jesus Christ. This country's unqualified support for the
policies of the State of Israel has no doubt hardened the
resolve of anti-American zealots, people who are willing
to give up their lives in the quest to punish the United
States for what are believed to be crimes against the
Palestinian people. While it is doubtlessly the case, as
many others have documented over the years, that this
country has turned a blind eye to the suffering of those
whose lands were taken from them in 1948 and forced into
refugee camps as though they were so much cattle, one
does not advance the cause of justice in the Middle East
by targeting innocent Israeli citizens for random acts of
violence or by rejoicing in the deaths of innocent
Americans in New York and in the Pentagon across the
Potomac River from Washington, D.C. However, the iron
will of those who reject the Mercy of Jesus Christ is one
of the proximate causes that should give us pause for
reflection: such people are in a state of war against us
and they are not going to give up any time soon.
Bringing Good out of Evil
God does not cause evil. As noted earlier, human
beings introduced evil into the world as a result of
Original Sin. God permits evil in order to bring good out
of it. We may never be able to see the totality of the
good God brings out of specific acts of evil until the
Last Day, when the intentions of all hearts will be laid
bare for all to see. However, it is possible to outline a
few ways by which good can be brought out of the evil
which took place on September 11, 2001.
1. An increase in Faith among Catholics. As noted at
the beginning of this reflection, thousands of ordinary
Catholics flocked to churches throughout the metropolitan
area in the immediate aftermath of the downing of the
twin towers of the World Trade Center. The baptismal
embers of many souls have been stirred as a result of
this unprecedented tragedy. This could very well result
in a reawakening of the faith lives of Catholics who have
been steeped in our culture of relativism and secularism
and positivism. Moreover, this tragedy may help many
Catholics to actually meditate on the Four Last Things
(Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell) before they go to bed
every night. We do not know when the Master will call for
us. He comes like a thief in the night. Perhaps there
will be more and more Catholics who will come to
understand that the most horrible thing that can happen
in the world is to be unprepared for the moment of their
Particular Judgments by being in a state of mortal sin at
the hour of their individual deaths. It could lead
Catholics to come to understand that the graces won for
us by the shedding of our Lord's Most Precious Blood on
Calvary are sufficient for us to handle every cross we
are asked to bear, including acts of warfare and
terrorism. And it could lead us to understand that we
have the obligation to pray for those who have fomented
such acts of violence, as our Lord enjoined us to do in
the Sermon on the Mount.
2. Conversion of souls to the true Church. Many
priests risked their very lives to try to anoint the
bodies of those wounded in Manhattan. At least one
priest, a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department,
died as a result of his valiant efforts to minister to
the souls of those entrusted to his pastoral care. The
valor and pastoral zeal of these priests will no doubt
inspire at least a few souls to convert to the true
Faith. Indeed, even non-Catholics are drawn to pray in
Catholic churches during times of emergency. Although
they may not understand that they are being drawn there
by our Lord's Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament,
they are responding an actual grace given them by the
Holy Ghost. Perhaps this tragedy will help non-Catholic
Christians and unbelievers see that it is only the
Catholic Church which offers fallen creatures the means
to scale the heights of sanctity and to be prepared for a
good, holy death.
3. A re-examination of our uncritical acceptance of
our culture of death. It is about time for some Catholic
prelate to call a spade a spade: the killing of innocent
human babies in their mothers' wombs under cover of law
makes us more vulnerable to attacks such as the ones
which occurred on September 11, 2001. People have got to
be confronted with the reality of what is happening in
our midst every single day by the cold-blooded killing of
the innocent unborn. Someone has got to raise these
issues in order to help to prompt a reexamination of this
country's uncritical acceptance of our culture of death.
There is a connection between the taking of innocent life
in the womb and the acts of warfare and terrorism which
took place in our skies and in our cities on September
11, 2001.
4. Acts of charity and heroism. Ordinary citizens
lined up to donate blood at hospitals and blood centers
throughout the New York City metropolitan area in the
immediate aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade
Center. Such acts of charity, as well as the heroism of
the several hundred police officers and fire fighters who
gave up their lives in an attempt to rescue their fellow
human beings, can help people on the natural level to see
the Divine impress in each other. It can help them to
reject the secularism of the world in which we live. Only
creatures who bear within them the spark of Divinity are
capable of such acts of charity and heroism. And it is
only when we live in the shadow of the Holy Cross that we
can come to see that we are called to move beyond mere
natural acts of charity and heroism in order to become
motivated by the supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and
charity to live lives of heroic sanctity in the midst of
this passing vale of tears.
Putting Things in Perspective
A Catholic does not live in fear. Our Lord told us
to "be not afraid," a phrase which Pope John Paul II has
repeated throughout his pontificate. Although we must
avoid the sins of presumption and despair, we are called
to live in the confident hope that we are loved by Love
Himself, the Blessed Trinity. We are called to live quite
consciously in an awareness of our eternal destiny to
possess the Beatific Vision of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Ghost in an unending Easter Sunday of glory in
Paradise. And we are called to be serious about the
business of getting ourselves straight with God in the
Sacrament of Penance if we have been negligent or
slothful about our interior lives. We are called to
realize that the only way we can deal with the terrorism
visited upon us by wealthy madmen is to defeat the
terrorism of Satan against our souls by striving ever
more readily to cooperate with the graces won for us by
our Lord and Calvary and by entrusting ourselves ever
more fully to the patronage of our dear Blessed Mother
and her chaste spouse, Saint Joseph, the Patron of the
Universal Church.
With prayers for the souls of those who have been
killed, as well for the recovery of the survivors, and
prayers for the survivors of those killed and wounded,
may this moment of national horror help us to become
resolved to subordinate our own individual lives and the
greater life of our nation to the reign of Christ the
King and Mary our Queen, the only sure antidote to the
forces of darkness and terror that seek to envelop us
ever more fully in a culture of both physical and eternal
death.
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord. And let
perpetual light shine unto them. May their souls -- and
all the souls of the faithful departed -- rest in peace.
Amen.
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Dr. Thomas Droleskey, speaker and lecturer, is a
professor of political science, the author of CHRIST IN
THE VOTING BOOTH and THERE IS NO CURE FOR THIS
CONDITION (www.hopeofstmonica.com), and editor of the
CHRIST OR CHAOS newsletter.
This column is distributed and archived by Griffin
Internet Syndicate, http://griffnews.com. All rights
reserved.
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