ONE OF THE GREAT TOKENS OF GOD’S GOODNESS IS THE PREVALENCE OF EVIL IN THE WORLD

It may be said without paradox that one of the great tokens of God’s goodness is the prevalence of evil which we witness in the world. Pressure of suffering, which causes so many to cry out in their agony, to question His providence, to rebel against His holy will, is in truth a proof of His love, an earnest of His solicitude for our welfare.

God has our welfare in mind

It is because God, unlike ourselves, knows how to draw good from what is evil that He permits it, and by evil I do not mean merely physical evil but moral evil too. Whether we realise it or not, there is no evil that happens which God does not ultimately turn to good, to the profit of His own glory and to the advantage of His creatures.

Why does God permit evil?

The fall of man with our first parents [Adam and Eve, Genesis 3] is incomparably the greatest misfortune which has ever befallen the world; but it has been retrieved and more than compensated by the Incarnation and Redemption of Christ Our Lord.

There is no evil that happens which God does not ultimately turn to good

The personal sins of men are an evil the depth of which is unfathomable, and yet they show the patience, the longanimity, the infinite mercy, if not the justice of the Creator; and they may be for the sinner the occasion of practising penance and humility and gratitude.

Similarly, poverty, privation, sickness, bereavements, death itself, all the evils to which human flesh is heir, all the calamities that take place in the universe, are intended by God to detach our hearts from the things of earth, to raise our minds upwards to heaven, to afford us the opportunities of every virtue and the means of attaining the happiness of a future state.

The compensations of war

And thus it is that these great world wars through which we have passed were permitted by God for ends wise and worthy and ultimately productive of good. At a time like the present, there are not wanting those, Christians even, who cannot look ahead, whose feelings are harrowed by the desolation, the slaughter, the atrocities, the fearful disclosures of concentration camps, the apparent ruin of our civilisation, and are thereby led to doubt the goodness and providence of God, to condemn Him and His ways that He should allow such horrors, and perhaps to deny His very existence.

But they are only deceiving themselves; they are too shortsighted to see into the future; they cannot so much as look round them now and discern the hand of God actually shaping the course of events at the very moment they blaspheme His name.

Without a doubt, war is evil

Without a doubt, war is evil, it is a scourge that nothing can rival, save some pestilences which have carried away more than one half of the entire population of a country. And what an evil has been [the Second World War.] It may justly be considered the most devastating and destructive of all the wars ever waged, by reason of the many nations involved, the numbers of men thrown into the fighting line, the numbers of civilians not fighting who were killed or injured by the bombing attacks on their towns or villages, the destructiveness of modern weapons and the murderous skill with which they were used.

What in the past can you find to compare with the wholesale massacre of the people in Hieroshima, where more than 100,000 lost their lives as the result of one single atomic bomb?

War is an evil because it means the widespread sacrifice of human life, than which no gift of God in the temporal order is more precious. It means the mowing down of the youth of the country, those who are the promise and the hope of the future, and the consequent mourning, the unavailing tears of all who are left childless or widowed or orphaned. It involves the impoverishment of nations and individuals, the devastation of lands fair and prosperous, the destruction of churches and monuments of art.

The fierce animal instincts of our nature come to fore 

More awful than all, it is a time when the worst passions of men, the fierce animal instincts of our nature, come to fore and seek their satisfaction, when hell is, as it were, let loose, and grim spectres stalk abroad – hatred, cruelty, violence, blasphemy, drunkenness, lust, plunder, and murder, murder of even innocent children, of the aged, of defenceless women.

War undoubtedly is an evil, a vast, incalculable misfortune, and yet out of it all God knows how to draw good, great good, both in the natural and in the supernatural order.

“Like a breath of fresh, healthy mountain air”

And first of all, we know only too well how a long period of peace and prosperity begets in a nation a love of ease and comfort, a certain effeminacy of character, how it creates the need of luxuries and encourages the pursuit of mere pleasure and enjoyment. War suddenly arrests all these enervating tendencies: It braces the spirit of a people like a breath of mountain air: it brings into action all the more virile virtues – courage, endurance, determination, self-sacrifice, heroism.

Healing of divisions

Another blessing that comes to us through war is the welding together of a nation in unity. External peace often breeds interior dissention: party is arrayed against party, class against class: bickerings, jealousies, factions tear asunder those who should be one. As if with the stroke of a magician’s wand, war closes up ranks, heals divisions, knits together the entire social fabric: the nation stands before the world one, one in purpose, one in endeavour, one in mind and heart.

The spirit of benevolence

Yet another benefit we reap from war is the spirit of benevolence and mutual help which engenders. An immense pity seizes upon the people for the victims of the war, be they soldiers or civilians, wounded or prisoners, allies or fellow-countrymen. Charity never rises so nobly, human kindness never shows to such advantage. Money usually spent on selfish aims is poured out in lavish profusion; and still more do we see laid open the treasures of human affection and interest to all who suffer and are stricken. War has educated, improved and elevated the hearts of many beyond recognition.

The supernatural good

But the supernatural good that results from war is a no less striking justification of God’s providence. It is unfortunately in the times of continued peace that the hearts of many grow careless and indifferent in matters of religion. The need of God is less apparent, the attractions of earth are more seductive, the example of others is a factor all too contagious.

Popular “contagious” self-centredness spread through the example of “infected” individuals

It needs the touch of some calamity or misfortune – bereavement, impaired health, shattered resources, to sober us and raise our minds above the things of time.

And so it may be argued that, in many cases at least, war has the effect of bringing people nearer to God. The proof of this is in the larger number of people who frequent the churches and respond to invitations to join universal prayer.

Calamity has a tendency to bring people from selfishness back on to the carpet

We feel, as we never do in ordinary times, how utterly we are in the hands of the Almighty, how all our striving is in vain unless the Lord of Battles be with us; a prayer, a mighty call for help naturally rises to the lips even of those who for long had discontinued the prayers learnt in their childhood. Owing to the war, many a distressed mother, or wife, or child, or friend looked up to heaven through a mist of tears:

“Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my prayer.”

Owing to the war through which they were passing, we may be sure that many a poor soldier, sailor, or airman, under heavy fire or before going into it, called upon his Maker – in rude and unaccustomed accents, it may be – for protection and for forgiveness. If the truth were known, we may suspect that there were comparatively few who did not put up some kind of prayer at night.

“The surgeon’s knife that cuts that it may remedy”

Let us not say then that war is all evil. It serves a great purpose. It is the surgeon’s knife that cuts that it may remedy. Whichever of the contending sides conquers in the end, it is for both a winnowing, a punishment much needed, as we may well think. But in the hands of God it also purifies and heals and sanctifies. If it but draws the creature nearer to the Creator, then all the havoc we deplore, the ruin of so many lives, the sorrow wrung out of human hearts, is amply compensated and death may be said to be “swallowed up in victory.”

– From: Lift Up Your Hearts, Christopher J. Wilmot, S.J., The Catholic Book Club, London, 1949 

 

 

THE CONSOLATIONS OF THE GENERAL JUDGEMENT

“Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven” (Matt. 24:30)

The pagan theory, held by more than one Government in our days, that the State as such knows no master, either in the heaven above or on the earth below, that it is a law unto itself, and is wholly independent of the moral order which binds individuals, is as untrue as it is blasphemous.

…as untrue as it is blasphemous

And its further contention that there is no sanction in this world or in another for what men may be pleased to call its misdeeds is equally false and contrary to facts.

…contrary to facts

That there is a punishment even on this earth for the collective crime of a nation or people is made apparent for all time by the tragic events of years past. But over and above the downfall of a guilty country and its ruin at the hands of an outraged world, there is awaiting it a further and more terrible, though less immediate, retribution of which we are reminded in the words quoted at the head of this conference, and that is the sentence that will be passed at the General Judgement. Let us betake ourselves in thought to that day of awful consummation, when right will be vindicated for ever, and wrong finally dethroned and cast into the burning.

The General Judgement

In imagination, helped out by the words of the Gospel, let us envisage the scene. The world then has grown old: its course is wellnigh run. The Gospel has been preached to all nations, and the abomination of desolation is standing in the Holy Place.

The day of consummation when right will be vindicated for ever…

False prophets have gone abroad and seduced many, and unless these days had been shortened even the elect would have been perverted. Nations have arisen one against another and murderous wars have laid waste the land; pestilences and famines and earthquakes have exercised their sway over the face of the earth. A mighty persecution against all that is holy and good, against Christ and His Church has broken out.

…and wrong will be finally dethroned and cast into the burning

There have been signs in the heavens: the sun refused to give its light, and the moon has turned to blood, for a conflagration of unexampled proportions has sprung up and spread far and wide and threatens to consume the world.

The Gospel has been preached to all nations, and the abomination of desolation is standing in the Holy Place

And suddenly there is a sound, the like of which never was heard before: it is the trumpet of Judgement summoning the quick and the dead before the tribunal of God.

At that piercing blast the countless generations of the dead start from their graves as if they had been but sleeping, and the sea gives up those that were buried in its depths. All are there, those that inhabited the earth before the Deluge, the five empires of Daniel, Jews and Greeks and Romans, Christian and heathen, rulers of States and their subjects, the rich, the poor, the learned, the ignorant.

And suddenly there is a sound which has never been heard before: a piercing trumpet blast

And then “the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens,” a wail will arise from all the tribes of the earth, and they shall see the Son of Man coming “in the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty”, with Blessed Mary at His side, and the apostles around Him, and an innumerable multitude of angels forming His retinue.

The trumpet of Judgement, summoning the living and the dead

The most solemn and awe-inspiring moment in the history of the world has arrived. It is a generally accepted theological opinion that each one of that immense assemblage will have been already judged after death in private fashion and that his state will have been sealed for evermore. None the less is the General Judgement of the last day a final and fitting complement to the dispositions of divine governance; in no sense a superfluous pageant or scenic display but the necessary epilogue of the bloodstained annals of mankind.

The Son of Man is coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty

Man is not merely an individual who can sin against his Maker in his private capacity: he is associated with others, he is the member of a state, or community, or family; he has friends who have come under his influence or by whom he has himself been influenced, and it is only right and proper that the sins of these aggregate bodies, and the guilt of each individual in relation to his neighbour should be exposed before the world and meet with the overwhelming reprobation of men and angels, of Christ and of God.

The most solemn and awe-inspiring moment in the history of the world has arrived

Then at length shall the ways of Providence, so often mysterious and hidden, be revealed and justified in the eyes of all creatures. Then shall nations, the proudest and mightiest, rulers first and subjects after, stand arraigned for judgement in the fierce light of day, humbled to the dust and held up to universal condemnation not only for the unjust wars they have waged, the rivers of blood they have shed to satisfy an insensate ambition, and the atrocities they have perpetrated in defiance of every law, divine and human; but also in many instances for their national apostasy, their loudly advertised irreligion, their persecution of the Church, their oppression of the poor, the countenance they gave to vice and corruption.

Man is not merely an individual who can sin in his private capacity, he sins in his public role 

These are crimes calling to heaven for vengeance; and yet God often delays, they are not always visited by Him in the lifetime of the evildoers. Sometimes even iniquity seems to prosper in the high places, and an unrighteous cause may succeed and prevail.

At the Last Day, however, “the people will be seen to have devised vain things” and “He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them, and the Lord shall deride them and speak to them in his anger and trouble them in his rage” (Psalm 2). Shame unutterable shall be their portion. There shall be “gnashing of teeth and the call for mountains to cover them,” but all in vain final humiliation and utter discomfiture will be public and irretrievable.

Man’s public and hidden misdeeds will be brought to account in public and in full view of whom they have wronged without anybody having apologised to them, without having even tried to put it right and without having done penance before God and His Church

The General Judgement, moreover, besides bringing fit retribution to States and Peoples for their manifold crimes will also expose and avenge those innumerable sins which are not merely private and personal to men, but in which others are involved, scandals which have led them into evil, false teachings which have sapped and endangered their faith, wicked examples which they have been induced to imitate, malicious slanders that have assassinated their character, cruel deeds that have embittered their life.

Transgressions in regard to neighbour

It is only just that the workers of evil should answer to God in private for their more hidden misdeeds, those against themselves and against Him, but that they should be brought to account in public and in presence of those they have wronged for their other transgressions in regard to their neighbour.

And hence it is not a little remarkable that the sentence of the Judge on that day will make no mention of secret sins, but only of such as may have hurtfully affected others.

Depart from me, for I was hungry and you gave me not to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me not to drink; I was a stranger and you took me not in; naked and you covered me not, sick and in prison and you did not visit me – and: As long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you it to me (Matt 25:41 et seq.)

We do not take consolation or joy in the thought of the punishment that the wicked will suffer at that great Day of Judgement; we do not find pleasure in another’s pain, however much he may have deserved it. But we may well be consoled to think that at the Last Day God’s ways will be justified and all His claims upon the worship and service of His creatures will be vindicated, that all wrongs will be righted.

At the Last Day all wrongs will be righted

We may secure that the General Judgement will be to each of us individually a day of consolation, for according to Our Lord’s own words the final sentence passed upon us will depend upon the manner in which we have acquitted ourselves in the observance of God’s first and great commandment of charity.

God’s first and great commandment of charity

If in spite of many other sins and imperfections of which we had repented during life, we have always steadily striven to exercise charity, then to us will be said before that mighty host of all our fellow beings those consoling words:

Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me to eat: I was thirsty and you gave me to drink: I was a stranger and you took me in: naked and you covered me: sick and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me. Then shall the just answer him, saying: Lord, when did we see thee a stranger and took thee in or naked and covered thee? Or when did we see thee sick or in prison and came to thee? And the king answering, shall say to them: Amen I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me (Matt 25:34 et seq.)

At the final day of reckoning God’s ways will be justified

What an incentive this is to all of us to practise charity in the many and sundry ways that are offered to us every day, so that at the final day of reckoning we may stand up unafraid and consoled at that Great Judgement of Our Lord.

– From: Lift Up Your Hearts, Christopher J. Wilmot, S.J., The Catholic Book Club, London, 1949

 

 

 

 

 

CATHOLIC PRIEST FROM LONDON, UK, JAILED OVER PEACE PROTESTS

“A catholic priest has been sentenced to 28 days in prison for refusing to pay fines imposed on him over his peace protests.

Fr Martin Newell, a Passionist, works with the homeless at the London Catholic Worker. He said he would not pay fines of £565 ‘for reasons of faith and conscience’.

The protests were over the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the use of drones and the Trident nuclear system.”
– This article was published in “The Catholic Herald” issue March 21 2014. For subscriptions please visit http://www.catholicherald.co.uk (external link).

 

IS THERE A PARTICULAR CATHOLIC APPROACH TO WAR?

“Already there seem to be controversies over how to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. Is there a particular Catholic approach to this Question?

ANSWER BY FR TIM: The Catechism (2307 ff) gives some general guidance on the question of war. First, that ‘all citizens and all governments are obliged to work for the avoidance of war’. It also sets out certain conditions which must be met if defence by military force is to be legitimate. On matters of historical debate such as the First World War, Catholics are free to disagree, though we would agree in deploring the carnage that took place in that war (and indeed in World War II.)

Those of a more pacifist leaning might focus particularly on the war poets, the description of the horrors of the trenches and the high rate of casualties. They would also point to the danger of jingoism and the manipulation of public opinion.

Others might consider that the heroism of many of the officers and men is not sufficiently recognised, and that the war was fought in order to protect Britain and other countries from a determined aggressor bent on the domination of Europe. During this year we will hear many arguments on both sides and perhaps become a little better informed. Such an education is valuable in itself if we wish to learn from our own history.

I hope that the place of the Blessed Charles I of Austria, who became Austro-Hungarian Emperor in 1916, is not forgotten during the centenary. From the start of his reign he worked to bring about peace between the belligerents, offering painful concessions in an attempt to avoid further bloodshed. He also unconditionally supported the peace proposals of Pope Benedict XV. Anatole France wrote of him: ‘Emperor Karl is the only decent man to come out of the war in a leadership position, yet he was a saint and no one listened to him. He sincerely wanted peace, and therefore was despised by the whole world. It was a wonderful chance that was lost.’ As Catholics, we should raise awareness of the efforts that the Pope and Blessed Charles made for peace.”
– This article by Fr Tim Finigan was published in the feature “Catholic Dilemmas” in “The Catholic Herald” issue January 10 2014. For subscriptions please visit http://www.catholicherald.co.uk (external link).

 

PLEASE REMEMBER REGULAR PRAYERS FOR PEACE

• “REFLECT

Focus on one place in the world where there is war or violence. Keep the people who live there in your personal and parish prayer each week. Create a focus board in your kitchen or church where you pin news and information about that place.

• ACT

In April join Pax Christi in marking the ‘Global Day of Action on Military Spending’. How would your community better spend on human need the $ 1.7 trillion that the world spends for military purposes? Find out more here: http://demilitarize.org.uk/ [external link].

• PRAY

Help me to find my role in building a path to peace. Teach me to ask the question ‘who is my sister, who is my brother?’ with the same love and passion as Jesus. Give me the courage to speak up and act for my sisters and brothers whose lives are broken by violence.

More information:
Pax Christi, St Joseph’s, Watford Way, London NW4 4TY
http://www.paxchristi.org.uk [external link].”

 

“MAY THEIR TALENTS BE REDIRECTED TO LIFE-GIVING PROJECTS” – BIDDING PRAYERS FOR THE WEAPONS INDUSTRY

“Bearing in mind that much of the weaponry used by both sides has been supplied by companies [who exhibited] at the DSEi Arms Fair, [which was] held at the ExCel Centre in London from 7th to 14th September 2013, the bidding prayers that Pax Christi has produced for this time are of particular relevance:

• We pray for each of the women, children and men who have been killed or injured by weapons sold by companies more concerned with making money than with making peace in our troubled world. May we, who witness on our television screens glimpses of their suffering, demand that our government curb the arms trade… Lord, hear us…

• We pray for the people who finance, produce and sell weapons. May your compassion touch their hearts and minds and redirect their skills and talents to life-giving projects… Lord, hear us…”
– More information about Pax Christi can be found on their website http://www.paxchristi.org.uk (external link).

 

PRAYER FOR SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS IN WAR

O God, we beseech you, watch over the souls of all who are exposed to the horrors of war. Watch also over soldiers who are exposed to the spiritual dangers inseparable from a military life. Bless them with such a strong faith that no human respect may ever lead them to deny it, or fear to practise it.

Do you by your grace fortify them against the contagion of bad example. Keep them always in your friendship. May nothing in life or death ever separate them from you. Amen.

 

BLESSED ARE YOU, PEACEMAKERS

Blessed are you, peacemakers,
who say no to war as a means
to peace.
Blessed are you, peacemakers,
who offer hope and healing.
Blessed are you, peacemakers,
who care and comfort.
Blessed are you, peacemakers,
who help find answers.
Blessed are you, peacemakers,
who welcome, encourage and
inspire.
Blessed are you, peacemakers,
who see the good in others.
Blessed are you, peacemakers,
who never give up.
Blessed are you, peacemakers,
who give and give and give.

(Fr Paul Milanowski – adapted)

 

“I PREFER TO DIE RATHER THAN RENOUNCING MY FAITH” – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF ST JACQUES BERTHIEU

One of the new saints of the Church, canonised by Pope Benedict at the beginning of this Year of Faith, is St Jacques Berthieu. He was born in 1838 in France. His childhood was spent working and studying surrounded by his family.

St Jacques entered the minor and then the major seminary of the Diocese of Saint-Flour, and was ordained a priest on 21st May 1864. His Bishop named him vicar in Roannes-Saint-Marie, where he replaced an ill and aged priest. The years went by and St Jacques began to feel attracted to religious life. He received permission from his Bishop to pursue that calling, entering the Jesuit novitiate in Pau.

While under training he asked his superiors to send him to the mission field. In a letter of 28th July 1875 St Jacques confided to one of his friends: ‘I have been designated as a future apostle to the Malagasy (Madagascar); am supposed to leave here at the end of August, and then Marseilles and France on 26th September, probably never to return, which is fine with me.’

He arrived in Tamatave on 10th December 1875, only to be informed that the Superior of the Mission had appointed him to the island of Sainte-Marie. He began language study and his initiation into missionary life. The decrees of 1880 were applied, forbidding members of unauthorised religious congregations to remain in French territories, and the Jesuits were forced to leave Saint-Marie. St Jacques was sent to Ambohimandroso, being in the far reaches of the Betsileo and Bara regions. However, in June of 1883, the first Franco-Hova war forced him to go to Mananjary. He had to go on foot, which was often a forced march.

Various community disorders saw St Jacques moving around often, trying to undertake his missionary work for God and the Church with different groups of people. A rebellious group, who disliked the fact that many locals had abandoned ancestor worship in favour of Christianity, came to the place where St Jacques was ministering. This gang said to St Jacques, ‘Renounce your nasty religion, and stop leading the people astray. We’ll make you our chief and counsellor, and we won’t kill you.’ St Jacques fell to his knees and replied, ‘I absolutely cannot do such a thing; I would rather die.’ A few minutes later St Jacques was shot, the second bullet, fired at point-blank range, proving fatal. St Jacques’ body was then thrown into the river.

In his homily at the Canonization Mass, Pope Benedict described St Jacques as ‘a tireless pastor on the island of Saint-Marie, then in Madagascar, he struggled against injustice while bringing succour to the poor and sick. The Malagasies thought of him as a priest come down from heaven…he died, saying ‘I prefer to die rather than renouncing my faith’. May his example aid many Christians of today persecuted for their faith! In this Year of Faith, may his intercession bring forth many fruits for Madagascar and the African Continent! May God bless the Malagasy people.’

– from: “Spiritual Thought from Fr Chris”

 

IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR (CHRISTMAS CAROL)

1. It came upon the midnight clear,
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth
to touch their harps of gold;
‘Peace on the earth, good will to men,
from heaven’s all gracious King!
The world in solemn stillness lay
to hear the angels sing.

2. Yet with the woes of sin and strife
the world has suffered long;
beneath the angel-strain have rolled
two thousand years of wrong;
and man, at war with man, hears not
the love song which they bring:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
and hear the angels sing!

3. For lo, the days are hastening on,
by prophets seen of old,
when with the ever-circling years
shall come the time foretold,
when the new heaven and earth shall own
the prince of peace their king,
and all the world send back the song
which now the angels sing.

– E. H. Sears