"I Don't Care What Your Faith Is!"

I recently had a conversation with a dear friend on the subject of religious strife.  At one point, in connection with his status as a fallen-away Protestant and mine as an observing Catholic, he said to me: "I don't care what your faith is!"

I think he meant this in the spirit of tolerance, which too many people in what now passes for Christendom think is the highest good.  I think he meant to say that he accepts me even though I believe a lot of stuff he disagrees with.  But the words are wrong on so many levels, beginning with the fact that they happen not to be true.  For one thing, my friend has explicitly acknowledged that he comes to discuss things with me precisely because of my religious convictions, which he knows are central to who I am, even though he does not share them.  For another, the essence of this statement is a callous indifference that I don't believe he really has toward me or, for that matter, anyone else.  For still another, it is contrary to the good will in respect of God and the hunger for truth that I know he possesses.  

I gave him the first response my mind could lay hold of: "I care what your faith is!"  I meant it, and mean it, with all my heart.

People who say things like "I don't care what your faith is!" are either malicious or not thinking what they are saying.  A Catholic who can say this cannot be living his faith.  It means he does not take seriously that the entire business of our lives is, first, to save our own souls, and second, to help others to save theirs, and that the Catholic faith is the means by which this is to be accomplished.  If I were to say to my friend what he said to me, what I would really be saying is: I don't care whether you go to heaven or burn forever in hell when you die; it's all one to me.  What a horrible thing to say to anyone, let alone to a friend!  In fact, it's hard to decide which would be worse: that, or affirmatively to wish for his eternal damnation.  I doubt this is what he really meant to say to me, though it is in effect what he did say; he simply did not know any better.  But if I, who do know better, were to say that to him, he should not be pleased; on the contrary, he should be very hurt.

What does it mean for me to care about my friend's faith, or lack of faith?  Does it mean I want him to conform to me?  Not at all.  I want him to conform to God, because God made him to know Him, love Him and serve Him in this life, and to be happy with Him forever in the next.  I have neither the right nor the desire to do what not even God will do, and shove the Faith down his throat.  He has to want it for himself.  But I would be faithless both to him and to God if I tried to get out of sharing with him the greatest treasure I possess.

If some little bit of joy falls into our hands and we want to share it with our friends -- a bottle of good wine, or some fudge, or a piece of good news or a funny story -- how much more should we want to share the joy that the world cannot take away?  If we have the Catholic faith, then we have a gift beyond price that we were given out of pure gratuity and on account of no merit of our own whatsoever.  With that gift comes the solemn obligation to share it -- if we need more motivation beyond love for friends and family and associates.   Of course we cannot bludgeon them into accepting it -- nor should we want to.  But they deserve to have the option of knowingly accepting or rejecting it, and we have no business withholding it from them.  I not only do care what your faith is; I must care what your faith is.               

Easter

I will deliver them out of the hand of death. I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite....

Hosea 13:14

This is the Resurrection of Christ and Women at the Tomb, a fresco by Bl. Fra Angelico (1442).  Fra Angelico liked to place Dominican saints in his scenes from Scripture.  Obviously, there were no Dominicans personally present at the Resurrection, but including one in this scene shows that he placed himself there spiritually by contemplation.  We are all called to become saints, and mental prayer is an essential element in the process.  This saint has a star over his head, so it is probably Holy Father Dominic himself.

Today only marks the beginning of Easter, which is an octave.  The really important feasts are octaves: thus the Church pauses time so that we may contemplate their meaning from various angles.  Easter means that hell and death and destruction and chaos are vanquished.  Therefore, no matter what happens, never despair.  The devil does not get the last word.

Holy Saturday: The Harrowing of Hell

I will deliver them out of the hand of death. I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite... 

Osee (Hosea) 13:14 (Douay-Rheims translation)

Because Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that He might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit, in which also coming He preached to those spirits that were in prison: which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. 

1 Peter 3:18-20 (Douay-Rheims translation)

...He suffered, died and was buried.  He descended into hell...

From the Apostles' Creed

In this age of modernist obfuscation and general graying out of vivid supernatural reality, the Harrowing of Hell is probably the most ignored of the creedal doctrines.  Yet as Catholics, we are bound to believe that sin shut the gates of heaven against the souls of men; that it was only Christ's Passion and Death on the Cross that opened heaven; that until then, the souls of the Just were imprisoned; and that, after His death, Christ liberated these souls.  Perhaps one reason we do not devote more time to considering this stupendous event is because it has been obscured by the modern obsession with avoiding any and all mention of Hell: its edge has been blunted by the milquetoast English rendition of the event as "He descended to the dead."  This bland, pedestrian translation fails to confront us with the startling fact of Christ in Hell; we are not inspired to inquire further into its meaning.  It seems obvious that while His Body lies in the tomb, the Son of God is among the dead, having died on the Cross; but how can He, pure and sinless, be in Hell, and why?

First of all, what is the Hell to which Christ descends?  We think primarily of the Hell of the damned, from which there is no escape, and from whose punishments there is no reprieve.  Before the coming of Christ, sin barred the gates of heaven to men.  The souls of the Just could not get into heaven until after Jesus had sacrificed Himself to pay the penalty for our sins.  As St. Thomas Aquinas says in the Summa Thelogica:

[T]hrough Christ's Passion the human race was delivered not only from sin, but also from the debt of its penalty.... Now men were held fast by the debt of punishment in two ways: first of all for actual sin which each had committed personally: secondly, for the sin of the whole human race, which each one in his origin contracts from our first parent, as stated in Romans 5 of which sin the penalty is the death of the body as well as exclusion from glory, as is evident from Genesis 2 and 3: because God cast out man from paradise after sin, having beforehand threatened him with death should he sin.

So what happened to all the good people who lived before Jesus' time, and died without ever having the opportunity to believe in Him or receive the Sacraments?  They dwelt in a place of waiting -- variously called, among other things, the Bosom of Abraham, or the Limbo of the Fathers, or the Limbo of Hell.  There they did not suffer the torments of the damned, but they did suffer privation.  Aquinas elucidates:

After death men's souls cannot find rest save by the merit of faith, because "he that cometh to God must believe" (Hebrews 11:6). Now the first example of faith was given to men in the person of Abraham, who was the first to sever himself from the body of unbelievers, and to receive a special sign of faith: for which reason "the place of rest given to men after death is called Abraham's bosom," as Augustine declares (Gen. ad lit. xii). But the souls of the saints have not at all times had the same rest after death; because, since Christ's coming they have had complete rest through enjoying the vision of God, whereas before Christ's coming they had rest through being exempt from punishment, but their desire was not set at rest by their attaining their end. Consequently the state of the saints before Christ's coming may be considered both as regards the rest it afforded, and thus it is called Abraham's bosom, and as regards its lack of rest, and thus it is called the limbo of hell. 

Aquinas goes on to explain that the Limbo of the Fathers is not qualitatively the same as the Hell of the damned, because the damned suffer eternal torment without hope of reprieve, whereas the Just before the coming of Christ suffered no sensible torments and had hope for a release from imprisonment.  On the other hand, situationally, the Limbo of the Fathers was probably the same as the Hell of the damned:  

For those who are in hell receive diverse punishments according to the diversity of their guilt, so that those who are condemned are consigned to darker and deeper parts of hell according as they have been guilty of graver sins, and consequently the holy Fathers in whom there was the least amount of sin were consigned to a higher and less darksome part than all those who were condemned to punishment.

So, as Aquinas says, 

Directly Christ died His soul went down into hell, and bestowed the fruits of His Passion on the saints detained there; although they did not go out as long as Christ remained in hell, because His presence was part of the fullness of their glory.

We come to the reasons for the Harrowing of Hell, which we have already begun to touch on.  The Angelic Doctor gives three reasons why it was fitting for Christ to descend into Hell.  Firstly, to bear the penalty for sin -- namely, death of the body and descent into Hell -- in order to free us from penalty (though we are not yet delivered from the penalty of bodily death).  Secondly, to force Hell to disgorge its righteous captives.  And thirdly, to show forth His power and glory even in the domain of the devils.

This last point is worth lingering over.  Because the wills of the damned are confirmed in evil at the moment of their deaths -- just as the wills of the righteous are confirmed in goodness and charity at the moment of their deaths -- Christ did not rescue any of the damned from Hell.  In His essence, He visited only the Limbo of the Fathers; but the effects of His power reached every part of Hell.  Aquinas:

A thing is said to be in a place in two ways. First of all, through its effect, and in this way Christ descended into each of the hells, but in different manner. For going down into the hell of the lost He wrought this effect, that by descending thither He put them to shame for their unbelief and wickedness: but to them who were detained in Purgatory He gave hope of attaining to glory: while upon the holy Fathers detained in hell solely on account of original sin, He shed the light of glory everlasting.

In another way a thing is said to be in a place through its essence: and in this way Christ's soul descended only into that part of hell wherein the just were detained. so that He visited them "in place," according to His soul, whom He visited "interiorly by grace," according to His Godhead. Accordingly, while remaining in one part of hell, He wrought this effect in a measure in every part of hell, just as while suffering in one part of the earth He delivered the whole world by His Passion.

He puts it briefly in another place thus:

When Christ descended into hell, all who were in any part of hell were visited in some respect: some to their consolation and deliverance, others, namely, the lost, to their shame and confusion.

With Christ's visitation, the spoliation of Hell was complete.  A final extract from the Angelical that is worth many hours of meditation (emphasis added): 

When Christ descended into hell He delivered the saints who were there, not by leading them out at once from the confines of hell, but by enlightening them with the light of glory in hell itself.

Think of it.  Hell is the privation of God and His glory.  For the imprisoned elect who found themselves in the presence of the living God and beheld the light of His glory, Hell, in that moment, ceased to be Hell.  Hell was overthrown.  No wonder it is written in Philippians 2:10-11 "That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father."

Today at Matins (Office of Readings) according to the revised Breviary, we read the following ancient, anonymous Holy Saturday sermon:

Something strange is happening - there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and He has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.

He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, He has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, He who is both God and the Son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the Cross, the weapon that had won Him the victory. At the sight of Him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all.” Christ answered him: “And with your spirit.” He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.”

I am your God, who for your sake have become your Son. Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by My own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake. I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell. Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of My hands, you who were created in My image. Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in Me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated.

For your sake I, your God, became your Son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead. For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden. See on My Face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you. See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in My image. On My back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See My hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree. I slept on the Cross and a sword pierced My side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced Me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open. The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

Spring Has Sprung

Today at 16:57 Universal Time, the sun crossed the celestial equator.  That means the point on the earth where the center of the sun was directly overhead was on the equator; the sun reached zenith at the equator; the Southern and Northern Hemispheres were equally illuminated; and the periods of daylight and nighttime today are roughly equal.  In other words: it is now Spring.  From this point forward, the hours of daylight will exceed the hours of nighttime.  When the Summer Solstice occurs on June 21st, the daylight will begin to recede, until the Autumnal Equinox; then, the nights will lengthen, until the Winter Solstice.

As I have commented many times before in this space, and will go on commenting, the changes of season are freighted with a spiritual significance that has been obscured since the iconoclasts took their scissors and blue pencils to the liturgical calendar in the wake of Vatican II.  The Annunciation, March 25th, coincides with the Vernal Equinox; Good Friday is also held to have taken place on March 25th, followed by Easter Sunday.  This was to show that the winter of satan's reign was ended, and the Kingdom of God, with its light and warmth and abundance of life, was begun.  The Summer Solstice, when daylight begins to decrease, coincides with the Nativity of John the Baptist; the Winter Solstice, when daylight begins to increase, coincides with the Nativity of Christ, to underscore the Baptist's saying that he must decrease, while Christ increased.  As far as the Autumnal Equinox is concerned, my own entirely personal opinion is that, since this falls during the time for harvest, it stands for the harvest of souls at the end of time, when the wheat is gathered into the Master's barn, and the tares are bundled up and burned.  

The modernists would have us believe that this is all just man projecting his religious yearnings onto impersonal nature and seeing what he wants to see.  The reality, however, is that not one single thing exists outside of God's plan and loving providence, in which there are no gaps or deficiencies that He needs us to supply for.  It is all meant to communicate God's love to us, and to lead us to Himself.

The Chastisement

Put not your trust in princes: in the children of men, in whom there is no salvation.  

Psalm 145:2-3

A reminder that today is the one-year anniversary of Benedict XVI's abdication inspired some reflections on the wild ride we have had since that day, both in the Church and in secular society. 

For those with eyes to see, it should be clear that we are under chastisement.   Events are accelerating.  Everything we had taken for granted up to now, from bedrock institutions to moral principles, is disintegrating.  The capital of Christian civilization, built up over two thousand years, is nearly all frittered away.  The enemies of everything we held dear now have the upper hand, and they are busily engaged in destroying.  The unthinkable daily morphs into the commonplace.  One is more and more conscious of being an outsider, even among family and friends, as one is unable to join them in embracing socialism and homosexual unions and abortion and hatred of the Catholic Church, and a host of imaginary "rights", the pursuit of which is costing us our authentic rights.

A chastisement is meant to make us straighten up and start flying right.  But at the moment, too many people like what's going on.  There are a few who recognize the evil for what it is and deliberately choose it; many more, probably most, are deluded by the pursuit of their own comfort coupled with blindness to supernatural realities.  They think this is victory for the good guys.  They think things are finally going the way they should.  They look at wholesale destruction and see creation.  They look at murder and see mercy.  They look at oppression and see liberation.  They look at lies and see the truth -- whatever truth they find most convenient.  

To too many people -- even many Catholics, including priests and bishops and religious -- what is happening does not look like divine punishment.  Since too many of us do not see this as punishment, not enough of us are straightening up.  That is why I fear we are in for something far worse than what we have seen up to now.

Who knows what form it will take?  Very likely, something that will hit us precisely where we are most complacent.  We have grown decadent in our wealth: even the poor in America have color televisions, cars, air conditioning and more than enough to eat.  And, for most of America's existence, she has enjoyed freedom from foreign invasion.  A dozen years after 9/11, we have sunk back into apathy.  Now that the United States is an oligarchy run by persons friendly to her enemies, perhaps it is only a question of time before our economy plunges into the abyss and the scourge of war lashes us in our own streets.

So, do we just give up and crawl back into our caves?  The time will come when that won't be an option.  But there is in any case no neutral ground: we have set before us life and death, and we must stretch out our hand to one of them.  We must choose life.

Should we pursue political remedies?  Of course.  I have advocated previously in this space for Mark Levin's proposed constitutional amendment convention, which the Founding Fathers had the foresight to provide for for times just like these.  But that is not going to be enough.  The chastisement will not be taken away until the reasons for it have ended.  Those reasons are in our own hearts, and our hearts need to be changed.  We need sorrow for our sins and purpose of amendment.  We need to do good and avoid evil.  We must be holy as God is holy.  For that, we need sanctifying grace.  I fear many people -- many Catholics -- are living without sanctifying grace.  I fear -- and it is horrible to consider -- that many are dying without sanctifying grace. 

God is under no obligation to give us what we need to be holy if we don't ask for it, so we must pray, especially the Rosary.  The Rosary was given to us precisely for our times.  We must pray the Rosary not only for ourselves but for others.  It is the best thing we can do.  The time is coming, and may already be here, when it will be the only thing we can do.

The Saints in Art

Today I happened upon a rather striking image of the Presentation by Bl. Fra Angelico, the great artist of the Order of Preachers:

Fra Angelico frequently includes Dominican saints in his scenes from Scripture and Tradition.  At first glance, I assumed the kneeling friar was St. Dominic.  But upon closer inspection, it is clearly not St. Dominic.

St. Dominic is usually pictured with a star over his head.  There is no star over the head of this friar.  But look closely at his scalp.  His skull is split.

This is St. Peter Martyr, also known as St. Peter of Verona.  Born in 1205 in Verona, Peter was received into the Order of Preachers at age 16 by St. Dominic himself.  He was a great preacher, mystic and miracle worker, and was appointed Inquisitor for northern Italy by Pope Gregory IX.  Among other miracles, Peter predicted his own martyrdom, which took place near Milan, Italy on April 6, 1252.  Cathar assassins waylaid him on the road, striking his head with an axe and stabbing him.  Before he died, he traced in the dust, with his own blood, the first line of the Creed: Credo in unum Deum.  At the sight of Peter's saintly death, one of his murderers, named Carino, was converted and later himself took the habit of St. Dominic.  

Just as the resurrected Christ is always shown with the pierced hands and feet of His Crucifixion, martyrs are also frequently depicted in art bearing their mortal wounds, or with the weapons that dealt them their death blow.  St. Paul, for instance, usually carries the sword that cut his head off; St. John Houghton, one of the Carthusians hanged, drawn and quartered under Henry VIII, is shown with a noose; St. Maximilian Kolbe is shown wearing his prisoner's uniform from Auschwitz.  This is not only so that their images may be recognized and identified.  It is also because these symbols of their martyrdom, which seem gruesome and squalid from the world's point of view, are really trophies of victory.  They were borne out of love, and are therefore these saints' glory in heaven.

Here is St. Peter Martyr and his split skull again, in this scene of the Madonna and Child, also by Fra Angelico.  

Here we have Sts. Cosmas and Damien, St. Mark, St. John, and St. Lawrence, who carries the grill on which he was roasted alive.  The three Dominican saints are recognizable by their distinctive emblems.  A star shines over the head of St. Dominic.  St. Thomas Aquinas, who, in his humility, tries to hide behind St. John and St. Lawrence, can nevertheless be recognized by the sun shining from his breast.  And St. Peter Martyr bears the ghastly axe wound that sent him into eternal life.  Notice, too, that the halo surrounding the head of the Christ Child contains the cross, while His Mother is crowned with twelve stars, like the woman clothed with the sun in the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation) of St. John.

Really good Christian art inspires, edifies, uplifts, and is rich in food for meditation.  

January 28th (Post-Conciliar Calendar): St. Thomas Aquinas, O.P.

Francisco de Zurbarán, The Apotheosis of St. Thomas Aquinas (1631).  See here for an article about this painting.

Happy feast day to my friend and illustrious brother in St. Dominic, Thomas Aquinas.  On the pre-conciliar calendar, his feast is on March 7th.  Though I went through a large part of my life without a particular devotion to the Angelical, I have reason to believe that he has been quietly and secretly taking care of me in a special way.

Here is the Summa Theologica, available online in its entirety.

Here is Leo XIII's 1879 encyclical Aeterni Patris, on the restoration of Christian philosophy, in which the Pope discusses the monumental importance of Aquinas and his teaching.

Here is a pretty good sermon about Thomas Aquinas, delivered in 2006.  To be well-grounded in Aquinas, says the priest, is a sure safeguard against heresy.  The hatred and denigration of Aquinas, on the other hand, is an unmistakable sign of a modernist.

And, last but not least, the Litany of Thomas of Aquin.

O THOU, the Most High, have mercy on us.

Mighty One of Jacob, have mercy on us.

Divine Spirit, have mercy on us.

Great Triune God, have mercy on us.

Glorious Mother of the King of kings, pray for us.

Saint Thomas of Aquin, pray for us.

Worthy child of the Queen of Virgins...

Aquinas most chaste...

Aquinas most patient...

Prodigy of science...

Silently eloquent...

Reproach of the ambitious...

Lover of that life which is hidden with Christ in God...

Fragrant flower in the parterre of St. Dominic...

Glory of Friars Preachers...

Illlumined from on high...

Angel of the Schools...

Oracle of the Church...

Incomparable scribe of the Man-God...

Satiated with the odour of His perfumes...

Perfect in the school of His Cross...

Intoxicated with the strong wine of His charity...

Glittering gem in the cabinet of the Lord...

Model of perfect obedience...

Endowed with the true spirit of holy poverty...

Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, You take away the sins of the world: grant us peace.

Ant.— Oh, how beautiful is the chaste generation with glory, for the memory thereof is immortal, because it is known with God and man, and it triumpheth crowned for ever.

V. Oh! what have I in heaven, or what do I desire on earth?

R. Thou art the God of my heart, and my portion for ever.

Prayer:

O God, who hast ordained that blessed Thomas should enlighten Thy Church, grant that through his prayers we may practise what he taught, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Random Thoughts

-- If you work, then from time to time, you need a rest.  Hence the wisdom of things like keeping holy the Lord's Day and the seventh-year jubilee.  If you refuse to take time off, then sooner or later, your body is going to overrule you.  This, I believe, is one of the reasons I am out sick with a nice cold.  So, if you need the time off, you are going to get it, one way or the other; the question is whether you will enjoy it.

-- If, on the other hand, you are doing nothing for no good reason, then put down the doobie, turn off World of Warcraft, start keeping regular hours and get busy.

-- I grew up in a part of the country where 40 above was considered heavy coat weather, so even after nearly two decades spent living in Idaho, I find myself sorely tried in winter.  Yet I am fortunate compared to much of the rest of the country: in all the years I've lived here, I have never had to try and function in temperatures approaching 40 below, like the midwest is having right now.

-- I love Christmas lights, especially the small, white ones, and I'm all for keeping them -- as distinguished from Christmas trees -- up all winter, to illuminate the the long winter nights.  I despise the dim "energy-saving" "lights," with their cold, bluish cast, that illuminate nothing.  In the past, the Idaho state Christmas tree used to stand at the top of the Capitol steps and be covered from top to bottom with strings of white lights that could be seen all the way from the old Boise Depot; now, they use those "energy saving" "lights," and the tree is almost invisible until you stand right underneath it.  They also used to put up alternating red and green lights in the Capitol dome; they have now quit doing that.  If there is one thing that should not be doled out with an eyedropper in these times of both physical and spiritual frigidity, it's Christmas cheer.

-- Priests and bishops are fathers to their flocks, and sometimes it is a father's duty to say "no" to his children.  Some priests and bishops reserve their "no"s exclusively for their children of traditional bent who try to be faithful Catholics.  But this is altogether too easy: these children respect the authority of their fathers and submit, even though it is painful.  I would challenge such priests and bishops to try saying "no" to their "progressive" children: the ones who do not respect their fathers' authority; the ones with the all money that they use to try to blackmail the Church into giving them their way on everything; the ones who organize protest campaigns; the ones who write letters and contact the local media, and even file lawsuits; in short, the ones who, by their words and actions, show that they do not believe the Church or her hierarchy to be of divine institution.  Say "no" to these, firmly and consistently, come what may, and your authority will shine out all the brighter.  Besides which, these are the ones who most need to be told "no."

-- If you are disconcerted by a lot of the things Pope Francis is doing and saying -- and I number myself among such -- then listen to this.

-- By the way, the name is Pope Francis, not Pope Francis I.  There will be no such thing as "Pope Francis I" unless and until another Pope takes the regnal name of Francis.

-- Some people in my immediate circle have commented on what a bad P.R. move it is for the Obamacare juggernaut to pit itself against a religious congregation with a name like the Little Sisters of the Poor.  I think it's just a sign that the Obama regime has gone past the point of caring what the American people think.  In fact, it has gone past even bothering with the pretense of caring what the American people think.  That means we are in for even rockier times.

-- Here is a point for meditation in these rocky times.  Compare and contrast the pagan titan Atlas -- huge, muscle-bound, struggling to hold up the heavens on his shoulders -- with the Infant of Prague, small, delicate under His kingly crown and mantle, yet holding the whole world effortlessly, like a ball, in the palm of his little hand.

The First Post of 2014...

...is to announce that I have officially been stricken by whatever the crud is that's been going around at work.  All you people who have been associating with me the last few days need to start taking your zinc and vitamin C.

I will now go back to my regularly scheduled nose-blowing.

The Passing Scene: 2013

Herewith the annual V for Victory! year-end highlights, with thanks as usual to Wikipedia for refreshing my recollection:

January

2: The "fiscal cliff" is allegedly averted with the signing into law of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

4: The Church of England admits homosexuals in civil partnerships to its episcopacy, on condition that they live in continence.

5: Murder spree, Aurora, Colorado: a gunman murders three inside a home before dying as a SWAT team storms the house.

10: A 16-year-old student opens fire inside a classroom at a high school in Taft, California, critically wounding another student before surrendering to authorities.

15: Murder spree, Hazard, Kentucky: shooter kills two and wounds one at Hazard Community and Technical College before turning himself in to authorities.  The motive appears to have been domestic-related.  Also: horse meat begins to be discovered in beef products in European supermarkets.

18: Lance Armstrong admits to Oprah Winfrey that he doped.

20: Murder spree, Albuquerque, New Mexico: shooter, aged 15, murders two adults and three children at a home.

23: The U.S. military lifts its ban on women in combat.

24: North Korea announces a new nuclear test and states that long-range missiles are aimed at the United States.

27: 240 people perish and 168 are wounded in a fire at the Kiss night club in Santa Maria, Brazil.

29: An outbreak of at least 57 tornadoes within a 25-hour period begins to strike the American Southeast from Oklahoma to Georgia.  Also: A gunman kidnaps a five-year-old boy from a school bus in Midland City, Alabama, after murdering the driver, who dies defending the children on the bus; he holds the child hostage in a bunker for seven days before being shot by police, who then rescue the boy.

30: Murder spree, Phoenix, Arizona: a gunman murders two and wounds one during a mediation session, and later turns the gun on himself.

Deaths: Huell Howser (host, California's Gold); Patti Page; Pauline Phillips, aka Abigail van Buren ("Dear Abby"); Quentin Smith (Tuskeegee Airmen); Conrad Bain (father in Diff'rent Strokes); Ned Wertimer (Ralph the doorman in The Jeffersons); Stan "The Man" Musial; Patty Andrews (last of the Andrews Sisters).

February

1: Two die in a suicide bombing outside the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey.  Also: Hillary Clinton steps down as Secretary of State and is replaced by John Kerry.

2: Former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle and another man are gunned down at a shooting range near Glen Rose, Texas.

4: A skeleton found by archaeologists in Leicester, England is publicly identified as the remains of King Richard III.

7: Beginning of the February 2013 nor'easter, a massive blizzard that affected Canada, the northeast United States, Iceland, Britain and Ireland, leaving 18 dead and hundreds of thousands stranded or without power.

11: Pope Benedict XVI announces his abdication, effective February 28th at 20:00 Rome time.

12: North Korea announces the successful test of a nuclear weapon.  Also: A three-county shooting rampage in southern California that left four dead ends when the shooter, ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner, commits suicide during a stand-off with police in the San Bernardino mountains.

14: Oscar Pistorius, South African amputee sprinter and Olympic contender, is charged with murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

15: A 66-foot, 11,000-ton asteroid enters the earth's atmosphere and explodes in the air near Chelyabinsk, Russia.  The shock wave damages 7,200 buildings in six cities and results in about 1,500 injuries.  On the same day, a near-earth asteroid approximately 160 feet across passes within 17,200 miles of the earth's surface.

19: North Korea threatens the final destruction of South Korea at a UN disarmament conference.  Also: murder spree, Orange County, California: a murder-carjacking spree leaves three dead and three more wounded before the shooter turns the gun on himself.

25: Keith Cardinal O'Brien, Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburg, steps down amid allegations of sexual misconduct with priests.  He will decline to take part in the upcoming papal conclave.

26: Murder spree, Santa Cruz, California: a suspect in a sexual assault case murders two plainclothes detectives, and is shortly thereafter killed in a shootout with police.  Also: Chuck Hagel is confirmed as Secretary of Defense.

Deaths: Ed Koch; Peter Gilmore (British actor); Paul Tanner (trombonist, last surviving member of Glenn Miller's orchestra); Rev. Mr. Bill Steltemeier (attorney, Catholic deacon and chairman and CEO of EWTN); Mindy McCready (country singer); C. Everett Koop; Van Cliburn; Dale Robertson; Richard Street (The Temptations).

March

3: A two-year-old Mississippi girl who was born with HIV is pronounced HIV negative following treatment.

7: North Korea threatens a pre-emptive nuclear strike against its enemies.

11: North Korea cuts the telephone hotline between North and South.

12: The Cardinals of the Catholic Church meet in conclave in the Sistine Chapel to choose a successor to Benedict XVI.

13: Jorge Cardinal Bergoglio is elected Pope, and chooses the regnal name Francis.
25: In another pathetic attempt to prop up the failing Eurozone, the government of Cyprus and the EU reach a "bailout" agreement that involves the theft of funds from people's bank accounts.

28: New scientific experiments show that the Shroud of Turin is not a medieval fraud and can indeed be dated to the first century A.D.

29: North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un orders preparations for rocket strikes against the United States mainland.

30: North Korea declares itself to be at war with South Korea.

31: Kaufman County, Texas District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, are murdered at their home, two months after another district attorney from the same office was murdered on his way to work.

Deaths: Anthony Lewis; Harry Reems; Frank Thornton (Are You Being Served?, Last of the Summer Wine); Ieng Sary (co-founder of the evil Khmer Rouge); Malachi Throne (character actor); Hugo Chavez; Bonnie Franklin; Phil Ramone.

April

3: South Korea reports that North Korea is denying workers access to the jointly-run Kaesong Industrial Park.

9: North Korea threatens to launch a missile the following day.

11: Servant of God Fr. Emil Kapaun is posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his valor during the Korean War.

12: A tornado-laden storm strikes the midwestern and southern United States, causing three deaths.  Also: North Korea threatens Japan with annihilation.

15: A pair of brothers from Chechnya set off home-made bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding 183, from motives of Islamic jihad.

18: The Boston Marathon bombers murder a policeman in his car at MIT.

19: The Boston Marathon bombers engage police in a firefight, in the course of which one bomber is run over by the other and killed; the other is found in a boat by a man who stepped outside for a smoke, and eventually captured.

21: Murder spree, Federal Way, Washington: shooter murders his live-in girlfriend, then murders three other people in the apartment complex before being shot by police.

24: Murder spree, Manchester, Illinois: shooter breaks into a house, murders a family of five, then dies in a shoot-out with police.  Also: The feds admit to having been previously warned about the Boston Marathon bombers by the Russian government.  Also: A garment factory building in Bangladesh collapses, resulting in 1,127 deaths.

29: Back-bencher Jason Collins of the Washington Wizards announces his homosexuality,  making him the first NBA player to do so, to the delight of the media and the White House.

30: Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands abdicates the throne in favor of her son, King Willem-Alexander.

Deaths: Margaret Thatcher; Milo O'Shea; Roger Ebert; Leslie Broderick (one of the last survivors of the Great Escape); Annette Funicello; Maria Tall Chief (first American Indian prima ballerina); Jonathan Winters; Frank Bank ("Lumpy" on Leave It to Beaver); Richard LeParmentier (telekinetically throttled by Darth Vader in Star Wars); Allan Arbus; George Jones.

May

2: Rhode Island legalizes same-sex "marriage."

5: A bomb explodes inside a Catholic church in Arusha, Tanzania, killing 1 and injuring 57.

6: Cleveland, Ohio: three women and one child are rescued from captivity in the home of Ariel Castro, who had held the women and sexually abused them for a decade, fathering the child on one of them.  Castro will later hang himself in prison.

7: Delaware legalizes same-sex "marriage."

8: Jodi Arias is convicted of the first-degree murder of her boyfriend in Arizona.

13: Pennsylvania abortionist Kermit Gosnell is convicted of various felonies, including three counts of murdering newborn infants.

14: The IRS admits to targeting Tea Party and other conservative organizations for special treatment.  Also: Brazil legalizes same-sex "marriage."

17: The brightest meteor impact yet observed takes place on the Moon.

20: The Church of Scotland votes to allow openly homosexual ministers.

22: Lee Rigby, a British army drummer, is hacked to death in the street in Woolwich, London, with knives and meat cleavers by two jihadists.

23: The Boy Scouts of America is opened up to openly homosexual members.

26: 150,000 people take to the streets of Paris, France to protest same-sex "marriage."

30: Nigeria bans same-sex "marriage."

Deaths: Dr. Joyce Brothers; Marshall Lytle (Bill Haley and the Comets); Fr. Andrew Greeley; Jean Stapleton.

June

2: Heavy rains lead to disastrous floods all over Europe.

3: The U.S. Supreme Court holds that DNA samples can be collected from criminal suspects without their consent.

4: Britain celebrates the 60th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation.
6: Classified documents leaked by NSA contractor Edward Snowden are published, revealing massive U.S. government surveillance activities.  Snowden will flee the country to avoid arrest.

7: Murder spree, Santa Monica, California: shooter sets a house on fire and goes on a rampage at Santa Monica College, killing 4 before being killed.

13: Murder spree, St. Louis, Missouri: a home health-care business owner kills three and then himself.
14: Heavy rains begin in northern India that will result in flooding that will leave thousands presumed dead.

15: Murder spree, Omaha, Nebraska: gunman kills two and wounds two more before being shot by police.

17: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down an Arizona law requiring voters to show proof of citizenship in federal elections.

18: Russia passes a law banning adoption of Russian children by foreign same-sex couples.

21: Edward Snowden is charged with espionage.

25: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down that part of the Voting Rights Act that required certain jurisdictions to seek federal approval before making changes to voting practices.

26: The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down that part of the Defense of Marriage Act that codified non-recognition of same-sex "marriages" for federal purposes. Also: Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex "marriage" in California, is stricken down.

30: 19 firefighters perish in a wildfire in Yarnell, Arizona.

Deaths: Frank Lautenberg (U.S. Senator from New Jersey); Esther Williams; Jiroemon Kimura (verified oldest man in history, dying at age 116); Vince Flynn; James Gandolfini; Slim Whitman; Marc Rich.

July

3: The Egyptian military seizes control of the government from the Muslim Brotherhood.  Also: King Albert II of Belgium announces he will abdicate in favor of his son, Philippe.
5: The forthcoming canonizations of Bl. John XXIII and Bl. John Paul II are announced.

13: George Zimmerman is acquitted of the murder of Trayvon Martin.

17: Same-sex "marriage" becomes legal in England and Wales.

22: A son, now third in the line of succession to the throne of England, is born to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

26: Murder spree, Hialeah, Florida: gunman starts a fire, murders six people and takes two more hostage at his apartment complex before being shot by police.

30: Suspected U.S. spy Bradley Manning is acquitted of aiding the enemy but convicted of five counts each of espionage and theft.  He will be sentenced to 35 years.

Deaths: Paul Jenkins (character actor); Leonard Garment (figure in Watergate scandal); Mel Smith (the albino in The Princess Bride); Helen Thomas; Dennis Farina; Eileen Brennan; Michael Ansara.

August

8: Murder spree, Dallas, Texas: shooter kills four and wounds four more in two homes before being apprehended.

10: James Lee DiMaggio, who kidnapped a teenage girl and murdered her mother and brother in Boulevard, California, is found with the girl at a campground near Cascade, Idaho, and shot by the FBI.
17: Start of the Rim Fire, the third largest wildfire in California history, which will take more than two months to contain.

19: Track star Oscar Pistorius is charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp.

22: Aaron Hernandez, formerly of the New England Patriots, is indicted for murder in the gunshot death of Odin Lloyd.

23: Nidal Malik Hassan, the jihadist shooter in the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, is convicted of multiple counts of murder and attempted murder.  He will be sentenced to death.

Deaths: Gail Kobe (character actress and producer); Margaret Pellegrini (one of the last surviving Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz); Karen Black; Eydie Gormé; Jack Germond; David Frost.

September

8: My birthday.

12: The Anglican Church in Wales votes to allow female bishops.  Also: NASA announces that Voyager I has left the solar system and reached interstellar space.

16: Murder spree, Washington Naval Yard in D.C.: gunman murders 12 and wounds three more before being shot by police.

21: Jihadist gunmen attack the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya, killing 61 civilians and six soldiers.

Deaths: Rochus Misch (last survivor of the Führerbunker); Cal Worthington; Ray Dolby (inventor of Dolby surround sound); Kim Hamilton (To Kill a Mockingbird).

October

1: Beginning of a partial shutdown of the federal government over the debt ceiling crisis that sends liberals into apoplectic fits.

3: A boat carrying Libyan migrants sinks off the Italian island of Lampedusa, killing 359.

16: The government shutdown ends in a deal that merely kicks the can that started the crisis down the road.

21: A student at Sparks Middle School in Sparks, Nevada murders a teacher and wounds two other students before killing himself.  Also: New Jersey legalizes same-sex "marriage."

26: Murder spree, Phoenix, Arizona: gunman murders four and shoots two dogs at their home before committing suicide.

27: Murder spree, Brooklyn, New York: killer stabs his cousin's wife and four children to death, and is later arrested.  Also: the St. Jude Storm strikes northwest Europe, killing 17.

29: Murder spree, Greenwood County, South Carolina: shooter kills five and then turns the gun on himself at a house along Callison Highway.

Deaths: Tom Clancy; Tom Foley (former Speaker of the House); Nigel Davenport (Norfolk in A Man for All Seasons); Marcia Wallace; Lou Reed; Graham Stark (character actor).

November

1: A gunman opens fire at LAX, killing a TSA employee and wounding several others.
3: Formation of Typhoon Haiyan, which will strike southeast Asia and especially the Philippines, causing more than 6,100 deaths and at least $1.5 billion in damage, and displacing millions of people.

12: Hawaii legalizes same-sex "marriage."
22: Crystal Mangum, false accuser in the 2006 Duke Lacrosse case, is convicted of second-degree murder for the 2011 stabbing death of her boyfriend.

24: For the first time, the relics of St. Peter are publicly displayed for veneration.

28: Comet ISON grazes the sun and (mostly) disintegrates.

Deaths: Paul Walker; Manfred Rommel (son of Erwin Rommel); Jane Kean (Trixie Norton on The Honeymooners); Paul Crouch (televangelist).

December

2: Pope Francis meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

6: The beginning of an extraordinary wave of cold weather, snow and ice storms that will strike the United States east of the Rockies.

10: Barack Obama humiliates the United States by taking a selfie of himself with the Prime Ministers of Britain and Denmark during Nelson Mandela's funeral.

11: Pope Francis is named Time magazine's Person of the Year.  Also: India's Supreme Court upholds the criminalization of homosexual activities.

13: Snow falls in Cairo, Egypt, for the first time in more than a century.

19: Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame is suspended by A & E for his frank comments about the sinfulness of homosexuality in an interview; the network will later do an about-face as a result of an immense viewer backlash.  Also: New Mexico legalizes same-sex "marriage."

20: The Canadian Supreme Court strikes down that country's anti-prostitution laws.

23: World War II codebreaker Alan Turing is given a posthumous royal pardon for the homosexual acts for which he was was convicted and chemically castrated in 1952.

Deaths: Ray Price; Joan Fontaine; Peter O'Toole; Tom Laughlin (Billy Jack); Eleanor Parker (character actress); Nelson Mandela.

May 2014 be a vast improvement over 2013.