It's a classic Cold War move. Mutually Assured Destruction (MADD) rather than accepting defeat. We would rather cast fire upon the earth and perish with our enemies rather than accept subjugation.
And of course, on some level, I understand the instinct. Human beings are certainly capable of such wrath, tempted to it. I have been furious at bullies in my past, furious to the point of not caring what the consequences were so long as I was able to land a punch.
But the Council's choice--the Cold War choice--was born out of the heart of the errors of Russia, out of the error that undergirds most all of the other errors.
Do anything in the name of a good cause.
Do anything in the name of defending freedom, of protecting planet Earth, of winning over the alien invader.
Do anything in the name of goodness, even embracing evil, even becoming evil.
It's an ancient temptation; the first temptation, in fact. Take the forbidden fruit in order to be like God. It looks tasty, and much to be desired for the wisdom it promises. Take that which God has forbidden, and set aside that God which has permitted. Take, and eat, and seize divinity for yourselves!
The thing is that if Adam and Eve had eaten of the tree of life, they would have also gained knowledge of good and evil, for experience is the best of teachers. They would have also gained divinity, for Adam's life had come through the breath, the Spirit of God being breathed into his nostrils, and the Trinity indwelt Adam and Eve through the sanctifying grace animating their souls till original sin. Adam is listed in the genealogy of Christ as the Son of God, and so he would have remained--indeed, even entered into glory--had he remained faithful (see Lk 3:38).
The devil tempted them with what they already had in their grasp, and they fell.
So, too, is it with the temptation today of doing anything in the name of a particular good.
We have faced much evil and suffering these past 400 years, since the apparition of Jesus to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque and the request for the consecration of France to the Sacred Heart. The Church and the world have seen unprecedented slaughters, and acts of terrible inhumanity, fueled by the extraordinary technological achievements of the modern age. Far too many Stark Industries have built far too many weapons of mass destruction. And far too many people have fallen to the lies that undergird our current crises.
"Are you willing to give 110%?"
"Are you willing to do whatever it takes?"
Thank God for the sane and healthy ordinary folk for whom these are simple motivational slogans. Thank God for the many for whom there are lines they will not cross, evil deeds they will not do, compromises they will not make.
Thank God for fairy tales, and the warnings they convey, of stories about deals made with Rumpelstiltskin, or with Ursula the Witch, of the dangers of love potions and the price that crones will ask for their magic. Thank God for stories warning that your first-born child is all too often the price of professional advancement, of power, of wealth, of following the left-hand path to gain the golden calves of this world.
These are the errors of Russia, the errors that spread out from Russia, weaponized and contagious in WWII, prophesied at Fatima in 1917 and again in 1930, when Jesus and Mary lamented that the consecration would be made late.
These are the errors of Russia. Look at Communism, with its complete faith in historical processes grinding their way through human lives to a revolution that would solve everything, that would establish justice in the world through the dictatorship of the proletariat, the slaughter of the "oppressors," and in whose name every evil could be and was justified. Look at Tsarism, in which one man is given autocratic rule of a country, where he and his family turn to spiritualism and ultimately the demonic deceptions of Rasputin--anything in the name of the heir; anything in the name of the Tsar's rule, anything in the name of the Tsar.
Then look at the way war was waged during World War II. Look at the ethos that began with Stalin and Hitler, with any evil done in the name of the leader of the Communist Party and any evil done in the name of the Fuhrer, the volk, the German people. Look at the ethos that spread to the Allies throughout the war--anything in the name of victory, including Japanese internment camps, the firebombing of cities, and ultimately the Manhattan Project's terrible fruits. Look at how that ethos governed the waging of the Cold War--MADD is the doctrine and ruthless the war, and the waging of it. Any manipulation of the facts in the name of Communism or stopping Communism; any weapon to hand; anything in the name of--not even victory, for in the event of a nuclear war, there was no expectation of victory. No--anything in the name of no surrender.
Anything--and so it was spy versus spy; intelligence service versus intelligence service; the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, seized and eaten again and again and again, for we sought salvation in knowledge, in intelligence, in gnosis, in secrets and the Inner Ring, in blunt instruments of government policy (Ian Fleming's description of James Bond) doing anything in the name of Queen and country in order to stop the Soviet agents from doing anything in the name of the Revolution and the Party.
The same errors at the roots, the same bad first premises skewing our worldviews and our understanding for the last several hundred years--all for the lack of a consecration of France, and a late consecration of Russia.
An ideological infection that began in France in the 1600s and spread to the world bore terrible fruit, especially in 1917, in 1929-1945, and has continued to bear fruit ever since then.
The remedies? They exist; they are powerful; they have been used to a certain extent, but we must take them up in our turn and hasten the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart as much as possible. The sooner the Queen of Heaven wins her victory, the better.
For the wise, there are more complicated tools at hand--revising our understanding of history to spotlight and help us fight particular errors.
For all of us, there is devotion to the Immaculate Heart. Possible ways to live this:
- living a good, ordinary Christian life
- receiving the Sacraments regularly
- attending Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation
- performing the works of mercy
- the First Saturdays of reparation
- Marian consecration
- the daily Rosary for peace in the world
- other Marian devotions, such as the Miraculous Medal, the scapulars (especially the Brown, the Green, and the Blue)
- enthroning a statue or another image of Our Lady in your home, especially of her showing her Immaculate Heart
- leading devotions in your parish
- Marian processions
- studying Mariology
A morally good act requires the goodness of the object, of the end, and of the circumstances together. An evil end corrupts the action, even if the object is good in itself (such as praying and fasting "in order to be seen by men").
The object of the choice can by itself vitiate an act in its entirety. There are some concrete acts - such as fornication - that it is always wrong to choose, because choosing them entails a disorder of the will, that is, a moral evil.
It is therefore an error to judge the morality of human acts by considering only the intention that inspires them or the circumstances (environment, social pressure, duress or emergency, etc.) which supply their context. There are acts which, in and of themselves, independently of circumstances and intentions, are always gravely illicit by reason of their object; such as blasphemy and perjury, murder and adultery. One may not do evil so that good may result from it ...
Some rules apply in every case:
- One may never do evil so that good may result from it;
- the Golden Rule: "Whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them."
- charity always proceeds by way of respect for one's neighbor and his conscience: "Thus sinning against your brethren and wounding their conscience . . . you sin against Christ." Therefore "it is right not to . . . do anything that makes your brother stumble." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1755-1756, 1789).
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