Monday of the Third Week of Easter
Jeremiah, Chapter 2, Verse 19
Your own wickedness chastises you, your
own infidelities punish you. Know then, and see, how evil and bitter is your
forsaking the LORD, your God, and your showing no fear of me, oracle of
the Lord, the GOD of hosts.
Fear
begets fear and Faith begets faith.
Do
not fear and continue in faith with our fathers knowing that St. Michael, the
archangel, is the guardian angel and protector of the Catholic Church.
Some
people believe we are on the cusp of the end times. Pope Leo XIII[1]
by divine enlightenment was revealed the struggles of the Church against the
powers of hell and it was opened to him that hell would be conquered by the
intervention of God led by St. Michael the warrior angel. Pope Leo instituted
the prayer of St. Michael after Mass.
Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle; be
our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke
him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O prince of the heavenly host, by the power
of God, thrust into Hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits, who prowl
throughout the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen
Yet,
do not fear the end times or the
devil and his cohorts for each time you receive communion you are empowered
more then they! Napoleon Hill uses an imaginary conversation with the
devil in his manuscript “Outwitting the devil”[2]
to enlighten us on the tactics that he uses to enslave us to sin:
Q.
Tell me of the most common habits by which you control the minds of people.
A.
That is one of my cleverest tricks: I enter the minds of people through
thoughts which they believe to be their own. Those most useful to me are fear, superstition, avarice, greed,
lust, revenge, anger, vanity, and plain laziness. Through one or more of these
I can enter any mind, at any age, but I get my best results when I take charge
of a mind while it is young, before its owner has learned how to close any of
these nine doors. Then I can set up habits which keep the doors ajar forever.
Examination
of Conscience (Daily)[3]
We
should along with our morning offering to God and reception of the sacraments
of confession and Holy Communion do some daily accounting if we are going to
make improvements. We should try to see ourselves and ask God to help us see
our day as He sees it by examining our conscience. Spiritual writers usually
divide the daily examination into two parts general
and particular. The general exam
is an overall review of the day and should be done in the evening and the
particular exam is done throughout the day on how we are doing in those areas
where our rebellion is the greatest or in acquiring a certain virtue. The general examination is a weapon of
defense. The particular exam is of attack. The first is the shield. The second
is the sword (St. Josemaria Escriva). Most people make their general exam
near bedtime (This should cure any sleeping problems). Some people make their
particular exam at noon so they can redouble efforts for the rest of the day.
In the evening when we do the general exam we should consider the whole day
both the big things and the little. I
always ask our Lord, what Have I done NOT SO well today; and listen? Next comes
the question, “Lord, what have I done well? Finally, I ask, Lord, what are your
concerns? One aspiration we should have in our arsenal that we can use at
the end is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a
sinner.” One thing not to do is give up. Ask Him for help. Gaining a virtue or
losing a habit of sin might take time; but we will WIN.
Roméo Dallaire
John
McCain in his book Character is Destiny examined the character traits
exemplified by Roméo Dallaire who in 1993, was appointed Force Commander for
the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR), where he witnessed
the country descend into chaos and genocide, leading to the deaths of more than
800,000 Rwandans. When the rest of the world looked away, he stayed behind in a
manmade evil for the sake of duty and justice. Dallaire was in charge of a
small overwhelmed African peacekeeping force, he could have left but he refused
and witnessed the genocide. He is ashamed he could have not done more and the
reaction of the world that stood by for 100 days doing nothing allowing the
devil to reap carnage, terror and hopelessness. Dallaire was the one candle in
a darkened room of despair created by the collective failure of mankind’s
conscience along with the apathy and deceitfulness of world governments toward
Rowanda’s plight. McCain writes of Dallaire’s dilemma:
The
U.S. government, our allies, and the United Nations went to extraordinary and
ridiculous lengths to avoid using the term, “genocide”, aware that once
genocide was acknowledged, they would have to act. Day after day, long night
after long night, for over three months, more men, women, and children were
added to the rolls of the victims by their hate-crazed persecutors. Romeo
Dallaire soldiered on, saving those he could and agonizing over those he
couldn’t, all the while begging the UN, and the world, to send more troops, to
do something, anything, to help. In his telling, his mission was to keep peace;
peace was destroyed by unimaginable violence, and many thousands died. He
failed. He tried to convince his superiors to send him more men. He failed. He
tried to get the United States and other powerful countries to listen to their
consciences and help. He failed. He tried to persuade the world to stop
genocide. He failed. And while many, many people who had a responsibility to
stop the killings looked the other way and never had a moment of doubt or a
night of troubled sleep, Romeo Dallaire took his failures very, very
seriously.
A
righteous person, no matter how blameless, will always take humanity’s failures personally.
·
The first and
enduring lesson of the Rwandan genocide – not unlike the Holocaust – is that they
occurred not only because of the machinery of death, but because of
state-sanctioned incitement to hate and genocide. It is this teaching of
contempt, this demonizing of the other – this is where it all begins. Indeed,
as the jurisprudence of the Rwandan tribunals has demonstrated, these acts of
genocide were preceded by – and anchored in – the state-orchestrated
demonization and dehumanization of the minority Tutsi population – using cruel,
biological ascriptions of Tutsis as “inyenzi” (cockroaches) – prologue and
justification for their mass murder.
·
The second lesson is the danger of indifference and the
consequences of inaction. The genocide of Rwandan Tutsis occurred not only
because of the machinery of death and a state-sanctioned culture of hate, but
also because of crimes of indifference and conspiracies of silence. What makes
the Rwandan genocide so unspeakable is not only the horror of the genocide, but
that this genocide was preventable. Simply put, while the UN Security Council
and the international community dithered and delayed, Rwandans were dying.
·
The third lesson is the danger of a culture of
impunity. If the last century was the age of atrocity, it was also the age of
impunity. Few of the perpetrators were
brought to justice. Just as there cannot be a sanctuary for hate or a
refuge for bigotry, neither can there be a haven for the perpetrators of the
worst crimes against humanity.
·
The fourth lesson is
the danger of the vulnerability of the powerless and the powerlessness of the
vulnerable – the brutalized children, women victimized by massive sexual
violence, the slaughter of the innocents – all the first targets of mass
atrocity. It is our responsibility to empower the powerless while giving voice
to the voiceless, wherever they may be.
·
The fifth lesson is the cruelty of genocide denial —
an assault on memory and truth – a criminal conspiracy to whitewash the Rwandan
genocide. In the obscenest form of genocide denial – as in the case also of
Holocaust denial – it actually accuses the victims of falsifying this “hoax.”
Remembrance of the Rwandan genocide is itself a repudiation of such denial –
which tragically becomes more prevalent with the passage of time.
·
The sixth lesson is the importance of remembering the
heroic rescuers, those who remind us of the range of human possibility; those
who stood up to confront evil, prevailed, and transformed history.
Finally, and most important, we must remember and
pay tribute to the survivors who endured the worst of inhumanity – of crimes
against humanity – and somehow found in the resources of their own humanity the
will to go on, to contribute and to make our society a better and more
compassionate community. And so, this anniversary must be an occasion not only
to remember but to learn the lessons of the crime whose name we should even
shudder to mention – namely genocide – and most important: to act on these
lessons.
Daily
Devotions
[1]
http://www.stjosephschurch.net/leoxiii.htm
[2] Sharon Lechter, Outwitting the Devil.
[3] Hahn, Scott, Signs of Life; 40 Catholic
Customs and their biblical roots. Chap. 15. Examination of Conscience.
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