Charlie Kirk. . .And then there were Four

A few days ago, I wrote an entry about the cruel, the despicable, the evil, deaths of Iryna Zarutska, and the two young children of Ascension School. 

The Devil is never done with his effort at destruction and his invasion of souls. Alas all too many souls open themselves up to his corruption, thinking they will find light, when they will find only hell. They are smug--so many faces on Facebook can we even see them--until it is too late. 

Only two days after my lamenting entry about three individuals, another vile episode. Whether it was actually committed or planned or both by this wispy young man from an apparently Republican family turned transgender ideologue or the result of a dark oligarchic plan, the Devil was there, helping to aim the bullet by which Charlie Kirk was assassinated. 

I pray that the Devil and his human tools miscalculated. The Devil is only a Creature. Surely God's Grace will touch, and has already touched, more souls than that benighted beast ever could. 

There are signs, signs that, as it always does, evil oversteps and does itself in--though its spewing makes it hard for us to see how desperate it is in its last gasps. We have to hold on. 

Today is the Feast of St. John Chrysostom in the Catholic Calendar. He was a priest in the fourth century, then a Bishop in Constantinople. He censured a rich empress for bad public behavior (in contradiction of the faith). He was banished for speaking the truth, exiled. But, speak the truth he nonetheless did.

There is a prayer in the Magnificat, today, which speaks of the gift of speech that St. John had. His last name means "Golden Mouth". That prayer, it occurred to me, speaks also of the late Charlie Kirk. 

"Oh God, you speak the Word of life through the eloquence of the faithful servants whom you call to proclaim the Good News of salvation.  By the example and intercession of Saint John Chrysostom, raise up courageous and convincing preachers in our day to stir faith to life, to heal the brokenhearted, and to offer new life through Jesus Christ Our Lord."

I am satisfied to think that Charlie was raised up either through the intercession of St. John, or through any number of Holy Sources, including the Blessed Mother whom Charlie praised recently, though he was Protestant. He certainly was a courageous and convincing preacher. And what his murder has done is to inspire more speakers, young and old, in all fora. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. How often we have heard that. When I am optimistic, I feel it strongly.

There is something that St. John Chrysostom said that seems particularly apt at this horrible time when a wife and mother is burying her 31 year old husband who had the temerity to speak what people do not want to hear. "All things will certainly turn out, whether in this life or the life to come.  In every circumstance, yield to the incomprehensibility of God's providence."

Think of it. When Jesus Christ came to the earth God made man, He spoke the Truth; He was the Truth, and mankind in creating its own distortion of truth crucified Him. How dare he speak what they did not want to hear. Before He died He was mocked. While on the Cross He was mocked.  After he died, people said, "Good riddance!" He was blasphemer. He was a demon. The important people of the day knew better, and thought that his death would end the story. It was only the beginning.

Charlie Kirk was one of His stout followers. He was mocked in this life. Called vile things that never were so. Mocked it seems just as much in death. And only the beginning. Yield to the incomprehensibility of God's providence. I know it's hard. I am struggling mightily over this. 

I want to shake sense into people. But it is an impossibility. There is only the slow capture of souls who want to be saved. We hear the gate is narrow but we pretend otherwise. We are redeemed. But to be saved? That's a choice each of us makes. Charlie made his choice and I believe God's Mercy is so perfect that Charlie is with Him now. Embraced now, as in those memes that were going around on Facebook, the ones that praised Charlie, and did not demean him. 

For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion, have Mercy on us, and on the Whole World!