Biological warfare
With America
currently under attack, chemical and biological warfare are very much on
our minds. Horrors such as anthrax, smallpox, and worse are palpable
threats.
On the other
hand, we have Christmas, commonly thought of as the antithesis of war.
But, in fact, the Incarnation of Christ is an act of war; not only
spiritual warfare, but biological warfare.
In the
initial assault of this war, the serpent deceived Eve, then Adam sinned,
and death entered the world—spiritual death immediately, bodily death
by installments of toil, tears, and suffering. Thenceforth, the greatest
war of all time has been waged between the seed of the serpent and the
seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15).
Our ultimate
enemy is not flesh and blood, but "rulers of this present darkness,
...the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places." But the
victory over these spiritual enemies came by way of human flesh, the
union of God and man in Jesus Christ; "a body hast thou prepared
for me" (Heb. 10:5). Mary, the New Eve, gave birth to the New Adam.
Freely submitting His body to the curse of death, He did what no mere
son of Adam could do: He conquered sin and death, and His Resurrected
Glorified body will die no more.
Moreover,
the victory, like the toxin, is communicable. Mystically and
sacramentally, Christ propagates His Resurrection life via the bodies of
believers who enter baptismal water and eat Eucharistic food, thereby
partaking of His life (Col. 2:12, 3:1-4; 2 Pt. 1:4; John 6),
foreshadowing the ultimate victory, our own personal resurrections.
For the one
delivered from the kingdom of the enemy, his first battleground is
within himself, against the traditional triad of the world, the flesh,
and the devil. But the war extends beyond that to the whole world.
St.
Athanasius, in his book On the Incarnation [318 A.D.],
cited as evidence for the Incarnation the fact that in nation after
nation, "each place had its own idol, ...[b]ut now Christ alone is
worshiped... [T]hrough Him demons are routed, oracles cease, and all
magic and witchcraft is confounded."
These
triumphs were not without effort, of course. They were the result of the
Church Militant taking up the Cross—"the blood of the martyrs is
the seed of the Church."
This
militant, mission-conscious attitude lends a godly perspective to life.
This perspective will help us to see, for example, the abortion industry
as a World Trade Center—where the world trades life for death, over
4000 times per day in the USA; and that our mission is to proclaim the
Gospel of Life.
In a world
where most of the trump cards seem to be held by the devil and his
disciples, a Godly perspective will help us to have fortitude and to
"Fret not yourself because of the wicked, be not envious of
wrongdoers! For they will fade like the grass, and wither like the green
herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good" (Ps. 37:1-2). Even tedious,
very ordinary good, "knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in
vain" (1 Cor. 15:58). The enemy has money and power, but—literally—no
Hope.
In this war there is no
neutral ground: every soul is at stake. Whether they want to be or not,
everyone is in the war zone, and everyone is a combatant. The only
question is, "For whom will you do battle and die?"
Biological
Warfare, part II
Tennis star
Bjorn Borg took out a full page ad in a Swedish newspaper recently—urging
people to have more children! Whether or not Osama bin Laden and company
have weapons of mass destruction, the West may be destroyed by its own
variety of weapons: abortion and contraception, leading to a victory by
default for Islam in their 1400-year old war against the West. The
editorial in the 10/28—11/3 issue of the National Catholic Register,
entitled "Wanted: More Babies," relates some startling facts
about the demographic crisis of the West. In brief, the Muslim
population is growing and the indigenous European population,
characterized by a greater median age and fewer fertile women, is dying.
Thus, within a few decades Europe may be a Muslim continent. The USA has
a below-replacement birthrate but immigration is, for now, preventing a
population shrinkage. Demographics is destiny, but sadly, that doesn’t
seem to terrorize us.
— Bill
Cotter |