Any time I turn on the news or check social media, everyone is talking about the conflict between Hamas and Israel that began last weekend. Many are calling the violence and death wrought by Hamas as the worst terrorist attack by radical Islam since 9/11.
I’m not sure, however, that I’ve seen many people talk about the date of the first attack last Saturday: October 7. Catholics should recognize the date and take note. October 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, a feast instituted in the Church to commemorate the Christian victory over the Muslim navy at the Battle of Lepanto.
I do not believe that Hamas beginning its attack on this date is mere coincidence.
Why did the 9/11 attacks occur on September 11? Scholars who study militant Islam connect the date of the attack to September 11, 1683, the date the Polish king Jan Sobieski began his counteroffensive that would lead to the liberation of the city of Vienna from the besieging Ottoman Turks on September 12. In thanksgiving for this victory, Pope Innocent IX decreed September 12 as the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, to be celebrated by the universal Church.
Militant Islam not only has a long memory, it has a pattern of tying its actions to significant dates, with the intent of parodying and rewriting the meaning of those dates. It’s been widely reported that the leaders of Hamas have called for “worldwide jihad” starting on October 13. Of course, I don’t claim to know what will or will not happen on that date.
But Catholics should again take note: October 13. The anniversary of the final apparition of Our Lady of Fatima.
It’s easy to see what is transpiring in the Middle East and to feel powerless. Yet the dates of the attacks provide a clue to the best way to respond. Muslim terrorists are attempting to rewrite history, turning days of defeat into days of triumph for radical Islam. They want to turn our minds and hearts from the true significance of these dates: the power God shows in the world when his people repent and turn to him, especially when they turn to him, relying on the intercession of the Blessed Mother.
As militant Islam terrorists show their true colors, we need to take up arms against them. Not physical weapons, because as St Paul reminds us, “we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of this present darkness” (Eph. 6:12). We need to take up the arms Our Lord himself recommends to us: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.
His Eminence, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, is leading the way. He has called upon Christians throughout the Holy Land to pray, fast, and abstain on October 17 for peace and the conversion of hearts. His decree especially encourages Eucharistic Adoration and the recitation of the Rosary. I strongly encourage everyone to join their prayers and fasting to those of the Christians of the Holy Land on this date.
But the Patriarch’s call is not enough. In this context, I think of the vision granted to Oliver Dashe Doeme, bishop of the Nigerian diocese of Maiduguri. In late 2014, the bishop was in prayer, trying to find a way to defend his people against the violent Muslim group Boko Haram. While he prayed, Jesus appeared to him holding a sword, which our savior offered to the bishop. As the bishop took hold of it, the sword transformed into a Rosary, and Jesus said, “Boko Haram is gone,” repeating the words three times.
In light of his vision, Bishop Doeme started a campaign in his diocese of praying the Rosary. After the campaign had run for several months, without explanation, Boko Haram began releasing dozens of girls they had kidnapped. In 2017, seven hundred members of Boko Haram in the Maiduguri area surrendered themselves to the Nigerian authorities.
The lesson of Bishop Doeme is obvious. We need a new crusade of prayer and peace, a worldwide crusade. And if there isn’t a Pius V calling for greater recitation of the Rosary or a Jan Sobieski leading the charge, the laity have to take it upon themselves. The secular world wants us to think of its watered-down, consumerist version of Christmas ever earlier and earlier. Perhaps we need to begin our Advent penances early this year. The year 2023 certainly needs the coming of the Prince of Peace now more than ever.
If radical Islam wants to distort history, let us take up the Rosary and call to mind the great events of saving history even more. To paraphrase the closing prayer of the Rosary, as we remember the mysteries, let us imitate the lessons we learn there and obtain the graces promised by the mysteries. We need to fight the battle between good and evil—a battle that rages in our own hearts, as well as outside us—in the best possible way, on our needs.
And let us call others to join us: our families, our friends, our parishes, our diocese. Bring back the family Rosary. Pray the Rosary before Mass and the St Michael prayer after. Let’s bring back the Angelus, striving to overcome the pride of the Devil by the response of Our Lady: Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum; Be it done unto me according to your word.
A great saint of the 20th century, Josemaría Escrivá once noted: “These world crises are crises of saints.” Let us strive daily to be saints, and, by the grace of God and the prayers of Our Lady, evil can never win.
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The significance of spiritual arms may be the lesson of Exodus 17, when Moses raised his arms (no pun intended) for the defeat of Amalek. Moses waged spiritual warfare as Joshua waged it with the sword.
The crime of Hamas on 7 October is the first act of genocide committed upon Jews since the Holocaust. There is no doubt whatsoever that Hamas is the contemporary iteration of Amalek, the ancient irreconcilable enemy of the nation of Israel, whose constant aim is to blot out the Name of the LORD from human memory, that it may be hallowed no more. When a person becomes a Muslim, he takes Allah as the name of his God, to the exclusion of the Tetragrammaton, which is found nowhere in the Qur’an.
We read at Exodus 17:8-16:
Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD Is My Banner, saying, “A hand upon the throne of the LORD! The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.”
We read at Deuteronomy 25:17-19:
Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.
We read at 1 Samuel 15:1
And Samuel said to Saul, “The LORD sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel; now therefore listen to the words of the LORD. Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came up out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’ ” So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand men on foot, and ten thousand men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Saul said to the Kenites, “Go, depart; go down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up out of Egypt.” So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive land devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword.
The mitzvah to exterminate the seed of Amalek is law for the Jews to this day, and it is descriptive of the holy will of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is indeed a terrible commandment, for which reason the Jews on Shabbat Zakhor do not recite the blessing before reading from Deuteronomy 25 – for they do not bless for destruction. It behoves the Israelis to wage milkhemet mitzvah, war of divine commandment, herem war, to close with Hamas and to leave no survivors, having given anyone who wants to leave Gaza to do so, as Saul allowed for the Kenites.
When the LORD led the Israelites out of Egypt, He passed judgement on the gods of Egypt, and Amalek attacked them. When the State of Israel was founded, they had passed through the Holocaust, and the LORD passed judgement on the Nazi movement. This time, He may be passing judgement on another false god, the abomination whom the Muslims call Allah.
Allah is simply the Arabic word for God. It is used in Catholic worship constantly in the liturgies and prayers of both Melkite and Roman Catholics. Let’s not add fuel to the fire by repeating ignorance.
Thank you for sharing that JSB.
Allah is the Arabic word for God, cognate with the Hebrew Elohim. Elohim can mean, besides the true God, any false god, and even includes judges – in general any power in heaven or on earth that is capable of being the object of subjugation.
For Christians and Jews the Name of the true God is YHWH, who alone is Sovereign Lord of all things. Every elohim who is not YHWH is a false god.
No Muslim will ever identify YHWH as the true God. If you were to substitute the Shema – “Hear, O Israel, the LORD (YHWH) our God, the LORD is one” – for the first article of the Shahada – “There is no God but Allah”, the substitution would invalidate the Shahada.
Except the god of Islam is not the God of Scripture, whom we know to be all good and incapable of evil, the god of Islam can will both good and evil.
Thank you for that explanation with the scripture passages.
“A call to arms and a new crusade of prayer and peace”
This is a mistake. It’s the same mistake that the Catholic bishops of the U.S.A. are making in their call for a “Eucharistic revival”. The Lord is getting fed up with too much prayers and not enough brotherly action:
“Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”
Matthew 5:23
“Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem”
John 4:21
“Let me have no more of your strumming on harps. But let justice flow like water, and integrity like an unfailing stream.”
Amos 5:23-24
This is such a Protestant comment… Our “good” works are not by themselves worthy of anything, but only when they are done in the name of Christ. What only CAN and WILL save us is our complete surrender to God. It is the turning away from God that are causing people to fall into sin and for wars to break out as a result thereof. It means that we don’t pray enough and we don’t pray as we should. This was Our Lady’s warning at Fatima, that if we did not do more prayers, penance and sacrifices than wars will be unavoidable. If we commit time and effort to genuine prayer, we will naturally want to act out as Christ’s instrument in bringing peace into the world. Not the way WE would want it, but the way God wants it. There is no weapon more powerful than the Eucharist. No one and no thing is more powerful than God Himself. God desires acts of mercy (prayer is one) and sacrifices (denying of Self) from us. That is the Christian way… Not violence, aggression or more hostility. But the total giving up of Self. Are you willing to deny yourself anything today in order to save the world? Like skipping coffee in the morning for instance? That is called heroic Christian virtue. Anyone of us can contribute to world peace right now, we’re just too caught up in our own comfort & desires to take action. God bless.
Thank you for reminding us that prayer is our true weapon against evil. Love disarms hate and evil and the devil flees from the precious blood of Jesus.
The terms that need to be used here are NOT “radical Islam,” “militant Islam,” or both, but rather “Islam.”
Islam itself is the problem. It just is that, practically speaking, it only is obviously “radical” when Muslims are powerful.
Islam will likely only be defeated with the help of actual weapons. What is necessary is that the gospel be able to be taught by the Catholic Church without hindrance in Muslim countries. That will likely only happen once they are recolonized. It will also be necessary for those who would be willing to use violence in the cause of “religion” to be executed.
Josemaría Escrivá wasn’t a saint. He was a cult leader.
The Second Vatican Council was carefully circumspect when it recorded that the Muslims profess to hold the faith of Abraham and with us adore the one true God.
So much for the claim. Now for the judgement on the claim. Do the Muslims worship the same God as we do?
In a pig’s eye they do.
Nostra aetate, paragraph 3: “They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all-powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth” . Just like the Calvinists who butchered us four hundred years ago, just like us slaughtering Jews in the Rhineland 600 years before that, just like the Israelites exterminating the Midianites in the Book of Numbers, they worship the same God. Denying it just weakens us all against the secularist behemoth. Own it. Theism is still to atheism as rock is to scissors.
Peace Be With You
Amen.
Thank you James Conner. Great comment.
The situation in Israel has often been compared to Apartheid South Africa. The situation in South Africa improved thanks to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, headed by Bishop Tutu. Maybe Netanyahu and Hamas leaders should come together and found such a Commission, because as Tutu said:” There is no future without forgiveness.
But the situations aren’t the same. Hamas calls for the total destruction of Israel. There’s a quotation which I’m quoting the essence of because I don’t remember the words exactly: “If Hamas laid down its arms, there would be peace. If Israel laid down its arms, there would be war.”
I do not accept that “Allah” is cognate with “Elohim”.
“Allah”, I hold, means, “The Divinity” – impersonal, philosophic.
When Muslims declare the worship the God of Abraham, they do not realize (yet) that they are saying contradictory things.
In their own “theology” they frame God in an impersonal way. On the one side, it corroborates what I am describing; on another, it points to a received bad habit; and on a third, it indicates poor attention or reflection. And there could be stubbornness in it too.
Further, information available to me suggests that before Islam, the various desert tribes had different gods, spirits and dieties but shared a common view to the high god Rahman. Islam was to wipe all this away in the name of the singular “Allah” with Mohammed as its sole ordained proponent. Hence, Islam: “submission”.
Allah seems to be a singular form, and elohim a plural with singular meaning, both comparable in meaning.
An example of a plural form with singular meaning is “chasy”, which is the Russian for “clock”, though it literally means “hours”.
That’s not where the focus would be.
“Allah” via Mohammed comes with intense and pressing sociological blandishment.
Elohim is part of the inspiration of God among the Patriarchs.
This juxtaposition describes a related problem where logicians (and political strategists) dabble with both religions on purely sociological levels and/or as sociological equivalents.
Uniquely, Elohim also contrasts and exposes the idolatries in which Israel through the ages fell.
Like the people who lived in the Soviet Union people knew what could be said and not said. Now in the US and the rest of the world we have morphed into the Soviet Union of speech codes or as now we call it just being circumspect, I guess. So we cannot say the truth about Moslems, the truth abort Abortion or the Truth abort a country having borders. As a result, the Hamas and their fellow Moslem travelers saw it as okay to kill babies, women etc. and the West just looked the other way. Just as the West looks the other way on the killing of untold millions of babies and the Left will chastise anyone who says anything about it.