The Great Japan Quake-Tsunami Disaster of 2011, Part II

It is also important to remember what the Catholic Church says “At a Time of Earthquake” in the various Propers of the Traditional Latin Mass.  As we read in the Saint Andrew Daily Missal (pp. 1725/26):

Collect

O almighty and everlasting God, who lookest down upon the earth and makest it tremble, spare those who are afraid, and show Thy mercy those who implore Thee; that we who fear Thine anger, which shaketh the foundations of the earth, may evermore enjoy Thy mercy, which healeth its commotion.  Through Our Lord. 

Secret

O God, who didst establish the earth on firm foundations, receive the offerings and prayers of Thy people, and by wholly removing the perils of earthquake, turn the terrors of Thy divine anger into healing remedies for mankind: that those who are of the earth and to the earth shall return, may rejoice in becoming citizens of heaven by the holiness of their lives.  Through our Lord

Postcommunion

We beseech Thee, O Lord, to keep us, who receive thy holy mysteries, and by Thy heavenly power make firm the earth, which we see trembling because of our sins; that men may know in their hearts that these scourges come from Thy wrath and cease by Thy mercy.  Through our Lord.

As we read in these beautiful prayers, God “looketh down upon the earth and makest it tremble,” whilst his anger “shaketh the foundations of the earth” which He Himself had established “on firm foundations” and “which we see trembling because of our sins.” 

Furthermore, we see that it is God, and only God, who, in His great mercy, may also stop the trembling of the earth in order to “spare those who are afraid, and show [His] mercy those who implore [Him]”; in fact turning “the terrors of [His] divine anger into healing remedies for mankind . . . . that men may know in their hearts that these scourges come from [His] wrath and cease by [His] mercy.”

And thus it is with Japan in their latest series of disasters.  But what sin is it that Japan has committed to bring these great and unprecedented disasters onto itself?  For starters there is abortion.  Japan sustains a very cruel and merciless abortion industry, as I know through personal experience.  

One might in fact say that just as an earthquake happens in the womb of the earth and causes great destruction so too does an abortion happen in the womb of a woman and causes great destruction; but in the case of an earthquake we can see the destruction while in the case of an abortion the destruction is hidden; but the destruction of an abortion is greater because it happens at the hand of a man while an earthquake is a mere natural disaster.  

There is also the great sin of having ruthlessly murdered tens of thousands of martyrs once upon a time, including the most barbarous murder of all—that of a woman six months pregnant (which is another kind of abortion) along with her husband and five other of her children.  I think we all know who I am talking about. 

And although Tecla loved her executioners to the end and prayed for their salvation, there are also these very sobering words put in the mouths of martyrs in Chapter 6 of the Apocalypse:

9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.

10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying: How long, O Lord, (holy and true) dost thou not judge and revenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

11 And white robes were given, to every one of them one: and it was said to them, that they should rest yet for a little time, till their fellow servants, and their brethren, who were to be slain even as they, should be filled up.

12 And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal: and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair: and the whole moon became as blood:

13 And the stars from heaven fell upon the earth, as the fig-tree casteth its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind:

14 And the heaven withdrew as a book rolled up: and every mountain, and the islands were moved out of their places.

15 And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the tribunes, and the rich men, and the strong men, and every bond-man, and every free-man hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of mountains:

16 And they say to the mountains and to the rocks: Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

17 For the great day of their wrath is come: and who shall be able to stand?

Posted 4/3/2011