Pray for the USA. Don’t stop. Don’t give up on intercession, on the country, on the idea of free speech and a free society, on the notion of the common good, love of neighbor, or love of enemy. We trust in Jesus; we know the country is in the hands of Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception.
WATCH: Charlie Kirk, Melissa Hortman--We Need Mary: Fr. Chris Alar, MIC, Calls on Us to Pray
By Chris Sparks
Repeatedly in the past month or so, I’ve been surprised to realize that at times, it’s hard to turn my attention to anything other than the Charlie Kirk assassination on Sept. 10 for some reason.
Why?
Public Christian
Before he was killed, I was largely indifferent to and ignorant of Charlie Kirk’s work. There are too many political activists in this country, even big name political activists, even ones with deep connections to the present administration, for me to keep up on.
And yet given that I am a practicing Catholic (however badly I practice, I do try), and given that I work for Christ and His Church by way of the Marian Fathers and the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy, I do care about the death of an Evangelical Protestant brother in Christ who tried to include his faith in his life in the public eye.
Now, many people will go straight to the details of what specifically he said. My point is not that I agree with or will defend everything he said — I am Catholic; he lived and died as an evangelical Protestant. We would always have differed on many things. I am not saying he always perfectly presented Christianity — I have standards of communion with the Holy Father and Tradition that he did not share, though it is rumored he may have been coming closer to converting to Catholicism. And where his public stances deviated from the full-Catechism Catholicism to which we are all called, we would definitely have disagreed.
All of that acknowledged: He still sought to be a public witness for Christ. The reaction of many people coming to Church on the weekend after the assassination, and of many more going to Rosaries, vigils, or other times of prayer in response to his death — well, that feels a little like a movement of the Holy Spirit, a response to Divine Mercy.
The way ahead
Charlie Kirk is dead, and for some reason, it feels like the country and the world is asking, “Now what?” An activist, certainly, and yet more than an activist. Why? What makes this death different from others? He sought to defend life and Christ. He sought to convert his listeners to his particular understanding of Christianity and the world, an understanding that the Church makes clear was flawed, of course, and yet — well, in a certain sense, sometimes, he was in the same line of work as me, and you who share the Divine Mercy message and devotion, and any one of us who ever shares the Gospel of Christ and His Church; anyone who offers a defense of the hope that is in us (see 1 Pet 3:15-17).
But Charlie Kirk also faced stresses and temptations I don’t because of his celebrity, access to power, and influence. That means I owe him prayer. Anyone who has a place in public life faces challenges in the spiritual life that most of us will never have to endure. That’s part of what makes true greatness difficult for celebrity figures of all sorts.
Saint Faustina gave a very grim description of the end of the life of one of Poland’s greatest men, the war hero Marshall Pilsudski:
A little child came and woke me up. ... The child was beautiful beyond words and resembled the Child Jesus, and he said to me ... "True greatness is in loving God and in humility."
Then I saw a soul which was being separated from its body amid great torment. O Jesus, as I am about to write this, I tremble at the sight of the horrible things that bear witness against him. ... I saw the souls of little children and those of older ones, about nine years of age, emerging from some kind of a muddy abyss. The souls were foul and disgusting, resembling the most terrible monsters and decaying corpses. But the corpses were living and gave loud testimony against the dying soul. And the soul I saw dying was a soul full of the world's applause and honors, the end of which are emptiness and sin. Finally a woman came out who was holding something like tears in her apron, and she witnessed very strongly against him.
O terrible hour, at which one is obliged to see all one's deeds in their nakedness and misery; not one of them is lost, they will all accompany us to God's judgment. I can find no words or comparisons to express such terrible things. And although it seems to me that this soul is not damned, nevertheless its torments are in no way different from the torments of hell; there is only this difference: that they will someday come to an end (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 424-428).
This, in part, is why we pray for the dying and the dead, especially in the month of November, which is right around the corner, and on Nov. 2, the great feast of All Souls’ Day. This is why Fr. Mark Baron has been leading everyone in the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for the dying on Fridays for a year, now, and why the Marian Fathers have been dedicated to praying for the dying and dead [prayforsouls.org] since the time of their Founder, St. Stanislaus Papczyński.
This is the Catholic balance that so many times gets lost in the modern world, of both honoring our ancestors who have gone before, for the world they built and we’ve inherited, while also making reparation for their sins, offering penance on their behalf, having Masses and prayers said, especially in the month of November.
Honor and repair
So in this time, we are called to two main works of charity for a fallen brother in Christ.
Honor Charlie Kirk for his efforts on behalf of the true, the good, and the beautiful insofar as he understood it.
Make reparation for the sins of Charlie Kirk, for the ways in which he failed (as we all fail, those of us who are not saints of the first water, who are not Jesus, Mary, or Joseph themselves).
Pray for him in his final moments; we can help him be prepared, as Fr. Chris and Fr. Jason have explained. Pray for him now, in case he needs grace to pass swiftly through Purgatory. Pray for his family, his friends, and his enemies.
And pray for the USA. Don’t stop. Don’t give up on intercession, on the country, on the idea of free speech and a free society, on the notion of the common good, love of neighbor, or love of enemy.
We trust in Jesus; we know the country is in the hands of Our Lady, the Immaculate Conception. We know God is in His heavens, and that the world remains in His hands, for all that our free will has harmed the world, and continues to help or harm as we are holy or sinful. We know that grace and prayer can change everything, and that we are called to both spiritual as well as corporal or physical works of mercy.
So let us turn now to prayer, and mercy, and the sort of community healing that Jesus, Pope Leo, and the saints call us to do. Let us do our work as Christians — the world needs it more than ever before.
Pray for Charlie Kirk, and the man who shot him, and everyone affected by such a public assassination.
Jesus, the Divine Mercy, help us.
Our Lady, Mother of Mercy, pray for us.
Photo by Ben White on Unsplash.
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