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| U.S.S. Shaw exploding at Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, Hawaii time |
December 8, 1941: a day that has lived in infamy for 78 years.
What? December 8th?
Americans remember Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December, but it was
December 8th in Japan when the Japanese Imperial Navy’s dive bombers hit Pearl
Harbor. December 8th also marks the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of
the Blessed Virgin in the Roman Catholic Church.
Mere coincidence, one might imagine, but here’s another
“coincidence”: the Emperor’s surrender proclamation was broadcast to his
astonished nation on August 15, 1945. The 15th of August marks the Feast
of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, which pegs the end of the earthly life
of the Lord’s mother, who was soon to return to earth time and again to dazzle
the wondering, upturn’d eyes of mortals in the form of countless apparitions
warning mankind to believe in her Son’s reality and the direness of man’s
addiction to sin, lest countless souls needlessly consign themselves to eternal
fire—the pool of fire that is the second death. (See Revelation 20:14-15)
So the front and back covers of that Book of Death that mankind knows as
the Pacific War coincide with the conception of the Blessed Virgin (for
conception is the start of full-fledged human life) and her departure from
earthly life—which, for those who cling to Christ, is only the beginning of
eternal bliss. But all this must be merest coincidence.
Just like the coincidence of Saint Francis Xavier’s arrival in Japan by
dint of an irresistible wind that drove his ship straight to Kagoshima, the
home town of his Japanese interpreter, an escapee from Japan who was now a
convert to the Faith. The ship’s captain had been determined to avoid
Japan, but that almighty wind had had its way, and now there was nothing to do
but land his passengers.
And the date? By the merest coincidence, the 15th of August 1549,
the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin: the birth of
Christendom in Japan.
Birth, death, Eternity.
Luke O'Hara, Kirishtan.com
