When dealing with things of the spirit, you really never know. In the previous essay, I mentioned our trip to Our Lady of Good Hope in Champion Wisconsin, where we attended a moving special ceremony for those who are seeking a healing for some affliction. I declared that no special grace fell upon either of us, but that we did get a couple of good books at the curio shop. After reading the first book, Our Lady of Kibeho, and now, most of the other book, He Leadeth Me, by Fr. Walter J. Ciszek, I can definitely say that we did receive special gifts, these two very same books. The first, as you can read, presented recent evidence backed by scientific scrutiny of miracles, that is, of events that currently defy scientific explanation, that buttress the reality of Christian and Catholic beliefs. The second, on the other hand, tells us in no minced words how we should live our faith, and this from pure faith that gives us no obvious evidence for belief.
Unfortunately, today I cannot give the time to this book that it deserves, as I will be especially busy over this and the next few days. I will return to it, but for now will highlight the greatest revelation that the book offers us.
Fr. Ciszek: born in 1904 in Pennsylvania, he was raised in a religious Polish family that helped propel him in the Jesuit society, and then on to a special team that was gathered in Rome shortly before WW II to attempt to re-preach the Christian message in the atheistic USSR. After training, he was not able to legally enter the USSR, and so was positioned in an Eastern-Rite church in Poland, where he felt at times that he was languishing, not accomplishing his perceived calling to re-convert the Soviet Union. With the advent of war, he was caught in the invasion of Poland that occurred after the infamous treaty between Stalin and Hitler to divide Poland. Being in the eastern, or Russian sphere, after his village was taken, he and other people in the newly-conquered territories were offered work back in Russia, with few questions asked. Father Ciszek used this opportunity to get into the USSR, only to find that no one wanted his service, or that those who might were too afraid to seek it. Thus he felt stymied again, until Germany declared war on the USSR. It was then that the secret police investigated all foreigners, and then that Father Ciszek was arrested for being a spy of the Vatican. He was quickly sent off to the notorious interrogation prison in Moscow, Lubianka.
And it is was here, through unimagined ways, that his quest for God was to bear fruit. After a year of starvation rations and near-total isolation in a whitewashed cell, he finally was broken down by his interrogator, where he signed over one hundred pages of confessions that were not worth his while to even read. At this, his interrogator attempted to recruit him into his country’s own spy network, offering him a liaison position between Moscow and Rome, whereby he would secretly work for Moscow in the Vatican itself, with the caveat that he would be always watched and quickly assassinated if the agency thought that it was being betrayed. At this, he fully realized his mistake at caving in: the interrogator would continue to increase its demands. At this, he finally and totally fell into despair, even contemplating suicide.
It was at this low, however, that his life took a turn towards God forever. It was then that he realized that he must turn over his will completely to God. Just as important, is was then that he realized that every moment he had, each and every one, belonged to God if he were to allow it. It would be this that would bring him closer to his ultimate desire, complete union with Him.
And so he did. He was returned to his interrogator, where Fr. Ciszek told him that he would not work as a spy for him. At this, the interrogator became furious and told him that he would be led off to the firing squad, but the Father no longer cared. He felt certain that he had not made the decision himself, but rather that it was God’s will. His life and future were now in the hands of God, the hands that had created him and that would direct him to his redemption, if he were to allow them to. He did, and he did not die. Instead, he was sent to work for fifteen years in the Siberian slave labor camps.
Some might prefer death, but it was noted by all who were with him that Father Ciszek continued with the notion that each moment he lived was God’s moment. He worked as hard as he possibly could on his starvation fare, and always did his best regardless of the brutality of his masters. His lot, he saw, was God’s decision, and he continued to live as if it were, up to and after he gained his freedom.
And so I leave the book for now, ashamed of myself for not having the courage to abandon myself to providence, but grateful for having been presented with a living example that shows that this abandonment is possible. Father Ciszek is now under consideration for sainthood, something that is meant for us who live here in the flesh, but something that would mean everything to Father Ciszek if reflected in the spiritual realm. It is what he lived for. It is what, we are told, we should all live for, if even under the brutal conditions of a slave labor camp. We might imagine how much easier it could be for us here and now, and with equal rewards.
Jesus said that we could plant a tree in the middle of the ocean on a whim if we had the faith the size of a mustard seed. Imagine what we could do in our comparatively pleasant environment if we had only a mustard seed of the good father’s courage.
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