Anne's entry on
11/11/43 is significant to me because I read it on the same day and
month she wrote it, only 68 years earlier. It helps reinforce a
pattern I've noticed where special events occur on certain dates.
In this case, her writing about her pen inspired me to write this
story about myself, centered around the special special dates of 7/7/7
and 10/10/10.
Reading Anne's diary also leaves an indelible mark on my soul.
Sympathy for her abnormally short life is deepened by her charisma and
aspirations. Her abhorrent reality collided with her young and
inquisitive nature, storming my heart, a heart ready to defend those
whose rights have been violated.
I hope the same flame ignited through compassion for Anne burns in all those who behold Jesus crucified, a man whose claims of union with God resulted in his torture and death. And yet, as we believe, He laid down His life intentionally, fulfilling many prophecies and showing us the way to our salvation.
The indelible mark Anne left on my soul first began through watching, “Anne Frank: The Whole Story” on YouTube. This mark deepened my acceptance of Jesus' virgin birth because Mary, also Jewish, was around the same age as Anne when she said 'Yes,' or rather,
"Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word." –Luke 1:38
Prior to reading Anne’s diary,
I've questioned how Mary could be so young, seemingly too young to
understand the implications of her response, her fiat.
Learning about Anne helps me in pondering God’s chosen people, especially in light of all the things I’ve learned over the last year by attending classes for “The Great Adventure Catholic Bible Study,” by Jeff Cavins. This study deepened my understanding of God’s amazing plan for us, how He prepared His people, the Israelites, for the advent of His Son.
These experiences have also brought to mind the many people who are
suffering, not just the orphans and displaced families I met in Haiti
while on a mission trip this summer, not just the many Christians who were persecuted
today in countries where teaching about Him is forbidden, such as those
I recently read about in Richard Wurmbrand's free book, "Tortured for
Christ," but for all
those who stand up for basic human rights, who regularly suffer persecution, humiliation and violence
as a result.
I'm so thankful to live in America, thankful for
all those who've sacrificed so much for her, thankful that we acknowledge a
Creator who has made us equal, endowing us with rights to liberty, life and
the pursuit of happiness.
Nonetheless, I’m most thankful to live in communion with Him,
to love completely, as the Father pours out love to the Son, and the Son
to the Father, ‘and by way of this love the Third Person of the Holy
Trinity, the Holy Spirit, proceeds,’ or as Frank Sheed puts it in
“Theology and Sanity,”
"The First Person knows Himself;
His act of knowing Himself produces an Idea, a Word; and this Idea, this
Word, the perfect Image of Himself, is the Second Person. The First
Person and the Second combine in an act of love --love of one another,
love of the glory of the Godhead which is their own; and just as the act
of knowing produces an Idea within the Divine Nature, the act of loving
produces a state of Lovingness within the Divine Nature. Into this
Lovingness, Father and Son pour all that they have and all that they
are, with no diminution, nothing held back. Thus this Lovingness within
the Godhead is utterly equal to the Father and the Son, for they have
poured their all into it. There is nothing they have which their
Lovingness does not have. Thus their Lovingness too is Infinite,
Eternal, Living, Someone, a Person, God. Observe that here again we are
still within the Divine Nature. For love is wholly within the nature of
the lover. But this love wholly contains the Divine Nature, because God
puts the whole of Himself into love.”
Perfect love casts out fear.
In response to this love, this entrustment of ourselves to one who desires to love
each of us as a marriage partner, ever faithful, may our lives and
vocations reverberate praise to our beloved, to Jesus, the son of David,
a priest according to the order of Malchizedek, the bread from heaven,
the unblemished lamb whose blood washes away our sins! He is our
beloved and we are His!'
"Righteousness and justice are the
foundation of your throne, steadfast love and faithfulness go before
you."
–Psalm 59:10.
For it is written, “As I live, says the
Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise
to
God.”
–Romans 14:11
Panic Attacks?
Sometimes, when I start to fall asleep, I’ll awake in what might be described as a panic attack. I'll feel like I'm passing through some part of hell; I’ll be feverish, itching and paranoid, like a deep darkness hangs over me. It usually starts with the itching, especially in my ears. Then the room seems to be enveloped by a deeper darkness and I’m left in a state of dreadfulness, as though I'm going to be, or have been, swallowed by some foul, unholy beast.
I
describe them as panic attacks, but it wouldn’t surprise me to know that
they’re some kind of attack by Satan, that fallen angel who hates God,
who's destined to the bottomless pit along with all those who follow.
That would be a more accurate way for me to describe what these attacks
feel like. Fortunately, when they occur, I receive benefit
from praying the rosary.
Not long after the last ‘panic attack,’ I remember having read about the concentration camp Anne was eventually sent to. I couldn't help wondering, if but for a moment, what I felt is similar to what a typical night for her was like, along with the many others who lived the rest of their lives in a concentration camp –half naked and freezing, starving and harassed by rats and fleas, stricken with scurvy and lice, emotionally distraught in being separated from family and treated as less than animals amidst the foul smells of diphtheria remnants and disintegrating or charred bodies.
WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!!? REALLY, WHAT IS GOING ON!
It's a type of hell on earth –the dragon cast down here, spreading lies and 'raising hell,' as described in St. John's "Revelation."
And what sort of evil do see a few decades later that parallels the
Holocaust of Nazi Germany? It’s equally horrific yet just as crafty and
clandestine, invisible yet mainstream, even
trendy in some
areas... it’s the murder, sometimes ripping apart, limb from limb, of
unborn children through abortion.
As a healthcare provider, I should have the right to refuse prescribing or dispensing products that can and do result in the loss of human life, from the moment of conception to natural death, holding steadfast to the belief that human life is sacred.
Our government should protect our right to
practice this belief, regardless of faith background or the
organization one works for; it should protect the right to life of all
innocent human beings!
Our
constitution protects our religious freedom –as a
disciple
of Jesus, as a
healthcare provider, I’m called to save lives, not destroy them.
Would
each of us not cry out "STOP!" if someone tried to end our life?
~Ronald Reagan
“We were saved, and we have this hope. If we see what we are waiting for, then that is not really hope. People do not hope for something they already have.”
–Romans 8:24