We all know that I have too much time on my hands and that my laziness drives me more into sedentary pursuits than walking the roads in my neighborhood. That means I am reading more than ever these days. I have just read two articles that in strange combination have given me even more confusing thoughts than normal that I feel inclined to share. I feel like a kid who has just realized that outer space is infinite and there is no answer to most of the mysteries of the universe. In millennia gone by, it is some form of that awareness of the unknown that has sent people scurrying off to some form of religious worship and/or the dedication of their lives to the belief and theory that what lies beyond death may be more important than the here and now. I’m not thinking that I am slowly but surely finding my way into the cloth, but I do feel that my life might end (whenever that may be) with me in some modern but no less understood version of purgatory. That’s what I like about my original religion (I was baptized Catholic) and the religion surrounding me at Notre Dame Prep in Rome during high school, it embodies such strangely appropriate concepts like purgatory.
Purgatory is a concept in Catholic theology that describes a state or place of temporary punishment and purification after death. In Catholic teaching, souls who die in God’s grace but still have venial (lesser) sins or temporal effects of sin must undergo purification before entering heaven. In some ways, the modern version of a venial sin might be something like the presumption that DEI would be a good thing for society or that the welfare states that offer universal healthcare are good users of taxpayer monies. That would be as opposed to a mortal sin like deporting masses of people and thereby needlessly destroying families and lives for the sake of political posturing.
The Catholic Church’s doctrine of purgatory developed gradually over centuries, becoming formally defined at the Councils of Florence (1439) and Trent (1563). The basic theological reasoning is that while God’s forgiveness removes the guilt of sin, there may still be a need to cleanse the soul of the effects and attachments of sin. The key understanding of purgatory include that it is temporary (not eternal like heaven or hell), that it is purifying rather than punitive in its primary purpose, that the souls in purgatory are destined for heaven and that the living can help souls in purgatory through their prayers. Protestants feel that purgatory undermines the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice for salvation, and thus reject it conceptually. Dante’s Divine Comedy places purgatory as a mountain with seven levels corresponding to the seven deadly sins (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth). Let’s put it this way, if Catholic thinking prevails, we will all be spending lots of time in purgatory working through our issues.
Before going on to the articles, let’s first explore the issue of mortal sin as the Catholics think of it. Mortal sin is considered a grave or serious sin that severs the person’s relationship with God and, if unrepented, can lead to eternal damnation. For a sin to be considered mortal, three conditions must be met. It must be a Grave Matter – the act itself must be intrinsically evil and grave. There must be Full Knowledge – the person must know that the act is seriously wrong. And there must be Deliberate Consent – the person must freely choose to commit the act. In contrast, venial sins are less serious transgressions, weaken but do not completely break one’s relationship with God, don’t deprive the soul of sanctifying grace and can be forgiven through prayers, good works, and receiving the Eucharist (the blood and the body of Christ symbolically). Mortal sins include murder, adultery, and apostasy, while venial sins might include small lies, minor gossip, or moments of impatience. It almost seems like there should be a third category in the middle, but hey, I’m no Dante.
The first article I just read is from the New Yorker and its about the recruiting crisis in the U.S. military. It details such initiatives as the Future Soldier Training program, which is a three-month prep program the Army puts on for people with the desire to join the military (something considered highly desirable in and of itself), but an inability to pass either or both the physical or mental aptitude tests. It seems this is a serious limiting issue when it comes to recruitment, so the Army is addressing it. The article explains that the U.S. now has the third largest military behind China and India and tightly followed by North Korea and Russia with Ukraine, Pakistan and Iran not so far behind. When you look at that list, you don’t get a particularly warm feeling on the basis of friend or foe. And the one friend we could have, Ukraine, we are in the process of abandoning. All NATO members combined have 3.5 million soldiers whereas China/Russia/North Korea/Iran have 5 million. This will help you understand why India with its 1.5 million troops is a very popular girl at the dance right now.
The article also describes the nature of our modern military with about four support staff for each warrior. At least our warriors have more combat experience than China’s, though its fair to say that Russia, as embattled and weakened as its military is after three years fighting Ukraine ineffectually, at least they now know about modern drone and other forms of warfare as well as how to use Iranian, Chinese and North Korean weapons. It’s fascinating to come to grips with just how weakened our defense shield is at this time. We may or may not be able to prevail in one war, but we certainly cannot be ready to conduct a second front war, which is perceived as quite critical in today’s world. In other words, our military seems to be in the worst shape of our lifetimes with no signs of how we can make it better under the current circumstances. We are too far away from AI and robotic warfare to suggest that we have a salvation in that reality.
My generation was all about coming off a power stroke of military dominance and superiority that allowed us to sleep well at night. When we faced crises like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the 9/11 attacks we seemed able to rally and bootstrap ourselves into a dominant position quickly. It seems increasingly clear that through a combination of moderating will (our isolationist desires), limited armament manufacturing capability (China has 200X the ship-building capacity that we have), we are quickly finding ourselves behind the proverbial eight ball. I fear less about being attacked soon than by the idea that our isolationist desires will leave us exactly where we are putting ourselves…in isolation and with fewer and fewer friends. That is one of the things that make it so strange that Trump is choosing to ruffle Mexican and Canadian feathers. Between them and Ukraine, we have effectively waved off as many forces as we ourselves have at the moment…not a wise move. I have always had great respect for service members, but now I fear that our protective shields are weakening by the day in a world with more enemies than friends.
The second article is about an asteroid called 2024 YR4 that has a higher probability of hitting the earth (3.1%) than any other asteroid ever. It’s scheduled to possibly strike Earth on December 22, 2032. It is estimated to be 130-300 feet in diameter and is suspected of being rocky matter rather than solid metal. What that all means is that while it is not really an extinction-level event, its big enough to wreck havoc on some part of the world if it hits. I will be 78 if and when that happens.
I am regularly reminded of the old cartoon with the dinosaur speaking to a convention of dinosaurs when he says that the news is not good. Not only do they have climate change, reduced vegetation and asteroids to deal with, but they only have a brain the size of a walnut. I feel like our world is in disarray and the most telling bit of evidence seems like the status of the military, under whose blanketing warmth we have lived for decades. As Jack said, I want them on that wall, I need them on that wall. The nature of man is such that we will start ripping ourselves apart as soon as we know we can get away with it…and that time seems to be approaching. Maybe we will avoid all of that with a good meteor strike that might bring us all back to our senses, or at least for a productive stint in purgatory.