Pierced by a Sword (57 page)

Do it,
they both thought.
Now is not the time for talk. Now is the time for action,
the pope remembered the young man's words.

Angus glanced at the tank heading toward the altar, then looked back at Nathan. The pope drew strength from his steady
gaze. Then Nathan smiled.

Angus reached for the chalice and continued with the Mass as Blatovsky's tank continued to roll toward the front of the

crowd in an absurd armored procession.

Why arrest him?
Blatovsky thought.
Why not just shoot him? This crowd of sheep will be too stunned to react, and if they do the infantry can cut down any resistance. I'll go down in history! Screw Amsterdam. After
it's done, they'll take as much credit as they can!

+  +  +

The possessed man raised the silver letter opener over Chet's head, and paused. Gello's eyes looked as if they would burst like tiny balloons! He shrieked an incomprehensible, gleeful scream that filled the shackled priest with fear beyond fear.

Hail Mary!
Chet began to pray. A Psalm came to his mind immediately.

"Though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil..." Chet muttered, turning his head, feeling pain in his wrists, looking away from Gello and the knife.

Chet received the certain knowledge that he was about to die. He had anticipated his martyrdom since being thrown in jail, imagining that he might have a chance to make a holy speech like Saint Polycarp or some other great martyr. But he
would not have his chance to give a speech. No one would hear it, anyway. Not even Harlan.

In his last act of courage, Father Chet forced himself to look up at his enemy and prayed for both himself and the poor possessed man.

"Hail Mary," he started tentatively, "Full of Grace," his voice grew stronger, "The Lord is with thee!" Chet prayed with a deep timbre that reminded him of Tom Wheat.

The
demon inside Gello gave one last, bloodcurdling scream and brought his dagger down into the priest.

"Blessed art thou...among women...and Blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus..." Chet continued, keeping his eyes on his tormentor, avoiding the urge to watch the blood pour out of his body onto the blue carpet.
Don't stop,
he told himself.
Finish strong.

Time slowed as Chet looked with supernatural
calm as the sword descended for a second time. Even as the blood flowed out of it, a grace filled Chet's heart beyond all time and all movement–the unique Grace of Martyrs.

As Chet's heart was pierced by the sword for a third and final time, he finished his life's prayer. "Holy Mary, Mother of God... pray for us sinners...now and at... the hour... of our... death... "

Life left Father Chet's eyes.
His head dropped. He was dead. It was finished. Father Chet prayed "Amen" in heaven. In the arms of his mother.

+  +  +

Becky grasped Joe's hand, and Joe grasped Nathan's hand. Nathan was already holding Joanie's hand. They tried to ignore the man in the World Union uniform as he dismounted from the tank with the blue insignia of the World Union on its turret. The general exuded power, arrogance,
and contempt. Joe considered storming the altar to fling himself in front of the pope. Nathan, reading Joe's mind, tightened his grip on the big man's hand, sending a clear message.
Stay. Follow the pope. Follow the pope.

They kept their eyes on Angus and the consecrated Savior in Angus's holy hands. The crowd surged forward, making it difficult for the four friends to balance.

The old priest's
eyes focused on the Sacred Host as he solemnly raised it above his head, praying, "Take this, all of you, and eat it. This is my body, which will be given up for you."

The priest held up the Body of Jesus for almost half a minute before gently lowering Him to the altar. He genuflected reverently. Then he took the chalice, ignoring Ivan Blatovsky, who was standing only a few feet away.

The General
pulled a pistol from its holster and arrogantly pointed it at Pope Patrick as the chalice was raised...

"Take this all of you and drink from it. This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant."

Something delayed Blatovsky from firing his weapon. Perhaps he felt it would be rude to interrupt a condemned man while he was speaking such words, which Blatovsky had to admit,
were almost hypnotic...

"It will be shed for
you
and for all so that sins may be forgiven. Do this in memory of me."

He elevated the chalice.

Pope Patrick's eyes remained on the Sacred Blood.

Blatovsky steadied his aim, preparing to shed blood.

I will not allow myself to be hypnotized by this skinny witch doctor!

+  +  +

Then the Great Warning came.

+  +  +

The demon surrendered control of Harlan
Gello. The Warning then came to Harlan as he stood holding a bloody dagger over the dead body of another Christ...

...after the Warning, Harlan dropped the letter opener to the carpet.

"What have I done!? What have I done?!" he repeated, stunned, looking back and forth from the blood on his hands to the dead priest.

He left the room and collapsed on the couch in his office, sobbing and moaning.

Words from the Bible echoed in his ears, each word a judge and jury of his life:

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

The words seemed to be spoken with the voice of the priest he had just helped murder.

The Christ on the Cross in the Warning had spoken the one Word that could save his soul.

Mercy,
he thought desperately.
Mercy.

Then, a sinister voice taunted Harlan. It was Rangor's
voice:
Say that word all you want. But do you have the courage to pray it?

Rangor laughed.
I don't think so. You made your choice a long time ago, Harlan.

The demonic laughter came again and filled Harlan's head.

Did I?
Harlan asked, uncertain.

+  +  +

Swords were pounded into plowshares.

When General Blatovsky came out of his own harrowing Warning, the gun dropped from his hand. Sweat covered
his face. He slowly looked out into the crowd, many of whom were collapsed on the ground, coming out of their own Warnings. Some of the older people in the crowd appeared to be sleeping, but had actually died from heart failure caused by the trauma of their Warnings.

The General looked to the Pope, who was just lowering the Cup of Blood. Angus was obviously shaken. He turned to the man in uniform.

Blatovsky dropped to his knees, whispering emotionally in Russian, "Father forgive me, for I know not what I have done. My mother! My mother taught me about Jesus when I was a child in the Ukraine. She baptized me! I didn't know! I am so sorry...so sorry. I am a murderer. I am so sorry." The tears began to flow uncontrollably from his one eye.

Angus looked with compassion on the weeping man. He
held up a wrinkled hand, and prayed in perfect Russian, "Through the ministry of the Church, I absolve you of your sins in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."

Blatovsky fell forward, grasping the pope by the legs.

Angus put his arms around this prodigal son. The first of many.

+  +  +

The Warning came for everyone except Nathan Payne. Nathan was almost alone during
the Great Warning. He could not move. He was not breathing. Time stopped. Everything stopped. His gaze was locked in place for a second–for an hour–for an eternity.

He was looking at his wife. Joanie was perfectly still, the expression of fear for Pope Patrick fixed on her face like a living photograph. Beyond her, he could see the motionless crowd. There was a soldier on a tank, exhaling a cigarette.
The smoke from his mouth sat in the air–fixed. There was no sound. A bird was suspended in the sky, as if held in place by an unseen string.

And there was peace. Nathan remembered his own Warning, and the words of the Woman, the Mother of God.

I will always be at your side.

+  +  +

Becky, Joe, and Joanie came out of their Warnings and looked at Nathan. Now they knew.

"The Warning!" Joanie cried.
"I saw the Cross! I saw the Immaculate Conception! My sins! I'm so...sorry..."

Her words hung in space.

Nathan took her into his arms. "It's okay," was all he could think to say to his wife. He felt her whole, thin body shuddering with contrition.

Joe and Becky joined them in a corporate hug. They were all crying at the same time now, even Nathan.

People were weeping all around them. Nathan suddenly
remembered standing in front of the cornfield with Joe, Joanie, and Becky on the night of his engagement, the day he left the hospital, all four holding each other's wrists.

Solidarity. Solidarity,
he thought over and over again, confused and bewildered and...somehow happy.
The walls are going to come down now,
he thought.
If only–

Then they heard the pope's voice.

"We shall finish Mass now,"
he said with a firm, gentle voice which echoed out onto the quad of Notre Dame.

The first to receive Communion was Ivan Blatovsky.

8

"In the Pines"
Garabandal, Spain

Within one year, on a Thursday, in the mountain village of Garabandal, Spain, a giant cross appeared in the sky above the pines. It was the Great Miracle of Garabandal. Millions present were instantly healed of mental and physical
infirmities, as prophesied. The Cross was two stories tall, surrounded by an illuminated cloud, and was suspended thirty feet in the air above a patch of pine trees. Satellite television beamed its image around the world. People could walk up to it, look at it, but could feel nothing when they reached out to touch it.

It was similar to the Cross every person on the face of the earth had seen during
the Great Warning. There was one difference; there was no corpus on the Garabandal Cross. Suspended above it was a Sacred Host. Streams of heavenly red and white light came forth from the Host. The Body of the Risen Christ. The misty cloud illuminated the Cross and Sacred Host at night.

The Cross remains there to this day. Over two billion pilgrims came from all over the world to see it in person
during the decade following its appearance.

+  +  +

In a room in a building in the Vatican, an old man put the barrel of a revolver into his mouth, and pulled the trigger. Luigi Casino's heart stopped...

...in a room in a rectory in New Jersey, an old priest pulled the barrel of a revolver out of his mouth.

The image of Father Chet's face, weary after hours in the confessional, faded peacefully.

Monsignor Timothy Whelan placed the gun on his desk.

He stood and walked out of the room to find a priest to hear his confession.

+  +  +

After the Great Warning, there were still those who continued to imitate their evil master, vowing, "I will not serve."

The Great Warning did
not
eliminate human free will. After the Great Warning, however, no one could fool himself that there are other than
two choices for each human soul: Good or Evil.

The Great Miracle at Garabandal was a public, super-natural sign that every person of every language could read with perfect clarity. The Great Miracle spoke clearly to every heart and mind, saying, "This is Goodness Personified. This is Salvation. The Cross. The Eucharist." In addition,
everyone
"met" the Immaculate Conception, Mary, at the foot
of the Cross during their Warnings.

The World Union did not dissolve immediately. Those dedicated to evil redoubled their efforts to enslave and destroy God's people.

It would take more space than is contained in all the computer hard drives in the world to recount all the events...

9

From
Dark Years History
(New Rome Press, 31 R.E.)
by Rebecca Macadam Jackson

...General Blatovsky's Marian Armies
crushed the Second World Union Army in the cornfields near Lake Waxinkuckee several days after the Great Warning. The Second Army was fighting at one-third strength due to the mass desertion of troops immediately after the Warning. The First World Union Army surrendered in Texas without firing a shot. French, German, and Russian soldiers joined the Marian Armies. The reconquering of the World
Union territories in North America took less than four months.

Most of the more horrific wars occurred in China and Europe, where the Great Warning had less effect on the populations. Months after the Great Warning, millions had either decided to serve evil without reserve or had convinced themselves that the Great Warning had been a worldwide mass hallucination...

...nuclear weapons were used
frequently on the Continent and in Asia. It is beyond the scope of this history to go into great detail regarding events in those places. However, it would be remiss not to point out that the spiritual and cultural treasures of Saint Peter's Basilica were utterly, senselessly destroyed when the Society of Builders abandoned the Vatican and detonated a nuclear weapon rather than surrender control.
The Pieta Miracle–the perfect preservation of Michelangelo's masterpiece at "ground zero" of the nuclear detonation–stands as a supernatural symbol of God's mercy to the world...

...as the Lord Himself promised after the Great Flood in Noah's times, the next time He punished the world would not be by water. In this next section we will recount the Three Days of Darkness (TDD), which destroyed
all those who did not heed the Great Warning. Supernatural fire fell from the sky for three days, consuming all those who refused the immense grace of the Warning...

...corpses were everywhere after the TDD. Because of the disease generated in the corrupting bodies, certain cities became uninhabitable for years afterward. These cities stand as gruesome monuments to the Dark Years...

...first president
of the reformed United States, Karl Slinger–and others like him such as General Williams–can rightly take their place as the second wave of founding fathers. Slinger is often referred to as "the Second George Washington." More than any other man, President Slinger fearlessly led his people with faith, guts, example, piety, and sacrifice during the darkest days of the Dark Years. Few observers
believe that Texas would have held out until the Great Warning had not Slinger inserted his forceful personality into history. The whole world came to know and love his booming laughter.