Praying For Christopher Hitchens
I know he doesn't want me to and I know he thinks it is useless but, Christopher Hitchens, I am praying for you.
Christopher Hitchens can be smart, acerbic, funny, mean, insightful, and thick. He defends Western Civilization while, via his outspoken atheism, semantically chipping away at the Christian pillars that support it. In short, Christopher Hitchens is a frustrating person. Christopher Hitchens is also very sick. He writes...
I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice.There are no good cancers to have...
Continue Reading @ National Catholic Register
19 comments:
Patrick:
This is a truly beautiful post. Hopefully everyone will join with you in these prayers.
having had cancer and-- many deaths in our family from it, I cannot imagine how anyone could live through it without God. How terribly sad that would have been. May our Heavenly Father send him what he requires in this difficult period.
Whoa.
Dumb troll is dumb.
I think it would be kind of fitting to ask Mother Teresa to pray for him....
Dollars to donuts Mother Teresa is already praying for him. :)
Foxfier, you anticipated my own comment...thank you. Let's add St. Maximilian Kolbe as an intercessor for Mr. Hitchens' recovery. Hitchens wrote a scathing attack on St. Maximilian in "The Nation" back in the 1980s when Maximilian was being considered for canonization.
May the merciful Lord watch over Mr. Hitchens and strengthen his guardian angel to comfort and guide him in this trial.
I continue to be amazed at the anger and disdain expressed by the atheists responding at NCR!
Many a saint has had his start while suffering away the miserable days and hours in a hospital bed all alone!
Um, Patrick - please remove John D's offensive comment.
sorry i didn't delete that post earlier guys. I was helping my sister move so I wasn't in front of a computer.
LarryD thanks for the heads up.
Our Father in heaven must be on his case. Please God Mr Hitchens will consider this illness the most providential of his life.
While I certainly don't wish Hitchens ill, I can say, "God's will be done". I certainly don't think he deserves a recovery any more than someone who has actually done GOOD in this life. The irony is, Hitchens is himself a cancer. He has attempted to eat away at the church, its saints, and basically anyone who has done ANYTHING good in this world and has a following because of it.
Aside from writing and guest appearances to tout his parasitic/cancerous views, what good has Hitchens ever done? Once again, God's will be done (and soon).
Well, I can think of one good thing that Christopher Hitchens has done: he has provided a good opportunity for us to obey Our Lord's commandment that we love our enemies and pray for them.
We recently celebrated the feast of Saints Peter and Paul. St. Paul, as a penitent, had been a persecutor of Christians. If there is hope for someone like St. Paul then there is hope for Mr. Hitchens. I'll offer a few decades of the Rosary for him every week, for the next few weeks.
None of us "deserve" anything when it comes to a miraculous healing.
It doesn't make emotional sense in a world where, as the saying goes, the good die young-- but it's a gift. It's not something we earn, or lose because we do something wrong.
Mr. Hitchens could get a lot of use out of it, too, and an incredible amount of good could be done. "Deserving" or not.
As to him being a cancer-- you have to be part of something and turn against it to be cancerous. Antagonistic? Goodness, yeah, but short of considering him a human cancer-- I can't remember the origin of the phrase, but I really don't like it-- he can hardly be called a cancer to the Church.
His hate gets in the way, but he has done good-- famously, recently, the 'nonbeliever' relief drive for Haiti.
He doesn't have to do anything good for us to want him to turn to Christ.
Aside from wanting every soul to be saved (I am not judging the disposition of his soul, btw, although it is possible to judge his actions) wouldn't his very conversion be a "good" thing itself? Besides - why would anyone want a soul to be damned? Any soul? What? You want a soul to go into the WIN column for Satan? ICK!
What if Hitler had converted? Wouldn't that have been a good thing? What if tomorrow Bin Laden converted to Catholicism, walked out of his cave, gave himself up and said, "I deserve to be punished for what I have done." Wouldn't that be a VICTORY for God? In hoc signo vinces!
Put it this way - the fewer souls in Hell the better. That is why we should be praying for "our enemies" as Jesus told us to.
"Forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven - especially those most in need of they Mercy." AMEN!
Jimbo - you are assuming that his recovery would turn him to Christ. These are two separate issues.
Once again, God's will be done.
ER: Nope. I'm not assuming that. I am saying that we should pray for his RECOVERY not to be confused with - his recovery. I am not just praying that he gets better physically. (In fact, his suffering may be spiritually useful - not that I want him to suffer.) So yes, God's will be done - but also his will (C.H.'s) be the same as God's.
I might have to go back and re-read it, but I thought that was what Patrick was saying as well.
Good weekend...
No matter if a person is atheist, jewish, muslim or whatever. It's always good to pray for anyone, God will work on this guy pretty soon.
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