Cling not to what is passing!
Posted By Fr. Jim Tucker on August 23, 2009
April 14, 1912
The deck of the great ship pitched forward (or backward, depending on which way you were facing). Paintings and mirrors crashed to the floor, as well as the fancy bone china.
“This is impossible!” Ismay cried, “This can’t be happening! This ship was meant to be impervious! Unsinkable!”
He thought the cry was only in his mind, but apparently one of the passengers heard it.
“Ismay,” shouted the American passenger, “you sold us a bill of goods! Be ready, you’ll be hearing from my lawyer about this one!”
Ismay poured his life’s blood into this project for the White Star Line. The Titanic was meant to be the greatest achievement of mankind! “God Himself couldn’t sink this ship” Maybe that was the beginning of the problem. But there was no problem, Ismay thought. This was supposed to be the perfect luxury liner!
His heart raced as he saw people sliding across the wet wooden deck, desperately grasping at any piece of rigging that would hold them.
The deck climbed to an even steeper angle, as he heard the metal creaking under the strain.
“Mister Ismay,” cried one of the deckhands, “Mister Ismay, follow me!” The young lad grabbed him by the sleeve and pulled him toward Lifeboat C. He felt thrown into the collapsable lifeboat, surrounded by women and children, most of whom were scowling at him.
“Couldn’t have the Managing Director of the White Star Line swimmin’ in his own soup, could we?” said the deckhand as he rushed away.
Ismay buried his face in his chest as the lifeboat was lowered into the icy waters of the North Atlantic . . .
. . . As the boat was paddled to a safe distance, the mighty ocean liner could be seen with her bow jutting straight up out of the water. The waves seemed to devour her, piece by piece. Ismay wanted to reach out to the doomed ship as if to pull her out of her misery, but he could not bear it. He simply looked away as the last portion of the great bow disappeared into the sea. . .
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For some reason this image of the Titanic sinking into the Atlantic was the first thing that went through my mind as I read a piece from the 39th paragraph of the Vatican II document Gaudium et Spes: “We do not know the time for the consummation of the earth and of humanity. Nor do we know how all things will be transformed. As deformed by sin, the shape of this world will pass away.”
Perhaps, it was because I’ve seen so many people – including myself – cling too desperately to the things of this world, much like the passengers of the Titanic were clinging for dear life to the hull of a ship that was quickly deteriorating. I was paying too close attention to those organizations and groups manufactured my man, some of which were fashioned to further Jesus Christ and His Gospel. I lost sight for a moment of my true focus: the salvation of souls.
We have in this world no lasting city. With all our technology and the incredible inventions of our hands, we as a human beings tend to think that this American society that we have made is invincible, impervious to anything that would dare even try to bring it down.
The Founding Fathers of this country fashioned its primary principles upon our Creator, acutely cognizant of dignity of each human person. They knew full well that this dignity that is inherent in each person comes directly from God. This is the foundation of our nation. This is the strong, tempered steel that was meant to withstand any bombardment of ideology.
Is this well-tempered steel being refashioned today? In the name of unbridled license, is the mighty ship of the United States of America weakening under the strain of changes made from within, all in the name of progress?
If human beings feel they have the right to decide whose life is worth sustaining, or who is worthy of being given a chance at living and who is not, then society cannot help but deteriorate. If we think that we are moving toward progress by abandoning the values of our forefathers, then just like the Titanic, this great ship called America, a ship we thought so strong and unsinkable, will plummet to the bottom of the ocean.
That same section of Gaudium et Spes also tells us that God is preparing for us a new heavens and a new earth, “where justice will abide and whose blessedness will surpass all the longings for peace which spring up in the human heart.”
The Prophet Isaiah says, “For it is not the nether world that gives you thanks,/ nor death that praises you . . .The living, the living give you thanks.” I always say to people, “If you’re still breathing, there’s still hope.” That’s true of individuals, how much more is it true for societies? We as a nation are still breathing, but we are short of breath. Yet we don’t know it. May God guide us to realize that we are drowning in our own ideologies. We have forgotten about God. If we think that, like the Titanic, God Himself couldn’t sink this ship called America, we had better think again. God is all powerful. He could sink this ship, but we don’t need God to accomplish this task. We are doing it just fine all by ourselves.
So, where is the hope? The hope comes when we invite God back into our country. Let us be proud of being “One Nation under God,” rather than being embarrassed by it. If we again allow God to be God of our nation, then He will “remove disaster from among” us and will bring about our restoration (Zephaniah 3).
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