Pierced by a Sword (13 page)

He was now returning from the Henley Farm just outside of LaPorte. He had used Henley's crop duster
for the job and had shuttled himself there and back with his 172. He landed, jumped out onto the grass, and made his way across the field to the kitchen door. He smelled the fresh-baked apple pie sitting on the ledge of the kitchen window. Inside he found his sister Joanie, his parents, and two strangers. One was a man who looked to be in his mid-thirties and the other was a much older man sitting
next to his dad.

"Hi Mom and Dad," he said. Then, looking directly at Nathan, he added, "Hi Joanie. How was your party in Chicago?"

"The party was very eventful," she replied, shaking her head at her little brother, trying but failing to avoid looking at Nathan.
Very funny, Denny.
She then looked to her dad.

Tom Wheat made introductions before Denny sat down. The young pilot was famished.

Denny
looked at Nathan, then at Joanie, and knew the two were in love. He knew all about flying high and feeling free.

Chapter Six

1

Sunday Evening
8 October
Mishawaka, Indiana

Anne Wheat served
kielbasa
in a casserole of onions and green peppers along with a side dish of scalloped potatoes.

When politely asked by Anne, Nathan briefly told about his job trading securities at VV&B, and how he grew up in New Jersey with Chet Sullivan. Despite his quiet voice, Joanie noticed that he had no problem looking either her
parents or Mr. Slinger in the eyes.

Tom Wheat told Slinger how he chanced upon the book
Our Lady of Fatima
at a Marian shrine in Carey, Ohio, fourteen years ago. Tom had stopped by the shrine gift shop after giving a lecture to the Historical Society in nearby Findlay. Wheat intended to buy a rosary for Anne as an anniversary gift and happened to see the book at the counter. Having only a faint
childhood recollection of the story of Fatima, his interest was perked. He stayed up all night at the hotel reading the book.

When he arrived back in Mishawaka the next day, he announced to Anne that the book had changed his life. At the time, she thought her husband sounded somewhat fanatical.
Dedicated
would be a better description of Tom Wheat. Applying his keen intellect along with an historian's
lifetime of training, he devoured all the information he could find on the historical appearances of Mary. There was even more information on contemporary apparitions, which had begun to multiply around the world. He soon began to correspond with experts, authors, and the spiritual directors of alleged visionaries. During his summer breaks he dragged Anne to apparition sites around the world.

Marian apparitions became an all-consuming passion. Before long, experts began to call Wheat for
his
opinions, and to tap into his encyclopedic knowledge on the subject. No one had a better grasp of the big picture.

A few years later, a fellow named Joe Jackson asked Wheat to speak before the newly formed Knights of Immaculata group at Notre Dame. Jackson, Wheat's former student, had enjoyed a
brief career in the National Football League. Two years before asking him to speak, Jackson convinced several NFL players to appear in a prolife video. Joe subsequently started a foundation for the purpose of distributing prolife videos and other Catholic materials. He called it the Kolbe Foundation.

Marian groups began asking Wheat to speak at parishes around the state and then at parishes around
the country. Wheat discovered what he termed "the Network" of Marian groups. There were dozens of Marian peace centers and literally thousands of Marian prayer groups, as well as a growing number of parishes with perpetual Eucharistic adoration.

Ten years after Wheat began his speaking engagements, Jackson approached him about releasing a recording to be distributed for free. Wheat, who had never
taken fees for speaking, had no problem with talks being given away, but he tried to discourage Jackson from releasing the CDs. He did not want to appear to be promoting himself. But he didn't forbid Jackson from carrying out his plan.

Jackson distributed four hundred CDs and audio tapes with the simple title of "Marian Apparitions" at a Marian Peace Congress in Chicago. Jackson sent free CDs
to anyone who wrote in for them after the congress. Over ten thousand copies were given away in the first year. After two years, one hundred thousand. After four years of distribution over two million people had heard "Marian Apparitions" with practically no advertising by the Kolbe Foundation. Copies were passed around with glowing recommendations. Jackson told Wheat that hundreds of families had
each distributed thousands of CDs! Thousands of individuals had each distributed dozens of CDs. The Kolbe Foundation also distributed several other audio recordings on Catholic topics.

Wheat and Jackson found themselves caught up in a great Marian Catholic revival exploding around the world. Besides the Kolbe Foundation, there were five or six other major Marian apostolates that fed information
to the millions of people who were rediscovering their faith through the apparitions of Our Lady. One group in Pittsburgh had published millions of special edition newspapers detailing the same kind of information that was on Wheat's talks. Another apostolate in Philadelphia produced hundreds of thousands of professional videos about approved apparitions. A married couple in Virginia had published
a book–similar in content to Wheat's audio–which had sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

Both Jackson and Wheat believed that it was primarily the powerful messages from heaven which fueled the talk's popularity. Jackson lent more weight than Wheat did to Wheat's unique speaking style, which was dramatic yet not offensive. Wheat was more historian than preacher, and emphasized facts over opinion
during his talks. The professor preferred to quote the messages directly and to draw out the common themes. Non-religious listeners found it interesting–even if most of them rejected the message. Historians could find no error in any of the well-researched facts, nor could theologians fault Wheat's precise theological language. Wheat achieved on a recording what he had done routinely for over
thirty years in the classroom: he transformed a lecture into a dramatic event.

Joe Jackson's part-time project had turned into a full-time job at the Kolbe Foundation, which was now the largest producer of Catholic audio tapes and CDs in the world. More than two dozen people worked for him.

Jackson was unassuming in person but was a tenacious ball of action when it came to apostolic work, Wheat
assured Slinger during the dinner conversation.

"You would like him, Karl. He thinks big. He
is
big–you should see him! I'm speaking tomorrow night at Joe's Knights of Immaculata group, which has over one thousand members in this part of Indiana. Perhaps you could stay another day and meet Joe? It starts at five o'clock," Tom suggested.

Wheat noticed his wife rolling her eyes.

Anne Wheat the Catholic
believed in her husband's unusual calling, of course; but Anne Wheat the wife had grown somewhat weary of his obsession. The man she had married, the mild-mannered professor, had become an evangelizing zealot who constantly struggled to balance his family, profession, health, and apostolic work. Anne both cursed and blessed the transformation. On the one hand, he didn't seem to have free time
anymore. On the other hand, he had become more humble and considerate of her despite his lack of free time.

A prophet is never welcomed in his own home,
Joanie thought when she saw her mother's expression.

Joanie, who also believed in her father's avocation, was temperamentally better suited to tune out her dad. She had heard him speak privately and publicly on the subject dozens of times before.
She gave her mom an understanding look.

"I'd love to hear you speak, Tom!" Karl boomed. "I'll call Lenny Gold, my lawyer, and tell him I'm taking another day off. He'll flip. I'm the last person in the world he'd figure would ever become a Christer. I haven't taken two days off other than occasional vacations with Dottie in years."

"Mr. Slinger, what's a Christer?" Nathan asked.

Wheat and Slinger
chorused chuckles.

"A Christer is World War II military slang for what you would call a Jesus Freak or a Holy Roller nowadays," Wheat explained for Slinger.

"Did you fight in the big one, Mr. Slinger?" Joanie asked.

"Yes," Karl replied rather crisply, looking down at his plate. Like many veterans who have seen combat, Karl didn't like to talk about his days with the Marine Raiders on Guadalcanal.
He had lost many, many friends in those fierce battles.

Then Slinger had a thought which he expressed with uncharacteristic sobriety, "You know, Tom, your talk reminded me of America in the thirties. Everyone knew in their hearts that Hitler was a bad apple and that a war was coming. It was like no one could admit to themselves the stark reality of what was going to happen, even though you could
smell it in the air. I mean, if someone suggested to me in high school that the Nazis were going to attempt to exterminate every Jew on the face of the earth, I would have laughed. Hitler was like a big bully you wanted to avoid, but couldn't. This time the bully is darker, meaner, and invisible.

"If it's true that the Mother of God is predicting a great battle between her army and Satan's army,
then Hitler is going to look like small potatoes."

"I think I know what you mean," Joanie added. "When I try to imagine Daddy fighting in Korea, it always seems like cartoons to me. When I teach the Battle of Britain to my kids, it's hard to imagine myself living in London in 1943 with bombs dropping on my neighborhood every night. It's like World War II happened in a movie, but not for real.
I guess it's just plain hard to believe that Dad's talk is true. To reject what Dad says outright is tempting, but that would mean rejecting a lot of facts. It would mean that God isn't serious when He sends prophets to the world."

This reminds me of eating at the Sullivan house when I was a kid,
Nathan thought.
Everybody is free to join in the conversation. I used to stay pretty quiet at the
Sullivans' back then, too. I wonder what Joanie and this Slinger guy are talking about?

Everyone pondered Joanie's observation until Slinger spoke up again.

"That Warning you talk about on your CD sounds like it's going to make it real for people, Tom," Karl observed. "Do you know when it's going to happen? You didn't mention any dates."

"To tell you the truth, Karl, nobody knows for sure. I probably
know more about this subject than anyone else in the country, and even I don't know. Most experts think it's going to be soon, but a careful reading of the alleged events at Garabandal suggests that we'll be far along into the Schism and Tribulations before it happens. Only one of the Garabandal visionaries, Mari Loli, knows the year of the Warning, and she hasn't told anyone. No one knows
the exact date." Wheat absently swirled his Maker's Mark in his glass as he spoke.

Garabandal is a small town in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain where Our Lady reportedly appeared to several children over two thousand times from 1961 to 1965. Mary told the children of incredible events that would take place in the future, including something called the Warning.

A long moment of silence
ensued before Nathan spoke.

"If you'll pardon me, sir, I don't know what you're talking about. Warnings, tribulations?"

"Forgive me, Nathan, of course you don't," Wheat apologized. "In the sixties at a place called Garabandal in Spain, Our Lady told children that the entire world would undergo a 'correction of conscience' called the Warning. All human activity will stop, and each person will see
his or her soul as God sees it. It will be a frightening thing to see the impact of your sins on other people's lives, and how your sins offend God. It will be something similar to experiencing your own final judgment, but before you die.

"Frightening as it may sound, the Warning is really an act of God's mercy. If such an event does occur, it will be the first time in history that all people
experience the same thing at the same time. It's a stupendous event, really, and quite incredible.

"Garabandal is controversial. There have been two investigative commissions by two bishops over the years. The local bishops have denied a supernatural character to the events, although the content of the messages was not found contrary to Catholic teachings.

"We must always use caution. Garabandal
might be a blind alley. Bishops have changed their minds, too, about these things, but we can't hope or count on that in this case.

"Catholics are not even required to believe in Fatima, which has been fully approved. We must always balance belief with caution. God does not send prophets as a joke. God does not joke.

"Let's assume that Garabandal is false. That still doesn't mean there won't be
a Warning. Many saints throughout the ages have undergone personal versions of the Warning. Saint Teresa of Avila was actually shown the place in hell reserved for her had she not reformed her life. Apparently, she was a fairly apathetic nun before her great prayerful ecstasies and active life reforming and founding Carmelite convents in the sixteenth century.

"More recently, in the 1930s, Blessed
Faustina of Poland underwent a personal Warning, seeing herself as God sees her. She was horrified at the damage even the smallest of her sins caused to her soul, and to her fellow human beings. And Blessed Faustina was a very holy woman. Many believe that she will be canonized a saint.

"Mary is currently appearing to an Irish woman who warns that all mankind will experience an 'inner awareness'
of how God sees our souls. Meanwhile, a priest named Father Gobbi of Italy, who hears Mary by way of a phenomenon called a 'locution,' has been writing about a worldwide 'judgment in miniature.' I could name seven more contemporary mystics who have spoken about a Warning.

"Some biblical scholars believe that Simeon's prophecy–given to Mary and Joseph when they presented the infant Jesus at the
temple–alludes to this Warning. 'And your heart, too, a sword shall pierce, so that the thoughts of many will be revealed,'" Wheat quoted, finishing his short dissertation.

From the look on Nathan's face it was obvious that he was still somewhat confused.

"Maybe I should give him one of your CDs, Dad," Joanie suggested. "That way he can listen to it on the way back to Chicago tomorrow night."

A smile came to Anne Wheat's face. "Are you planning on staying for the evening, Nathan?" she asked.

"If I can find a hotel nearby, Mrs. Wheat."

"You may call me Anne, Nathan. Why don't you stay with us? You can sleep in Denny's room."

I knew it,
Joanie thought.
Staying with Denny is a nice touch, Mom.

Joanie was not surprised to find herself hoping Nathan would accept her mother's offer. Joanie,
thinking of Nathan's remark at the lake, was not comfortable with the idea of having her new boyfriend more than twenty yards away either.

"That's awful kind of you, ma'am–but I wouldn't want to put you out," Nathan answered courteously, wondering if he was laying it on a little thick.