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I stepped inside the cool interior, which was dimly lit and covered on walls and ceiling with paintings of Christ and the Apostles, of biblical figures and heroes from long ago. I took a seat to wait for my spiritual father and looked around. I saw faces of men and women who had known suffering, much more severe than what I had ever experienced, even as rocked as I felt just then. They stood serene around the walls, many holding symbols of victory.

Father George Calciu came out from beside the altar and greeted me. He is a small, resilient man, unusually vigorous for his 76 years. His hair and beard are thick and white, and his face is permanently creased with the marks of indomitable good cheer. Cheerfulness is an unlikely attribute, given his story. In his native Romania Fr. George challenged the communist authorities repeatedly and forcefully, with a courage that defied self-preservation. He was confined in brutal prisons, subjected to brainwashing, and formed a lifelong friendship with a fellow prisoner, Richard Wurmbrand, author of Tortured for Christ.

Today the first thing he asked me was, "Why do you think that happened yesterday?"

I was stumped for a minute. I hadn't thought of exactly that question. I said, "I don't know."

Fr. George said, "It was the punishment of God."

Well, there's something I hadn't thought of. Though I wondered why I hadn't; I've just finished an intensive study of the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and knew that the Jews have always seen even that brutal and sacrilegious tragedy as divine retribution for their sins. In fact, that seems to be the Old Testament pattern; anytime Israel suffered a military defeat, they responded with repentance. It didn't replace other strategic responses, but was an indispensable companion.

This isn't just an Old Testament phenomenon. When people told Jesus that Pilate had killed worshippers at the Temple, he responded, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3). There seems to be a biblical pattern here: national suffering should bring about repentance.

I have often wondered what might return our sick culture to health. I've sometimes felt overwhelmed at the ugliness of America's spiritual condition, at 40 million children killed by abortion, at the promotion world-wide of sexual promiscuity and materialism, the contempt of God, the spreading infection of American culture.

I've often wondered what might turn us around. Everything moves in cycles, and some sick cultures do return to health; it can happen in a generation. But I have never heard of a historical example that wasn't inaugurated by catastrophe. Healing is the fruit of repentance, and repentance comes in the wake of suffering. There aren't many examples of spontaneous remission from this sort of illness.

Fr. George told me that the night before he had opened his Bible and it had fallen to Psalm 127. He read me the first verse: "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." How, he asked me, could the hijackers have overcome such a high level of security unless the Lord somehow permitted it?

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September (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45