Joyce Kilmer was a shining example of what it means to be a Soldier of Christ. He was a man of courage, a man of strength, a man of conviction … but most importantly, he was a husband, a father of five children, and a deeply devoted and pious Catholic.
In the last days of World War I, Kilmer lost his life to a sniper’s bullet at the Second Battle of the Marne at the age of 31. He was renowned in the battlefield and hailed as a legend among the men who knew him. His bravery was unmatched, as he sought the most dangerous missions. According to Kilmer’s biographer, John Hillis, “He was worshiped by the men about him. I have heard them speak with awe of his coolness and his nerve in scouting patrols in no man’s land. This coolness and his habit of choosing, with typical enthusiasm, the most dangerous and difficult missions, led to his death.”
But Kilmer’s legacy rarely speaks of his time at war. He is more often remembered for his poetry. The poem which made him famous is a simple one called “Trees”:
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
While this may be the poem that brought him the most attention, his possibly least known poem is very likely his best. This poem is a sharp diagnostic of the way the devil works to deceive men, and illustrates the most cunning tactic of the satanic, which is to impersonate Our Blessed Lord.
The name of the poem is “The Robe of Christ.” As you read it, consider carefully not only the ways in which the devil seeks to deceive you, but the whole Church.
THE ROBE OF CHRIST
(For Cecil Chesterton)
AT the foot of the Cross on Calvary
Three soldiers sat and diced,
And one of them was the Devil
And he won the Robe of Christ.
When the Devil comes in his proper form
To the chamber where I dwell,
I know him and make the Sign of the Cross
Which drives him back to Hell.
And when he comes like a friendly man
And puts his hand in mine,
The fervour in his voice is not
From love or joy or wine.
And when he comes like a woman,
With lovely, smiling eyes,
Black dreams float over his golden head
Like a swarm of carrion flies.
Now many a million tortured souls
In his red halls there be:
Why does he spend his subtle craft
In hunting after me?
Kings, queens and crested warriors
Whose memory rings through time,
These are his prey, and what to him
Is this poor man of rhyme,
That he, with such laborious skill,
Should change from role to role,
Should daily act so many a part
To get my little soul?
Oh, he can be the forest,
And he can be the sun,
Or a buttercup, or an hour of rest
When the weary day is done.
I saw him through a thousand veils,
And has not this sufficed?
Now, must I look on the Devil robed
In the radiant Robe of Christ?
He comes, and his face is sad and mild,
With thorns his head is crowned;
There are great bleeding wounds in his feet,
And in each hand a wound.
How can I tell, who am a fool,
If this be Christ or no?
Those bleeding hands outstretched to me!
Those eyes that love me so!
I see the Robe—I look—I hope—
I fear—but there is one
Who will direct my troubled mind;
Christ’s Mother knows her Son.
O Mother of Good Counsel, lend
Intelligence to me!
Encompass me with wisdom,
Thou Tower of Ivory!
“This is the Man of Lies,” she says,
“Disguised with fearful art:
He has the wounded hands and feet,
But not the wounded heart.”
Beside the Cross on Calvary
She watched them as they diced.
She saw the Devil join the game
And win the Robe of Christ.
Kilmer, with magnificent and somewhat prophetic foresight, illustrated the devil’s use of Our Lord’s “seamless garment” to deceive him, and by extension, the faithful. In 1983, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin used the seamless garment as an example for what he called the “Consistent Life Ethic.” And while proponents of the Consistent Life Ethic claim a pro-life position against abortion, this position usually takes a back seat to fighting pollution, poverty, the death penalty, war, and a host of other issues.
How many times have we heard modern Catholics refer to the “Seamless Garment” approach to social action? The seamless garment is usually proffered as an excuse for minimizing action against the evil currents of this modern age, such as abortion, contraception and sodomy. Is there any wonder why the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has so many projects, lobbying efforts, and initiatives aimed at “social justice,” and a minimal effort regarding the fight for preborn children?
As Kilmer described the devil robed in the radiant Robe of Christ with a face, sad and mild. A crown of thorns on his head. Wounds in his hands and feet … bleeding hands outstretched with eyes full of love.
All of these efforts in the name of social justice bear a similar appearance. And the truth is, these efforts are good. But when these efforts are done by the devil, robed in the seamless garment, the help for the poor is not an action of the Church, but a call for tax-funded efforts by the government; the call for peace is actually a call away from fighting the enemies of Christ; the call for stewardship of the land is a call for socialist ecology; and the cry against the death penalty is actually the cry for Barabbas!
The only reason those bleeding hands could stretch out to Kilmer as they did in his poem is because they were NOT nailed to the Cross. As the Venerable Fulton Sheen said:
“The modern world, which denies personal guilt and admits only social crimes, which has no place for personal repentance but only public reforms, has divorced Christ from His Cross; the Bridegroom and Bride have been pulled apart. What God hath joined together, men have torn asunder. As a result, to the left is the Cross; to the right is Christ. Each has awaited new partners who will pick them up in a kind of second and adulterous union. Communism comes along and picks up the meaningless Cross; Western post-Christian civilization chooses the unscarred Christ.
Communism has chosen the Cross in the sense that it has brought back to an egotistic world a sense of discipline, self-abnegation, surrender, hard work, study, and dedication to supra-individual goals. But the Cross without Christ is sacrifice without love. Hence, Communism has produced a society that is authoritarian, cruel, oppressive of human freedom, filled with concentration camps, firing squads, and brain-washings.
The Western post-Christian civilization has picked up the Christ without His Cross. But a Christ without a sacrifice that reconciles the world to God is a cheap, feminized, colourless, itinerant preacher who deserves to be popular for His great Sermon on the Mount, but also merits unpopularity for what He said about His Divinity on the one hand, and divorce, judgment, and hell on the other. This sentimental Christ is patched together with a thousand commonplaces, sustained sometimes by academic etymologists who cannot see the Word for the letters, or distorted beyond personal recognition by a dogmatic principle that anything which is Divine must necessarily be a myth. Without His Cross, He becomes nothing more than a sultry precursor of democracy or a humanitarian who taught brotherhood without tears.”
And so, today we have Kilmer’s image of a Christ without a cross, wearing the seamless garment, and fueling the enemy camp with funds, supplies and prestige. This image before us comes in the form of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Catholic Relief Services, Catholic Charities USA, Caritas Internationalis, and many others.
Just as Kilmer was powerless to lift the veil and see beyond the robe, we too must turn to Our Blessed Mother for guidance, strength, protection and peace. She gave us the Rosary as the most powerful weapon against the devil and heresy. It takes only 15 minutes a day to say, but the rich graces we gain by reciting it are incalculable. Let us commit to pray our Rosaries for an end to the charade, and a restoration of the dignity, the beauty and the Glory of Holy Mother Church through Our Lord, Jesus Christ.
May you all have a very blessed Holy Week and a Happy Easter!
Wonderful article, thank you.
In the American Catholic there is an inspiring biography of Joyce Kilmer who explained how his sick young daughter led him to convert to the Catholic faith:
“In 1914, Kilmer wrote to Father Daly about his conversion:
“Of course you understand my conversion. I am beginning to understand it. I believed in the Catholic position, the Catholic view of ethics and aesthetics, for a long time. But I wanted something not intellectual, some conviction not mental – in fact I wanted Faith. Just off Broadway, on the way from the Hudson Tube Station to the Times Building, there is a Church, called the Church of the Holy Innocents. Since it is in the heart of the Tenderloin, this name is strangely appropriate – for there surely is need of youth and innocence. Well, every morning for months I stopped on my way to the office and prayed in this Church for faith. When faith did come, it came, I think, by way of my little paralyzed daughter. Her lifeless hands led me; I think her tiny feet know beautiful paths. You understand this and it gives me a selfish pleasure to write it down.”
In this Church of the Holy Innocents is a full size Crucifix – with Jesus nailed to the Cross – where Joyce Kilmer and so many others have found faith and conversion right in the heart of New York City. It is called “The Return Crucifix.”
The church also has a “Shrine to the Holy Innocents” where the names of children who die before birth can be inscribed in the Shrine’s “Book of Life.” Names can be submitted online at http://www.innocents.com/shrine.asp
May Jesus, Mary, Joseph – and all the Holy Innocents who have died – pray for us!
Thanks so much for sharing that, Elizabeth! Fascinating information that I had never heard! I love God’s ‘little coincidences’ like these…always very inspiring to me! 🙂
What a great article thank you !! I will continue to follow this organization after hearing about it from Church Militant.TV
Thank you for a great article! Joyce Kilmer has always been one of my favorite poets. He lived his writing. Yes, how cunning Satan’s costumes and how effective his disguise in a morally bereft world. Bravo for this post on your website!
Michael, what a thought-provoking and profound article you have written…as is the One True Faith. Thank you!
Given the problematic reasoning in this article, I am beginning to have *serious* questions about whether the claims in your previous articles can be given credibility.
What I see here is a Begging the Question argument that alleges, but does not prove, that the Bishops are being misled and focussing on the wrong things. Your reasoning presupposes the conclusion that you need to prove. People can misuse many things, but that misuse does not prove the original is wrong (the maxim is *abusus non tollit usum*)
Given your claimed mission is “a research and education organization dedicated to the defense of the Catholic Church against assaults from without as well as from within,” you have an obligation in your research to be sure you are not wrongfully accusing people in your education.
Perhaps you will write me off as a modernist (a charge I would deny as I have fought people trying to distort Church teaching for years), but what I see here deeply troubles me.
I hope you will consider this as a part of the fraternal correction that you favor and not any sort of personal attack.
God Bless.
Sorry…I disagree…At age 73, I’ve had the dubious privilege of “Speaking into the Wind” for 35-40 yrs. The Bishops ‘Spoke Loudly’ as they punished Priests for “disturbing their Parishioners “, with Homilies on Evil, & the Consequences of Sin…I knew Psychiatrists who Donated their time & Expertise to Defend these same Priests from their own Bishops!! Their actions & reactions for the past 40 yrs. is a Powerful Statement that they are more like CEOs than Shepards of Christ. The “Proof” you requested, comes from their own Mouths. In what they have done, & what they have failed to do. The “Pew Sitters” of those years got the Priests & Bishops THEY DEMANDED! Now, we are faced with 2, maybe 3, generations of RCs who are Clueless about the Historical Truths of the Church. Prayer & Fasting, in the Extreme, is necessary to break through the knee jerk reactions of “Social Justice”. Where is “Justice” when the Shepards
Literally Lead the “Sheep” in a Parade that supports the “Rights” of Grave Sin?? Those involved Thanked said ‘bishop/cardinal’ for his display of “Social Justice”!! A Parade that led the participants over a Cliff! How much more “Proof” do you require???
As an example, Archbishop Cordilone of San Francisco is under fire for requiring catholic schools in his diocese to teach what the church has always taught. A group of 100 “prominent” San Francisco catholics have taken out a full page ad in the San Francisco Chronicle asking Pope Francis to relieve the Archbishop of his job! What underlines the above article for me is the fact that so far no other bishops have said a word in defense of the Archbishop. We laity, at last check, I saw over 50,000 signatures on a petition in support of the Archbishop. Apparently other more pressing problems take all their time, like maybe immigration amnesty or something equally as important that was mentioned in the above article.
Michael, friend —
Your attack on the “seamless garment” is out of line. It’s not accurate, and it’s not in line with clear and forceful and repeated teaching in Scripture and Tradition.
It’s not accurate. When people speak of the “seamless garment, they often attach the concept to Cardinal Bernardin, who was the best known proponent of the idea. He was the best known, but he was not the originator, nor the moving force. Juli Loesch worked for a decade to bring together peace activists and pro-life activists, and Bernardin came along in the middle of the effort. She traveled around the country, bringing activists from the two movements together. She organized conferences, and wrote extensively about the links.
One of her favorite stories was about people who abused the seamless garment idea. She was at a conference somewhere, listening to a speaker about abortion. In the heated Q&A, someone attached the speaker for being narrow. Juli defended the speaker. The attacker denounced Juli, and said that everyone there should read about the great work of Pro-lifers for Survival, and try to listen to all the wisdom of that writer Juli Loesch, who wasn’t so narrow-minded. Juli pushed back, explaining the problems with abortion – and then added, “And oh, by the way, I AM Juli Loesch.” A delightful moment – but indicative of the problem of ignorant assaults on the idea of a consistent life ethic.
It is a-historical to talk about the seamless garment without reference to Juli Loesch, and her organization, Prolifers for Survival.
I was privileged to work with her for some years. She worked with me promoting pro-life nonviolence (later called rescues); I worked with her building links between peace activists and pro-life activists. For some time, I was the editor of P.S., the newsletter of Prolifers for Survival. Juli lived here in my home for an extended period. I am sitting here typing in the space that was once a prayer room, then Juli’s room.
Juli prayed the rosary daily. She worked for a time at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (now USCCB), and was part of a very small group of flunkies who met daily at lunch to pray the rosary. She admired Dorothy Day, who was fearless in her embrace of the Church’ teaching about social justice AND personal morality. Juli, like Dorothy Day, felt called to an apostolate; but never confused her work with the Gospel. These great women loved the Lord, loved Scripture, loved the Church, hungered for the Mass. It’s silly to characterize them as leftwingers, and then attack their work.
I was proud to work with her. One of the odder moments of delight in my life grew out of my work with her. Around 1983 (not sure of the date), I was invited by Charlie McCarthy (and other organizers) to speak at a Pax Christi conference in Amherst, Massachusetts. (Charlie McCarthy, or Father Emmanuel: see the story of the canonization of Edith Stein.) The conference was about war and abortion. Daniel Berrigan gave the keynote address: “War is Abortion, Abortion is War.” I spoke about pro-life nonviolence. and a group of pro-abortion feminists, including some who had been with me when we were arrested protesting the Trident submarine, came in during lunch to denounce us, and especially to denounce Daniel Berrigan for speaking at a conference with me. This was several years before Cardinal Bernardin spoke about the seamless garment.
Attacking the seamless garment is also profoundly opposed to the clear teaching of Scripture and Tradition. I could and perhaps should write a dozen books about that, but let me just ask a few leading questions, briefly.
Can you name any prophet who spoke about personal morality without justice, or justice without personal morality? Isn’t this bizarre split between the left and the right a very recent phenomenon, with no roots whatsoever anywhere in Scripture?
Drawing on the teaching of Jesus, that relatively short body of teaching in the four Gospels, can you make a case for the assertion that he separated justice from personal morality? Please explain.
In the history of the Church, you can certainly find individuals who were renowned for their teaching about personal morality, or about justice. But can you find even one who taught about one to the exclusion of the other? Who?
You and I believe that God, in His generosity, chose to teach us through the Church. The Catholic Church, from the time of Pope Leo XIII, has been developing a distinct body of teaching that the Church calls the “social gospel.” It is not a new Gospel; it is, rather, a perspective on the ever-new truths in Scripture. This body of teaching addresses labor, war, international cooperation, the need for a global perspective, development, foreign aid, immigration, the arms race, institutional greed – as well as population control and abortion. Every pope since Leo XIII has contributed to this developing body of thought. I think it’s fair to say that the two popes who wrote most about the Social Gospel were Pope Paul VI (also author of Humanae Vitae) and Pope John Paul II (also author of Evangelium Vitae). Do you accept this body of teaching (a list of encyclicals, plus the Vatican document Gaudium et Spes, as authoritative, inspired, binding on you?
It is simply false, and systematically divisive, to insist over and over that the proponents of the Social Gospel are opposed to personal morality. You have chosen to attack Cardinal Bernardin, but your attack sweep in other people as well, including (in no particular order): Juli Loesch, me, Charlie McCarthy, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Jesus himself, Augustine, Aquinas, Joan of Arc, and every pope in the past 125 years.
Please stop it!
John
Cardinal Bernardin’s “Seamless Garment” attitude, was the Episcopal blessing for the Berigan Brothers & those of their ilk. I worked with Operation Rescue in that time frame…Not 1 single Priest in a Texas Town with 6 Parishes, would DARE to come with us…There were 6 or 7 Holy Priests from 70 to 85 who DID support & stand with us in Austin. They were sent to Jail and Praised God for the opportunity to speak out…They were old enough not to care about what was politically correct. They served Only Christ.
There were Many of us, cradle Catholics out there..You Never heard about us…Christ, & His Bride serve His People, not a political system! Not even the “Catholic Workers Movement”. And, BTW, Cardinal B. was one of the Leaders in the Dissent of the American Clergy on ” Humane Vitae”!!
I can decipher vaguely what has been written about in the article and the response by Dave W who seems to be wearing the ‘ seamless garment’… a modernist who has perniciously permeated very Catholic websites like this. I feel like joining the Holy League sinner though I be. Am no scholar but willing to pray.
No, Michael Hichborne is right on target when he writes: “The seamless garment is usually proffered as an excuse for minimizing action against the evil currents of this modern age, such as abortion, contraception and sodomy.” When we invited our pastor to pray with us at the abortion facility two blocks from his church, Cardinal Bernardin and his seamless garment nonsense was one of his many excuses. When Michael writes, “the help for the poor is not an action of the Church, but a call for tax-funded efforts by the government; the call for peace is actually a call away from fighting the enemies of Christ; the call for stewardship of the land is a call for socialist ecology; and the cry against the death penalty is actually the cry for Barabbas.” He could’ve been describing this pastor
Great article! We must be ever vigilant.
Reading your article brought back memories of you standing in prayer with all of us at American Life League and reading Kilmer’s remarkable poem. It moved us then and it again moves me today as we reflect on the suffering and death of Our Dear Lord.
Setting aside all the evils that have penetrated the human aspect of the Holy Roman Catholic Church, we look on the Blessed Sacrament, we think about the way in which Christ loves each and every one of His children and we remember his invitation to each of us: (Matthew 11:28-30) “Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.”
Evil will not overcome His Church.
Thank you, Michael for writing this.
Judie
John Cavanaugh-O’Keefe writes to Mike, “Can you name any prophet who spoke about personal morality without justice, or justice without personal morality? Isn’t this bizarre split between the left and the right a very recent phenomenon, with no roots whatsoever anywhere in Scripture?
Drawing on the teaching of Jesus, that relatively short body of teaching in the four Gospels, can you make a case for the assertion that he separated justice from personal morality?”
John! For shame! Mike is not trying to make a case that Jesus separated justice from personal morality! He decries that separation as much as you! See “Is there any wonder why the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has so many projects, lobbying efforts, and initiatives aimed at “social justice,” and a minimal effort regarding the fight for preborn children?” The sad fact is that many leftists do emphasize “public justice” to the exclusion of personal morality (and why abortion is seen as mere personal morality escapes me). Some of the other commenters have stated their own personal run-ins with such people. Why do you misconstrue what he said?
Perhaps you’re objecting to this? “The modern world, which denies personal guilt and admits only social crimes, which has no place for personal repentance but only public reforms, has divorced Christ from His Cross; the Bridegroom and Bride have been pulled apart.” These are the words of Venerable Fulton Sheen. He understood and acknowledged the problem.
As a sinful man it was solely through countless Holy Hours I became personal friends with Mother Teresa & Pope John Paul II beginning in 1984 and ending with their deaths.
Cardinal Bernadin was utterly misguided with his seamless garment argument. I can personally attest that both of these Saints utterly rejected this false ‘garment’.
It tangles itself in deception and folly disguised as ‘justice’ and ‘mercy’ reeking with the stench of Lucifer.
Global abortion is the greatest evil in human history spawned by contraception, its’ diabolical root!!
Personal deep sacrifice, even martyrdom is necessary to battle such grave, gross mortal sin. We MUST embrace COURAGE!!
John Bosco had it right! “The power of evil men lives on the cowardice of the good.”
Each one of us must BE WILLING to offer our blood for Christ’s Bride, the Catholic Church now governed by countless errant bishops, and even cardinals.
We CAN atone for the horror of contraception, the holocaust of abortion, IVF, embryonic experimentation, euthanasia, the homosexual ‘parody’ of Marriage, transgenderism, and the wolves in sheeps clothing, these mitered priests who were condemned by Pope St Gregory the Great as “dogs who bark but have no bite.”
Can we not SMELL this stench of Hell!!??
Our Holy Catholic Church is sorely wounded, and as Malcolm Muggeridge told me in 1984, Christendom is dead.
Unless we laity stand against bad bishops and once more side NOW with the minority of faithful bishops in REAL spiritual warfare with demons from an empty hell, war, famine, pestilence and death will surely be our well deserved lot.
“War is punishment for sin”, said Our Lady at Fatima.
ISIS and other fanatical Islamists, the murder of more Christians than all previous centuries, crazy violent storms, draught, quakes, multiple active volcanoes, disease and the starvation of the visible poor and the foulest of all, the lukewarm souls who care and see nothing about men and women slaughtering our own offspring is the clearest evidence of impending cataclysm!
We must band together and be willing to go to jail, to shed our blood if necessary for our poor brothers and sisters in the womb or born to fight for the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is late and the night will soon be upon us.
Above all we must pray always….”pray, pray, pray and don’t worry”, as St Pio of Pietrelcina said.
David T Little
President
The World St Thomas More Society
morecanada.info
Wow!
All bishops priests cutial official should be made to read ‘the Robe of Christ’, while they are taking a polygraph test. Weed out undercover illumanti
David T. Little: For one who professes to be a Christian, you display alarmingly hateful attitudes towards quite a few of your fellow humans.
Very Inspirational .