Man Allegedly Breaks Into Church and Tries to Flee with Statue

If God is all-knowing — as Holy Scripture insists he is — then there are no coincidences. The problem lies in deciphering incidents that seem to defy human explanation.

And then there are those times when the act and the sign are one and the same.

Carlos Alonso, 32, is accused of breaking into a church in Monterrey, Mexico, on Saturday to rob it, according to the Catholic News Agency.

Under the cover of darkness, Alonso is reported to have jumped over the church fence before breaking a glass door and entering the building.

Alonso attempted to leave the scene with a statue of St. Michael the Archangel in hand.

That’s when something strange happened.

The alleged thief tripped and fell on St. Michael’s sword. He suffered a life-threatening neck injury.

That’s one version of the story. According to Aleteia, other sources claimed Alonso was wounded not by St. Michael’s sword, but by the glass of a window he broke.

Most reports, however, said it was the tip of the sword that badly wounded him.

Citizens who were passing by noticed Alonso walking out of the church with his hand on his bloody throat, Milenio reported. The witnesses called for help.

Law enforcement and medical personnel arrived at the site and treated Alonso. Medics were able to control the bleeding before a hostile Alonso was transported to a hospital by Monterrey police.

The statue of St. Michael was unharmed, according to CNA.

Skeptics and non-believers will — of course — write the incident off as an accident. They will say that it is mere coincidence that a man trying to rob a church was probably smitten by St. Michael’s sword.

They will stick to their claim even upon learning that St. Michael, the chief of the heavenly host, holds four offices, according to church tradition: 1) to combat Satan; 2) to escort the faithful to heaven; 3) to be a champion of all Christians and the church; 4) to call men from life on earth to their heavenly judgment.

The skeptics and non-believers will claim that Alonso simply made a bad decision and will refuse to even consider that he was under the influence of satanic forces. They will refuse to entertain the notion that, just maybe, St. Michael interceded to protect the church.

Even when the act and the sign are one and the same, the skeptics and non-believers will scoff at the idea that Carlos Alonso was shown mercy by escaping death and the heavenly judgment that would have come from his final act of desecrating a church.

They will refuse to see. Scripture warns of this: “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them” (Matthew 13:15).

It is right and just to pray for these skeptics and non-believers. It is right to pray that Carlos Alonso finds his way back to God.

Pray often.

There are no coincidences. To decipher what has happened to him, may Carlos Alonso look into his heart. “For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything” (1 John 3:20).