A super typhoon, Bavi, strafed the Mariana Islands this month. It was the second one since Sinlaku in April. The winds and rains in both storms were almost unimaginable. The violence of the super typhoons would be difficult to exaggerate. Tinian, Saipan, and Rota have been hit especially hard. Guam, the politically separate but culturally integral Mariana island to the south, was battered, too. People in the Marianas who had been left homeless by Sinlaku had to stay in shelters during Bavi. Many others — frail, elderly, ill, alone — moved into local school gyms alongside the homeless. The typhoons slammed the Marianas in succession, breaking, bruising, and killing (see here).

In situations like this, one is apt to hear the name of a stricken city or region coupled with the word “strong.” When a natural disaster lays a place low, or some horrific crime shocks a locality, people rally, saying they are determined to return from the setback stronger than ever. “(City name) Strong” means the people who live in a particular place are going to dig deep and fight on.

But what strength do people tap into when they hoist their “strong” municipality as a banner? On most days, most people in most big cities seem to act as though nobody else in the world exists. Walk around New York or Beijing and you’ll see what I mean. Los Angeles, Atlanta, London — where’s the strength, the social resilience, in those places? Chicago Strong? Maybe for an hour, but if we’re talking about the usual murderous weekend then I wouldn’t put much stock in the strength of that city. Ditto for just about anywhere else. “(City name) Strong” rings hollow. I admire the sentiment, but I wonder how long it will last.

When two monster storms barreled down on Guam, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan — little specks on a map in the middle of the yawning cobalt-slate deep of the Pacific Ocean — the people there encouraged one another, saying, “Marianas Strong.” But they said other things, too. “God is good,” they said. “Love your neighbor,” they repeated. “Board up, gas up, prepare — but pray, the most important thing of all.”

Marianas Strong is a different kind of strong. The people I know there are tough in the face of nature’s rage. But they are strong in more than mere defiance. They go to Mass in droves. They say the Rosary. They bless one another in daily conversation. They say God’s Name with reverence and love. They cherish their families. They check in on those in need (see here). Marianas Strong means strong in spirit, strong in reliance on grace. Marianas Strong is akin to Africa Strong, to Philippines Strong, to rural Alabama strong. It’s strength not only of community or of political bonds but strength born of holding fast to a power that has nothing at all to do with human weakness. Marianas Strong is not human-strong. It’s God strong. It’s unbreakable.

The people of the Marianas have had it hard these past few months. Hold them up in your prayers. And if you have the chance, cross the Pacific to go meet them. Go see the beauty of their islands for yourself. It’s not the beaches or the mountains or the palm trees that make the Marianas strong. It’s the stuff you can’t see, the stuff that is strength for all mankind, if only we will ask for it.