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May 24, 2024As tensions continue to rise in the Middle East, I think back on October 7, 2023. I was preparing to celebrate 4:30 Mass at St. Margret’s Parish, when my father reminded me to pray for peace in the Middle East. I had no idea what he was talking about since I was running around all day and had not yet turned on the news. When I checked my phone, I saw the carnage of the terrorist attack in Israel. Like many of you, I was filled with many emotions. I was saddened by the loss of life, I was angry that this had occurred, and frankly I was afraid of what this attack may lead to, as tensions rise between Israel, Palestine, and neighboring nations in the region.
I do not write this article to get into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is not enough room in the bulletin, and I am certainly not an expert on the matter. I write because the following day I (naively) believed that everyone would condemn the massacre; who could defend the evil of murdering children? the evil of rape? or the evil of anti-semitism? Yet the following day, that is what we saw throughout the world and in places throughout our country. People claiming it was justified, people claiming Israel was at fault, and people claiming it “wasn’t that bad.” With the hot button topic of Israel and Palestine, many failed to see that evil is evil with the moral clarity that the event deserved.
Now as time passes and tensions continue to escalate, we as Catholics are called to pray for peace. This may be difficult for many of us. In our fallen human nature we are prone to call for retribution, and more readily seek vengeance. Yet as we look to the image of Christ on the cross, we remember the reality that when the Son of Man handed Himself over to death, He did so for all people. Christ calls us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. This is indeed a high call, and though I imagine that this bulletin does not have a high level of Jewish readership, I do believe that we all have an opinion on the topic. We cannot simply quote from Vatican II’s Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions (Nostra aetate) which declared, “in her rejection of every persecution against any man, the Church, mindful of the patrimony she shares with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the Gospel's spiritual love, decries hatred, persecutions, displays of anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time and by anyone.” What we need to do is have a lived experience of the Gospel. The lived experience of a life grounded in prayer, which recognizes that violence leads to more violence. The lived experience of love which does not celebrate death but mourns the loss of human life. The lived experience of truth which calls out evil in our midst. We pray for all the lives lost on October 7, and as we move forward, we pray for the wisdom and courage of all men and women of good will as we seek an end to war and seek peace in our time.
In Christ,
Fr. Chris
