We Can No Longer Not See (10/13/2023)

The images of the battles in the Middle East fill our papers and our television screens. The reports of the atrocities, of the genocidal massacres repulse us, and we find ourselves understanding the pledge, “Never again.” How have we come to this moment? How have we strayed so far from the path of loving one another? How have we allowed evil to not only enter in but dominate? How could anyone justify the slaughtering of children and infants?

This war is our war even though we find ourselves a world away because we can no longer “not see.” When Hitler and his deputies were seeking to exterminate an entire ethnic group, we may not have known. But we do know now. We have seen the images. We have learned of the carnage. As daughters and son of the all-loving LORD who calls us into right-relationship with Him as well as one another, we must act. To not act is to be complicit with the evil afoot. Though we are at a distance from the battle zone, our prayers can be heard. This isn’t “regional” or simply a “turf war.” This is a moment when all of humanity is being tested. Will we allow hatred and evil to define us?

Everyone of us can pray. We can seek the help of the LORD in the resolution of this war, in a just and loving resolution. We can pray everywhere across the globe for an end to this form of evil and hatred. And we can promise to our LORD that we will not be agents of this form of evil and hatred, that we will strive to see one another as who we are created to be by our LORD rather than who we judge another to be. We can not only pray for justice and peace to be restored, but we can also promise to work for these in our own spheres.

Last evening at a meeting of Catholic Women of our parish, I shared the prayer I pray daily as my morning offering and again before bed as my examination of conscience. It is the Prayer of Peace. It is not just about praying for an absence of war; it is rather a prayer for the wholeness of humanity as we struggle to grow in holiness. I ask that you consider praying it daily as a way of breaking down obstacles to harmony and to love of one another for love of our LORD.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

As followers of our loving Savior, Jesus Christ, we are called to be a light to others. Let us seek to stow the fires of love within us so that we might become effective beacons in this world. May the light of our love for one another reveal the evil of hatred in the shadows so that it may be eradicated.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.