How Long O' Lord

This past Sunday I preached on the tragic events which took place in Paris just a few days ago.  I decided not to use any notes except for the official statement released by the Vatican later that day\morning.

It is not always easy to preach on such a sensitive topic and when you do so you are bound not to please everyone and homilies are not meant to please you but rather to invoke emotion and elicit a personal reflection that is what the Truth is supposed to do.  Anyway, here it is to the best of my recollection.

Good morning everyone.  I remember as a young child me and my dad had a deal worked out when it came to going to the movies.  We would go twice a month, one week it would be to see an Italian or some European film and then the next time an American film.  The theater we went to in Astoria Queens showed European films many of which I fell asleep at.  I remember one of those great directors, Franco Ziffirelli who directed Jesus of Nazareth, which he did in English, not Italian, a great movie which I really enjoyed.

There was a great scene in it in which Roman soldiers had come to Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth and began to plunder and take the people’s food, money, and other resources just because they felt they could.  Israel was under Roman occupation at that time.  In the scene Jesus is about twelve years.  Ziffirelli took liberties with the scene, it’s nowhere in the Bible, yet I am glad he did it because it was powerful.  After the soldiers leave two young Jewish men fall to their knees and cry out, “Lord, how long before you come to help us, how long until you save us, have you abandoned us.”  The Jewish people were waiting a long time for their Messiah and in that waiting you could hear their plea and cry for help.  Not just a cry from these two men in the scene but all of humanity crying out to the Lord, “help us.”

Today we also await our Messiah, not like in the first coming, which we celebrate at Christmas but rather for His second coming in which we wait for Him to restore all things.  We live in a time in which we are asking the same thing, “Lord how long, have you abandoned us?”  In light of what happened in Paris and what has taken place in the last thirty years with terrorist attacks growing in number and other violent attacks growing in number we ask the same questions as those young Jewish men.

The times have changed indeed.  Talking about movies, thirty years ago when I was a kid, one guy would pay to get in and then go and open the emergency door to let in my other 10 buddies.  I do not condone this now, but I guess the Lord gave me a pass since I was quite young, but the time have changed, it’s no longer opening emergency doors to let in your buddies, but rather gunmen who come through those emergency doors gunning down innocent movie goers.

It’s not just these maddening violent crimes in movie theaters and schools, but also terrorists who go into concert halls, stadiums, restaurants, malls and other public places killing innocent people.  We cry out to the Lord, “How long!

The Vatican issued the following statement in regards to the terrorist attacks in Paris.

“Here in the Vatican we are following the terrible news from Paris. We are shocked by this new manifestation of maddening, terrorist violence and hatred which we condemn in the most radical way together with the Pope and all those who love peace. We pray for the victims and the wounded, and for all the French people. This is an attack on peace for all humanity, and it requires a decisive, supportive response on the part of all of us as we counter the spread the homicidal hatred in all of its forms.”

This is strong language.  The Vatican is saying that a response needs to be given by all of us, one that counters the terrorists.  It is not the job of a priest, bishop or even the Pope to declare war or to condone strikes; we simply look at the moral possibilities.  The decision to counter with military action is up to the governments of those nations that will or will not decide such.  This, however, brings another question to mind.  Is there an official Church teaching about self defense or war?

There is a teaching that goes back to the Church fathers who throughout the centuries have taught that self-defense is permissible, even war.  St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas and many who came after expounded on a just war theory.  There are three basic elements involved, one) all forms of communication with the unjust aggressor (nation) have been exhausted, two) the war must be defensive in nature even if it’s a first strike against the enemy so long as it is not preventive, i.e. we will bomb them first because we think in ten years they will bomb us, and three) we must use and maintain appropriate means throughout the duration of the campaign, i.e. if someone throws a rock at you cannot retaliate with a nuclear weapon.  Would this theory apply to the terrorists, it very well could.

Please remember, however, that Jesus was not or ever was or will be in the war business.  Jesus is in the business of saving souls.  Again, the declaration of defense or war is made by politicians and leaders not the Church or its ministers; our number one goal is saving souls.  With that being said, even if war is declared Jesus still asks what seems like the impossible from us and that is that we pray for our enemies.

I must admit as a fellow human being that I have very mixed emotions, on the one hand I can picture in my mind the destruction and the eradication of the terrorists and to use any means possible, those were my first thoughts when watching the news that night along with my prayers for those killed and injured.  It was hard to fall asleep.  I had feelings of anger, sadness, even asking myself the same two questions the two young Jewish men asked, “How long O’ Lord, have you abandoned us?”

Then when I was able to calm down I began to reflect on Jesus’ life most notable His passion.  I wondered and was amazed again as I have been so many times before, how did this man remain silent when He was arrested, stripped, mocked, beaten and even tortured and then made to carry a cross and be nailed to it with not one bad word or condemnation coming from His lips.  Rather, He forgave them, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do?”

Please do not misunderstand me or I would imagine even the Lord for that matter, we are talking about people’s forgiveness not about punishment that they may deserve for their crimes.  Jesus does not say to eliminate punishment, i.e. prison or such, but rather that even the worst of sinners can be converted, forgiven.  Some may not like that since some have drawn a line in the sand on what and what cannot be forgiven.  Jesus has no such line because if He did then you and I my friend would be on the wrong side.

It does feel impossible, to sit and pray for someone who does such evil atrocities, but I think no matter what we must leave eternal judgments to God and God alone, earthly punishments we carry out in justice and even mercy but we cannot judge the eternal outcome of one’s salvation or damnation.

People will also ask, "where Jesus in all of this is?"  I answer, "He is always present, especially in the faces of the first responders, the military, the police the firemen who come to aid of those in trouble."  At 911 I saw Jesus in the face of the firemen who climbed up the stairs of a burning building, in the face of Father Mychal Judge who was administered anointing and last rites to his fallen brother firemen and who himself died doing his priestly duty.

I am not sure if I answered anything today maybe I left us with more questions than with which we started, it just maybe that I don’t have all the answers to such complexities and tragedy, but I think together in prayer, hope, and a crying out to Jesus we will find the answers together, God bless you.

Picture is from Jesus of Nazareth, young Jesus in the Temple, I will also post the video from the movie depicting the scene I spoke of.