Misreading the signs of the times

 After the week of horror that has confronted us on a daily basis, we can wonder where God is in the midst of this carnage and destruction. In what has shown us the basest of human behavior we can relate well to the passage on how people's priorities can be distorted by their minds and hearts. How violence can ever be seen as a way to peace continues to astound me. It is also easy to see how violence can breed anger, disappointment, and revenge and thus perpetuate the cycle. In the midst of this reality, we see the stark contrast of how God invites his people to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. It is important that we do not become consumed by those who peddle hatred and vengeance but rather look at opportunities for reconciliation and healing where people can sit down with each other. 

This is the hard work of reconciliation and healing that is not just preached in words but lived out by witnesses. I believe that this urgency of mending broken hearts is not easy or pious talk. Many minds and hearts have sought to understand how this long-standing conflict can be resolved in a way that brings both justice and peace. Often this is by recognizing that all people carry the wounds of this suffering and have longed to consider a place they can call home. Often the question is why people hate each other so much that they cannot see their common humanity. War and its consequences often produce a distorted ingenuity and cruelty to inflict pain on another. However, it can also breed a hope within others to stand in harm's way to protect, heal, and strengthen those whose lives must be rebuilt. 

Our earnest prayer is that as we gather to pray at Mass we do not stand ideally by and wash our hands of making difficult choices. The art of reconciliation seeks firstly to notice how hatred and fear can often fill our own hearts. There is a need to acknowledge this so that we do not become infected by the same parasite that can leap from generation to generation. This is the hard work of prayer because it means that we are not immune to the suffering of others. What afflicts others has an impact on our own lives. There is also a call to be people who reflect on how so easily a conflict in a distant land has the potential to put people at odds with each other in our own. We should not stoke the fire but rather put out the flames. Lastly, we should not act in a way that seeks to isolate ourselves from reaching out to those in great need, those who believe they are excluded from enjoying the banquet of life. We need to seek equity of opportunity not just equality of choice. We are called to become pilgrim people who walk with each other and talk with each other along the way. Cardinal Pizzabella, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, has requested people to join him for a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer to express our thirst for peace, justice, and reconciliation.