After the collapse of the Soviet Empire in the early nineties a naïve conviction was circulated that humanity had entered a new era where we would no longer have war. How naïve!
In our recent history we have surpassed the sixth hundred days since Russia invaded the Ukraine. The past month has seen unbelievable bloodshed in Israel and the Gaza strip.
War has exploded on the human scene!
Many people have a faint memory of the label from their history books, “the hundred year’s war.” That period of fighting between the French and the English kept flaring up and dying down over a period of one hundred years. Well, no matter what the outcome of the struggles in Israel and Gaza today, there will be a flare up in another twenty years. We are living in the time of our own hundred years war.
War is the ultimate in human failure. We send out our young men to kill each other. We hurl countless bombs to destroy countless homes, factories, bridges and roadways. The news report of the damage done just to the physical buildings is beyond belief.
Who will answer for all the carnage that has been done to civilians? to working people? To the people at an outdoor concert who have been killed?
What about all the children who have been killed in the bombings? Who answers for their lives?
Humans may have fought , injured and killed each other since we were living in caves. Even if we have this constant history of warfare, no one should ever be excused by saying, ‘it has always been that way!’
We may have grown up with the bully on the playground. Now, we have countries and corporations that are bullies to the less powerful. We have one group of people trying to take over another’s country. The bully just comes in a much larger size these days!
No matter how someone tries to explain it or frame it, war is always human failure.
The power and energy of my Christian faith is that we are meant to be a people of peace and justice. One of the powerful images that arises from our Sacred Book is “and they will beat their swords into plough shares and their spears into pruning hooks.” There will be a time when we will put down our weapons and transpose them into tools to grow food. We will care for our fellow human being rather than wield destruction on them!
When we pray “and free us from all distress” this Sunday I will be painfully asking our God for strength to believe we humans can make peace and end all war. This distress is the painful feelings that attacks the walls of my heart. I ,along with countless others in this world, feel the pain and disappointment that these wars have caused.
Standing amidst the human failure of war, I want to pray and work for peace, justice and harmony among all humanity.
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