Prayers tempore belli (A)

Meditation

Almost louder than all the bombs exploding in front of us on TV as we watch the war in Iraq is the fierce battle taking place in this country and throughout the world, and even among ourselves here in this Sunday assembly—the battle over the righteousness of this war. Over sixty percent of the American people are in favor of it, although you’d never guess it from the looks of the huge masses of people who demonstrated yesterday in New York City and in other places.

The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, has clearly stated that this war is immoral. Another holy father, Elie Weisel, the most famous survivor of the Holocaust and Nobel Laureate for his efforts on behalf of peace, urged Europe to confront Saddam. On February 27, 2003 he said, “I believe it is a moral duty to intervene when evil has power and uses it.” (He was thinking of Hitler whom Europe pretended not to see.) There you have two holy men: one feels this way about the matter and the other seems to feel that way. The issue of war and peace in many respects is not simple and clear-cut but complicated and filled with many ambiguities.

Prayer

Let us pray: That at this serious moment when we send our sons and daughters into harm’s way to put other people in harm’s way—that at this moment we might not be flippant or facile—neither about war nor even about peace. In peace, let us pray to the Lord. Lord have mercy.

Meditation

So far there are about twenty-five dead American and British soldiers. The rhetoric of war says that these brave men “gave their lives for their country.” The truth of the matter is that these so-called “brave men” were human beings who were afraid and scared in the face of battle like any normal human being would be. And the truth of the matter is also that they did not “give” their lives, their very young lives were taken from them in war. That’s the great disaster of war: the promising young buds of springtime are nipped by the cruelty of a late winter storm.

Prayer

For these first casualties of the war, who are somebody’s sons, somebody’s husbands, somebody’s fathers, somebody’s brothers. In peace, let us pray to the Lord. Lord have mercy.

Meditation

Another rhetoric of war speaks of “collateral damage”—that’s a euphemism for innocent human beings, Iraqi mothers and children, Iraqi grandmas and grandpas, killed by bullets and bombs not intended for them. That, of course, is an infinitely less evil than the bullets and bombs of terrorists, which are intended precisely for innocent people.

Prayer

For the Iraqi people who have already suffered more than is normally allotted human life. In peace, let us pray to the Lord. Lord have mercy.

Meditation

One of the chief commodities of our culture is violence. We produce and sell it left and right as one of our most favored forms of entertainment. We buy it for our kids, and we, who are the custodian of their human spirits, allow them to watch it for hours upon hours. They sit in front of the tube playing their Nintendo games in which they’re blowing off one head after another, and mowing down one human being after another. It’s called virtual violence. You don’t feel a thing. It’s really a short distance from that to our sitting down with a bowl of popcorn in front of the TV as it now features for us Operation Shock and Awe bursting over the night sky in Baghdad filled with human beings.

Prayer

That we at this moment might overcome our hypocrisy; that we might protest with equal animus and equal numbers our culture of violence. In peace, let us pray to the Lord. Lord have mercy.

Meditation

As we watch TV from our comfortable armchairs, we witness the extremely harsh rigors and realities of the battlefield – the stifling gear you have to wrap yourself in order to survive, the blowing sand which penetrates everything, the lack of sleep, the lack of food, the lack of a good bathroom and a good shower to wash away the filth of war from your body and the terror of war from your soul. From that comfortable position it is easy and also obscene to be either an ardent dove or an ardent hawk.

That we at this moment might match the hard labors of those in harm’s way with hard labors of our own--the labors of Lent: prayer, fasting, the corporal works of mercy, almsgiving like the almsgiving of the Archbishop’s Stewardship Appeal that’s going on at this present moment. In peace, let us pray to the Lord. Lord have mercy.

For all those in our assembly who are ill or who have loved ones who are ill or who are caregivers to those who are ill. In peace let us pray to the Lord. Lord have mercy.

For all our beloved dead, especially those recently bereaved, for Freida Kleinheim who was buried from Old St. Mary’s last Friday, and for all those who grieve inconsolably because of recent bereavements. In peace let us pray to the Lord. Lord have mercy.