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A Peace Banner over St. Peter's Basilica, and a U.S. Marine Doctor comforts an Iraqi girl |
owers come down, innocent victims are killed, silence is imposed to uncomfortable voices, voices that speak the truth.
It happened on Calvary, in New York, in Cali and Bali, in Afghanistan, Palestine and Baghdad...
The invisible enemy is sought, roused with bombs from its caves and covers, with the most sophisticated war strategies, with legal searches and processes, with ransoms and rewards...
In the meantime, Cain throws out messages on the Internet to convince the surfers with the obsolete yet tragic message: 'I am not my brother's keeper.'
Why all this? Because the Public square is dominated by the sly hand of the evil one. All public squares, even the most sacred, are dangerous, because the Word does not make its voice heard in the public square. it prefers, instead, to tend the flame of the flickering candle and to boost the bent reed. (cf: Is.42:2-3)
Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will but also those of ill will. But do not only remember the suffering they have inflicted on us. Remember the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this, and when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have borne be their forgiveness.
This prayer was found at the Ravensbruck death camp where 92,000 women and children died. It was scrawled on wrapping paper near a dead child.
Thus, while the Sanhedrin rages and gets organized to eliminate the just One, He, the just One, with a caress restores the ear to Malchus struck by Peter, to whom he says, and to each one of us: "Put your sword back into its place, for he who uses the sword will perish by the sword."
We, men and women, have more need of caresses than slaps in the face, even if well given by the powers that be.
Jesus, nailed on the cross by civil and religious powers, from that scaffold of shame distributes caresses: to the thief: "Truly, you will be with me in paradise"; to his executioners: "Father forgive them"; to all of us: "My Mother shall be Your Mother"; to his Father: "I give myself up into your hands."
No matter how well meant, slaps in the face only hurt; caresses know how to change hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.
The last caress of the Crucified turned the Roman centurion's heart, who declared unto history his act of faith: "Truly, this man was the Son of God!"
The very first words of the risen Christ to his followers, and which were a healing caress to their wounded hearts, are: eirene ymin, "peace to you!" (Luke 24:36; John 20:10). And in the known "goodbye discourse," which John puts in Jesus' mouth the night before He died, there is the expression which later entered into our liturgy: "I leave you peace, my peace I give to you," and continues clarifying: "Not as the world gives peace do I give it you. Do not be troubled; do not be afraid!"
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)