Dear St. Rita Families,
“Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. For even the wise cannot see all ends.” This line, spoken by the wizard Gandalf to Frodo the Hobbit about the creature Gollum in Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring, calls the vengeful heart to meekness and those who trust in their own devices to confidence in God. As Catholics, we do not seek to use the means of the enemy to conquer the enemy. Our Lord is clear: “How can Satan drive out Satan?” (Mk 3:23). If Our Lord had wanted to use powerful means for the destruction of His enemies, He certainly could have: “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?
But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Mt 26:53-54). Jesus enters into His Passion – against all human reason – with a clear intentionality and purpose, which is the cause of our salvation.
“Put away your sword!”, Jesus says to Peter (Mt 26:52). It is a call first to the human heart and then to the hand. To murder another in the heart is quite an easy task. A society that is overly sensitive to insult and to offense, that takes even a well-meaning correction and call to repentance as an attack on the “unholy trinity” – me, myself, and I – falls quickly into a retaliatory, defensive posture because it cannot deal with the prospect of actually being wrong. The proper response to such corrections and calls to conversion is an unwavering and courageous commitment to the truth, even if it means owning up to mistakes and imperfections.
This is one of the reasons the Church is so cautious about wars and their justice. St. James in his letter says it this way: “What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. Unfaithful creatures! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (4:1-4). In other words, we’re mad because we can’t get what we want, so it leads us ultimately to kill another. Is not this what happened with Cain, when he killed his brother, Abel? Is not this what led the Pharisees to kill Jesus? “For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up” (Mt 27:18).
It is the Lord who is the ruler of all things, and our adherence to the Gospel is our means of sanctification in this life and the next. It is also the means by which we can do the greatest good in this world. I wonder what international relations would like if our main concern was the spreading of the Gospel. But if fear, control, self-interest, and even justice (usually a form of self-righteousness, meaning “I am just and you are not”) are our motivators, the way we approach things is going to be skewed. The Lord desires not the death of the sinner, but rather than he turn from his way and live (cf. Ez 33:11)! What if even one government had such a commitment to finding the truth that it was willing to engage seriously others in this eminently important project of our lives?
I know, we live in a fallen world. But even if a government doesn’t have the wherewithal (read: courage and humility) to seek truth in this way, you and I can. To note where I am motivated by sinful or vicious passions is to be forced to take stock of my own weakness and imperfection, to be forced to go to the foot of the Cross to plead forgiveness and mercy, a counterpart of which is to show mercy to others. It is also to note the way I think about my political opponents (domestic or international) and to wonder how it is that God approaches and considers those peoples.
It is a marvelous patience, long-suffering, and pity (and, of course, need) that drives Frodo to put up with Gollum for so long on his journey with the One Ring of Power. The journey brings out the best and the worst in Frodo, and ultimately ends in victory, triumph, transformation, and glory. This image reminds us that this life is not about establishing our form of justice and eradicating the rest before we die. It is about seeking God’s justice, according to God’s plan, in God’s time, using God’s methods, because God will use all of it for my good and the good of the world, even after we die. It profits us nothing to gain the world and forfeit our souls (cf. Mk 8:36). But it profits us everything to forfeit the world and thereby gain eternal life!
In Christ,
Fr. Christensen