How to keep faith in a time of terror?

How do we sing the Lord’s song in the shadow of terror? In solidarity with all the victims of Brussels and the whole human family this week, I protest, I rage, I grieve, I pray. But I must also try to think.

Indiscriminate terror has long been a scourge on this earth, but its globalization through television and social media has now made it emotionally inescapable. Were I to dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, I could not flee from its presence.

So as we try to absorb the terrible news from Brussels, how do we “despair not” even in the face of monstrous evil? No simple task, and easy answers seem disrespectful in the time of weeping. But I do believe the antidote to despair is to keep the faith. We must never forget the sacred story we belong to. Even at the grave we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.

The terrorist belongs to a story which for most of us is inconceivable. Terror is “the language of being noticed,” a kind of performative rhetoric designed to bring a neglected or disregarded worldview into the open by subjecting others to the violent norms of its alternate reality.

In the minds of many terrorists, the war they are so eager to wage is apocalyptic, a cosmic conflict of good and evil in which there is no compromise or bridging of differences. And the very worst thing we could do in response would be to play the part they have written for us: satanic enemies in a cosmic struggle.

The proposals of certain American presidential candidates to “bomb the hell out of them,” or bring back the good old days of torture, would play perfectly into the terrorists’ hands, conceding the primacy of their deadly story.

However, I choose to belong to a better story, the one enacted and embodied in the powerful liturgies of Christ’s Passion. Step by step on the Way of the Cross this Holy Week, Christians will bring to mind and heart the saving journey which Jesus made, without weapons, into the abyss of suffering and death.

Renouncing all violence and hatred, Jesus remained faithful to the end. After pouring his whole life into a ministry of healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation, he continued to show us the face of love even as he was tortured on the cross. “Father, forgive,” he said with his dying breath. To the last moment, in his most bitter hour, he remained the human who shows us God by doing what God does.

The cross shows us how it is possible to absorb evil and neutralize its effects, rather than pass on the anger and live in bitterness.We declare victory at the cross, because the Passion isn’t just a story about violent powers that always trample the weak and kill the prophets. It’s also a story about the Realm of God, where dry bones breathe and lost hopes dance, where the prodigal is welcomed home and the tears are wiped from every eye.

The Love that makes such a realm was nailed to a cross, but was not consumed by it. Death did what death does, and God did what God does. And on the outcome of that story, I stake everything.

Even after Brussels, the word remains: Be not afraid! Love makes the abyss into a Way.

Source: The Religious imagineer

Auteur : protosbuyahoofr

Prêtre amateur de Philosophie politique et de Philosophie économique autant bien que du Droit de la Santé, je suis révolté par la misère de certains peuples vivant sous le seuil de la pauvreté. Ces questions me préoccupent: Pourquoi sont-ils dans cet état(de pauvreté)?Y a-t-il un moyen d'en sortir pour parvenir au bien-être atteignable? N'ont-ils pas droit au bonheur raisonnable? Mon doigt et mon regard se focaliseront sur les causes tandis que mon cœur méditera sur les actions susceptibles d'amélioration. Portant le même souci de nous informer sans polémiquer, nous ne tairons pas nos droits inaliénables ,car les devoirs s'imposent à nous. Dans cette voie, je compte sur vos commentaires et vos témoignages pour plus de lumière. P.B Voir tous les articles par protosbuyahoofr