war on terror

Sirach 27:30-28:7; Ps 103 The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and rich in compassion; Romans 14:7-9; Matthew 18:21-35

Tid bit from sirach, "Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight..."

From the gospel, "I say to you, not seven times but sevety-seven times...Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you..."

Being from a large family can be quite entertaining, especially when the nephews and neices come along. What has been real fascinating is watching my nephews grow up. I have noticed that around age 11 they have this desire to prove themselves. In a particular way, they want to show that they can take down their uncles. I have had this experience several times where my nephews want to "man-up" against me.

There have been quite a few wrestling matches in which the nephews try to take me down. One in particular comes to mind.

We were at my parents house and my nephew and I were wrestling around. Then somehow a ball got involved. We were pegging each other with the ball, trying to burn each other out. I threw the ball and it went right through my nephew's fingers and caught him right on the nose.

He turned three shades of red. Then he picked up rock and threw it right at me. Luckily, I was still spry enough to avoid the rock. Then he charged me and jumped on me and started to swing at me. The whole time I was laughing thinking it was funny. But my mephew just had rage.

After sometime, I rolled over and sat on top of him and pinned his arms beneath me and looked at him, stopped him from swinging, and I asked what was his malfunction.

He was so angry and hurt by the ball hitting him accidentally in the nose that he told me that he wantde me to "hurt as much as he was hurting".

Think about that for a moment. This is a common pexperience for many of us. When we get hurt and harmed or someone in our family or circle of love gets hurt or harmed, instinctially we want to strike back, get even; we, like my nephew, want the other person to feel our hurt and pain.

This is an instinct we are all familiar with.

This is why Jesus' respone to the Peter's question is so challenging to us.

Peter ask the question, "how many times must I forgive, seven times?"

In other words, Peter wants to know when enough is enough. When can we draw the line. When do we officially reach our limit and have the right to get even, strike back.

Jesus tells us plainly that forgiveness must be limitless, boundless, "seventy-seven times."

Jesus doesn't want us to operate at the level of insticnt he wants us to dig deeper and operate at a new level of living and relating, that level that comes from faithfulness.

This is what forgiveness is all about.
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For a moment, I want you to think about 9/11. Ten years ago today, the towers fell. Most of us who were attentive remember exactly where we were and what we were doing. I was in the smeinary and I just finished my morning class and had stepped into the community TV room to catch the news and there I watched a replay of the plane hitting the towers, then shortly afterwards saw them fall one by one.

Where the towers once stood tall and majestic there only remained a crater of dirt and ash and bodies.


Those craters of dirt and ash are symbols of many things. Certainly they remind us of the consquences of sin. They remind us of what hatred is capable of doing, where destruction, death and loss lingered over the sight, ground zero.

They remind us of how people can misue religion and let it become a driving force that seeks to destroy humanity itself.

The craters are also symbol of something else. We remember when every one was fleeing from harms way trying to save themselves and their loved ones, there were men and women who were running right into the teeth of harms grasp. Firefighters and policmen and chaplains, rushed to the aid of so many who were helpless.

So many gave their life seeking to save the life of others.
From the crater of dirt and ash, rose heroic deeds of courage and selfless love.

In the midst of tragedy, the human spirit could not be overcome.

Shortly after the towers fell, the War on Terror ensued. Our country went in pursuit of those who were responsible.

But let us stop right there. Think about the war on terror. The war on terror was meant to be a matter of justice, where those who let hatred and anger consume them and guide them to hurt innocent lives, were to be brought to justice.

In some sense, Jesus' words in the gospel about forgiveness and mercy are the truest war on terror. The real terror, happens in the human heart. When mercy is over looked and anger and rage take over, then terror begins to reign.

Forgiveness and mercy are meant to keep terror at bay. We do it where we are, one moment at a time, one heart at a time, in our daily relationships. Every time we refuse to seek revenge or vengeance and seek to move forward in forgiveness we win the war on terror.

We can pray for end to terror, but we must first make it happen in our daily lives, otherwise, our prayer is in vain.

Ultimately, any mercy we give really is first mercy we have received.

We are the ones in the gospel who had a huge amount forgiven. God is the one who sends his son to forgive our debt as St.Paul tells us that "by the blood of the cross, God had reconciled the world to himself."

If God can forgive such a big amount, how much more can we forgive the smaller amounts between brothers.

Forgiveness of others is really and act of reciprocity; we simply give what we have first received. The cost of mercy we received was the very life of Christ. He gave it until the end. We too shuld give in equal measure, seventy-seven times.

THis is how the war on terror is won. This is how humanity can truly begin to live together.

We should fight for justice. We should seek to eliminate evil and hatred that seeks to hurt innocent lives. But, we should never lose sight of mercy.

For as St. Leo the Great reminds us, "those who are situaed in the hazards of life, must seek the mercy of God by being merciful to others" even sevety-seven times.

Unless you forgive your brother from your heart...never lose sight of the mercy you have received and pass it one and let the war on terror continue forth.