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A Puzzling, Peculiar
Paradox Prevails
Fr. John Cusick
The events taking place between the United States and Iraq have
caused me to do a lot of thinking. I am sure that is true for you.
War is a terrible thing. It is one of the most terrible things ever
to happen on earth. – such fear and violence, so much hatred
and death. It causes me to think, ponder, wonder and ask many things.
Part of what has occupied my mind is the peculiar paradox that
is found in our country. We are one of the most church-going countries
in the “Christian” world. Though we are a nation of
many religions, among those who practice the Christian religion,
Americans “go to church” at a greater rate than most
any other nation practicing Christianity.
At the same time, we are one of the most violent nations on the
face of the earth. How can that be? Better said: “Why should
that be?”
For whatever reason, we are the only nation on earth to have used
an atomic weapon against another country. We are one of the last
of the “developed” nations to continue to use execution
as a form of legal punishment. In 2001, 3,581 people were under
the sentence of death in our country. That is down from a forty-eight
year high in 2000 of 3,601.
There are so many murders in our country and they are reported
in the news so casually that the weather forecast has more impact
on us. In 1960, 9,110 people were murdered. Forty years later, 2000,
that number jumped to 15, 517. And that number is an improvement!
The murder rate is down significantly from the 24,700 murders that
occurred in 1991. Consider the violent assault on women known as
forcible rape. In the Millennium year, 2000, 90,186 rapes were reported.
And, like the murder rate, that too is pretty good news because
the number of rapes has fallen dramatically from the 109,060 in
1992.
So what is a little war in the face of all this violence? It is
so easy to get calloused to violence. It is practically a way of
life. After all, there is a good chance that more people will be
killed on the streets of America than across the country of Iraq.
And yet, we continue to go to church in record numbers. We have
elected leaders in every party with titles of president, council
member, senator, administrator, secretary of state, and mayor. Many
of them have chosen to end many public addresses with “God
bless America.” And I hope God does and will always bless
America. But think about God blessing America. A blessing is approval
(Mr. Smith, I want to marry your daughter. May I have your blessing?)
Maybe we should say, “God, give us your approval.”
Would God approve of us as a country? Would God approve the hate,
the violence, the death Americans inflicted upon one another and
upon people in God’s world? Have you ever attended Church
and heard a prayer directed to the God of violence?
There are parts of us that are so good and so, so special. I grew
up in a neighborhood, on a block on the south side of Chicago that
was truly a community. People watched over one another, the adults
knew each other and spent time with one another on front porches,
in backyards and in living rooms. Kids played comfortably with another.
Families in need were quietly and lovingly cared for. A mom wasn’t
afraid to call another mom if one of her kids misbehaved. We went
to school together Monday through Friday. We went to church on Sunday.
We respected our elders. For the most part we were good people.
Yet in spite of such social goodness, unconsciously we were taught
to hate. We had an enemy. We talked about the enemy in militaristic
terms. They cross Halsted in July. One of them moved to Justine
Street last week. “They” were invading “our”
neighborhood. The enemy? African Americans, though few people were
as polite in their description then. We were taught to respect freedom
and yet to hate those who freely chose a place to live.
Before you call me a hopeless fool, I am aware that there are times
when hatred and violence can be values. We are to hate evil things.
You know the old line – hate the sin; love the sinner.
There are times when war and the use of violence certainly are
justified. We must defend ourselves from assault and attack. And
we must certainly defend our country from the same. When ALL else
fails, violence is the last resort. A priest colleague who said,
“Violence is the ultimate pastoral response,” spoke
that more eloquently! But we must remember that it is the ultimate,
the final response – not the most efficient, the most powerful
or the most effective response.
I write these words because I ponder a lot these days about the
connection, or lack thereof, between going to church and subscribing
to the course of action in which our country is involved. I wonder
what impact my faith has on daily life, my life and the life of
my country. I challenge myself as to how I must live in relationship
to other people and ask myself how my country should live in relationship
to other nations.
I believe there is a social dimension to my faith. “Are you
saved?” is not my question. My question is this: “how
do I bring the salvation of the Lord to all the world?” How
do I life peacefully and harmoniously with others? I want my country,
my God fearing country, to be known by the content of its character
and not its power, might and weapons of mass destruction.
I want to work so that some day the paradox will be removed and
we become a church-going nation devoid of the violence to which
we have become callous.
I want to live long enough, work hard enough and preach faithfully
enough that all those who worship the Lord will be able to look
at daily life with God’s eyes, and live with the fortitude
of Christ.
It’s funny how we can look at life politically, economically,
racially, athletically and socially. But there is one more way.
My personal desire is to look at all of life spiritually. Can we
borrow the eyes of the Lord who speaks to us in the Sacred Scripture,
who feeds us the Bread of Life, who reveals self in the routine
of everyday life? Can we practice, even occasionally seeing as God
sees; to create what God wishes to see? If we can see that way,
can we act accordingly?
My prayer is for the paradox to perish. May all who walk into Church,
whose prayer is to the God of life and love, remove the callousness
to violence, the quiet acceptance of war and the hatred for others.
This is larger than our war with Iraq. I, too, want to create a
coalition of the willing. I want to create a coalition of people
and God fearing nations who are willing to connect the dots of worshipping
God to the God in whom there is no violence. I have it on good authority
that God is not exclusively a Christian God. God is the God of Abraham,
called Abba by Jesus the Christ, and the one God of Mohammed.
Before we leave Catholic Mass, after hearing the Word of God, after
praying for the people in need of God’s love and mercy, after
saying the great Eucharistic Prayer of Thanksgiving, after speaking
a simple ‘amen’ to the Bread of Life, we will pray for
God’s blessing. “Bow your heads and pray for God’s
blessing.”
May we pray for God’s approval. May God approve of our actions
and may we act in such a way that we will give glory to God and
show the world that there is such a loving, merciful, peaceful God
as ours.
John C. Cusick
March 21, 2003
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