Our brethren, Catholic and Orthodox, remain in harm’s way, as are our Muslim and Jewish brethren, in Gaza and Israel. With some, we are brethren in Christ; with others, we are brethren in Adam, and even by blood.
By Chris Sparks
My family recently had a big reunion, gathering the descendants of my grandfather and his eight siblings, all children of two Lebanese immigrants who’d arrived in Washington State in the late 1800s. We ate the traditional family food (including grape leaves, cabbage rolls, Syrian bread, kibbeh, tabouleh), played the traditional family games (including baseball, golf, pinochle, and poker), and enjoyed each other’s company.
We also shared family history — how the priests could only come every six months by kayak down the Columbia River from Portland, Oregon, in the early years of Cathlamet’s history; how we were almost certainly originally Maronite Rite Catholics, but that in the pioneer days of western Washington, the only option was the Latin Rite clergy and liturgy, and even that was hard to access. A group of us attended the Saturday vigil Mass at the small Catholic Church in Cathlamet that our family had helped pay to build, and one of my classmates from Gonzaga University was the celebrant.
It was a wonderful time of reconnecting with my roots.
All of which makes the current state of affairs in the Middle East feel awfully relevant to me (as we all mourn the tragedy in Minneapolis yesterday).
Crisis
This week, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbatista Pizzaballa, and the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, issued a statement. It begins:
A few weeks ago, the Israeli government announced its decision to take control of Gaza City. In recent days, the media have repeatedly reported a massive military mobilization and preparations for an imminent offensive. The same reports indicate that the population of Gaza City, where hundreds of thousands of civilians live — and where our Christian community is located — is to be evacuated and relocated to the south of the Strip. At the time of this statement, evacuation orders were already in place for several neighborhoods in Gaza City. Reports of heavy bombardment continue to be received. There is more destruction and death in a situation that was already dramatic before this operation. It seems that the Israeli government’s announcement that “the gates of hell will open” is indeed taking on tragic forms.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, recently commented on the crisis. “We are appalled by what is happening in Gaza, despite the condemnation of the whole world,” Cardinal Parolin said, noting that “there is a unanimity in condemning what is taking place.”
According to Vatican News, the papal charity Caritas Internationalis "warns that the man-made famine in Gaza constitutes a flagrant breach of international law, including the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and calls for urgent global action to uphold human dignity and protect civilian life.”
Christian homeland
All of this is a timely reminder that Christianity began in the Middle East, in the Holy Land, the land now consisting of Israel and Palestine, divided, as it so often has been across the millennia, between family members at war with each other. The Middle East is the birthplace of the Church.
No one should be condoning the violent attack by Hamas on Israel nearly two years ago, on Oct. 7, 2023. All mourn the senseless deaths of more than 1,000 young Israelis and the taking of 250 hostages, many of whom have died in captivity.
But today, our brethren, Catholic and Orthodox, remain in harm’s way, as are our Muslim and Jewish brethren, in Gaza and Israel. With some, we are brethren in Christ; with others, we are brethren in Adam, and even by blood. I know that my family, the more distant cousins still in Lebanon, include both Muslims and Christians. So everyone in Gaza and Israel right now — well, we’re connected to them all.
What can we do?
That means we need to be keeping an eye on things in Gaza and supporting Catholic relief efforts there, such as the collection called for by the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Broglio.
It also means we need to be praying and fasting for peace. Pope Leo XIV called us all pray and fast for peace on Aug. 22, the Queenship of Mary; we will need to return to those practices again and again until we see peace. Why not adopt this as penance every Friday?
We especially should be faithful to our daily Rosary for peace in the world and the First Saturdays devotion (there's one next week!), as Our Lady asked at Fatima, till the end of our lives or the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart, whichever comes first.
Saint Faustina is our model, serving as a faithful intercessor for her homeland and for the Church around the world, especially in places of persecution (see, for instance, Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 240, 818, 861). Her intercession can be a model for us all:
O my God, I am conscious of my mission in the Holy Church. It is my constant endeavor to plead for mercy for the world. I unite myself closely with Jesus and stand before Him as an atoning sacrifice on behalf of the world. God will refuse me nothing when I entreat Him with the voice of His Son. My sacrifice is nothing in itself, but when I join it to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, it becomes all-powerful and has the power to appease divine wrath. God loves us in His Son; the painful Passion of the Son of God constantly turns aside the wrath of God (Diary, 482).
Our Lady, Daughter Zion, Queen of Palestine, Mother of Mercy, and Queen of Peace, pray for us!
May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace!
Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash.
{shopmercy-ad}
